Taco – Page 26

Beersgiving

December 7, 2015 by Taco

Greetings all, and happy (very) belated Thanksgiving!

Woo! Whole Foods Turkey Cupcake! (Flavored like Red Velvet, as opposed to turkey, sadly).

I’ve been quite behind on the ole’ blog lately, but as I’ve mentioned before, blogging is an “ebb and flow”sort of deal for me, and I’ve most definitely been in an “ebb” period lately. A lot of it has to do with just how busy I’ve been, but I think I also like pulling back from my week-to-week blog schedule from time to time. The nice thing about a blog is that it’s always there.

So, if it wasn’t obvious by the title of this post, there is going to be a lot of beer featured here. In fact, I’ve had so much beer since the last post that I think I can happily call this a period of “Beersgiving.” So, without further ado, lets see what I’ve had. Due to the sheer number of beers, I’m going to keep my comments brief, but as always I will link to the Beer Advocate page if you are especially interested.

Samuel Adams Winter Classics Pack – Boston Beer Company
Beers 1-6 are all Samuel Adams, this was a GREAT pack, I love the 2-2-2-2-2-2 twelve packs the most.

1. Chocolate Bock

A strong bock, with lots of spices underneath the strong cacao flavors. I’m not a huge bock person, but this one was a nice “one and done” beer.

2. Old Fezziwig Ale

A very interesting ale with all sorts of spices and citrus flavors. Not a winter warmer, but similar. I enjoyed it. Plus a beer named after a Charles Dickens character is too cool to pass up.

3. Sparking Ale

A very light, highly carbonated ale. I was a bit let down by this one. I was expecting something special, but really it just tasted like an especially bubbly, yet highly average, light beer.

4. Holiday Porter

A strong porter, which is aptly a blend of a winter warmer and a standard porter. The mix of spices was interesting (though not quite as unique as Old Fezziwig). Another good “one and done” beer.

5. Winter Lager

A Samuel Adams classic, this is one of the better “macro” Winter Lagers on the market. Like a lager, yet with the punch of a warmer. Definitely worth trying.

6. Boston Lager

The original. It’s kind of like a hoppier version of any generic American lager, except better.

7. Amstel Radler – Amstel Brouwerij B. V.

Technically this was Aunt Train’s beer. But I have problems with boundaries when it comes to beer. This was a surprisingly good Radler. It was dangerously drinkable.

8. Stone IPA – Stone Brewing Co.

A gift from Aunt Train (along with some Harpoon). Stone is widely regarded as being among the best IPAs (up with Dogfish Head). I’ve been wanting to try it for awhile. The wait was worth it. Lots of subtle flavors and a crisp but strong profile that would make this a good beer on both cold and hot days.

9. Whale’s Tale Pale Ale – Cisco Brewers Inc. [Left]
10. Allagash White – Allagash Brewing Company [Right] (SB)

While neither of these brews were new to us, they are both varieties that we like. Whale’s Tale is a solid pale ale, with a blend of New England malts that give it is distinctive characteristics. Allagash White (one of SB’s new favorites) is a twist on a traditional Belgian Wheat, in that it also has coriander and Curacao orange peel in the wort itself.

11. Dorado Double IPA – Ballast Point Brewing Company

If there was one word I would use to describe Dorado, it would be strong (in italics). Clocking in at 90 IBUs and 10% ABV, this Double IPA seems to ride the line between Tripel [sic] and Double. It was good, but phew, it was intense (but nowhere near 120 Minute intense). Gave me heartburn like holy hell – I’m actually going to the doctor about my heartburn this week.

12. Tröegs Perpetual IPA – Tröegs Brewing Company

A new (to me) offering from Tröegs. This 85 IBU, 7.5% ABV IPA was like the more drinkable cousin of Dorado (above). It was good IPA, I’d definitely get a six pack of these sometime.

13. Kvasir – Dogfish Head Brewery

The second of the fabled Dogfish Head “Ancient Ales” I’ve had (my first being Midas Touch back in Denver). Kvasir was developed with the help of chemical, botanical and pollen evidence taken from a 3,500‐year‐old Danish drinking vessel. The vessel, made of birch bark, was found in the tomb of a leather‐clad woman Dr. Pat says was probably an upper-class dancer or priestess. The analysis pointed to the ingredients used in this unique brew: wheat, lingonberries, cranberries, myrica gale, yarrow, honey and birch syrup. Both SB and I’s reaction was that it was VERY cranberry-y. I actually liked this more than Midas Touch, which was bit too much like wine (though I still liked it). However, the big bottle and 10% ABV make Kvasir a Dane to watch out for.

Also, thanks to FIL for sending it to us via Dad-express.

[Ancient Ales Drank 2/8]

14. Harpoon IPA – Harpoon Brewery & Beer Hall [Left] (SB)
15. George Killian’s Irish Red – Coors Brewing Company

SB and I had another 10$ coupon for UNO, so we went there for the second time. The food was good, but the service was pretty meh (aside from our waitress, she was ok, but everything else was pretty much a fail, including waiting 50 minutes for salads). Anyways, we decided to get beers. SB went with Harpoon IPA, which is always a solid IPA choice and is kind of staple, since, you know, Harpoon is brewed here. I went for a bit of nostalgia and chose the Killian’s, namely because it was on sale for 3.75$ for 20oz, not bad by any stretch. I used to love this beer, like 8 years ago. Now it just tastes like an entirely average red ale. Not bad, but not noteworthy either.

16. Geary’s Hampshire Special Ale – D.L. Geary Brewing Company

Geary’s is another (new to me) brewery. However, they aren’t new for the area. This Maine-based brewery has been around since 1986 [I also saw 1983] and claims to be the oldest microbrewery east of the Rocky Mountains that has continuously operated. I have my doubts about that, but still 86 (or 83) is still fairly old for a microbrewery in Murka. HSA, or Hampshire Special Ale, is their flagship brew and based on Beer Advocate’s rankings you’d think it would be a godsend. However, my first impression wasn’t that great. Though to be fair I’ve only had one beer, maybe it will grow on me tonight when I go for beers 2 and 3 of the six pack. It wasn’t bad, its just not one of those beers I’d get again, but again, maybe that will change. [Edit: Nope, I’ve now had more than one and it’s still not really clicking with me.]

—

Phew, 16 beers! That has to be a Dinosaur Bear record. Maybe I am an alcoholic. I’d never know in law school. We’re all mad here.

Anyways, as the turkey cupcake above highlighted, Thanksgiving has come and gone! Last year SB and I did the solo thing. We were planning on doing that again this year, but things tend to change, this time for the better! My Dad and Grandma drove out from Midwest Texas and stayed with Aunt Train up in Lowell. So, SB and I went up there for a few days to celebrate. The boys of course came with us.

It was Pig’s first time on a train, so he liked that. While visiting we got to sleep in the laundry room, which was actually pretty nice. Aunt Train has a super comfy air mattress that doesn’t deflate over night, I didn’t know men could build such things (if you get that reference then you are my BFF). The family visit was a lot of fun and a nice “get-away” from law school. We had good conservations and good Thanksgiving food. I got to help make some of it, so all-in-all it was a good holiday. We also headed out to Concord for a highly abridged version of our previous trip, which was fun. Everyone even came down to ole’ Boston for a day trip. The weather kind of sucked, but we still had a lot of fun. We sort of traversed around Boston in a trolley (complete with plastic rain windows which allowed you to take in a glorious view of nothing) as well as on foot. We then had lunch at Legal Seafood, which is SUPER good, yet SB and I can never go there because Obama.

Tasty New England Clam Chowder. Everyone was in agreement that New England Clam Chowder is vastly superior to Manhattan Clam Chowder.

Faroe Island Salmon, Jalapeno Cheddar Polenta, and Seaweed Salad. My Dad’s reaction to me eating seaweed was as expected. Valentino ending up eating most of my salmon while I wasn’t looking.

It was a great lunch, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the break from the rain and cold. One cool thing is that this was the exact same place that Meem, SB, and I ate at way back when we were scoping out law schools. So now we’ve got to eat there twice!

All in all it was great mini-break, even if it did cause me to get dangerously behind on some of my work. All the good good food, drinks, and company were worth it though! 🙂

Aside from school work and the holiday festivities, things have been fairly normal around the casa. The boys (especially Tristen) have been on a Mad Max kick.

Res. Rinky-Ri!

And football is always a thing. We especially like that the Patriots lost a game. Perfect season forever destroyed. Rexy.

As for the upcoming winter, I’m actually more prepared this year! See, its kind of funny. I went through 110.6″ of snow with no boots. Yep. You read that correctly. 110.6″ of snow, 50+ mph winds, and temperatures in the teens, all with regular ole shoes. Why? Because I’m stubborn and also Obama. It’s important to remember that I have Raynaud’s too. So not only was that stupid, it was also dangerous (never mind the fact that literally had a toe start to die back in 2013). HOWEVER, not to be stupid two years in a row, I decided to purchase a good pair of boots during this year’s Cyber Monday.

Oddly enough, I didn’t go with L.L. Bean (which owns New England), but instead with Columbia (which owns the Pacific Northwest). I’m just a rebel like that. Either way, these are some serious boots, and were still 85$ on sale. So now I’m a bit more prepared from the coming winter. Which of course means it won’t snow at all. Of course I also just shaved my beard (literally right before writing this post) and had SB cut my hair, so who knows whether or not there will actually be a net gain to my warmth. (I had my beard for 36 days this year, a new record)

While law school has been incredibly busy, I’ve also been getting fed a lot. I’ll attach couple of pictures here for SB to enjoy.

