Women and Beer

So there's this thing called Squidoo that is supposed to be able to help your page rank and drive more traffic to your site. I made one for the beer stuff:
http://www.squidoo.com/womenlovebeer
It can't hurt, and I can write about anything I want, which is kinda fun. I feel like I have to be professional and legitimate on Beer at Joe's.
Also, I'm being profiled by and writing a guest post for another beer blog. I'll give y'all a link when it goes up.

Camp 20 Cabins, Laona, WI

I finished the new cabin website a few weeks ago. Check it out: Camp 20 Cabins.

Winter Solstice

Every year, Muir Woods Park Services hold a Winter Solstice party. There were bonfires and singing and free apple cider. But the most amazing things are the candles. They're just little tea lights in white paper bags, but the rangers line all the main paved paths in the beginning part of the park. We wandered through once when it was just getting dark, and I'm glad we did. You could still see the redwoods stretching above you, but you could see the candles stretching into the woods like fairy lights too. A few hours later, that's ALL you could see. Our camera isn't good enough to capture all those, but we got a few decent closeup shots (see me above!) It got SO COLD, but it just made you want to huddle around the bonfires. Our night ended with watching a group of men do what I can only assume is a traditional pagan dance to the sound of a recorder. The best (and first) solstice celebration I've been too!

Silly things

And so this is Xmas,
I hope you have Jasmine.

Merry Xmas (War is Over)
from the Christmas Song Generator.

Get your own song :

Ahahahahahahahaha!
And almost as funny:

I'm dreaming of a white Jasmine,
Just like the ones we used to know.

White Christmas
from the Christmas Song Generator.

Get your own song :

In real news, I'm making peanut butter kiss cookies today and I did the thing where you substitute unsweetened applesauce for half the butter and before I got all the other ingredients in there they tasted like apple peanut butter cookies which is not a bad thing. Not bad at all. Now we just have to see if they will hold their balls.
We're going to get a Christmas tree tomorrow!

Hotlanta

We're back from Atlanta! We didn't actually see much of the city, of course, being almost entirely wrapped up in Bar Mitzvah activities, but the skyline was pretty :)
Also, it was colder than I expected. Not like Wisconsin or Delaware cold, but cold enough to require a sweatshirt and hat at night.
I met Joe's "extended" family at this gathering. His Aunt Jacki is really his godmother, and an old friend of his dad's, but Joe thinks of them all as family. His cousins are really cool, and very easy to hang out with.
As soon as we got to the hotel (the Hyatt), a hotel employee met us at the door, told us they were overbooked, and sent us "next door" to the Hilton. The Hilton was actually half a mile down the road.
Nobody explained anything to us. The Hyatt gave us a letter saying they were paying for the night, but we assumed we were still paying for the original room...we were very confused. Also the Hilton did not have free breakfast and that annoyed me too. In the end, it turned out we got our first night FREE which made me very happy. If only they would have explained that to us in the first place, I wouldn't have gotten all irritated with them. Also, we came and got our free breakfast from them Saturday morning anyways!

Our Fun New Project

Because you know you've missed watching Joe drink beer on a couch:
http://www.beeratjoes.com/
Don't worry, I'll make some appearances eventually. But I'm more of a behind-the-camera, writing the post text, kind of gal.
Eventually, though, I hope to do a women in beer and beer for non-beer drinkers series (if we managed to find a beer my mom likes, I should be able to please anyone!)

Not Austistic

I took this test to find out if I was autistic: http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php

Apparently the results mean I'm mostly normal, with a tiny flare of compulsive behaviors.
This seems to stem from
1) My daydreaminess
2)My aversion to loud noises and inability to deal with background noise and
3) My utter exhaustion from spending too much time with people from any length of time

I'm pretty sure 2 & 3 come directly from my parents. But also, when I worked at the rehab center, someone once suggested to me that I might have a mild auditory dysfunction. It's not the same as being slightly deaf. It's about how my brain processes sound.

[img]http://www.rdos.net/eng/quizpoly.php?p1=18&p2=80&p3=28&p4=24&p5=69&p6=54&p7=18&p8=67&p9=29[/img]

Weird Things on the Internet

It's been a whole month since my last post. Eep!
So here's a fun link for you:
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,22492511-5005375,00.html

I see it counter-clockwise, and the only way I can make it go clockwise is to unfocus and let my lazy eye go out to the side.
I don't know what that says about me. Was I more creative before I gained control of that eyeball? Hmm...

