Seafood Festival excitement

This past weekend I attended the Hampton Beach Seafood Festival for the first time ever. The plan was to attend it with my girlfriend Megan but Friday night I no longer had a girlfriend.

Friday night started off a bit worrisome. I had made reservations to have dinner at The Carriage House in Rye New Hampshire, a small but very nice restaurant on Rye Beach. The plan was for Megan to get home around 5:20 and leave for dinner by 5:45. When 5:35 came around and Megan wasn’t home I got worried. She finally showed up at 5:40 and we left at 5:55. 10 minutes of driving and we get stuck in traffic. It took us 45 minutes to get from the entrance to Rt 101 to exit 1 on Rt 101. I am lucky I wasn’t driving with my windows down because those other drivers probably wouldn’t have liked what I was saying about them or the names I was calling them. After that it was smooth sailing.

Dinner was amazing, mostly because of the service by Brian Murphy who works at The Carriage House. The food was delicious. Megan had Fettuccini Carbonara and I had Chicken Picatta, both of which were cooked perfectly. Megan and I both had a glass of wine which went very well with our entrees. Brian brought us out three types of sorbet and fresh fruit. The Sorbet is made right there at The Carriage House. The service and the food was amazing, as well as the location. The houses in the area are what we picture in our dreams.

After dinner, Megan and I went to walk along Hampton Beach. Megan and I talked for a little while and then made our way to the Hampton Beach Seashell Stage. We walked behind the stage and onto the beach. That is where I asked Megan to marry me.

We had help from a very sneaky photographer, Leon, to make sure that we got pictures of the moment which was one of Megan’s requirements for a proposal. The pictures were great.

We then went back to the Bourbeau’s house and had a family party. We surprised Megan with this party because we had told her a small lie beforehand. A couple of months ago Megan’s family had invited my parents to come to Hampton Beach Seafood Festival. A month ago we told Megan that my parents were not going to be able to come up. This was to keep her from thinking that I would propose, mainly because she is a little snoop. She loves surprises but also loves to ruin them. When we arrived at the Bourbeau’s house for the party, Megan’s first words were, “What are your parents doing here?!” followed by, “Is that Giggam!?” That was another surprise. Megan’s parents flew Megan’s grandparents up from Florida. At the party were Megan’s father’s parents, Megan’s mother’s parents, Megan’s mother’s cousin and husband, Megan’s sister, brother-in-law and nephew, some neighbors, and my parents. It was a great night and a great start to the weekend which included great food, presents, and Megan reminding me that she loves her ring.

I no longer have a girlfriend but I am very happy about that. 

Thank you to everyone who was a part of our engagement and everyone who was there for us leading up to it. 

Timberman Triathlon

With this title I am assuming that my cousin Danny will read this.



In the past few weeks I have been doing some thinking about the overall concept of going to the gym. Why would I want to go to the gym? I don't enjoy pushing heavy objects into the air. I do not like running on a treadmill or an elliptacle machine. What if a heavy object landed on me after I just worked out? I should be saving my strength for moments like that. So, again, why would I want to go to the gym? My job does not require it and I enjoy not being in motion. I need some sort of reason to work out. Maybe a prize of some sort.

That is why I am going to sign up for the 2014 Timberman Sprint Triathlon. This will give me a reason to get in shape and train. The sprint triathlon is a 0.3 mile swim, 15 mile bike ride, and a 3 mile run. This all happens in Gilford, NH at Lake Winnipesaukee. I will have just over one year to train for this event.