Of course we had some pretty yummy salads at UNO too, despite them taking 6 years to arrive.

It’s a good time of year to eat large salads, and large anything, and drink large beers. The squirrels near the law school have the right idea. They’ve been getting super fat. They are also super organized.

See the sticks and nuts and shells on the picnic table? The squirrels did that. No, seriously. The squirrels organized that stuff into little piles. There are also at least 4 squirrels in the photo above, if you want to play Where’s Squirreldo.

Not squirrel related, but Santa Claus appears to bee chilling at Pooh’s house here on campus.

If you are curious about why Winnie the Pooh lives at Harvard, which who wouldn’t be, then you need to read This and This and This and Watch This. This is one of the reason’s Harvard is so awesome. The “Pooh Club” goes back to at least 1946.

Another fun thing, a cop and some rollerbladers were racing around the old yard the other day.

And by racing I mean actually racing.

It was pretty funny.

But alas, this time of semester can’t all be fun. I’ve been stupidly busy wrapping up my journal stuff (having already contributed far more hours than I signed on to do). My clinic has also extended further than it should have, and there is nothing I can do but grin and bear it. There are also papers to write and exams to take. I also had a mad dash to finding housing in New Mexico for January. That was stressful, but the good news is that I will be working for the New Mexico Attorney General in January. The hiring process was kind of ridiculous, I had to put in more effort for three-week unpaid internship than I did any other job in my life. However, I’m looking forward to it.

But still, I’m fairly stressed right now. However, I’m actually in the process of cutting out some extraneous stuff from my life right now, which hopefully will pay off in the form of some added free time and reduced stress later. But I won’t begin to reap the benefits of that until really February, sadly. Then the real dividends should be 3L, but that’s over 1/2 a year away.

For now, I think I’ll wrap things up, I have a clinic report I need to get back to work on.

Happy Beersgiving!

Until next time,
-Taco

P.S. – A candid shot of the Boys and the squirrel buddies (Nutty, Nuts, and Nutsie) conspiring against SB in some manner or another – likely a result of Tristen.

Toe Recovery, Beer, and Football

November 16, 2015 by Taco

There have been quite a few technical issues with the blog lately, stemming from a recent server migration. Things have calmed down now (after a brief freakout with some vanishing posts), though I’m still dealing with sideways images and now a new issue where my blog is telling me that my photos are too large to upload, despite never having this issue before. Anyways, we’ll see how this works, this is my first post-migration post.

Fall is giving way to real Fall here in New England. This is a fancy way of saying that it’s starting to get cold. Of course, by and large the weather has been cooperating, outside of the falling temperatures.

Indeed, on most days the Fall weather has been fairly enjoyable.

It all sort of ended this week with a long period of cold and rain. It was the first Nor’easter of the season, but fortunately it was a mild one. The only plus side to the cold and the rain and the wind was that it made it easier to stay focused on law school stuff. After turning in a paper worth 50% of my grade last week I had hoped that this week would be a bit more chill, of course it wasn’t. It doesn’t help that something is wrong with my laptop (which is of course out of warranty) and it sounds like a damn blast furnace half the time. The upside is that more school and journal work means I get to see Elsa Bear more.

Elsa and Valentino are the best of friends, for obvious reasons. However, even Elsa bear doesn’t help much when you get “DO THIS NOW” emails from your journal “boss” at 11:30pm on a Saturday. I plan on semi-quitting the journal next semester, but that’s a story for another day.

The dreary weather was also prime for a bit of beer exploration.

1. Tröegs Java Head Stout – Tröegs Brewing Company

This was one of the more drinkable coffee stouts that I’ve had. I only got a single because I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I would definitely drink and seek this one out again, which isn’t something I always say about pitch-black beers.

2. Post Road Pumpkin Ale – Brooklyn Brewery

While I’ve had this one before, I just wanted to mention it again because it’s a strong contender for my favorite pumpkin ale of the season. It’s just so well balanced that its hard to fault, even if it isn’t the most “pumpkiny” pumpkin ale in town by a long shot.

3. Shiner Prickly Pear – Spoetzl Brewery / Shiner

In a patently non-Fall twist, I went with a summer brew from Texas. I’ve actually had Prickly Pear (so named for the cactus fruit including in the brewing process – Little Friend is not a fan) before, but it was back before I restarted the blog. So this is a blog first-appearance, if not a Taco first-experience. I like this beer, but it is a bit odd, there is a tart, citrusy flavor and a crisp finish, but the cactus element makes things a bit “wild,” but again, I like it and would recommend it. Also I got the six-pack for 6$ flat. That is the best deal on good beer I’ve found since moving to Massachusetts (and actually I think on beer period). I actually got it from a place we’d never been to before called University Wine Shop, which runs a “Six for Six” deal.

The reason we were up in that area is because we had just came from Cambridge Common. The reason we we ate at Cambridge common was because I had to work late at the clinic (yep, on Friday) and so SB just came and met me at the law school. This was our second time eating there, and my third time overall (its a go-to place for law students that can afford to eat out every day, e.g. 95% of them at Harvard). I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend money on a beer when I knew I’d be picking up a six pack, but SB talked me into it (by saying she was going to get a beer – I’m easy to convince, what can I say).

4. Autumn Wheat Ale – Mayflower Brewing Company [Left]

5. Harpoon Rich & Dan’s Rye IPA – Harpoon Brewery & Beer Hall [Right]

SB is actually the one who went with the darker beer (she is drawn to wheat ales), while I had to go with the Rye IPA. Both were good. The Autumn Wheat was stronger than we were expecting (but not too strong) and the Rye IPA wasn’t quite as strong as I was expecting (but not weak) so that was sort of interesting. We of course paired our good beer with good food.

I went with the Baja Turkey Burger (bacon, pepperjack cheese, guacamole, pico de gallo, lettuce, onion & tomato) in the front, while SB went with the The 1667 Burger (melted cheddar, bacon, pickles, chopped greens & seriously special sauce, on an onion roll) in the rear.

On another health related note, (since, you know beer = health) I’m back to normal as far as my toe goes. Well, normal in that part of my toe is forever gone, but I can at least use it properly again. Because of some incompetence (if you read my last post you’ll know how I feel about such things) I had to go all the way back down to the hospital for my checkup, as opposed to the clinic 12 minutes away. But again, the weather was nice.

SB came with me this time, and we ended up a few minutes late for my 9am appointment because traffic was crazy, as traffic tends to be in big cities. Of course it didn’t matter because we then had to wait 15 minutes. It was actually kind of weird, the first time the podiatry area was a ghost town, but this time it was super busy. Either way, after about 15 minutes I got called back and I was literally in the room all of 2-3 minutes. The news was good, the mole-thing wasn’t cancerous, it just had the potential to become cancer (it was mild-to-moderate), which is the same way the five other moles I’ve had removed are. So while I need to stay on top of my mole-checking, things are good for now because not only was it not cancerous, they also got all of the “bad” cells. I sure as hell hoped they did, they used an ice cream scoop on my toe. After the good news he took the stitches out, which didn’t hurt but felt weird. It took about 15 seconds.

Afterwards SB and I decided to get some coffee since it was still early and I didn’t have class for a bit and she didn’t have to be at her placement until 11:30. We got to go down to the “Longwood” stop for the Green Line, which is down next to a pretty green area and waterway.

For coffee we went to a place called The Thinking Cup, which is right on the Boston Common. It was really yummy. We got some lattes and bagels. I liked that they had newspapers from the early 40s under the glass on the bars, it made for interesting reading. I also got to see a meter person giving people tickets. Good second breakfast.

Oh, speaking of coffee, if you haven’t heard of Stumptown, you really need to try it. SB and I actually first had it in Seattle, but I’ve had it much more since then. They are known for their cold brew (and nitro cold brew) coffees, but they make all sorts of them. Recently Whole Paycheck acquired a new variety of Stumptown. Coffee in a Can.

It was awesome. I am slightly horrified by the fact that the caffeine levels weren’t listed on the can (which is surely against some law) but I didn’t die, so its totally safe. I’m a fan of the nitro beer I’ve had, and I liked the nitro coffee as well. It really does add a slick “smoothness” to the body of the drink.

SB and I also took advantage of some discounts to see some more Harvard sports games recently. We had already seen BC Football this year, so we figured we check out some Crimson action. We started with a hockey game, which we had really enjoyed last year. This year we were able to pick our seats (last year was a promotional thing – free tickets) so we moved over to Harvard’s side. This was especially important since the opponent was none other than the dreaded Yale.

One nice thing about Harvard’s hockey arena is that its fairly small, so there really are no bad seats. In typical us fashion we cut it close on time (again due to traffic), but we still ended up making it.

It was a good game. We really like watching hockey, despite having no real grasp of the more technical elements of it. Tristen likes watching people beat the shit out of each other. He has simple tastes. Valentino likes anything with ice, and Pig likes eating the food people drop. So everyone was pleased.

It ended up going into overtime, and ended in a draw, just like last year. So, while it was a tie, Harvard wins by default since Yale sucks. But in seriousness it was a fun game, I like how fast-paced hockey is. In fact here in a few weeks we’ll be going to see our first ever BC Hockey game!

However, as fun as Hockey is, arguably the best part of the evening was the bus ride home.

