Getting ready for a house warming party

There's nothing like a deadline to motivate me (and the wife) to really getting something done.

When we got the house we had a tight deadline to get the house ready for us to move into (it was "movein" ready for me, but not so much for the Executive) w/ our lease running up a week after closing.   We got possession on a Friday and moved in the next Saturday (eight days).  This by itself isn't that crazy of a situation.  I'm sure people get possession of new homes everyday and move in shortly after.  The wrench in this little scenario was threefold.

1. We didn't pack.  At least not adequately enough to make it a smooth and painless adventure.  I have come to the realization that it is much, much more important to have everything boxed up, labeled, and staged for the move than to have a crapload of people there to help you move a crapload of stuff that is in varying stages of use and being packed up.

The problem doesn't manifest itself in just the move but also in the unpacking process.  When you don't systemically pack everything up and label what it is and where it goes you end up just throwing it wherever there is a patch of carpet or a flat box to stack another box. Once that happens its not even a slippery slope, it's a cliff and you've already fallen off and the landing isn't going to be a smooth one.

2. Our new home, like any home left vacant for a year, needed some freshening up.  While the wife was extremely optimistic with how quickly we could plow through our list of needs and then dive into the realm of the areas we "wanted" to fix up before moving in, I tried to temper my doubts and resolved to just dig in and try and get as much done as we could.

Even this conservative approach proved to be too eager and ambitious.  If we had of packed everything appropriately, if we had of left more than a week to do all of this (more on that next), if we knew what we were flipping doing, we still wouldn't have gotten everything done in a week.

It's a much better option to do things slowly and not try to multitask through everything at once.  Easier said than done.

3. Leave your self the appropriate amount of time and then add a day or two for good measure.  We tried to do this but failed horribly.  We set ourselves a time frame and a list of things that we wanted to do and then shortened the time frame as more things came onto the list and life took over (jobs, packing, general exhaustion).

I know this isn't that surprising to probably a large number of people but it is amazing how long even the simplest of tasks can take.  Painting.  Throwing paint on a wall in a measured manner.  Not so hard on paper is it?  Real life?  Quite the opposite, I've waited in the DMV for less time than it's taken me to paint a 10x10 room.

First you have to tape the room (watch a professional painter and you'll realize how slow you are), then you have to get out the paint, then you have to shake the sonofabitch until your arm hurts, then you have to get all the requisite tools and Lowe's created appendages.  Now set everything up and finally, after all that prep work, you get to actually start changing the color of your walls.  Lets just hope that your walls didn't need any touch up work because, crap, you have to fix those first too.

And this is just one thing we had to do (any almost every house bought will have this done).  We painted almost the whole house, I ripped the main floors flooring and laid down new wood flooring, demoed the kitchen and main floor bathroom, redid those two rooms, turned our pond into a pool, built a bookshelf that spans a whole wall (!!!), and a whole bunch of small crap that only my wife or I will ever notice but had to be done.

All of this was done over the last month and a half and we had our last big push to get everything done last week because we threw a House Warming/Stock Our Bar/Pool party on Saturday (got some great whiskeys) and if we hadn't of thrown that shindig I don't know if we would have all of that done by now.

Don't do it that way.  Set deadlines but make 'em realistic

The Nectar of Gods

There's a certain connotation bestowed on the shoulder's of beer snobs and for the most part it's a valid and applicable label.

The thought that anyone who can drink, let alone enjoy, the watered down, false advertised (triple hopped!, Great Taste with Less Filling!) swill that that is associated with our big sporting events is a person living int he dark ages who has no ability to gauge what's good in the world.

Just like with anything in life there's a dividing line drawn in the proverbial sand.  On one side is the educated, well paletted beer aficionado who you see calmly and patiently perusing the beer store's wall of deliciousness.  On the other side is the beer consumer who doesn't want to make a decision, but wants to get the best bang for his or her buck (which they never truly do) and want to get away from the condescending glares of the snootier beers and their artistic labels.

Here's some beers and the "type" of person who drinks them....

• Bud Light - You're a wuss.  At least drink Bud Heavy.  It's not going to hurt you.
• Bud Heavy - You may have relatives from the South or you definitely enjoy Nascar.
• Miller Light - You're single, or your girlfriend is okay with the gas that this beer inevitably turns into.
• Coors Light - You have a tiny bit of taste but you don't want to indulge that taste with something that actually is good.
• Keystone/Busch/etc.. - You, like my grandfather, think medals won in the 30's mean their water's still good to drink.
• PBR - You lost all your matchbox car races as a Cadet and this is your first and only blue ribbon you're going to get.
• Any Churchkey beer - your attempt at drinking a beer in a hipster fashion is indicative of some deep routed problems

This could go on but you get the idea.

There are a number of reasons for the beer snob or home brewer (these terms are often synonymous) to think that these types of beers (and people) are sub par.

First we have the beer's own inadequacies:

• watered down
• lower quality ingredients
• no variety.  Americans drink lagers and pilsners.

