Time of Year... For Beer!

I love this time of year. Most smaller brewreys are coming out with their fall brew or Octoberfest brew, and as far as varieties go, it's by far my favorite. Sam Adams Octoberfest has been my beer of choice in the fall for the last few years, but it may be facing some stiff competition this year. My favorite brand the rest of the time, Goose Island, now has a fall brew that I'm itching to sample. The only reason I didn't buy it tonight was because the Sam Adams was in the cooler, while the Goose Island was not. Last year I bought 2 cases of the Sam Adams, just so I could have it after they stopped shipping it. I was drinking it until January! I may have to do the same this year. It's a shame they don't have this variety year round.

Impatient Kitty

And now, in honor if the Unhappy Kitties, I give you the Impatient Kitty:

Unhappy Kitties

This afternoon I took yet another trip to the vet with one of our four cats. Today it was Bear's turn, but in the last few weeks we've had Chloe there three times, and Punkin there once. Cotton is the only lucky one that hasn't had to go, and that's probably for the better. Cotton, the sweetest cat you'll ever see, turns into an absolute psychopath when he goes to the vet. They all get a little crazy when you shove them into a little plastic box. It turns out Bear has a flea problem, which means they all have a flea problem. Punkin is the only cat that goes outside, so it's highly likely he brought them in. Let me tell you, it's fun to have pets, but the can be really expensive. Our vet gives us a discount sometimes. I feel like I'm buying in bulk or something.

Back For More

It's that time of year again. The baseball season is winding down, and as usual, the White Sox failed to go to the playoffs. I'm really starting to look forward to the football season starting, and I don't have long to wait. Tonight was the opening game, but the Bears first game is Sunday afternoon. After the disappointment of last year, I'm ready to start clean and feel good about my team again. This year I hope they finish the job!

Now, the bad stuff. Every day that goes by, it looks more and more likely that I'll soon be bumped back to 2nd shift. With all the movement that's been going on, all the people transferring to the Paint Shop are requesting preferred shifts, which is forcing the so called ETE employees to the bad shift. Three people were bumped last week, three more this week, so now that leaves about 4 people ahead of me. I'm likely looking at another 2 or 3 weeks on 3rd before I'm bumped. Fortunately, after I'm moved to assembly, it looks like I'll be able to return to 3rd. I just have no idea at the moment when that will be.

Prime Rates

Th Nintendo Wii launched in November '06, and since that time there hasn't been one game that I've been compelled to run out and buy. All that changed last week when they finally released the third game in the Metroid series, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. The first two games were released on the Game Cube, and were widely considered to be two of the best games of their time. Unfortunately for the underpowered Wii, the third in the installment simply can't hold up graphically to the competition. That being said, this is the only drawback I can see. The game is brilliant. Traditional Metroid game play is in abundance, and the new controls featuring the motion sensing Wii Remote are superb. It does take some adjustment at first, but now I can't imagine playing a Metroid game without them. If this is any indication of the quality we can expect from first party Nintendo titles, I'm really looking forward to future releases.

Favorite Shots #15: The River Walk

Back in 2005, Dad and I took a trip to San Antonio, Texas to be there for my brother Justin's graduation from basic training. He's in the Airforce, along with his twin brother Jon, and it was nice to be able to be there on that important day. I was really impressed with the city of San Antonio. It's very clean, and has a nice mix of the modern and traditional that is unique to that city. One of the city's major attractions is called the River Walk. It's really a series of shops and restaurants situated on the banks of the river, that flows through down town San Antonio. There realy wasn't much beyond restaurants down there, but it was a beautiful area nonetheless, and I really enjoyed the time we spent there. This particular area was a little outdoor theater we discovered on the far end of the River Walk area. There wasn't that many people this far down, but this was probably my favorite area. It was very peaceful and scenic.

Deflated

I've been having issues with this tire for a couple of weeks now. It has an incredibly slow air leak, so every few days I have to refill it. I took it in to have it patched after I noticed the problem, but the rocket scientist working at Wal-Mart (nothing else is open at 7am!) couldn't find the leak. I've decided that this week I'll have to wait an hour or so after work and take it into Farm & Fleet to have it patched. That way, I can drop off the busted mower to have that fixed as well. It's just so damn hard to do things like this when you sleep all day....

Labor Day, Wii Play

Tonight Steph and I had dinner at her Sister Melanie's house. The dinner, cooked by Melanie's husband Joe on the grill, consisted of the traditional fare: Brats, chicken, burgers, and all the trimmings. Before the party, Melanie asked Steph if we would bring the Wii. I thought it would be fun, but didn't think anyone would really get into it too much. Man, was I wrong. We played Wii Sports: Bowling for probably about 3 hours. Everyone from my brother in law, to Steph's mom and dad, to my 4 year old niece were playing it and having a blast. By the end of the night we pretty much convinced everyone there that they had to have one. I'm really starting to understand what Nintendo has done with this thing. They've created something totally accessible that people in any age group can really enjoy. It's no wonder they've sold 10 million of the things.

You can see the rest of the pictures I took here.