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I’m learning people real good on local Colorado beer for a great local blog called The Denver Egotist. This week’s column is about Avery’s Karma, one of their Summer seasonals. I’m sharing blogging responsibilities with someone over at New Belgium, too. We’ll be trading off all Summer, and I’ll be writing about various Colorado breweries and unique Denver watering holes.

So I guess that I’m sort of a big deal now (using the parlance of our times). Not really, but it’s nice to get to write for a new audience.

Have any beers for me to try and review? Leave a comment here and I’ll look into the matter further.

1. College kids are pretty naive - It was interesting meeting soon-to-be Skidmore graduates in the first part of my trip. I heard these people with some grandiose plans for their future, but this is a tough time for people entering the workforce. I had the misfortune of entering the real world a few months before 9-11, and that was a real bummer. I sort of felt that I had to let them know what they were in for. So maybe I’m a drag. But at least I’m honest.

2. Upstate New York is sort of nice - There are some really awesome things about upstate New York, and spending 5 days there in the Spring reminds me of some of them. Cool evenings and mornings make for pleasant days. The countryside is lush, and coming from Colorado (where it snowed while I was away), I forgot that Spring is longer than 2 weeks.

3. I miss my college friends - Colorado is apparently in some sort of no-fly zone for Skidmore graduates. People always say that they’ll come visit, but somehow that never happens. Spending a few days with Sean and Dustin made me realize how much I’d like to spend more time with them. I’ll be back that way in September for my friend Adam’s wedding, so that’s another chance to see them.

4. MFA art students are not what I expected them to be - Seeing my buddy’s MFA thesis show made me realize that you don’t have to be an amazing artist to get an MFA. Sure I saw some cool art, but at least half of it was underwhelming.

5. Thank God I have an iPhone - It helped me out every single day. Figuring out how to get to the Northway from the rental car place. Staying on top of my email without having to open my laptop while on vacation. Helping our car service driver figure out how to get to where I was staying in Frederick, Maryland - it was his first day on the job after being away from Maryland for 30 years and he was useless with the GPS. Navigating to Capitol Hill for a function that we went to and didn’t end up having our beer at. Finding the address of Artomatic, one of the most amazing art events I’ve ever seen (more on that later). Twittering everything as it happened using the great 3rd party application Twinkle.

6. Flying Dog Beers stack up pretty well against the competition - We did an entire line tasting as part of my beer school edumacation, along with relevant competitors. It was great being able to taste similar brews from other great breweries and seeing how our beers differed from others available.

7. Washington D.C. is a pretty cool place to visit - Walking down the Mall and being able to stop into the National Gallery of Art to see some amazing new acquisitions for free was cool. So was the Adams Morgan part of town (we went to a Flying Dog beer dinner at the Reef and then had a drunken night out there on my last night in town). I’m not sure it’s somewhere I’d like to live, but I had a great time. Don’t forget Ben’s Chili Bowl
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8. Most people are terribly nice who work in the craft beer world - I met a bunch of folks at Savor (the Craft beer and food festival I worked at), from Sam at Dogfish Head to Tom from Clipper City. I even got a chance to interview Charlie Papazian, one of the most influential people in the craft beer industry (and the President of the Brewer’s Association). Look for my Savor videos to be online in the next few weeks.

9. Artomatic is one of the most amazing art exhibitions I’ve ever seen - Artomatic is a month-long art show in DC that is completely artist-run. This year it is taking place in a brand-new 12-story office building. There are 800 visual artists selling their stuff and 400 performance artists. 225,000 square feet of exhibiting space. And Flying Dog Brewery is the beer sponsor! Look for my video of our evening at Artomatic to be online sometime next week.

10. Drinking until 6 in the morning isn’t always the best idea - On my last night in town, we went out pretty big-time. We had some beers at Artomatic (I saw all these tiny women drinking Gonzo Imperial Porter - which was damn cool) and then went to the Reef and had some more beers. And a shot or two. Then we retired to the hotel lobby, where we continued drinking for a few hours. 3 hours, in fact. Two lovely ladies from Saranac Brewery, a Brewer’s Association crony, and a few other craft beer employees and Rippe joined me in getting our drink on. Haggard is the term I’d give myself after only a couple hours of sleep and then a long-ass flight home.

Being home for about a week has been nice. My bed missed me and I missed my bed. It’s nice to be home, even if I’m sick now.

I just had an ____ running with the Frederick Merwin ____ I think the entire police force came to the ____ because we didn’t have a key and had to use the service engines as ____. listen

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I’ve been spending a lovely few days in scenic Saratoga Springs, New York and the neighboring area. I had some great (and drunken) times at a bar promotion at The Local (a great new craft beer bar that had Wolaver’s Organic Brown on tap). I’ve seen my buddy Adam’s MFA Art show in Albany, where he showed off some amazing mixed media art. I’ve had my fair share of doughboys. And I’ve spent a bunch of quiet time up in Lake Sacandaga.

All in all, I’m having a nice time with my Skidmoron friends, from Sean and Dustin (aka Dusty Bottoms) to Adam to my old professors Flip and Deb.

It’s been relaxing and I’ve barely even looked at my laptop. And it’s been really easy to stay on top of what’s happening at work with my iPhone. Yes, I’ll have to catch up on some work while I’m in Frederick next week, but it certainly could have been worse.

I’m feeling replenished, this has been a great vacation.

Greetings from Baltimore Urban(?). I am just waiting until I can catch my next plain flight. I’ve been up since 5:00 in the morning. I’m headed for Albany, New York and I’m continuing on to Phoenix, Saratoga Springs to see some old college buddies. Really beautiful right now outside the airport in Baltimore. I am happy I’ve got a little bit of time to be outside and not in an airport or an airplane. It was raining in Denver when I left this morning at 5:00 AM. I hop the whether will hold up when I am in upstate New York but seriously doubt that which probably listen

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I’m looking for a new job title. I had previously stated that I would be having some options for you a week ago, but that didn’t happen.

