Lost Abbey Lost & Found is beer 350 but isn't the only big event of the night

Today is a milestone for our blog, but three particular noteworthy events happened tonight:

1. David and I enjoyed our 350th beer of the year
2. We hung out with our friend Cassie, who we haven't seen in at least 6 months
3. Someone was shot in our apartment complex

Whoa, whoa, what? Yeah...Let's start with the beer of the day.

The marked up calendar to the left will be our road map for the remaining 15 days. We've plotted out a few random brews, but for the most part we will be drinking 11 different trappist beers from 5 different breweries and some of the highest regarded beers in the world.

The Lost Abby Lost & Found was one of our favorite beers from our May San Diego trip. It is a Belgian Dubbel brewed with raisins and the label on the back serendipitously sums up why I, personally, started the blog - to give myself a renewed purpose and creative outlet - and in the process discovered a new community and passion for beer. On top of that, our friend Cassie is over sampling home brew and catching up on the last half year. It's getting all sorts of sentimental up in here, so let's drink to the Lost & Found.

Here is the label, which I'll type out below:

"A Life worth living is full of discovery and we are reminded everywhere there is opportunity. All it takes is desire to seek out and find those things, these moments and everything in between. We brewed Lost and Found Abbey Ale to pay homage to the great monastic breweries of Belgium. Like us, we hope you'll take the time to discover a beer that breathes aromas of figs, raisins and candied fruits. Please join us by raising your glass as we offer a toast to patience, perseverance, and all the things we have lost along the way and we somehow lucky enough to find once again."

The perfect beer to pour while reminiscing upon an incredible year with friends, right? This is an 8% dubbel. The raisins add a complexity to the dark fruit flavor not possible through using just grains and the result is a sublimely balanced beer between the dark fruit, sweetness and raisins. The carbonation creates a really crisp beer, nice Lost Abbey! This is a very unique beer and is something you should try. THE ROCK rating.

I could tell you I saved this beer for the 350th milestone months ago when it was purchased, or maybe that I planned this out on my chicken-scratch calendar pictured above a couple weeks ago, but then I'd be a big fat liar instead of a nerd and a gentleman

Truth is, this was all chance. I picked our beer tonight by looking into the refrigerator for a good 30 seconds and randomly selecting Lost Abbey. And fortuitously so, it was the perfect beer for the occasion. Like so many events this year, in particular the night before our halfway point, an experience that reminded me of our beereveryday mission in a unique way: Lips of Faith Erics Ale reunites me with old friends (the point I'm referring to is just under the beer picture).

My point is, you really don't know what's around the corner. We live in Marin del Rey, right on the water (as you can tell from many of our pictures). It's an extremely quiet community dominated by large complexes that are fairly disconnected from the energy of Venice. We also don't have any crime. Up until tonight I thought the Marina was Pleasantville. Right after we'd popped the bottle on the Lost Abbey, the three of us heard the unmistakable sound of gunshots (4-5 of them). The problem was, we couldn't tell you where they were coming from because everything echoes off the water. We go back to drinking, a little disturbed but unable to really do anything. Then we heard sirens.

I'm not gonna go into too much detail, but basically our complex sits above an open carport style garage and there's about 20 yards of asphalt in between the building and the sailboats for parking, specifically for boat owners. The woman was shot right by the car port on the other side of the complex, maybe 80 yards away. After the police and paramedics arrived, I went out on my balcony and if I peered through palm branches, could see her from the edge of my deck.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Woman-Shot-in-Robbery-Attempt-in-Marina-Del-Rey-126007118.html

Thankfully and luckily, she survived. What's really shocking about the experience, is how it happened. She gave the robber her purse and then was shot in the back while walking away. She did everything right and still got f**ked. Yikes. They still haven't caught the guy. Looking back I wish that I would've run out to the balcony and tried to glimpse the attempted murderer, but we had no idea where it was. There were people above us on the third floor who were asking us what was happening, and they had a better view of the street.

It's scary stuff and she was very fortunate the robber had horrendous aim and was only shot once. As you can see in the news photo, there were multiple bullet casings near the body. We the ambulance leave for the hospital and peering through its window, she didn't look good. Pretty soon we bid Cassie adieu, locked our doors sliding glass doors to the balcony and turned in.

Milestone 350: You never know what's around the corner, and if you lose something, maybe what you'll find will be something even greater.


That reminds me of...

“But that’s life. One minute you’re on top of the world, the next minute some secretary’s running you over with a lawn mower.”

                                                Season 3, Episode 3: “Guy Walks Into an Advertising Agency”