My blog n'at

and I’d do the same thing.

I don’t see what the big deal is and people, give them a freaking break. They busted their asses for years preparing for this one event and they came out with the gold. From all reports I’ve read this was after the fans have left and the media remained. There is absolutely no harm in celebration 30 minutes after the fact and just because it was smokes and beer over probably champagne and some other boring ass dried up tradition some people are having a fit. You’re not disrespecting. You’re celebrating the moment and when the fans are gone who cares, you’re not breaking any laws (well maybe the girl was is 18 was) and not being lewd or crude. You’re having a beer and smoking a cigar. If you’re worried about your kids you should stop watching professional sports and get a grip. Is your issue the fact they drank and smoke or that they came back out on the ice… when everyone was gone?

Granted I would never drink that Molson crap but its the beer of Canada so whatever, fire it up girls you deserve it!

July
Began the month with recording at the BeerDependence Day celebration at Bocktown. Attended the Penguins Stanley Cup DVD Release Party. Started a contracting job at EDMC that would become the longest month of my life and that’s all I’m going to say. Enjoyed my first ever bowl of Pho. Rocked the Beer on the Bay festival in Erie which the videos are epic and may never be released. End the month being interviewed by KDKA for the Craft Beer Summit.

August
Won a 2009 Mustang! Bees invade our bathroom (landlord still has yet to remove the dead bodies). I got a full-time job in social media/web dev that has turned out to be freaking cool plus I’m on a rockstar team. Threatened Lushie with divorce after she gets rid of the Back to the Future marathon channels.

September
Attended “Best of the Burgh” at the Warhol with sickpuppy, PittGirl, Woy and Rachel. Go big time and hosted Beer School at the Cabaret downtown to a sold out crowd. Teaspoon hits 17lbs.

October
Hosted 2 sessions at Podcamp Pittsburgh 4. Should I Drink That passed 500,000 download mark. Pens start defending the Stanley Cup. Revised Google Maps errors. Celebrate 4 years of marriage with Lushie. Lay the smackdown on poor fact checking by the Post gazette about Erie. Teaspoon goes pumpkin farming.

November
I blogged the whole month. Seriously. Bought a X-box. Teaspoon’s first Thanksgiving. Wonders of fatherhood and a kid who grows like a weed. Craft Beer Dinner with Lew Bryson, Education on the Pittsburgh Potty. Making your own Bacon. BEER AT GIANT EAGLE! Yinz Bowl 2.o

December
Still living it for 5 more hours. Remembering dad on his anniversary. Hosted a Christmas beer sampling at Bocktown. Saw KISS in concert. Teaspoon’s first Christmas. Finished the school year with a 3.65GPA. SNOW!

So what do I have to look forward to in 2010?  Come back tomorrow and find out!

I have to admit that this has been the most life changing year of my life. Some good, some bad and some mind blowing kickass. Here’s a quick recap as I reflect before tonight’s festivities start. I’m splitting this up into 2 sections because lets be honest, no one will scroll through 12 months.

January
Reflected on the first beer I EVER drank and yes, I kept the bottle. Prepare for the end of my 10+ year employment at ForeSystems/Marconi/Ericsson. Bitched about the weather and yinzers inability to drive in snow plus dumb ass snow removal by my neighbors. Both of those still hold true today. Got ready for an unbelievable run to the Super Bowl

February
Steelers won the Super Bowl and became the first ever 6 time champ thus giving every knock off t-shirt maker starry eyes at the potential of “6 pack” shirts. Punxy Phil said 6 more weeks of winter. I was officially laid off, was interviewed for a Post Gazette story on unemployment moments after i was laid off (that never was published), Pens started to turn it around and the biggest shock of them all… Teaspoon arrived 2 months early making me the happiest and most terrified dad. Came in at 4.1lb, dropped to 3.2lb and would leave at 5 in March.

March
It was the month of Teaspoon. Lushie and I spent every minute we could at the Mercy NICU while he got healthy in an incubator. 28 days later he came home. Also witnessed the stupidity of some Hill District parents who think its a hotel in there and the joke that is unemployment system in PA.

April
Went to my first ever Rugby match and got addicted to watching Claire and the girls kick ass. Missed my first opening day of Pirates baseball since 1984 (watched it on TV with Teaspoon and started a new tradition with my boy). Bought a Wii. Enjoyed the greatest comeback in Pens Playoff hockey that I have witnessed as the Pens turned the series around with 1 fight and the Max Talbot shhhhhhh! Saw Beer Wars the Movie with hundreds of other craft beer fans around the world and baked an incredible beer ham for Easter.

May
Should I Drink That turned 3. Pens defeated Washington and Carolina to earn a second trip to the Stanley Cup Finals for a 2nd year. Bought a Blackberry. Joined Sadie’s Soldiers and took some Great Strides. KDKA reads my “tweet of the day” which I WISH they would bring back. The great personalized jersey debate. Meatshield welcomed his first child (i swear it was the year for kids to be born) and we had a cookout with some family. Bowling league ended and we were the undisputed champs.

