socialy retarded

The Golden Dirty Thirty (Saturday May8th)

Posted on 04. May, 2010 by Derrick.

This party is to celebrate Derrick’s and Annika’s golden birthdays. Derrick will be 30 on the 30th and Annika will be 27 on the 27th.

The party is “Dress like a catholic school girl”. It is not mandatory, but your hosts Floyd, Derrick, and Will will be dressed up in skirts. Please dress up, because if you don’t, you’ll make us look like idiots.

As always, the party is at our house aka “the man cave”. If you have never been to my house, you can RSVP on our Facebook events page or just comment at the bottom of the page and I’ll email you our address (make sure to fill in your email when you do comment)

We will have several good beers on tap. Since Sierra Nevada is turning 30 this year, and so am I, we are going with a beer theme. Sierra Nevada Summerfest, and Sierra Nevada’s “Old ale”. Old ale is so rare that only 35 people have reviewed it on Ratebeer.com and beeradvocate.com (Don’t ask me how I got it, cause if I told you, I’d have to kill you). I’ll even get a 1/4 barrel of Coors light to satisfy the non craft beer idiots (I mean that in the nicest way)

Summerfest is a delightfully refreshing example of a traditional style lager beer. While lighter in body than our ales, Summerfest displays significant hop aroma and a tangy hop bite. The long lagering period adds a smoothness that makes this beer a great summertime treat.

Old Ale is a blend of Imperial Stout aged eleven-months in oak bourbon barrels, and our malty Scotch Ale. This black beer has an intense aroma of roasted malt with pronounced vanilla and toasted coconut notes from wood aging. The flavor is smooth and bittersweet, with hints of caramel, toffee, and mocha. This full-bodied beer is filled with deep, rich and warming flavors.

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Bull shit

Posted on 21. Apr, 2010 by Derrick.

For some time many of us have wondered who is Jack Shit? We find ourselves at a loss when someone says, You dont know Jack Shit? Well, thanks to my efforts you can now respond in an intellectual way. Jack Shit is the only son of Awe Shit who married O Shit. In turn Jack Shit married Noe Shit.The couple had 6 children: Holie Shit, Giva Shit, Fulla Shit, Bull Shit, and the twins Deep Shit and Dip Shit. Deep Shit married Dumb Shit, a high school dropout. After 15 years, Jack and Noe Shit got divorced and she married Ted Sherlock and became Noe Shit Sherlock. Meanwhile, Dip Shit married Lota Shit and had a rather nervous disposition named Chicken Shit. Fulla Shit n Giva Shit married the Happens brothers in a double wedding. The newspaper invited everyone to the Shit-Happens wedding. Bull Shit traveled the world and returned home with an italian bride. Pisa Shit. So from now on, no one can
tell you that you dont know Jack Shit…

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Inaugerate me into sour beers!

Posted on 03. Mar, 2010 by Derrick.

Sour beers is where it is at my little readers. They are wild and bold but clever.  Sour beer is like that girl you just can’t tame but you go back to time and time again without regard. This was reminded to me recently of Shakespeare’s “Taming of the shrew”

Petruchio. I say it is the moon.
Katharin. I know it is the moon.
Petruchio. Nay, then you lie; it is the blessed sun.
Katharin. Then God be bless’d, it is the blessed sun:  But sun it is not when you say it is not,  And the moon changes even as your mind.  What you will have it nam’d, even that it is; And so, it shall be.

Sour beer fest was the shrew and I was Petruchio trying desperately to get my palate to grasp all the nuances that were swirling around my little mouth. We had over 64 sour beers at our disposal and like a child in a candy store I had no idea what I wanted.

We were given 20 tickets to try 20 beers but I found that most of the volunteers didn’t give two shits whether I gave them a ticket. I may or may not have had more than my fair share. (Adam if by chance you read this, sorry). Of the beers I tried, I’ll give you my top ten.

