Christmas things

here it is 24 December, Christmas eve, and I am all finished with my shopping (I hope). last night I shared some beverages with Doug, Colleen, and Molly. Good conversations and good beer at TownHall Brewery. What more can you ask for? I had a Scaldis Noel which was sweet and flavorful. Definitely a sipping beer for a winter's night, a cold winter's night. I also had two pints of milk stout. Those were absolutely delicious and tasty with lots of depth and character. It had hints of chocolate, coffee, toffee, dried savory fruit, and hints of vanilla.

On Sunday, we had the Skrade family Christmas and it was a good time. Angie came down with vertigo and Nic took her to urgent care. they called me to come over early to take care of the ham and glaze it. I also hung around with the kids. before I went to Nic's home, I dropped off some beer for the McGilp's. In the afternoon, I took Damian over to Brent's home to shovel his sidewalks and to do some grocery shopping for him. He is invalided at home.

The dinner was delicious. We had ham, cheesy potatoes, squash (prepared with ginger, maple syrup, and olive oil), salad, cranberry sauce, and cookies. We exchanged gifts after dinner. I think everyone was very happy at their presents. angie had been wishing for a couple more place settings of Lenox Christmas bone china and she was happy to get it. I picked it up last year the day after Christmas. Gears of War 2 was Nic's gift and some art books. DeDe was given a cook book 'Soul Vegetarian', Fashion Encyclopedia, pie weights, and china. Ava asked for and received manga. She has so much manga especially some of the very specific titles like Fruits basket, Mixed Vegetables, Muyho & Roji. WOW!!!! Damian received books from the Saxon series, French Dunnies, and Fallout 3. K and I received a gift certificate to the Nicollet Island Inn from DeDe. I received the 2nd season of Rome and a Japanese demon.

On saturday, Ava and I went to the Nutcracker, Loyce Houlton's Nutcracker which quite an extravaganza. Ava had a cold and coughed quite a bit. We ate at the Rock Bottom restaurant. I had a busy day, Summit in the morning, Ava in the afternoon, and I shoveled DeDe's driveway then came home and shoveled our driveway. I was shagged. So I called K to say I was not coming to the TCGC concert at Bethel. Instead, I out on Seven Samurai and had a good time watching the remastered version. It was just beautiful. A couple of beers and snacks and I was in hog heaven.

Friday was the Solstice Party and we had a really good time. I came home early picked up some things at the store. I cleaned a bit and just got ready for the evening. It was good to see everyone. K commented on that there were around 30 people there. I guess there was. Karen gave me a cd of Bob Wills with Tommy Duncan. It is so good! My freinds brought some nice beers: Anchor Christmas 2007 and 2008, Rush River Winter warmer, Chimay Blue, Sam Adams Chocolate Bock, Flat Earth vanilla porter, and a variety of winter warmers from New England. Great beers except for the Rush River, quite forgettable.

Things Christmas

Well, here we are in the throes of another Christmas season. The lights are up on the tree outside, the cards will be mailed, parties are planned, the days are being mapped out. This is so I may be able to participate in as many events as is humanly possible. The goal is to sample drinks and food without achieving a massive weight gain. Here is the schedule until 4 January:

