A Croxley’s Ale Saturday, Jun 21 2008 

Beer and Daily and Photoblog and bar , , , , , , , krmb 11:20 pm

19 June 2008
After a very long, immensely frustrating day of software and hardware conversion, Lou & I went to celebrate a job done & over. We were going to meet a co-worker, but she backed out at the last minute being knackered beyond; and living in the area - thus, close to her bed - she went home. Lou & I continued with our plans, we just changed locations. We wound up at Croxley’s Fine Ale House in Rockville Centre, some 20-25 minutes East of JFK.
An Ale at Croxley's
A meal and a couple of drinks later, back to the hotel we went.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 21 June 200 8)

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
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Seeing Marcus Wednesday, Apr 9 2008 

Beer and Daily and Photoblog and bar krmb 6:11 am

3 April 2008
We forgot to take passes with us when we went out for final clean-up at Scarborough. Therefore, we had to get Marcus his pass some other way. What else, but No Frills Grill, right?
This is Marcus through the back-end of a Shiner Bock.
Marcus Through a Glass
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 7 April 200 8)

Listening to:
This Time It’s Real by Little Texas
from Little Texas - Big Time

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
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My Guinness Thursday, Mar 20 2008 

Beer and Daily and Festival and Photoblog and Texas , , , , , krmb 8:48 am

15 March 2008
Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Once every several hundred years, St. Patrick’s Day falls at the beginning of Holy Week. When it became apparent last year that this year would be that “once in a lifetime event” the Pope declared that St. Patrick’s Day would be moved to the 15th for this year. I don’t think the word got out.
Marita Beth, Kelly & I went to Rahr Brewery to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with Codie, Janet, Mary, Donny, Alex & Emily (and the myridad hundreds that are there each weekend). On a spur of the moment decision after the Rahr kicked us out, we went West to Central Market and immersed ourselves in live music, Irish food and more beer. What a great time!
My Guinness
Slainte!

~KR (Written on 19 March 200 8)

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
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Three Guinness for Rod Wednesday, Mar 5 2008 

Beer and Daily and NTIF and Photoblog krmb 3:34 pm

1 March 2008
On the heels of my rant about Leap Day being no more special than any other day that only happens once every 4 years, comes this post. This day, the first Saturday in March, is my annual trip to Fair Park in Dallas for the North Texas Irish Festival. Since it only happens once a year, we make a day of it! Sadly, because of the recent injury, the dogs (who are always a joy at this event and seem to love it almost as much as we do) had to stay at home.
We arrived about 3/4 of the way through the first group I wanted to see, but before most of the crowd. So, I staked out a table near the back of the huge outdoor tent and sat down. Marita Beth soon went off to offer her services to the volunteer group that organises & runs this massive event (the North Texas Irish Festival had been the 2nd largest Irish Fest in the U.S. - I hope it still is, but sadly don’t know). She ended up pouring whisky at the Irish Whisky Tasting room for 2 or three hours. She then got sucked into a beer tent where she pulled Guinness, Killian’s, Harp, Bass, Blue Moon, Smithwicks and some domestic beers for another 6 hours or so. Next year, I’m going to let the SCMA (Southwest Celtic Music Association) pay her way in like they do every other volunteer; but at least she got a t-shirt out of it.
During her absence, I didn’t move from my table except for the occasional trip to the restroom. Everything else was done for me (I wasn’t even asking). People volunteered to go get me beer & food or even run errands.
Three Guinness for Rod
This is Rod. He’s one of my dear friends who was constantly out running errands and bringing back beer. It was great, but I admit to feeling a little guilty about it. In that time, I saw Jiggernaut (well, 1/4 of the show), Needfire, Town Pants, Brothers, Brothers 3, & the Caledonian Pipes & Drums Corp. What a fantastic day with cannot-be-beat weather, great friends, music & beer. I was exhausted by the time we got home some 14 hours after we set out.

~KR (Written on 3 March 200 8)

Listening to:
El Paso by Marty Robbins
from Taste of Tequila

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
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Partially Consumed Thursday, Feb 21 2008 

Beer and Daily and No Frills Grill and Photoblog krmb 3:57 pm

19 February 2008
Tuesday night which means trivia with friends at No Frills Grill. We got there a little later than normal and found Brett with three trivia boxes trying to keep all three boxes in the game. Jill & Smiley (her daughter) had been there but Jill took Smiley home, so Brett kept their games active until we got there and took over for Smiley. Smiley immediately became crzy. :-) Photo of the day? Partially consumed bottle of beer. My wife drinks Corona Light and this is that bottle:
Partially Consumed
Why, oh why couldn’t the Mini-Challenge this week be “bottles?”
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 21 February 200 8)

Listening to:
The Whiskey Never Lies by Sligo Rags
from The Whiskey Never Lies

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
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Mundane Defined Tuesday, Feb 5 2008 

Beer and Daily and Photoblog krmb 9:34 am

2 February 2008
After being out late the night before with Tullamore, I'll admit to being a little groggy when I dragged myself out of bed. But, I had to because footy practice was soon to start and with the season start being imminent, I'm badly in need of both fitness and touches. Even if I do hang up my boots, I'll likely continue to train with the team whenever I can just so I stay in some semblance of shape. I returned home from the session and almost immediately left again to head to the Rahr Brewery for the weekly gathering of friends. While there Terrill called; he was out and about and wanted company, so Marita Beth & went to the Baker Street Pub to play pool with Terrill. From there, it was time for the necessary, mundane task of grocery shopping.
Mini-Challenge: Mundane Tasks
Grocery Shopping
This is my wife checking out the apples. Very mundane, very necessary.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 4 January 200 8)