Things started off normal enough, until we stopped and had to get onto another bus. Apparently our driver was about to end his shift, so he had to take the gimp bus back to the station for repairs. I’m not sure exactly what was wrong, but there was like no suspension on the left side of the bus. Once we changed into the gimp bus it felt like riding down washboard hill on a piece of scrap metal. It was so bad it was comical. SB and I, and the couple behind us, were getting a kick out of it. Everyone else seemed much less bemused. Oh, and if you thinking I am exaggerating, check this picture out.

And a closer shot.

The pictures don’t really do it justice (namely because my phone sucks unless its pointed directly into the sun), but that bus was MAJORLY tilted to the left side. Heck, when he went around turns (at 3mph) it sounded like a portal to hell was opening up underneath the bus. It was actually the most enjoyable bus ride I’ve probably ever had. I have no idea if actually made it to the station or not.

That probably would have been the end of our sports adventures, but then I saw a Graduate student deal for Harvard football tickets for 5$ a piece. It’s kind of hard to pass that up. So after some short-lived debating, we decided to go to the last home game of the season which just to happened to be the very next weekend. So hockey one week, football the next, Tristen was pleased. The opponent this time around was the University of Pennsylvania. As I mentioned before, I really like Harvard’s football ~~coliseum~~ stadium, so I was happy to go to another game. While we didn’t have front row 50 yard-line tickets this time, as with the hockey stadium, so long as you are on the sides (as opposed to the ends) of the field, there really are no bad seats.

The band was much more tame this time, they still did weird things (such as spell the word Penis), but they weren’t rolling around in costumes and fighting like gladiators this time around, so that’s an improvement I suppose. It was also senior day (since it was the last home game), so the senior players all had their families meet them on the field, that was pretty cool.

Before too long it was almost game time! SB and I had actually been early this time around – craziness.

As soon as kick-off rolled around it became very obvious that there was a third “team” playing in this game.

The wind. Yes, while the bulk of the Nor’easter has passed us by, the remnant winds (still gusting up to 30mph in some spots) made the game difficult for the punters and kickers. Actually the wind made it difficult for everyone involved, simply because it got so freaking cold by the time the game was over. Of course the fact that its dark at 4:30 here doesn’t help matters, at least the game started at noon though.

After a really good back and forth (including the longest first quarter I have ever seen in football), Harvard ending up fumbling the ball on an important play and Penn won the game, giving Harvard their first loss of the season. While I was sad to see Harvard lose, by this point I was so cold that aliens could have landed on the field and I wouldn’t have really cared. Both SB and I were very ready for that clock to run down. Once it was clear that Harvard was out of time we actually left our seats and followed the path of the sitting sun.

So while it was still fun, and definitely worth 10$, it was cold and our team didn’t win. However Penn are still child molesters, so they lose by default. And in case some of you are really dense, yes I realize that that was a different Penn, that’s the joke.

And on a semi-related note, Bengahs.

Notice the little tail. Photo courtesy of SB.

And that pretty much catches us up. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, then after that comes the “Dark Period” where I have to wrap up my classes (sadly more tedious than it sounds – especially thanks to my environmental law professor extending two of our classes by an entire hour), finish a clinic project – which involves meeting with two or three clients as well as doing research and writing, write two term papers, take three exams, and finish my journal work – all before finalizing my clinical placement for J-term (but more on that once I know more).

Until next time,
-Taco

P.S. – I have no idea why, but Star Wars has migrated into the library. Star Wars and the Magna Carta, that actually sums up HLS pretty well.

6th Anniversary Festivities

November 2, 2015 by Taco

It’s kind of crazy but another year has gone by and it’s now SB and I’s 6th anniversary. We’ve lived together 7 years and known each other for 9 years. Time sure does fly.

But before I get into the anniversary-type stuff, what else has been going on?

Well, for starters, the pumpkins are slowly beginning their path to world domination. It starts off so cute – you notice that there are a few new additions to the pumpkin family next door:

But then suddenly they are multiplying in mass, and taking over public spaces:

I can’t help but wonder if Thomas II had something to do with this.

In other news, as I alluded to as forthcoming last time, I had another mole removed. I believe this will now be my 6th (because it’s so much fun). This time around it was on my big toe on my left foot. Not only is having a mole “punched” (literally) out of your toe not fun, what was really a pain was spending 1.5 months trying to schedule the stupid procedure. I don’t have the best of relationships with the medical profession. I am sure there will come a point in my life where I come to see them in a positive light, but as is, I believe that the profession as a whole is vastly overrated. When one is so incompetent that they can’t even manage to return a phone call, let alone schedule an appointment properly, am I really to believe that they are capable of diagnosing and treating anything correctly? The answer is no, no I do not think so. Yes, I am fully aware that medical administration is difference than the doctors themselves, and to be fair I will say that 90% of my disdain is directed towards the largely useless administrative staff (sorry Stepmom and others who work in said profession, I’ll give you defacto exemptions – but I stand by my gross disappointment with medical staff over the past 6 years of dealing with them regularly). Of course I don’t mean to give doctors too much credit, doctors are wildly egotistic – arrogant – elitist – and seemingly unwilling to take on anything that might challenge them (again with some exceptions).

All this is to say that the sad fact of the matter is, it doesn’t surprise me that it took me 2.5 months, at least 15 phone calls, 3 doctors, and traveling to two different medical facilities just to get a freaking mole removed. And then of course the staff seemingly go out of their way to be assholes in the process.

To be fair to all involved, this might be a symptom of our horribly broken medical system in the United States, but all I know is that my end-user experience has been objectively terrible – from flat out lies, to being accused of lying myself, to blatantly unnecessary rudeness, to gross incompetence, you name it, it’s happened – multiple times.

/rant

So I had a mole removed, lol. For whatever reason I couldn’t get it done at Harvard’s on-campus center so I had to go down to Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, which (again for whatever reason) was not the same hospital (Brigham and Women’s) that I went to to have my nerve conduction stuff done (and again not the same place I went to for MRIs… you get the picture). This hospital is in one of those weird areas where there really just isn’t a convenient way to get to it via public transportation, at least nothing resembling a straight shot anyways. However, I can’t complain too much because I ended up finding a way to get there just by using two buses. Additionally, it was a nice day out.

Notice the pumpkins.

The procedure went surprisingly quickly. Like always they had to give me an extra round of anesthetic. I have no idea why, but my body resists being numbed. I am sure there is some survival benefit to this that I may or may ever need to utilize, but in modern society it kind of sucks. Why? Because sometimes your pain medicine wears off in the middle of having your freaking wisdom teeth cut out of your jaw. Yep.

Anyways, I don’t recommend getting shots in your toe if you can avoid it, its not pleasant. I mean, I guess no shot is pleasant (unless pain and or shots are your thing), but toe shots feel weird in addition to hurting. It’s hard to explain. After I was all numbed up they used a punch device to literally punch out a section of my toe. Fun times. But all in all it took maybe 25 minutes. Because of the area and the size I ended up having to get stitches, which I have to go back in 14 days to get removed… at 9am (meaning I’ll need to wake up at like 5:30am – which is early for me, don’t hate).

Once the toe procedure was done it was time to hobble to some form of public transportation, which turned out to be the Green Line since SB was going to meet me for lunch. Of course I missed the train by about 15 feet, one can only move so fast when it feels like 1/2 their left foot doesn’t exist. But fortunately the next train was only 5 minutes away and then I was off to the Boston Common area for some beloved Einstein Brothers Bagels. We were fortunate to get some seats and took in some people watching and the nice day while we ate.

Before too long we had to part ways as SB needed to get back to her placement and I needed to get home. You see technically I was supposed to walk as little as absolutely possible for the first two days. As a student that isn’t feasible. In fact I’d already missed one class and I still had one more class that evening (which happens to be my favorite class – Wildlife Law). So, I wanted to get home a rest for a bit. Unfortunately someone smelled the blood and decided that he wanted to eat my toe (and foot, and probably me).

As relaxation time always does, the afternoon flew by and soon it was 4:30 and I needed to get to class. So I got dressed and very.. very.. slowly hobbled the 3/4 mile to school. The good news is that my anesthetic was still going decently strong (because they had to give me so much), the bad news is that even absent the pain (which would come soon enough) it was still hard to walk and I could barely get my shoe back on in the first place. But I made it.

The next morning would be hell to pay, and the following day, and the day after that, and then to a lesser extent the day after that, and then today hasn’t been terrible. But really, my entire week can best be described as “very busy with a dash of gimp squad.” Hopefully this weekend I can actually give my toe the rest it needs. I’ve cut way back on my exercise (for instance I didn’t exercise at all for two days after the procedure… or shower for that matter) but I’m slowly getting back into floor exercises, though the 35lb dumbbells have been replaced with cans of beans (for real). My hope is that I’ll be able to return to normal exercise maybe by the end of next week.

So what has law school entailed this week? Well, lot’s of the usual boring stuff that I won’t cover here. But there were a couple of things that were more fun that I did want to mention. First, I’ve been able to see some of the fruits of my labor unfold in real-time:

These solar panels are the result of a clinic project.

While I can by no means take the lion’s share of credit for it, it is cool to see something you are working on taking shape. If only my personal/main project was like that. Second, I got to meet Bob Schieffer, or as I knew him by “The anchor dude from CBS Evening News, Face the Nation, and various Presidential Debates” but now I actually know his name.

