I made quite possibly the most ridiculous purchase ever today. There I was. Standing in Half-Priced books. Sifting through the vinyls, looking for a record from an artist I had heard of. Normally when I go to Half-Priced books it's to find a particular book, and then I swing by the movies to see if anything good and cheap had come in, and then I swing by the records to see what they have.

And so I come the the "L" section. And what do I see sitting right smack dab in the front. I couldn't believe it. Who would sell that album? Especially in the original vinyl form? Yep, you guessed it, Led Zepplin's "Led Zeppelin IV." Not any of that rereleased crap. Nothing remastered. The original vinyl from 1971. Sitting right there. Staring at me from the puny rack in Half-Priced books.

I started to walk away from it. I mean, yeah, it's Led Zepplin. It's an amazing album. But I don't even have a turntable. Why would I buy a record? But then it called to me. It said....I'm a classic. Only the most worthy can buy me. You, C. Maurice are worthy. Buy me.

And so I did. 8 bucks. A steal. Unless, of course, you don't have a turntable. Then it's a little tough. My parents have one, though, so I think the next time I go down there I'll bring it with me and listen to a little Stairway, Black Dog, & Rock and Roll.

I can't believe someone would sell that album.

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What I'm drinking: Red Hook's Late Harvest Autumn Ale. Definitely too early to be drinking this. But it's good. Dang good. Plus it was kind of an Autumn day. And I didn't like my other choices. So there.

I'm getting a little shtuckered tonight. I have a headache, beer is helping, plus I turn really old tomorrow. Can you blame me? The good news is, I'm giving you a beer summary of the brews I've tasted since I last blogged and mentioned beer.

Ok, on further review, I haven't done a "What I'm drinking" in quite some time. So I guess I'll start out with what I'm drinking right now and go backwards from there. Side note -- I'm totally not going to finish the year of beer on time. In the about 1.25 months I have left, I'll need to average 2.2 six-ers a week, at least, to get 'er done. It's hard to judge because I seriously effed up my first time around on the gluing of the year of beer. The second time around I was much better. Going by my first year's amount, though, I have spots for 11 more bottle caps. And really, I'm losing a week 'cause I'll be in vegas. I just don't see it happening. Another problem is there isn't enough beer left I don't think to get it done in one month. Ah well, it was a good run anyway.

Here we go:

What I'm drinking: KEO. I don't know what to tell ya, I haven't ever seen this beer before, and I'm pretty sure it's close to being skunky. It's brewed on the island of Cyprus, so it tastes like a lot of the beers in that region. Almost like a lager, but more flavor than an American lager. In reference to the skunkiness, it tastes fine, but the "drink by" date is 29/08/07. That could only mean it should be drunk by July 29, 2008 or August 29, 2007. No matter what, it's past due. Whatever...I saw that at the store, but I've never seen it before and had to jump at the chance to drink a crazy (and possibly skunky) beer.

Previous beer: Leinies Light. I gotta tell ya, this is way better than what I was expecting. For being only $5.86 with tax (at least 2 bucks cheaper than the domestic light beer), it was fantastic. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a good light beer. It had way, way more flavor and...robustness? than the domestics. Pretty dang good for what it was.

Previous beer: Leinies Regular. More flavor than the light, but along the same lines. For being so much cheaper than all of the domestics (well, except Keystone) it surprised the heck out of me. Domestics seem so thin and watery. This had the flavor thickness of a decent beer. I may even be as bold as to say I liked it better than the honey weiss. Maybe.

Previous beer: Tiger Beer. The latest of the Asian beer. Pretty good...a lager like a lot of those in the region. It was refreshing during the warm time of the year, and had more flavor than something like Corona. With a lot of these lagers there isn't the flavor of an EPA, ESB, PA, IPA, Amber Ale, Blonde Ale, etc, but the more that I drink in a row of them, I can tell the different levels within that family. Tiger had waay, way, more than, say, Sam Adams.

Previous beer: Rush River IPA. I couldn't have this beer for a long time because until recently, its bottle cap was plain black, which I already had. They changed their cap, and I could finally have it. And dang. It was hoppy. Not the hoppiest beer I've ever had, but up there and a really good IPA. If it was on a beer list in some bar in Wisconsin, I'd order it again. You know I like IPA's, so there isn't much more to say.

Previous beer: Miller Chill. This was actually being passed out as a free sample. I drank it on the condition that I could have the bottle cap. Strangely enough, I'd totally by it if I was looking for cheap and refreshing. It was much, much better than I was expecting. Of course, I like Miller better than Bud, but it was really surprisingly good. For what it is, I recommend trying it.

Previous beer: Asahi. This is made by Coors. Maybe at one point it was actually made by an Asian beer company, but now it's not. And it tastes like ass. Do not drink it.

Along those same lines, let me give you a fair warning about another seemingly "Asian" beer: Kirin Ichiban. It's brewed by Bud. It tastes like it's brewed by Bud. Don't buy it. It made the year of beer, but only because it had to.

That's the update. Two updates in a row. How did you get to be so lucky?

Hey, anonymous, I've been busy. The last 3 weekends have been jam-packed with activity. During the week, when I'm hanging out with J, then I'm not going to blog. During the week when I'm not hanging out with her, I'm usually trying to get crap done.

Life has been cruising along, though. Can you believe it's August? I know I just said that a few posts ago about July, but jeez. Summer is flying by.

So 3 weekends ago, J and I went for a weekend trip up to Duluth. We stayed at this place called Beacon Pointe which was basically gorgeous. It was a little more per night than we were used to spending, but let me tell you what -- it was worth it. Jacuzzi (separate from the bathroom) 50 inch flat screen. King sized bed (and not the jankey holiday inn type). Super nice fridge. Super nice microwave. Private patio. Right up on the shore of Lake Superior, and down away from all of the hub-bub. Check out the website...and make a reservation there. It's so worth the extra coin.

Here are some pics:

Reflecting with a glass of wine.
Good beer at Fitger's.
Day two on the beach with crazy fog.
Fog started to clear.
Fog rolling out of the city.

Swimming was a no-go. Jankey.

The next weekend, J and I drove all the way to Sioux Falls and back in one day. Exhausting. My grandparents, though, haven't been doing the greatest lately and I felt like I really needed to go out and visit them. J offered to go along. It was a good time. And it was really good to see my grandparents...even though my grandpa once AGAIN alluded to everyone that J and I were getting married. The same thing happened with the 2YG, so I forewarned J that it was going to happen. Seriously grandpa. Seriously.

And this past weekend J and I were down in Iowa for the wedding of one of my old roomies. It was good, except J and I were taken down by bad subway. We had to lie down between the ceramony and the reception, drink lots of water, and generally stay away from the 8 kegs being served at the reception. Oh we still did some drinking and plenty of dancing...we just didn't do it up like the rest of my old roommates. It was good to see them all again.

Here are two pics:

Can you tell the beer was flowing? Yeah. Good stuff.

This week is my birthday week. 25 years. A quarter century. Jeez.

Next week is vegas. Stay tuned.