Winter Book Club

Bouyed by my new-found patriotism and hope for our country and democracy as a whole during this glorious inauguration week, we are putting this month's book club activity to a vote! What is not up for discussion is the date. We will be doing this Thursday, February 5. Here are your three choices...

1) Bar Games Night - Trivia at Sacramento Brewing. Followed by Darts at Streets of London. Followed by 1-4-24 at Longshot. Will Mike Oxhard and The Fluffers hold off The Firm of Harry Dixon Cox in a battle of wits? Can we hit the dartboard enough to not get thrown out of a English pub? Will anyone be able to count to 24 by the time we get to the Longshot? All those answers and more could be uncovered.

2) Buzz Lightyear Night - Lazer Tag at either Country Club Lanes or Lasertag of Carmichael. Followed by Pizza at the Pizza Pit. Followed by drinks at the Luna Lounge. Lazer tag really is pretty kickass. I'd love to it without worrying about running over my son and their 8 year old friends. Ok, I don't know where the Pizza Pit is, but Wenelli's will take us after we work up an appetitte. See what I did there with Luna Lounge? What a better place to land the spaceship than a classy bar named after the moon?

3) Guitar Hero Night - Drive in a rented 15 person van to San Francisco to watch the Eagles of Death Metal in concert. EODM is a rockin', fun band. It's good, uptempo, boogie rock. Added bonus on this is we may be able to hookup with Tuesday Ted who is rumored to be heading down to this. Think how excited his wife would be if we all came flopping out of the Scooby Mobile wearing our tye dyed Gnus shirts!

There you have it. Get your votes in! I want a decision made by Super Sunday, people. Send me an e-mail to have you voice heard. God Bless the United States of America.

B.S. Awards - Beer of the Year

Those closest to me know that from time to time, I enjoy to quaff a frosty brew. Ok... just about all y'all know I drinks my fair share of beer. Combine my enjoyment of the brewers' majestic product with my near obsessive proclivity of making lists of my favorite things and you have the daddy of all B.S. Awards.

Me and beer had some good times in 2008... From my Easter Beer hunt to sampling Alaskan Amber while floating by a glacier, I can run a sappy montage of me and beer in my mind over a heartwarming melody. Before I start to cry, on to the list!

1. Newcastle - Always a stable at the top of the list. It never doesn't taste great. It is the standard to which all beers should set to achieve. I'm going to have one tonight to celebrate!

2. Fuller's London Pride - This is a special occasion beer for me. Very tasty. Even better (and more potent?) on tap at the Fox and Goose. Takes me back to walking the Strand in old Londontown.

3. Pale Moon from Blue Moon Brewing - Nice addition to the Blue Moon family. I enjoy a pale ale in the fall time and this one topped both Pyramid's Broken Rake and Sam Adams Octoberfest for me this year. And I love those two beers as well. The touch of orange in the taste I think put it over the top.

4. Sam Adams Light - I'm amazed how they can make a light beer this tasty. It is really a good, solid straight forward beer.

5. McMenamin's Ruby - This is the winner of the B.S. Award for vacation beer of year. A very tasty brew up in Portland. Sadly not available in bottles anywhere. Boo hoo. A hint of rasberry makes this ale stand out.

The rest of the top ten...

6. Pyramid Amberweisen on Tap

7. Sam Adams Octoberfest

8. Alaskan Amber

9. Blue Moon on Tap

10. Dos Equis Amber

In order to celebrate the B.S. Awards I will be putting togehter a group of 6 people and get a sixer of each of these and has a little taste test. Date of this extravanganza is TBA.

B.S. Awards - I Like To Watch Division

I like to think of myself as an active, busy guy. I'm always running around after my kids; I like to be outside; I'm constantly battling the losing battle against my house's state of disrepair. I wish that I could ever finish a project instead of having multiple, half completed projects laying around. But I've accepted that as one of my many, many shortcomings. What I have recently accepted is that I like to sit on my generous backside and let people entertain me. I love movies and this year I saw many. Thanks to TiVo, I can now also watch TV shows when I want to. TiVo is only slightly below the ipod as best device invented in my childrens' lifetimes. I will save my top five of those for a future discussion...

First, I will talk about movies. As with all art, movies are subjective to the viewer. I may be in a hyper mood and not enjoy a deeper movie. I may be a little grumpy and a slapstick comedy will seem sophomoric. The following list takes into account my personal attitude when seeing it. It is the 5 most enjoyable movies I saw this year.

