Mother Nature doesn't like Dodge Neons

Valentine's Trip

Valentines Day, another hallmark holiday made up so businesses can make some extra cash. So I thought to myself, “why can’t I benefit from this holiday as well?” So I did. Since it was on Thursday Amber and I decided to hold off on doing anything until Saturday, so I parked cars for Valentines Day and did pretty well since I worked a high-end restaraunt in German Village here In Columbus. Then I did it again Friday night. So I had a pocket full of money and a hot lady to take out on the town for Saturday. After relaxing most of the day we were up and getting ready but before, I decided to run to the store to grab a pre-dinner beer. And on my walk home I thought to myself, “why not do a post where I give a little info on my drinks of the evening? Even better I’ll do a trip around the world with my drinks.” So with that statement let me reiterate the fact that I don’t condone drinking and I will stand by my statement that I am not an alcoholic.

            First we travel to Germany, Warstein, North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany to be exact. Actually outside of there in Arnsberg Forest Nature Park sits the Warsteiner brewery, Germany’s largest privately owned brewery. It has been owned by the Cramer family since 1753. I picked Warsteiner for one main reason, the glass. Nick sent me this glass straight from the Warstein because Nick's company has their headquarters right next to the brewery. Could you imagine having to work next to a brewery and being able to smell that sweet nectar all day? Mmmmmm. Anyway I chose the lighter Warsteiner since it was a pre-dinner drink.

For dinner, at Nida’s Thai on High, I picked a ginger ale from Japan, a Hitachinio. Brewed by Kiuchi brewery in Naka, Japan where they mix European beer making techniques with traditional Japanese brewing techniques. Not sure it was the right choice for dinner especially paired with sushi but what is? It was a good beer and my first ginger beer as well. Owl you need is a beer.

After dinner we headed down the road to Barrel 44, a whiskey bar here in Columbus. I’ve been itching to try a scotch so I stepped out of my norm of beer and ask the bartender for a scotch drink for a beginner and she handed me a scotch and soda with a twist of lemon. She used Dewar’s White Label which is a littler “smoother” than regular Dewar’s. I’ve come to realize when a whiskey drinker says “smoother” it’s still going to burn when you drink it straight, but with the splash of soda and lemon it was actually pretty good for my first time. Dewar’s is obviously from Scotland up in the Highlands, started by john Dewar in 1846.

Next I head a little south to north Yorkshire, England and picked up a New Castle brown ale which is the most sold brown ale in the UK. I had gotten ale because we ordered a plate of fries and I didn’t think a scotch and soda was the right choice to wash down the hot potatoes strips.

After the fries and drinks we braved the cold and headed home. As old fashioned as this sounds we enjoyed our last drink of the evening, a night cap if you will, a port. For V Day, Amber got me a bottle of Noval Black. Noval Black is a port from Portugal which means it’s a real Port or Porto. A port is wine that has been fortified and left in a barrel in a cave or kahv (Portugal for cellar). The fortification leaves a little more sugar in the wine and boosts the alcohol content. And if you get a port that isn’t from Portugal it’s a generic or knockoff. The name Port comes from the seaport city of Porto at the mouth of the Douro River where it was first exported in the 17^th century.

So I didn’t necessarily go around the world and there are a ton more choices out there from all over but those were mine for the evening and I’ll admit they were all pretty good choices for my first trip. And I felt fine the next day because most of the drinks were spaced out pretty far and before bed I took two aspirin and a glass of water. So until the next trip, cheers.

“I cook with wine; sometimes I even add it to the food.”         -W.C. Fields

Jambalaya

Awe the coldness, it just keeps creepin’. Well actually it has been battling it out with the warmth. Some days its cold and others it’s warm. It literally snowed all day one day last week and was down around 20°F and the next day it topped out at 63°F and melted all the snow. Welcome to Ohio, where you never know what the weather will be like. If it’s cold in the morning you might as well wear some shorts under your pants because it may be hot by noon. If you live in a little more predictable climate or it actually is cold today in Ohio there is nothing better on those freezing days than a hot meal. One of my favorite hot meals is jambalaya. Oh you don’t know what jumbalaya is? Let me put it to you this way; the Cajuns said, “I’m gonna make some spicy rice and add some meat.” Not sure what the original dish contained but you can put anything you want in it. Whether it’s chicken, sausage, seafood, or alligator it’s a tasty hot meal on that cold winter day.

