After work yesterday they had NABC Stumble Bus on tap. I'd never tried it before so I gave it a go:
(draft) Looked and smelled fantastic - good enough that I pushed past my initial dislike of the taste to give it a fair shot. Eventually the bitterness wore me out, and I ended up giving about half the pint away. I can understand the appeal of this beer, it just doesn't happen to appeal to me.
This morning I finally got fed up with the rapidly deteriorating performance on the server where my site was hosted.
So I called my hosting company and asked them if they had any solution for me other than my switching companies.
They offered to move my domain to another server, away from from whichever domain(s) were hogging the system resources on the current server. This is the sort of response I was hoping for. See below for the type of response I was not hoping for.
Well, that process has begun.
I've had all of my files copied over, and I've requested that the DNS entries for barenada.com be changed to point to the new server.
Still waiting for the DNS changes to propogate around - it could take a few days - but for now I've been testing my relocated site using the IP address.
Everything seems to be working except the functions to send me private messages and ask me private questions. I do not, on this new server, have permissions to run the /bin/mail command as I did on the old server.
Called tech support. The guy was less than helpful. Tried to tell him that their preferred method of opening a trouble ticket (I send an e-mail) has never, does not now, and I expect never will work for me, so would he please just open the ticket himself.
The guy was still less than helpful, continuing to parrot his standard send an e-mail advice, so I told him I'd call back tomorrow when I'd be more likely to get some actual help.
So, for tonight at least, any message or questions you send me will not be immediately forwarded to me. I'll have to watch my server logs manually for them. So don't expect the rapid responses you may have become accustomed to.
(update: About a half-hour after I hung up on the less-than-helpful guy I got an e-mail from the nice girl that helped me this afternoon. She's looking into the permissions issue for me. I guess the guy I talked to at least passed word of my problem along. Even if he said something like "Hey, listen to this asshole's problem" that's still being helpful and I appreciate it.)
(update: Well it seems that my streaming movies will not work until the DNS gets propogated around. So if you got here via the error page I left on the old server the streaming movies still will not work for you. The WMV formatted movies should be fine. Once the DNS gets around everything should work correctly.)
(update: The permissions problem with the message/question forms has been fixed. Yay! The issue with the streaming movies will still take up to a few days to correct itself. Boo!)
This morning, already looking forward to getting off work, I started thinking about the beer I would drink this evening.
I was thinking about the NABC Blonde Abbeys I'd had Saturday, and the Mad Bitch I'd had Friday, and I decided that I wanted something smoky. But not too smoky. Just enough to take the edge off the sweetness still lingering on my palate.
The beer I was thinking about was a Spezial Rauchbier. I got to wondering when Rich O's would have it on tap again.
Many boring hours at work passed, and I walked into Rich O's a little after 5:00 to see, lo and behold, that Spezial Rauchbier was on tap.
Needless to say, this is what I had. Two of them actually. It's kind of neat to imagine that I was able to make a certain beer appear just by thinking about it. Tomorrow I plan to think about beautiful brunettes in glasses.
And winning lottery numbers! Must not forget!
When I first arrived I sat on the sofa and listened to a couple of very hot, very young, girls practicing for a Spanish exam. I was pretty surprised that I actually remembered most of the words that they were practicing, and I was even able to help tutor them a little. Pretty good after twenty-three years. Even better considering how CalienteRoja was posing and contorting herself on the loveseat - quite distracting.
After I'd been there for a few minutes, RealTrainGirl and MisunderstoodGirl came in. That's why I had two beers instead of my usual one. We just talked for a while about not much in particular.
I stopped and talked to VigilanteGirl on the way home. She's leaving her job I guess, so that sucks for me, but she'll make more money and she'll have her nights off, so she should be a lot more relaxed.
This thing took over four hours to render for some reason:
I've begun the laborious process of rewriting all of my beer ratings to give them a common format.
Then, once that's done, I can write a script to pull all of the ratings out and list them on a single page.
This morning on the way home from getting breakfast, I passed a friend going the other direction. She flashed her lights at me and we waved at each other.
About an hour later this same girl called me and asked me when I was getting home from Las Vegas.
I told her that I'd be getting home two days ago.
Another hour passed before she called me back and admitted to being a dingbat.
Tonight was my second annual pilgrimage to the boonies to attend RealTrainGirl's birthday party.
I guess it was a combination party this year as MisunderstoodGirl's birthday wasn't too long ago.
Just to get the beer part out of the way, I took a growler of NABC Blonde Abbey and drank about 2/3 of it before I cut myself off. I have to work in the morning after all.
The crowd consisted of two main groups: people from the railroad, and people from Rich O's. I was of course in the latter group. I'd say that we were outnumbered about 2-1, but everyone was cool so it didn't matter.
It was a nice pleasant evening. I can only think of two things worth writing about.
I met this dude from Rich O's that seemed completely embarrassed to admit that he'd read my 'blog. I tried to tell him that if anyone should be embarrassed it should be me, but I'm not ashamed of what I've written. I haven't gone through anything that millions of people haven't gone through. I just happen to write about it. It's good therapy for me.
