Here comes Dark Lord Day!

I'm psyched for Dark Lord Day. And also Disney World. :) Suzette took her last quiz a week early, so she is done with her class and earned an A. Friday night, Bob is in town with his family and we are all meeting at Tim's house. Saturday is Dark Lord Day. Last year was the first time I attended Dark Lord Day, and it was awesome. I'm bringing some cool beer to share and trade, and I'll get my ration of Dark Lord. Then on Sunday, we're going to Disney World for a week.

I love vacation!

- schneid

Russian Imperial Stout

This is my favorite beer style and I'm assembling a lineup of the best RIS for a tasting with friends. I plan to have about 8 people at the tasting and will have about 12 beers. That might not sound like much, but a Russian Imperial Stout has double to triple the alcohol of your typical beer. We will be sharing 22 oz bombers of each, or two 12 ouncers in some cases.

I've been making beer trades to get the rare ones. For example, a RIS called Sexual Chocolate has only been bottled once, and there were only 500 bottles. Dark Lord may be rare, but they made 5000+ bottles last year. Surly Darkness has only been bottled once and there were only 480 bottles.

Here's the complete lineup. Some of these are not Russian Imperial Stouts, but they are all thick, black, and yummy.

• Three Floyds Dark Lord
  
• Portsmouth Brewing Kate the Great
  
• Foothills Brewing Sexual Chocolate
  
• Deschutes The Abyss
  
• Goose Island Bourbon County Stout
  
• Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout
  
• Alesmith Speedway Stout
  
• Stone Imperial Russian Stout
  
• Smuttynose Imperial Stout
  
• Bell's Expedition Stout
  
• Great Lakes Blackout Stout
  
• America's Brewing Company Bourbon Barrel Signature Imperial Stout

Don't have yet:

• Peche Mortel
  
• Surly Darkness
  
• Lost Abbey Older Viscosity
  
• Ten Fidy

The Ten Fidy is easy to get, just not around here. The Peche Mortel is harder to get, but not impossible. The Older Viscosity will be hard and the Darkness almost impossible.

Here are some that are easy to get, but might not make the cut:

• Great Divide Oak Aged Yeti
  
• Southern Tier Choklat
  
• various Rogue stouts
  
• North Coast Old Rasputin
  
• Bear Republic Big Bear Black Stout
  
• Victory Storm King Stout

- schneid

Fitness status 4/16

I played basketball on Monday. I hadn't been out in a couple of weeks and I played pretty well. I also played on Wednesday. It was really windy outside so shooting was horrible. I jammed my pinky and ring finger and played through it. It's sprained pretty good and swelled up today. Looks like I won't be playing for a few days. Tim and I are scheduled to run on Friday if it doesn't rain.

- schneid

Fitness update 4/11

Here's a little fitness update - maybe it will be easier if I do it weekly rather than daily.

I strained a ligament in my back on March 31, then over the weekend I actually threw a vertebra out of whack. The chiropractor really helped my ligament last week, and on Monday he fixed the vertebra in about 5 seconds. My back feels a lot better.

I lifted weights hard on Monday and Wednesday. I ran with Tim at lunchtime today. So, not a bad week. It felt good to get out there.

I plan to go back to my regular routine of basketball 1-2x per week, running 1-2x per week, and weights 1-2x per week. I hadn't been exercising nearly enough in February and March. I also wasn't lifting weights at all. I think that is critical so that I can keep everything in good enough condition to handle all this exercise.

I've been eating better than usual, having a salad for lunch a couple times this week and some reasonable dinners, and avoiding (somewhat) sweets.

I'll play basketball next week and see how it feels.

- schneid

Fitness status

On Sunday, I decided to start working out vigorously. I was over my cold and ready to get some exercise. On Monday, I played basketball at lunch and actually played decently. Then I made a sudden move and wrenched my back. Great, my plan for getting back into shape lasted 24 hours. On Wednesday, I saw a chiropractor. Fortunately, it's just a strained ligament and it feels better already, so I should be back in action in a couple of days. It's really frustrating because we had great weather for running this week. Maybe next week...

It's tough getting old!

- schneid

Poker Stars and Full Tilt

Last week, I started playing at Poker Stars and Full Tilt. I bought a prepaid Visa card and was able to get money into the accounts with it. I had been playing on UltimateBet ever since PartyPoker disallowed US players. The problem with UltimateBet is that there just aren't that many players, and not enough selection in tournaments and cash games.

I have learned one thing. The cash players on Poker Stars and Full Tilt are better. At the same levels (.25/.50 and .50/1 no-limit), the players are much more aggressive. There is rarely an unraised pot preflop. On Ultimatebet, I could limp in with small pairs and suited connectors all the time. That just doesn't happen on Stars. If you limp on Stars, I guarantee someone will raise and shut out the limpers.

As for the tournaments I've played, the skill level is about the same. My goal is to win satellites to play in the big Sunday tournaments. Stars has double shootout satellites for $11? with a good structure. I played in a shootout with about 60 players tonight. I made it to heads up at the first table and we played a long time. In fact, we were the last table out of 10 to finish. It was a close match and I had a good read on my opponent; unfortunately, I jammed A3 at the wrong time, when he had AK.

I can definitely win the first table in a shootout. There are usually 2-3 players who bust out pretty quickly, which is silly because the structure is so good. There is plenty of time and no need to be overly aggressive. Winning the final table is another matter. That will be tough and require a lot of luck too. I think I'm playing decently and learning from my mistakes. Hopefully I'll have some results to show for it soon.

- schneid