He was actually really cool. He talked about a lot of the “inside” stuff in contemporary politics and media, as well as shared a bunch of his person life stories as far back as 1940s. I actually didn’t even know he was going to be on campus, but I got an email about it the day-of, and since I was needing to burn some time until 6pm I decided to go. I’m glad I did, he was probably one of the most lively and engaging speakers I’ve had the chance to meet thus far – which makes sense given his career. I think my favorite story was from 1948 when his small Texas town got to see a helicopter for the first time (LBJ was visiting). When the helicopter was landing in the vacant lot north of town (where all the kids gathered to play basketball) someone on-board started using a loudspeaker to announce LBJ’s (then a member of a the House of Representatives) arrival. All the kids in the crowd thought it was God talking to them because the noise from the helicopter, the blades flinging dust everyone, and the booming mythic voice out of seemingly nowhere made them think of the Burning Bush. I thought that was pretty good.

Oh and if you were curious about what he thinks of modern news-casting (as someone who has covered everything from the Kennedy Assassination onward, let’s just say that he largely isn’t a fan.

As for that 6pm event. That was a “Suit and Tie” event hosted by the HLS student organization “Supero.” I don’t think I’ve really mentioned Supero before, or if I have I haven’t explained it. So before I get to the event, let me talk a little bit about Supero, which is one of the three organizations I am involved with.

First, the name. Supero, pronounced “Sue-pair-oh” (not “soup-er-roh”), is Latin for “surpass, exceed, overcome, etc.” This makes sense because Supero is a student group for first generation, low-income, or physically/mentally disabled students. Depending on who you talk to I am in all three of those categories, but I’m definitely in two of them. What makes Supero great is that I was able to help found it. Now, not to to give any undue credit to myself, help is exactly what I did. The mass bulk of the work was done by two other people. I basically assisted in getting through the loopholes required for the law school to formally recognize a group.

Now, since Harvard is 379 years old, and the law school is 198 years old [I’ll be the 200th class, fyi] it’s hard to be a part of anything new. However, Harvard being Harvard, there was literally no group at the law school devoted to people from those three categories, not a single one. There was even a LGBT group, but not a poorfag/gimp group. So a couple of insightful people decided to change that and I decided to help them. So I am very proud to be a founding member of something at Harvard. When your school is the oldest in the Western Hemisphere, it’s hard to start something new, but we did (and again, the credit lay solidly with others, but I’m happy to have played a part in it).

So that is what Supero is, a new group devoted to helping poors, first generation students, and disabled people assimilate into law school, and more specifically Harvard.

With that in mind, just how does such a group help said students? Well, there are a variety of ongoing efforts, such as creating a travel-fund for clerkship interviews, making the accessibility office more.. er.. well.. accessible, providing alumni outreach, etc. They also engage in more direct events, such as Thursday night’s event entitled “The Professional Etiquette Symposia.”

That flier sums it up pretty well. It was an entire formal symposium devoted to learning how to not be a filthy pleb. And, true to their word, I actually learned a lot, and I do mean a lot. It was especially fun because our “Etiquette Coach” had cut her teeth as an event coordinator for the King of Jordan (seriously) and was from Serbia, so she was quite intense. The food was also really good, though sadly there wasn’t any alcohol, which was weird, because we learned all about pairing alcohol either before, during, or after meals. When I noticed the lack of beer and asked about it she just laughed. Beer apparently isn’t on the Etiquette Register – reason 38239 of why Taco isn’t really a Suit after all.

But it was fun, and I talked and enjoyed myself like a normal non-asspie person. We also got some Swedish Fish (from one of the firm sponsors – the same firm I visited in NYC oddly enough) to take home which Valentino devoured. I also managed to avoid getting my suit (or tie) dirty from the food. Always a plus since dry-cleaners cost like 35 trillion dollars.

The following day was SB and I’s 6th anniversary! Yay!

However, there is this weird “curse” that runs throughout our anniversaries in that we tend to always wind up really busy during them. I was supposed to be in class until 5:30, but my professor ended up cancelling it because she was sick, however SB still had an event down at Boston College and then got suck in traffic on the way home, so it was almost 7pm before we even got to see each other. But the good news was that it was Friday, so it wasn’t a huge deal – though we are old and generally don’t like to be out late. 😛

We originally had a grand plan that involved making a “triangle” run of three restaurants all situated around one intersection. Since there were three of them, they would correspond to our (anticipated) three years in Boston. Dali was to be the first one, followed by The Kirkland Tap and Trotter, then finally Bergamot (a farm-to-table place).

Well, that was the plan.

Once it got time to be making reservations we realized that these places were.. ehm.. very expensive. Tap and Trotter was expensive for us, and Bergamot was just plain expensive period. So we had to divert our “Triangle” anniversary course and improvise. We ultimately decided to go with Atwood’s Tavern. It was a bit further away, but still easily accessible via bus or moderate walk. We were mainly drawn in by their beer selection and ok-priced sandwiches. We tried to make reservations and were told they didn’t take them, but SB was told that a table around 7pm on a Friday “wouldn’t be a problem.” Well, that was true, but there was one table left and it had no chairs. Fortunately the bartender got us some stools. Then came the fun part, ordering beer!

1. Ommegang Witte – Brewery Ommegang [Left Side]

2. Great Pumpkin Ale – Cambridge Brewing Company [Right Side]

SB went with the Ommegang Witte, which is actually a white ale brewed with both malted and unmalted wheat. It was pretty good, the balance between white and wheat was well done and it had a light body with a bit of a critus-nip to it. I went with the Great Pumpkin Ale, because how can you not try a beer named Great Pumpkin. I’d like to try more CBC brews, so this was a good start, especially given all the pumpkin beer I’ve been drinking thus far this year. What is really cool about Great Pumpkin is that it’s all local, with the sugar pumpkins coming from The Farm School in Athol (MA), and Wilson Farms in Lexington (MA), while the organic barley was also grown in MA and then small-batch malted at Valley Malt in Hadley (MA). So really this might be my first ever entirely local beer. It was also just a good pumpkin ale, plain and simple.

Oh yeah, we got food too.

I went with a turkey burger (forefront) – with Cranberry-Rosemary Ketchup, and Smoked Gouda, while SB went with their Double J Farms Burger – which has locally raised, grass fed grass finished beef (so more local stuff). Both sandwiches (and sides – salad, red slaw, and sweet potato fries) were quite good.

Although the beer and the food was good, Atwood’s on the whole was just average. It was pretty loud and the service was just “meh.” Nothing was really bad, but its certainly not the kind of place I’d rush back to either. Still, it was fun to get out with SB after a long week.

Unfortunately we had missed the most recent bus, so it was either wait 25 minutes or walk home. We (mainly me, I’m impatient) decided to walk which probably wasn’t the best idea with my toe (it ended up bleeding again). But it did give us a chance to walk off the 50lbs of meat we had just consumed and also we swung through Whole Paycheck for some Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream and then through the Wine & Cheese Cask for my “weekend six (or twelve) pack.”

4. Fuzzy Logic – Portico Brewing Co.

This was both a new brewery and a new beer for us. We’d never even seen it before, and since it hails from Waltham (MA) I figured it was worth keeping up with the local theme, so we gave it a try (plus we liked the name and packaging – because we are children). Turns out the brewery is less than three years old.

Oddly enough we didn’t even end up trying it that night, we were both feeling pretty tired after the long day/week and with the two beers at Atwood’s as well as some ice cream and couch-time I guess neither of us were feeling like opening up anymore booze. Of course the good news about that is that it means more for later (plus I still had 3 more cans from last weekend’s purchase).

If it wasn’t obvious, I got around to drinking Fuzzy Logic tonight [Saturday] (actually I’m currently drinking it). Fuzzy Logic was actually the first wide release for Portico, so it’s a good place to start I suppose. This is an interesting beer because its both a Kölsch and a Belgian Weiss, which isn’t a combination you’d normally see. That said, this beer does it well. There is the citrus-like body at one moment, and then the hint of bitterness the next. The Belgian yeast rounds things out. It has a medium body, so a little more towards the weiss than the Kölsch. The only problem with it is the classic “Jack of all Trades” effect wherein the beer is less than the sum of its parts. Still, I like blends (though I’m relatively new to them) so I’d definitely recommend it and I plan to explore some more of what Portico has to offer.

The next day we slept in a bit, then I flailed around on the floor for awhile (I still can’t do proper exercises) and then we were off to do grocery shopping. The good news was that since we had just gotten a Peapod delivery this week (although said delivery was late and contained wrong items) we didn’t need much, just one bag to carry home. Then after that we kept up with another anniversary tradition of getting the Halloween-themed Starbucks drink. While last year was the Franken Frappuccino, this year was Frappula Crème Frappuccino which contains white chocolate sauce, blended milk and ice layered on top of mocha sauce, a dollop of whipped cream inside the mixture, and then is finished with a drizzle of raspberry syrup and whipped cream on top. Sadly it contains no coffee, but we also got a latte to make up for that (Starbucks already has their holiday glasses out, yet its Halloween, what the feck).

Thomas II seemed oddly attracted to the “blood” of the Frappula (as was Tristen).

In addition to the Frappula having its “scary teeth” sticker on the front, the barista was also pretty excited about making it, she drew a little ghost that was saying “Boo!”

The Frappula was good, but I think I liked the Franken Frappuccino more. Still, there is something fun about the “blood” theme.

After being Japanese Vampires for awhile we ~~mutilated~~ cut my hair and then settled in for a lazy evening. I’m presently typing this blog, so I guess not too lazy, but still lazy.

