July 29 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama will have Bud Light tomorrow when he hosts an old friend and the police officer who arrested him.
Obama, 47, has picked the top-selling beer in the U.S. for his get-together at the White House with Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge, Massachusetts, police Sergeant James Crowley, White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs said today. Crowley will probably drink Blue Moon and Gates is likely to opt for Red Stripe, Gibbs said, citing news reports about their preferences.
Bud Light? So much for The One's urbane sophistication. (With apologies to my daughter-in-law Erma, who drinks that stuff. It's still swill.)
That it does: feels like rain. It's quite warm, humid, and there are thunderstorms in today's forecast... and for the rest of the week, as well. To top that off we got yet more rain last night and a rather significant amount, too... the Unofficial Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park Rain Gauge had about an inch and a half of water in it this morning. Doubtless we got a lot less precip than that. As I said: the Unofficial rain gauge.
So... we're back from Cannon Airplane Patch, having completed our bi-weekly resupply run for beer and food... beer being the key item. I'm also pleased to report the tabs at the Class VI Store and the commissary were nearly equal this time, mainly because we don't buy a pricey bottle of scotch every time we make a beer run. No... sometimes we buy a pricey bottle of Drambuie. Like today.
Side note: I wore my New Belgium 1554 tee shirt today. I also went to the Class VI Store before I went to the commissary. So... the sweet young thing (and she WAS all that, and a bag o' chips) who bagged my groceries and wheeled them out to the car noticed the beer in the trunk and sez "How cool! Your tee shirt matches your beer! Is the beer good?" To which I replied... "Honey, do you think I'd buy both the beer AND the tee shirt if it wasn't?"... followed up with a big ol' grin and a wink. I was graced with a dazzling smile in return. Pitter-pat went my heart...
I was semi-amazed at just how GREEN the landscape is after all the rain we've had in the past ten days. It's not green like the green one finds in places like Upstate New Yawk or New England (mainly coz there are no trees)... but it's green enough. Almost pretty, even. Which, of course, means I should have taken the camera with me so I could have snapped a few vistas to share with you, Gentle Reader. I'm thinking I need to put an American Express logo sticky on my camera bag. You know... something that sez "Don't Leave Home Without It."
Finally... this post's title tune:
Lying underneath the stars right next to you Wondering who you are And how do you do? (How do you do baby?) When the clouds roll in across the moon And the wind howls out your name and it feels like rain And it feels like rain
We aint never gonna make that bridge tonight baby Across the Ponchartrain and it feels like rain And it feels like rain
That would be a Blue Moon Belgian-style Wit bier. Unfiltered, cloudy, and quite tasty. It is GOOD, Gentle Reader.The beer is accompanied by a Man O' War Ruination Belicoso (5.7 x 56), which is also quite good. Hell, life itself is good!
So... back from Cannon Airplane Patch, where I dropped $93.05 at the Class VI store and $55.63 on food at the commissary. The haul from the Class VI was a case of mixed brews from New Belgium and what you see on the left.
The re-provisioning from the commissary will keep my tired old ass in victuals for a lil less than two weeks and doesn't count supplemental runs to Wally-World. The beer will be gone in ten days or so; the scotch will last a lot longer. Still and even, it seems like something is out of whack here.
I think a couple of o' few things have led to the explosion of craft breweries (read as: GOOD beer) in these United States, foremost among them being our exceptional standard of living and the general mobility of our society.Relatively well-off people who move around a lot… for whatever reason… are exposed to different people and things, not the least of which is beer and people who appreciate good beer. So… tastes change and evolve and almost always for the better.But there's something else in play, too.Snobbery, as manifested by the appearance of "beer reviews" and the like.
I used to think this territory was reserved for oenophiles, who tend to be among the most obnoxious folks in the world. But no longer… as we beer drinkers are beginning to encroach upon their territory. Hell, even YrHmblScrb has written a beer review… and if I can do it, anyone can. There's even a "how to" to get ya started, if'n you wanna get into the biz for fun or profit. And here it is… "How to Rate a Beer," by Jim Armstrong. Just a couple of excerpts:
When tasting and comparing many different types of beer, it is helpful to have a standardized way of rating them. If you’re serious about your suds, start taking tasting notes and build a profile of what things you like and dislike about different beer styles. This doesn’t have to be a complicated endeavor, but you have to go a bit further than “I liked that beer” or “that one sucks”.
