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Finally found a Wii

After looking for a couple months, I finally found a Wii at a local Target. There were even 4 or 5 left when I was finished paying for mine, I was surprised.

Only having it a day, my initial reaction is that it's pretty fun to play. If you treat the controller like the actual object it's meant to be, instead of just like a controller, it seems a lot easier to do well.

I didn't buy any games, just stuck with the default Wii Sports. Most of the games are decent. Bowling and Tennis are both pretty fun. Golf is definitely lacking, as you have a whole 3 clubs. I think a real golf game for the system would be nice, and I'd probably pick that up. What I really need now is a second controller, which seems to be hard to find.

My Wii code is 2010 4587 6985 0026, so if you have one and know me, add me to your contacts list.

Beer update

After a couple weeks of carbonating in bottles, Evan and I decided to try some of it. Honestly, I wasn't very optimistic.

The two bottles cracked open with a familiar phsssst, relieving my fears that they might not have carbonated. Pouring the beer out...it looks like beer, smells like beer. Leave the sediment in the bottom of the bottle, and take a sip - even tastes like beer! Fantastic!

I present the finished product:

From Brewing

It's not great beer, but it's pretty good. Good enough that I'd gladly drink it again. The next batch being planned is a porter, hopefully I have similar luck with that one!

Ping pong madness

Who will reign supreme! Well, it wasn't me, unfortunately. But pretty close.

After much trash talk at the last autocross, Travis stepped up and bought a ping pong table. Finally, a forum where those who think they have a game can step up and show what they're made of!

To give myself the best possible odds, I ordered a Butterfly Kyoshi from megaspin.net, in the hopes that a superior paddle could potentially make up for a lack of skills. It showed up at my door just one day before competition, perfect! Opened it up and it still smelled like glue. It was fantastic.

Onward to the competition, and an introduction of the four players:
Travis: table owner, therefore the home court advantage was his.
Clint: talked the least smack, but showed up anyway.
Kevin: claimed his asian heritage would guarantee a victory.
Myself: bringer of the secret weapon paddle.

After some warmup, it became clear that the competition was very close. Official rules were brought up on several occasions, only to be shot down by "no way, that's stupid", and house rules ended up taking over for the most part. Literally house rules, as were we playing inside the house. Don't go looking for the high lob shot from 10 feet behind the table! Blinding light from both sides of the table also resulted in countless excuses from all parties.

Several mini-tournaments were held. Some single-elimination, some double-elimination. Overall, I'd say Travis and Kevin won more often than lost, and seemed to split games between each other. I lost more than won, but still won a decent amount, and the games I lost were usually close. Clint came in fourth, but he talked the least trash, so I suppose that's an acceptable finish.

With this day of ping pong complete, what does the future bring? Rumor has it that Kevin plans to pick up a table of his own, but for outdoor use. Will the extra space available outside be as good as we hoped, or will the North Valley winds make play impossible? General consensus was that I had the liveliest paddle of the group, but who will buy their own Paddle of Mass Destruction? And will it even matter? Will new competitors show up to stake their claims?

Stay tuned for round two.

The first of many

Costco trip count for February: 14

Lots of things to post about, because I obviously haven't in a while.

First up, I suppose, will be the Costco-related stuff.
1. The food court at the Tempe location will be undergoing a remodeling effort that's supposed to last 6-7 weeks, starting this coming Monday. Not all food items will be available. :-(
2. Maxfli Noodle golf balls. Honestly, these are pretty mediocre. What's interesting is the price, and the sheer quantity of golf balls available. Only $10/dozen (about half of retail price), and they must have a couple hundred boxes available. Enough to fill a full pallet, about as high as me!
3. Kirkland Signature polo shirts. I've never seen these with the KS label on them, and I have no idea who actually makes them, but at $15 each, I picked up a couple.
4. PGA Tour-brand golf shirts, these are also only $15, pretty cheap for a shirt made of a dri-fit-type material.
5. I understand they have a new type of cheddar cheese now, something that claims to be aged for 2 years. I'll hopefully be trying that soon. :-P

A post on beer

Costco trip count for January (final): 24
Costco trip rate for January: 1 trip per 1.29 days
Costco trip count for February: 2

Bottled my beer last night, and ended up with 24 22oz bottles plus 6 12oz bottles. Should be ready in 2-3 weeks. I took a sip of extra beer after I had filled all of the bottles, and at the very least it wasn't horrid. It tasted like beer anyway, though a lot more watery than I would like. I don't know if that's common for this stage or not; maybe the carbonation process will beef it up.

One thing I did somewhat incorrectly in the initial brewing process was when I added the hops - as I understand it now, the longer they're in the water the more you get the hop flavor, while the shorter they're in the water the more they contribute to aroma. Well, I added all of my hops fairly early, didn't save any for a late aroma addition, and I think it shows. Smells like beer, but not much.

I decided to take some pictures of the beers I've been drinking in the last few week. To some extent, "needing more bottles" was a good excuse. ;-) These are all 22oz beers, available from the local BevMo. If you go to my gallery, I've added the text on each bottle as a caption to the image.

First up, Wipeout IPA by Port Brewing. I had this one fairly recently, and I thought it was great. Really hoppy aroma, but not unpleasant by any means. I thought it was pretty smooth compared to some other IPAs I've tried, but then, I had several beers before this one, so maybe that's not the best time for evaluation. :-P Would definitely buy again.

From Beer bottles

Maximus by Lagunita Brewing. Another IPA, but this one just didn't do anything for me. It was definitely super-hoppy (as the name might imply), but I don't know enough to pinpoint just what I think was wrong with it. Don't think I'll be picking this up again.

From Beer bottles

Chocolate Stout by Rogue. I don't buy this one to drink so much as I buy it for waffles. :-D I didn't think it tasted all that chocolatey when I did drink it (can't waste leftovers from the waffle recipe), but in the waffles themselves, it seemed to help bring a somewhat chocolately flavor through the whole waffle. I tried another batch of waffles with a different company's chocolate stout and it wasn't nearly as good, so apparently it makes a difference.

From Beer bottles

Trippel by Green Flash Brewing. I don't really know what to say here, but I have yet to drink a Belgian Trippel that I didn't like, and this is no exception. In fact, this is one of the better examples I've tried, imo. Would definitely buy again.

From Beer bottles

Brother David's Triple by Anderson Valley Brewing. Yet another good triple, but with a different spelling. At a massive 10% ABV, one bottle is typically all you need. :-P My only annoyance with this bottle is that the cap is covered in gold wax, and it was kind of hard to get a bottle opener through that.

From Beer bottles

Red Rocket Ale by Bear Republic Brewing. I tend to like red ales, so it wasn't much of a surprise that I liked this one as well. I wish I had written about it sooner, as I don't remember many specifics about this one, but I would definitely buy another bottle. Oh well.

From Beer bottles