Last night I officially became a Pledge in Taco Mac's Brewniversity! In order to become a Pledge (and get a shirt) you have to buy 13 different beers. I went to The Fred last night and was planning on just having one beer there and then heading over to the Taco Mac in Duluth so I would be closer to the hotel for the end of the night. Well, that plan failed.. I went in and met some awesome people and decided to stay. I ordered a Avery Hog Heaven to start along with a five cheese crab dip. The Hog Heaven is a Barelywine which has a very IPA flavor and feel. While I was drinking that Sean ordered a Corsendonk Christmas and Natasha (the bartender) asked if he wanted the tap or the bottle so he ordered both to do a taste test. Sean let me and Jeff have some as well so we could all make partake in the test, all three agreed it was better in the draft. My second beer of the night was a Rodenback Grand Cru which is a sour red ale, the first sip sorta punches you in the face but after that it's amazing! A little bit later Jeff ordered a La Rulles Tripel and let us all have some.. Was still hungry after the dip so I got their spicy fried shrimp which was so hot my mouth was on fire, need more beer to wash it down with so I got my own Corsendonk Christmas to finish off the night. While I was eating my shrimp Sean and Jeff both left and when they were leaving we did the whole "nice to meet you" and another of the regulars who towards the other end of the bar said "what?! you guys just met tonight!?" lol! Finished off the night chatting with a guy named Tony who had just come in and was a big foodie so we were swapping exotic food stories.. All in all, it was a great night. Now I did not officially hit my 13 purchased beers but since I don't live in the area Natasha counted the ones I shared and gave me the shirt! :D
It was so icy last night, I don't think Georgia even has rock salt or sand for the roads and sidewalks. I almost fell on my ass like 3 times going into The Fred.. Today has been a "take the good, take the bad" day so far, woke up to find my water in the room undrinkable again so I didn't shower or brush teeth. I had extra water at the room the first night I knew the water was undrinkable but then it was fine so I didn't get any last night, turns out they had another pipe issue last night.. Apparently Duluth is not meant for prolonged cold. The good, got my seat upgraded to first class!
Currently sitting on the plane and using the free WiFi, Delta is offering free WiFi during the holidays.. :)
The problem with living in an area that is generally warm is that the buildings are not built for cold.. The Courtyard is no exception to this rule, they had a few pipes freeze and burst.. I got back to the hotel after work and went to the hot tub to raise my temperature because I just can't seem to get warm this week. Then some nice relaxing time and finally a shower before heading out, turned on the shower and was shocked by the brown water and the loud noise coming from pipes! I let it run for a second and it didn't change, tried the sink and the same thing.. Went to the lobby and the lady told me they had "a few pipes" freeze and burst, how many is a few? Apparently a few was enough to close the first floor on half the hotel, they had 6 inches of water in some rooms! Well, no rinsing off chlorine for me.. Off to Taco Mac and the speak easy!
Not tonight!! I drove to the Taco Mac and asked the guy at the regular place if they served food downstairs, his answer was only finger foods so I decided to eat at the regular Taco Mac to eat. Had a Portabella Mushroom Wrap and a Tommyknocker Hop Strike before heading downstairs. I went to "The Fred" and after ringing buzzer a few times went upstairs to ask why they were not answering door, found out they are closed on Monday and Tuesday! Wish the website would have said that! Went back to the closer Taco Mac and had a few more drinks with the guys from class. Ommegang Adoration and Terrapin Hopsecutioner to finish the night before heading back to hotel. Water issue was not cleared up so I messed around online a bit and then headed to bed, as I was getting ready for bed the hotel lost power! Ok, end of that night, it's bed time... Just as I was falling asleep the power came back on and so did my lights which woke me up..
The water issue was resolved this morning so I was finally able to take a shower..
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More updates since last blogs..
My car is fixed.. Guy from Virginia paid for the damage his plywood did and the lady's insurance company paid for the damage to my bumper/fog light area.
Jessie's elbow is healed, it actually healed really quick.
I know I have not blogged in a long time and I'm not going to do the recap thing because it would just be too darn long..
The problem with blogging your life is when it gets too complicated to sit down and write about it.. That and I guess some stuff does not need to be in a public forum, at least not while it's happening..
Anyway, I'm down in Duluth GA this week teaching and it's smeggin' cold! When I found I had a class in Duluth in December I figured it would at least give me a break from the cold, boy was I wrong! It was 20 with a wind chill of -5 when I landed (those numbers are Fahrenheit unfortunately.. Last night it fell to 10 with wind chill of -11!
