Concert Concerts Concerts!!

So, I'm currenly quite lucky to have a future folk-star staying at my house (and helping us move in) straight from Boston and doing a small mountain west tour of some of the better front range watering holes....

So, if you're in the Fort this weekend, my friend Laura Bullock is opening for Cara Cantrella at Everday Joe's at 7, on 144 S. Mason. If you've never been, Joe's is a great place to see a show and makes a decent latte, to boot.

Secondly, next weekend in Cheyenne at the Synergy Cafe she'll also be doing a set on the night of the 24th. Consider yourself warned! Go!

Two Reasons I Love Fort Collins

I was treated to another visit from my good friends Monte & Aubrey this weekend, as they did their best to distract me from painting the rest of my house and preparing it for miss liz's big move in tomorrow, and did a fine job of it at that.


Their strategy? A pair of brewery tours. Curses, my only weakness!

So, we piled into the mini and found our way to the New Belgium tasting room (pictured) and the Odells Brewery, each about a mile apart and only 2 miles from my house.

The tour at New Belgium was great, and they have some amazing facilities. Once in the tasting room, you get to select four of the brews they have on tap (for free!!) and enjoy. For the sake of lists and rankings, of both of which i am fond, i shall share what i partook from worst to best:

(4th) La Folie Wood Aged Sour Brown Ale

And they weren't lying. Smelled like vinegar or turned cider, very very tart and almost hard to drink. Almost like drinking a sweet-tart, to be honest, that was how it puckered your whole mouth. Interesting taste, but, i had difficulty finishing the sample.




(3rd) Mothership Wit Organic Wheat

The wheat beer was my first love, but this version of it wasn't really my cup of tea. Firstly, the aroma smelled of Urine. Seriously! Taste was crisp and lemony at first, but over the whole draw grew linear and simply ok, not that great. I prefer the unfiltered wheats.




(2nd) Abbey Grand Cru

Mmm.. Phenomenal! A dark belgian with a robust woody taste and a super smooth finish. Un-purchasable, sadly, so i will have to return for another free tasting.





(1st) Lips of Faith Belgian Stout

If i had to pick, this was 3/4 Belgian ale, 1/4 Stout. Winner of the day's tasting, had a lighter taste than it looked and finished with a little zip to boot. wunderful.





Our next stop was the Odell's Brewery, and i enjoyed a tasty Easy Street Wheat as we were taken around their plant. Surprisingly, Odells is roughly only a quarter the size of New Belgium, but still makes some of my favorite beers. They had a nice patio and a book fare next weekend that i may simply have to attend.

All in all, it is safe to say that if you ever come to visit us in the Fort, you won't be too hard pressed to get me to tag along to these wonderful places. I mean, if i had to.

Hard day to be a spartan

Eek. This one hurts the ole pride a little bit, i suppose. I guess the only solace that i can take in being named "The most overated football program in the country" is that we got enough national attention to be considered. I guess.

Adding insult to injury, Shannon Brown announced he's leaving the spartans for the NBA. Drat. Tom seems to be a marvelous recruiter, so marvelous he's lost 4 of the last 8 superior players to an early exit to the pro's.

Speaking of ex-spartans, Zach Randolph managed to find it within himself to get arrested again for racing along a 20 mph street. With loaded weapons (though he had permits for them.) Le Sigh.

Friday Morning Procastination

Though a real thorough update is due (with pictures and funny captions! Guffaw!) i actually need to do some work today and will scratch my blogging itch before i get to them, but, if you got some time to burn:

I've been reading a series of Articles from David Plotz about Blogging the Bible, a self-admitted ignorant Jew who wants to simply read the text of the Torah and write his impressions, without much help from commentary or scholars. Granted, i personally believe this is actually one of the worst ways to read scriptures, that is, with simply your own input to the interpretation of the text; but it makes for a good read when someone else does it.

What else... oh, A Prairie Home Companion comes out today, and truthfully it actually looks to be good. I think i'll wait to see it with my NPR loving sweetie who also grew up on the show from Lake Woebegone, but to be honest my largest impression of the whole thing is smug amusement that i can actually say that i am looking forward to seeing it -- after being tortured by NPR through most of my adolesence by my father. Driving anywhere, Dad only listened to NPR on the radio, and besides the sometimes weekend relief of car talk, i wanted to throw myself from the moving vehicle and hopefully land in a thrush of steak knives. How funny that it is now the only real station i listen to myself, and am a pledging member of Wyoming Public Radio.

This weekend should be a good time of final painting and details before miss liz with Laura the folksinger get here early next week with a trailer of possesions. It's been hot but great, and if anyone wants to come out and climb on some rocks, give me a holler.