I picked this beer up a couple of days ago at the local grocery store. It was another winter seasonal beer. This time itÂ’s a local brew, Red Bock Winter Ale by Berghoff (The Joseph Huber Brewing Co. Aka Minhas Brewing Company) in Monroe, WI.

It came in the normal 12 Fl oz. bottle. The label is the normal Berghoff shape, what appears to be a barrel with an oval through it. The coloring is crimson and in the middle is a white snowflake. Berghoff in a red script is across the middle with the name of the beer in a smile like arch at the bottom.

The coloring is a beautiful dark amber color with crimson shading. There is no sign of cloudiness to it, light passes through with some difficulty. When you look through you can make out objects on the other side. A thin tan head forms when poured into a glass. The head fades quickly to nothing and there is no lacing on the glass.

The smell is an exquisite caramel and chocolate malt combination with a fruit undertone. The fruit smelled like strawberry or raspberry, but that might the combination of the malts mixing with the fruit to alter the scent. There is a mild sweetness to the smell that is pleasing. The taste is much like the scent, a sweet, but not overly sweet, combination of caramel malts and berries. The flavor is a little weak.

ItÂ’s a smooth, light bodied beer that is very easy to drink.

This is not like most of the winter ales IÂ’ve drank. The flavor isnÂ’t in your face. ItÂ’s mild and soothing. Something that you can drink just about any time you want. This is one of those beers that I could see myself picking up a six pack of on a whim. I give it 7 out of 10.

Posted by: Contagion at 08:25 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Upon my arrival at work today I was greated with the news Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has been arrested. To be honest, this couldn't have happened to a better man. The guy was runing ruining the state. Between his wasteful spending plans, inability to balance the budget, selling off state assets and just being incompetent overall. The man was killing the state by driving off businesses and trying to keep new industries away.

There were corruption accusations being thrown around for over a year involving him, so I wasn't too surprised when he was arrested. I was surprised that the man was stupid enough to try to sell a senate seat!

""The Senate seat, as recently as days ago, seemed to be on the verge of being auctioned off," U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said. "The conduct would make Lincoln roll over in his grave."

Federal investigators bugged the governor's campaign offices and tapped his home phone, capturing conversations laced with profanity and tough-guy talk from the governor. Chicago FBI chief Robert Grant said even seasoned investigators were stunned by what they heard, particularly since the governor had known for at least three years he was under investigation for alleged hiring fraud and clearly realized agents might be listening in.

The FBI said in court papers that the governor was overheard conspiring to sell the Senate seat for campaign cash or lucrative jobs for himself or his wife, Patti, a real estate agent. He spoke of using the Senate appointment to land a job with a nonprofit foundation or a union-affiliated group, and even held out hope of getting appointed as Obama's secretary of health and human services or an ambassador.

According to court papers, the governor tried to make it known through emissaries, including union officials and fundraisers, that the seat could be had for the right price. Blagojevich allegedly had a salary in mind — $250,000 to $300,00 a year — and also spoke of collecting half-million and million-dollar political contributions."

Hell, why not just put the seat up on Ebay (funny link). Well if there is any doubt that Illinois has not improved it's politics, this is it. Hell he even went stereotypical and involved unions. I couldn't believe it when I read that.

Now every politician in the state has issued a statement calling for Blagojevich's resignation or impeachment. Well all except for one, Chuck Jefferson. I heard a radio interview with him on WNTA where he made statements that almost sounded like he was defending Blago. That doesn't mean he is, yet I haven't found a statement from him calling for his resignation. Then again, it looks like Blago isn't about to resign: Attorney: Blagojevich has no plans of resigning. That doesn't surprise me either. I mean c'mon look at what he did, and what he's done. He's a narcissistic egotist that is out for himself. He wouldn't get ANYTHING if he resigned.

However, I think that's a moot point. Most likely this will be the catalyst that is needed for their to be an impeachment. I'm just wondering what outlandish thing he might do until then... like appoint himself to the Senate.

Posted by: Contagion at 08:20 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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It looks like the politicians are rushing through a 15 billion dollar loan to the big three. (Ford, GM and Chrysler) This plan includes the position of... I kid you not... what they are calling a Car Czar.

I've heard both sides of the argument about whether or not the government should do this. Personally, I'm against it. I think the government has no business loaning money, bailing out or getting involved in this manner with private businesses. I also feel that this is continuing down the same slippery slope that the Economic Stimulus package and the Bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

What's next? Are they going to start buying stock and shares in companies? Are we even going to be allowed to have privately owned companies, or is everything going to be owned and ran by the State?