The other thing is that when I left, and I was driving home through the sticks, I realized that the last time I'd driven that road, back in August, was perhaps the last truly happy time of my life. After that night, everything started to unravel, and there's still a big mess of shit coiled at my feet.
Now I've got to go to bed because I have to get up at 5:30 for work.
My main goal for this trip was to enjoy myself. To not let the admittedly unlikely ruin my trip like it did the last one.
Well the admittedly unlikely did not, in fact, happen, and for that I'm grateful.
I did spend a good part of my time conjuring up various scenarios and planning how I would react. I'm glad that it turned out to be for naught.
So anyway, here are some pictures that I had on my phone.
These beer tower thingies were at the Monte Carlo brewpub. They fill them with up to 5 gallons of beer for parties and shit. When I told the bartender that I'd seen them at the Great Lost Bear in Portland he got a little huffy - like he'd invented the things or something.
Just a pic of the vats behind the bar at the Monte Carlo brewpub.
I got into the superstitious habit of taking a picture of the video poker machine every time it gave me 4 of a kind. This is just one of those times.
Just a picture of the strip from the bridge outside New York New York. I took this Tuesday night trying to track down Awesome Larry.
A view of the bar at the Freakin Frog. That girl in the black is smoking hot.
Another view inside the Freakin Frog.
Took this picture looking up from the bar at the Nine Fine Irishmen while I was drinking with the Irish guys.
After I dropped PigtailGirl off and returned my rental car I just dicked around the Luxor for a while and bought some shirts for my nieces at New York New York, then at about 11:00 I took the monorail up to the Riviera.
I walked around the tournament site for quite a while and was just about to leave when I finally ran into Awesome Larry.
We strolled around and bullshitted for an hour or so then he had to get some rest before his team's next match. I took a cab to the Hard Rock, ate lunch at the Pink Taco, and bought some shirts for my nephews that I hope fit.
Then I went to the Nine Fine Irishmen bar at New York New York and had a couple pints of Smithwick's. Two guys from Ireland came and sat next to me at the bar. They were (of course) drinking Guinness and that inspired me to switch. I had a few pints with them.
I think they were a father/son duo. I could understand the son fairly easily but I didn't understand a thing that the father said because of his accent.
By the time I left it was only about 4:00 and I was about half-pissed (that's what the Irish guys call being drunk) so I just went back to my room and finished the book I'd been reading and made a fairly early evening out of it.
Okay, once I got back to Las Vegas I drove over to The Freakin Frog.
I had myself another draft Alaskan Smoked Porter then I had a new beer for me:
(bottle) Dark reddish brown with a complicated aroma that seemed to include cola. Started out bitter but finished very sweet. A very thick mouthfeel and a very nice flavor that made me drink very quickly. Quite yummy, but perhaps not as yummy as the $15 I paid for it would indicate.
Later in the night I took a cab up to Main Street Station to check out their brewpub. A reading of their beer list was not very appealing to me. Only two of the dozen or so beers seemed worth trying. One was a cherry stout and they were out of that.
The other was a porter, and it ended up being the best beer surprise I had all week.
(draft) That first taste nearly overpowered me. I still can't believe that this beer comes from a brewpub catering to the flavor-impaired masses. Very chocolately, very roasty, very delicious. One of the best porters I've ever had.
I ended up having two of the porters, one while I waited for PigtailGirl to arrive and another while we sat and talked. She'd called right after I'd arrived at Main Street Station and wanted to get together without her friends "cramping her style" in her words.
This was of course intriguing.
At a certain point it was pretty obvious how the night was going to end so we actually both relaxed. There was no more pressure to be charming, and we were in no hurry.
We took a cab to the Rio and I talked her into trying a couple of actual beers instead of the foofoo drinks she'd been drinking. I myself had a couple pints of Newcastle and she tried Newcastle and Fat Tire before settling on (yuck) a Stella.
The next morning I drove PigtailGirl (no longer a descriptive name) up to her hotel and then returned my rental car.
A thing about this - I really really really needed it. Being treated like shit for months - whether intentionally or not - can do lots of damage to a person's ego, and my own self-image was never that great to begin with. I've never been a one-night-stand type of person, and I don't expect to become one in the future. Sometimes people and circumstances just merge and combine and it just feels right. I don't know what PigtailGirl's story is, and she doesn't know mine. There was no need to get into any of that.
Do I feel a little guilty? You bet your ass I do.
But it's not the same guilt I felt when I was with MixedSignalGirl. Back then I felt like I was betraying and belittling my feelings for someone else by being with her. This time my guilt is because I was in part just using PigtailGirl and she really deserved my full attention instead of just serving as a placeholder.
Of course the situation may have been reversed. I could have been used as well. If so, that's okay. It was a great night, and I think we helped each other get through some shit, even though we didn't discuss what the actual shit was.