My students told me about this placed called Taco Mac which is a 99 type restaurant with 100+ beers on tap and 200+ beers in bottle! They have a frequent drinker program called Taco Mac Brewniversity, you get credits for each different beer you drink and when you get a certain number of credits you get benefits like 13 gives you a shirt, 125 gives you a 20oz for the price of a 16oz and so on.. The food was good, I had buffalo chicken tacos and the beer was awesome! Beers had last night: Unibroue La Terrible, Left Hand Nitro Sawtooth, Red Brick Laughing Skull and Warsteiner Dunkel. They have a bunch of locations, was talking to a random guy at the bar and he was telling me one of them is designed like an old speak easy, apparently you have to knock on the door and show your Brewniversity card to get in.. Going to that one tonight.. Not that it should surprise anyone but within five minutes of being there I had made a new friend who lives in the area now but is from NY and a Mets fan! I am meeting him tonight at the speak easy...
Laire was good this weekend, I played "Brother Hawk" because Daimone is still a Drowned One and finally started to learn Warlock skills. Still no word on my Druid quest but at least I have one master class started. I left Saturday night so I could be home for Sunday since I had to get laundry done and what not to get my flight on Sunday.
Speaking of my flight on Sunday. I got to the airport and found my flight was delayed from 6:07 till 7:00 then 7:30 then cancelled! I was in a bit of a panic and found out that AETravel's website does NOT work on the Droid OS! I had Becca log in and start looking for alternate flights but luckily it was not needed since the 3:30 flight was getting ready to leave and they had extra seats which they put all Elite status people from the 6:07 flight in. Even my luggage made it on the flight which shocked me because they told me it probably wouldn't till the morning..
Other news since last blog..
I got my renewal notice for the Mets season tickets and I mailed it back asking to move to section 424 again. In past years I have heard back in late January if not early February and was shocked when they called me a few days after I mailed the letter in to move me. They could not get me 3 seats in 424 but they did move me to section 426 which is a significant move from last year. That and the price went down about $40 per seat so it's all good all around... :)
Jessie's mom is having financial problems, no surprise here, so we are trying to sell her stuff out of the Kingston house and will eventually be trying to sell the house as well. The sale is this weekend so most of our free time has been spent driving back and forth and trying to get things ready to be sold. Thanks to Shane for helping us out during the week when we couldn't be there. If you want to come shopping come on down, she has a lot of good stuff and we are selling it all pretty cheap.
/sigh... Jose Reyes was told he has to rest for 2-8 weeks while he takes medication for his thyroid.. That leaves Reyes and Beltran out for the season opener.. ugh... Who ever heard of a smegging baseball player having to sit because of a thyroid problem...
I finished Sea of Monsters this morning, it was very good and I'm looking forward to the 3rd book, but before I do that one I am doing Good Omens which was finally released on audio. So far it's good, I like how any tape left in a car for more than a fortnight becomes Queen's greatest hits.. :)
Speaking of music, Jessie just sent me a Folk Opera, the music is very good and it's coming to MA in April, I may have to go see it if I am free.. Check it out here..
Last night I went to Lov'n it Live which is a raw vegan restaurant in southern Atlanta, I went there the first time I was in the area and it was just as good if not better. I got a seaweed soup which was good and a nutloaf with broccoli & cheese which was amazing. The broccoli that is, the nutloaf was just ok. I asked for the recipe for the broccoli but they wouldn't give it to me. I took the train there instead of driving and it only took like 40 mins total to get there, the food took forever to get, I was getting upset as I sat waiting for them to serve me. It took almost an hour to get the soup and about 20 mins more to get the main course. They are just lucky they are that good.
After class today I went to Old Norcross and wandered around, it has the feel of Putnam with cute little nick nack stores and antique shops. They have a neat coffee house that offers beer and wine tasting as well as coffee. They also have a real expensive steak house and the british pub I went to the other night. I walked around for a bit and took some pictures of the really cool kids park. Not the one I was in the other night, this main street area has two really cool parks (one on each side). Hopefully the pictures will do it justice, I will post them either later tonight or tomorrow from work. After hanging out there for a bit I came back to the hotel and then to Barnacles for dinner. Brandon was there tonight! I hung out with him for a bit before he went home and I came back to the hotel.
Now I'm just listening to the songs from the Folk Opera while waiting to play my OOTP games against Lee. Meeting him online at 9.
