state of the nation fireside chat #1

you may have noticed (or you may have not) that i am trying out a format for the blog, whereby the posts are going to be a little more focused, and split into one of several series:

-"check out", wherein i will implore you to 'check out x', usually something i am strongly interested in at the time.
-"stay away", wherein i will warn you to 'stay away from x', usually something that hacks me off, or is of poor quality.
-"state of the nation fireside chat", wherein i will give random status updates, and mention things that i don't quite want to fit into the other categories.

so, thats the plan for now. some random notes for this friday, before we conclude:

-i've been trying this novel thing, where a day passes by without me consuming any alcoholic beverages. those familiar with me in the last 5 or so years may pass out after reading that; smelling salts may be obtained by their concerned loved ones by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope to jesus. anyways, seriously, its been 3 days since i had anything to drink, and before that i had a whole week going, i think. its friday though and i'm going to get a six-pack this afternoon. still, thats a far cry from getting a six pack or bottle of wine, nearly every damn day, for the last forever. its been nearly two weeks and all ive had is one bottle of wine (rosemount 2004, which made me rethink how much i liked the 2005. how the fuck is there so much variability in wine?) and the beer this evening.

-the rental place (enterprise) that supplied me with car when mine got hit by a jackass sports-car idiot, is now trying to dick me around on the bill, so ive been dealing with that this week. it does not excuse the lack of posting in the latter part, but hey. what has occurred is the asshole's insurance (AAA) set me up with enterprise, and then the enterprise guy told me that i had to take out insurance on the rental for it to be legal. now that im billed, it turns out that the insurance was listed as an optional thing, so AAA isn't going to pay for it. it also turns out that enterprise is charging me for two extra days of rental. so in the end, THE INSURANCE OF THE DICK-HOLE WHO WRECKED INTO MY CAR is going to pay for UNDER HALF of the bill from the rental car THEY SET UP FOR ME. so im a little bothered by that.

-kit kat, my beloved older cat, is limping around, not using her front left paw. and i am scared as shit about it. i've got an appointment to take her to the vet next week. she will move her arm and extend it, and doesnt seem like anything hurts her unless you want to look at that paw, but she won't put any weight on the arm; shes just got it hanging. but again, she can move it and doesn't seem averse to moving it around, or having it be in different degrees of bend.
still its my kitty and shes old and im scared. i want my kitty to be ok. shes kind of keeping to herself and its scary.

-i know i already mentioned getting beer this afternoon, but i wanted to speak specifically about my selection. i'm going to be selecting a beer @ woods grocery, and they have an OK selection, nothing spectacular but good for a grocer. im still not certain but i've narrowed down my choices to: goose island nut brown ale, goose island honker's ale, sam adams brown ale or sam adams boston lager. it'd be my first time trying either of the goose island selections; i may try the honkers because i read that its an ESB (extra special bitter) and i dig that style of ale. infact as soon as november hits, i'll be stocking up on possibly my favorite local beer: Schlafly's winter ESB, which won't be available until then.

hope your weekend is nice, if you are in the bolivar area and want to hang out and shoot some pool, gimme a ring: 417 840 8530. i'll give you directions to the farmhouse.

prost!