How do you make it? Easy. You buy a box of Zatarain’s Jambalaya Mix and follow the instructions on the back of the box. The box doesn’t come with meat so you add your own, again, your choice. I like mine with sausage. Andouille sausage is the way I go, or with smoked sausage or jalapeno chicken sausage. Now on the back of the box it instructs you to brown the meat (sausage) in one pan and drain. Then it goes on to boil so much water and add an amount of veggie oil as an option. When the water comes to a boil add the rice/spice from the box and the cooked meat. Then it goes on how to finish. The way I do it is I brown my sausage in a sauce pan, remove the sausage and there is a small amount of oil left from the sausage, some might call it grease, or fat juice, whatever you want to call it, that’s what I use instead of veggie oil. I leave that in the pot and add my water, bring it to a boil and add my rice/spice and sausage bring back to a boil and then let it simmer on low heat. Twenty minutes later you have a pot full of goodness. Now I don’t take credit for finding this recipe, me mum used to feed it to me when I was a little lad. Not sure why that sentence had a British tone to it. Oh you say you’re a vegetarian? Don’t add meat. The rice is tasty by itself as well. The best part of this whole meal, it’s cheap and easy as hell to make. So next time you in the sto’ go on and pick you up a box. Not sure how to write in a Cajun way.

 

If you are unfortunate and they don’t have Zatarain’s in your local grocer, you can make your own. There are a ton of recipes on the internet. And you are too lazy and don’t want to make your own or by the box and make that, some restaurants make their own so you can go get theirs. Around the Columbus area there is a restaurant called BJ’s Brewhouse by Polaris mall that serves a very tasty version loaded with a few different meats including chicken, shrimp, and sausage.  

Cold, Just Cold

I woke up this morning to a blustering (thanks dad for the word) 6° F at 6:30 this morning to walk penny. After getting ready for work it had rise to 7°F. I went out to start my car and after it started the gas light came on. The coldest day of the year and I had to get gas. I’m pretty sure I left a finger frozen to the gas pump and one of my ears fell off while I was pumping my gas. I like the cold weather but this is ridiculous. It begins to get a little much when I have to put on three layers just to take penny for a twenty minute walk. But the dog loves it. She has a nice big fur coat, she just trots around like it’s nothing, looks up at me and says, “You cold or something?” “Why are you turning blue?”

Speaking of dogs talking, Amber and I were watching some funny dog videos on the Ol’ internet the other day when we came across a few that had captions, as if the animal was saying something. I don’t know if you have ever seen these but none of these animals can spell. Is that what it takes to make something look cute or funny is if the captions are misspelled? If penny could talk I would like to think she would learn to read and write correctly as well.  I’m not the best at grammar but I have the basics down like the word “was” I know isn’t spelled “wuz,” or “because” is not “cuz.” Come on people let’s give these animals some credit some of them are smarter than us anyway.

I got home last night and after dinner I went to wash the dishes and there was no hot water. I don’t mean there was luke warm water or that it just took awhile for the water to warm up I mean literally no hot water in the kitchen. I turned the lever all the way over to the left and nothing. No water at all flowing from the faucet. There was cold water but no hot. So naturally I went up stairs to the bathroom and of course hot water up there. Then I went down to the basement. The clothes washer had hot water. Come to find out there is a section of about ten feet of pipe under the kitchen floor that has, I assume, frozen in this arctic blast we have gotten in Ohio. I did the first thing that came to mind, grabbed a hair dryer. After heating up what sections I could reach with no success I gave up and did the dishes in cold water. This cold is going to kill me.

That’s my rant for this week.

Lance, Notre Dame, and Hockey

            So let’s talk sports. With all the sports in the world there are only a handful that matter here in the USA, football, baseball, basketball, hockey, NASCAR, and golf, which I don’t know why. But every where else in the world a couple other sports rein supreme. Soccer, for instance, is huge in every single country in Europe, Africa, South America, and even Asia. We have our fill here though with the Major League Soccer and as you know now, if you are a frequent reader, college soccer. The MLS had its super draft this past week and it didn’t go exactly as I thought. My home team, Columbus crew, however, did pick up the second leading scorer from the NCAA, Ryan Finley from Notre Dame. Hopefully that will help the Crew to another MLS championship this upcoming season.

