My awesome Xmas gift (not the duck)

-Wrence

The awesomest Christmas present ever!

Angie and I exchanged Christmas presents last night. I have to say, without gloating or anything like that, that I received the dopest Christmas present of all time. Having said that, I don't really expect anyone else to agree with me.

I'll start by telling you one of the things she got me, that, while awesome, is not THE awesomest. Here it is. She even got me an extra one of the funny little wheels you need to use. The game is a blast though and I anticipate that it will contribute to my ongoing bouts of insomnia.

The real gem though was this:

The 4-Disc complete Last Waltz Concert, including all the songs that didn't make it into the actual movie...as well as some studio stuff and so on. The track list is shown here. Suffice it to say, getting this the day before my trip down to NYC for Christmas made the drive that much more manageable. I am currently in the process of ripping the uncle-choking-bejesus out of it so I have it for the ride. I can't wait to get in my car! Good work Angie. This is really the culmination of a big change in my life...a few years back, 'wrence introduced me to The Last Waltz during a brew/beer-having session. The intervening years have seen me developing an increasing fondness for The Band. Last Christmas, my Dad got me the DVD, and my drunken nights became that much more awesome as I found myself ever more likely to throw it on when I arrived home from a night of drinkitude. So, as I said above, getting this CD set is kinda the final piece in the puzzle of my obsession.

My Christmas wish to everyone is simple: I hope you all get your Last Waltz 4-CD boxed set this year, whatever it may be.

Bon Tidings,

&Ry

Things that happened to me today

So, today is/was December 21st 2008...the Solstice...or for those who are more into the inherent awesomeness of things the Soul-stice. As such it was the shortest day of the year, nevertheless I was determined to get my money's worth. Ain't nobody can shortchange me out of nothing, no way no how.

And so I commenced the day by waking up and looking out my window to see that the old bitch continued to be dropping shitty white stuff from the sky. This has been going on nonstop since Friday afternoon and I was about ready to see it stop. Angie was planning on taking the Downeaster up to NH to do Christmasy stuff for the day...so I offered to drive her to North Station...given the weather the way that it was, I couldn't have her trek out to take the T. The roads were a complete juncque show...expectedly so I suppose. I arrived back at home eager to make sure I didn't get a sniff of the great outdoors for the rest of the day.

After yet another unbelievable breakfast of cholesterol-laden fare, I settled in for the football watch that defines most Sundays. Today's would be different however. Week 16 of the NFL season is Fantasy Football Championship week. With teams clinching their divisions and resting guys for the playoffs, it doesn't make sense to have Fantasy games on week 17 because there is a good chance the best guys won't be playing. I happened to be lucky enough to be in the Championship game in one of my leagues playing against our friend 'monde, whose team I also drafted. This would be the overarching theme of my football watching schedule for the day, but with only one guy playing in the 1 o'clock games and the only early game on here being the Patriots blowout, I decided to do something productive and wait for the late games.

And so I decided to make rice balls. Also known as arancini in Italian (meaning little oranges), these things are the single greatest hot snacks/appetizers you will ever taste. I was practically raised on them. Every pizza place in Brooklyn, if not all of New York, carries these things...and cheap. Its name pretty much describes it. It's a ball of rice, stuffed with meat or cheese, breaded and deep fried. Sounds pretty simple and maybe not all too enticing to those who may not be lucky enough to have tried them. The problem with Boston, aside from the complete impossibility of getting anywhere in the city cheaply and quickly at the same time, is that there are very very few places that sell rice balls...and it is a shame. I mean this city likes to eat...it has a nation of young college kids who would love to have something else to get from the local pizza joint. Why don't rice balls make any waves in Boston? I don't get it. And since I can't really find them anywhere convenient, I have to make them on my own.

So I whipped up a batch of risotto and incorporated a good amount of parmagiano reggiano. Let that cool for a bit and then added a touch of homemade pasta sauce and a beaten up egg. I added some breadcrumbs as binder, rolled them up in to balls and breaded them and then dropped the little lovelies into a vat, or a small pot, of fucking hot oil. What comes out just minutes later is pure gold...seriously. These things were beautiful. Topped with some sauce they are all I really needed for the rest of the day. I was a happy camper.

Rejoining the football world, I was happy to see the Falcons dropping the hammer on the Vikings but very disappointed to see that my fantasy team was putting up a sub-par performance against 'monde's squad. Disgusted to an extent, and contradictory to my previously mentioned desire to not set a foot outside for the rest of the day...I decided to take myself to Mass.