The Wedding

My whole body aches today. In the last 5 days, I spent 13 hours on a plane, 5 hours sleeping sitting upright on a plane, 2 hours sleeping sprawled on the floor of the Cinncinati airport, danced for 3 hours in heels, drove from Milwaukee to Madison and back again (tense and frantic both times) and got less than 5 hours of sleep per night on average.I'm actually suprised I feel as good as I do.
Coffee was enough to keep me going today; no painkillers necessary.
After a less-painful-than-last-time redeye to Milwaukee, my friend picked Joe and I up at the airport and drove us to her parents' house for showers, cereal and coffee. We then rushed out to see my other friend's new baby (cute!) and then on to the Miller Brewery Tour, because that's how we roll. The actual tour is kinda lame, but they give you quite a bit of free beer at the end, so it's worth it. Also, they will mail a brewery postcard to anywhere in the world. I got an awesome t-shirt too, with the Miller Girl in the Moon in pink on the front.
That night we BBQed and got eaten to shreds by mosquitos, but that was the longest night of sleep we got.
The next day, Joe and I rented a car and drove to New Glarus, home to the greatest beer of all time. Spotted Cow is what they're known for, but the Belgian Red is to die for. The town of New Glarus is know as Wisconsin's Little Switzerland, and the buildings are all decked out swiss-style. There's even a Historic Swiss Village. We ate Wiener Schnitzel and fried cheese curds at one of the restaurants in town. They had nuttin' but New Glarus beer on tap! The food was awesome, though I don't think The Boy got an accurate representation for his first taste of deep-fried cheese curds. They should be breaded, greasy, squeaky little nuggets that were shipped frozen in a cardboard box. These ones were homemade and delicious.The actual brewery tour is great. It's a self-guided audio tour, and it will make you love the owners. I got a t-shirt there, too.
Parents: It's only 20 minutes away, just past Fitchburg, and totally worth an afternoon of your time next time you're down there!
Dinner was had on State Street. Since it was the first Friday of the school year, we were swarmed with students. It was still fun, until I discovered that the Catacombs is gone. My favorite coffeeshop of all time, in the basement of a church at the beginning of State Street is now A SUBWAY!!! STATE STREET ALREADY HAS A SUBWAY!!! Not to sound like a "good ole days" whiner, but come on. How many chains do we need on State Street? I wouldn't be so sad if all these places were being replaced by new and interesting stores, but it seems like the chain restaurants just keep multiplying. It's depressing.
Saturday morning was the Farmer's Market. My friend, after seeing an old lady walk by, and then two students, remarked that she loved the farmer's market because there were so many different people here. I looked around and pointed out that every single person there was white. Some of the sellers were Asian or Mexican. Other than that...white. Discussion ensued.
The wedding that night was by far the most traditional one I've been to in a long time. The bride had a great big veil, her father "gave" her away, they had swans carved out of ice, you got to choose salmon or chicken for your meal, everyone did the hokey pokey...you get the idea. I had tons of fun, since most of my college friends were there. Most of the time we were the only ones dancing, and we were some of the few who closed out the reception.
Man, I miss my friends.

Whirlwind Wisconsin Weekend

Off to Wisconsin for Kelly's wedding soon. We're taking a redeye tonight (ugh!) and arriving in Milwaukee around 9am tomorrow. Then we will have a whirlwind tour of Milwaukee, including the Miller Brewery, and my friend and her new baby. On Friday we'll head to New Glarus (http://www.swisstown.com/) to see the kitchy Swiss buildings but mostly to visit the New Glarus Brewery, my favority brewery of all time.
Yes, that's a lot of beer. But since we're spending the rest of the time with all of MY college friends, I figure I owe Joe that much.
Then Saturday is the wedding, Sunday is recovery and our flight back. Whew!
Then planning for my parents' trip here shall begin! Er...continue, I mean.

Kill Me Now

Why, yes--I did just spend 3 hours watching the beach volleyball playoffs. Why do you ask?

Because I know you were worried...

