2011 Marine Corps Marathon : Spectators, Signs, and Sun

So, today was the day my friends. The running of the 36th annual Marine Corps Marathon through Washington, D.C. and Virginia. My trusty running buddy, Leah, and I headed into Crystal City to cheer on the runners, walkers, and hand-bikers. We picked the Crystal City turnaround, about two blocks south of the 23 mile marker.

We got to the course at 8:30, about midway through the 10K, which ended at the same finishline as the marathon, just a few hours earlier. The 10kers didn't seem to appreciate our signs as much as I would have. I immediately had race regret - I should have signed up for the 10K. Oh well.

Miles, the MCM mascot

Around 9:30, the last 10Kers came through, so we got a caffeine refill (Caribou Coffee was conveniently behind us) and settled in for the day.

Let the marathon begin!

Leah and I had lots of signs. Yes, that is profanity on my sign. If you know me, this probably doesn't shock you. And if you were running today and my sign offended you, I apologize; that was not its purpose. When I'm running, especially the long, grueling runs, I find that a little internalized profanity helps push me along. So I thought I'd share my method with the world. I got a lot of high fives, so apparently others agreed. 

the lead car - 2:01:12 on the clock

Marathon winner Charles Ware from Wheeling, IL
Finishing time of 2:19:16

People loved my sign.

Favorite thing about Leah's sign: the look on people's face when they realized the joke. I like to think that the little boost of adrenaline they got from that laugh got them through another mile. 

True story.

I heart my running buddy.

Best moment of the day: Getting ready to leave after the race was over, a marathoner stopped us and said that it was our signs that helped him finish the race. Mission complete. 

We cheered our little hearts out. My face is sunburnt, my voice is gone, and my hand is bruised from ringing a cow bell for five hours. But I had a damn good time. Nice job runners! See you next year. And probably not from the sidelines...

Pumpkin-Oatmeal-Cranberry Cookies

There are some days you just can't win. Today is shaping up to be one of those days. I had planned to go to Eastern Market and then go for a long run downtown. I woke up this morning and it was 38 degrees and raining. It hasn't stopped raining. And in the past hour it turned into snow. Normally, I'd be fine with snow. It's just that on Tuesday it was 73 and humid. We had approximately three days of fall. Thanks, Mother Nature. Bitch. 

So today I'm housebound (because I am not putting myself out there on the roads with these crazy east coast drivers); enjoying college football, a bloody mary, and some baking. I'll be needing some bribes at work on Monday, and tomorrow I'm going to cheer on runners at the Marine Corps Marathon, so I figured I'd bake up some snacks to take along.

Pumpkin-Oatmeal-Cranberry Cookies

1/2 C butter, softened
1/4 C 2 tbsp sugar
1/4 C 2 tbsp brown sugar
1 egg
1 C flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves  I skipped this one because cloves were insanely expensive and I never use them.
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C pumpkin
1 C old fashioned oats
3/4 C dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars. 
Add egg, mix well. 
Add flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Give a quick mix, then add pumpkin and vanilla. 
Mix well.
Top of wet mixture with cranberries (or raisins) and oats. 
Mix just until the add in items are spread out throughout the dough. 
Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are are just slightly golden brown.

Post baking comments:

• I doubled the recipe because I didn't have any other plans for the pumpkin puree I bought. I still have more than half a can of pumpkin left, so I probably could have tripled the recipe. 
• Be mindful when you spoon the dough onto the pan. It doesn't settle when baking, so the cookie ends up in the same shape as the ball of dough. 
• The 8-10 minutes of baking time is for ping pong ball to gold ball size balls of dough. My first few batches ended up more like hockey puck size and took 11 minutes to bake.
• It doesn't yield as many cookies as I thought it would. Probably due to the first two rounds of hockey pucks I made. But I still ended up with about 4-5 dozen.
• The cookies themselves turned out great. Really soft and chewy, slight pumpkin taste, with the occasional tang of the cranberry. They're missing a little something (probably the cloves I left out), but overall a successful baking endeavor. 

Recipe and photos form Baked by Rachel. 

Dear cool weather,

Thank you for finally arriving. Earlier this week I thought you'd never get here. I'm not used to dealing with 80% humidity and 70 degree temps in late October; this Midwesterner did not like it one bit.

I was quite happy to walk outside this morning and have my car look like this...

