Tonight, I went drinking with some guys from the "survey team" (my job segment) in Mobile, Alabama. woo.

had a Juengling Light Lager (good, kinda light, smooth, good, overall. kinda like Lone Star, actually), and a Jim's Cannon Red Jacket (amber, bitter, tasted kinda like an india Pale Ale, actually) And two Newcastle Brown Ales. And something has tripped allergies, since I'm sneezing. wtf.

And Adrienne called.-- talked to her for like, three minutes. I wish I could have talked to her some more, that would be nice to to hear from someone totally unrelated to work.

arg. off to sleep off these allergies.

Downotwn Mobile is neat... narrow streets, balconies-- it's a lot like New Orleans in terms of design. Neat architecture and the old houses on the way down there are cool.

Yeah. Night, y'all. Oh yeah-- I get to go home this weekend too... synchronizing the off weekends, so... yay. it'll be nice to not be here, this weekend. Baton Rouge, for the 12 days starting the third, though.

50. Real Ale Sisyphus 2005. Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/20/06. - Good. Strong. sweet. Barley wine, orange peel and apricot.
49. Real Ale Fireman #4. Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/20/06. Blonde. Unfiltered. Good stuff, pretty smooth.
48. New Belgium Abbey Ale. Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/18/06. good, dark.
47. Traquair House. Bottle. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/18/06. Pretty good, overall.
46. Scaldis. Bottle. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/18/06. This one was great. Expensive, but very good. Belgian Barley Wine. High alcohol content--12%.
45.Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale. Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/18/06. Too hoppy. too bitter. Not a big fan.
44. New Belgium 1554.Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/14/06. "Belgian black ale", according to the description. Good, thick, malt and barley flavor.
43. Sunshine Wheat. Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/14/06. Weizen beer, but, wow... "citrus" is the word. too fruity. For a wheat beer, very clear.
42. JW Dundee's Honey Brown. Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/13/06. way too sweet for my taste. Very mild. Touted as "a good intro beer for non-beer-drinkers", and I can see how that would be.
41. Live Oak Pilz. Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 3/13/06. Good-- dry, light, crisp. Hops was stronger than I expected.
40. Avalanche "Amber Style Ale". Bottle. Harvey Washbanger's, College Station, TX. 3/05/06. Sorta bitter. Kinda like Fat Tire. Otherwise throughly unremarkable.
39. Abita Turbodog. Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 2/27/06. Dark. Heavy, but good.
38. New Belgium "Biere de Mars". Draft. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX. 2/27/06. Not a big fan. strange smell. Head was dense. apparently has oats, wheat, barley malt, and lemon verbena. weird.
37. JW Dundee's "Honey Wheat". Bottle. Wing Stop, Temple, TX. 2/25/06. Good, lager. just a touch honey flavored. Went... just fine with hot wings.
36. Flying Dog "In-Heat Wheat". Bottle. private party, College Station, TX. 2/18/06. Unfiltered wheat beer. normally I like those. this one was bad, cold. much better when it warmed to about 60 degrees.
35. Kirin Ichiban. Bottle. Masa Sushi, Webster, TX. 2/9/06. White label, gold writing. Good. unremarkable. ate sushi and chicken teriyaki and other random japanese with it. yay.
34. Dogfish IPA. Draft. Boondoggle Pub, Webster, TX. 2-6-06. Good, says it's an IPA, and I can taste the hops, but it's also thick, and tastes like a stout.
33. Bridgeport Brewing Company 'Black Strap Stout'. Bottle. Andy's house, Houston TX. 2/3/06. not bad, molasses-y (which makes sense...) and a pretty good stout.
32. Dixie Blackened Voodoo. Bottle. L'Auberge du Lac, Jack Daniel's Grill, Lake Charles, LA. 2-1-06. Good, apparently it's a lager, but it tasted to me very much like a stout. Good. And the Shiner I had after it tasted funny, by comparison. I like this one.
