Bachelor(ette) Party

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

This past weekend was my Bachelor Party… well, sort of. Originally it was going to be a gaggle of us (male & female) just having a wonderful weekend in Santa Cruz… but unfortunately one guy hurt his back, others had work & other real life stuff happen… so essentially it was just a wonderful weekend with my future wife, her best friend Flea, and her cousin Amy briefly. TEAR IT UP!!! We had dinner at Lazy Dog in Cupertino Friday night, then spent the Saturday checking out breweries in the area & the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.

 

First stop was the taproom for Santa Cruz Aleworks where we had some pickled eggs, chips & salsa, and some of their beers on tap including an Oatmeal Stout, Kolsch & their season “Rye Like An Eagle” IPA. Good stuff, check them out…

 

  

Second stop was Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing about two miles away. Their taproom had a REALLY cool copper tree growing behind the bar… and their drink selection was pretty impressive as well. I personally loved their People’s Porter. Here are some pictures…

 

Then we stopped at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk to have some lunch, play some arcade games & take great pictures…

 

The third brewery of the day was Sante Adairius Rustic Ales in Capitola about ten minutes from the Boardwalk. He had visited this location a while back and… frankly weren’t that impressed with the selection. However, our beer buddies informed us that apparently we must have hit them on a bad weekend where they were doing a bunch of festivals or something because they have DOZENS of distinct beers available typically… so we tried them again. This time, there was definitely more selection with about a dozen different brews that were essentially a variety of IPAs, saisons & porters… and yeah, they’re pretty damn good. Check them out if you’re in the area. I wouldn’t make it a destination brewery just yet… but definitely worth a stop along the way…

 

The fourth & final brewery of the day was New Bohemia Brewing and… frankly this was our favorite of the entire day!!! This is the first time that I’ve heard of them, but the taproom is on point… their beer selection was low in variety but great in quality. They had a beer called Queen Bee which was an “Imperial Honey Lager” which is a style-bender kind of beer… but it was very malt forward, very potent with nearly 10% ABV, and extremely delicious. Check THAT out! The others were really good too, including a Dunkelweizen. They even let us bring in some badass burritos from down the street to the bar. Best of all though… they had LIVE bluegrass playing BEHIND THE BAR!!! Check out Wail Aways online!!! Definitely check them out if you’re in Santa Cruz… heck, I saw check their schedule for live performances & coordinate a trip to go see them. Great place… here are the pictures…

 

  

So yeah, not your typical Bachelor Party… and honestly it was just a wonderful weekend hanging with my fiancée & her best bud… but yeah, absolutely fantastic weekend! Can’t wait to do it again!

 

Also, we brewed a Honey Amber...

 

...and we tested our Cheese Fountain for the wedding... spoiler alert, it works lovely.

 

Since then, I’ve been… experiencing some unpleasantness. My work has been accusing me of completely ridiculous things… I assume to get a rise out of me (or keep me in the company as long as possible for as little pay, which is a poor method of retaining exceptional talent). My former roommates are trying to extort money from me too. Basically when I moved out, upon their request, I left them a couch and gave my stereo to a roommate. Well… six weeks since the last time anybody has contacted me concerning… anything, they send an email requesting that I pay half of a trash pickup bill for those items (and stuff from another roommate who wasn’t officially on the lease so good luck proving that SHE even lived there… dizzy cunt). For many reasons, this is ridiculous. If they didn’t want the stuff, gladly would’ve taken it or disposed of it back when I did the rest. Also, there’s a free service with the apartment that takes care of all of that. ALSO, send me a text & I can take precious time and effort out of my day to remove my items for you. Nope. Just send an email saying that I owe them hundreds of dollars because… they decided that they didn’t want the free stuff six weeks later. Yup, I told them that it was completely ridiculous & wished them the best of luck with their new living arrangements. Drop mic.

 

The “Event Horizon” episode is up at eilfm.podbean.com on the Everything I Learned From Movies Podcast, but coming up in a few days… the next episode will feature a fairly similar movie, 1998’s “Sphere” starring Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone & Laurence Fish… NOPE, SAMUEL L. JACKSON!!! You may want to listen to the podcast to find out why I specifically had to point that out. Beers were involved… as is always the case on EILFM. Until next time, have a great weekend everybody!!!

