Going To My Happy Place

Today we took a trip to the Anheuser-Busch brewery for the Budweiser tour. I was ecstatic. I'm not sure why. I like Bud but I'm not one of those guys that decorates everything with a Bud motif. Bud is one of those American icons though. Bud beers account for 50% of the US beer market annually (a factoid we learned on the tour). That's a lot of beer. A few years ago I took a tour of the Jack Daniels Distillery. I thought that was a better tour for the most part, the guide was some salty good old boy that looked like he had been making and drinking whiskey for decades. Our guides today didn't look like they were old enough to drink yet. Everything was kept at a distance on the Bud tour too. In Lynchburg you got to walk up and take a whiff right out of the fermenting tank. It was neat to see thousands of bottles zooming down a belt full of beer but it was a long way off.

The highlight of the tour was probably the stables and the Clydesdales. We drove to St Louis last week to take the tour and cancelled it for this week when we got to the brewery and the stables were closed that day. That's how much we wanted to see the stables. We still didn't get to see much of the horses. The campus is gorgeous, historical and well maintained. There are a few National Historic Sites on the property. And as usual the history of the company had a lot of interesting facts, the company saved itself during prohibition by making trucks and malt syrup among other things.

All in all it was a very good tour. The one thing it had over Jack Daniels was at the end of the tour there was two free samples. I had the freshest Budweiser from tap you can possibly get. It was good too. The place was like Disney World, Mecca, outer space and a little chunk of Heaven on Earth. And unfortunately the 10:00 o'clock evening news is saying that In Bev is laying off employees to "streamline" costs. A friend of mine also said the brewery in Virginia will be shutting down as well. I can't believe that a company that does 50% of the beer business in the US needs cost cutting. I would think, in a recession beer would be one of those few things that the demand actually increases. I hope they don't stop the tours to cut costs as well.

December 7th

Today marks two milestones. Personally speaking it's my brother Bryce's birthday. Have a happy one soldierant.

In the broader historical scope it's the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. I consider World War II one of those things in life that shouldn't be forgotten and should be drilled into every school kid's head. I found these photos* on the web today and think they are pretty interesting:



Give a look and remember not only the sacrifice of the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines but the civilians that gave up the luxuries and then the necessities of life to help defeat a bunch of assholes. Follow the link and it has a little info on where these rare photos were found.

*Please note as with all things on the Internet I did not verify the photos' authenticity. Hopefully these aren't photoshopped scenes from that horrid Michael Bay movie.

December 6th

Nothing happened today out of the ordinary.

5th Day, A Little Less Rockin'

This is turning in to a bit of a chore now. If I thought it was tough to be original before I'm really behind the eight ball now. I didn't have a lot of time to think at work yesterday so no topics came up. I got to see the Office and 30 Rock last night. I'm not sure about the Office right now. It was funny but it's been awhile since I laughed out loud at it. 30 Rock was a good one though. After being hit and miss at the end of last season it's starting to get good again.


The heat is not working again. It's 55 degrees in the house again. Thanks for sharing a few minutes of your precious time with me, sorry for wasting it.

The Fourth Rockin' Day Of December

Today was the first day back to work after my weekend. It was a little tough going back. I have the incredibly good luck to enjoy my wife's company so much I actually hate to go back to work. I know Lisa would like to have friends and a little more of a life but I'm happy with her and the dog. The following video illustrates my point.



Really, I don't think I need to explain why there's no reason for me to leave the house.

The Third Day Of December

Today we started to head out to the Budweiser brewery for the tour. When we got there the stables were closed for the filming of a commercial so we decided to try next week. We stopped my Soulard Farmer's Market on the way home. It was pretty quite, I guess most of the activity happens on the weekends. We stopped for lunch at a quaint little bar down the block from Soulard called Llwellyn's. I had, if not the best certainly the largest chicken wings I've ever ate. As if gorging myself on a pound of chicken wings wasn't enough, we walked to the QT for snacks when we got home.

We returned home and did a little more packing and took Moon around the neighborhood for her walk. I think we'll all miss the neighborhood, it's a great place to walk.

And tonight we watched Pushing Daisies, our favorite show. Of course it's soon to be cancelled and replaced with some reality show from Tyra Banks and Ashton Kutcher, or a reality show about the Homeland Security forces. TV sucks!

Well, on that sour note, I'm outta here.

December 2nd

Don't worry, I'll try to come up with more original titles as the month progresses.

So far today, Lisa and I have been carrying boxes up from the basement in preparation for the move. That was a back breaking but thankfully short undertaking. I got distracted briefly when I ran across some old magazines I've been keeping since 1993. I'm kind of a pack rat for magazines ever since I was little and would go through Dad's old National Geographics. The old automobile advertisements were fascinating to me.

We also got rid of the oil from an old lawn mower we threw out a few weeks ago. We just got back from the IGA down over the hill where we had to get yard waste tags. I know that won't mean anything to anyone but me.

We're getting ready to see Australia in a little while. At three hours we should get our moneys worth even if it isn't all that great.

And six hours later - We're back home. Australia was good if not a little intimidating to watch. Hugh Jackman's abs are a tough act to follow. Tonight was a bad misadventure in traffic also. We got caught on I-270 and thought we would be clever. We hopped off the highway and headed toward a Noodles and Company but got caught in aother traffic jam at an intersection with about six police cars in it. We just circled back around and headed home over Lindberg Ave and up to I-70.

December 1st

I wanted to start practicing for 2009. My goal will be to see if I can do one entry a day for a year. I haven't been able to do it for a week, let alone a month or year. It's an ambitious undertaking so we'll see how it goes. The reason I want to do it though is because we are basically starting a new life at the beginning of the new year. I feel like it's symbolic.

I like December, it's my birth month and before I got all cynical about Christmas, it was the month of my favorite holiday. It'll be a challenge to post an entry every day considering how busy we'll be moving but I'm still going to try. I don't consider it cheating if I write the post in word and post it a few days later.

Our heat went out last night and the repairman just now fixed it. The house got down to 55 degrees this morning and my fingers are numb so this will be the extent of this entry. Maybe later today I'll be able to post some pictures from Thanksgiving.