Hurray for big updates!
A couple of weeks ago Rob introduced me to Beers of the World. They carry all sorts of beer from every country. With Rob as a mentor, I have begun to learn about the world of fine beer. I have added a beer section where I will keep track of what I have had, what I thought of it, and what I recommend.
Over the last 10 days I've made a few meals, been to see Sir Boyle in Buffalo, played with Silly Putty, been to the Sterling Renaissance Festival, and explored beer with Rob. The one meal I am particularly proud of was the Roast and Banana Pudding. Neither is difficult to make, but they turned out very well. Burton, Melissa, and myself ate very well that night.
The trip to see Boyle was highly enjoyable. He lives in downtown Buffalo, NY above an antique shop. He has a lovely back yard and small but cozy room, with a full pipe organ console. We had good food and drink at Bullfeather's on Elmwood Ave and saw Johnny English at a theatre nearby. The movie was predictable and unoriginal. But it was quite funny and highly entertaining nonetheless. Sir Boyle and I then walked to a bar near his house and proceeded to have the 4 most amazing games of pool in history. The first game ended by me sinking my last ball, the cue ball, and the 8 ball. In that order, in one shot, by accident. Game 3 opened with me breaking. I got a solid in but had no clear shot, so I shot into the mass of balls to break them up more. And got two stripes in opposite pockets simultaneously. During game 4 Boyle was lining up a shot and decided to move to a different place. Purely by accident he hit the cue ball while moving to the other side of the table. The cue ball jumped over the 8 ball and knocked Boyle's ball in. Yes, we have several drunken witnesses.
Andrew showed up on Friday and spent several hours talking with Melissa and I about life, the universe, and everything while playing with Silly Putty and being wrestled.
Andrew, Melissa, and I drove to Sterling, NY to attend a Renaissance Festival. We got there around noon and met Burton and his cousin Tyler. We wandered around and saw some shows, did some shopping, and had good food. Mead is ok, but I prefer cider or beer. I got hot, took off my shirt, and tucked it in my belt. The queen called Burton and I over and scolded me for gambling my clothing away to him. He was highly amused. I just looked downtrodden and sulky. I got a lot of sun and was as red as the apple cider that night. I am now quite tan, for me anyway. It was a fun trip.
After the Renaissance Festival, I went to Kitchen Etc. and purchased a very heavy duty bottle opener. Seven inches of stainless steel. You can easily bludgeon someone to death with it. It removes bottle caps easily while barely bending them - very nice if you want to save them or re-cap the bottle.
Last night Rob and I went out to Dinosaur BBQ. We each had a full slab of BBQ pork ribs, 2 side dishes, and a pitcher of Saranac Black Forest. Mmm... 64 ounces of black beery goodness. The waitresses were cute, and the band was very good. They were Australian but played great blues. It was the first time Rob had been, I think he enjoyed it highly.
Pictures of some of the above, and many more things, can be found in Misc 2003.
I completed my audit of the GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) source code this week. It is an open source replacement for PGP. It is now my recommended encryption program for normal files, e-mail, and the like. I have generated a new public GPG/PGP key which can be found here or on most of the public keyservers.
New or updated listings in the People Ryan Knows Section:
One last thing, shamelessly stolen from Matt Reece's log. LebowskiFest. Yes, a festival to celebrate The Big Lebowski in Louisville. It is one of my favorite movies, and I am not sure why. But I am glad there are so many fans. I am annoyed that I found out about it after the fact and am in Rochester instead of Louisville. It is hard to imagine such a thing exists. What a weird world - I approve.
On Saturday I shaved off my beard. For the first time in 2.5 years I am clean shaven. Here are some quotes from people in response:
I had forgotten what I looked like without facial hair. I plan on growing it back, but it is good to let the skin get some sun every now and again. Burton and I picked up a 1/6 Keg of Woodchuck Hard Cider from Beers of the World today. :) It is sitting in my refrigerator. Can we drink it all before he goes back to Owego next week? I think we can... Pictures of the keg and my new face can be found here.
Yesterday I bought several kitchen items I've had to do without for far too long. I went to Kitchen Etc. in Henrietta and bought a large maple chopping block, two decent wine glasses, a good knife sharpener, and an excellent French Chef Knife. I was positively orgasmic last night as I chopped carrots, sliced potatoes, and trimmed the fat off of a steak with ease. I have been dealing with a dull paring knife and no decent chopping knife for too long. And the 9x6 inch cutting board I had did not do the job when fixing a meal for more than one person.
Melissa, Burton, and I cooked for 3 hours last night. We made a casserole from hamburger, potatoes, carrots, and tomato soup. It was very good. We also made real whipped potatoes, and a chocolate cake. Unfortunately the cake was malformed and its aborted fetus has to be ground up and made into a chocolate mousse of sorts - but it was quite tasty!
Tonight will be a steak marinated in Worcestershire and orange with steamed broccoli and Merlot. Cooking is a good thing.
Unfortunately going back to bed this morning didn't work so I got up and read news. After a bit I got the urge to go running again, so I got dressed and headed down the Genesee River Trail (the track along the river). I went about half way to the city and back, then down and back again. I was planning to come back home and shower but I hit my high about the time I got back to the house, so I kept on going. I went across the river to the University of Rochester and then into Genesee Park. I have not run along the river through the park before, it was very well kept and clean, unlike most of the rest of Rochester. The Erie Canal meets the Genesee in the middle of the park and there are bridges for the Genesee and Canalway trails over the water. The meeting of the two waterways surrounded by the trees and park is a beautiful sight. I crossed over the river to the Canalway Trail and watched boats go down the canal for a while. I ran along the Genesee toward RIT for a bit, then turned around and came back home. There are several very nice places to walk/run in Rochester, I just with they were not so hard to find. I really wish I had taken my camera, as there were several things I should get pictures of, but I forgot it again. Maybe next time.
