One thing I’ve discovered in the oh, two days of “researching” for my beer updates is, there are a

I like coffee beer I can chew

lot of blogs devoted to people trying beers. Most of them are pretty guilty of beer snobbery. I’ll try and avoid talking about beer having ‘notes of caramel’ or a ‘thin mouth feel’ or about how the ‘ABV lends it a bitter twinge reminiscent of brandy.’ You’re welcome. Anyway, Cappuccino Stout. As most of you know, I am an aficionado of coffee – probably more so than beer, so I always enjoy coffee-flavored beers. I don’t really drink stout anymore, just because, I don’t know, it doesn’t feel right if I haven’t been chopping wood lately. But this is good. It does taste like coffee, and it doesn’t have the overwhelming chunky aftertaste most stouts give you. It isn’t quite as good as the Espresso Stout made by Hopworks in Portland, though – that tastes like a mocha.
Would I recommend it to your mom: Yes, I certainly would.

Apologies for the recent lack of updates. We’re both busy with work and watching the Godfather trilogy.

Snow in our front yard

Walking in the snow near downtown

Not snow, but a picture nonetheless. At a set of wholly underwelming Indian ruins near Lynx Lake

Besides that, we had a good weekend. We went to a little bar and watched a band called Nacho Jesus. They weren’t great, but the name was funny, and that’s bound to count for something. Saturday we went to the Embry Riddle Aeronautical University’s international festival, which was fun – we sampled a few different kinds of cuisine from around the world (the Chinese wasn’t very good), and enjoyed some really bizarre performances by different clubs.

First there was the Prescott Folk Dance club, which consisted of one man who was clearly really, really into folk dancing, and then about 8 older ladies who were obviously not as excited as he was. Then there was an exhibition by the Eagle Talon Martial Arts club, which was about the most ridiculous thing either of us have seen in a long time. Seen any over the top kung fu action films like one of the latest Jet Li movies, or Ong-Bak? Well, it was more or less like that. If I were a real kung fu instructor, I’d be horrified. They called it “Extreme (or probably X-Treme) Martial Arts,” and one particular match ended with one of the kids pretending like he was cutting the throat of another. Wow.

After that, we had a slice of pizza for dinner, went home and watched half of the Godfather Part 2 only to look outside and discover about 4 inches of snow had fallen. It’s already supposed to be hitting the 50s tomorrow, so it won’t be here long, but it was nice to see it actually coming down for once, as opposed to just being there for us to skid around in.

Anyway, I’ll let Missy fill in the blanks on this – she does have some photos to post.

-Jeremiah

So I decided that, rather than just having posts that say “We did this, yesterday” I’d have an occasional item on my current biggest quest in Prescott: Sampling different beers. I wouldn’t call myself a hardcore drinker. I rarely have more than a beer or two in an evening, and often not even that many, but since my friend Ryan and I went on our beer-sampling expeditions in Portland and attempted to do a bit of brewing, I’ve had a little more interest in sampling different beers. Luckily, I was able to discover a liquor store of town with an extensive collection of different beers, which you can buy by the bottle. My beautiful wife has indulged me to the extent that she bought me five on Valentine’s Day. Anyway, this shall be my first post, and I’ll post as I go, though some of this will include recalling beers I tried a week or two earlier, just for the sake of compiling a completish list.

400 Pound Monkey English India Pale Ale – Left Hand Brewing

In Portland I got a little more into IPAs, mostly because they tend to have more flavor than the lighter beers, yet are less heavy and murky than stouts and porters. I was attracted to 400 Pound Monkey by the label (which happens pretty often, actually), which as you can see, is ridiculous. I have had Left Hand beers before – the brewery is in Longmont, Colo., and they’re decent if not spectacular, though they could be great in person. As for 400 Pound Monkey? Well, I’m not a beer snob – I enjoy a Busch Light now and then (Hey Jay!), but I was surprised at how non-IPA tasting this beer was. It has a good flavor, but it’s almost a mix of a light IPA and a wheat beer or something. Not the best I’ve had, and certainly not the worst.
Would I recommend it to your mom: Probably not, it retains enough IPA hoppiness that she would have to have a reasonably thick beard to enjoy it.

