biodork

Awesome -- congrats!

lol it actually was higher than normal, but since I'm usually on the low end to start with I was still in the healthy range. ;)

My 30 minute commute took 50 minutes because an accident had the on-ramp to the highway backed up forever (and it's a bridge I needed to cross so no good alternative to just waiting it out). I had to forgo breakfast (and more importantly, coffee) this morning to waste an hour of my life at this assinine biometric screening our work health insurance plan is now requiring. Not only were the metrics all things I'd had done in March (before they revised the plan), but the consultation at the end where a nurse re-explains the numbers that I already had and already read about in a little pamphlet they handed out is just stupid. Someone should let the nurse know that it's not 1985 and those are my hips at the top of my jeans, not my waist. :wallbash: And I'm really f*cking tired from working too damn much and not sleeping enough the last several weeks. RAWR

Yeah, even though I think the original studies were a little biased, I don't disagree that a lot of oenology is just silly. Plenty of good inexpensive wines and bad expensive ones out there. And agreed on the server knowledge on food pairings at nicer restaurants. Unfortunately I think until the management / owners of an establishment see the value in such things, they won't pay to have their servers trained accordingly. The revolving door of waitstaff at many places is an understandable deterrent to such things, but any decent place that keeps long-term staff should be willing to invest the time in making sure they are fully knowledgeable about the products.

:w00t: I definitely understand the sentiment, and I do think there are plenty of folks who couldn't tell good wine from cheap wine, but I also think those experiments were biased in a way that he was almost guaranteed to get his expected result. If someone shows you two pictures and instructs you to find the 5 differences between them, every little detail would be scrutinized in an attempt to find those differences. But if someone just shows you those same two pictures and asks what you see, chances are most people would shrug and say the look the same. Back to the cicerone thing; I'd agree that full knowledge isn't necessarily useful unless people are actually brewing and the like, but I'm all in favor of some minimal training for restaurant staff. When the restaurant where I used to tend bar converted to a brew pub, as a non beer drinker I felt ridiculous not being able to make a decent beer recommendation to customers. We only had 10 taps and I was happy to let people sample, but many people get overwhelmed by too many choices and I didn't always have time to keep pouring samples when it was busy. Eventually I learned from customers and other bartenders which beers were closest in style to some of the more traditional brews we used to carry, but having some basic training would have made that process easier. A server with even minimal training and product knowledge should be able to at least know broad categories of beer so they aren't recommending IPAs to people who dislike hops, or stouts to Blue Moon drinkers.

This is a neat idea, and from the sounds of it is gaining some traction: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/08/24/214582851/wine-has-sommeliers-now-beer-has-cicerones?sc=17&f=1001

Finally trying a mint julep tonight. No idea what took so long, but me likey.

Fraggle Rock is on Hulu Plus! Granted, it's far less enjoyable to watch now than it was when I was a kid, but the nostalgia factor is high.

Oh, to have the time / money to attend this! http://www.kybourbonfestival.com/

This guy: http://www.bankrate.com/financing/credit-cards/russian-man-changes-fine-print/

What started out as a small side project to follow up on a collaborator's findings has unexpectedly turned into a very interesting main project that could easily lead to a publication or two. Still too early to tell, but exciting, nonetheless!

I've been there years ago, but ate at the Catacombs instead of the Brewery (it's really three restaurants: Bube's, Catacombs, and Alois). My friend worked as a cocktail waitress at Bube's and loved it there. The themed dinner parties are apparently a great time!

Had an interesting take on a manhattan tonight. Was more of a cross between a manhattan and old fashioned (Buffalo Trace bourbon, sweet vermouth, bitters, and muddled orange and cherry), but they also added root liquor, which was an interesting flavor mix. i liked it because it masked the vermouth, which I sometimes find overpowering.

Funny timing with this thread; we had dinner tonight at a local place called the Black Gryphon (http://www.blackgryphon84.com/id7.html), and they had Heady Topper on draft and the bf had The Bruery Saison De Lente. Impressive beer selection at this place if anyone finds themself in the Hershey/Lancaster/Elizabethtown area.

I've never had Cambodian food, but it's definitely closer to Thai. The "summer rolls" are very similar to the "spring rolls" you'd find at a Vietnamese restaurant (they're the ones in the rice paper wrapper that aren't fried), but their lahp and curry dishes are very similar to typical Thai food.

Laotion food galore. My best friend is from Laos, and tonight she, her mom, and her cousin made a feast of deliciousness for a meeting of her and her fiancee's parents. Lahp, pho, summer rolls with peanut sauce, and a tasty curry dish I can't recall the name of. Best of all, I got to take home some of the leftovers, so I know what I'm having for lunch (and dinner) tomorrow. :) Edit: the curry soup dish was Kao Pboon. Very yummy.

Weird move, although that article makes some good points that might explain it. Bit of a drag for Martin, though.

The undergrad who's been with us for the last 6 weeks has been great (competent, independent, and just a super nice person), and before leaving today she gave me a card thanking me for all my help and included a $30 (!) Starbucks gift card, too! It's been fun getting to know the students this summer and helping them learn, but I'm looking forward to not having to train anyone next week so I can make more headway on my project.

Hopefully the doc told you this already, but be very careful the next few days to avoid using straws, vigorous mouthwash, etc. Dry socket is no fun! Be diligent with the ice and ibuprofin and you can really cut down on the swelling. I had all four extracted at once also (two simple, two surgical), but I managed to avoid the chipmunk cheeks altogether. You may find ibuprofin is enough after tomorrow. Good luck!

We re-signed Tropp and PA put the Sabres history to the tune of Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire. I think you're caught up now. ;)

Quinoa fruit salad with honey lime dressing, and now sipping on some Brugal 1888 rum. Nice way to top off the weekend. :)

My boss actually went to Geneseo (he's from that neck of the woods). Congrats, Blue! Troof.

Good luck!!

In that case, I look forward to the day when someone here has the handle "GirgensonsJock". :nana:

:oops: I must've been looking at the Complaint Thread, lol. D'oh.