This morning I found myself at a very cool brewpub/restaurant in Omaha.

The Upstream Brewery is one I haven't even heard of before. It turns out that they don't sell outside of the Omaha area and they weren't there a decade ago when I lived there.

Anyway, this was a really nice place, and I wish there was something like it in Louisville.

My first beer was their Dundee 90 Shilling Scotch Ale. This was my first scotch ale, and I guess it was a little blander than I expected. I did really like it though. Before I left I talked to one of the brewers who told me that this particular batch was indeed a little bland and the next batch would be more flavorful.

My next beer was their Firehouse ESB. This was another really good beer, and I don't even like ESBs that much generally.

Since it was still before noon and I hadn't even had lunch yet I decided that two semi-strong beers would be enough.

Tjsssj dli kst dif!!

Euvidet kust kness endmi drosta dpo ela fea, elev inmi ibony ficui
ketentic fidn mbe fibidnef obbatok ocl fec refeni.

Tajtu, iti mospod anonrad sum!

Okay, so Amy, who I think may have the best voice on the show, has been eliminated. WTF?

I suppose that those people who would normally be her fans have been split - the quirky fans have gone to Fantasia and the redhead fans have gone to Eraserhead.

For LaToya to also be in the bottom three must be a fluke. She did great last night, and I guess her fans figured she was safe and so they threw their votes somewhere else - maybe to Jennifer.

Tonight was Motown night, so there was some of the best music - and some of the worst.

My rankings for the performers:

Camille: I thought this was her best yet, though her voice was a little to quiet and her "dancing" was very distracting - and not in a good way. (60 points)

JPL: The perfect song for him, and the most I've ever enjoyed him. (65 points)

LaToya: I figured she'd shine tonight and she certainly did. I think she may have been born 40 years too late. The best of the night.(85 points)

Amy: I took 20 points off for that horrible song choice, and another 10 points because that last note sounded like she'd stepped on a cat. Her worst (and only bad) performance. (50 points)

John: Sucks. He moved away from his Dean Martin style and proved once and for all that he just cannot sing. (minus 652 points)

Jennifer: The song "Heat Wave" was killed for all of eternity by Kim Locke last season, and Jennifer did little to revive it. (30 points)

Jasmine: I was rooting for Jasmine, and she delivered. I think the background vocals were too loud in this arrangement since they tended to drown out some of Jasmine's softer vocals. In tonight's top 3. (80 points)

Diana: She sings way beyond her years. Her voice was just not that suited for her song choice. She acts like a robot too. (75 points)

Fantasia: I knew she'd sing this song. It was perfect for her and she sang the hell out of it. She was definitely born 40 years too late. The second-best of the night. (84 points)

George: Good song, bad singer. I don't understand why the judges all wet their underwear when George sings. (55 points)

I really hope that John gets the boot, but I'm afraid that his fans will vote for him in mass because they sense that he did poorly. I fear that Camille's fans may give up on her and she'll be the one to leave.

I found out today that my refinance loan was approved!

The funny thing is; I was quite worried that the appraisal I had to have done would reflect a lower value for my house because of the repairs that were needed. What actually happened is that my home's value went UP 25% in the four years since I bought it.

I'm getting a new mortgage, with the same payments as before, the payments end at the same time as before, and I'm able get some money for some much-needed repairs and redecorations.

I'd guess that I've ordered about a gazillion pizzas over the past twenty years.

My ex-wife worked at a couple of pizza places. I've often been too lazy to cook anything after work. I like pizza. Etc.

Tonight, after all those years and all those pizzas, I experienced a first.

My pizza wasn't cut. There were no slices. There were no sqaures. There was just a big circle.

I called Domino's and suggested to the manager that perhaps they were working just a little too fast.

The pizza ended up being inedible - even after I cut it into slices. The grease and stuff had no escape route because there were no slices. All that grease just soaked into the crust and made it a soggy mess. Yuck.

Every now and then I notice that the counters on some of my pages have become hosed, and I have hit them with a hammer to get them working again.

Perhaps I should start working on a more robust counter script.

I went out way to early last night.

Because I'd gone to the liquor store to spend my product promotion allowance I ended up at Rich O's at around 8:00 PM.

