I'll admit it, and I'm damn proud too. At the beginning of the year, I had resolved to lose 20 pounds throughout the course of2008; task accomplished. I figured that I'd rather lose the weight slowly and focus on lifestyle changes instead of sprinting into weight loss with a crazy diet and tons of exercise, and it's really paid off. I can still drink plenty of beer and consume copious amounts of cheese, but I'm much more active throughout the day and eat much healthier in general. I feel great and look forward to exercising. I even ran my first 5K, and kicked some ass. I ran at a pace of 6:46 per mile and came in 40th overall; WAY better than I had expected.

 

It's not all rainbows and butterflies though as last week in September was filled with temptation. I made it back to Wisconsin for 10 days, which included sleeping in 7 different places, attending 2 weddings (both open bars), visiting 3 breweries, touring 1 creamery, making an ass of myself at a bachelor party, plus many other events filled with vast amounts of free food (don't worry mom and dad, I'll get some pictures up for you). I'd have to say that, without a doubt, I consumed the highest concentration of alcohol ever in my life in this 10 day period; which is saying a lot considering some of the epic spring breaks I've been on. Overall, this visit reaffirmed that Wisconsin beer and cheese, by far, outclass California products. Especially cheese.

 

The one creamery I made it to was Roth Kase in Monroe, WI (the cheese capital) (http://www.rothkase.com/), which is one of the larger creameries in Wisconsin, but still delicious. I toted a few pounds of cheese across the state and then the country just to share some great wisonsin cheese with my california friends. The breweries I visited were New Glarus Brewery in the town of New Glarus (http://www.newglarusbrewing.com/), Minhas Craft Brewery in the town of Monroe (http://www.minhasbrewery.com/) and Riverside Brewery and Restaurant in West Bend (http://www.riversidebreweryandrestaurant.com/). I will always have a love affair with New Glarus as they continue to produce excellent brews. They even have a hoppy beer that competes with the vast array of pale ales on the West Coast. Although I have to say that the most exciting New Glarus beer was Berlinger Weiss, made with white wine grapes - http://www.beeratjoes.com/?p=111. Minhas was new to me, but makes some fun beers including a full-flavor Billy Bock with just a hint of sweetness. Riverside was a small micro-brewery in West Bent, and their seasonal Oktoberfest kept me in good spirits all night.

 

But the good times couldn't last forever. After getting back to San Francisco, Aliza and I had two days to pack up and clean out our apartment. We stored half of our stuff at a friend's place north of the Golden Gate bridge and the other half at my sister's in North Beach. Four days later, we had to rent a moving truck, pack everything up again and move it all down to Santa Barbara! Our new place in nice and we live with some cool people, but it's the weather and landscape that make living in Santa Barbara amazing! There are some incredible ocean views with the giant Channel Islands looming 20 miles off the coast, and of course the Santa Ynez Mountains practically knocking on our back door.

 

I'll go into deeper detail about Santa Barbara a bit later though. Something for you to look forward to.