Morrie and Mountain Lions

This past Friday, my friends Chris and Zohaib and I drove eight hours to spend the weekend at Big Bend National Park.  We had no idea just how ridiculous the trip would end up.  For starters, a raccoon attempted to derail our adventure before it even began.  Then, we got pulled over by the park police just to be told "Have a great weekend!"  And, to top it all off, Zohaib and I were almost devoured by a mountain lion.  Okay, we were not almost devoured, but we did run into a mountain lion during a hike on Saturday afternoon.  Luckily, the creature seemed disinterested in us, and we bushwhacked off the trail to get around the great beast.

Anyways, here are a few more pictures from the weekend.  Big Bend is really a gorgeous place, and I recommend giving the park a visit.

A view from halfway up the mountains

A view from Emory Peak

A view from the South Rim

The Santa Elena Canyon

The dried-up Rio Grande riverbed

Initiate Post-Doc Phase

Tomorrow, I begin the next stage of my life.  Tomorrow, I officially become a post-doc.  I am pretty excited about the new changes this stage will bring.  I have already changed my office location, and I now have a window.  You may think this is but a minor change, but words cannot explain how excited I am to have a little natural light at work.

Speaking of changes, I learned yesterday that a Texas judge ruled unconstitutional a collection of asinine beer labeling laws that were hurting small breweries.  Among the changes introduced by the ruling are the following:

* Breweries are now allowed to tell customers where to buy their beers.  Seriously?
* Breweries no longer have to (untruthfully, I might add) label beers with anything greater than 4% alcohol as ales or malt liquors.

The second change is of particular interest to me.  There are a number of decent gluten-free beers that can't be sold in Texas because they are not labeled as ales or malt liquors.   Previously, I had written how Estrella Damm Daura was one such beer.  In fact, the only gluten-free beers that I have seen sold in Texas are Green's, Redbridge, and Bard's, and frankly, all three beers are sub-par.  I expect with this latest ruling that there will be a wealth of new beers available in the state of Texas within a year, gluten-free and gluten-filled.  Needless to say, I am pretty excited about that.  Maybe New Planet will finally come to Texas as well?  I will be crossing my fingers.

Done!

I successfully defended my dissertation yesterday, and I somehow managed to finish my talk at 11:11 AM.  I would say that is quite a successful corduroy day if I say so myself.

All written up and ready to roll!

Well, I did it. I finally finished writing my dissertation, and I distributed hard copies to my committee today. If you would like to download a copy, visit the following hyperlink:

http://users.ices.utexas.edu/~evans/Dissertation/Dissertation.pdf

As the date of my defense approaches, I have been feeling all sorts of waves of emotion. I have been in school for 24 continuous years. It is pretty much all I know. That being said, most of the emotions I have been feeling are of joy. I am very excited with where my life is heading. I am happy with the direction my PhD research took, and I am excited to advance it in my future postdoctoral work. I feel privileged, and I am ever so glad not to feel burnt out at this late stage in the game.

Naturally, with the dissertation out, I am now able to catch up on fun things I have desperately been missing. Long talks with Sarah, running, cooking, wine, Arrested Development (it's coming back!). And I am pretty sure those are the things life is all about.

Deep in the Throes of Dissertating

I know. I am a bad, bad blogger. But seriously, I am dissertationally (yes, that is technically a real word) running down the last stretch. I defend the eleventh of November. Wish me luck.

Texas, how could you?

So, last week, an old roommate e-mailed me about a new gluten-free beer a Catalonian friend had made him try, and it actually wasn't half-bad. Well, when I asked him the name of the beer, I got increasingly excited. You see, Estrella Damm Daura is a special kind of beer. They actually make their beer with barley, but they use a special procedure to remove the gluten before the brewing process. The result is a product with less than 6 PPM (parts per million) gluten with the official label of "best gluten-free beer in the world".

So, naturally, I started a frantic search for the beer after my roommate e-mailed me. If they had it in Boston, they had to have the beer in Austin. Right? Austinities love beer, and they love their gluten-free diets. Well, I scrambled around, hitting up two different Whole Foods, two Specs, and a variety of other locales to no success. Finally, I decided to e-mail Daura itself to ask about the availability of Estrella in Texas. Unfortunately, this is what I got back:

Hi John,

Thanks for your interest in DAURA. Unfortunately, due to labeling laws DAURA in not available in Texas. Bummer, we know. Should that change, I will reach out and let you know ASAP.

Many thanks,

Stacie

In conclusion, Texas just became a lot more lame. Fortunately for me, I will be hitting up Boulder, Colorado soon where I know they have Daura. And it will be a joyous day. A joyous day indeed.

Update: Daura is available in Virginia as well! I now have new inspiration to visit my fiancée in Williamsburg!

Second Update: Apparently, the specific law prohibiting the sale of Daura in the state of Texas is the following: any beer with more than 4% alcohol per weight (about 5.1% alcohol per volume) must be labeled as an ale, not as a beer. This is one of the more severely stupid laws I have heard of. Apparently, there has been some talk in the legislature regarding overturning this law, but no luck yet. For more on this, check out this blog entry.

Running is a contact sport.

I really need to buy a headlamp for when I run at night. Sheesh.