So while our anniversaries rarely seem to go to according to plan (at least we didn’t have to mess with a car breaking down on the highway this year), they always manage to be a lot of fun and I like building on our growing repertoire of traditions. Next week is looking to be even more busy than last week as far as law school goes, and tomorrow [Sunday] I officially start growing my third November beard, but for now I’m looking forward to enjoying the rest of the evening and then procrastinating until I hate myself tomorrow (Sunday) 🙂

Happy 6th Anniversary to Me and SB. (yay rhymes!)

Until next time,
-Taco

Red Bandanna Run

October 26, 2015 by Taco

SB and I had the opportunity to participate in a pretty special 5k this weekend (a different kind of special than the Big Gay 5k). However, before I get into that, I’ll share what else has been happening.

Truth is, not much, or rather, not much that is especially interesting. I’m still having my existential crisis with law school, I’m still very busy, and in fact the next two weeks are looking to be the busiest of my entire law school career thus far. Fun times.

However, as is obvious, it’s Fall, and I like Fall. There are too many reasons to list why I like Fall, but one of the newest ones is because we adopt a new Thomas.

Thomas II

Thomas is a Jack Be Little Pumpkin. Pictured above is Thomas II, son of Thomas I (who is now buried behind our building, destined to one day assimilate into the Great Pumpkin). Thomas I was quite a hearty pumpkin. He lasted from mid-October to mid-July (yes, seriously). The Thomas line is a strong one. Next year we will get Thomas III, and so on and so forth. This year it’s Thomas II, son of Thomas I, heir to the Thomas empire.

Also, another pumpkin family has gathered near our building.

We can safely assume they have gathered to pay tithes to Thomas II.

The only downside to Fall is that it starts to get cold. Sure, we had that 70 degree “teaser” day this week, but the next day the high was 51, yep. Of course one of the best counters to the cold is warm coffee. Thanks to MIL and FIL SB and I now have a new coffee maker!

The old coffee maker still worked, it just.. wasn’t working well, so it was time for a new one. It’s ironic, I’m the one who got SB drinking coffee, and then I stopped, and then she got me drinking it again. Its a vicious caffeine-driven cycle.

Another thing that warms you up, you guessed it, beer.

1. Wolaver’s Organic Pumpkin Ale – Otter Creek Brewing

This single was yet another in my ongoing Pumpkin Ale Season. It was probably the most “Pumpkin Spice” flavored beer I’ve ever had. I honestly can’t tell a taste difference between organic and in-organic beers, but this beer wasn’t priced anymore than the in-organic offerings, so it was worth trying, and I enjoyed it.

2. Kellerweis Hefeweizen – Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

So this was a really good hefeweizen. My biggest shock is that I’d somehow never seen it, despite it being a year-round offering from Sierra Nevada. Heck, I was mainly just drawn to it for the name, I didn’t even realize that it was a hefeweizen until I picked it up. I’d definitely recommend this as a very solid wheat offering, if you can find it, which theoretically might be hard, though it shouldn’t be.

Since I have such a long (two) week(s) ahead of me, I decided to get a twelve-pack this weekend, rather than a six-pack. The idea is that the beers will last me through the week, but we’ll see how that pans out. I decided to go with a new brewery: Wachusett Brewing Company.

I figured that a sampler pack was a good way to start. If it wasn’t obvious (it wasn’t to me), each beer represents one of Boston’s champion teams – Patriots (NFL), Red Sox (MLB), Bruins (NHL), and Celtics (NBA).

Interestingly enough, the brewery is not on Wachusett Mountain (sadly), but it’s in nearby Westminster, so I guess that counts. I really don’t know much about the brewery aside from that, though I’ve been eyeing this sampler for awhile hoping it could go on special (it of course did not). If you’re wondering about the cans, you shouldn’t. I have hugely softened my stance on cans in the past year, largely in part due to my time in Denver. What I have found is that crappy beer in a can is horrendous beer, while good beer in a can is still good beer. Of all the micro-brews I’ve had in cans this past year, none of them tasted like “can” – while many macro brews just feel like I’m drinking aluminum. It must be a small versus large batch issue, I dunno. Either way, don’t let cans scare you away from good beer, and just don’t buy bad beer period. 😛

So let’s look at these “Champion” beers.

3. Larry Triple Double – Wachusett Brewing Company

I’ll be honest, I have no idea what a “Triple Double” is. I know what a triple is, I know what a double is, but by that calculation the ABV would be higher than 8.5%. My guess is that there is a basketball reference I am missing here. However, 8.5% is nothing to mock, this is a strong beer. Since I was having it the night before an early race day, I decided to just have one beer (instead of two, my usual for weekend nights) – so naturally I chose the 8.5% ABV beer to largely nullify the difference.

Since this is the “Celtics” beer, the “Larry” moniker should be pretty obvious. This is a strong “Triple Double” (whatever that is) Imperial IPA (which tend to be more alcoholic in general). It was a good single beer and surprisingly bold for an IPA – and I don’t just mean bold in alcohol, I mean bold in that it had the body of a wheat ale, with the bite of an Imperial IPA. It was good, I look forward to the three more awaiting me. 🙂

[Edit: Turns out I was right, I was missing the basketball reference within the Triple Double name. I actually learned this tonight (10/26) from Jeopardy.]

4. Green Monsta IPA – Wachusett Brewing Company

Of the four beers, this was the only one that I immediately recognized as being sports related, I mean the “Green Monsta” is pretty obvious (even to me, and I’ve never even been to Fenway). This is a strong (6.10% ABV) American IPA. Not as strong as Larry, but still stronger than normal. It also maintains that “meaty” sort of body that Larry had. Between the two I’d probably favor the Green Monsta, because it feels more drinkable while still maintaining that IPA kick. I could definitely see this as a good baseball beer, which would obviously be quite fitting.

5. Bella Czech Pils – Wachusett Brewing Company

As much as I dislike (hate) the New England Patriots (and their fan-base), I would never abstain from a beer just because it was stylized after them. Just as I initially missed the theme with Larry, I also didn’t “get” this a a Patriots beer at first. Nor did I even get the pun in the name. To her credit SB got it much faster than I did. “Bella Czech” – for some reason didn’t click with me. However, once I got the pun, it made me groan a bit more about this beer’s theme. However, while SB did get the pun quicker than me, earlier this week she didn’t know what “running aground” meant for boats (or about the Costa Concordia, for that matter), so I’d say I’m still on top 😛

As for the beer, it was the most “basic” beer of the bunch. The German and Czech hops balance each other fairly well, but the body is a bit light for a Czech Pilsner. Overall it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as good as the other beers in the pack. So, all in all, I’d dare say it was a bit flat.

6. Brewin’ – Wachusett Brewing Company

Of the four brews, this one definitely has the best “pun” name in my opinion (though ironically I still missed it at first, just like Larry and Bella Czech). “Brewin'” alludes to the Bruins, of course. This is a distinctly American Pale Ale, so it’s a bit “cleaner” in mouthfeel than Larry and Green Monsta, while still packing more of a body-punch than Bella Czech, despite only having 4.80% ABV compared to Bella Czech’s 5.30% ABV. Overall this was a good American Pale, but it wasn’t really super memorable. Still, it gets bonus points from Valentino for having bear claws on it.

So overall I’d probably say that I preferred them in this order: Green Monsta, Larry, Brewin’, and then Bella Czech.

—

So anyways, enough about beer – what about the Red Bandanna Run?

Aside from being a 5k where we need to be at Boston College by 8:15am on a cold (~38 degrees) Saturday morning (in running gear), this race, fully titled the Welles Remy Crowther Red Bandanna 5k, is an incredibly special race.

So just who was Welles Remy Crowther? (He’s honestly someone that everyone should know about, far more than the shooters whose names plaster our news media.)

Well, normally this is when I’d do my normal thing and go into a detailed accounting of who he was – but not this time. The reason? Someone else has done it better than I ever could.

The Man in the Red Bandanna

Seriously go watch that video. Even if you’ve seen it many times, watch it again. I am generally not overly sentimental, but that video hits me right in the feels. So that you’ve watched the video, which you must do as an American, you’ll understand the background of this race.

Which is precisely why SB and I knew that we had to do it once we made the Boston College connection. So, that is exactly what we did. We paid our 40$ entry fee, got up very early on a cold New England Saturday, donned our running gear, and started the 45 minute trip down to Boston College to be a part of something much larger than ourselves.

And it was worth it a thousand times over.

Not pictured, the fact that it was 38 degrees.

I think all things said and done there were about 1526 runners. A lot of them were clearly BC students (BC sports teams – namely Lacrosse – were heavily represented), BC alums, or BC affiliates. However, there was fare share of students from other schools, local residents, and even people from as far away as Wisconsin (just remember that the next time you don’t feel like taking the stairs, someone traveled from Wisconsin to Boston to run a 5k).

Once everyone was signed-in/registered and had their iconic red bandannas ready to go (kudos to SB for helping me with mine) it was time for a welcome from Welles’ parents, Jefferson and Allison Crowther (seen in the video above). The lacrosse team also presented them with a jersey bearing Welles’ former number, 19.

The brief welcome speech Jefferson Crowther gave clearly hit the audience in the feels. I mean, extremely in the feels. Even I might have gotten a bit choked up by it.

At one point he said “I look at this crowd and I see my son in all of you” as his voice cracked and wobbled, clearly in pain from his tragic loss 14 years ago. Yep, all my feels. For real. But he bounded right back, and gave us an invigorating pre-race charge, and then we were off to the other side of Gasson Hall to the Golden Eagle to start the race. Unlike the Big Gay 5k, wherein the start was pretty much a bit of a clusterfuck (with slow people delaying all the fast people behind them) the Red Bandanna Run had “Pace Markers” along the start line. I think they ranged from 6 minute miles to 10 minute miles. SB stuck to the 10 minute marker, while I moved up to the 8 minute marker. Before too long it was time to get the race started.

