This reads in a rambling manor because I have been sampling my gruit :)

Well, I just pitched my first apple cider.  I did a 2 gallon batch just to try it.  I used 2 gallons of apple juice and a vial of White Labs English Cider Yeast.  I sanitized everything, including the outside of jugs if cider, then poured the juice into the fermenter, then pitched the yeast and shook it for 5 minutes.

I'll keep it at about 70 and see what happens.   My plan is to bottle in 2 weeks with a very small amount of corn sugar, just to give it a zing of carbonation, and condition it for a 1 1/2 month or so then drink.

I used some unfiltered (but pasteurized) honey crisp apple juice from QFC.  No idea what that means, but my calculations are a 5.3% or so cider.  If it works I'll try it in the 5 gallon carboy, and maybe try pear or something.  I plan reusing the yeast and doing a pear cider or different ciders.  I'd like to experiment with sweet cider by using potassium sorbate and making more of a sweet wine.

BTW, my last gruit recipe turned out awesome.  It is by far, hands down, the most unique beer I've ever had.  It has a citrusy, floral, piney, sour, kind of cidery taste.  It's beer-like, but is not beer like most people know it.  I can re-post the recipe if anyone is interested.  

Don't try any of my Root beer attempts.  They've been bad.

That said, I want to do it again.  I'm close to doing a root beer modeled after a Strong Scotch Ale.  I'm thinking of making a fairly standard dark ale for the malt bill, but doing the long boil and the cold fermentation and lagering, like a scotch ale, event using the WYeast Scotch Ale Yeast.

I have Vanilla, Wintergreen, Sarsaparilla, Anise, Licorice, Ginger, Cloves, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Allspice, Roasted Dandelion Root, Peppermint.  Both my Root beers have been ruined by Ginger.  I need to hold WWWWAAAAYYYY back on the Ginger.  I only used a little bit last time and it tasted so much like Ginger, it ruined everything.  I think the Root Beer Extract also had Ginger in it, so it was too much.  My first Root Beer I used a large chunk of Ginger Root!  This time I plan on using a very thinly sliced medallion for a 2 gallon test batch.  

I want to take some Malt Extract and boil it in a low amount of water for a long time to caramelize the shit out of it and make it as unfermentable as possible, then adding it into the rest of the boil.  I also plan on doing a higher (155+) mash to get the Maltodextrin content higher.  I may use Cara-pils as well.

Also on my Todo list is a Chocolate Raspberry Stout.  I also want to do a normal Strong Scotch Ale, even perhaps with a small amount of Rauch Malt, except unhopped.  I'd use Licorice, Ginger, Yarrow, and Ginger instead.  I'd do a 3 hour boil and shoot for a 80-90 OG beer, and I'd shoot for a higher Final Gravity by caramelizing more of the sugars during the boil.  It would be made in a similar style as the Root Beer, except have more traditional Scotch Ale flavors with a more Modern Scotch Ale malt bill.  Maybe only do Pale Malt and Roasted Barley, using the long boil to get more flavor.

So here’s some opinion questions, give honest opinions.  Just give a Yes or No on whether it sounds good as a Root Beer ingredient.   

Bittering Hops

Aroma Hops

Juniper

Spruce

Cinnamon

Black Cherry

Birch Bark

Sassafras (has anyone had Sassafras Root Beer?) 

Molasses

Honey

Smoked Malt

I may or may not use the results.  I do plan on doing a hopped Root Beer, but would probably only do Aroma Hops.  I <3 Aroma Hops.

If I have success I'll post the recipe. Any recommendations on good commercial Apple cider?

It's been a while, so here's a new beer post.

My root beer is going in the secondary right now.  I doctored it up w/ a glop of root beer extract I found in the spices, and added some vanilla, licorice root, and roasted dandelion root, as well as some honey to get it up to 4.5%.  it's a medium brown now, and tastes like a less gingery version of my last one.

I got all of the ingredients for a gruit-like beer (unhopped, flavored w/ herbs and spices). I have a little over half an ounce of Mugwort, and have Spruce and Lavender growing in my yard, and Dandelion growing all around it.  I'd probably still get some Heather tips, Sweet Gale, and licorice root.  

