Consequences... Smonsequences!

So the good people here in the Vermont senate made news yesterday by refusing to allow the Vermont Public Service Board to re-up the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant for a new 20 year license when their existing one expires in 2012. The vote was 26-4. now this in and of itself is not a bad thing. Entergy who runs the plant has been pretty shady. They have lied and deceived and there is a f*cking tritium leak. BUT... what bugs me about politicians in general and ours specifically is the zeal with which they put into their sweeping votes with no thought whatsoever as to the consequence of the vote. WCAX reports (and most of this is corroborated by multiple sources such as EIA and ISO) that VT Yankee produces 628 megawatts of power, 280 of which is used in VT. This is more than 1/3rd of the power we use in VT. The plant also employs 660 Vermonters at an average salary of $81K. Further the plant pays annual taxes of $49mm and another $19mm into the state's clean energy fund. Where do we replace all of this? Has a backup plan been thought of? Could VT Yankee been repaired, modernized, anything?! Well, hippies... either we are going to need a shit ton more wind and sun over the next 20 years or we are going to have to lock all of the hippies in the old Yankee plant and harvest their smug sense of self satisfaction to power the state. Jobs and taxes we are still screwed!

Monkey Business

Let's start the week right!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtjMOffC6dM

OK, now that we are in a good place. What an exciting hockey game between the Canucks and USA USA USA!!!! The Canadian team definitely looked like the better team but the Americans showed a ton of heart and the goalie Miller played out of his mind. Kessel diving to poke in the empty netter was symbolic of the effort these guys gave. Really fun to watch. Of course only if you have CNBC or the Canadian channel because after showing the Russia/Chech game earlier and then setting it up w/ a long special about the Miracle on Ice... NBC decided to go in another direction and show Ice Dancing. Ice Dancing. What the F***?!?!?!?! Who watches ice dancing? Besides TH over here but I mean, you know, he is a good guy, we are just done professionally.

So we went to a party hosted by some very generous friends over at the Bluebird Tavern and again they really came through w/ delicious food. It is terribly heavy though (and a little salty). I am still clearing out my arteries as we speak. A little more vegetable matter would do wonders. All in all it was fun though.

Saturday we started the day w/ a walk in the park behind our house and then I busted open the beer kit my lovely wife got for me for Christmas. It was a lot of steps and everything needs to be super clean. I am not sure how the yayos at say Magic Hat do it. I mean if you think of the history of booze you think of hillbillies and back yard stills that are anything but clean. Meanwhile I have to sterilize my cat before I can brew beer anywhere in the house!!! It is kind of fun though and when the beer starts to ferment it is quite rewarding. I have my fingers crossed the final product will be drinkable.

Saturday night we hit the town w/ friends. Dinner at Madeira's was fine if unremarkable. I had green chili enchiladas w/pork and a so so margarita. It is VT Mexican food. The real capper though was a trip to Trattoria Delia for after dinner drinks. We were set up at a little table in front of the fake fire and made it happen w/ a combination of homemade limonchello, sambuca, sweet wine, espresso and finally this thing called Gravo or Grollo or something w/ a G. It was a hand carved wooden bowl w/ multiple spouts and filled w/ espresso, liqueur, and orange wheels. It is passed around and is delicious and fun. Of course the asshole that I am, I was first up to taste. The waitress said it was overfull and told mt the lid was a little loose. I held the lid but still managed to pour the hot liquid all over the front of myself. Go Jay!!! Always makin' it classy!!! 2 huge thumbs up, it was really entertaining.

Now if you will excuse me, NBC is showing 6000 meter snow walking prelims...

Triple Axel Time!!!

I have to admit, I have never exactly been a huge fan of the Olympics and the winter Olympics really were not on my radar. This year though I am all up in the Vancouver mix!! Overall I have enjoyed the games even though by all accounts Vancouver has been a shit show this year, from the torch lighting snafu to the ice clearing mess, and of course a guy died! A few quick thoughts... that downhill ski course is insane! I loved watching the women's downhill because the ones who made it were great and so fast, and on the flip side there were some great crashes! Men's snowboard half pipe is much better than the women, they just get much more air. Shawn White may be a giant douche but he is a great snowboarder. Most snowboarders are douchey anyway (and I am a boarder) so I guess it goes w/ the territory. I watched a youtube video of pairs ice skating wipeouts. It is a pretty intense sport when you think about it, girls flying in the air above super hard ice, spinning around w/ someone else's skate spinning feet from your face! I have been watching and have a whole new appreciation. I especially enjoyed the pair is the super tight shiny blue outfits. You really need to be dressed like a freak if the announcers say your outfits are inappropriate in that sport. Men's solo skating is like a $2 bill though. Nice pink sparkly sweater vest d-bag! The moguls are pretty crazy too. How do you not blow out a knee on every run? It is such impact! Luge? Uh, yeah, kind of dangerous. Olympic hockey is great too. And curling? It is the best thing I have ever seen (while at work, pretending to, uh, I mean working super hard!!). I am enjoying it all, 2 thumbs up.