The Great Bra Crisis of 2007 has been averted! You may now returned safely to your homes in an orderly fashion!
I got a few of other things too. I spent all Friday night shopping, while Joe went to see Avenue Q (I saw it on Broadway). I got some shirts, a pair of shorts, and found a dress for Kelly's wedding.
I didn't even spend much money. A lot of my purchases came from Macy's and I (finally!) used the gift card Joe's mom gave me for Christmas.
Plus the dress was on sale at JCPenneys. ALL dresses were on sale there (if anyone else is interested), presumably because the prom/school dance season is well over, and the summer wedding season is nearly over.
And I already have heels to match the dress, so I don't have to go shoe shopping. That's ANOTHER crisis averted!

Caffeinated Snot

This morning I went to go take a drink of my coffee, and realized that it smelled the same way a damp basement full of old magazines smells. Since I had made the good hazelnut coffee this morning, that couldn't be possible. I decided it was probably the mug (which I hadn't bothered to wash that morning and had been sitting in my desk cupboard overnight). I took another experimental sip, and managed to slop coffee down my (white) shirt. I jumped up and ran to the kitchen to sop it up.
While in the kitchen, I realized my nose was running. I blew my nose and out came coffee.
No kidding.
I don't know if I actually managed to get coffee UP my nose when I slopped it everywhere, or if I inhaled the coffee that was in my mouth at the time up the back of my nasal passages when I jumped up to run away. But at least it wasn't too hot.
I am corporate material for sure!
Also, in case you were concerned, I did manage to get the coffee stains out of my shirt.
While we're on the subject of TMI, I currently only have 3 bras left that I can wear. Only one of them actually fits. I have dubbed this the great bra crisis of 2007 and I am skipping a beer event with Joe tomorrow to go shopping for these critical underthings.
I will be sure to let you know when we are off red alert.

Finances

I actually managed to pay off my credit cards a few months ago (I got backed up because of the move) and now I've started saving again. Yay for savings!
I use ING direct, which is an online bank. They give you a higher interest rate than most regular banks (just under 5 percent right now) but they are still FDIC insured. I finally got both Joe and Luke to open one of these for themselves. It takes about 1-2 days for me to transfer funds out of it, so I keep some (but very little) emergency money stashed in my savings account that is linked to my debit card too.
I never stopped putting money into my IRA (you can't, or you get charged extra fees and that's stupid). Recently, I split the money that was in there. I kept half in the regular fund I had originally chosen (which is supposed to be a growth and income type of index fund--and has done pretty well so far). The other half I put into an emerging Asian markets fund--as in stocks from India, China, etc. I wish I would have done this a while ago. Those markets have SHOT up. They're risky, but you can make serious money. You can be risky when you're young. And in the end, they are still mutual funds, so aren't THAT risky. When that one gets big enough, I'm going to split it again, and put half the money into another emerging markets fund, maybe a Europe or South America one this time.
On top of this, I actually have a real 401k at work. With matching funds, even. I started putting money into that as soon as I was eligible. Woot. I might not have to keep working until I'm 90. All that money is in a standard stock market index fund. I don't know how long I'll be working here, so I don't want to go sticking it in crazy funds that might be way down when I am forced to take the money out.
The only area I'm falling behind in is my paperwork. I have a mound of papers piling up, including unopened bank statement from the last couple of months. I really need to sort through those and double-check all my numbers and such. Also, Joe and I were going to open up a brokerage account so we could mess around with buying individual stocks that we want--but that seems to have stalled out. Again. We'll see.

