I STILL STANDING!!!!

i did not happen to die this past weekend / week. it was a close call, but i prevailed. after a fun weekend in new orleans, i drive 8 hours back to dallas, get home at 2am, pass out, get up at 8am to catch a flight to houston. if you ever fly, do not, i repeat.... DO NOT fly through or out of DFW airport. it is litterally hell on earth. if flying out of, parking is a not so pleasent 9 mile walk away from the terminal. if flying through, it honestly takes an hour to jog from one end of the airport to the other to get your connection due to the asinine triple-curve layout of the airport, not to mention the roadways on their 5000 acre complex are a maze of one-way roads and signs that lie to you. Have these idiots not heard of the fact that the quickest way from point A to point B is a straight line??

i am also bitter because having returned from houston, i trekked to the parking garage to find that someone hit my truck, Charlotte, while i was gone. I don't know how it is possible to cause so much damage in a friggin parking lot, but the front bumper was all out of shape. of course there are no cameras so there is no knowing who hit me, and therefore i am stuck with the bill. Charlotte has been in the shop now for 4 days getting a nose job. apparently there is a bunch of crap behind the bumper in these new-fangled vehicles today. a list of crap needing replacing:

front bumper
+ front plastic cover for bumper
+ front fog lights
+ front air bag sensors
+ drivers-side wheel well liner
+ two bumper extension brackets which require cutting and re-welding of the frame.

= $1350 that i don't want to claim on insurance (because i am out of state and it will raise my premiums too much), and that i can no longer spend on beer...... F!

speaking of beer, my first batch of lager is now finished, and it tastes good. the recipe i used however, asked for too much priming sugar during the bottling phase, and therefore the beer is way too carbonated. it's more like beer-soda, but it still is quite good. the second go around with a slightly different recipe should be better, and will get me closer to my goal of re-creating Yuengling Lager which is, in my opinion, the nectar of the gods.