Dreams

This post is less about sippin' stuff, and more about my personal life. I used to blog a little more about my own life on Fridays, and I just might start doing that again. Today's issue is about dreams. Not necessarily about dreaming at night, but more about the goals that the Mrs and I have for our lives. T.E. Lawrence once said:

"All men dream, but not equally: Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible."

With this in mind, I present to you two of the dreams that we have for our life. First of all is this bad boy

One of the Wife's dreams is to one day own a refurbished Airstream trailer, and to travel around the country for a month or two completely without an agenda. We would just go for a while, stop where we wanted, stay as long as we wanted, and then move on if we so desired. I love this idea. It would be awesome to explore this nation of ours with the woman I love in a bad ass trailer.

If that is the picture of her dream, then here is the picture of mine:

Anyone that has been around me for more than about 30 minutes knows that I'm sort of a beach bum stuck in the midwest. I grew up with access to a wonderful lake house in Arkansas, and that burned in my persona the need that families have for a place to vacation together. Therefore, I want to someday have a beach house that our family can go to whenever we want.

So, there you have it. Those are some of our dreams. What are yours?

Cheers, have a wonderful weekend, and drink a mint julep while watching the Derby.

Ponies and Butterflies

I titled today's post that, because my wife told me to blog about Ponies and Butterflies. I really don't have much to say about either subject- Ponies are what little girls want for Christmas, but rarely get. Butterflies are fine. I have heard that the flapping of their wings affects the tides in Japan, or something like that.

Now on to business. If you haven't heard, tonight is Dining Out for Life- an annual event where local restaurants give a portion (sometimes up to 100%) of their sales of one night to benefit AIDS research. Reservations are tough to get, and most restaurants are packed, but it's a good reason to go out and eat, and feel good about it at the same time. Check out www.diningoutforlife.com/stlouis for more info.

Also check out Andrew Mark Veety's blog (listed on the side)- he is on a quest to find Saint Louis' best hamburger, and reviews McGurk's.

Lastly, on to Sippin' stuff. We have decided to make Wednesdays into "Wine Wednesday", and open a nice bottle of wine with dinner. The first bottle I opened was a 2004 Neyers Tofanelli Zinfandel, but it was corked. Secondly, I opened a 2001 Rodano Chianti Classico Reserva. It was delicious, with a really cool note of dried roses on the nose. Go find some, you'll enjoy it.

That's all folks, Cheers.

Update

The Death's Door liquors are also available at Five on the Hill.

Not much today

I'm just not feeling it today. The sun is out, maybe I'll go try to soak some up.

Sippin'-wise, go have some Death's Door Gin- it's available at Wine Merchant, Wine and Cheese Places, Friar Tucks, Atomic Cowboy, Taste by Niche, and Pi in CWE.

A Beer I Didn't Care For

Very seldomly do I post negative things on here. Maybe it's the dreary weather, or maybe it's the fact I'm behind on my weight loss goals. At any rate, yesterday I tried a beer that I really, truly, honestly, thought about giving back to the bartender.

To set the scene, I was at a "Tweet-up". For those of you who don't know what that is, it is when a bunch of people on Twitter, some of whom have never met before, all meet in a given place at a certain time, to discuss a common subject. Because this is Craft Beer Week in Saint Louis, some of the local beer geeks and food bloggers all met at the Bridge (new spot- 10th and Locust, check it out) to talk about beer.

I tried the Schlafly Organic Pale Cask Ale (or something like that)- a beer straight from cask that has less carbonation than normal. I really liked it. After that, the mistake was made. I overheard someone talking about the New Holland Envious. "What the heck, I guess I'll give it a try. These guys know about beer" was my thought. Upon trying it, my initial response was that it tasted just like grape soda. Bill Burge tried it as well, and concurred. It just had a weird mouth-feel to it that I didn't enjoy. I looked it up on the New Holland Website, and it seems that they use pears and raspberries to create a secondary fermentation, and add tartness to it. Kind of like the ugly kid in class, or the little girl who is terrible at the clarinet, I'm sure there's someone that is really proud of this beer. For me, I'll stick with my Guinness.

Have a great day, drink something good.

Cheers!

Beers and Brats, Craft Beer Week has begun

Saturday, dozens of people decended upon 33 wine bar in Lafayette square for what has become the annual kickoff to Saint Louis Craft Beer Week, the "Beers and Brats" fest. The boys from Salume Beddu made up some killer Salsicca with pork, fennel, spanish paprika, chili flakes, and a bunch of other stuff, and were smothering them with home made sauerkraut, onions, and a pepper relish. Man, these things were killer! They grilled until about 2:00, when yours truly took over the tongs, and started burning some meat. This lasted until God decided to re-enact the flood of Genesis, and we had to pull it inside.

All of this to say that this is Craft Beer week here in the Lou. Since I'm not as much up on the beer scene as I would like, I would suggest you follow Mike Sweeny on stlhops.com, or his Twitter feed at @mikedrinksbeer. There is something going on just about every night this week that will give you ample opportunity to check out cool brews.

That's all for now. Have a great week, and Cheers!

Wow...that was expensive

Since when did Pizza and a Movie become a special-occasion type of thing? Last night, the Mrs. and I broke away from our healthy eating and fitness plan to have a night on the town. We started with a first-time experience for her at Lemmons. They have delicious deep-dish style pizza (be forwarned- the 14" is WAY too much for two people. I had two pieces, she had one). The cost of wings, pizza and $2 beer: $50. Then we hit the movie theatre. Tickets were $9.50 each, and snacks there zinged us for another $20 even. For those of you keeping track, we had now spent $89.50 before we even sat down in our seats at the theatre. Holy Crap! I know this "growing older" thing is expensive, I just wasn't expecting that. As a side note, we saw Kickass which was pretty good, not amazing. I grade it 82/100.

At any expense, it was a really fun night with my beautiful bride, and I'm glad we went.

Have a great weekend folks- Cheers.