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
Showing posts with label gauntlets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gauntlets. Show all posts
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
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.)
_______________
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).
_______________
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.
_______________
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
_______________
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).
_______________
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.
_______________
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
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