The Itch of the Ear

My right ear itches. It's clean. I know because I clean it at the beginning of every month. So it can't be that. I scratch it again and it still itches.

(This is not my ear)
I cough because maybe it is my throat itching going up into my ear canal; it still doesn't help.
Am I going to die? Reason I ask because I've been doing this "Living" thing for the past 25 years and I kind of like it. I would like to keep doing it on account of liking it.

A Pricy Beverage

I have a query for my faithful readers: How much do you spend on a bottle of beer? On average I'm sure it's probably anywhere from $2 to $5 depending on what bar or grocery store you purchased said alcohol. I used to be a Budweiser or Miller Lite kind of guy, so my 6-pack price was relatively cheap. Recently I have been upgrading my taste in beer. As usual, this story must first be setup with a second story that I begin after starting the first story.

When my buddy Marcus moved to San Antonio around a month ago, he and I fell back into our old college ways of hitting up a bar a few times a week. Normally I have a beer at night right after a shower but before I cry myself to sleep in a fetal position. The benefit of having an old college drinking buddy back in town is we can relive the old days and drink like old times back in the old days, though our alcohol tolerance isn't what it used to be… not by a long shot. We were, like, the beer kings. Well, more I was the Beer Prince and Marcus was the Beer King. That boy could drink.

So we began to look for a good watering hole, settling on Flying Saucer. Because:

1: It is real close to my apartment. Worst case scenario I could walk home.

2: Their UFO Card.



Essentially their UFO card is a rewards program for drinking beer at their establishment. It is card that encourages you to drink, and the more you drink, the better the rewards. The goal is to try 200 different kinds of beer. When the 200 mark is reached you get your name printed on a Saucer. So Marcus and I decided it would be a fun goal to try for. Since I simplycouldn't drink 200 Budweiser, it forced me to expand my horizons.

Now when I go to the grocery store to buy beer, my 6-pack costs significantly more than before. There are so many other good beers I have discovered that put the generic stuff to shame. That began research into other facets of beer. Such as which beer is generally liked and which beer is generally spit out at the bartender who is then beaten for serving such a bitter brew?

After a little research, this led to the ultimate question:



What is the best beer in the world?





At first thought, I assumed this would be a relative question. After all, everybody loves something different and hates what his neighbor loves. So finding the world's best beer would be next to impossible to determine, right? I agree… or did.

Upon my quest to discover the world's best brew, I found that it wasn't that difficult to find what was widely accepted to be the best.

That title goes to Westvleteren 12.

(This is what the beer would look like if I took a picture)


Haven't heard of it? That's not surprising; it is brewed in a Belgium monastery. The monks do not export the beers. Literally the only way you can get a bottle is to travel there yourself and buy them from the monks. Or if you are lucky, find some one who did travel there and is willing to part with one. Now it may be the curiosity of the best beer ever or it may be that I simply cannot go up to HEB and pick one up… but I wanted to try it, bad.

As luck would smile down on me, I managed to find a single unopened bottle on sale on eBay. The guy recently returned from his trip to Belgium with his girlfriend and had one he wanted to part with.

I put in the bid, which was a bit high for my taste, and won!

The guy had a solid eBay rating, so it is legit… I think.

My bottle of Westvleteren 12 should arrive by Friday and I can give the ultimate beer, a taste. I just hope with the shipping costs, it will arrive in one piece. I can't tell you how excited I am to try what is called the "Best Beer in the World." This may be the and only time I get to try this. Hopefully it lives up to the expensive hype!

So how much did I spend on a single bottle of beer? I guarantee it's more than you have spent on a single bottle. Are you ready? For a single bottle of Westvleteren 12, dubbed the "Best Beer in the World" I paid $40.00.

And now you know.

Not So Safe

This is a blog I wrote for MySpace but I'm bringing it over to add to my blog postings. Gotta get those numbers up!