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And my adorable little table of pumpkins finally feels like it belongs...

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I'm excited to break out my cold weather running gear tonight, and...

I can't wait to sip some hot coffee tomorrow morning while walking around Eastern Market. I'm going shopping for scarves and jewelry. Yes. I need both. I wish I could pull of a hat, and were in possession of a cognac colored leather jacket. Ok, so there's a lot to shoot for in the picture. But the hair, the hair I've got.

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Hope everyone else is enjoying the cooler East Coast temps. Scared for snow this weekend? Drinks are on me if it actually snows. So, yeah...we'll see what happens.
 
Happy Friday all.

Three Things Thursday: Can I skip tomorrow?

It's been an exhausting week, and I'd like to skip tomorrow. Is that ok? Here's my top three reasons why I should get a Get Out of Jail free tomorrow.

1. My back hurts. I need a new desk chair. And better posture. I blame one more than the other, but neither are helping me right now.

2. I worked my ass off last weekend on a final and a midterm; and I feel like I haven't caught up since then. My kitchen is dirty, I haven't made real food in at least eight days, and I think the cat hates me for never being home. I'd like to just hang out in my apartment for a bit. I miss it.

3.  Let's be honest, sleeping in sounds amazing right now.

Yes, I'd like some cheese with my whine.

I have twice as many reasons to go to work tomorrow, so I think I've lost this battle with myself.

Hope you're not as tired as I am right now. Happy Thursday night.

Words I can't spell

Without fail, these words come out wrong every. single. time.

recipie = recipe
definetly = definitely
convienence = convenience

I may have been an English major and a newspaper editor in college, but clearly Microsoft Word's autocorrect won the battle and taught me bad habits.

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A girl can dream

I have a serious addiction. It's Pinterest. You may have heard of it. I know a few other people who are equally as addicted (yes, I'm talking about you. And you. And you.).

Here's the problems with Pinterest: You can waste spend hours there, having really accomplished nothing in the end. And you develop expensive taste. Case and point, some recent pins of mine.

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Michael Kors slate and rose gold watch: $225

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Tory Birch riding boot: $495

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iPhone 4S: $199

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Kitchen Aid stand mixer: $299

Christmas is only 62 days away, right? Yeah...in my dreams. Wait, wait, one more Christmas dream...

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...too far with that one. Well a girl can dream, can't she?

Three Things Thursday: Virginia Fail

I finished a huge project at work today, and really needed a cocktail.

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This is what I was aiming for. A bloody mary with all kinds of delicious toppings. I've been craving a bloody mary all week, for no specific reason other than they're delicious. Here's what I need for a perfect bloody: vodka, bloody mary mix, tabasco, worchestershire, celery salt, pickle juice, pickles, olives, brussel sprouts, beef jerky, lemon, pepper jack cheese. Boom. Epic. Bloody. Mary.

But Virginia failed me. Virginia seriously failed me. Two grocery stores and one liquor store and here's what I'm missing.

1. Celery Salt - Really? Come on. Simple. People use this for reasons other than drinking, right?  Yeah, right. Two different grocery stores didn't have it. Not like they were out of it, not like there was an empty spot on the shelf - just nonexistent. Virginia fail.

2. Brussel sprouts - Pickled or marinated would have been fine. Either would work. But neither were presented to me. These would have been a long shot, I know, but they're my favorite part of a bloody. Thank Dels Bar in La Crosse for introducing me to this delicious vegetable. I love them soaked in vodka or sautéed in a pan with a little coarse salt. Either way. Virginia fail.

3. Beef jerky - I'm not talking about the gross, sugar laden, over processed generic stuff you find at 7-11. I'm talking about delicious, perfectly spiced, carefully crafted dehydrated beef. I can't find a butcher shop around here to save. And certainly can't find a Ray's Butcher Shoppe around these parts. No sir. So, no beef jerky. Virginia fail.

If you, or anyone you know, knows where I can find these things, please tell me.

Still another six weeks until I'm back in Wisconsin. And don't think I haven't considered smuggling celery salt and beef jerky on the plane. Way ahead of you, people. Way ahead of you.

Five Stages of Postseason Grief

Unless you live under a rock, or just legitimately don't care about sports (I'm not sure which I'd scour less at), you probably know that we lost on Sunday night. By we, I of course mean the Milwaukee Brewers.

