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Let me know how you found me, where you're from, why you're here, a little about yourself, recommend a book, recommend a movie, tell me a secret, tell me something, ask me a question, etc. =)

Ad Astra,

The Bride of the First House.
bride (at) livejournal (dot) com

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weather	:		sunny
outside	:		15.7°C
mood	:		...

Laughing as much as I possibly can at Work.

to peter - to diminish gradually and come to an end

Peter is also a Greek name that belonged to an Apostle of Christ and, thus, fairly popular as a boy's given name.

One of our senior executives is named Peter. We have another senior executive named Rob.

When they came to our office to meet with our crew a while ago, Peter was joking about how he'd keep his talk short and finish before people started to peter out. He also muttered something out loud about it being unfair to be named "Peter".

I absently blurted, "I don't know... would you rather be petered or robbed? It's a tough choice."

There was a moment of silence before we all erupted in laughter.

Ordering a Strawberry Mocha from Café Artigiano.

I can only get it at the downtown café. They can't make it at the one close to home. I'll probably only have one, one Friday a month or only when I'm feeling really down because it's over $4.00 for a Medium.

But holy crap, they're so good. And they are not "The Evil That Ends In -Bucks".

Oak aged beer.

Huh. Interesting. Innis & Gunn. "Edinburgh ale aged in oak barrels traditionally used to mature malt whisky."

I like whisky, but it's a little too overwhelming for me because I don't have it often. So, this beer is very nice.

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		9.0°C
mood	:		*teehee*

Beers of the World: Hobgoblin Ale and Monty Python Holy Grail

How, exactly, am I supposed to pass up on something that looks as cool as that? Or this. Seriously.

I was at the liquor store last night while we were getting pumpkins for a quickfire pumpkin carving contest (more below if you want to read about that). The liquor store didn't have anything I liked, but they did have Hobgoblin Ale and the Monty Python Holy Grail in a special display in the middle of the floor. They only had these two, so I took one of each to try.

I tried the Hobgoblin Ale last night. I thought it was... confusing. I dunno... try it and talk to me. =)

Reading through the descriptions, I think I might like to try the Black Wych or the BeeWyched Honey'd Ale, but I didn't see any at the liquor store near home this afternoon.

I haven't tried the Monty Python one yet. I'm not banking on liking this one. From the description "plenty of fruity hops" tends not to be my cuppa... and that's not on the label, so I wouldn't have known when I got it.

Quickfire Pumpkin Carving Contest

So, Work has split the Vancouver office into teams of 5, we will be given a giant round pumpkin and some tools. And we're going to be told "Go!" =\

Ooo... chicken smells really good... (more below).

Friday was spent loosely discussing what the hell we were going to carve in between bug fixing and regression test cases.

We only have 1 hour between choosing the pumpkin and putting the candle in.

We briefly talked about doing the Autobot and Decepticon logos. They look easy and cool. Never having actually carved a pumpkin before in my life, if anyone wants to weigh in on this extremely uninformed opinion, please do. And quickly. =)

It would be cool if we could do both of them side-by-side, but realistically, I think we'll be too worn out by the time we finish the first one and we'll just leave it at that.

I've taken the two logos and fixed them up so that they're more suitable for pumpkin carving.

I've also passed them through the Ultimate Transformers Fanboy's Approval Process for Acceptable Alterations of The Logos™ (a.k.a. Husband Guy said "yeah, that's fine") =)

Here they are, in case anyone else wants to give me a Yay or a Nay:

Autobots: Original	Autobots: For Pumpkin Carving
Decepticons: Original	Decepticons: For Pumpkin Carving

The stuff in black is being cut out. I should maybe post a poll to get opinions...

Free Range Chicken

Co-Worker Girl of mine owns a small farm in Victoria, BC. I buy chicken miscarriages from her all the time =)

She sold me a 5½lbs free range chicken. We have no refrigerator or freezer space, so we're cooking it in the slow cooker on the 10 hour cooking timer. It has about two more hours to go... =)

It's the same recipe that fazia gave me all those (4) years ago. Basically throw it in the slow cooker with all sorts of your favorite chicken-friendly vegetables and herbs... shove some up the chicken butt, rub some all over, including the wing pits, etc. I was in too much of a hurry to even print the e-mail out and properly go shopping for all the stuff or follow instructions. I had to just go for it and grab whatever I could remember.

But the apartment is smelling wonderfuller and wonderfuller by the minute now. I'm slightly afraid of what it will smell like tomorrow, but hey, live in the moment... and open all the windows =D

At least we'll have tons of food.

weather	:		rainshower
outside	:		9.3°C
mood	:		...

I was in the liquor store today, getting some booze for the weekend. I was invited to beer with the guys, but at about 1630h I couldn't wait for them anymore. I usually work 0830h-1630h and the guys usually do 1000h-1800h. I was pretty worn and wanting out by 1600h.

Crazy rough week. Good stuff happening, but crazy rough time with it. I wanted to unwind.

While I was paying for some Christoffel and some Bacardi strawberry coolers, the cashier's eyes light up and he says to me, "Oh! Have you tried Petrus Double Brown? It's a slightly caramelized and a bit sweeter than this. I really think you'll like it." He points at my Christoffel.

I was about to say "Oh, no thanks...", but he was way too excited about showing it to me. Before I could stammer out any kind of response, he darted away to the shelves at the back and came back with a Petrus Dubbel Bruin.

I looked at it and decided to try just one because he seemed quite certain that I'd like it. He rang it in and said, "You'll be back for that one." with a knowing smirk =D

Wow, he called it. =) It's pretty amazing, it's made by Bavik, a Belgian brewery. I don't know if I like it as much as the Christoffel, but it's definitely in the running.

I might see if a few people will hang out with me on a software release night and have a small office beer garden so that I'll have company during the release. =)

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		11.8°C
mood	:		...

I saw Christoffel Robertus double malt beer while I was wandering through the Liquor Store today. It's a Dutch beer. I didn't know anything about it, other than, it has a REALLY COOL flip-top. XD At $3.00 a bottle (330ml; a little over half a pint), it was a bit insane. Our local beers are usually just over $1.00 a bottle and are pretty good.

But the flip-top got me, so I got one to try. =)

Wow, that's a fantastic beer. =O

I don't drink often, so the $3.00 isn't so bad when you average it over time. There is also a Christoffel Blond, but I generally prefer dark beers. The only exception I can think of is a light, apricot beer that I had with lunch at a pub/restaurant near Pike Place Market in Seattle, WA. But that felt more like a fruity soda-like drink to me.

There's also a non-alcoholic not-beer that I quite like. It's called Malz (黑麥汁*) and it's sold at T&T and other Asian supermarket places. The ads for it usually say it's an organic rye drink from Germany.

I actually didn't really like it, at first. See, this is strange. With regular alcoholic beers, if I like it, I will know and admit that I like it. And I'll have as much as I can handle. If I don't like it, I just won't have any more.

But this rye drink was like a weird addiction. For some bizarre reason, even though I consciously didn't like it, I kept reaching for another one, and another one. I'm not like this towards other alcoholic beers (thank goodness!).

* 黑麥汁 sounds like "black Chinese calligraphy ink" to me because in Cantonese, "墨" ("ink") and "麥" (general term for "wheat") are exactly homophonous. XD XD XD