Sam Adams, Paul Revere and beer

Two weeks ago, on my birthday, Geoff surprised me with tickets to see Wicked this October! I couldn’t believe it! I’d given him no hints (last year we agreed to get Kindles on our birthdays, so it wasn’t a surprise) and he definitely pulled through. He told me, however, that another gift was coming a week later. I was excited, but had no idea what could be coming. No idea.

A week later I came home to this:

Yes, that’s Paul Revere, holding a mug of Sam Adams beer. For some reason Paul Revere is the Sam Adams logo.

 

In case you can’t tell, he’s life size. That’s 6 feet of Paul Revere, standing in my garage.

A little backstory. Earlier in the summer I was poking around online and came across this. He’s only $25, and my sister and I joked about how much we needed him in our lives. At the time she was still living in LA, but moving soon, so we joked about how we could possibly order him ASAP, ship him to a friend, and get him when she moved back to Chicago. It didn’t pan out, because, despite the fact that I believe that’s an excellent price for something that could provide hours of entertainment (think of how I could scare people when they walked in with him!) I never got around to ordering him.

So when I saw that Geoff bought him for my birthday, all I could do was laugh. I walked in, told him he’s silly, and he just smiled, and pointed behind me. To this:

We refer to him as “Living Room Sam”.

And then there was this:

And this:

Excuse the laundry drying in the background!

 

And, finally, this:

He was hanging out in my closet.

At first I turned to Geoff and asked him why in the world he ordered $125 worth of cardboard Sam/Paul Reveres. I mean, really. I was quite upset at first.

Until he told me that it’s apparently a pack of 5. That’s right, for $25 you get FIVE “Sam Standees”. I had no idea. Nowhere in the description did it prepare me for this!

So now we have 5 Paul Revere/Sams floating around our house. And they move. It’s actually quite interesting. For example, the other night I put 3 of them in the doorways in our hall. The office, guest room and bathroom. Totally scared Geoff and creeped him out. It was excellent. Throughout the day I’m constantly catching him out of the corner of my eye. I have about 5 mini heart attacks a day.

Worth the $25? You bet.

{Side note: we won’t be keeping them all. I already have plans to give away one, possibly two of them. Because really, why does anyone need FIVE of these things??}

ER. And 2005.

I love Netflix. It allows me to watch TV in it’s correct order. Lost. Dawson’s Creek. Psych. Grey’s Anatomy. Don’t judge me for my TV choices.

I just finished watching all 7 seasons of Boy Meets World. Boy was that a blast from the past. I loved seeing them grow and change through the years. The characters are only 2 years older than me, so it was a favorite show growing up.

Yesterday I started ER. The moment the disc was inserted the opening music started. All of a sudden it was 2006 again.

I was sitting in my bedroom, it was summer and I was working at Dunkin Donuts. TNT used to show a series of shows starting at 9. From 9-10 was Charmed, but from 10-12 were 2 episodes of ER. Usually I was working from 5-12 pm, but on my days off I slept in, rolled out of bed somewhere between 9 and 10 and started watching ER. Two episodes later it was noon, and about time for me to get my day started. I’d head out, grab Bagel World and go get my best friend, who sleeps like the dead and sleeps a lot. Usually she was up and moving by the time I got there, and I’d have lunch and coffee for us.

Those were the days. I wasn’t depressed, I’d just graduated from college and I hadn’t met Geoff yet. My days were consumed with attending Little League sports games for a paper I was freelancing for, working at Dunkin Donuts and my best friend. Life was perfect.

I met Geoff in December, and by May of 2006 I was working full time for a newspaper. Gone were the days of watching ER and getting lunch. Gone were the days of spending hours with my best friend, working on our scrapbooks and watching the Lifetime man-hating movie of the week, as one of my good friends calls it.

I had no idea how wonderful those days were until I heard the opening tones of the ER theme music. All of a sudden I wanted nothing more than to get those hot, summer days back. The lesson? Hold onto the precious moments. The moments that make you happy, even if they aren’t big things. Because someday, 7 years down the line you’ll look back and miss them.

 

 

Bellingham brewery tour!

A few weekends ago we decided to head north 2 hours to Bellingham to visit a few breweries. This plan started as an overnight trip to Portland, but we decided instead to just do a day trip, since schedules weren’t permitting the overnight trip.

Our first stop was our favorite of the day, Boundary Bay! We tried a sampler and had lunch. I decided my favorite was, surprisingly, the Scotch ale, which is unusual for me as I don’t typically like Scotches!

 

The inside was a mixture of nautical decorations. It was different, and the food was good, if small portions (we shared a pizza). We decided to get a growler and filled it with the Scotch Ale.

 

Our next stop was Chuckanut Brewery. This one was small and tucked away, but the beer was good.

 

Next was Kulshan Brewery. Yes, we did get samplers at (almost) all the breweries, and Geoff and I shared them. We also spent 8 hours visiting 5 breweries, so we spread out our drinking! Don’t think we’re alcoholics…this was a very unusual weekend!

I didn’t like the beers at Kulshan. I made Geoff get his own sampler because I knew there was only one I’d like…a pale ale. The rest were too dark for me!

Nice sign, but I wasn’t impressed inside.

Next, we visited North Sound Brewing Company. The beer was pretty good here, and the bartender working was very nice. There was a beer festival going on in the same town so there was virtually no one there, which was nice too.

 

We had a sampler here, but none blew my skirt up, as it were.

Our last stop of the day (and dinner) was Skagit River Brewery. The food was good, and the beer was too. We filled our growler with their lager, since I love a good lager and not many breweries make lagers around here, for some reason.

 

So there you have it. Eight hours, 5 breweries, lots of beer. Oh, and a glass at each brewery! We have so many now that we’ve decided to limit our collecting to glasses we think are especially nice looking or from somewhere not around here.

 

Where samplers range from $6-10 and glasses $3-5, it really isn’t an expensive hobby! There most definitely could be worse hobbies to have, I suppose!

Obligatory August goals and September goals

I don’t really know why the posting hasn’t been happening lately. It may be partially because I’ve been exhausted by the end of summer, but that’s not much of an excuse. At any rate, I have posts planned for this week, so I’m trying to get back into the swing of things!

Anyway, here are my August goals and subsequent September goals!

August:

1. Go to the gym 3 times a week This was a success for the most part. The last week of August I didn’t get to the gym once. I was disappointed because I broke a 22 week in a row streak, but I was just downright exhausted! I guess the last week of camp does that to a person.

2. Finish those damn chairs Done! Post coming soon!

3. Make homemade ice cream! Done!

4. Finish the front garden and start on the back Done! Well, technically we started the back yesterday, in September, but at least the front is done! (That post is only an update, but trust me, it is 100% done!)

5. Go on a picnic with Geoff  Not done 😦

6. Visit 5 new breweries Done! Post on our brewery weekend coming soon!

6. Read The Great Gatsby Also done!

What a successful month, if I do say so myself. I either picked easy goals or was very successful this month.

Here are my September goals:

1. Make $100 in “side hustle” (AKA selling stuff online)

2. Reach end of month weight goal (I set one every month and have been relatively successful thus far!)

3. Clean bathroom once a week (must get on housework since I’ll be part time again!)

4. Get half the back flowerbed ready for winter and mulched (up to the tree)

5. Clean miscellaneous boxes from garage…find new homes and donate stuff if necessary

6. Paint guest bedframe white

7. Improve cedar chest in some manner (we have a lovely chest inherited from Geoff’s grandmother that needs some upgrading)

I think that’s more than enough to work on!