What an odd summer vacation. The first half keeps me at home and the second sees me on the road. What I have learned so far?

-> I really really like Manhattans. And I am comforted that Lew reminded us that Four Roses yellow label is perfectly respectable. I am working down the price points and remain satisfied with this new find.
-> I don't care about the Olympics and - like 2008 in China and even a few years before that for the winter sports - am looking forward to being in another country so I don't have to put up with the weird needy Canadian thing. As usual, I root for our Commonwealth brethren before my own. Barbados!!!! We should all to be able to see nationalist events only in the companies of non-compatriots.
-> I am realizing more and more how comforted by the access I have to great beer. This is something of an odd statement but I have come to see that I am uniquely and generously well served by the three jurisdictions I find myself in or near by. Ontario, New York, Quebec. Plus Michigan to New England in a pinch. This corner of North America might rival Denmark or northern France for a maximum of access to a maximum of great beers at a minimum of price and effort. Someone ought to graph that to compare.
-> Over the next few days, I am having lucky access to great brewers in Ontario and New York. Privileged access. Which reminds me of my good fortune built - yes Mitt - on my effort but also the greater efforts of others. Sometimes what I get to do is like being a nine year old who gets to determine when he gets ice cream. Just as someone else builds the bridge, someone else brews.

So, on flows this happy summer vacation of 2012. Another cedar raised bed was built today out front. I looked at my dinner plate today and all but the tomato in the salad was my own produce. They are still green out back. This suburban plot has done well and, in years to come, will do better. And while night after night of pre-teen softball raises complaint in my mind, once I am left alone in a foldy-uppy chair with either a good book or good company watching the young working hard to figure out a game I am very much back on vacation. What is not to like?