Scotland, who has long been known for excelent malt beverages was also one of the last converts to hops.  All of the above herbs and spices are historically used in Scottish Beers.  So the beer I want to make is "Scottish" inspired.  I have a beer cooler made out of a 32 gallon garbage can I bought.  I have a large number of ice packs to keep it cold, and recently got a peltier which I want to install.  I still need a thermostat.   

I'm not actually properly setup for all grain, I'll spare burnin myself this time by using some extract.  

I picked up the following:

7 lbs Light Malt Extract Syrup

2 lbs British Maris Otter 2-Row Pale Malt

1.5 lbs Cara-Pils makt

12 oz Caramunich Malt

12 oz Victory Malt 

WYeast Irish Ale Yeast.

I still may get Sweet Gale, Heather, Ginger, and MMAAYYBBEE some honey.  This should be a decent "Ancient Scottish Inspired" beer.  

The gruit ingredients need to be figured out.  I was going to soak each ingredient in some Rogue Dead Guy Whiskey, which I picked up and drank a little, and is OK, not a good of whiskey as Dead Guy Ale is beer, and mix until I get a good flavor, and add in some of the bittering herbs in the boil (Heather).  I also may pick up a small bag of dried juniper berry to dry hop with.

My plan is to try and ferment at 60 and "lager" at 45ish which is normal for scottish ales.  I'm renting a uhaul to get some dresser drawers tommorow, if I can find a fridge on craigslist I'm all over it.  If not, the 45 degree lagering may not happen.  

If anyone wants to give input, please do.  The actual herb additions are up in the air, and still being researched.  

It'll be a 7.5% beer or so, some honey could boost it a hair more.  I normally wouldn't add honey to a beer, but "ancient inspired style" beers like gruit or my "early american small beers" (root beer), it makes alot of historical sense.  

I have Aha Toro Reposado Tequila and Rogue Dead Guy Whiskey, which are both recommended.  Aha is primo tequila, and Rogue's attempt at whiskey isn't half bad, it's no Wild Turkey Rare Breed, but it's at least smooth, has good flavor, and doesnt manage to taste too boozey.  I've been meaning to try it, and recently got around to it.  I've heard they make a spruce gin I want to try.

Another project I'm working on is a crock pot still.  If I can make some whiskey I may add it a small portion to the scotch ale to boost it a percent or so. .

So, my rootbeer experiment could have turned out better, it went bad faster than any beer I've made.  I'll have to use hops next time.  I scrapped it and made an IPA-Like beer with the rest of what I had.  We'll see how that turns out :)

I'm looking at making a lager of some kind.   I built a box out of styrofoam and a thermoelectric cooler, so hopefully I can keep the temps down during fermentation.

Anyone have any suggestions for craft lagers (Shmaltz Coney Island Lager is pretty good).

I'm thinking about doing a european style beer with American ingredients, or maybe a mix. I would like to try and find some good lagers (no, not coors), and do some comparisons, then try to formulate a beer based on that.  I've had a few, but thought I'd get some suggestions.

--

Anyone have good BBQ Joint suggestions (or food in general).  Stans BBQ in Issaquah, and Pecos Pit in Seattle are the only two I've tried that I liked in the Seattle area. 

--

Here's a question, I know good places to camp, and to backpack, but does anyone know of any good areas to mountain bike in and camp out?

I have May 8 - 17 scheduled off of work.  I was going to drive to Boise to visit inlaws, but my Wife is going back next weekend instead.  Due to a scheduled product release and recent work insanity, I'm planning on keeping the week+ off for a solo adventure.

I like to Bike pack, but I like to road trip.  I can do and sometime can handle cold rain, but bike packing in it be a pain, but can also be rewarding.  I could sleep in the back of my Forester, and take my dog on a road trip, do a tour of some car camping places.  I could do the Peninsula, hitting the national forest and park, but it's more a summer time trip, and Earl (my dog) couldn't go to the National Park. I could do Eastern washington.  Maybe do some prospecting near Liberty (I LOVE that area).  I want to camp.  If I go off my bike Earl may not be able to go.  If it's off a trail or Forest service/logging road I could probably take him.  I'd like that.  I'm geared up to camp with him.

I could probably do $500 or so max, and I'm a campaholic (rain, wind, snow, or forest fires, I've done them all), so something camping related is probably in order.  I'm geared for anything short of camping on glaciers.  Snow is not an obsticle.  

