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January 30, 2004
Green
I went to the RFD Lupulin Slam last night. There were a lot of beers there. Most of them big, all of them with high hop content. Hops are green and earthy and lovely.
But this really was too much. We're talking thousands of IBUs, hundreds of pounds of hops and twelve beers.
This morning, everything smells and tastes like hops. Everything smells and tastes green. Holy hop heads, Batman!
Stay tuned for the full report
Posted by Samer at 08:26 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
January 26, 2004
Taqueria el Poblano
A few weeks ago, my friend Skarlet introduced me to Taqueria el Poblano in Del Ray. It is a charmingly nice and colorful neighborhood eatery that really hits the mark.
Then, this weekend, I went to the Arlington location with my friend Em. The only difference between the two is the size -- it looks like the Arlington one might be a twice as large. That's not saying it is big, by any means.
The food is great for a neighborhood place. It is simple fare from a short, but varied, menu. The variety is good, the service friendly and the salsa addictive.
I've tried the duck carnitas and the tacos al carbon. Both were excellent. The duck is quite tasty, and not as greasy as duck can be. The lime marinated steak in the tacos platter was quite good. The were served with their signature poblano peppers and cheese, with soft tacos to wrap your meal in.
And the prices are right. Everything is reasonably priced, with few menu items above $10. And the salsa is lovely, did I mention?
Check it out if you are looking for damn good eats at reasonable rates.
Taqueria el Poblano
2400 B Mount Vernon Ave,
Alexandria, VA 22301
+1.703.548.8226
2503A N. Harrison St.
Arlington, VA 22207
+1.703.237.8250
Posted by Samer at 11:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 25, 2004
What to do?
What do you do when you feel you are skidding toward depression?
What do you do when, despite the obvious truth, you feel like life has handed you a bum deal? What do you do when you have been in a rut for weeks? What do you do when nothing excites you any more? What do you do when you are just going through the motions because it is easier than giving up?
What do you do when self preservation clashes with your sense of not wanting to do anything at all? What do you do when your coping mechanisms tend to border on the self destructive? What do you do when you can't even use those self destructive things to get out of your state of mind?
How do you cope?
What do you do when the last six months seem to have been one trial and tribulation after another?
When the relationship you got into because it would be a good "summer fling" turns out to be more than that. More than you could have hoped for. And yet, due to distance and personality, a good thing had to end.
What do you do when the IRS sends you a letter because they think you made a mistake? Seeing a letter addressed from them is enough to make your heart sink. Turns out the mistake is not on my end.
What do you do when your beloved grandmother passes away? She lives too far to make the trip for the funeral. What then? Does her passing make you wonder about your future? You are aging.
What do you do when your months planned trip to Europe is about as exciting as stale bread? You want to go, you love it there. You know you are going to meet old friends and new. You know you are going to have a great time. Hell, you've even managed to drag a couple of folks with you to Iceland. And yet there is no looking forward. No excitement. It is too mundane.
What do you do when the woman of your dreams turns out to have her own dreams, and you are but a supporting actor in them? What do you do when the one thing, the one person, that has been able to instill a sense of excitement in you, turns out not to be as interested in you? What do you do when you travel 3000 miles to be with someone, only to be turned away?
What do you do when your father has to have open heart surgery? A quadruple bypass. A world away, you've never even entertained the thought he might not be around for you. Now what? Feeling mortal yet?
What do you do when your overwhelming sense of indifference starts to take its toll? When you don't cook because you can't bear to clean the kitchen? When you can't stand being home because you can't stand living in the dump you are in?
What do you do when you are alone? Friends and relatives all around, but alone. A rock. An island.
My initial thought this weekend was to lock everyone out. No one gets into my world and no one gets out. I'd clean, I'd make things better. I'd stay offline. I would lie on the couch and do nothing for hours.
I did most of those things this weekend. But I did more. I let my friends in. I let them listen to my moaning and groaning -- again. I let them cheer me up. I let them take me places. I let them worry my mind with their problems. I let them help me.
I looked back at all the things that piled up. At all that caused me pain and distress. And I realized that, in the end, I am a lucky man. The world has been kind to me in ways I don't appreciate. But even these last six months, when things have looked bad, it turned out okay in the end.
The "summer fling" was damn good and healthy. And despite how things went at the end, we are still on speaking terms and she's very much still a special person in my heart.
