If you are reading this, thank a teacher.

If you are reading this in English, thank a Veteran.

On Friday and Saturday many people in the Edwardsville area spent their days clearing fallen trees and limbs from the Thursday tornado(es).

On Sunday tornadoes came again, and they hit a lot of the same places. Talk about adding insult to injury.

The church across the street from where I grew up had its driveway completely blocked. Again.

The old house where my grandmother used to live had some serious tree damage. Again. This time a tree split in half and part of it actually hit the house.

The owners of Polly's Freeze, next door to my grandmother's old house, lost trees. Again.

The Sunday storm seemed to pass behind the church, continuing on to the road where my cousin Jeff lives. Many trees were taken out along that road. Again.

Another thing I saw was that the little red shed, the shed I'd built when I lived in the double-wide after I'd first moved back to Edwardsville, had been destroyed by a toppled tree.

My own street was once again pretty much spared. Once again my power stayed on throughout the day and night.

On Sunday evening the "real" storm line was scheduled to pass through the area, and the shit was really supposed to hit the fan.

As far as I can tell somebody forgot to tell the storm about that plan. All it did was rain at my house. My cousin Jeff, feeling a little rattled after tornadoes had passed over his house and tore down his road twice in a four-day period, came over to my house and we sat in my basement watching the weather reports.

After the afternoon's excitement the nighttime storm was a real letdown.

I may be the only person who feels this way though. Normal people were probably relieved.

Just a quick report about Saturday.

I had a Frenchy beer and two Alaskan Smoked Porters while talking with LaptopGirl and some guy that's clearly in the early stages of infatuation with her.

LaptopGirl looked very good. I think the new job has helped her a lot. She smiles more now.

I told you it would be a quick report.

I actually went to Rich O's twice last night.

The first time was around 8:00. I had just, litterally out of the blue, lost power to my house, and so I went out earlier than is usual for me.

When I got to Rich O's I made a quick survey of the parking lot - LaptopGirl's car was not there. I went in anyway and almost immediately turned around. DisgustingMakeoutCouple had decided to put on one of their little shows on the couch.

So I came back home for a while (power was back on) and then returned to Rich O's at 10:00 PM.

There was nobody there except a couple of the professional beer drinkers. I ended up sitting at the bar where I had a Frenchy beer and an Alaskan Smoked Porter.

A pretty boring night.

For most of my life I've been fascinated by severe weather.

Ever since my father took me out storm watching when I was five years old I've looked forward to the Spring and Summer storm seasons so I could enjoy the thunder and lightning and even hope for a glimpse of a tornado.

In my 39 years of life I've never seen a tornado, but I've come pretty close a couple of times.

Thursday night may have been the closest yet. It was certainly one of the worst storms I've experienced.

My night began when I was awakened from my after-work nap by the rumblings of thunder. It's been pretty stormy here for the last couple of nights, but nothing spectacular has occurred. I turned on the TV to see what the radar looked like.

All hell was breaking loose. A tornado warning was in effect for Washington County, where my sister Neisha lives. A huge blob of red covered most of Southern Indiana and all of the local stations had interrupted their regular programming for what would turn out to be several solid hours of severe weather warnings.

I tried to call Neisha, but there was no answer. I wasn't very concerned because by that point I'd heard that the confirmed tornado had passed several miles south of where she lives. She called me back a little later, as excited about the weather as I was, and told me that they'd be leaving their mobile home to take shelter at a neighbor's house if things got bad again.

I moved to my basement to play some pool and keep an eye and ear on the weather reports. For a while, though I heard lots of rumbling, the radar showed everything to be staying to the north of Floyd County.

All of that changed pretty rapidly though. A new red blob formed in Washington County, and this one was moving to the Southeast, towards Floyd. I called my other sister Dina, who lives in the Northwest corner of Floyd County, to make sure she was aware of the situation. They were keeping an eye on things as well. Dina told me that my grandmother was "freaked out" and that I should be sure to check on her. While I was talking with Dina the hail started hitting her house. I had a few minutes before the edge of the storm would make it to my location so I told Dina I was going out to watch and hung up.

Just as I hung up the weatherman said they'd just had an unconfirmed report of a tornado touching down in Georgetown Indiana. This was interesting to me for a couple of reasons. First, the red blob was still many minutes away from Georgetown, and second, it's where I live. Specifically I live about five miles directly East of that town.