Anyway,  help me.  Even crazy things like run to vegas (I'd nix that idea immediately, since the wifey would have visions of hookers dancing in her head) or hunting bigfoot all week are welcome since I like differing opinions like the new FO do.  BTW, as an Avid NW roadtripper, Corco's highway blog rocks.

***

The root beer turned out not the greatest, but not the worst.  I'm drowning the last one I have (my dad has some).  It's OK.  Too gingery, kind of funky. My next two beers are a Blueberry Honey ale, and another root beer, except it'll be done with hops.  I did a blueberry honey ale about 3 months ago.  It went fast. It was my best beer.  I'll post what I do when I do them.  In a Beer making fan post. I also plan to do a quick and dirty beer making for dummies post.

Every two or three months I run the Leavenworth to eat German food and drink German Beers and Micros.  Well, I'm here.  I love stopping at the cheese monger to get beer, cheese, and landjager.  I take the dogs to the Munchen Haus to eat hot dogs and drink beer with me.  We'll be doing that today.  I just realized Der Man Shoppe has homebrew supplies!  I gave up my weekend trip to the beer supply, so hopefully they have a few things I need, and it's not SOOOOO expensive I can't bring myself to buy anything.

Any suggestions for food and drink?  I know the town too well, but still, I honor other peoples opinions.

I'll probably not be posting anything tommorow, here's my homebrew tidbit.  I racked the rootbeer to secondary yesterday.  The taste was underwhelming, so I'm getting some Anise Extract, Vanilla Extract, Wintergreen, and Sarsparillia to spice it up at bottling.  I'm thinking an Imperial Rootbeer next time I decide to do a root beer.  8-12 percent, hopped to hell and back, lots of dark malts and/or chocolate malts. 

My next beer is going to be a casked mild ale.  Now I have to find a decent cask for 1-2 people :p

Well, I'm going to be racking my root beer to the secondary fermenter next weekend.  I could probably do it now, but I haven't taken any hydrometer readings, and I'm sure it'll be OK to rack in a week.  The problem with racking beer too early from the primary is risk of making bombs.

If you're not sure Racking is the process transferring the beer from the primary to the secondary or to bottle.  You want to make sure fermentation is done, either by doing successive hydrometer readings, or just waiting long enough (2 weeks for normal beers).

The Root beer has a wonderful rootbeer like flavor.  It also looks like root beer one my last poll, so when I finally bring some beer around, it'll be a root beer.  Probably just use a decent extract syrup, a few spices, malt extract and molasses.

I'll be bottling my heather ale tonight.  My next project might be a session style ale or a cask ale, like real ale or a casked mild ale.  I realized that 2 Mr. Beer fermenters hold 2.5 gallons of beer.  They're only useful as a 2 gallon primary fermenter, so I've considered them for test batches, but now I an thinking of making a 5 gallon batch and splitting it in half, one in each fermenter.  I'd make a small beer (I SWEAR I'm not obsessed with small beers), since I'd be forced to drink 2.5 gallons of beer as soon as I started drinking it.  You don't use additional sugars to carbonate, so it'd taste flat compared to what you're probably used to.  I could get one of those expanders, like they use in a party pig, they expand as the beer empties to keep it from spoiling.  Then I could make a higher alcohol beer and not be forced to drink it ASAP.  If the Mr. Beer works as a cask, I'll let you know. 

Did you know George Washington had a beer recipe.  It's a molasses small beer. 

http://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/washingtonrecipe.shtml

I finally did it.  I made my root beer.  Its sitting in the primary right now.

Here’s what I ended up doing:

2.5 Lbs Liquid Pale Malt Extract
1.5 Lbs Molasses
4 oz Dry Pale Malt Extract
12 oz Maltodextrin
14 oz Honey Malt
14 oz Crystal Malt
5 oz Chocolate Malt
8 oz Flaked Barley
2 oz Sarsaparilla
.5  oz Spruce Essence
2 Vanilla Beans
2 oz Star Anise
1 Brewers Licorice Stick
.8 oz Toasted Dandelion Root
2 oz Chopped Ginger Medallions
One smack pack of Wyeast 1056 American Ale Yeast
2 oz Yeast Nutrient

First, I sanitized everything and kept the equipment that would touch the wort in water with Iodine in it, I rinsed thoroughly before using anything.