The IRS turned out to owe me money.
My grandma's passing and my father's operation have allowed me to focus and think about the things that matter in life. My dad is recovering quickly and well.
The trip to Europe turned out to be one of the best in years. London finally felt like home after almost two dozen trips there. It was a blast.
The woman of my dreams is now in a supporting role in my life. Despite everything, we have come through it as friends. And, in the end, that's important.
So, what to do? Listen to your friends. Let them help you. Let them guide you. Be there for them.
Thank you, all of you. I am feeling much better this weekend. Something I did not think I would.
Posted by Samer at 11:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Snow!
Finally! It is snowing. We are supposed to get about four or five inches. And I am quite excited about it. I'll be headed out to frolic in it in a bit.
I've been waiting for a decent snow fall since my Iceland trip. We had a bit of snow when I was there, but only enough to whet my appetite.
Posted by Samer at 10:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Drinking Problem?
I'm standing in line at a diner waiting to be seated. I spotted a familiar looking woman in the line, but could not place her. She waved and said hello.
And then it dawned on me: I know her from RFD. In the year since I've been going there, she's waited on me a couple of times, but every time I am there, she'll stop by and say hello.
So, does being recognized by your favorite bar's staff mean you have a drinking problem?
Posted by Samer at 10:26 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Plumbing
Plumbing is not hard. Well, at least not the average type of plumbing -- leaking sinks, broken faucets and the like.
But plumbing is expensive. To replace the cartridge in my sink and to replace the plastic handle it cost $55 in parts. The plastic handle (did I mention it is made of plastic?) cost $25.
But it is good to be able to use the sink again.
Posted by Samer at 10:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 19, 2004
Strong Beer
On Thursday I went to the Local Strong Beer Tasting. Normally held at the Brickskeller, it was moved to RFD...
Without further ado, here is the beer list:
- La Petroleuse from Brewer's Art in Baltimore at 7.8%
- Old Ale from Ram's Head Tavern in Annapolis at 6.8%
- Dopple Bock from District ChopHouse in DC at 7.0%
- Barleywine from Legend in Richmond at 12.1%
- Devil's Milk from DuClaw in Bel Air at 10.7%
- Old Salty from Heavyweight in Ocean Township, NJ at 11.2%
- Bourbon Aged Millennium from Old Dominion in Ashburn at 10%
- Imperial Stout from Rock Bottom in Arlington at 8.5%
- Imperial Stout from Starr Hill in Charlottesville at 10.5%
- Hard Cider from Shenandoah in Alexandria at 7.0%
Right. That's 10 big strong beers. Lucky I remember my damn name.
La Petroleuse is a fantastic beer from Brewer's Art. At 7.8% it was in the middle of the alcohol range for these beers. It is a nice golden blond beer made in the tradition of beers from France. It has a nice spicy taste and hoppy as well. I must say that this was my second favorite beer of the night.
The great thing about Brewer's Art being there was getting to catch up a bit with Volker. He opened the place about 8 years ago. It is amazing to think back that I knew him from before those days on a local internet provider called ClarkNet. It really was cool to see him again, and hope to go up to Baltimore sooner or later for another good meal and drinks there.
My favorite beer of the night was Old Dominion's. The Millennium is a damn good beer on its own, but when you age it in a bourbon cask, watch out. A heady aroma of bourbon, vanilla and sweet maltiness greets you. You sip this beer and you understand the amazing talent that some brewers have.
Mark Thompson from Starr Hill was the most hysterical speaker there. He might even have topped Sam from Dogfish. The two year old Imperial Stout that he brought with him was really nice. Smokey and roasty, it had molasses added during the brewing.
Legend's Barleywine had a different taste than most: a bit of sour apple. The taste was definitely unexpected, but it was quite good.
The Heavyweight Old Salty had a strange mouth feel to me, almost grainy. But again, despite the alcohol content, it was a good smooth drink.
Ram's Head's Old Ale had a nice hoppiness to it, much more bitter than I would have expected in a beer that strong.
I was not too impressed with either the Rock Bottom or the DC Chophouse offerings. The Chophouse Dopple Bock is the nicer of the two beers though. And The brewer there learned to home brew when he was in Antarctica!
