a lot of nothing?

I've been on Facebook for a few months now, but I'm still unsure when to post a status update. There seems to be a bit of ego displayed when one updates that they're doing something cool. On the other hand, would I want updates just about boring things? So, I haven't posted about the things I've done the last few weeks. GABF, WWE, Eagles Hockey, Battletech, USN Gathering and local meet and greet, picked up Eagles tix.

PKA 2010 down, G2 to go

Last weekend was the Professional Knifemakers Show in Denver. It's a 3 day show, which seems a day too long for a show of its size. Show was full this year, or at least all the tables setup were sold. I heard there were seven new makers. Spyderco was a no show, as were the Drapers. Took time off on Saturday to go to the Spyderco factory store. I was tempted to buy a few knives, including the Bug, Honey Bee, Grasshopper, and the brand new Native 3.5 . However, I left with just the Bug.

If I have to give a reason, it was that I had a discussion with a collector back at the show who was pruning back his collection. He came to the conclusion that he had too many items just sitting in drawers doing nothing. This made me think about the above listed knives. Would I carry any of them (maybe the 3.5)? I have a group of knives I carry regularly, as I do with watches. Some rotate in and out, but there's a style I gravitate to: 3.5" blade, slim handle, any lock I can operate with one hand. The knife I carry the most is a Benchmade 940. I has all these qualities. I wish the handles had more grip, and wish there was something keeping my hand on the handle if I were to thrust at something hard and fast. The 940 sister knife, the Gaucho fixes these problems, but adds a weird recurve/tanto blade shape. I've heard you can swap the blades, but never tried.

Got off on a tangent there. It was a fun show, see a lot of knife friends, picked up 2 lefties: an Eddie Baca custom and a ProTech Doru. I should trim the collection, but it's hard.

a better ending to the weekend

Sunday was much better. Got out early to shoot the Glock Sport Shooting Association local match. I've never bought a Glock, so I borrowed a friend's Gen1 Glock 17 (9mm). It's a match designed for non shooters. The match is designed where accuracy is more important than speed, but I can't shoot that way well. I came in 50th out of 92. The friend I went with came in 24th, and shot twice as well as I did.

Sunday Evening went to a customers house and watched Summerslam. A great pay-per-view. A number of surprises, good matches.

These made up for the Mini disappointment.

The mini Minicross

Drove an hour down to Denver this morning to do a Minicross, the Mini (car) version of an autocross. They're having their national convention here this weekend, and this is one of the activities.
I looked at the Mini back in 04 when they first came to the US market as I wanted a car along side my F150. I left a deposit on a Cooper S, but when I finally got to drive one I asked for my deposit back. I loved the handling, but it was a little underpowered, and hard to see up out of (at traffic lights). I ended up buying a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, a better car.
I was in Denver at this event, as I was interested in the new 4 door all wheel drive Mini, the Countryman. I found out that they were only showing it to mini owners in private tonight. So, I registered for this minicross, and told to show up a half hour before my hour slot of 9-10am. I got there at 8:30... and had to wait a half hour for registration to begin. 9am comes around and registration is smooth and I cycle outside where the cars are waiting. Everyone wants a stick, so I volunteered for an auto. I'm with a guy in the passenger seat from Mini. We start off, make a right turn, do some zig-zag back and forth lane changes in the street between cones. We make a right at the corner and do some more, another right, and we're done. That was it. I didn't even begin to push the car, as I thought there would be more to it, like a second and third lap or a autocross area or something. I was majorly disappointed.

They did have two of the Mini E electric cars there, but in a static display, not even with the hood open.

Gnarly Barley 2010

Went to the 2nd annual Gnarly Barley Brew Fest on Sat 8/7/10 over at the Larimer County Fairgrounds. This is about 20 min from my home. Got there 15 min early and were about 5th in line. By the time the 'doors' opened, there were about 50 in line. $15 to get in, which got us a mug that held about 8oz, and 6 wooden tokens each worth $1 or 4oz of brew. They had about 15 breweries, each had 2 beers on tap (some more some less [cans]) all setup under their own small tents. When we went back before leaving, it was the most crowded, and many tents were out of beer. I ended up using 9 tokens ($3 extra) to try all the wheat beers that were new to me. Also had a taste of my friends beers, when he got something different.

Got to talk to two new NoCo breweries: Equinox and Grimm Bros.

Equinox is out of Old Town, Ft Collins and grew out of the owners homebrew store. Or, I should say, grew into. They have a tasting room.

Grimm Brothers Brewhouse are in East Loveland, near Walmart. Opened 2 weeks earlier, they're still feeling out their market for the hours of their tasting room.

I'm not sure if these are anything more than a different style of brew pub. If you don't bottle and distribute... Then again, if you don't serve food, what are you?

Back to the tasting. I used 9 tokens, and chose these:

1- Tommyknocker Jack Whacker a Wheat Ale Style: Herb and Spices 14IBU. A good beer.

2-Equinox Sunrise Golden Ale. Too hoppy. I'm not a fan of hop flavor, but don't mind IBU (see Guinness)

3- Durango Wheat Beer 12IBU. Again too hoppy, but better than #2

4-Ft Collins Brewing Major Tom's Pomegranate Wheat. Best wheat yet, still not there.

5-Bristol Brewing Beehive Honey Wheat 16IBU. Solid (A)!

6-Brothers Grimm Snow Drop, a Pale Wheat Ale. Too hoppy

7-Del Norte Cinco Mexican Style Lager. This is the Mexican Light style they make, and it's what I expected having drunk Corona, Sol, etc. Nothing exciting, but a light refreshing beer.

