Microbrewery: Kirkwood Station Brewing

I got together with some old friends who are in on my bid to visit various microbreweries, and the latest pick was Kirkwood Station Restaurant & Brewing Co.  Things did not start out well.

We were supposed to meet at 7, but I got distracted at work, so I was late getting there.  It turns out that this place starts charging a cover charge at 7.  A cover charge!  A cover charge!  In Kirkwood!  Possibly the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.  (Is my indignation obvious?  If not, I can use block letters and italics.  Let me know if that's necessary.)

The situation did not improve once I made it in the door.  The food was okay at best.  A friend at my table got the full beer sampler -- everything they had.  He shared.  The beer was passable in some cases, barely drinkable in others.

Then the band came out.  They were three guys (I think, maybe just two, I had my back to them), who were probably about my age.  "How do you know that," you might ask, "if you had your back to them?"  I know that because they were playing songs from my high school days, which means they were in high school when I was in high school, because that's always the music that makes an impression on you, even if it was terrible.

And speaking of terrible, we finished our okay food and passable beers and headed down the road for a different flavor.

What I Watched -- The Imitation Game

I went to see The Imitation Game a few weeks ago with T and G, after it got a gazillion Oscar noms (including best picture, best actor, best supporting actress, best director, and best adapted screenplay, among others).

It's hard for me to say that it deserves to win the statue in all the categories in which it was nominated, because I haven't seen all the other movies that were nominated (yet), but I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it won most of them.

BTCC disappears completely into the role; Keira Knightley is a pretty darn good actress, as it turns out.

Bottom line: if you're at all interested in World War II, cryptography, or both, you can't miss it.

Random Links

Think you're a good skier? Watch this.

Lobster farming.

Totally insane vintage news stories.

"No More" ads that didn't quite turn out as planned.  They turned out better.

Mystery rifle.

Benedict Timothy Carleton Cumberbatch is at it again.

What I'm Reading Now -- Allegiant

I've moved on to the last book of the Divergent Trilogy, Allegiant.  (You can read about the earlier books at these links: Divergent, Insurgent.)

We left our heroine Tris at the end of Insurgent just after she revealed some super-secret information to the whole of society.  Let's see what happens now.

What I Watched -- Finding Vivian Maier

I was at the office one Sunday when CK asked me if I had ever heard of Vivian Maier.  "No, should I have?"  I had no idea what context to put this person in: client? fellow attorney? celebutante?  "I saw the most incredible documentary yesterday," he said.

He apparently had been flipping channels and happened upon it at a moment early in the film where the camera is mounted to the ceiling and you're looking down at the floor of a room while the documentarian was going about his business.  The interesting camera angle caught his attention, and the odd story kept it.  The film was Finding Vivian Maier.

Vivian Maier was a nanny.  And a photographer.  And strange.  And eventually mentally ill.  Her photographs are stunning compositions, mostly in black and one, generally with a human subject who often didn't know he or she was being photographed.

Often, Vivian would drag her charges along with her while she was photographing, and several of them are interviewed in the film, discussing both their expeditions and day trips, and the woman who took them, sometimes used assumed names, and lied about her birthplace.

Bottom line: a fascinating look at a confused and confusing woman.

Wolf Hall -- Take 2

I took a long pause in the middle of listening to Wolf Hall, and perhaps that's the reason I didn't like it very much.  Maybe my lack of attention span while I'm listening and also doing other things is the reason I didn't like it very much.  Maybe it was just too long. 

But what it comes down to in the end is that I didn't like it very much.  It wasn't poorly written (it won the Man Booker, after all). It wasn't a dull story (sex! lies! political intrigue! death!).  But for some reason, it just didn't take.

Now the big decision: should I press on with the next book in the series, Bring Up the Bodies, in the hope that it will go better?  Or abandon all hope and delete it from my iPod?

Goal #4

Goal #4: clean off my desk.

