What a Week.

What a couple of weeks, actually.

The Molson-Coors merger has had unintended but cruel consequences for myself and the SO. Due to their combined (and market-share-losing) might, they have been able to offer the cheapest (not best, just cheapest) deal to the new owners of our Local.

So we arrived to celebrate the SO's mumble-mumbleth birthday, to the rude shock of having a decent range of beers including Okanagan Springs' 1516 Lager (a highly superior product) replaced by a rack of panther pee.

Molson Canadian is tolerable on tap. But Coors Light is simply kidney abuse without reason. The best thing to do with it would be pour it straight into the toilet, eliminating the middleman.

For dark beers, the bar now offers selections which contain so much caramel colouring that, but for the presence of alcohol, they should be called colas. Guiness and Kilkenny are still served, but by the time of writing I'm sure they'll have eliminated them too. Not that I wanted to buy them at bar prices anyway.

The house wines were eliminated from the menu just prior to the weekend. No new vintage has been selected. The owners clearly have some moral or philosophical objection to drinking alcohol--or at least to people enjoying doing it.

So I expect a reasonably pleasant time searching for a new bar with tolerable service, decent atmosphere, and real beer. Fortunately we live within stones throw of at least four bars.

I continue to work on the BLive blog. The launch date is Monday, February 14th. Not sure why, but that date wrings a ball. Perhaps the SO knows?

The SO was responsible for giving me the finest gift a man who's technically married could ask for. Two weeks back, in a grand gesture she'd planned for days, she hauled a bottle of vitamins from her purse and plonked them onto the table at our former favourite watering hole (see above). They were prenatal vitamins. By this gesture, the SO indicated to me that she was willing to put aside her personal and massive misgivings about the whole idea and try to have kids with me. Whether or not we succeed, or even get past just considering it, remains to be seen. But the intent is important.

How does one say thanks to someone for that sort of thing? I can't think of a way. I can tell you that one thing I especially love about her is her forthrightness and integrity. She has a core of rock and iron which makes for a great foundation.

That's enough sloppy sentiment for now.

I've been talking to someone about rewriting his website, and received great approbation when he said "So can you bring it in under $2000?". I estimated the job at five hours' work. The trouble is, his ex-partner has stolen the current web site, it seems. And I'm not quite certain what if any copyright protections apply (to already-stolen preperty on the 'net?).

Meantime, in between BLive and long days at my other job, I sleep. That's it, really.

I'll keep you posted as events warrant. Be good for now--or better yet, don't get caught!