My blog n'at

I need to smile more. Jesus I didn’t realize it until I saw this pic and this was the best one out of the series on my webcam I just shot.

I wonder how long I can grow a beard until I wake up and find that someone shaved it off? At least let me make some designs first.

What’s with that funky eye thing from my glasses? I need to get new glasses or contact. Probably depend if I play softball this year what I’ll get.

Dropping pounds. Not from some great miracle diet unless you count sleeping in 2hr spurts a diet. Let my kids sleep over for a couple weeks and you can be as dashing as myself. If anything it making me cranky. Yes, cranky.

I bought a couple books today. I hate reading but something compelled me when I listened to the author speak. I never impulse buy. I did today. Books will be posted when they get here.

Did you ever notice the people that bitch most about how they hate the high school drama on social media sites are always the ones causing it? Even funnier is when they drag fantasy land into the real world and spend all of their time offline talking about what happened online. Watch out I might blog about it. Err wait. And people wonder why TV soap operas are dying *sheesh*

You thought all those D&D kids from grade school were freaks. They’re the ones building the apps right now you can’t stop using. Suckers!

I’ve paid attention more to the debates recently not because I want answers but because I want to see who’s going to get choke-slammed by Newt next. He probably won’t win the nomination because people are still too sensitive but man he’d be a bad ass. At the end of the day though my vote in November will go to Stephen Colbert.

If the biggest drama in your young life is if you should have kids now or later,  my advice is to wait until you’re 30. You’re obviously not ready to handle the mindscrew they lay on you so enjoy your 20′s. Just wait until there are 2 of them.

Want or need? The most annoying thing old people, especially my mom, say to me is “Do you NEED it or do you WANT it?” when it comes to making purchases. I have a feeling this has the legs for a good post subject. One that I NEED and WANT.

Late today I got the great news that this big project I’ve been stressing over got the green light to launch days earlier than expected. To celebrate I’m going to be the celebrity judge at a wine competition tomorrow night. Wrap your noodle around that one. Little know fact, I like wine… Franzia, thanks to Griff.

I have a couple more brew kits coming my way and I just need to pick out the yeast. Be afraid.

Looking forward to hanging with various groups of friends I haven’t seen in almost 6months. There will be bowling, mexican food and tequila involved. This can’t end well.

cheers!

When I wrote the “2012: realistic” post I wasnt sure what was going to happen next. I knew what I wanted to start doing but getting there was a mystery. Someone I follow on twitter said she was “streamlining life” and cleaning up her followers. While it may sound crazy, social media has become a key part of the daily life of people.

Organizing the mess
Over the MLK day 3-day weekend, and thanks to finally having a full night of sleep, the organizing bug crawled up our butts and we got to work. Monday I heard a faint cry for help coming from the basement. I went downstairs to find someone had put them self into a corner from falling boxes.

The day was spent with a solid 7 hours in the basement cleaning out junk that moved with us and damn did it feel refreshing. Granted I still have the stuff that Capt. Obvious left here when we moved in but now we have a floor! The Christmas and holiday decorations are in one section, summer and spring have a shelf and an area was reserved for things we still need to go through (mostly photos and things we were too lazy to sort when moving). I’ll still need at least 1 more solid day of it but we are SO close to being done.

The boxes we did go through furnish pictures that I haven’t seen before or forgot that we had. Plenty of wedding items I forgot about and some childhood memories that I didn’t even realize came with me. There’s still a whole shelf of those boxes I haven’t gone through yet and not sure if I should. No one wants to see me in 6th grade  That picture above was when we first moved in almost 2 years ago. The pile has doubled since with a couple holidays and birthdays under our belts plus there are boxes from 2007 in there.

The garbage men hate us. When they came this week we had a mountain of boxes and junk waiting for them. While the next load wont be as bad, it will be heavy. I have some cement and wood that need to find a home.

To finish off our day we upgraded Teaspoon’s room. He’s had a single bed for over a year but now we put the headboard on and raised it up a little bit. I’ve also started hanging framed sports photos in his room which once were in my room. Feels kinda cool seeing him appreciating the same things you did.

One thing that I’m bad at is remembering the year. I kept thinking it was 2010 for some reason and have no idea why 2012 doesn’t seem far fetched. Maybe I have a thing against years with odd numbers? This past year was eventful personally but when it came to blogging it was kinda meh. Either way here’s a quick recap so my kids don’t have to sift through archives.

