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!

Busy weekend

This past weekend went well. Mom and Dad arrived around 6pm, but I was still at the Apple store getting a replacement iPhone. Wee! Oh Friday morning, I picked up my (2nd) iPhone, a black one that I ordered on 7/13. I was headed into a meeting that afternoon and flipped the little switch to put it into vibrate mode, and the switch fell off. It comes down to being a design defect. On some phones, the button is hard to slide...that coupled with the fact that it is a little piece of metal that is GLUED onto a plastic switch inside the phone, caused it to break. I made an appointment with a "Genius" at the Apple Store and they swapped out the phone for me. He was cute too.

Rhett, Jennifer and Madeline didn't make it in until about 9:30 p.m. They were in traffic for three hours because some no-talent-ass-clown decided to hold himself up in his trailer in Crystal City and start shooing at people. They shut the interstate down. What a punk. But since it was Rhett's birthday, I took him to the 11:20 showing of The Dark Knight. It was just a good the second time around. Heath Ledger's performance was amazing! I really hope he gets nominated for an Oscar. If he wins, I would be okay with that too. Rhett and I got home at 2:30 a.m. to an entire house, asleep. So we joined the ranks.

On Saturday, we removed the last two remaining cabinets in the unfinished basement and studded the entire west wall; built a cantilevered work bench (hangs from the wall, not standing on the floor) and wired some electrical outlets.

Meanwhile, dad was installing the molding we had copied, in the upstairs bathroom. We couldn't find molding to match the rest of the house so he took a piece to a carpenter and had a die made. It matches perfectly! Hey, it only took a year to get it finished...but I still have to paint so it's not quiet done yet. Ugh.

Saturday night, Rhett, Jennifer, Dad and I had planned on going to see The Dark Knight again (Rhett and I went by ourselves on Friday). I didn't really feel like going again, as I was at that point where if I was sitting in a dark movie theater, I would totally fall asleep. I thought about skipping the movie and making an appearance at Chris' housewarming/birthday party...but didn't. Mom, Madeline and I started watching Ratatouille instead but we all ended up passing out about half way in. So we hit the sack.

Speaking of Madeline...she's a hoot! She's talking up storm now, very polite too. At one point, mom was doing some ironing (love her!) and Madeline decided to put on one of my shirts. Cute isn't it? Rhett and I taught her to do the "Redrum" thing with her index finger, and mimic the little boy's voice from The Shining. Jennifer was not amused.

Anyway, we did some other small crap around the house and they finally left yesterday around 5:30..at which point I took a shower, made dinner, and took a nap. I then watched the rest of Ratatouille. Not a bad show, but not Pixar's best either. The storm we had last night totally rocked too! I didn't loose power for too long, which was nice.

That pretty much wraps up my weekend. I'm sitting here at work, wishing I was at home...in bed.

Random Facts

RULES - Post rules before giving the facts - Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves - People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules - At the end of the your blog you need to tag three people and list their names - Leave them a comment on their blog, telling them they have been tagged and not to forget to read your blog.

1. I can't stand people eating while on the phone with me, chewing with their mouthes open, or talking with their face stuffed full of food. Oh yeah, and smacking their food. It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I can feel my blood pressure rising.

2. I'm allergic to mushrooms. That's pretty much it. Well, shrooms and penicillins. These items don't make me stop breathing or anything. I just get some nasty hives from penicillin and a horrible stomach ache from mushrooms. Mom always tries to make her green bean casserole in a way that my brother and I can eat it (he's allergic too), but she forgets that cream of mushroom soup is the same as using regular mushrooms. Sigh.

3. I love movies. At one point in my life I wanted to make them for a living. But, life changed and I needed a job that is much more stable...and has benefits. I've settled on something second best, but maybe not. I don't actually get to do any real editing much anymore. I guess that's a reason I'm in school for my MBA with an emphasis in marketing.

4. I'm terrified of spiders. Well, not terrified of them, they just give me the ebbie-jeebies. Like the other day when I was taking a shower, I saw a spider fall into the bathtub. I was out of that shower so freaking fast, standing there dripping water all over my warm marble floor while I decided what to do next. I can't just let it go down the drain...what if it crawls back up? That damn Itsy Bitsy Spider song ruined me for life.

5. I rarely like going home to my parent's house for any extended period of time. I feel like such an outsider down there. I worry about my mom worrying about me; what's going through her mind.

6. I am not a religious person. I have a hard time believing that there is some higher power out there who is in control of my life, my destiny. Some omnipotent being who created the universe with a thought. Perhaps religion is a human condition brought about to help us feel like we're not alone, like someone is watching out for us and we're not on a run-away train barreling down a mountain; to help us cope with the loss of loved ones by believing that we will see them when our time comes and live out eternity with them in some other place.