The Shenandoah Hard Cider was an interesting beer. That's right, it is technically a beer, not a cider. But because it was brewed with apples (well, juice), it has to be called a cider. Bloody idiotic government bureaucracy. The beer itself was pretty good for a malt extract based, apple beer.
Posted by Samer at 10:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 18, 2004
Progress
Dad is doing quite well. He's out of the hospital and resting well at home. Apparently, on Thursday, he went for a run on the treadmill.
Let me repeat that: On Thursday, four days after open heart surgery, he went for a run on the treadmill.
I guess when you unblock four arteries, you get a whole lot more energy!
Posted by Samer at 09:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 12, 2004
Operation Success
My dad's operation went well. He's recovering in ICU right now, and should be home by Friday.
Thanks all for the well wishes.
Posted by Samer at 08:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 11, 2004
Quadruple Bypass
I found out yesterday that my father is in the hospital for a quadruple bypass operation. I'm worried and upset. I hope that things will go well for him.
My mom seems very calm, but neither my sister or I are. The doctor is one of the best in the country, and the operation is only supposed to take 2.5 hours, which means they expect it to be very straight forward.
My doctor cousin has heard of the doctor doing the operation. He's helped reassure me that there is little to worry about.
Keep your fingers crossed on Monday.
Posted by Samer at 07:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
All Done
Remember my "over wrought" entry about how it feels to rebuild trust? It felt like it was going to take so much longer than I wanted it to. It felt like maybe it might never get done.
Last night I talked to 'L' for hours. After my little epiphany the other day, I decided that I do trust her.
We've had long talks. She's apologized time and time again. She knows what she did that was wrong, and she has made all the right moves to show me she does not want to ever do that again.
My epiphany had to do with how I view the world versus how someone else might. And it helped me see how she could feel the way she did and not be lying to me.
And so, we are, officially, patched up. We're friends, and close friends at that. That's not to say there will not be residual issues, but we will deal with them when they come up.
Posted by Samer at 07:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 10, 2004
Epiphany
Sometimes you know the answers. They are staring you in the face.
You talk to a friend and she listens. She pokes and prods, asking the right questions. And while you are trying to answer, trying to make yourself clear, you hear the words you have been saying for a while and they mean something different from the last time you said them.
That's an epiphany. And it helps you decide that something is worth having. And that the problems, and the difficulties, they are just a bump on the road.
I've had an epiphany of sorts and it will help me trust again. For it is time to trust again.
Posted by Samer at 12:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 06, 2004
Rebuilding
Trust is an easy thing to give. You only need to be honest and decent and trust the other person. They will pick up the baton. But when that trust is damaged, it is a lot harder to rebuild.
Imagine if a tornado hit your house. An F5. Everything is gone. Destroyed. The home you lived in is nothing more than matchsticks. Your life, your future, your past, all of it seriously damaged. You are lost and confused. Everything is out of your hands, and everything is so emotional.
What can you do, but to rebuild? You can't just give up. You might be angry, dejected, sad. But you have to restart your life. It isn't easy at all. You might decide you can't live there any more. You might decide, "Screw this place, I don't need to be here." And you might be right.
But sometimes, something draws us to try and carry on our life in the same space. With the same people. And so, you must rebuild. There are steps that you have to go through, of course. They are not easy, but they get progressively easier.
You start off by picking through the destruction for those items that might have
survived. The photographic memories, the object that was given to you by someone special, the history of your life. All in the rubble.
Then, and this can emotionally kill you, you have to clean up the lot. Wipe the entire existence of your home away. Dig up the foundations that you had laid down. Remove every last thing from the grounds.
Now, finally, you have a clean slate. An old lot, an old space, familiar, yet oddly empty. You are torn along with it, but you know the worst is behind you. You know that you are ready to move forward. You have the plans, the contractors and everything ready. But you are still sad at the destruction.
Eventually, the empty lot starts to resemble a house. The foundation goes back in, the frame starts to give it shape, the walls make it solid. It takes time. The work stops when it rains or snows. The going is slow as equipment fails or supplies arrive late. Eventually it takes its final shape. Eventually.
And when it does, you stand back and look at your new house. And you are filled at once with pride and with sadness. But hope is the most palatable emotion now. Hope that you are at the end of the long painful process of rebuilding. Hope that this house will soon become home.
