Axixa photo courtesy of The Design Blog

This, ladies and gentlemen (mostly gentlemen), is probably the single greatest invention to come from our Southern neighbor since Elvis on Velvet. It’s a mini urinal that mounts on the wall!

Imagine: no more worrying about killing the shrubbery, no more worries about backsplash off the wall, and (most of all) no more of those pesky public indecency fines.

Sweet!

I hope we see these on every wall within 20 feet of all my favorite watering holes.

Link to the article: http://www.thedesignblog.org/entry/axixa-public-urinal-add-decency-to-pissing-on-walls/ (Nice title too — about time that someone made public urination on a wall was decent.)

PS: Interesting factoid — “Axixa” is “urine” in Nahuatl. Show people how educated you are and work that into a conversation.

Molly's Beer (l) and mine (r)

The best I can say is that we have a happy situation. Both of us love great beer, but niether of us like the same great beer.

One look at Molly and it’s pretty obvious that I (as a gentleman) prefer the pale — the blonder the better (though a red or two has been known to turn my head). And one listen to Molly and it’s also obvious that I also like a sharp tongue. So it hardly comes as a surprise that I enjoy nothing more than IPAs — and the higher the IBUs the better.

Molly on the other hand likes them big, black and thick. So it’s hardly a surprise that her favorite refresher is a huge stout. The blacker and stronger, the better.

Wait a minute… I’m skinny white guy.

Okay, never mind. I have no idea why I’ve been married for 20 years.

Enjoy the weekend and enjoy a cold beer or two. You can even share it with that special someone if that works for you.

Cheers.

The end of the rainbow

1/3 up the mountain on the 58

Almost to the top and it's snowing

At the top we pulled over for a needed potty break

By the time I got to Crescent I had to pee again.  I requested the use of the restroom at the lodge I was checking in at but was denied.  So I squirmed a bit while filling out the check-in paperwork.  Once given my key I quickly found and entered my room, turned to the bathroom to be greeted by this….

Bullet Toilet Seat

Bullet Toilet Seat 2

A clear toilet seat with large bullets embedded in it.  It was new to me, but as an owner of the lodge I could see it having its advantages;like being able to see if the toilet is clean without having to lift the lid.

Once relieved, it was time to find a beer.  Next to the lodge was the Mohawk Restaurant.

The Mohawk Restaurant

I grabbed a bottle of Deschutes Black Butte Porter for $2.50 and wandered the restaurant admiring the taxidermy and bottle collections.  And yes, I have already been chastised for not taking pictures of the taxidermy collection.  Though another beer would have been welcomed, by 9:45pm it was time for Crescent to turn off it’s lights for the night.

FYI – Per the sign in the front window, the Mohawk Restaurant is for sale, which includes the collections.

]]> http://www.mybeerpix.com/2009/05/crescent-oregon/feed/ 1 http://www.mybeerpix.com/2009/04/today-in-history-run-of-the-alewife/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=today-in-history-run-of-the-alewife http://www.mybeerpix.com/2009/04/today-in-history-run-of-the-alewife/#comments Wed, 08 Apr 2009 01:03:36 +0000 Sage http://www.mybeerpix.com/?p=2240 Imagine my surprise when I checked my RSS reader to find that today is the traditional beginning of the run of the Alewife of Cape Cod.

“Running Alewives?” I said to myself (not being familiar with the running kind, since that might spill beer). “How curious. I must learn more.”

So I Googled “Alewife Run” and learned that Alewifes of the Atlantic are considerably different than the kind we have here in the Pacific. I know you’re all interested in being more educated, so here is a quick comparison of the two.

The Atlantic Alewife

Atlantic Alewife (Pomolobus pseudoharengus)

Identification
The Atlantic alewife is neither an ale-drinker nor actually a wife. It’s a fish. Technically a member of the herring family it’s about 10 to 11 inches (25 to 28 cm) and weighs 8 to 9 ounces in adulthood. The lack of teeth on the roof of its mouth distinguishes it from its relatives, the hickory shad and the blueback. Like the herring, the Atlantic alewife is a gray-green on the back and silvery along the sides and belly. It’s scales are iridescent green and violet.

Breeding Habits
Most interesting is the Atlantic alewife, like the salmon, lives most of its life in the sea, but makes its way to fresh water to spawn. Unlike the salmon, however, the alewife doesn’t seem to be particularly picky in the waterways they choose, running in everything from rivers the size of the Potomac to streams barely ankle deep — something early European settlers made note of. According to one eyewitness:

…experience hath taught them at New Plymouth that in April there is a fish much like a herring that comes up into the small brooks to spawn, and when the water is not knee deep they will presse up through your hands, yea, thow you beat at them with cudgels, and in such abundance as is incredible.