Here is a bit of my background in endurance competitions

• In 2008 I started running to get in shape
• October 3, 2008 I ran my first road race which was a 10K in Bristol, NH
• In November 2008 I ran a 15K in Bedford NH
• In December 2008 I ran a half marathon (13.1 miles) in Roxbury, CT
• From January 2009- June 2009 I ran multiple 5Ks including the C.A.R.S series, Freeze your buns run, and Will Run For Beer series.
• In July 2009 I competed in the New London Hospital Sprint Triathlon in New London, NH
• From August 2009-December 2009 I ran Cross Country for New England College. 
• May 2010 I competed in the Flying Pig Marathon (26.2 miles) in Cincinnati, Ohio
• August 2010-December 2010 I ran Cross Country for New England College
• Spring 2012 I trained all-star runner Megan Bourbeau for the C.A.R.S series

Me Competing in the New London Hospital Triathlon

I hope that with my background in running I will not only finish the Timberman Sprint Triathlon, but also crush my friends Dan and Ryan Donegan who will also be competing. 

To learn more about the Timberman Triathlon visit

http://www.ironman.com/triathlon/events/non-ironman/timberman-triathlon.aspx#axzz2YTSRvVwT

Jimmy's Graduation

Last Thursday my brother Jimmy graduated from high school. It was interesting to see since this was my first graduation as a college graduate. I was watching my brother and his peers receive their diplomas and I had a thought. The decision to go to college must be completely different than it was six years ago when I graduated from high school. The media in general must scare these students. Is it true that a college degree is worthless in this economy? Will I be able to get a job right out of college? Will I have huge student loans and no income? Sadly, graduates are turning away from going to college. Why go to college if it is worthless? Well, this depends on your definition of worthless. The problem now a days is that college will not get you a job, but that is not what college is for. It will get you to think differently and let you experience things that you never would have if you did not go to college. This is why my cousin Danny and I created a bucket list for my brother. This bucket list is a list of 15 things that Jimmy has to get done by the time he graduates college.  

#1 Join a non-academic club. 

Jimmy loves free time. He enjoys the fact that he is able to do anything he wants with that time. He has no appointments or plans. This is why Danny and I put this on his bucket list. Jimmy will end up joining a pharmaceutical club since it is his major, but he will not join a club for fun or to learn something new. He will join pharmaceutical club because he thinks it will help him get a job. It won't though. So we made the rule that Jimmy needed to join a non-academic club. We even provided him with a list of all of the non-academic clubs at URI. The list is very long so I will name a few; Ghost Hunting Club, Quiddich, Humans vs Zombies, and Paintball club. 

#2 Order a drink from 10 different countries. 

Having known Jimmy since he was born, I know that if it were possible, he would drink Orange Jug for the rest of his life. (Orange Jug is a jug that is colored orange. Legend has it that our mother only puts water in the jug and it magically changes to a different flavor like lemonade, fruit punch, or ice tea.) This is why we included this task. Jimmy will hopefully get this done by the end of his freshmen year. He could be a cheater and drink Earl Grey Tea or order an espresso, but I hope he tries something new. 

#3 Try 10 new meals

This is going to be tough. As much as we make fun of her for cooking chicken every night, my mother has provided my family with a different meal every night. Jimmy will most likely have to try different cultural cuisines to achieve a passing grade on this assignment. 

#4 Go on alternative Spring Break. 

I never went on one but wish I had. Alternative Spring Breaks are volunteer projects such as building houses or cleaning up a community. most schools will send students to areas such as South America, Africa, or impoverished towns in the USA.

#5 Go on the Cliff Walk in Newport, RI. 

Being so close to Newport, it would be a shame if Jimmy did not see the huge mansions and try to impress women by telling them that his family owned one. 

#6 Get coffee with a non-English speaking person.

The most interesting people are the ones who you have never talked to. Most people are afraid to talk to people who they cannot understand. this is why we provided Jimmy with a list of the phrase "Hello, my name is Jimmy. Would you like to get coffee with me?" in different languages.

#7 See Waterfire

This is a show that the Providence, RI theater district puts on after sundown. I am not 100% sure what it is but the pictures looked interesting and URI has a shuttle going to see it the first week of classes.

#8 Go on a school sponsored trip.

Many students do not take full advantage of this. Most schools provide day or overnight trips for little or no cost to the student. Some events could be a Celtics game, or visiting New York City for a couple of days. 