Not pictured, SB or I – we are somewhere far away from these fast people.

I was actually trying to get my phone back in my running belt when the surge happened, so the photos of me leaving the start line are kind of funny as I’m trying to put my glove back on without getting killed in the stampede, SB, for her part, looked much more composed.

One cool thing about the run was that not only did the Crowther family (Welles’ parents and siblings) participate, but so did Baldwin. Yes, Baldwin the BC Mascot ran a 5k in his eagle suit. He actually did pretty good too (he beat SB by a few minutes).

In fact, all three of us (because Baldwin is by proxy on our team) did really well. I came in with my best 5k time ever (over 39 seconds faster than my previous best) while SB came in under 30 minutes, pretty dang good for her first (running) 5k! [She had walked the Apple Festival 5k in the past]. Considering how hilly this course was (there was a “Hell on Earth” hill between miles 2 and 3) I was very pleased with my result, I improved over a full minute from my Big Gay 5k time. In fact, now I can’t help but wonder if I should start looking at a 10k. We’ll see. The pain in my legs is far more of a hindrance than is my physical ability (funny note, I beat a fair number of BC athletes and ROTC members). One cool thing about SB’s run is that (after taking my advice to start on the edge) she was able to get a high-five from Jefferson Crowther as she crossed the start line. I would have too, but he hadn’t moved back around from the front to the side by the time I ran by, so sometimes it pays to start further back!

Aside from that big hill, it was a cool (literally) run around the Chestnut Hill Reservoir and BC’s campus. The odd thing was that they didn’t officially close the roads (though we had police helpers) so at some parts we were running with cars, that was a first for me, but it never felt dangerous as that was really only an issue in one portion of the track.

Once it was all said and done, SB and had I some water and a cinnamon-raisin bagel. We tried to get Daryl 1 a shirt for the race, but they were out of his size. After that we went indoors (again, it was cold and we were in running gear) and stretched a bit. After awhile we heard someone talking over the speakers back outside, so we went out there for a bit of the closing ceremony.

They gave awards to the top 3 male and female finishers, so SB and I didn’t have to worry about being called up on stage. 😛 In addition to seeing the fast people and getting a bit of a closing speech, we also noticed a running team with an awesome name in front of us.

Savory Sausage Casserole Team

Sadly we didn’t get to see the entire closing ceremony as we had to go catch a bus (otherwise we would’ve had to wait another hour for the next tone) but it was still nice to be a part of the smaller ending event (about 90% of the people had already left), even if only for a short while.

So we headed home (which was cold), then got showers, ate lunch, and then went back out into the cold (but dressed much warmer this time) to get some groceries from Whole Paycheck. Since then we’ve either been watching College Football, eating, or in SB’s case currently sleeping. Also I decided to write this post since tomorrow [yesterday] I have to prepare for a meeting with Harvard’s Director of Cost Analysis and Compliance for a clinical project, so yeah, gonna be busy. Now I’m going to go wake up SB so we can get dinner started, and then later it will be time to drink a couple more of those Wachusett beers. 🙂

All in all, a nice Saturday, even if a very tiring one (especially with 6 hours of sleep), and I’m very glad that I was able to be a part of the Red Bandanna one, it’s my small tribute to one man’s heroic acts.

Next week brings a hospital visit (getting a mole removed, on my toe, gonna be awesome) loads of law school and clinic work, and lots of appointments, as well as SB and I’s anniversary. Then the week after that brings an explosion of journal work and an entire paper worth 50% of my grade, but for now, it’s chill time.

Until next time,
-Taco

D.C. “Business” Trip

October 16, 2015 by Taco

This week I made a “business trip,” I put it in scare quotes because it was more like a “school trip,” than a business trip, but the caliber of the trip makes it seem more akin to business for me. I’ve not had many business trips, in fact the only other one to this hectic level was probably when I went to New York City for a law school scholarship interview. While this D.C. trip wasn’t for business per se, it had all the usual elements of a business trip: paid travel, paid lodging, little sleep, carrying dress clothes around, overpriced (not paid for) food and drinks, meeting important people, and trying to sneak in some personal time.

The occasion was my “Supreme Court and Environmental Law” course, the destination, Washington D.C.

It makes sense for a class based around the Supreme Court that you would, you know, actually visit the Supreme Court. So we did, for not one but two oral arguments. The fact that my professor was college roommates with the Chief Justice of the United States (John Roberts) probably doesn’t hurt. Now, this wasn’t actually my first time going to D.C., I had been there a little over 10 years ago with my Dad, Stepmom, and Daryl 2 (Aunt Train still lived in the area at the time). I honestly don’t remember a ton of the minor details for that D.C. trip, just the major things like the Capital, Arlington, etc. For that trip over a decade ago I remember there being construction everywhere, not being able to get close to anything, and lots of homeless people.

10 years later and there is still construction everywhere. However you can get closer to things these days (still not the White House) which is likely a result of an increased distance from 9/11, and while there are definitely homeless people, they didn’t seem as numerous as they were in Denver, or maybe they just aren’t as aggressive as in Denver, it’s hard to say.

Either way, Valentino had decided he was going to be my travel buddy and he was more than ready to go exploring!

Even though many of the sights we would see were a repeat for me (though I’d forgotten most of the details), it was all new for Valentino, so he was a bit antsy and anxious for the plane to arrive.

Fortunately there were no issues with our flight, despite it being a little rainy that day.

Yay baby planes!

Speaking of my flight, this was my first time ever using JetBlue. They were the cheapest option for getting to D.C. from Boston (closely flowed by U.S. Airways Air Shuttle service) and even though my airfare gets paid for, its a reimbursement, so I wanted as cheap as possible. My initial impressions are pretty good. They were friendly, on time, had cool snacks, and the pilots engage you a lot more than on other airlines. For instance, the first pilot went by the name “Moose” (no seriously) and he looked like Elvis Presley. I mean, he literally looked like Elvis, to the level of passing as an impersonator. Sadly he didn’t sound like Elvis, though he did have the Tennessee-twang, so it was close enough, he was Elvis.

They also have the “Blue” theme down pretty well with their snacks.

Upon arriving in D.C. I got on the metro and was on my way downtown. I still had about 3.5 hours before I had my first meeting, so I had time to walk around the Capitol Mall area, though not quite enough to get out to Arlington. The “bunker” like appearance of the D.C. stations immediately came back to me.

I traveled from Reagan International to the Capitol South Station, because I thought that that was where I would go in the morning (turns out that was wrong) and it was only about 2-3 blocks south of the Capitol Hill area.

While walking up to the Supreme Court to familiarize myself with the location location I passed the library of Congress.

Harvard has the largest academic collection of legal material (statutes, compilations, reports, treatises, reviews, scholarship, etc.) in the world, but they are second overall to the Library of Congress. From the library I went up to the Supreme Court and messed around until the guards told me I was too close to the stairs (lol), so I figured I would return in the morning when I wasn’t a pleb. Just across the street from the Supreme Court is the Capitol building, which was very much under construction.

I decided to circle around to the front to see what the construction on that side looked like. When I did I passed this little stone tower than I vividly remember from over a decade ago.

I have no idea what it was then, and I have no idea what it is now. Interestingly enough, one of the big reasons I remember it is because I took a picture of a squirrel next to it back in 2005. Lo and behold, there was another squirrel nearby this time as well.

From the front the Capitol looked pretty much like construction, however you can get much closer to it now than in the past.

Looking outwards from the Capitol you can take in even more construction.

Fortunately this was about as far as the construction extended. It was kind of interesting, when I was there in 2005 all the construction was on the west end of the Capitol Mall, and then this time it was all on the east end. So I’ve gotten to see everything without construction, it just took 10.5 years.

Valentino was really enjoying himself.

He made some duck friends as well.

From the Capitol we started walking west, semi-retracing my path from ten years ago (which had started at Union Station). So we passed by some sites such as the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

However, we were starting to get hungry (we hadn’t eaten a proper lunch) so we took a quick break for a pretzel on the mall.

It was alternating between clouds and sun, but during our snack break the sun stayed out for awhile and it actually started to get pretty hot (not just for October, but actually hot)!

After our snack we continued down the mall, passing by the Smithsonian Castle.

You can safely assume that Tristen has claimed it as his D.C. base of operations.

We also passed by the Museum of Natural History, probably the Smithsonian’s most famous museum.

Although we didn’t have time to go in any of the museums, I still enjoyed seeing the architecture. Before too long we had reached the Washington Monument, or as Valentino called it “the big iceberg.”

Last time I was here you couldn’t even get close to the monument and the whole area was under construction and being resurfaced, I remember it pretty much sucked. This time I was actually able to go up and enjoy it.

I didn’t bother getting a ticket to go up the monument (they were likely gone for the day anyways), as Bunker Hill had been quite enough for me. However, I did get right up next to it. For some reason I kept thinking of Pink Floyd.

From the monument Valentino was able to see the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool, so he was getting pretty excited.

Right about the time we got to the World War II memorial it started to rain.

The good news is that this mostly scattered the groups, which were rife with annoying children and my arch-nemesis, tweens.

Although I remembered this memorial fairly well, there were some details I had forgotten, such as this quote which I really liked.

