I've had this little guy before, but there's nothing little about it. It is a barleywine, after all. When you pour it in a glass the piny smell from the hops is suffocatingly strong -- not a bad thing. On the bottle Avery says it uses 2.5 pounds of Columbus hops per barrel. I'm guessing they aren't lying. Columbus hops average about 12 percent alpha acid, which is on the high end for hops. It's a deep amber color with a tannish head. Aggressively bitter from start to finish. This beer stays with you for eons. Each sip is like a delicious, mild whiskey shot, though at 9.2 percent alcohol, it settles much easier. It's also not whiskey, but the sensation is similar to me. The bite is strongest right in the middle and then it subsides, leaving you with the hoppy aroma that rises back to your nostrils as you breath out. I picked it up on sale at Whole Foods for about five bucks. I think it's normally about seven for a 1 pint, 6 ounce bottle. I held it up to the light to hopefully give you a good shot of the color.

Noelle Scaggs  has an incredible voice and her band kills it.  Below is some footage from Noelle Scaggs TV.  You can check all types of goodness by clicking the "shows" button at the top right. 

SCION METRO TOUR

July 20th:  w/ MOP & Connie Price & The Keystones @ Varsity Theater: Minneapolis, Minnesota 

July 21st:  w/ MOP & Connie Price & The Keysotnes @ Metro : Chicago, Illinois

July 23rd: w/  MOP & Connie Price & The Keystones @ Old Rock House: St. Louis, Missouri

*All shows on this tour are free with RSVP visit: www.scion.com/livemetro

IRELAND

August 1st- 3rd: Mantua Music & Arts Festival @ The Spieglent:  Ballinargare: Roscommon, Ireland

(for more info and ticket information visit: www.choicecutsonline.com)

LOS ANGELES:

August 14th:  w/ Dwele @ The Roxy: Hollywood, California  

(Advanced Tickets $20.50 visit: www.theroxyonsunset.com/dwele)

 Hey! The price of gasoline has dropped below $4 a gallon. Who can resist such a bargain?

But diesel is still way up there. What if you had to fill up this baby?

There is one good answer to this, public transit. Let’s take a look at the difference in cost.

Right after I took the shot of the pickup, the driver and his young son came out of the gas station’s convenience store. After mutual greetings, the conversation with the young daddy, a friendly man, went something like this.

  “Do you use this truck for work?”

  “Oh, no. It’s my play thing, but I do drive it to work.”

  “Any idea what gas mileage it gets?”

  “Not enough,” he answered with a smile.

  “How much?”

  “Oh, on the highway, about 18 miles to the gallon.”

 “That’s pretty good for a truck that size.”

  “Yeah, not bad. In town it’s about 13.”

  “What does it cost you to fill it up?”

   “About a hundred dollars.”

   “How often?”

   “Once a week.”

   “That means you are paying $400 a month for gas.”

   “Well, actually, 500.”

   “Do you plan to switch to a smaller vehicle?”

   “No. This one is paid for.”

   “What you are paying a month for gas amounts to a good car payment.”

    “That’s true, but this one is paid for, and even if I wanted to switch, I couldn’t get much of a trade-in for it now. The capital expense would mean I wouldn’t save by switching.”

  Just think, if he were still making payments on it, and paying for maintenance and repairs, it would be close to a thousand dollars a month.  

    Well, what if he used public transportation? In Columbus, at $2.50 a day for round trips to work, it would run him something like $55 dollars a month. That’s $55 compared to $500. In Atlanta, it would run him about $77. In New York, $88.

  Even if he considered taking a bus, he probably couldn’t because he probably lives in a suburb which has no public transportation.  I didn’t think to ask him, but the chances are high he does live in a suburb because so many people do. And that’s another big problem. It’s called sprawl and it’s all over America.

.

Das Baseball-Team in Columbus sind die Clippers und die sind nicht besonders berühmt. Sie spielen auch nicht in der amerikanischen Hauptliga, sondern in irgendeiner kleineren Liga. Das geringere Talent wird jedoch durch sehr familienfreundliche Eintrittspreise ($6 pro Ticket) sowie allerlei Extras wett gemacht. Baseball wird in mindestens neun Durchgängen gespielt (soviel ich weiß), und zwischen den Durchgängen gibt es Wettbewerbe für die Kinder, oder jemand wirft kostenlose Hamburger ins Publikum, oder jemand fährt mit der T-Shirt-Kanone übers Feld und schießt kostenlose T-Shirts in die (spärliche) Menge. Vor dem Spiel gab es außerdem Live-Musik und extra-billiges Fastfood vom Dollar-Menu: $1 Hot Dogs, Pulled Pork Sandwiches, kleines Bier, kleine Cola, Popcorn. Vor dem Spiel wird selbstverständlich die Nationalhymne gesungen, wozu alle aufstehen, auf die Flagge gucken und ihre Basball-Kappe absetzen. Oft gibt es auch was umsonst, gestern haben wir zum Beispiel alle eine alte Clippers-Kappe bekommen. Außerdem haben die Clippers drei "Runs" gemacht, weshalb wir nächste Woche noch mal gehen dürfen, kostenlos. Ihr seht schon, dass alles getan wird, um das doch eher leere Stadion zu füllen.

