My blog n'at

Have you noticed a trend here with the scheduling of my posting? I have had absolutely no free time so this weekend Lushie and I are taking a vacation in our own house. Life decided to say “hey, here’s a shitstorm and I’ll see ya in 3 weeks”. fucker.

I’m looking forward to clocking out Friday and finally having a beverage without worrying about the stability of Vista on my users for a few days.  I do have school work but that’s not a problem. Some topics you can look forward to me finally catching up on:

1. The Shaggy Dog (not the movie)
2. Beer on the Bay
3. Hump Day Happiness website update
4. Yinz Team
5. more customer service woes

Oh and to answer a few popular questions I’ve received this week:

1. No we didnt get arrested in Erie. That was “asshole brewer” as he’s been dubbed
2. I didn’t quit
3. I’m not dead
4. I am looking forward to Pens pre-season so I can silence the Steelers coverage insanity

cheers!

Yesterday was a tough day for Yinz Team as our beloved “A” and Hall of Fame pitcher Dawn Papuga is out for the year due to a case of ChronicInjurySyndrome that only the likes of Ken Griffey Jr. can relate to. In fact we think that Jim Lokay put an old polish curse on her but that hasn’t been proven. In our final game of the season Yinz Team rallied to become Paguga Pirates.  Seriously, we had a plank to walk and everything.

Unfortunately we ended up dropping the game after a couragous comeback inspired by Rally Caps for Papuga cam up short. Expect a shrine to be established on Mt. Oliver somewhere.

Group shot of some Papugateers

(l to r) Chachi, DJ Lunchbox, Doc Remedy, myself

photos courtesy of Thoughtful Riot

The much specualted rumors are now true. I am the proud owner of HumpdayHappiness.com Really, can you ever own too many domain names? Well only when you try to fit them all on a business card.

Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be moving the HDH content from this site to the new domain. I have a design in mind and will get crackin on that once we (SIDT) finish up our next promotion this weekend.

I’m going to have fun with it and I wont spoil any of the details right now. I’ll still have a wide variety of beverages to talk about but also focusing on some of our local talent. (*aight doug shut yer mouth*).

Thanks for all of the enouragement to move forward with what started as a random wendesday post.  More news to follow.

cheers!

You’d think after a bloggers conference that I would be all gung ho about recapping everything that happened, the people I met and afterthoughts. Yeah well life decided that it was going to step in and put the kabash to that plan. Since it’s been over a week I’ll do a brief recap.

Rust Belt Bloggers
The meet and greet was Friday (7/11) at the BrewErie. It was a good icebreaker to hang out over fine craft beverages with Dale Hannah, Jim Russell, Chris Briem, Michael Mahler, Locobone and Justin. Saturday was the main event and in addition to the Friday night crew, we were joined by  Phil Kidd, Janko and Hunter Morrison (Center for Urban and Regional Studies at Youngstown State University) from Youngstown and our Pittsburgh blogger in podcamp crime, Cindy. Most of the meeting was giving our introductions and a brief overview of who we are, our backgrounds and what we’re looking to accomplish. I was hoping that Erie would have had more of a presence since they played host but I also understand people were called away for the weekend. eh, it’s the first one, they have time to redeem

The surprise of the summit for me was the pitch thrown out by Youngstown. Yeah I know, you’re thinking “wtf, Youngstown? Isn’t that a haven for mobsters“. That was my thinking also until I talked to these guys. I was 100% sold that I need to get up there and check things out. The youth movement (40 and under) have taken over the city and it’s now a hot bed of untapped resources to make a viable force. Did I mention they’re opening a new brewery too Listening to how passionate they are about Y-town I was ready to go that day. Again, that is saying A LOT for me!

Overall I think this was a great starting point for those of us in the Rust Belt to get moving forward (and… DRINK). The key item is that it doesn’t turn into another “yeah, we had this idea once” and then bask in the gloriousness of that weekend. It did show me that I have an interest in redevelopment, just a matter of finding out how to use my skills to be effective.

Reunion
Sunday (7/13) was an interesting day. My brother and I (pictured above) went to our grade school 50th anniversary reunion. I haven’t been in the school for at least 10 years so it was entertaining to walk around with my bro and his friends while talking about memories. I think what amazed us more was the fact the nuns were still teaching there. Some of the same ones that my bro had in 1972 and I had in 1990 were still spreading the word. The only other person from my class was Wendy who helped organize the event. We may have to go track down some folk and crack skulls.

Crazy insane editing
My company had it’s yearly internal fair to show employees what all is going on with the company and host demos so we can see our products in action. To me this an enjoyable and educational event as there is always something new I get to play with.