I did a mash on the malt, ramping the temps from 120-170 over an hour and 30 minutes.  The long boil wouldn't necessary, as the only malt I used that has any diastatic power is the Honey malt. It doesn't have the power to convert other starches.  No I did it because I realized I forgot to smack my yeast pack and had to kill time.  It turned into a nice brown wort.  I only used 1 gallon of water or so, but I don't have a proper brew pot, and was mostly using stuff I already had, like molasses and malt extract.

Here's before I put it in the bag:

After I an hour and a half, I poured the wort through a strainer into another pot, then back to the brew pot.  I added the spices, except the ginger, dandelion, and spruce.  I did 2 separate boils for the ginger and dandelion root.  I cut the ginger into medallions and covered them in water and boiled them.  I did close to the same thing with the dandelion.

Boiling Dandelion Root

After 30 minutes I reevaluated the spice flavor and let it go 15 minutes more.

I slowly poured in the dandelion and tasted as a I went.  I ended up using the whole thing.  I did the same with the ginger, and used the whole thing.  I added the spruce essense, and it doing the same thing, but stopped after .5 oz, I started to taste spruce, but nothing more. 

Spruce Essence from local home brew supply:

Once the wort was done, I ran the Molasses and Liquid Malt Syrup under hot water to get them to pour easier.  I poured them in and stirred the wort.

I stirred the maltodextrin powder in and the dry malt extract.  I used the dry extract and the liquid, because that is how much I had of each.  The dry extract hardened, so I had to stir until it disolved, about 15 minutes.

While it dissolved I sanitized the fermenter.  I added 2 gallons of cold water, then poured the hot wort into it, then topped to the fill line using more cold water.

I added the yeast and yeast nutrient to the fermenter and put the lid and airlock on and shook it. 

Yeast and Nutrient:

Fermenter with root beer wort, yeas, and yeast nutrient.

Fermenter w/ Lid on

I'll let it sit in the primary for a week, then siphon to the secondary for 2 weeks, then bottle for a month, then sit the bottles in the fridge and enjoy.

Secondary Fermenter (aka high tech Beer Making device)

I did things a little differently then I would for beer.  I usually do a partial mash for my beers.  I'll do a post on that sometime, since making beer is fun. 

If you want to experiment, but have limited space, look at a Mr. Beer.  They're 40 bucks and make 2 gallons at a time.  I have 2 of them, and they're fun for experimental beer batches, so you can always use them later.  The 6 gallon bucket and 5 gallon carboy set up is not expensive either, but the higher volume creates logistics issues for all grain and partial mash.  You more or less need a super kitchen, or to do it outdoors over propane.  I do partials on the stove, using a coleman coolor as a lautering tun.

I have some pics of doing an all grain brew w/ a mr. beer. that I'll post those if I can find them.

Misc Pics:

Vanilla

Anise:

Some of my pics wont show for some reason.  Oh well.

I just got a new primary (6 gal bucket) and secondary (5 gal glass carboy).  I can now do 10 gallons of beer a pop. 

I've got a heather (unhopped) ale going, I am planning on doing a hard root beer, maybe tommorow.  It's basically a beer, except instead of being malt and hops, it's molasses, maple syrup, root beer spices, malt extract and yeast.  It should be interesting, based on early american beer. 

Here's a few of the ingredients:

Pale Malt Extract
Molasses
Maple Syrup
Crystal 40L Malt
Chocolate Malt
Flaked Barley
Maltodextrin
Dark Candy Sugar
Sarsaparilla
Vanilla Bean
Spruce Essence
Wintergreen Leaves
Licorice Root
Anise Pods
American Ale Yeast

My heather ale is another gruit-like ale.  It's a scottish ale, except it's "hopped" with heather, mugwort, sweetgale, and spruce essence (just a bit).  I'm working at keeping my office 55-60 degrees :)

I just bottled a "blueberry honey ale".  It's an extract ale, with honey, honey malt, pale malt, pale malt extract, blue berry syrup, and blue berry extract.  It's got 4 hop editions, including a 2 minute hop.  All cascade hops.  Usese White Labs wlp001 california ale yeast.

