Greetings from beautiful Las Vegas

It was an uneventful flight, which is honestly the best kind. Checked in, the booth was coing along nicely, and they didn't need or desire my input. Excellent says I, lets go hit the tables. Hmm, on second thought, lets follow-up on the 20 VM & emails you received.

Professional me wins again. Two conference calls, one build, and a couple emails later I am done. I decided to grab a late lunch then head up to the room again. Around 5ish I caught a cab to Marc Laimon's BJJ gym. I was early, and didn't bring a Gi, so just hungout and watched the Gi class (taught by Simpson Go). Even just watching I caught a couple cool techniques.

After the Gi class, Marc showed up and taught the No-Gi class. I'm not sure why that surprised me, but it did. He seemed like a nice guy, introduced himself to me, then class got started. I was a bit surprised that they don't really have a warmup (formal or otherwise). He immediately launched into techniques. These included a good arm lockup for defending the arm bar, the stacking defense, and a slip defense - this was new to me slipping the leg, and then pushing your shoulders to the floor (might get you mounted but at least not armbarred). He also covered the hitchhiker escape, which was most recently used by Rich Franklin against Travis Lutter.

After technique, he paired us up, and we rolled for roughly 8 minutes. The first guy I rolled with was a stalemate (although I dominated him positionally). The second guy tapped me with a neck crank/jaw crush when he couldn't sink the choke. It worked, and was legal, but seemed cheap (might be sour grapes on my part). The dropin price is $40 and includes a Tshirt (which was of questionable quality). Next time, I will try Extreme Couture, to see the difference.

No pictures, because I already had too much stuff to pack. Instead, here are some pics from my hike around the Pennybacker Bridge in Austin.

He was a wise man who invented beer. - Plato

As promised, a beer review. One of the things that goes well with chili, is beer. I was roaming around my local liquor store, trying to figure out what I wanted, when it hit me (figurativly of course). Beer, but not just any beer, but Good beer!

Down the beer aisle I went. I saw lots of choices, but was really in the mood for a good ale. Something that has the body and the flavor to go up against chili. In the end, I decided on the Bootlegger Brown Ale by Independance Brewing Company.

The marketing blurb on this one reads "Smooth, chocolatey, and easy-drinking... Bootlegger Brown Ale won't slow you down. Brewed with the finest two-row barley and Belgium chocolate malt, Bootlegger has a distinctive, chocolatey flavor. Bootlegger is filtered for a medium body and clean, laid-back finish."

It did have hints of chocolate, but I think it had a bit more caramel flavor. I served it well chilled, but I think it was better after it warmed a bit. It didn't form much of a head (maybe the way I poured it?), but the aromatics were still nice. All in all, I consider it a nice malty caramel goodness. Probably better on a colder day, but still a quality beer.