Trotzdem haben die Clippers gestern sogar gewonnen und in den zwei Durchgängen, in denen mal ein paar Punkte gemacht wurden, war die Stimmung auch sehr gut. In den sechs Durchgängen ohne Punkte war es deutlich langweiliger, und nach dem achten Durchgang sind wir, nach mehr als dreieinhalb Stunden (!) Spielzeit einen Durchgang vor Schluss dann auch gegangen. Das ist offenbar auch üblich, denn es waren höchstens noch die Hälfte der Leute da. Das Ergebnis war eh schon klar, dass das gegnerische Team, mit 1:10 zurückliegend nicht noch aufholen würde war abzusehen.

Fazit: Baseball wird nicht mein Lieblingssport, aber jetzt würde ich doch gerne mal ein professionelleres Spiel sehen - und ein Abend bei den Clippers ist ein sehr amerikanisches Erlebnis, das man gut mit Gästen wiederholen kann.

   Columbus buses run every hour. Marta buses have varying frequencies, some as long as a 30 minutes, depending on demand.  However, Atlanta’s trains run every 5 minutes on trunk lines and 10 minutes on branch lines during the rush hours. Atlanta wins that one hands down.

  An adult one-way fare on Marta is $1.75. On Metra, it’s $1.25.  Metra does charge $1.90 to Fort Benning.

  Senior citizens and disabled in Columbus pay $0.65 one way. In Atlanta it’s $0.85.

  Marta offers K-12 students ten trips for $10.50. Columbus students can get a monthly pass for $20.00.  So, if Metra student riders who use the monthly pass get a much better deal because that comes to about $5.00 a week.  

  Marta offers university students a $40 unlimited ridership for a month. Metra doesn’t specify whether the 31 Day Trip Card is for university students as well as K-12.

  As far as ridership is concerned, Metra averages almost a million boardings a year, while Marta averages about 140 million.

  . Columbus has 40 busses covering 9 routes. Marta has 544 buses covering 120 routes and 238 rail cars. Those 238 rail cars have more boardings than Marta’s 544 busses.

Marta serves a population of almost 2 million people. Columbus serves a base of almost 300 thousand.

  Marta’s overall ridership is up 14 percent over this time last year. Metra’s is up 7 percent so far over last year.

  What good are those comparisons? I don’t know. I guess they just tell us that it’s cheaper to ride Metra, but Marta’s service is more convenient. Some will say, well, it costs more to live, but pay is higher in the Atlanta area.  It appears pay is definitely higher, and maybe the costs are higher for shelter because real estate is higher, and so are property taxes, but I doubt if there is much difference in food and clothing. One thing is for sure, though, life is a lot less hectic in Columbus than in Atlanta.

Read it on the flyer. Another free show at Skullys. You know it's gonna go crazy when this joint comes on...

  I did something I haven’t done since 1949; I rode a Columbus city bus on a regular route just to see what it is like now. (I have ridden on chartered city busses since then.)  I took the Uptown route because it is the shortest one. I was not comfortable. The wooden seats were hard, really close together, and sometimes I wondered if the bus had any shocks or springs on it, but that was because the Uptown route uses only “trolleys,” busses that look like trolleys.

[caption id="attachment_169" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Metra Trolley Bus, 2008 "][/caption]

 Columbus, GA Trolley in 1900   Courtesy, Georgia Dept. of Archives and History

 Miss a bus at a stop now and you have to wait an hour before another one will come along. She says the system hopes to go to a half-hour between arrivals.  That is going to mean adding 15 new busses to the 40 the system now has, and hiring additional drivers and mechanics.  However, that cost will be offset by an increase in riders.