Let me ask you a question: Do you know how much a locksmith costs? I don't know off the top of my head either. However, I did come precariously close to finding that answer out for myself. This incident took place last weekend. No, not as in yesterday, I mean the weekend before that. For those of you who still might be confused, let me give out date of these happenings. May 10th, 2008 (Saturday) around 7pmish. Hey, it's a word, look it up.
The girlfriend, Shannon, and I were running a few errands, doing a little shopping. She's a girl, she likes to do those things. I play the role of good boyfriend; I follow her around, huff, sigh and roll my eyes.
To move on in this story we must first go back a few hours. That Friday night we found out Stone Temple Pilots is coming to the Alamo City. Shannon was so excited we got up early the very next day and purchased the tickets the moment they went on sale. To save a couple of bucks, we opted to pick them up at a local Ticketmaster outlet, instead of mailing them or printing them for a fee.
Being the airheaded couple we are, we left to run those errands without the confirmation number that allowed the person behind the counter to find and print our STP passes.
After running around finishing our errands, we ran back by my apartment. I had the bright idea of taking the apartment key off my key ring and giving it to the girlfriend, so we wouldn't have to kill the engine (which I hear uses up 7 minutes of gas everytime)
So Shannon runs inside, grabs the confirmation number and comes back out handing me the key, or so she says.
We run to HEB, get the tickets, grab liquor from the nearby liquor store that's close to and not too far away from HEB were we grabbed the tickets.
Shannon and I get back to my apartment and I go looking for they key she gave me, only to not find it. Anywhere. We emptied the bags, searched our pockets, under the chairs, in her pockets again, even in the glove compartment. Nothing.
Trying to remain calm, we trace our steps back to the HEB to the ticket counter all over the parking lot and even to the nearby liquor store that's close to and not too far away from HEB were we grabbed the tickets. Again, Nothing.
So I call my apartment complex's answering service requesting some one to come out and open the door. Surprise, there is a $25 dollar charge to do so. Despite one of the employees lives the next building over. The 5 minutes of her time it would take for her to walk over to the office, get the back-up key, unlock my apartment, return the key and go back to her place is worth the $25 fee.
I agree to pay the fee, but they can't get ahold of the manager, so we had to wait.
After a minute or two of sitting around, Shannon's light bulb went off above her head, which let me tell you is brighter than most people's. She knows stuff. Running around my building she said "I have an idea."
i followed as she jumped my back railing and went straight to my sliding door.
"It's locked" I said in dispair. When suddenly the door slide open. She told me, all you have to do is jiggle the door and it opens. My rush of relief was followed by terror. Holy Crap, anyone could have jiggled that door and taken everything in my place! Needless to say now I have a 10,000LB security bar. It sucks I lost my key, but it was good because who knows who might have broken in.
Thanks sweetie for losing my key, I know you say it was me who lost it, but I know the truth. You lost my key to show me how vunerable my apartment was to thieves. Thank you for taking the fall.
Word to the wise, if you don't have a security bar for your sliding door, get one!

The Donation that Keeps on Giving

I wear clothes. Now I know that is a generic statement and would automatically be assumed. Let's face it though, not everyone does. There are some freaky cultures out there saying it's ok to walk around in the buff.
Being part of modern society we must invest in clothing for various occasions to be socially acceptable in public. While a three-piece suit can get you into an exclusive restaurant the same can't be said for a swimming suit.
This pointless intro brings me to my story. I was at work last week sitting with my fellow producers. It was business as usual as we prepared for our respective shows. I looked over at Mario, a co-worker, and noticed his shirt. I kept thinking to myself "Boy that shirt looks familiar. Where have I seen that shirt before?"
I finally came to the realization that I had a shirt exactly like that one. I also remembered that I hadn't seen my shirt in a few months... otherwise I would have worn it.
So I turned to Mario and jokingly asked "Are you wearing my shirt?"



(This shirt looks nothing like the shirt in this story)



He told me "No," that he bought this shirt months ago. Still I couldn't get over the fact that it looked so similar to mine own.
So I asked him where he bought the shirt and he replied "Goodwill." Then it came back to me that I dropped three bags of clothing off at a goodwill destination a few months ago. I asked which Goodwill and it was the exact store I donated mine to. Everything was matching up... except one crucial piece of evidence.
"That can't be mine," I told Mario "My shirt had a stai..."
As he turned around, I spotted the final clue that would unwrap this mystery; a stain.
It was my shirt. I gave it away simply because I couldn't get over the stain... however Mario didn't seem to mind it staring people back in the face. Kinda like that bleach pen commercial where the stain talks over the guy in the interview.
We both got a good laugh that I donated a piece of clothing and my co-worker bought it. From this point on, we decided to take out the middle man and I will give all my hand-me-downs to him.

The Beginning

So this is it; the beginning of my blogs. Don't get me wrong, I've blogged before. I'm a good blogger. People get excited when they see I've posted a new entry. This is the first time I have had a website dedicated to transcribing my thoughts into word onto a computer screen to travel through the internet, through your eyes and into your brains.
It’s quite the process and I don’t pretend to know how it works. What I do know is that I have succumbed to peer-pressure and thus begins my blog.

Testing

This is a test of the emergency broadcast system. If this were a real emergency, you would have heard something like ."SSSSSSSCCCCRRRRREEEEAAAAACCCCCCCCHHH!"