Not much to report in the way of new beers for last night. I had two Cone Smokers, still style "A" so I think they've got the recipe down pat now.

After those I tried to drink a pint of Anchor Liberty Ale. I say tried because I just couldn't stomach the shit. I don't know if it was just clashing with the Cone Smoker or if it would suck just fine on its own. I'm pretty sure it didn't need any help to suck.

Anchor Liberty Ale

(draft) The citrusy smell and taste reminded me of the Pilsner Urquel from a couple of weeks ago, except that Libery Ale was even worse. It tasted like beer and orange juice mixed. Blech.

Finally, Elisha Cuthbert graces my screen again in another season of 24 and is my October 31st Hottie of the Day.

I don't think I want to know how old she is.

While in Seattle the last few days I drank Alaskan Amber every chance I got, since I didn't (and still don't) know when I'll get another chance. There were a couple of places that for some insane reason didn't carry it though, so I got to add a couple new beers to my "tried" list.

First was at a little pub in Issaquah where Gene, my boss Tom, and I went after having dinner across the street. The place had a dozen or so Rogue beers, and for some goofy reason, Bud Light and Coors Light. That's it. Nothing else.

After searching the taps and the list of bottled beers I found "Rogue Smoke Ale (AKA: Rauchbier)" and that sounded intriguing. It came in a pretty cool bottle that I was going to keep but the bartender took it.

Rogue Smoke

(draft) It was a good beer, not nearly as smoky as I'd been hoping, but the smoke flavor and aroma was still pretty apparent. It had a less wide-ranging and complex flavor than the Cone Smoker I get when I'm back home.

On Monday I met one of my former bosses for a couple of beers near where I used to work (it was quite strange to be taking that exit off hwy 520 again) and once again, they didn't carry Alaskan Amber.

What they did carry, and I've had this before, this:

Mac & Jack's African Amber

This beer is quite simply excellent. Brewed and sold only in the Northwest, it's exemplifying a level of quality and taste that all microbreweries should strive to meet instead of just churning out random recipies with unusual labels.

I can hardly describe how much these past two days have helped my mood. I'm more relaxed and happy than I've been in months. Seeing all of my friends in the Seattle area was just the therapy I needed - even though I didn't know I needed therapy.

And not just my friends. Even those people who I'd only count as "friendly acquaintances" were all a welcomed sight. People who I barely remember have been coming up to me, shaking my hand, and reliving moments from the old days with me. Man, I sure got to know a lot of people while living here.

Yesterday Gene and I played pool for several hours during the day, and I'll post about that in the pool 'blog. Last night I went back to The Sports Pub in Kent, mainly to see Holly. It was league night there and I got to see even more people and catch up on even more old times.

Holly was of course happy to see me, though perhaps not as happy as I was to see her still doing well. She made me drink a couple of shots and that's something I would only do for her. After a shot of Jagermeister and a shot of peppermint schnapps, plus four Alaskan Ambers, I ended up staying until after midnight drinking Diet Cokes and waiting for the alcohol to wear off.

During another late breakfast at Shari's I began to dread the impending end of my vacation. My boss will be arriving tomorrow and then it's back to work.

Still, coming on this trip, and especially coming up here early, may have been the best two ideas I've had in years. The knowledge that I touched so many people when I lived here, most of them positively, really makes me feel good about myself and my ability to make friends wherever I go.

Now if I can just figure out a way to get to Omaha to see all my friends there.

I'm back!

In Seattle, that is. Landed yesterday evening after a day of flying and was pretty tired until I left the airport. That's when the old familiar sights got me quite excited. Even the long drive from the airport to Bellevue, then from Bellevue to Kent, seemed like an old friend welcoming me back. You drive a stretch of freeway at 5 mph for three years, as I did when I lived here, and you get to know that stretch pretty well.

So like I said, I went from the airport to Bellevue to check into my hotel. I just threw my luggage in the room and left immediately for Kent.

My excitement level had reached a peak by the time I arrived at my old hangout, The Sports Pub. I was greeted by my friend Gene as soon as I went in, then I walked around and said hello to everyone else I knew from the old days. I was a little surprised that there were so many people there that remembered me, and that I remembered as well.

Another thing I did pretty much right away was order myself an Alaskan Amber. Wow, still as fantastic as ever. Absense makes the heart grow fonder they say, and I was as fond of that beer, and the three others I had, as any I can remember. Even the frosted glass (I'd forgotten about that) couldn't kill the perfect balance of that Juneau treasure.

Alaskan Amber

(draft) My favorite session beer. Perfectly balanced sweetness, bitterness, and maltiness. Too bad I have to fly 2000 miles to get it.

The place was pretty crowded, more than I remember, so Gene and I ended up playing scotch doubles against a couple of other guys. I'll post about the pool itself in the pool blog, but to summarize: we should have won every game and we won most of them.

I was a little disappointed that Holly wasn't working last night. I'll definitely need to catch her there on Sunday. One pleasant surprise was the appearance of Reeny, an bartender from the old days who remains the most beautiful woman I've ever known in person.

Bars in Washington close at 2:00, so Gene and I had a long breakfast at Shari's (another big deja vu!) and I made my way back to the hotel at around 3:30.

After installing Linux last week I then realized that my spare PC needed Windows since it was running my license server. I mentioned before that I needed Linux to run Apache, and now it turned out that I needed Windows as well.

The solution? Virtualization.

It seems that every technology vendor and manufacturer I've talked to during the past year has been talking about "virtual this" and "virtual that" - all with different meanings of what virtual means.

