newly freed beers at El Rey!

tonight, we went to El Rey for our weekly familial dinner. this was especially exciting, as El Rey (so far as i know) is the first place in Montgomery offering the newly legal higher gravity beers. without further ado, here’s what we had…

———

we started the night with a Duvel. the first thing i noticed after pouring it into a glass was the incredible head on it. i mean, seriously. it would not die. it was a thing of beauty. the second thing was the bite to it. its a Belgian pale ale, so i shouldn’t have been too surprised. i’m not really a big fan of pale ales, but this was one i could enjoy on a regular basis. the bite to it was nice. very good stuff.

second on the list was a Hennepin Farmhouse Saison. saison is the French word for “season,” so the beer is named accordingly. according to tradition, a saison is brewed between late Autumn and Winter and not done until late Spring/early Summer. so… its a seasonal. and it definitely tasted like a seasonal. this was my favorite of the three. while still a “pale ale” as listed on the El Rey menu, it reminded me more of something like a hefeweizen that would’ve been served well with a slice of orange on the side. in that same vein, it had a goodly amount of sediment, which i always like. if you can, get your hands on some of this while its available. its a brilliant summer time brew. and its an American brew, originating out of Cooperstown, NY. baseball!

our last of the night was sort of a default choice, and for good reason. it just didn’t strike me as all that great. on top of that, it was the most expensive. it was the Saison Dupont. i know, that link tells you that Beer Advocate has given it a great rating. i just really didn’t dig it. it almost tasted flat, and not in a good way. meh. if you wanna impress somebody, i suppose that’s the one to impress with. it just didn’t really impress me.

———

and there you go. my first three, legal, newly Freed Brews. overall, a great night. big, huge thanks to El Rey for getting these in. hopefully more restaurants will get on the ball, as well as grocery stores.

blech

haz a happee

i feel like i have a 20 ton boulder laying on me right now. i’m playing catchup like a crazy person at work and i just can’t seem to keep everything in order.

hence… i am up right now, having finally put work stuff away for the night.

yes, its after 1am.

yes, it’ll probably be like this until after Annual Conference is over.

———

i loved the LOST season finale. like, for reals. i initially had a pretty major beef about it (which i won’t expound upon here because i have no idea who all has seen it and who hasn’t), but since last night, i’ve come to terms with it and actually appreciate it.

———

not only was last night (er, Wednesday night) the LOST finale; it also was a day for celebration and fun. my great friend William Jones came through for a visit. he’s home on vacation from Niger, where he is stationed as a PeaceCorps worker. i hadn’t seen him in nearly two years, so it was great to visit with him and see him doing well.

he’s doing some great work way over there, and i’ve kept up with him via his wonderful blog (which you can find in the sidebar) and Google Chat (when he is somewhere with decent internet access). he wraps up his “tour of duty” in September, and after that he plans to travel around Europe for a bit before returning home.

he’s a great guy and such a dear friend to both me and Jackie. we already miss him. safe travels, good friend.

———

in case you hadn’t heard, HB373, aka the Free the Hops bill, passed! all that’s left is for Gov. Riley to sign the bill into law, and it seems a sure thing seeing as he just signed a fortified wine bill (meaning, higher alcohol content) in yesterday afternoon. i’ve written him an email already, detailing why this is the right move for Alabama.

fingers crossed!

———

i know i don’t update much on the progress of The Baby, and i feel a bit guilty for it. truth be told, there just isn’t too much to report on past sharing that everything seems to be going very well.

we got through the first trimester just fine, and Jackie seems to be past all the exhaustion that plagued her to begin with. now she’s starting to deal with the bigger body changes that include random cramping all over her body.

i’m hoping for more days off for her in the future. i’m a bit biased, but Jackie’s likely the hardest working mom-to-be i’ve ever come in contact with. while this is good, in that it ensures that constant, steady flow of income, i feel that she’s sometimes missing out on the “fun” part of expecting, namely choosing & shopping for all the things we/The Baby needs: nursery stuff, colors, clothes, etc etc.

its sometimes nigh impossible to pull her away from her responsibilities with her work and even on her days off, she’s busy doing stuff that doesn’t always involve babies. and the lack of a weekend is a pretty big damper, too; her off days don’t really ever coincide with mine.

i dunno. i’m hoping that things will start to work out soon. its frustrating.

———

i’ve gathered a whole bunch of new music in the past few days, and i’ll write more about it later. i’m proud of myself for keeping up with that little New Year’s resolution so far.

———

g’night.

ready to put on your angry goggles?

we’ll do good news/bad news first…

good news: the Gourmet Beer Bill is due to come up tomorrow! hooray!

bad news: it may get pushed down the totem pole because “there will be a controversial AT&T dereg bill ahead of us that might take up the whole day, so we may get bumped till after spring break.” not really bad news, but a delay is a delay and delays can suck.

———

i don’t really have any kind or unrude words to describe my feelings in relation to this, so you can create your own…

House debate on FTH

granted, FTH has now moved past the House so it doesn’t matter that much, but you can imagine the Senate isn’t going to be much nicer.