Anyone got some crazy ideas for me?  I love trying weird stuff.

The gruit thing is growing on me.  The 7% ABV and odd herbal taste makes it so I don't want to drink too much, but I can now see why people brewed with gruit herbs before hops was widely used.  It's not really beer though.  My "recipe" would not hold in a competition, but it was more pleasant than I expected.  Next gruit is still going to be that Anti-imperial stout, but I have a mild ale to do first. 

I picked up 10 lbs of pale malt and am going to try and mash the malt my self.  Always time for a first :)  If it doesn't work out I piced up some light malt extract syrup and dry malt extract. 

My goal with the mild ale is to make a "low alcohol" brown ale and see how well it turns out.  I have some Wyeast 1084 Irish Ale yeast (Stout yeast) and some Safale-04 in the fridge.  I'm leaning toward Safale-04 because it has higher attenuation, higher flocculation, and leaves less of the diacetyl and estery (buttery and fruity) tastes in the beer than the Irish Ale yeast.  I may save the Irish ale for my stout.  I plan on steeping in 6 oz of Brown malt, 6 oz Crystal 60L, 2 oz Chocolate malt, 1 oz of Black malt, and 1 oz of roasted barley.  I'm going to do 3 editions of .5 oz  Kent Goldings hops. 

Guess I let you know how it turns out.  I may ALSO start a stout today, but not the anti-imperial one.  I don't think I have enough mugwort and would need to find Licorice Root, Vanilla Bean, chicory, etc. 

Also, try and give me some idea for a beer to brew.  Someday I may share.  Not next weekend though.  I will most likely have to work, so no LL/USSM event for me :(

OK, since beer is technically on-topic for LL, it's not fair, but since I'm drunk on Widmer's Brrr winterbeer, I could care less.  Honestly, the whole OTFPOTD thing bugs me, but since beer is at least partially on topic, and I'm in an OT mood ....

I've recently joined the ranks of people who brew beer.  I love beer.  Malted Barley + Hops + Water + Yeast + Time = yummy goodness.  Who here brews?  I made a Blackberry Honey Ale recently.  I've always wondered why Honey ales don't taste like Honey.  Now I know, most of the honey is converted into alcohol.  I also made a Gruit ale, which I plan on bottling tommorow.  Gruit does not use Hops, but uses Sweet Gale, Yarrow, and Marsh Rosemary instead.  I added Mugwort, which is also traditional.  This is Dark Ages beer, except I used Malt extract from my local brew supply.  I also made a spruce beer that got contaminated, and I was afraid it would happen :(  I was lax on my sanitation.

Any who, I'm curious what people here do.  I'm really interested in un-hopped beers.  My dad is alergic to hops, and used to be a beer lover in his 20's and hasn't had beer since he found out he was alergic to hops.  The gruit tastes interesting.  I'll find out in 3-4 weeks when the conditioning is done.

I'm also interested in malting my own grains.  I want to do Chicha, which apparently is malted Corn, Quinoa, or Amaranth.   I <B Corn, Quinoa, and Amaranth.  I've sprouted Quinoa numerous times, but never toasted it and extracted sugars.  It takes 2-3 days to sprout. 

Someone here brews.  Has too.

Also, anyone cellar beer?  I have a 2 year old Trader Joes ale (seasonal, winter) I'm getting ready to drink.  I tried drinking booze the other day, and wine one too long ago.  I can't help it, I love beer.  That probably has something to do with being 235 lbs.   So does being 6'4".  Jeff, just a warning.  You're 6'5", right?  If you drink beer ANYTHING like I do, you'll be a big dude once you get past 30.  It's not bad big, but big. People hear 230 lbs and think "good god", but they're 5 foot nothing, so who cares.  Also, what size shoe do you wear?   I'm a 15.

It's 12:03 am, so it's Sunday.  I get the OTD part :)

I'm pretty sure he won't keep his current line up (especially the walks), but either way, he's been a major asset.  I just did a marcel weighting his current performance (2008=0.83, 2007=4.83, 2006=3.83, 2005=2.83).  He's a safe Marcel since he's played 3+ years here.  That increases him from about a 2.7 per 600 PA WAR to about 3 WAR, assuming +0 UZR, which very well may be too low, and +0 positional adjustment for being 3B. 