            Another huge sport in Europe is cycling, and its popularity has been spilling over into the U.S. In the past 15 years it has been growing since the cycling spot light has made its way over to Lance Armstrong. In the past few days his light has grown in intensity since his interview with Oprah where he finally openly admitted to using performance enhancing drugs. And this shocked people? Come on? He won the Tour de France seven times after beating cancer. Seven times! No other rider has ever done that. There are only four riders that won it five times and they very well may have doped also. I still support Lance even though he lied about never doping. If he never would have doped, and never won seven, do you think his Livestrong foundation, which has raised millions of dollars for cancer research, would have been such a big success? Aside from that, an athlete that did something remarkable, who turned out to have doped, is that really surprising? Can you say Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, and Roger Clemens just to name a few of the hundreds who have doped in just baseball. The list is HUGE of players who have been caught using performance enhancing drugs. And the sports that test are out there as well. Like snooker for instance. What the hell is snooker? Wiki, can you help me out? Snooker is a billiard sport played on a table covered with green felt blah, blah, blah. Ok, it’s like pool that is played in Europe. There were two people tested in the UK and were found guilty for using cannabis or pot. Also on the list for using cannabis are some snowboarders. Really? That’s no shocker. That would be like testing a pro-bowler (a guy who bowls professionally, not a football player who makes it to the Super Bowl) for alcohol. Anyway, back the main subject, Lance, I’m disappointed you used but I’m still a supporter and like to see you get back on a bike and kick some French ass, with or without drugs. Just because it’s funny to see the French get mad at you, they hate you.

            Another huge story in sports is Manti Te’o, the linebacker from Notre Dame. Poor kid lost his girlfriend to leukemia or she just deleted her Facebook profile. Either way it was a tragic loss for him and was the victim of a badly played hoax. Whether he knew anything of the hoax I don’t know he hasn’t said. If not, I do feel bad for him, more for developing an emotional relationship with someone he never actually met in person. If he did know, well then he is just an asshole. A piece of advice for all you single folk out there, if you meet someone online whether it’s a dating site, Facebook, or whatever, don’t consider them your significant other until you have actually met them. I’m amazed that people are just now finding that this sort of thing goes on. I mean, if you can’t trust the internet then who can you trust.                   

Well that’s all I got for this weeks rant, as for my challenges… I have none. I’m all out. I’ve done all types of challenges and now I’m out of them. I need some suggestions, so let me know what you got. You can leave a comment, email me (email address in the "abou me" section), call me, write me a letter, or just tell me next time you see me. So until next time, welcome back hockey.

“If you worried about falling off the bike, you’d never get on.”      

-Lance Armstrong

No Techno and Rock Rings

            One week being without technology, well for the most part. No texting for the past week was nice. I actually got to talk to some people on the phone and hear their voices. I did have to look up a couple of things on the internet during this past week but I didn’t spend a lot of time on it. One thing I had to look up was a certain owl hoot. I had taken Penny the pup out to pee before bed when I heard it. A well rehearsed series of “who’s.” So naturally when I came in and had to know what kind of owl it was. It didn’t take but a few seconds, thanks to technology, to find a site where they have owl sounds. After clicking on a few wrong sounds I found it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fppKGJD3Y6c). The sounds came from a barred owl also known as eight hooter, rain owl, wood owl, striped owl and hoot owl. One of the most common owls in north America and the only typical owl in the eastern USA to have brown eyes, most have yellow eyes. It was the same kind of owl that I wrote about back in May in the post "The Owl and Fox". It always nice when you live in the city to see or hear wildlife, it gives you a sense that there is still some wild places out there.

Working out has never been anything I have ever loved doing. But I have picked up more in the past year than I have done in awhile. In 2012 I did pretty well to work out 2-3 times per week, whether it was just doing some pushups or riding the bike or a full out workout I still did a little more than usual. I did have a few spurts where I wouldn’t work out for a week or two but for the most part I did better getting in shape last year. That brings to 2013, and my plan to continue to get better at working out.

