Coffee Klatch - Beer Edition!

Coffee and books are a natural pairing. Give me a quiet garden, delicious coffee, an uninterrupted hour or two in the morning, and I'm happy.

But sometimes it's evening, and coffee isn't what I'm after. Sometimes I want a beer. And I want to take my book with me.

There's something comfortable about reading at my local. My usual seat faces out toward the street, where I can catch the breeze, watch the world go by, and enjoy being out in public while staying in my own little world.

No Kindle in this picture, but you get the idea

 

Which brings me to one of my favorite inventions for an international traveler: the e-reader. I happen to use a Kindle these days, but I'm not particularly loyal to the brand. The important thing is that it holds a library without weighing anything like an actual library.

A big advantage of bringing your e-reader to a bar? Anonymity.

A physical book invites conversation, and as much as I enjoy bookish chats at times, I do not crave that kind of attention in a bar. With my Kindle, nobody knows what I'm reading, and nobody asks.

Now, I know a lot of women feel self-conscious about going out alone, so allow me to suggest one more big bonus of the e-reader: it acts as a sort of social shield! Bar, restaurant, coffee shop, wherever you are - with your Kindle, you're not alone, and you don't look it. You're reading.

Nobody questions it. 

At least, I don't think they do. I'm too busy reading to notice what anyone else is doing. And maybe that's the point. 

There are plenty of reasons to go out alone. You don't need an excuse or companion. All you need is a good book, drink of your choice, and if you're lucky, a seat with a breeze. 

Headaches

So I wrote this random bit the other day...

Where the headache came from was a mystery. It started as she relaxed in front of the TV. Assuming the pillow was positioned poorly, maybe putting pressure in that annoying trigger spot at the base of her head, she moved the pillow. 
Reclined more, laying back with the pillow under her shoulders. Nope.
Sat up straighter, removing the pillow entirely. No dice.

Refilling her water, she hoped it was a dehydration symptom. The pain was moving toward the front of her head now. What was going on in there? Finally, last resort, she took three ibuprofen. Say what you want, this cheap, generic, Chinese knock-off Advil was NOT equivalent to real Advil - or even a cheap Walmart or Target generic version!

Movie over, she shut off the TV. Maybe silence for a bit while the drugs tried to work. The headache was changing again, now more like a net of nerves tightening around her brain, all vibrating like some bizarre musical instrument being strummed and thrummed by a tiny mental elf. 
Damn you, elf.

Just then, Hubs rode up to the house, returning from the morning's excursion. By the time he joined her in the living room, cleaned up from the smells of sweat and the sea, he was ready to tell of his adventure out on the island. She wanted to hear, truly. She listened attentively, commenting, asking questions, all while that elf kept strumming in her skull. Still listening, she got up and grabbed a muffin. Maybe the elf needed a sweet distraction.

Finally, story ended, vibrating brain-instrument ongoing, she decided to take a walk. It was all she could do. She couldn't read, couldn't look at a screen - TV, phone, or computer - and maybe sunshine would lull the nerve-strumming elves into silence.

As she walked, there was a brief moment when she felt the pain subsiding, but the moment passed and she walked on.

First locale to check off the pit-stop list: the pizza place. Closed. Headache remained.

Continuing walking, she found that the new microbrewery in town had NOT closed for the holiday. Maybe a cold one would do what water and drugs and food could not. Beer in hand, she sat out on the patio. The headache remained, but the beer was good. 
Sun was good.
Watching the light traffic was good.
Talking to random passers-by was good.

As she returned the empty glass to the bar inside, she smiled a thank you and said good-bye. Returning home, the thread of the headache was still holding on to its own existence, but it was weakened. She felt strong. "I did not let that headache cripple me. I went out into the world a functioning citizen and contributed to a local business and to the society of those around me," she nodded to herself with pride.

Sometimes, it's the small victories that make the difference.

It's a good life.

When I told Brett I was ready to start celebrating my birthday - because life is hard, and every year is an accomplishment - all I wanted was one gift, and a meal out. 

The gift came early, because I thought I would use it going to and from Drama Camp, but the camp location was moved, and I've only used it locally so far.

It's a Segway-mini! I'm told they were banned in the US.

Just one small part of the hike.

Drama Camp just ended days ago, and in the meantime, Monster Jam has been setting up in Beijing. Brett happens to be facebook friends with someone on the crew, so he's been running around finding things to show them and going out at night. Two days ago, there was a problem at the stadium, so his new friends were given the afternoon off, and they wanted to visit the Great Wall. My workday finished at before 1pm, so we joined them. The Day Before My Birthday! I immediately decided that, since lunch was the big celebratory meal ON my birthday, it was valid to count the 24 hours prior - which included this day. I finally got to the Great Wall - FOR MY BIRTHDAY! 

