My blog n'at

While I’m on the Titusville memories here is a really cool event going on this weekend as part of the 150th anniversary celebration.

You need to get to Titusville, PA tomorrow for what will be a great bash of craft beer, history and pure deliciousness. The Blue Canoe will hold a beer fest from 1p-4p and 5p-8p. I know all of these guys coming in to serve you and can say with confidence that you won’t be disappointed. Most of these names may look familiar because we’ve reviewed them on “Should I Drink That?“.

The price tag is pretty sweet with the beers you’re going to be served. Go check it out along with the other events as part of the celebration. You can even swing by UPT and see where the real history was taking place 15 years ago

(yes that’s me in the green, the hair was once down to my shoulders )

You will see a few posts like this between now and May of 2010. The fall of 1994 started what would be the transformation of me into, well… me. It was the year that I finally left home and started at the University of Pittsburgh at Titusville – facing a world that no one could have taught me about. In fact it was 15 years ago this week that I moved into my room at 123 Spruce Hall and across the hall from a loud mouth Flyers fan who would turn out to be a dear lifelong friend.  * I’m only saying this because it was your birthday yesterday Drew. You still suck *

When I started college I was a 165lb ball of sheltered innocence. I figured everyone was like my friends in Erie, if you were from a smaller city you were a redneck, a semi-auto gun packin arrogant prick if you came from some place larger and the day I arrived at UPT I couldn’t have hated things more. There was absolutely nothing to do besides dining at Perkins, chain smoking Marlboro Light 25 packs and I had yet to discover computers. If not for my RA Greg I probably would have quit and moved home to work at Erie Insurance in the mail room. However it would be the last 4 months of 1994 that I would really learn about life.

I have a number of topics and people that I will share with you and even some video if the VHS tape I haven’t watched in over 10 years doesn’t break. I haven’t thought about a lot of this since I went to school and know this box of memories I found in storage should unlock many interesting times. Get ready for this trip back in time looking at the foundation that made spoon.

This is life at UPT, 1994…

You see that screen… that was the present Lushie gave me. It was the ripping out of my souuuuullllll! *UUGGGHH*  KHAAAAAANNNNN!

Our Starz/Encore package is gone because she wanted HBO/Cinemax to watch True Blood (and eventually Big Love). The problem? Encore is in the middle of a Back to the Future trilogy/That Thing You Do twin bill that comes around every few months. Since it’s Encore you can count on these being shown 5 times a day and yes, I watch them every single time they’re on. Doesn’t matter if I ever own these movies, if they’re on, I’ll watch. Yes, I have an unhealthy obsession with watching Marty, Doc and The Wonders.

Lushie thinks I need to seek help, I think she doesn’t appreciate the classics. First off, if you don’t appreciate Back to the Future you’re un-american. You’re a commie. This movie will stand the test of time as not only a great family movie but a fantastic guy flick. It has a sweet car, hot ladies, fights and everyone’s wish to time travel but the whole seeing our parents as youth is creepy. For the fam it has a love story, the soulful lyrics of Huey Lewis and how you can make your own future. It’s inspirational! Teaspoon LOVES watching this with daddy and every time he’s fascinated. You can be whatever and whomever you want.  See… its educational.

That Thing You Do is more of an Erie thing that I have ties to. First off it was filmed in Erie during the 90′s close to where I lived. Actually close to where everyone lived because honestly Erie isn’t THAT big. I can get from one end of town to the other in 10-15 minutes max. Secondly, I was working at Tinseltown when the movie debuted and all of the stars were coming to the theater. I spent a solid month at first annoyed hearing the music from the movie to gaining an obsessions. You get subjected to a movie 5 times a day 5-6 days a week eventually you start to lose it. It would be a good 8 years before I finally watched it again and the obsession started all over.  We’re pretty crazy in Erie, Penn   BTW, my fantasy football team is Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters.

What should I do now? I could get the movies on DVD but why, it’s not the same. I have a few movies already that I never watch but if they come on TV I can’t turn them off. Universities should spend some time studying this instead of why people get angry when punched in the face. *sigh* I think I need a moment to mourn this loss.

HBO, help a brother out… how about a marathon.

• Thanks to Norm for pointing out that the link on the Ask Me Anything post was going to the wrong place.  Its fixed now for anyone who still wants to ask me a question.  Go check out his smooth ass podcast – stromhuelsman.com

• Yinz Team Fantasy Football draft was last night. Don’t ask me who I drafted because after round 3, I was just picking random names. I never claimed to be good at football, I just like the trash talk with other owners during the season. If my team, Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters, win more than 4 games I’ll be impressed.

• Its been 3 weeks since the “Great Bee Invasion of 2009” and still no one has come to remove all of the dead soldiers in my ceiling. In fact the phone always rings busy when we call. Nice eh? At the top is pic of their solution when they left. I’m not kidding.