.3 WAR difference probably won't make or break us, but it means his hitting the 2nd half of last year was probably legit, and he's probably a better hitter than a lot of people have given credit for (we all knew it).  Also Adrian Beltre is probably under paid at this point!  If it's at all possible, we need to extend him NOW.  Boras won't let that happen, especially while he's hitting like he is.

I'd love to here some hangover remedies.  I may need your guy's help!  It's 4 in the morning and it just dawned on me that I drank the equivalent of a 12 pack.  I just ate some fried eggs, cheese sandwich, and some cheerios, I drank a lot of water, took a B-Complex, an Emergen-C, and did some push-ups, pull-ups, and squats, so I feel WAY less drunk, but I want to here your remedies for such a horrible ailment.  

Anyway, there seems to be some real pros here, so I want to here your ideas!

Just stumbled on this over at BBTF.  Man, I miss that guy!  He may not have been good, but was he ever the quote machine.  

Anyway, I normally wouldn't post this stuff, but this is a good read from a ex-player, and not the typical, "God hates them for being evil" type stuff.

It's just plain good old perspective.  He doesn't paint steroids as acceptable, but rather as a "well, duh" kind of deal.

Quote:
Human nature wants to put the brakes on that rate of change. While your clock is ticking, faster, stronger and younger players are setting up their lockers next to yours. They usually have better sound bites and lower salaries, too. In 1998, I was the new kid in Philadelphia, battling Lenny Dysktra for the center field job. Five years later, I was mentoring another new kid, Marlon Byrd, so he could replace me. Faced with that rate of career atrophy, players are capable of rash, self-serving and often irresponsible decisions. Enter steroids.

There is a tipping point in a player's career where he goes from chasing the dream to running from a nightmare. At that point, ambition is replaced with anxiety, passion is replaced with survival. It is a downhill run and it spares no one.

Can't get any more straight forward than that.  Faced with the same situation the aging (or fringe) players, I bet a lot of us would juice too.  Add in $$$ bazillions, and there's little question.  Is Bonds or McGwire really so evil and horrible, or did they just do what a lot of us would've done in the same situation.

I want the situation fixed, and don't mind the juicy Gosip about who's done what (although congress is being ridiculous), but we can't treat the players as evil or terrible people.  We should simply treat them as people, because they did what a lot of other people would've done in the same situation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/opinion/16glanville.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&oref=slogin

Wanted to wish everyone a happy new years.  Have fun, be safe, and don't get in too much trouble (or at least don't get caught).  

I wanted to wish everybody a Merry Christmas, or holidays or whatever.  Hope everyone gets what they wanted, even if all they wanted is to hole up by a fire and drink themselves into a stupor.  Here's to a new year, and to the Mariners not making any more crazy moves (and getting rid of Sexson).  Now I'm at 300.

Here's a list of things the Mariners can do to improve next year, rather than pay high priced free agents or trade the farm for players that are already past their primes.

1. 
   
2. Immediately fire John McLaren and replace him with Rambo.
3. 
   
4. Get Adam Jones the Sword of Power so he can transform into He-Man.
5. 
   
6. Teach Willie to throw a wicked breaking knuckleball, then plug him in the rotation.
7. 
   
8. Replace the Moose with rabid Wolverines and place them in a (easily escapable) cages around the benches in the opposing teams dugout.
9. 
   
10. Have a high powered laser pointer night.
11. 
    
12. Have Stink Bomb/Bottle rocket, LA Angel/Red Sox/Yankee Voodoo Doll, Free Spider Monkey, and Super Soaker full of Moose urine nights.
13. 
    
14. Invest heavily in gene doping technology before the MLB catches on.
15. 
    
16. Replace Raul Ibanez and Jarrod Washburn with a Terminator replicas programmed to play baseball at an elite level.
17. 
    

Just stumbled on this on BBTF:
Mike Cameron may use stimulants to counterract all the alcohol he been drinking

http://www.gaslampball.com/story/2007/10/31/164059/30

Supposedly Cameron was drunk during his 4 homer game!!

You can't forgive taking stimulants (unless it was only ephedra), but this is a great step forward.  We need more great role models like this damnit all to hell!!!!!  Mariners need to try and bring him back to play RF, at all costs.  It'd be pure comedy, drunken defense!

