The Audible

It would seem that people can sense my intentions and will shift things in the universe just to make things happen. As I was about to execute on the whole "out to dinner plan," a friend calls up and says that his girlfriend's sister is in town, and wants to go out to dinner. He wants me to go with the three of them...

Blind Date Sorta.

Which leads me to two possible preconcieved notions about this whole thing:
1 - That he is serioulsy concerned that the GF's sister is going to cockblock him all night (which doesn't make much sense, they've been dating for a while)...
2 - That he's trying to use me as a distraction because he can't stand her, or just doesn't want to be around her.

Neither of them give me anything even resembling a desire to go out, but I can't say no to a friend. Especially if she's the cockblocking type. Ladies, a bit of a lesson about guys...

Cockblocking friends do serve to ward off the assholes to a degree. But fortunately, years of evolution have lead to the males in our species devising phenominal strategies with which to combat your efforts. In the end, the assholes still get through, and their friends end up spending the evening chatting with someone and wishing they could slit their wrists wide open with a cocktail napkin papercut. The general point is: be the asshole yourself, and just say "you aren't interested" to the choad in the played out unbuttoned dress shirt.

So, not only am I going out, but I get to drive to downtown Seattle from my house in the rain.

We end up having dinner at Buenos Aires in Seattle. It's really a great restaurant, and I haven't ever found a steakhouse like it. Argentinian food is delicious...

And the entire night was really enjoyable. I have to say that I haven't had that much fun with strangers (I'd never met the GF or her sis) ever before, and I'm glad my bud dragged me out. Adrianne (the sis from Florida) was really cool, and I'm glad I got to meet her. Hillarious jokes (I've never laughed so hard in my entire life), actually interesting stories, and she's really cute too. It's a shame she lives in Florida...

So I guess that Friday night was a great night, and it set the weekend up right.

Coherent?

-The following events are true. Only the names, places and events have been changed to protect the innocent.


Last night I ended up getting really good Japanese food. The moment just kinda hit me while driving, "Yakisoba and a side of Gyoza sounds really good right now."


I was going to cook this chicken dish that I have been brainstorming for the longest period of time (and will post the recipe for if I like it), before I ended up going out. I'm not going to cook it tonight either. I still have not decided what I want to eat tonight, but I better get on the ball. It's already 8PM as I type this.


Today at work I was proven right after someone had doubted me multiple times. It was rewarding the first time, gratifying the next, and never got old for the rest of the day.


As a result of the above I won a couple of bets, and dropped all of the money on wine... Hello Chateau Margaux! I did buy a few "drinkable now" bottles as well. I'm excited about the; Latitude 46 Clifton Cuvee, Graham's 85 Port, and BR Cohn Olive Hill Cab.


For some reason, the rain can sense my car being clean. I know that everyone says this, but I think that I have a special bond with the clouds in Seattle. As I pulled out of the car wash, it began to rain. It was barely cloudy when I got there... Maybe four or five in the sky, in the period of 25 minutes, became rain, and it hasn't stopped since.


The rain is also one of the factors that's keeping me from going to get dinner right now. I think that I just have no desire to go drive in the rain to some restaurant. I know what I want now though, I want fish. The place I want to go is less than ten minutes away, and has absolutely delicious food.


Alright, here I go...

Out To Dinner

So I spend the day at work, think up a great combination of ingredients that I want to try out, and stop in to Metropolitan Market and buy them on the way home.

I get into the door, and put everything on the kitchen counter.

I change into some not-work clothes (jeans and a t-shirt), and wash my hands.

And so there I was staring at the ingredients, and I had lost all drive and desire to cook anything at home. So then I sat in the kitchen trying to decided what I wanted to eat. And I am still lost.

I think I'm just going to leave the house, drive around, and end up stopping in SOMEWHERE to get some dinner. I have no clue as to where, what I want, or anything. I just know that I have no desire to cook.

