Rubicon Brewing Company IPA

Here's my second review. I'm no more experienced as this review comes on the night of my first ever review.

I chose Rubicon (http://www.rubiconbrewing.com/) as it is a very successful local brewery. I would like to work for Rubicon before starting brewing school, and hopefully during brewing school. In comparison to Ballast Point's IPA, Rubicon's IPA had a very similar color. The color was honey and it was very clear. However, it had a less hoppy flavor to me and a more mellow finish. My husband didn't enjoy it as much and felt there was a funny aftertaste, but I enjoyed it more than Ballast Points' IPA.

Ballast Point IPA

Ok. So this is my first very informal beer review. If I'm to start Master Brewing School in January at UC Davis, I better start familiarizing myself with different beer. Yesterday, at Nugget in Elk Grove, when I had a cart full of different beer bottles that I was planning to sample, the guy behind me suggested the beer that he had in his cart (Hoptologist Double India Pale Ale from Knee Deep Brewing Company at http://kneedeepbrewing.com/) was a good one and I should try it. He admired all of mine and we talked. Long story short, I told him my intentions, to sample all this different beer as preparation for Brewing school. Then the guy behind him chimed in how bad he felt for me that I had to drink beer to prepare myself for my career. I KNOW! Rough life. Made me believe even more that life is short and we should do what we want.

SO, anywho! Here it is. Just sampled Ballast Point Brewing Company IPA (http://www.ballastpoint.com/). To be fair, I'm not a hoppy girl. I actually think most people are not hoppy. I think that people that say they love IPA's just like it because it's hoppy enough and distinctive enough that they can tell they're not drinking Coors Light or MGD. However, I drank it. And, yes, it's hoppy. But the color was beautiful, like liquid honey. It had an extremely crisp, clear, and hoppy flavor. I liked it enough that I finished it. There you have it.

Gettin' it goin'

Ok. This isn't for you. It's for me. It's been a while since I posted anything and I decided I just have to type something to get the ball rolling again. But to be fair to myself, there's been a lot going on. I think since I last posted, I went to Monterey for 5 days with my family, my kids finished this year in school, I drove to Washington and back with my family for 8 days, got home for two, then drove to San Diego and back for an emotionally draining but wonderful family trip including a big family wedding. I've been home for 5 days now and am just starting to catch up. Tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday is Swim Champs. This means 12 hours in the sun waiting by the pool with 2000 other people for our kids to swim like 4 times for 30 seconds or less each. Don't get me wrong, we love it, but I'll be happy when this weekend is over. OH, and, we found three eggs in the yard today. Lucy (my chicken) laid her first eggs and is hiding them in a "nest" she made in our bushes. After searching the park and the neighbor's yards for her today when we couldn't find her, she finally popped out of the bushes. We checked the spot and there were three eggs! It's like we should have her Quincineara party or bar mitzvah or something! Anyway, I'll get back on it soon. Just had to get the ball rolling and start with something. :)

Recycle. Compost. Landfill. Oh, My!

So have you seen these new trash... err... excuse me, Landfill cans? Well, I guess they're not really new. If you live in the San Francisco area, you've probably seen them for years now. But I'm guessing in most parts of the world or in at least most parts of America, these have not been seen. So you walk up to the, shall we call it, waste sorting station, to get rid of your trash, or waste. And you are faced with not one, not two, but sometimes 3 choices. Great, more decisions. As if the number of choices at the Supermarket is not already overwhelming enough.

So, at Starbucks this morning, there was a can that said "Recycle" on one side and "Landfill" on the other. Oh, crap. I don't want to have to send things to the landfill. I mean, I know I do and have for most of my life, but when standing there faced with the decision of whether or not to give this piece of material a new chance at life in a new shape or form or to stand on the edge of the cut Earth and heave my Starbucks Artisan Sandwich bag in, I was a bit stressed. I really wanted to throw it into the recycle side just to believe I was not destroying the Earth. Luckily, they provide a list of what can go into each side. What's interesting is that almost no container that Starbucks sells can actually go into the recycle side of the can. Well, at least they've probably helped the problem with the amount of waste that occurs at recycling centers due to people throwing the wrong stuff into the recycle bin, but it really appears that Starbucks needs the 3 choice model.

Yes, the Recycle, Compost, or Landfill model. I've seen this one at a Central Valley California Costco and at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. So, you walk up to this can and are faced with 3 choices. You stand there for a while and read and look at the pictures and hope that you will be able to throw your waste into either the compost (turns out we can compost a whole lot more than we think we can) or the recycle hole. Please, don't let it be the landfill hole. Somebody might see me. There truly is a feeling of judgment while standing there. It's a very effective guilt strategy. I mean, whoever invented this thing had to be Catholic.

