Established/ing Community

In the aftermath of the most improbable playoff win ever, I give you a new blog post.  Fitting too, as this is about a community embracing a football team.

Look it was clear that Ohio State was the better team last Monday night.  Oregon did not play well enough and that game was really never in doubt.  But ever since the playoff field was announced the greater-Portland area - pretty much the whole I-5 corridor - felt the Duck fever in the air.

 Everywhere you go around here, people are all in on college football anyway.  During the playoff, it was ramped up.  Even the Oregon State Beaver fans were all about it to give Oregon a little shine.  For 10 days after they drubbed Florida State, the news would dedicate several minutes a night to the Ducks and the championship game.  The Oregon governor made a bet with the Ohio governor - something about owing him beer and Tillamook cheese - about the outcome of the game.  More Ducks merchandise popped up everywhere.  Everyone is all about it.  EVERYONE.   The roads were basically unoccupied during the game.  Okay, that's not entirely true as on Championship Monday the game starts smack in the middle of rush hour.  But still, the entire population of Portland seemed to be en route to somewhere to watch the game.

Despite the huge letdown, it was really cool seeing a community embrace football like this.  A lot like Baltimore when the Ravens are in the playoffs.  Which is often.  I rarely made it to Baltimore during the playoffs, but when I did it was definitely an awesome vibe.  It happened once to us in D.C. a couple years ago, but it's hard to remember.  The Ducks and the Beavers are everything around here.  The Seahawks are very popular, and that contingent is alive and well since they are wining.  Still, it's nothing like rooting for the college teams.  Even though they are intense rivals, Beavers fans rooted for the Ducks in the title game because it was good for Oregon.  It's sort of a bizarre way to look at it.  I never root for fellow conference members when they are in a title game just to make the conference look good.  But that's just another subtle difference out here.  The state is all in.  Unfortunately, it just didn't pay off.

In other news, I think I finally made some friends!  They (they being a lovely man-woman couple) happen to be from the good ol' DMV but who cares?  This is still in the early stages, so nothing is for certain yet.  They could delete my number from their phones anytime.  But we had a lot of fun at happy hour on Friday.  See now that I have a real paycheck (albeit not sizable), we have the ability to go out to the occasional happy hour or bar event and enjoy the company of others.

I met them at a small movie theater that was still showing the third Hobbit movie.  There were maybe nine people in there on a Monday.  Anyway, the only reason we connected was that I was wearing a Terps shirt and she was wearing a Ravens shirt.  We talked for like a half hour outside the theater.  I mustered enough courage to ask for their phone numbers.  As luck would have it, they agreed to meet up with us at a bar we could walk to.  We had a great time.  Four hours of happiness later, I would say we have a pretty good foundation for a friendship.  I'm on my way to fulfilling my New Year's resolution of making friends!  Funny how the first non-work friends I make are from back east, but you know, pretty much everyone is from somewhere else.  But this is good!  I'm happy about it.  I'll update you on how it goes.  Ideally, I will establish yet another set of friends soon.  Call it networking if you must.  I'm about to take over this city.

Okay, that's all for now.  Soon I will post about something else.  Probably Serial, the podcast that took the country by storm.  Hope all is well!

Holiday Season

Guys, it's been a long time.  I'm getting lazier than Brad Pitt's character in True Romance.  As I sit here and watch Round 1 of the NFL playoffs and do laundry, I figure now is as good a time as any to get back on the horse.

December is a crazy month.  Important events in December, in order:  Janae's birthday, dating anniversary, Christmas, Mom's birthday.  INTENSE.  We aren't materialistic people, so luckily gifts are not a barometer of whether or not anybody loves you.  That being said, in our first December together in the same zip code, I was hell-bent on knocking Janae's birthday and Christmas out of the park.  I'm happy to say I NAILED IT.  The pressure is off for the future.  Not that I'm going to try and tank gift-giving.  I'm just pointing out that the first one is the most important one.  You're probably wondering what I got her.  You nosy bitches.  I'm not here to share every private detail with you shmoes, but I will tell you one gift was tickets to see Amy Schumer live.  Fuck medicine.  Laughter is the best gift.

For our 1-year (!) dating anniversary, we went back to the restaurant/brewery where it all started, Columbia River.  You may have seen a picture of us on Facebook and Instagram.  Because I wanted everyone to know that we are still just as smoldering of a couple a year in as we were when we started last December.  It was a wonderful milestone.  Also, they have my favorite Double IPA I've had in Portland so far:  War Elephant.  I bought my first growler.

We did the whole two-Christmas thing, ya know, seeing as how we have two different families.  They live fairly close to each other too so it's easy for us popular people to make time for any and all loved ones.  It is important to note the difference in Stenberg and LeVine Christmases.  First of all, one last name is not Jewish (that's right, this "berg" is Swedish, not Jewish), so it's a little more culturally logical (though my mom is Christian and that's who we celebrate with.  This has gotten convoluted).  Outside of nomenclature, the Stenberg Christmas was 13-deep.  Parents, 5 kids, WABs (wives and boyfriends), and two grandkids.  Trust me, it equals 13.  Keep in mind that all grown men were 6'1" and taller, averaging out to about 6'4" between six of us.  Lotta beef sitting around the dinner table.  I think the turkey had to be cooked in a cauldron it was so big.  The dining room temperature was about 25 degrees warmer than any other room in the house.  Still it was a lovely day and a lovely meal.  Drinks were swigged, laughs were shared, and Settlers of Catan was played.  It was my first time, and it was pretty fun!  For something I never in a million years thought I would ever play, I enjoyed myself.

A LeVine Christmas is a bit smaller and two days after the actual holiday.  Six of us.  Low-key.  The only difference is the size of the dog and the lack of toddlers.  It was so energetic we had to wake my brother up for dinner after his graveyard shift.  Had a succulent (underused adjective) Christmas ham courtesy of my brother-in-law.  Then we opened gifts.  Usually we just do a White Elephant gift exchange, which works well for everybody.  But Val and Dylan went monkey-poo on gift buying this year and played Santa for everybody in addition to the White Elephant.  Anyway, we netted some good gifts, perhaps the most important of which were Chipotle gift cards.  Those won't last.  As is tradition, we ended the night with Christmas Vacation and pie.  Whenever I hear "Shitter's full" I hear "Happy Holidays".

Then to cap everything off, we had a nice New Year's celebration at our friend Lise's house.  She lives five blocks away, so you can imagine how excited we were to go over there.  It was a lovely party with a good spread of finger food.  Janae and I brought a bottle of Fireball and Captain Morgan. Yes, folks, I have stayed true to form out here.  It was fun cheersing for all the midnights between Eastern Standard Time and Alaska Standard Time.  Unsurprisingly, I finished that bottle of Captain Morgan.  Thanks to Lise for having us over.  Thursday was a tough day.  I mustered only a modicum of strength to watch the Winter Classic, which I dozed off during.  But I did see the Caps win at the end!  Then we went on to watch the College Football Playoff, which the entire state of Oregon was glued to.  Made for really light traffic.

The holidays were fabulous.  In retrospect, I guess they were a little bit busy, though it never felt that way.  We hung out with family and enjoyed spending time.  And really, isn't that what Christmas is

all about?  I think Charlie Brown would appreciate that philosophy.  I hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday season.  Now it's time to work for months on end with very few breaks.  My goal for the next blog will be after the National Championship game since the Ducks will be in it.  I'll try and get reaction from the entire I-5 corridor.  Later!

November to Remember

Well as you may have guessed/noticed, I definitely did not blog since my last post proclaiming my return to Maryland.  Now that I have returned to Oregon, let's get this party started once again!

Speaking of parties, Thanksgiving weekend was the party of the century - or at least the month.  With Janae being with me, we had a lot of stuff to fit in.  AND BOY DID WE.  Four full days of fun and frivolity.

It all started on Tuesday after squeezing in two hours of work before our flight - I'm nothing if not a dedicated employee.  Smooth flights on Alaska Air, which has dramatically improved its planes.  They have electrical sockets on the back of each seat.  Amaaaaazingggg.  And there seemed to be extra room in each row.  I was comfortable in the middle seat.  Uh what?  Yeah, it was pleasant.  As pleasant as you can be riding bitch on a plane.

We got in late on Tuesday night, and by the time we got our luggage and to our hotel (so graciously taken care of for us by blinding brilliant lights from heaven) all we could do was get crappy late night delivery.

Wednesday was full of catching up - with people and with time.  We awoke early to a sorry excuse for snowfall and enjoyed lunch with former coworkers.  It was great to catch up on gossip and what's changed and to be reminded how glad I am that I no longer work there.  After that we decided that we had not yet adjusted to east coast time.  We proceeded to take a three-hour nap.  Definitely the right decision.  We awoke with enough time to get ready for our dinner plans.  We spent the evening at the Hajjars, shoving food and alcohol down our gullets.

Thanksgiving Day was as usual spent at my aunt's house so Janae could meet her and my grandmother.  My dad was also there too, gimpy as he's ever been.  He's got some spinal issues that require a Wolverine-like rehabilitation process.  But like the rest of us, at least he can still eat.  And boy did we.  My aunt went all-out with this meal.  It probably would have won an award on Top Chef.  Turkey, stuffing, cranberry concoctions, pear salad, and my personal favorite, Irish potato soup.  Oh my gosh.  You wish you had more stomachs.  And then for dessert was carrot cake and apple pie.  Two of my favorites.  WHY CAN'T I FIT IT ALL?  Not to mention afterward we head back to Bethesda to stay at Owen's apartment and proceed to drink loads of beer and alcohol.  I was just hoping that the stuffing would act as a giant sponge that refused to expand.  Anyway, 6 hours later at 4am, we decided we should stop and get some rest.

It turns out rest meant sleeping until 2pm.  We just couldn't wake up, okay?  It's like the 4 lbs. of food I ate on Thursday were hanging from my eyelids instead of sitting in my stomach.  We went out and got some breakfast at about 4:30pm.  Prime time if you ask me.  We got ourselves a nice little base coat for what was going to end up being EpicFest 2014 later that night.  See, I hadn't been back east in six months.  We had to make up for lots of lost time here!  Anyway, we went to the gold ol' watering hole that I used to fancy for happy hour: a little place called the Barking Dog.

The night was nothing short of cray cray.  It's the most fun I've had in a long time.  I am humbled and honored that so many people showed up to celebrate friends and livers!  I know Janae really enjoyed meeting everyone, and from everything we can tell, everyone is REALLY happy for me (and us).  I know.  I did pret-ty well for myself.  Thanks to everyone for your enthusiasm.  I wish I had more time to talk to everyone.  It's never enough time.  Just know that I soaked up all those precious minutes.  And despite the fact that I completely blacked out at the end of night, I remember talking to all of you.  Like I said it was just a complete blast, and I think we should do it again soon.  Maybe I'll remember eating an entire plate of late-night food afterwards.  Maybe I'll interpretive dance to a different song.

Saturday was Half-Dead Day.  We spent the whole day recovering.  A nice greasy lunch with the Jelens and then coffee and dinner with people we didn't see the night before.  The only problem with Saturday was that we knew our trip was coming to an end, as our flight was at 8am Sunday morning.  As much as we tried to sip on beers on Saturday night watching football games, my body just wouldn't take it.  This ain't a decade ago.  Anyhow, we reluctantly but safely got on our flight heading back west.  We took Spirit Airlines again, which if you recall, is the Satan's asshole of aviation.  Both our flights were delayed (not by much mind you) and we had a 5 hour layover in Las Vegas.  I'm convinced that they only have 40 planes for their entire service area.  That is the only explanation for the fact that they can't get anything done in a reasonable amount of time.  To numb the pain of 5 hours in an airport, we found a little sports bar in the terminal and I watched the early NFL games whilst spending $8 per beer.  But hey, we were still on vacation.  All in all, Spirit was way better this time around.  Still doo-doo, but less stinky doo-doo.

We got back to Portland without incident after a 16 hour travel day.  But those 16 hours were totally worth the four scrumtralescent days we spent in good ol' MoCo.  Once again, thanks to Owen for the accommodations and thanks to everyone who made an effort to come see us and/or to meet Janae.  We scratched a lot of people off the list!  Anyway, Maryland, I don't know exactly when we will be back, but when we do return, it will yet again be as epic as a brand new Star Wars trailer.  Sorry for my lack of pictures.  My phone is not cooperating.  See ya soon!

Giving Thanks

I haven't written in a month.  It really feels like I'm slacking here.  It's true.  I am.

The main reason I haven't been posting anything is because there is nothing to post about.  Seriously.  I've been working Monday-Friday since July.  I haven't done too many terribly interesting things outside of work what with football season going on and my general desire to be lackadaisical.  Also, lack of money plays a big ol' role in my unworthiness for a public forum to discuss myself.  What should I talk about.  Sports?  Maybe.  The fact that I joined Planet Fitness?  Nah.  How in love I am?  NOBODY WANTS TO HEAR THAT SHIT.  Eff it.  I choose to blog anyway.

Perhaps the thing that I should be blogging about is my undying dedication to all you jagaloons back east.  I am here to announce that I will be coming home for Thanksgiving (cue that Diddy song...I think it's Diddy).  I'm going going back back to Bethesda Bethesda.  I'm like LeBron except doughier and much, much poorer.  I have taken my talents to the Pacific Northwest, but I'd like to think I haven't been a dick about it.  Let's face it.  I miss you clowns, and I wish to see all your cheery faces.  As long as they don't look like the one from the current season of American Horror Story.

November - end of November i.e. Thanksgiving time - will mark six months that I have been away.  Pretty crazy to think it has already been that long.  Considering I never thought I would leave in the first place makes it all the more surreal.  If you know anything about me, you know how nostalgic a person I am - I reminisce more than Jessica Tandy in Fried Green Tomatoes.  Someone can check that reference.  I would like to come back and immerse myself in the pre-life-altering-decision-but-it-was-for-the-best familiar environment.

As we all know, flying across country isn't the easiest thing to do.  Nor is it the cheapest.  In fact, at Thanksgiving trying to fly is like putting 20% down on Tiger Woods' estate in Florida.  A plane ticket
over the 'giving is more than double what I could normally get a plane ticket for.  If I flew back this week, it would have been cake - if cake cost around $300.  Anyway, we made it work by selecting Spirit Airlines as our return flight home.  Now if you've followed this blog, you probably know my feelings on Spirit.  I wish them the same fate as Gwyneth Paltrow in Seven.  It doesn't matter if that comparison doesn't make sense.  You understand what I mean.  They are so miserable that the Gin Blossoms would love to sing about them.  But sadly, they make flying affordable.  And I feel like if it's for only one leg of the journey then I can stick it out.  I probably wouldn't have come back if I had to take it twice in the same trip.

We managed to get our two tickets to paradise for under $1,200, miraculously.  Here is where you all should feel indescribably honored:  I opened an additional line of credit strictly for travel expenses.  Ya got that?  I love you guys so much that I'm risking PROPERTY FORFEITURE to come see you.  Okay, it's not that bad.  0% financing for the first year!  What's an extra couple grand of debt when you make $30,000 less than you used to?  Meaningless!

