Manly Wednesday- The Beer Advocate

A little late on my Manly Wednesday post. The man is keeping me down. Someone quit, and I’m doing the extra work sans extra pay. Oh, the man. The upside is I have a coworker who told me about the Beer Advocate. I’m down. It’s a magazine and extensive website about beer beer beer beer beer. I says to myself, “wonder if they’ve reviewed that delicious Breckenridge beer I have out in the beer fridge?” It’s like asking the king if he lives in a castle. Not only did they know of this beer, they reviewed the actual joint that brews it, and 21 different brews they crank out. “Hey, Rolling Stones, do you like rock and roll?” Let me crush you with my knowledge Baldman.

FEED ME! love, the band saw

I powered up the band saw last nite, and attacked this piece of gummy cherry wood, that used to be in a nice plank form- now it’s in these little bits. Mostly uniform bits too… and I have 10 fingers still. Next, I’m going after a similar piece of curly cherry, in hopes that the final outcome will be a wicked rad wooden capiz-shell-wannabe chandelier. The saw’s still hungry.

Canadians Strike Again!

I think the first time I heard about Loyal Loot was looking up these great log bowls. I like that stuff. I’m currently trying to make a clock out of my fallen branch in the back yard, with a semi- similar take.



After checking them out further, I see a. it’s run by a gaggle of ladies, b. they are from Canada (go figure), and c. they have other woody items I want to check out… like this coat holder type thing they call Monsieur Dress Up… French Canadians. You know. I like bent up wood. And this is way bent up.



These are the Bonnie and Clyde nesting tables- a mahogany, rubber and plywood concoction. I’ll take the tables with the slender, faceless number on it… sometimes you gotta roll the dice.

Albion Inn

It’s cold and misty outside right now. When it gets this way, I like to picture the time my family took a winter trip to England, and the Albion Inn in particular.



It’s a proper English pub, and the kind of place I’d like to go to here in Austin, but you can’t have one in Austin, because it’s in Texas USA, and not Chester UK.



The place has been around since the 1880s in the old walled city of Chester (our dog’s namesake by the way), and they’ve been pouring ale out of their taps the real way… no carbonation added to start that beer flow, but old-fashioned muscle strength was used to pull up the ale from kegs down in the basement.



We ate haggis and turkey and some sort of Guinness meat pie… we asked what Christmas pudding was, and the answer the cute, young waitress gave us was, “Christmas pudding is Christmas pudding.” We had some. The old guys at the table next to us were talking about Fox Hunting. I wish I could be there right now.

Manly Wednesday- Science and Sons

Welcome to your weekly installment of Manly Wednesdays. Today we focus on the company Science and Sons. I don’t know what’s in the Canadian glacial waters, but man, they make some awesome weirdos. These guys make these acrylic life-sized mountable animals they refer to as Plastidermy. They suggest throwing a bunch of them together for a chandelier? Okay! Sounds kinda big, but I’m in!



They are still perfecting these phonofones, through which you can play your ipod in grand old-fashioned style, and all white ceramic sleekness as well. H-o-t.



These rule the hardest. Their planters play on a mini-sized park scene, as if your little plant is a giant park tree… the characters in the scene could be walking a dog, getting mugged, or maybe hooking! HI-larious. Under employment opportunities, they have one job opening for a Full Time Philanthropist and, “Only qualified millionaires will be considered for this prestigious position.” I’m down with your style, brahs!

Succulent City

I’m not very driven when it comes to gardening, but if I were, I’d make our yard into Succulent City. Spiky, need lots of Texas sun, don’t need much water… kind of like camels, if camels lived in Texas, and were half porcupines.



If I bought up a ton of succulents, I’d probably hang out here A LOT. It’s called Gardens, and is within walking distance of our house. Tons of great spiky monsters, and big heavy pots.



On the inside, they have great heavy, natural wood tables and chairs, that I’d buy if I lived in mansion and had money to burn. They’ve got a bunch of cool knick knacks from around the globe… must be those heavy tariffs that crank the cost up so much? I’d work at Gardens, if work involved sitting around, reading their books, and watering their plants on the not hot days… I’m equally as likely to run into the Texan Camelpine.

Wood Bendin Pursuit continues...

This weekend Julie and I went up to Woodcraft to buy a vacuum press kit called the Roarockit Thin Air Press- should help me in my wood bending fantasies. Julie got her first dose of Wood Dorks there at Woodcraft… she asked if anyone had used this kit before, and one employee said, “oh well NORM used it last week, and said it worked great!” Julie was like, “oh, great… so it’s pretty good?” to which WD replies, “well, Norm likes it, so it’s like coming from the mouth of God.” Oh man. Okay… we don’t know Norm, but he must be pretty important in the woody world.

Anyway, instead of having to buy some fancy, scary EXPENSIVE vacuum press thing, this hand pump guy should be able to bend the wood I want to bend. This brah mainly designed his Thin Air Press to make skateboard decks. He has a class that teaches kids how to make their own. Wicked. Of course I’m using it for other reasons, but it’s good to know if I NEED to make a deck, I have the tools.