Last night after dinner and after Barnacles I went back to the worst hot tub ever.. This time however it was not so bad, there was three people who work for Dominos as area managers in the hot tub who were in the hotel for training. One guy had a really nice celtic knot cross on his arm and his girlfriend had a rose on her back.
Speaking of not so good.. Last night I went to JR's Loghouse which is a rib joint in Norcross. They have all you can eat ribs for $12.99 so that should tell you about the quality, the first batch of ribs was pretty poor but the broccoli and rice side was good. The second batch however was great, if they 1st batch was that good it would have been a good place, but inconstancy always ruins it..
After dinner I went over to Barnacles and watched some bad karaoke before heading back to the hotel and hitting the hot tub and bed..
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Tonight is a balance night, I am going to go to the raw place south of Atlanta.. I say that now but we shall see when I get out, it's raining here and has been all day and I'm a bit beat because we had lots of lab equipment problems today..
I just got back from the worst hot tub ever... It was certainly HOT but it only had one working jet... I'm in Duluth Georgia again, you know last time I was here I was also healing from getting my tattoo done, this time it's all the way healed at least but I'm still hesitant about being submerged in water but that's ok since the main pool is closed for repairs and the hot tub sucks..
Last time I was here I spent most nights at Barnacles and met some really cool people. I went there last night and I was the only white person in the whole bar. I went by there again tonight after dinner and once again nobody I knew was there.. :(
A guy in my class found a bbq place he heard was good so I think I'm going to go there tomorrow, tonight I went to a British Pub that's about 9 miles from the hotel. I was told about it by a girl from OKCupid who I have not seen online since.. Speaking of OKCupid, work blocked that as of this afternoon, I guess it was just a matter of time.. Anyway, so this place ended up being pretty cool, they had Fat Tire on tap and sold fish in chips in a single or double portion, I got the single portion which was plenty of food. Left plenty of room for my Fat Tires.. :)
Another guy in my class was talking about how great the hotel next door was, I wish it were a Marriott because this place is pretty lame (hot tub & pool suck and TV/channels are weak) but it's all about the points..
It's been a long time since I blogged but I'm going to pretend that nothing of interest happened during that time because I was starting to feel overwhelmed with trying to recap the ever missing blogs.. One thing I will say.. I went to see Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Lightning Thief, it was bad like one of those made for TV fantasy movies, the sets however were great. Speaking of Percy Jackson, I read the first book recently and it was VERY good and I just started the 2nd (Sea of Monsters) and it's just as good so far. Whoah, this blog is truly a tangent in a tangent... Speaking of books, I just finished And Another Thing which is the 6th book of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy. It was written by Eoin Colfer with permission from the estate of Douglas Adams.. It was very good and really captured the feel of the old books. If you're a fan of the books I recommend it. And another thing regarding books (see that clever use of the previous title), they finally released Good Omens on audio! I have that on my iPod and it will be the next book I listen to right after Sea of Monsters.
I've decided I like blogs that are a stream of thought so.. I didn't get a chance to watch/listen to today's Mets game but John Maine started today, he left after facing only 8 batters and striking out 4 of them! Apparently he moved weird towards first base and they decided to pull him before he hurt himself again. Can't say I blame them.. Speaking of the Mets, Perez pitched the other day and got shelled, ugh! We are paying that smeghead 13mil for another 2 years.. I am however excited for the upcoming season, I think with the addition of Jason Bay our team will do much better than last year (especially if we can stay healthy)..
Right, so back to present day.. I was at the airport in Hartford waiting for my flight then none other than Don King comes and sits down across from me! He is looking old but he is an awesome guy, took a few peoples pictures with him and talked with him for a bit.. During that excitement I met a really cool girl who lives in Springfield, she works as an interpretor and was flying to Las Vegas to meet her boss. She had not flown in a VERY long time and I helped her get a seat assignment and I helped her get to her connecting flight in Atlanta, we are going to get together when we both get back. :D I also met a really cool guy from Middletown CT who travels almost 90% of the time for work. I ended up sitting next to him on the flight which made the flight go pretty quickly.
Umm.. So, back to tonight.. Yay, tangety (is that a word) blogs... I went to the British Pub as I mentioned, it is on a street that ends in a really cool park, I wandered around the park a bit before dinner and took some nice pictures which I will hopefully post tomorrow at work when I'm not on a really slow internet connection.
My car this week is a tiny little car called a Cevy Aveo.. I took some pics and will post them tomorrow as well. It's not a bad little car actually, the steering wheel is very thin but otherwise it's nice to drive.
Ok, I guess I'm done for tonight.. See ya all later..
