BEER! AND STUFF...

Alcohol Toll

The weekend in Jacksonville and St. Augustine was really nice, although we got--how else can I really put this?--shitfaced on Sunday at the Rendezvous Restaurant. I can't say we didn't enjoy stumbling around the Old City after splitting a bottle each of the following (over a period of five hours, I might add, reading Martin Amis and picking at some chicken salad, and just generally having a great time):

St. Sebastian Dark (Belgium) - Not quite as beguiling as the others we loved, but still a solid, good choice. Perhaps a bit sweet.

Corsendonk Abbey Brown Ale (Belgium) - Harsher but also better than Newcastle Brown Ale, with a nice aftertaste.

Xingu (Brazil) - A black beer, dark and smooth. One of my favorites.

Paulaner-Salvater (Germany) - Golden brown, a bit on the sweet side.

San Miguel (Phillipines) - Dark and somewhat undistinguished.

Smithwicks (Ireland) - Dark, strong, and bitter. Not our favorite.

Weihenstephaner Korbinton (Germany) - Excellent excellent excellent! Dark and with a myriad of tastes combined.

Aventinus (Germany) - Another excellent beer, this one with a hint of cloves. Also a darkish beer, a bit sweeter, but lovely.

And the grand finale (drum-roll), requiring a beer each because we love these sooo much:

Koningshoeven Trappist Ale Dubbel (Holland) - A fine trappist ale that has all the flavors we love and isn't too sweet.

(Aftermath: Moving with no excess of agility through the cobblestone streets of St. Augustine giggling at nothing in particular.)

Er, then add in five bourbon-and-diets spaced out over the day before and two particularly good cigars. Then add in about an hour of intense cardio over the weekend, plus a lot of walking, 150 push ups, 300 bridges, 200 crunches, and four sets of calf raises, tricep curls, and bicep curls. Plus we didn't eat that much, so all in all, not too terrible. And it's back to the jogging and the gym this week, so...

Upcoming Posts

Much more about finds at Chamblin's shortly, and interviews to post, whatever happened to Felicity Savage, and news to blog about...all coming up this week...

Wotmania Interview

Oh---and this interview just went live at Wotmania.com.

Cheers,

Jeff

Evil Monkey: "Oh, you can't get away without posting this Q&A section from the Wotmania interview, Jeff."

Q: The last question is the traditional question of the OF: If you owned
monkeys, how many would you own, and what would you name them?

I do own a monkey. His name is Evil Monkey and his girlfriend is
Ape-Gone-Wild. Although "own" is probably too strong a word--I have a monkey
named Evil Monkey, let's just say. And he's prone to collecting the heads of
writers he doesn't like, but then returning them in a fit of guilt.

But if I did actually *own* monkeys, they would be woolley monkeys and there
would be four of them, and they would take great delight in trashing our
house while we were gone. They would climb up the chimney and drop out of it
in great chuffing snuffles of black dust. They would terrorize the cats and
try to take the car out for a spin. They'd converse with the mailman and
chase away Jehovah's Witnesses. They'd get into the liquor cabinet and,
drunk, repaint the walls a nice banana color. In the evenings, they'd curl
up on the couch and watch the Simpsons while drinking banana dacquiris. In
all ways, they would live contented and full and unselfconscious lives while
in the little office in the back, I would be typing away, the music up loud,
trying to drown out the wonderful din and play of their monkey business.