Day 32: We Enroll in Beer School

Monday morning weigh-in: 150.6

Today's... no, this week's mantra: no potato chips. Let's see how long that lasts!

Breakfast, while doing this week's New York Times crossword puzzle,

Beaumont fair trade coffee, Columbian roast (2 cups)
grits, and 2 soft-boiled eggs (this never gets tiring! - 1 bowl)

and then it was outside to continue the house foundation project. Oh, didn't I mention that? It's all tied-in with the living room remodel. Don't ask.

Lunch couldn't come soon enough.

water (4, 12 oz. each [not all at once!])
ham and cheddar on 12-grain bread (1)
Tops Fruit-on-the-Bottom yogurt, boysenberry (8 oz.)


[see paragraph 4]

Dinner? Hah!

[see lunch, but substitute 
    Trader Joe's Greek yogurt,
        mango (5.3 oz.)]

And then... and then we were off to Gene McCarthy's Tavern on Hamburg Street for Beer School. Beer School! A pint of your choice to start the evening, then a bowl of gazpacho, a cheese platter for two, and nine different beer tastes, carefully chosen to accompany nine classical music pieces played live by a pianist and a cellist. Just like the old days in Genie's back room. Hah!

Because the listings would go on and on, I'll jot them down quickly here, if you're at all interested:


the cheeses: 
smoked gouda, smoked cheddar, goat, pepperjack, Swiss — with a small assortment of crackers and a dallop of a neighbor's habeñero jam

the beers: 
a pint of Community Beer Works American IPA; 
while the tastes were Brooklyn Brewery Pilsner, Mendocino Brewing White Ale, Brewery Ommegang's Hennepin, Gordon-Biersch Brewery's Blonde Bock, New Glarus Brewing's Framboise and Cherry (2 different beers), Samuel Smith's Spicebush, Adirondack Brewing's IPA, and Michigan Brewing's Barley Wine.

According to my notes, my favorites were the two from New Glarus (only available, alas, in Wisconsin), and Mendocino Brewing's White Ale.


The Gazpacho was also fabulous.

It was a great night, but now, it's over.