On a separate note, we tried out the new chef at The Daily Planet last week. The food was pretty good. I had a short rib sloppy joe that I liked. The gnocchi was good, there was also a very rich but flavorful polenta dish. The one downside is that the service while nice was slow as molasses... 30 minutes before we got our first beer. Oh yeah, the room we were in was about 102 degrees as well. Overall pretty good, may make it into the rotation 1 1/2 thumbs up. We also had brunch at the Bluebird Tavern on Sunday which I really enjoyed. I had a fantastic sticky bun, and then a very solid mushroom toast w/ a poached egg (slightly underdone). My special lady a shrimp and grits that was a little too rich for a main course, she was only so so on it. Another good showing though and the place was pretty busy. Good form.

And boom goes the dynamite!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W45DRy7M1no

Comin' in Hot!!!

I was stuck behind some yayo this morning on Rt. 7. Was her slow speed in the passing lane the thing that really made my day? Nope... it was the "I'd Rather be Flying a Dragon" sign on the rear windshield! Can you imagine flying a dragon at 35MPH through a 45MPH zone in The Shire?! F*in A** right you can't!!!!

I received a notice from CitiBank last week informing me that they were going to start charging me an annual fee on my credit card. This was my first credit card, I have been a member in good standing since 1994. The card has my damned high school photo on it for F* sake! Funny aside, when people look at it they often look at me funny, I had a bit of hair back then... but was much less rugged good looky-ness. OK, back to the main story. I also have my house mortgage w/ CitiBank. I use the card regularly, and I always pay it off on time. You would think I would be an ideal customer but in the messed up way credit cards work, they prefer someone who is a bit of a crappy customer. They make money on late pay fees. In essence, they are the ultimate idiot investor vulture. I called to tell them I would be cancelling the card if they did not nix the fee. They told me there was nothing they could do... I told them to go F* themselves! Stupid bank. 2 huge thumbs down.

The International... Yup, it sucks in multiple languages! Just kidding, it is a ridiculous action movie that uses huge brush strokes to take pot shots the investment industry. Naomi Watts probably hates HD TV. 1 thumb sideways.

OK, I need to bail but there will be more, oh yes, much much more!!!!

In the Dictonary Under... BLAND!!!

So I have a few things to spout off about but while I am "hard at work" I am lucky enough to be able to present a snippet from my Special Lady on her birthday! Enjoy...

Greetings readers of JAT, this post is brought to you courtesy of MrsBird reporting on a dining outing in Vermont this past weekend. Before I begin, I’d like to make clear that MrBird has a track record of excellent birthday party planning, so this weekend’s experience was rather out of the ordinary.
MrBird proposed a dinner out this past Saturday to commemorate my birthday, but since Sunday was the most grotesque of all holidays, Valentine’s Day and Monday was President’s Day, our first and second choice locations were booked. But he was able to reserve a table at Mary’s in Bristol. Mary’s was a favorite ‘special spot’ during our college years – somewhere good to go when your parents were in town or in the 1 in 40,000 chance you might actually have a date. We haven’t eaten there in year , but it’s a cozy, quaint spot that boasts strong relationships with local farms and providers.
When we arrived there was another couple waiting to be seated. And waiting, and waiting. While I can’t definitely say how long we waited before someone waited on us, it was long enough that two other parties had come in behind us and were also waiting crammed into the restaurant’s entryway. Finally, someone acknowledges us and we make our way to the bar and order some kind of house martini – vodka, Chambord and champagne. Tastes like raspberry soda and goes down easy. Which has its pluses and minuses.
When we are finally seated, the hostess makes a big deal about putting our drinks on a tray to carry them to the table, but then can’t remember whose drink belongs to whom when we are seated. Fine – we live together – no biggie. We order and wait. I’ve long since killed my chambord-tini and I am babbling incessantly about god knows what and desperately awaiting the arrival of my salad. When it comes, it looks like it was made at 3pm that day (it’s now 8:45). MrBird gets a sage gnocchi in a creamy chestnut sauce. There’s no hint of sage anywhere in the dish – it tastes vaguely of sweet potatoes and is brown, though not displeasing. Just kind of brown in color and muddy in taste.
We each order a glass of wine from the totally unimaginative wine list. It’s a generous pour, which is unfortunate, because my white burgundy tastes vaguely metallic. MrBird’s pinot noir is no better. Glad we didn’t get a bottle of either. Meanwhile, the table next to us is having a discernible problem with their shared caesar salad. When the server comes over, they tell her that it’s fishy and gross, and definitively decline her offer of a replacement. Then we overhear, ‘That was the grossest sh** I’ve ever put in my mouth!’ Damn! Adjacent table doesn’t mince words.
Our entrees arrive. I’ve clearly mis-ordered the vegetarian 'korma' which is a plate of steamed vegetables, with a mound of rice in the middle, sitting in a puddle of ‘curry’ sauce. Not unpleasant, the vegetables are at least fresh, but completely tasteless, utterly underseasoned. When I make ‘weeknight’ curry at home using a jar of Thai Taste curry paste, it’s considerably better than this $19 pile of sliced vegetables. MrBird gets a pork loin. He’s underwhelmed.
We skip what will surely be a lame dessert and go home to eat packaged cookies.
Bottom line: This dinner was about as good as what you would get at the JW Marriott or on a Carnival cruise. We won’t be going back anytime soon.