I hadn’t forgotten the “Price of Freedom” wall, though I understand it a lot more at 28 than I did at 18.

For reference each gold star represents 100 Americans who were either killed or went missing during WWII.

I remembered the Eagle wreath-bearers, but they are still pretty awesome to see again.

Once we were past the WWII memorial, Valentino was quick to rush down to the reflecting pool.

Last time I was here it was full of moss and surrounded by construction. This time it was much more pristine, even if a bit green from some angles.

At the end of the reflecting pool the sun came out and allowed for a nice view of the Washington Monument.

Some military helicopters flew by and Valentino FREAKED out, he loves helicopters.

Ole’ Honest Abe was just as I remembered him.

And Valentino seemed to enjoy his company while he looked out to the reflecting pool (and the way from which we had came).

Behind the memorial I was able to snap a cool picture of the Arlington Memorial Bridge and the Potomac River.

After that we headed over to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, stopping first at the “Three Soldiers” statue.

There were quite a few elementary/Jr. High tour groups in the area, who were managing to be as annoying as humanly possible.

But it was still a somber place.

There was also a Veteran’s group visiting, which created an interesting contrast between the silent older Veterans and the ignorant young tweens taking selfies.

About this time I decided that I should start heading back towards the general direction of my 6pm meet-up, which conveniently took me towards the White House. However I took a bit of a detour along the way to see the Constitution Gardens Pond, which was well worth it.

From there it was on to the White House, or rather on to trying to figure out how to get to the White House without being chased away by police.

I actually failed and ended up getting chased off by the cops near the South Lawn anyways (but not before Valentino could sneak inside). So I wasn’t able to get super close to the White House as right as I arrived they started shutting down the area around it for “Security Purposes” (at least according to the cop who blew his whistle at me then acted shocked that I started to ask him a question rather than immediately walk away).

What I think was actually going on is that there was some sort of party or reception happening at Barack’s pad because there were quite a few limos and fancy cars driving up to the White House and there seemed to be a bit of activity around it.

A lot of important looking cars with some flags on them drove by this area while I was being whistled away.

However not everyone left, there was a squirrel. Squirrel gave no shits.

Squirrel is in semi-stealth mode, and enlarging the image is probably required.

So, me being me, I decided to walk around to the other side of the White House to try my luck. Naturally they had blocked off (or were in the process of blocking off) all the methods of getting up to the fence, but it did give me a chance to take in some of the city while I was walking around.

I had moved closer to the Capitol since leaving the Lincoln Memorial, but it was still quite a ways off.

I ended up walking further than I intended in my vain quest to be a tourist.

A lot of the historical buildings were cool though, so it was worth it.

In the end I did find another view of the White House, though they had closed down all of Lafayette Square (the park north of the North Lawn), so it still wasn’t that close [I was about a block north of Pennsylvania avenue at this point].

However, someone on this side gave no shits either.

That is when I realized that the government is actually ran by squirrels.

Since it was getting close to 6, I decided to start heading to the venue. On the way I inadvertently passed by the American Bar Association, which was pretty cool.

Since I’m a decently quick walker I was able to walk down a few more streets than necessary in order to take in some more of the area.

Certain little areas (like this currently shut-off fountain) came back to me once I saw then, though I couldn’t have recalled them without a visual.

From there it was time to go to my 6pm meet-up, an HLS Environmental Student & Alumni gathering orchestrated by my Professor (who is kind of an Environmental Titan). The Happy Hour (that wasn’t really a Happy Hour price-wise) was at Elephant & Castle. I was actually the second person (of like 42 RSVPs) to arrive. I am still learning how to be fashionably late. I decided to get a drink, which is sort of mandatory at lawyer gatherings, and tried out one of their seasonal offerings which was from a (new to me) Maryland brewery: Heavy Seas – Great’ER Pumpkin Ale.

This was a good Pumpkin Ale, and they even served it with a cinnamon sugar ring around the top of the glass. It was mind blowing. Somehow I had never thought of doing that with Pumpkin Ales, but it makes so much sense!

You know what doesn’t make sense? Paying freaking 12.16$ for that one single beer. Yeah, I am not joking. It is officially the most expensive beer I have ever purchased (beating out the Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA), and while it was good, it was NOT 12.16$ good. The beer itself was 10.45$ (yes for that little glass), and then there was a mandatory tip of 1.71$ (so like 16.4%) and THEN they asked for an additional tip on top of the 16% tip, oh yeah, no. So I paid 12.16$ to have a good beer, which is about 6.16$ more than a good beer is worth.

However, in fairness, I probably still came out ahead. In fact I only spent 59$ in total for a 32 hour D.C. trip. A lot of that had to do with the fact that my Professor connected me (and an LLM from Hungary) with an HLS alum who was kind enough to not only let us sleep at her house for the evening, but also feed us dinner and then breakfast. She (the alum) was at the “Happy Hour” so we just left from there. We took the Red Line all the way from Washington D.C. to Silver Spring, Maryland. While this isn’t as far as it might sound, it’s still a long way. Once at the Silver Spring metro station her husband picked us up and then we drove to their house from there. Dinner with the four of us (5 if you count Guinness, their awesomely named dog) was really cool. Lots of interesting discussion and good food and drinks. Herein is why I say I came out ahead, because while I might have paid 12.16$ for one beer, I got a hearty dinner and three more beers (and dessert and breakfast and lodging – but really lodging) for free. Of the beers I had the one I remember most was DC Brau Brewing Co. – The Citizen.

Pictured in the background is Guinness, super dog.

I actually had two of these. Not only were they my first Washington D.C.-brewed beer, I think they were also my first Belgian Pale Ale as opposed to an India Pale Ale. Sadly all I really remembered about this beer was that I liked it. After that many beers and a lot of curry (and then brownies and ice cream) and just being generally exhausted from the long day and walking 16.5 miles (yes, 16.5), I didn’t have much “beer memory” (case in point I don’t even remember the first beer I had at their house). So hopefully I can find some DC Brau to try again, and if not I’ll be sure to look out for more BPAs.

So, needless to say, with us being in Maryland and needing to meet everyone else at the Supreme Court by 8am it was going to be an early morning. In light of that we wrapped up our conversations (which were interesting, even in spite of my asspie self) and headed for bed. Their house has one guest room upstairs (which I offered to the LLM) and then they had put a mattress in the basement. Everyone made it seem so noble of me, but in actuality I really like sleeping in basements. When I got downstairs I found that Valentino was already getting things unpacked (he was just a bit sleepy).

After I went back upstairs to brush my teeth (no downstairs bathroom) Valentino had tucked himself in.

Despite being a little chilly in the basement (it was in the 50s outside, so not terrible) the bed was SUPER warm and pretty comfy to boot. In fact I likely would have got a sound nights sleep (if only like 6 hours, but still sound) except for some demon device over the corner. I have no idea what it was, but it looked like some kind of router. Anyways, at (seemingly) random intervals throughout the night it would beep, and I don’t mean a meager little beep-beep, I mean Freaking Hounds of Hell Thor Unleashed Ragnarok Beep. This beep was so damn loud you could hear it on the second floor of the house, but the sheer ungodly horror of it didn’t occur to me until it woke me up in the blackness with its shrill banshee cry of soul-death. So, yeah, I slept ok between the periods of bomb sirens, which is to say I didn’t sleep well. But I still saved hundreds of dollars by staying there, and the company was good.

Valentino must have slept ok, because he was up and ready to go at 6am.

By 7:10am we were bound for the station and then back on the Red Line and down into D.C. We went to Union Station (which brought back memories) and from there it was about 15 minute walk to the Supreme Court.

This photo was technically taken on the first day. On the second day I tried to play the part of a proper Havardian and not wantonly take photos of everything.

So here is the cool thing about not being a pleb. We had reserved seats, courtesy of the Chief Justice. So we literally got to skip not only the huge public line (many of whom wouldn’t even be able to get in due to space) but also the Supreme Court Bar line (lawyers). We got to go around to the side and go through a little door on the side of the building and get through security in all of like 30 seconds. It was awesome.

Once inside we met up with everyone else in the cafeteria, though I passed on food since my HLS host had fed us with a yummy chocolate croissant and I had also ate a Kind bar prior to realizing I was going to be fed.

Important people doing important things, like eating breakfast.

After that we started lining up to go upstairs and through the second (more strenuous) round of security.

The statue is of John Marshall, if you were wondering.

Sadly beyond this point I got stripped of everything except a small notebook and a pen (and even those were inspected by hand). So there are no photos of my Supreme Court experience. However, photos could not have done the upstairs justice. The courtroom was AMAZING, I’m talking like.. the stuff you would imagine from Ancient Rome. I am forever ruined on court rooms. When your first actual court room experience is at the Supreme Court, you’ve kind of spoiled yourself. As I mentioned, we saw two oral arguments. The first, Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez — concerned the effect of complete settlement offer on federal court jurisdiction over individual and class-action claims, as well as scope of government contractor immunity from lawsuit, while the second case (which was the one we had studied for three weeks in class) was the consolidated cases of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission v. Electric Power Supply Association and Enernoc v. Electric Power Supply Association — which concerned validity of a FERC rule in regulating payments by wholesale energy suppliers to retail users to induce reduction in power consumption at peak periods of use as well as whether the FERC rule was invalid as arbitrary. If these sound complicated, there is a reason they call this the Supreme Court 😛 . But in seriousness, they were very interesting cases from a legal perspective, if not to the “social” level of Obergefell v. Hodges and King v. Burwell.

