Otter Creek ESB
Nice coppery color with a good head of foam leaving a good lacing along the glass. I get a decent floral hop aroma, with the malt coming through as well.
The first sip brought me back to my last trip to England and trying the bitters there. Not the same thing though, I realize. The hops soon came through much more aggressively, with a good bit of a bite, but were well balanced all in all.
Overall Rating: 4.1
Ready to Feel Old?
Kids born in 1990 will be eligible to vote in next year's Presidential Election. A couple of benchmarks to show you how long ago 1990 is:
Milli Vanilli won their "Best New Artist" Grammy.
Mike Tyson's championship reign ended at the hands of Buster Douglas.
Marion "Bitch Set Me Up" Barry was arrested for drug possession.
The Soviet Union officially disbanded.
Germany officially reunited.
The Hubble Space Telescope was put into orbit.
The first World Wide Web page was written.
Margaret Thatcher ended her tenure as British Prime Minister.
The Gulf War started.
Super Nintendo was released.
The first episode of MTV Unplugged aired (trivia: who was the artist on this first episode?)
Farm Aid was already on tour #4.
Pearl Jam played their first show as a band.
Michael Crichton published Jurassic Park.
Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Wings, In Living Color, Beverly Hills 90210, America's Funniest Home Videos and Law & Order premiered.
Home Alone, Ghost, Dances With Wolves, Pretty Woman, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the first one) were the top-grossing films. Dances With Wolves won the Best Picture Oscar. Back to the Future III also came out in 1990.
Sammy Davis, Jr, Jim Henson, and Roald Dahl (among others) died.
End nostalgia trip.
Take Brady Quinn, Please!
Anyone who knows me will realize that I despise Notre Dame. Hate em. So I laughed when Brady Quinn wasn't taken by the Browns, as expected, at #3. I laughed harder when they showed him at age 4 in the Browns uniform. (I had the same thing for the Giants, and I think my brother had the Cowboys equivalent. We would play in the backyard in our "helmets" and "shoulder pads" until the days when we started hitting each other too hard. I think at one point one of us undercut the other's legs while jumping for a pass, causing a scary moment of landing on one's head.) But no way should he have dropped to #22. A travesty, I say. Clearly the Dolphins should have taken him (I feel a Dolphins draft mistake video coming on), but I even though the Jets (do you really trust Chad Pennington to stay healthy?), Jaguars (ditto re: Byron Leftwich) or Chiefs (Trent Green is 37 and you're trying to trade him) should have pulled the trigger. Instead, those teams allowed Cleveland to make a deal to trade back up and get him. Even though it cost them their first rounder next year, you have to think that the Browns are one of the most improved teams on paper, adding a stud LT, franchise QB, and Jamal Lewis to their squad.
The Giants always frustrate me with their picks. Aaron Ross may be good, but they have failed in their DB picks in the past. Taking Steve Smith where they did in the second round was a good value, but they just took Sinorice Moss last year, and needed O-line help and more help on defense.
I had my second baseball game of the season yesterday and played 5 of the 8 positions, all three outfield spots and third and short. Solid game all around, and we are dominating this fledling four team league. I made a couple of easy plays in centerfield, and a good play on a slow grounder to my right at short, throwing out one of their fastest players by a step. My only bobble came at third base, when, with the bases loaded, I fielded a ground ball, stepped on third, and threw home. My throw was a little off, and the run scored. Still, it was already 21-1 or something at that point, but still. At the plate, I lined out weakly to short my first time up, victimized by the umpire's shaky strike zone. Since I was the second guy up, I was surprised that fast balls at my ankles scooped out of the dirt by the catcher were called strikes, but the ump was consistently calling those and I adjusted later. The next time up, I fell behind by shaky calls again, and grounded to third, but hustled down the line enough to cause a low throw to first and I was safe. My last two at-bats were my best ones, against the other team's best pitcher. The first time, I decided I was swinging at the first pitch and wouldn't let him get ahead of me. He grooved me a fast ball, and I drilled it into the left field corner where it either hopped over the fence, or went through an opening for a ground rule double. The next time up, he got ahead of me, and I choked up on the bat to line a two strike single over shortstop. He made a nice pitch, putting a slider low in the zone, that the ump would have called a strike, so I had to swing, and got a good piece of it. The last two at-bats felt good, and got me off the schneid. Hopefully I can keep it going next week.
Not Your Usual Saturday Night
Being the parent of two kids under the age of four means that an exciting Saturday night usually involves a trip to Carvel or Blockbuster. There is no partying till all hours of the night in our house, and definitely no going out.
This Saturday night was perhaps a little bit too exciting for our suburban lives. It started early in the afternoon, when Lisa was out in the front yard gardening with Ellie and Max. One of the miniature Dobermans from down the street got loose and took off down the street, crossing several times, being fortunate not to get hit by a car. He eventually saw Max, and went over for a sniff allowing the owners to catch up and get him back home. It turned out they were having a birthday party, and one of the guests left the gate open.