We Need More Teeth

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Saturday morning, Izzy & I woke up a little early for the weekend and hit a matinee viewing of “Jurassic World” starring Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and M.F. T-Rex. Yes, this is the 4^th installment of the Jurassic Park franchise… and after the original 1993 movie shaped an entire f**king generation, the two sequels were… well, not horrible per se but… definitely horrible by comparison & in blockbuster movie potential scales. (shiver) Okay, I’m going to set you at ease right now & tell you that Jeff Goldblum & Tea Leoni are NOT in this one. Based on the previews… I REALLY expected this movie to suck… like really bad… and I was still going to watch it. F**k it, I’m a dinosaur nerd… always have been… my brewery is called Terrible Lizard Brewing for Christ’s Sake!!! While we were at NHC, the movie opened to a half BILLION dollar opening worldwide… and reviews were good… so we had to check it out. This movie takes place back on the original island of Isla Nublar from the first movie… and they’ve actually opened the theme park… and it’s been open for about a decade or so… and things are good… but stockholders demand bigger, badder dinosaurs… and apparently so do the guests (?) but in the rush to have the next, new bigger thing… oh, at this point, if you haven’t seen the original Jurassic Park, watch it RIGHT NOW!!! I realize that I haven’t explained the plot (you know, theme park with dinosaurs brought back through genetic science magic) but just assumed that everybody knows it… like everybody knows the basic story of WWII or something… it’s just something that everybody should know. Anyway, the park has been open for a few years… and for the next big thing… they created a new dinosaur. No, not just resurrected an extinct species like the other 20 dinosaur species on the island… but they basically created a new species by taking traits from all the others & combining them (not unlike their Dilophosaurs from the first movie) to create a super baddie!!! The rest of the movie is them discussing how they’re going to spend their lucrative earnings and open another park in the Azores… possibly another near Macau. OF COURES NOT!!! SOMETHING GOES WRONG!!! SH*T GETS REAL!!! SUPER BADDIE GETS LOOSE!!!

 

Now, this movie… was pretty f**king entertaining. How good was it? When the new roommate wanted to watch it again on Sunday, we went… and I paid full price. That’s right, about $40 of that billion dollars that this movie has made in the past two weeks worldwide was mine… and not just because I’m a nerd. This movie pays a lot of homage to the first movie (pretty much skipping #2 & #3 though, for good reason) and all of the things that I thought would be really blah based on the commercials (let’s face it, the human element, especially the Pratt-Howard relationship and family drama in general) actually wasn’t horribly done. It feels a lot like an 80’s movie. You know, the Spielberg-y schlock that you & I probably grew up on… but still resonates as an adult for some reason. You want the brothers to make it out together… you understand why people are doing the things they do… you understand why Chris Pratt’s character loves his Raptor Bros as if they were his own puppies, but respects them as if they’re semi-domesticated wolves… you actually feel some of that. It’s not just filler to make the movie a full two hours while cutting down on visual effects like most movies. You’re concerned for these characters. Most of us have been to Disneyland, Sea World, the zoo… so we can kinda understand what it would be like if one of the grizzlies got loose & started eating other animals, people in concession stands & taking out helicopters. Okay, that last sentence might be too much… but still, that portion of the movie is well executed.

 

Let’s be honest though… you want to see some mutha f**king dinosaurs… that’s why you’re watching this movie! You’re not paying to watch a romantic comedy starring that guy from “Parks & Rec” and Opey’s daughter… you came to hear a T-Rex roar like a 747 with bathroom-like acoustics. You came to see raptors tear things to shreds. Maybe you came for a whimsical kayak cruise past some herbivores like stegosaurus & some longnecks… until this new Indominus Rex comes through & messes up your day. On that note, you get a LOT of dinosaurs… and yes, it’s mostly CGI but there are still some practical effects & plenty of action pieces throughout this movie… and the final fight scene… HOLY SH*T, the final fight scene… sorry for my tumescence… but it’s pretty f**king good. I highly recommend that you check this movie out… and hopefully the sequels to follow will be good too. LOVED IT!!! Currently, I’m still debating whether to push it all the way to #2 on my Movies of 2015 list thus far… it’s battling “Chappie” and I watched that movie again Sunday night… and they’re both pretty damn good… but I think I have to give it to Jurassic World because of Dinosaurs. You know the TEN THINGS list. “Mad Max: Fury Road“ is still #1 though… go see all three of them immediately… Chappie is out on DVD already.

