The main focus of this grand website update is the photo album added here.

Our mothers visited us for Thanksgiving to escape the cold weather emanating from the midwest frozen tundra. The highlights of that trip were an excellent meal cooked by the Buell side of the family, a trip to the Ginger Man pub in Uptown, and several trips to the dog park. The Ginger Man pub is an elegant bar built into an old home similar to other Uptown businesses and it has an amazing atmosphere with a good selection of beer and the only cask conditioned ale I've found in Dallas. This trip inspired me to stake out their new location in the Shops at Legacy in Plano for my birthday celebration in January (more on that later).

I had the opportunity to take 3 weeks off between jobs in December so Mackenzie and I ended up in Omaha with our family and friends. Midway through the trip we were buried by 14 inches of snowand barely made it out alive. The people in Omaha are amazing but I'm not coming back next December. In Dallas the weather is a cool 50 degrees and I can run outside!

Fortunately there was good news: The Nebraska Cornhuskers stomped on Arizona during the holiday bowl and solidified their end of season ranking. Yet again Ndomukong Suh put on a stellar performance in preparation for the NFL. The thing that impresses me most about this man is how humble he is; he's a team player and he genuinely appreciates the Nebraska fans.

Some of the pictures added in today's album comes from my 25th birthday celebration with several of Mackenzie's classmates and Dawn, the recent Council Bluffs to Oklahoma City transplant. We had dinner at Naan, a four star Korean and Sushi restaraunt in the Shops at Legacy and ended the evening at the Ginger Man pub. The dinner was probably the best meal of my life and we ended up trying nearly every obscure sashimi item on their menu. The Ginger Man depended on outdoor seating and it was a rainy evening so we didn't have an excellent experience. The highlight of the bar was my first taste of a Cask Conditioned Saint Arnold Elissa IPA. I'll spare the review for beer nerds, but cask conditioned ales are naturally carbonated by fermentation in a cask rather than having air pumped into them via a traditional tap or keg. They are very agitated on the pour so the texture is not typical of a keg poured or bottled beer.

In addition to the Saint Arnold cask conditioned IPA I've had the pleasure of tasting the following beers since my last update, with reviews pending on several of them:

• Bomber - Rogue Double IPA (steel bottle)
• Bomber - Lagunitas 2009 Correction Ale
• Bottle - Harpoon Leviathon IPA
• Bottle - Samual Adams Imperial Stout
• Bottle - Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA
• Draft - Maredsous 8
• Draft - Bridgeport IPA
• Draft - Stone Ruination IPA
• Draft - Harpoon Leviathon IPA
• Draft - Saint Arnold Winter Stout
• Draft - Saint Arnold Divine Reserve #9

The final topic of this evening is running. My Five Fingers shoes have been killing my legs below the knee in a good way. I'm able to comfortably run 10k stretches in these shoes but the blisters have been bad - its worse than breaking in a traditional pair of shoes because the callouses are not formed in the same areas. My toes went numb this evening from cold and water as well, so these are probably not recommended for all-weather running. My calf muscles have never been this worked in my life and my running form is improving by the day. When I first ran in these shoes I landed heavily on my heel but now it is a very fluid roll from heel to toe with very little impact. I've signed up for a half marathon in April and I have a tentative plan to run a Dallas marathon in December of 2010. Wish me luck!

This weekend I had a bomber each of Chimay Ale (red) and Ska Brewing Company (CO)'s Decadent Imperial IPA. The Chimay was great as expected and it was a nice break from IPA hop overload I've been experiencing lately. As far as flavorful beers go its hard to get much better than Chimay's complex flavors and malty texture. The Decadent Imperial IPA on the other hand wasn't so great. I get the idea that the brewer kept adding hops just for kicks and lost track of time based on the 10% ABV. If there were some bold flavors to support the bitterness it could have been a great beer, but alas all I could taste was alcohol near the end of the glass. Its quite a shame that the beer tasted quite good when served around 40 degrees but I have a hard time getting through 22oz of bitter imperial IPA before it warms and exposes the ethanol. On Sunday night I finished the weekend's beer tourism with a visit to a brewpub in Fort Worth called The Covey...

