Struggled To Get It Started, Struggled To Get It Stopped

I had a rather uneventful day with my baby girl. She has a cold so we took it easy today. I dressed her funny because I really don’t have any idea about what goes together and what doesn’t – as far as clothes are concerned. I know beer goes with anything, from sliders to asparagus marmalade. We played and read a lot today. When she took her nap she couldn’t breathe, so she didn’t sleep very well or very long. She didn’t wake up grumpy though. I think she doesn’t like being asleep because she’s afraid she’s going to miss something, so she got an extra hour of not missing stuff this afternoon.

The Catholics are freaking out about Angels & Demons coming out, which is just dumb. It’s an awful book, and in the history of cinema there has never been a good movie made from a bad book. I’m thinking about being outraged at their outrage. Do they really think I’m dumb enough to let a movie directed by Opie Taylor color my attitude about a 2,000 year old cult religion? You’ve spent nearly that whole time being secretive, and now you’re pissed because somebody took liberties with the truth as they filled in the blanks. Or did they?

I had a couple of heavy metal moments today. The first one was when I found a video mash up on YouTube of every time Slayer says hell, Satan or any variation on a record, and none of them were repeated so if hell is in a chorus it only gets counted once. They did the same thing with Metallica and death and dying. I thought they were pretty funny. Both bands have been around since the early ‘80’s so the videos went on a little bit. These guys might want to look into getting some counseling. The other metal moment was, seemingly out of the blue, Grammy asked me if I knew who Iron Maiden was. I was stunned. My brain didn’t know which way to go. Has she always been a secret metal fan, or is she just now dipping her toe into the pool. I went with Occam’s razor and kept everything simple and just said “Yeah?” This was the right choice because she went on to explain that her hairdresser’s husband is going to see them in Fort Lauderdale, and she told Grammy to ask me about them. The world is still okay.

I’ve had to move the Irish up in my beer crafting power rankings. I had them at number 4 behind Holland, Germany, and Canada, but they bumped the Canucks down a spot, claiming number 3. I was turned on to Smithwick’s Ale recently - pronounced Smiddicks. I’m not a big Ale guy. I think it tends to be too sweet, but this is a top 5 beer period. It was originally made by Franciscan monks in some abbey. If they’re going to make beer this good, hell, let the Catholics have Opus Dei and the Knights Templar and any shadow society they want. Hail Mary, full of grace.