Dark Lord Day 2007

I've been getting very interested in good beer the last few months, trying a new beer or two every week. When I heard about Dark Lord, the Russian Imperial Stout from Three Floyds Brewery, I knew I had to try it. And how do you get it? You can't buy it at the store. They sell out almost every single bottle on Dark Lord Day, the last Saturday in April.

After several calls to my friend Westy, I got off the highway and took the back road to the brewery instead of crossing the Illinois-Indiana border insanity on 80/94. I made it from Aurora to the brewery in Munster, Indiana in 65 minutes. OK, maybe I was a little too excited about it.



There were already cars everywhere and at least 300 people at 10:30 AM, with the doors opening at noon. Fortunately, no line had formed yet. Everyone was milling around the tasting tables, chatting, trying different beers. About 95% of the beer was commercial, but difficult to find stuff. The remaining was homebrew. I brought some beer to share, including some Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout that people wanted badly. Westy and his wife arrived shortly after I did. We found a table that had some beer we wanted to try (including Surley Coffee Bender) and parked there. There were many Beer Advocate people there, and presumably a lot of RateBeer people too.



It was difficult to pace yourself. I wanted to stay level-headed since I had a long drive home. And I'm proud to say that I managed to do it despite trying at least 20 beers between 10:30-11:45, at least half of which were high alcohol monsters. I took very small pours of everything, and there was only one beer that I tried twice. Erdinger2003 had several coolers of New Glarus beer to trade, with several types that I had never tried. I really wanted to try the Raspberry Tart, and he was kind enough to open a bottle. It was fantastic, all raspberries. It was a lot like a raspberry dessert wine that I've had.

Westy made sure that we hung out at a table near where the line would form. At around 11:30, someone opened a big door to the brewery, and everyone started moving in that direction. Even though we were only 50 feet away, we couldn't hear a thing he was saying. Not that it mattered, unless he was saying "Oops we don't have any Dark Lord" in which case he would've been instantly destroyed by an angry mob. Westy and Margaret were in front of me, then the next time I looked up they were about 10 feet ahead in the line. Eventually I lost them. At 12:00, the line started moving into the brewery. We were starting to get hot standing in the sun. When the line formed, the only thought was "get in line fast". Next time, I'll make sure I have a nice cold beer with me. The only beer being passed around in line were a couple of growlers filled with really strong stuff that looked like maple syrup.

Westy called me every few minutes to check my progress. When we were near the door, we could see that they were selling some beer on tap - Gumballhead, and also Alpha King, I think. Then Westy magically appeared with a cold frosty Gumballhead for me! After 45 minutes standing in the sun, that was one of the best beers I've ever had. And my first Three Floyds on tap.

It turned out that there were only 2 bouncers inside the door checking IDs, and only 2 cashiers about another 50 feet inside the doors. But the line was easily 10-15 people wide, so there was a terrible bottleneck. I enjoyed chatting with people in line. I think I got my Dark Lord around 1:15, about 30 minutes after Westy did. I also bought some Gumballhead t-shirts, but they didn't have any 2007 Dark Lord t-shirts.

After getting the Dark Lord, the line for the brewpub (for food) was way too long. There was also a line for barrel-aged Dark Lord, which would have been a great treat. But no one wanted to stand in any more lines. By this time (1:45), the line spilled into the street and there were easily 1000 people there. We headed home.

Fox News even showed up - after I left.

- schneid

poker at Rockford Charitable Games

On April 19, instead of going to the usual weekly poker game, I went to a charity poker event with my friend Jeff. You would think that once poker was legalized in Illinois, the charity poker would have suffered - but just the opposite. With the online poker boom, Rockford Charitable Games is probably busier than ever. 18-year olds can get in, so this is the only legal live poker that you can play if you're under 21.

The event was held at Empress Banquets in Addison. Jeff and I met beforehand to have dinner and discuss some strategy. This was the first time Jeff had played live poker outside of a home game. Jeff is improving all the time but he's still learning.

There were about 15 tables of tournaments (single and multis) and about 8 tables of cash games. They were spreading 1-3 spread limit, 2-5 spread limit, 5-10 limit (I think), some no limit, and maybe some Omaha. I played 1-3 spread limit with Jeff and we discussed almost every hand after showdown. Over the course of 5 hours, Jeff improved quite a bit.

It was definitely a no-foldem holdem game. The players were some of the worst that I've ever seen. Jeff was the third best player at the table, and in our Thursday night home game, he'd be 7th best. I would say that at least half of the players learned how to play by watching no-limit holdem tournaments on TV. They were overly aggressive when their bets and raises wouldn't make anyone fold anyway. On one hand in particular, two guys were heads-up and betting and raising all the way. It turned out that they both had middle pair with crappy kickers, with an ace and a king on the board. Jeff just stared at the hands, stared at the board, and gave me a puzzled look.