1. Lost Abbey, Veritas 007 – Sour ale with Cabernet franc grapes, This beer (as I was told) was derived from Isabelle Proximus
2. Lost Abbey , Duck Duck Gooze – Nothing needs to be said about this one.
3. Jolly Pumpkin, Lambicus Dexterious –  A completely spontaneously fermented ale.
4. Avery brewing, Voltron – Dark, Tannic, sour blend from five barrels.
5. The Bruery, Oued Tart – Flemish red ale
6. Cascade brewing, Sang Noir – Bourbon barrel aged sour red with bourbicid and cherries added
7. Avery brewing, Vogelbekdieren – Blend of three sour beers from five barrels
8. Russian River, Supplication – Brown ale aged in pinot noir barrels.
9. Mountain Sun, Dirtry Justice – Strong Belgian red ale aged in merlot barrels with bugs
10. Cascade brewing, Nightfall Blackberry – Sour blondes aged with nightfall blackberries

So to the Pictures. Of which I didn’t take my usual 400 only 60 this time (as I’m sure that the people of sour beer fest appreciated)

Is this next picture of a raptor? I think it is!

After my soiree with my beer geek buddies, I headed out for some food with some of my favorite people of all time. The little sister, her Fiance’, and bonus BFF Soren went for some mediterranean food at the Med. It was fucking amazing after all the sour beers I had. We had close to twelve “Tapas” and mowed down on all that was seen.

It was an amazing night hanging out with friends and family.

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Great American Bicycling Beer Tour

Posted on 24. Feb, 2010 by Derrick.

Significant changes in life opens new doors and new open doors leads to interesting twists. Recently I’ve changed the direction in where my life was going. More to the point I’ve been fired, and instead of continuing my career I’ve decided to start new.

I’m now an hourly employee, working at one of Denver’s largest liquor stores. I’m their “beer guy”. I’ve got a resource of over 1000 beers to study, and a bunch more time on my hands. So to enhance the legitimacy of my endeavor I’ve decided to include a few things on my bicycling beer tour resume.

I want to become a certified Cicerone and certified beer judge from BJCP. For most of you that read my blog, this doesn’t mean shit, but to a few of you, you know that these carry a bit of weight. I’m hoping that this opens some doors while I’m making my visits that previously I wouldn’t get.

I’ve also started my donation page for Athletes for a cure. They are run by the Prostate Cancer Research foundation. I’m going to be bringing my fathers ashes with me and spreading them along the way. He passed away because of Prostate cancer and I want to try and raise $100k for the foundation. With 1 in 6 men being effected by Prostate cancer, awareness and money is going to go a long way to defeating this scary disease.

On to more practical matters. The actual rout and breweries I’m going to.

The Breweries. Originally I was going to avoid Sam Adams, but decided, what the hell. So I’m going to start the tour at Sam Adams and then head over to Harpoon brewery. After Amherst I’m going to be hitting  the Northampton Brewery, making my way up to Pittsfield Brew works then over to Brown’s Brewing co for our first stop in NY

The route. From what I can tell, the riding is going to beautiful, hilly, and winding. This is the second leg planned and has about 94 miles. I’m using a 100 mile block concept for legs of the tour. That way I can upload only sections to my GPS instead of trying to upload the entire route.

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Guinness and Cleo “the face”

Posted on 12. Feb, 2010 by Derrick.

I started a series of videos showing Guinness (my dog) and Cleo (roommates cat) who have fallin for each other. This is the second video of the series.

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Rub some snow on it

Posted on 22. Jan, 2010 by Derrick.

Thursday

I initially went into the Doctors office for a minor infection. After my mini physical, the doctor prescribed me an antibiotic and instructed me to quit drinking booze. As I was getting my pants on to leave, Doc commented on a contusion on my shin with a noticeable scab. I told him it wasn’t a big deal and was just painful when the dog’s tail smacks it. It’s a little swollen still and looks like someone took a divot out of my leg with a little melon-baller.

I explained to him the circumstances on how it happened. That I had a chance to snowboard 48 inches of fresh pow. That I turned on my toe edge to have cought my shin on a bolder hiding under the snow. That it hurt like a mother, but I didn’t cry(just complained).

