Reviewz

Wanted to chime in quick on a few topics while my neighbor stands next to his pickup truck in his jorts enjoying a Busch Light.


BREWERS


Truthfully, I'm not that disappointed with the Brewers. I just took a look at the schedule. I predicted preseason that they would probably win around 87 games, and be deep in the hunt. Of course, I'm an idiot. Anyway, based on my predictions, I have them at 24 wins after last night's game. They now have 21 wins. So they are perhaps three games worse than I had hoped. But there are like 120 games left. They will go on a random 7 game winning streak at some point, and get right back where they should be. But they gotta stop getting shut out. Pretty frustrating. Thankfully they come home and aren't playing at 1 a.m. starting tonight.


My take aways so far: Ryan Braun is my hero (although the recent shoulder injury is concerning), Zach Greinke is fun as hell to watch pitch (until he gets randomly hammered for 5 runs when he runs out of gas) and Prince is still fat. I love/hate watching Carlos Gomez turn a double into a triple, and then overrun third base and get tagged out, or make a cartwheel diving catch in center, and then strike out on a pitch 7 feet outside. Human roller coaster. Corey Hart got fat. Looking forward to the two extremely drunk Brewer games I've got planned in late June/early July.


NBA

I've actually watched almost every second of three conference finals games, and the 4th qtr of Game 2 of Mavs-Thunder. Game 2 of Heat-Bulls actually got the wife's seal of approval to be watched. And she HATES the NBA. I'm just saying that it has been entertaining.


MOVIE REVIEW

"Bridesmaids". Actually pretty good. I laughed really hard quite a number of times. It isn't quite the female version of the Hangover, but it is worth seeing. At this point, I don't think I would ever recommend seeing any movie at the theater. Seriously, it cost us like $40 for two of us to go. You could rent FORTY fucking movies from RedBox. I like going to the movies once in awhile, but if I'm spending $40 I'd rather go out to eat. I would definitely watch this at some point though. The fat chick is really, really funny.

BEERS OF THE MOMENT

"Thunder River Amber Ale". It is good. It is an amber ale and they are really hard to fuck up. What is odd is that after further review, Thunder River is brewed by "Green Bay Brewing Company", which is actually the same as Hinterland, which is much more expensive. Either way it was good.

"Somersault" by New Belgium. Pretty standard pale-ish ale with some citrusy type flavor. It was good. No complaints.

Exhale

Well there we go. Yo is a Cy Young contender and the Crew is sure to turn this 7 game losing streak into a 12 game winning streak after yesterday. Championship! Thus is the ebb and flow of the 700 game MLB season. I'm still concerned that the Crew hasn't hit at all for the last week. Big early season game today. They sort of need to steal this series after shitting Houston down their legs. Gotta score more runs though. Headed to the Keg on Wednesday afternoon for a game against the Padres. Headed down with my old man and his union cronies. No word on whether legs will be broken or not.

NBA PLAYOFFS

I find it incredible that no NBA team has EVER come back from a 3-0 deficit. If the Lakers demise is a foregone conclusion, then why are we wasting our time even playing game 4. There should be a rule that series are a best of 7, until a team wins the first three, then it is a skunk, and it is over. While I'm not the biggest NBA fan, I do follow it, and watch portions of games here and there. But I won't be going out of my way to watch any more games in this series until it gets to 7. Why bother?

GOLF

I finally got out for 18 yesterday. I'm not very good. 110 on 18 holes isn't getting me to the PGA tour. But considering I haven't touched a club in at least 8 months (Wisconsin weather rules) it could've been worse.

MOVIE REVIEWS

Watched a couple of older-ish movies from my DVR that I hadn't seen before.

"Youth in Revolt": I enjoy Michael Cera even though he plays the same character in every movie/TV show ever. I just find that character funny. Zach Galifianakis and his beard were in the movie as a alcoholic truck driver that is banging Michael Cera's mom. Steve Buschemi and trailer parks were also involved. I enjoyed the movie. I would recommend it, but I doubt I would stop to watch it again if it was on cable.

"The Hurt Locker": Supposedly won an Oscar. I'm a little Iraq movied out to be honest. There have been something like 10 million movies made about this, which I guess makes sense since this "war" has been going on for 10 years. It was a solid movie, but not very unique. It is an Iraq war movie. No idea why or how this won (or was nominated, I don't watch that shit) an Oscar. It is worth watching if you like desert war movies. I wouldn't watch it again.