This particular section - within an hour of Beijing - is mostly stairs, so not everyone climbed. I'm proud to say that, although I was huffing and puffing like the 3pigs' wolf, I led the pack in the hike. BOOYAH! We climbed 58 flights before having to turn back due to time.

That flower? Duck meat. It's an art.

After that, the group wanted an authentic Beijing Duck dinner, so I had that - FOR MY BIRTHDAY! It's my 3rd time eating true Beijing Duck, but it never gets old. Even Brett, not a duck fan in the US, enjoys it here. 

Pretty cool birthday! No singing, no "birthday cake", but at the end, someone mentioned it, and the whole group did wish me happy birthday. God bless Brett, he prevented them from singing.

Next day, my actual birthday. I knew where I wanted to go for birthday lunch - to a genuine German restaurant we discovered, with quality food and truly German bier. Really, I think Germany doesn't export to the US because the primary American exported beer is Bud. Seriously. Not an impressive export.

Bier, Bavarian pretzel, spaetzel, other stuff. German.

Apfel Strudel. I have never had a pastry feel un-fattening like this.

As we walked away from the German place, I saw an amazing, huge, swan-decorated cake in the window of some place called "Black Swan" and walked closer to the window. Brett said, "uh-oh. They see you. You're getting invited in." I said, "nah, they're just working."

But his view and assumption was correct. A lovely lady opened the door and invited me inside. Into this WHOA! - Hyper-Expensive cake shop. Holy crap. There were small cakes on sale for the equivalent of several hundred dollars!  Apple Strudel or no, I had not yet had any "birthday cake" so I perused the single serving counter and plumped for a "rose-framboise" (rose & raspberry) slice of cake. The equivalent of $8 for one small piece. BUT... they served it with taste samples of several macaroons and pieces of chocolate, so there you go.

Cake, and macaroon & chocolate.

Pretty cool, for someone who never celebrates their birthday, huh?

It occurred to me that my birthday will always fall during Brett's school summer break. We could take vacations to random exotic locales every year! His birthday is stuck during school term, but we could maybe do weekend trips to Chinese places for his birthday. It could become a very cool tradition. 

This morning, after we woke up, Brett said, "It's still your birthday in the States..." and sure enough, I had a voice message from a friend wishing me happy birthday. I could get used to this.

It's a good life.

The Debate Rages On

Remember back in the 70s, when the US was going to switch to metric? I remember having to learn a little bit about it - millimeters, centimeters, decimeters, meters. Our thermometer had both Fahrenheit and Celsius, and I didn't quite get it.

In college when I learned about degrees Kelvin, I realized that Fahrenheit is the better, more precise measurement. And now I live that every day. ...Live, knowing that Fahrenheit is superior, but having to use Celsius. I don't really know if Celsius is technically "metric", but they seem linked.

The WHOLE WORLD uses Metric. With the exceptions of Myanmar - a screwed up military regime which, let's face it, has very little credibility, Liberia - a tiny African nation which was founded by American President Monroe, and of course, the good ol' USA.

I'm guessing the only reason we didn't join the rest of the world in going metric is because we're big enough that we don't have to. Think of the headaches and financial loss to have to change EVERYTHING we use, across the board!

Here are things that have messed with me in China, by being metric when I was not prepared for it:

1. Bed linens. No "queen, king, double..." How many cm? We decided our bed is about as wide as a queen, but a few cm short.

2. Measuring cups & spoons. Seriously! Do you know how many ml in a cup? I found some empirical measuring cups for my own recipes.

3. Paper. Click "print" in any document. We use A4 - which is about 8.28" x 11.8". My computer still defaults to empirical units, so I have to switch it over each time. Oh, it would print anyway, but I prefer to see an accurate pre-print image. This one item: paper - impacts EVERYTHING - planner pages, notebooks, posters, mail, file folders, banker boxes...

4. Picture frames. I brought several lovely 9x13 prints with me, determined that I need to look for frames in 23x31, BUT the closest I can find are 21x30. So I had to trim the pictures anyway.

Those are just a few odd things I noticed, apart from when my students asked me how tall I was, and looked blank when I said 5'10". 178cm gets a big reaction, though.

Tsingtao Draft

On the plus side, beer comes in half-liter cans!

I think in terms of Celsius now. I speak in Celsius. I don't do a fancy conversion in my head, but over 30 is hot, 25 is nice weather, 15 is getting cold, etc. This beer can says "5*C-25*C". 25*C is ridiculously warm for beer, in my American opinion! But, that's usually how they drink it.

Kilometers still throw me off. Then again, even State-side, I judge distance by time more often than by miles. Fortunately, I don't drive anywhere.

The Blog to End all Blogs - It's In There, I Know it Is!

CAUTION: This blog has no point, and will likely be a rambling one! (You've been warned.)

