I haven't been to work for nine days but it's all over now. This is just a regular Sunday where I have to make sure that I get my laundry done in time for tomorrow.

I find myself sitting here, listening to the little ice pellets hitting my office window, and hoping against hope that we'll get a foot or so of ice accumulation so I can take an extra day off.

My sleep schedule is almost completely upside-down after the past week. If I can get through today without taking a nap I may be able to get back on track. Otherwise I'll be really suffering at work.

Last night was a special night at Rich O's. For one thing I actually got my sister Dina to come by for a while. This rare event was then surpassed by the arrival of Dan "Holy Shit" Kruer, a friend from 20 years ago, and his wife Chris, a childhood friend of Dina's.

First things first though. When I arrived I knew that I'd need to find a suitably weak beer for my sister to drink. I asked some regulars what was the wimpiest beer at Rich O's and was told it was Spaten Lager. I had one of these to field-test it for Dina and it was indeed wimpy.

I sat for a while, drinking my wimpy beer and talking to RealTrainGirl and her friend Matt-Josh-Willy-Whatever about various things like would I be able to recognize Dan and Chris when they arrived.

Dina arrived and immediately wanted to know where LaptopGirl was. I guess she's read about my fascination with her in my 'blog. Unfortunately LaptopGirl didn't arrive until after Dina had gone but she did get to meet RealTrainGirl and MisunderstoodGirl before Dan and Chris arrived.

While the girls drank their wimpy Spaten Lagers I tried to make recommendations for Dan. I think he tried the Beak's Best, then sampled the Cone Smoker and Community Dark before settling on the Dark as a beer he liked.

I ended up having a few half-pints of Cone Smoker and then a couple of Community Darks. The Cone Smoker is style#1 and the Community Dark remains unchanged.

After a while my sister and then my friends left in search of some industrial swill and I sat and talked to LaptopGirl and a couple of Rich O's professional beer drinkers until they closed the place up and kicked us out.

Being on vacation all last week, I ended up at Rich O's every night before going back to the Executive West to watch more pool.

For the most part I stuck to my regular NABC brews - Cone Smoker and Community Dark. I did, however, have a couple more of the Beak's Best beers. Knowing I'd be driving back to Louisville I definitely watched my alcohol intake even more than I normally do.

Other than that, I spent the time talking to some of the various regulars I've gotten to know. LaptopGirl and MisunderstoodGirl remain my favorite conversation partners, though TrainGirl and RealTrainGirl are also pretty fun to be around.

On Friday it was standing-room-only until quite late. I got so claustrophobic a couple of times that I went out and sat in the (empty) non-smoking section.

A rare Tuesday report - courtesy of my company and their vacation benefit - starts out like any other - with a Cone Smoker. It's back to style #1, which is very good, especially after having to endure the BBC porter I've had for the past few days.

After my Cone Smoker I tried one of NABC's Beaks Best ESB beers. For a beer with the word "bitter" in the name it wasn't bad at all. A lot darker and more complex than I expected.

One interesing thing (to me at least) was that MisunderstoodGirl plays both the guitar and the bass guitar, and speaks Arabic. She also painted the numerous new pieces of artwork adorning the walls at Rich O's. This girl has more sides to here than a D&D dice set. Sigh. If only she wasn't so far out there in weirdo land.

Next I had a Community Dark just to have something to drink. I detected some roast malt character this time that I hadn't noticed before. Still pretty good and still pretty bland.

After Rich O's closed I went to another bar with LaptopGirl and a couple of other Rich O's regulars.

For some odd reason that I cannot recall I decided to have a PBR. It, like the Falls City I had a couple of months ago, wasn't nearly as bad as I remember. Not a lot to describe about it. It was just good and mellow.

Meanwhile, I find LaptopGirl to be more and more fascinating every time I talk to her. She has shown some really shallow sides to her personality but at other times, like tonight, she has shown some depth beyond her years. Her extreme intelligence, along with her dorky cuteness, makes her the official hottie of Rich O's and the woman that most makes me wish I were ten years younger. I get the impression that age is an issue with her, though I can't imagine too many guys her age being able to keep up with her mentally.

I didn't expect to have a beer report tonight. For one thing, I'm playing in a pool tournament (see the pool blog), and for another, I didn't expect the hotel bar to have anything worth drinking.

Well I finished my only match of the day before 7:00 PM, and the hotel bar had BBC Dark Star Porter.

I've had this before, a long time ago. It's not my favorite. A little too bitter for my taste, and the roasted malt was a little weird tasting.

Still, it was a lot better than anything else in the hotel bar. Just not quite as good as the Bad Elmer's I had a few weeks ago.

This entry is a day late for a simple reason. My Internet provider sucks. I was offline for about 8 hours total yesterday, and during those brief periods when I was online I had to use the time for some real work.

Saturday I was in the mood for a little experimenting. I first had a beer that's been recommended to me several times by MisunderstoodGirl, Delerium Tremens. I guess I liked it, but I can't really explain why. There was nothing remarkable about it except its smoothness.

Next I had a little Chouffe Nice. Again, this was okay, but I think a little too fruity (tasting) for me to ever have another.

Next I ended my experimenting by having a Cone Smoker and an Anchor Christmas Ale.

One particular item of interest was LaptopGirl, dressed like a homeless person as usual, is proving to have quite a hot little body under all those rags and hippie clothes she wears. CoffeeDude agreed with me on this, as did some other guy that I don't know.

The humidity in my house is 26%. That would be ridiculous under any circumstances, but it's even more ridiculous since I have a fancy humidifer doohickey as part of my heating system.

Looks like I'll need to get the guys that installed the system out here to see why it's so dry.

Last night was perhaps the most crowded that I've ever seen Rich O's. It was standing-room only for most of the night.

To start off I had an Anchor Christmas Ale. I wanted to make sure I had at least one more before they ran out.

While drinking that first pint, I overheard the owner of Rich O's tell someone that they'd just tapped a new keg of Cone Smoker. I found this very interesting as it was the first time that I was definitely aware of a change. Of course I had to have one.

It was good, style #1 I'd say. I'm very curious to see how this new keg ages over the next couple of weekends - or however long it lasts.

"Dude, if it takes that many flushes you need to see a doctor."

-- A guy on fark.com referring to a Texas man who'd gotten a water bill for $7,714,510.21.

Anyone who knows me well enough will realize that this is a no-brainer.

My December 5th Hottie of the Day is the incomparable Larissa Meek from Average Joe 2.