NovemBEER

11/1 - New month, new beer!  I cracked open my 4th new beer from my October Beer Drop order today.  It was the fantastic C3(i)PA from Baere Brewing (CO).  I deserved it after watching the Titans take a beating by an inferior Cincy team, and doing a bunch of yard work throughout the day.  And just ignore that "5 days to enjoy" warning, the beer was fine and fresh -- I figure it's like the speed limit on a curve sign...just a suggestion.

11/2 - I had a pretty darn good night of online poker tonight with two tournament wins and a deep finish in another huge field.  I won the nightly deep-stack tournament called The Micro vs. 69 other players on Global Poker turning my $3 entry into over $50 in profit which I needed for my bankroll on here that was dwindling badly.  I also "cashed" in a huge hyper-turbo freeroll placing 42nd out of 858 players.

Over on Poker Stars I won a 6-handed sit-n-go netting $70 in profit on the same night!  

11/3 - I settled in to watch the presidential election results tonight and while the outcome still wasn't decided when I went to bed (or even the next morning), I did win a deep-stack progressive bounty tournament on Global Poker vs. 205 other players with ten knock-outs for a nifty $392 in profit! I also cracked open my last beer from my October Beer Drop order.  It was a terrific-tasting Westbound Coffee Porter from Westbound and Down Brewing (CO).  

11/4 - I went to see our Nashville Soccer Club vs. FC Dallas tonight with my beer pal, Nate. This was their last regular home game this season and my first live sporting event attended in many months thanks to the panDAMNdemic.   It was a tough 1-0 defensive battle loss, but we had several chances to tie or take the lead in the second half right in front of our great seats behind the north goal..  It was an odd feeling with very few fans in the stands, but you sure could get spoiled with the ease of close parking, cheap sweet seats and a quick exit afterwards.  During the game, I had a repeat pint can of the decent Southeast IPA from Tailgate Brewing here in Nashville.   Before the game, Nate and I had dinner and a few brews at Homegrown Taproom and my pal, Charly, joined us as well for a couple snorts.  With my tasty meal I had a pint of the solid A-OK IPA from Avondale Brewing (AL)   

I finished at Homegrown with a half-pint of the amazing Yazoo BA BIG PEPE Barrel Aged Cinnamon STOUT from Yazoo Brewing here in Nashville.  This imperial stout had a strong cinnamon smell and start with a smooth chocolaty finish.  With it I earned the International Stout Day badge for this year which is actually tomorrow.  Cheers to dark, dark beers!! 

Talk about voter fraud...this gal obviously voted TWICE!!  Shout-out to the amazing Julia Rose, who I consider the reigning most beautiful woman in the world.  She's a great "follow" on Twitter from where I stole this pic.    Up yours, Trump...you're sore and you're a loser.   

11/6 - Ashlee and I headed up to Fall Creek Falls State Park today where we rented a cabin for the very first time.  It was a sweet place with plenty of room.  On the way, we stopped in Cookeville at Hix Farm Brewing and got a couple of half-growler fills to enjoy over the weekend.  At the cabin tonight, I enjoyed my first half-growler, a solid weizenbock they call Doublebit relaxing out on our deck overlooking the park's pretty lake.  I even played a little online poker and finished 8th in a freeroll vs. 611 other players and earning me a future $11 tournament entry ticket.

11/7 - I did a solo visit to Fall Creek Falls State Park a few blog entries ago (back in June) after a long hiatus, so all the waterfalls we saw today were repeats for me (but still beautiful and enjoyable, of course).  The one new thing I experienced was the cool new swinging bridge over the top of Cane Creek Cascades that was recently opened.  While we were here, we also got the great news that Joe Biden had officially won the presidential election!!  Hoo-ray!!  Eat it, Trump!!  
Back at the cabin after our long day of enjoying the park, I cracked open the second half-growler from Hix Farm Brewing.  It was an outstanding coffee lager called the Belligerent Brew.

11/9 - With some recent online poker success, I gave $55 to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee year-end campaign which will be matched by some other generous donors.   Since I play tournament poker, you know I love a good double-up!
I also gave another $10 to Defenders of Wildlife per my friend, Megan, who is having a birthday fundraiser today.  

Rob Fulfer presents: More Fun with Masks (aka Eff U Covid-19)

11/10 - I got two great new masks in today from Redbubble.com (love those guys!).  Upstairs is yet another bad guy, Immortan Joe, from Mad Max: Fury Road; and downstairs we have a face-hugger from the Alien franchise.  I feel a reprimand coming from work when I wear these...

I had some major success tonight in online poker with some very minor payouts, but it's more about going deep with such crazy bad structures vs. a lot of players.  First up, I turned 25 cents into a $3.30 ticket to a future tournament by finishing in the top 5 vs. 67 others in a hyper-turbo satellite.
Next, I made the final table (photo above) in another hyper-turbo freeroll finishing 8th out of 957 players and earning $2.50. 

11/11 - More small, but important online poker success tonight.  I three-way chopped a bounty sit-n-go vs. six other players on Poker Stars tonight and then won the remaining two bounties to take in just under $50 in profit.  Over on Global Poker I finished in the top 5 out of 86 and turned $1.50 into a future $22 tournament ticket in a turbo re-buy satellite tournament. 

11/12 - I settled in to watch the Titans on Thursday Night Football, sorry, make that "THIRST-day Night Football" because I wasn't definitely having a beer or two.    They pissed away and early lead to the hated Colts and wound up losing thanks to some awful special teams blunders.  So frustrating. During this fiasco I did enjoy a bomber bottle of Red Legend from Red Silo Brewing up in Cookeville.  My pal, Charly, picked this one up for me a few weeks back, and I traded him for a bomber bottle from Calf Killer Brewing that I picked up.  It's an interesting imperial red ale aged in Tennessee bourbon barrels with a ton of cherries added giving it a slightly tart finish.