BEERS OF THE WEEKEND

Lienenkugel Limited: Kind of dog shit. A cross between Leinie's original, which is awful, and Honey Weiss. Don't bother. Thank (Sports Bottle's) god I only drank one. I'm not sure what the idea behind "limited" was. I can tell you one thing, it will be limited to one in my stomach.

New Glarus "Two Women": Not as good as it might sound. It should be called "Two naggy ass fat women". New Glarus is always a conundrum to me. They make some absoultely delicious beer: "Fat Squirrel", "Spotted Cow", "Totally Naked", 'Back Forty Bock". And some really, really bad beer. This one would be in the second category for me.

I'm off to get fat at brunch. Peace.

Packers Draft Review

I liked it. How is that for analysis? Actually, I would've like it more if we would have taken about 3 more TEs. Seriously. After the draft, McCarthy said: "I like the TE position." You fucking think? Realistically, Thompson and McCarthy have earned my absolute trust, and I don't have the right to question anything they do. I felt like they drafted some players that may help ease the potential losses of James Jones, Brandon Jackson. And drafted others to create competition. It wouldn't shock me at all to see either only a few of the draftees make the roster, or for all of them to make it, and for some players that we assumed were safe to be cut. I'm excited about Randall Cobb. He will hopefully add a speedy, dynamic playmaker that we haven't exactly had. Not that we don't have playmakers, but we needed a guy that could return kicks and add an underneath speed element ala Desean Jackson or Percy Harvin. Obviously, I'm just hoping we get a homeless man's Percy Harvin (minus the migraines). Anyway, lockout is back on, so we will see these guys when we see them.

BREW CREW HANGOVER

-Grienke is back next week! Championship!
-Kammeron Loe decided to get some work in on the side this morning because he hasn't been pitching enough.
-Carlos Gomez got thrown out by a busboy trying for a second omelet at brunch.
-Ryan Braun is fucking good.

BEER(S) OF THE WEEKEND
-Pearl Street Brewery Downtown Brown: not very good at all to be honest. Disappointed.
-Hinterland Door County Cherry Wheat: spectacular. Tastes like cherry pie filling in your mouth, but strangely not sweet, and no aftertaste.
-Titltetown Victory Ale: super tasty. A dark brown, but not heavy.

WEATHER

I'm never going to be able to golf this year. I resolved I was going to do it more. Bought half of a pass to get BOGO 18 holes at various courses. And it has been raining, cold or 70mph winds every goddamn weekend. Maybe next weekend.

Three Quotes for Bucks/Hawks (Which Is now outdated) and Some Other Stuff

(ED NOTE: I started writing this on Wednesday. Obviously it is now totally outdated, but could apply to a game 7 win. Also, Salmons just bricked another jumper.)

To summarize the rather shocking win by the Bucks over Hawks last night, here are three quotes that I received via Blackberry Message from my wise younger brother (and I'm paraphrasing):



1) "The Hawks should be fucking embarrassed. They have no excuse.": This is true. On paper, the Hawks should have swept the Bucks. They have the three best players in the series. The Bucks might have one all-star caliber player. The talent difference is monumental. The Hawks just don't seem to care.

2) "Scott Skiles is the best coach the Bucks ever had.": What he has done the last week has been nothing short of amazing. This collection of cast-offs and corpses has no business even being in the playoffs, much less being on the verge of winning a series. What is going to happen when Hammond's plan comes to fruition in 2011 and he has some actual talent to work with? Basketball (at least this week) appears to be back in Milwaukee, and it is thanks to Skiles getting the most out of the best Hammonds could do. Lets just hope he doesn't wear out his welcome.

3) "Fuck the Hawks": Agreed. Josh Smith is a prick.

OTHER THINGS

-The Brewers are not playing well. At all.

-Beer Review: "Moon Man No Coast Pale Ale" by New Glarus. Pretty fucking good.