January 2011
Year started off great with the Winter Classic (even though Pens lost) and spending the first 2 weeks home with my new baby. I also decided that I would attempt to go a full year without drinking a Bud/Miller/Coors product. Not to be some elite prick but to see for myself how tough it would be. With the amount of picnics we attended and moments of weakness for going cheap I’m proud to say I’ve made it a full year and some days.

February 2011
Kept the busy pace with a quick trip to Baltimore to pick up the first of what would be many awards for a website I made. Even thought it was winter I was falling in love with the city. I will be going back soon. I also hit my mid 30′s while only suffering a minor “oh shit, I’m getting old” moment and Teaspoon got his first haircut while hitting the terrible 2.

March 2011
2 things happened, we got sick and I ate a lot of fish.

April 2011
My mom wanted to know why I didn’t invent Facebook, the internet or cure cancer. I had some views on the sale of Iron City which turned out to piss off a bunch of yinzers and Pittsburgh purists. Eh, it happens.

May 2011
Should I Drink That turned 5 years old on the 5th and we had a whirlwind bash in Boardman, Ohio as we took over the Big Tap In after party. We cracked open a 101 oz bottle of Double Arrogant Bastard that we have been sitting on for 4-5 years. It came with a padlock. Nuff said. I figured out how you can take a trip with Megabus to Erie (or Pittsburgh from there) and have a very low cost time. I celebrated national Craft Beer Week and if you haven’t heard me talk about it yet, am on the planning group for Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week coming in 2012. This month also was record breaking numbers as we raised money for March of Dimes which helps preemies such as my boys.

June 2011
After many years of hard work I graduated cum laude from college. It was incredibly stressful when I threw work and the family into the mix but the support was fantastic! I’ll probably have my student loan bills paid off when Teaspoon is starting school.

A package arrived for me today which I completely forgot about redeeming for online. I had to think for a second before I realized what was in the box.

Because of my “Klout” score I received a free copy of Stephen King’s “Bag of Bones”. I don’t read non-tech books and I don’t read books for pleasure. Never have and eh, I might someday. Since I got this free I may give it a shot so we’ll see. Now if I was as cool as The Girl Blogger I would have found a way to get a free flight but since I’m not, I got a book. (By the way she’s a 38 and I’m 57. I should get a RT plane and beer tour of the west coast since I’ve never been there)

Baby steps…

Klout has been a questionable service for awhile with social media diehards because there have been found ways to cheat the scoring system. Personally I’m honest with it and just roll with the ranking.  For the longest time no one knew what the algorithm was they were using and if you weren’t on twitter you were basically toast.

Since I do social media for a living spanning different subjects I try to stay on top of everything so I know what’s new and what to watch out for. (Have you heard of Path yet?)

Do these scores need to be taken seriously? Let me put it this way, they’re making a name for themselves and really takes no effort on your part to use it. I’ve already had inquiries because I have a high score when it comes to Craft Beer and people writing for publications that aren’t as social savvy use sites like this for stories… which means my name gets out more… which means I get gigs… see where I’m getting at?

Saturday was an absolutely amazing day!  Started with heading down to the Strip District to check out a few beer places, pick up some ingredients, people watch the crazy Steelers yinzers, and partake in East End Brewing offerings from their growler shop in the Pittsburgh Public Market. It was there we met Kris and Andi who were in town to do their own craft beer tour of Pittsburgh. One is from Washington DC and the other Ann Arbor, MI which makes the Burgh the midway point. Good thing to know eh?  Being craft beer cheerleaders for our beloved city we gave them a list of places to go and had a couple beers with them. Amazing ladies and I hope they enjoyed their time!

Back at SIDT Studio B the brewing started to take shape. The fun thing for me was finally understanding the basics of the brewing process happening in front of me. Thankfully I did have someone with me because sickpuppy found an error with the instructions that were sent with the brewing kit and a quick call to Northern Brewer had it resolved. Thumps up for great customer service especially on a Saturday!

The whole process, including running out to find a thermometer which WASN’T included with the kit, took about 4 hours which was perfect. We wrapped up just as the sun set and it was time to transfer to the bucket.

There has been some serious bubble action going on the last few days and I’m looking forward to a gravity reading this weekend to see where we are. One thing the instructions didnt factor in was the need for more priming sugar so I made a run for that last night.