Party like it's 1999

This last weekend was packed with wild and crazy times--so I'm going to try to rip through it for ya'.
First of all, my friend Kelly, whose wedding I'm going back to Madison for in a few weeks, was in town for a visit. So Friday night we grabbed food in North Beach (we ran out of time trying to wait to get into a crowded italian restaurant and wound up grabbing burgers) and went to a comedy club. Christy, of course, decides that it would be a fantastic idea for us to sit in the FRONT ROW. This is a bad idea. Usually I worry about Joe, who tends to get picked on at things like this. But no, Kelly was the one who got all the flak. Every. Single. Comic made a comment about how bored she looked--she would smile but didn't laugh. Plus, we were so close, it was hard to keep looking up at them. We were looking right up their noses, so they made fun of her for looking away. Which made it all the more hilarious for us!
The next morning, we dragged ourselves out of bed early...to catch a limo to Napa Valley! That's right, a limo. One of my coworkers had decided to gather a group of people to all pitch in on a limo together. We first went to a winery that specialized in sparkling wines. I'm not usually a huge fan, but they had a few tasty ones. Next we went to V. Sattui, which also has a deli inside. I LOVE their wines. Joe, Christy and I shared 2 different tastings, so that we each got a sip of almost every wine they have. The guy serving us was really nice, and we even convinced him to let us try the Vin Santo that they stock. Which we rewarded him by buying a bottle each of, and then a few other kinds as well. We got sandwiches and sat outside on a picnic table and ate lunch with everyone else. It was so packed there, I was a little annoyed at first, but it was really fun to sit outside with everyone.
Then we went to one more, one of the "big name" wineries. The kind you can find in a liquor store in Wisconsin.
Bleh. There was not a single one of their wines that I liked--and the tasting was outrageously expensive. The grounds of the vineyard, though, are stunning. It you can see the mountains all around. I hear that their tours are actually quite good, but you have to make a reservation ahead of time. I kind of wished we would have planned a little better, but other people didn't want to "lock" us in to a schedule. Oh well. Next time.
On the way home, while cracking open bottle after bottle in the limo (hey, one bottle split among 12 people does not go far. You get about a third of a glass each), everyone talked the 3 of us into going to a party (that another one of my coworkers was throwing) in the hills of Oakland. I had already told her no, we wouldn't be attending, because we will have no way to get home from there.
Yet somehow (the copious amounts of wine perhaps?) we were convinced to go.
And I'm very glad we did. I had SO much fun. Totally worth the chaos that came later. There were a lot of people there I knew, I hung out with coworkers that I don't get to talk to much, Christy and Joe had fun, there was a turkey burger cook-off, a trivia contest and a dalmation who kept licking the cheese and crackers in my hand. People played music in the garage for a while. The view from their backyard is STUNNING. You can see all of Oakland. When I say they are in the hills, I mean they're halfway up a mountain.
We tried calling a cab. A lot of us did, because a lot of us needed to get home. We called over and over, but this is Oakland, and apparently the rules are not the same. ONE cab came. For 10 people. We sent off the first four and waited for more. No more came. Eventually we sent 3 more people off with one of my friends, since they were only going to the other side of Oakland.
We waited. I lost Christy for a while and freaked out. I drank more sangria.
Joe and I were prepared to crash on the couch there, but Kelly (who was not with us) was going to be getting back to Christy's house soon, so Christy was (understandably) determined to get back to her. In retrospect, we should have crammed Christy into the first cab that arrived, then Joe and I would have just stayed. And actually, Joe had decided that he was not going to sleep on a couch but rather, out on their lawn so he could watch the sun rise over Oakland. I would have liked to see how long he lasted.
Finally, one of my work friends (who had not been drinking) volunteered to drive us all the way back to SF. He's a sweetie.
I must have drank more than I thought (Their sangria was delicious!!) because the next morning I was moving
verrrrrrrrry.
verrrrrrrry.
sloooooooooooooooowly.
I was still better than Joe who didn't move at ALL until, oh, noonish.
By the time we got going, we just managed to make it to Golden Gate Park to meet everyone at the Japanese Tea Garden, which was a relaxing way to spend the day. Then we went back to Christy's for a BBQ. Her roommates went all out. We had chicken, beef, guacamole, burgers, homemade chicken nuggets...and sangria. Which I'm sure was delicious, though I couldn't make myself have any.
We dragged ourselves home--we were the first ones to leave. Usually really packed weekends annoy me. I just want to relax. But I had so much fun this weekend, that I was actually excited to go into work on Monday. I should party with my coworkers more often!

