Destral.net

No goddamn way!  How did I manage to go a full year without making a single post?  That is absolutely ridiculous.

Work at MGM Resorts has been hectic pretty much non-stop.  I can’t remember the last slow time we had.  The little remaining energy I’ve had goes straight to beer mostly.  Had some great road trips, flew to Denver for GABF, whale hunting, and everything in between.  Now its fall already.  Hockey has started.  Football is here.  Halloween and my birthday are in the next couple weeks.  Hopefully I won’t fall off the face of the internet again…

At some point I’ll be able to finally setup a real site here again instead of this temporary WP blog.  Big plans for the site, my freelance site, and some other projects.

So last week everyone seemed to finally get the Evos back in stock so I picked one up from Amazon.

Loving it so far.

Just installed the WordPress app so I am posting this from my phone to try it out.

I’ll post a real update soon.

So it was a pretty fun weekend.  More football, more beer, and hanging with friends.

Michigan is 2-0 now.  The supposedly tough matchup against U-Conn never materialized, and they won a bit of a nail-biter against Notre Dame this week.  I’m still thinking the season follows a lot like last years, which wont be good when all is said and done.  But Denard Robinson sure can run.  Back to back Offensive Player of the Week awards and over 800 all purpose yards…scary.  I’m not sold on him being able to keep this up though.

On the other hand, the Lions got screwed today.  First they lost Stafford and then they lose the game on a bogus call at the end.  I’m not going to argue whether the call was good or not, bu regardless the rule is retarded.

Before those games could happen though, Chris and I went to Aces and Ales for the first game of the NFL season.  While it wasn’t nearly as exciting as last years NFC Championship game, the Saints still beat the Vikings.  Even better was drinking some delicious Ballast Point Sculpin during the game.

Saturday there was a beer festival out a Town Square.  The crew all came out, even Aaron, to try some beers.  Ryan brought out some good stuff for the Aces and Ales tent, and Joseph James had a real winner in the new barrel version of their RIS.  Afterward we went to Famous Daves for some BBQ.

Speaking of food, I guess I should comment about the outing to Mesa Grill.  That dinner was damn good!  The dining area itself was unimpressive, but the food more than made up for it.  If you ever go I definitely recommend the pork loin.  So amazing!

The only other thing really of note was checking out the new Resident Evil in 3D.  Somehow I’ve managed to go quite awhile without seeing something in Imax or Real 3D.  The movie is what I expected, meaning it wasn’t that good, but the 3D is interesting.  My one complaint would be how washed out and dark everything is.  I think I’d just prefer the vibrant colors and normal digital HD and save the extra $4.

Its been another busy week and I see no signs of it slowing down.  Work, beer, fights, more work, and now Restaurant Week.

The weekend was pretty decent and I’ve been getting over whatever cold I had.  I finally went over to the Joseph James Brewery to help judge an amateur beer competition organized by Alex and SNAFU.  It was interesting to follow the BJCP guides and see how the process works…plus the brewery is a cool place.

Aces had some good events in the last week too.  Friday was the monthly MeetUp group and we shared some good beers.  The day before the rep for Weihenstephaner was in town and they had a few of their beers on with some really cool glassware giveaways.  They have some new Dogfish Head stuff that just came in too…Theobroma and the Miles Davis Bitch’s Brew.

Saturday there were UFC fights.  They hyped a big boxing vs MMA match with James Toney debuting against Randy Couture.  It wasn’t hard to predict Randy was going to use a single leg, get the takedown, and have his way with Toney.  Not so predictably, BJ Penn got owned in the co-main event again by Frankie Edgar.

Now its Restaurant Week!  Last year we tried out Roy’s Hawaiian and it was great.  You get to try some fine dining places at a bit of a discount and it helps charity. Win win!  So this year I wanted to finally try Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill.  We are going to be headed there tomorrow to check it out.   This year they are also doing a lot more events at the various restaurants in addition to the tasting menus.  The MGM folks hooked me up with a pass to the kickoff event at Wet Republic Monday.  The Jean-Georges short rib was absolutely incredible.  I just wish I had more money to try some of the other restaurants.