EDIT: as Matthew pointed out, I totally misread that, he did not mention the 4 HR game. Is earlier than ussual beer consuption a valid excuse?

OK, since it's been posted here, and I had no idea Red or should I say Cadillac was a Wrestler, and he's going to be wrestling in Poulsbo on Saturday the 1st, I wanted to see if any of you are interested in going.  It's only $5 or $4 w/ a can of food.  This sounds like the most awesome event in the history of awesomeness.  Anybody who's training regimen includes doing obscene dances on camera at a Mariners Games, is something like the most awesome person on the planet.

If we planned a LL Wrestling Night, who'd go?  I'm about 98.5% sure at this point.  Just need to make sure my Girlfriend hasn't decided we're doing something else, and even then I'd fight tooth and nail for this one

http://www.wildcardwrestling.com/index1.php?id=schedule

Cell phone flasks:

http://www.amazon.com/Stealth-Phone-Flask-Filling-Funnel/dp/B000MELSJQ

Saw the cell phone flask last weekend at the Cle Elum Liquor Store (a private store, not state).  First thing that went through my mind was Safeco Field.  I'd never recommened breaking the rules though.

Also found this: http://www.prankplace.com/binoculars.htm

Hmmmmmm.

http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/comments/updated_uzr/

Name        Chances Total Runs    Runs per 150
Beltre        127    6        14
Lopez        191    5        10
Ichiro!        211    3        5
Yuni        200    -7        -14
Sexson        103    -7        -12
Guillen        143    -11        -22
Ibanez        134    -14        -29

4 out of 7 look BAD.  Guillen and especially Ibanez have been terrible.  I think/hope we all knew this, but it's nice to see statistics back us on the AJ for Left campaign.  I think the M's should explore getting rid of Ibanez, even if it'll never happen.  Here's to an OF of Jones/Ichiro!/Wlad.  Hopefully Yuni turns it around.  We COULD have a good defense RIGHT NOW, that's what pisses me off about all this.

I've been trying to figure out what it means when Weaver brings his "best stuff" to the game, and what his thought process is when he brings his so called stuff.  I tried reviewing video. but he looks like the same crappy pitcher, just sometimes the batters get themselves out.  Them it donned on me what it means when they say he's brought his "best stuff" too the game, and what his thought process is during those games.  I can best describe it with a bad paintshop pro job.  I can't figure out what to call it.  I'm thinking "ddduuudddeee wwhhaatt iiss tthhiiss ssmmall rroouunnd tthhiinngg iinn mmyy hhanndd", or "Dream Ree ... I mean Dream Weaver:

Let's see some photoshoping guys, good quality, bad quality, or whatever.  We haven't had a photoshopping contest in a while.  Especially Jeff Weaver photoshops, just for tommorows game :)

WILLIE BLOOMQUEST Part 1:    
Copyright (c) 2007 Infocon, Inc.  All rights reserved.
Willie Bloomquest is a registered trademark of Infocon, Inc.

On Deck Circle
You are standing in the on deck circle at Safeco field.  Yuniesky Betancourt is at the plate.  Paul Byrd is the pitcher.

>Examine pitcher
There is nothing special about the pitcher.  

>Wait
Betancourt swings at the first pitch hitting a grounder to short-stop Jhonny Peralta who promptly throws the ball to first base.  It's is your turn in the batters circle.  The pitcher is winding up to throw.

>Wait
In a moment of fiery fury the pitcher tosses an 83 mph batting practice fastball right over the middle of the plate.  The count is 0 balls and 1 strike.

>Swing
The next pitch is also an 83 mph fastball over the middle of the plate, you swing with your life but the pitchers stuff is just too much and passes your bat and lands in the catchers glove.  The count is 0 balls and 2 strikes.

>Swing
This time the pitcher throws a 74 mph change-up, as your swing was exactly the same is the last two, you swing out in front of the pitch missing it by a mile.  The count is 0 balls and 3 strikes, however the catcher has dropped the ball.

>Run
You run as hard as you possibly can, just as you find yourself on firstbase, the ball sails over the first basemens head into the outfield.

>Run
Again running as fast as possible you make it to second base, you realize the right fielder is fishing the ball out of the corner.