31. Stella Artois. Draft. O' Bannon's Pub (was Hole in the Wall) College Station, TX, 1-12-06. Not bad... light, and not worth five bucks apiece.
30. "Left Hand Brewing Company" Milk Stout. Flying Saucer, Houston, TX, 1/7/06. Bottle. Not bad, but, as Andy said, weak for a stout. "Thin", rather. Wasn't as thick as I'd figured it might be. Smooth, though.
29. Pyramid Apricot Ale. Draft. O' Bannon's Pub (was Hole in the Wall) College Station, TX, 1-2-06 - Apricot-y. not bad, but very fruity, and sweet. light color. heh.
28. Spaten Optimator. Draft. O' Bannon's Pub (was Hole in the Wall) College Station, TX, 1-2-06 - good, roasted malt. very dark. good.
27. Belhaven Scottish Ale. "Creamy" is what the waitress said. she was right. Malty, thick, and creamy. really dense head. Smooth.
26. McEwan's Scotch Ale. Flying Saucer, Houston TX, 12/26/05. Bottle. 8%, malty, good, overall. nothing really stands out, though.
25. Peroni 'Nastro Azzurro', Johnny Carino's, Lake Charles, LA. pretty good. reminded me of, I think, Heineken. Very crisp and light. Bottle.
24. Lafitte's Light, Rikenjak's Brewpub, Broad Street, Lake Charles, LA. 12-13-05. VERY smooth, no bite at all. good stuff. Draft.
23. Red Hook IPA - hoppy, like the IPA ought to be, and not too bad, overall. Pretty bitter, though. It was good at the time, though. Draft.
22. Amstel Light - Lone Star Steakhouse, Baton Rouge, LA, 12-8-05. Lager, i wasn't really a fan. Bottle.
21. Aylinger Brau-Weiss - 11-17-05, Fox and Hound, Baton Rouge, LA. Unfitered wheat beer, hops flavor, a touch bitter, but good. Enough hops to be crisp, I suppose, but the wheat sweetens and smooths it out. (that should cover my 'elitist beer asshole' points for the month) Bottle.
20. Kinmount Willie's Stout - 11-17-05, Fox and Hound, Baton Rouge, LA. Good, thick, roasted malt, heavy. Smoky, and good. Bottled.
19. Maredsous - 11-16-05, Fox and Hound, Baton Rouge, LA. Tasted like roasted malt, in the Killian's way. Supposed to be like a Chimay - high alcohol and all. Trappist type beer. Draft. Spoke with a guy named Marvin, and learned about beer-tasting stuff. Hops makes beer bitter(which I knew), but is also a preservative (which i didn't know). IPA (high alcohol, lots of hops, very bitter) was designed to survive the trip on a boat to India, thus, India Pale Ale.
18. Goose Island Honker's Ale - Ale, bitter, amber-colored. more bitter than I like usually, but not bad. More mellow than IPA.11-03(whoop)-05(whoop). Draft.
17. Sam Adams' Winter Lager - good, lager-y, amber. 11-03-05. Draft.
16. Leinenkugel Honey Weiss - Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Hilton. Overall, not bad, kinda sweet, but "wholly unremarkable" is the phrase that descibes it the best. Draft.
15. Pumpkin Ale, made by "Buffalo Bill's Brewery, Haywood, CA. brewed and bottled by Portland Brewing Co., Portland, OR" Weird stuff, pumpkin-y, but not very sweet. probably would have been better colder. Not bad, just... very unusual. Bottle.
14. Foster's. (yeah, the "australian for beer" one.) not bad, actually, just... regular lager beer.(10-24-05, Outback Steakhouse in baton rouge, LA. Draft.
13. Blue Moon Belgian White. Smokey Bones Barbecue, Baton Rouge, LA. (10-10-05) good, kinda sweet and bitter at the same time. Wheaty. came with an orange slice. Draft.
12. Franziskaner Hefeweizen. Wurstmarkt, harker heights, TX. (10-01-05). good, typical hefeweizen. Draft.
11. Jim's Cannon Red Jacket, Dauphin Street (it was a brewpub), Mobile Alabama (bitter, amber, kinda like an india pale ale) (9-28-05) Draft.
10. Juengling Light Lager (9-28-05) Draft. Mobile, AL.
9. Abita Amber. Draft.
8. Saint Arnold's Lawnmower (koelsch). Draft. Good, but better really cold.
7. Pyramid hefeweizen. Draft.
6. Smithwick's (amber). Draft.
5. Guinness Stout. Draft.
4. Harp Lager. Draft.
3. Newcastle Brown. Draft.
2. Fuller's ESB. Draft.
1. Murphy's Irish Red. Draft.