Super Bowl!

Pretty good game last night actually. I have to admit, I thought it was going to be a Colts blow out. The New Orleans defense looked terrible... in fact they were really bad all game. Yes, they had that very good interception but the fact is, if the Colts didn't drop so many balls it could have been a different outcome. That and if the rookie head coach didn't freeze up. Caldwell looked like he had a few chances to let Manning make a play and he went to the run. Seems like maybe is was a destiny game. The Saints made gutsy calls and the ball bounced for them almost every time. I say good for them. I remember the Saints as the worst team ever when I grew up, even worse than Tampa Bay. Now they are Super Bowl champs... plus in the inevitable riot in the winning city, nobody noticed because the town is already all f*cked up! Sorry, that was not a nice joke. Anyway, I give the game a solid 1 3/4 thumbs up... they flung the ball around, it moved fast, and the game was pretty darn entertaining. The commercials sucked.

The night before we did a movie night and that was much better. For reasons I will not go into it was a somewhat muted evening but still fun. We watched Casablanca and ate Moroccan food. My lady made an off the chain lamb tagine that had fabulous flavors and made the lamb very subtle and delicious. We also did a chicken something or rather in puff pastry. That shit is hard to work w/ and I did not enjoy it. The chicken inside was really good though. DP came over w/ a rocking pork lentil soup that was great. And the DG/KB combo persevered through a tough 24hours (something about a skiing double ejection? I don't know) to make it through dinner and even bring an excellent date torte w/ cardamon whipped cream that was not too sweet but very tasty. The movie itself is fine. Pretty thin story really but the actors are great, the setting and costumes are good and it has more movie quotes than Anchorman. Another movie night, another fun evening... 1 7/8th thumbs up!!!

Das Bigun Beers!

Well, I am one to give credit where credit is due and so in that vein a couple of the fellas and I went to check out the scene at the newly opened Das Bierhaus. Now after a 26 month gestation period (just kidding, it was like 8) we were sort of expecting bears riding unicycles through flaming hoops and 50 dirndls wearing hotties serving all the beer you could drink! But that was not exactly the case. First off, you need to go around the side and cruise in a not all that well marked side door because the front entrance is not quite ready. Yeah, the old SpeakEasy route. Next, it was difficult to tell if the action was upstairs or down... the side entryway is like a crappy apartment you move into after college. Upstairs the space is clean but underwhelming. Much like the 5 Spice before it, the space is pretty tight. The place was pretty busy which was a good sign, the fact it was full of old fat dudes was not... Like most Burlington places the service took forever and was not great. Even though they supposedly hired a team of people months ago, there was one slow bartender, one waitress, and a trainee (she was trying hard and was very friendly though). Finally, the beer. This was a shining point. They have about 9 pretty authentic German Ales and Lagers on tap w/ a bunch of cool bottled beer as well. You could rock up to a .5liter and the beer was nice and cold and reasonably priced. It was pretty fun I guess. These guys have a real long way to go but the beer is the light at the end of that tunnel. 1 early thumb sort of sideways to up pending...

Uh, I forget

What I was going to post about... I just got a not totally unexpected gut punch? Oh yeah, last night's Grammy fiasco. So we were watching the SNL sports special and flipping back and forth to the Family Guy but there were a few times when both were at commercial so we flipped onto the Grammy Awards. What a f*ckin' shitty piece of television! First off, how and when did Green Day go from punk alternative to the biggest suck ass sell outs in the world? I mean rappers sell out and I applaud them but they at least seem to get the joke. But Green Day is just suckling at the corporate teat and it is a little sad. Second, Lady Gaga freaks me out. Third, Taylor Swift was singing a song w/ the great Stevie Nicks. Now Stevie has a ton of miles on her odometer but she can still belt out a song and be somewhere in the neighborhood of "in tune". Taylor Swift on the other hand sounded like she was killing an animal... w/ a spork. Why would they do that to Stevie, hasn't she been through enough? Silver Springs people!

So I started reading the Eric Clapton autobiography and it is mesmerizing. Very cranky and pretty down to earth but at the same time running in the same circles as the most amazing musicians ever. An easy read and so far fun.

I had a weird dream last night that I was Indiana Jones. The part where I was a strapping archaeologist swinging around on catwalks was the the weird part. That I could not shoot laser beams from my fingers was the strange thing?!

My buddy was rocking a cool lobster tie last week... if anyone knows where I can get a Kamchatka Bear tie... let me know!