Roach

I've now been to one of the greatest places on the planet. I'd have to say it's a close tie between this and Disney World, and I'm not sure how to pick one over the other.

Today I went to the Samuel Adams Brewery.

First, a very attractive tour guide shows you around. You get to see them actually making beer. And by "them," I mean one of the guys that's actually in the commercials. Then you get to taste several of the different barleys they use and get a good sniff of their hops. And then, then the heavens open up and a chorus of angels begins to sing.

You get free beer. The entire tour is free, and they actually give you beer. You get a nice little 7 oz sampling glass (which you get to keep) that you use for three (or in our case, since it was a small tour group, four) different beers, and you actually have the chance to top off a little betwixt beers, so I put away somewhere between two and three regular pours. For free. While a cute blonde told me all about it.

And while I didn't get a chance to taste any, I did get to smell an empty bottle of Utopias. If you know what Utopias is, you'll know how awesome just smelling it should be. It smells very strongly of maple syrup, for the record.

My only regret is that I didn't actually buy any beer to take with me. This brewery is so small, they only brew three different small-batch varieties that you can't usually find elsewhere, in addition to the Utopias, experimental brews, and regular brews slated for special contests or events. So they offer this nice set of the three in big beautiful bottles, but since I'm going to be crossing the border in the next couple of days, I wasn't sure how that'd work out.

It just means I'll have to go back.

Oh, and tomorrow? I'm going to be hitting the Ben & Jerry's factory in Vermont.

Every so often I'm just vaguely fascinated by something. Today it's Google's autocomplete. You've seen it. You're typing in a search and it fills in possible suggestions. Sometimes it's a little bit boggling how it's actually aware of certain phrases. In this case, it was a snippet from an old fairy tale that had been running through my head lately (be bold, be bold, but not too bold,) and I just couldn't remember where the heck it was from. But Google knew before I'd finished asking.

Are we sure Google's not in my head?

I'm in Charlottesville now. Staying in a co-worker's empty apartment (well, full of my crap now), which I may or may not end up taking over completely depending on what they're gonna do with me. I'll find that part out on Monday.

That's not what I'm here to talk about, though. I'm here to talk about polos. The shirts. And how much I dislike them.

I dislike them rather a lot. I have for a long time. I don't think there's anything too specific behind this, just that I think they're silly. If you're not going to wear a t-shirt, man up and get something with a whole suite of buttons. Commit already. I own exactly one polo, and it's the one with the company logo they gave me when I started. I hardly ever wear it.

Mostly I rock the Hawaiian shirts. Depending on the print they can be pretty darn classy. My new favorite shirt is one I got a few weeks ago. Just a plain white collarless shirt, but it's all linen. Got some fan-fucking-tastic linen slacks, too. If you saw me on the street, you'd be all, "Well, he's a little bit homely but damn he's got style and damn if he doesn't look like the most comfortable man alive." Because I am.

Screw polos. I win at style.

It's been a while since I've posted about anything I've made, so here's the latest two:

First we have a display stand for the WWII-era bayonet I found buried at work. The thing's in terrible condition, but I still wanted to show it off, so I built this little rack complete with my first (moderately successful) attempt at a dovetail.





Now that I'm serious about shaving with good tools, I needed a place to put those tools. I put this together with some bits of oak and brass rod that I bent into shape myself. It's stubborn, even at just 1/8", and snapped a couple times when I tried to make tight bends. It looks damn fine in the bathroom, though.

So tonight I decided to treat myself to dinner. There's a new(ish) restaurant I'd been meaning to try, that specializes in local and fresh fare. I'm glad I did.

The nice surprise came after I'd been waiting for my food sometime. I apparently ordered just after a large group, but I was in no hurry, and I had a seat at a counter watching the open kitchen. The chef/owner came over to apologize and offer me another drink on the house. Now, every damn bar in Alabama has a big sign saying every drink is 1 1/4 oz booze. I had a glass of Glenmorangie they asked $8 for, and I happily payed. When my freebie arrived, it was easily a triple. The only thing better than fine whisky is free fine whisky.

Then the food came. Pecan crusted grouper. Various sides. The best meal I've had in weeks, if not months. I am such a sucker for good fish. Good fish plus free whisky and I'm set.

And now I'm about to see Crank 2 to round out the night. Maybe even the regular bar afterwards. Not bad at all.

So I thought I'd share a little of what I've been up to lately. Easier to show than tell, I suppose. Don't worry, I've bled more brushing my teeth than I've done with this thing so far.

So I'm at a Flogging Molly concert in Atlanta right now. This is a really white crowd. I'm shocked. But I have beer, so I think I'll get over it.