#9 Read one book for pleasure per semester. 

With all of the reading required for classes, students start to hate reading. This is why Jimmy is required to read one book for pleasure. It will prevent him from going insane between classes. It will also allow him to read some books that I know he did not read in high school such as the Great Gatsby or Catcher in the Rye. He will get to read these books without the time constraint. 

#10 "Boston in a Day"

Boston in a Day is a list of sights and activities that Jimmy must complete in 1 day. Some of these events are free and some are cheap. Eating a slice of Pizza at Regina's Pizzeria is going to be his favorite. With access to the T station in Providence, this should not be a problem. 

#11 See a performer you have never heard of.

Most schools put on shows for the students that are free. Most of the time these are unknown comedians or bands that are cheap for the school to hire. There is also the option of going to a local coffee shop and seeing a performer. 

#12 Perform on stage.

This is any form of performing, the only rule is that he needs to be sober. It will make the experience even more enjoyable and memorable. Karaoke counts.

#13 Visit a local Island

This includes Long Island, Block Island, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket. The best part about this is that Jimmy has the option to take a Ferry to these destinations. It is cheap and a fun way to explore a new area.

#14 Sit with a new person at 1 meal a week. 

This will allow Jimmy to meet new people. In college, non of my friends ever wanted to wake up early to go to breakfast so I went by myself. I got to meet some interesting people that I never would have talked to because I was too busy with homework or spending time with my friends. 

#15 Let this be the only 15 you gain

Yes the "Freshmen 15" is real. Yes, Jimmy is not allowed to gain the "Freshmen 15"

Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price

I recently watched a documentary on the business practices of Walmart titled, "Walmart:The High Cost of Low Price." After watching this, I most likely will not shop there again. I recommend this documentary to anyone who enjoys, well, documentaries and hates the economy right now.

The documentary starts off talking about what happens when a Walmart enters a community. What occurs is the same thing that happens anywhere when a new chain store or restaurant comes into a city or town. People flock to that one area and they do great business while the other businesses revenue drops. Most of the time, however, people get tired of the new chain and business goes back to normal at these smaller places. That is not the case with Walmart. Walmart continues to do business. Walmart comes into a community with promises of new jobs and bringing in more money to the town. For the first month, maybe a year, this is true. That is until the other smaller businesses finally lose all hope and shut down. Family businesses that have been around nearly forever are forced to close because of Walmart. Since I am taking a finance course in my Masters Program, I know that this is just business. The better business comes out on top. The problem here is that there are two losers, the owner/ workers of that small business and us, the consumer. When these small businesses go out of business, we are losing something valuable. Walmart employees are not trained on the items that they are selling. If you ask anyone a question at Walmart, they read the same tag that you just read or go in the back and look up the item online. If you go to a garage and ask a question about a part or product, they will give you an real answer because they have actually used the item. You lose the knowledge of the product when you switch to Walmart. You also lose the quality. Walmart is known for how cheap they can buy items for so they can keep their prices low. It does not matter if the product works or not because they get get thousands of the same item and do not care if a few work or not. Small businesses cannot afford to sell bad products. When you buy from a small business, you are buying quality because the small business cannot afford to sell bad products (there are exceptions to this but those companies do not last long). Walmart's, and other chains, have a Customer Service area for customers to return items. This should be the first red flag. If there is an entire area devoted to returning items, that means that the company knows they are giving you crap. They are prepared for the customer to return items, they expect it. They know that their employees either sold you a defective item or an item that you really did not need. They do not care because they make it easy for you to return the item to ensure that you keep coming back. By shopping at Walmart you lose quality products and service. You cannot blame the hourly employees for their lack of knowledge though. Most of these employees have very little training. Former employees stated that they watch training videos discussing customer service and how the store operates. The guy who helps you in the electronics area was probably working in the household items area the day before. He has no idea what he is talking about. If you ask him for a recommendation, he will most likely tell you that Apple products are better and that Sony has the best televisions. This will be based on the fact that everyone likes the IPad or IPhone and the Sony television looks the brightest to him.