The worse part of this whole thing is that I really don't think that this is going to help in the long run. We are throwing 15 billion dollars into three companies that aren't long for this world anyway. Through mismanagement, the greed of unions and the inability to create a product that can compete with foreign competitors. Sorry folks, but if they could I wouldn't have to pay for extended warranties on both of my vehicles that don't even cover the length of the standard warranties on their foreign competitors.

The only thing I can see that would save the American motor companies would be to completely reinvent how they work from the ground up. Starting with the termination of most of their higher end executives and then getting rid of the unions. Anything short is just prolonging the death of an American industry.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:15 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Sunday morning 67 years ago today the Japanesse launched their attack on Pearl Harbor. At 7:48 AM Pearl Harbor time, or 11:48 CST, the time of this post, the the first wave of aircraft made their attack. Overall the attack sank four battleships. three cruisers, 3 destroyers and one minelayer where either sank or destroyed as well. There were 188 aircraft destroyed as well. During the attack, 2,402 servicemen were killed and an additional 1,282 servicemen wounded.

The USS Arizona

These attacks are what ultimately "awoke the sleeping giant" and brought the United States into World War 2.

The explosion of the US Shaw

Over the years there has been a lot of speculation as to whether or not the government knew of the Japanese plan to attack Pearl. Where some people think that is important and others not. Either way it is not important to me. For me it's more important to remember the brave souls that died and survived .

Never forget.

Posted by: Contagion at 11:48 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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This evening I took the family to the annual Lutefisk Dinner at my parent's church. Just as a reminder as to what lutefisk is, read these posts. The lutefisk this year was particularly good. Heck, even Ktreva ate it and liked it. I'm thinking those DNA injections might be taking hold. (ducks frying pan)

This year I decided to get a before picture so that you can see what the cooked product looks like.

Now the lutefisk in the picture has the white sauce on it. They put the sauce on mine before I had a chance to tell them I wanted it plain.

Of course the other Scandinavian delicacies were available, real swedish meatballs, Korv (Swedish christmas sausage) pickled beets, rice pudding, real rye bread, etc. They didn't have any Lefse this year, but thanks to my friend Wench (She labeled herself!) and my mother I've had lefse multiple times this year already.

I love Lefse!

Posted by: Contagion at 09:02 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 Again, thank Gott I live in Hunky land. We eat meat, peirogis, meat, potatoes, meat . . .

Posted by: oddybobo at December 05, 2008 09:40 AM (mZfwW)

2 Dude, I'm sorry but it still looks like a bowl of snot...

Posted by: Wes at December 05, 2008 02:57 PM (1crE/)

3 Reminds me of Hollandise sauce

Posted by: BloodSpite at December 05, 2008 06:50 PM (M9/hi)

4 Dude, That would totally clog an artery. Maybe even a garbage disposal.

Posted by: Jerry at December 06, 2008 09:50 PM (91ktS)

5 If you would answer your phone you might have more Lefse.

Posted by: gsharper13 at December 08, 2008 04:24 PM (cx97k)

6 I did not label myself - I was gifted with the name by Wolfy and Buzzard

Posted by: Wench at December 09, 2008 06:51 PM (cx97k)

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Tonight IÂ’m reviewing a beer I found at the store and wanted to try. ItÂ’s a seasonal beer by the Redhook Ale Brewery in Portsmouth, NH called Winterhook Winter Ale. I figured since we are in the Christmas season, I might as well try to do some winter season beers.

Mine came from a 12 oz brown bottle, the label is kind of plain. The top half is blue and the bottom half silver. Then name of the beer is in white letters in the blue and silver letters in the blue portion and the logo of the company in blue and white in the silver portion. Next to the name of the beer is a picture of Old man winter, Jack Frost or some winter spirit blowing a cold breeze onto the name of the beer.

When poured into the glass, it has a nice chestnut brown with garnet highlights. There is no cloudiness to it that can be detected. Light passes through the beer, but it is dark enough that you canÂ’t make out what is seen on the other side. When poured a thin tan head formed that turned into a film that lasted until I was finished with the beer. There was some lacing on the side of the glass.

