. Favourite Beer of the Week

As you know very well, I am not a religious man. And I suspect neither is the geezer on the label of this bottle of Brother David's Double Abbey Style Ale. He is wearing a habit, and appears to be a monk, but he looks like the kind of monk you'd run into in the middle of Resident Evil 4 whose head would split in two and dirty great tentacles would come out and slap you about before you shot him to death with your magnum.

On Sunday we walked down to the Mission for a reason I have forgotten, and it was all closed off to traffic and people we're dancing in the streets as they do in California, on roller skates . We had some lunch at Herbivore, and when we left the dancing was over and the traffic had returned and I tried to buy a hat but it's hard when your ears are as big as mine, and then we walked home and had a bit of a sit down and a Brother David's Double Abbey Style Ale, which was recommended to Nif by some guy at Rainbow Grocery (the best grocery store in San Francisco for dirty hippy vegetarians) so she bought it and put it in the fridge and now it is in my fat belly.

It is a jolly nice beer. It looks and tastes a bit like a Chimay. Maybe a bit less carbonated, which is good because I don't like a lot of carbonation in my beer as it makes me burp, which isn't nice for anyone.

It is made at Anderson Valley in Boonville, which is a small "unincorporated community" in Mendocino that has its own language - "Boontling", and is apparently the setting for the novel "Vineland" by Thomas Pynchon, which I tried to read twice in my 20s, and failed both times, due to it being a bit shit, despite what they tell you on the back of the book.

And it is 9% alc/vol which is the kind of alc/vol I like on a Sunday evening when I am trying very very hard to not think about going back to work on Monday.

Now let us pray.

. Caipirissima Croquet

Last Saturday we went to Sebastopol and came second in the Bailey Brent Birthday Croquet tournament.

In HD!

. Favourite Beer of the Week

Sam Smith's India Ale is not the best IPA I have ever tasted. No sir. It's okay, just not great. It's rather bitter and not much else. It achieves the status of favourite beer of the week purely by the fact that it was drunk on our back deck on a Friday night after a healthy romp around Mt. Davidson.


Maybe it's nicer in Yorkshire before they stick it in a bottle and ship it over here. I know I was.

Or maybe my tastebuds have been ruined by brash and gaudy American IPAs with their in-your-face over-the-top hops. Who knows? Who cares? It's Friday!

. Project Germination

Our new minions...
Sugar Plum, Brandywine, Orange Blossom, & Genovese tomatoes

. Sparks

We met 11 years ago today.
They have fireworks here every year to celebrate.

. Favourite Beer of the Week

Sam Smiths Brewery Pale Ale is nice pint of olde worlde Bitter. Perfect for washing away that annoying sense of ennui you get from another work-week of creeping failure.
Yum!



For maximum effect follow swiftly with a glass of 12 year old Balvenie and season 3 of the Mighty Boosh.

. A Decade Ago...

This week's "A Decade ago..." is actually "A Decade and five months ago..." when we were visited by my old old friends James and Amy and their then young children Joe and Lily.
And some hummus.


Here you can see my hair is so big it blocks out the sun.