Being sick sucks.  I probably should have taken the last 2 days off, but there’s so much that needs to be done I decided to rough it out.  Hopefully this starts to clear up before the weekend.

As I previously posted, Aces & Ales had their Strong Beer festival recently.  I didn’t get a chance to post about it yet, but it was a blast.  I probably spent more than I should have though.  I was pleasantly surprised by the Kasteel and Moylans beers on tap.  I’ll be back at Aces Friday for the monthly MeetUp group.

This last weekend was fun too.  Greg had another BBQ at his house.  It was probably the best food he’s had yet.  Everything came out so damn good!   Justin finally was able to come out to one of the gatherings, so there was some fun talks about the ridiculousness that was Traffic Power.  Saturday I ended up catching The Expendables with Sarah and Chris at Rave.

Alright, that’s all the energy I have for now.  Time for more water and rest.

Looking forward to hitting this up at different points on all 3 days this weekend.

Keri is hoping to get the word out on more of the details, so check it out below!

Facebook Event Page
Beer Advocate Listing

Beer lineup and more event info:

After multiple showers and washing my hands a few dozen times, I still smell like Hot N Juicy Crawfish!  I finally made it over there to try it out, and it didn’t disappoint.   The crew was there to celebrate Linda’s birthday.  Over the course of a few hours it looked like a seafood apocalypse.  Crawfish, crab, shrimp, oysters, 2 full lobsters…and sausage! Haha.  Good stuff though.

Following the long dinner we also stopped by Frankie’s for a drink.  I didn’t stick around for more than one because of the time and work in the morning.  Had to get one of the redesigned mugs though.  There’s a second one I dont have too. =(

Just past hump day, and I’m already pretty worn out.  Work, Linda’s birthday, and meeting a couple of MGM Grand Detroit people Monday night at the Pub took a bit out of me.  I need to recover for the busy weekend.  Aces & Ales is having their Strong Ale festival all weekend.  Toss in Ken’s housewarming/poker game on Saturday night, I’m going to be feeling good.

This was a pretty busy week.  Between having my first week and as manager and catching up on the new teams I’m over, working on some freelance projects, and weekend celebrating…I am worn out.

Friday night was pretty crazy.  I stopped off at Aces & Ales because they were doing their 1 year anniversary customer appreciation night.  Had a free beer and said hello to some people, then split for Firefly downtown for Aaron’s birthday partying.  Chris, Linda, some of Aaron’s coworkers, and other random people came and went through the course of the night.  Firefly at the Plaza has a pretty nice setup, but its basically the same as the place on Paradise.

After getting some food and a few drinks, the party moved from venue to venue downtown.  Fremont Street, Downtown Cocktail Lounge, Brass, Griffin, and Aaron’s hotel room at the Golden Nugget.  Downtown was pretty ridiculous considering it was First Friday.  The Cocktail Lounge and Brass suffered from some considerably bad bartending.  Griffin remains the best hangout spot down there.  All the specifics aren’t important, but it was a fun night partying with friends.  I ended up getting back to my car at the Plaza as the sun came up.

Saturday we had a more chill guy’s night.  Watched the UFC fights, had some drinks, and downloaded The Human Centipede.  Poor Chael Sonnen.  At least Hughes choked out another Disgracie protege.

I expect this week to be just as hectic.  Going to be meeting some of the MGM Grand Detroit people after work Monday.  Linda is having her birthday dinner Tuesday at Hot N Juice Crawfish.  Then this next weekend is the strong ale festival at Aces & Ales and a poker game at Ken’s new house.

I am looking forward to 2 things:  football and Always Sunny.

With NFL camps all in full swing, pre-season starting soon, and more Brett Favre retirement drama I can’t wait.  I’m actually excited to see what the Lions do this year too.  They got Suh signed.  Brought in some interesting free agents.  Who knows, maybe we’ll win more than 2 games this year?

Then there is the new season of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.  Watching Rescue Me and Louie on FX, they’ve been running the new promos and I can’t wait!

I couldn’t stand to look at my old site 1 more day.  Banged out a “under construction” page and a quick reskin of WP as a placeholder until I figure out the full redesign.  Hopefully this isn’t up still in 2011…

=/