I like where this can end up going as a hobby. I don’t get to drink that much at home so expect to get some as gifts just so I can make a new batch.

We did also record a show when we were done so you can be expecting that soon. Until then I have a lot of reading to do and look into subscriptions

I first met Jim a few years ago as a member of the elite softball squad known as Yinz Team and little did I know that the KDKA weather traffic reporter would become a great friend. When my kids were born Jim made sure we were OK. When times were tough during my layoff he was there as a shoulder to lean on and a bud to have a drink with.

Jim is Pittsburgh. He represents what makes this this city great from his charitable acts to all around kindness.  This city is truly losing a son and Boston is gaining a kickass person.

Thank you captain for always being kick ass and make sure I have a couch to crash on when St Patty’s day rolls around up there.

cheers!
spoon

Here is video of Jim’s sendoff from today

Last Friday night I resumed my traditional perch among the podcampers by providing the beverages for the Podcamp Pittsburgh Meet-n-Greet icebreaker. Not to break from tradition I also brought with me 9 cases of the finest Erie Brewing Company offerings with Presque Isle Pils, Derailed Black Cherry Ale, Misery Bay IPA, Railbender, Heritage Alt and Fallenbock.

Estimated crowd of 200 at Alpha Lab had all of the beer kicked in 75 minutes. Yeah, didn’t expect THAT to happen but thankfully there was wine that I was also pouring for people. A delicious point was proven though, women love good craft beer.

I had the assistance of Scottsweep and Mrs. Crappy since sickpuppy was under the weather.

Again it was another successful night for Should I Drink That and there are plenty of pictures to show for it.

Unfortunately for me this would be the most Podcamp action I would see. Due to work schedules I was on kid detail for most of Saturday but did make it down for 1 session and then to the afterparty.

In a soon to be new tradition for Podcamp I joined uncapd from Bocktown and tailgated in the Station Square parking lot before the afterparty. Yes, we tailgated an afterparty. She brought 4 growlers with her which shouldn’t be a shock since people in craft beer always come prepared. We feasted on Southern Tier Pumking, Flying Dog In-Heat Wheat, Woodchuck Fall and Atwater Vanilla Java Porter. All equally as good but the Pumking is my new favorite pumpkin beer.

The entertainment was plentiful as the REO Speedwagon crowd, groups for a wedding reception and a shit-ton of strung out college aged kids for a rave wandered around in brought clothes and white t-shirts. Unfortunately these 2 didnt make it to the party.

After party was at Bar Louie in Station Square and once again they lived up to their level of sub par service. Finally getting served we made our way to the back and did the podcamp traditional 649.

The shot this year – Cruzan Black Cherry rum, SoCo and Absolut Raz.  basically it was cough syrup.

The service was bad but the friends and view were amazing. Overall it was a good night. Sucked that I had a very minimal role since the 1st Podcamp happened but that’s a role a lot of us dad’s have to take these days.

1999 was the last time I recall drinking Franzia. It was a common to come home from work and find Griff sitting on my porch with a box of Franzia for us to drink while coding or playing Playstation.

To add to our classy style the box Chillable Red was pronounced “shay-aw-blay” and you drink it out of whatever is handy.

I don’t know what made me want to buy it after 12 years. I’m a snob about beer but when it comes to wine I really could care less. I know that Franzia is considered ghetto because its in a box but hey, craft beer comes in cans now too.

I’ve been listening to a lot of SiriusXM over the last week at my desk and I have to tell you, I don’t like the realization of how long its been since certain memories.

Take for instance yesterday, Got You (where I want you) from The Flys came on and I haven’t heard that in awhile. It reminds me of the first summer I spent in Pittsburgh and that was 1999. To me that’s like last year but reality is it’s 12 years ago. TWELVE YEARS! That’s the age of a middle school student. Christ almighty… I was a spiffy freshfaced 23 yr old just off the bus from Erie who would come home from working at a tech company to find Griff standing at my apt. door with a box of wine and waiting to hit the Playstation.

Recently I’ve gotten back in touch with former co-workers when I was in Erie and even old friends I haven’t seen in 15-17 years. Some of them have kids going to high school. That was an even bigger kick in the time warp nuts.

