Three Beautiful Things 09-02-2022: Christy Visits While Debbie Winds Down, Yakkin' About the 70s in the Silver Valley, Tacos and a Classic Beer at The Beanery

 1. Debbie wrapped up her first week of employment at School District #391. It was a week of meetings, working on setting up her classroom, and getting more and more acquainted with other staff members at Pinehurst Elementary. The school held an open house on Thursday and Debbie met most of her students and their parents. Turn out was very good. 

When she arrived home today, I cracked open a Heidelberg and Debbie enjoyed a can of Voodoo Ranger Juice Force Imperial Hazy IPA and Christy came over with some plastic tubs and plants for Debbie. 

Debbie debriefed us with a positive recap of what she experienced this week and what she might expect when she begins meeting with her students next week. 

2. Debbie and I decided to head uptown and relax at The Lounge for a while. I saw Bucky and John Seavy and then grabbed a stool at the bar next to Dave Oakes. He and I got to yakkin' about his final days as a high school basketball referee in 2020 and that led to remembering back to our days playing Legion baseball (I was too old to be a teammate of his) which led to us reminiscing about Fred and John Bardelli and a short detour discussing what Dave knows about Jack L. these days. We remembered an afternoon about three years ago when Jack L, Dave, Byrdman, and I drank a few beers together in St. Maries at Joe's Bar and I realized I haven't seen Jack since then. 

3. One bottle of the Champagne of Bottled Beer. One shot of 1910 Pendleton Rye Whiskey.  Then we buzzed down to The Beanery for a bite to eat. Tonight was nacho/taco night at The Beanery, so Debbie and I took a seat at the buddy bar opposite Fitz and entered into a superb conversation about his move from being a County Commissioner to being the City of Kellogg's Public Works Director. I was really happy that The Beanery had Deschute's Mirror Pond Pale Ale on tap. Recently, I've been in the mood for what I guess could be called "old school" craft beers, for some of the originals, and Mirror Pond Ale is one of the very best (just for the record, I almost ordered a bottle of Sierra Nevada's "old school" Pale Ale at The Lounge). Fitz left to go have dinner and Debbie and I moved to a table where Sara, who runs The Beanery, joined us. She once taught in the Kellogg district and she and Debbie engaged in some premium teacher talk while I relaxed and dove deeper into my superb glass of the perfectly balanced Mirror Pond Pale Ale.