Comfortable now, having lived in your new house for a little while. The new furnishings are finally wearing out their newness. The place begins to feel familiar and relaxed. And just like that, it is now home. Just like you left it, but with a little too much drama to tell the grandkids.
I think that's the best analogy I can come up with for rebuilding things with 'L'. I've never been through something like this, and for a while I did not know that I could go through with it. But now that I see it as a "small steady steps" thing, rather than needing to get it all hashed out at once, it is looking manageable.
Posted by Samer at 10:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Dive Right In
'L' and I had a great call yesterday. We talked a bit more about our feelings. About the difficulty I am finding in not questioning everything. She knows that this is not going to be an easy thing to do, and she still wants to do it. I think that shows commitment to our friendship.
I do have to learn to trust again. And she needs to keep showing me some patience and she needs to make sure that she just keeps building the trust. One little bit at a time.
But the good thing was that we were able to put those issues aside for a good part of the night and talk about other things. Mundane things. Things friends talk about. And it was good. And comfortable. There was nothing there that required trust, but it was a good testing of the waters.
Maybe it is time to dive back in. Or wade.
Posted by Samer at 10:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Snarky Apple Employees
I went to the Apple Store near me tonight to get a pair of the new in-ear headphones. After all, Steve has said they were available today.
The snarky little ass who was at the store, said they did not have them and would not until February. When I told him that Jobs had said they would be there today, he just huffily walked away. Ass.
Posted by Samer at 09:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Garage Band
An interesting MacWorld this time. Not a whole lot of news on the hardware front. No updates to the current line of laptops and desktop, though the Xserve got iPod mini. What the hell are they thinking over there? I like the small form factor, and the fact it holds a hell of a lot more music than other similar sized players, but the damn thing is $250. For $50 more you can get a full iPod. And those colors... What were they thinking?
Don't get me wrong, this thing will sell. Just hoping it does not eat away at the low end iPod sales.
The really interesting thing for me was the new versions of iLife programs. iPhoto is finally going to be able to handle large numbers of pictures. iDVD and GarageBand. Under the silly name is what appears to be a well thought out, well executed program that is going to change the face of amateur music.
The early Macintosh changed the world of desktop publishing, and eventually brought the ability for everyone to be able to create professional looking publications. Now Apple is pushing other formerly professional things onto the home user's desktop. And they are really the only company that can do it right. They can leverage the high quality professional products that they already have (Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack, DVD Studio Pro, Logic and Shake) and put interfaces on them that just about anyone can use.
iMovie and iPhoto have really pushed the envelope in that direction. Now, GarageBand will take that to a more astonishing level. People who have talent can now really create amazing music. It means people who would not have had a chance at being heard can, for a few bucks, make a professional production.
I can't wait to see what some of my talented friends do with it.
Posted by Samer at 09:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 05, 2004
Good Start
I talked to 'L' last night. We talked for two hours. We thrashed around a whole lot of things, we covered a lot of ground.
She had to go after those two hours. I was a bit disappointed that we could not keep talking, but it was good to step back and see what we had talked about. It was a bit overwhelming.
I can understand why she did what she did. Understanding it does not mean I approve of it, or think it right. It does mean that I can see the reasons behind it. And it means I can forgive her.
There is a long way to go before we can be the friends we once were. One thing is certain from our conversation last night: we both want this to work. We both want to be friends again. We both know it won't be easy at first, but we both think it will be worth it.
Posted by Samer at 08:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 03, 2004
Apologies
With all the stuff that's been going on in my life recently, a post titled "The Art of the Apology", on how to apologize and and how to accept an apology, struck a nerve with me:
Making an ApologyAccepting an Apology
- Be Sincere
- Be Calm
- Clear Up Confusion
- Be Specific and Don't Exaggerate
- Take Responsibility
- Don't Take TOO Much Responsibility
- Invite Discussion
- Acknowledge the Apology
- Encourage Conversation
It is all pretty much common sense, but she really lays it out with examples and the such. Really nice and well written. Go read it if you need to apologize or are looking for an apology. That means all of you.
Posted by Samer at 06:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 01, 2004
No Champagne
This new year, instead of Champagne, we cracked open a bottle Cuvée René, an excellent geuze beer from Belgium.
Better than Champagne and very dry, it is one of my favorite beers.
We also had some Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale and Anderson Valley Winter Solstice.
Yum.
Posted by Samer at 01:03 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack