Archive for the 'Beer' Category

We’re not athletes … we’re drunk guys with balls

Marty July 22nd, 2008

Well, HOlympics V is over. This past Saturday, our annual celebration of sports athletic-like endeavors occurred, with 11 of us getting all-too-close to the top of that hill guys congregated at Bloser Arena (that is, my buddy Jim’s place) to compete, drink and talk a LOT of shit to and about each other. Like the four previous events, this one was full of more mouth than prowess, more beer than common sense and some truly spectacular displays of ‘recreational activities’ (c’mon … you can’t call darts a ’sport’, can you?). Continue Reading »

Happy St. Patty’s Day

Marty March 16th, 2008

Got Beer?

Ah, St. Patty’s Day - a day for corned beef, beer, singing Irish Drinking songs and waking people puke green. How can you not love it. AND if you were an adventurous soul, this could have been a 4-day celebration for you. I’m going to try to get out for at least one beer, although I’m sure that the area around work will be absolutely nuts tomorrow. But maybe a band of my co-workers and I can bust into one of the local joints for a beer…

Good luck and happy O’Beer Day to you all. And if you catch the leprechaun, make sure you make him give up his Lucky Charms. But don’t drink too much green beer, or you could end up like this fella!

Those d@mned kids and the frickin' lucky charms...

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Happy Friday the Firkenteenth

Marty April 13th, 2007

Wow - it’s been a while since I actually completed a post (there are 7 half-finished ones in the queue, including the rest of our Texas trip posts), but today being the special day that it is, I had to post a short one. Continue Reading »

Dichotomy

Marty September 6th, 2005

Dichotomy

I’m not sure how to feel about my vacation last week. In some ways, it seemed so wrong to be having a good time in N. Topsail Beach while the suffering was going on down in the south. To be honest, many of us were torn between watching the news and seeing what was happening, and salvaging our own much-needed vacation by pushing that away - it would become all too real once we returned to the ‘Real World’. Continue Reading »

Philly is a Beer City

Marty August 19th, 2005

According to a Philly.com article, PA is the third best state for good craft beers - in fact, Philly is a notable mecca of good beer. The ‘awards‘, created by RateBeer.com give the state and the Philly area some high kudos. Best rated in the region is the awesome Dogfish Head brewery in Lewes, DE, but also highly rated were Victory Brewing (I agree - I was there the other night) at #14 in the world, Troeg’s from Harrisburg, PA at #26, and Iron Hill in Delaware at #82.

Not too shabby - I knew there was a reason I liked Philly. I was surprised by the lack of Colorado breweries, though (only 4).

Porters, Poker and Penn State

Marty July 26th, 2005

This past weekend I got to combine three of my favorite things - well, four if you want to be exact. I went up to Penn State, enjoyed myself at a beer festival and then played in a poker tournament. The fourth thing? I got to play around with my camera a bit, too.

The weekend began with the trip up to Penn State - a much shorter and faster trip than I remembered, thanks to the tons of new construction. When we got there, we were met by a large group of other Theta Delts at the Cafe. We made quite a ruckus there before heading over to an old favorite - Zeno’s. It was there that I got into trouble, switching from Yuengling Lager to Chimay and Young’s Double Chocolate Stout. Both were delicious but added to my light-headedness.

It was a cool place to be, though, since they were sponsoring the BrewFest the next day - and there were a lot of brewers and beer afficianados in attendance to drink from Zeno’s 29 taps and over 200 different beers (and you’d be hard pressed to find anything brewed by the Big 3. Along the way, I met Matt from Stoudt’s Brewery, a good guy to talk beer with. We reviewed our favorites, talked about his work and he gave me a bit of a lesson on some of the styles that I’m less familiar with, as well as inviting me to stop by the next day.

As the night went on, I realized that I just can’t drink like I used to - but I can still kick butt in darts, winning 3 of 4 games. After the performance (and much trash-talking), everyone then headed back to the house where I quickly found my long work week catching up to me. Continue Reading »

You’ve Got to Know When to Hold ‘Em

Marty January 30th, 2005

Well, I played in my third poker tournament this weekend. There were 34 of us playing in this memorial tournament, a mixture my friends and my buddy’s father’s friends. It was a great time - lots of great vibes and a lot of good hands of poker. The last tournament was a bit more mellow, but this time was more active and fun. And best of all, I won! Got to love that part.

I finally played well, too. My poker face is more readable than the large-print version of Jack and Jill. My buddy Jim loves playing against me because he can usually bluff his way in close hands. But on Saturday, I was on fire. I was finally getting cards and I was playing them well, and … heaven forbid … bluffing. I started by trying to be the man, wearing the hat and sunglasses. And I got 15 straight hands where my cards were combinations of everything from 2 - 10. I literally had one or two face cards in that entire time. Except for blinds, I never made a bet. Then I removed the sunglasses - and my luck changed. I won 2 of 3, including a pretty large pot. I was flying.

Then the tables condensed and Jim sat down next to me. My mojo was gone. I went down 3 straight hands that I stayed in on. Jim took me for a big hand. I was ready to lace his beer with a little Visine to get back my advantage when I won a big hand - and then moved to another table. At that table, I was against a young kid with a huge stack. He was a bully, relying on his pot to take him through some ludicrous bets and raises. I was lucky enough to not take him on until I had the makings of a straight - and then I dragged him in heavy when I got it on the river. I took probably 50% of his chips, then bluffed my way to taking his buddy’s stack. I was back.