Everything survived the power outage and is back up and running. The server got an updated kernel, new lvm software, and a good cleaning. Hopefully the work that was done means the power around here will be more reliable. Now I am going back to bed.
Sometimes it is a good thing to wake up in the morning and not know where you will be going to bed that night.
The Rough River trip was wonderful! The weather was very nice, the water was comfortable, the bugs were fairly light (except for the arachnids...), and the company was magnificent. I even managed to get a little tan while I was there. Mind you, I am still white as a sheet, but it is the darkest white I've been in 10 years. We swan, drank, hiked, made food, and played a lot of Cranium. I generally do not like board games, but this one is really a lot of fun and very entertaining for anyone watching. I am even considering acquiring it myself. I took a ton of pictures (over 150) and the ones that turned out are posted here.
I had planned to head back to Rochester when I got back from Rough River, but while at Rough River I hooked up with Carolyn and ended up staying another week to see her and attend Russell's Birthday. Who do I keep getting in relationships with people who are 600 miles away? The Birthday consisted of bar hopping in the Highlands and then heading down to Connections (a gay bar in downtown Louisville). I was amazed at the size of the place. We watched a drag show, had some drinks, and I made out in the GMO room. Of course it was with a female. The pictures from the Birthday are included at the end of the Rough River pictures.
I headed back to Rochester on Wednesday the 1st and would have committed genocide against Ohio drivers if I could have. 300 miles of road construction, lots of truck, bad drivers, and minivans and SUVs in the control of Ohio Soccer Moms. You would turn into Hitler too.
Sir Boyle came up for the 4th of July and we made hamburgers, watched the fireworks from a downtown parking garage, and had a few drinks at the High Falls in downtown Rochester. It was a good time and I was very pleased to get to chat with him again. Boyle is a an excellent fellow and finally seems to be getting on his feet and happy. Perhaps his luck has changed, I certainly hope so.
Last week I went running, for the first time in a very long time, and for 6 miles. I was amazed. I put on my new running shoes and shorts, tied the key around my neck, and left when the sun came up. Behind my house is a road and behind that is the Genesee river. Along the river, stating from behinf my house and going into downtown Rochester is a running/biking track. It is covered by trees on both sides and is very nice in the early morning. I planned to run its length (which I though was about a mile) and then turn around and run back. This was the first time I've run at all in a long time and I wanted to take it easy and just get my running legs back. I ran down to the end of the track and just felt like running some more. I ran down to Dinosaur BBQ and then crossed the river and kept going. I ran past the RGE plant, past the High Falls, and past the Genesee Brewing Co. It was such a nice morning I hadn't realized how far I had gone until I started to get out of the downtown area. I had run over 3 miles, which meant another 3 back. I turned around, crossed the river again, and headed back up to the High Falls. I walked around the High Falls for a bit and read the plaques that explain the history of the falls, brewing companies, and electric plants in that area. I ran along State St. up to Main, over to Java's, back to State, and finally back home. I had run 6.4 miles in total. Apparently, I was in much better shape than I thought. I shall have to take my camera next time as there are several good photo opportunities in downtown Rochester and the High Falls area.
Last weekend Melissa and I headed down to the land of Owego, NY to visit Burton. Burton used to live in a trailer but he and his parents have moved to a house with a fair bit of forested land behind it. A very nice woodsy place, I approve. We went to Owego Original Italian for lunch and I had a huge Stromboli the size of a pizza folder over on itself. Their food is excellent and very reasonably priced, I recommend eating there is you are ever in the Owego area. We went for a hike on Burton's land and then saw Pirates of the Caribbean (which was corny but good). The next day we had good Chinese food where I, again, ate enough for 2 people and went to Barnes and Noble. Burton fixed excellent enchiladas for dinner and Melisa and headed back to Rochester late that night. Burton will be making a chain mail shirt for me in the coming months and I think I am seriously considering titanium for the rings. It is very strong, light, and looks great. I was surprised to find out how inexpensive it was as well. Now I need to finalize a pattern and weave. Titanium chain male is just to neat too pass up. Lots of pictures from our trip can be found here.
I have been invited to Nags Head, NC to see my family and spend time at the beach at the end of July. I would like to go but it is an 800 mile drive and that is tough to make by oneself. I may go down and stop half way at a motel or some such, we'll see how it works out.
I will be joining Carolyn and friends at Cedar Point on August 14-16. Should be a fun trip, I have never been there but have heard lots of good things. I will have put a good 5000 miles on my car by the end of this summer is this keeps up.
The site will be down from 10:00pm tonight until 5:00am or so tomorrow morning due to the power being cut by the electric company in order for them to make upgrades/repairs on the local lines. Lets hope it comes back up when it is supposed to...
Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About is hilarious and very true. If you have not seen this before I highly recommend it.
I have made several miscellaneous updates to ths site recently. Including pictures, people, and Ryan-Speak. Take a look around if you are so inclined. Hopefully I'll be updating the log more than once a month from now on, but I wouldn't bet on it.