The Covey review in Fort Worth, TX

We stumbled upon this Restaurant and Brewery simply by driving in the area. It looks very upscale and reminded me of the Upstream based on the fixtures outside so I wasn't surprised to see the white table cloths in the restaurant and pub area. We opted to sit in the bar to watch the Cowboys (they lost) and browsed the menu of Texas exotic game offerings while drinking some great brews. Pheasant Quesadillas, anyone? I started with the Smokestack Stout seasonal and it was amazing except for one problem: It, and the 3 other beers at our table were all served without a lick of head. How does a brewery charging $5 per glass get the pour so wrong? Oh well, this was the one and only strike against the place and we really enjoyed our visit. Our server checked up on us often and was very nice and knowledgable. She touted the Buffalo, Antelope, and Kangaroo trio of wild game but Mackenzie and I resisted the nearly overwhelming temptation. Instead we had chips with salsa, cheese, and guacamole, French Onion soup, and the Southwestern Stuffed Avocado. The soup was served with bread chips and was very rich with flavor and the avocado luckily was served without any kangaroo.

The Covey was expensive compared to every other brewpub I've visited. I consider the Upstream in Omaha to be too pricey but we nearly doubled the typical tab. My growler with bottle rental totaled at $23 - that's $5.75 per pint in my own home. Entrees were all $20+ but most of them featured cute, fluffy animals that I really had no interest in eating. I just wanted the beer, man. I also didn't like how each of their beers were priced differently ($3.50 to $7 if I recall correctly). All told Mackenzie and I paid nearly $100 after tip for a split entree, appetizer, soup, salad, 3 beers, and a growler. I probably won't be spending $17 to refill the thing.

NU versus Texas

I have to keep this brief because its getting late but I'm not upset with the referees or Nebraska's performance. I think the Big 12 referees caught Texas with as many undeserved yards as they caught us and they did it in just as bad of a position. Texas' kick return on the 1 yard line was clearly fumbled and we had a solid chance at giving them a safety but their receivers are just too clutch. Come to think of it those receivers won the entire game for them and I wonder what Zac Lee would look like if he had a similar arsenal. NU has some repeat offenders for stupid penalties (looking at you Asante) and it made a difference in the game. The horse collar tackle can't be considered unexpected given this guy's history but I'm not sure about the kick out of bounds. Every place kicker will kick a ball out of bounds once in a while, this one just happened at the absolute worst possible time. No doubt the air inside Cowboys Stadium has different characteristics than Memorial Stadium. I'm upset at the pass interference calls we took but I believe they were forced because we were simply outplayed in a couple of one-on-one situations. The outstanding play of our front four made up for the pass defense by not giving McCoy a chance to think on his feet.

Nebraska and Arizona should be a great bowl game but I'm upset that I won't see NU in Dallas again. The Big 12 championship were $150 each for corner seats on the fourth deck (although the view of the television would have been great!) We have been under-ranked since our loss to Iowa state but we have regained some resolve. I'm worried about Cody Green given his poor performance in the very high pressure snaps he's taken. On one hand I want a quarterback who works as well as Alex Henerey under pressure but I need to be more forgiving of a red shirt who has only played in difficult situations. Maybe he'll get over it before next year.

Four of Six sections of the new site are complete with the career and biography sections falling behind. What else is planned, you ask?

Pictures

We have taken far too many pictures of Gilbert but aside from that there are a few of the family over Thanksgiving. Both my mother and Mackenzie's mother visited for 3 days and we had a fun weekend at the dog park, Ikea, and several restaurants in Addison and Plano.

Beer Reviews

I have reviewed 7 beers thus far and 5 more bombers are chilling in the fridge. I am admittedly a novice at the craft but improving with every drink. This is one of the more entertaining hobbies I have tackled without a doubt! Please check out the beer section of the site and feel free to send me suggestions or comments at bwoodle@gmail.com.

Book Reviews

I'm taking the site in another new direction and writing reviews for the new books I read. I recently finished Chris Jericho's A Lion's Tale and Mick Foley's Foley is Good: And the Real World is Faker than Wrestling, and I'm currently working on McMafia by Misha Glenny. I'm interested in reviewing these books to improve my own writing skills which I feel have faltered a bit since graduation. The final book I am working on is Microsoft Visual C++ Windows Applications by Example to prepare for my new career at Corepoint Health, which brings me to the next section...

