Saturday, September 4, 2010 at 12:03AM Our friend Odessa was as touched by baby Squirrely as we were and sent us these gorgeous tributes. We miss you Squirrely!! We can't wait to be reunited once again when we depart this earth. You are with legends now.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 7:41PM AUSTIN--An aspiring young Austinite's first day of work/ternship ended in bitter tragedy today. Upon returning to his quiet North Austin home, just on the outskirts of Hyde Park, Nick Hiller, an advertising intern, witnessed a scene he will "never forget." As Mr. Hiller pulled up to his house, "out of the corner of my eye I noticed something falling to the ground. It happened so fast, it seemed like it fell from the large pecan tree in our yard. When I looked back in my rear view mirror I could see it was something alive, and it had fallen on the asphalt and was clearly in trouble. It was flailing about like crazy. I thought it was a baby bird or something." He would soon find out it was a helpless baby squirrel.
The baby squirrel nicknamed 'Squirrely.'
Attempting a daring rescue in the middle of what can occasionally be a busy street, Mr. Hiller brazenly threw himself into oncoming traffic, halting a Honda Civic's collision course with the injured party, while he scooped up the now lifeless ball of fur. "I knew she--I think it was a she, I tried to sex it online--was in trouble when I got to her because she had lost consciouness and urinated on herself," said Mr. Hiller, "but she was still breathing and I figured if I could just get her to an animal rescue, she might have a fighting chance." Mr. Hiller immediately called the Ausitn Wildlife Rescue on East MLK Blvd to inquire about their intake policy. The woman who answered had Mr. Hiller take the squirrel's vitals "she said 'Does she seem hurt? Is there trauma' and I told her that I thought so and that I could see a little bit of blood around the mouth." The woman then told Mr. Hiller that though they do take squirrels, they were unfortunately closing for the day but, if he could keep the animal alive through the night, they would take her first thing in the morning.
"That got me excited, I thought if I could just keep her alive until dawn, Squirrely--that's what I called her because she tricked me into believing she'd make it--Squirrely might be able to pull through," said Mr. Hiller. The rescue worker told Mr. Hiller to put Squirrely in a box and keep her warm. Scouring the house for a suitable bed for his critically injured patient--"I thought to myself 'Do I even have box?'"--Mr. Hiller located an old Topo Chico box inside the recycling bin and hastily stuffed it with yesterday's pile of junk mail, "for insulation." After assembling the makeshift intensive care unit, Mr. Hiller gingerly placed Squirrely onto her bedding of store coupons, wrapping her in a sock for warmth. "She was cute as button," Mr. Hiller said, "but her breathing had become irregular, almost like she was struggling more and more with every breath. I felt like she probably wasn't going to make it." As it turned out Squirrely had only moments left to live.
The ICU Mr. Hiller constructed for Squirrely.
"Shortly after I got Squirrely all tucked in I noticed that she had stopped breathing altogether. I performed chest compressions with one finger to no avail. I was devasted. I thought 'Why God? Why me? Why now? Why Squirrely?'" Mr. Hiller lamented, "but I guess it was just her time. You know my girlfirend said something interesting to me. She reminded me that we have had this pair of squirrels that live in the pecan tree who have been just fighting and fighting with each other. Just the other day we were in the house and we heard a loud thud on the roof. We looked out the window and watched as two squirrels dropped from the roof and went tearing across the yard, one in hot pursuit of the other. Anyway my girlfriend thought that maybe those were Squirrely's parents, and maybe they were having some marital squirrel quarrels, and maybe, just maybe, it was their neglect that caused this whole predicament. Now I don't want to go pointing the finger--who am I to judge--or put the blame on this little lady's parents after their significant loss, but, I will say that it does beg the question, where were this little girl's parents during all this? You know what I mean?"
Squirrely in his final moments.
