Big thanks to Mindy from Crafty and crap for pointing out that my comments weren’t working - you’d click on the comment link and it went dead. Not cool at all. However, it seems to be working now through no intervention of mine. I guess it healed. Please try posting some type of comment and let me know if it doesn’t work.
I’m evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they’re letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.
It covers:
I’ll let you know what I think once I’ve had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it’s still free.
The Fatted Calf is for sale!
Recieved from their mailing list this evening:
Message:
The Fatted Calf For Sale?Yes, it’s true. After 21 years as owner of the legendary restaurant, Kathy Sellenriek is ready to pass the torch.
So if you or someone you know is a die-hard calfburger fan that might be interested in taking over the tradition, please contact Kathy at 314-726-1141.
For full details on this story, please visit our website www.FattedCalfBurgers.com
Thank you!
The Fatted Calf Management
Let’s hope they get someone worthy to buy them because I sure would miss those Calf Burgers!
My sister has finally found a place to live! i mean, a place that isn’t my house! Alice is with her and her son right now at Our Lady’s Inn.
This is a huge step for my sister, and it’s exactly what she needs. Hopefully she will come out of this adventure with the life skills necessary to make it on her own (and not need to live with me any more!).
I proud of her for getting this far, and good luck to her in starting the rest of her life.
I was recently contacted by my father and half-sister from California through MySpace. The internet is weird like that and I half expected this day would eventually come. So come in, look around. There’s probably not as much information here as you’d like, but we’ll be exchanging information as time goes on. Feel free to leave a comment saying, “howdy!”
You can reach me through Jabber or Google Talk as jasonbutler42@gmail.com. You can also follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jasonbutler42.
I mentioned in a recent tweet that the Rocktoberfest labels were printed.
This was an insane amount of fun to do and I’m very pleased with how it turned out. However, the actual Rocktoberfest in liquid form was less than stellar. I think it needs to age a little more and hopefully the it will carbonate more before the Rock Band party on Feb. 24.
Next up is the Irish Stout. I’m thinking something Star Wars related.
My sister is staying with me again. Two years ago when she left after staying with us for two years I experienced the happiest day of my life. I’m talking Publisher’s Clearing House excited. I didn’t know people could actually scream and yell with joy and relief, but I assure you it happens.
Now she’s back. She’s changed quite a bit in two years, but there’s still a spirit of discord that she brings with her. Normally small things are amplified and communication is difficult despite our best efforts.
I feel like I’m in prison - I just want to do my time. There’s nothing that can be done at this point other than just letting the time pass. You want to ask me how I’m doing? Sure, fine. Can you help me get out of this situation? No? Sorry, I’m just going to wait until this is over.
I wish I had some better tools to work with but I really only know how to turtle and let the timer run out on this. What makes it worse is that Alice and I are under no compulsion to let me sister stay. no one has tried guilting us into keeping her, but since no one else has stepped up to the plate - now or in the past - we get her by default. If I was heartless and less of a man, I would turn her out into the street (that day may yet come) but for now I’m in a prison of my own device.
She has until March 1 to stay with us. If she doesn’t find something by then… *sigh* …I can’t be held responsible for letting her go.
Meanwhile, brewing is going strong. I need to take a weekend and visit Mike Sweeney of www.stlhops.com. He was gracious enough to let my adventurous brewing partner hangout during a weekend recently and I’m hoping I can do the same. Our Rocktoberfest didn’t turn out as we planned, but there is still great hope for the as yet unnamed Irish Stout - both of which have been bottled. The next batch will be kegged, I hope. So that’s another thing to add to my list from the previous post:
A few folks from work have convinced me to go to PAX 2008 this year. I ma continually fascinated by the Penny Arcade story - two guys who made a comic and got unbelievably famous. It reminds me of why I love the democratic nature of the Internet where, unlike the natural universe, the choicest gold nuggets actually float above the flotsam.
So I have a ton of stuff to do before PAX this year:
Much of these items require cold hard cash, and I hope my impending promotion brings with it some big bucks. Finding out that I’m at the bottom of my pay grade was more than a little disheartening. Also, not having traveled much at all in my 28 years, booking a flight and a hotel seems an arcane sport, like bow fishing or quiddich. The airlines freak me out, especially with all the changing regulations and maneuvers regarding electronics. I’m hoping my travel companions, who actually do have a great deal of travel experience, can help me out because this kind of stuff is so far out of my comfort zone it would, under normal circumstances, prevent me from embarking on a trip like this at all. But this is PAX. This is a chance to see some amazing stuff and coagulate with members of my species. If I’d given this thought I would probably have said no.
I forced Alice to read Gabe’s last post about his anxiety. It struck a cord with me and I knew it would resonate even stronger with Alice. Hopefully she can take solace in knowing that there are other people out there who get into cyclical worry cycles. For me, Gabe’s other post about not wanting to get lost and just wanting to stay home was more indicative of my personal neurosis, albeit farther from the bell curve than my own. As a result of Alice’s exposure to Gabe’s openness she stated, “Maybe I should have an online diary.” Yes. Yes, you should. So now it’s on my TODO list.
Homebrewing has been around for quite some time apparently. “ Two Irish archaeologists have tried to brew beer like their ancestors used to make — 3,000 years ago — in an effort to uncover the purpose of common, ancient stone mounds.”
I, for one, am glad it’s making a comeback! I’m currently delabelling the bottles from Epic Brew’s last batch with the intent to begin a new brew by the end of the month. I had completely forgotten about it when my three year old nephew walked into the bathroom and asked, “Uncle Jason, why is the bathtub full of bottles?”
I should probably get on that tonight.
I was in Target last night getting a present for my son’s preschool gift exchange lost in hunger when my attention was brought to the cashier who was having difficulty ringing up a product ahead of me. She said, “The system says I can’t sell this until tomorrow…” After someone with authority came over, who happened to be the brother of one of the guys I game with, they politely explained to the lady that they really couldn’t sell it to her until the next day.
All I could think was, “It would be trivial to go download a torrent of that CD and not have to get hassled.” I mean this customer had cash in hand ready to participate in the American dream of funding some performance artist and was rejected.
In other Christmas related news I’m pretty much all done with prep work. Almost all the gifts are wrapped and need to be ribboned and bowed. I think Alice is going to buy one or two more, but I have all my stuff bought. I’ve purchased more Transformers in the last month than I think I owned my entire life.