Where has time gone? I’m a different person than when I lived in Erie, than when I moved here and hell, I’m different than I was 5 years ago when My dad passed away. I think that was the significant event that changed how I perceive time and now I want to spend as much time as I can with my kids before they grow up too fast. My lifestyle has changed dramatically because I want to savor being a dad. Besides the lack of sleep and the crying (by the kids, not me… ok maybe me sometimes) I absolutely love this role in life and where I am.

Time, I’ve got you where I want you.

Earlier this summer when Ginny asked me if I would introduce her to craft beer I thought maybe she was setting me up for one of those prank shows. Since the day we met its been like a brother and sister bickering when it came to the best fermented beverage. She loves Zima and me… well you know. A conversation wouldn’t last more than a few minutes before she’d get me fired up over her love for the now extinct clear malt beverage (well here in the states at least. you can still buy it overseas). Even if she never said it I know she would shoot me looks saying “Hey Doug, this beer has lime and salt in it. YUM!”

We finally found time in our crazy parental schedules to meet up at Bocktown and let the lessons begin. How’d it go? Well you can either read “PittGirl Discovers Craft Beertopia” online or pick up the August issue of Pittsburgh Magazine which is now available on newsstands.

I don’t think what I did was anything more than what most craft beer fans would do. I absolutely love talking about craft beer and seeing the look in someone’s face when they have that “ah ha” moment. As advocates for craft beer it is up to us to sit down and talk to people less familiar with our favorite beverages and talk them through the beer. What do you smell? taste? breathe in when you drink and see if that changes the flavor.

There is a serious problem right now with, as sickpuppy and I like to call them, “Beer Snob Bitches”. This isn’t the beer geek that has a cellar full of homebrewing gear and aging bottles. I’m talking about the jerks whom belittle you because you’re not “at their level”. They’re all over the place and quite frankly give the rest of us a bad name. So what if you can pick out the yeast strain or all 7 of the hops used? No one cares but you. The elitism in a lot of circles is getting out of hand and it needs to end.

Craft beer is for celebration. Its for the appreciation of hard work, passion and craftsmanship. Craft beer is meant for YOU to enjoy and not for others to tell you what you should or shouldn’t like. There is a handful of new breweries opening in the Pittsburgh region this year and next. This area is a hotbed for incredible homebrewers and now they’re taking the jump from passion into career.

On the flip side I see a lot of reverse asshattery from the macro drinkers. Those who are hardcore Bud/Miller/Coors drinkers who put down craft beer fans because we like a higher quality beverage. They’re usually the ones saying you’re drinking a chick beer or “oohhh you’re all fancy” because they don’t understand craft beer and use the high school thug attitude of what they don’t know must be stupid.

Craft beer is genderless. There are plenty of great craft brewers who are women and in fact when this country was founded who do you think it was making the beer? Take a look at “Put the ‘ale’ back in female.” and read about a view of brewing you may not have considered before.

Will Ginny become a homebrewer? Eh could happen but for now chalk one up for the birth of a new fan. We’re not going to win over the entire beer drinking population but we can chip away at it one at a time.

cheers!

I’ve been kinda spaced the last few days. I found out Sunday that one of my classmates from Prep had passed away at 35. Thirty-freaking-five! All I know is from the obit is that it was unexpected and this would now make the 2nd friend of mine, at the age of 35, that has passed away since 2011 started (Mark was the first).

Jesus Christ, 35.

John and I weren’t best friends in high school, in fact we’d bicker most of the time but we’d also have our good times joking around. In a class of 135 you won’t get along with everyone but all of us were brothers (Prep is an all-male private school). We can fight within but you mess with one of us and everyone else comes to your side. I think that’s why his passing is hitting me in a different way. Its not just the shock that its someone my age, that happens; this was one of us and its really freaking me out.

My class doesn’t do reunions. Why? Not really sure. Last time most of us were together was our 5yr in 1999 and since then your best chance to see someone you lost touch with is on Facebook. It was through my involvement with craft beer and Beer on the Bay that John and I reconnected a couple summers ago. A guy that I once got into arguments with on a regular basis was now someone I would look forward to having a beer with when I came to town for an event. Unfortunately I won’t have that chance to buy the next round.

I look at my life and think how fortunate I am. I can’t imagine losing that especially with so much more to look forward to and here is a friend where its over already.

I read the obit online and the stories people have left. John was a class act and these stories prove it. He touched a lot of lives and will live on forever through his friends.

Kos, its been a fun ride. Wish it could have been longer buddy.