That party went on throughout the day, into the night. Now, don't get me wrong, we're all in favor of parties. The whole day the party was going on, and we went about our own lives. But sometime after the sun went down around 8pm, the music got louder and louder, and Ellie's bedtime was fast approaching. Lisa ended up calling the cops, in spite of the early hour, because the pounding bass line was shaking our window from a full block away. Play your music if you must, but it's too loud if my windows are closed, they are shaking, and I can hear every lyric. (Even if I couldn't understand them because they were in Spanish. Did I mention the neighbors are Latino? Yeah, more on that coming up. It's called foreshadowing. For the record, we are equal opportunity complainers. Last year we complained about the white teenagers partying.) A few minutes later, the music was off. But, sometime before 9pm, it was back again. I couldn't really hear it in Ellie's room with the windows closed though, so Lisa tried to get Ellie to sleep, and I tried to get Evan to sleep.
This is where it started getting weird. I was about to call the cops again when the music stopped. Someone else must have called I suppose. Soon after the music stopped, an angry male voice started shouting. I couldn't tell what it was, as I had the TV on, but Lisa came in and said, "Can you hear that guy shouting, 'Latinos! Go! Home!'?" This could be a problem. Lisa called the cops for the second time, and they started getting worried that there would be a serious throw-down between the neighbors. At one point, they were in the easement area of our backyard with flashlights, apparently looking for one or the other neighbor. They never found anyone back there, if there was anyone there in the first place. We never found out who was shouting either, as the night settled down soon afterward, and Ellie was finally able to get some sleep. I think she was a bit freaked out by all the excitement.
So much for the quiet suburban life.
Sam Adams White Ale
Orangey color, big white head which filled the hefe glass to the top, bubbles out quickly.
I smelled the glass more than anything else, not much aroma.
The flavor had a nice spiciness: coriander and orange dominating. This is a crisp beer, with a smooth wheat finish.
Didn't quite live up to my expectations, but a pretty good spring beer.
Overall rating: 3.45
My Last Night
Very strange night last night. I got home and checked out the monitor. Here's something I bet you didn't know: if the backlight on your LCD monitor (or TV) goes bad, like mine did, you can shine a bright light at the screen and still see the outline of what is displayed. I did that with mine and saw the outline of the Windows login box. Freaky and cool.
Evan had his second "solid" food meal of bananas. I forgot how babies will try to suck on the spoon instead of eating from it like we do. It is awesome and I have 15 minutes of video from his first time.
Ellie fell asleep on the La-Z-Boy before dinner around 6pm, and we eventually moved her into her bed. She didn't wake up until 6am when a thunderstorm rattled the windows. This was probably a good preview of her teenage years, though I expect the sleep window to shift more to midnight to noon.
After dinner, I went out to Staples and picked up this Acer 19" widescreen monitor. It's actually about the same height as our old 17" LCD, but much wider. The HD looks sweet on it, and the price is pretty good for the specs it has.
I didn't get around to doing any picture stuff, because Lisa had email and finance stuff to catch up on, so look for Disney stuff on Monday, conditions permitting.
After taking out the recycling, I went downstairs to watch TV since I wasn't really tired yet and watched about the first hour of "Saw," as edited for TV by the Sci-Fi Channel. Disturbing yet intriguing movie so far. I had no idea that Ben from Lost was in it though! And Amanda is Rhonda, the pregnant student from Summer School! I haven't finished watching it yet, so don't ruin it for me.
All Apologies
Our monitor is on the fritz right now, and since all the Disney pictures are on there with no way to see them, it's going to be a while before I get around to writing up the trip. Nothing like coming home and having stuff break right after an expensive trip.
Ugh, and the Woot-off right now has a 32" Viewsonic HDTV (with computer input) for $454. Damn you and your tempting geek gifts, Woot!
Disney Trivia Answer And Menu
I really need to remember to be specific when doing these contests. Not only did I neglect to say that going over did not matter, but I also forgot to mention whether sales tax should figure in, though I did tell you to exclude tips. Anyway, on to the answer.
Victoria and Albert's has a fixed price menu of $115 per person (this actually varies with the time of year, I think). We also ordered the wine pairings to go with each course, which was $60 per person. However, Lisa also sprung for an extra $15 Foie Gras option. This brought the subtotal to $365, so Shelley was closest. After taxes, it was up to $388.73, so Al was the closest to that number. You KC boys really must have life really cheap out there.
On to the important part, the menu.
We each got our own personalized menu.
Here is mine. Click on the thumbnail for the larger view, it should be fairly legible at that size. Lisa had a slightly different menu, without the seafood options. On to what we ate, no pictures though, sorry. I will try to describe Lisa's food as well, but I only had a bite or two here and there, so maybe she can chime in with a comment.
Obviously we both enjoyed the little bit of bubbly to start, and toasted to our birthdays, which bracketed the dinner date. I had the Dungeness and King Crab to start, which was honestly a little bit plain. The small taste of caviar was nice though. The Vermentino wine was a good starter too, a crisp and delicate partner to the seafood. Lisa had heirloom tomatoes with hearts of palm and 25 year balsamic vinegar. I never bought in that much to the age numbers on balsamic, but that stuff was good.