I’m still not really having the time to devote to this project, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen from reader-based suggestions. At the top of my list so far:

Vice President of Ideas - Daryl

Grand Master Graphics - Katie

Ideamonger - Katie - I’ve always enjoyed the term fishmonger (which is something Hamlet says). And to be something Shakespearean-sounding is definitely intriguing. And I guess it’s better than having Nunnery Visitor as a job title.

Head of Conception - Lori - Ladies, when you think of conception, think of me.

Visual Vigilante - Kevin - I like the alliteration.

Chief Imagineer - Carsten - Sounds like Engineer, and my nephews love trains.

I have a few that I’ve come up with, but there are more for me to discover.

Visual Viceroy - One of the fun things about Flying Dog is that our fans are the People’s Republic of Flying Dog. And with a Prime Minister of Marketing and a Baron von Marketing, a Visual Viceroy would fit into the whole awesomeness.

Level 12 Design Wizard - My kerning and leading damage points are approaching 130.

While you’re waiting to find out if you’ve won, watch this awesome Rube Goldberg video:
Crazy Rube Goldberg Device

And you should probably listen to this MP3 while you’re waiting some more. I’m still working on some, but Visual Viceroy is in the lead at this point.

Thanks to the wonders of the all-mighty DVR, I can make my hockey predictions after the games have actually started. I guarantee that I haven’t seen or heard about any hockey this round. Scout’s honor. Oh yeah, Jews generally aren’t scouts. Jew’s honor, I guess it is.

Western Conference

Avalanche vs. Red Wings: My team, the Avalanche have a tough matchup against the top-ranked Red Wings. Throw in the fact that Peter Forsberg’s groin is bothering him and won’t play tonight, and it will be that much more difficult to beat our hated rivals. Red Wings in 5 if Forsberg doesn’t do anything, Avs in 7 if he only misses this game and plays well the other 6.

Stars vs. San Jose: This will be a great series to watch, and I think that this is Joe Thornton’s year to shine in the playoffs. Marty Turco can be easily rattled and that can blow a game or two really easily. Sharks in 6, they’ll steal one in Dallas and will close out at home.

Eastern Conference

Canadiens vs. Philadelphia: The Habs looked sharp, but Philly is big and physical, which can wear a team down over a series. But Montreal looks pretty strong. I think it might come down to the better goaltender. Biron is a veteran but prone to some letdown goals. Price is young, but a solid string of games is definitely something he can do. Canadiens in 6. [update: I just saw the highlight of Patrice Brisebois getting an “own goal”. He could Paul Coffey the Habs (Coffey shot a puck in his own goal in ‘96 and was the turning point in the series. The Avs won the cup that year.]

Penguins vs. Rangers: If you can shut down Crosby, Malkin is there to bail him out. Or Hossa. Marc-Andre Fleury is becoming the goalie everyone thought he would be. The Rangers have the experience (Drury, Gomez, Jagr), but the Penguins have too much talent. Penguins in 6.

Eric Warner, Flying Dog’s “Lead Dog” wrote a great blog entry today about Earth Day, and how people should celebrate the Earth every day by making some simple lifestyle changes. Instead of taking the bus to work one day a year, people can affect change in simple ways. Here’s something I’ve changed in my life’s routine to help out this place we call home:

Recycling - I recycle aluminum, glass, plastic and paper. The shitty thing about this is that my condo building doesn’t offer recycling, so I have to schlep my recycling offsite. The city of Denver offers free curbside recycling, but only in single-family homes and apartment buildings that are 8 units or less. I think this is total bullshit, and the city needs to look at a more inclusive recycling plan. But I wait until I can completely fill up my car with cans and bottles and paper (working at a beer company, I have been getting lots more glass to recycle the last 18 months). I recycle my shit near my brother’s house, so I go play with my nephews afterwards.

The Onion has great merchandise. In college I bought this wonderful shirt commemorating the 1969 moon landing. If you’re unfamiliar with the Onion, you need to get out of your cave and read this amazing weekly newspaper. As opposed to a new t-shirt site at cnn.com that allows you to make shirts based on their recent headlines. I think this is potentially a bad idea, and I doubt the shirt site will actually survive past a month.

I LOVE LIVING IN COLORADO. There, I said it. Ok, this isn’t new news.

This week is a perfect example. Monday and Tuesday were 80 degree perfect days. Wednesday, it snowed. All day. Colorado is great for shit like that. Spring pops its head out for a few days in early April, and then you get some snow. Today (Thursday) it’s sunny and 50. Variable weather conditions is part of living here. It can snow in Vail

Looking back at my flickr photostream, most every year we get some snow in mid to late April.

April 23, 2004 - I had just returned from Lawrence, Kansas (Kevin and I went to see Yonder because I had just been fired from the Vail Daily and thought it’d be fun to take a 2 day road trip). This was taken about 40 minutes outside Denver. Incidentally, it more or less blizzarded in Vail on the last day of April, my last day of living up there. I went to the bars at 5PM to get wasted (mission accomplished) and had sandals on, then had to walk a few blocks from the bus stop in 5″ of snow at 2:15AM. My toes turned blue. I was so cold. Fucking freezing.

April 10, 2005 - More April snow, this time in Denver.

Well, that’s all I have, but it snows late here. And people just need to accept that. When I used to go to camp on the side of Mount Evans, the camp was at 10,200 feet (and still is, in fact). We used to get snow all the time, including on July 4 a few times. I love the snow, so it’s no big deal.