California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco

Starbucks

Positive Energy Kids Triathlon

My kids (8 year old girl and 10 year old boy) participated in their first triathlon yesterday. Neither their father or myself has ever done anything like this so we were SO proud of them. It was called the Positive Energy Kids Triathlon (PEKT) and took place in Davis, CA. It was truly amazing. If you ever get the chance to participate with your family, do it. It was SO organized. The kids had bibs with their numbers in huge font across their chests. They had their numbers written on their arms and legs. They had their numbers on stickers on their helmets and bikes. Both kids felt so professional! Their was a short swim across a 25-yard pool (since my kids are swimmers, they wished that part was much longer). The swim was between 25-75 yards for them (longer for older groups). Then a bike ride for 1-4 miles depending on the age (again, 1-2 for my kids), followed by the run (both my kids did 1/2 mile). I know it's not huge distances, but it was a challenge for them and they were exhausted at the end but SO proud of their accomplishment. They both woke up this morning and wanted to wear their triathlon t-shirts and medals to school today... and did! All in all, it was a fantastic, completely positive energy, fun family event. Do it if you ever get the chance. Maybe next year, we'll even participate with them... maybe. :)

Taking the Brewery Route

So it's official. I've paid the $1000 non-refundable deposit and I'm apparently going to brewing school next year. The good news, well, actually, other than the tuition it's all good news. But the good news is that now we have to be on an intensive brewery research program. So some people might take the scenic route. But from here on out for us, it's the Brewery Route. We're headed to Monterey for four nights next week and our first stop will be Peter B's Brewpub. We'll see as much as we can and begin our adventure in beer. Not a bad field to research, you have to admit. I'll let you know how it goes. :)

Promotion... Again?

Do you ever look around at the world and see things that seem crazy and yet everyone seems to be going along with it? And you think... I can't be the only one seeing this. I can't be the only one that thinks that. Either everyone goes along with really absurd things sometimes or I really have a very different perspective than most people.

I teach at a middle school (7th and 8th grade). Every year, the 8th graders have a "promotion" ceremony. This is what it looks like. They take their final exams a week before the 7th graders. So let's say it's a 10 week term. 8th graders take their final exams on Thursday and Friday of week 9. So for all of week 10, they have no academic work. Their grades are turned in and it's up to the staff to keep them somehow busy. Why even come to school? Well they have the fear of God put into them by the administration about the forbidden "unexcused absence" (which just means the school wouldn't get paid... though the state stops counting ADA - average daily attendance - on April 15th, but I digress). So week 10 was a 4 day week due to Memorial Day on Monday. Tuesday, they have promotion practice. Well we have 4 teams promoting and they each need about an hour. So that leaves 5 hours for teachers to figure out something to do with them. On Wednesday, they go on a field trip. But many stay behind and it's 6 hours to figure out what to do with them. On Thursday, they promote. They buy expensive, fancy, often inappropriate-dress-code-violating dresses and shoes. They get their hair and makeup and nails done. Families take the day off work and desperately seek coveted and limited tickets. And all to see their kids move from the 8th grade to the 9th grade when it's nearly impossible not to move from the 8th grade to the 9th grade, no matter how hard you try. In addition to this, many 7th graders play in the band during all 4 promotions and so they miss their final exams on Thursday and have to find a way to make them up. Which usually means a teacher giving makeup exams on their prep the next day. Then 8th graders are signed out by their parents and don't return to school on Friday, because now it's apparently ok to have an unexcused absence.

Is it really worth it? Is this really what parents want? Everyone I talk to seems to think it's absurd. But they all say you can't do away with it because people would go crazy. And it's not just 8th grade promotion. No. There's preschool graduation and kindergarten promotion/graduation and 6th grade graduation and high school graduation. At some point doesn't the frequency of these events diminish their meaning? I'm not trying to be a total scrooge. Celebrating life's milestones is nice. But you can't NOT move from the 8th grade to the 9th grade. Trust me. Well it's really hard. And if people don't like these things, the only way to get rid of them is to act as a group. Because you can't just be the one parent that sits your kid out. Then they feel really bad that they've missed this artificially created special occasion. Hallmark creates holidays just to sell cards. I can't figure out who got the promotion/graduation snowball rolling. I just wonder if I'm the only one that thinks it's all a bit too much.