 

Also, all three roommates have been replaced with three new ones in the last month… and so far, the new ones are pretty f**king awesome! We’ll call them Lucy, Brah & TBD. Lucy moved in at the beginning of June with her teacup Yorkshire terrier… and yes, I fear for that animal’s life around my feet… but she’s a good dog & her owner is pretty cool… not your typical twenty-something that I’ve had too often as roommates. She’s legit… from small town Warshington… and a little hickish. Brah is pretty much your typical brah… but he’s pretty cool too. I haven’t seen him much as he moved in while I was at NHC… so it’s really been like a week & he’s out checking the bar scene… but yeah, pretty cool. TBD is TBD… but we had interviews on Wednesday as the roommate they’ll replace basically told me she was moving out while she was doing her final packing… and frankly, I was perfectly okay with it… just made sure a few of my kitchen items were well guarded since I seem to lose a lot of stuff whenever roommates move out… especially the bitchy ones. Weirdest thing… like I don’t know where they‘re moving to or have released them from the lease or something. Anyway, super excited about the new roommates.

 

Anyway, just a quick entry… NBA Christmas was last night… so you’ll get one of those boring (and incredibly accurate) info-rants shortly… in the meantime, have a great day everybody!!!

Bock You Like A Hurricane

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Tuesday night was the SF Homebrewers Guild meeting at Anchor Brewing & it was magnificent as always. He had a special presentation by a startup campaign for an item called the Brewometer. Essentially what it is… is a Bluetooth device that floats in your fermenting wort & sends a signal to your iPhone to let you know what the specific gravity is of your wort. Basically it lets you know when your beer is properly ready for drinking without guess work or constantly checking the gravity & possibly exposing the wort to contamination. They’re obviously still working on some of the kinks (battery life, signal strength, etc) but it seems like they’ve got a pretty good idea to start with. Best of luck gentlemen!

 

After the presentation, we shared some of our ChocoNut Stout & Blood Orange Hefeweizen to RAVE reviews as usual. We actually have a number of pretty solid fans within the guild now too that think our beer is some of the best that they’ve tried & that’s VERY high praise given some of the award-winning brewers that are a part of the group. Oh, Izzy also helped a little fledgling that flew in from the window in the middle of the meeting… and was basically the hero of the day! She’s pretty amazing that way!

 

Thursday, Izzy also made some delicious chocolate cupcakes using our ChocoNut Stout so making them basically Chocolate Coconut Stout Cupcakes… and she made a sh*t ton so we’ve been sharing them with friends, roommates & coworkers since…

 

Speaking of roommates, we interviewed a girl Sunday night that we’ll call Brazil… and frankly, she’ll be the new roommates. The girls had pretty much decided beforehand but they didn’t want to make it official until we’d met… and yeah, she seems pretty cool. Early 20’s, hostess at a five-star restaurant, only been in town since January, Florida a few years before that, born & raised in Recife, Brazil, good sense of humor, all that stuff. Yay!!! Roommate interviews were easy that time!!!

 

As for the rest of the weekend, Saturday was pretty busy… first off, we headed over to Izzy’s Aunts to FINALLY help them bottle their Torpedo Clone that we helped them brew six weeks ago in their Mr. Beer barrel… and unfortunately Izzy had rolled her ankle pretty good… but it worked out because while I bottled the beer, they caught up on chit chat & arrangements for their son’s wedding this Friday… which they needed to do anyway without being distracted. Here are some pictures…

 

The next few hours was me shopping for a bunch of new clothes for work… so I’ve got some more fly suits… but we also made a run to Napa to drop our entries for the Napa Valley Expo Town & County Fair. This fair was a little different so we entered six of our selections (and we would’ve done our Bourbon Barrel Porter too but… apparently we’re out of 12 oz bottles & only a few bombers left):

 

·         Honey Amber Ale

·         Blood Orange Hefeweizen

·         Oktoberfest

·         Winter Warmer

·         ChocoNut Stout

·         Torpedo Clone (under the name Pentacera-Hops)

 

We will keep you posted on the results… and while there at the brew shop making the drop-off… we also found this handy little device called Cool Brewing that helps you to maintain the temperature of your wort in your carboy. Basically it’s like a waterproof insulator that you can add ice to help keep it cool… which is perfect for our next batch that we made for Oaktoberfest. Here’s what it looks like in use…

 

 

Saturday night after we got back, we started our next batch… which is a Bock recipe that I kinda came up with looking at other recipes & trying to come up with something similar to Anchor’s now discontinued spring seasonal Bock… which is like a Maibock, but hopefully a little darker & maltier towards a Doppelbock with a different hop note replacing the usual Hallertau & Perle kind of German hops with Nugget & Fuggle. So yeah, it’s an experiment… but we’re REALLY excited about it… and it’ll be our entry into this year’s Oaktoberfest competition which allows for delicious German beers only. I don’t have as many pictures as I usually would as Izzy was resting her ankle after a long, hard day most of the time (Dr. Steve’s orders) but it went pretty smoothly. Here are some pictures…

 

Specialty grains at entry...

