It's been another landmark week down here at the ol' paperwork plant! This is the first week we've had dealings with the ABCC that didn't involve previously-unknown-to-us "required documents," lost paperwork,* or trips to the notary! What's more, I have it on good authority** that our permit is due to go in the mail today! This must be that elusive "progress" that we've heard so much about.***

But anyway, you didn't come all the way out to the Bone Up House o' Rambling just to hear about the stuff that didn't happen this week. Just like we promised you last week, Jimbo's cooked up another heapin' helpin' of label concept art for you. Have a look!

Now, I know what you're thinking****: "You just said just last week that the labels would prominently feature handsome mustachioed skeleton Horatio Skellingham III! Where he at? He an octopus now?"

But he's there! To be fair, he'll be a lot easier to spot if/when we go full color on this bidness, but look again - he's sitting left-center, clearly enjoying the hell out of his inner tube ride (the more eagle-eyed among you might also spot our secondary mascot, El Pulpo, who's peeking out somewhere on the right side of the label).

That's all for this week, but join us next week when we get our permit,***** update you on construction progress,****** and show you more label concept art!*******

Steady progress has been made in Everett this week - a whole mess o' plumbing got installed, the "beer garden space" (parking lot) has been cleared (for now), and much of the rest of it should be done "next week." How grand! Additionally, we’re just a hair away from holding that glorious state permit in our hands. We thought we'd have it by now, but Jared's brother's name showed up in a footnote on a financial document somewhere, and... well, let's just say we're keeping the local notary in brisk business these days (between you and me, I think our contact over at the ABCC just likes all the attention).

In other “news,” in the coming weeks we’ll be releasing concept sketches and designs for future bottle labels, courtesy of our art department/visual experience enthusiast/hot dog chef (Jimbo). We've had one hell of a fun time coming up with imagery that we think showcases who we are as a company, but what it comes down to in practice is that we completely love our logo character (whose name, by the way, is Horatio Skellingham III). So you can expect to see a whole bunch of Horatio, depicted in various scenes and snippets along with his critters and compadres (the only coherent statement we received from the artist was "doodles everywhere!" before she started throwing pencils and we had to leave the room). Anyway, the first pick from our pile o' potential labels is for Wasted Life IPA, so sit back, crack one open, and enjoy!

In our continual spirit of not having any real news, this week we decided to show you some snazzy process photos of our bar-to-be! This is a custom job done by the ever-so-handy T-Bone, and it was painstakingly designed to suit our humble taproom. There's been a lot of excited back-and-forth about this for a while now, but until recently it's mostly been planning and some not-so-sexy structural building. But this week he began to cut and stain the wood for the bar top! Check it out: 

Since you can't run a blog with almost five weekly readers just by providing pictures of wood without any real explanation, we'll give you some delicious, delicious context: 

This right here is our original concept mockup for the bar top (surprised it's not a hastily drawn scrawl on a bar napkin? I kinda was too, but then I remembered that working with T-Bone demands a certain level of sophistication). We've deviated from that plan a little, but the general idea is the same - the bar will run almost the entire length of the taproom, and it'll be adorned with the sharp-lookin' chevron pattern you see here. For a bit of a better idea of what it's eventually gonna look like, have a gander below (or here or, to a lesser extent, here):

With all the paperwork and planning we've been caught up in lately, it's pretty dang exciting to see other pieces coming together - especially fun things like the taproom. Here's to seeing all four (five?) of you on the other side of this bar soon!

After last week's frenzy of activity over at the Bone Up Production Facility and Perpetual Construction Emporium, we weren't expecting any more major changes this soon. And doggone it, we were right! But more importantly - we've got lighting now! This is something that's remained perplexingly undone for quite some time, particularly since our one (broken) window is currently blocked by a tool shed of some sort. But now our days of using flashlights and constantly tripping over things are over!* Check it out:

But wait! We've got some more moderately-exciting semi-news for you! And this news comes in everybody's favorite format - a long story! 

As you may recall, we filed for our state brewer's permit with the ABCC about two months ago, and we were met with relative radio silence for a while. A few weeks later, during a largely unrelated phone call to the ABCC, we were told to directly call the inspector in charge of our application (possibly on his personal cell phone). So we did, and got treated to a long list of additional paperwork to submit. What fun! It was a pretty even mix of requests for unnervingly-detailed personal information, some forms that - as far as we could tell - didn't actually exist**, and paperwork we'd already submitted. We gathered all that up and sent it in, and all we heard over the course of the next month was a very brief email confirming receipt of the files (verbatim transcript: "ok"). 

At the end of that month (which brings us to last week, in case you weren't keeping track), we emailed our inspector again to see if there was any paperwork that perhaps we had missed. Shockingly, he called us about five minutes later***... to ask if we'd submitted the paperwork he'd asked for. You know, the stuff we sent him a month ago? Anyway, we sent it all again and - just to make sure he actually had everything - called him a couple days later. Much to our surprise/delight/delighted surprise, he said that we'd have our permit "early next week." That's pretty durn exciting! Only problem is, it sounds very... familiar. As this post is going up, we're crossing the border where even the most generous among us wouldn't call it "early in the week," but we'll see! Fun times ahead! Or more waiting!