Day Zero Project #82: Celebrate Oktoberfest

I realized last week that October was almost half-over and I had exactly one weekend open with which to accomplish #82, Celebrate Oktoberfest. Lucky for me, the German American Society of Pinellas heard my pleas and conveniently dropped an article into my web browser informing me that October 13th would be their final Oktoberfest celebration of the year.

With visions of Spaten and sauerkraut dancing in my head, I packed up the car and made the long trip to Germany (OK, not Germany, but Pinellas Park, FL).

What was great about this particular Oktoberfest is that it's hosted by a bunch of older folks who speak German and cook German food and even dress in a weird way that I can only assume is German. This translates into a festival that seems a little more authentic-ish and not just a reason for 23 year old males to get drunk and act like idiots.

That said, immediately upon my arrival I ordered a beer that is the size of a person's head and proceeded to work towards getting drunk and acting like an idiot. But I'm 31, so it's different.

Also, most young males at beer festivals will eat no food. I, on the other hand, ate some of the best potato salad and sauerkraut that one could hope to eat.

Bland looking, but delicious.

We mosied around, we watched a band play polka songs and couples who, amazingly, knew how to dance to said polka songs. And then we waited in line for potato pancakes. And waited. And waited. This things are so popular we waited about 40 minutes for them. Thankfully I had a beer the size of a milk jug to keep me company.

 

 

 

 

In the end, not worth the wait.

The craziest part of the whole night was the Stein Holding Contest in which contestants had to hold a full stein of water (I was told spilling beer would be wasteful) at arms length with elbows locked for the longest time. It gets pretty intense as you can tell by this picture of the final two.

In the end the guy with the cool mustache won,which made me happy because while everyone else was struggling he was using his free arm to drink more beer.

People love watching people struggle to do stuff

The best part was that while we were walking out, despite all the zaniness going on outside, the inner room of the hall featured a much more tame, but awesome party of Grandparents who have drank more beer in their lifetimes that you will ever hope to see. Don't even try to party with these folks, because you can't handle their party.

I can only hope me and my wife someday have a 2-person accordion band.

And this whole day was why I'm glad I am doing this list. I would have never made it out to this event, but ended up having a great time. Even if they ran out of Spaten Oktoberfest so fast that I didn't get any.

Day Zero Project #83: Attend a Beer Festival

We are beer snobs. I don't like it, but somewhere along the line we taught our taste buds that the only place for Coors Light is in a cup that you throw a ping-pong ball in to. If you are going to have a beer at the end of a long work week, it should be a good one.

Arriving early = more time to sample = good times

And for that reason, we really enjoyed the World Beer Festival in St. Pete last weekend. Where else but a beer fest can you pay a cover charge and then proceed to try about as many different beers as your tolerance allows. Sure, by the 20th beer I couldn't tell you the difference between a lager and a stout, but I enjoyed the the tasting experience of the first six or so samples and then I proceeded to enjoy the buzzed good times of the rest.

And what beers do I recommend to you? I have no idea. You try and sample two dozen beers and remember which ones you liked. I was fortunate enough to remember how to get home at the end of the night and, in a neighborhood where a wrong turn is sure to get you mugged, that's good enough for me.

Which beer was good? I took a picture of these, so they must be the ones.

Day Zero Project #15: Have a Board Game Night

You know what I say, why play one board game, when you can play all of them? With that in mind, we set about Day Zero Project #15, "Have a Board Game Night."

The idea was that we would play every game we have in the house and the winner would get... We didn't really think it through that far. Mostly, we just wanted an excuse to stay inside and not do anything for a little while. In hindsight, I wish we'd have bet something because I ended up winning (just barely), 10 games to 8.

The Games I Won

The Games She Won

The final results:

Dustin (10) - Ladder Golf, Jenga, Zigity, Scattergories, Yahtzee Texas Hold 'Em, Othello, Farkle, Boggle, Zombies!!! 4, Zombies!!!

Katie (8)- Life, Mancala, Cribbage, Phase 10, Sorry Revenge, Monopoly Deal, Yahtzee, Chez Geek

Day Zero Project #13: Send 10 Postcards via Postcrossing.com

I had no idea what Postcrossing.com was, so I had to look that up before I could even begin to start this one. Basically, it is a site where you register and send postcards all over the world and for every one one that you send, you get a postcard back from somewhere in the world.

It's fun to go to your mailbox and get a postcard from Latvia or Russia or something; certainly better than the mix of bills and junk mail that I am used to seeing.

There's only so much you can do with a postcard and most that you would get fall into one of four categories.

 1) Cartoons

from Finland

from Yokkaichi, Japan

2) Animals

from Engelskirden, Germany

from Ripa, Latvia

3) Scenic Stuff

from Czech Republic

from the Netherlands

from Krakow, Poland

from Pomerania, Russia

4) My personal favorite, postcards that people make out of local food boxes.

from Vienna, Austria (some sort of ice cream bar)

from the Netherlands (some very healthy looking cereal)

Day Zero Project #36: Get My Handwriting Created As A Font

Day Zero Project #18: Read Game of Thrones

I really didn't want to like this book. There's a book snob residing inside of me that really dislikes the idea of enjoying something that everyone else keeps telling me is great. Plus, the book is like 800 pages long. Who needs that many pages to tell a story?

Apparently George R. R. Martin because, much to my dismay, this book was good. Great, even. I managed to read the whole thing in about three sittings because I didn't want to put the book down without knowing what was going to happen next.

Even though I thought the book was great, I caution you against starting to read the book for a few reasons.

One, there are seven books in the series. Each one having more than 700 pages, some more than 1,000. I won't get to read a non-GoT's related book until sometime in 2023.

Two, and this is the worst part, now I have to find time to watch the show on HBO so I can sit there for hours on end complaining about how the book was so much better.

Day Zero Project #32: Get a Full Body Massage

Get a full body massage? Easy! I've had one of those before. As a matter of fact I've probably had 100s. I'm one of the lucky chosen few who has had a wife go through massage school. Her homework was to give massages and I was always there as a willing test subject.

Sure I had to sit through some weird, hippie stuff. I mostly just rolled my eyes as I became a test subject for energy work, healing crystals and sound therapy. And sure, there were times when she was learning deep tissue massage that she made me cry and I cursed whomever put it into her head to go into massage, but for the most part it was an experience that made me the most relaxed guy of all time.

So if you are wondering why I never seem to get angry, it's because I am still in a perpetual state of relaxedness that will continue until sometime in my 50s.

But last weekend, I cheated on my regular massage therapist and went to a spa. I don't think my wife minds because if there's one thing that a massage therapist doesn't want to do, it's to give free massages after working. Keep that in mind if you have a friend who's a massage therapist. No, they don't want to rub your sore shoulders. Maybe if you give them $65, but they don't ask you to do your job for free, so you shouldn't ask them.

Anyways, back on task. This new massage therapist was the strongest lady in the world. I'm talking gold medal winning strength that makes those super-big Eastern European body builders you see on the Olympics seem like little babies. I almost cried when she was working on my shoulders.

Which brings me to why I try to be nice to my wife 100% of the time. Massage therapists can kill you. Seriously, if you google that, it might be true. Thankfully they use their strength for the greater good of humanity.

For now...