BWBB

Hey Folks!

How's everyone doing? I know I have been seriously slacking on the blogging, especially the Bi-Weekly Beer Blog, but I am going to try and make amends starting now.

So in the interest of full disclosure, I've only had the pleasure of drinking this beer once, but it was great. The beer is the Iowa Pale Ale from Millstream Brewing Company, which is based in Amana, Iowa. (Yeah, I know, I'm biased in favor of Wisconsin beer, but I'm trying to expand my horizons here!) Honestly, I don't even know where the heck Amana, Iowa is...but apparently, at least one resident knows how to brew pretty good beer. I can't vouch for any of Millstream's other brews, but I would love to try them. Maybe sometime in the future I'll get the chance.

OK, let's talk about the Iowa Pale Ale. (A little brewing 101: ales are created using top-fermenting yeast, whereas lagers are brewed with bottom-fermenting yeast) According to the brewery's website, the beer is a mild and balanced ale with a "citrus zing." This seems to me like a pretty decent and simple description. This pale ale is not as hoppy as some of the other pales I have had recently. It was much easier to drink as well, which can be good or bad depending on my mood. I would disagree with the "citrus zing" portion of the description. I'm not a big fan of citrusy beers in general, but I didn't notice any overly fruity taste when I was drinking the Iowa Pale Ale. The beer is 5.7% alcohol. As you can see from the picture above, the beer is a hazy, golden-orange that is making me thirsty just looking at it. Millstream suggests drinking the pale ale with "fried seafood" (yeah, we call that a fish fry in Wisconsin...get with the program Iowa) and spicy food. Since I haven't had the opportunity to eat while drinking this beer, I will hold off on analyzing these food pairings, but I can't imagine the Iowa Pale Ale not being great with a fish fry...assuming you could find a delicious, polka-filled fish fry in Iowa.

So at this point, you are probably asking one question: "Jon, where can I buy a 6 pack and share it with you?" Well, that might be a bit difficult. But with a little detective work, I found out that you can supposedly buy Millstream products at Brennan's Country Farm Market in Brookfield. Unfortunately, I can't confirm that the Iowa Pale Ale is available there, only that they claim to have Millstream beers available. I'll have to make a trip out to Brookfield sometime in the near future---otherwise I'll just have another excuse to go to Iowa.

Totally Off Topic: Christina has vaulted in the lead for the bracket challenge with Egel only one point behind. The bottom-line is if Duke beats WVU, Christina wins; if WVU beats Duke, Egel wins. The rest of us have just fallen by the way side. Christina has requested a "date night" if she wins....does anyone think I should change the rules for her? Or should she get the beer sampling just like everyone else would have? (I mean, who I am kidding, obviously, she will get what she wants, but I'd welcome other opinions just for the entertainment factor.)

Alright, that's all the blogging I have time for at this point. I hope everyone is doing well.

Long Time, No Blog

Hey Folks,

Lots of good stuff going on since my last post. Spring Break was great, as always. (see photo evidence on left....btw, how hot is my new suit? Also, can we all just get passed the fact that I am hairy? I know. It just means I am manlier than 99% of the general population)

As most of my faithful followers already know, Christina and I went to Florida for five nights. It was pretty low key but really relaxing. The weather even turned out to be pretty decent. Highlights of the trip included: 1) Christina drinking an entire bottle of Framboise in one night....haha, how the hell did that happen? 2) Christina spending approximately 2 hours eating crab legs 3) The ladies making fantastic food for me every day 4) Great basketball games, especially on Thursday 5) Christina getting sunburn after an hour outside 6) Alex's severely flawed lotion logic which led to a raw chin and 7) Me locking myself and C in the bedroom on our first night; she eventually had to climb out the window....haha, I couldn't make that up if I tried.

I could go on and on about stupid, yet entertaining things from Florida....but in the interest of time, I will move on.

So we got home from Florida and decided to tag along with Alex to her parents' house in Iowa for the weekend. Definitely a great decision. Big props to Judy and Danny (Al's folks) for providing C and I with great food, plenty of drinks and hours of comic relief. Unfortunately, no pictures to memorialize Iowa, but trust, it was awesome. Best moment: Al throwing her driver's license down the conveyor belt at the grocery store when we weren't even buying anything alcoholic. The look on the cashier's face was priceless. It's ok Al...hahahaha.

Monday was a long day back at school. I was sitting in class at 7pm with images of beer, wine, hot tubs, pools and beaches dancing around in my head.....but such is life I guess.

A few quick unrelated notes:

Michigan has scheduled its first home night game ever for Sept. 2011 versus notre dame. Wow. Already looking forward to that.

Healthcare: A good start, but there is more that can/should be done. I think people are overreacting to this first bill. There is really nothing too radical. I will reserve judgment on the bill until a few years from now. I will say that any legal challenge to it is pretty much totally frivolous. Commerce Clause power is extremely broad, as most of you legal nerdy mcnerdies already know.

Beer blog: I know, I know. I missed the bi-weekly blog. I will make up for it in the near future. Spring Break took priority.

Tourney Challenge: Ok, I understand that the prize was only a night of drinking good beer with me, but seriously people! It was FREE!!! I'm really disappointed with the turnout, but I am even more disappointed with the performances by the participants. Alex is winning right now, but it looks like Emily has the upper hand. C and I are pulling up the rear, and I think I might actually be in last using the tiebreaker....damn, that's embarrassing.

Alright, that is everything I can bring myself to write for now. I'm looking for some good comments and emails about things of interest. I hope everyone is doing well and still somewhat enjoying the blogs. Until next time....

Tournament Challenge

Ok, a quick and most likely last blog before I go to Florida. I set up the blog bracket challenge through Yahoo this morning. Entry is free...so sign the heck up. The winner gets all the glory, prestige and bragging rights that go along with being crowned the In A Nutshell Challenge winner. I think I also previously agreed to supply the winner with a night (or afternoon if you prefer) of great beer selected by me. As always, beer requests will be accepted, but probably promptly shot down.

If you want to join the challenge, click here. You will need a Yahoo account to sign up, but I picked Yahoo with the hope that most of you would already have one. If you don't have one, create one.

The password is: blog

The challenge is open to anyone who is reading this and/or friends of readers. If anyone would like to donate additional prizes, or prizes for 2nd place, let me know.

****Remember to have your picks in before gametime on Thursday morning. (Keep in mind, the brackets don't come out until tomorrow night, but you can sign up for the challenge before then.)

Happy spring break to you all....damn, last spring break of my life.

Ann Arbor

Hey folks,

Now that the shock of having my car totally blasted has worn off, I am ready to get back to my good blogging. I saw an interesting article in Forbes magazine. It can be found here. Basically, Forbes did a study that analyzed the top college towns in America. The towns were rated based on 1) the success of their sports teams 2) quality of life 3) affordability of housing 4) quality of the public schools and 5) crime. Surprisingly (or not surprisingly to some of us), Ann Arbor came in #1! So apparently Forbes spent a lot of time and money to find out something that my wife and I could have told them about 6 yrs ago. Gee, now if our football and basketball teams could just get back to where they belong. Maybe we can even pull off a big upset against osu tomorrow at 11am. Madison is surprisingly absent from the list.

Quick followup: I told you about my first taste of the new Lakefront Fixed Gear a week ago. I wasn't really a fan, but I promised to give it a chance from the bottle before drawing any definitive conclusions. Well, I picked up a 22oz bottle tonight on my way home from school, and unfortunately, Fixed Gear is still not doing it for me. There is a slightly funky aftertaste that I can't get over. Damn.

Well, that's about it for tonight. Hope to hear from you all soon. Thanks.

Btw, I should mention that the picture above is the entrance to the law library at Michigan. If only I had spent a few more nights there and a few less at Noodles and Co. Oh wait, I'd probably still be right here...haha.

Fear the Deer

Hey everyone,

So, I mentioned that the (parked) car had a little incident with a hit and run driver at about 2am Tuesday morning. Lots of people were asking about the damage; so rather than try to describe it, see above. There is also a bit of damage to the hood and grill but not nearly as bad as the rear. The worst thing is that it's going to cost us our $500 deductible to get the car fixed. What a joke...anyways, let's move on to the happier aspects of this blog.

The Bucks, The Bucks, Light it up, Light it up! Great game last night against the Celtics. I don't think we scored any points the last two minutes of the game, but we managed to eek out a win. Clearly, the Celts aren't the team they used to be. Their big 3 are pretty miserable right now, and the best player they have is Rondo, by a mile. If the season ended today, the Bucks would actually meet Atlanta in the first round. But the Celtics are only a half game ahead of Atlanta. So a first round matchup with the Celtics is certainly possible.

It's hard to put your finger on the reason for the Bucks' success this season, but the new attitude has to be at least partially responsible. Bogut and Jennings are just fearless this year. I loved Bogut staring down Glen Davis last and Jennings just yelling at Garnett in the tunnel. It's kinda sad, but in the NBA, you only get respect when you demand it. You only get foul calls when you argue about them. So the Bucks are doing what you have to do in order to be successful in the NBA. Also, I'd like to add a plug for Salmons. We picked this guy up for next to nothing from the Bulls, and now, he is clearly our best option at the 2. Great managerial move.

Thanks to Yans for getting me to another Bucks game.

Quick side note: did anyone see that New Glarus just came out with a new pale ale? I'm not sure if it's even available yet, but certainly worth a try. Any brewery that puts out Spotted Cow, Stone Soup and Fat Squirrel definitely gets my backing. I'll have to make an attempt to get my hands on some of this new Moon Man Pale Ale in the near future.

Can I also just give a quick plug to the Cran-Orange-Pumpkin muffin at Alterra? I had one this morning that was just fantastic. As some of you know, I probably eat about three of them a week, and I am considering bumping it up to 4...haha. Just too good.

Last bit of positive news: C getting her bonus today....booya. Way to go Sugar mama. We are definitely getting a nice dinner with it!

Well, that's all I've got right now. Spring break is so close, I can taste it.

Until the next blog, peace.

Monday Blog

Hey Everyone,

So, it's Monday, which means another week and one step closer to graduation. Thank God. I figured now would be a good time to recap a couple of thoughts from this weekend.

1) Lakefront Brewery Fixed Gear Release Party: Ok, so Thursday isn't really a part of the weekend, but I promised to give my thoughts about the latest Lakefront beer. In all honesty, I'm going to have to give the new red ale an incomplete grade. For one, the beers were pouring with a ridiculous amount of foam at the bar on Thursday, which probably wasn't giving me the best that Lakefront has to offer. Also, the taste just was not doing it for me. Since Fixed Gear is advertised as a red ale, I expected something with a distinct "red ale" taste, but it tasted more like a pale ale. I will have to try the beer out of the 22oz bottle before I draw a definitive conclusion, hence, the incomplete. Needless to say, I was disappointed with that portion of the "weekend." But in life's typical fashion, the disappointing release party just gave me an excuse to go to Nessun Dorma even earlier than planned. I have yet to be disappointed by any of my outings to ND. Highly recommended.

2) I saw Alice In Wonderland this weekend. I enjoyed it, but I wouldn't say that I loved it. There were points where it dragged a little bit. But then again, there were times when I was really interested and loving it. Johnny Depp is obviously cool as the Mad Hatter. Helena Bonham Carter is really good as the Red Queen too. To be expected, Tim Burton does some great and innovative things with an old story. The visuals throughout are really impressive as well. For some reason though, I wasn't blown away. So while enjoyable, I wouldn't tell anyone to rush out and see the movie unless they really love Tim Burton.

3) Hurt Locker. C and I saw the movie back in May when it first came out, and we both thought it was great. I can't really find any fault with Hurt Locker being voted Best Picture. It was one of those unique war movies that didn't feel forced or overly political. Just a really well done film that deserves some time in the national spotlight....now it's getting it.

4) Taxes. C and I got our taxes done....get me that refund. Nothing interesting to say, just a friendly reminder to everyone that taxes are due in a month...haha.

5) Stacie had a birthday. I think she turned 33 or 34...not sure. :o) (I'm kidding)

Ok, looking toward the future, there are a couple of good things coming up.

First, I'm going to the Bucks game tomorrow night. Hopefully they can keep rolling. If the season ended today, they would be the 5 seed in the East. Pretty impressive. I hope Bogut just throws down on Garnett tomorrow night. Are Garnett and the rest of the Celtics starting to piss anyone else off?

Also, Christina and I are going to Florida on Sunday! So probably not much blogging getting done that week. I know, I know....what will you do without me? I really don't have a good response. Maybe you can read a nice novel instead of reading my blog. Or pick up the newspaper. Both productive things you could do.

Let's all just get through this week as quickly as possible and move on to warming weather and baseball season.

As always, I hope everyone is feeling good and has exciting things going on. Talk to you all soon.

Bi-Weekly Beer Blog

Hello World,

This is the second installment of the BWBB. Being the kind and generous soul that I am, I am doing a request this week. It was also really, really easy for me to answer this request. My good friend Mitch asked that the next BWBB feature Christina's favorite beer. Done.

Since there is only one beer in the world that Christina will even walk within 3 feet of, this is too easy. If you draw your attention to the left, you will see Lindeman's Framboise. Lindeman's makes a couple beers in this style, but this particular one is fermeted with raspberries. It is classified as a Belgian Lambic-style beer and has an alcohol content of about 4%.

It is a deep rose color that smells fantastic. It has a bit of a sparkling aspect to it. I hesitate to even call this "beer," but the facts don't lie. Framboise is sold in 750ml bottles, but I have seen it on tap in a few places....I think Cafe Hollander has it in that form. A bottle usually costs somewhere between $9-$12 at the store...whereas glasses in restaurants tend to be a huge ripoff.

Being the manly man that I am, I wouldn't be caught dead drinking this brew in public. BUT, it might be a decent option to impress a date who doesn't like wine or beer. It might also be a nice item to bring to a party if you are tired of always being the one who brings nasty, cheap, bad wine. (You know who you are.)\

In all honesty, I don't have much more to say about this beer. I will drink it. It certainly doesn't taste bad; it's just not exactly my cup of tea. But for those of you who have not tried it, it's worth a taste.

Ok, so I have two weeks to think about the next featured beer. Requests are good. Make them.

On a related note, I will be drinking the newest Lakefront Brewery beer in 5-6 hrs. Perfect. Expect some sort of blog or review. But for now, back to class. Hope everyone is doing well.

Nerd Blog

Hey Folks,

So I'm in a blogging kind of mood...meaning you all have to put up with another blog tonight (suckers). This is the nerd blog because it is focused on McDonald v. City of Chicago, which was just argued in front of the US Supreme Court today. If you are a huge nerd (I mean, huger than me) you can find the transcript of the oral arguments at http://www.supremecourtus.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/08-1521.pdf

For the rest of you, a nice synopsis of the case and background can be found here http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/us/03scotus.html?ref=us

As I understand the background of the case, the cities of Chicago and Oak Park have banned handguns. Some residents are challenging this ban based on their supposed Second Amendment "right to bear arms." From everything I have read, it seems like the Court is likely to strike down state and local laws that infringe upon an individual's right to bear arms. There are complex and nuanced legal arguments for why the Second Amendment should not apply to state and local laws, but I am not going to even try and tackle those here. If anyone is really interested in chatting those extremely nerdy aspects up with me, send me an email.

Anyways, I just want to make two quick points about the "Guns" question:

1) The text of the Second Amendment reads, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

When I first came to law school, I did not even know that the first clause of the Amendment existed, and I don't think many others do either. According to my own reading, the entire right to keep and bear arms is contingent on its relationship to a "well regulated militia." Apparently, Justice Breyer is the only one who agrees with my assessment...that's fine though, I always liked him the best anyways.

I would love to hear what others, even non-legal nerds, have to say about this argument or the Second Amendment in general.

2) The NYTimes article mentions that at one point Justice Breyer asked the attorney for the residents whether the ban should be upheld if the City could show that it saved 100 lives a year, and the attorney said the ban should still be struck down. Regardless of any legal arguments, does that make any common sense? Are we naive enough to think that some words on paper, written 200+ years ago, give us a fundamental right to have guns even if it costs 100 people their lives? I can't believe that people would fight for that kind of logic. Obviously, there are those who debate whether gun bans actually save lives...but this hypothetical assumed that the City could show that lives were saved.

The basic question then is are there some constitutional rights that exist regardless of their effect on the lives of others? I am not convinced that we should ever be willing to accept that reasoning.

Ok, in lighter news, US Soccer plays the Netherlands tomorrow on ESPN2 at 1:30pm. It should be a really good tune up for the World Cup. For those who don't know or care, the World Cup starts the second week of June in South Africa. The Netherlands is consistently one of the best teams in the world, and this year is no different. I will be very surprised if the US can get a win, but stranger things have happened.

Let me know if you have any good things to say. I'll be back blogging again sometime soon. The week is almost half over, so praise the lord for that. And, I'm just one day closer to trying the new Lakefront beer...hallelujah.

Yogi?

Hello ladies and gents,

I just got done with a 3 hour class that runs from 5:30-8:30 on Mondays; so I'm sorry my blog is coming so late...but you should really just be happy I am even writing right now. I wanted to give a quick rundown of some Sunday highlights.

The title of the blog is a reflection of my newfound Sunday morning pastime, YOGA. And no, I didn't make the term up...it even has its own wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogi. Ok, so maybe I don't qualify because I've only had about six classes at this point. I'm not actually even sure how much I like it, but it's kinda fun. For those of you who have seen me play sports, my yoga skills are pretty similar. Over the past six classes, I have probably progressed from awful (worst person in the room) to bearable (not the worst male there). One thing I enjoy about yoga though is that I usually feel better at the end of class than I did at the beginning. I actually feel more energized and ready to have a semi-productive Sunday. So that's cool. Seriously, who would have ever thought such a manly man as myself would do yoga....

The picture for this blog is a frittata that C made last night. (yeah, breakfast for dinner!) The link to the recipe can be found at http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/2284. If you notice, the picture on the website actually looks pretty darn similar to the one C took. Pretty impressive huh? The one change C made was to add tomatoes. If I could make one suggestion, it would be to use maybe 3 or 4 eggs per frittata instead of 2. The veggies just dominated the scene. If you are noticing goat cheese as a common thread in some of my recent meals, then you are very astute. Goat cheese is highly underrated people!

After the little meal, C and I went to the Oriental Theater, (love that place) and saw The White Ribbon. http://www.landmarktheatres.com/Films/films_frameset.asp?id=81457 Let me start by saying the ending of the film even let me down, and I have a lot of patience for strange/unresolved endings. The rest of the film was great. Characters are disturbing. Plot is well put together. Cinematography is outstanding. Obviously, for those of you who don't like subtitles, probably not your jam. Also, movie is all black and white, which might be a turnoff for some. It's actually really hard for me to suggest the movie to most people. The ending just really got to me. It basically leaves it for the viewer to fill in the most likely scenario...but C and I disagreed as to what was the most likely scenario! So if you want to be left thinking "hmmm, I wonder which of these options is the truth," then the movie is perfect for you. Probably not the optimum first date movie (for all of you single folks out there)

And that was pretty much my Sunday. Then it was back to the grind today...

BTW: I should add a plug for Transfer. C and I ate pizza there on Saturday night, and it was fantastic. They have lots of good pizzas with great crust. Plus, they have a solid beer selection. I could link to the restaurant's site, but that might be link-overload for one blog. I'll just say that Transfer is right where KK and 1st Street split off, near the clock tower. Anyone who wants to go back there with me, let me know. Highly recommended.

Alright, that's all I can think of at the moment. Hope you are all doing well and being positive. To be continued.