I was dealt very few playable hands but got paid off when I did get them. I had a nice hand where I was dealt 55, there were several raises preflop, and I flopped a set - the board was 578. I bet, someone raised, I reraised, he called. I wasn't too happy to see that the turn was a 4, but with this crowd, I bet anyway. I was raised and just called, assuming he had a straight, but I still had 10 outs. The river was a beautiful 5, giving me quads. I bet and he only called...I had gotten a tight reputation at the table.

Unfortunately for Jeff, he was dealt AA twice and didn't make any money! The first time, he was heads up, but the other player left the table before the flop was dealt, Jeff bet the flop, and her hand was declared dead. The next time he had AA, everyone folded. That was the only time all night that the entire table folded to a preflop raise.

Players berated each other openly after someone sucked out or made a poor play. They would say things like "nice 2-outer" when the opponent actually had many more outs. They said "How could you call that" when the caller was getting the proper odds. And they would keep calling or even raising when it was pretty obvious they were beat. One guy called a preflop raise with 32, the flop came X22, the other player had KK, and they both kept raising all the way. My favorite quote, spoken by someone after aces were cracked, was "Aces are the worst pair to get. I'd rather get any pair other than aces". A lot of heads nodded in agreement. What a bunch of idiots.

In hindsight, I think I should've played more suited and connecting cards for raises before the flop. I did try to limp in with a lot of hands, but if there was a large raise or reraise, I usually folded.

It would be hard to win much at the $1-3 level unless you get great cards. The rake was bad and the play was incredibly slow. The dealers did a decent job, but some of the players never knew when it was their action. One guy was wearing sunglasses and he was a total idiot. I think he may have been asleep. He never knew when it was his turn, and when he did, he placed his bet about 1 inch in front of his chip stack, so no one knew that he called.

Next time, I'll definitely try some of the single table SNGs, and some higher limit hold'em. Presumably the skill level is a lot better at $5-10 hold'em, but with this crowd, there will be some suckers in the game. I would like to play no-limit hold'em, but I would be bored out of my mind. When playing online, I play four tables at a time, 70+ hands per hour at each. With 280 hands per hour, you don't get bored and start playing marginal hands. But if I sit down at one table and play about 20 hands per hour, I'm going to get really bored and do stupid things.

- schneid

Working outdoors

This weekend we stained the playset and spread mushroom compost. The weather was great all weekend so we were a little too aggressive in scheduling two serious tasks for the weekend. Now we're sore and exhausted.

The playset is really cool, with a tornado slide and a tube to crawl between the structures, but it is really weathered. It looks much better now. It took 11 man hours to stain it. I thought it would take 2-3 hours. My wife claims that I underestimate everything and she's usually right. At Lowes, we purchased 5 gallons of Olympic Maximum Semi-Transparent Deck, Fence and Siding Stain tinted a nice dark brown. We used about 3.5 gallons. Here's the before and after pictures (ok, just before, I'll have to add "after" later).

My wife spread the compost for two hours while I took the kids to see Jeff's puppies. His Springer Spaniel had a litter of 8 puppies, and they sold 7 in two days. They are going home this week, so it was the last chance to see them. They were adorable and the kids had a great time playing with them.

There's about 3-4 yards of compost left. I need to haul it to the garden. The garden is about 20x20 to the compost should be about 3 inches deep. The mushroom compost was delivered by CC Mulch and More (630-484-6852) for $190 total for 5 yards. The best part is that it was delivered within 24 hours of when I called, allowing us to get the work done while the weather was good.

I'm planning to order mulch from Kramer Tree Specialists in West Chicago (630-293-5444). Their special blend mulch is a nice dark brown and only $16.50 per yard which is about 1/2 the cost of most places. They do charge for delivery, $40 up to 5 yards, $50 for 6-25 yards.

- schneid

Great children's books

Ben has started reading The Magician's Nephew, from the Chronicles of Narnia. Ben has been devouring books at a rapid rate. I was an avid reader as a kid, butI don't think I tackled a book like that until I was about 10 (Ben is 6). His reading skills are opening the door to a whole world of amazing books. I can't wait to share some cool books with him. I looked around and found some lists of great books for kids:

• Agate Books
• Teachers Top 100 Books for Children (from the National Education Association)
• Kids' Top 100 Favorite Books

In these lists are a lot of great books that you will remember from your childhood. Some of my favorites include The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hobbit, A Wrinkle in Time, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Harriet the Spy, and Charlotte's Web. The list goes on and on.