It wasn't very crowded, but it seemed that all of the people there were (a) annoying, and (b) likely to be glued to their seats all night.

I ended up standing for the whole time I was there.

The first beer I had was a Kiuchi Hitachino New Year's Celebration Eisbock. I've decided that "eisbock" must be some foreign word for "tastes like shit" because this is the third or fourth variation I've had over the past several months and I haven't cared for a single one. Rotten molasses is how I wil describe it, though I don't really know what rotten molasses tastes like.

Next I tried the second Gravity Head beer from the Fantome Brewery, the Fantôme d Été.

At least that's what I thought. It turns out that this may have actually been the Fantome Saison, and that I had the Fantôme d Été last weekend. They were switching things up to confuse me apparently.

At any rate, the Fantome Whatever I had last night was much more cider-like that the Fantome Whatchamacallit I had last weekend. This one was actually too applely for my taste.

By the time I'd spent an hour choking down the eisbock, and then another hour choking down the Fantome, I was ready to leave. All of the people at Rich O's were still there glued to their seats, and they were still annoying.

I got home just after 10:00 and went to sleep.

I had such high hopes for last night.

First off, both of the beers I'd been most looking forward to sampling were on tap at the same time. To make things even better LaptopGirl had reappeared a week earlier from wherever she'd been. Finally, I was just in a good mood - something that's been a little rare since I started my ill-executed painting project.

When I arrived at Rich O's the first beer I tried was Uerige "Secret" Sticke Altbier. I actually got the very last half-glass from the cask.

I should have left it in the cask. I didn't like it at all, and I don't think I can properly describe the displeasure I had while drinking it, so I won't try.

After that disaster, I had the other beer I'd really been looking forward to. The Rocky River Kohlminator Smoked Bock was a beer I'd been hoping would (a) help me to get over the loss of my beloved Cone Smoker, and (b) cost less than the Alaskan Smoked Porter I'd been getting my smoke fix from recently.

I didn't like this beer either. There wasn't very much smoke, and what there was was the "grapey" kind of smoke that I don't really care for. To make matters worse, there was no bitterness, only sweetness behind the smoke, and those two flavors clashed quite a bit.

Well so much for that. I went back to the bland, but safe, Community Dark for the rest of the evening.

I'd started out the night at the bar, from where I'd occasionally glance to the sitting area to see if a space near LaptopGirl had opened up. Eventually one did so I moved over and sat in the chair.

LaptopGirl was looking quite pretty, and beyond that she was in a much better mood than she'd been in when I'd last seen her. She was optimistic about her writing and was happily telling anyone who'd listen about the BIG director who was reading one of her screenplays.

After a while, for reasons I cannot fathom, CoffeeDude decided to start lecturing LaptopGirl on the realities of life, and of The Arts in particular. He kept telling her how hard it was to break into show business, and how she shouldn't be disappointed if this particular opportunity fell through.

I'm sure that CoffeeDude meant well, and he was certainly telling the truth, but I didn't think that LaptopGirl needed to hear it. Especially on this particular night. I asked him to ease up, and to let LaptopGirl enjoy her optimism. LaptopGirl herself asked him to be quiet several times.

Eventually whatever evil plan CoffeeDude had came to fruition. LaptopGirl fell into a funk even worse than I'd seen the previous weekend. Then she left. I tried to apologize on behalf of men everywhere (and especially CoffeeDude) but she never stopped moving as she walked out the door.

I'd started the night with fairly high expectations, and by the time I went home I'd had two beers that I didn't like at all, plus as an added bonus I'd got to see LaptopGirl cry and there was nothing I could do about it.

That'll teach me to be an optimist.

Okay, I understand that Matt may not be the best singer on the show, but he was one of the best last night. For him to be the one to get booted is just stupid.

But even more proof of peoples' stupidity is that he was joined in the bottom three by Camille and Diana while wastes of space like John and George and Jennifer remained safe.

Matt did leave with a lot of class though, and his singing to Simon was one of the funniest things I've seen.

Kimberly Locke's performance I liked a lot. I always knew she could sing. She just can't sing "heat wave" and will hopefully never try again.