June
Teaspoon’s first trip to the ER. Coming out of golf retirement after 3.5 year for a day with Yinz Teamer’s Woy, Lokay and Shireman at Cranberry Highlands. The Clarks release Restless Days after 5 years. Pens win the Stanley Cup in 7 games vs Detroit. Pittsburgh floods… again. Unemployed Utensil makes his first appearance as a way to help me get through not working. My first Father’s day and Pirates waste of talent Ian Snell cant take negative people.

up next… July through December.

What the fuck is wrong with you people. Black Friday USED to be a good time. Yeah you’d freeze your ass off in the cold but so what, it was part of the charm. Lushie and I used to look forward to Black Friday every year. The rule is you have ONE item you want and set your sights on that. We liked going because the people were always friendly, you could camp out and share drinks with the folks around you, it was a community event.

Since we have Teaspoon with us now we decided to pass this season and at 6am realized what a smart decision that was. Stories flooded the local news of how lines had thousands of people with fights breaking out and some dumbasses tried jumping lines. What the hell! Why are people being stupid! If you do something like this you deserve to get your ass beat down.

Here’s the mayhem that happened at Best Buy last year when I went and what post wouldn’t be complete as I reflect on when I worked retail hell at Staples on Black Friday.

I love my readers and this is more proof why all yinz kickass. This was submitted to me from Tim at The Size of Life. He was planning a motorcycle trip that had him traveling from SE Ohio, through West Virginia and Pennsylvania. No biggie right? Make sure God is your co-pilot because Google Maps well gets you all sorts of messed up.

Class, pay attention…

For those of you unfamiliar with the eastern part of the United States here is a map for you (not Google Maps). I have colored in the states that are in question for this assignment. Tennessee, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Pretty easy eh? Well let’s zoom in and see what Google Maps has to say.

Looks kosher right?  Click that image and see the full screen size.

Still can’t tell?  Here let me help you out. Now click on this map

Thaaaaatttt’s right. Apparently Tennessee not only borders West Virginia but has also taken ownership of PA. Now I know some people call it Pennsyltucky (Pennsylvania and Kentucky, get it! wow thats bad) but this is a new one for me.

Thanks Tim for sending it in!

** UPDATE - Apparently Google Maps has already fixed this error.  Glad we got the screen shots when we did! **

Sometimes trivial things piss me off but when you’re writing an article for a major newspaper such as the Pittsburgh Post Gazette I’d think that some things would be checked if your story is front page news.

Case in point…

As I opened the paper this morning I saw a story on Mad Anthony Wayne and how today is the 200th anniversary of his burial in Chester County. If you’re from Erie you know his story and most likely touched the kettle his body was boiled in which still is on display at the Erie Historical Museum. Anyway, the article states “his body rested for 12 years in an oak coffin at Presque Isle, a peninsula off Lake Erie”. It SHOULD read “his body rested for 12 years in an oak coffin at the flagpole next to Wayne Blockhouse.” Don’t believe me? click here to listen to the mp3 from the Erie Historical Society.

If you’re not from Erie or are not familiar with the area let me Google Map this bad boy for you with “A” marking the FORT Presque Isle’s location.

A little father to the right of the A is the Blockhouse which can still be visited. As you can see these are different locations. In fact there is a big ass body of water separating the 2. Most people would probably say “eh quit nit picking” but honestly this is a careless error. It took me less than 2 minutes on Google to double check stories. Now if the argument was to be made, which it shouldn’t but we’ll say it is, that the area itself was named “Presque Isle” but then that would have been noted.

If his body wasn’t boiled I bet Anthony’s ass would be chapped over this blunder.

The topic came up today that Google Maps is filled with its share of flaws when it comes to updating or accurately place marking certain locations (Seriously, you don’t recognize Cranberry Township yet? wtf). Its a free app that really does some wonderful things and every once in awhile we like to pick on it. Last year I posted about one BIG problem where the mapping system was showing you going the wrong way through the Liberty Tunnel. Jami posted a comment today asking if there was ever an update so I took a look. Here we go…

Start: Cranberry Township, PA
End: Mount Oliver, PA

1) OK I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt here but you know some dumbass is going to soar into those trees. Good thing that’s UPMC over there. Instant treatment.

2) While this may look odd to you there are actually a lot of people who do this. Most locals know better unless they’re in their SUV, applying make up, eating a sammich, talking on 2 cell phones while texting on another, smoking a cigarette and filming a low budget porn all while driving.

3) wtf? Its says Merge ONTO 579 not INTO 579

4) WOOHOO! SUCCESS! It’s fixed!