A good place to start is by breaking down a beer’s rating into several categories. I use the same categories as the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) scorecards – those guys know what they’re doing, and their criteria works for me.
Works for me, too. Well maybe except for this bit:
When you start out, everything will smell like beer, but after doing this for awhile, you’ll be amazed at how many different aromas you can pick up. Eventually, you’ll be able to pick out specific varieties of grain and hops!
It all mostly smells like beer to me. There are exceptions, of course… any fool can smell the difference between stout and lager… but I'd sure like to meet the guy or gal who can differentiate between the different varieties of hops used in the brewing process. Then again, I'm quite sure my senses of taste and smell have been whacked by 40+ years of cigarettes. Still and even… I find that particular statement a bridge too far.
That said… the article is interesting and (I think) useful, if only to explain and differentiate what separates good beer from swill. And while we're on the subject... if you love beer and you've never heard of Michael Jackson (no, not that MJ), you've led a deprived life. The man literally wrote the book on beer.
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So… how did I miss this?
"Did You Know" is only this year's ninth most popular video, according to Viral Video Chart. Number One? Susan Boyle, with a staggering 174,923,055 views since April 11th of this year. And we've ALL seen that one… right? Which kinda-sorta closes this "Did You Know" loop…
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Today's Pic: A re-run that's in keeping with the lead-off theme of today's post: beer. As in, ♫♪ "These are a few of my favorite things…" ♫♪. Heh.
SN1 is visiting and we just came back into the AC after burning a cigar and downing a couple of beers, as illustrated above. This, BTW, is our first post using the new box (which arrived today and fired up rather unremarkably... which is a Good Thing) and before we've migrated all our apps and data over from the old drive. There are SOME things I'm not liking about Vista, but we'll save our critiques for later. In the meantime... there's beer to be drunk.
Taking a short break from Happy Hour... we decided to play a bit with the camera while pouring a refill. The results:
The first pic is a 40% re-size; the second is a crop of the full-size image (full manual... f/4.5, 1/30 sec, ISO 400. As ever, click for larger.). I think I'm beginning to get this focusing thing down. Exactly why it's been SO damned difficult is beyond me... seriously.
And now back outside... to continue as we've begun. Oh... another thing... Mothership Wit is rapidly becoming the beer o' choice for these warm summer days. It goes down SO easy it's almost like pop. That's a compliment.
... well, OK... ten minutes ago. The view from under the awning during Happy Hour, just concluded. You'll have to twist the second pic in your mind's eye, coz I'm too lazy to (mess) with the eccentricities of Blogger and my photo editing program to fix what should NOT have to be fixed to begin with. Suffice to say the photo appears in its natural landscape format in my photo editing program, but refuses to display appropriately in Blogger. (note: fixed at a later date because I upgraded my image management program and the upgrade WORKS!)
All that said... that's one of those exquisite Acid Deep Dish cigars... nearing the end of its natural life... in the company of a New Belgium Sunshine Wheat.It was the most unusual of occasions: a passing thunderstorm without accompanying gale-force winds. So we sat our Old Ass under the awning and leisurely finished our beer while drinking in the sights, sounds and smells of rain on The High Plains of New Mexico.I'll have to admit, Gentle Reader, that yes... it does get better than this. But not lately.
Postscript, 1700 hrs.: Dinner is served... garlic shrimp linguine and a big-ass salad. I told you it gets better, didn't I? ;-)
PPS, 1805 hrs:Dessert. German chocolate cake with a bit of Häagen-Dazs butter pecan on the side. No coffee though. What a Philistine, eh?(Am I scraping the bottom of the blogging barrel... or what?)
Yesterday was a red-letter day here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington... whereby we reaped the material rewards of blogging for the very first time. I've noted elsewhere and often the psychic benefits of blogging... which are numerous... but the tangible rewards? Far and farther between, they are.
First... Occasional Reader and commenter Bob Reese from Albuquerque is in the area this weekend and he dropped by yesterday afternoon with a cold sixer of my favorite Japanese beer in hand. Many's the mug and bottle of Sapporo that's been downed over the years, and Bob and I had a couple of those yesterday while we got better acquainted and "fixed the world," so to speak. Suffice to say Bob is exactly the sort of person I thought he was... smart, articulate, and with excellent taste in brew. A most enjoyable interlude!