3 days before the event I was recruited to film interviews with 10-15 people talking about a certain product. Filming started Monday and ended Tuesday at 2pm. As luck would have it I came in at 7am Wednesday and my encoder blew up as I’m trying to edit, leaving me at work until 8pm. Thankfully SIDT Studio A was open at 11pm so I sweet talked sickpuppy with craft beer to let me come over and edit. Around 5am we wrap up and I take a 15 minute nap on his couch before heading back into work. I handed over the video at 8am and took a much needed afternoon off to sleep. The feedback on the video was incredibly positive so I’ll be pushing to do this more often. I was considering throwing it up on You Tube but there’s that whole internal only thing. Now about getting that new equipment…

The weekend that was
I stayed offline as much as i could, went out to eat a few times, built some kickass kitchen trashcan hider thing, drove to Grove City Outlets and North Country Brewing, dominated a game of Trivial Pursuit and completed my first week of classes.

cheers!

I couldn’t resist and neither can you. go ahead and click it.

blog update on it’s way. i’ve been busy n’at.

Adam Fleming has written a piece, which includes myself and Cindy locally, for the Rust Belt Bloggers Summit in Erie, PA this coming weekend. The summit will be comprised of bloggers from Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Cleveland, Buffalo and everywhere in between or as it’s known, the Rust Belt. The goal is to see what we, as citizens of our own areas, can do to help revive our local economies from it’s downward spiral, retain the talent already here and how to bring in new. Basically what the politicians we’ve elected promised to do and have failed at. The time has come for the New Media folks to step in and fix the broken wheel.

You can either go out and pick up a hard copy around Pittsburgh or read the online story here.

For more information on the Summit go to the RBS site on Ning.

cheers!

I’m doing this to show that not everything I review is good. This is no fluff piece. This is a horrible beer. The great thing about having a place like 3 Sons Dogs and Suds close by is that I can try single bottles of beer before dumping my wallet on something foul.

If you asked me at a bar I’d say to avoid it like the plague.  I know this style well enough to say with confidence this is a Mike’s Lemonade project gone bad.  It’s yellow colored water with a slight hint of peach and disgustingness. Seriously, I can’t say anything good.  I’ll have to redeem myself in HDH 21.

Beer Advocate readers have this as a B rating. There is a chance this was a bad bottle but I don’t know if I want to find out again. And no, there will be NO chugging challenge on this one.

cheers!

Looks good doesn’t it? Yeah that’s what we thought also. We usually order from a local family joint but on this rare occasion an overstuffed pizza claiming that it had 50% more pepperoni than the standard was too good to pass up. Lushie called the local Domino’s to place the order and the guy had NO idea what she was talking about on top of his inability to speak English. This is no shit, she repeated the order 5 times.  I left to pick it up and took the ad, which arrived in our mailbox, with me to show the person working.

What do I get when I open my box there?

Yeah doesn’t look a THING as the advertised one does it. The worker claimed that they never had the Special Box so I got the standard which was fine with me.  It’s a freaking box but damn did it look cool in pictures. I look around the store and there are posters/signage EVERYWHERE with this special on it. You know, the one he didn’t know about. I asked the guy that took my order why this doesn’t match the picture. Now I know that it wont be an exact match but come on, LOOK at that. That’s a regular freaking pizza. He tells me that the picture isn’t accurate and that you don’t get extra pepperoni but extra cheeses.  I tell him that it’s false advertising (especially when the sign in front of him says 50% more) and all of a sudden he’s back to not speaking English. Frustrated and hungry since Lushie and I both had little to eat and were busy all day, I took my pizza, wings and sticks (that was the deal we had available) back to the house.  Guess what, Lushie has 2 bites and threw it out. Worst pizza ever.

Anyone can follow a freaking picture but I guess times have changed. I’m done with this place. There are at least 15 other pizza joints in the area I can go to.

To the everyday person that looks like me being a nice guy but in reality it’s another dumbass driver chatting on her cell phone and applying makeup. How do i know? Keep reading.

Ironic as it is about PittGirl’s run-in with a jackass on the road I figured it would only be time before I saw one for myself.  This happens at least every 2 days for me where people run red lights while on the phone or pull moves like this.  Let me explain this situation as we head on over to THE GOOGLE MAP.

Car 1 – me | Car 2 – guy in front of me | Car 3 – driver in front of him

As you can see there is a gap in between all of us.  Siince during rush hour this is a highly used road it’s an unspoken rule to leave it open so people in the oncoming traffic can get in and out, thus reducing gridlock.