My blogging has slowed down since my recent relocation to my parents' house in Indiana. I really miss posting 5 or 6 days a week. Obviously, “Red” is not my real name. Recent followers may not have cottoned on to the fact that nobody in my RL (real life) knows that I even have a blog. It is hard to post frequently when I'm living with two relatives who don't know why I might need to be online so much!

I thought about just outting myself to my parents, but you know:

After it's out there, you can Never Take It Back!

So I won't.

I'll keep trying to discreetly write my posts on paper on my own time, send photos to my email to download to my laptop, and combine them in bits and pieces, in between the job search and what my father calls “The Devil's Playground” : facebook.

Facebook is EVIL!!! (so sayeth my father.)

Oh my! A wasp just totally landed on my face and bounced off! ...I'm out on the deck editing this post.
 

I've been thinking about what fun stuff to write, but it's all so new, and random, and humdrum right now, there's not a lot to say! I'm really bummed about that.

Brett recently posted his 100^th blog with a list of 100 things about him that are not elsewhere in his blog. (I dare anyone to go through his archives and double check.) I'm coming up on my 100^th, and started a list like that, but really don't think I'll do it. It's hard for me to think there could be 100 things that my 18 followers and half-dozen other regular commenters actually want to know!

Blogs I have in me waiting to come out, or partially written:

The story of the china.
Getting lost in the woods.
Something about Red&Brett. (There's stuff to say, but I don't think I know how to say it.)
My definitive work on Skin Cancer. (I'm gonna get it. Just sayin')
My Dad is trying to kill me.
The Avengers or The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - or both.
Something about where I used to work, now that I'm no longer there.
The micro-brewery I found out about and now have to actually find and tour. ...after I tour it, of course.
Complete my IOU and recommend 4 more blogs.

...Oh. There's SO MUCH in my head. But all this fresh air. And gardening. And parental presence. ...and peace and quiet. Usually what's in my head bursts out - but there's no need right now, because there's nothing to burst through!

In short, dudes, I'm sorry I'm not on the blogosphere very much. I pop into your blogs as I can, but don't always leave comments if I'm on a computer that's not my own, because that means logging in, and that means leaving the address of my blog for one of the 'rents to see.

I feel so deceptive.

I can't wait to have my own place.

For the Love of a Brew!

To start at the end, when we left the brewery, I had an overall feeling of well-being. More than just the very light buzz (they wisely have started splitting up the samples: 2 before the tour and 2 after). Dogfish Head is just plain old feel good beer! Maybe part of it is that – after you take the tour – you know that it is good for the environment! What a delicious feeling.

Ha! Jealous yet? Yeah.

Although I’m not hired by the company, I plug them everywhere because they are awesome, so in case you want to learn more, their website is www[dot]dogfish[dot]com. (Also, they’ve stopped distributing to Indiana, so I hope to become an ambassador for them and create the demand to change that!)

This is Red’s Dogfish Head Show & Tell There really is some cool stuff in here. (keep in mind I’d had two before the tour):

This tree out front...

is left from some artists’ environmental gathering in the American Southwest. All these artists designed and built it out of recycled materials but couldn’t leave it out there to rust in the desert. Pretty cool.

There was a guy wearing a Stormtrooper t-shirt, so I thought it would be fun if I could get him in all my pictures. (See if you can find him...it's like Where's Waldo but with a t-shirt.)

I couldn’t do it because we were usually facing the same way, but at least it gave me a chance to practice my photo-ninja skills. (I bow to the master, Misty of Mistyslaws ). It’s really hard! I got some awesome shots of my own hand, and I think by the end of the tour he was hiding behind his lady’s ample bosom. (So I had a few shots of that, too.)

Oh, that little window high up the wall in this photo? That’s the brewmaster’s room, where he oversees the brewing tanks.

…mmm…beer.

These pipes look plain ...

but are another “green” feature. The hot water from one step in the process runs in one direction through one pipe, and inside the pipe is a skinnier pipe of cold water that needs to be warmed up. So instead of using the energy to heat it, the hot water in the outer pipe brings it up to temp. ...Or maybe it's vice versa. Either way.

Nice.

This is funny. Sam Calagione, the founder, was an English major before discovering his talent for beer, so there are puns all over the place. DFH has several continuously “hopped” beers, and their hops infusers have names.

This one is “Me So Hoppy”.

When we came to the bottling room...

I was surprised that no one – including myself – broke into the Laverne & Shirley theme song. It really did look like that scene! We got there just when the machine started up.

And the machine that fills the kegs is called the “Tunnel of Love”.

(See the sign over the tunnel-entrance?) Ha! Love in a keg.

I had to take this:

"Capacity 12,400 gallons". That's the label on one of the vats. I don’t know about you, but to me that is A LOT of beer!