7. I stay up way to late for no reason at all and suffer the consequences in the morning when I have to go to work. I say to myself, "why do you do this all the time" but I rarely change. I mean, look, it's past midnight and I'm still writing this post. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

8. I hate leftovers. Except for pizza. Other than that, not a big fan. I think it has to do something with growing up in a house where you were always wondering what was growing in the refrigerator. Haha. But seriously, the mixing of previous meals into a "new" meal is repulsive. Just don't tell me what you did, and I'll be fine.

Here is where I break the rules. There are very few people I know who blog, one of them, Carrie, has already filled out this survey. So I'll tag Nick, but he said himself that he hasn't updated in a long time. I'll also shoot one over on Elizabeth. I'm sure she'll do it (she better!)

Sleepless

Tonight I decided to take a night off from the world and watch Sleepless in Seattle. It has been many years since I last watched this film and I had forgotten how much I liked it. Now I'm not saying it is in my top 10 favorites, but I enjoy it.

It's one of those movies that reminds you that no matter how lonely you feel, how disconnected, there is always someone out there for everyone. Just finding that person is what is the challenge. Sometimes you find them and will live a long life together. Then again, sometimes shit happens and you don't, but one should never give up hope of finding it again. It might never be like it was before, but who knows, you might be surprised.

Now, if only I could live by what I just wrote.

Home Crap Home!

Dad was in town again this past weekend. He arrived with Mom on Friday afternoon as she was attending some meeting at the Chase Park Plaza. We got the ceiling in the bathroom installed, along with the new heater/exhaust fan/light assembly. After we got the joints all mudded and the door rehung, we realized that the door will not open all the way because it will hit the light fixture. Fuck! Damn these low ceilings.

Anyway, we're going to reverse the door to swing from the opposite side into the bathroom and then move the light switch to the opposite wall. A fun feat I'm sure. This is all going down the weekend I get back from Vegas.

On Friday night, Dad and I watched Red Rock West. An interesting movie...quite unique if you ask me. I highly recommend checking it out. It's short and it's only downside is it's starring Nicolas Cage. He's not too horrible...the rest of the cast makes up for it. And until a few moments ago, I didn't realize it was such an old film...1992!!!. I guess he made it before he started doing really crappy movies. He should have stuck with the independent route! HAHA.

It's about this guy who is in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and can't seem to catch a break.

On Saturday, I sat the parents down to watch Little Miss Sunshine. I forgot how slow of a film it is at the beginning but mom ended up really liking it. Dad kept falling asleep and then went to be right before the hospital scene...the funniest part of the movie!

Short post, but nothing much to report.

Stop Loss

James and Nick F. came over tonight after work for our weekly get-together. We went to Bread Company then to AMC Theaters to see Stop Loss. The film isn't the best thing out there in the world, but it really makes you wonder what in the fuck are we doing in Iraq? Sure the topic of stop-loss is over dramatized, but you know there are countless men and women in the armed services who sign up for a branch of the military...and end up forced into a back door draft. My only hope is for this film to do better than I think it will at the box office. It's an important film, one that needs to be seen, especially this election year. It pretty much solidified my vote for Barak Obama in the presidential election as he's the only candidate out there who wants to leave Iraq.

My belief is the Iraqis must want democracy and freedom for them to have it. If we stay there as a police force and wait for their government to get off their ass, and the violence to subside, we will be there forever.

Oscars Showcase...ugh

Carrie was originally going to come into town this weekend to attend the AMC Oscars Best Picture Showcase today with me. However, she is sick so she stayed in Columbia this weekend. Which sucks, but I hope she gets better before she and James go to Mexico on Thursday. Bitches.

Anyway, so Linda B., someone I work with, and I went. We arrived at the theater at 10:30 this morning and staked our claim on two seats for the next 12 hours. We met a group of awesome people who made the whole event a lot of fun.

I also ran into Billy Ratz at the theater, along with his wife. I gave him my card so hopefully we will get in touch sometime and catch up.

I REALLY liked Atonement and would love to see it win. It was just a good show, with a hot boy too. mmm... Michael Clayton and Juno were much better the second time around. I missed a lot of dialog in Juno the first time because of laughing. I missed some small plot points in Michael Clayton the first time. There's a lot going on in the film. No Country for Old Men wasn't a favorite. It was good, but looong. But that also might be because it was at the end of the marathon. There Will Be Blood was fantastic as well, and I think it might win the Oscar for Best Picture, but I'm still holding out for Atonement.

My ass is sore and my knees hurt.

Here's the schedule:
Michael Clayton (R) - 11:00 a.m.
There Will Be Blood (R) - 1:20 p.m.
Atonement (R) - 4:20 p.m.
Juno (PG-13) - 7:00 p.m.
No Country for Old Men (R) - 9:00 p.m.