Ryan Murphy

I watched the whole Democratic National Convention on Thursday and I thought it was good. I didn't feel blown away by Barack's speech but it was damn good. For me, the main speakers leading up to him did a great job and he did about the same. John Kerry I liked, Biden was decent and Al Gore did a great job.

So McCain picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for VP. She's younger than Obama with not a whole lot of experience. Can she lead the country if he happens to expire? Who even knows. I guess they can try to steal all the pro-gun Hillary supporters now. I'm very anxious to see the VP debate and I think Gramps McCain will get owned by Obama. I hope Barack can say just the right things and get him to lose his temper on national television. It'd be nice for people to see the real angry grandpa.

Well, I think Hillary did what she needed to do to get her supporters behind Barack Obama. I'm hoping that the bitterness is wearing off and we can get most of those votes for Obama. She sounded sincere and genuine and it was pretty much what I had expected of her. Kudos to you, Hillary.

For me, either of these 2 would make a great president. I think Barack would've done the same for her if the roles were reversed. Now I'm waiting to hear Biden speak. I think he'll be good but I can't say that for sure without hearing him talk now that he's the VP nominee.

I'm glad that Barack Obama has finally picked his VP but I have mixed feelings about Joe Biden. I guess the main thing being talked about right now is his support of the RIAA. The RIAA sues children and the homeless. I guess I'll see how things go in the next few weeks. I plan on watching the Democratic National Convention. PBS has 3 hours of coverage in HD, compared with only 1 hour each for the main networks. I'm hoping to fast forward through commercials and take in as much as I can. Several Air America personalities will be there so it'll be nice to see some of them instead of just hearing them.

I forgot all about our trip on the Betty Lou cruise boat arranged by Carla's work peeps. It was a nice relaxing trip around lake Monona in Madison. Drinks were not so cheap but it was a good time and someone got to sound the air horn. I should've taken a longer video with my Flip Mino, but I didn't want to be 'that guy' :)

One of 2 deer roaming around our neighborhood lately. We think they're sleeping in someone's backyard since they're always around now. They're not scared of people either. I got about 6ft away from him and I'm sure he would've eaten out of my hand if I'd had any food to give him. I headed back to the house and grabbed the camera.

House guests will be arriving soon so we've been getting the house ready for them and baby Murphy. Lots to do and this week it's crunch time. New lamps, bedding, toilet and ceiling fan for the downstairs guest room just went in. There's some yard work yet to do and more stuff inside. Most of the baby gifts we already have are put together and waiting to be used. By the way, learning to use Craigslist is a good thing. I'm finally selling stuff and donating the rest to Goodwill.

So on Friday before the Great Taste, I got to try some of Bell's special beers at Maduro in downtown Madison. Let me just say that Batch 6000 was one of the best beers I've ever tasted. And at 10.5%, it had a nice kick to it. They had 17 other beers and I tried a few, but I still found myself going back to Batch 6000 :)

The midwest's largest beer tasting festival held in Madison, Wisconsin at Olin Park on the shore of Lake Monona. Had a great time and enjoyed some awesome beers. Maybe a few too many Bourbon barrel aged varieties from the Ale tent but that's okay.


Great Taste of the Midwest from Ryan Murphy on Vimeo.

Trying to start updating again with the baby coming. We're having a girl!!