Happy Monday. My holiday weekend was relatively relaxing. After I wrapped work on Wednesday (ending my week with some good news for once), the crew went out and had dinner and caught a screening of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, which was problematic, but pretty. I missed the fun character moments and inherent sweetness from the first one that was better than it had any right to be. Thanksgiving was pretty chill, by design. I cooked some stuff, I drank some beer, and hung out with the fam. It was nice. For “Black Friday” I avoided shopping (the spouse grabbed one thing on sale online), though we did make a quick trip to Scott’s Addition to grab a growler of Isley’s “Apple Brown Betty” (brown ale with apple juices from Blue Bee Cider down the street) released this past weekend, and a couple of bottles of mead from Black Heath while we were there. In the evening, we went out to an open mic hosted by my friend Doc (a.k.a. Dirty Metal Lefty) at a local coffee shop, where I ended up playing a couple of *really* good sets, if I do say so myself.

Didn’t do a whole lot on Saturday; it was rainy and meh anyway. Got some nice stuff from the farmer’s market, hung around the house. Sunday, I drove the kid back to college after hitting the grocery store to stock her up on snacks for the last couple of weeks of the semester. I also found a really freaking weird beer on the shelf, “Grainsmith Pineapple Chai Stout” (ingredients also include chocolate nibs, coconut water, and agave nectar); it was too weird *not* to buy (also, it was cheap). I sampled one can in the evening while watching The Meg (Jason Statham vs. Giant Sharks? my kind of movie), and it was…odd. My reaction to it on social media apparently inspired my friend Mikey to do a livestream of his weekly podcast Beer Powered Time Machine (also, his usual venue was closed), though I missed the live version, sadly, recovering from the drive, and from the strange beer. Oh well, I’ll catch it on the replay.

For this week, I’m already monitoring several work hiccups that are probably going to be a pain in my ass, but I think we’ll get past them. I’m also concerned that my sinuses are clogging up more than normal allergies would indicate, but I’ll try and get through it. I’m on the Three Weeks Until Christmas Break™ countdown, and I’m not going to let stuff get me down.

Or at least I’m going to try my best.