Being the dumbass that I am, I ran upstairs and out my front door to see what I could see. I've always figured that if I'm going to be killed by a tornado I at least want to see the damn thing first.

Anyway, I was standing in the little stone alcove surrounding my front door and wishing that I had a better view to the West. From what I COULD see it looked like a regular storm - the clouds weren't even very scary looking.

The trees were swaying and the thunder was rumbling. I then noticed that the approximately 874,354,468,462 cicadas that had invaded my area lately had gone silent.

That was my first sign that something unusual was going on.

The second sign was this: Every single leaf and twig and branch that was laying in my yard, courtesy of the storms of the previous night, suddenly picked up and flew off to the south. I barely had time to ponder this development when every single one of them came back and dropped onto the ground again.

This Triumphant Return Of The Twigs was accompanied by the strongest winds I've seen in a very long time. I still cannot believe I didn't lose any trees, or that my new roof didn't lose any shingles.

At about this time I had a fairly startling realization. The "thunder rumbling" I'd been hearing was not thunder at all. It was far too steady a sound for that. What I was hearing was the locomotive sound you always hear associated with tornadoes. It hadn't clicked in my mind earlier because it was much softer than I would have expected.

Upon making this leap of logic I became scared of the weather for only the second time in my adult life. Still being a dumbass, however, I did not run back into my basement, stick my thumb in my mouth, and sit rocking back and forth in a corner. Instead I stepped out of my semi-protective alcove and looked to the South - where all the rumbling was coming from.

While the clouds to the west had seemed fairly tame the view to the South revealed a completely different story. It looked as if some painter had gone insane and slung gray and green and black paint across the sky in some fit of artistic rage.

There could have been a tornado hidden in that jumble of clouds. Hell there could have been ten of the things and I wouldn't be surprised at all. Actually a tornado might have been a welcomed sight - it would have helped to infuse some sense into that sky.

By the time this leading edge of the storm had passed things actually calmed down pretty quickly. Very hard rain, strong wind gusts, flickering lights. These things are common during the Spring and Summer.

For some reason I still had power, so I talked to Dina again on the phone. Neisha's phone went unanswered but she'd already told me they were going to a neighbor's house.

I called my grandmother who, as I suspected, was not "freaking out" at all, but was instead relying on her telephone to keep her informed of the weather situation because her power was out.

Based on what I'd seen outside, along with what I'd been hearing on the television, I was now convinced that a tornado had passed just to the south of me. I hopped into my truck and went out to survey the destruction. I also grabbed some candles to deliver my grandmother.

I didn't really see any major damage during my brief expedition. It was just too dark. My street was the only one I saw that still had power. All traffic lights were out. All street lights were out. Everything was dark except for the lightning and the headlights of other cars.

I never did make it to my grandmother's house. I tried four different routes and all were blocked - two by fallen trees, one by a downed power line, and one by a car that had gone into a ditch and then been t-boned by a truck.

At this last scene I called my grandmother again and told her my situation. She was fine. A neighbor had checked on her and she had candles. I also called Dina and let her know I'd be on my cell phone for a while if she needed to contact me.

Once I and several others helped to clear the accident I moved down Yenowine lane further. I was less than a mile from my grandmother's house and I saw that I would get no further. The roadway had become a river, and even in my truck I wasn't going to try to cross that thing.

Still wanting to assess the situation I made my way through the dark and debris-littered streets to my cousin Jeff's house. Actually I made it as far as his driveway and that's it. One and perhaps several large trees were laying across the drive. I parked at his neighbor's house and made my way across the muck to his house. He was fine as well, just pissed about the fallen trees that he'd have to deal with in the morning.

So I went back home. I still had power. I played some more pool and continued to watch the weather alerts on the television. Once the situation had moved to the East I went to sleep.

At about 5:00 AM my power went out for about 10 seconds, then came back.

In honor of the stormy night they're promising for tonight, my latest image.

I doubt the skies here will look quite this cool.

With my roof work completed, my painting work nearly completed, and my hallway painting done, I've been thinking about all the other shit I'd like to get done this summer. What will probably actually happen is that I'll do a couple of these things then this JoeHomeowner side of my personality will get tired and leave.

1. Paint foyer. I've already got the paint and the primer, I just need to get off my ass and do it.

2. Landscaping. This will be a huge job if I end up doing what I'm envisioning now.

3. Foyer and Kitchen floors. This is kind of on hold because I need to check out some walls to see if they're load-bearing or not.

