How shortlived memories can be.

I just got off the phone with my sister, who was all excited/nervous about the SNOW that they're predicting for Wednesday.

Apparently she's forgotten the last six winters.

Apparently she's forgotten how, week after week, all of the local stations start hollering "Snow! Snow! Snow!" every time their ratings drop.

They know that this will get people to tune in for the latest forecast, the latest school closings, the latest bullshit.

For me, this all came to a head last Winter, when the forecasts for snow were so persuasive that there were several preemptive school closings.

Before a single flake had fallen.

Then, surprise! it turned out that the forecasts were wrong after all, there was no snow at all.

But tune in tomorrow, as a new system is making its way out of the Rockies. Will we see a white weekend? Find out at 6:00, 11:00, and noon!

I'm not buying their crap anymore.

I like snow. I missed it a lot when I lived in Seattle. I'd like to see it snow.

So I hope I'm wrong, and I hope the professionals are right.

But I'm not counting on it.

Now I don't ever fish, at least not since that time when we were kids and my sister and I caught the same bluegill a dozen times each, but what I understand about it is that after you get a bite, you're supposed to jerk the line.

This is to "set the hook" and make sure that the fish doesn't get away.

Oh, I suppose you still have to worry about the occasional line break, but for the most part once the hook has been set, that fish isn't going anywhere.

The point that I wanted to make here, in keeping with my metaphorical bend, is that I'm already hooked, there's no need to keep jerking that line to make sure I'm still here.

Whether you view this as a catch and release situation or whether I'm going to be dinner, that doesn't really matter to me right now.

What does matter is that I took the bait and now I'm at your mercy.

Just stop jerking the line. It hurts, and it accomplishes nothing.

Coming home from work this morning was sort of interesting.

We've had a little snow, maybe a half-inch, and the idiots are out in full force.

After successfully avoiding the SUVIdiots who think slick roads are irrelevant to them, and the PussIdiots who reduce their speed to a single-digit number at sight of the first flake, I made it to the bottom of the big hill on my road.

My house sits atop that hill, and between me and my house this morning were an estimated 114 cars and trucks strewn about in varying states of crashedness.

So I turned around and went back to the only alternate route available to me - through Edwardsville.

When I got to within a quarter-mile or so of my house I ran into a different problem.

Georgetown's Finest had, upon noticing the 114 cars and trucks strewn about, had decided to park in front of my driveway and block traffic to the hill.

I was stuck in this backup, but I was able to use the (empty) oncoming traffic side of the road to get home.

Notice that I said the trip home was sort of interesting, nothing more than that.

If most of the women I'm attracted to turn out to be secret psychos, and most of the women who are attracted to me turn out to be secret psychos, what exactly does that say about me?

I don't think I'm a psycho, but would a psycho know that they're a psycho?

Saturday night at Rich O's had much less of a madhouse atmosphere. I was actually able to grab a seat on the sofa fairly quickly.

Based on several Friday night recommendations, my first beer was a Gouden Carolus Noel. I liked it, but not as much as I was expecting given the rave reviews.

(draft) Highly recommended by all who'd had it at Rich O's. Definitely a Christmas Ale - all sorts of complex flavors. I thought the fruitiness was a little bit too much but I suppose it was needed to mask all of that alcohol.

Got to meet some of the other ratebeer.com people. I'm pretty horrible with names but there were two cool guys and one hot girl that had made trips of varying length to enjoy Saturnalia.

My next beer was a Pyramid Snow Cap Ale.

(draft) Nice and smooth, no particular flavor jumped out and grabbed me. This kind of reminded me of Pete's Wicked Winter Ale.

My last beer of the night was a draft of Spezial Rauchbier Lager. I've had this before, from a bottle, and don't really have any updates to that old rating.

I liked it a lot, but I could detect no smoke whatsoever.

Aside from the beer, I spent the night talking with one of LaptopGirl's ex-boyfriends about nothing in particular.

I got text-messaged about a dozen times by someone asking if I was pissed off. By the end of the night I was a little pissed - because of all the damn text messages.

I left fairly early as I had (have!) a rare Sunday morning work appointment.

Tonight was the beginning of the Saturnalia Festival at Rich O's.

Unlike Gravity Head and the Hop Festival, I've really been looking forward to this festival. Nearly every beer on the list is one that intrigues me.

As a special bonus, interspersed with my beer ratings in this entry will be some pictures!

My first selection from Rich O's pink Saturnalia menu, and this is no big surprise when you consider my love for Delirium Tremens, was this:

Delirium Noel

(draft) Dark brownish red with a very dense head that lasted forever. A very nice completion to the Delirium triad. Not as much spice as I was perhaps expecting, but very drinkable. More similar to Delirium Nocturnum than to Tremens.

This first beer was consumed while standing at the end of the bar waiting for anyplace to open up where I could sit.

One funny thing during this time - some girl forced her way through the crowd and ordered two glasses of wine! The bartender's eyes rolled so far back in his head I thought he'd turned into a zombie for a second.

Just a couple views of how crowded Rich O's was. These pictures were taken from the kiddie table - the only place I could sit for the first two hours.

Once I'd managed to worm my way onto the sofa I was ready for my next selection, a Grottenbier Bruin, or Grotten Brown as the menu listed it.

(draft) A nice spicy aroma that led to a fairly tame-tasting beer. There was a slight mustiness to it that didn't exactly thrill me. By the second half of the glass the head had dissipated so both the spice and the must had gone. What was left was good but not great.

One annoying thing - at one point I looked to my left on the sofa and saw an empty space. That empty space beside me in such a crowded bar reminded me that I'm supposed to be sad, so I got a little sad. Then I moved to the loveseat so some friends of DayShiftDude could have the sofa.

More idiots - but not the people on the loveseat - they are actually pretty cool.

My third beer was something which I can't for the life of me remember.

(draft) Fruity and spicy and citrusy. It was the citrus that turned me off this beer.

By the end of the glass I'd warmed to it a little but not enough to have another one of whatever it was as my last beer of the night.

At around 10:00 it got crowded again. This lady's ass didn't help matters.

My last beer of the night was a Great Lakes Christmas Ale. I've had this before and like it a lot.

DayShiftDude and I talked for most of the night.

My lovely self, with ElPresidente in the background. I'm drinking a half-pint of Great Lakes Christmas Ale here. Yummy!

Take a group of people, say a dozen or so, all chronological adults.

Have one of these people behave in a mature manner and the effect on the group is: nothing.

Now have one of these people act like an immature jackass and at least half the group will start following suit.

I'm just sayin'.

Went to a little project completion party at Louisville's new Lucky Strike Lanes today.

We bowled three games.

It didn't suck as much as I'd expected. There were several people from HR and PR that I didn't know - and couple that I kinda wish I did know.

I actually won the first game with a pretty shitty score, and I think I might have tied for second in the second game.

Oh yeah, the place had Smithwick's on tap. That was a pleasant surprise so I had three of them.

It's funny how the simplest things can sometimes have the biggest impacts.

Tonight I said something nice to someone, and her response what that it was the nicest thing that anyone had said to her in five years.

While I seriously doubt the time span - the girl is quite hot and probably gets tons of compliments - I still feel pretty good about making her smile like that.

On a completely unrelated topic, I found out this evening that TrainGirl has moved to New York or some other far away place. I will miss talking about books with her.

At least I know I didn't drive her away. I don't have the proper equipment.

I did answer your very strange question.

Go here.