Second... The Brown Truck of Happiness stopped by yesterday as well, delivering yet another six-pack of excellent beer sent on by Blog-Bud Ann from Montana. Ann offered to send me some of Great Northern Brewing Company's Wild Huckleberry Wheat Lager for my review and approval... I, in turn, offered to send her some of New Mexico's best salsa... and the deal was struck.
I had a couple of those Huckleberry Wheats while watching the Wings lose in overtime last evening, and was sufficiently impressed with the beer to write a mini-review at Beer Advocate. You can read my review of this fine beer plus 12 others here, if you're so inclined, Gentle Reader. OTOH, you could just click on the image below and read the review right now without having to go off galavanting around these inter-tubes.
Not bad writing for a man who was half in the bag and semi-despondent because his team lost an important game, eh?
But it's not the end of the world as far as The Beloved Wings go, it's just one game in a seven-game series... not to mention the fact we're still up 2-1 in said series. Still and even... it WAS depressing to watch the Wings go down 3-0 in the first period, come roaring back in the second period to tie with three unanswered goals... only to lose less than two minutes into the OT.
Oh, well...stuff happens.It was a rather sad end to an otherwise brilliant day, though.
Ramirez is spot-on, as usual. You have to squint real hard to get the gist of what he's saying, though, as the available sizing of the graphic isn't conducive for easy reading. For us Ol Farts, anyhoo. (Via Townhall.com)
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It appears my experiment in V-Blogging went down well with the commentariat, and that was VERY gratifying for YrHmblScrb. It's one thing to post your written thoughts to a discerning world; it's quite another to put your time-ravaged face and stumbling verbal skills out there for all the world to see (and laugh at). All y'all were MOST kind with your comments. I'm thinking there will be more of these V-logging thingies in future... as an irregular, occasional thing.
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Your hockey update... It seems I was just a little premature in writing off the Capitals. They simply kicked the Rangers' collective asses last night, beating the Blueshirts 4-1 at Madison Square Garden. This series looks like it could go at least six, if not seven, games before it's all over. Ovechkin has yet to score, however... but he DID get two assists last night.
The B's, however, continue the beat-down on Les Habitants. THAT series is over, for all intents and purposes. So much for Montreal's 100-saison celebration. You can bet your boots there will be post-season bloodletting in Montreal. A poor-performing hockey team is one thing that isn't tolerated there. That and Anglais...
The nightcap between the Flames and the Blackhawks was THE game yesterday, though. There's a LOT of bad blood between these two teams and the end of the game was marred by significant violence... or enhanced, depending on your point of view. The game was VERY chippy, what with 116 penalty minutes (including five 10-minute misconducts!) handed out to the two teams... with 12 penalties coming in the final minute of the third period. "Chippy," indeed! But... we have a series here. Calgary is most definitely back in this one, albeit down 2-1. This one might go seven games, and it wouldn't break my heart if it does. It's entirely possible Detroit will get the winner of this series... assuming the Sharks prevail over the Ducks, which is NOT a safe assumption. But I want to see Calgary and Chicago beat the hell out of each other before they get to Detroit. It's only right.
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Broadening Our Horizons yet again... but MUCH more successfully this time. I bought a sixer of New Belgium's Mighty Arrow Pale Ale last week while out at the Class VI store and it's already gone. Buck and I had three while he was visiting... him one and me two... and I killed the remainder of the sixer during yesterday's Happy Hour. This is a very crisp and quite hoppy ale that goes down clean and easy! And its 6% ABV content makes it eminently drinkable on a warm Spring day.
Too bad it's a "seasonal" offering... I could get quite used to this beer!
So... we're just in from Happy Hour, which began badly but concluded on a happy note. Why the bad beginning? Well... we weren't in the mood to do a beer run all the way out to the base, so we decided to "broaden our horizons" by picking up a sixer of Santa Fe Hefeweizen while we were doing our shopping out at Wally-World, given as how we were "in the mood" for a hefeweizen. And so we picked up a sixer of these:
And we were NOT pleased, Gentle Reader. We drank but one of the above before we dived into what remains of the beer stock and pulled out a couple of Mothership Wits, which went down oh-so-much-better than the aforementioned "hefeweizens," which more resembles run-of-the-mill Budweiser than a hefewieizen. Truth be told... the Santa Fe Brewing Company ought be ashamed... and greatly so... for daring to append the name "hefewiezen" to this brew. This beer will remain in the fridge for a whole HELLUVA long time before it's finished. It might be suitable for foisting off on unsuspecting visitors (and non-discriminating beer drinkers) to El Casa Móvil De Pennington, but that would be about it.
