Right Before Christmas

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Okay, here’s the catch-up from the last week or so… this last Friday, Izzy’s cousin Amy celebrated her 21^st birthday and she had a Barbie theme… I went as Ameri-Ken (pretty much my usual clothes) but here are some good pictures…

 

 

Saturday, Izzy & I had a booth at the Holiday Stroll event at Noman Coffee, and it was pretty sweet. It’s a pretty small venue now, but there’s definitely some great potential out there & a LOT of great artists joined us out there. Here are some pictures of that…

 

Sunday, we met up with headbrewer/owner Kevin at Ferment.Drink.Repeat to brew our own recipe (well, a variation of it) to fit his system! A few years ago, I contributed to his jumpstart campaign and this was one of the benefits… and he’s a good friend & fellow homebrewer, one of the founding members of the SF Homebrewers Guild, and just an overall great guy & retired military man. Basically we helped with most of steps in the process, milling the grain, mashing, lunching (some great Bahn Mi sandwiches), transferring, cleaning, all that stuff. It was a lot of fun… but here are some pictures of it…

 

Our Saturday at Jack of All Trades Festival involved a LOT of rain… and the show being cancelled… but we stuck it out for most of the event anyway (cancelled about 10 minutes before start so we were already set up) and there were a few lucky patrons / passerbys who were able to gladly purchase some of our wares, even in the rain!!! No pictures of this one though…

 

Sunday, we drove up to Lincoln (near Sacramento) to attend Izzy’s nephew Everett’s 1^st Birthday Party!!! It was actually a lot of fun to see the family up there & that baby is just so damn cute and happy!!! Here are some pictures…

 

Aside from that, we’ve just been really busy obviously… but things have been great!!! The Everything I Learned From Movies podcast has been really taking off… and we’re really focusing on making it the best that we can. On that note, this isn’t quite time for the Stevies… but my New Year’s Resolution for 2017 is to REALLY set time aside to focus on the podcast & make it better and better each week… and with that in mind, I ask a BIG favor of YOU!!!

 

This year, instead of going out and buying me a present for Christmas, don’t make a donation to a charity in my name (although OK, that’s cool too), but please feel free to go to patron.podbean.com/eilfm and Become a Patron of our EILFM Podcast instead!!! That way, not only are you giving us a gift… but you’re getting a gift in return, in the form of a great podcast PLUS plenty of great rewards to take advantage of such as mailed gifts for our Fan Club, guest hosting episodes, all kinds of fun stuff!!! Anyway, please give it a look & let us know what you think!!!

 

Until next time, have a great day everybody!!!

Grandma Cruise 2016

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Day 1 – Disneyland

 

Well, we drove down Thursday night and got to our hotel in Anaheim around 2 AM, taking a quick nap before venturing into the Happiest Spookiest Place on Earth – DISNEYLAND!!! Our first stop was apparently the most popular attraction this time of year… the Haunted Mansion, redone to be Nightmare Before Christmas…

 

Here are some other pictures from our adventures at Disneyland, we also met up with my brother & his family who had been in town a day earlier…

 

By the way, did you know that Disney owns Star Wars now? And Marvel? And… I think just about everything that you love?

 

Day 2 – Knott’s Berry/Scary Farm

 

The next day, we got a good night’s sleep & headed out to Knott’s Berry Farm, also draped for the spookiest holiday of the year. I love Knott’s, even more than Disneyland. It’s just… well, less ridiculously expensive… but also a lot more rides (yes, I know Disney’s California Adventure has a lot to compare) and just a pretty cool vibe to it. Anyway, here are some pictures…

 

 

After the park, we headed back to Anaheim and had a drink at Noble Ale Works… pretty good stuff they’ve got brewing there… I really liked their “The Festbier Ever” and “Irish I Was A Little Bit Taller” selections…

 

Day 3 – Boarding the Ship

 

The next day was basically meeting up with about 30 of my closest relatives for a wonderful three-day cruise!!!

 

Day 4 – Catalina Island

 

Beautiful morning on the quiet island of Catalina (I assume eerily quiet when there aren’t cruise ships in port)…

 

Wandering around the main drive, we stopped by Catalina Island Brewhouse for a quick beer (it was close enough to noon, so don’t judge) while we waited for our snorkeling excursion…

  

Unfortunately the tide was high due to a Supermoon & the waves were pretty choppy, so snorkeling was cancelled… but we saved money with the difference & still were able to catch a Glass Bottomed Boat so we could still see some fishies…

 

Then it was back to the boat for family time…

 

Day 5 – Ensenada, Mexico

 

Our Mexican excursion started with a drive from the port out to their wine country and a stop at Ochentos Pizza & El Chivo Grunon Brewery, which is a pretty awesome place. They’re first & foremost, a popular pizza place that guys from San Diego/Ensenada started on their family’s land… and even started a craft brewery in their grandmother’s former home (it’s pretty small as you’ll see). The guy showing us around had a super hipster moustache… but seemed pretty cool… here are the pictures…

 

Next stop was a slightly larger brewery called Wendlandt Cerveceria where they had a tap room, distribution channels, and all that stuff… but still pretty little known. We had tasters of all their beers on tap… and they were all pretty good…

 

  

Next up was a LEGIT street taco place called Taqueria El Flamazo, where they had some great tacos with Cabeza (head meat) & a giant spit of marinated pork (al pastor) that they just shaved the meat off into the taco & it was just heavenly… here are some pictures…

 

On the way back on the bus, we took the scenic route to get an overview of Ensenada…

 

Basically from there we did a little shopping downtown for souvenirs, my cousin Alicia learned about poverty secondhand, and then we made our way back to the ship to celebrate my Grandma’s 80^th Birthday Dinner!!!

 

Day 6 – Day at Sea

 

The day at sea was pretty low key… and involved Izzy & I taking down a 101 ounce Beer Tube in… about thirty minutes… and we even paced ourselves.

 

There was a lot of chilling in the sun, eating entirely too much, relaxing in the room, and we spent the evening watching comedy shows & hanging with the family… great times with great peeps!!!

 

Day 7 – Back on Land

 

The next morning, Izzy & I went to see the Queen Mary, a former British warship / luxury cruiseliner that Winston Churchill used to transport himself during WWII across the Atlantic… and is now a sunken hotel / museum there at the port. It was incredibly interesting… here are some pictures…

 

 

We also had a nice six-hour drive back during a heatwave (100+ in the Central Valley in mid-October) so we headed home… and apparently the heat or something caught up with me & I was sick the next day. It sucked… but it was also on a Friday so, work got pushed back a few days. No complaints there.

 

We also got a barrel for potting plants…

 

We also brewed our entry for the Iron Brewer Competition that is going on with one of our favorite breweries, Ferment.Drink.Repeat! This competition presents brewers with a  secret ingredient a la Iron Chef… and our secret ingredient is… (whooshing noises from the Chairman’s nephew)… FENNEL!!!!!!! So with that in mind, we brewed… Extinction Fennel Event!!!

 

Anyway, busy time, I know that I’m not keeping up on this thing… but I’m trying. Blame my job… it’s cuckoo bananas busy… all the time… and they’ll never hire enough people to help… because why would they when they have the greatest employee EVER!!! Have a great day everybody!!!