4. Kitchen/Dining room paint. I've got to get that hideous wallpaper and paneling down and I need to do it whether number #3 above gets done or not.

5. Replace carpet. This will not get done as I've blown the carpeting budget on important things like my new 65" television.

6. Driveway repair and extension. I've got an estimate of $2300 for getting this done. I haven't decided yet.

7. Bathroom merger. I'd really like to merge two adjacent bathrooms into a single large room, but this project will also involve knocking out a wall and I'm pretty paranoid about that. It would also cost a lot to get new fixtures and shit.

8. Garage work area. All this stuff I've done in the garage lately, along with all the new tools I've bought, has got me to thinking about extending the workbench into a full-fledged woodshop. At least that I could do with cheap materials, a little at a time.

9. More painting. My living room, bedroom, guest room, and the entire basement are currently the worst and/or most boring colors ever put to roller. I need to do something about it, but I don't know what just yet.

10. My guest bathroom. The world's worst wallpaper adorns this small room. I must do something about it, but I've been putting it off because I'd also like to have the toilet moved and put in a shower. Once this is done I can seriously think about item #7 above.

11. More kitchen shit. The cabinets and especially the countertops shout 1980s. The look of the kitchen and dining area needs to be updated. An expensive proposition though.

12. Stonework repairs. I've tried several times to get somebody to the house to give me an estimate on repairing some loose stones. I think I'll have to figure it out for myself.

13. Do something about the deck. My old deck is really clashing with the newly-patined house. I need to clean it then either paint or stain it. There are also some boards that could use replacement.

14. Replace skylight trim that I tore out when I painted the openings.

15. Do something about the leaning basketball goal.

16. Tear down the playhouse. Or maybe just get somebody to come and take it away.

17. Massive cleanup. I have enough empty boxes to build a hobo jungle. Instead I should rent a dumpster and get rid of them along with the broken appliances and the world's ugliest loveseat that I've been keeping around for some stupid reason.

18. Replace the ugly lighting. Each ceiling fixture in my house is competing with all the other fixtures for the title of Ugliest Thing in the Universe. So far the monstrousity in the dining room is the odds-on favorite, but the beast in the foyer isn't far behind, and the flowered shade in the bedroom can't be ignored just because it's out of the public eye.

19. Fix the gutters. Some of them don't slope enough, and there are some seams that are leaking.

20. Move the outside heat pump. This is too close to the house. In the winter dripping water (see #19 above) causes ice to build up and jam the unit's fan.

21. Fix or cover up the demolition work I did in the basement when I got my pool table.

22. A very long-term project. I'd like to put a nice bar area in the basement.

23. A front porch would be nice as long as I'm thinking big.

I'm sure there's more, but this list is already long enough to keep me busy for the next 273 years.

After a week of cussing, pounding, cutting, and lifting I've finally finished my siding project.

Special thanks go to my sister Dina's fiance Kenny and to my old friend Eric. I couldn't have done it without you guys.

Once my friend Dan "Holy Shit" Kruer and his crew prime and paint the new trim I don't think it will look too bad.

Kind of a boring weekend at Rich O's. There were no LaptopGirl sightings, and most of the other people I know there were also missing.

On Friday I just had a couple of the Upland Winter Warmers. This weird guy kept bugging me with inane questions, plus there was a dead old lady sitting across from me. I left after just the two beers.

On Saturday things started out a little more interesting. MisunderstoodGirl actually sat with me at the bar and actually initiated a conversation. Perhaps I was just being paranoid about her being pissed at me for some unknown reason. A more likely scenario is that TallLady, who I talked with at last weekend's party, relayed to MisunderstoodGirl that I was detecting some animosity from her.

Anyway, I wasn't really in the mood for anything heavy when I first got to Rich O's. I'd been working on my siding all day and my sunburned skin needed something a little less drying.

What I had was one of those Frenchy Two Brothers beers, then another one. I cannot stress enough how much I like this beer.

After my second Frenchy beer I was feeling a little cooler so I tried a Belhaven Scottish Ale. This came in a can (with one of those foaming widget thingies) and I liked it a lot too. It was a lot creamier than the Scotch Ale I'd had in Omaha last month. The beer had a lot of shit floating in it. Shit that, by the time I got down to the last inch or so of the glass, was starting to creep me out. Instead of getting a spoon for that last inch I pushed it aside and had myself a Winter Warmer.