At that moment, he grabbed my big toe and pushed it up towards the ceiling. I about sharted my pants it hurt so bad.

After prodding it some more with objects made from a medieval torture plan, He exclaimed that I had a large hematoma of the anterior tibialis. When I showed him the picture of my leg following the accident he said those are classic signs of anterior tibialis compartment syndrome. That’s when there is increased pressure within the muscular compartment. I told him “well duh, it looks like a grape fruit exploded in my shin.” This would be the reason I felt a slight numbing in my foot following the accident. My shin swelled so much it was cutting the circulation off.

He told me I was stupid for snowboarding 5 more runs after I had injured myself, I opinioned that I had only hurt myself. A small argument was then issued over the definition of “hurt vs injured.” Meanwhile the assistant had called over to Swedish medical center to find out if they could get me in for a CT, and referred me to an advanced orthopedic sports medicine specialist.

I made my appointment for Friday with the sports specialist guy and headed over to Swedish.

Once at Swedish, I headed for the radiology department and was met with about 15 forms to sign. They asked me if I was allergic to some chemical that I didn’t know of, so I marked “no”. That chemical was a contrast agent to help them evaluate if I’ve bruised my bone. When the contrast agent was injected, it made me feel all warm, like I was peeing myself. Very odd sensation.

The radiologist wouldn’t tell me if anything was wrong and said that they would send the results to the specialist.

Friday

15 more pages to fill out and I get to talk with sports Doc. He explains to me that I have trabecular microfracture of the lateral tribial platuau(TMLTP). I’m a little confused what the difference is between trabecular microfracture of the lateral tribial platuau and a bone bruise but then again I’m having a hard time keeping up with him in the first place.

This is what I gathered from him. Bone is comprised of small fibers which the body lays down in a kind of cross hatch pattern. It is this cross hatch pattern of fibers which then fills in with calcium to produce the strength inherent in a bone. When I struck my tibia, I broke some of these fibers. If I had broken enough of these fibers, my tibia would have separated and it would have been a fracture instead of a (TMLTP). He said that if I strike the area again after it is partially healed, I would be damaging new, poorly protected fibers that my body has just laid down. Thus, my body will have to stop its rebuilding process in the re-damaged area and remove these fibers and the associated calcium before it can resume rebuilding. That would add significantly increased healing time. He said that there isn’t a lot of current evidence, but in his opinion, if I don’t give it a couple months that I may have some degenerative tissue changes in that area that could lead to future ACL injuries. He also thinks that without proper rest that something like this can lead to arthritis of the joint near the affected area.

ACL injuries? Arthritis? Posible longer healing times? I was ashen and then he got to the point I was trying to avoid.

He is also concerned that my constant use of my legs has created a possible lateral tear of the meniscus. He wanted me to do another MRI to confirm if I needed a partial meniscetomy or if rehab would be enough. If I had the surgery it would require a 2-4 week recovery, and then a brace for the rest of the season.

Unfortunately only time will tell. His recommendation : Give it till the beginning of march and do a CT/MRI again to see what it looks like. If better, then I can resume snowboarding and triathlon training. If my tibia isn’t healed by then, he wants me to give it 6 months to recover. This would be a total avoidance of all activities (July time frame). This treatment would kill my snowboarding season, it would kill the Leadville 100, it would kill the MS 150, and it would kill any chances I have to do a half Ironman. It would essentially kill me. 6 months without being active??? What the hell am I going to do?

As far as doing a meniscetomy, If I can endure the pain (I have for years) I’m not doing any surgery that I can put off. However if I don’t do anything about it, he said that it can become complicated to try and fix years down the road.

The good news. I get to ride my road bike all I want and swim all I want for the next 6 weeks.

Sadly, I’m going to miss somewhere around 8 days of snowboarding/skiing. I won’t be able to make my 30 days on the slopes like I had wanted. I’m not sure how missing 6 weeks of running is going to affect my training. Lastly, Guinness is getting pleasantly plump and I can’t take him on any hikes in the next month and a half.

But if I don’t lay off my leg, He may prescribe 6 months of rest. I’d rather him chop my leg off.

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