I appreciate all of you dearly and honestly it was because of you that I have been able to get through some interesting times. Most of you I talk to on a daily basis but there are a few who like to lurk and I’m cool with that but now is your time to have some fun with me. Here’s your chance to ask me anything you want an answer to. It can be about me, maybe something that’s happened to me or heck even you. Need a suggestion on a beer, exercise equipment, food… anything you want to know I have an answer for you. Make it personal or creative and no question is stupid.

I’ll post the answers here once I get collection together and keep them anonymous if you want. I’ve been busy getting adjusted to a new job that nothing THAT interesting has happened. Well, besides the fact that we all know who Ginny is but you probably already read about it in People.

Fill out this form and click Send It! See, that simple. You have your orders. BRING IT!

I tried to explain the Pirates last 17 seasons to him…

Bobby Flay (@bflay) is one of the few TV celebs that when I hear the name I grin and say “he dah man”. Whenever his shows are on TV I watch them and I also credit him with saving Food Network back in the day (although now Next Food Network Star is a mess). Bobby can cook, there is no doubt about that. He can play baseball and looks like he makes a mean drink. Basically he’s the guy you want to hang out with when the wife is out of town and eat like a rockstar.

One thing Bobby can’t do though is Twitter. Now we’re in an age that names are hijacked or spoofed on a regular basis but when someone such as Mashable links to it, I tend to believe in the validity. At the time I type this Bobby has 21,654 followers and following ZERO. That’s right nada. Not even his wife or a friend. Not even Food Network! This leads me to believe that either its not Bobby (he seems more tech savvy than Paula Deen and she’s following 64), its a really bad dummy account or some PR person doesn’t give a shit and made it because it came up at a weekly meeting. He doesn’t even have more than a standard background.

Bobby, if this is you, it’s about communication and your tweets suck. There I said it. THEY SUCK! This is a great way to talk to your fans and you’re failing. Take a Saturday and learn what it is you are doing here. Snap some pics with your phone and post it. Let us know what’s on your mind and ask us for opinions. Heck you can even have a ghost twitter and make your assistant or an intern answer it. Just give us something besides “another Iron Chef taping”.

Bobby… you’re doing it wrong

I was in employment limbo for a long time. 5 months to be exact. I signed on for contract work that turned out to be a long wait for tasks and turned into something that paid the bills but was unsatisfying. I knew a job was out there which would showcase my talents but settled for less to get my family by.

Today that changes as I start a new job.

Today I start work that will go back to my FORE Systems roots (not as an intern though) as a web developer & new social media coordinator.

Today I start work that has the potential to release what Ericsson refused to address.

Today I start work with creative freedom that has been unmatched to this point

Today I start work unleashing the inner Doug.

Today I am spoon.

Today rocks.

OK, not THOSE Killer Bees.  In fact if Jumpin Jim Brunzell and B. Brian Blair were in my ceiling that would make more sense.

As I was leaving for a meeting on Tuesday I heard a blood wrenching scream from our house. Out came Lushie (with Teaspoon) freaking out. There was something eating through the ceiling in the bathroom. That something would turn out to be bees. Yes, bees were eating through the drywall. I went back in the bathroom, closed the door and listened. Sure enough there was a bee hive in our ceiling! We hadn’t noticed this before because every time we use this bathroom we turn the fan on first or there is some other background noise that would drown it out.

Lushie calls the landlord while I head off for my meeting. She then dials me to say the woman at the office didn’t believe her, said it was a “bug” and just put a piece of tape over it. At 4:50pm she walks down to the office and is told “We’re just too damn busy to deal with you. There are vacant units that need fixed first.” Lushie storms out and slams the door seeing that the whole repair staff is GONE for the day because all of their vehicles are parked and personal cars are gone. You’d be pissed too if you had a 5month old baby and your landlord said they’re “too busy”.

Next day starts and the head of maintenance shows up at our front door. He’s more concerned about the fact that Lushie slammed his door and may have broken the lock than the fact we have bees and that our basement gets water at the slightest rain. We talk about it for awhile and tells us that he was told its just bugs (because you see, the office people here didn’t believe Lushie and said it must be bugs not bees) and that his main concern is the empty units that tenants destroyed. Personally I think that if you took care of the people already here then maybe they wouldn’t destroy the places when they leave but that’s just me.  He sees a swarm exiting the outside of the house where the bees are coming in and out from and NOW believes we have a problem. His solution, spray the hole to piss them off. In the meantime Lushie goes down to the office to pay the estimated price for the lock and apologize for the door slamming because she’s a classy gal like that. (* There is more that happened after this between Lushie and the woman at the office but I’m checking with some Legal people to see if I can mention it because of other things we have in motion. If you have ideas post in the comments below*)

Thursday arrives and the bees are mad as hell. This time I notice that there are now bees getting into our basement which is almost impossible. I go down to the office and tell head maintenance guy that they’re now in the house and with Teaspoon there we can NOT live like this. He replies “There is another unit with a bee problem so I guess I need to call the bee guy”. Maintenance guy comes down to see the bees in the basement and realizes the severity. An hour later a tuck pulls up and we meet… The Bee Guy!