In this case it means that I'm running XP with a cute little virtual Linux instance inside it.

The XP portion runs my license server while the Linux portion runs Apache. It all seems to be working pretty well, though the performance of both systems could be better. It's not like I hammer them or anything so I think this setup will be fine for my needs.

Tonight my sister Dina, her boyfriend Kenny, my cousin Jeff and I traveled to Henryville to check out the haunted house where my nephew Cory is working.

It's been several years since we went to any Halloween attractions. I don't think we really outgrew them we just lost our patience for the lines. And, in my case at least, for the kids that typically form those lines.

Well there were no lines at this place tonight, mainly because it's in Henryville but also because it's pretty stupid when compared to the higher priced attractions closer to Louisville.

The place is set inside an old farmhouse, but before we got to that part we got to take "the adult path" through some trees. The scariest thing about the trees for me was the fear that I'd trip on a root and sprain my ankle. The aura of doom was not helped by the miniature amusement park these people had set in their front yard.

After leaving the trees we were greeted by Cory who informed us that the place wasn't quite open yet, and that he would be playing a dead guy and that he was supposed to be wearing a tux but they couldn't find it and several people were late for work and blah blah blah you know how kids tend to ramble don't you well if you didn't before you do now after reading this sentence.

We eventually made our way past some portable toilets and a very bored-looking policeman to the house itself. Shortly thereafter we were met by a lovely young girl with impossibly large tits. I think her costume was "Jail Bait" or possibly "Elvira, The Early Years". Anyway, she pretty much cleared up the mystery of why my nephew was working there every weekend until 3am.

Titella gave us a little speech about how if we didn't touch the actors inside they wouldn't touch us. She seemed quite bored and I'm sure her back was giving her trouble.

Inside the house were several rooms and passages, each with its own little scary theme. People jumping out at you and shit like that. For me the scariest moment was about ten feet in where they had this 500 year old woman "sleeping" in front of a piano. I was convinced that Methusula's grandma there was going to shriek and start banging out some tune. Well, she didn't do a damn thing but the fear was still there for me.

The entire house was fairly tame and predictable. There were a couple of highlights though. At the top of the stairs a young lass was tied up and pleading for help. While I was thinking about what a good little actress she was a guy came in and sliced her up with a razor.

A little further along we came upon the scene where Cory lay in all his gory glory. He was indeed, a dead guy, a Dead Groom in fact, and he'd apparently been killed (or it was a really huge coincidence) by The Vampire Bride laying on top of him. Now I knew without a doubt why he was working there. Even with all the vampire makeup on I could tell that this was a little cutie, and Cory's "job" was to lay under her all night. Titella, I knew, would have to get in line behind The Vampire Bride to have a shot at my nephew's affection.

Let's see, there was also an amputation scene where The Nurse waved A Severed Leg around while The Victim did her best to shatter every eardrum in Scott County.

I suppose that's about it, except that there seems to be a rule that Michael Myers is required to harass my sister since the same character did the same "get up close and stare" routine with her five years ago at Nightmare Forest.

After struggling, and failing, to get IIS to properly display a local copy of this site I took my spare PC and installed Red Hat Linux on it.

The installation went smoothly though very slowly. The Apache Web Server was already installed so I wsa able to get it up and running with my local site copy pretty quickly.

By a pretty strange coincidence all of this work broke the Wacom mouse on my main PC.

After a long after-work nap I went to Rich O's tonight. The first beer I had was my local favorite Cone Smoker. I've already said that this beer fluctuates quite a bit, and tonight it had done it again. I've gotten to where I always order a small sampling of Cone Smoker before I commit to a 20oz. pint. Tonight's version was very drinkable, though not my favorite. To review:

Version #1: Good, well balanced, with a good smoky taste.
Version #2: Very strong smoke flavor, a little too strong at first but by the end of the glass the smoke seems just right. Very good batch. My favorite of all.
Version #3: No smoke at all. Hoppy taste predominates. If I wanted high gravity and hoppy taste I'd just order an Arrogant Bastard.
Version #4: See version #1.
Version #5: Smoky, but otherwise more bland than any other version so far.

Also on the menu tonight was Rockies Brewing Company's Hazed and Infused, part of Rich O's Hops festival.

Hazed and Infused

(draft) Much blander than I was expecting. Just a beer, neither great nor horrible. I'm starting to think I've got the wrong idea that hoppy must mean bitter.

The Hazed and Infused reminded me of a pretty famous beer, Pilsner Urquel from the Czech Republic. I decided to have a Pilsner to see if the similarity was just in my head.

It kindof was in my head. I've had Pilsner Urquell before and enjoyed it, but tonight I couldn't even drink half the glass. There was a strong orange peel sensation that I just couldn't stomach. As I said, I've enjoyed this beer before, so I think tonight it just clashed too much with the Cone Smoker I'd had earlier.

Pislner Urquell

(draft) Citrusy piss. I recall having this a long time ago and somewhat enjoying it, but my last attempt caused me to swear that I'll never let this touch my lips again.

I found out today that I get to go to Seattle for four days starting next weekend!

I'm going there ostensibly for work reasons, but since that part will only take one day and I'm leaving two days early I'll have Saturday night, Sunday, and most of Monday to catch up with my friends in the area.

I called Gene, one of my best frends anywhere and certainly my best friend in Seattle, to let him know the news. I put him in charge of social coordination for my stay. All I asked is that I get to a place that serves Alaskan Amber Ale, a brew that I've really missed since leaving Seattle in '98.