My last post mentioned that I’d had some moles hacked out of my body and sent off to be inspected. The report on them came back basically fine. I also am healing well, though much more slowly than I’d like. I was only allowed to start bending my right arm again yesterday. Turns out that when you go two weeks without bending your arm much that your bicep objects when you finally do. Also? You can’t aim for crap. Washing my hair yesterday morning was a bit of an adventure. Let’s not even discuss what I look like while trying to maneuver a fork. (Bill laughs. I’m apparently hysterical looking.)

The day before we left for New Mexico, I attended a bottle share and discussion put on by Kim Leshinski of Hail 2 the Ale. That was a very good time, I met a lot of very cool people, and I tried some fantastic beers. I also found a couple of folks who said that, if I needed it – and I may not, they’d vouch for me as I decide to work on my eventual Cicerone certification. But I may not because I found out there’s no longer a requirement to be in the beer industry. So, watch this space. I aim to be a “certified beer server” by the end of the year. And I plan to be beer-obsessed for awhile, as I’m going to try to attain Cicerone status by the end of next year. This is a pretty ambitious timeline, I suspect, as the founder of the program said somewhere (twitter, maybe?) it should take about two years between the first certification and the second. But, frankly, there’s no harm in setting a goal.

I’m looking for a map of the US. Preferably one that doesn’t have all the states different colors. It needs to show the city of Juarez in Mexico as well. Size is irrelevant. If you’ve got one that you don’t mind giving up, please let me know.

I’ve eaten a ridiculous number of breakfast burritos since I arrived in New Mexico. I’m going to eat a ridiculous number more. I have eaten exactly zero sopapillas and had exactly zero margaritas. The first has definitely got to change. The second will change, I hope, but is dependent upon if my allergies/minor cold can be beaten back. No sense consuming booze I can’t quite taste right.

On that note, I’ve visited two New Mexico breweries so far. This is an infinite improvement over my last visit here, and a 100% improvement over most visits here. I’m pretty pleased. I’m not pleased that what’s mainly stopping me this time around is said allergies/cold. I’ll do a write up, probably pretty brief, at the end of the trip.

I shared knowledge of the Cicerone program with a guy at one of the two breweries. I believe he’s their chef/cook, but I’m not sure. I also realize that there’s a major difference between “chef” and “cook” in the restaurant industry and I have no idea what that distinction is. What I’m pretty sure of is this guy is behind the food at the brewery and it was simple, but really damn delicious. Bill and I are likely to head back before the end of the trip.

The wake was good. It was also hard. I cried, a lot. I made new friends. Turns out Heather and Jason have/had some spectacular people in their life. I’m lucky to be in such a group.

I have still not consumed Jason’s mead. It seems Bill and I are still not yet there. Maybe later this year. Maybe never.