In the end, I found my groove for the first time in a LONG while. I played last month and did well, mostly on opening hands of flush, straight, full house in the first 3 hands. I never looked back from there, but that was luck of the cards, not playing ability. But who knows - maybe this was a turning point and I will actually be able to start winning some on skill instead of luck of the draw.

Go Eagles … But Please Stop that Darn Fight Song

Marty January 24th, 2005

Anyone that knows me knows one of my dark secrets - I am a Dallas Cowboys fan. To those who are surprised at this, it comes from meeting Randy White before the 1977 season. He lived down the road, and a bunch of friends and I were taken down to meet him. He was a great guy, and I followed him all season - a season that ended with the Cowboys beating the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XII, and White being named Super Bowl co-MVP. My fate was sealed.

When I moved to Boulder, CO, I started following the Broncos (ironic, huh?). I actually liked John Elway - hard not to with his work ethic and history - and the team got my attention, partially because I was covering them for a local college newspaper. I still preferred my Cowboys - even venturing to the South Stands at old Mile High wearing Cowboys regalia - but enjoyed watching an AFC team, too.

When I moved back to the Philly area, I started watching more Eagles football. Part of it was immersion - if I wanted to hang out with my friends on football Sunday, it was going to be the Eagles - and part of it was that I was enjoying the way that team was being run (as opposed to the despicable way that Jerry Jones was running the Cowboys). I wouldn’t say that I am a huge fan, but I have been rooting for the Eagles for the last 4 years, and I was glad to see them win yesterday. And yes, I will be rooting them on in the Super Bowl.

Strangely, I’m a Philly fan first-and-foremost in every other sport. I die with the repeated Phillies ridiculous moves, cringe at how bad the Sixers are managed and bang my head against the wall every time Bobby Clarke pulls his stunts with the Flyers. So, my departure with the NFL is a bit odd, but set in motion far before I had a choice. So to those who ridicule me on a regular basis for being a Cowboys fan, take me or leave me as I am. But please, stop singing that stupid “Fly, Eagles, Fly” song. It’s really bad, and your voice sucks.

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You Have to Know When to Hold ‘Em

Marty January 7th, 2005

I really like poker. I mean, I REALLY like playing - and I’m not really that good. My poker face sucks and I tend to be too cautious so when I do have a good hand, I end up winning far less than I should because everyone KNOWS I have a good hand and bails. But last night, I had a streak that just wouldn’t quit.

Sometimes, you can do nothing wrong. I started off the night with the following:

  • a dealt flush in 5-card draw poker.
  • a flush on the river in Texas Hold ‘Em.
  • a full-house in Texas Hold ‘Em.

Then Steve sat down and muddied my mojo a bit, but I was still doing pretty well (2 more flushes, another full house along the way). All in all, a pretty good night at our mid-stakes ($40 a person, average) dealer’s choice game.

On the other hand, Darius must have pissed off Lady Luck something fierce. He could have had five-of-a-kind Kings and someone would have had five-of-a-kind Aces. It was that kind of night, typified by his luck at High-Low. For those of you who don’t know it, this game involves betting whether you can get a 3rd card between the first two that were dealt. For example, if you are dealt a four and a jack, you’d be betting that the card turned up between them will be a 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10. If not, you pay the pot your bet - in our case somewhere between 50 cents and the whole pot.

Darius, had at least SIX different combinations of 4-J or better, and lost them all. The cards would show up in his favor, but invariably would give him a losing deal. It started becoming a bane to get those cards because you KNEW that you were going to get screwed. But he kept hesitating and then making the fateful bets - and sweetening the pot. And his bad luck didn’t abate after that - he kept hemorraghing cash game after game, giving up a full house to a better full house, losing a straight to a flush, pulling 21 only to have the dealer also get 21 - resulting in a push. It was tragic. I haven’t seen luck that bad since a friend drafted Rob Moore in the 4th round in fantasy football - about 30 seconds before the announcement of his season-ending injury (of course, pundits would say drafting Rob Moore up that high deserved that stroke of luck).

Of course, I came out $35 ahead, so I walked away snickering.

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Mummer’s Parade

Marty January 3rd, 2005

For New Years, I did something that I have only joked about in the past - I went to the Mummer’s Parade.

I wouldn’t have gone except for the fact that my brother-in-law, nieces and nephew were all involved with the B. Love comedy troop, so we had to go visit and see what this was all about. Well, I have to admit, it was a lot of fun.

As usual, we were a little late and they were already working their way up Broad St. when we got there. A few hasty photographs and then we had to rush to get to the judging area in front of them. Of course, the judging stand was crowded and I never really got to see them there, so I’m thankful for the pictures I got before then. The troop looked like they were all having a great time, and they eventually placed 2nd in the Comedy Group of the Comedy Division. Not too bad.

Hanging out with them after they were finished allowed my wife, son and mother-in-law to go see more of the parade as we went from bar to bar in the South Philly area. Fado’s, Copa Too! and of course Ray’s Tavern were all stops along the way, as was the parade route to see the string bands as we headed back to their staging area. The weather was gorgeous (Jan. 1 and 60+ degrees), and walking around the city was a lot of fun. I got some great Mummers shots as well as quite a few good shots of the city itself. I haven’t gotten them uploaded, but I’ll update this post when I do.

Here are the pictures of those Mummer folks:

Marshall the Pimp Daddy Mummer Cassidy, Kyla and Lexi at Fado mummers_08_mickcass

to see more of B. Love, click here.

More more general Mummer’s pictures, visit my flickr set.

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