One other item of note was that CreepyGuy was there with some of his CreepyPosse. CreepyGuy had a black eye and a Band-Aid on his face. He must have creeped someone out to the point of violence. Whatever happened, I'm sure he deserved it.

Just a quick image I made using an interesting terrain file that one of the Terragen gurus posted.

This should probably be in the work category but going to Las Vegas, no matter what the context, is definitely more fun than work as far as I'm concerned.

Yes, I get to spend a week in the Jewel of the Desert in June.

Yippee!!

At a meeting today that I didn't attend because I had too much real work to do I won an award for my help in a recent server upgrade project.

While I was quite happy to win the award, I nearly creamed when I learned that with the award came an extra $250 in my next paycheck.

Hooray! Now I can fill my truck up with gas! Maybe.

Just found out that Randy Johnson pitched a perfect game tonight.

I remember when Randy was pitching for the Mariners in the early '90s and he couldn't decide whether he would be a good pitcher or a shitty one.

I guess he's decided.

Been a little busy the last few days. I'll just post one entry instead of the several that I probably should have posted.

I wasted the last two days of my vacation. There was no painting and no siding work done because of the rain.

Friday night I spent most of the night at Rich O's talking with DooRagGirl's husband. Seems like a pretty cool guy when you consider he's married to a supermodel. LaptopGirl was there but she had one of her interesting friends in tow so she didn't see me.

Saturday night I went to a party at TrainGirl and RealTrainGirl's house. I had fun although I didn't know very many people. I got to meet PrettyHairGirl who filled me with hope by having a geek for a boyfriend.

Sunday I ran into LaptopGirl at a lame beer memorabilia sale. I was in a hurry to leave so I didn't get to meet the loser she was with.

Also on Sunday I started my siding project, and fixed my mailbox door that had been broken for over a year. All it took was a cordless drill and some titanium bits.

Monday and Tuesday the painters started applying primer to the house. I think I'll like the color though it's lighter than I was picturing.

On Monday I found out that my old boss is leaving his job. Kind of weird. This, along with the recent terminations, cannot help but remind me of the sinking ship I stayed with in Seattle until it was nearly too late.

Tuesday night I completed more of the siding but had to stop when I realized that (a) I'm a dumbass that forgot to buy the right nails, and (b) I'm a dumbass that nailed the trim up wrong so it has to be redone.

Over the last few days I've spent about a thousand dollars on various power tools to help with the siding replacement. Hopefully I'll be able to make use of these tools for other projects as well.

The cicadas are getting ridiculous.

Spending my vacation day listening to the rain hit my skylights I just couldn't stand it anymore so I decided to kill some time making a new Terragen image.

I also updated an old image, raising the water level to add a little more detail.

Last night I figured that as long as I was using up my vacation days I'd try to make the most of a bad situation and so I went to Rich O's.

Also, LaptopGirl started her new job today and I wanted to see how that went.

Rich O's was fairly crowded - I'd heard that Wednesdays were popular - but I got a seat at the Island with RealTrainGirl and Matt-Josh-Willy Whatever (turns out one of my guesses is right) and ordered an Upland Winter Warmer. I also had an Alaskan Smoked Porter put on ice for later.

The Upland beer is becoming one of my favorites. This of course means that it wil be going away soon.

After a little while LaptopGirl showed up (HOT!) and she was pretty excited about her new job. I'm hopeful that the stress she felt at her old job is a thing of the past.

RealTrainGirl is having a party this weekend, and I may actually go if I don't have to work Sunday morning. They'll have a keg of NABC Solidarity which is really good, but scary because it's so sneakily strong. I may even take a tent.

MisunderstoodGirl joined us for a while. I'm becoming convinced that I've done something to piss her off - or else maybe she'd just been in a bad mood for a couple of months. What used to be pretty interesting conversations have been reduced to grunts and nods.

Anyway, I drank my Upland beer very quickly and since my Smoked Porter hadn't had a chance to chill I ordered a Domaine DuPage French Style Country Ale. I've actually just been calling it "that frenchy beer" rather than butcher the proper pronounciation. I like it, though after the Upland it seemed a little weak.

At one point LaptopGirl noticed her ex at a nearby table so she zipped over there, leaving a little puff of smoke in her wake. I can say that I've come to expect these occurances and I wasn't really bothered.

After RealTrainGirl left Bubbles and MusicalHippyDude joined us at the island. LaptopGirl came back after her ex left and began bad-mouthing him. I can say that I've also come to expect this and I think it's funny.