This guy was a trip. He comes in and says “I know what the problem is and will promise you this, in an hour you won’t hear a buzz anymore.”  He was right too. He sprayed what he called his “3 in 1 bee death juice”. He came, he sprayed, they died. I wanted to ask why someone would get into killing bees for a living but after talking to this rambo for a few minutes I didn’t want to know. He obviously loved what he was doing.

We left for Erie for a few days while the housed aired out and was safe for us to be back in it. It’s now Sunday and it has been quite peaceful around here.  The maintenance guy says that he will have to rip out the drywall and most of the bathroom so they can get the dead bees removed. Now if I can just get them to fix my basement which has had constant leaking water for 4 weeks. Maybe I’m asking too much for something to get fixed when I pay out the ass for rent. That’s another rant and maybe even another site.

You’re reading that right. I won a 2009 45th Anniversary red Ford Mustang. Every year the parish I belonged to in Erie gives away a new car to the person with the lucky raffle ticket and this year it was in my pocket. Kinda.  Since I moved to Pittsburgh in 1998 I haven’t had many chances to return for the festival because of obligations in town so Mom will buy tickets for myself, my brother and all of our kids. The running joke with many of us from the parish is that it is never anyone young or local who wins the car so I’m proud to be the one to end that tradition. Well the never young at least.

My phone rang Sunday night around 10:20pm with a frantic mom on the phone. I forgot that the festival was going on and thought something serious had just happened.  Here is how the call went:

Mom: Douglas, are you sitting down? (great way to start a call eh?)
Douglas: ummmmm yeah. what’s wrong
M: You will NOT believe who won the car
D: Don’t really care but who? I’m watching TV.
M: IT WAS YOU!!!
D: STFU! I did not! No one ever wins that thing!
M: You did and you need to come to Erie and get it!
D: OK but mom… what car is it? (Seriously, I didn’t even know what car it was this year)
M: 2009 Mustang!  Here talk to Bill (member from the church). He’ll give you the details.

From there the dream quickly began to change. I had the choice for $10,000 or the car. The catch, the Mustang is a coupe and has NO room for a baby seat. There I sat speechless, father of a 5 month old and in dire need of a new family car. I would call Bill back in the morning and tell him my decision. Before I was even off the phone Facebook and Twitter was already buzzing from people at the festival announcing I was the winner. Calls and txt messages started coming in faster than when Teaspoon was born.

I can already sense everyone reading this going “oh no…”

After much debating, calming down and thinking logically we had made the decision. We have to trade in the car. If I this was even 1.5 years ago it would be a no brainer to keep the car (even store it) but the responsible father in me says “trade it in and get something for the family” and that’s what we did. We have 2 cars already with high mileage that we dumped a good chunk of change into this summer (nice when you’re laid off, huh) so we thought this was the sign.

This past Monday I drove up to the dealership with Lushie, told them I was trading in the car and needed to find something new. We spent the next few hours car shopping and test driving before we settled on a vehicle. (Now I’m not telling you what we’re getting cuz I know you crazy ass stalkers will get all “OMG! it’s spoon’s car! Hurry up get a picture and add it to our shrine because we crazy ass”. Yeah I don’t need that.) We would trade in the Mustang and one of our cars, which we owed on, for a new ride. Now it will be a couple weeks for the title transfer but until then its sit and wait as I know the anticipation will kill me. The way we saw it was “We got rid of the old high mileage car which we owed on for a newer vehicle and long kickass warranty and no car payments.” Besides, I won a car!

While it’s bittersweet to make this trade I did have to laugh at this fact. My dad worked that car booth at the festival for over 30 years and was the voice of the festival which could be heard for up to 5 blocks away. Now 3 years after he passed, his son wins the car.

Sickpuppy and I will be teaching the first class of the fall edition of Beer School. You may recall I hinted towards this previously well now you can order tickets!

Enjoy and discuss quality craft beers with Tony “The Beerman” Knipling and Should I Drink That. Includes light fare from Café Zao. Beer-related door prizes. Craft beer 6-packs available to go.

The hour-long Craft Beer School is held at the Cabaret at Theater Square, 655 Penn Ave. between 6th and 7th Streets, downtown Pittsburgh Cultural District. Craft Beer School begins at 6:15pm on September 15th; doors open at 5:45pm. Tickets: $25; order all four and save $10

Beers are still TBD but we will be recording the session live for a future broadcast!

Come join us for a night of great craft beers and good times!