... at 5 minutes...

... at 10 minutes...

... and airing out after about 20 minutes

Chilling it down a little bit in the new cooler...

Just this morning there was noticeable fermentation activity… we were a little worried that we couldn’t get it cool enough to work… but my purchase of the insulator helped to drop the temperature about ten degrees from ambient to get it right in that sweet spot for a colder lager yeast temperature. Again, REALLY excited about possible making some decent German style beer as they’re some of my favorites.

 

Aside from that, not much to report… this next week we’ll be starting another batch to get ready for my Family Reunion in September. We should have results for a few other competitions in the next few weeks. The NBA Draft is Thursday night… and as I predicted a few weeks ago, my month early draft is completely in shambles now since consensus #1 pick Joel Embiid had ankle surgery & international man of mystery Darco Saric decided that he’d rather stay in Europe & be a superstar there as opposed to a role player here. Action & adventure always abound… but until then, have a great day everybody!!!

XLVIII - Roman for Suck

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

So Friday night, I went out for drinks with Jackie D who is in town on business… but also moving back to the Bay Area in a month or so… which is AWESOME… though I do fear for my liver a little bit… but it’s all good. We started by going to Tres Tequila Lounge & Mexican Kitchen (actual name) and ordering some Mezcal cocktails (mine had bacon) and shared some enchiladas & tacos… but then we went a few doors down to a place called Saison, which was even a little more upscale ($18+ cocktails) but provided a nice atmosphere & our bartender Chase took care of us… like for the next five hours. During drinks we caught up on happenings & just had a good time… and of course the next day I felt the effects in the morning… but it wasn’t too bad… and well worth it. Well… maybe not the bar tab… but still, good times.

 

Sunday was the Super Bowl!!! Don’t worry… those are probably the only exclamation points you’ll see about it. As you know… the Seahawks basically dominated the Broncos like they were led by Elway in the late 80’s… but Jackie D & I watched the game at Golden Gate Taproom, enjoyed a few beers, and let’s just say that we both went home with somebody else that night… I went with Dizzy of course so don’t even get that rumor started. Basically between the Friday night debauchery & Sunday’s, Dizzy & I did some beer things that I’ll elaborate more on in another post on the Terrible Lizard Brewing site (bottled our mead & bourbon barrel porter… and transferred the winter warmer to secondary carboy). So how about some movies that I saw?

 

Thursday night, I watched “The Bourne Legacy” starring Jeremy Renner, Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton & the great Stacy Keach (without his moustache). This is the 4^th in the Bourne series & the first without Academy Award winner Matt Damon… but it’s also directed by the writer of the original trilogy… so yeah, maybe a few more steady cam shots than Doug Liman? It sure seemed that way. Anyway, the plot is that because of the original trilogy & Jason Bourne (Damon) exposing all the government secrets about these super soldiers… now the people in charge are in full “disavowalment” mode & killing off these super soldiers to get rid of the evidence. One of them (Renner) narrowly escapes a drone missile aimed at him… but now has to find some medicine provided by the government that not only helped to give him his increased strength, but keeps him from dying a gruesome death (fail safe). As he tries to avoid detection, he goes to the manufacturer & meets up with a doctor (Weisz) who he’s met repeatedly for checkups on the drugs that he was taking as part of a “clinical trial”. Well, they’re trying to disavowal her too, even though she has no real idea that she was a part of this “super soldier” program… so they’re on the run… like all over the world. It’s a Bourne movie, so you’re going to get a lot of fast action in exotic locations, a lot of guys in suits half the world away giving orders while sipping cognac & talking about how they’re going to cover their own ass… but yeah, if you liked the first three movies then you’re probably going to like this one too.

