Beermaster's Tour

This weekend was very low key. Friday night, nothing. Saturday again, nothing but watch movies all day. Didn't have anywhere to be, things to do or people to see. I guess it was kind of nice to be a bum all day.

Sunday, however, was a little more exciting. At around 2:00, James+Nick, Carrie and I left for the Beermaster's Tour at A-B. It's a $25/person tour but you get to see some really cool things close up. It's basically the VIP tour they have been given for a while, but it's now opened up to the public. They charge for it to help keep the number of people wanting to go on it down. Anyway, it stopped at the usual places - the aging cellars where you get to keep pieces of beechwood used to help facilitate natural carbonation. Then on to the brewhouse where you get to go down on the floor (behind the glass) and walk around the kettles and back into the "hop room." You also get to go into the control center for the brewery's operations.

Then it was off to the basement of the Bevo Packaging Plant to see the production line up close and personal. My favorite part was when a bottle exploded. It was kinda funny the way our tour guide handled that.

We ended up at the stables, then went around the back side on our way to our next destination. There was a clydesdale pen along the way where, as our guild put it, "they keep the bad horses." It was even funnier because Carrie was petting this horse at the time. Hehe.

The best part of the tour was when we went into the 32 degree finishing cellar. We got to drink fresh Bud Light straight from the tank. It was the best beer I have ever tasted. Yum.

Following that we went back to the tour center and had flights of beer. Sampling anything they had on tap, or in bottles. I tried Michelob Golden Light, Jack's Pumpkin Spice Ale, Budweiser American Ale and ShockTop.

Following the tour, we went to McGurks for dinner. (Liz, I know you're jealous!) We then we back to my house and watched The Mosquito Coast...but not before making fun of Nick a little bit. It's a tradition.

(thanks Carrie for the photos...even though I didn't ask first.)

Hotter than SHIT!

It is hotter the hell in St. Louis lately. So hot, I'm not going to use these tickets to the Cardinal's game tonight.

Okay, enough about that. On to more important topics. Either my ears have gotten smaller, or Apple made the iPhone ear phones a little larger. I can only stand to wear them for about an hour before my ears hurt. My regular iPod earphones can be worn for hours and hours...especially while crammed into a cabin on a train barreling through the Swiss Alps with your parents.

Everything else seems to be going well here. Still no word on if I get to remain employed by A-B. It's still pretty slow around here. However, for the past couple days I have been working on a manual for B.A.S.I.S (the boys state database system). I've gotten 21 articles written with about a billion left to go. Adobe makes a great little program to building help/knowledge bast systems so that's a plus.

This past weekend was rather low key. I went to a movie on Friday night with Rick Oleshak (a brand manger here at A-B) and some of his buddies. We saw Stepbrothers. Mildly entertaining, but I shouldn't have wasted $8 on it.

After the movie, I went home for a bit, then to Jimmy's parent's house (they were out of town). We hung out for a while and talked before James+Nick and Carrie arrived. James+Nick and Carrie arrived a while later. We sat around and chatted for a while, poked fun at each other, while Nick fell asleep on the floor. Looser. Heh.

The rest of the weekend was full of weird food cravings, movie watching, and basically just being a bum. I can't wait to do it again this weekend!

The ole switch-a-roo

As much as I like the white iPhone, I've decided to switch to a black one. I know, such a sucker, right? Anyway, I went into the AT&T store today to place an order for a black 16GB model. The phones are sold out nationwide and AT&T is doing direct fulfillment. (When I bought mine, James was about 10 people behind me in line and had to go this route). Anyway, I was able to buy the new black one for the same price as the white one...with tax, $328. I asked the sales woman what my options were for the old one. She said I could return it for a 10% restocking fee, or just sell it on EBay. (They are going for $800 or so on there).

Carrie is intersted in one of the phones, but she's not eligable for an upgrade and would have to pay full price. I'm thinking I'll sell her my white one when the black one comes in. Hey, they didn't charge me extra for it. Why the hell not?

BTW, did I mention I love this phone? Heheh.

Puerto Girardeau

Carrie, James, Nick T., Andy and I had our first annual (maybe?) Escape to Cape this past weekend. We all headed into the sticks on Friday around 6:30 p.m. for a weekend of relaxation. My parents were out of town camping with my niece so we decided to take over their house. We stopped in Festus for dinner at Fizzoli's and then White Castle so James could get his first hit of ice cream for the weekend...a very large milkshake.

It was a VERY busy time. Heh. Everyone woke up when they felt like it as there was no set schedule. We went swimming in my parent's pool, lounged in the sun soaking up lots of Vitamin D and basically just hanging out all day Saturday.

Saturday evening we drove even further into the "bush" to Lamberts Cafe in Sikeston for some down home cookin' and an overdose of artery clogging greese. I, however, failed to read the memo on wearing a green shirt, but ce'est la vie. We, of course, ate until we were stupid. Nick must have ate half is weight in food, or at least attempted. It was quite funny! James made the comment after dinner that he felt pregnant and Andy looked as if he was going to hurl! Don't do it Andy!

We then drove back to Cape all the while letting our food settle then went swimming again until 2 a.m.! When we left for dinner, I bumped the pool heater up to a nice bath-waterish 100 degrees. It was awesome. We all swore we wouldn't eat ever again.

On Sunday Andy and I went over a couple points on the will he's drawing up for me while most everyone was still asleep. We then headed to my brother's house to drop off the remaining beer and pick up his trailer. I had yard work to do...see next posting.

It was a wonderful weekend and I got to hang out with some of my awesome friends. Thank you all for an awesome time!

Cardinal's Weekend

I had the pleasure of hanging out with one of my best friends for most of the weekend. On Saturday, I got tickets to the Cards vs. Cubs game from Rob, a fellow boys state staff member, who had two extra tickets and asked if I knew anyone else to take. I took James as he is an avid Cubs fan. We were sitting on the Coca-Cola Deck, good seats but very far from "the action."

It was fun watching him get heckled (hehe) but we were all eating crow when those nasty Cubs won. There were two opportunities for them to hit grand slams. I remember proclaiming, "I have never witnessed a grand slam in person, and I'm gonna be pissed if it's done by a Cub!"

There were these two old ladies, all decked out in Cubs gear holding a sign that said something like, "Two Cubs fans for over 160 years" or something. They were causing a raucous trying to get on television. We were going to turn around to them and ask, "So, what was it like when they built Wrigley Field?" But we refrained.

Sunday, my parents came up and we went to another game. The seats were much better, or at least closer, 14 rows from home plate. Not bad...even with the drunk girl swaying in front of us. The best part, however, was before the game, we had lunch with my parents at Joanie's Pizza. We were sitting there eating when James exclaimed, "I think a bird just shit on me!" Comedy ensued, as you can imagine. Nothing beats watching a Cubs fan get shit on by a bird. Hopefully it was a Cardinal, because that would be fantastic!

Oh, by the way, we won the series. GO CARDS!