RIP: Michael Jackson
No, not the singer, but the beer writer. He died at home in London last night. He was a true advocate and evangelist for the industry, and he will be sorely missed.
I've been saving a lambic and a Chimay for a special occasion, and I was thinking about popping one Sunday for Ellie's party, and now I know I will be lifting a glass to toast this great man who opened my eyes to the many wonders in the world of beer.
American Milers
Ever since Jim Ryun, the former world record holder in the mile, ran his last Olympics in 1972, America has been searching for its next great middle distance runner. Steve Prefontaine had the most potential but was taken from us too early. Steve Scott ran in the shadow of the great Brits Sebastian Coe, Steve Cram and Steve Ovett, never really overcoming them. The latest hope was Alan Webb, who broke Jim Ryun's high school mile record in 1999, and ran the fastest 1500 meter race this year, finishing in 3:30, just 4 seconds off the world record. He also broke Scott's American mile record, running a 3:46.91 this year (the world record is 3:43.13). So all eyes were on Webb in Osaka for the 1500m World Championship final.
He broke out and took the lead for two laps, but the pace was slow, around 58 seconds for the first lap, and 59 for the second. If you do the math, you see that this translates to about a 3:54 mile, 8 seconds slower than he's run this year. The pace picked up some on lap 3, with a 57 second lap, but the runners were all bunched together for a sprint finish. And out of the pack came not Webb, but newly-minted American Bernard Lagat, who took the title in 3:34.77. Lagat became an American citizen in 2004, but had to wait to race for the US until this year. He became the first American to win the 1500 at a world or Olympic championship since 1908.
For Webb, it was a disappointing result. He ran a good race tactically speaking. In earlier heats, he had to fight through traffic just to qualify for the finals, and it was clear he wanted to avoid that in the final. But if you are taking the lead and hoping to win, you need to break the runners with a good kick early with some quick laps. Instead, he allowed the entire field to stay in the race up to the sprint finish, and was punished for it, finishing 8th. He may say that he wouldn't change a thing about the race, but he made some critical mistakes early in the race that came back to bite him in the end. Still, it is Webb, at 24 years old, not Lagat, who is the future of American middle-distance running, and I look forward to seeing him redeem himself at the Beijing Olympics next year.
The Missing Person
The Missing Person by Alix Ohlin
My review
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Missing Person is such a well-picked title for this book. The Missing Person could refer to so many things: the narrator's brother who disappears, but only for a short while; the narrator herself, who misses people like her father; the mysterious painter; and even all of us, who are missing things in our lives.
This is a fairly simple book, but it has layers to it that make it almost beautiful while reading. Best of all, the author doesn't find it necessary to talk above you to make herself feel superior. It's straightforward language, but there is still a lot to digest and enjoy.
Next up is The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden. I have the feeling it's going to be added to my permanent collection.
Atwater Pilsner
Big white head which, for the life of me, I couldn't help pouring over the rim of my glass. Light yellow color lies under the frothy head.
Lightly floral aroma. A bit tart and crisp in flavor, somewhat citrusy, with some floral hops coming through as well. There is also a decent malt flavor hanging around, and a nice hop bitterness in the aftertaste.
Overall, a decent crisp pils. Now that they are available locally, I'll have to try some more Atwater brews.
Overall rating: 3.8
Fractured Prune
So not only did the grand opening of the new Fractured Prune have free donuts, but they also had free Seattle's Best coffee. We were totally planning on buying coffee there too, to offset the freebies. Now we'll just have to go back to spend some money. Every. Single. Day.
Oh man, those donuts were yummy. Usually on Saturday mornings, we head up to the farmers market for some crepes and produce. But that'll be ending once winter kicks in, so we found our new Saturday morning breakfast place, and we're not stopping till we tried them all.
Among us (and we brought our neighbor friends as well), we had two "Carnivals" (the girls), a "Blueberry Hill" (the boy), a "Trail Mix" (me), a "Reese Cup" (Lisa), and a "Sand" (our neighbor mom). We all enjoyed our hot, dripping with goodness donuts, and we'll be back soon as paying customers.