Here’s the one that didn’t make the cut. 1950s wide baby faces don’t make for easy photoshopping!

ARGH! The creepiness!

And welcome to our new blog. It’s been a while since we updated, but I thought that, though pretty much anyone who is interested in the goings-on in our life probably knows what we’re doing now anyway, it might be fun to blog again and update you all on our adventures.

So with that said, here is what’s happening: We’re no longer living in Portland, Ore., hence the change in the blog name. I took a job at the newspaper here in Prescott, Arizona, a town in the mountains with a population of about 50,000. It’s certainly a change from living in Portland (Metro area: 3 million), Nanjing (8 million) or even Tucson (1 million), but it has a nice little downtown area with bars and coffee shops and shops selling kokopelli denim shirts, so we like it so far. Missy is still job-hunting, but she should have something within the next couple weeks. Right now we’re still sort of in move-in-and-meet-people zone, so we’ve spent quite a bit of time hunting for furniture, and we signed up for memberships at the YMCA and made a fake book club to con people into joining,but shh! Don’t tell them!

Anyway, like I said, we like it, though it is different.

As for my job, it’s good. It’s a smaller newspaper, so it’s been a bit of an adjustment, but the people are great, and I certainly have more responsibility than I did working at my last newspaper job in Tucson.

So that’s what’s going on here. Hopefully we can post some photos and let you follow our adventures doing crazy stuff like seeing someone we’ve seen before multiple times in the same place, but totally accidentally.

Also, we have a giant TV.

More soon.

… is a terrible movie. But a great blog post title.

Hi folks, this is a long-overdue update on what’s going on with us. Missy and I are still in Portland. She’s working with an online university as an admissions coordinator, and I’m a secret agent with the CIA, but don’t tell anyone, because it’s VERY IMPORTANT.

At this point, we’re both trying to keep busy and focused on whatever decision will next allow us to pursue our goals, whatever that means. We’ve set a deadline for finding jobs that we likeish, and failing that will probably mean wo men hui zhongguo le, or at least something along those lines. Get out the Chinese-English dictionaries, folks!

On the bright side, I’m getting more writing done, and Missy has managed to start an Etsy store. Go to see it at Midwayvintage.etsy.com. She also has a fantastic blog which you should read at Midwayvintage.wordpress.com. If you’re interested in whatever I have to say, which usually is related to soccer, music or movies, either go to my personal blog at jeremiahsays.wordpress.com or www.lazerbrainz.com, which is more of a comedy site a friend and I are working on that is still REALLY REALLY under construction.

Aside from that, I’m in a band called Scattered Suns. You can view our site at www.myspace.com/scatteredsunspdx. I also have managed to do a little volunteering with the Multnomah County Library and SE Works, a program that helps kids with family-related strife make their way through college.

When there is a dramatic change to our situation, we’ll let you know.

1. Power knocked out by tree falling on power lines. That’s right folks. A freak accident knocked our power out (and everyone else in about a one-mild-square-mile radius) so we’re here at the library to post stuff. Which brings me to my second thought: This isn’t quite as exciting as reading about climbing around on the Great Wall, is it? Hey, you wanted us back in America …
2. My mother-in-law took her daughter to a lady to get her hair styled. After hanging out with us for four hours, she found out that the hairstylist was still unfinished, would be going to a class for four hours, then would return to finish Jane’s hair, probably around 8 pm. How crazy is that? Had any marathon 12-hour haircuts lately in your neck of the woods? Though I could totally see that happening in China. I’ve got an idea! I’m going to set up a barber shop at the 16-day traffic jam!

Anyway, what are you all up to?

So here’s what’s happening: We’re now MARRIED. We’ll post some pictures on the China blog I think. You can blame Missy for not updating. We’re living in Portland, Ore., which is a very nice place, albeit one with a large group of unemployed young people, therefore a very difficult job market. But we’re optimistic and hopeful, as you should be. In addition, I (I meaning Jeremiah) am playing in a new band. We are called Scattered Suns, and our first show is September 2. Here is our myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/scatteredsunspdx. More on everything soon.
-Jeremiah