11/13 - I found some bad luck on Friday the 13th tonight, but it was not until after I made it to the final table of a large tournament on Global Poker,  I started out as chip leader, but after a few bad beats, I wound up finishing 7th.  Still not too shabby out of 240 players and it replenished my online bankroll nicely with over $70 in profit.

11/14 - I drove down to Marion County today to have a picnic lunch with my crazy sister, Melinda.  I hadn't seen her in a good while and figured I owed her some face time.  We chose to eat at beautiful Foster Falls which I haven't been to in years and the weather was great for mid-November.  We stopped at the nearby Mountain Mart and each got giant "mountain burgers" that were delicious.  On the way home I made a quick stop at Happy Trails Brewing in Sparta and had their pretty darn good Bone Cave (Barrel Aged Sour).  It was aged for 8 months in a Chattanooga Whiskey/Mead barrel giving it an interesting tart, but fresh, taste.

Let the holidays begin!  I cracked open a bottle of Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Peppermint Porter tonight on our way to our first Christmas activity and it was outstanding with a nice peppermint burst up front and chocolate and bourbon finish.  Ashlee loved her sip of it too, so we will probably getting more of these to consume through from Thanksgiving right on to New Year's Eve.

11/15 - Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! I must have raked a metric ton of leaves off our driveway today and the gusty wind out of the west had blown them in a deep drift against our back fence.  I rewarded myself after all that work with a can of Hopping Nomad IPA from State of Brewing (WI) that I found at Aldi the other day.  Not too bad.  Good fresh hops taste.  

11/17 - I got second place tonight in a wild finish on Poker Stars when it was down to three of us with about an even amount of relatively-deep chip-stacks that all went in the middle on the river with two full houses and a nut flush.  I had the second-best full house.  It was a bit of strange re-entry tournament with you only able to buy back in during the first two levels (20 minutes).  So, my strategy was to gamble early and either possibly double up or re-enter and play solid poker with a still-deep stack early on.  It almost worked when I got the chance early on by pushing all in with 99 vs. a preflop raiser with AK who called me and hit a king on the river. 
So, I battled back vs. 13 others and two other re-entries and turned my $45 worth of entries into $120 after suggesting that we shave $10 off second-place for the bubble-boy when we got down to five and that turned out to be my pal, Richard.  I guess that little bit of good karma -- and the fact I gave $50 earlier today to a GoFundMe campaign by one of the owners/brewers of Perrylodgic Brewing over in Paris, TN, who's helping foster an abused child during slow business times due to the pandemic -- gave me the luck I needed on top of the little bit of skill I might have.  
During the game, I popped open a tiny 10 oz. can of Re-Re-Pete 3X American Imperial Brown Ale from Hoppin' Frog Brewing (OH) that was a gift from my pal, Nate.  It was a small can because it's 15.8% ABV!  But, man, all I tasted was the boozy finish and just didn't care for it very much.

11/19 - I finally got to have my "work lunch in the woods" today which I've been planning for a while now.  It was a pretty and fairly warm day, so I grabbed a sushi roll; a beef and cheese sandwich; and a fruit smoothie from Publix; plus some chips from yesterday's lunch at Jason's Deli; and had a little picnic on a bench out at the Couchville Cedar Glade Natural Area near Mt. Juliet.  This great little area has a nice mile loop for hiking and it's very close to my work area, so I knew it would a nice spot to relax and eat during the work day.  This won't be my last time doing this!! 

11/20 -  I was so excited that my friends, Danny, Nate, Tom and I got to see NSC in their first-ever MLS playoff game tonight in person tonight at Nissan Stadium vs. Inter-Miami. And they won!! Woo-hoo!!! Moving on!!  They slammed the door on the other expansion team of this year by a commanding 3-0 margin.  #2 seed Toronto is next! 
Before the game, Nate and I stopped by TennFold Brewing for dinner and few libations.  This was my first time ordering one of their sandwiches and it was outstanding.  It's their take on a Philly Cheesesteak with BBQ brisket instead.  Man, so good!!  I had two of their solid beers as well including Star Stealers, an excellent saison; and then their Early Riser (Dry Hopped International Helles Lager) that was smooth and light.  At the game I had a pint can of the always-great repeat, the All Day IPA from Founders Brewing (MI). 

Well, still no Regal theaters open so the renting/streaming of movies continued:

The Runaways - a pretty good Netflix film about the all-girl rock band with Kristen Stewart doing a pretty good Joan Jett impersonation, and the lovely Dakota Fanning as their sexy lead singer, Cherie Currie.  

Hunter/Killer - a 2018 submarine action/war movie that I somehow missed in theaters, so I rented it off Amazon.  I thought it was really good. Great story, solid acting and nice visual effects.  Would love to have seen it on the big screen. 

Antebellum - rented  it off Amazon - this one was supposed to come out in theaters this year, but got bumped to streaming due to the pandemic.  These types of weird horror movies aren't my favorite genre, but it did look kind of interesting.  I was actually looking for a little more supernatural/time-travel, but it turns out to be just modern people hurting/killing other people...yuck...

Hillbilly Elegy - a new Ron Howard-directed film on Netflix that just premiered.  I thought it was great with solid acting, a good true story and perfect direction by a guy I think is vastly underrated in Hollywood.  This one's probably gonna get some Oscar attention.