My Frenchy beer went down pretty quickly and I had the bartender bring out the Alaskan Smoked Porter (Vintage 2003). It hadn't quite cooled down as much as I would have liked but that was my fault for drinking too fast.

The smoked porter is just a very good beer. Like many of my other favorites I wish it had a little less alcohol so I could drink more of it. This ended up being my last beer of the night, though I did have a root beer while LaptopGirl continued to complain about her ex and MusicalHippyDude continued to be more interesting than me.

Had my house pressure-washed today to get it ready for painting.

Unfortunately the pressure proved to be too much for some of my siding.

I have to replace six panels.

This won't be as expensive as I initially feared, but I'm pissed about it anyway. It messes up the painting schedule, and I have to figure out a way to get six panels from the store to my house.

Plus I've got to burn another day of vacation to get this done. If this painting project ends up costing me my vacation for the Derby City Classic next January I will be quite miffed.

I'm pretty sure that I've solved the problem where the font on my 'blog entries would change for no good reason.

It seems to have been the little trademark characters I was putting after some nicknames.

I've removed them all and everything seems okay with the fonts now.

It's too bad. I liked the trademark signs, and now people can freely steal all of my cool nicknames.

I give up.

After a couple of weeks of stuggling to pick a color for my house, I realize that the colors in my head do not exist in the real world, so I give up.

I'm getting the house painted with two different shades of gray.

Woo-hoo.

The garage doors will be painted white.

Double woo-hoo.

I figure I'll get the house painted gray, regret my choice for a year or so, then learn to live with it.

Today I had fun.

I got to play with my new chainsaw by cutting down two trees and about seven bushes that had been planted way too close to my house.

The front of the house looks a little bare now, but it still looks better than it did with all of the half-dead shrubbery.

In the back of the house I trimmed the hell out of a little Japanese Maple that had also been planted way too close to the house. Getting into my back door past that tree was a little like what I've always imagined the soldiers went through in the jungles of VietNam. Except for the part where people shoot at you.

I'll be surprised if the tree lives. I removed nearly a third of it.

My final project for the day was to get rid of the ugly useless clubhouse in my back yard.

That project failed.

I tried to pull the thing over with my truck and managed to spin all four wheels instead.

The events of Friday night tear at my mind. Once I manage to come to grips I'll post about it. Perhaps. I may decide that it's just too much to process and decide to ignore the whole incident.

But for now, just a beer report.

Friday night I started out with one of NABC's Solidarity porters.

I don't remember if I've had this before (I think I have) but I kindof like it. Nothing special, just a decent porter without any bitterness. I hate bitterness.

My next beer was a Domaine DuPage French Style Country Ale by the Two Brothers Brewery. This beer, oddly enough, is not listed on their website.

I have to say that despite the long-winded name and its French implications, this is one of he best beer I've had in a long time. Smooth, not too strong, not too weak.

I ended up having four of these things, then I had three more on Saturday night. What an excellent session beer! I wish I could describe it more clearly. "Drinkable" is the word that comes to mind most often.

Also, on Saturday, I went to Hooters to see my cousin Jeff and I had a Newcastle Brown Ale. It was a little flat - they had warned me beforehand - but it was still very good. I miss being able to get Newcastle's on tap in New Albany. Jeffersonville is just too far to drive for a beer.

Wow, it's been a while since I've done one of these.

Anyway, One of the most beautiful voices anywhere, I found out today, happens to be attached to one of the most beautiful women anywhere.

My May 9th Hottie of the Day is Amy Lee, lead singer of the group Evanescence.

Her singing gives me goosebumps, and her appearance causes some physical effects on me as well.

I'm going nuts trying to decide on a color for my house.

It should get painted within the next two or three weeks, and I've got the color choice narrowed down to blue, red, gray, and light brown.

In other words, I haven't narrowed it down at all.

There are two obstacles to my making of a choice. First, my new roof went on quite a bit lighter than I'd thought it would from the samples. For some reason I'm loathe to have my house painted any color that appears darker than the gray roof. Second, my house has a lot of stonework that is composed of yellow-brown rocks and reddish mortar. It's actually the mortar that's killing me. Any tint other than a reddish one on the house and I'm afraid that the mortar will really clash. The dark blue color that I saw in a magazine - the color that first got me thinking about getting my house painted - is definitely out of the question. Probably. Maybe.

