lazygarden –
You never told me you went to visit Fort Erie!

Miller-Time bought by South African Brewery

From the article:

The acquisition would create the world’s second-largest brewer behind Budweiser-brewer Anheuser-Busch. SAB, which will change its name to SABMiller, will pay $3.6 billion in stock and take on Miller’s debt of $2 billion.

Seriously, how does a beer company have so much debt? Some debt, yes, I can understand — it costs money to build brewery and bottling facilities, etc. But $2 billion? That’s over one-third of the purchase price… something of a nasty equity-to-debt ratio, if you ask me… and a surprising one.

Why oh why didn’t I bring my camera this weekend?

Wait, let me back up for a second.

The scene was Friday night, at my place. We’d been sitting around, having a few drinks, and were now kinda just… bored. Thus, we took a walk around the nearby shopping centres — it was nice weather, with just a drop or two of rain in the sky.

Halfway through the walk, M gets an itch.

“Let’s go to Tennessee tonight!”

Mind you, it was probably 10.30 already. I’m a bit tired and fairly hesitant. Also, I am strangely hungry at the time, so we get a pizza at a place that was along the way on our walk. The whole time, M is trying to convince me to go. The pizza comes, and we walk back, pizza in tow, with M still insistent.

To make a long story short… we went.

Saturday

Left home around midnight, after consoling the woman, who was fairly pensive regarding this expedition. Packed no clothes, sans a few t-shirts. Tossed the pizza in the back seat. Drove the night through, arriving in Bristol around 5.15 in the morning.

Seeing as (1) we didn’t really know anyone who lived in bristol anymore and (2) knoew that no one in their right mind would be awake anyway, we drove up to South Holston Dam to watch the sunrise. It was amazing. Foggy on the way there, we could see the clouds in the valleys as we made our way down the parkway; On the way to the dam, we could see the actual low-level clouds, floating like apparitions through the farmers’ fields.

We got up to the dam itself just in time to see the clouds shine in red, orange and blue, a shimmering backdrop to the quiet lake. I can’t describe the peace that ensued in the next several minutes.

We were both tired, and it was still early, so we passed out in the car for about two hours before making our way to Johnson City. Arriving at the doorstep of some good friends at 9.00 in the morning (“I thought you all were Mormons!”), we chatted through the day, between bouts of powernapping (at least for me).

I didn’t get to see anywhere close to all the people I wanted to see when I was down there. It also started to become clear that our proposed itenerary (DC -> Johnson City -> Winston-Salem -> Raleigh -> maybe VA Beach) wasn’t going to happen. I didn’t care too much, though… the spontaneity was the key.

The main reason to visit Winston-Salem was to meet up with daddysl8tn, who neither of us had seen in about 4 years. Calling him up, however, resulted in the knowledge that he and his family were pondering what to do for the holiday weekend. Upon finding out that they’d decided on going out near Boone, NC, we were psyched — as it turns out, our trusty mormon-fearing friend’s grandparents have a condo out there!

We drove out to Boone and the surrounding areas. Met up with Daddy Slayton, finally getting to meet wife and kid. They checked into a hotel, where we met some very interesting people (like the 5 year old girl who came up to us, announcing that “I’m FUNNY!”). Had dinner, and after they took the kid back to the hotel, we met him there, maneuvering around a very territorial dog, and headed to a few bars.

It was a good time, a night of watching strange people, and arguably strange friends pretending to speak only russian. Over all I was glad to see Slayton again. We dropped him off at the hotel and headed back to the condo for some (much needed) sleep.

Sunday
That was probably one of the best slumbers of my life. Woke up around 10.30 AM to find one friend awake already, along with his grandma, who was busy preparing a big ole breakfast for us. M woke up soon thereafter to the smell of scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and pancakes.

After milling around for a while, we decided to hike Grandfather Mountain. Let me stop for a second and recommend these grounds — it was beautiful. We hiked the Grandfather Trail, over numerous large and intimidating rocks, ropes, and ladders, up to MacRae Peak (stock photo). The view was entirely worth the scuffed boots and sore muscles.

Going back “home”, I was tired and tried to fall asleep for another power nap. The car ride down the mountain seemed as formidable as any jagged cliff we ascended, however. Arrived at the condo to the smell of dinner… and oh, was it tasty. After a (much-needed) shower, I had a steak dinner waiting, with the works: Mashed potatoes, pasta salad, green beans, and cocktail shrimp… with a glass of wine, to boot.

M had been talking of coming back today rather than Monday so that he’d have a day to recuperate. I was hoping it wouldn’t happen, but alas, we left that beautiful stretch pf land, with its hills and pines, shortly after dinner. Waving goodbye, we made our way back, through back country roads and patches of rain. Arrived home around 1.30. I’m now slightly pink, fairly tired, and quite well-traveled for a weekend. I’m sure there’s a moral to this story, regarding zest for life, and living for the moment, but I’m too to tired to consider that right now.

And on that note, I think it’s time to sleep once again.

Reston, Virginia — The Crazy Kids, newcomers to the WAKA Reston Division, officially won their first game this evening. After having a victory last week snatched from their hands by a forfeiture, the Crazy Kids pulled in enough women players this week, and won a thrilling 3-2 victory against the Betty Ford All-Stars.

Due to the abundance of players, Corey played utility man, coming in off the bench for a few innings to play catcher, right-centre field and third-base coach. He also went 1-1, kicking a line drive down the third baseline, resulting in the game-tying RBI, putting the game at 2-2.

