Moving...Again

I have been fairly quiet over the past month, and I apologize for my absence.  I have been extremely busy in my private life, and both my eBay business and blogs have suffered.

There are a bunch of reasons.  Most importantly, I moved from Enfield, CT to South Hadley, MA.  We moved because it is closer to my wife's school and it is much cheaper than the location where we were before.  In addition, it is quiet, in a great town, a different apartment.  Hardwood floors, a large living room and kitchen are the benefits, while a small bathroom, smaller kitchen and old neighbors the downside.  Second, I have been studying hard for my CFA exam that will be coming up in December.  It requires a ton of hours on a daily basis, and both my healthy routine and the rest of my life has suffered.  It should pay off in the end.  Finally, work has been busy, so some of my spare time for blogging has dried up. 

Moving was a pretty fun experience.  Two of my good friends came, and although it was a rainy day, we were able to move all of the big furniture.  It's great exercise as you are carrying, coming up and down stairs, and working as a team.  I consider it extremely paleo style excercise, because it is quite primal in nature.  It is remniscient of a barn-raising, as you get a group of people together doing physical activity for the good of one of your community members.  I am definitely indebted to both of my friends!

I have drank a ton of great beers lately, although I have tried to keep that to just the weekend.  My weight loss and body building have been at a moderate standstill, but I don't think I am gaining anything back.  I will continue to try and make progress and meet my goal of 190lbs by the end of the year

SNOWED IN HARTFORD, CT

The entire northeast region was crushed with an early snowstorm.  The fact that tons of leaves are still on branches and heavy winds and wet snow caused TONS of power outages and damages. I do not have home electricity, but work has a generator so there will be a few days until I am back to any kind of a regular schedule.

Berkshire Brewing - Franklin Land Trust Preservation Ale

I enjoyed this beer while at my wife's college, Mt. Holyoke, in the Pioneer Valley of a Western Massachussetts, a fine craft beer destination.  I stopped at Table & Vine in West Springfield, looking to pick up some local beers to share with my uncle, visiting from Detroit, but also wanted to enjoy a beer that night.  For $4.50, it is certainly a fair price for a bomber of beer, and it was advertised as a "classic IPA" which would taste like the IPAs of yore.  I am a sucker for hoppy beers, and a big fan of Berkshire Brewing, so I decided to take the plunge, even with only one Beeradvocate review.

The beer has a spicey aftertaste, and is pretty grassy.  It is not a standard American hopped IPA, and is more closely related to our English brethren's rendition of the IPA.  Like all BBC beers, it is incredibly drinkable, and tasty. I am a big fan of the artwork on BBC bottles too, check out a close up below.

Part of the money will go to conserving the Franklin Land Trust, which keeps Western Mass's Franklin County bucolic and beautiful.  I apologize for the messy background and Lubriderm lotion bottle!

Recent Paleo Eats + Cheats

I have been working hard on my Paleo Diet, and its been pretty successful. I recently related some of my staples, but here are a few of the things I have been eating recently.

This morning before work, I fried up some nitrate free bacon and made a 3 egg omelette filled with mushrooms, peppers, onions and a bit of cheese, and a cup of black organic coffee.

Over the weekend, I had some fried eggs (pastured, local chickens), nitrate free bacon, and some crimini mushrooms fried up in the bacon fat, with Sriracha on top (not paleo, but damn good)

Tonight, for dinner, I had a piece of salmon with some WFM Organic California Mix frozen veggies and a couple cherry tomatos

Now, I am relaxing with a State-Line IPA brewed right here in Connecticut, by Cottrell Brewing. It's a decent IPA, but certainly not ground-breaking, not wallet-breaking either at $6/sixer at TJs!

Over the weekend, I also enjoyed a High & Mighty Pas de Dieux Saison, brewed 20 miles north of where I sit, in Holyoke, MA. A great saison, and highly drinkable at 4.5%, I would say pick it up, but I don't think you will be able to find it without scouring the state of Massachusetts! There are only 3 reviews on BeerAdvocate currently. It also costs the same as the entire six pack of IPAs.

Short's Brewing

Short's is a tiny Bellaire, Michigan based micro-brewery that has a particularly large following in the beer geek community. They are renowned for trying strange and experimental brews such as Key Lime Pie & Bloody Beer made with real lime and roma tomatos, respectively.

They are not normally distributed in Massachusetts, and according to the beer community in the midwest, they are barely able to meet demand in their home state. However, they were taking a truck out here to Boston based BeerAdvocate's Extreme Beer Fest, and decided to pack the truck with enough beers to provide to distributors as a one-off opportunity.

I wasn't able to acquire any of the beers at my local liquor store, but I happened to be out in Western Mass, and stumbled into Russell's in Amherst Center. I asked them if there was any beer they had around here that I wouldn't be able to get in Boston. They pulled these Short's brews off the shelf and I took a single of each of them. $8 well spent on Hangin' Frank, Huma Lupa Licious, Bellaire Brown, and The Magician. I actually just polished off Hangin' Frank a few moments ago, inspiring me to write up this blog. Very solid IPA, fruity nose A-/B+ overall for me. If have an opportunity to acquire any of this stuff, I highly recommend it.