The documentary continues with the employees. Walmart Hourly employees make a grand total of about $13,000 a year. That is below the poverty line. This works to Walmart's advantage. Not only do they pay these employees little to nothing, but most of these employees spend their money at Walmart. These employees cannot afford to shop anywhere else. Walmart Hourly employees also work about 60 hours a week. This is because all hourly workers work overtime. They do not get paid overtime though. Most of the managers tell the hourly employees that there is no overtime money so they cannot pay them overtime but need people to work late because of the amount of work left to do that day. This is illegal. you need to get paid for every hour you work. So how come nobody says anything about this? The employees are scared. Since most of these employees are below the poverty line, they need this job. Walmart managers are constantly hiring to scare the employees into thinking that they will get fired if they do not work unpaid overtime hours. At $13,000 a year, these employees are living paycheck to paycheck. They cannot afford to be fired. Nor can they afford an attorney if they decide to sue Walmart for firing them. They lose either way. 

The other issue with Walmart and its employees is the benefits. Walmart has a great insurance plan for its employees. Everyone gets the same benefits at the same cost. That is great except the hourly employees cannot afford it. One hourly employee stated that she was getting $75 taken out of every paycheck for health insurance for her children. That leaves her with less than $10,000 for the year. This employee stated that employees have to decide if they want healthcare or food. Another former employee said, "There’s no where around that there’s a company that makes this much money and still turns around and makes their associates go to the state for aid.” The documentary then goes on to show how much money employees get from state aid. One example is that in Massachusetts 4,172 Walmart workers and dependents are on state healthcare.

Walmart also costs the state money in other ways. Walmart is given subsidies to build their stores in certain areas. Walmart has been given over $1 Billion to build their stores. They create bidding wars between towns so they can get more money to build these stores. Towns are paying a billion dollar corporation to build stores in the towns. Meanwhile, these small businesses are given no money to keep their store running and are forced to sell their business. The problem does not stop there for the store owner. The price of all businesses drops significantly once a Walmart comes into town. Not only does the company lose value, but so do the buildings. These store owners are left with nothing. Most times there is not sale of a business or the store itself. The business shuts down and the building is left vacant. You would think that Walmart could not get any worse. It does. Since Walmart creates these bidding wars between towns, sometimes they get a better offer late in the game. There have been times where a Walmart has been completely built, and then another town offers more money. Walmart then says here is your money back, we are moving. These Walmarts stay in the area though. They will move a couple of miles down the road. An example is Cathedral City Missouri that gave Walmart $1.8 Million to build a store in their town. Walmart then backed out last minute and moved their store 2.2 miles to the city line into a town that offered them more money. Now this town is left with a huge, empty store that cannot be used for anything else. Now the town has to decide if they want to have a vacant, half finished Walmart standing there or use the money that it paid Walmart to build, to now knock it down. According to "Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices", there are 26,699,678 square feet of vacant Walmart stores (2004). 

There is an entire section that talks about overseas business and how Walmart treats their factory workers. I will not get into this topic because we all know how these workers are treated. I will provide a little insight as to how these workers are treated. Walmart factory workers are given an option on where to live. They can live in the factory dorms or live off site. All workers pay a "dorm fee" but if you live off site you do not have to pay for utilities. If you live in the dorms you have to pay for every item you use and how much you use. Everything has a meter. Most workers work a 12 hour shift but get paid for 8. This would be at minimum wage but since most Asian countries do not have minimum wage, Walmart pays them as little as they can, and Walmart can go pretty low. Workers are then threatened into lying to health inspectors. 