With that Mr. Hiller takes a long pause and stares off into the waning sunlight, ruminating, no doubt, on the double tragedy that has occured today: the death of a squirrel child and perhaps the death of the squirrel nuclear family. After Squirrely stopped breathing there was nothing for Mr. Hiller to do but to find a proper burial place for his furry friend. Spade in one hand, Squirrely in the other, Mr. Hiller headed to the front yard of his one bedroom postwar which he thought got the best sun. He selected a patch on earth between two cacti, an agave and a prickly pear, that he liked for its proximity to the pecan tree--the squirrel's only home--and the street, where passersby could reflect on Squirrely's passing. The tombstone was picked for its simplicty, a piece of Austin Chalk, and was placed atop the burial mound.
Squirrely's final resting place.
"I hope she'll be happy there, with the sun and the tree and maybe even her parents above him. I just wish I could have helped her more..." and with that Mr. Hiller concludes the interview and walks away, tears welling up at the edges of his eyes.
Squirrely's tombstone. The epitaph will read, 'Here Lies Squirrely, Son, Brother (?), Sister (??), Born, ??? - Died, September 1st, 2010, Never Killed A Man That Did Not Need Killing.'
By MARCO WERMAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monday, August 23, 2010 at 6:39PM Here are some photos from my hike through the Williams Waldo Canyon and from the 14,115 ft summit of Pikes' Peak, far and away the tallest mountain I've ever been to the top of and one of the country's (and world's) tallest.
That's right, I broke the law in my pursuit of the best hike in Colorado Springs. Actually I found this hike on the internet and read that the sign is all show. The Williams Canyon hike is supposed to be one of Colorado and Manitou Springs' best kept secrets. I did run into some Cave of the Winds employees there and had to play dumb "No I didn't sign a release, sorry I didn't know where to get one. I'll be sure to do it next time though." See ya later suckas, and I was off.
Purdy waterfall
The biggest mushroom EVER. I would imagine a person could get quite Rocky Mountain high on this 
Pikes Peak. That's right, I stood on the top of that...
...and it looked like this. That's Colorado Springs in the distance, some 7,000 ft below where I'm standing.
That's my sister Suzy and brother Sam. It was very cold.
This is facing west looking out at the rest of the Rockies. They look pretty small from up here, don't they? 
That's the whole family (well almost the whole family) freezing their butts off.
I thought this was really cool. The mountain actually looked like the diagram. In the first half of the drive up, there are all these spruce and aspen trees everywhere and then they abruptly stop when you cross the alpine line. After that it's just rock, lichens and some moss here and there. If you can't read it the sign says that up on the summit (which is a whopping 2.5 miles above sea level) there's 40% less oxygen than at the bottom. Winds can get up 120 miles an hour and it's not uncommon to get 20 ft snow drifts and temperatures of -60 below in winter.
Even though it's still August, it was easily below 50 degrees on the top. Also in order to make the 12.6 mile hike to the top you have to leave early in the morning so that you can miss the severe thunderstorms they often get in the afternoon. I'm really glad I didn't decide to hike this yet, I would have been woefully unprepared. I will need some of those dorky zip-off shorts/pants (shants).
That's Wilbur the Fox. He's lives halfway down the mountain behind the ranger's camp. He's patiently waiting for a squirrel that he chased into that crack.Welp, that concludes my trip. It's a pretty beautiful place. A place where the beer flows like wine. Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I'm talking about a little place called Asssspen (well technically due east of Aspen). As you might have noticed, I've been quoting Dumber and Dumber a lot.
Monday, August 23, 2010 at 4:07PM The Colorado wrap-up. Since my last post I have: visited Great Divide and Avery, Libations and Davidson's Liquor, bought 10 new beers, hiked the Williams and Waldo Canyons and driven to the summit of Pikes Peak. I am now throughly exhausted.