Next up for me was the Minnesota Elk. Now we're talking. In contrast to the understated seafood appetizer, this one kicked you over with flavor. Good rare meat, nice bit of spaetzle to absorb some of the sauce, and I really enjoyed the sweetbreads (go ahead, click the link and remind yourself of what sweetbreads are. They were good is all I know). The Perez Cruz Reserva Carmenere was typical Chilean: bold and spicy, with lots of fruit flavors (I apologize for the sloppy wine reviews, I didn't take notes like I do when sampling beers). Lisa had the foie gras and practically moaned through every bite, so I assume she enjoyed it.
I had the New Zealand John Dory next (being in Disneyworld, I couldn't help thinking I was eating Dory from Finding Nemo), which was delicious. The Christian Moreau Chablis was another nice white seafood accompaniment, citrusy with some apple. Lisa had an awesome butternut squash soup instead of seafood here.
Ah, the main course. I had a really hard time choosing here between the pork tenderloin and the lamb. I eventually chose the lamb, since Lisa doesn't like lamb so much and I don't get much opportunity to have it. The Cesari "Mara" Vino Di Ripasso Valpolicella was one of my two favorites (along with the Perez Cruz). It balanced the mixture of the lamb and salty prosciutto and sweet and sour sherry vinaigrette, not as bold as the Chilean, but strong enough to hold its own with all those flavors running around. Lisa was sold on the poulet rouge after hearing about the truffled egg. The chef lets the eggs sit in an enclosed refrigerated space with the truffles for three days, allowing the flavors to seep through the shell into the egg. And I am not going to do it justice, but he poaches the egg in its shell just so, adding shaved truffles at the end. Seriously, I tried the egg, and the one bite I had was worth $10 easily. The poulet rouge with the Pinot Noir was divine as well.
Both of us had the cheese plate with Cockburn's Tawny Porto. Criminally, this is only the second time I have ever had port. The Comte cheese was both of our favorites.
We also both had the Hawaiian Kona Chocolate Souffle. The pear sounded interesting to me, and in retrospect I should have tried it, but I was in the mood for some chocolate. We also had a gimmicky coffee service, where the coffee grounds are positioned in a pot placed above a tube running down to the coffee pot. A flame is placed under the water, which gradually steams up the tube until it condenses and mixes with the coffee grounds. After the heat it removed, the liquid is sucked back down through the tube into the pot. Anyway, I know that chocolate souffles are probably overrated as a dessert, but it was still extremely good.
So there you have it, nearly $400 of food and wine. If you click through on each of the wine links above, you can see that we probably got a reasonably decent deal on that part. Our waiters Jack (from Yonkers, NY, by way of Washington, DC!) and Sherry were not shy about filling our glasses with reasonable amounts of wine, and I was not shy about tipping them afterward. And yes, I did wake up at 5am with a raging, pounding headache, but luckily, a couple of Motrin and a couple more hours of sleep, and I was okay, unlike when I was in Vegas.
I hope you enjoyed this culinary adventure as much as I did. Feel free to criticize my choices (why didn't you spring the extra $80 for the Kobe you moron?!?!) or brag about your trivia guesses in the comments. The kiddie portion of Disney will begin on Thursday, maybe.
Playground Dad
Since I get in to work early, I also get to leave early, which is really nice, especially in the spring and summer months when I can go for walks and take Ellie to the playground. Of course, most of the time I end up being the only dad there, but I'm cool with that.
Yesterday was just such a time. Ellie was having a difficult time adjusting to life away from Disneyworld, so we decided to go to the playground for a while. This was negotiated down from going to the pool (which we do not belong to and which does not open until Memorial Day anyway) and from filling up the baby pool (which probably has holes and which I couldn't find anyway). Shortly after we arrived, Ellie's friend Stella showed up with her mom and her brother Henry. Ellie and Stella literally yelled out each other's name and ran toward each other in excitement. They should have fun at school together today.
The rest of the moms and I stood around chatting and watching the kids for the better part of an hour. Henry is such a boy, he gives me a preview of what Evan will be like in a year or so. Yesterday, he took advantage of a momentary lapse in his mom's concentration to walk straight into a lake at Meadowlark Gardens. Luckily, we don't live in Florida, so there weren't any alligators around. He has two girlfriends already, one of which, Moira, was there at the playground yesterday. She is a cutie, but she's still a little shy around me. I am an oddball, a dad amongst moms. I definitely am in with the moms though, as I told the story about Ellie getting her picture taken with Cinderella, and all three moms simultaneously cocked their heads to the side and went, "Awwww!"
The Disney trivia will remain open for one more day, as we are still trying to get organized at home (meaning I haven't dug up the receipt with the exact amount yet). Some of the entries are already extremely close, so be sure to get your guess in.
Disney Trivia for Adults
To hold your interest until I have the chance to get my pictures and thoughts on our Disney trip in order, I offer this challenge:
How much did it cost for Lisa and me to have dinner at Victoria and Albert's restaurant, located at the Grand Floridian Disney hotel? Do not include tip, but be sure to account for adult beverages, since it was our night away from the kids.
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