- schneid

some photos

Just adding these images to my blog so that I can reference them from Google Maps. Go to Google Maps and click on My Maps. It's pretty awesome.

Get a clue people!

Sometimes people come out of the elevator doors!

Beer fairy

What's a beer fairy? I'm sure you're thinking of many off-color jokes to make. No, that's not it. Once a special bottle of beer appeared on my desk at work. Immediately I knew the probable source, and reading the label confirmed it. It was a homebrew brewed by my friend Westy.

Since I've returned to Tellabs, I've been more into beer than wine. It's easier to sit down and have a beer than a bottle of wine. When you have a beer, you just open the bottle and drink it. When you have wine, usually you choose a wine that will match your meal, and then you might only drink half the bottle. The wine quickly deteriorates (oxidizes) over the next day or two. So you've paid $8 or $15 or $25 or whatever for half a bottle of wine. To enjoy a beer, on the other hand, you only need a salty snack and perhaps some poker buddies, both of which are prevalent on Thursday nights. Dennis, who hosts our weekly poker game, always has homebrew on tap, so I bring something interesting to trade.

I've vowed to drink every beer in the Best of Beer Advocate Top 100 list. I think it's important for everyone to strive for something. You need to set goals for yourself. And my goal is to drink 100 beers. I've had about 15 of them so far, which isn't bad since I've only been doing it for 6 months and many of them are hard to find.

So now instead of rare occasions, the beer fairy visits almost weekly. Westy drops off a beer or two at my desk, and I do the same for him. We get to try new beers that we might not try otherwise.

Benjamin Franklin said "Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance" but I believe it was Homer Simpson who said "Mmmmmm...beer". Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew.

- schneid

What the kids have been doing lately

Some actual personal content! How about that!

The kids started taking swimming lessons again after a 9 month hiatus. They swim after school once a week at a great new place that we found. It's an older facility, but it has a heated pool and small class sizes - only 4 kids per class and sometimes there are 2 instructors. Ben and Anna are both enjoying it. I learned how to swim at an early age and would like the kids to swim confidently too.

Anna takes a dance class once a week. Half the time they do tap dancing, and the other half is ballet. I think Anna prefers the ballet so far. They have a recital planned in a couple of months.

Ben continues to do well in first grade. He's really thriving in math and reading. They do a math quiz every day(!), just like when I was in high school! And, just like when I was in high school algebra, when they get a high enough score, they move up to the next quiz. He's already on G, I think. Hopefully he can make it to the double letter just like Daddy. :) Ben is an excellent reader and does a lot of reading on his own, albeit always about Bionicles. And we've been reading at bedtime since he was a baby.

Ben is in Cub Scouts and I'm the den leader. It's an interesting experience since I was never a scout myself. We have great families in our den and we're having a good time. We recently visited the Elgin Public Museum which has a lot of Indian and early historic artifacts, plus a lot of (dead) animals on display. They also have some (live) bison. We also visited a radio station and the fire department, and it is neat to see how they work. Most of this stuff is more interesting for the parents than for first graders. We live near FermiLab and personally I can't wait to visit there.

Anna is in her first year of Montessori preschool. She's doing fine and has made friends. I no longer need to peel her off my leg when I drop her off. She has some good friends in our neighborhood too. We feel that she should be learning more at school than she is, but I have a vague feeling that we felt the same way about Ben, and he really did most of his learning (how to read, for example) in his second year of preschool. Anna went to a friend's birthday party, which was a dress-up tea party and a lot of fun. Anna's birthday is coming up and we may do the same thing.

We had quite a bit of snow on the ground but it was about zero degrees, so couldn't spend much time out there. But it finally warmed up, and we had a great time sledding at a nearby park. Ben even tried Nick's snowboard, and I was amazed that he could stay on it for about 20-30 feet. I stepped onto the snowboard to try it, but the damn thing was so slippery...I could just see the headline "Local man bowls over 12 kids before breaking every bone in his body" and changed my mind. Maybe on a very small hill...

- schneid

Rob's wedding

I used to play a lot of volleyball in the early years B.C. - Before Children. After Ben was born, I didn't play much and saw my volleyball friends a lot less. Getting laid off didn't help, and then I didn't see those old friends for about 3 years. Plus people moved, changed jobs, etc.