Okay, so mark your calendars Maryland, D.C., and - begrudgingly - Virginia (actually I envision no scenario where I will be spending significant amounts of time in Virginia.  I kid, Virginia!  Sort of.)  Tuesday to Sunday of Thanksgiving Week.  I will be blessing you all with my presence.  We can catch up.  We can explore old haunts.  We can get sick on alcohol because I am actually concerned for my liver.  Reunions can be terribly taxing on the body.  More importantly, for those that have not met this smokin' blonde she-devil that sank her teeth into me and didn't let go, you will have the opportunity.  We are charging a modest $4.00 for each question you ask her.  Cash only.  Please have your money ready.  No seriously, I will give everyone interested in hanging out the details of our whereabouts on that weekend.

Since I'm posting this now, I suppose that implies that I won't be posting anything until after Thanksgiving.  I'm not in a position to commit one way or the other on that.  Let's hope I do.  I need to hone my craft.  Yeah, blogging is my craft apparently.  After this gobbledygook we can all see I need more reps.  Catch you all on the flip side.  Can't wait for next month!

Sports Viewing and Some Programming Notes

Hello again.  It's been two weeks or so.  How the hell are ya?

We are two weeks into the new NFL season and three weeks into the college football season.  I think by now I can make a pretty good assessment about how my viewership of almighty sports has changed since I've moved to the West Coast.  Let's be honest: other than a ton of HBO programming, sports is pretty much the weapon of choice when it comes to watching TV.  Planning my day around sports is essential.  Adjusting to the 3-hour time difference appeared to be a bit of a pickle.  Mainly because it was different -- we all know that I don't like change.  Which doesn't really explain my move across the country, but that's not relevant to this discussion.

As an East Coast guy, East Coast time was always the "gold standard".  Every TV listing puts Eastern Standard Time first.  EVERYTHING IS BASED ON EST.  So I figured that the switch to PST wouldn't really float my boat.  Let me tell you, it floats.  It floats like a pool noodle.

Saturday football starts at 9am.  Sunday football starts at 10am.  Pretty early you say.  I don't disagree.  But think about how much of the day you save by watching early.  Noon games are over by noon, and 3:30 games are over by 3:30.  The whole day is still ahead of you.  Which is great because say we would like to do something constructive over the weekend, we actually have the time.  Party going on that night?  No problem, see ya there!  It's nice to have those options.  Especially because Janae doesn't really care for football.  Look, it's not like we never went out on a football weekend when I was living back East, but generally speaking the days revolved around 10 hours of pigskin shenanigans.  Now there is some built-in schedule flexibility.  And I don't even have to try!

Another added benefit:  No hangover the next day.  Mainly because you have been drinking since 10am and so your hangover hits you before you even go to sleep.  The automatic lone drawback is that if you wish to be competent and coherent for the rest of the day, you eventually have to stop drinking.  By rule, the hangover will hit you several hours later - in this case usually between 6 and 8pm.  But still, it's easier to deal with that rather than wake up on a Monday and deal with it before work.  At 8pm you still have plenty of time to hydrate before laying your weary head to rest.  Pounding bevvies until 11:30pm at Caddie's always made for a groggy Monday.  But I didn't care about my job there so I couldn't have cared less.  I don't have to worry about underperforming at work here.  I'm fresh as a daisy on Mondays!

The best aspect of football viewing - well any sport for that matter - is that the night games are on right when I get home from work.  It's still sunny out when the games end (at least during this time of year).  It's pretty great.  You don't have to stay up late to catch the end.  Plus, the games are over in time to catch your favorite prime time programming - or at least still leaves you time for some OnDemand.  I love it.  It will be interesting come basketball and hockey season.  Those weeknight games usually start around 7pm so the West Coast is still at work when those start.  So I will miss at least some of those games, at least the beginning.  Too bad, but at I'd say I've adapted.  It's a favorable schedule, especially for someone who loves sleep.  I think I'll be going strong all season.  I'm a well-rested, alcohol-fueled, oft-frustrated sports fan.  Time change can't bring me down!