Career

My career chapter at Raytheon will be complete at the end of this year. The experience is great and I plan on writing a good recap of it for the career section of this website in the coming weeks. I'll have a 3 week break in between jobs and aside from holiday travel I intend to complete my Blackjack Card Counting Android project, make improvements to the Shadow Warriors website, finish this website, and complete the aforementioned Visual C++ book.

   Dallas has been hot and dry so far this summer. The heat has been unbearable for Gilbert and as a result he has been creating chaos in our apartment. His new favorite activity is barking at the stray cats in the courtyard beyond our balcony. We have enrolled him in Doggy Day Care at Benny's Dog Resort on Thursdays and he loves it. We love how worn out he is when he gets home.

   I sacrificed my hair for the sake of running in the heat. I'm running during my lunch break 3 days a week and my hastily prepared hair usually doesn't look so great for the second half of the day. I'm pretty happy with the routine I've got going - 5 miles and 100 push ups on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I've dropped from 178 to 168 without too much of a diet. 160 is the first goal, but I think that may be a bit too easy.

   We have done a couple fun things in Texas: A picnic at Lewisville Lake with Gilbert and friends and a concert at the "World's Largest Honky Tonk" (Billy Bob's Texas). The lake was fun but the honky tonk wasn't my cup of tea. We are looking forward to Bruno next weekend!

   I have some plans for the website when I get some time. I'd like to revamp the content management system and implement tags. The goal will be to add regular smaller posts with links that are on a separate tab from the main blog posts. I'm having a hard time deciding if I want to code my own system or take the easy route and pull something like Django off the shelf. Until then, enjoy a picture of Gilbert in the freezer.

   The apartment has been comfortable but cramped. We lost about 350 square feet in the move and we are finding creative ways to store our junk. We sold our old 7-piece furniture set and replaced it with an Ikea couch and coffee table. The new place combines two walk in closets to create heaven on earth for Mackenzie and every other woman, unfortunately she has to share some of it with me.

   We aren't quite done yet - there are plans in the works to get an Ikea dining table, a filing cabinet, and shelving units to store my beer bottles. Interestingly enough we managed to bring two massive tubs of beer bottles to Dallas but we struggled to fit our kitchen gadgets and crafts. Over the next four months we will be deciding whether 750 square feet is enough for us - I'm leaning towards no.

   We spent too much time at the Mazda dealership on Monday. Let me be clear about this: I've done far too much research on the car purchasing process. I understand the dealership sales strategy, fair commission, finance and insurance options, and the four box sales strategy. I made it clear from the beginning that I would not speak about monthly payments and that I was only interested in the total cost of the car. I offered the Edmunds.com True Market Value price for the vehicle and the "poor" Edmunds.com trade-in value for Mackenzie's beetle - the beetle was in a sad state and had died on the interstate during the dealer test drive. I thought that by telling them I was not interested in traditional negotiations that they would listen. Apparently they didn't believe me. Here is what happened:

1. They ask me what it would take for me to take the car home immediately and I tell them TMV price for the new car and $3500 for the beetle (between "poor" and "average" ratings). The TMV price is $400 below sticker value and $900 above dealer invoice.
2. After 15 minutes they comes back and tell me that the beetle trade-in is too high. They say $2600, I say $3200. At this point I tell them this is my final offer.
3. They offer me $2800 trade in. I say $3200 is my final offer
4. They pretend to accept the $3200 offer but in reality they bring out a sales sheet that sales $3000. They try to tell me that I will save $200 in taxes to make up the $3200. Yeah, I will save $200 in taxes. That doesn't mean you get them.
5. The dealership sales manager steps in for the salesman and tells me that they won't make a profit on my trade-in and that if they gave everyone the deal they are giving me the dealership would be bankrupt. This guy is lying through his teeth and very condescending. Often says "Its nice to finally be talking with someone who seems really intelligent," followed by a remark to make me feel as though I don't know what I'm talking about. I tell him $3200 is the final offer and he leaves.
6. Salesperson comes back and offers window tint but no budge on price. I tell him thank you but no thanks. Mackenzie and I leave.
7. We get in the beetle and turn it on. Right as I flip the car into reverse a second sales manager taps on my window and accepts my offer.
8. We fill out the paperwork and take our car home

Total Time Elapsed: 6 hours

   In retrospect I think Mackenzie and I could have been done in 3 hours if I had just stuck to traditional negotiation and asked for $4500 trade-in and $19.5K initially. In the end we got a 2010 Mazda3 i Touring 6 CD/Bose/Moonroof for $19959, less $3200 trade-in for a 2000 New Beetle with mechanical problems. I got the prices I set before I left so I'm pretty happy.