Walmart is also known for how secure their store is. In each store there is about 200 cameras and four security personnel. Their parking lots are not safe at all. 80% of all crimes at Walmart occur in the parking lot. That means that you are more likely to be robbed than Walmart. As soon as you purchase an item at Walmart, Walmart has no care for you. Walmart parking lots have been the place of murder, child and adult abduction, rape, assault, molestation, mugging, and theft. Walmart was brought to trial and it was discovered that Walmart had done a study as to how much crime would drop if they had security patrol the parking lots. I was discovered that at that particular Walmart, the crime rate would drop to 0. Walmart tried to hide this information so they would not need to pay for extra security.
Walmart has also, in the past, talked about how caring their employees are by advertising their work with charities. The Walton family, Sam Walton is the founder of Walmart and Sam's club, has donated less than 1% of their billion dollar fortune. Sam Walton's wife and 3 children each have an estimated $18 Billion. Walmart has a fund for Walmart employees who need assistance. Employees are able to donate directly out of their paycheck. These employees raised over $5 Million for this fund. The Walton family, as a whole, donated $6,000. To put that into perspective, if the Walton family donated 1% of their fortune to this fund, it would cost them $180 Million. 1/10th of a percent would be $18 Million. 1/100th of a percent would be $1.8 Million. Bill Gates has donated over 58% of his fortune to charities. 

So, I will not longer be shopping at Walmart. The way that they treat their employees and the communities that they are in is enough for me to spend the extra money to shop elsewhere. I encourage you to watch this documentary and make your own opinion on the topic.

Moving Day

This past Sunday I moved into my new condo with my girlfriend Megan. It was a long process to get everything all set but we finally got through it. I had no idea how much goes into getting a new place, whether it be apartment, condo, or a home.

First of all, I do not own a lot of stuff. My sophomore year of college I moved myself into my dorm room at New England College, and my friend James into his dorm room at Plymouth State University. We packed all of our belongings into my Volkswagen Jetta and made the trip up to New Hampshire. I will repeat what I just said. Two guys over 6 feet tall moving into college fit all of their belongings into a Volkswagen Jetta. I figured that if 20 clowns can fit into a Volkwagen Beetle then this should be a walk in the park. It was not. There was about an inch between my chest and the steering wheel once we got on the road. Packing a refrigerator, TV, two sets of skis, clothes and food took up a lot of room in the car. Needless to say, I still only have enough stuff to barely pack a small compact car.

Megan, on the other hand, has a ton of stuff. In her defense she is moving out of her childhood home. Megan was nervous about getting everything done for weeks before, while I did what I naturally do which is sit back and relax until the night before and then freak out. It worked like a charm. I got to enjoy my days off and did little to no parking until Thursday night. When Thursday night came along, I got down to business. When I say that I got down to business I am really just saying that I opened a box that I never unpacked and threw the items out that I did not want. Then, I resealed the box and was all set.

Friday night we set out to our new condo with cleaning supplies and all of our fragile items. Megan, her mom and her sister were in charge of cleaning. Since my cleaning skills are sub-par, my job was to rearrange the closet. Our closet is a huge walk-in that has shelves that can be rearranged to our liking. The previous owner had more shoes that my entire family so I had to take the shelves down so the poles could be installed to hang our clothes. This job should have taken me hours to do but I had my trusty side kick Ben to help me. Ben is Megan's Sister's child that is almost 2 1/2. He is a wiz with a plastic tool set and can drill a carpeted staircase like you wouldn't believe. It was his first time rearranging a closet as well so the two rookies were at it. My job was to put the shelves on the wall and Ben's job was to ask "What's this?" I gave the best answers that I could to Ben. As a side note to Melissa and Nate, most of the information I gave your child was made up on the spot. If he tells you that he knows the names of items and their use, most of it is incorrect.

Saturday then came along and my parents and brother Jimmy came up from CT. I went with Megan's mother to the apartment to bring in the rest of the kitchen items. My parents, Jimmy, and Uncle Billy met us at the apartment. We brought in a few items, including my Bruins Foam Head! After this we went to dinner at Margaritas. We then left, met up with Megan who was working at a wedding, and did some shopping.