8-Sam Adams Coastal Wheat. I rated this a good+

9- Oskar Blues Old Chub, a Scotch Ale. I cheated here as this is a favorite, but we had reached the end of the tents, and I had one token left. I said I wanted to try something new from them, but the only beer I hadn't tried were all IPAs. Guess I could have tried the Mama's Little Yella Pils. OK, I SHOULD have tried something new from them.

Also tried the Brothers Grimm Fearless Youth, a Munich Dunkel Lager, and thought it was great.

Tried the Breckenridge Brewery Buddha's Hand Witbier at Old Chicago later. Horrible. Took two sips and left the rest. Strangely, the waitress never asked about why I wasn't drinking it.

My highlight (and showing what a wimp I am) was trying Twisted Tea at the Sam Adams booth, on ice. I couldn't (at the time) taste any alcohol in this, it just tasted like Iced Tea. I think my taste buds were dead, or at least confused by this time. However, I liked it so much I sought out the Mix Pack, that has six different flavors in it. Didn't find it at the first two (big) liquor stores, but found it at my local. The second place told me they had it on order, but it had been out of stock for a month. At home I crack open the box (no date markings on the outside), and see the bottles listing their 'best by' dates being months ago. They still seem to taste fine, and still enjoyable. But, that's the topic for a different post.

Beer reviews

The GABF web page has a Sell-out-o-meter up, and they're 66% sold, with SAT evening session being the least sold out. 522 Breweries, 2,338 beers served.

In other beer news, I found a 6-pack of Upslope Brewery (new brewery in boulder) Pale Ale when I was in Denver TUE at Tipsy's (a store I remember seeing on Upslope's page as carrying it). They currently make two beers: the aforementioned Pale Ale and an IPA. The PA impressed me: not very bitter, good amber color.
I figured maybe I had this whole pale ale thing wrong, so I went out and bought a Pliny the Elder, an A+ rated IPA. OK, a pale ale isn't an IPA; IPAs are stronger in taste in all categories. Still, I hated it less than any IPA I've ever had! I do like the Upslope Pale Ale.
I also bought a 6-pack of Colorado Native, a new microbrew Lager from A C Golden (aka Coors), all ingredients from Colorado and sold only in Colorado. It's not my favorite, but I wouldn't turn one down. I'd put it close to 90 Shilling, stronger than Fat Tire.
I Still have some Crabtree Golden 8 in the fridge. It's an interesting beer whose taste seems to vary depending on what I'm eating along with it. Sometimes it tastes very sweet. Still enjoying that 'ale' (seems to be a catch all or a wide category). Officially, it's a golden ale.

Upcoming NoCo events

Gnarly Barley Brew Fest is coming up on Aug 7th.
Also, the weekend after that (Aug 14-15) there are two events:
1- Glock shoot at Weld County.
2- Mini Takes the States is at Infinity Park in Glendale on SAT, with events test drives and other stuff. I've signed up for a free test drive/ autocross of the new AWD Countryman (I think) on sat morning.

Super Sunday

Opening the store for the first time in nine years tomorrow for a special event. I expect close to 50 attendees. Then after it's over, going to watch the Super Bowl. Go Bears.

Murders have families too!

Greeley was the site of the largest ICE raids of all time a week ago. While this may not have made national news, it's been wall to wall coverage here ever since. 221 people were detained, mostly for being illegal aliens and for stolen identities.
Also last week, a man on the county's most wanted list for attempted murder and kidnapping was killed. He was pulled over, ran away while shooting at police, busted down a apartment door and when the resident locked herself in her bedroom, he shot the doorknob but didn't get in. She escaped. After 3hrs of negotiation, teargas was fired. A LOT of teargas as this apartment has a weird layout. He didn't come out. When police tried to enter, he charged them with his gun. They fired and killed him.

The Greeley Tribune posts many voice, email, blog and mailed comments on their Opinion page. Both stories elicited comments about the families involved. The wanted man's family were angry he was killed, and that they weren't able to talk to him during the standoff. The families of the arrested illegals made comments about the arrested being treated like animals, being unable to communicate with them, and how they would survive without the family member and their income.

There seems to be a growing trend to not blame a person for what they've done, but to blame others. Don't want to get shot? Don't join a street gang, don't kidnap or try to murder people. Don't want to get arrested for being an illegal alien? Don't become one. If you want to do things you have to look at the possible outcomes to yourself and others.
I think this same mentality also leads to too many lawsuits. Hot coffee burns you? Sue. Feel like using your lawn mower to cut shrubs and something bad happens? Sue. Slip on the ice? Sue.

A quick rant: Auto insurance. We have mandatory auto insurance here. Yet, when you get insurance, you need liability, collision, comprehensive, uninsured motorist, etc. Insurance should protect you, not protect others from you. I understand that it feels wrong for you to pay if it's someone else's fault, but it makes sense. "I got hit by some guy. My husband got injured. My house burned down. Luckily, I have insurance" Makes sense, right?

The Prez in CO

The local paper is awash that the President is coming to Greeley this Saturday. I missed him last time, two years ago. I'm going to try and make it this time. Volunteers get first crack, then registered Repubs, then everyone else. I hope some will be left for me. I may have to delay opening the store tomorrow, or Sat, but I think it's worth it. Other than him, the most famous person I can think of to visit Greeley is Alyssa Milano, who was stumping for Kerry in '04.