Lostnerdness

forgot to mention this. check out what my bro and his friend did in central park today...nerdy? yes. awesome? absolutely.

&Ry

Parts of me are still frozen

So, BC lost the game last night, or at least that is what the scoreboard said. I couldn't tell you a damn thing that happened there last night. As you can see, our seats were a bit distant from the action. Here's a little video I took from my seat:

It was also really cold as my brother referenced in the video...and I don't own boots. I deserve to have frigid feet, I realize, but that doesn't really do too much to console my sub-freezing toes. There is no way in hell Eric would have ever been able to handle it...big brown or no big brown. I was wearing a George Costanza-esque bubble jacket under my BC jersey. Gooey brought a facemask and 180s.

All in all though, it was a pretty awesome time and I am glad that I had the chance to go. The atmosphere was fun, without any of the usual BC vs. BU provocation that can often get ugly. I was also apparently on the big screen at one point although I did not see this for myself.

Solid times. Be well people.

&Ry

A Tale of Two (Snowy) Cities

As you all know, the east coast got slammed by snow this weekend. Someone sent along a video clip of what people down in 'wrence's hood deal with snow at football games. Check it:

Now, here is the traditional use of snow at a football game in New England:

I am no chowdahead. I personally can't stand the fans of either team. But if given the choice to live amongst one group or the other, I am going with option 2 all the way.

&Ry

ps - goonies is on encore right now...dope right?

A wedding and a blizzard

Had a pretty baller wedding to go to last night. It was my best friend from college J'Mann's little brother Mike's wedding. When Mike was a freshman, we used to buy him and his friends beer, leave it in our room, and then go out to do whatever it was that we had going on. We would typically come home to find a slew of freshmen playing beirut and having a pretty solid time. I always wished that I had someone do that for me when I was a freshman. Anyway, we got tight with the little guys and now they are all growed up and getting married and whatnot...so I was happy to get to go.

Food was tight, the band was absolutely kickawesome. They played a bunch of awesome stuff...some Killers, The Cure, The Clash, the Boss, Dylan, etc...definitely not your average wedding band and it was a pretty solid time. As you may or may not now...the big guy decided to cover up most of the east coast with snow and shit this weekend. So all that started while we were weddinging. It is impossible to get a cab in downtown Boston on a good night, let alone in the middle of a blizzard. Add to that, the fact that Angie was in wedding attire and had no leg coverings, so she refused to even be outside. So I walked around Boston like a douche trying to hail cabs for an hour before we resigned ourselves to having to crash on a cot in J'Mann's room at the hotel. Woke up this morning and by some miracle a cab pulls up right behind us as we are walking...so that made life a little better.

I just want to leave you with an image of exactly what the wedding was like. This is the father of the groom, and my own personal hero: William Cyril Cagney Esq. I might be making this my facebook pic for a while:

That all I got for now, I think. Looks like the snow should be finishing up soon. So begins the time-honored process of shoveling out my car and marking my spot.

&Ry

There is no February

So, you may be wondering: what the hell happened to February?

I do apologize for the lack of updates. Truth be told, I just didn't have much to say. February pretty much sucks. It's my least favorite month. Sometime around Valentine's Day, when I still hadn't been inspired to post anything, I simply decided to BOYCOTT the whole month. But for you obsessive types, I'll give you a quick re-cap:

-It was nut-shrivellingly cold, and then
-It rained for 3 days, melting all the snow and revealing the accumulated street garbage of the entire winter.

I spent some time brewing, more time drinking, and a whole lot of time not-job-having.
________________________

So let's move on.

The Mild finished perfectly at 1.011, and it tastes wonderful already at just 5 weeks of age. Chocolaty and a little roasty, and you would never guess this gentle guy comes in at a mere 4% booze-by-volume. Success!

I actually got together a 3rd "quick batch" recently. I must say, I have enjoyed brewing these low gravity beers so far; I never ventured into this territory before, back when time and space were not issues, but it has been a good learning experience for me, I think. The latest brew is a Belgian Pale Ale. I overshot my gravity a bit so this one may hit 5% bbv or so, but it's still pretty small by our standards here at 46 Tremont Street. This brew was partially inspired by Kevbones' brand new 55-pound bag of Franco-Belges Pale Ale malt. What better way to try it out than a nice Belgian Pale Ale?

7# Pale Ale Malt (MFB)
.5# Aromatic Malt (Dingeman's)
.5# Dextrine Malt
.25# Special B

Wyeast 1762, Abbey Ale II

Currently slowing down after 2 days of a wild, sulphur-throwing primary fermentation. Temps were right on so I am assuming the sulphur is normal with this yeast; I'm not worried.

Anyhoo, It's March 1st, and it's snowing again. I must admit that I will be happy once this winter is over, the weather improves, the days are longer, and I hopefully will be less unemployed than I am now. The job search continues, I am undaunted, but still it wears at one's soul in a way few other things do. Will keep you posted.

-Wrence

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