Reeling in the Last Good Times of 34

Tomorrow is a big event. The WL team is going to have the summer Corn Hole outing, aka Cornholooza. Lunch at the WL so Ane Lyn and The Cruise Director can have a few more beers. They are kind of in stop motion on the tour. A beer here, a beer there, but not significant progress.

At any rate, we are having two corn hole events. One at Ane Lyn's, then we are going to move on to the evening session at Hollow Leg's. The significant part of this event for me is that is it my last blast in my early 30s. I am going to be turning 35.

Where the heck did it go. I still remember waking up hung over when I turned 25 and thinking it was slipping away. Oh the beers I have drank between now and then. I had never even had a wheat beer - what was a dunkel. It was around that time I started to explore the world of beer - and ironically the world at large.

I had never been to Paris where I drank Kronenberg from a dirty glass in some little cafe. I had never been to Oktoberfest and partaken of the beers from Munchen's finest breweries while listening to Ompa Bands. I hadn't been to London and enjoyed glass after glass of John Smith's Extra Smooth and Boddingtons.

I had no idea the Smithwick's existed . . or that I would even need a break from the black gold I know as Guinness. I had never been to Switzerland . . I can't even remember what beer I drank there - probably something German.

I wasn't that green. I knew about Abita beers - only the turbo dog though. I discovered those on a trip to New Orleans (one of the greatest cities in the world). I had been to San Francisco and tried Anchor Steam.

I remember drinking the lovely beers from Left Handed Brewing in Longmont, Colorado - the Saw Tooth was very memorable - just ask the guy who has his pants down in a photo with me. Going to Boulder and checking out all the brew pubs there.

I guess you could say that I could trace my travels around the world with the beers I have enjoyed in those places. It is a universal thing.

There's no I in team, but there is a ME

So I have been waning on the WLWTOB blogging. Part of the reason was that Hollow Leg was been out of the country. He has been getting drunk with associates in Korea and Japan.

At any rate, a very funny thing happened. As soon as he landed back in the states, he was begging us to all go out for a team event. As fate would have it, we are going to Happy Hour this Thursday. Here is the very interesting thing . . I cannot remember the last time all of the team actually had drinks together. I think it was the day of the previous Corn Hole tournament.

I think this is going to be a good trip to the Winking Lizard because I think we need to get reacquainted with each other as a team before we have our Corn Hole Fest in a week.

Bags aways! . . . and beers away!!

A Picture is worth a 100 beers

OK. I have always found a strange intersection between events in my life. Sometimes it is more than two things, that those would be intersections among things.

However, I have been diligently logging my experiences on the WLWTOB. One of the beers that we enjoyed was from the Czech Republic. It was call Staropramen. It is pronounced STAR - O - PRAY - MEN. As we made our way around the tour, we had a couple of verbal mishaps. The crack staff at WL was very happy to help us with learn the correct pronunciations.

As you might know, Hollow Leg always managed to add a Fraternity House level of humor to several situations and outings. For this beer, he coined it as Straponman pronounced STRAP - ON - MAN. Not quite correct, but it made it very memorable.

This name was not an isolated incident. On another occasion, Hollow Leg was drinking Arrogant Bastard Ale by Stone Brewing Company. Stone is located in Escondido, CA. The evening we realized this, he called pronounced it - ESCON - DIL - DOUGH. Close, but no cigar (no pun intended Monica Lewinsky).

Irony took a hand here. Hollow Leg happened to be going to San Diego - just down the street - on a vacation the next day. He called me to let me know he was in ESCON - DIL - DOUGH.

So that brings me back to Staropramen. I am checking through my e-mail and a friend of mine - completely unrelated to the beer tour - is in Prague. I asked him to send me a few pictures. Being the beer lover that I am, he sends me the following.















Unreal. I can't believe all of the beers. Of all the silly things.

It just makes me think about all of the intersections in life. It makes me think that a picture is not only worth a thousand words, but definitely makes the 100 beers well worth the journey.

Cheers or as they say in Prague - Na zdraví (to your health)

The Last Beer as a Swage

On my last day of work, Anne Lyn and the cheer leader went our for some wings and beer with me. The awesome staff at Swage got me some chocolate and a gift certificate to the Winking Lizard.

I got two pints of the beer of the month - Mystery Ale - which included the glass. I kept one as a momento and gave the other to Anne Lyn. She had been my trusty partner in crime over the past two years. It felt like old times when we were just staring the WLWTOB. In the days before the boys had to get super competitive about it.

Anne Lyn is in the high 70s now. She is making her way to the century mark!! The Social Director has been cheating, but I think Anne Lyn can make it there first.

3rd and Last Place - Getting Dirty

Ok - so Hollow Leg and I have finished the tour. That leave Anne Lyn and the Tour Director to get through their list.

Just to level set - the Tour Director did start weeks after the rest of the team. He already took out a six-pack of beer - which we don't have confirmation he drank because he took it to a party.

Now, there is scandal. What are the rules of the tour. Drink all 100 beers - maybe just a sip - or maybe the whole bottle. However, you need to have all the beers. Inviting your friends to order off of the list and get your blanket for the beer fest is not what the team had in mind.

It didn't have to be competitive. It could just be a group of friends enjoying the beers of the world. The boys had to make it competitive. They were claiming they would 'crush' us.

Well, I did finish first - without the help of a six pack.

The Tour Director proceeded to have other's drink his beer - an not even pick up the tab. That just is plain out cheating. I think we need to add 30 additional drinks of his choice at the end of the tour just as a punishment.

Wait, could extra gin and tonics be considered a punishment?

The Century

One of the definitions of a century is any group or collection of 100. Well, I have completed the Winking Lizard Century.

When I started this endeavor in late January with Anne Lyn, I thought it would be well into the autumn before this journey was completed. I tried to envision 2 beers every week for 50 weeks. If you look at it like that, how hard would it be to get through the 100 beers?

It was never hard getting through the beers. I was even lucky enough to sneak a Guinness in as final substitute.

What was hard was getting up the next morning. What was hard is getting a cab to drive you back to the Winking Lizard because you had too many Belgian beers the day before and Mr. Hollow Leg had to drive you home.

In hind site, I am thankful for the lift and that clearer heads prevailed. It probably is not the best idea to let someone who sets off the fire alarm and just shrugs about it drive home in rush hour.

I will have to say the Hollow Leg (HL) made a valiant effort to finish before me - even getting a six pack in mid-season to narrow the gap. In the end, I had prevailed. Although HL won't admit to it, I think he did the gentlemanly thing by letting me finish first. He finished the next day before our first annual corn hole tournament (a raving success).

So where does that leave us. It means that the first half of the four man relay team has crossed the line. We need to stand on the sidelines and cheer on our teammates. We need to be there to support their efforts.

Go Team Go! Let the games continue - or maybe - another round.

A Fellow Lizard

thought you might enjoy some of the chatter from my fellow tour members.


1. Who all is attending our meeting tonight? YAY!
2. Okay, so I'm admittedly a technological moron. If the band Tool doesn't have songs on iTunes, why is that? Where can I get Tool songs? I really really really really want a couple on my iPod before the run this Sunday.
3. My neighbor left my cornhole bags outside and the squirrels ate 3 of them. Stupid neighbor.
4. I love my new running shoes. My toes are actually healing.
5. WL on the patio!!!! KICK A$$!!!!