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V.V.S.O.P.

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Today marks the 26th year of my existence. My title is typical of a cognac designation (very very special old pale) and yet it strangely applies to me as well. I read somewhere that the 21st of January, not the 23rd luckily, is supposed to be the most unhappy day of the year. I know that my birthday, almost without fail, tends to be cloudy and cold, and accordingly the weather is taking a plunge as I sit tending shop. Luckily, I was able to get some very crucial face time in with the boys at Plaid this morning, and the coffee is just going to tide me over until I get my second wind sometime this evening.
I'm going to give the Grand House a whirl tomorrow. It's been a while since I've had dim sum. I'm a sucker for steamed dumplings and actually had a great experience outside of St. Louis and then San Fran, naturally. Tonight, I may end up going Asian as well, maybe sushi, but not before a couple leisurely pints.
Speaking of pints, my obligatory malt beverage reference involves me bottling my rauchbier until the wee hours of last night, raging to jazz beats. I wasn't happy after finding that the lock-caps they gave me at the shop for my chic blue-glass bottles were ill-fitting and therefore unusable for this batch. Anyway, I got the smoke beer divvied up and it clearly had some uniquely strong caramel and woodfire aromas. We'll see how it tastes in a few weeks.

Addendum: As I've been spending my day at the shop, I've seen maybe 20-25 people today and had real conversations with maybe 2, well this dude just walked in 10 minutes before my shift ended and he is pre-occupied, I actually was wondering if I was going to get robbed because he stood at the door for a while with his hand in his pocket but anyway he says he was checking out the starching options at the cleaners. Yeah, this is not somebody who you imagine starching his wears. Anyway, he asks about the beer I point him that way. He grabs a 40 and comes up and says something like man today's my birthday, to which I naturally mention my own inception on this day in 1983. Turns out he is exactly the same age as I am. Weird, wild, stuff...

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