Totally unrelated:  I'm really glad that True Blood is finally over.  I think most shows wait a season or two too long before they go off the air.  True Blood went at least three seasons too long, maybe more.  The problem was I felt invested in it so I kept watching it.  It was nothing more than premium cable wanna-be porno dreck.  The story faltered and the actors just seemed to be on cruise control after a while.  Boardwalk Empire, which has been GREAT, is ending after five seasons.  As much as I would love it to continue, it's better to go out on top then to fade into oblivion I always say.  Not a sermon, just a thought.

Anyway, sorry I don't have any interesting food or beer side stories this week.  I've just been falling down on the job.  In other words, I've been eating Chipotle and Sierra Nevada.  Like everyone else in America.  Nats and O's World Series here we come!

Labor Day Weekend

Hello there!  I trust everyone is refreshed from their awesome 3-day weekend.  It's obviously not long enough.  It never is.  But the glass is half full!  We only have a 4-day week.

The end of summer here has been phenomenal.  The weather has been pretty perfect.  Knowing that the sunny skies won't last does compel you to carpe each diem.  Well, mostly.  When you are trying to binge watch The Wire, glorious weather is no road block.

This holiday weekend was good.  It wasn't jam-packed, but we had a nice, leisurely time experiencing things.  Saturday was kind of a crappy day so we mainly stuck to the television.  Also, my ankle was killing me from trying to exercise.  Seriously, I look at athletes and I wonder how the shit they can play a full game.  Anyway, we tried to go out to dinner but as you may have guessed everyone had the same idea.  So Chipotle and more On-Demand is always a solid No. 2 option.

Sunday was cool though.  We went downtown and walked around a bit.  We spent an hour in a toy store so Janae could buy gifts for children.  I naturally occupied myself the entire time with the toys on display.  I finally got around to eating at the "main" food cart pod downtown.  It did not disappoint (see sidebar).  Then we ended up going to witness this natural phenomenon known as Vaux's Swifts.  It's not some weird French indie band.  It's this group of birds native to Alaska or maybe the Pacific Northwest in general (I didn't actually do any research) that post up inside an elementary school chimney in NW Portland.  You may have seen me post some pictures over the weekend.  It's bizarre.  Thousands of these birds appear out of nowhere and funnel into this chimney only to leave around 6am the next morning.  This happens every night of September.  And it's been happening for decades.  They come back to the same chimney every time.  They take about a half hour and circle the chimney before they dive bomb it.  It looks like the Reaping.  It was cool to see because when I was told about it I said "What?  This sounds bonkers."  But it's not.  It actually happens.

Anyway, it's something you don't see everyday.  I'm always down for something like that.  Monday we decided to do a bit of day drinking since it was so nice out.  An awesome bar named Apex has huge outdoor tables to sit at and drink $5 craft beers.  They also have a house cat named Waffles (not really - it just belongs to a neighboring house and shows up all the time.  But they leave water out for it).  

I should point out that on Thursday I went to Killer Burger, a famous local spot, on Thursday night.  I had the Peanut Butter-Pickle-Bacon.  It has a peanut butter spread mixed with the Killer sauce.  Super good.  A little bit too much peanut butter sauce, but still it was awesome.  Portland does burgers right.  Like completely, utterly, tantilizingly, wonderfully, deliciously right.  Plus, the tip jar at Killer Burger says "Please leave us tips so we can get drunk and naked after work."  You've earned a return customer just for that.

Join me next time when I discuss West Coast sports viewing in depth.  As football season is upon us, I will relay my completely unnatural watching experience with you.  I think it's gonna be a really interesting post.  Go Terps!  Skins!  Ducks!  Boo everyone else!

Portland International Beer Festival and Burger Week

It's been two weeks.  I know.  I gotta get better at posting more often.  I gotta get more interesting too.

Most Portland outsiders don't know much about Portland.  But one thing they do know, fairly quickly, is that craft beer is THE scene.  Budweiser products?  Pfft.  That's like 17th on the draft list.  In fact, if you're going to order a Bud product go sit in timeout and think about your life choices.  There are more breweries her per capita than anywhere else in the country, and from my experience every bar is a craft beer bar.  Accordingly, there tends to be a drinking festival every other weekend.  At least it seems that way.  This time of year, when the weather stays a bit drier, there are some big kahunas to speak of.  I missed the Wimbledon of beer festivals this summer since we were in Michigan last month.  So to make up for it we went to the U.S. Open of beer festivals last weekend: the Portland International Beer Festival (if it's international, why it would it be the U.S. Open? Anyway).

My first beer festival experience was wonderful.  Apparently they moved from a much smaller location to Holladay Park, a lovely open patch with which to fill plenty of beer stands.  My sister dropped me, Janae, and my brother-in-law off about three hours after it began.  We were fully expecting a sardine/cattle situation with lines longer than bathroom one Garth stood in in Wayne's World.  What we received was the most pleasant of surprises.

This was the basic beer set up.

There is no way to know if we hit a sweet spot of time where there was just more room to operate and people had come and gone, but it was beautiful.  We didn't have to wait more than two minutes for any beer that we wanted.  There was space to stand and enjoy our 4oz. samples.  It was glorious.  We received 10 drink tickets with our entry fee.  Each beer was "priced" with different ticket values.  Needless to say, you run out of 10 tickets pretty quick.  So we re-upped for 15 more tickets apiece at $1 a ticket.  We made even more rounds.  We didn't get a guide.  We just picked and chose which ones sounded like good ones to try.  And we avoided 4-ticket beers because duh, you want your tickets to last longer.  We ended up leaving there after two and a half hours because otherwise we would have burned through more cash quicker than The Joker in Dark Knight. 

It was awesome though.  Had I had more money perhaps we would have stayed longer.  I don't know though because we got a fairly drunk even though they were serving 4oz. samples.  Not eating before you go helps.  No worries though because they had great food options, including a glorious brat stand where I ordered a double bacon cheddar brought that tasted like serenity.

Other cool things going on:  a fountain in the middle of the park (it's always there, but it was cool), live music, cigar stand, and a puppy kissing booth.  That was the kicker.  The puppy kissing booth.  It gives people (read: women) who don't really care that much about trying beers something else to do.  For $3 you can spend unlimited amounts of time with a pack of pups.  Janae dove right in.  Dylan and I walked around to get more beer.  We checked back in.  We got more beer.  It was such a unique feature at a drinking festival.  I though it was a great addition.  Everyone gets to be happy.  I mean they are puppies.  C'mon, who doesn't love a puppy?

It was a great cherry-popper for me in terms of beer fests.  There will be many, many more.  Unfortunately, these types of things require money, so one must be judicious with drinking plans.  I will do my best to attend them all anyway.  Because BEER.  I look forward to the upcoming fall fests that are sure to stir up warm fuzzy feelings as my palette is awash in spiced hops and yeast.

All I wanted to say about Burger Week here is that it's not sweet.  Let me clarify.  Burger joints here are sweet.  I've had unbelievable burgers here.  But Burger Week is not the same.  A limited list of restaurants offer one - count 'em one - $5 burger during the duration of the promo.  However, in our attempt to ingest these delightful hunks of beef, we discovered that most places sell out of the special.  How does that work?  Do you run out of beef?  As a burger joint?  I feel like that doesn't make sense.  Something is amiss.  Restaurant Week back in the D.C. area offered you some lunch and dinner options at a limited cost.  It was totally worth it.  I never heard of any restaurants running out of the products they were jocking.  It shouldn't happen.  Here, it does.  The silver lining is that we got two dinners at Chipotle for $1.05 after using a giftcard.  Take that, Burger Week.  For the record I will pay full price for all the burgers listed on the specialty menu.  They are totally worth it.

Tomorrow we will be going to mom's house to console her after the loss of her beloved dog, Laura.  It totally sucks and everyone wishes they didn't have to go through it.  But that's life.  She'll be okay.  It just stings when your companion leaves prematurely.  Until next time, blogosphere.