Yesterday this tart in the Lexus SUV comes hauling ass down the road (I could see her in the mirror), annoyed because of the long line, trying to cut someone off.  She sees this opening in front of me and within a split second pulls what you see in that picture. She blocked traffic. Not just oncoming but in both directions. I see her wave as if that justified what happened in her mind.  I keep my cool and wait as 4 other cars who would have normally made the turn onto that road are now blocked from Lexus lady. While looking ahead I see her fixing her hair and powdering her face all while talking on a cell phone.

This is a common thing out my way. Lots of expensive gas guzzlin vehicles and dumbasses behind the wheel. My favorite is still the guy who parked in a “Compact Car” spot with his Hummer and had to rest the passenger side on a curb at Giant Eagle because he couldn’t fit.

classic stuff my friends…

I need to take more weekends off from being online. Almost glad that I don’t have a crackberry or a phone I can surf more with.

Friday
Spent the day at our friend Terri’s house. Plenty of food and fireworks and then a night of relaxing on the couch and packing for the weekend

Saturday
Before we headed out for a weekend of family picnics and roasts we had to make a quick stop at the Pittsburgh Mills for a phone charger for my MIL. Because it was special ordered from the store she had to pick it up there and since it was on our way so we decided to save her a trip.

Verizon Wireless in the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills has to be the largest collection of clueless elitist jagoffs ever assembled and reinforced why I dumped their asses long ago. We’re greeted by 2 men in suits. Lushie says we’re here to pick up a phone charger that was special ordered by Steve to which they reply “we don’t have orders in the store. It would have gone to your house.” Lushie says “It was confirmed that it was here which is why we are here… the corporate store.” Suit 1 replied “You’re not listening, we don’t have orders here.” Again Lushie states “My mother ordered it here and it was confirmed over the phone it was here.” Now the manager comes up and without missing a beat reminds us “I thought he explained it to you that we don’t have orders here.” Quality customer service. We left without the charger and apparently they cant even look up accounts to see what phone you have.  Assholes.

Saturday afternoon was filled with family time, bocce, kickin back in the summer sun and blue skies while enjoying the country air. The pics above are of Bella and the crazy insane campfire filled with plenty of beverages, hot dogs and moon pies. Good times my friends.

I love family picnics with my in laws. They really know how to throw a picnic to feed the masses and not worry about how freaking quaint everything looks. You have tables, table cloths, and rows of great summer food.  There’s no talk of how to dress your hot dog or how to properly display a dish. It’s “did you eat enough?” and “did you like it”?  That’s what summer is about. Having fun and being a bum. If you want snobbery, host a dinner party and wear a suit.

Sunday
Sunday was a crazy day. We had 2 cars with us (long story) but this actually worked out perfect. Lushie had planned on going shopping while I made the drive back to Pittsburgh for an exhibition Yinz Team softball game against Jim Lokay‘s squad. While I bitched and probably lost 10-15 pounds in the sweltering heat at Frick Park, I did manage to rip out 3 doubles and a single in 5 at-bats. Yinz Team is coming around and a mark in the win column is on the horizon. Came home for a shower and chilled in the AC until Lushie came home. Capped the night off with dinner at Mad Mex.  Life is good.

How did you spend your holiday?

This is the time of the year when you can tell the difference between those who have jumped on board the pens wagon lately and the old school fans. I’ve been hearing and seeing first hand people freak out because Hossa, Roberts, Malone, Rutuu and Laraque are gone. The fact is, you need to remain calm.

Shero wouldn’t be in his position if he didn’t know wtf he was doing. Cook, Smizik, Rossi, Prisuta… they’re reporters who more often offer opinion. Shero is THE MAN making decisions. You don’t hear every possibility of what moves could be made because it’s none of our business as fans until a deal is done. While everyone is in a tizzy from the loss of fan favorites, newbies failed to realize the importance of bringing in Miroslav Satan (41 points – 16 goals, 25 assists) and Ruslan Fedotenko (33 points – 16 goals, 17 assists). Notice that neither of these names were mentioned in local papers as possibilities. You don’t need the biggest names available to be a quality signing. Miroslav could quite possibly be the best match to skate with Sid or Geno, Ruslan is insanely good on the PP which we needed and now Dave Molinari is reporting that the Pens offered a contract to Janne Pesonen ( 78 points – 34 goals, 44 assists) from the Finland’s Elite League. People, our core group of players that we’re building this franchise around are still here.

Jagr decided the ice was better in Russia and took off leaving behind the possibility of ending his career with the Pens. He’s the guy you love to hate when he’s not on your team, well until the HossaScrew of 08. Take a deep breath and relax. It’s the holiday so go cook out and blow something up.  I’m spending mine mostly offline and watching Law & Order marathon on TNTHD.

cheers!