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I say we, because I am convinced that the fans feel just as much of the triumph and tragedy as the players and coaches do. We fans are the 10th man afterall. I have written a lot about baseball in the past few months; I'm a bit obsessed, I know. (See here, here, here, here, here, and here, just to name a few recent ones.) But I've had cause to be obsessed - by all accounts we had an amazing season, a record breaking season.

And everything came crashing down on Sunday. That's not completely true. It came crashing down slowly, in very large pieces over the last week. I can't recover. I'm depressed over it. And I know I'm not the only one. This is not simply something that a person gets over quickly. You have to come to terms with it over time, eventually accepting what has happened.

Denial: All of game 5 and the first half of game 6.
There was still hope! You didn't have to accept our fate quite yet. We won game 4 ensuring we're making it back to Milwaukee to close out the series. We're great at home! We have the best home record in all of major league baseball. Fact. Things were going to be fine. Then we lost game 5. Then they pummeled us, at home, in game 6. They won on our home field. I was in sheer denial of the facts. I simply turned off the television and went to bed that night.

Anger: All day at work Monday and Tuesday.
I talk baseball with all of the guys at work. Everyday. All season I've been talking about the Brewers. By August, they figured out that A) I actually knew what I was talking about, and B) We were doing pretty well for ourselves. So at work on Monday morning, some of them were nicer than others. Many just shook their heads and I went about my business. One guy actually offered his condolences for my loss, like I had just attended a funeral; another said he was out of town until late the night before, he hadn't seen the news until this morning, he was sorry he hadn't brought me something. This is how involved they knew I was in this season. I accepted their comments gracefully and went about my work day.

But I grew angrier and angrier. Mainly at the fact that it was all over. Brashly taken away from us in one swift motion (really it was nine slow innings, but you know what I mean). I wasn't going home that night to watch baseball. That made me angry. St. Louis got to go to the World Series. I hate St. Louis. Angry. But beyond all of that, my company's annual convention/expo is in St. Louis just four short weeks from now. God help us all if they win this thing and I have to spend five days in that armpit of a city, plastered with Albert's fat face gleaming with postseason success. See, angry. God help us all if that happens.

Bargaining: Making trades and counting down the days.
I had two conversations yesterday about who we need to keep, who we need to get rid of, who needs work, and what kind of money we have to work with. We can rebuild. We can be stronger, we can be faster, we can be better.
How many days until pitchers and catchers report for spring training? Not that many, right? Please, God, let it not be that many days.

Depression: Today.
Today, I'm just sad about it. The World Series starts tonight. About 10 minutes ago actually. And I'm not going to watch it. Baseball season is over for me.

Any other year, when my team is out of the running, I pick another contender and run with them the rest of the stretch. Last year, I rightfully chose the San Francisco Giants. It was a great series, and I had fun watching it. They were a quirky team of misfit pitchers and cocky sluggers, but it worked.

But this year, my team was in the running. I picked my team, and we were running full steam ahead. Until we weren't.

Tonight should be the biggest game of the year. But it's not. It might as well not be on.

Acceptance: Not there yet.
Not sure when I will be. All I know now is, I love my Brewers. Always will. I'm no fair weather fan.

All of my newspaper clippings and magazine covers are still on the door to my office. I'll proudly keep them there as long as I have my job.

I am always proud to be from Milwaukee, and I will always be proud to cheer for the Brewers.

Dear Prince Fielder, Love Milwaukee

Back in June I started writing a blog post about Prince Fielder that I never finished; never could really wrap my mind fully around how I felt about his upcoming free agency and the likely possibility that he won't be a Brewer in 2012.

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Today's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel featured an open letter to Prince Fielder and Albert Pujols, the Cardinals' hard hitting first baseman who will also become a free agent at the end of this season.

Despite the fact that we're tied two games a piece with the Cards right now and I'd like nothing more than for Albert to got 0 for 4 tonight, you can't deny that he is the Cardinals as much as Prince is the Brewers. They're franchise players, and they should stick with their teams.

This letter said everything I ever could try to. So I'll just leave it at that.

"Dear Prince and Albert:

Stay right where you are.

Don't mess up the best thing you're ever going to have in baseball.

Think twice before taking the money and running out of town. In fact, think about taking what money you can and remaining in Milwaukee and St. Louis.

