Thursday, January 18, 2007

Of Playoffs, weddings, and beer

Well, it was a wild weekend here in San Diego County! Regrettably, I had to follow the game on my cell phone during a wedding service. That's right, my wife's brother decided to get married on a Sunday, in football playoff season! When I arrived at the location for the wedding, I found that there was a TV upstairs that we could use and notified my brother in law that I may or may not be there for the service. He granted me this as apparently the date was not his idea.

Anyway, I was able to get one or two beers in before the actual wedding and was not able to stay upstairs for the service as doing so would have caused me much more grief back at home. I sent a text message to one of my neighbors who kept me posted on the game via text message during the ceremony. I had my phone on vibrate so nobody saw the score updates, although my wife gave me the stinkeye until her phone blared right before the bride said "I do" with a loud Austin Powers ringtone! My ability to receive messages was not in question after that!

After the ceremony we had to go take pictures - and the game was still on! We went to a waterfall on the grounds of the development for the shots but I guess nobody checked in advance because it had huge icicles on it and the little pond was frozen over! I lobbied hard to get our shots done quickly and then literally ran back to the car and made it back to the venue with 3 minutes left in the game.

I don't know what the friggin Chargers were thinking, but they blew this one badly. I had continued to receive updates on the score so I knew it was tied, but when I got there and saw Brady with the ball I knew it was over. I think that he is the second coming of Joe Montana; not the best arm and mediocre stats, but he can sure win a fucking game when he wants to. If you let them stay close he will roll you over and give you the high hard one every time.

The worst thing was watching Rivers try his 2 minute drill (1:05 drill actually). What is up with a few short passes over the middle? Hello! No time outs left folks. Either throw it outside and get out of bounds or throw it away. They probably would have done better on a draw play to LT - seriously! The Pats were hanging back there looking for these passes outside and gave them 5 yarders over the middle - and Rivers bit on it! I am here to tell you that if Drew Brees was back there this game would have played out differently and the bolts may still be in it. Thank you AJ Smith!

If I were a Charger fan, I would be bitter. As a Raider fan, I had no expectations this year - I knew that I would be out of it all the way. But for the bolts to put together such a great record and then fold in their first game - at home - it is quite a sting! C'mon Chargers, what the fuck? You only gave the rock to LT 8 or 9 times in the SECOND HALF! Hello? Did they not see his stats all year?

So I would like to recommend to my Charger fan brethren the bitterest beer in America - Buffalo Bill Brewing's Alimony Ale. It is not actively being brewed anymore, but apparently if you look hard enough you can find a bottle here and there. It is musty and old, just like the last Charger playoff win, so it fits the bill nicely here. It will leave a bad taste in your mouth...

Thursday, January 4, 2007

Nothing Good Happens at 3 AM - Red Drak

Well another NFL player has tragically proven this adage to be true, with his life being taken in the wee hours of the night. Sadly, he apparently did the right thing and left the scene of an altercation but ended up dead anyway. This is in contrast to idiots like Foley who careen about hammered out of their heads and cause trouble.

I just don't know why these guys, with all of their money, need to take their posse and go out on the town acting like morons. From Ray Lewis to friggin Seabass, there is a long list of NFL players who just can't seem to stay away from trouble, especially in the middle of the night. I guess if someone plopped a few million in my lap when I was 23 years old I would go a bit off the deep end, but back then a bad altercation was a short fist fight. Now these hoodlums have machine guns! The stakes certainly have changed.

Perhaps I am getting older, but I am having an increasingly hard time thinking of anything really good that happens well after midnight. Here's a list of bad things that generally occur:

- Hangovers - bad ones
- Damaged vehicles, homes, etc
- Ill thought out comments
- Lost possessions
- Pissing off the wrong guy (or girl - ouch)
- Arrest
- Sleeping in unfamiliar places
- Strange injury that you just can't recall receiving

Perhaps some of you have some other fuzzy recollections of things that have happened to you in the wee hours.

Now for some beer talk. There is one beer that I had last year that will definitely get you into trouble. There is a brewer in the Czech Republic called Starobno that brews this stuff called Cerveney Drak, or what we called Red Drak. This stuff comes in a bottle that has a bottle cap that you open will a pull ring. The bottle cap splits down the middle. It is really strange. My father in law brought over a case a while back as I am not sure where you can get this stuff.

This beer is not especially strong at 6%, but it seems to have some sort of psycho-tropic qualities. My neighbors and I each had a few and noticed a particularly different buzz for some reason. I continued to drink the stuff and later that night I checked off a few of the items on my list above. Needless to say my wife has asked her father never to bring that stuff around.

With that said, I do think that you should try it if you find it. Just be warned in advance that it may cause mayhem later. After all, if it weren't for the potential for mayhem, much of the fun of drinking beer would be lost....