Homo Sum:
humani nil a me alienum puto

A Toast See this bowl of purple wine, Life-blood of the lusty vine! All the warmth of summer suns In the vintage liquid runs, All the glow of winter nights Plays about its jewel lights, Thoughts of time when love was young Lurk its ruby drops among, And its deepest depths are dyed With delight [...]

A very full day of meetings today, ending with a relatively late working dinner, cut short my beer exploration time tonight. So I only had time to explore one small beer: Saint Bridget’s Porter from the Great Divide Brewing Company. While the bottle describes this as a “Robust Porter” I didn’t find it particularly overwhelming [...]

As is my wont when attending days of endless meetings in the “Boston” office, I’ve made a trip to see Julio and stock up the fridge for an exploration of some interesting looking beers that I haven’t tried before. After today’s marathon meeting session I retired to the hotel and sampled my first selection: Mayflower [...]

Between this whole house-selling/house-buying thing, and the relatively insane week I’ve had at work, I have been neglecting the blog. Let’s catch up on a few things that have popped up in the meantime. I may have mentioned here before that I enjoyed Farmer’s Riverworld books (for getting me into Burton, among other things), and [...]

Please, allow me to share with you a graphical representation of the most disappointing thing about my recent business trip to Australia. It occurred during my return trip through Heathrow, Terminal 3. This is the current map of Terminal 3: This is slightly different than my mental picture of what Terminal 3 looks like, which [...]

I have now been on vacation long enough that I don’t remember what day it is. I think “if it’s Wednesday it must be San Francisco” logic may apply. With that in mind, here’s a list of a few things that caught my eye during my little bits of hotel-room surfing after the child goes [...]

There was, as you may have noted, no Day 7. Last night I didn’t get to explore any of my stash, since I dined with a friend, and he provided me with samples of Dragonslayer Imperial Stout from Middle Ages Brewing Company, Saranac‘s Black & Tan, and Dogfish Head‘s Palo Santo Marron–it was kind of [...]

The movie means no time to really experiment with beer tonight. Well, the movie and the fact that we drank The Outback out of Newcastle Brown. However, one of my Australian coworkers picked up a couple of beer for me (at Julio’s) while searching for some Czech beer that’s hard to get in Australia, and [...]

Tonight’s another night with just a single sampling (albeit a 24oz sampling), this time of a “wet hop” ale that came highly recommended by a pal at the office, Sierra Nevada Harvest (the “12th release” or 2008 edition). What’s a “wet hop” ale, you might ask? (Well, I did…) These hops are harvested and shipped [...]

On the recommendations of a friend, I made a trip back to Julio’s last night to score a bottle of Anchor‘s “Our Special Ale”, a.k.a. “Christmas Ale 2008“. Actually, when I say “a bottle”, what I really mean is “one regular bottle for drinking now, and one magnum for taking home to share with the [...]

Today’s work session ends and I jump into my car and drive to the Whole Foods to pick up some fruit, both because I need fresh fruit every day or I go weird, and because I have plans for doing some fruit-themed explorations in my hotel fridge. When I get back to the hotel, I [...]

Let’s say you have to spend a couple of weeks away from home on a business trip. You’re scheduled into all day meetings, and are dining with colleagues. Then when you finally get back to the hotel, you have to dial into a meeting with the Australian office, where people are just getting to work. [...]

So, I’m currently trapped in Boston, on a schedule of essentially 9 consecutive days (yes, including the weekend) of all-day meetings. Since I recently discovered that there’s a ridiculously well-stocked liquor store very close to the Boston office–and when I say ridiculously, I mean thousands of different varieties of beers; I still haven’t even seen [...]

You know the drill, this is the miscellaneous tab closing ceremony. Since I’m tired of politics today, there will be none in this list. I have had several discussions about this recent article on a particular form of elective surgery. All that I can conclude from these discussions is that I have different aesthetic than [...]