thepismire

Spring

thepismire — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 23:38:45 +0000

I can’t believe it’s already Spring. What happened to Winter? Can you believe this is the Santa Ana River? This is in Anaheim right after the recent rains. I would have never guessed.

Via The Big Picture

Night In HB

thepismire — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 22:58:39 +0000

Decorations For The Office

thepismire — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 01:31:23 +0000

I don’t really like to put flares in my “office”, but the few that I have are pretty awesome.

One is an air-plant terrarium that my friend, Annie, gave me for my birthday.

Very awesome, and I sometimes stare into it as an escape. I have another friend at work who likes making miniature people, so I asked her to make a little safari man for the terrarium. This is perfect for me since the last “easy” plant I had was a cactus, and somehow I managed to kill it. These “air plants” or epiphytes get their nutrients directly from the air, so watering is minimal and it’s almost impossible to kill them. I forget exactly where this one came from, but Twig has some cool ones (with people!). I always hope that one day I’ll discover a tiny civilization inside mine, and I can be their god.

My other item at my desk are these guys.

Dr. Honeydew and his assistant Beaker as R2 and C-3PO. Perfect.

Well, that does it for my boring cube.

The Big Dance

thepismire — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:42:01 +0000

UCI beat CSUF last night in the Big West Tournament to go into the semi-finals. 99.99% of the US population does not care nor even understand the acronyms I listed. That’s okay. I will have this celebration to myself. For those that were wondering, UCI has never won the Big West Tourney and they were in the No.7 spot coming into the tournament (CSUF was No.2). The odds are definitely against us since we always make it to the semi’s but no further, but I’m just glad we got to ruin CSUF’s chances. It’s a win.

Which brought my attention back to March Madness or the Big Dance. Just watching ESPN yesterday and seeing the highlights from all the other conference tournaments reminded me how crazy it gets in college basketball. I think a big reason is that the games are shorter as they are only comprised of two 20-minute halves, which keeps the tempo of the games to be high and full of energy. Coming into March Madness, I remember the days at my previous job where I was able to watch the games, and had multiple tabs open. Games are constantly going, and any one of them has a chance to have a buzzer-beater game-winning shot. This is why it’s madness. I’m looking forward to the happy hours ahead of me watching 4 games at once.

Photo courtesy of the Big West Conference

Indian Guy Celebrates

thepismire — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:26:44 +0000

It was Indian Guy’s AKA Mr. Roger AKA Rishi’s birthday. It was meant to be a surprise, but apparently he saw my car heading toward the same area him and his girlfriend were headed to. I’m sorry everyone. Regardless, he was still somewhat surprised. It was held at CUCINA enoteca. Everytime I tried to describe the decor, food, presentation, only one word came to mind: rustic. So I kept repeating that word the whole night i.e. this seat is so…rustic, that cup is so…rustic. I ordered Toast w/ hummus and some “jam”. We all just agreed it was ketchup, but since this place was “rustic”, it was their homemade jam or something. Rustic. Anyway, happy birthday man.

Won The Hero

thepismire — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 01:48:30 +0000

Just Won, holding an umbrella…sideways…saving the day.

Pliny The Younger

thepismire — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 03:03:14 +0000

The Russian River Brewing Co. is known to brew some good beer. Don’t take my word for it. Mention their double IPA, Pliny the Elder (PTE), to any beer geek and watch as their eyes widen and gloss over. What makes me even more happy (or hoppy…sorry bad joke) about it is that these guys are based in northern CA! But, even being a “local” brewery, some of their stuff is still hard to come by, like the previously mentioned PTE. This is probably one reason that people go gaga over it. Supply and demand. I was lucky enough to have some at Father’s Office and yes, it was good. Now I’m on an epic mission to buy some of this stuff, bottled. Luckily, there’s a Total Wine near my work that carries it. So I stopped by one day and asked if they could check on a beer for me. When I told them that it was PTE, the look on their face immediately told me that many, many people have asked this question, and the answer was is usually a no. I was informed that shipments usually come in on Thursdays and that only a few boxes come in at a time. They added that they go out really fast, usually that day. MAN! It’s like their bottles from the fountain of youth or something. Well, so far no luck, but I will persevere.

Anyway, hope that was a nice introduction because I will now move onto something crazier…PTEs younger son, Pliny the Younger. It’s Russian River’s baby. A triple IPA brewed so well that it is one of the few beers that has scored a perfect 100. But because it’s so difficult to make, Russian River only releases this batch once a year for two weeks. TWO WEEKS. That’s it. Luckily for the rest of us that aren’t able to go directly to them, they also distribute it to carefully selected beer establishments throughout the area. It’s usually a first come first serve kind of thing, but because it’s Pliny the Younger, pours are made smaller, and the amount of pours you get are restricted. Some places even have to resort to raffling off the beer or having an invite-only event. Are you getting how crazy this beer is? Lucky for us (if you’re reading this in time), we’re at the tail end of the release, and you can catch one of the last tastings available if you’re in the area.

The Bottle Room was able to snag a 1/2 barrel keg of this stuff and will be releasing it tomorrow, 2/28 @ 3PM. According to their site, the pours will be limited to half pints and 2 pours per person. They estimate 250 half pints so don’t miss your chance. If you do, there’s always next year.

In the mean time, their less rare items are good beers as well, and I highly recommend their Damnation Golden Ale. I’ve only seen it at Total Wine, but it could be elsewhere.

Photo courtesy of Beersurfing

OC Restaurant Week

thepismire — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:15:23 +0000

The OC Restaurant Week has begun. I’ve participated in the last couple of years and there were good experiences and bad ones. Oh the bad ones… Let’s just say I’m not going back to JT Schmid’s ever again. Anyway, one in particular sticks out and I think you get a lot for what you pay for. At Slater’s 50/50, for $20 they give you an appetizer, burger and a dessert. It also includes a beer or a glass of wine. Not too bad. Their burgers alone are ginormous, so I’m pretty sure you would have your fill. I don’t know if they have any restrictions on the beer selection though. I’ve been conned before where a restaurant offered a beer with each course, but we didn’t know until we got there that it was only one type and it was their nasty house beer. Also, in case you were curious, the “50/50″ is in reference to their patties that contain 50% bacon and 50% beef. Enjoy.

Celebration Of Steve

thepismire — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 23:29:28 +0000

“Celebration of Steve” art exhibition.

Via A2591

Nike Flyknit Technology

thepismire — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:10:14 +0000

Via Gear Patrol