1. Burn After Reading - I typically love me a Coen brothers movie and I was very much looking forward to this one. Usually that is a set up for a cinematic disappointment. But not so! Last year's No Country for Old Men was chilling. Anton Chigurh is one of movies all time bad guys. This movie was just fun. There was a very unexpected twist and the pace of the movie was quick. It got somewhat mixed reviews, but "they" didn't ask me. I thought it was super.

2. Slumdog Millionaire - This was the best "serious" movie I saw last year. Slumdog nearly knocked the Coen brothers off the top spot. It was very well done and took me on a rollercoaster of emotions. Mostly I think I took from the movie to not live in India. I guess I had already made that decision earlier in my life. Telling you the outline of plot makes it seem uninteresting, but believe me, it is really well done. I laughed. I cried. I winced. I cheered. It is about a poor kid that gets on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire and makes it to the final question. This should win some awards this spring. I bet it takes home the Golden Globe for starters.

3. Role Models - Ok... this is one of those silly adult male movies that have been a bit overplayed with the huge success of Wedding Planners and 40 Year Old Virgin. Those kind of movies have to have a hip name by now, but I don't know of it... Dude Flix? Bro-vies? Man Candy? Whatev... I laughed and I laughed hard when I saw Role Models. It is really funny. Rent this so you can back up and hear the line you missed because you were laughing at the previous line. Of course, if you are all pissed off at the world when you see this, you will wonder what the heck I found so amusing. But if you are that grumpy, you'll think the Slumdog is a whiny, cheater who should just get you some tea and pipe down.

4. Tropic Thunder - This was another very funny movie. I clearly thought this was a year for the comedy... I was a little nervous that this was going to look funnier than it was but I am happy to report that was not what I found. I like to look for situations where I can say "Pump the brakes, son."

5. Juno - If you wanted to see this, you have already seen this. It came out in time for last year's awards, but I didn't see until this year and it was very good and hung around all year for the Top Five. Not much more to say about that here, Homeslice.

The next five, in no particular order, are Get Smart, Kung Fu Panda, Spiderwick Chronicles, Indiana Jones and the Obnoxiously Long Title and Snow Angels. Well, I guess in that order.

Now onto the small screen... the boob tube... the idiot box... the babysitter... Whatever you want to call it, it is my favorite household appliance. If I were giving the choice between a roomful of beautiful, comfortable furniture and no tv and a stark, empty room with a tv in the corner, I'd say "Now I have more space to stretch out." I wish I could be one of those people whose life is so lively and together that they can honestly say that they don't watch tv. Maybe it is my 40 years of television history running through me, but I love to relax at the end of a busy day by flipping on the tube, plopping on the couch, releasing the day's stress and catch some tube. Or nod off.

Here's my Top Five things to watch on TV:

1. Sharks games

2. Dolphins games

3. Football games that involve a fantasy player on one of my teams.

4. Mariners games

5. Other football games

Finishing just outside of that top section are Sportscenter, Real Sports with Bryant Gumble, Playoff games in any sport and Project Runway.

Ok... here's my non-sports division...

1. 30 Rock - This show floors me! I was late to the party on this, but through the miracle of DVDs, I've caught up quite a bit. Very funny writing.

2. Curb Your Enthusiasm - Larry is wince-inducing in his humor. I'm not sure if I should feel sorry for him, abhor him or respect him. The show really makes me laugh and all ties back to a central theme throughout a season. Can't wait for the next one to start.

3. The Daily Show - Where else am I supposed to get my news? Saturday Night Live can't be trusted to be fair and unbalanced.

4. The Amazing Race - I have loved this reality game show for years. I am immune to any grief given to me about reality shows. It's competition. It's travel. It's personal drama. It's edited to take people out of context for my enjoyment. Winner! Being a contestant on this show is on my bucket list. Not to be confused with my phucket list. That list includes quiting my job to write a novel, cockpunching selected members of the Arden Little League board and eating a burrito for lunch everyday.

5. The Life and Times of Tim - This is a new animated comedy on HBO. Poor Tim's initial impulse is always correct, but he ends up making the worst decisions. He sounds a bit like Kirk Giberson to me. More for his inflection than the actions. Another hit for the stable of excellent shows from HBO.

My next five are Wipeout (fun to watch with the boys), How I Met Your Mother, Entourage, The Office and The Colbert Report.

There are my top mental escape vehicles. I'm looking forward to seeing your lists in the comments. Please join in!