 

My personal favorite little thing about this movie though was Edward Norton’s character, a guy who’s basically in charge or tracking down the super soldiers& director of the super-secret agency. It’s a subtle thing… but basically any time that somebody was giving a bunch of exposition that everybody should already know from the first three movies (but has to be repeated because… apparently people started with this one?), I feel like it’s his character’s responsibility to always immediately respond with “I already know that...” or “Everybody already knows this, it’s all over the news, what we need is blah blah blah…” just an immediate response to try to keep the pace back up & focused on what HE’S trying to do instead of trying to catch the audience up. I laughed out loud a few times because I feel like there should be a lot more little things like that in movies. “Well you know, ever since that Michael Myers was in that asylum as a boy he’s been…” “We all know the origin story sir, which way did you say he went?” It’s basically the exact opposite of most James Bond movies… sigh… except the newer ones. “I have to find (blank) to avenge my former lover of one night.” “James… you do realize that… you’re basically a slut, right? Do you even remember how many women with ridiculous names that you’ve banged over your career of 50 years? Is this REALLY why you want to find (blank) or do you just want to pop a few caps in a bad guy’s ass? Because that’s basically your job… so it’s okay to just say that. Put down that sifter of cognac, for Christ’s sake, it’s 8 AM!” “It’s Happy Hour in Macau! (glug)” Yeah… just a little thing I liked. Try not to notice it now when/if you watch it. I feel like the Fast & Furious series could use some of this… but then too much flashback would make it seem even stupider, right?

 

Sunday night, Dizzy & I watched “Insidious: Chapter 2” starring Patrick Wilson, Lin Shaye & Rose Byrne. This is the sequel to “Insidious” from two years ago that I LOVED & actually made Dizzy watch about a week earlier… so it worked out well. The first was fresh in our mind. A quick rundown of the first movie… is that a family with two young boys moves into a new house… and after a rash of weird activity, one of the boys goes into a mysterious coma for a few months. The weirdness continues & intensifies, so the mother (Byrne) & the father’s (Wilson) mother recruit the help of a medium (Shaye) to get to the bottom of the craziness… and maybe help save their son. Well, they find that perhaps a demon has possessed the boy… because the boy had a special gift that allowed him to travel into “The Further” when he was in a dream state… which is basically like crossing into the land of the dead, where you see ghosts & bad things. Well, the demon wants to take over the boy’s body in the real world so that he can kill & hurt others… so they must act quickly or risk losing their son forever. Spoiler alert: His ability to travel to “The Further” is genetic… so it’s his father that must go in after him. Further spoiler alert: He finds them… but there’s a twist at the end of the first movie… and I really don’t want to spoil it. I just recommend that you check it out. Sigh… okay, I kinda hafta spoil it to continue with the plot for the second… but still check them both out. Okay, so the father comes back & the boy is safe… but the medium dies mysteriously right after. Even after the family moves again, there are still crazy things happening… and now the father is acting really weird too. Is it the Father? Or somebody else in his body? And now… without the medium, how do they find out? Okay, so I really like these movies for a few reasons… first, they’re PG-13. They’re intense… but not overly gory or anything. Also, the camera angles and use of perspective are nice & creepy… the stories are out there, but not TOO out there like a lot of slasher flicks. It’s just a great scary movie experience. Go check them out!

 

Monday was my job’s Work Outing and this year… it was a little different. The whole team went out to Cavallo Point Resort in Sausalito (just across the GG Bridge from where I live) but I had never really been to Sausalito before… and the location of this resort was just amazing. It’s right on the water so that you can see the entire city of San Francisco across the bay (about 3 miles away?), the Golden Gate Bridge is about half a mile away on the right, it’s in a national park and a nice mix of older, traditional buildings from a former fort (Fort Baker) and some newer accommodations up on the hillside with beautiful views as well. Here are a few pictures that I took…

 

 Artwork inside...

 Lunch...

 Chapel...

 Newer buildings...

 The city from the other side... this was from the freeway above...

You can see the resort on this side of the bay at the bottom...

During the day, we had our business meetings… but then in the afternoon, we went out to Muir Beach for a Team Building exercise… to make sand castles. Now, there was a “roaring Lion” theme… so enjoy these little shots of our works. See if you can guess which one is mine…

 

After about 40 minutes... at sunset... we judged...

 Chewbacca?

 This was the winner... it was not mine though...

still was a LOT of fun!!!

After the activity, we went to dinner at Barrel House, exchanged white elephant gifts & had a great time with our coworkers, some who work remotely all across the nation so it’s good to see them & catch up too. It was a fantastic day!!! Even better, we also got to spend the night at the resort too, so we got to enjoy the atmosphere (though it was a LOT like my place in the Presidio with regards to fresh air, beautiful views, etc). Great way to start the year with the job!!!

 

My "white elephant" gift... I like him...

 The best night shots that I could get on my phone...

 

Well, that’ll do it for this entry… join us over at the Terrible Lizard Brewery for some other fun updates from the past week. On the note… starting this weekend… is SF BEER WEEK!!! And boy do we have some plans!!! Have a great day everybody!!!