Last night was a special occasion for a few reasons.

First, I was very pleased to see that my favorite style of Cone Smoker is still hanging in there at Rich O's. This is the longest that this beer has stayed drinkable yet.

Another high note last night was the appearance of my friend Eric, who I hardly ever get to see anymore. But that's as much my fault as his.

After my first Cone Smoker I tried a Bell's Winter White and did not like it even a little bit. Oh well, live and learn.

While I was choking down the Bell's Eric was enjoying a Great Lakes Christmas Ale. I had one as well, and I really liked it. No, really. Even though about 90% of the beers I try at Rich O's are, IMHO, crap, every now and then something good comes along. I will definitely have more of this when it's available.

I closed out the evening with another Cone Smoker, something I knew would finally wash the taste of the Bell's out of my mouth.

Let's see, also in attendance were DooRagGirl and DooRagGirl's husband. DooRagGirl I almost didn't recognize as she was without her trademark bandana.

Last night Rich O's was very crowded, probably because they were closed on Christmas.

Anyway, I broke my new rule right off the bat by having a Cone Smoker. It's still style #2, but it may be turning a little. I'll probably know tomorrow night.

Next I tried a Rogue Santa's Private Reserve, one of the Christmas beers currently being featured at Rich O's. I've never been a huge fan of any of the Rogue beers, with the exception of their rauchbier, and one again, Rogue proved to me to be a little too much frosting and too little cake. I tasted malt, malt, and more malt. It wasn't particularly bad, it just wasn't particularly good either.

Next, on MisunderstoodGirl's recommendation, I had a Mahr's Christmas Bock (Reviewer's Site).

I've never been a big fan of bock beers. I'm still not.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to come up with a way to describe this beer. MisunderstoodGirl was no help at all. I detected coffee, chocolate, malt, and hops, all in miniscule amounts. There were no citrus components to the taste and for that I was grateful.

All in all, it was an enjoyable evening. MisunderstoodGirl, TrainGirl, and Bubbles proved to be pretty good company, though I usually prefer more one-to-one interaction than the group interactions we had.

A new Terragen image, not sure how to describe it.

Also, I've rerendered an older image. I like the new version a little better than the original which I seem to have lost.

I'm typing this as I take a break from housecleaning. My stereo WAS playing random selections from various CDs, until Julia DeMato's rendition of "At Last" started playing. I ran to my CD player and hit the repeat button so I could enjoy this absolutely wonderful rendition over and over.

For being such a fantastic singer (with the correct songs) as well as being disconcertingly beautiful, Julia DeMato is my December 21st Hottie of the Day.

Q: What's better than coming in second place at the Special Olympics?

A: Not being retarded.

Tonight I arrived at Rich O's early, determined to sample their new Silent Oath and their Bourbondaddy, which I've had before, before they ran out.

The Bourbondaddy is a stout aged in a used bourbon barrel. I had this last year at about this time, and I remember liking it, but I don't remember much else about it. This time around I actually paid attention to what I was drinking. It's a little bitter at first, but after that it's very good. Nothing extremely special, it tastes the way it should - a medium stout with a little bourbon flavor added.

Next I tried the NABC's newest brew, Silent Oath. They're calling it a "Belgian Brown Ale" but I don't really know what that means so I'll call it "Newcastle with Apples in it." It was okay, and the apple undertones weren't that strong. I liked it.

Lastly, I had a Goose Island Christmas Ale, and I honestly couldn't tell the difference between it and their regular Nut Brown Ale. Perhaps this was because I'd already had a couple of pretty strong beers. I liked it, but I didn't see anything special about it.

I was contemplating trying another Christmas Ale but then MysteryLady surprised me by showing up so I had sex instead.

After I left my sister's house I went to Rich O's, partly to be around some adults, and partly to try their new belgian ale. Well I got my dates mixed up and the new ale won't be out until Saturday so I ended up just having a couple of Cone Smokers. Still style #2, and I'm still quite happy about that.

While we enjoyed our drinks, LaptopGirl, MisunderstoodGirl, and I hashed out some ideas for a cinematic masterpiece.

The girls are thinking more of an indy-film type of documentary, and while I think that it would be great for the 15 or so people that would actually see it, I think the idea would work much better as a weekly TV reality show.

Also, I think that LaptopGirl needs to drop the whole "obsessed with shoes" angle altogether unless she's wanting to make a fetish film.

Exchanged presents with my sisters' families last night. It definitely seems odd to be having Christmas on December 19, but everyone is so busy busy busy that last night ended up being the best time to do it I guess.

I got two of the things I'd specifically asked for (a Skewb Diamond puzzle and Robert Byrne's new book) as well as a cool cat calendar, a DVD, and a couple of cans of nuts.

Next on the festivities calendar is Christmas Eve, which will be at my house this year. That will be very strange, since it's been at my Grandma's house for my entire life.

With today's capture of Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden's title of The Hide and Seek Champion of the World has lost its only serious challenger.

