Monthly Archives: April 2015

Beer 3Up! It rocked!

I have to be honest with you guys. I love the Beer XUp events so much, but they are a good deal of work. Just before the event, I was pretty tired. I was even wondering if it was going to be worth it.

Ha! Silly me. It’s always worth it. I enjoy the ever-living hell out of the event, and meeting new folks. Trying new, new, new beers and more. Usually pinball, but this year I didn’t even manage. Ridiculous!

Still, what fun it was. I had a number of delightful new, delicious beers. I couldn’t possibly have all of them, which is a damn shame. There were eleven new beers to try, though, so there was NO WAY. No way.

Next year, more of you should attend, so we can beer share.… Continue reading →

Beer 3Up! Prizes! Games! FUN!

A header image for the Beer 3Up event! Beer + Video Games = AWEOME.

I am so damn excited, guys! It’s coming together so well! Beer! Games! Brewers and brewery reps! PRIZES!!

Basically, lots of damn fun. As it is every year!

We’ll have a t-shirt contest (because I love that contest so, so much). Rules haven’t changed from last year, but the dates for online voting will be announced once I get in a huddle with Karl about the plan.

Pinbrawl!!! Must be present to play and win. Soooo… beer, pinball, contests, and prizes? Uh, yes!

Doodles! Fun little doodles from Matt LaFleur as he hosts #DarkBoredDay15 from Beer 3Up! (No one point out to him he’s having fun, not being bored. I don’t want him to decide not to doodle.) Just LOOK at this Bowser Boozin’ he drew for Jeremey last year.… Continue reading →

A Chat with the Program Director of SVF

As I was pondering how to write my recent post about food animal biobanking, my fantastic friends Araina and Kate urged me to call SVF Foundation1. And in 15 minutes I learned a lot.

The “SVF” in SVF Foundation stands for Swiss Village Farm, and the foundation is specifically rooted in farming. That root, it turns out, is the quick explanation for the difference in SVF’s biodiversity focus and a zoo’s biodiversity focus (and thus my feelings of disappointment I mention in the previous post, as I am rooted in the zoo side of things).

SVF Foundation was founded about 13 years ago as a non-profit tasked with conserving the biodiversity of agriculturally important ruminates–so, cows, sheep, and goats. They are almost exclusively privately funded, though they do have some fun merch for sale.… Continue reading →

Let Us Eat Barbeque!

For the last couple of weeks, my friend Seth and I have been planning to go to County Barbeque together, but also with some friends. Only, we haven’t really given enough notice for friends to plan to join us.

So we’re giving you notice today that on 21 April 2015, at 7:30 pm, we will dine at County Barbeque. Address is 1352 W Taylor St, Chicago, IL 60607. We are hoping you, you, you, and especially you will join us. Seth agrees.

Seth’s never been to County. I’ve been a few times. They have a solid draft list, bottled Palomas that are killer, fantastic chicken, and really great corn pudding. They have other things too, but I enjoy the chicken too much to tell you what else.… Continue reading →

Changing it Up, but Beer 3Up!

I spent a lot of thought in trying to decide what to post for my 500th post and how to celebrate that milestone. It’s funny, because until this year, I have been terrible at even noticing blogging milestones, much less commemorate them. Thus, it feels kind of perfect that the topic was dropped into my lap and it is A PARTY. A party I am helping host on 25 April 2015.

That’s right, Emporium is letting us back in and to drink new beers from new breweries in their Wicker Park location again! The “us” has changed (more on that later), but for now, the details we have on the event.

As in the past, it starts at noon (also known as “opening”) and runs until roughly 4:00 pm.… Continue reading →