7/24/2006
Photo album available here
The long awaited summer picnic finally came and the food was a huge success. So big in fact that everyone wanted the secret to the brats and bbq sauce. Quite simply… alcohol. The brats were made with Arcadia Ales London Porter and the BBQ sauce with rum. the booze burns off but damn does it give some great taste. In fact, 3lbs of brats were gone in 5 minutes 
So here’s the semi long winded recap.
Friday: The mrs. and I get in around 7pm. We stop at a 6pk shop on Peach Street for some Dogfishhead 60 minute. I always wondered why there isn’t more craft beer in Erie. Easy answer, there were 1.5 coolers with craft beer and 6-8 of Bud/Miller/Coors/PBR products. It’s all about availability. The guy working was a “football beer” drinking college kid. He had no idea what I was talking about when I asked about the beers he friggin carries! It was rather disappointing. We left and picked up a Hot n Ready from Little Ceasers and headed to my parents place. Lushie and I start work on dishes for the following day. Lasagna rollups, mac-n-cheese, cupcakes and a few other things. Around midnight dad and I head to the store to get parts for the fishing poles.
Saturday: Rain rain rain and more rain. There’s no way we’re getting a grill started in this weather. We could be screwed. 10am and we arrive at the shelter. Keeps on raining. We help my mom and one of her sisters setup. My first break comes at 10:30 when there’s a slight drizzle. Coals go on and I light… and wait. Holy shit we have a small glow! I start huffin and puffin. We have smoke! The rain picks up and it’s me vs. the rain. I won. By 12:30 the grill was blazing hot and the chicken was already on. People came and everyone ate. Just about everyone came up and thanked me personally for the food and to tell me how much they loved it. Never had I had this happen so I was feelin good. I have to give Lushie credit for the BBQ sauce. She tinkered with that while I worked on the brats. Most of the kids went to the beach with their dad’s and played football while some stayed behind for fishing. Nighttime came and we packed up to head back. Stopped to the 2nd 6pk shop that has the same owner but located on Pittsburgh Ave. Bigger store same results. I wept *haha*
Sunday: Had brunch at my parents house and hung out for awhile after mass. Jumped on 79 and headed south back to Pittsburgh.
Overall it was a fun weekend. A ton of work that paid off. Mom had mentioned this may be the last picnic because of all the work involved so Lushie and I said we could pick up the duties on this since we’re rather experience with successful family gatherings. Now do we move it to Pittsburgh or keep in Erie? Hmmmm either way the invite list is getting an overhaul next year.
7/21/2006
Found at the 7-11 Exxon on RT19 in Wexford, PA. Good thing i use 87 octane!
Our beloved kegerator/beer fridge has died. The converted fridge has been passed on between a group of us for years finally gasped it’s last breath of freon… and put water all over my friggin garage floor when it started defrosting. Plus side is that there was only 1 bottle of Vertical Epic 06 in it and 3 bottles of champagne so I had room upstairs to move the goods. It has alot of memories for many of us so pay your respects to this picture since it’s in a scrap yard somewhere. I did save pieces of it for Griff. I think he’s still mourning.
As expected, a new one will be forthcoming to house hopefully homebrew and other experiments
7/20/2006
7/18/2006
I ran up to Erie recently to check out the area of where our annual picnic will be. The Mrs. and I have been working on ideas for new dishes so I had to see how much grill space I’ll have and if I can bring up any of my fryers and cookers. I have to laugh because every year a few people whine about how unhealthy everything is based on appearance (even though they have NO idea what’s actually in it) and yet they’re the ones scarfing down the food. It’s a friggin picnic, not a health care convention. Fill your trap with food and shut it. I won’t hint as to what we’re working on in Spoon La-bor-a-tories so you’ll have to wait. Remember kids, people wont remember how much food you had at your gathering but how little. Keep the “quaint”ness at home. Picnics are meant for everyone to eat, drink and be merry
Since our last picnic 2 years ago I’ve acquired a taste for craft beers. Unfortunately I think I’ll be the only one there that drinks such a monster. There will be plenty of that Corona swill and *ugh* New Jersey’s newly brewed Rolling Rock so I may have to bring my own supply or drink lake water. Last summer, my brother got razzed by our cousins if the $2 Miller Light in Erie tastes as good as the $6 Miller Light at the stadium in Pittsburgh. Yeah I laughed but then again I’ve been known to spend $10-15 on a bottle to, as my wife says, take an expensive piss. According to Tina there’s maybe 2 places to get good craft beer in Erie so I might have to make a run and stock up. Hopefully if this new brewpub I heard of takes off there will be 3. I don’t blame the people for not knowing of craft beers if it’s not easily available. Wonder what kinda market there would be for it up there? Heh, no I’m not moving back.