Now, I am not a zealot. I was raised Roman Catholic and went to Catholic schools my whole life...including now. I don't agree by any stretch of the imagination with a lot of the stuff that the Christian right advocates...and I have very serious misgivings about the Catholic church's own stances on a number of issues. That said, I still like to go to Mass. It feels like home, it is comfortable, it gives me a chance to think in a way that I don't usually do. It gets me out of the house and makes me feel somewhat productive. And it is literally right around the corner....as is Christmas figuratively. Not a bad time to go. So I pulled my collar up and headed out into the cold. Man, was it shitty...awful. It was nice though because it was small, and we were in the basement instead of the big church upstairs...no music...very peaceful. Then when the priest, a young Boston guy...very chill, was walking out he said that he felt weird processing out without a song and recommended Silent Night. It was actually a pretty sweet moment in my day...and if I had to pick a high point, I think this was it. You have those moments during the Christmas season where you finally feel the real spirit of Christmas. This was mine and I was happy to have it...as sappy as it sounds.

The rest of my night was uneventful to a point. My Giants were on in Primetime and my best player is on the Giants. This game had huge implications for my fantasy match-up as 'monde had Steve Smith. The game was back and forth, with Carolina looking to be in control. But my guy, Jacobs, punched it in twice in regulation, including the game-tying score to essentially force overtime. In the overtime period, I was down 5 points and change. I needed 6 to win essentially. After exchanging possessions, the Giants marched downfeld and when the team lined up at the goal-line, I was holding my breath hoping that Jacobs would get the ball. Sure enough, he did, and he scored. With the score the Giants won the game & clinched home-field throughout the playoffs,,,,and I won my fantasy championship. I couldn't have scripted it any better. 180 bucks ain't half bad for sitting on your couch and watching some football.

While this was going down, Angie was trying to make her way back from NH. I had been checking travel advisories for her throughout the night, and despite the snow, there was nothing saying her train back home (scheduled to arrive at 10:25) would be running late...but of course it was. So after sitting in the car with her increasingly impatient Dad for 1 hour and 57 minutes, the train came. Now it looked like she wouldn't be getting in until after midnight, I offered a ride instead of making her take a cab...which in and of itself is a dicey proposition even in good weather. At about midnight I went outside to work on my car (yes, the incredibly admirable spot-clearing I perfirned yesterday was quickly undone by more snow and freezing rain). The entire thing was encased in ice...front back, top sides. I thought I was going to have to piss on my door to get it open at all. So I began chipping away at the fucking thing. After waking up half the block, I said fuck it, called Angie and told her I was sorry but that it would take me forever to free the thing and that she should take a cab home. After settling in at home for a few I got another call...there were tons of people and no cabs. What the fuck is wrong with this city? Trains are always coming in...the weather sucks, people need rides....why why why are there never cabs hen you need them? Where the fuck do they all go. I hate this goddamn place sometimes. This would NEVER happen in NYC...NEVER. That said, I went back outside...now it was 12:30 and my previous conviction to not go outside for the rest of the day was looking downright foolish. So for the second time today, I started hatcheting away at my ice-block of a Hyundai....after about 20 minutes and waking up the other half of the block, I realized I had left my phone inside and went to retrieve it. ...surely enough Angie had managed to get a cab after all and my two trips to the car were rendered completely unnecessary. I am not really looking forward to doing again tomorrow at all....but at least the day will be just that little bit longer and easier for me to get my money's worth, and I have to think that's all I can really ask for.

&Ry

Consecration

A couple quick shots taken from my phone over the last few days. We have been working with over 160 wine barrels: soaking, emptying, and moving old ones; and then racking beer from others. The beer is Consecration, and it was brewed in May and again in August.




These bastards are 60 gallons, and they weigh over 500 pounds when full. I had to "spin" all of these to empty them, after they had been filled with water the previous week (this helps the wood swell up so they don't leak when filled with beer). Might have been the hardest work I've done out here.
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So I'll be heading back east in a few days....this might be the last post from Cali. As for 2009, who knows.

Peace

-Wrence

(PS: Welcome back, RyToy)

Shove that gauntlet up your ass!!!!

How's that for a retort? This is RyToy once again, hollering at you from the Beast Coast with an update.