The day was saved (as noted above) by pulling out two Mothership Wits. I sense there will be a beer run out to the Cannon AFB Class VI store in my most immediate future.All that said.... Happy Hour was indeed a success. We began with a soundtrack provided by Pandora... to wit, "Hot Tuna," followed up with "Motown." About which... one of the better tunes we enjoyed this afternoon:
That just HAS to be one of the songs Arthur Conley was talking about when he asked the musical question "Do you like Sweet Soul Music?" Oh, yes... indeed. Yes, we DO.
Click for larger if you can't read the image. Via Blog-Bud Mike... the "If You Were a Beer Test." Which, when one comes right down to it, is wrong. I might have a pint of Guinness once a year, or so... mebbe two if it's on tap. Otherwise? Not so much. It IS "too heavy," as the quiz notes naysayers will claim. Meh.
I'd be a New Belgium product or some sort of English Ale (like Directors Bitter), were I a beer. With cigar appendages, too. But that's just me. YMMV, of course.
Just in from Happy Hour... where we consumed two 2 Belows... with the second still in progress, as we speak (type). The verdict? Good beer, and VERY reminiscent of good English bitter... which is to say quite hoppy, with a good "nose." We'll pick up more of this excellent beer... assuming there's any to be had... when we venture out to the base this coming Tuesday.
I thought long and hard about "doing" Happy Hour today, seeing as how the temp is only 53 degrees. But a light sweater... topped with my trusty A2... made sitting outside a most pleasurable experience. The accompaniment to the beer today was an Acid Atom Maduro... a most enjoyable smoke that worked well with the beer. And we need to mention the musical accompaniment, courtesy of Pandora's "James Brown" channel. Yet more Good Stuff, indeed. One can always count on James to deliver an uplifting mood, if one is in need.
And the image? Just included so you don't think the premises are always in a pristine state, Gentle Reader. Oh, no... indeed. We got a lil bit... ummm... exuberant with our pouring when it came time for the second course. Nothing a paper towel couldn't fix, of course.
Look at what we found out at the Class VI store this morning...
I take back what I said about the Beer Lady a few posts back. No Dark Kriek, though. But we knew there wouldn't be any of that, didn't we?
I'm semi-proud of myself today. All the errands were run... post office, commissary, Class VI store... and the groceries put away... all before noon, albeit ever so very slightly. Still and even... that just HAS to be some sort of record here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington. Most days we're not even out of bed before noon.
Apropos of nothing... if you received this in your in-box would you not assume your package was coming via UPS?
Your Order# is: xxxxxxx
Shipped on : 02/09/09 Shipped via : UPS-Basic Ship to: Norman Pennington (addy) PORTALES NM 88130-9333 United States
1 790451: (deleted... don't wanna spoil the surprise)
This item shipped via UPS and can be tracked with this link: (deleted)
Well, it didn't. I found the "missing" package in my snail-mail box yesterday afternoon... after the UPS Guy had come and gone yet again without delivering my package. Sometimes I really wonder about things. But all's well that ends well. SN3 will receive his birthday present on or before The Big Day... and that's all that really counts, innit?
This is why I sometimes wish I lived in Colorado... and one of the better things I've ever read about Valentines Day (apropos of nothing):
Dark Kriek
For many years we’ve celebrated Valentine’s Day at New Belgium Brewing by creating a special small batch beer for our family and friends. These beers tend to be a little funky, fruitful and straight from the heart. This year we decided to share the love. New Belgium Brewing’s Dark Kriek is a limited edition Belgian kriek or cherry beer. Much darker than a traditional kriek with a dash of sour cherry up front, our Dark Kriek is actually a blend of two beers. We start with a light, dry, tannic beer aged two years in oak barrels and combine this with a heavier, dark ale and cherries to create one smooth cherry blast of love. 8% ABV (ed note: "share the love" is rather limited... from a New Belgium Tweet: "lowdown on location for Dark Kriek (cases by state) CO 500, CA 500, WA 150, OR 150, IL 25 - and 25 cases to our Liquid Center")
But then again... Colorado has all that danged snow. Never mind. Priorities, yanno.