   Every time I leave the apartment without the GPS I regret it. On Wednesday a 5 mile run turned into a 12 mile run with severe dehydration. On Tuesday I ended up 10 miles east of our apartment on an epic quest for Tiger Woods 10. We have also learned that while frontage roads are faster than the Interstate during rush hour, they usually have other problems. There is no good way to get around this city.

   Google searches indicated that the place in Dallas to watch Husker games is Cape Buffalo in Addison - which is about 2 miles from our apartment. Its not football season so we weren't expecteing much, but there were no Husker signs in sight at the place. Also of note is that they claim to be a Private Club and require you to fill out a membership application prior to entry. I guess my T-shirt and shorts were cool enough for them so we passed. Apparently this private club also has no issue letting a lady host a sex toy sales party in the back room and walk around handing out advertisements to their dining guests. We probably will not be back.

   Gilbert has had a hard time adjusting to life without Skippy. He seems to have replaced the void with me, which is problematic when I leave. He is barking more than he ever has in his life and we are at a loss for how to train him. Our neighbors will only put up with us for so long...

   He has gotten several walks daily while I've been off work but the heat has been difficult. To that end we shaved him bald this afternoon. He doesn't look nearly as cute with the short hair but he still has his personality. Hopefully the heat will be more bearable tomorrow.

   Mackenzie has been studying nearly non-stop. She took her first two exams this week and ended up with a B and a solid A, both grades a full letter above the class average. Her new friends in Dallas have been great for her and she seemingly hasn't missed me too bad in the last month. She is happy with the new vehicle and I'm trying my best to stay out of her way until she gets done with her first trimester. I think she has spent every minute not studying at the pool - she is very tan!

   I've been incredibly bored. My daily routine consists of walking Gilbert for 2 miles, running 3-4 miles, then playing Tiger Woods 10 for a couple of hours. I'm working on some starter apps on the Android SDK, but to be honest I have been more lazy over the break than I anticipated. I'm starting to get a little nervous for the new work location but I'm sure once I settle in I will be as productive as I was in Omaha.

   The below picture pretty much sums up my daily view. We've had two severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings in the last week and I've been relentlessly assaulting Matt and Ross' Google Talk accounts while they try to get work done. I've tried one new Pale Ale in Dallas but its nothing special - I'm looking forward to experiencing a few of the breweries outside of the Dallas area once we get settled.

   Aside from the above there isn't much to mention. I am trying my best to be a Rangers fan and I cheered on the Penguins in games 6 and 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. I was cheering for the Magic but it seems futile after watching them hand over game 4 with missed free throws. Thanks for reading!

   Mackenzie, Blakely, Jacob, and I hit the tarmac at 11:30 CST yesterday evening to conclude the Vegas extravaganza. Note to self: don't try to wake at 8am after staying up until 8am for 3 consecutive nights. I stumbled awkwardly towards both alarms, unable to find them while I dreamed of Blackjack and black chips. I've never been so out of commission in my life - and no foreign substances were involved. Mackenzie gave me encouragement with shouts of "To your right! To your left! Damnit Brent, turn the alarm off! Needless to say my body was not ready for work this morning.

   We arrived at the Imperial Palace early Thursday evening. The details are shaky but I'm pretty sure we dressed up a bit and walked towards the South end of the strip. The girls got kisses from some Stone Man acting like a robot and we ate at Dick's last resort. A few words about that place: Don't go there. Ever. The food was the same crap we saw at a McDonald's airport and our tab for 6 was $175 + tip - $10 per beer. I understand the gimmick of the restaurant is the service, but can you really justify the price by that alone? Our server was horrible - and she didn't spend more than 30 seconds total talking to us - but that's not my gripe. There's a gap in the pictures so I'm not sure what we did after Dick's. I have to think that we ended up at a casino bar somewhere on the South side of the strip. Later in the evening Jacob and I sat at a $10 table at Harrah's and lost lots of money until the wee hours of the morning. I was down $230 at the end of night one.

