Travel & The World Is Flat

I'm currently at 36000' flying up the west coast. I have had a hellish travel schedule for the past few weeks. Plus I've been double booked trying to manage a number of projects and complete my own projects. I'm ready for some down time!

Starting a few weeks ago...

Fly Atlanta to Las Vegas round trip.
As soon as I landed in ATL, I drove home, met Steph and drove 3 hours to Hendersonville, NC for the weekend.
Drive home and work from home for a week.
Fly Atlanta to Miami round trip.
Home for two days.
Fly Atlanta to San Diego for two days.
Now I'm on my way to Seattle for the remainder of the week. I should get to my hotel by midnight. Thank you, Mr. Client, for pushing back tomorrow's meeting until 10 A.M.

I fly home on Friday and remain in Atlanta for a few weeks. That is assuming I don't have to drive to Augusta, GA next week to meet a new client. Argh!

All the miles are paying off. Steph and I are taking a 6 night vacation to Los Cabos in November, paid for entirely with frequent flier miles and hotel points.

Enough bitching. I still love the travel, even when I have a crappy schedule.

The reason I'm writing is because I just finished Thomas Friedman's The World Is Flat. When I sat down to write I had some poignant thoughts. The Alaskan Summer Ale seems to have wiped them from my brain. Damn.

Great book.

Read it.

You won't think the same way about outsourcing and globalization again. The author's insights on the driving force behind global terrorism is quite interesting.

I'll actually write a real review of the book when I get my head together again.

P.S. Delta could learn a thing or two from Alaska Airlines. Serve beer that is representative of where you come from or is locally brewed near your headquarters. Alaska serves beer brewed in Juneau by Alaskan Brewing Company. Delta is based in Atlanta, the home of Sweetwater, Terrapin (well, close enough), Atlanta Brewing Co. and Zuma. Perhaps their beers should be offered on your flights? While I love a glass of Woodford Reserve bourbon on Delta, a decent beer would be really nice too! Now if only Alaska has the Alaskan Smoked Porter.... yum.

P.P.S. Rudy's flight was late. Baggage claim was backed up. Budget had a line to rent cars. We didn't even get to the hotel until 1 A.M. Blah!

Brewing, Not Running (and other random stuff)

So much for running. A week into running I strained a muscle in the outside of my right calf. I'm still unable to run, even a day of walking around causes me pain in the late afternoon and evening. This is why I have always said, "I only run when chased."

I've brewed two all grain batches so far. An American pale ale was the first beer I brewed on my birthday weekend. Unfortunately, it was infected in the primary fermentation and had to be thrown out. Bummer! The second brew session was last Saturday. This time around I did a dry Irish stout (think Guinness) which is currently in its primary fermentation. When I get home this weekend I'll transfer it to secondary where it will sit for a week before being bottled.

Let's hope this time my sanitation routine improved this time around...

I'm in Miami this week with a few other consultants. This is an odd town, I've never been in another city where people speak Spanish to you before they speak English. Well, except for in Latin America, but that's to be expected! Its gettA few more days here, working my ass off before I get to head home for a short weekend. And then off to the west coast for a week.

This whole TSA ban on liquids is irritating the hell out of me! I can't bring back any west coast beers from my trip! I refuse put any beers I pick up in my travels in checked baggage due to the liklihood of them being broken in transit. I sure as hell hope that the TSA relaxes their rules soon. Not being able to carry on my loggage is an absolute pain in the ass. The terrorists have won. They must be sitting back, laughing their collective asses off while watching the traveling public jump through hoops to travel.

Enough surliness for one night...

Running & Brewing (Part II)

Woot! I've been running for a whole week.

No brewing in the house quite yet due to the heat. Its been so hot here that my basement is now in the high 70 degree F range, too hot to ferment any decent beers. Using a wet towel and a fan I was able to get a carboy of water to maintain a temperature in the high 60's, so I should be able to brew using that trick next weekend. The Bean Bex Birfday Brew will be a reality.

More details on the brewing as I get it under way next weekend...

Running & Brewing

Since the hike, I've been a lazy bastard. In an effort to try and get my ass moving again I'm signing up for the Atlanta Half Marathon on Thanksgiving day. I bought some running shoes yesterday and did my first run today. It was slow and short, but not as bad as I thought it might be based on the fact that I only run when being chased.

Secondly, my birthday is coming up shortly, so my lovely wife was kind enough to buy me a full kit of goodies to start all grain brewing! I've got 95% of the stuff I need already, just need to make a quick run to Home Depot today to get the remainder of the plumbing parts that I need for my mash-tun and sparge water tank. I should be brewing my firt 5 gallon batch next weekend, an American Pale Ale. Once I have my methodology down and work out all the kinks I'm going to move to 10 gallon batches, enough for 4 cases of beer. Look for "Bean Bex Brews" soon... ;-)

P.S. I called for pizza the other night and they couldn't understand the spelling of my name. Once again a pizza name was called for.

Purchase of the Bellwood Quarry

The City of Atlanta completed the purchase of the Bellwood Quarry as part of the Beltline project. The quarry will be turned into the largest city park in Atlanta and a large drinking water resevoir for the west side. This is huge news! I just want to know when I'll be able to take the dogs down to the park, since its less than 3 miles from my house!

I haven't seen plans for this yet, but I can only assume the Path trail that runs near my house will connect to the new park eventually, meaning we can walk to the park. A new extension to the Westside trail was recently added along with a boardwalk across a local stream. I've yet to check out this new part of the Path... perhaps this week I'll be able to take the dogs for a walk...