This next – vat? Urn? Cask? – is made from the wood of the Palo Santo tree that grows in Paraguay. (The one on the left is regular old oak.)

Apparently the guide showing it to Sam shot a gun at it and the bullet ricocheted. Tough wood! DFH uses it for its caramel/vanilla aroma. ...and yes, the Palo Santo Marron beer is rich and caramel-y. Yum. Also, expensive.

After our final 2 samples, and some shopping, we left the Dogfish Head facility. But we were not done. Oh no!

CODA :

Tour guide Dwayne had told us about a beer float we wanted to try: DFH Chicory Stout and coffee ice-cream. We stopped to get the ice-cream and some food because, well, even though the four samples weren’t huge…have you ever toured oh, say, the Anheuser-Busch factory or something? Those mass produced beers are about 3-5% alcohol. The four samples we were given were 6.8-12% abv.

Yeah. Food was important.

ANYway, just for fun:

1. Start with beer.

2. Add ice-cream.

3. Beer floats!

4. Cheers!

And with that: Cheers, people!

Buns of Steel

One of the great things about moving is all the stuff you find as you pack. Last week while packing a box of video cassettes, I came across my old Buns Of Steel video. This is the original, 1987 version with Greg Smithey as trainer, before it became a franchise. I set the video aside thinking I should try it one more time before deciding whether to give it to a thrift store or keep it.

Today was the fateful day.

Oh. How. Funny.

It is a good workout, and I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow, but Holy Hair, Batman! Full-on 80s “big” hair. Oh, and the leggings. awesome. The pictures here aren't great, but they give you the idea.

But the best, the funniest part of the workout were Smithey’s encouraging remarks.

“They’re gonna see you coming…” continuing in a lower, sexier voice… “and they’re gonna NOTICE you going!”

And with the tiniest leg-crunch:

“These are the baby ones. How can something so small…feel so...good!”

Crack. Me. Up.

Stretching one leg and getting ready to switch sides: “We do have to work the other side, or you’d be walking kind of crooked,” followed by a little chuckle and a waggle of his head like he told a funny joke.

(Can YOU touch your heel to your forehead?)

And my personal favorite:

“We’re gonna squeeze those cheeseburgers out of those thighs!”

I’d forgotten about the humor in this workout. I’m definitely keeping it now.

The funniest thing of all, after all is said and done, the thing that has me giggling out loud all day? Since doing this workout this morning, I have developed an occasional twitch. In my …uh…derriere! My right glute twitches involuntarily if I stand with my weight on that leg! At least, it has a couple times. Maybe it will fade as the day wears on...or when I get some beer in me. I haven’t even started any St. Patrick’s Day drinking, and I’m cracking up over my butt-twitch!

On that note, let me quote our tour-guide from the brewery and say “Drink GREAT beer, not green beer, on St. Patrick’s Day!”

…and please don’t drink and drive.

Beware the Ides of…Anything!

“Reason to Celebrate”!

I know, I predicted I wouldn’t be posting today, but I forgot about the Ides of March – how could I let today pass without a mention?

Did you know that every month has an “Ides”? Fact. It’s the middle of the month – the 15^th or 13^th, depending on the month in the ancient Roman calendar.

~~~I’m sure you’re relieved that I’m here to tell you these things!
~~~ For full details, visit Cranky&Difficult, here.

I don’t know what the traditional celebration involves for the Ides of March. Well, except for stabbing emperors. …Which I will TOTALLY do for you if you need me too! (I’m obsessed with sharp things, as we all know.)

For myself, I wasn’t kidding yesterday when I said I was taking the whole afternoon off. My office-mate and I are going out for a late lunch and then going up to a local Craft Brewery to take the tour. It’s time for me to start saying good-bye to the places and things I’ll miss about Delaware, and Dogfishhead is one of them. (no, I’m not on the payroll, but I’ve shared this nectar of the gods with all my family. Check them out, they’re sold in most states now.)

This will be my third time taking the tour. Dogfishhead is not only really good, flavorful, unique beer, but they are an environmentally friendly company and the tour is very cool.

So for the Ides of March I’ll drink like an emperor – in terms of quality at any rate. Definitely their "Midas Touch" (especially 'cause it's warm and lovely out, and this is the perfect brew for out back on the deck) and I might have to try the "Theobroma" ("food of the gods") if it's in production, because didn't the Caesars claim to be gods? How will you honor the day?

Tomorrow you really won’t hear from me. Remember that meeting that caused my major office faux pas a few weeks ago? That meeting is tomorrow, all day at the other end of the state. (teehee, the fun of living in such a small state. >sigh< I really will miss the bragging rights of “second smallest state in the union”!)

I’ll be back on St. Patrick’s Day, if there’s anything left to say!

Party on, dudes...and "Beware the Ides of March"!