Sunday was the big day. My dad and I went to pick up the Uhaul and got back to the Bourbeau's house where half of our heavy items were waiting for us in the driveway. Megan's brother-in-law, Jimmy, my dad, and I were in charge of the bigger items while Megan, her mom, my mom, and Melissa were in charge of bringing items from the garage to the truck. After taking apart the couch, removing a door to get the box spring out, and many pictures being taken, we were on our way. We got to the condo around 10:50 AM. We were done unloading the Uhaul at around 11:30 AM. My friends Steve and Nate came to help so we had a grand total of 10 people unloading cars. After the Uhaul was unloaded, my dad and megan's brother-in-law brought the Uhaul back. The made it back to the condo just in time to miss all of the unpacking and for pizza to arrive. Megan's dad was also very fortunate to make it for pizza and beer but miss the unpacking as he was at a conference.

After moving everything in and eating pizza and drinking beer, we hung up some pictures and clocks (with my wonderful new screw gun that Melissa and Nate gave to us as a moving in gift). Then  Megan and I said good bye to everyone and sat in our new condo. After about 5 minutes of being shocked that we had our own place we realized that we left my computer in her mom's car, did not have cable, and did not have a dvd player. We decided to go grocery shopping and then played the card game war. After an hour and realizing that War was never going to end, we gave up.

It was a stressful couple of days but we got through it with the help of some great movers.

The past week

So, this past week has been one of good news and even better news. The good news is that at the request of my friends and my girlfriend, I have started to watch Arrested Development on Netflix. It is hilarious and may be the funniest show I have ever seen. My favorite comedy came to an end this past season. I am of course talking about The Office. I am a fan of clever humor and character reaction. With that being said, you can probably understand why Arrested Development is now my favorite comedy show. For those of you who do not know what Arrested Development is I could try to explain it, but that is not what this is about. I am not a TV show critic, nor would I expect anyone to look to me for advice on what TV show to watch. As my dad would say, "You think that anything you see is the 'funniest show ever.'" That is a very true statement. I am easily amused. I do advise anyone who has Netflix to watch Arrested Development. For anyone who does not have Netflix, you should get it. Unless you never watch television, it is a great investment. For $8 a month they offer unlimited online use. I do not think anything else is necessary. Countless TV shows, movies, and documentaries. This past week alone I watched Big Fish (My new favorite movie), I'm Still Here (Mocumentary produced by Casey Affleck about Joaquin Phoenix's life after retiring from acting to pursue a rap career), and Into the Wild (Movie starring Emile Hirsch telling the story of Christopher McCandless who goes into the Alaskan Wilderness with minimal supplies so he can try to live life alone). 3 movies in 1 week. Go back a few years, that would have cost me $15 and I would have to return them in the next few days. I can watch all of these again and again without any worry of late charges.
Also, this is not all that I watched. That was not including Arrested Development and a documentary called Hungry for Change.

Hungry for Change is very interesting because it talks about how addicting food is and how unhealthy it is. It goes into detail about how everything has sugar in it, which is what makes the food addicting. It also explains why we can eat so much candy and unhealthy food and not feel full. Back in the day, we are talking B.C.. our ancestors were hunters and gatherers. Our bodies needed fats and sugars to survive. This was when food was scarce. Our bodies wanted it. Now, 2013, our bodies still want it, however, we do not need it. Food is in abundance. Unfortunately, our food is not natural. Have you ever wondered why you can only eat, maybe two apples, but can chow down an entire package of Oreos? That is because our body wants sugars and fats. We can get sugars out of apples (Fructose) and Oreos. However, Apples have vitamins that our bodies need. Oreos do not. When we eat apples, we get that nutritional value and our cells tell our body that they go the nutrition that they need. Oreos have no nutritional value, except 4% our daily value of iron per cookie. Our body wants fats and sugars so it will tell our brain to keep eating and our cells are looking for vitamins that they are not getting so they are not telling our brain that they are full. Thus, we can eat Oreo after Oreo and then complain when we get fat. This goes for all types of cookies, candies, and most snacks that we have in our cabinets. Fast food does this also. How many burgers can you eat when you cook them on a grill? Probably 2 and feel satisfied. How many McDonald's burgers can you eat in one sitting? If you did not know how bad they were for you and did not consciously stop, probably 4-5. This happens because the meat you get is not good grade meat so it has less vitamins and nutritional value. Mix that with iceberg lettuce and ketchup and mustard and you can keep eating all you want. The scary part is that we do not realize how bad it actually is for us. We need to eat to survive. This is the biggest problem. We are addicted to our food. Everyone needs to eat. Cigarettes are addicting and kill millions of people per year but people do not need to smoke. I have never smoked in my life because I never needed to start. There is no reason for me to smoke so I do not smoke. There is a reason for me to eat. I have been eating from day 1. Everyone has. People need to eat. So if you make food addicting, you affect every person in the world.