Consequently this shows an inadequacy in the people who are content to consume these beers:

• Boring people who are scared of trying something new
• They have no flavor. No pizzazz.  They're plane janes.

Whether you agree with the stereotypes or not it is very hard to disagree with the reasons why people feel this way.  There's a quality that is present in craft beers that in this humble beer drinker's perspective is well worth the uptick in price.

I'm going to leave you with a couple of my favorite breweries and beers.

Breweries and beers they make: 

• Bells (Oberon, Two Hearted, HopSlam)
• Founders (KBS, Curmudgeon, Dirty Bastard, Pale Ale, Breakfast Stout, and many more)
• New Holland (Dragons Milk, The Poet)
• Left Hand (Milk Stout)
• Dark Horse (One, Two, Three)
• Lagunitas (Sumpin' Sumpin')
• Arcadia
• Shorts

Beers you need to try if you can get your hands on:

• Pliny the Elder and Pliny the Younger
• KBS
• Mine :)

Happy 4th!

Happy Fourth of July, folks!

Remember today as you're tossing a couple dogs on the grill or tossing back a cold one that you get to do so because of those who stood and fell before us.

Where did the weekend go?

Luckily I've got a glass of whiskey here to help me through the last bit of the weekend.

I'm quaffing for only the second time ever a glass of Buffalo Trace and while I won't ever call it my favorite whiskey it's definitely up there if you were to ask for some advice when it comes to an affordable whiskey.  I picked up a small bottle for fifteen bucks at a local specialty store and it's well worth the money spent and  you can pick up a fifth for thirty or so at most places.

Whether you've just taken the stopper out or your lifting your tumbler up for your first sip you're not going to be taken aback by any strong, alcoholic scent.  That trend continues during each sip.  It's a smooth drink that  while it will pack a punch if you drink more than one in a given night (the affects of a 90% drink or two may or may not be known on good confidence) goes down nice and easy leaving only a nice spicy after burn that doesn't bite but leaves a nice toasty after affect that just reminds you of the good drink in your hand.

Drink it with a cube of ice (don't go with more or you'll water it down too much) or drink it straight.  It's an enjoyable ride.

Most recent book I've read: Prince of Thorns - Mark Lawrence

It's not often that I'm surprised by a book.  I haven't read everything by any stretch of the imagination, but enough to know that all stories are basically amalgamations of the books that have come before.  Characters change but their motives don't, so it's hard to really separate apart from the herd when trying to create something new, or at least newish.

Lawrence did just that with "Prince of Thorns," a book that came out late last year to a good amount of fanfare in the tiny (but growing) circle of fantasy nudniks, a bit of praise that I think was extremely appropriate.

The story follows a tale that's been told often, one of a dead parent and a son who wants revenge, but where it steps aside from the conventional path to forage alone in the night is in the characters, or to be specific, the Character: Jorg Ancarath.  Jorg has seen the brutal murders of his mother and brother and that has left him with a slightly skewed and awfully bloody view of the world around him.

The environment that Lawrence has crafted is in this writer's opinion a post apocalypic world that has reverted back to the Middle Ages where any and everything from the time before has been lost and forgotten.  He does a great job of leaving that fact (or maybe not a fact?) to the reader's interpretation, instead devoting the bulk of attentionto Jorg and the journey that the 14 year old prince has undertaken.

The magic system, an area that I usually want to be verbose, big, and grand, is sparse and isn't really well understood but it works for the reader as the reader is just as clueless to how the magic works as Jorg is.  The story isn't driven by the magic like a lot of books nowadays, or by a sense of code or ethics, but more by a lack of a compulsion to do what's right.  Jorg does what he wants and does it in a way that is often scary, dark, and disturbing.  You might think that this would disconnect the reader from the story but it really didn't for me.

There isn't much I'd change or that I didn't like about the book.  It was just long enough, not a volume that took weeks to finish and it was written in a tight, deliberate, and clever manner that had me upset when the book finished only because the sequel's not out yet.

Pick it up, you'll enjoy it.

Point or lack thereof

There have been numerous times where I've either thought about or actually started a blog but they faltered quickly or never even got off the ground.  I'd like to change with that this time around.

Instead of this being a niche based commentary that focuses on some area or avenue of my life that I think is important enough to share with the world via the internet, I think I'm going to have a more enjoyable time writing about my life in general.  I'm at a unique point in my life where a lot of different things are either taking place or the potential of various dominoes may drop over the next couple months and years.

I'm never going to profess to be someone who is so interesting or important that would or could demand attention on the fluctuations of my day.  I just want to write and what better way to work on that goal than to write on a number of different areas and topics that I think are interesting enough to put fingers to keyboard on.

I'd like to chat about what's organic and natural to me and what better way to do that than talk about what interests me and what's in my everyday life.  That may be about the journeys of being a new homeowner, the possibilities of adding to our family, the hobbies of reading, writing, brewing (amongst others), my obsession with any and everything related to Michigan sports, and anything else that crops up in my life over the next couple years.

So bear with me as I give this a whirl and let's see if we can't have a little fun!