Hockey, Home Improvement, and Beer

Today I finally finished the Doggie Detention Center. It was a lot more work than I thought. I spent a lot of time with a rasp and a chisel either fixing sloppy workmanship (from someone else) or cutting little grooves in posts so things would fit flush.

Home Improvement Advice

My mom’s damn cordless drill doesn’t have the power to drill screws into a pressure treated wooden post. I can do it with my hand so it isn’t that tough. I’ve given up on the thing. I used an old beat up Black and Decker drill with an extension cord and a screw driver.

Any argument to the superiority of Canadians over Americans can instantly be won by examining the screws they use. Canadians use Robertson which are vastly superior to the Phillips head screws the Americans use. I gave up using the Philips that came with the hinges and used Robertson instead. They weren’t black but they drive so much better, the bits are tougher too.

Beer

On one of my many trips to Bowser to get something I needed for this project I bought four beers I’d never tried before. They were expensive and sold in single bottles. Today I also bought a six pack of another beer I’ve never tried and will briefly comment on them. In fact I think I’ll open another Thirsty Beaver right now.

I can’t say I’m that big of fan of Thirsty Beaver Amber Ale. It has a clever name and it is from a small BC Brewery. Owen has always liked Tree, but I prefer Okanagan Spings or Shaftebury of the BC microbreweries that are fairly well distributed. Now Shaftesbury is owned by Sleeman’s which is owned by Sapporo and their old domain I linked to in 2006 has been taken over by domain squatters.

The other beers I tried recently were Démon “The Brewmaster’s Beer”, Wee Heavy, Double Chocolate Stout, and Royal Oak Traditional Bitter. My favourite of the bunch was Démon from the Czech Republic, but the website I linked to seems to have changed a lot. The one I liked the least was Belhaven Wee Heavy. I don’t like Scottish Ales I guess. The one I’m most familiar with is McEwan’s Scotch Ale which gained a reputation in our first year as being the strongest beer you could buy. I believe I likened the taste back then to cough syrup.

In 2024, I did travel to Scotland and I drank more than a few Scottish beers but I may have drank even more whisky.

Young’s Double Chocolate Stout contains actual chocolate and you can taste it a bit. It is a very dark beer. It is not overly bitter. I was also worried about Royal Oak Traditional Bitter, as Bitters are another style of British beer that I’m not overly fond of. Royal Oak also wasn’t too bitter and went well with the stake I paired it with.

Home Improvement & Beer Update

This post is quite old having been published originally in April of 2006. It is now May of 2024 and a lot has happened. I think the doggy detention centre was destroyed. It was damaged by logs thrown up during a storm, but I remember repairing the gate pictured above. What really did it in was my replacing the siding on the house and the entire deck. I had nothing to do with any of that construction I was probably living in Calgary or possibly even China.

Since this was published I may have joined Untappd, or I may have already been a member and just not blogged about it. This is where I log my beers and tend to up load my beertography though my best beer photos end up on Flickr. The photos of these beers were cropped really thin for posting to the left or the right of the text on this blog. Bigger better photos are probably on Flickr. In 2024 I moved all the skinny photos to the bottom as I thought it rendered better.

I actually won the fantasy hockey league at work in 2024, in our long running keeper league I did less well. I only have so much time to devote to hockey pools. We don’t seem to update our website anymore, but you can see all the players I used to have are now retired.

2004 Stanley Cup Playoffs

The Stanley Cup Playoffs have started. I was up and digging fence post holes early this morning and I kept at the deck until it was done. Now I can take it easy for a couple days. I want to give a shout out to Robert Esche who isn’t my favourite goalie or anything but he was sporting a cool mask today. It had Johnny Cash on it along with Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams Jr. and Kid Rock. He and Dwayne Roloson both made over fifty saves, yet they both lost in double over time. I guess if your give up over fifty shots on goal it doesn’t matter how well your goalie plays you are asking for trouble.

My hockey pool guys keep excelling, I like my chances next time. Right now I’m leaning towards protecting Lecalvier, Gagne, Allison, Turco, Drury, Kotalik, Koivu, and Vyborny. I also have Savard. I have to make at least one trade and get a draft pick or something as I can only protect 8 guys. My other option is to trade two of these guys for one guy I really like.

This entry was originaly posted on April 22nd, 2006, it was last edited on May 11th, 2024 and is filed under: DIY, Hobbies, & Interests and tagged: Beer, Home Improvement, NHL.