Trivia Answers And a Tease
In answer to my trivia questions from our road trip, I only honked my horn once (!) the whole trip, although I was honked at a few more times than that. We left a little after 4pm and got into our house just before midnight, making the total trip time just under 8 hours, including meals. It seems miraculous that it only took that long.
In the mail yesterday, I found a small package addressed to me. I couldn't figure out why I was getting a package. I had already received my fantasy football trophy, and the batteries I got for Ellie. Turns out that some time ago, I filled out a freebie form on the Bass website, and they sent me two promotional CDs called "The New British Invasion," featuring artists such as Badly Drawn Boy and Fat Boy Slim. So whenever I have another trivia contest, that will be the prize. Maybe then I'll get some more comments!
It's one week from Ellie's birthday, and she's getting really excited. Trying to find things to do with an over-excited toddler on rainy days like the past three is tough. Today though, the Fractured Prune donut shop is opening its latest store in the strip mall near our house and offering free donuts from 4-7pm. I am just that kind of guy who will be leaving work early to check them out. I'm thinking the Trail Mix donut looks good.
Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw: Travels in Search of Canada
Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw: Travels in Search of Canada by Will Ferguson
My review
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I'm really horrible at non-fiction, even when it comes to humorous non-fiction like "Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw." In my defense this time though, the book just wasn't as funny as I hoped it would be. Sure, there were some funny parts, but they were surrounded by a lot more wistful memoir-type passages about the author's travels through Canada. It's not that it was a bad book, it just wasn't quite what I expected, so I was a bit disappointed.
Next up is The Missing Person by Alix Ohlin.
Road Trip
We took a quick trip up to New York this weekend to see my grandparents. It was actually Ellie's idea. She was looking at pictures of them, and said, "We should go see Nana and Pa." So we did.
We left bright and early on Saturday morning, hoping to get as far as possible before the kids woke up. Unfortunately, I forgot to fill up on gas before leaving, so we ended up stopping around Havre de Grace, Maryland for gas, at which point both kids were up and we stopped for breakfast. Our meal breaks on both drives ended up a lot longer than usual, because Ellie, in spite of clamoring about how hungry she was, did not want to eat. Sigh, the joys of toddler-hood. After a long crossing of the George Washington Bridge, we arrived in the Bronx around 1pm. A little over 6 hours door-to-door, but there was a good hour of stopping to eat.
Ellie had a good time in New York. We went to the playground down the street, which has been upgraded considerably since I played there. And on Sunday, we drove (drove? yes, drove) downtown to the Staten Island ferry, and rode that across and back. It goes right past the Statue of Liberty, and it's free! It was a cloudy, crummy day, and we didn't have a huge amount of time to spend there, so it wasn't worth spending the money to go to the Statue herself.
And that is where the fun ended. Follow along with this Google Map I created. We started off from our awesome parking space just outside of the New York Police Museum, with our eye on the Holland Tunnel. We first had to deal with getting past all the fire trucks around the Deutsche Bank building that was on fire on Saturday. Then when we got to the tunnel turn at Canal St, the police were blocking it off. I asked Lisa if we should just head up to the Lincoln Tunnel, but she thought we should still take a chance on the Holland. Too late, I flipped on 1010 WINS to find out that there was a stalled car in the Holland Tunnel causing a 40 minute plus backup. We got stuck in the gridlock approaching the tunnel for a few minutes, before navigating around it to get back on the West Side Highway to head up to the Lincoln. Only we went right past the fire station that had lost two firefighters in that fire. They had all but one lane blocked off for the wake.
