Tonight the wife and I went to the Wine Tasting event hosted by LARC, her former employer. It was a good time last year, and it was a nice excuse for her to see a lot of her former coworkers again since she’s been at her new job for about 6 weeks or so. She never had a problem with the people she worked with, but the commute was hell and the new job looked to be very promising for her in multiple facets which was why she had left. And the added bonus this year was that she wasn’t “working” the event either, which meant we could spend all our time there together instead of her having to make sure only VIP’s made it into the VIP room or taking tickets from people at the door.

This being their second year putting on the event, it was obvious they had learned some things from last year. Number one, they brought in bottled water which was clutch. Last year they didn’t have anything bottled on hand and most of the people there were complaining about the water in the pitchers “tasting funny” since it was, truly, just tap water from a kitchen in the back of the Elks Lodge where the event was held. They also brought in some beer as well, which was a nice change of pace even though I am a wine fan. One of the distributors had some Dogfish Head on hand, where I got to experience their seasonal Aprihop for the first time. WOW is all I can say; what a great brew. It’s very reminiscent of Magic Hat’s #9, only it seems to hit all the right notes even better than the #9 does it. Another “Apricot Pale Ale”, Aprihop just really surprised me and I will definitely be buying some of this in the near future.

(more…)

I was having a conversation with a coworker the other day about the work I needed to do around the outside of my house this spring, and he commented that he didn’t understand people who enjoyed doing yard work – that he didn’t “get anything out of it”. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not some crack-job who actually ENJOYS going out in the yard and tearing out bushes, or raking for an hour and a half. I don’t throw a bunch of confetti in the air and run around the house cheering every time I have to mow the lawn. But on some lower level, I have to admit that I genuinely like looking at the result of my work. Whether that means I can enjoy the fact that I don’t have some form of ivy bush taking over the fence along half of one side of my property, or the mid-summer step back to say “damn my lawn looks good” and know that my family can enjoy the time we spend outside because of having a healthy, well-maintained lawn… I can say that yes, I do get something out of it.

Today I spent pretty much the entire afternoon and evening raking around my property, taking care not only of what leaves had been trapped under snow most of the winter but also what had been trapped in with the bushes and plants next to the house and also which had piled up in one particular corner of the fence in my backyard under a large cluster of trees. By the end of all of it I took probably 8 huge loads of sticks down to throw in the pond behind out house and filled 10 (ten!) 30gal/50lb bags with leaves which are now sitting next to the garage waiting to be disposed of. After finally removing all of that from the upper layer of my lawn, I also got to drop a load of Scott’s Turf Builder With Halts Crabgrass Preventer on the front and back yards. Depending on who you listen to, that should possibly be dropped after you’ve moved the lawn at least once: but some sources say that isn’t necessary and since we have a day or two of rain on the horizon today was the perfect opportunity to drop the stuff in the ground.

Last year I kept up with some minor upkeep on the lawn, but this year will mark the first year of truly doing what I can to get my lawn in tip-top shape. Beyond that, the wife and I have begun our talks about which plants will be staying or going and all of the plants in front of the house will be getting an overhaul – on top of redoing the edging and just overall trying to clean up the curb appeal of the home while at the same time trying to settling on something without too much maintenance. Neither of us are really “flower people”, so a few bushes and some mulch and I’ll be more than happy. Plus redoing the “island” that contains a dogwood, a holly bush, as well as a few other scraggly overgrown plants will be a nice upgrade as well.

We also will soon be putting a call in to a tree removal service to get estimates on what it would take to remove some of the birches from our property. The trees are nice to look at, but one cluster of three very mature trees was planted two feet from the front corner of the house and the branches above continue to grow out over the roof: one of the trees in the backyard is leaning back towards the house and in fact was touching the sliding glass door during one of the ice storms when it got weighed down: and another one on the side of the house is leaning out towards my neighbor’s house. That final one especially is NOT something I want to deal with if the tree ever fell and landed on my neighbor’s house or car. We didn’t initially plan to make a tree removal process a “big deal”, but as we walked around the yard looking at things we realized just how bad shape all of the birch stands were in around the property. Like many other things in our home, the former owners of 10 years didn’t seem to have done much around the place (they didn’t really let anything fall into a state of disrepair, but it seems like they also didn’t do much in the way of “home improvement” either) and the landscaping was one of those items where that fact really stands out. On the bright side, we likely wouldn’t have to pay for removal since I have at least two friends with wood stoves who would be more than happy to get some birch wood to dry out and burn next year.

Not to be confused with any of the other nouveau-chic medical conditions on the market today (*cough*), DS Leg Syndrome (or DSLS) is a condition that I am sure many of my gaming brethren have fallen victim to. There you are, minding your own business while trying to do your business. The DS has made the trip into the bathroom with you because… well, why not? You’re chugging along playing the latest game you can’t get enough of, and that’s when you suddenly realize “Hey, wait a minute. I’ve been done trying to go to the bathroom for 45 freaking minutes. Why am I still in here?” Close the lid of the DS, take your elbows off your knees and owwwwwwww.

Congratulations my friend, you’ve just succumbed to another episode of DSLS; the symptom of spending such an extraordinary amount of time pressing your elbows into your thighs that you have successfully reduced your circulation to practically nothing. As the blood begins to flow through your legs again, your legs slowly feel numb and as if they are not your own. How do you cope? Do you ride it out, knowing that you will only be able to walk again once enduring the excruciating pain of your nerve receptors coming back online? Do you hit yourself in the thigh, sending shockwaves of feeling rippling down your leg as you force the blood to move swifter through your veins? God only knows that if you stood up right now you would do only one of two things – immediately fall over as you realize that you have no control of your legs, nor can they hold you upright by themselves at this moment in time; or be forced to support yourself on the sink, trying not to put too much weight on either leg and wishing dearly that feeling would just come back so that you could continue your life as normal.

Damn you, Professor Layton. Damn you Advance Wars, Picross, Mario & Luigi, Tetris, Puzzle Quest, damn all of you games past present and future that inflict this wretched condition upon me.

credit to ShortAttentionGamer (RIP) for the image