 For Christmas I got what is called Rock Rings made by a company called Metolius. Basically they are just a rock climbers training tool that hangs from the wherever like a pull-up bar. Even there are just a few exercises you can do on them and they are purely arm and shoulder exercises with a few core muscles being worked indirectly, they can still be tough. So first to warm up, I hang there. Seems easy right? Well its not. Keeping your back perfectly straight as if you were in an upside down pushup position, while hanging arms extended for about a minute then moving each hand down to the next position for another minute without letting your back drop, then down to the next, all the way to the bottom then climb your way back up. Still seem easy? Did I mention each position is smaller than the previous, so you start using your whole hand on the top then move to just four fingers then three, and the last is just two fingers only about one knuckle deep? Alright warm up done. Move on to pull ups. I know how hard is a pull up right? Not hard… at first. First five are easy using the whole hand then take a break. Now move onto four fingers, three, and finally two again, if you can manage five reps. Oh wait, I forgot an important part, after you climb to the bottom with your hangs and pull ups you have to climb back to the top. Pull ups done? Time to move on to more hanging with opposite hands in different positions followed by more pull ups with hands in different positions as well. Ultimately you work to build up to doing more minutes on hangs, more pull-ups, and  eventually one handed everything and maybe one day two finger, one handed hangs and pull ups. That’s the goal anyway, right now I'm good for about 45 seconds on the two finger hang and no pull ups with just two fingers but a few on the other holds. Time to get to work.  

My challenge for now is pretty much as above, so that’s what ill be working on for awhile. So until next time, hang on.

“It’s ideal to walk the middle line in life. It’s for sure the way of peace. I’m trying every day to find that way. I get lost on the path that from afar seems so simple. Sometimes I’m too lazy and sometimes I hurry so much. I’d like to be right between those extremes.”                                      -Chris Sharma

Movie Life

Happy Holidays! Yes it’s been a few weeks, but I’ve been busy, just like everyone around this time of the year. I’ve been travelling places, spending time with family, fighting our way through traffic jams, all that holiday stuff. We went to Tennessee this past weekend which is nothing short of beautiful. Amber’s family lives on the east side of the state in the mountains. It was perfect weather cold and crisp but sunny and clear. Unfortunately, we were so busy with family we didn’t have much of a chance to get away and do some hiking. The family time was great though. I could literally just listen to her grandpa all day telling stories.

Over the break I watched the movie The Avengers and if you have seen it then you know that there is an epic battle in a city, I think New York City, and there is massive damage to the city itself which got me thinking. What if movies were real? Think about it. New York would have been destroyed a few times along with other big cities like London, Paris, and Washington D.C. We would constantly be rebuilding. And amidst the rebuilding we would have to worry about aliens, robots, and evil villains. However, we would have some pretty impressive people protecting us though. The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, X Men, Superman, and Batman. I would have to battle through zombies to get to work in the mornings and I couldn’t go out at night in fear of getting bit by a werewolf or vampire. Dogs would talk, turtles would be ninjas, and chipmunks could dance. There would be dragons and an island full of dinosaurs. King Kong, mighty Joe Young and all the monkeys from planet of the apes. Godzilla would have demolished Tokyo while Jaws ruled the seas. A massive battle of alien versus predators would rage through the jungles. Ghosts, goblins, Stay Puff Marshmallow Man, and Ghost Busters would be battling it out in the streets of New York. A fifty foot woman, tiny people, cone heads, magicians, and everything your imagination has ever thought of. I don’t know what the world would be like but it would be pretty awesome to watch.

With the New Year right here, I thought that instead of copping out this year, I would come up with a challenge. Exercise, read more, save money, eat better, sleep better, be a better person, all of these I have tried along with everyone else on the planet so I needed something new. Technology has seen some impressive leaps these past few years, but what if it hadn’t? Where would we be? Well we wouldn’t be bale to pull out our phones and look up something on the internet or sit in front of a computer and watch live video of your friends while you chat with them. So, since the Myans were wrong about the end of the world just like Y2K never destroyed all computers I will have my own loss of connection, so to speak, and head back to a time before all this. They called it the ‘80s. I'll treat my phone like it was, well, a phone. Only accepting calls and making calls when I am at home or work and if I don’t answer they can leave a message and I’ll call back when I get the message. Not answering it in the car, no texting or playing games. The same with the computer, no computer use, except for work related not much I can do about that, gots to get paid. I'll still watch TV though because that’s been around for awhile. So starting January one, for a week, I am technologically incapable. Maybe I’ll write a letter in that week or read a book.  

So until next time, whenever that is, happy New Year.

“We secure our friends not by accepting favors but by doing them”   -Thucydides