My classes finished up this Wednesday with the handing-in of my last take home final. To celebrate, some of my classmates opted for some beer-having. What was initially intended to be a grand partaking of beers by many and varied people turned into five people, two of whom were not drinking. In any event, we went to the Publick House. Hadn't been there in a long while. Managed to put away a few drinkables, whose names now mostly escape me. There was a Belgian blonda ale that was good. There was also the Six Point Sweet Action, which wasn't sweet at all and was actually really well balanced. All in all though, it was a subpar time...super crowded, lame crowd. I found myself pondering how much better my next trip might be...knowing that it would at least be better than this one.

Then Friday (yesterday) I decided to thaw and cook a pork tenderloin that had been in my freezer for a few weeks. First of all, I probably don't need to tell you this, but a pork tenderloin is the most phallic food I have ever seen. Add to that the fact that I was going to be doing a rub and I felt altogether somewhat amused by the whole situation. Did a nice marinade though and a mustard-based rub as well as a mustard and taragon cream sauce...cooked it perfectly to just about medium, nice and moist...the whole thing came out pretty well. Those potatoes on the side were Angie's skillet-fried fingerlings. After dinner Angie and I walked up the block to the bar, which was ridiculously packed, turned around, and came home and watched Igby Goes Down...a solid movie that I have been avoiding for some reason for a while. All the while killing Cascazilla, by the Ithaca Brewing Company, which claims to be loaded to the asshole with hops and shit, but it tastes like a normal red ale and doesn't have a ver pronounced hop character at all. I drank it anyway, and then graduated to my brown ale, which I still have too much of. Maybe a brewday soon!?!?

One thing 'wrence probably does miss (because he is totally fucked in the head) is the asston of snow we got this weekend. Started Friday at noon and continued into Saturday afternoon. The people here in Southie, being completely out of their minds as they are, shovel themselves out starting the night of the storm and continue shovelling until the snow stops. Then they take their car out just for the fuck of it (probably to do something that they could have waited to do anyway...or somewhere they could have walked) and mark their spot with either a pail or a chair or something else. The consequences for stealing a spot are not officially determined, but I have a feeling it involves calling in some additional muscle or something. So I shoveled mine out and marked it with two folding chairs. I have to admit to a certain sense of satisfaction. I mean, my spot was CLEAR!

Stay warm and be well all...

&Ry

Still in California

First and foremost, I guess I should welcome back RyToy, but I won't....at least not until he gets up a few more posts. Don't get me wrong, I love an occasional update from the Toymeister, but I learned to stop getting my hopes up about them becoming more habitual. (RyToy, in case you missed what I just threw down, it indeed was the gauntlet.)
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Anyway, things are wrapping up for me out here in Cali, as preposterously impossible that is to believe. 5 weeks is a long time, but it's also a short time. Damn, that last sentence sucked. It was like something George Bush would say. I apologize.

So I just bought a plane ticket which will have me touching the tarmack at Logan around 11pm Christmas eve night. Talk about your dramatic movie moment! I think I will carry a large stuffed bear under my arm, with bow, because for some reason that just seems like what one is supposed to be carrying when getting off a plane on Christmas eve night. Oh, and I'll be running, too (I don't know why).
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While things have been mega busy here, I DID finally get time to go out & explore a bit. This past weekend I rented a car & drove down to San Fran to see DG & Junior, and possibly some of my Oakland peeps (time permitting). On the way, I stopped in a town called Novato and had lunch and some beer samples at a brewery called Moylan's.

I remembered trying their beer before somewhere and I remember really liking it. There are a TON of great breweries out near me (Marin, Lagunitas, Bear Republic, etc) but Moylan's was on the way to SF and I heard that the food was good.

The food was good. That's all I'm going to say.

At any rate, I got down to SF and to DG's new house that afternoon & we hit up a nice neighborhood pub for a pint. Later we met up with some of his buddies, where they have a nice garage band-style setup with a digitial recorder, so we jammed pretty solidly and laid down some sleek tracks. It was good to play some instruments again...each person could play each instrument (drums, keys, bass, guitar) to some degree so there was a lot of switching around & whatnot.

Afterward, DG & I hit up the famous Toronado, perhaps the most renowned beer bar on the left coast. It was cool. The draft list was strong, about 30-40 handles, and naturally was focused on local California beer. They had some stuff we get back east, and some stuff we don't, and plenty of stuff from the brewery I'm working at now. Also, it should be noted that the prices were awesome and totally unexpected. A place like that back in Boston would have charged a good 20-30% more, easily.