Since I made my big push last fall to get my apartment in shape, I have been pretty good about keeping it clean on a day-to-day basis.  (There are still a few little things that need attention, but those are a project for a different week.)

I have, however, been accumulating a pile of paperwork that needs attention on the corner of my desk.  This week, before all the fun I have coming up, I will clear it off so I can have a clean mind and no worries.

Recap of goal #3: how did I do on my water consumption?  I did really well!  Some days I fudged a bit because I went out to eat or the like, but I gave it my best guess.  Hopefully I can keep it up, since it really is good for you!

Happy National Readathon Day!

Go find yourself a book!

Dinner at Farmhaus

Last Saturday, a group of friends got together for dinner at Farmhaus.  I had been there once before with dad, and my recollection is that we both ate a whole lot of pork.  My recollection is also that I didn't blog about it though.  Did I?  Sometimes it's hard to remember.

Farmhaus maybe wasn't the best choice for this group (don't blame me, I didn't choose it), since one of the couples in the group doesn't eat port, which severely limited their options.  A couple of other issues: we were seated in the bar, which had potential to be bad but turned out okay once everyone was seated at their tables.  But the only other table in the bar area was l-o-u-d loud, and that made conversation a bit difficult.

So we had a few logistical problems.  But that didn't affect the food!  I started out with a bite of T's cotechino, an Italian sausage, served with grits.  My own appetizer, which came out a few minutes later, was the roasted Ozark mushroom salad.  I sure am glad I learned to like mushrooms, because this was worth eating, but they're not kidding about the mushroom part.

My main was the Cajun-inspired pork loin.  Not too spicy, and again, heavy on the star of the show, the pork.  They certainly don't short you on the good stuff.  For the final hurrah, T ordered a slice of the apple pecan pie, and I had the root beer ice cream which came along with it.  And excellent way to end the meal, since it fills in the cracks!

A Novel Affair

I have been immensely neglectful in not yet writing about a wonderful fundraiser T and I went to exactly two months ago now.  It was put on by the St. Louis Public Library Foundation. I think part of the reason I haven't written is because of my total lack of pictures to go along with my post, which I feel makes it a bit lackluster.  I'll just have to do my best with words.

The evening began in the lower level, the general adult fiction section.  The lights were low, and the shoulder-height bookshelves throughout the center of the room were adorned with large candelabra.  Everything was black, red, and gold, underscoring the Italian Renaissance theme of the night.  An ensemble in the corner played period music.  There was a bar at each end of the room, and a huge, gorgeous bouquet of flowers at the base of the old split stairwell.  When I say huge, I mean HUGE -- a big globe of roses and other flora probably eight feet across -- and it smelled amazing.

Servers with plates of little hors d'oeuvres abounded: figs stuffed with blue cheese, mushroom arancini, rosemary and leek chicken on polenta cakes, zucchini roll-ups with pesto cream.  There was also a buffet table with the usual crudites, fruit, etc.

At the end of cocktail hour, trumpeters (yes, trumpeters) summoned us upstairs to the great hall for dinner.  The library tables had been replaced by long rows of dining tables adorned with more candelabra and baskets of bread, spreads, and cheeses (how very Italian).  While guests were seated, a mezzo soprano serenaded us from a pedestal at the front of the room.

Wine flowed freely (if you hadn't had enough downstairs), and the first course was served.  It was a delicious vegetable salad on a bed of baby greens.  At least I thought it was delicious; T was not so enamored.  He was a much bigger fan of the main course.  But before that, our second course: a seared scallop with one of those really crispy fried Parmesan wafers!  Love those!  The main was a tasty and not-overcooked beef tenderloin with steamed green beans and peppers, as well as a  mushroom and potato gratin.  The final course, which many people were too full to eat, was a light finish to the meal, except for the sauce: a poached pear with marsala creme anglaise.  As a complete meal, the food was delicious (and significantly better than expected).  I left full and satisfied.

And to top it all off, there were even after-dinner snacks, additional wine, and a string ensemble for those who stuck around for a bit longer!