Brews, boys, & bunnies

My aunt and uncle have been brewing their own beer for several years at this awesome place called Gallaghers.  It’s sort of like those make your own pottery places, where they have all the supplies and equipment ready, so you can just do your thang.  I’ve enjoyed a lot of their homebrew since moving to Seattle and on Thursday I got to make some of my own.  They have every type barley, hops, rye, and malt you could imagine and giant kettle to brew in.

Sticky vat of malt

Brew kettles

Cookin' away

Since it would be cruel and unusual punishment to have people brewing while they’re thirsty, they also have a few taps going of their own brews to drink while you’re there.  The whole place has a really laid back vibe; good music playing, you pay for you drinks based on the honor system, you can order in a pizza, and you can even bring your dog (obviously not my favorite part, but still it just goes to show how chill it is).  At the end of the evening we left our barrels behind for fermenting and we’ll head back in a couple of weeks to bottle.  I can’t wait!

Bye-bye brewski.  See you in 2 weeks.

I guess it wouldn't be much of a blog post without some sort of dating disaster story, so let me tell you about Ryan.  We met at a meetup happy hour last week and he seemed like a nice enough guy so we exchanged info.  We got together on Tuesday for a quick after-work drink.  Conversation seemed to be flowing fairly smoothly and he has sort of an interesting background; born in China, grew up in Alabama, moved to Michigan, and then spent the last several years as a government contractor in Afghanistan and Kuwait.  However, I had a little inkling that we might not be a great match for each other when we were talking about Hong Kong.  When he mentioned he’d lived there for 6 months, I got all excited and told him I was going in a few weeks and asked what I should do.  He said, “If you like to party there’s a ton of places to go out and party.  I partied all the time when I was there.”  I thought to myself; Uhhhh… really?  This dude is 33 years old, shouldn’t he be over that by now?  But instead I said, “Well, I can drink anywhere in the world, I’d rather do something more unique on vacation.”

So he replied, “There’s also a ton of shopping”

“Like Louis Vuitton shopping?”

“Yeah, and Gucci and Prada.”

 “Uh, have you seen my shoes???”  I ask while pointing to the Puma sneakers I have on.

“Oh, yeah.  Girls in Seattle are like that, huh?”

Yes.  Yes we are like that!  And proud of it!  Honestly, after that, I didn’t really expect to hear from him so I was surprised when he asked me out on Saturday night.  Some of my friends accuse me of being too picking and not giving guys enough of a chance (obviously they have not been reading my blog) so I decide to give it another go.

He offered to pick me up since it turns out we’re actually neighbors, living one block away from each other.  When I got in the car he said, “I was thinking we could go for Thai food”.  I almost burst out laughing, but managed to contain myself.  There are half dozen Thai restaurants within blocks of our apartments.  Why on earth did he need to pick me up?!?  I guess he was just trying to show off the fact that he drives an Audi.  Oh, well.  I love Thai food so whatever.  We end up driving clear across town to get to this place he’s been to once before.  

Dinner was fine, but the conversation… not so much.  We were talking a bit about how technology has taken over the world (he works in IT) and I joked that “I’m not ready to move to a commune anytime soon”.  In all seriousness he looks at me and asks, “What’s a commune?”  Wow!  So I had to explain it to him.

Later on, I told him I couldn’t stay out too long because I was in the middle of making Paska (Ukrainian Easter bread) and it was rising.  He seemed concerned and said, “Oh, I would feel nervous about leaving my oven on at home if I wasn’t there.”

“Oh, no” I said, “it’s just rising.”

Again, in all seriousness he asks, “How does it rise without heat?”

I was taken aback and looked at him incredulously.  I replied simply, “Yeast.”

He just shrugged his shoulders and looked confused.  I certainly don’t expect the guys I date to all be scientists or bakers even, but if you don’t understand that bread is made with yeast, then we’ve got some issues!  Maybe he felt embarrassed or something so he changed the subject.  “Did you say it was Ukrainian bread?  I dated a Ukrainian girl for 3 months.  She didn’t really speak any English.”  At this point, I’m realizing that all that time he spent in the middle east as a contractor must have stunted his social growth.  He just seemed like a clueless kid when it came to normal social interactions.

The nail in the coffin was when he started talking about his dad.  Normally I wouldn’t judge someone based on their parents (I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be judged based on mine! Love you Dad!) but this was just too much.  He said that his dad, who has no medical or scientific background, has spent the last 10 years and, all of the family’s money, trying to invent some sort of new eye medicine.  He does his own medical experiments in the basement of his house with rabbits he buys from the pet store.  He cuts up their eyes and then put drops in them to see how they heal.  Ryan didn’t really seem to condone this stuff, but just seemed resigned to the fact that his dad was crazy and hoped it wasn’t genetic.  Yikes!

In happier bunny-related news, I had a fantastic brunch and Easter egg hunt at my friend Peggy’s house this morning.  I don’t think I’ve been on an Easter egg hunt since I was a kid, but apparently it’s a tradition for Peggy.  This was no little kid hunt though.  Peggy is a gal who likes rules, so there were plenty of rules for us to follow.  We had to partner up and one person was blindfolded while the other person had to give directions to all the eggs.  It was a little scary being blindfolded, but also a ton of fun.  Unfortunately I was a little disappointed by the contents of our plastic eggs, most of which she seemed to have stolen from the supply closet of her office; paper clips, erasers, post-it note flags, some old-looking pieces of gum, and a squeeze packet of mayonnaise.  Not a single piece of chocolate :(  I guess I’ll have to hit up the half-priced candy at the grocery store tomorrow. 

I hope all of you had a wonderful chocolate-filled Easter!