One thing that's different about San Fran is that none of the bars serve food. Back in Boston you pretty much HAVE to have a kitchen if you expect to have a successful pub. BUT: to their credit, SFers have logically placed kick-awesome food joints right next door to their bars. Next to the Toronado is a sausage that joint was so awesome I almost punched DG in the knockwurst.

We ended up back in the Mission, perhaps my favorite neighborhood in American in which to party (though probably not to live). We continued to get progressively more hammered, attracting an odd assortment of strangers who wanted to party with us. Maybe it was my hat, maybe it was DG's smart-ass mouth, maybe it was the fancy absynthe-pourer-thingy; I am not sure. There were crazy people everywhere. Junior showed up with some of his peeps and the night gets extremely blurry. Luckily there was a disposable camera in my hand and I am sure I clicked the button a few times. When I get home, get them developed and scanned, I'll post some up here.

On Sunday I had some time to drive over to Oakland and meet Brian & Smitty, my old bandmates, who are both working musicians in the Bay Area now. It was good catching up.
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So now it's Wednesday, I've finished another 12 hour double-brew day, and I'm still recovering from my hangover due to the brewery's Christmas party Monday night, which was off both the hook, cuff, and charts. It was pretty wild, actually. They have some very, um.....free-spirited girls working there. I am relaxing tonight while watching the Patrick Stewart version of "Christmas Carol." SCORE!

So until next time, Peace!

'Wrence

Ry-Toy Returns

Sooooooo, this is Bros11 huh?  I kinda sorta remember this whole thing.  Well, I have been away for a while...school has been kicking my ass and my usually low level of motivation dropped to "extremely low" for a while there.  But I'm getting back on the bloghorse for a nice little blogride.  Thanks to 'wrence for tending the flame during my unfortunate absence.  I'm going to try to be better...I think.

Went to the Kendall Square Theater tonight for a flick, but more on that later.  First thing's first, Angie and I grabbed some food.  We were gonna go to that pizza place across the street...Rosalia's or something like that...but it was too crowded and we were crunched for time.  So instead we hit up the Cambridge Brewing Company for some beverables and mangibles.  I had never had the pizza there...got the margherita and it was dynamite.  Angie treated herself to a Chicken Club Pizza that basically made me really excited....it even came with ranch dressing on the side!!!!  For drinks I had their Late Harvest IPA, which was deliciously malty and hoppy and wonderful.  Angie had the Pumpkin, which I did not try because I am boycotting pumpkin beers of all stripes for 2008.  It's just a personal decision basically.

Onto the movies...first of all, Kendall Square theater is awesome because it shows dope movies you don't get in other places...but at the same time IT'S A TOTAL FUCKING SHIT SHOW at all times.  More than half the movies were sold out tonight and the place is just absurdly disorganized.  We had bought our tix ahead over the interweb, so we were all good.  The movie in question was Synecdoche, New York starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman.  It was fucked, as is every Charlie Kaufman movie that I have seen.  Hoffman plays a theater director who is basically bat-shit insane and neurotic.  The whole thing was absurdly surreal and sometimes hard to understand what Kaufman was doing.  Hoffman was awesome as usual, the rest of the cast was real solid as well.  I didn't realize what I was getting into when I saw it...if my mindset had been one that was more ready for a complete blow-job I would have enjoyed it more.  I'll probably see it again though at some point.

Getting out of there is a shitshow too.  Instead of paying for parking on the way out, you have to wait in line to pay at the teller...which is always at least 75 people deep.  It fits the feel of the place to have something as unorganized as this as the lasting aftertaste of your experience there.  That said, I will be back I am sure.

So that's my story...I'll try to do some more cool stuff soon so that I can type about it.

&Ry

Another day at the (not) office

Corking Machine: 1

Wrence's Hand: 0

What I'm listening to - with morning my coffee

There really is NOTHING like the sound of a vintage tube amp turned up all the way

A day at the office

So I had my phone out at work today, using its clock to time a cleaning cycle (I need to buy a cheap watch to use in the brewery!) and I took a random shot, which I will post now.


So, this is the first post of December, although I must admit it does not feel like that in the least out here in CA. The weather has been chilly and foggy in the morning, but sunny and mild each afternoon. Today we even shot some hoops after work, out at the basket they put up near the loading dock...while drinking Damnation that was kegged yesterday. Nicely.

Peace

-Wrence