Blogger Does It's Best To Be A PIMA...

That's Pain In My Ass people...

So this thing just deleted this ridiculously long post that I had written about what was going on with work, and how excited I was. I can hear the sighs of relief already about the absence of my ridiculously long post. So I guess I will do my best to retype it as close as possible to the original.

-

So at work today we had another meeting about "new products." I guess with the summer drinking season right around the corner, everyone wants to rush off to market with their latest and greatest idea to carve out a larger piece of the beer market pie (chart). We really do show the market shares as pie charts on our Power Point (cha-ching, Microsoft royalties... J/K), and one of the guys at one point made the comment "so how do we carve ourselves off a larger piece of that pie? We all laughed, and it's been the corny joke of the meetings since. But I digress...

Of course everyone has what they thought are some great ideas for the summer, and while I can't drop names, for fear of being fired for releasing trade secrets, there are some winners and losers in the products we previewed today.

New "Premium Malt Beverages": (For God Sakes, BITCH BEERS)
-So there are so many of these that I can't even remember them all. Between us and competitors there are going to be Teas, Energy Beers, new fruit flavors, and Light versions of everything. We did see a ton of commercials, and my favorite has got to be THIS one. I don't know why, but ridiculously white guys rapping about being ridiculously stuck up is just hilarious to me.

Summer Seasonals:
-Yes, it's that time of year again, and so the lighter easy drinking beers flood the shelf. EVERYONE and their mother is producing a summer seasonal this year, and sadly enough, they all have a really similar flavor profile. I've always been partial to the Sam Adams Summer Ale (which remains unchanged in the bottle, but the packaging is different), but there are some beers that may make it into my fridge this summer, and a couple that I may even be willing to pay for (hey, I'm sure you get something free at work, I don't take pens home, I take beer)...

Hops:
-2007 may be the year of the Hop Bud... Some breweries are reversing trends and releasing heavily hopped beers this summer, in lieu of a seasonal. These are going to be year round brews that just happen to coincide with the summer seasonal release. In the market, this is intended to capture a percentage of the people trying new summer beers, and get them into a beer that will be available year round. There are four or five ales coming to market that are beyond IPAs in the hop category, and the darkest one is a Red Ale, which is also one of the highest in IBUs (the measurement of bitterness).

Insanely Expensive Beer:
-So I am drinking this bottle of beer. ONE BOTTLE mind you... I am halfway through it while listening to the brewer, and I am thinking that this stuff sounds labor intensive to make, and the ingrediants are quite pricey when added up, but it's delicious. Then we get to the numbers. $14.00 a bottle. FOURTEEN U.S. DOLLARS A BOTTLE... FOR A BOTTLE OF BEER... I guess that the logic of "you only have to sell a few if they're fucking expensive" might have a chance to pay off here.

Fruit Accented Beers:
-Not in any way "fruity" beers, these just have various fruits used during the brewing process that manage to infuse just the slightest bit of flavor into the beer. Really a subtle and refreshing hint of flavor, and not a punch in the tongue. Everything and anything has been used, but my personal "neato" beers had; Pomegranate, Blueberry, Orange Zest, Lemon Zest, and Raspberry. These should all end up as year round brews, but some may end up in the seasonal category if demand slumps during the fall and winter.

So that was my afternoon. From eleven AM to seven PM we just drank, ate (lunch was a really mediocre chicken marsala dish, I was not impressed by the caterer), talked, drank some more, ate (dinner was herb crusted prime rib and a saffron infused rice pilaf, caterer is back in my good graces), talked for an hour about numbers, and then had a neat beer with desert (hint, the blueberry beer was here, and it was SO PERFECTLY MATCHED with the desert). I stayed in the office late trying to get ahead at work because tomorrow looks to be a nightmare...

Friday is going to be a good one though, and then this weekend I get to do a lot of housework. As much as this sounds not fun at all, I am looking forward to it. I have no idea as to why.