Following the game, a great time was had by all at the bar.

* I had a blogmare last night, with jazzyjupiter and catattack55 in starring roles. It was kinda strange, to say the least. Do flights often go through Chicago en route to San Fran, from DC?

* Should I register a vanity domain name? Or maybe use one of the ones I have already?

* These “Spoon in a Snap” things that come from the lid of my morning yogurts are utterly useless.

* There’s a nice, older lady in my neighborhood; I ran into into her this morning, going out to my truck. She always greets me with a bright “Hello!” and calls me by name. I don’t think I know hers. That makes me feel kinda guilty sometimes.

* I finally got around to getting a new credit card since CapitalOne is incompetent.

Heh, so apparently I managed to miss my 1-year LJ anniversary, May 15th. I didn’t make an entry until the next day, though, I guess, so which do I celebrate?

A lot has changed since then, eh.

This is perhaps the most amusing thing that I’ve ever read by pjammer. I’d heard of this scam before; I’m glad he set the record straight.

We won! Well… technically, we actually lost because we didn’t have enough women show up. But we still had a lot fewer players than the other team. The final score was 11-6, I think, with yours truly going 4-4 with a double, and scoring four runs. My ankles are sore, my left hamstring is a bit tight, but I had one hell of a good time.

All popped into the bar where we had drinks with the losers (winners). I’ve really gotten to know some cool people already… some campers, some Dylan fans, and all sorts of good people in between. I think this is gonna be great.

I am beat. Goodnight.

Hi Corey,
You’ve been placed on the Crazy Kids. That team plays tonight at Lake Fairfax Park in Reston at 6:30pm. (off Baron Cameron). There will be signs up once you enter the park for you to follow. We will have your t-shirt.
Thanks & let me know if you have anymore questions!

That’s right, kiddies, I am now signed up to play adult league kickball! Right now, such a concept completely rocks my world.

Wanna follow my thrills and agonies? My division is here.

In fact, should you yourself be interested, check out the main WAKA website. It’s only been around a few years, so there aren’t a lot of divisions around the country — but nothing says you can’t start one!

Making my way into the shopping centre parking lot, I followed someone driving a vehicle, that formidable dirigible on wheels, also known as the Ford Galaxie.

Inside the aformentioned dingy, cream-coloured behemoth was a ruddy-haired woman in her forties, with at least four kids in the car (all in the back seat!). Frantic, hyper, frustrated, or perhaps any combination thereof, she was chattering and gesturing in a quickened pace, to and around the aformentioned children.

As we made our way into the parking lot, we passed a young, blonde woman in her twenties or early thirties. She, on the other hand, was driving a shiny, white convertible BMW Z3.

Now, I don’t know if it was just the contrast, but she looked completely elegant in that driving machine. Whatever the case… that moment… it struck me as the most accurate representation of “disparity” that I’d ever seen in my life.

I’m not sure, but I think I just coined a new term.

blogmare (bläg' mere):
n. When you dream about, or have a dream involving one or more other parties, with whom you’ve associated, or whose name you know, from a weblog.

v. to be a party to a blogmare, to be a participant therein.

Like this one, for example.

Have you ever had a blogmare? Who was in it?

This is cracking me up.

I have had two weird dreams in the past two days, both of which have included my girlfriend.

There’s a lot that is crossing my mind today that I want to write about, but I am too damn busy.

…yes, I thought we’d avoided it, after ABC decided not to can Ted Koppel in favour of of Letterman. I thought they came to their senses.

Nope. Bill Maher will now be replaced by Jimmy Kimmel.

Now, even if Maher was controversial at times, and sometimes a bit grating (as can be any debate show), it has to be a lot better off than an hour of the boob jokes and crotch-scratching we’re gonna get with Kimmel.

This trend to replace at least quasi-coherent opinion television with inane trough slop for the masses is just disgusting. Let the people get fat and happy. As long as they’re content, you can step all over them.

After all, that’s why the Romans built the Colosseum, isn’t it?

Post-opinion: Someone just pointed me to this article. Pretty amusing. Maybe he’s right.

…think again.

Query for yourself just about any interesting name you can think of. Just about everything is snapped up already…. and mostly by bulk domain speculators.

I don’t think I should keep updating every time I add more pictures, as I do have a few more to put up. After this update, though, there should be sufficient numbers to satiate the palates of most, for now. In addition, I have reorganised them in a logical manner.

Pictures can be found at the same location: http://wiw.org/~corey/beijing/ … from there, enter the “sights/” directory.

i have returned to DC, many many hours after leaving Beijing. What a distance that is.

I have a lot of stuff to post about the Beijing Experience, but I’m not sure how to arrange it exactly. I guess I should transfer the journal stuff here, and then make a photo journal on my website, with captions, etc. I dunno. I am too tired to think about the details.

I really should learn how to mount my cam as a USB device on the linux box. That would sufficiently motivate me to fix all the pictures.

I need some western food. Loved every bit of the food in China — well, almost every bit — but I have a sweet pork hangover, now. I do know, however, that there’s a new pizza place nearby, that’s open till 4.00 AM on the weekends…

Slow modem (28.8) + no graphics program = pictures small in quantity and large in size (400k+) uploaded thus far. Enjoy the meager selection here.

P.S. I’m We’re having a great time