A Thing of Beauty, and It's About Beer!

Through the magic of blogging, I came across the most beautiful poster for a beer festival ever:



It's for the Copenhagen Beer Festival 2010 (here's a link to their web site, but it's in ... Swedish?). The fine fellow who writes A Good Beer Blog received a few of these lovely things from yet another beer blogger, Knut Albert, who posted about the festival on his blog (named, aptly "Knut Albert's Beer Blog").

There's not a chance in hell I'll be making it to Denmark this . . . May (I think that's May), but I love the poster. Simple, clean lines, beautiful beery color - very Art Deco. How pretty would this look framed and hanging? Would you think me a poser for having it up in my living room if you knew I hadn't gone?

Busch Gardens for sale? That's bad news.

Busch Gardens rocks in part because the Busch family was personally involved, pouring millions back into the parks (they bought SeaWorld in the 90s).

Now that Anheuser-Busch is simply one more cog in the global machine that is InBev, the Busch family only has one seat on the board, and rumors are swirling that InBev is thinking about casting the parks aside; they need money to pay back the significant debt they took on in buying Anheuser-Busch in the first place.

Will new owners reinvest profit into the parks like the Busch family did? Or will they become just another business, more concerned about fattening the bank accounts of their investors than providing an exceptional experience to park goers?

A smaller, yet burning, question is this: will there still be free beer at Busch Gardens?

Goofing aside, this actually bums me out. I love Busch Gardens - it's my favorite amusement park and it has the best roller coasters. And you can get guys to go with you, due to the terrorizing SheiKra (now floorless!) and aforementioned free beer.

SeaWorld was on a slow dip into obscurity until Busch Entertainment Corporation bought it. They cleaned it back up and invested money, bringing on new attractions (and a new, related park, Aquatica). Not to mention - free beer.

And all of Busch Entertainment parks recently implemented some seriously green initiatives, like only purchasing fish (for animals and guests) from sustainable fisheries, switching to biodegradable plates, forks, knives and spoons, even removing recyclable materials from trash by hand. Not only green, but probably expensive - will the parks' new owners give a damn about the environment? Or the well-being of the animals?

As a beer enthusiast, I was already concerned about the InBev deal, and what it would mean for not only the beer, but the breweries located throughout the nation, including Jacksonville. As a park-goer, I'm seeing an even gloomier future.

Where in the world is Jen?

Not that I'm that prolific as a blogger, but I do realize that I've been missing for a while.

Kyle and I are in the process of buying a house. You can see it here: http://www.mmparrish.com/289728

They initially had it listed above our price range, so I hadn't seen it - I had all my searches on a pretty tight range, using Trulia.com and the best local site, MM Parrish/Coldwell Banker. Considering the current real estate market, Kyle suggested we look at some higher-priced homes; we might get a good deal.

This house had been suggested to us by our realtor before and I had ignored it, so it was first on the list for "expensive houses" to look at. It has everything we were looking for: older, concrete block, the part of town we want, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a nice, secluded backyard. For the first time, we were both equally excited - we loved it.

The day we looked at it, our realtor found out they were dropping the price to $217,900. (I wasn't going to mention numbers, and then realized if you actually go and look at the listing, you'll see the current price). That's $7K less, but still out of our price range. Fritz (our realtor) talked with the sellers' realtor and had good news - while they wouldn't accept $200K (what I wanted to pay for a house), they would probably meet us halfway, around $210K. It was intriguing. We decided to go for it - we offered $205K to give ourselves some negotiating room. Two days later - they accepted the initial offer!

We've had the inspections done, now we're fiddling over repairs. They didn't throw in any closing deals, which makes sense seeing that they had hoped for $225K originally!

The only big problem with the house is that the AC and water heater are 20 years old - big expenses. BUT the roof is brand new - that's a good thing. It was built in 1974, so there were bound to be some issues. I wanted a home built in the 60s or 70s - nothing from the 80s or 90s. It's (mostly) concrete block and it's in a lovely neighborhood. We still get a little traffic noise, but there's a retention pond (or something) behind us as a buffer.