Oh, one more thing.. I found out that there is a Marta station about 10 mins from work, the Marta runs every 8-10 minutes into Atlanta so one of these nights I will be heading into Atlanta to eat at that raw place (Loving it Live) without having to deal with traffic.. :)
---Diversion of the Day
Jessie found this band last night while staying up too late, hope you like it (I know I did)..
I woke up this morning and it was 39 degrees in Duluth! I guess it's getting me ready to go back home..
Last night was a quick night, when I got out of work I went over to Dave & Busters.. It had to be the lamest Dave & Busters I've ever seen, they had a very small arcade area and most of those were the stupid "win tickets" games.. I went to Olive Garden for dinner and then over to Barnacles for a drink. The place was empty so I only stayed for one drink and went back to the hotel. I was planning on going back out a bit later but I decided I was tired and stayed in for the rest of the night.
I remember loving Olive Garden's Alfredo sauce but for some reason it was really lack luster last night. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong or maybe it was just a bad night for the chef. I'll give it another shot before I condemn it.. :)
Flight today is early, I'll head home and probably shower before heading over to Future Imperfect. Check in is between 6 and 8 so I should have plenty of time..
---Diversion of the Day http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/2009-10-06/index.html
I went down into Atlanta yesterday after work. I got down the Lov'n it Live (a raw vegan restaurant just south of Atlanta) around 4:30, my original idea was to kill time around the restaurant before dinner. When I got there I found that there was very little to do so I ate an early dinner. I had Nori Wraps for an appetizer, Mushroom steak for a main course and Pumpkin Pie for dessert. For a beverage I had a fresh veggie drink. It was all very good and I would highly recommend eating there if you're ever in the area.
After dinner I went to Turner Field! I have to say, and not because I'm an anti-Braves fan, the outside of the building is very generic and run down looking. I walked to the front of the stadium and the main gate was open so I went inside. The inside area was really nice and I was actually liking what I saw until.... They have a Statue of Liberty all decked out in Braves clothes!! wtf!! seriously!! How dare they take a NY icon and put Braves clothes on it! I was bitching at the bar about this later in the night and someone made the comment that the Statue of Liberty is an American icon and the Braves are America's Team! Fuck that shit!
Speaking of baseball.. I was wearing my Mets/CitiField shirt yesterday when I went into Barnacles, apparently (and not surprising) Brandon is a Braves fan! I walked in and he started jokingly threatening to smash his beer bottle over my head. We had a great argument but where able to come back together over our hatred of the Yankees. A few new friends, one guy who worked as a salesman for Infinity Auto was trying to convince me that Infinity had a better AWD then Subaru.. The other new friend was a Cubs fan who moved to Georgia, he has been to 21 stadiums in his baseball tour so we ended up talking about what we liked and disliked about different ones.
All in all a great time last night, except for the Yankees winning the World Series..
Last night I tried to get Jessie an iPod case but neither of the places here had the one she wanted for the size iPod we have. They had them for the iPhone and iTouch but not the regular iPods..
After that failed attempt I started looking for food and started getting real disgusted by the chain restaurants in the area. This area is like two Framinghams worth of stores and chain restaurants all squished together into a few block radius. Anyway, I debated going to the pool house/sports bar but I saw their menu the other day and was not impressed. As I was driving around I saw a sign for Karaoke Extravaganza at a place called Barnacles. Sure, why not..
I got there about 8:30, Karaoke started at 9. My first surprise was that smoking was welcome there! I figure no big deal, it won't be too bad right? Well the place was pretty empty and they sat me at a long bar like table near one of the only other guys in there eating. I had a good view of the massive TVs on the wall and ended up getting in-tranced by the Monster Truck rally they had on. This was one of those dirt tracks that had jumps and smashed up cars, the idea was to drive around the track and do the jumps, etc. You got points for style, how far you got into the track and how long it took you. None of the trucks finished the track but it was a lot of fun to watch. I had a burger which was good and ended up talking to the guy, he as it turns out is a real Georgia boy. You know, when you think of Southern boys you think of him. Our waitress was real cute but looked real young, we ended up calling her over and asking her age and after that she ended up coming back around every once in a while and chatting & hanging out with us.
Karaoke started at 9, but by the time the first person went up to sing it was almost 9:20. All in all I watched 4 people sing. One was real good, one was REAL bad and the other two were just ok. I ended up leaving right around 10 and heading back to the hotel. The smoking got annoying as the night got longer and the place got more crowded. I will probably go there again tonight after dinner to watch some of the game. The Georgia boy (name omitted to protect the innocent) will be there, he goes there most nights on his way home from work for a beer or two, and I know our lovely waitress will be there too.