5) Scratch that…

At least they’re not telling you to switch lanes in the tunnel. Yeah, you don’t wanna do that. Bad idea.

This is in reply to a piece that Jessica Isner wrote titled “Top 10 Reasons Boston Will Dethrone Pittsburgh as Best Sports City in 2010“. Lets address each of her claims as to why Boston will win.

10. Pittsburgh has no MLS team and no NBA team.
Didn’t realize people actually followed MLS and NBA teams still. That’s SO 90’s. We’ve been too busy to notice down here, you know, winning hockey and football titles. Honestly, if not for ESPN would anyone even know the NBA was around? My bet is that if you throw a bunch of “pro” teams at a city eventually one of them will win.

9. The Penguins may be better than the Bruins, but…
But nothing. Penguins are 5-1, Bruins are  2-3.  No Stanley Cup since 1971-72? Wow that’s almost as pathetic as Toronto. suck it.

8. The Charles River trumps all three rivers in Pittsburgh.
Here’s the part that kills me, “The Charles has history, collegiate regattas and celebrity fans.”. Darlin, you may want to check out the Three Rivers Regatta and Head of the Ohio. Since you’re up on history I’m assuming you know about Fort Pitt? right? What a joke. Did you even fact check?

7. Pittsburgh doesn’t have cool celebrity fans.
What does this have to do with best Sports City? Oh well I’ll humor it. If you could fill your seats on your own you wouldn’t need celebs. That’s why we have waiting lists to get into our games.

6. Sam Adams > Iron City.
Iron City? Really? I like Sam and all but I think you need to have a few beers from East End Brewing. You’ll find the emerging craft beer scene here quite impressive. Take off the beer goggles.

5. Boston is a college hockey utopia.
Granted you have a GREAT hockey program up there but you should check your facts. True that Pitt doesn’t have a  Div 1 hockey team but Robert Morris does and look at the score sheet of the last time they played.

4. After much debate, it’s true: BC football is better than Pitt football.
Debate with whom? the mailroom guy?

3. Fan devotion
Steeler Nation would destroy you and Penguins fans would trample your weak and hurdle your dead Bruins fans. no contest.

2. Speaking of the Patriots and the Steelers …
Yeah speaking of, I forget, which city does your football team play in again? Ours is actually IN Pittsburgh so I was just curious.

1. This is a baseball country, and — shocker — the Pirates just don’t cut it.
Its whatever country you want it to be when you’re trying to grasp for hope. Pirates have lost for 17 straight years and the only person this seems like news to is you. Seriously, we don’t even notice anymore.

5 hours. That was the wait to get your picture with the Stanley Cup today if you are a ticket holder. I had every intention of waiting in like with Teaspoon but when I arrived and the line was reaching the Marriott I knew it wasn’t going to happen.

The problem was that it was a “suggested” time and not a hard time so anyone scheduled on Saturday could show up. I called on Friday to double check my time and was told ‘Well really you can show up whenever. Its just a suggested time to help move things along.” Know what happens when you give options like that, knuckleheads muck it up. You now how many fans you have coming based on the tickets you sent out, so give them a time to be there and if you can’t make that window, oh well. Yeah it’s harsh but so is waiting 5 freaking hours. CYS would have arrested me if I stood there with 7mo old Teaspoon that long.

This wasn’t the only problem over the last 24 hours for the celebration for me. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m 110% in support of the Pens but some things last night at the game chapped my ass.

1) No forks – Pizza Hut stand in E Balcony North informed me as they handed me a heaping serving of Monster Chicken Nachos that they no longer offer forks. I thought it was a joke at first but the workers informed me that they were no longer provided forks. People, this is a pile of acid reflux hell that gets the chips all soft from the cheese plus its piled high with chicken. YOU NEED A FORK! I thank the ladies for running to find me a fork but whomever runs that stand needs to get their heads out of someone’s ass.

2) No Banner – Probably the sweetest thing I have ever received as a giveaway came last night in the form of a mini-version of the banner that was raised last night. Right away I thought this would be a great addition to Teaspoon’s room. Midway through the 2nd period I realized that my banner was gone. I leaned it against the railing in front of me (in F balcony the railing goes to the floor) along with my program. Some magic being came down and took it. I asked the guys in front of me and they claimed they only had their banner. The woman next to me said she didn’t have it. Well someone does and it isn’t me. If you took it on purpose, you suck and I hope you headbutt a train.

3) Soggy Program – to highlight the night my program was ruined. The lady who sat next to me arrived and threw down soaking wet sweatshirts on top of my program. It wasn’t until I looked for my banner that I realized what she did. All she could say was “well they were wet.”

So in the last 24 hours I had forkless nachos, a soggy program, a banner stolen and unable to see the Stanley Cup.

Never fear the FAIL, I have the WIN coming up next. Pulling the video off my camera now!

• 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.

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.