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.

After last week's fiasco I'm still feeling a little less than adventurous.

Last night I had some Newcastle at Hooter's, then went to Rich O's and had a couple pints of Upland's Bad Elmer's Porter.

This beer was a very refreshing surprise after the flavor overkill I've seen with stouts and porters lately. There was no chocolate, coffee, or dog shit taste. Just roasted malt, and not too much of that. I'd definitely drink it again.

I've tracked down the cause of my incredible Internet slowdown. It was the ad-blocker program WebWasher.

I've switched back to AdSubtract and I'm running at broadband speeds once again.

I really like that show "queer eye for the straight guy."

Last night, in fact, I had a choice between catching up on the four hours of "24" that I've had tivoed but never watched, or watching the queer eye marathon that got tivoed last week.

I watched the gay guys, and really enjoyed it. They are hilarious.

I've noticed that the turkey I bought doesn't have one of those popup doohickeys to tell me when it's done.

I have zero confidence in my ability to place a meat thermometer correctly, so I'll probably either burn the house down or give myself food poisoning.

Happy Thanksgiving, one day early, just in case.

Birthday greetings to my sister Dina!

Perhaps it's time to start lying about your age.