I had my friend Dan, who'll be doing the painting, send me some digital pictures of the house. I plan to play with the pictures in PhotoShop and hopefully that'll help me to actually make a decision.

That's the color of my hallway now.

After the Robitussin Red fiasco there was a lengthy period where the hallway was simply primer-gray. A couple of weeks ago I bought two gallons of what I thought would be the watermelon color I was looking for but they turned out to be orange.

(I have orange paint for sale - real cheap.)

When I bought the orange paint I also bought a couple of samples of the paint I was looking at for the foyer and the kitchen. The foyer paint is pretty much what I was looking for, so I bought another gallon to use. The kitchen paint turned out to be quite a bit lighter than the almost Navy Blue I wanted for the kitchen. This lighter blue was, on the other hand, kindof cool so I painted my hallway with it today.

Of course it doesn't look as cool on my walls as it did in the can, but I think I'll be able to live with it.

Something is messing with my 'blog displays.

I keep seeing the font change right in the middle of a post.

I don't know if it's caused by my browser, my ad-blocking software, or if the entries themselves are somehow getting corrupted.

I really need to look in this and get it to stop.

I'm combining the Friday and Saturday reports for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that I think the stark contrast in the styles of the two nights will provide an interesting example of the ebbs and flows of the life of a single man. The second reason is that I'm just plain lazy.

Rich O's was moderately crowded on Friday, with a few of the regulars I can actually stand to be around. I was able to grab a seat at the island and ordered my first beer - an Upland Winter Warmer.

I actually had this beer a couple of times last weekend - when I was starting my writing drought - and I really like it. It reminds me of the Great Lakes Christmas Ale that I enjoyed so much a few months ago. There was some fruitiness that I will call raspberry and some nutmeg as well. My only real problem with this beer is that it's rather strong and I cannot safely have more than one.

Next, on the advice of one of the regulars I tried an Old Slug Porter and I just can't describe it very well. I'm sure it had some flavor and some characteristics, but I just couldn't detect anything after the Upland beer I'd just had. I'll be sure to try it again when it comes back to Rich O's.

At about the time I was finishing my Old Slug, LaptopGirl arrived and WOW! She was looking sexier than I've ever seen before in her little skirt and top. She looked like she'd come straight from a figure skating competition.

(I should point out that while I'm no longer romantically interested in LaptopGirl, I'm still a straight single man and I still find her physically quite attractive and mentally fascinating.)

Once her interesting friends left, LaptopGirl joined me at the island and I spent a good couple of hours striving to make eye contact instead of looking down her top.

Once my Old Slug was gone I ordered an Avery Czar. At 10% alcohol I knew this would be the only one of these I'd have. I liked the taste of this a lot. I detected a definite bourbon odor, and I asked if it was aged in an old bourbon barrel but the bartenders didn't think so. There wasn't really any bourbon to the taste so I may be insane.

After a while the living room area cleared out so LaptopGirl and I moved over there. I was enjoying the conversation (and the scenery) so I ordered an NABC Beak's Best and that ended up being my last beer of the night - though I did have a draft root beer while LaptopGirl finished her NABC BourbonDaddy.

As we've done several times in the past, LaptopGirl and I closed out Rich O's. As we've also done a few times, we went over to Jack's where I had a Diet Coke and wondered how long it would be before the InvisibilityFactor took effect.

It didn't take long. We were sitting with a couple of other Rich O's regulars and MusicalHippyDude is certainly more interesting than I am. Once I was fully invisible to LaptopGirl I was able to finish my drink and leave unnoticed.

Saturday night, as I think I hinted way back at the beginning of this entry, was completely different than Friday.

Rich O's only had a dozen or so people, all in the bar area. A couple of people there I recognized, but I wouldn't say I knew any of them, so I just stood at my spot at the bar and talked with the bartenders.

Wanting something fairly weak after the previous night's strong brews, I first ordered an NABC Beak's Best. They were out. I then ordered a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale. They were out of that too. Starting to feel desperate, I ordered my old old OLD standby, Pete's Wicked Ale. They actually had that and I had a couple more during the night. I won't say too much about the Pete's because it makes me sad that it used to be one of the best but now it's simply passable.

I was also able, thanks to the bartenders, to sample a couple of beers that I really liked. Unfortunately I was sworn to secrecy and I cannot break that trust. I'll just say that I liked them and I wish they were more readily available.

After a relaxing couple of hours I left Rich O's at 11:00 PM and went home.