Stormin Out...



OK, so PS, South Park was ridiculously funny tonight.

So I Get Home

And I do what I do every day. Grab a ROCKSTAR, turn on the TV/Monitor, turn on the computer, and begin perusing my daily blog reads...

During all of this I opened my Email, and I have a "Forward" from some jackass whining about gun control, the dangers of firearm ownership, and the need to keep firearms away from people...

As such I have deleted the person who forwarded the Email from my address book, and blocked their address. I can't stand people who want to whine about the government trying to take away their privacy rights, reproductive rights, gay rights, etc... But when it comes to MY RIGHTS (and I want my privacy and such too) they don't give a damn about my constitutionally listed right to own firearms. They're kept unloaded in a safe (well, everyone except the one I am carrying at the time, because YES, I do have my concealed carry permit), they are registered, and they are no threat to anyone except someone trying to harm me...

So while I own many firearms, here is a photo or four of the scariest looking one. This is the kind of gun owned strictly for competitions or collecting (I do both). No gang banger is going to have one of these, it's custom made for me and cost more than any small time crack dealer could earn in a month.

Comped CAR-15


Unloaded. Note the nickel plated cases on the rounds. These help the action (bolt) cycle smoother as it fires, increasing reliability, and at ONLY DOUBLE THE COST... :-)


Upper Receiver Open


Upper and Lower Receivers separated. This is how it is stored, and as such the thing is useless. It couldn't fire a bullet if someone got a hold of it, and would only do damage if they threw it at someone (and not much at that, it's really quite light).


So, sorry to not be my normal sedate self. I'm sure that some (or many) of you all may disagree with me. I welcome your comments for discussion... :-)

New Parts For The Car...

So after much math and debate, I think that my bonus is going to be a bit more than initially anticipated, and even after the IRS gets their (outrageous) cut of it, I may have some extra bucks to spend. So I think I might pick up a part for the car (or two, depending upon what I buy).

The first option is and always will be a set of wheels. But I did just buy new tires, and so I would have to sell the current ones (or have a second set). That dilemma aside, I really like the wheels pictured below, but I may have the centers powder coated a different color. See photos below for the idea of my craziness. It would be 19's in the front and rear. And with a staggered width (8.5 in the front, 9.5 in the rear, with 245-35R-19 and 265-30R-19 tires) to clear the brakes.


Or redone to look like the one below. It is a silver car.

Or maybe getting a new Carbon Fiber Front Lip ala the Mercedes McLaren SLR 722.

Or perhaps a new suspension to tighten up the ride. The problem with this is that "tightening up the ride" improves the cars already good cornering at the minor expense of making little bumps into bigger deals. A buddy's car with a suspension similar to the one I want probably would knock the fillings out of most peoples teeth, but I don't have fillings so I am less concerned. But I do drive the car every day, so I would stick to something adjustable and just keep it on the softer settings. KW makes a good setup that is surprisingly cheap for what it is, and the bound and rebound are fully adjustable. Soft on work days and rock hard on track days...

Here's a pic of what it would look like on car (wrong color, wrong engine even but I have no desire to photoshop it right now). Just to get an idea of how low the car would be, the wheels just would tuck right up to the fender.


And while there are pros and cons to all of these things, the only one that I eventually will HAVE to do is the new wheels. I'm having the front and rear brakes replaced (in about 9 months), and I need to have 19 inch wheels to clear the new ones, which will be a set of these:

Renntech 405mm rotors with 8 piston calipers on the front, and the AMG rotors and calipers from the front are going to the rear with the help of some custom brackets.


So there's the car update. I'll post something with more substance and less whining tomorrow... :-)

Oh My God...

Family Guy tonight has got to have been the most out there episodes in the history of time...

Red Flannel Feety Pajamas, the On Her Period Raggedy Anne Doll, and " I think I might be Jesus..."

This entire episode has had me laughing so hard I can't breathe...