Weekend in College Station was good. Fun to hang out with everyone in CS again.

Tonight...

I had a Saint Arnold's lawnmower Koelsch tonight... good stuff. just like a Koelsch should be.
Also had an Abita Amber. both good-- baldeagle and I were at the Flying Saucer in downtown Houston. The waitresses wear plaid schoolgirl skirts and kneesocks. (all i'm gonna say about that...)

Job starts tomorrow. woo. wish me luck. I'll be online (that is, as much as I can realistically swing) in the evenings, when i get a computer again.

I am, apparently, going to Alabama for my second section of training--starting at the end of this week, running until the...30th, or so. it's supposed to be really good experience-- that is, it sums up what we do in a big hurry, rather than learning it slowly in other places. The quicker I come up to speed, the better. whoop.

And i miss you guys. (yeah, already). Catch you later...

hmm. several things today.

the random black woman who declared, talking into her celphone while in the waiting area at the bank, that we were in the end times, because gas was 2-and-a-quarter. Ah, yes, the Two-and-a-quarter-Gas Horseman of the Apocalypse^tm.

the woman who came into the nice, upscale (no shit, really; it's upscale) pub downtown wearing the jeans with the rip in the ass. While eating lunch with my dad, the thought "wow, commando" should never enter my head.

i had a Pyramid Hefeweizen beer today with my grilled chicken sandwich. the beer wasn't bad, but rather unremarkable, overall. And again, i note that my alcohol tolerance is shit lately. complete shit.

But I'm working on that... tomorrow is party time in Houston. And a lunch date appointment with Adrienne.

went to the Flying Saucer, a bar in downtown houston last night. they have seomthing like... 200 beers. Literally. 80-some on tap. I like it. neat stuff. I had a "UK & Ireland" sampler-- it had Guinness(standard liquid bread), Harp lager (good, light, better than i thought it'd be), Newcastle brown(not bad, but too hop-py), and two others-- a Murphy's Irish Red (i'm not a big fan of the roasted malt ones, and that's how they make irish red) and a Fuller's ESB (pretty damn good, actually...kinda had "fruit notes", it said.).

And then we went to... O'Shea's Irish pub, taked to some croatian guy at the bar (he told me I should have a Beck's (i wasn't being picky about my beer) and the bartender recommended Smithwick's (say smith-ick's). Good stuff. Dark, a little of the roasted malt, but mostly just a good dark amber beer.

Stayed at Andy's-- party down in Clear Lake tonight, so that will be fun. yay. maybe the zoo and LaiLai's in between.

hmm. party on Friday was good, I dunked my ring in 72 seconds. Kevin did hiw in 32 seconds, but I managed to keep all of mine down... good stuff, I beat my old time by 23 seconds. flat, warm beer is indeed easier to chug. but man, it feels wrong to pour the fizz out of beer. really.

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talk with Blythe is later today. That will be... good. I'm looking forward to it, a bit. If only in that "clarification" sense. It will be nice to get a clearer idea where this is.

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went to dinner and talked wtih adrienne, since i haven't seen or talked to her in weeks, literally. that was good stuff.

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I'm literally concentrating to stay awake. I'm going to bed now.