Took this picture while going to dinner last night at 5:30pm EST.
7/14/2006
It appears that the craft brewing industry has taken off recently in Western PA. More known for the steel mill and blue collar jobs, WestPA has provided as a rich development for breweries. Below is a link to a story about the new Sprague Farm Brewery in Venango PA from goerie.com . Since goerie.com makes you register to read articles I saved you the time and made a pdf of the story.
New local brewery opens today
Other breweries found in Western PA:
Yes I know there’s Latrobe Brewing (Rolling Rock for now), Stoney’s and Pittsburgh Brewing (Iron City) but this is about craft beer, not football beer.
7/13/2006
Anyone who goes to a message board online MUST watch this clip. For the sake of us who have been around for awhile, this will save you life.
7/11/2006
NYC building blows up in botched suicide attempt.
Heard it from another room
Eyes were waking up just to fall asleep
Loves like suicide
Dazed out in a garden bed
With a broken neck lays my broken gift
Just like suicide
And my last ditch
Was my last brick
Lent to finish her
Finish her
Bit down on the bullet now
I had a taste so sour
I had to think of something sweet
Loves like suicide
Safe outside my gilded cage
With an ounce of pain
I wield a ton of rage
Just like suicide
With eyes of blood
And bitter blue
How I feel for you
I feel for you
She lived like a murder
How shed fly so sweetly
She lived like a murder
But she died
Just like suicide
7/10/2006
Official Fan Fest website
Yesterday my wife and I went to FanFest down at the convention center. She had won tickets from a contest from KDKA so we figured we’d check it out. Originally I had no intention of taking part in anything All-Star since I have some serious issues with it this year but hey, free tix, wtf, why not. We met up with the Stoosh’s and ventured in. The event was significantly better than 1994 when Pittsburgh last hosted the All Star game. Noticeable difference though was that there wasn’t as many people wanting to shove freebies at us every minute. My favorite part was the live auction in the back of the first floor. I’m a sucker for baseball history so this was my chance to geek out. Seats from Forbes Field, Clemente uniforms, ticket stubs from early 1900’s (it was also at this point that my wife said that’s still not a reason to save every ticket stub like I do now. Whatever, 1994 all star stubs were going for $75. You should see the mounds of junk I have left over from that game). First floor was mainly art displays, a few vendors, some autographs and a great display on the minor league teams. All team hats were available along with a few jerseys.
Upstairs is where Stoosh and I made broadcasting history. We took part in the “You call the play.” booth. The 2 of us were able to pick a play from a list of roughly 19 baseball moments that we wanted to do the play-by-play for. Our pick, Mark Smith’s HR to seal the last Pirates no-hitter in 1997. Whomever decided to do this was genius. We had a blast calling the 2 minute clip (or as Stoosh said “Someone get Kevin McClatchy new pants!” after the HR was it).
We walked around for awhile and had to fight with some really pushy fans and people not watching their fucking kids but for the most part enjoyed ourselves. As we headed back to the car the mrs. picked me up an All-Star baseball and had our names burned into the side so that was a very cool gift from the day.
7/6/2006
Today is my brother-in-law’s 18th birthday. We gave him the name sunshine during the initiation from my other groomsmen one fateful night in October of this past year. Sunshine, today I salute you!
7/2/2006
Now do you REALLY think I’d cause mischief? Never! The mrs. and I went up to central PA for her family reunion. Arrived Friday night and chilled at her mom’s house. Saturday was the fest. I swear to God that people need to take notes on how this family plans a party because they do it right. Enough food for lunch and dinner. Everyone ate, hung out in the sun and enjoyed the day. No one was worried on how quaint things looked or shit like that. Later in the evening we went out for the annual bonfire. Sat around with the family and bullshitted for hours while having a few tasty beverages and making mountain pies. This morning we took our good ole time coming back and stopped in Punxy for the Groundhog Festival that’s going on until next weekend. I love that furry rat Phil.
I had some ideas for future podcasts so we’ll see what happens!
7/1/2006
Enjoying a 40oz of Dogfish Head Liquor de Malt. Only 10 cases were made available for Western PA and guess who got one