It's snowing! Seriously snowing (for Alabama, at least). Snowing enough that they sent us home from work, even (gotta work Sundays for a couple weeks, as it's the only way they can do demo in an area real close to some offices).

This is the first snow we've had all winter here. We're at about 1 1/2" and still falling in nice fat flakes. Yes, I know this is nothing compared to the great frozen tundra many of you are used to. I'm from Miami. It's been a while since I've seen any snow at all.

So it took me a while to get around to posting this, but I visited DC back around New Year's. It turned a little cold and the wind got very fierce, but it was still a good visit if you ignore the part about my car getting all screwed up. At least I've finally got that fixed and returned. Anyway, some pictures:

I'd been to DC before, but hadn't seen the Library of Congress. Now that I have, I'm sure it's one of, if not the, most beautiful buildings in the city. Every bit of wall and ceiling in the interior is covered with murals and mosaics. I was really impressed with one wing that had eight Sciences (including geology) represented as muse figures. Absolutely gorgeous.


The other beautiful thing was a sculpture in the National Gallery. The Reading Girl, by Pietro Magni. The place is full of paintings and sculptures, and while I stopped and hung around for a few, this is the only one that I actually took a picture of. She's just beautiful, that's all there is to it.


Also, we need more bronze statues of dogs.

This is my chili recipe. Use it only for good.

2 lbs lean ground beef
2x 14.5 oz cans diced tomatoes, undrained
1x 10 oz can Rotel tomatoes, undrained (these are the ones with the chilis in)
2x 15.5 oz cans beans, drained (kidney, black, great northern, mix it up a little)
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 vidalia onion, diced
minced garlic, to taste
chili powder, to taste

Brown the ground beef, add everything else, let it simmer until your patience runs out, stirring occasionally. For a vegetarian version, simply remove the beef and increase the beans. Often the amounts just won't look right and I'll add more beans or more tomatoes. If it looks too thin, tomato paste is an option.

Hitting the median barrier and rendering your car undrivable while on vacation sucks ass. At least I was just a little outsid of DC, my destination, and I was planning on sticking to the Metro while here. Still sucks ass.

Ok, I'm not really in a mood to do the math on how long it's been since my surgery, but I thought I'd throw up one last post about it in case anyone was interested.

Immediately following my surgery, I was put on a regimen of steroid eye drops, with the dosage tapering off over time. After five weeks, I stopped those drops. Toward the end of this period, my vision was good but not fantastic. I still had a little bit of trouble with small print on street signs while driving, and things in general just weren't as good as I'd hoped.

Within two or three days of stopping the drops, things improved dramatically. For the first few days after, things were actually pretty variable. My vision would be great one moment and a little bit less so the next. I think it had a lot to do with how moist they were. This stabilized before long, however, and now my vision is essentially perfect. I haven't had a checkup since the day I stopped the drops, but I'm as good if not better than I ever was wearing glasses or contacts, and I have absolutely no trouble seeing anything.

My eyes are still a bit drier than normal, and I use saline drops once or twice a day on average, but apart from that I couldn't be more pleased with the results of the surgery. They say there may still be some small change over the next few months, but at this point things are fantastic.

It really is cool what we can do with lasers these days.

Yesterday was, of course, Halloween. I had quite an excellent time this year, and felt compelled to share. Earlier in the week, we had a pumpkin-carving party at which I produced this little fellow:

The real event was me and a couple people driving down to New Orleans for the festivities there. These are people that take Halloween seriously, and I'm glad I was prepared:


Some other thoughts on New Orleans and the holiday:

• As I said, these people take Halloween very seriously. A parade, street closures, huge mobs of people (the biggest mobs we managed to mostly avoid).
• A friend of a friend took us over to a small party in an apartment with a great balcony and view just a block or so off Bourbon St (though we carefully avoided Bourbon itself - those mobs I mentioned).
• A cane is a curious costume accessory to have. While it can make using both hands difficult, it comes in handy to lean on when one's been drinking, and can be reassuringly protective should the need arise. Fortunately, the need did not arise.
• Yeah, the food's been great.
• The music has also been great.
• I really need to get out of the boonies and get to a city. Probably not this one, and maybe not even a major one, but a smallish or medium genuine city with some actual life to it.
• New Orleans does have a curiously large population of young homeless. These annoy me a little, as I think many of them are actually choosing that sort of lifestyle, or at least not bothering to choose to get out of it.
• I hope you guys all had a good time with whatever you did.

This may be my last update on the eyes for a while. Went to see the doc today and got the bandage contacts out. They'd been starting to get fairly annoying.

My eyes are still dry, my close-up vision is pretty normal now, but my distance vision is fluctuating and probably will for a little bit. The other day I went in, my right eye was better than my left, today the opposite was true (although neither is much better than they were that day, and the right may be worse than it was). So now it's just a routine of drops every so often and see what happens with the vision. Another few weeks and it should stabilize and I'll know exactly what I've come out of this with.

