We have flowers :)

My last Jail Break Chocolate Chili Stout, from Bigelow Brewing in Skowhegan, Maine. It's a lovely slightly spiced 7.6% stout and it's a shame that it's the last one as it hits the spot on this chilly evening.

Youngest latest crochet creation is this snowman decoration for someone's secret Santa gift. Rather like one myself...

Honey honey chicken Sammie at Nan's this week, with a side of extra pickles. Also picked up the permanent, all metal Free Chicken Gold card that has come in, and it's quite lovely.

Plant based peas, because all normal peas are meat based... And also, cheese and fish flavoured seaweed, not sure that's a winning combination everyone is looking for...

Spicy pickle corn puffs are oddly very tasty...

My youngest latest crochet project was this anime tapestry, and it came out pretty nicely :)

Doppler, a 4.6% dark lager from Equilibrium hit the spot on this chilly evening for a tipple.

The US men's team beat China late last night to qualify for the Olympic curling. China will play Japan at 6pm now for the second remaining qualifying spot. On the ladies front, the US will play Norway at 1pm for the second remaining spot. Both games streamed on Peacock.

The Japanese women's team just qualified for the Olympic curling :)

I usually move to the grade 1-2 winter cut but as I walked into the Brazilian barbers, the guy welcomed me with thumbs up, big smile, saying "same?". So I didn't want to risk it and went with my summer skin fade...

This evenings tipple is the 5% Lighthouse pilsner from Burlington Brewers, and it's rather refreshing. Christmas tree is now lit up ready to be decorated. Eldest, picked the tree this year, and not the saddest tree on the lot for once. Weird that it'll be the last time she picks the tree as a kid..

@bostonfig.bsky.social might have ended, but you can join us for more local games @ Boston Indies! 💀🪄 Join Boston Game Dev on Meetup to keep up with local game developer events and be notified when our next event is scheduled! ✨ www.meetup.com/bostongamedev/

Club hosted Kevin Martin curling academy clinic over the weekend. Sounded like a great skills clinic if anyone gets a chance with tailored tutoring with participants who have only curled 2 months through to those who curl at the national level.

England v Ghana at Gillette in June for the World Cup. Cheapest tickets in the neutral stands $865. $1k for the England section. Fuck a duck.

The curling club is hosting the Kevin Martin Academy clinic, so I swung by to take a few photos and get some bar stuff taken care of. It's cozy down here.

Never too old for a McDisappointments Happy Meal..

Kevin Martin is at my club as we're hosting a curling clinic this weekend. He was also recording his podcast with Rachel Homan, which drops this Saturday, which is pretty cool I thought :)

Well that's an interesting music recap for 2025...

Last nights curling was fun, but weird. My Wednesday team, I split second with someone who can only do early draws while I can only do lates. I subbed a late and caught the end of my teams game, where like many, tried to lose it, but held on. Team is 9-0 in pool play & playing for the championship.

It's quite nice outside this morning...

The fun thing about digging out the winter coat for the first time of the season last night was finding a handful of curling club pins in the pocket and wondering what was the last bonspiel I went to with that coat. Probably Montreal for the Gordon...

The second round of our Sunday curling league play off games have been scheduled, and rules have been sent out as a reminder. This tie breaker should be the common defacto modus operandi.

The snow is actually coming down hard. How much we actually end up with, with potential rain later is a mystery. It is time to activate the winter Crocs however.

The calm before the storm. We're expecting 8 inches of snow tomorrow. Sojourn from Treehouse hits the spot. 6.5% stout and it's lovely.

Last nights curling was 1st round of play offs. We faced 2nd seed team that till this season had beaten us last 3 yrs, but we beat them in our 1st game of season, 1 of 3 losses for them. Giving up 3 in the 2nd end, we didn't fancy our chances, but scored 4 in the 3rd. Close game...

We also saw "Nuremburg", and that was such a good movie, and seems very poignant in the messaging right now. Even the kids enjoyed it as it was a nice blend of real time news footage and the horrors that were committed.

Tipples, had Equillibrium eMCee, super smooth, hoppy 6% IPA, and it's something I've managed to secure a couple kegs for Men's bonspiel. Relative Rates, 8.1% DIPA also lovely, slightly sweet juicy sip mellowed out with hops. Unfortunately a limited release and not something I can get for the club.