First the beer. Great Divide was great (see what I did there?). I attended their monthly 'Hop Disciples' meeting where we discussed the attributes, uses and merits of various hops they use in their beers. The guide told us that 75% of the country's hops are grown in the Yakima Valley of Washington State (I really want to visit!). The hops: Perle is from Germany and is what's called a bittering hop (that is it used only to contribute bittering); Columbus an American varietal that serves dual purpose as both a bittering and an aroma hop; Simco is one of the few trademarked hops that can only be grown by one farmer in the Yakima and is world reknowned for its extremely high alpha acids (responsible for the bitterness hops impart) and its fruit and pine aroma--the guide said that Simco was pretty much responsible for the extreme beer/IPA craze in American brewing--here's to you Simco; Amarillo is an American aroma hop and known for its fruit smell; Czech Saaz is of course Czech and is the quintessential Pilsner hop; Hersbrucker is a German aroma hop; Golding is an English aroma hop made famous by that country's pale ales.
So, after the lesson we were given samples of three of Great Divide's, both before aroma hops are added and after. For each style we were asked to guess which hops were used. Anyone with the right answer was given a free pint in the tap room. I did surprsingly well. The first one we tried was their Denver Pale Ale. After tasting the cask version and the bottled version I guessed Golding and was correct. This was a somewhat educated guess as I was aware that Golding is a pale ale hop. Next we tried the Titan IPA. IT was interesting to see the difference between the cask, which was somewhat hoppy but not that much, and the aroma hopped bottled verison which was extremely fragrant. I smelled some melon and remembered that the guide had said that he got melon from the Columbus hop. Got it right! The third beer was a little tough. This was the Hercules Double IPA and we had to guess both the bittering and the aroma hop used. The first sample smelled exactly like the Titan's cask (not surprising). Then I sniffed the aroma hopped version. It was like snorting a line of hops. Almost overwhelming. I guessed Simco for the bittering (obviously) and then debated between Amarillo and Columbus for the aroma. Went with Columbus thinking they might have used the same for both IPAs and got it wrong. So close!
Anway I won two free pints and got to sample to homebrews that were brought in by local homebrewers. They were godawful--I mean godawful-- and I'm happy to report ours are much better. Then I went to Avery.
When I say that Avery was my worst brewery experience ever, that is putting it lightly. They did everything wrong. They had the worst bartenders in the history of the food service industry. I waited 15(!) minutes on three separate occasions in order to get samples of their beers. They were moving like their legs were stuck in molasses. The tour was almost worse--the tour guide looked and acted exactly like Mark Zuckerberg--their facilities were cramped and their fermenters were located outside! The guide said they were heavily insulated, but seriously, who does that? Also their beer was terrible. I went there hoping to become a convert and left an apostate. Nice job Avery!
Turned off to breweries and their stupid smugness (they soon forget that it's people like me who are willing to drop 15+ dollars on their beers that keep them in business) I decided to visit some specialty liquor stores. Wowzers! Here's what I got:
These were picked up at Libations. They are, left to right, Port Brewing Co.'s High Tide Fresh Hop IPA, an American IPA, Green Flash's Double Stout, The Bruery's Mischief, an unfiltered bottled-conditioned Belgian Strong Ale, and The Lost Abbey's Judgement Day, a Quadrupel. All are from California and three are breweries we've never tried.
Today I went to Davidson's to track down Russian River's Pliny the Elder. Not an easy thing to find. I called my local shop and they told me that they get two cases a month and that they sell out immediately. In fact it's so popular that they have to limit purchases to one bottle per person. It better be good. I called Davidson's and they had two left so I had them put one on hold for me while I made the hour-long trip to pick it up (that's right, I drove two hours round trip for a bottle of beer, what of it?).
While there I found some others that I had to try (of course):
Meet Goose Island's Bourbon County Brand Stout, a bourbon barrell aged Imperial Stout, Pliny the Elder, Russian River's Damnation, another Belgian Strong Ale, and Russian River's Supplication, an American Wild Ale.
Finally there's:
Odell's brand new Woodcut No. 4, an Oak Aged Double Marzen-Style Lager, and Mikkeller's Beer Geek Breakfast, another Imperial Stout.
Phew, that's alotta beer. Now I have to get these suckers home in one piece.
