Friday, December 29, 2006

Got Snow?


If not, we'll let you have some of ours... we have plenty to spare.I am now officially sick of snow thanks very much. Two blizzards within a week of each other? Give me a break. At least this one seems to have fizzled out as we have clear blue skies on this fine Saturday morning eve of New Year's Eve. Thank you Lord for small miracles!






At least it's not as cold as when this picture was taken way back in 1911 of when Niagra Falls froze up. Pretty cool, eh?




So... what else is going on: my St. Louis Rams still have a slim chance of squeaking into the NFL playoffs. But only if three other teams (NY Giants, Carolina Panthers and Atlanta Falcons) all lose and the Rams beat up on the Minnesota Vi-queens. Hey, it's good to have a dream ya know. If nothing else, their running back Steven Jackson has turned out to be the real deal.

I alluded to getting some very cool beer "stuff" from my wife and family this Christmas. First up is this 24" handcrafted Sam Adams barrel sign. It has the "number of miles to the brewery" based on the "ship-to" zip code. Mine will Say "Eli's Place." Woohooo!

I got a few beer T-shirts and some PJ bottoms that say "Beer - It's What's for Dinner!" along with a very cool neon Guinness pint sign. To round out the beeraphenalia, my folks got me the latest Corona porcelain parrot mug and a tres cool Corona tote cooler... which should easily hold at least 24 bottles of whatever I happen to be imbibing when I tote it along with me (New Year's Even Partaaay at Nay Nay's!). Yes, I am the beer man.

Speaking of beer... I recently picked up a 2004 movie called American Beer, which recounts a coast to coast road trip five friends took in 2002. Their goal? Visit 38 breweries in 40 days. Now that's a road trip!

Superhero movie update! The upcoming Iron Man movie now has a live website. Nothing on it per say, but it's up!

Speaking of superheroes... for those gamers out there who know what Massive Multiplayer Online games are, you likely know what guilds are. In the case of CoX (City of Heroes/Villains) they're called Super (or Villain) Groups. The ones I belong to - which are run by the same group of folks, the Legion of Valor (Heroes) and Fallen Legion (Villains), has it's very own artist. Curt Allen does some absolutley amazing work. He has his own business, but his website is down due to taking a break. Actualy, he's so busy doing commission work for the two above mentioned groups (which totals over 250 members) that he doesn't have time for anyting else. So I commissioned a portrait of my long time (and still not at level 50) super hero, Rock Bottom. It turned out GREAT!


But back to beer... I've been remiss in posting beer quotes and facts, so as we wind down 2006 (where did the time go?) I leave you with a double dose!

Beer Fact #1: The term "butt" refers to a very large cask or barrel that holds beer, water or wine. In England a butt contains 108 Imperial (26 US) gallons. Next year I wanna butt of beer for Christmas please! Say... filled with Santa's Butt!

Beer Fact #2: Winter Ale dates back to the 8th century when it was brewed to celebrate the seasno's solstice. Back in the Middle Ages it became so popular taht farmers who didn't save their best grain for brewing risked conficscation of their farms. I love it when people have their priorities in order! Like the saying goes: "Those who cannot learn from the past are doomed to repeat it."

Bear Quote #1: "The Wassailing bowl, with a toast within, Come fill it up unto the brim; Come fill it up, so that we may all see; With the wassailing bowl I'll drink to thee." (traditional English carol)

Beer Quote #2: "I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, a pocket full of money and a cooler full of beer." (Anonymous, but I wish it was from me!)

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

To Do List...

Christmas. Done. It came and went faster then ever this year. And for some reason it seemed to take more out of not just me, but all of us. Might have been the big snow we had a few days before.

Clean up from Blizzard #3 of 2006. Check. Wow. I'm officially getting sick of snow. Snow blower or not, three feet of snow is a pain in the butt to deal with.

Blizzard #4 (due in tomorrow afternoon some time). On schedule. Apparently, this is how it used to be around these parts... before El Nino blew in some time ago. This is the most snow we've had since we've lived here, and it's cold to boot. This is winter! Ironically enough, we hit a record high last year at this time of 64 degrees. We haven't seen anything close to that in many months.

New Year's Eve party and resolution. Check and check. That is, if we don't get snowed in again. The one last week had us socked in for 2 days. My resolution: to have a finished, submittable draft of my "never ending novel" done by this time next year. I've been working on this thing for what seems like several years now, and it's time to "git-r-done" or call it quits. Since I'm a writer not a quitter (apologies to McCartney and Jackson)... well, I've got no choice but to bang this thing out. Plus, I did go and promise my wife that house on the beach. ;)

I have a penchant for a few things (aside from my wife that is). Beer you already know about (and I got a lot of nifty beer "stuff" for Christmas which I'll get to later). Two other things are superheroes - ya, the cape wearing spandex type - and video games. I am an Associate PC Editor for AOL GameDaily after all, so I better like games. I'm lucky enough to be able to combine those two things. My World of Warcraft is the City of Heroes and City of Villains games. I've written several articles about both for AOL GameDaily as well as Beckett's Massive Online Gamer Magazine. I love the new NBC show Heroes. If you haven't been swept up in the phenom yet, there's a marathon on January 1st - be sure to catch it! Plus, I'm a sucker for the spate of superhero movies (my fave up to this point being Batman Returns).

Well... we got several more movies coming down the pipe including Nicholas Cage as Ghost Rider, and the new Fantastic Four movie. The trailer for Rise of the Silver Surfer was just released! Catch it here!

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Are you prepared to be Transformed!?

Right now I' m looking out the window at another blizzard (the third one in as many months) in full effect here in the Springs. Sustained gale force winds of 40+ MPH perpetually blow the snow sideways. We're supposed to get upwards of 24"... but we'll see about that. It's a good day to be inside out of the elements, watching movies next to a roaring fire with your honey, sipping hot toddies. Or at work wishing you were home.

It's been pretty hectic the last few weeks what with all the Christmas hubbub of shopping, parties, and the like. Haven't had much time to actually sit and write a blog, so instead I've force fed you a haphazard string of videos. And I'm gonna do it again today.

I'm not much of a Transformers fan, mainly because I'm not a Japanese Anime fan. So all the buzz about the new Transformers movie was totally lost on me. That is... until I saw the new trailer. Go here, click on the "View Full Screen Trailer" and prepared to be - transformed! ;)


Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Man Law #231: Male Restroom Etiquette

Following up that heart wrenching commercial, I give you something that will make you tear up with side-splitting laughter.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Thank You!

Crack out the tissues...