Category Archives: Entertainment

Beer, Entertainment, Food

Quick Stowe, VT area recommendations

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A few weeks ago, I spent some time in Stowe, VT for work. I went out a few days early with Sarah for a quick mini-vacation. This morning one of my co-workers sent me e-mail asking for brewery and restaurant recommendations. As long as I typed it up for him, I thought I’d repost it here. (We also stopped at two wineries, but since I wasn’t asked, I didn’t write. That might be a future post.)

Beer

  • The Alchemist Brewery – Stop in for a taster. They only make one beer, Heady Topper, but its currently rated 100% on Beer Advocate and it was damn damn good. I wish I could get it in IL. He might be able to find some around Stowe too, but they can barely keep up with demand and appear to make sure they have some in the home office for tasters.
  • Rock Art Brewery – This is also a good place to stop for a tasting, and you can taste multiple beers here. The big thing to buy while there is a bottle of their wheat beer that has maple syrup in it. They don’t sell it out of VT and its really good. Sadly, they can only sell you one taster. I briefly met the owners and they were cool people. Also, watch the videos on their webpage, they are hysterical. Here’s a shot of my taster:Taster at the Rock Art Brewery
  • We were staying at the Trapp Family Lodge, which has the Trapp Lager Brewery as part of it. Over the time we were there, I had one of each type they make. They were okay, the Dunkel was definitely my favorite.

http://www.vermontbrewers.com/ is an excellent resource too and has a map of like 30+ breweries in vermont. If you think you’ll hit more than 4 breweries in vermont, you should really do the passport program that’s on the site. I wish I had found out about it at the start of my trip rather than the last day.

Restaurants

  • Crop Bistro & Brewery – this will get you a brewery AND a farm to table restaurant. Food and beer were pretty good. It’s fairly low key, and the bar in the dining room is gorgeous. They are known for their fried pickles and, having eaten them, its for good reason.
  • Michael’s on the Hill – farm to table and chef owned. This was our “let’s have a really nice dinner because we have no kids” and it totally delivered. I did the “Gold Menu” and Sarah did the “Platinum Menu” and everything we ate was awesome. My dessert of “House Preserved Strawberry Milk Shake with Chocolate Ganache Donuts” was unbelievable.

If you had to pick only one, and you don’t mind the higher cost, I’d go to Michael’s On The Hill. If we had gone there our first free night, we would have gone back the second night. We’ll definitely be back if we ever make it to the area.

Chicago, Entertainment, photos

It’s a jelly!

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I took the kids to the Shedd Aquarium on Friday. The Jellies exhibit is still set up and this is set up for photography. All the jellyfish are set up in colored tanks to offset their color and lit well enough that you can easily get some spectacular shots.

You also get a bonus seahorse in there that wasn’t part of the Jellies exhibit, but I really liked the shot and wanted to share it.

If you don’t have flash, you can go to flickr

Entertainment, photos

Fireworks 2012

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I wanted to experiment with capturing fireworks because you don’t often get a chance to do it and its a difficult subject. I took about 200 shots and got these 19, of which I think 15 are worthwhile and 4 I kept for whimsey or color. I’m not sure when I’ll do this again, but I learned what works and what doesn’t work for future reference.

For those who can’t see flash, here’s the set on flickr.

Books, Chicago, Entertainment, Geek

Dinah makes the media

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Today Dinah and I went to C2E2 for about 5 hours.  We had a great time, and what made it better was Dinah being in costume. Lots of people wanted to take their picture with her and she loved it.

For a good idea of what the day was like (and to see Dinah at the 7:22 mark) check out http://www.chicago3media.com/events/kevin-grace-at-chicago-comic-entertainment-expo-c2e2-2012 (the video is non-embeddable, deal with it.)

(I’ll update this post later with some images, just too wiped out right now.)

[Update 4/16: As promised, images!
]

Entertainment, Games, Geek

Your life has ended in the Wasteland

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Back when I lived in Kohler, WI, my buddy Joe Cline and I played hours upon hours of RPGs on our C=64/C=128.  One of the favorite games we played was Wasteland. This caused us 32 points of geekery and exploded our minds like a blood sausage.

Many of the original Wasteland guys worked on the Fallout series, the “spiritual successor” to Wasteland.  However, its always been a dream of fans and the designers to do a direct sequel. Thanks to the stuff that’s popped up on the modern internet, specifically Kickstarter, they are raising funds to do just that.

For just $15 in backing, based on current funding, you’ll get a copy of the game on Linux, Mac, and/or Windows.  The more they raise, the better they can make the game.  I’m excited enough about the game that I’m writing a blog post.  DO IT!

Entertainment, Photo of the Day

Photo 297: San Francisco at night (cheat day)

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Taken from Alcatraz Island

So, today is a cheat day. Sarah and I spent 3/4 of the day flying back from San Francisco, and the last quarter of the day with the kids and preparing for work and I didn’t have photograph time. So I cheated on my self-imposed rules. But you get a bonus San Francisco shot.