Hurricane Emily

In the latest weather news, Category 4 Hurricane Emily hit one of my favoritest (is that a word?)places in the world, Cozumel. As APC pointed out recently on her blog we are JONESIN to travel back to Mexico for a good old fashioned tequila-laden dive trip. Of course the storm hit the southern end of the island and as a result I was searching web forums and the news for any information on what happened to Cozumel. Sounds like there's lots of trees down, some structure damage, flooding, and no reported deaths. *phew* BUT the palapa toll was extensive. NOOOOOOO!!! What the hell am I gonna drink my fruity drink under next time I'm there? I hope they regrow! Damn you Emily...DAMN YOU ALL TO HELLL!

On a more serious note, the Eastern side of the island which had all of three bars on isolated beautiful beaches, was demolished. We will miss you, Mezcalitos.


APC at Mezcalitos


Me and Corona overlooking Caribbean at Mezcalitos *sob*

On that note, we are starting to plan a little trip sometime in the month of August. We are looking for some beachy type resorty place in SC,GA or NC where we are close to Hickory. Charleston? Myrtle Beach? HHI? Anyone have any great suggestions for an affordable family friendly beach resort to stay?

Random Thoughts...

Hmm since a presentation I was supposed to give today was cancelled, I suddenly have a moment of free time to download (or is it upload?)a couple things to my blog.

- APC's Blog is getting serious traffic, she's just about caught up to me in hits. Dang, I just knew our baby girl was irresistible! Everyone wants to see her pictures :)

- I don't get all the fuss over the Karl Rove story - I understand it, I just dont get all the fuss. You'd think the media would have more on their mind than drilling the White House Press Secretary two days in a row with questions about 'Will Pres. Bush fire Karl Rove?' (See here and here) when nothing has been proven yet. Must be a slow news day, which is a good thing. But they sure do want Rove's head on a pike, don't they?

- Ate some good German food last night for dinner on our Wednesday Date night. I had the sausage platter with Weisswurst, Bratwurst, sauerkraut, german potato salad and spaetzle. Man I love spaetzle. Spaetzle with that really danged tasty German brown gravy. And of course washed it all down with a half liter mug of Paulaner..yummy hefeweizen goodness. Prosit!

- The London Bombing thing seems to be some big media cover up. I just this morning read on Boortz's blog that the four killers were Muslims. Now why did it take a week before the bombers identities were finally revealed as such? I had my initial thoughts that this may be the case, and shame on me for thinking that, but hey, if the shoe fits.... All I've heard is that it could be the IRA, it's 'home-grown' terrorists, etc, etc. When all along I knew with most people out there, that aren't in denial (or trying to protect the 'Religion of Peace'TM), who and what was behind this atrocity. People better wise up or lots of us are gonna get killed.

- Well just damn. The USC athletic department released a joint report with the NCAA stating that they in fact violated 10 NCAA regulations since 2001 under Lou Holtz. I don't care how 'trivial' the violations were, there were still violations. Lou, what's the story man? I suddenly lost lots of respect for him all in one morning. Guilty as charged, USC is, and I cannot defend those actions nor make excuses for them. I will however continue to pull like crazy for the Garnet and Black. Hopefully USC can take its knocks and move on and play some (clean) ball.

Those crazy Brits...

Courtesy of Coach Thugg (little brother),

I just read this article on the web about a long lost food item in Britain. Apparently this food has a large 'underground' following and they would like it to come back into British menu prominence once again.

Don't know why, but I found it a little humorous, maybe its the picture of the family that is named after my nickname for Curley Ver 2.0's bowel movements.

Enjoy!

300!

WOOOHOOO!

I have now officially had 300 hits to my blog.

Thank you, thank you very much /Elvis

Hope you all have enjoyed your visit to this little corner of the blogosphere!

Zymurgy Take V - High Sierra Curley Pale Ale

Last Friday Batch number 5 - my attempt at Pale Ale - was finally ready to taste. This was also my first attempt at brewing using a secondary fermenter using a glass carboy I bought at the friendly neighborhood beer supply store. Suposedly the secondary fermenting process matures the beer and lets it clarify more. So I took a bottle off of the conditioning shelf, walked back upstairs to the kitchen with it, grabbed a pint glass, popped the top *pop*. What an excellent sound that is - that 'pop'. That means that the priming sugar did its job and the beer is nice and carbonated.

I poured the bottle into the pint glass, hmmm nice color - a little darker than the picture above - kind of a tan-red color, nice head also. I noticed immediately the lack of sediment in the bottom of the bottle and also the clarity of the beer.

I took a sip...wow. This beer is better than the beer it is patterned after - Sierra Nevada Pale Ale - one of Angie's favorites. The aroma of hops hits you in the nose as you lift the glass and then the first sip is bitter and then finishes out with a sweet full bodied flavor. Yum. APC approves of this batch, since, well, I brewed it just for her knowing that when it was done she would not be pregnant any more and could drink it guilt free. I would say that the secondary fermentation indeed did prove to be a smashing success.

I found the recipe here: Pale Ale Let me know if you want a sample, I'll send you a bottle. (just kidding)

Now I think I'm going to go get my next batch of ingredients and attempt something I never thought would be possible for me to do, make a Belgian Abbey Ale. Well here's to the future! *clink*

London...

Wow.

Awful news from London this morning, our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this horrific attack. Once again the agents of evil in this world have attacked western civilization once again, as they have been for decades. This war is bigger than the current U.S. Presidency, this war has been going on longer than the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and even longer than the first invasion of Iraq in 1990. I only hope that the people in the West that still haven't figured this out yet might, MIGHT get a clue about the enemy. I will tell you this enemy is NOT President Bush or the United States of America. Just watch, this evil will happen again, and more than likely in Europe, whether or not President Bush is in office.

We all know inside that which drives this evil, and I fear that it will be too late before the world decides to get over offending our enemies, and properly name that which seeks to destroy us - us being everyone who does not submit to the teachings of Muhammad, or kneel to Allah.

Post Fireworks blues..

Arggghhh...

After a nice long holiday weekend at the lakehouse in Tennessee, it's back to work for the MapGeek. Yuck.

Had a good 4th of July weekend, fishing and playing on the lake, ate lots of BBQ and determined that Apple Pie may be the quintessential American dessert, but in the South it's definitely peach pie.

Will have pics from the weekend up tomorrow.

Answers to last weeks geo-quiz (thanks for your participation, Seannibal - the rest of you - ptthhhhtttt):
1) Mt. Whitney, California (el. 14,491 ft above MSL)
2) Hibernia - Ireland
Dacia - Romania
Gallia - France
Hispania - Spain (and Portugal)

Oh and thanks for all the responses to my football query! /Sarcasm

May actually go to the Wild Wing for wings and trivia tomorrow - w00t!!

Geography Trivia Question O' the day II

Continuing the awe inspring and brain wrenching trivia question series, here is your weekly geography question:

What is the highest elevation in the continental (Lower 48 - excluding Alaska & Hawaii) United States??

Extra credit question:

Name the modern day countries formerly known to the Romans by the following Latin names:
Hibernia
Dacia
Gallia
Hispania

Oh and no cheating on the web! Answers to be posted over the weekend.

Happy Geo-geeking!