Now that I have you depressed I will present the even better news. The even better news is that I got my test results back. Now most of you have no idea what test I am talking about (although, I do not know who reads my blog so if only my family does then you all know) so I will explain a small amount. I had a test, it came back negative, I am fine. That is about all you need to know about my part of the test.

After getting that news, I went rock climbing at Evolution Rock and Fitness in Concord. It is a great place to rock climb. They have a bouldering area and rock walls that are sky high (Or at least up to the ceiling of the warehouse style building). They also offer yoga and exercise machines for members. It is $16 to climb for the day and then about $5 to rent a harness and shoes. You do need to be certified to belay someone but they will certify you right there and it takes all of 5 minutes for them to show you and certify you. It was my second time going there and I will say that my climbing skills are terrible but I improved a bit and am still working at it. After that workout I ended up at Tandy's Top Shelf (Weekly Wednesday stop for Happy Hour), went to my cousin Danny's house for some Rummykub, and tried Magic Hat Cucumber Hibiscus.

Let me explain Magic Hat Cucumber Hibiscus. About a week ago, Danny told me that it was the worst beer he had ever tasted. He told me that he actually dumped out a bottle of it. As always, I decided to give it a shot because I enjoy trying new things. With all eyes (just Danny's) upon me, I took my first sip. I actually enjoyed it. After my first sip I could picture the scene in the Movie The Other Guys when Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are talking to Steve Coogan in his office about his company being under investigation.

you can watch the clip here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKNvikVWWsk





So if you get a chance to try it, give Magic Hat Cucumber Hibiscus its shot. It may not be the best beer you ever tasted but it will be the first time you tasted a beer like that.

I figure I will make my second post an introduction as to who I am. I currently work at New England College and am working towards my Masters Degree in Higher Education Administration. I attended New England College for my undergraduate as well. While there I ran cross country, was a Resident Advisor, was a brother of the Phi Mu Delta Fraternity, and a member of the criminal justice club.

I enjoy spending time with friends and family and am always looking for a new activity to try. I enjoy spending time outdoors but prefer to be moving when I am. I enjoy hiking, golf, archery, horseshoes, basketball, and just playing catch, whether it be lacrosse, football or baseball. I also enjoy shooting at the gun range and the occasional beer or three.

I am originally from Connecticut but have relocated to New Hampshire. Maybe one day I will end up somewhere else, but for now NH is my home.

I hope that whoever reads this will provide topics for posts or debates. I always enjoy discussions because that is how I learn best. I enjoy learning, so that is what I hope to get out of this.

Hello and welcome to my blog. The whole reason this blog is being created is to keep me writing in the summer months between my Masters Degree courses. What I am hoping for is to get input from anyone who is following this blog, whether it be a one time reader or someone who will be reading my blog often. I want input on what to write. You are the readers so why not give you a chance to pick the topic. I am willing to talk about any topic, although you may not agree with my answers or opinions. I also enjoy a good debate so if you do not agree please respond, but I will ask you to articulate your reasoning. Well then, lets begin...