It's been a fun weekend. I picked up this Momotaro book yesterday from Worcester for $10 at the Bedlam Book Cafe second hand store and it's beautiful, as well as being one of my favourite stories as a kid that my mum would tell.

The Canadian Olympic trials was fantastic to watch. It's a shame there won't be any game 3's. But Homan and Jacobs are really the best teams around right now.

A bit of nostalgia for the missus and we hit the Ground Round in Shrewsbury on the way home, and surprisingly, it was very good.

We got Woo-town for small business Saturday. Eldest filled a bag of vintage clothes at Jerry's Warehouse, then hit the stores at the Crompton Collective. The Seed to Stem, and second hand bookshop cafe were particularly cool. Finding clothes from the 90s described as vintage hurt though...

Great result for #OUFC. Sceptical of the starting line up, but Sparky came good with his first goal in nearly a year. We typically have the lead away but the bench came on strong and Shemy gets a peach for the lead and they finally hang on to the lead taking us out of the relegation zone.

8 months into the healing of the daith piercing and I was finally able to swap out the CBR with this hammered finished black niobium ring and I love it. Healing well, and I'm probably a few weeks away from behind about to downsize my snug piercing which is 7 months into healing.

Last night's DIPA, "STRAIGHT OUTTA THE DOUBLE MARSHMALLOW LABORATORY", an Equilibrium collab with Evil Twin Brewing in NY. This was the November release and it's really lovely, slightly sweet with a hoppy juicy finish.

Christmas mode activated...

Team Black, what a game. To go to the finals in front of the home crowd must feel amazing.

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends & family! Last night was pick up curling, my Equilibrium rep dropped off some samples for me. Few DIPAs, a couple IPAs, a pilsner and dark lager. Also the tap handle for a couple barrels I've locked in for the Men's bonspiel with the current reduced pricing.

Nansville hot Sammie with extra pickles and a side of the apple and fennel Waldorf salad, and this means the Gold Card tattoo club at Nans Kitchen in Stow has paid for itself :)

Steph designed these awesome pins and we got to pick them up last night while also helping to wrap winter clothes for a vets charity while having a beer. Nitro amber ale was lovely btw, but took forever to pour :)

Loving that TSN is streaming the Canadian Olympic curling trials on Youtube for those not in Canada, but I wish they would keep the farm tractor adverts in, rather than have a blank screen for the first couple of rocks. Am I the only one that liked those ads?

A Julius kind of moment. 6.8% Treehouse IPA, and a classic one at that.

Draw for the Sunday League play downs and 1st game is against the team we beat at the start of the season, who ended up with 3 loses. The team that had beaten us the last 3 years. Team that topped the table, we gave them their only loss, so there's that going for us :)

We curled a good game tonight, but snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. The other team played a good strategy in forcing us to throw the left of the sheet but there's two ridges along that sheet that caused our shots to rattle around and miss. Final loss dropped us into 7th in round robin.

One of my distributor reminder emails that the holiday delivery schedule has moved up for the week due to the holiday and there are some good suggestions for beer, then there's this one... I kind of want to try the SoMe Gingerbread Whoopie Pie Milk Stout, but not for the club...

When the opposing skip ruins things with his final draw. Clutch throw from Reggie, drawing down against 6, but the 7th rock is open and an inch away for an easy tap split for 8 on our hammer if he had gone through like the first rock. youtube.com/clip/Ugkx0uI...

It's a shame the qualifiers for the US Mixed Doubles isn't being streamed, but we've got a couple members from our club competing, and a couple friends not from the club, so that's kind of fun. curlingzone.com/event.php?ev...

This evenings tipple, the Deaf Glow 7.2% IPA from Lawson's, and it's lovely, smooth, hoppy and fruity.

Dropping off curling club bar license renewal in town before doing a rental so finally stopped by the Wayland Variety & Deli that's a real hole in the wall joint down the street from the club. Those sandwiches were loaded and tasty, and they have a bunch of Brit chocolate imports for solid prices.

French Onion popcorn, and a box of dicks that are supposedly ginger bread people. Trader Joe's is winning right now...