You'll end up local heroes.

You helped two often-overlooked Midwestern cities, Milwaukee and St. Louis, climb on to a big stage in the National League Championship Series.

Prince, it's hard to imagine the Brewers without you or you without the Brewers. (You even played in Beloit to get here.)

Albert, the same goes for you. You're a Cardinal, through and through, so steeped in the team's history you don't want to be nicknamed El Hombre because of your respect for Stan "The Man" Musial.

These last few days, every time one of you comes up to the plate or makes a great play in the field, a lot of us have this nagging feeling that we're seeing the end of an era instead of the middle of a long-running sporting epic.

As free agents, which you'll both be during this baseball winter, you'll be considering deals of a lifetime.

Teams on both coasts will surely be calling your agents.

And a certain franchise in Chicago, which a lot of fans in Milwaukee and St. Louis loathe, may figure in this off-season race, too.

To be honest, few rational people are really going to begrudge you leaving the Brewers or the Cardinals for perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars elsewhere.

Unless, of course, either of you signs with the Chicago Cubs. Then, it might get a little personal.

This isn't your fault, though.

It's just baseball.

Football pretty much has this sort of problem worked out. You think Aaron Rodgers is going to leave Green Bay, anytime soon?

Forget it.

He is the Packers. And NFL rules and revenue-sharing make sure it stays that way.

And, if you're seeking guidance from pro basketball, look no further than LeBron James' move from Cleveland to Miami.

That's sure working out well.

Baseball is different. No one wants to go back to the old days, before free agency, when players were tied to teams forever. But in the modern era, baseball economics all but catapult the game's biggest free agents to the biggest-spending teams whose revenue dwarfs what other teams, like the Brewers, can command.

Just because a team spends a lot of money doesn't guarantee a championship, of course. But it's a whole lot easier to lure talented ballplayers to places like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and a bunch of clubs in California.

Sometimes a move works out. Reggie Jackson won championships with the Oakland A's. He became something larger, the straw that stirred the drink, playing with the New York Yankees.

But in a lot of cases, switching teams provides just a boost in pay and a lot of heartache. Seriously, imagine what it's going to be like for those members of the Boston Red Sox, after their implosion this season? Think those fans are going to be a little upset next spring when the high-priced talent takes the field?

There's a lot to be said about going old-school and sticking with your old teams through thick and thin. A couple of old shortstops, Robin Yount in Milwaukee and Cal Ripken Jr. in Baltimore, became emblems for their cities.

They showed that there can be a long-term payoff from investing in one town and being a hero in that city for a lifetime.

Of course, it's not all on your broad shoulders. Your teams are going to have to show loyalty - and money.

Mark Attanasio, the Brewers' principal owner, comes from the investment world. Surely, if there's a will, there has to be a creative way for him to structure a deal. The same goes for the Cardinals.

Prince, you belong in Milwaukee.

Albert, you belong in St. Louis.

Stay, and they'll be erecting statues for you in front of the ballparks.

All the very best,

Bill Glauber 
bglauber@journalsentinel.com"

Not sure if I'm scarred or enlightened

Scene: 10:00 p.m. Thursday evening
No prior text messages exchanged that evening. 


Information you need for this story to make sense: my birthday is in late July, I was born in Boston, and I love baseball.


This conversation has not been censored in any way.

Mom: So I just figured out your baseball passion. Your dad and I were in northern Vermont on vacation. World Series time. Television reception only in french. You Dad had to watch every game of course. That was when you were conceived on that trip.

AW: I literally can't believe you just told me that. Have you been drinking?

Mom: No. Too creepy for you? Sorry. Thought it was trivia. It's not like I put it on your [facebook] wall.

AW: Yeah, glad you didn't do that. But to be honest I kind of already knew that it was World Series based. July minus 9 months, '86 world series was boston, so yeah...

Mom: I do understand some etiquette of [facebook]. World Series in french because we were so close to Canada.

AW: Great. Thanks for the details.

Mom: Np.

I couldn't make this shit up. 

Three Things Thursday: Lack of Motivation

I have a lot of homework to do this weekend, and I'm not really looking forward to it. I could very well have gotten ahead by working on it this week, but of course I didn't. This week's Three are the things I did instead.