 With the price of gasoline expected to stay high and perhaps get higher, public transportation will, of necessity, make a big comeback. The question isn’t “if” but “how soon?” It took $4 a gallon gas to make people finally switch from their gas guzzling SUV’s and monster trucks to smaller, more fuel efficient cars. It is understandably hard to give up with convenience of cars. I can remember how liberated I felt once I got my first one and didn’t have to walk across the street – we did indeed , at one time live across the street from a bus stop -.to a bus stop and sometimes have to wait up to 15 minutes to catch a bus.  15 whole minutes! I still prefer my car, but I’m willing to switch. It would be a lot cheaper for me to ride the bus downtown from north Columbus, but the nearest stop is two miles away. Guess I could drive to the stop, but I’d have to have a place to park. So Metra has some kinks to work out before it can handle a big switch to buses, but it knows that and already has plans to make the changes.

Tonight at 10 PM sharp Grimers Adult Recreational Facilities and The Grip Media Productions bring you a double-hesh feature: Heavy Metal Parking Lot and The Dancing Outlaw.

I haven't seen The Dancing Outlaw in full, but judging from the clips I've seen we're all in for a big treat. Heavy Metal Parking Lot is a 30 minute documentary shot in a parking lot before a Judas Priest concert. That is all you need to know. Here are a few clips. If you watch them and don't show up you're dead to me.

  When Saundra Hunter went for her regular workout at a spa, she noticed that a fellow exerciser’s husband was waiting for her in his car. Her friend, who has to pay $100 to fill up her SUV, explained that she leaves it at home a lot now.  She said that it just costs too much to fill it up, adding, “We have stopped going everywhere in separate cars very much. He even takes me to work and picks me up when I get off.”

   There is another even cheaper way to get around town: Metra busses. Some folks have figured that out, and ridership is up. Saundra, who is director of Metra, said it has already increased 7 percent over last year. Metra customers average about 82,000 rides a month.

“I expect that trend to continue and we’ve been getting ready for it.”

  Who rides the bus?

   “The low income, or ‘dedicated,’ group is the majority. However, we are getting more ‘riders of choice’ now.”

  “Dedicated” is a nice way of saying they can’t afford cars or taxis. “Riders of choice” means they can, but opt not to, because too much of their income is going to pay for gas.

  Not only is this group going to grow, it is a positive thing if it does, we agreed. Mass transit is not just cheaper, it’s much more fuel efficient if enough people use it, and it leaves a smaller carbon footprint.

  However, to encourage more riders of choice, some improvements will need to be made. For one thing there is too much time between busses. You miss one and the next one won’t be along for an hour. Metra has plans to start running busses every half hour. That’s not going to be cheap.

  “We’ll have to buy 15 new busses, and hire more drivers and support personnel,” Saundra told me.  Metra now owns about 40 busses, with more than 20 in operation at any given time.  

   I told her that when I was a boy, back in the 1930’s and 1940’s, busses were ubiquitous, arriving at bus stops every fifteen minutes and bus stops were within easy walking distance of most places.  My family had a car, but my dad used it in his business so I ended up riding the bus a lot.  I had a lot of company. A lot of families didn’t even have one car back then.

  Also, I walked and rode my bike a lot. People tried to live close to relatives, schools and shopping areas then. Instead of supermarkets that were two miles or more away, you had the neighborhood grocery store. Also, you could order groceries on the phone and they would be delivered to your door! Really! I think there was a minimum amount that you could order to get the service, though.

 I was a short city block away from 11^th Street Elementary School; a block and a half from an aunt, uncle and four cousins; and about four blocks away from three movie theaters and retails stores. But, if I wanted to go all the way out to the Royal Theater, which was about two miles away,  or over to Idle Hour Park in Phenix City to go swimming, play arcade games, bowl or play on the playground (I broke my leg on that playground) , I took the bus.

 When I started to go to high school, I took the bus. The stop was across the street from 11^th Street Elementary, which was even a little closer to our house than the school.

   Also, a big difference then was that the busses were operated by a private company. They could make a profit. That, like Scarlett’s Old South, went with the wind.  Transit systems are municipally owned and they don’t make a profit. “There are no public transit systems that are not subsidized by the government any more,” Saundra told me.

So public transit is on the way to making a comeback. It is going to require a different mindset, not only on the part of potential riders, but governmental leaders. Everyone is still thinking in terms of cars and roads.