And in the middle of all this, we went to Cancun for a week. Photos to come soon. It was wonderful, and wonderfully affordable. We basically crashed with some incredibly generous friends who own a time-share and I finally got around to using my SkyMiles for the flight. We did nothing - layed around in the pool or the ocean, drank Dos Equis and Pina Coladas, slathered on the SPF and enjoyed each other's company. These are the people who got married in Brazil last year, and we hadn't seen them since.

This weekend is Memorial Weekend and my birthday, so I will be making my annual trek east - the 20th Annual Blue Crab Festival is being held in my home town (every Memorial Weekend) and I've never missed one. Then it's on to St. Augustine for Reggae Sunday at the beautiful Conch House on Anastasia Island -yes, we have a hotel room for safety's sake - and the beach on Monday.

I've been tagged - I feel like a black bear or something

Bloggers are great at creating a virtual community and one way they do that is through tagging. Another blogger tags you and you're supposed to list ten random facts about yourself. Kim, my coworker and a great garden writer, sort of tagged me recently through e-mail, but I thought I'd post and link.

1. Two long trips: Both were transatlantic flights. In 2004, I went to London for a week with a group of people, including my best friend Janet. That was a seven-hour flight and the high point of that trip was seeing the Roman baths in nearby Bath. Last August I went with my boyfriend to Rio de Janiero for a wedding. Our summer is their "winter," so it wasn't as crazy and crowded as the Rio in our imaginations. That flight was roughly nine hours, and that's after driving from Gainesville to Miami - another five hours. Ugh. The highlights on that trip were the Christ statue on Corcovado mountain - awesome in the truest sense of the word - and hang-gliding, which I almost didn't do.

It's me! And the guy actually doing the work.







2. Two things I really enjoy doing: cooking and reading. I'm a results-oriented person; making something, having something to show for my efforts is incredibly fulfilling to me. To be able to create a meal and share with others is a fantastic feeling. I love it when people enjoy my cooking. Reading, on the other hand, is more of an obsession. I just can't stop myself. I'll read anything - other people's textbooks, random magazines laying around, etc. The web is a dangerous place for me. Cook's Illustrated feeds both passions.



3. Two things you want very badly at the moment: a house, and more time with my friends. My fiance and I (he went from b-f to fiance after Brazil) are currently house-shopping. We're looking for something affordable, with some space. That appears to mean, at least in Gainesville's ridiculously-priced market, something older. Which is fine by me - I prefer homes built no later than the 70s. They're built better, period. We're looking at two tomorrow!



I moved to Gainesville in July. In Jacksonville, I left behind four really wonderful friends. Because they all have children, time is a precious thing - we don't get to see each other that much. And my best friend is in Palatka, of all places. I miss her quite a bit. Most of the people I've met in Gainesville are a lot younger than me and already have a strong circle of friends. Thank goodness Kyle and I actually enjoy each other's company so much.



4. Three animals you have or have had: Two memorable pets are my parents' dog Benson, who is 14 years old. He has been my parents' security system for years, so I worry about what they'll do without 'ol Benson. The second is Blackie, a black Corgi mix that came to my parents and had a few memorable years in our household. But MY dog, my baby, that's Angus.



He lives with his "grandparents," that is, my ex's parents. That dog was my world.


5. Two favorite beverages: beer and Coke Zero. Those who know me have already been subjected to my ravings about beer. I like all sorts of beer: Guinness, Miller Lite, anything Sam Adams, Tucher, Old Chub, Red Hook Blonde . . . I could go on and on. And Coke Zero is my true guilty pleasure. A calorie-free liquid full of chemicals. Yum!

Because I write too much, I'm stopping at five. If anyone's made it this far, I'm sure they're exhausted. Enough!

Now I'm supposed to tag other blogs that I read and enjoy. Tagging etiquette says I should leave a comment on their blog, so that they know they've been tagged. Here are few of my favorites blogs:

• A List Apart - design, development, web content, focused on web standards and best practices.


• Alertbox - Web usability authority Jakob Nielsen's column


• Garden Living: Adventures with Children & Kids


• Cannas and Bananas: Creating a Bold Garden


• Florida Ecomania

(Since ALA and Alertbox are "professional" blogs, I won't be "tagging" them.)