The alewife spawns in freshwater ponds in temperatures of about 55° to 60° and then quickly returns to the sea, apparently undamaged by the sudden change from salt to fresh and back to salt water again. The baby alewives hatch in June and generally head to sea by October.

More information of the Atlantic alewife can be found right here.

The Pacific Alewife

Pacific Alewife (Spousus Drinkulus)

Identification
Unlike the Atlantic alewife, the Pacific alewife is both a wife and and ale consumer (“drinks like a fish,” you could say). A member of the human species adult alewives range anywhere from under five feet (1.5 meters) to substantially taller than that (the one pictured is about 5′ 4″). Weight varies considerably, and is not discussed. While indistinguishable in appearance from other types of wives — color can range anywhere from a light peachy-pink to a dark chocolate brown — Pacific alewives can generally be identified by their boisterous behavior and the presence of a beer in one of their hands. At night some may appear to be iridescent, due to the application of a colored powder or glitter.

Breeding Habits
Spawning behaviors of the Pacific alewife vary considerably from alewife to alewife with some only breeding in highly specific locations while others seem to be less choosy. Water is not required, but scientists (as well as those closely associated with Pacific alewives) believe the deciding factor often depends on the amount of ale consumed by the wife prior to spawning. Additionally, beating a Pacific alewife with a cudgel is not recommended.

Warmer temperatures — a minimum of 65°, with 70° or above considered optimal — are generally preferred for spawning behavior.

Nine months after spawning the alewife generally produces one (and occasionally two or more) live offspring to which the alewife and her mate attend to for 18 years or more (often much more to the chagrin of the mate).

Like her Atlantic counterpart, changing from salt to fresh to salt water does not seem to affect the Pacific alewife other than salt water seems to make her a little more “pruney”.

More information on the Pacific alewife can be found by speaking to anyone married to one.

Hot Rocks Stein-style Brown Lager

That “man” in the headline is me, of course.

I’m currently enjoying a cold pint of Hot Rocks, the new stein-style brown lager from Port Brewing Company.

Yes, it is delicious.

For those who don’t know the backstory on this one, Hot Rocks is a collaboration between Port Brewing’s Tomme Arthur and Bend Brewing’s Tonya Cornett. Tomme is the 2008 Word Beer Cup Champion Brewmaster in the Small Brewing Company category and Tonya is the Word Beer Cup Champion Brewmaster in the Small Brewpub category.

Late in January of this year Tonya went to Port Brewing to brew a stein beer with Tomme, which involved taking a standard German Brown Lager wort and pumping it into a hopback filled with super-heated granite rocks before sending it over to the fermenter. (Beer Molly made a photo slideshow of the process. You can see it here.)

Tomme later went up to Bend and brewed the same beer with Tonya in Bend’s brewhouse.

I’m drinking a glass pulled off of a growler-fill from Port Brewing last weekend. It’s dark, roasty and full of caramel and rich malt flavors — a result of fresh wort caramelizing on molten hot rocks no doubt. A lot of flavor for a beer that only registers around 6.5 ABV. (I’m told that the Bend version of Hot Rocks will be even more malty and caramel because of their higher proportion of hot rocks to beer.)

I saw the label proofs for this beer last weekend as well. It’s a cool illustration that’s sort of “Blue Hawaii” meets “Joe vs the Volcano”, complete with spewing volcano (reminiscent of the effect of fresh wort hitting super-heated rocks) and masked natives (reminiscent of the Port Brewing crew). The beer is already bottled and I hear it’s being labeled this week. Expect it in distribution nationwide by the end of the month.

PS: And if you’re looking for an excuse to go to Bend, OR in early April, I hear that’s about the time Tonya will be putting her version of Hot Rocks on tap.

I like my eggs sunny side up

Lest you think this is a fluke, I found happy faces in some bell peppers once too.

Happy bell peppers

As Seen on TV - handsfree beer carrier - Click on image (Warning: NSFW)

Beer Molly says these type of beer carriers will never catch on in craft brewing because a) there’s not enough craft beer that ships in appropriate containers (a 22 ounce bomber would be hard to hold with this thing), and b) only a small portion of the beer drinking market could actually use it. (Probably more guys than girls.)

(I goth the pic via email, but photo credit goes to spankhersadventures.com)

Hey - Does the car feel funny to you?

What you can’t see in this photo is the black drag marks from the cone’s stand on the floor of the parking garage. They extend all the way from the curved ramp to this parking spot two aisles away. Closer examination showed that the cone was actually under the front left of the car until the turn into the parking stall knocked it over and allowed the car to drive over it.

The only cones I could find in the garage were down two levels by the parking valet. Looks like this guy bolted out of there and took this one with him. Not such a big deal if you’re driving a big truck or SUV, but this cone is a good foot taller than that little Z3.

Guess he didn’t know the valet was free.