Food and Beer Reviews

Not much sports wise to talk about unless we want to discuss A-Rodg starting in the Pro Bowl. And everyone being pissed that the Pro Bowl is this week. So everyone knows, I am no longer going to La Crosse this weekend (barring some sort of miraculous development) so that I can watch the Pro Bowl. #12 UW plays at #11 Purdue tonight, but I have work obligations, and a DVR schedule full of crappy women shows, so I'm going to miss it likely in its entirety. I've got Purdue by double digits. I have no basis for this opinion. CU (11-10, 6-4) somehow won a road game last night against a not crappy Bradley team. This raises CU's NCAA chances to 0% up from -4%.

FOOD

Last night the wife was working extremely late, which gave me the green light to eat something bad for me because I'm far too lazy to cook for just myself, and the quick options were unappealing at best. I went with a Buffalo Chicken Oven Baked Sandwich from Domino's. I enjoy the bread bowl pasta, but I am sort of watching my figure, so I couldn't withstand the 1,500 calories for one of them. The Oven Baked Sandwich isn't that bad calorie-wise, but only because it isn't that big. It filled me up (in that I just ate some really greasy ass food and feel like I'm going to die sort of way, which is what I was looking for). I could have eaten more probably, but would've been out of commission afterwards if I did. It was pretty fucking delicious. And it was $4.99. If you like veggies, this isn't the type of sandwich for you. If you don't like your "bread" (which is really made of pizza dough and is fucking delicious) painted with garlic butter, you should stick to Subway. But if you like sandwiches that are tasty as shit, and probably won't give you an instant clogged artery as long as you eat only one, then this is the sandwich for you. I'm giving it 4 out of 5 stars.

BEER

Tried the newest sampling from New Glarus Brewery. I'm not really sure what it is called. The neck label says "Honey Bock". The other label says "Cabin Fever". I think they are one in the same. Either way, it is not what I was expecting. When I hear Bock, I think of a dark beer. This is definitely not that. It is a sweeter version of Honey Weiss, if Honey Weiss was a light beer. It is very good, I would have no trouble drinking the six pack, and I would get it again, but it was sort of false advertising. I would put it somewhere in the neighborhood just south of "Spotted Cow" on my favorite New Glarus scale. It is about as good as "Organic Revolution" or "Totally Naked". Good but not great. I'm going 3.5 out of 5. I would recommend trying it.

Random Bullet Points

- I watched about 4 minutes of the Bucks/Bulls last night. Shut it off with the Bucks up 16. They lost. I like Brandon Jennings.

-Go Phillies tonight. I like Pedro alot. Can never get enough of the "Who is Karim Garcia?" audio.

-Beer Review: New Glarus Yokel. Meh. It could've been Lienie's Original or some other swill. I wasn't real impressed. It wasn't gross, but I wouldn't rush out and get one. Definitely at least a notch below Organic Revolution.

-Badger Game Impression: A lot of my opinion probably has to do with the three following truths: 1) The game sucked. It was excitingfor about 10 minutes. College games tend to get out of hand quickly. And the crowd was pretty quiet because the game was over early. 2) I don't know what the cool thing to do before a Badger game is, so we sort of just wandered around and had like 2 drinks. 3) It was fucking cold.

Overall, I would definitely go back, but I think I want to go with someone that knows what they are doing. I also would want to stay down there and get all fucked up. The price was right (we paid $40 for two tickets in the lower section on about the goal line). I will hold off judgment until I get a chance to "do it right", but at this point, Lambeau has a lot more to offer me.

-I nearly convinced my wife to stay in Madison to watch the hockey game that night, but couldn't quite pull it off.

-Nice to be able to watch SportsCenter again. Thank (SportsBottle's) god for the 48 hour news cycle.

-Starting to get geared up for Schmock's wedding Saturday.

-Creighton opens up their exhibition schedule tonight against something called Missouri Western State. I might check it out. I miss T. Scott. I think UW plays tonight too, but those fascists want you to pay for the audio online, and I'm not listening on a clock radio. Maybe it will be on the BigTen Network? I'll have to check it out. College basketball rules. I would totally set the T-3000 up to do a ranking if there weren't 7,000 teams. As always, look for the non-biased rankings at the Basketball State.

Witness

I've been watching ESPN for about 25 minutes, and I've seen the LeBron shot roughly 600 times. And I hope I see it 600 more. You are going to be seeing that shot 10 times a year for the rest of your life ala Bryce Drew/Jordan v. Cavs. Unreal. Of course I was too busy creating a hangover with FOUR beers in three hours last night at my neighbor's house. Shit in my eye ruined me.