Oh, I almost forgot. Before going on the failed quest for an iPod case I played a mini-golf place right by the hotel. It's between the hotel and Fry's so I ended up stopping there on the way. You know a course is hard when the guy at the counter tells you to take an extra ball so that if you lose one you don't have to come all way back to the ball counter. It was a 27 hole course, the first 18 were the standard holes, the last 9 were the harder holes. I didn't lose the first ball till hole 24! Let me tell you, there were certainly a few times you could lose the ball. The course had a bunch of holes where you had to jump a river. Ironically the one I lost it on was not that hard, it had a big rock in the way and I tried to bounce of the wall and go past the rock, it didn't bounce off the wall but instead hugged the wall and went out on to the path and up a hill into the trees! The par for the total 27 holes is 61 and I shot a 75 with one hole in one!
So, I just got to Duluth GA last night. I flew into Atlanta and was geared up for fist-a-cuffs with some f'n Braves fans, not really - but it sounds good.. The airport here is oddly laid out and very big. I had to take a tram to the baggage claim it was so far away from my terminal. The layout is sorta like this:
........| |....| |....| |....| |....| |
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[]-----| |---| |---| |----| |---| |
........| |....| |....| |....| |....| |
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Each of the | | is a terminal with the dotted line being the connecting point between them. So, if you came in on the 4th terminal back (which I did) you have to walk to the center of the terminal and then up the connection walk or take the tram which runs on the dotted line.
When you get to the square (ticket area, baggage claim and rent-a-car) you pass the rent-a-car area before getting to the bags. I grabbed my bag and came back to the Enterprise counter. I filled out paperwork and then went outside to grab a bus which brought me right to my car. I ended up getting a Kia Spectra, man it's hot! It does not really have any balls but it is comfortable to sit in and the radio has an Aux input so I can listen to my book while driving.
Drove to the hotel and then went out wandering Duluth. Duluth is a shopping mecca, there is a Best Buy, MicroCenter and Fry's all in a matter of a few blocks. There are also tons of places to eat including Red Lobster. Last night I went to a Sushi BBQ place which was a Japanese/Korean restaurant, all the servers spoke Japanese and they had real wasabi and didn't offer me a spoon for my soup! Holly asked me to show her a picture of what real wasabi looked like and I got busy with class so never did.. Here you go Holly, a picture of real wasabi..
After dinner I went to a pool hall/sports bar and watched a bit of the World Series while drinking a Fat Tire. I was shocked at how many people in the place where Yankees fans! Not a Braves fan in site, wtf! I ended up hanging out with a few guys and having a great time but left after the 6th because my tattoo was itching like crazy and I just wanted to get back to the hotel and take my shirt off.
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Saturday me and Jessie went and hung out my dad during the day and my mom at night. During the day we went to Lou Rocs, which is a diner up in Worcester, and then went to Best Buy and Staples to look at netbooks. I want to get one to use instead of my work laptop. I think I've decided on the Acer Aspire One which I can get at Radio Shack for $349.99, it has an 11" screen with 2GB memory and a 260GB hard drive.
I am going to see how cheap they are down here at Fry's and maybe MicroCenter.
At night we hung out at mom's house and watched WC Fields' You Can't Cheat an Honest Man. It's been years since I've seen it and it is still pretty funny after all these years.
So, when last we left out intrepid traveler he was in the San Jose airport about to a "new york style bagel".. I ate it on the plane from San Jose, it was ok but certainly not a "NY Style bagel".. I guess I didn't really expect it to be. The flights home were uneventful but good. Got home, hung out with Dianne, Jessie and Joe on Saturday night.
Yesterday I finally got my tattoo, after years of design and waiting I finally have it. It only took about 2 hours and was not nearly as painful as I thought it would be. Pictures on Flickr. The only part that was real painful was the top of the shoulder by the neck. After the tattoo me and Lynz went and got some dinner at the Courthouse. They were slow and I convinced the waitress to give me potato skins instead of fries! So good!
Tomorrow I have to go to the Brazilian Consulate to finally get my Brazil Visa.. I just found out I may be going to London now as well as Georgia and Brazil.. If that's the case it will be, fly out Sunday to Georgia, leave Georgia on Friday, go to Mythical Journeys Future Imperfect, fly out on Sunday to London, fly home Friday morning and go to WPA Friday night, fly to Brazil on Saturday!
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