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		Visit To and From Brewmaster
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		Visit from the Brewmaster Having recently had a fantastic visit with Al and his wife Carrie, we made certain that our plans for a second meeting would unfold as soon as possible. The original plan was to meet up in New Haven and have a pizza orgy at Pepe's, but Al mentioned that he wanted to see my fish, so I suggested a nice local Mexican place, San Miguel. It has good food, good margueritas and nice atmosphere. The plans were finalized and I sent Al two sets of directions - one easy but longer and one shorter but slightly more confusing. We anticipated their arrival at 4:30PM on Sunday, and that's just when they showed up. (Apparently they would have been early, but didn't want to cause us any difficulty, so they drove around scenic Bethel for a while...) I went out to help them, as I knew Al was bringing some goodies! We said our hellos quickly and Al showed me a pouch of beefheart and gel-food mix that he brought for me to try. He also brought... BEER!!! A number of bottles of his delicious midnight stout and a bottle of honey mead that he's aged for over 3 years! Carrie also gave us a bottle of wine that they just picked up at a local vinyard - a tasty looking cabernet franc! I broke out a bottle of a very nice English ale called 'Old Peculiar' that Sandra and I had discovered some time earlier and which I think tastes like one of Al's brews! I think he liked it! Sandra and I sampled midnight stout - delicious! Carrie, who was putting up a brave front despite tough allergies, had some icewater. We settled into our living room, which is not quite finished - we're still working on the decor, and Sandra offerred some wasabi peas. For those who don't know about them, wasabi peas are a great snack to go with beer - hot and tasty. I knew that Al and Carrie would like them, so we had some on hand for them to take home to the Brewery as well. At an opportune time - I wanted Al to sweat just like he made me do on my visit to his place - I suggested that we go take a look at the fish! So we headed in and examined my one, small, feeble tank of discus... They were in good form and swam out to check out the strangers. The big Super Red Royal Blue (male???) who leads the pack took the forefront and inspected us. Seeing that we had no food, he scornfully turned away and began examining the sponge filter for stray bits of breakfast. Seeing that they were hungry, I suggested we try some of Al's beefheart mix. They ate, but were not completely certain of this new and peculiar food type. (They did polish it all off by the time we came back from dinner, however!) I then introduced Al to Bighead, my big, old, surly looking Nicaraguan cichlid male and his wife. There is also a nasty, gnarly, mangled, stunted gold severum in there with them as a target fish and a few rainbowfish as dithers. I figured that we would give Bighead a taste of the beefheart too, so I dropped in a chunk. He hit it like a 5 lb. bass going after a lure - not finicky at all, that fellow. Al, the photographer, then went to work taking his pictures for the board members to enjoy. He immediately zoomed in on the RSGs - as I knew he would - and started snapping. Focusing again and again, he snapped off picture after picture - 96 of them in short order. My fish began to think that they were supermodels... As he took the pictures, the discus pretty much ignored us. The Marlboro Red picked eagerly at the beefheart mix. The RSGs bickered over who is boss. The Blue Diamonds stared at Al like he was the one in the tank and they were the keepers. And the SRRBs just sort of hovered, looking most irridescent. I could tell Al was fascinated by the RSGs. He was amazed by the amount of spots they have for direct descendants of wild fish. As part of the F5 generation, these guys have been part of a program of selective breeding, and they show it. While we were immersed in the fish, the ladies were relaxing in the living room - if you asked me I couldn't tell you what they were talking about. We were in 'the zone' where fishkeepers go when they are communing with each other on a higher level. Hours can pass and if you're in 'the zone' it seems like only minutes. Al then snapped a couple of shots of Bighead's tank and took a few of the mangled gold severum that I despise so much. I begged him NOT to show the board that sad excuse for a fish, and he promised not to! (Thanks, Al!) Bighead has been around for a while and knows when he is being showcased. He is no longer the incredible specimen he was, but he's big and has a lot of pride. (I know I'm humanizing him, but he's been part of the family for quite a while!) Al was impressed when I picked up his can of tetra colorbits and he emerged like a whale from the depths. As Al says - 'He knows what's in that can!' By then it was running late and it was time for dinner! We jumped into my car and in 4 minutes we were parking DIRECTLY in front of San Miguel. San Miguel was slow for 6PM on a Sunday night, but picked up a lot as the night moved on. We were seated at a nice corner table with a good view of the place. For a Mexican place, it is definitely upscale, and they immediately requested our drink order. Margueritas all around!! As it had been at Al's house, the conversation was a lot of fun and very fast paced. We shared little stories about married life, discussed fun and great places to go and occasionally something about discus slipped in, too. Al told us about his recent work on his fishroom and I told him how much I envied him! We talked about how well the board is doing and how much fun we are having doing it. As we ordered our 2nd round of drinks, we ordered a chicken quesadilla as an appetizer. It was very tasty - I polished off 3 of the 8 pieces and could have gone in for more, but I restrained myself. As the staff cleared the appetizer we placed our orders and talked about different restaurants we like and great places to eat. This had the effect of making me even more hungry. I ordered the shrimp chimichonga (sp??) special, which was delicious and had big pieces of shrimp. Sandra had the catfish special. Al ate fajitas with grilled sirloin steak, while Carrie had chicken chimichongas. The food was good and tasty, and we washed it down with more margueritas, which, if you hadn't guessed, were very tasty! The conversation continued, diverting off this way and that, running like a meandering stream. It was light, fun and we all had a great time. I even discovered another vice that Al and I have in common: cigars. I used to be more into them than I am now, but every so often I love a cigar session with lots of good wine. After a tasty desert, it was, unfortunately, time to depart, and we returned to our apartment. Al took some quick pics of us and then they had to return to Becky Brewmaster who was, I'm sure, eagerly awaiting their return. Before they left however, plans for another meeting began brewing and I'm sure there will be an addendum to this tale before long!

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