1. Postseason baseball. Obviously. I'm very superstitious, so I'm not going to bitch or brag about how things have been going. But morale of this story, I've been staying up way past my bed time to watch a lot of baseball. Not going to complain because there's six months out of the year that I can't watch it at all.

2. The Big Bang Theory. I had never seen an episode before this week, and the only reason I came across it now is because it's on TBS before the Postseason games. Short summary: it's a 30-min comedy/sitcom about five friends (four guys and a girl) - the guys are theoretical/astro/aerospace engineers, the girl of course is their hot, single, blonde, neighbor. They're all quirky, genius-types with a type of humor I can appreciate. This scene might not make much sense out of context, but it literally made me laugh out loud; I watched it four times in a row.  Thank god for DVR.

3. More baking. I made a huge batch of cookies last week, and it bribing time again at my office. Another huge draft of my project is out for review, and I need people's edits and comments by 1:00 tomorrow. Enter: homemade chocolate chip cookies. Hopefully it works as well as it did last time.

On another note, I've been feeling very un-bloggerish lately. Not very motivated to write. Not sure what's wrong, but there's definitely something going on. I'd like to shake it, but I have a feeling this funk is going to have to work itself out of my system.

Happy Thursday night blogosphere.

Rainy Running Reminder

Tonight I reminded myself that I love running in the rain. It was a soft mist when I left my house, by the time I hit the halfway point in my normal 5K neighborhood route it was pouring rain. I sacrificed my headphones (but not my iPod, thank god), and finished out the run strong.

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I feel like a badass when I run in the rain. Mainly because I'm the only one out there. Nobody else man enough to face a little water. People here don't know how to handle weather. You'd think it was LA or something. We get plenty of weather here, but people just refuse to deal with it. Weather happens people, get over it.

I'll go for a run in almost any weather condition. I'm from Wisconsin for god's sake. Our winter's are f-ing cold. So you put me here on the east coast, where the average winter temp is in the low 40s, and I'm running outdoors year round. People think I'm insane. So, rain seems like nothing. Bring it on. Just remind me to leave my iPod at home next time.

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I think tonight might kill me.

There's a chance I'm way to invested in baseball right now.

Not talking financially invested obviously (but really, if I had money to be throwing around it probably would be on attending more baseball games), but emotionally invested in the outcome of this season. From approximately early May, Ange and I have been talking about how our obsession with baseball (more specifically of course, the Brewers) has gotten exponentially worse year after year; every season I'm watching more games, attending more games, buying more merch, checking more stats, and arguing with more Cubs/Yankees fans about their ignorance than the previous year. This year is no exception; this amazing season leading up to winning the NL Central Division title has been a lot of fun to watch, even from 1,000 miles away.

If you hadn't heard - we're in the playoffs. And tonight is Game 5. Tuesday and Wednesday night's games that forced Game 5 were extremely rough to watch. And yes, I stayed up for the entire game; which, on east coast time, kept me up until 12:50 p.m. and 1:15 a.m. , respectively. I don't think I've ever been more depressed while watching baseball than during those two games. I can't handle that again.

We need to get our shit together tonight and win this at home. I have a lot of faith in Yovani Gallardo, our lead pitcher and the guy who will be trowing from the mound tonight. But what I have more faith in is the Brewers' ability to play in Miller Park; they thrive in that atmosphere and have the best home record in all of Major League Baseball. Not to mention the fact that I love seeing Bernie Brewer up in his left field chalet (I'd call it a clubhouse, but I lose this argument every time).

My stomach is in knots.I feel like I just got a phone call from a boy I'm in love with. "You busy tonight? We should get together, I need to talk to you." I am about to get broken up with, or he's going to ask me to move in with him. And for the next four hours I'll have no idea what's about to happen. That is the type of pit in my stomach right now.

5:07 (EST) first pitch. I'n having a Game 5 Watching Party with my Philly-fan-friend who is also in the same boat; they take on the Cards at 8:07, so we're committed to an evening of baseball together, for better or worse. Baseball, beers, pizza, chips n' salsa, yelling at the tv, tweeting our frustrations and celebrations - should make for a fantastic evening (assuming everything goes well in Milwaukee).

This could prove to be the most stressful baseball game of my life. I might die tonight. But until then, I'll be watching this on loop.