Listening to:
Object of my Desire by Starpoint
from Billboard Top 100 of 1986

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
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Beer Fridge Monday, Jan 28 2008 

Beer and Daily and No Frills Grill and Photoblog and bar krmb 9:44 pm

27 January 2008
Yesterday while visiting NFG Arlington (see yesterday's entry), I was speaking with Jason, the manager about Shiner. He let slip that the NFG in Mansfield had the new Shiner Black on draught and that he would be on duty during the day on Sunday. So, after making sure my computer was working properly and was downloading the many, many megs of necessary updates, I went to NFG Mansfield. Nice place. The bar is big, the patrons friendly and bartender, Annie, very pleasant and knowledgeable. As expected, NFG Mansfield has a good selection of brew both draught and bottle. This is one of the visible beer coolers stocked for the day.
Beer Cooler
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 27 January 200 8)

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
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Pint Glass and Ashtray Thursday, Jan 24 2008 

Beer and Bench and Daily and Photoblog and Texas and bar krmb 2:13 pm

19 January 2008
Ohh, hey, what do you know…another photo with a beer glass in it. This morning I woke up sick. My head felt three miles wide, my soft pallatte was swollen to the point of gagging me, my sinuses were draining causing my throat no end of pain. Yeah, what an awful way to wake up. Made worse by the fact that I had promised Marita Beth earlier in the week that I would attend her dance performance this afternoon/evening. *sigh* I made good on the promise despite the fact that I felt like absolute shite and wanted nothing more than to lay down for good long nap. But, a promise is a promise so off we drove to Denton. The performance was at 1900, but we had to be there at 1500 for her last rehearsal and tech review. So, I went down to Fry Street and visited a few bars I'd never been to..always a fun pastime for me. The first bar I went to, Riprocks was a typical college dive. I can't write much good about it. The wait and bar staff sucked, The selection of beers was tolerable but by no means exceptional. The bar (all of Denton, really) is still a smoker's haven, so the place reeked. The upholstery on every chair and bench was torn or, in some cases, completely absent. Really, there is nothing I can recommend about the joint. But, it's where this photo was taken.
Ashtray & Pint Glass
I was sitting there whiling away the time and playing with the camera when I stumbled on a setting called Color Accent. The above photo was taken with the Color Accent set to the turquoise of the bench upholstery. Interesting result, I think. I'll continue to experiment with the setting. The second (and final) bar I went to was called The Fry Street Tavern. It was much more inviting, but there were nearly no customers. So, maybe that was the difference. The furniture was in better repair (perhaps due to lack of use) and the bar tender was a very friendly young man. So, if you are in Denton and you have your choice between those two bars, choose The Fry Street Tavern. I thought very seriously about putting up a photo of the dance routine showing off the performing wife. But, the darkened theatre and new camera conspired against me. None of them came out well enough to post.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 20 January 200 8)

Watching:
Mindless TV

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
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VT - 5¢ Sunday, Jan 20 2008 

Beer and Daily and No Frills Grill and Photoblog krmb 10:58 am

17 January 2008
I think a pattern is developing in the early part of this year. Yet another post about beer. :-)
This photo was taken at the local watering hole, No Frills Grill where my lovely wife decided I needed to go after spending the greater part of a week in Canada where they've never even heard of No Frills Grill (more the pity, that). So, bundled against the cold (a freezing 54 degrees, she took me to the pub. I'd neglected to take a photo during the day, having spent it inside 4 grey walls staring at a computer screen, but I did remember to take the camera with me to the pub. So, here's a shot of my wife's beer of choice when we're at NFG, Corona Light.
2008011785936 PM
I personally drink Shiner Bock when I'm there as it's a wholly drinkable beverage and fits my budget nicely. NFG treats it as a domestic (which it is) rather than an import. I appreciate that.
Cheers.

~KR (Written: 20 January 200 8)

Watching: Manchester City vs West Ham United
Score: 1 - 1
Time: Halftime

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.6 sec (3/5)
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Stella Pint Glass Detail Friday, Jan 18 2008 

Beer and Daily and Photoblog krmb 9:49 am

14 January 2008
Once again my post is beer-centric. I'm writing about a Belgian beer while in Toronto, Canada. Canada has a great selection of beers available to the casual consumer; much more than just a simple selection of Bud, Bud Light, Coors, Coors Light. The bar called Arizona's that I went to had no fewer than 18 different beers on tap with most of them having never been tried by this intrepid traveller and self-proclaimed beer-lover. But, because the temperature outside was below 0 (Celsius) and it was snowing/raining I chose not to try my hand at sampling those 18 brews. Discretion being a critical part of the clever beer consumer. Instead, I had one beer (Rickard's Red) at Arizona's with my pizza, then retired to the hotel with the hopes that they, too, would have a fine selection of beers. Boy was I wrong. They had one I'd never had (Upper Canada), two I don't care for (Heineken & Tuborg) and Stella Artois. I had an Upper Canada draught and about half way through it became a bit of a chore to drink. So, I switched over to a great stand by Belgian beer called Stella Artois. I'd first had Stella a number of years ago in Toronto at a lovely little pub that is no more called The Fox & Fiddle. I've since had innumerable pints of the lager with nearly all of them served in the Stella special glasses. This is a detail of a portion of the stem on the glass:
Stella Artois Pint Glass Detail
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 15 January 200 8)

Listening to:
Still listening to some random television show

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.3 sec (3/10)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 1 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

 

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