mikeyboy.com

of course you’ll see this in my flickr feed, but i’ll elaborate.

we’ve had the 4-tap kegfridge for quite some time now, even going so far as to have it transported from WA to NH when we moved (is that legal? probably. it was empty at the time).

we were never really happy with our chromed faucets. they quickly chipped, leaving a nasty appearance. also, their traditional design left most of the internal valve mechanism exposed to the room air while in the sealed position. this meant that both they would get sticky and difficult to operate, and that various microorganisms in the room air could waft up the nozzle and take up residence in the aforementioned stickiness.

as a christmas present to ourselves (okay, i ordered them and carrie went along with it) we purchased four Ventmatic faucets. their design is significantly different - a “forward sealing” design which means that they aren’t subject to the standard faucet issues. also, the entire faucet from tail to tip is made from stainless steel.

plus, i think they’re awfully handsome. if i only would have cleaned up the plastic tap handles before taking this shot:

in the longstanding tradition of explaining nonsensical-sounding old english traditions at the holidays, i present to you: Wassailing. of course you can go look it up on wikipedia, but they tend to have all the wit and charm of your high school guidance counselor (after they banned smoking in the teacher’s lounge).

Wassail is a traditional strong beverage made from ale and spices, and served in bowls. many modern microbreweries maintain this tradition, at least in part, by producing a Wassail beer for the holidays. usually they are not as strongly spiced as our ancestors would have made, but they are typically high in alcohol relative to normal beer. what you drink it out of is up to you.

this is the part that’s new to me - Wassailing, in the traditional/historical definition, is not merely the gathering together to consume the aforementioned beverage. Wassailing is essentially caroling - going door to door and singing christmas carols, in questionable (and likely dubious) quality, until being paid by the residents to leave their property.

one might imagine that the combination of Wassail with Wassailing would lead to prompt and considerable payment to reduce the infliction of such “singing” upon those within the household.

so in this, the most sacred of holiday seasons, let us all lift a glass (or a bowl) of our respective beverages, and remember how fortunate we all are — that our drunk neighbors are not crooning on our doorsteps for blackmail money.

day 3 was spent in Denver/Golden. quite a lazy day, i must admit.

we had breakfast at Einstein Brothers Bagels, then dealt with some paperwork for the house. then we got one of my tires balanced (that threw a wheel weight somewhere in Wyoming) and had lunch/dinner at Falling Rock Tap House. after dinner we drove around Denver a bit, stopped at Argonaut to pick up some local beer to take with us, and went back to the hotel.

today, we head east to Kansas.

so, this is it. i can finally talk publicly about our plans. to all the 3 people that read my blog (hi mom, hi ma, hi hon!)

anyway. today i gave notice, in two weeks time i will no longer be an employee of the huge corporate overlord bank that i currently work for. i’ll comment about that later.

carrie and i are moving back to new england. our house is on the market. our stuff is on a train somewhere. all i know is, tonight my wife is 3000 miles away, my cats are with her, i’m sleeping on an air mattress in a beautiful (empty) house - and i just finished a 22oz bottle of lagunitas Undercover bitter ale (9.8%) and now i want to sleep. a lot.

so, we took a step back this weekend for a bit. in addition to home improvement duties, we took in a concert at the white river amphitheatre. it was brad paisley’s bonfires & amplifiers tour. opening for brad were: taylor swift, jack ingram, and kellie pickler.

ancilliary highlights of the evening:

a $4 Cup of unsweetened tea

good because it was unsweetened, and $4 was alright because it had to be about 1/2 a gallon.

new songs

brad played new songs from his forthcoming album, including “i’m so much cooler online” which of course, i can relate to.

mystery guest

they were shooting the video for the above mentioned new song @ white river, and to everyone’s surprise, we all got to see what part jason alexander would be playing in it!

i mentioned Flyers also, didn’t i? on sunday, we took a drive out to Oak Harbor, WA to have dinner at Flyer’s Restaurant (warning: sound). they have a very interesting menu, and very good beer. in particular, we were seeking their NABA, GABF, and WBC medal-winning Porter.

while we enjoyed some rainy time this weekend, we went and had lunch @ Brouwers in seattle, and enjoyed some fine belgian style beers.

the cornerstone of the meal was this enormous veggie burger: