Great American Beer Festival

I'm sitting in the ATL waiting for my flight to Denver where I'm meeting Todd to attend the Great American Beer Festival. I am so giddy, I've wanted to attend for a few years, thanks to Delta bumping me from a flight and some hotel points, its an almost free vacation. I barely slept last night, I tossed and turned and had dreams of beer... lots and lots of beer!

I'll post more after I get to Denver and start quaffing, watch out for some late night inebriated posts tonight and tomorrow...

This very well may be fake, but...

I received this from a friend today, its a motion for continuance for a trial in Miami-Dade County, Florida. I think the author meant to say disc surgery. Oops.

Vosges Haute Chocolate

I was introduced to Vosges by my cousin Todd Mussman, a.k.a. Muss of Muss & Turner's, where I got four different bars of Vosges Chocolate and the Aztec Elixir Cocoa. This is amazing stuff!

I gave Steph the Aztec Elixir for her birthday. We drank a cup after her birthday dinner, handily whipped up with my molinillo — a hand-made Oaxacan wooden chocolate mixer that whips the chocolate into a froth. We were hooked by the deep chocolate flavors that coated our mouths at the first sip.

In Caesar's Palace Forum Shops there is a Vosges retail store where I picked up a box of the Collection Italiano. Clearly, I must be turning into a chocolate fanatic. You wouldn't catch me dead spending $37+ on a box of 9 truffles from Godiva, but I knew this would be worth the price. We each had a Rooster — Italian taleggio cheese, organic walnuts, Tahitian vanilla beans and bittersweet dark chocolate — this is the only chocolate truffle I have ever seen that comes with eating instructions! Steph and I sat in stunned silence after eating one of these apiece last night. Every day should be filled with that much bliss... and chocolate!

So now I have a new favorite chocolatier. Well, not really. If I want classic chocolates, Mary Chocolatier in Brussels is the place to go. Ordering online is a rip-off, since the $10 I spent on a pound of chocolate when I was in Brussels would cost over $100 delivered... perhaps for a special occassion that might be nice. However, if I want unique, modern chocolates, I'll head to Vosges every time. I won't turn away Godiva, but you won't catch me spending any money there in the future. And I still love a Snickers bar... but that's not going to fill my chocolate cravings.

America West Airlines Sucks.

I'm sitting at the airport in Vegas — the video poker machines are annoying as hell when you're tired and cranky — and tried to get information on my flight from a gate agent. After confirming the gate info I asked if the flight was on time. I was told "I'm too busy to answer that, go to your gate and ask an agent over there." At my gate the agents were trying to board another flight and they had a huge line. *sigh* Customer service at its finest.

This is another crappy airline to add to the list of airlines that I should avoid flying if at all possible.

Thinking...

I'm on my way to Las Vegas now and I have some updates for the previous post.

1) I'm not flying through Salt Lake City, I never was.
2) I accepted $400 in travel vouchers from America West to be bumped from my flight to Vegas via Phoenix.
3) I accepted a flight on Delta, leaving 30 minutes after my original flight. The flight is direct to Las Vegas, so I arrive 2 hours before I planned. w00t.

So, I haven't even arrived in Vegas and I am already up $400! I'm pretty good at this gambling stuff. ;-) We'll see how I fare at the BlackJack table tonight. Hopefully I'll do as well as my coworker Amol, who put a coin in a slot machine and won $350. Lucky bastard is up $500 already — he spent the weekend in Vegas — and we don't leave until Thursday!