Chipotle ale

Tried this Sunday night (10/23).

While the cooking team (PJ, CPG, Pat H) was assembling a pretty excellent pork roast with a+ trimmings.  And a bourbon glaze or sauce.

Bought the bottle during our recent trip to Flagstaff; I was intrigued by the label, the unpromising pairing of "chipotle" and beer, plus the Rogue folks do some nice beers (such as "Dead Guy").  (Plus I buy lots of iffy things when I'm traveling, typically t-shirts.) (Maybe I took it as some sort of challenge when the clerk up in Flag told us "people say it's 'interesting', but not something they would 'drink all the time'.")

It was ok but not awesome.  My tasting panel agreed.  The clerk's info was accurate.

Choral Union (year seven)

CPG, PJr and I are in year seven of Choral Union (well, year five for PJr).  Either way, it starts to sound like a long time.

This year's first concert is Sunday, October 30.


I like our program:  Mozart's Coronation Mass; Monteverdi; Gabrieli; di Lasso; even the "I was glad" piece (Hubert Parry) used as processional at the latest royal wedding.

Plus, PJ has arranged a nice after-party.  It will be a fun day.  (Even though our #2 loyal fan is stuck over in Santa Monica.)

Flagstaff visit (October 8-10, 2011)

After breakfast at Macy's (10/10)

[Reminder, per new "Lightbox" feature, clicking any photo will bring up all photos for review in enlarged fashion (though without captions) in an overlay (as explained here).]

As discussed at greater length here (and also here), we've long enjoyed going up to the Flagstaff area about this time of year.  Typically to visit Lockett's Meadow and take a look at the aspens changing color.  But a 2010 fire led to flooding that closed the road up to the Meadow.  So this year we had to improvise a bit.

Inside Macy's . . . folks in line, always.

Lots of waiting for the train when walking around downtown Flagstaff.

I'm a huge fan of Flagstaff.  It still seems amazing that one can get in the car here in the Sonoran Desert, and alight up in pine trees in just two hours.  And the town now has plenty of fine restaurants; the old downtown is a pleasure to wander around; the university and hippie communities create a certain flavor; etc.

Kachina Trail (10/9)

PJ among the aspens, Kachina Trail (10/9)

A cold front had swept through the area a couple days before we arrived, and was just clearing out as we hit town on Saturday morning.  Snow had fallen down to about the 8000 foot level (meaning nothing in town).  So the weather was great - no precipitation, the storm had cleared the air so that visibility and clarity were optimal, cool but not uncomfortably so.

nearing trailhead (Kachina Trail (10/9))

from hotel parking lot (Humphrey's Peak)

When we hit town on Saturday, we were looking for lunch (after an early check-in at a thoroughly serviceable Quality Inn (same one we used with the kids several times years ago)).  Ended up at Criollo Latin Kitchen - really enjoyed the place.  Enough to where - out of six possible lunches and dinners on our trip - we ate there four times.  Favorites included the pork belly tacos; patacon (beef over fried plantains); pork dinner entree; not to mention Dale's Pale Ale.  Nice atmosphere in the place, thoroughly reasonable pricing, the kind of flavors we really appreciate, top quality all around.

Had delightful breakfast both mornings at Macy's European Coffee House - it lived up to rave reviews.  Still trying to figure out how they did the egg-on-croissant treat.  Wonderful coffee, great little place.

Also had dinner at Josephine's (more of a fine dining experience, good but we weren't moved) and a Sunday lunch at Lumberyard brewery (solely to squeeze a bit more suffering out of the Cardinals' wretched loss to a wretched Viking team, ugh).

Criollo Latin Kitchen (10/10)

Walked the downtown area a few different times and enjoyed going through the shops.

Pork belly tacos (Criollo Latin Kitchen)

Criollo Latin Kitchen

Hiking:  decided the Kachina Trail (trailhead up near Snow Bowl) was the right mix of moderate exercise and fine views.  It was just delightful up there - plenty warm, plenty of snow on the ground for great visuals, plenty of sunshine, an interesting trail with more big boulders and overlooks than I recalled.

Patacon (Criollo Latin Kitchen) . . . so good . . .

Walnut Canyon on a gorgeous late afternoon (10/10)

Things being so fine, we decided to stick around all day Monday (10/10); I went to the beautiful public library to do some work, then we had lunch (at Criollo).  Took a bit of a road trip out to Walnut Canyon - we've visited numerous times but don't get tired of this.  Had never taken the short rim trail before - very beautiful as we were approaching sunset.  Final dinner (at Criollo) and back home.

Rim Trail (Walnut Canyon) (10/10)

Rim Trail (Walnut Canyon) (10/10)

From Rim Trail (Walnut Canyon) (10/10)

Not-so-wildlife

This healthy fellow caught my eye yesterday while I was slaving away working in my home office.

Second time I've seen him wandering through the 'hood in the last couple weeks.

He looks really well fed; perhaps Smokey; perhaps Jo-Jo will encounter him (I'm hoping, in a nice way)?

I'm using masculine pronouns but haven't confirmed.

Lightbox!

Google - which provides the platform for my blogs - recently provided what I think is a neat upgrade for photo viewing.

Under the "old" system - you could click on a photo to enlarge it.  Then you needed to hit the "back" button on your browser to return to the blog.

Under the "new" system - named "Lightbox" - you can click on any photo in a post, and all photos in that post become available for viewing in a large overlay.  Click on any photo appearing in the overlay to be taken to the next photo.  When you're sick of looking at the photos, just close the overlay (using the typical "X" in upper right hand corner).

In addition to new posts, this feature will work for all previously-published posts (or so I'm told).

I like the feature. (I've been trying to incorporate embedded slide shows for posts with multiple pictures, but haven't much liked that approach.)

D'backs playoff game (October 5, 2011)

We (me, PJ, Chris, PJr, Nedda, PJr's friend (Alan)) attended game four of the NLDS between Diamondbacks and Brewers on October 5, 2011.  This was our second post-season venture in recent years, four years to the day since the last one (see here for description of 2007 outing v. Cubs).  And our second in-season venture to the ballpark (see here). 

pre-game view; we arrived very early.  I like this vantage point.

Diamondbacks looked weak in Milwaukee and had fallen behind two games to zip; not a good thing in a five-game series.  But they had won on Tuesday night, extending the series to game four.

Maybe because of the weak start to the series and uncertainty about getting to game four; maybe just because; the place wasn't filled.  But it certainly was quite loud.  The team gave away 35,000 black T-shirts for what was billed as a "black-out" (complementing the team wearing black uniforms) - I can't say it was terribly effective.  All in all:  we enjoyed the game a bunch - long, lots of scoring, Ryan Roberts grand slam, just a nice outing.  For a full description of the game, see here.

In response to the Brewers' "beast mode" antics, the Diamondbacks (via Miguel Montero) offered up a "snake bite" mode.  An amiable Brewers fan sat beside me, and patiently endured multiple "snake bite" attacks from PJ as the Diamondbacks thrived throughout the game.

The D'backs ended up losing the series on Friday in Milwaukee - many missed opportunities. 

It was a ridiculous season in many respects - a team that had lost 90+ games two years in a row, looked awful in spring training, looked awful on paper, played awful for the first six weeks.  Then caught fire and somehow won 94 games - very entertaining throughout.  The team brought up this kid named Josh Collmenter - a/k/a Chainsaw Jim Duggan (or whatever) - perhaps the single biggest factor.