Tonight I'm looking forward to ...

Watching Top Chef, where the final 4 cheftestants have been fairly obvious for several weeks. I don't believe there's a weak link among them, so I expect tonight's loser will fall because of some type of mistake, rather than by simply being outclassed.

For reasons I can't articulate, I'm rooting for Jennifer Carroll. Toward the end of the regular season, she seemed to clearly hit a wall and begin to wilt under the pressure. While that's a bad sign, I think it makes the break and change in locale especially valuable for her.

So if Jennifer stays, who goes? I think that it's one of the 2 Voltaggio brothers. My take is that Michael is the more talented, but also the more adventurous, of the two. I think at this point in the competition, the day-to-day variance is more important than the chef-specific talent, so I'm predicting that Michael V. takes a risk that doesn't pan(!) out. (I think Chris at Procrastiblog has it wrong, specifically undervaluing the time off for Jennifer.)

I'm looking forward to drinking something new tonight, and I have several choices:


Lagunitas Brown Shugga', which is apparently a new version of their barleywine.

Another Barleywine - Avery Hog Heaven

Daily Cutter Pale Ale, which is fairly new and apparently battling with 3 Floyd's Alpha King for Pale Ale supremacy in the greater Chicago area.

Lagunitas Lucky 13. Lagunitas doesn't make the best beers in the craft world, but it's really hard to beat the quality/value combo they offer.

The Brown Shugga is in 12 oz. bottles, while the remaining beers are in 22 oz. bottles. I think the Hog Heaven is too strong to drink a bomber on a weeknight, so I'll probably go with the Brown Shugga or the Daisy Cutter.

[I'm just going to pretend that there's nothing unusual about updating a blog I haven't touched in about 8 months. I'd like to write some things about financial literacy, but I'll believe it when I see it.]