/Paraphrased from fark.com.

Four inches of snow fell last night, and I'm sorry to admit that that's a lot of snow for this area these days.

This could end up being the biggest snowfall we get this season and that really sucks.

Winters were a lot more interesting when I was a kid.

Not so much of a report this time as simply an update.

Cone Smoker #2 is back! At least for now.

That is all.

The images I create never end up looking the want I imagine them when I first start out.

Case in point - this new image was way cooler in my head than the way Vue D'Esprit rendered it.

It may come as a shock to those who know me but I'm not a particularly giving person when it comes to charities.

My donations are usually limited to things like throwing some change in the Salvation Army buckets, giving a check to the local Volunteer Fire Department, and buying Girl Scout cookies.

One of my pet peeves is when people ambush you looking for donations. Whether it's the March of Dimes laying in wait at freeway exit ramps, or homeless fiddle players at bus stops, I just end up getting annoyed.

And unfortunately, perhaps because of people like me that don't go around throwing money at strangers, the trend of active vs passive donation seeking is increasing. I'm sure the proliferation of credit and debit cards, and the resulting lack of cash-carrying, has something to do with it as well.

This trend reached its highest level for me the other day at a Taco Bell drive-thru. A damn drive-thru window. When I drove up to pay the guy asked me if I'd like to purchase a star (or maybe a tree) with my name on it to help some organization or another. I didn't really pay attention, I just reflexively said "no thanks" while feeling shocked that now even drive-thru windows weren't safe.

I know that there are a lot of organizations out there that do good things, and that these organization need money to function, but if I gave money to every group that had their hand out I'd need to start soliciting to feed myself. I have to prioritize, and one of the measurements I use to do that is - How annoying is the group in question?

Unfortunately that annoyance factor is becoming less and less useful as more and more groups are relying on the ambush method of fundraising.

The results of a personality test I took:

As I put up more Christmas decorations this year than any before, I can't help but be reminded of perhaps the most festive, and certainly the most memorable, Christmas decoration of all.

From my sister Neisha's web page back in the year 2000, ladies and gentlemen, selected images from The Penis Tree.

Here's the original, before it was blown up and severely trimmed for web use.

Just goes to show you, those penises are sneaky. You never know where they'll raise their, um, ugly heads.

I continue to play with Bryce, and some interesting new skies that I've downloaded, so I'm able to push another crappy image out of gallery 5 and replace it with a less crappy one.

I present "moonshine" for your viewing pleasure.

Star of, fittingly enough, "The Hot Chick", Rachel McAdams is my December 6th Hottie of the Day.

One of very few that make me wish I were twenty years younger.

Tonights tastings are bound to be slanted by two factors: the lack of sleep caused by last night's supernap, and the fact that I'm coming down with the Kentuckiana Death Flu or something.

Anyway, I went into Rich O's and actually followed my own advice by not making Cone Smoker my first beer of the night.

My first beer was, in fact, a Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar. It wasn't the worst beer I've ever tasted (that would be skunked Beck's Dark) and it wasn't the best (Alaskan Amber Ale) either but it was quite drinkable. It also solved a little mini-mystery of mine when I realized that the undefinable taste and smell could be attributed to hazelnuts, of all things.

My second experiment of the night was Spezial Rauchbeir Lager. Though this is supposedly a rauchbier, I could detect no smoke whatsoever. Perhaps someone working at the brewery is a chain-smoker, and that's how they feel justified in calling this a rauchbier.

Anyway, it was pretty good, for a lager. If I had to pick a single word to describe it, that word would be "thick" and that description would help no one.

Lastly, I had a Cone Smoker, and it was the best thing I had tonight. Its ever-changing flavor had landed back on style #1, which is really quite good. Smoke, malt, a slight hop background. Yummy.

Playing with Bryce today and made this image.

It's not very good, but it's worlds better than the Gallery 5 image it replaced.

Came home after work, laid(lied? lay? layed?) on the couch, and woke up seven hours later.

Perhaps it's time to start thinking about maybe considering going to bed earlier on weeknights.

Nah.

Went out yesterday with the sole purpose of buying some clothes hangers. About halfway to Target I remembered that Simon Cowell had a book out, so I detoured 20 miles to the closest Barnes & Noble to pick up a copy.

Well the book doesn't come out until tomorrow but did I let that stop me? Nooooooo! I went ahead and bought $150 worth of other books that I thought looked good.

If it's possible, I read too much. I'm currently reading "Darwin's Children" to closeout the story began in "Darwin's Radio." I'm also reading the Jessica Lynch book and trying to reread "Timeline" before I see the movie. My reading of the trilogy of "Hominids," "Humans," and "Hybrids" has been stalled for a month now - I'm still stuck in the first book.

When those are done I've got about a dozen books that I've been meaning to get to, and you can throw in a few more after yesterday's buying spree.

And oh yeah, I still have to go out tomorrow and buy Cowell's book because he might mention Kelly Clarkson in it.