Gone fishing.

Not really.

Fishing holds no great appeal to me, although eating fish can be pleasant enough, so you catch 'em, and I'll bring the beer. Find a third, and maybe he or she can produce cole slaw.

Speaking of beer, yesterday was the deadline for my quarterly submission to Food & Dining Magazine.

The day started at Gordon Biersch in Louisville. Next came the usual writing, rewriting and re-rewriting of the article itself, and then a mug of Marzen from the Gordon Biersch growler as reward for finishing. It paired nicely with homecooked tacos for dinner.

Friends of the missus made an unexpected appearance, so we made more tacos. Additional growlers were procured. A cigar was smoked. Conversation flowed, time passed, and it was midnight. Naturally, we slept in this morning.

I'm coming to a couple of points.

One, that today I'm annoyed to have wasted an evening drinking beer when there is so much to do, this being a prime reason why I drink so much less beer than ever before.

But, who can be annoyed for long when there is a chance to stop life in its tracks for just a little while and enjoy simple pleasures with friends? No television was necessary, and for this we must be grateful.

Finally, while being spotted drinking a few beers may inflame the puritanical instincts of some observers, there is a considerable difference between such relaxation and ensuing denunciations of drunken debauchery.

After all, fermentation is a natural process. For those of a deistic bent, fermentation issues from God's handbook of earthly delights. During WWII, Winston Churchill never ceased drinking champagne for breakfast, while Adolf Hitler was a teetotaler.

My case makes itself.

Today there is work to be done. Time was squandered last night, though not really, and there'll probably be more of it to use or abuse.

My recent pattern has been an evening with beers followed by five or six without -- except, of course, on city council nights, when extreme, sodden gin-swilling alone provides the altered consciousness necessary to fathom Dan Coffey.

I'm only joking.

I think.