Rob called my up on a Friday night recently, asking what I was doing the next night. "Something with you, I guess" was my reply. "Come to my bachelor party", he said, and it took me a minute to realize that he was getting married. "Oh yeah, you're invited to the wedding too", which was in a couple of weeks. Rob said he couldn't reach me because Tim hadn't given him my contact info. But Rob and I work at the same company! Which he had forgotten, I guess. I had only run into him twice since I came back to Tellabs, and not in the last 6 months.

I wanted to be there to hang out with Rob, but I'm not big on going into the city, so I'm glad Tim was going so I could hang out with him. I had managed to see Tim in the last couple of years, once taking a VERY long lunch (from Mt. Prospect to downtown) to hang out with Tim, Eric, and James.

To make a long story short, we played poker for about 4 hours in a hotel room downtown. The structure was awful and you just had to get lucky. We played two tournaments and I am not exaggerating that Rob got all in with the worst hand preflop 7 times and RIVERED the winner 6 times. The other time, he turned a set, but then his opponent rivered a set. I would've thought it was a setup to let the bachelor win, if I hadn't dealt some of the hands myself. We probably only played 70 hands all night. The guys were getting extremely drunk drinking Red Bull and Vodka (blech!) and assorted other crap when that ran out. I had a few beers but didn't really feel like getting drunk. Guess I'm getting old. In the group, I had been married the longest by far.

Tim arrived around 10:00, having been at a work dinner function. We all hit the bars around 11:30. Rob was quite plowed and starting a routine of "You know what's wrong with you..." which was pretty funny. After telling it like it is (according to Rob) to a few guys, I yelled "Do me! Do me!" and everyone cracked up. The guys did some karaoke and the party broke up about 3:30.

Tim and I took a cab to the north side where he wanted me to meet some of his friends at a bar. A gay bar. Tim (although straight) plays in a gay volleyball league. So we went to this bar, did the rounds, couldn't find any friends, and left. Then we did the only logical thing to do at 4:00 in the morning and ate a gyro. I slept in Tim's guest room and listened to the pitter patter of cats running up and down the hallway. Tim's place is now a bachelor pad featuring two wide screen TVs and a terabyte MythTV server. Tim has always been envied by geeks everywhere. I was really glad that we were able to spend some time together.

In the morning, I took a cab back to where my car was parked and headed home to watch the Bears game. Later I looked at Google maps and realized that Tim lives directly next to the cemetery where my birth mother is buried. I've never been there (well, I guess I've been there once but that was 31 years ago and I don't remember), and if I had known, I would've stopped by that day. I really should plan to go another time.

So a week or two later, we went to Rob's wedding. Tim drove out and left his stuff and our place. He was going to spend the night so he wouldn't have to drive home, plus he conveniently had a volleyball tournament the next morning not too far from our place. We headed to the wedding and got there about 20 minutes early.

Joe and Kary came in from Santa Barbara and we hadn't seen them in about 4 years. Joel and Ginger were there; I run into them occasionally at work. Jay and Geoff were there too although I didn't get to talk to them a lot. There were some product planners and sales guys from Tellabs, most whose names I don't know, a couple that I do, and one guy who I had heard about a lot but had never actually seen until that day. We hung out with our old volleyball friends.

Rob's best friend performed the ceremony. In fact, I think Rob asked him to do it, and he became certified or whatever you need to do just for the ceremony. He kept things light (for example, "Repeat after me, I, Rob, am a big nerd"). It was funny but heartfelt, and he did a good job. He used the Irish Blessing (May the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back...) and the Apache Wedding Prayer, which was recited at our own wedding but sounded different this time. The vows were nice and the ceremony was short.

We ate some good food, had a few drinks, danced just a little bit, and had a good time. It was really nice to hang out with old friends after such a long time. I'd like to think that we'll do a better job of staying in touch in the future, but you know how it goes.

- schneid

PS: I didn't take those pictures at Dark Lord Day and I can't remember where I downloaded them, so if they are yours, thanks!

Police to play Wrigley in Summer 2007?

One of my regrets in life is missing some cool rock concerts when I was younger. I really should've gone to more. After playing a cool rendition of Roxanne at the 2007 Grammy awards, there are rumors that the Police might be playing at Wrigley Field this summer on July 7 and 8. If they are, I'm definitely going. Our attendance at rock concerts has been few and far between. Foreigner played at Galt Airport outside of Woodstock in 2006, and it was a blast. We saw Prince in 2004 at the All State Arena, and the most recent one before that might have been the Eagles Hell Freezes Over Tour in 1995. I regret having missed Sting in the past, so if we get a chance we're definitely going to this one.

Dave Matthews was scheduled to play, but his wife is due to give birth right around then, and the Police may be his replacement. Here is an article about it with an amusing headline.

- schneid