Here I am, two days after surgery. My vision is still extremely iffy, and I think my left eye may have actually gotten slightly worse since yesterday. This is apparently normal, and on Tuesday I get the bandage contacts out and should see a sharp improvement at that point, followed by gradual change over the next month or so.

Using the computer is difficult right now, as nothing is quite in focus, but it's not nearly as uncomfortable as it was yesterday and the day before. This may or may not have something to do with the Percocet. I haven't had any real pain, but I had enough general discomfort that I decided to try the stuff. Everything's ok now. And I mean everything. Good stuff.

So now that I can actually sit and use the computer (in a manner of speaking), I'm going to put together my full report on the surgery portion. What I got was not LASIK, but Advanced Surface Ablation, Epi-LASIK, or PRK. I'm not exactly sure how interchangeable those terms are. Because of a slight aberration in the shape of my cornea, this was determined to be a better idea. Recovery time is slightly longer, but the final result should be the same, except that I don't have the risk of corneal separation down the road like LASIK patients do.

Friday morning I went in, they rescanned my eyes, double-checked the prescription in the chair, and gave me a couple different drops. I got a green sticker on my forehead to indicate that both eyes were to be done and another sticker on my shoulder with all my personal info. I also got to wear a hairnet and little shoe covers.

I laid down on a bed with an apparatus over my face covered in banks of LEDs. The doctor and technicians kept calling out numbers and statistics as I was given numbing drops and the fun part began. My eyelashes were taped back, metal doohickeys were put in place to keep my eyelids open, and a device with a ring was placed directly onto my eyeball. The device applied some suction and a little bit of pressure. When it was removed, I saw the doctor pulling away something that looked like a contact lens, which had up until recently been the outer surface of my eyeball.

I then had to stare into a green light and the lasing began. This step only took perhaps 10-15 seconds, and included a smell not unlike burning plastic. Between every step I was being flushed with cold, cold water and the doctor was wiping my eyeball with some sort of instrument, presumably to keep it clean. Of all of this, the only part that was at all uncomfortable or annoying was the cold water. After the lasing in particular there was a lot of it, and it was very cold. They put the bandage contacts in and I was done.

Just got back from my day one checkup. Things are healing up nicely and I supposedly have 20/25 and 20/30 vision, but things are extremely cloudy and it just hurts to look at anything for very long. Especially the computer, so don't expect to see much of me.

It's going real well, though. Apart from some discomfort last night I haven't had any of the pain I've heard about, just the dryness. Tuesday I get the bandage contacts out, and at that point I should supposedly have a huge improvement and then gradual improvement over the next month or so as it all settles.

Just got back from the surgery. I'm doing pretty well except for the persistent dryness. My vision is pretty poor right now, but slightly better than it was before, and I should expect it to change a good deal over the near future. Gonna go spend the rest of the day in bed, as I've been warned off computers, reading, and TV.

So apparently I'm actually getting laser eye surgery. For reals.

I just got back from Atlanta, where I had my screening. I'm doing it through Emory Vision, which seems like a very classy joint. Interestingly, I'm not getting LASIK. Because of a very minor aberration with my corneas, the doctor thinks PRK will be safer for me. So instead of the flap and shave, they're just ablating the top of my corneas. I have to wear some contacts for a few days to heal up, and that initial recovery time is slower, but supposedly the long-term results are identical.

In two weeks I hitch a ride back to Atlanta and get my eyes burned with lasers. I'm only a little freaked out.

I do not propose to discuss my love life. I will say that I still can't get over how women are shaped, and that I will go to my grave wanting to pet their butts and boobs. I will say, too, that lovemaking, if sincere, is one of the best ideas Satan put in the apple she gave to the serpent to give to Eve. The best idea in that apple, though, is making jazz.
-Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake

Somehow I had gone more than twenty-seven years without ever reading any Vonnegut. I finally got around to it a couple months ago, and have been chewing my way happily through his catalog. The one I just finished is Timequake, which is more of a memoir than a novel, but is a thing of beauty all the same, perhaps more so since I had no idea what it was going in.

I imagine this is the universe's way of reminding me that there's still a hell of a lot of fantastic stuff out there I haven't seen yet. As if I needed reminding.

So I just went and set all my old entries here to private and some to friends-only. I just decided that some of the older stuff (and maybe even some of the recent stuff) didn't exactly represent the face I want to put on for all the world at large. I'm too lazy to pick and choose which ones could stay public, so they all got changed.

I won't be exclusively friends-only from here out, but I will be a bit pickier about how things get locked. Maybe I'll even go back and unlock some that I'm more comfortable with.

Carry on.