În trecut: am fo' joi până în sat cu ai mei, să-mi vizitez bunicii. De când m-am paraşutat de la Chişinău nu am mai mers aşa că nu am putut refuza oferta. Când îmi văd bunicul de peste 80 de ani (aş fi zis exact vârsta da nu ştiu câţi ani are precis) vioi şi plin de viaţă făcând câte o glumă în fiecare frază îmi doresc şi eu să trăiesc până la 99 de ani (după 99 de ani eşti chiar bătrân şi ramolit). Iată o maximă de pe maşină când mă întorceam cu ai mei:

Mami: Uită-l pe prietenu' ăla a' tău!
Tati: Care?
Mami: Nu ăla care are grijă de porci, ci celălalt.
Pepe: =)) =)) =))

Revenim la prezentul de ieri: după ce am terminat cu betoanele, pe la vreo 7 PM, am parazitat pe la mine pe-acasă. Seară beton! Am redescoperit Gin-ul. Licoarea vieţii, care ne-a alimentat (pe mine şi pe Shmen), atâţia ani. Lucrurile nu mai sunt cum au fost, din păcate nici măcar aproape. O' rupt Columbus aseară, am dansat dinnou (de data asta şi Alexandra a fost de vină, pe lângă Cristina) şi am băut două White Russian veritabile (plus 4 beri). Mulţumesc Vlad!

Campionatul nu mai e aşa de interesant de când toată lumea e conştientă că Timea este câştigătoarea. Oricum mai sunt puţine etape din ediţia asta (adică două) şi din ediţia viitoare băgăm face-lift.

Vineri pe primul loc Gaby - "nu conteaza cat de des bei ci conteaza ca atunci cand bei nu te mai opresti", pe doi Calin - "rupere de ham la modu' penal" şi pe trei Nadina - "din cenaclu… asa-I viata la birou".

..:: Divizia A Dreamfactory la Statusuri ::.. şi ..:: Divizia B Euphoria la Statusuri ::..

Clasament Provizoriu | ETAPA 32

Loc	Nume	Puncte		Loc	Nume	Puncte
1	Timea	52		1	George	1
2	Gica	36		2	Alexandra T	1
3	Seby	29		3	Bentze	1
4	Pitic	24		4	Emilia	1
5	Emi	20		5	Sheff	0
6	Andreea	17		6	Alex	-7
7	Tuca	16		7	Jim	-100
8	Rares	16
9	Oana	11
10	Calin	6
11	Gaby	6
12	Nina	5
13	Ovi	5
14	Emi TM	4
15	Nadina	3
16	Ramona	3
17	Tanya	3
18	Cristina	3

 Related Posts sau linkuri care au legătură cu ăsta:

Reguli Divizia A la Statusuri
Disclaimer
Cum sa devii portocaliu
Poze Pepe
Despre Pepe

All I have to say is shout out to the winner, AKA the chick from COLUMBUS OHIO! I hope you kick everyone else's punk rawk ass.

So the first year we watched from high up across the river, marveling at the fireworks until I started to notice our wonderful city firemen on the COSI roof hosing down hot embers dropping on the building. (Don't ask me why you'd spend millions on a new science center and then drop hot fireworks on top of it every year!). So I couldn't focus on the fireworks for the rest of the fireworks display, just the firemen and their hoses on our roof (thank goodness they were there!).

People must have heard the cheer from my office when I found out the fireworks were temporarily moved upstream to the Vets Memorial property and COSI was actually out of the "drop zone." This gave us our first chance since opening to experiment with hosting special events at COSI and test the view and the experience.

A corporate party and COSI team member special event tested the evening and the viewing. I can tell you the COSI lawn (from both front and back) were great viewing spots. A little video I took on my cell phone is attached which very modestly gives an idea of how good the view was - but misses the physical energy of the explosions you felt at actually being still close to the power of the fireworks. (Our COSI team members do a nice job of explaining explosions in our Science of Fireworks show at COSI try to catch one next time you come.)

I think we've got a winner here for Red, White, and Boom events/viewing as long as the fireworks can stay relocated, giving folks a great way to spend the evening at COSI with prime viewing spots once the festivities begin! I know our events department is already taking calls for next year-so maybe I'll see you here :)

El 20/07 Partido amistoso entre West Ham vs Columbus Crew

:)

To begin, I have to show the centerpieces. Initially the bride wasn't sure how all the elements would work together, but in the absolutely gorgeous and ornate venue of the Columbus Athletic Club, they were perfect. Especially as the night went on the candles reflected off the water and gave the whole table a glow which was lovely.

The reception venue itself was pretty spectacular. There were beautiful chandeliers and ornate woodwork everywhere you turned, so the room didn't need much decoration. The cake was pretty as well as delicious, and I loved all the personal touches like the groom's cake, family picture tables, and signature turquoise cocktail.

I have to say, though, that my favorite piece of the wedding (and therefore item that I am most likely to steal) was the bride's adorable parasol. It also turned out to be extremely practical because they got completely bombed with birdseed coming out of the church. I can see why more couples are using bubbles or sparklers, but if it makes for pictures like this, I think it's all worth it.

Congratulations you guys!!!