Update, 2210 hrs: Pursuant to the conversation going on in comments to this post... the contents of my fridge, about 20 minutes ago. There's one less 1554 in the fridge, as we speak.
The opening shot across the bow... concerning American beer... is well-taken, even though I'd heard it before (long ago and far away, whilst living in Ol' Blighty). Aussies have little, if ANY, grounds to criticize our beer, tho. I mean... Foster's? C'mon...
But... it ain't about the beer, ya know. It's the comment on the Thinkers of the Ages that's pretty danged funny. That and the shots taken at El-Eh.
Black Friday is not an official national holiday, but this year we may as well consecrate it as such—the nation's fortunes depend dearly on how much you and your fellow citizens spend on this first day of the holiday shopping season. Don't lose your scruples, though, just because the economy hangs in the balance. Yes, you'll be able to find some great bargains this weekend, especially on technology (Check out this 22-inch widescreen LCD monitor for just $140, including shipping.) But there are many deals you should avoid, too—things that sound like bargains but that on closer inspection are no bargain at all.
In general, don't buy anything that you or your loved ones don't need just because it's on sale. This sounds obvious, but the rule is easy to forget during a shopping stampede. Remember, retailers are counting on your irrationality—the whole point of a "doorbuster" sale is to get you into the store to seduce you to spend cash on more profitable items.
I don’t “do” Black Friday.Never have, never will.Shopping is neither an adventure nor a sport for me.It’s a necessary frickin’ evil… and I’m speaking of the act of acquiring items needed to keep body and soul together… like food, clothing, and beer.Other than that?That’s why Algore invented the internet.I don’t need it if it ain’t on Amazon, Cigar.com, or Despair.com (There are cool management training vids @Despair, if you’re interested in de-motivating your workforce).
(Long parenthetical aside… Once upon a time (in another life) I thought I’d achieved Nirvana. Well, I actually DID achieve Nirvana, but only for about a year. It was at the height of the dot-bomb ridiculouslessness (I just made that word up), I was living in SFO, and I was actually grocery shopping ON-LINE. I forget the name of the establishment (they’re belly-up now, anyway), but they had an extensive on-line “grocery list” to order from… and one could customize, personalize, and save your very own list for re-use from week to week or however often you did your shopping.
The company delivered up until 2200 hrs, six days a week, and the delivery person would bring the bags of groceries right into my kitchen. Well… my groceries weren’t in bags… they were in large green plastic tubs, which the delivery person unloaded onto my kitchen counter while I checked each item off my shopping list as it was placed on the counter. No money changed hands; the transaction was placed on your credit card when you placed your order.
Quality? In a word, yes. Name brand items, always. Fresh, blemish-free produce. More cheeses than a French woman could shake a baguette at. The company never "forgot" or lost an item on my list... ever... and the service always delivered precisely at the requested time. And the delivery guys refused tips: company policy. That's quality.
Inexpensive? Not hardly... one paid about a ten percent premium over Safeway/Ralph's/Kroger prices for the convenience, and I was more than willing to do so. But I was in a minority, however, as the company was out of bid’niz in a year and I was heartbroken. But for a brief shining moment I didn’t even have to go grocery shopping, Gentle Reader.)
(Yes, I know. Neighborhood stores did this sort of thing all the time, back in the day. But I didn’t realize you were old enough to remember that, Gentle Reader. Or maybe you just remember your Grandma telling you about it. That’s gotta be it, innit?)
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More news you can use, if’n you’re a beer drinker: A list of “…the top six craft and microbreweries according to the Brewers Association of Boulder, Colorado.” (There’s a second six, as well.) And those six craft breweries produce true American beer. Beers from all six of these breweries have graced the inside of the fridge here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington at one time or another.
Apropos of something... The subject for the post linked above was how to really “Drink American,” aimed directly at the reverse-snobs who’ll only drink Budmilloors. And that term, Gentle Beer-Drinking Reader, originated in another post at the same blog address: “Who Owns What Beers?” We all know Anheuser-Busch was bought by InBev this year, but didja know both Miller and Coors are foreign-owned these days? Ah… but PBR is still American, so you DO have an American-owned red, white, and blue-collar choice, even if the beer itself is contract-brewed… by South African-owned Miller Brewing. It’s just so danged hard to Buy Drink American these days, innit? Well, not really. If you’re a beer snob.
While we’re on about beer… could this slip o’ the lip be the real reason McCain lost? (0:05)