I did try three new New Glarus beers last night: Crack'd Wheat, Stone Soup and Black Wheat. I would rank them as follows: 1) Stone Soup, 2) Black Wheat, 3) Crack'd Wheat. The Crack'd has too much hefewiezen (too lazy to spell) flavor in it, which I can't fucking stand for some reason. Black Wheat is a little on the harsh/dark side for my taste. Stone Soup has a Scottish Ale flavor to it, which is lovely. But seriously, I don't know how I'm hungover.

BREW CREW HANGOVER

Fucking embarrassing. That's all I can say.

Merry Frickin' Christmas Boys and Girls!

So it technically isn't Christmas yet, but I'm off of work until Monday, and the family get togethers begin tonight, so close enough. Pretty excited about having to brave six inches of snow to get to my folks house tonight, and fighting with my wife about who has to drive home. My plan is to do about eight shots in the first hour so I am too drunk to drive.

Last night I finally broke down and got a new snowblower. My old one that I got for $50 two years ago broke, and was not repairable. So we headed out to the box stores last night to look. Eventually my wife forced me to get the more expensive model of the type we were looking at. I haven't used it yet (although it is slowing like a mother outside right now) but I'm pretty sure there is an option that sucks my dick.

RANDOM BEER REVIEW: Leinenkugel's "1888 Bock"

The bottom line is that it is tasty as fuck. Not the best beer I've ever had, but definitely among the best Leinie's. I didn't pour it into a glass, but it tastes like it is a brown-ish color. Tastes more like a Scotch Ale than a Bock. When I think of a bock, I normally think of a really, really dark beer. Like most Leinie's products, its lighter than that, but has alot of taste. I would highly recommend it. Plus its got a sweet fluorescent green label, with grass and shit on it, so it feels like spring.

SUNDAY WEATHER REPORT: High of 27, Sunny

The Mall, Beer and Chipotle

Went and tried to complete the majority of our Christmas shopping yesterday. Not. Fun. At all. Maybe I am getting to be old, but that shit stresses me the fuck out. Sitting in bumper to bumper traffic to get in. Then nearly dying in the parking lot eight times just trying to park a vehicle. Then walking four and a half miles to get in. Then you get all the snooty bitches shoving people in the aisles. The old people walking too slow and blocking the flow of walking traffic. And the white trash assholes who bring their 4 kids under the age of 4 into the mall and let them scream. There is nothing I hate worse.

For example, my wife was at a women's clothing store trying on about 700 things (really it was like 3 things, but 14 different colors and 2 sizes of each), and it was one of those stores without a place to sit. But I couldn't wait outside the store because 1)there were 10,000,000 people there and no room on any of the couches and 2) she likes my "opinion" on everything (which if you don't know, is always "That looks nice".) and won't let me leave. So I end up standing there outside of the dressing room with a dick in my hand, looking like a fucking molester/rapist for an hour.

We also spent at least an hour dealing with all the screaming kids in Toys R' Us looking for gifts for my 2 year old niece, that is going to put it in her mouth anyway.

Afterwards, though, we went to Chipotle. I haven't been there since I left Omaha, because there isn't one in Green Bay. Chipotle sprinkles crack on their burritos. (And only 1,180 calories!) The Barbacoa burrito was sent down from (The Sport Bottle's) God on a chariot of chocolate and feathers, to pleasure my stomach. I ate about six pounds worth of burrito and a gallon of the hottest salsa they had. I almost died gorging myself. That was the best part of the day.

I broke down and bought NBA 2k9.

Texas Tech got blowed out.

UW got lucky as fuck.

CU dominated the second half.

BEER REVIEW: I made an impulse buy at the grocery store the other day. New Glarus Apple Ale. I usually enjoy a fruit flavored beer on occasion. It tastes like you are eating an apple. A little bit overwhelming on the apple taste actually. I'm not sure I can tell it has alcohol in it. Not too bad, but not something I would buy again. At $7.99 for a FOUR pack, I would just wait to steal one from a friend. Give me a Woodchuck or Leinie's Apple Spice instead.