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by Becki | September 29, 2011 · 7:54 pm

Bottles of Sadness

I spent the day playing with my wonderful camera, Duke. Oh wait, you haven’t met Duke yet??
I ended up trading in my little Nikita for something a little more bulky with more capabilities – a Nikon D5100. With Duke, I can do this:
High Dynamic Range! I used the cheating software to do this though. I’m hoping to move on to bracketing soon enough, once I finally figure out more about my camera. Any HDR tips are more than welcome! The software also lets me do THIS:
I switched Duke over to manual and started adjusting ISO and f-stop and all of that fun stuff that I’m slowly but surely learning.
From this day forth, the pictures will be improving dramatically! My goal is to be on manual all the time, working on some bracketing for fun HDR pics in the future, and making my camera be more than just a point and shoot. After all, that was the whole point of getting a DigiSLR!

One reason why it’s taken me so long to start really learning my camera?
This is just one example of the many idiotic contributions to my psychology class discussion board online. This is college, yes? Are we now writing ‘u’ instead of ‘you’? Is punctuation and capitalization unnecessary? Should I end my sentences with an emoticon or a big ZOMGLOLROFL??? I’ve been distracted from my camera by this stupidity, slowly filled with rage with each and every “they’re family had this dog” or “I knew this one women once”…

Rant over. New rant time.

I was really excited to try a few of Mikkeller’s single hop IPAs. I grabbed four from Wades Wines and brought them out in preparation for a tasting, hoping to really be able to pull out the different aromas and flavors of each individual hop. I popped open the first bottle.
Don’t get it yet? Let’s take a closer look…
That. Is. Mold. Frantically, I popped the top off of the second one. MOLD. The third and fourth? MOLD!!! This makes for a very unhappy, thirsty lady. I took them back to Wades (not the fault of Wades Wines! Apparently friends of mine have also had problems with Mikkeller having DMS issues…) and swapped them out for Midnight Sun Treat, Iron Fist Velvet Glove and a Duchesse de Bourgogne. Opened the Treat just now.
Mold free and beautiful. I am content once again.

I’m off to enjoy a tall glass of this, then packing for a trip to Boulder City, Nevada tomorrey morning. Lo and behold, THEY ACTUALLY HAVE A BREWERY! Maybe the 99 degree Fahrenheit high that’s predicted for the entire weekend won’t be so bad after all…?

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Tagged as bottles of sadness, Boulder City, college, DigiSLR, HDR, High Dynamic Range, Midnight Sun Treat, Mikkeller Single Hop Series, MOLD, Nevada, Nikon D5100, online class, Wade's Wines

by Becki | April 9, 2011 · 7:17 pm

My Other Half

Yesterday was my last day of retail! I’m technically still “on-call” but after last night, there will be no more! I just can’t take it anymore – the sitting around, waiting for customers who never come, doing homework at the counter and no one really cares because there’s nothing to miss… It’s just a waste of my time, so I’m officially done!

To celebrate, I opened my second to last growler of Dos Beckis.
I think it has passed its peak! I think it’s been sitting a little too long with the trub… The flavor is a little metallic-y now, and the hops have definitely added more bitter to it. I still drank it, AND enjoyed it! No worries!

Today, I celebrated by meeting someone who I’ve only met on the internet. How risqué am I? I’ve known this person for a little over a month – we were assigned to the same group project (in an internet college course) and have exchanged many e-mails and Skype conversations. I risked my life today…
She’s TERRIFYING! This is Sofia Pernas, the most brizziliant person in my class. Seriously, she’s the only one in the entire class who uses correct grammar and doesn’t need a thesaurus to think up big words when she writes. Oh yeah, and she’s an incredibly gorgeous, talented actress. That too…
We met up at Caffe Aroma, another Breaking the Chain in Newbury Park. This place is freakin’ adorable! It’s very kitschy and is normally filled with elderly ladies wearing big red hats having tea parties. PERFECT for a first time meetup! If this scared her away, then it just wasn’t meant to be…
I ordered the ice blended green tea with boba (soy, thank you very much!) – one of the top recommended drinks to order on Yelp. This. Was. Luscious! I’d recommend this, but without the boba. The tapioca pearls varied between hard and crunchy and sickly sweet. I may have found my new substitute for my coffee until Lent is over, though! GREEN TEA SLUSHIES!
My turkey avocado sandwich in the foreground with Sofia’s tuna melt and chocolate shake in the back. I envied her combo, I must say…
…but then I saw the HUGE chunks of avocado and sprouts sticking out, layered between thick slices of bread that was baked with tons of walnuts and seeds. And my life was complete. I only finished half and asked them if they could keep the rest in their refrigerator so it wouldn’t go bad. Sweetly, they complied, “only if you don’t forget to take it with you!”

I FORGOT THE OTHER HALF 🙁The menu for this adorable little cafe is slightly pricey, but totally worth it for the peace and ambiance.
Like I said, kitschy and adorable. The service here was wonderful! The girl working behind the counter gave her recommendations, which we greedily consumed, and put up with our ridiculous giggling for FOUR hours!
Two apples, no plums.