I usually don't go out very much but this week I went out a lot! Well, for me, it was a lot. It was like twice, which is more than I usually do these days!

I went out with Best Son to a new local brewery. It's been a long time since I've been out to a brewery! I used to think I didn't like beer but when Best Son became an adult and we could do things like go out to breweries together I found out what I didn't like was bitterness in my beer. I really enjoy stouts, porters, saisons, sometimes goses. Brown ales are perfectly cromulent and can be quite tasty. Brandywines are delicious. What I don't like are IPAs. What is popular and makes up the majority of a brewery's offerings these days? IPAs. That makes me so sad.

My usual MO when ordering is to get a flight. I can't drink much beer at once because the histamine response is wild. I figure with flights I can get a lot of little tastes and if I don't care for something then I'm not wasting a whole glass. The beers in my flight were:

My hands-down absolute favorite was Tee Time. It's based off an Arnold Palmer and it really tasted like iced tea! Which you may or may not want in your beer but I thought it was fantastic! Next was the Rakshasa - very drinkable, lovely bright taste, would be tempted to drink more than one, histamines be damned. I said I liked stouts and Negative Space was a perfectly fine stout. Sounds like I'm damning it with faint praise but I'm not! It was fine! And last was Mythic Dawn, which I hardly drank. I really like coffee and I thought I would like this but I should have remembered how much I really don't care for cream ale.

Inside the brewery was a separate pizza place and Best Son and I split a pepperoni and sausage pizza. Oh my gosh, it was so good! The crust was phenomenal.

Earlier in the week I went to a happy hour gathering of my local Indivisible group. We have a Signal chat but this is the first time I met with the group in person. I am absolutely not social and would much rather stay at home than go out and meet strangers and have to be "on" but I actually had a nice time. Met some lovely new people, including someone who volunteers for our local Democratic legislative district. I've been thinking about going to their monthly meetings (they have interesting speakers) and after talking to her I'm definitely going to check out the next one.

I've been doing a lot of postcard writing lately. Not the Postcrossing kind - the political and also supportive kind.

Arizona has 22 national parks and I sent a postcard to each one, letting the federal employees know that their hard work and service was appreciated. It's a crap time to be a federal employee, they are understaffed, overworked and this is the season when a large part of my state is burning. I'm surprised anyone is left. :( I hope those cards give someone a little lift. You can check out Thank a Ranger Project in case you also want to show your National Park employees some love.

(Somewhat related - Federal agencies hiding out in a bunker. It's a YouTube Short, which I usually hate but this is funny. Well, funny/not funny, not-sure-whether-to-laugh-or-cry.)

I've signed up with a few political postcarding campaigns: Activate America, Markers for Democracy and Postcards to Swing States.

Activate America lets you choose how many cards you want to write. I chose 10 and I've already finished those and mailed them off. Postcards to Swing States lets you choose how many cards you want as long as they are in increments of 100. I chose 100 for each of their campaigns. They have different send-by dates so I'm working on the ones that need to go out earlier. I've got 25/100 done so far. Last time I checked Markers for Democracy they didn't have any active campaigns but checking just now I see they have a couple open so I'll figure out what I can do for them. Thankfully they let you choose however many you want so at least it won't be another bundle of 100.

Listening

It was Bandcamp Friday so I took the opportunity to move a few more items off my wishlist and into my collection. There are a couple of singles, a couple of EPs and a full-length album. The full-length one wasn't on my wishlist but when I saw the the name Sci-Fi Soul Orchestra on the New and Notable feed, I had to check it out. This is a concept album, meant to be a sonic companion to Men in Love, which is a sequel to Trainspotting, which I've never seen nor read. But the music is legit and I'm really enjoying it. If you missed this month's Bandcamp Friday, the next one is September 5.

Some of the podcasts I've listend to this past week:

Reading

I finished Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire (a retelling of Snow White). I really liked it, it was so good! Lucrezia Borgia took the part of the evil stepmother and the dwarves were ... interesting. This author has some other fairy tales he's retold and I have a Cinderella revamp on the to-be-read list but I went a different route for my next book. I've been rereading the Amelia Peabody mystery series by Elizabeth Peters and I'm now reading the 6th book in the series, The Last Camel Died at Noon.

Watching

I've watched up to Hunter, Prey in my Babylon 5 rewatch. Sheridan and his crew are quietly working against the Earth regime that has taken power by devious means. The storylines feel a little close to home these days.

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