   The Harrah's properties in Vegas have gone downhill since my visit 3 years ago. 6 to 5 blackjack payouts need to be reserved for single deck tables and suckers. At the IP every single table, including 6-8 deck games, paid 6 to 5. At Harrah's over half of the tables paid 6 to 5 including the entire Party Pit. The funny thing about that property was that the 3:2 games were available in random places and there seemed to be no rhyme or reason. Most people are totally oblivious that they are playing a horrible game while the proper game is 15 feet away with an open seat. Caesar's Palace, Flamingo, Ballys, and Paris sucked too. I'll never gamble at a Harrah's table in Vegas again. Luckily its not as bad in Council Bluffs.

   Now for the good gambling: The Venetian, Bellagio, and Mirage. Great cocktail service, fun dealers, and cool players. I even found a $5 table at Bellagio on Saturday night! I went from $250 down to $200 up at these casinos and ended the trip at +$75. I had no intention of winning but it was a fun 15 hours at the tables.

   Friday afternoon was uneventful; Chippendale's dancers threw some beads at me but aside from that we just walked up and down the strip and enjoyed the weather. We ended up at a shopping mall on the north end of the strip and I grabbed some clothes from Express while we worked out the plans for the rest of the evening. We had lunch at Harrah's buffet and grabbed a cab to hit Fremont street for some cheap gambling. The Queen light show was amazing - I grabbed some pictures of it before we sat down at the $5 table with dealers in circus outfits. We met a crazy group of people and drank some Washington Apples while we watched a guy lose $2000 for a comp'd room. Fremont Street is scary late at night. We walked into that Casino among tens of thousands of fellow tourists. As we exited at 4:30 AM the only things in site were a street cleaner and a single cab, but the lights were still on.

   Saturday was the grand finale of the trip. I woke up early to have some Bloody Mary's at the Venetian's blackjack tables before everyone gathered to start the full hour walk to the Hofbräuhaus. I've got to recommend this place if you can make it. I had 1.5 liters of Dunkel with my schnitzel and potato salad while we watched a guy with a (fake) German accent play German music and blow a 12 foot horn. Once lunch was over we headed back to the strip and got dressed up - tonight was the night to hit a club. After being made fun of for thinking we might be able to get into Ghost Bar we settled on Studio 54. Its a classic, right? The drinks were expensive and the people were sleazy but the experience was great. We had a great time dancing and people watching before heading out to New York New York. I found a bar with good IPA on tap (my first in Vegas) and we headed to Americana for some late night snacks. The food and service at this place was amazing despite the late hour.

   We had a hard time getting up on Sunday and ended up taking full advantage of the complimentary hour late check out. We walked around to the last casinos that we (or I) wanted to see and took some photos. When we made it to the airport I was pumped up on Blackjack enough to buy a book: Bringing Down the House (the book 21 was based on). I'm halfway through the thing and enjoying it thoroughly. The flight was easy and we're spending today adjusting back to a normal paced life. Gilbert was totally excited to see us.

   Where do I end this post? After a trip like Vegas there isn't much left to say. I just purchased the A.S.M. manual for the P/1 first Actuarial exam. I've learned all of the material before so I'm interested in brushing up and taking the test just for kicks. Aside from that I'm starting a Software Development project on my own at home - more details on that later. Mackenzie and I are visiting Dallas in 2 weeks - I can't wait to give an update after that trip!

Click here to see all of the pictures.

Mackenzie and I planned on moving in November to begin her Chiropractic schooling. We have debated between Davenport IA, San Jose CA, Port Orange FL, and now Dallas TX for a while.

This week Mackenzie was offered a one-time scholarship award to attend Parker School of Chiropractic in Dallas TX in May rather than wait until January 2010. Needless to say we are in panic mode trying to figure out how we will make everything work.

Parker's campus is located 12 miles from Raytheon IIS in Garland TX and I'm working with my company to get a transfer. No plans are solidified yet but they are working hard for me and I appreciate it. With any luck I will complete my tasking in Omaha around the same time Mackenzie's classes start.

We are anxiously awaiting the move. Neither of us have lived outside of Omaha in our adult lives and it will be nice to start our new life together in a fresh environment!