The scent is mainly of dried dark fruits like prunes and raisins. A touch of citrus and the spicy bitterness of hops rounds off the smell. The first sip mainly consists of the taste combination of caramel malts and hops. There is a citrus hint and a touch of cloves to the finish. The flavor is kind of thin and watery.

This is a medium bodied beer that has a nice carbonation level to it.

ItÂ’s pretty easy to drink. I wouldnÂ’t recommend it as a compliment to a meal. This is definitely a beer that one drinks by itself, preferably while sitting next to a warm fire in the accompaniment of friends. ItÂ’s definitely one I would drink again, most likely on a special occasion. I give it a 5.5 out of 10.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:33 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A peer of mine came to me today to warn me about a nefarious plot. Allegedly some of my peers have spent weeks gathering information to prove that I have not been doing a certain task on a daily basis that I'm supposed to do. Of course this is going to be brought up in a meeting tomorrow morning.

As my peer was telling me about it, I picked up a stack of papers and said, "Yep, I haven't been doing these on a daily basis. Heck, if they asked I would have told them." My peer just stood at my blankly for a second and just burst out laughing. Her response was, "Good lord Contagion, I didn't think you'd actually admit to it!" My response was, "Why would I deny it? I haven't been doing it daily for 6 months. It's a waste of time. It only needs to be done twice a week." We both laughed at the whole thing, because the project I didn't do, was one she gives me daily.

I mean seriously, I never claimed to be doing it. I never said I was going to do it daily, and I never, ever, agreed that it should be done daily. Thus why would I deny not doing it daily?

The best part is that they spent all this time trying to nail me with something by trying to catch me in a lie. Yet, if they had just said something in a meeting I would have admitted it right off the bat. So now I'm going to ask tomorrow in the meeting why my peers felt the need to spend all this time trying to monitor me. Isn't that my supervisor's job?

Posted by: Contagion at 08:19 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Saturday afternoon, after the in-laws left, the family and I headed to Fort Atkinson, WI to see A Fireside Christmas at the Fireside Dinner Theater. I had heard advertisements for the Fireside Dinner Theater, but I had never been there. We were going with my parents and sister to celebrate my mother's birthday.

When I think of Dinner Theater, I think of a show that is going on incidental to the meal. IE, you are eating and the show is going on. This was not the case with Fireside. You eat in one section and then go into the theater for the show. I felt a little disappointed when I discovered that. It has been many years, 20 years to be exact, since I had been to a dinner theater and was kind of looking forward to it.

The food was pretty good, and the show was entertaining. Clone liked it, at least for the first act. The second one he was a little bit restless through out the entirety.

After we returned home, 7 hours later (travel time, shopping, eating and a show), I left to head down to Fritz's to hook up with T1G one more time. He had called earlier in the day and asked if I wanted to get together, but it was right after we left the house for the show. I told him that if I got home at a decent time I'd head down.

We spent a lot of time talking, joking about Thanksgiving morning, and making fun of the fact that I can't keep getting the two oldest Fritz girls confused in my head. I keep calling them the wrong names and forgetting which one I'm talking to at which day. I used to never have this problem, not until the last month.

Now if anyone has seen T1G over the last year, you know he has long hair, that he keeps in a ponytail. Well Saturday night I scalped him. He turned his back to me, I pulled out my pocket knife and cut the damn hippie lock off. As much as the story would go better if I could say I was drunk and I did it with out his permission.

The truth be told, he was leaving to have his haircut (by one of the Fritz girls, don't ask me which one because I'll get it wrong) and told me I could cut it off. The best part was the reaction of people in the bar as I took my knife (it's a Boy Scout knife and had mini-scissors on it) and cut it off. People gawked and stared and whispered to each other in shock.

After taking it off, I took a picture of it with my camera phone and sent the picture of my trophy to every blogger for which I had a cell number. Shortly after sending that message I started getting responses from people. Some in disbelief, some in shock.... and one from Graumagus calling me a liar and saying that I pulled it off of T1G while riding like a horse. (Yea, there's a mental image for you!) Next thing I know there are text messages flying back and forth and everywhere.

It was hilarious. It was almost like a blogmeet... only even more geeky!

T1G ended up coming back to the bar after finishing his haircut. We ended up closing the place down. It had been a while since I've done that. I usually end up leaving earlier.

For those that are wondering about the Ponytail, yea, I still have it. I'm thinking of turning it into a scalp lock. Either that or mounting it on my wall as a trophy!

I'm not sure yet.

Posted by: Contagion at 09:57 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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