>Run
You run again, you make it to third before you realize the right fielder is just starting to throw.

>Run
In a last ditch attempt you run like the wind, just as you reach the homeplate you spin around and tag the base, the catcher barely missing the tag.  Congragulation, you have just gained four bases on a strikeout.  There is a small piece of grit next to home plate.

**

Decidedly stupid, not enough Zork puns but that's what you get when I do things at lunch :)  It's not directly referring to his In the parker, more making fun of it (Sorry Willie!)

What's happening w/ Meche.  Is he throwing his sinker a bunch?  His groundball rates have skyrocketed this year.  He is walking less people, but his K rates are very Meche-like, which if you looked at in a vacuum, you'd expect some gain in performance, but w/ those groundball rates, he's been awesome.  Maybe the Chris Carpenter comparisons weren't out of line and Royals really believed he could become that.  So my question is, is Meche throwing more sinkers, and are they good sinkers?  It'd seem so, and it'd seem that everyone not named the Royals might end up eating crow over it, and I feel bad for the M's, they spend all this time and money on the guy, and something our recent pitching coach taught him looks to have turned him into an ace, for someone else.  Oh well, I know that happens, and I know he's STILL Gil Meche, but I wonder if we've seen the end of "Caution, Gil Meche throwing, severe delays expected".  Or maybe we haven't.  He was the one perenial underperformer of ours I suspected could (but not expected would) improve, since he showed signs of being good when he could control his fastball and he could get good bend on his curve, and could keep it out of the middle of the plate.  Now, it would seem (I haven't seen him pitch this year, looks like I need to watch some of his games on MLB.tv), he's found success as a somewhat different pitcher.  Weird.

Very cool

http://www.hardballtimes.com/thtstats/main/index.php

Apparently they use a better version of ZR, and include BIZ, Plays, and OOZ, so it should be very, very useful.

300 Character tidbits:
A few things are obvious looking at it, Ichiro! Rocks defensively!.  So does Beltre.  ZR Likes Ibanez.  It didn't like Lopez or YuBet (1 year sample isn't worth fretting), it doesn't hate Guillen.

Mariners possibly contenders?

From what I see, the core of the team is in pretty good shape, at least compared to the last few years.  I think, the M's could go sign Jason Johnson or Jeff Suppan and give Cha Seung Baek and Feierabend a shot and win 82 or 83 games.  And that's assuming nobody improves, and we throw a sub-average LF/DH out there, Sexson and Ibanez drop off some, the bullpen is worse, Felix is just as bad, and Washburn worse.  

That same team could also win 88-90 games if all went right.  We may/will have some attrition from decline and injury, but this team has too many high upside/projection younh guys to not have one or two (or more) of them break out.  I suspect, give or take, they'll be close overall to last years production without signifigant overhaul offensively.  We'll lose some, but gain in other places.

Add a better bat (JD Drew?) and we're more like an 84/85 win team.  Add a league average starting pitcher to, and have Felix even be a 4.00 or so ERA pitcher, and it's more like the 86-88 win range.  

OK, so things do happen, best laid plans of mice and men, and all, so they could still be that 82-83 win team.  That said, they could just as easily be an 92-95 win team.  Even without Matuzaka, the Mariners have a chance to build a winning team, and may even stumble on to such a team despite themselves.  Sure, someone will go down, Ibanez wont hit 30+ HR and Sexson might turn into a pumpkin, but they should still be 85+ plus without breaking the bank.

This years team would have been an 81-82 win team if the they hadn't given the likes of Mateo, Pineiro, Guardado, and Everett playing time and even replaced them with true replacement level talent (or better).  I know Hargrove could still screw us up, but Bavasi has a mandate and more money, so expect him to try and improve in some way, and not give Grover the chance to run the likes of Carl Everett out there.  I actually dont think it'd take much to have an 88+ win team, and could just as easily be a 90+ win team.  

OK, so 88ish wins might not take the division, but it might, and I'd accept it if it was just that, and not a 90+ win contender.  My point wasn't the M's will win the World series next year, it's that they CAN, however remotely the chance, and that they have a less remote chance of going at least to the playoffs.  Even if we dont get Matsuzaka, it's not necessarily going to be a disaster an offseason.