Three Things Thursday - Office Politics

Today is October 6, and I have been at my job exactly 1 year. In some ways, it feels like I've been there just a few short months; but there's a lot of other things that have happened that make me feel like I'm stuck in some sort of sick and twisted time warp that I'll never get out of. Newsflash, it's called a 9-to-5 and I think I'll be doin it for a while, so I better suck it up. Regardless, 12 months is a year and that's where I am today.

This week's Three are things I learned about handling the good and the bad of inter-office politics.

1. It's always us versus them. It may take you a while to figure out who is the us and who is the them, but it's always going to be there. It took me seven months to determine which side of the internal battle really was the right side to be on; these people are like ducks on a pond, hard to tell what's going on without getting your head wet.

2. Make friends quick, but don't disclose everything. I'm not saying hide things or lie to these new friends of yours, but just be smart about what you share. These new friends of yours have been there longer than you, and have got some old friends of their own that they're probably re-telling all of your stories to. So proceed with caution. It helps to have someone on your side, but you don't want to get tripped up by over-sharing too soon.

3. Bribes work. Case and point, today. I had a huge deadline to meet today and was still waiting on content edits from seven different people. At 8:30 am I sent an e-mail saying I had freshly made baked goods in my office for people who submitted their edits on-time. I had all the edits on my desk by lunch, two hours before the actual deadline. I will be doing that again as needed, for damn sure. Totally worked like I planned, and was way easier than standing in their office pestering them about it.

It's been an interesting year. Who knows what the next few months will bring. But in the mean time, that deadline I mention in #3 wiped me out, so I'm off to bed almost embarrassingly early.

Happy Thursday working world. Day one of year two begins tomorrow. Bright and early.

Baking, Bribes, and Beers

I apparently used up all of my blogging energy over the weekend redoing the layout (like?hate?feedback please!) because I have had nothing to say since last week. Total bloggers block.

I don't have anything exceptionally profound to say tonight either (do I ever? probably not.), but I just thought I'd share some exciting events that took place this evening...

I have successfully made chocolate chip cookies. Do not mock this. I am not a great cook or baker, but I can get most of the basics done. I don't do well with recipes or measuring things, so you can imagine why baked goods don't often turn out very well. This behavior is a stark contrast to the rest of my life where deadlines and rules make me feel safe and secure; I'm sure there's a freshman-year-psychology-degree-answer in there somewhere, but I could care less.

These cookies are extra special, because they're my sister's super secret recipe. I can not share the details, or she'll fly back from France and kill me. I'm not kidding. But the real secret is not in the ingredients, but in the cooking time/post-oven off the pan transition. It's genius really, and it makes them extra delicious.

I also made banana muffins, with (below) and without (above) chocolate chips. I'm a baking machine tonight. And I only set the smoke alarm off twice! I swear that isn't my fault, it's a really smokey oven and a really sensitive smoke detector. I swear. 

Why all the baking, you ask? Because I'm not above bribing my coworkers to meet deadlines. I have a huge deadline tomorrow afternoon and I'm still waiting on a lot of content and edits from people. Enter: Baked goods. 

I'll admit that I burned the first  batch of cookies, those are going at the bottom of the container. Last person to turn in their content gets the burnt cookies; like coal in a Christmas stocking, they will be sad and disappointed. Regular guilt won't work with these people, only baked goods will get the job done. Hopefully. Please god let this work. I can't miss this deadline.

Besides the baking and bribing, I've been cleaning my apartment and doing my laundry (thank you whole pot of coffee I had over the course of today) but now everything is done, and I finally get to relax.

Tonight is game 4 of the National League Division Series; the Brewers are in Arizona with a 2 game to 1 lead against the Diamondbacks. I really dislike west coast games that start at 9:30 EST (hence the whole pot of coffee today, last night's game kept me up past 1:00 a.m.), but I'm no fair weather fan so I'm staying up for the whole thing.

But tonight, we're doing it right. Picked up a 6-pack of Shock Top Belgium White Ale and an orange.

Beer just tastes better out of a glass like this.

Off to try and enjoy some baseball. Happy Wednesday night all.

Template Problems

If anyone even noticed....just bear with me while I'm trying to tweak some blog design stuff. I was testing out a new template and accidentally wiped all my settings. Full blog redesign coming at the end of this month...hopefully. Slash - since I screwed up all my setting I decided to go ahead with the new design. It's still a work in progress, but I've killed my computer battery working on it this morning so time for a break.

Let me know what you think!