Football Weather & Hog Heaven

Winter has returned to Texas after a few days that reached into the 80s. Winter for Texas is more like October for Pennsylvania, just without the foliage. I'm comfortable in a sweatshirt around the house. However those warm days (and more while Sarah and I were up north) have got our lawn all sprouting up. It's very little grass and a lot of clover and similar fast-growing vegetation. Our landlady tactfully informed us that we'd receive a bill from the city if we didn't keep it cut so earlier today Sarah and I bought our first mower.

Photo from Home Depot

Getting a human-powered mower may yet prove to be a poor decision, but it takes up a lot less space and a full-size gas mower would and I think it will be fine for our tidy little lot.

Perhaps you've been wondering what happened to the prolific beer reviewer who once posted here?  Well Sarah has been posting a lot of the day-to-day stuff that I might have wrote about before and I have decided to not include beer reviews on any of my motorcycle posts for what I hope are obvious reasons. I've been keeping pictures and notes on the brews I've tried since returning, so there is a cache I can draw from for future posts.  Today I bring you Hog Heaven's Barleywine-Style Ale.

Photo courtesy of Sarah's iphone

I got this off the shelf because it said "barleywine-style ale" which I expected to be a high ABV ale and maybe a gateway into the Barleywine style. Ha, far from it. The high ABV was certainly there, but this has more in common with IPA monsters than the more sedate ales I tend to favor. BC and Toby would both probably like this one, but I'll avoid it and the Barleywine style in general for a while.

So there's a football game tonight and, by the time I go to bed, either Tom Brady or Eli Manning will have another superbowl win to his name.  Ugh; the playoffs did not go my way and now I have to choose between two of the least appealing franchises.  I suppose Eli will get my grudging support; we Panthers can't have Bill O'Brien flashing a superbowl ring when he's recruiting around Pennsylvania.  Sarah and I are gonna make some Guacamole and drink some Modelo Especial and Shiner Bock for the game.