Finally, we make it to the Lincoln Tunnel, which was moving reasonably well. On to the turnpike, and did I mention it had started raining? Here's a tip for anyone going to drive the turnpike: take the truck/local lanes, because there aren't that many trucks, while there are a lot of cars. I forgot to take my own advice and we paid for it. As in, 10 miles of jammed traffic up to the point where the local and express lanes merge. And even beyond that, the road was still jammed. Finally, at exit 5, we saw a sign for Cracker Barrel and stopped to eat dinner. Better than Burger King in the jam packed rest areas, but again, we took an hour and a half to eat. Back on the road again, we see signs warning of traffic on I-95 into Delaware. Not much choice, so we soldier on. We reach the Delaware Bridge without much traffic, and figure that we missed it, since it's so late already (by now we've called the dog sitters and told them we're not picking Max up tonight). But no, at the Delaware rest area, we slam on the brakes again, 5 miles away from the toll booth, and jammed the entire way.
Finally, we make it past the toll booth, and I try to make up some time. The rain has tapered off at last (it ought to, as we've been on the road long enough), and we decide to take the Harbor Tunnel, I-895, instead of driving through Baltimore, where I know that the Ravens are playing the Giants in a preseason game, and I figure there will probably be traffic from that. Luckily, we avoid any other traffic jams, and make it home safely.
Monday morning trivia for you:
How many times did I honk my horn driving around New York this weekend?
How long did it take us, door-to-door, including dinner breaks, on the way home? Keep in mind the Google Map route provided says it should take 4 hours and 43 minutes normally, and up to 6 hours and 29 minutes in traffic.
Jose Padilla Convicted, Finally
"This demonstrates, at least for now, that the United States is fully capable of prosecuting terrorism while affording defendants the full procedural protections of the Constitution."
- MICHAEL GREENBERGER, who teaches terrorism law at the University of Maryland law
school, on the conviction of Jose Padilla.
About all I have to add there is: What took them so long? If these guys are really bad, just about every American will convict them if placed on the jury. So why stonewall to avoid a trial? It just doesn't make sense. I'm glad to see that justice, such as it is, has finally been done.
Maxed Out
I haven't read the book, or seen the movie, but "Maxed Out" by James Scurlock (no relation to Morgan Spurlock, of "Super Size Me" fame) is turning out to be one of the more prescient documentaries in recent memory. Today's Washington Post has a brief interview with him, and what he expects is coming from the subprime mortgage/credit crunch fallout. Pay attention out there.
It's articles like that one, and this one from the Wall Street Journal which make me glad we refinanced when we did. We certainly didn't need to refinance: our ARM wouldn't change until 2010, I believe. But we were lucky that we timed it just right. We probably got one of the last fixed-rate 6.0% 30-year mortgages the market will see for a few years. As for the Montes family profiled in the WSJ article, they need to start living within their means. (I do give them kudos for doing things like taking a second job, trying their damnedest to refi, etc. But they should also look at the fact that they're paying $700/month in car payments, and look at trading them in for used cars with no car payments.) Their mortgage (without taxes and insurance) was taking up 42% of their (I assume) gross pay, and that's before it resets in December, driving it over 55%! Our mortgage takes up only 18% (more with insurance and taxes, but still not over 30%). Even if some crazy bank was willing to give me a mortgage like theirs, I'd have to look at how much we'd be paying each month and simply say, "We can't afford to own that house." There's nothing wrong with renting, folks. It's time to take a look at where you are, and start getting your priorities straight. Owning your own home simply isn't that important in the grand scheme of things, and if I was facing their situation right now, I'd be packing up my stuff and getting ready to move out.
Books
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GSI Outdoors JavaGrindLifestream
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Brian is back from the last day at the pool, having barely gotten wet.
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Brian is pretty sure the first day of school wake up call will be filled with grumpy.
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Brian Bitches Brew, Live Free or Die, Old Chub.
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Brian is coming to the realization that I am not a size XL. Or even a L. Time to donate some ill-fitting clothes.
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Shared The Thousand .
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Nordstrom's also has a free personal stylist, might trust them more than Banana Republic. (Can you tell I'm bored with my clothes lately?) [BrianDau]
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Who knew that Banana Republic had complimentary "personal styling appointments"? You know, if you go for that kind of style. [BrianDau]
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