Journals

Last week I bought a new journal. This may not seem like a hugely momentous occasion, but you see, I haven't had a journal in a really long time. The last journal I had was unlined, and that bothered me more than I would admit. I refused to get a new one until this one was filled.
The one before that was cheap and the pages kept falling out.
I got out of the habit of carrying one around with me. Sometimes I would make journal entries in my writing notebook, but it's been harder to keep track of things in that mess lately.
So I finally bought perfect new one (screw those empty pages on the last one. They mock me), soft and pretty, covered in green flowered fabric with a leather tie to close it.
My freshman year of college, I started a brand-new journal on the first day I arrived there, and finished the last page the night before I left. I love having that account of my first year away from home, and I can tell you what I did almost every single weekend that year by referring to it. I wish I had more of that for my time in New York and now San Francisco.
One of the biggest reasons I decided to start journaling again was because of all the people I'm meeting. I have a huge volume of people moving through my life, and I'm sure I won't remember a lot of them in a few years. Which is sad because they're interesting.
I think of this as refilling the well. If I write about people I've met, and about my dreams--which are intense--I will always have something to write about when I sit down. It's a good feeling.

More on the Great Yogurt Search

I think I've found my yogurt. Safeway carries a store brand called "O Organics" which appear to be sort of organics for the masses. I don't know how sustainable or truly organic they are, but every food I've had of this brand I've really liked.
I like the yogurt especially because it is fairly low-fat and low-cal, but there is no aspartame. In addition, there is no high fructose corn syrup in it. Instead, it's sweetened with evaporated cane juice. Why is high fructose corn syrup bad? Well, there are debates. From a SF Chronicle article a few years ago:

"The theory goes like this: The body processes the fructose in high fructose corn syrup differently than it does old-fashioned cane or beet sugar, which in turn alters the way metabolic-regulating hormones function. It also forces the liver to kick more fat out into the bloodstream.
The end result is that our bodies are essentially tricked into wanting to eat more and at the same time, we are storing more fat."

Here's the article from the San Francisco Chronicle about corn syrup. The wikipedia entry goes into more detail, but is a little harder to translate. Basically, even today, we still don't really know if this is worse for our body than regular sugar. A lot of people think it's like the aspartame issue: that it's a lot of hype. Other people think this could be at the root of the obesity epidemic. Corn Syrup is in EVERYTHING now.
I have decided to be distrustful of extra chemicals in general. There is nothing in this yogurt that I can't pronounce, and that can't be a bad thing.
There are other organic yogurts, but they tend to be very expensive. This is a good happy-medium. It costs more than Dannon but less than Stoneybrook farms. Plus, many of the other organic yogurts only have full-fat versions.
Unfortunately this brand is only available at Safeway, which I think is only on the west coast. But check some labels. I'm sure they're not the only ones out there.

Food

Apparently I do the same thing with cherry tomatoes as I do with sugar snap peas and chocolate chips.

This sunday is the garlic festival. I do NOT do the same thing with garlic. I have a strange relationship with garlic, rather love-hate. Also, it is apparently going to be like a hundred degrees there, which will not do wonders for the smell, I'm sure. Perhaps the stench will revive me when I faint. I may even be persuaded to try garlic ice cream afterwards.

FYI: People who do not like bacon annoy me. I mean, it's BACON. What's not to like? If you're morally opposed to it because you're a vegetarian, that's fine, as long as you still acknowledge that it's the greatest smell in the world, and that if you were going to break your vegetarianism for anything, it would totally be bacon.

SP 4 Eva

Smashing Pumpkins was soooo fun! Who needs James Iha? Not me! You just need Billy Corgan. The rest of the band just needs to learn the notes.
Halfway through, the rest of the band left anyways, and Billy played by himself with an acoustic guitar. Then they came back for a glorious finale.
They played most of my favorite songs, and a lot of new stuff. It was perfect. The Fillmore is an awesome place to see him--it's very small.
Okay, yes, fine. I cried during "Bullet with Butterfly Wings." Just a little. I didn't even notice until the song was over. Have you ever had a song change your life? I was fourteen, and I thought, WHERE did he get that voice, and HOW exactly does he know what my rage feels like?

Billy Corgan

I'm going to the Smashing Pumpkins concert tonight, too-ooonight!
I must be getting old because I'm annoyed that it won't start until 9pm (which means SP won't finish until well after midnight). I have get up for work at 6am people!
Also, I have brought earplugs with me. Joe tells me that this really is pretty acceptable and not that uncool. It is, in fact, MORE uncool to stand there with your fingers in your ears, scowling at the band because they suddenly got louder.
Should be a fairly tame concert, considering. SF is a chill place, and the Fillmore is not a venue that inspires one to mosh or anything like that. Plus, I can't imagine that anyone there will be any younger than, oh, me.