One of the coolest things about getting to see oral arguments (aside from the abrasive and overly zealous small wee-wee security personnel) was getting to see the Justices in action. Most of them were exactly what I was expecting (especially Ginsburg, Scalia, and Thomas), while others (such as Breyer and Sotomayor) were a bit different than I had anticipated. While I generally do not agree with his policies, Chief Justice John Roberts is immensely impressive in action and he is undeniably one of the best lawyers of our time. Overall it was awesome, completely awesome. Even if I had zero legal background, it would have been awesome, because the Supreme Court is like high-tier classic courtroom drama, where only the best of the best come to play. In the FERC case there were three parties. On the public petitioners side was the U.S. Government (FERC) represented by the Solicitor General himself, Donald Verrilli. On the private petitioners side was some industry representatives, represented by Carter Phillips of Sidley Austin (who we had met in class a week prior). On the private respondents side were the industry representatives from the “other” side, represented by Paul Clement of Bancroft. All three offered amazing oral arguments, though the class was torn over whether the Solicitor General or Clement had done the best job. Though both Phillips and Clement probably make like 500x more money than the SG did, either way.

However, most importantly, long after I’ve forgotten all the details of the cases and the legal specifics of the arguments, I’ll remember that Antonin Scalia brought up Unicorns. Yes, Unicorns. That is your Supreme Court ladies and gentlemen.

Now, the downside of the Supreme Court is that you can’t leave once your in the courtroom. Well you can, but you can’t come back, period. So when we got seated at like 9:15, it meant we were going to be there without moving (and without talking – archaic rules abound in the Supreme Court) for 3 hours. What this meant was not that I was about to piss myself (surprisingly) but that the croissant had LONG worn off and my blood sugar was plummeting and by the end of the second argument I was struggling to stay awake. Fortunately once court adjourned and we shook a few hands, some of us got temporarily lost in the cavernous building, and then got our mandatory class photo it was time for lunch. We headed over to some cafe I don’t even remember the name of, though I could probably find it by location. On the way we passed a cool fountain area.

After lunch we headed over to Georgetown’s Law Center (which is the odd name they have for their law school).

While it was admittedly a pretty (if not small) campus, it still felt like we were in enemy territory (and I was not the only one who felt this way). The reason we were there is that my Professor actually taught at Georgetown before being poached by Harvard’s boundless wealth, so he still has lots of connections there. Paul Clement (who in addition to being a Supreme Court advocate and Partner at Bancroft is also a Georgetown law professor) was meeting us there at 3pm. We met up in a small scale “mock” of the Supreme Court courtroom called “The Supreme Court Institute Courtroom.”

Since the room was designed by my Professor, I won’t really knock it other than to say that the replica PALES in comparison to the real thing. I mean this would be like comparing the diarrhea blast on the wall of the gas station bathroom to the Sistine Chapel. However, it does replicate it (in theory) at least good enough for moot courts, and moot it does. In fact that room is often used as a moot (e.g. practice) court for lawyers prior to Supreme Court cases, including the recent famous ones. This is in part due to the “mock” appearance, but more-so because its like a 10-15 minute walk from the Supreme Court, not that these rich lawyers walk places.

After meeting with Clement we went off on a longer walk over to “Main Justice,” or as it is more commonly known the Headquarters of the United States Justice Department.

Right across from Main Justice is the National Archives, which is where the Constitution was until Nicholas Cage stole it.

Some of the original doors to the DOJ were pretty cool.

Of course they don’t use those doors anymore. Now you go in the little side entrance and straight into security that makes up the TSA’s wet-dreams. However, it was totally worth it because we were getting ready to meet Donald Verrilli (Solicitor General). Now, before I describe Don, I’ll make sure you know what the Solicitor General is, because most Americans don’t know (just like most Americans who claim to support/love/bleed-for the Constitution have never even read it). The Solicitor General is a Presidential-appointee, so he serves “At the will of the President.” Don was appointed by Obama and has served for 5 years, which is a decent period of time for a SG. The Solicitor General sort of makes up a “Two-Part” legal dream team for the United States. The other side is the Attorney General, currently Loretta Lynch. The AG is also a Presidential-appointee, and Lynch was also appointed by Obama (this past April actually).

So what is the difference between the SG and the AG? Well, there are a lot of layers of complexity, but it can be boiled down to something fairly simple. The AG is like the Sheriff of the United States. The AG is officially the head of the entire Department of Justice, e.g. World Police. The AG acts in a manner similar to a Sheriff in that they are the commander of their “police” force. Their duties are broad, and while they are a lawyer, they are also an enforcement officer and politician. The SG on the other hand has a much more narrow task, they represented the United States before the Supreme Court. So the SG is like the prosecutor that the Sheriff (AG) relies on. So while the AG is more like a “Sheriff” the SG is more like a “Lawyer.” Anytime you see the United States at the Supreme Court, its being represented by the SG’s office (note: not necessarily the SG themselves, it’s often an Assistant or Deputy SG, such as Edwin Kneedler). The SG himself/herself tends to take on the most important cases and let their slaves take on the less important cases. So it’s really cool that I got to see the SG in action. In the DOJ hierarchy, the SG is below the AG, though in lawyer circles the SG tends to get more street cred. So not only had we got to meet both Paul Clement (Respondent) and Carter Phillips (Private Petitioner), we were now meeting the third party to the FERC case, Don (U.S. Petitioner).

Waiting to meet the Solicitor General of the United States.

So now that you know what an SG does, I’ll sum up Don very succinctly: J. Jonah Jameson. I am being completely serious, Donald Verrilli is like the living embodiment of Jameson. I can’t help but believe that he hunts Spider-Man in his pastime. So needless to say the dude is pretty awesome. Valentino also liked him.

Valentino listening to the SG in private DOJ chambers.

We were lucky in that we got to talk with him for about an hour. He answered all sorts of stuff that I am (literally) sworn to never repeat (no seriously). The coolest stories involved his interactions with other powerful people such as Obama, Justices, and foreign heads of state. After our meeting he showed us into his actual office which was AWESOME, easily the coolest office I’ve ever been in (as an aside the Attorney General’s office is down the other wing of the same floor of the building – but we didn’t go down that wing). Plus it was really cool hearing the history of his desk, which belong to Thurgood Marshall and is now officially a national antique, and being able to touch it and history-nerdgasm all over the various others things in his office. In other words it was pretty freaking amazing.

We also were able to check out a few other areas of the floor, though we had to be closely guided. At least most of us, I actually had a “Green” badge, which meant that I didn’t have to be escorted everywhere (though I still had no access to doors, etc.). This was because of my prior DOJ clearance from this past summer. However, the rest of the group (even including the Professor, despite him formerly working in the SG’s office – though it was like 35 years ago) had “Red” badges, which meant that they had to be escorted. So I just stayed with the group anyways.

One area we were able to check out was the library, which was pretty cool.

The murals around the building were pretty interesting and even downright weird.

Notice anything odd in that mural? Yep, it’s a squirrel. I am telling you, squirrels run the United States, you cannot disprove this.

Sadly most areas of the gorgeous building I couldn’t take photos of. It was actually built in the depression-era with a lot of public-works labor, so there were some very skilled workers, painters, sculptors, metal-workers, etc. who were brought in (as a way of giving them work) and it really showed. After our brief tour we were whisked out of the building especially quickly since they don’t like you being there any longer than necessary, even when you are a guest of the SG. So that brought my “business” trip to an end and from there it was time to head back down to the airport.

Fortunately a Yellow Line station was just 2 blocks away and it was a lovely afternoon.

The plaza around the entrance to the station was actually pretty cool.

It was even complete with it’s screaming homeless person, ah.. no city is really a city without the screaming homeless person.

The trip back down to the airport was pretty easy, at least for me. A lot of my fellow students opted for car service, which just blew my mind since the Yellow Line is a direct shot to the airport and cost me all of like 3 some dollars, whereas they took about 3x as long (in traffic) to get there and paid like 10x as much money to use the car. Sometimes its painfully obvious how much I do not fit in here. Actually that was a running theme of this trip, how little I fit in with most lawyers, but that is for another post.

Valentino and I chilled for awhile at the airport and got an overpriced Veggie Wrap and Diet Coke, then waited, and waited. Then we got on the airplane, and taxied, and taxied.

But eventually we were up and away, and it was goodbye D.C.!

We also waved to New York City as we passed the Big Apple by (Valentino then wanted an apple).

And while JetBlue didn’t have an apple, Valentino did settle for some Decaf coffee and cookies.

Notice the squirrel? YOU WILL BELIEVE.

We landed safely back in Boston, sadly we saw no baby whales. From there it was the Silver Line to the Red Line, and then walking home. Along the way I found myself heavily comparing the D.C. and Boston train systems. Immediately after the fact I’m fairly sure D.C. wins, but that might be an immediacy bias, so I’ll revisit that thought later. SB was seepin’ when we got home, but we woke her up and talked for a few minutes while we got all our stuff unpacked. Then we got a snack, had a beer and brought our Taco/Polar Bear “business” trip to a close.

All in all in was a good trip, and while I was initially not really wanted to go giving some recent hard times, I’m actually very, very glad I decided to go. Not only because I would have not gotten reimbursed (which is a factor) but also because I had some amazing experiences that the vast majority of people will never even begin to have.

It was way cool.

In fact, though I still have my struggles like anyone else, my life is pretty awesome. But when you travel with a Polar Bear, two Tyrannosauruses, and a Pig, you are kind of awesome by default.

Until next time,
-Taco

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