11 Dec. - Ava's concert with tenor sax at Anwatin.
12 Dec. - Game at Doss's home.
13 Dec. - (killer day) Go and visit Alsadhu 10 am, fencing 12-1, Bjorn's Harn game 1-6? maybe?, Mark & Sue's wedding reception 2-8, Brian Boru Band party 7 - ????. Holy Hannah that will be one full day. I doubt Katherine will accompany me as Ellen is coming into town and she has practice all morning and going to watch Adam sing at 7 pm.
14 Dec. - Visit Mike W., make pumpkin bread for the MJC party.
15 Dec. - Stop at TownHall for some milk stout and then to Brent's for a game of Harn with Bjorn.
16 Dec. - Band practice, Stub & Herbs K-9 on draft.
17 Dec. - RockBottom $5.00 growlers, $2.75 beers, Old Curmudgeon on at 6 pm.
18 Dec. - Adam's Winter Concert 7 pm.
19 Dec. - 1/2 day off, Solstice Party starts at 7 pm
20 Dec. - Work at Summit 10:30 - 12:30 pick up Ava and go to RockBottom for lunch and Nutcracker at the State. DO NOT FORGET THE TICKETS OR THE ROCKBOTTOM $10
21 Dec. - Christmas at Nic's home with Grandma Dee
22 Dec. - Making Christmas cookies
23 Dec. - Fencing or band practice
24 Dec. - Church service
25 Dec. - Christmas Day at Cindy's home, Alex More's birthday
26 Dec. - Go to the stores early for cards at Barnes & Noble, ornaments at Macy's, and fencing. Game at Alan Coleman's home.
27 Dec. - Game at Alan Coleman's home or Stout Tasting.
28 Dec. - Open house at George and Anna Atkin's home. My birthday brunch at DeDe's home.
29 Dec. - Game at Brent's
30 Dec. - Fencing, Wendy's birthday
31 Dec. - Home? New Year's Eve with Nic & Angie and bowling?
01 Jan. - Bowl games
02 Jan. -
03 Jan. - Katherine's birthday, my mother's birthday
04 Jan. - Laurel's Birthday - send card

What a line-up and there will probably be more to add to the list. I hope I make it through the holidays with slight weight gain, good blood pressure, a good liver, and piece of mind.

Thanksgiving Things

Thanksgiving. K and I started working on the T-day dinner the weekend before. I made cranberry sauce and it was lovely. I made it on Sunday. During the rest of the week I picked up various things for the dinner. We were having Nic and Angie, Damian and Ava, DeDe and Ted. I called Laurel but no answer. Wednesday I picked up the turkey at Evertt's Meat market and picked up some bread from New French Bakery. K and I made dressing that night and put the turkey in a cooler to soak up brine. I brined it with trappist beer and salt water.

Thursday morning, T-day the rest of the stuff was being prepared. We put the turkey in at 8 am and prepared the rest of the stuff. DeDe arrived on time with Ted. They had made a lovely bruchetta appretizer of melon, and tomatoes with poppy seeds. DeDe made a spinach salad that was very delicious. Nic and Angie and the kids arrived. We checked the turkey not done. I increased the temp. We had dressing and sweet potatoes with maple syrup heating in the oven. Nic made green bean cassarole and Angie made a pumpkin pie. Potatoes are done. Salad is ready and all the fixing except the bloody turkey, literally bloody on one bloody side the other side was nicely done. Go figure. So I cut the turkey on the done side and we slipped it back in to finish off cooking whilst we ate dinner. Everything was perfect. We stopped before we ate and gave thanks for our family. I got choked up. DeDe was thankful for everyone being healthy. Nic was thankful for his family. Katje was thankful to be fully accepted into the family. DeDe said "We love you." She is a sweety. What a good meal. Afterwards, we talked around the table about all sorts of things. Family and the world and the economy all were discussed. We even talked abit about religion and judaism. When DeDe left we laid around and talked some more. We ate so much food. That evening K and I made a lovely delicious apple cabbage salad for the party at Brad & Linda's home. Nic told me that Ava had said it was a delicious dinner except there were no cranberries. I had left the homemade cranberries and the two cans of jellied cranberries in the refrigerator. What a dolt!!! The homemade cranberries tasted really good. I have been eating with the dressing for two days now.

Next morning, at 5:30 I went shopping and I went to Holiday to wash my car at the Minnetonka & 100 station. I then went to Kohl's and spent. Then to Target and spent more. I checked out Best Buy but no money was spent. Barnes & Noble was checked out and I spent more there. I started to head home close to 9am and K called me. I was driving so it was hard to talk. I went home and they followed me and picked me up. We then went to Mike's home and proceeded to Litchfield Brad and Linda's home. What a beautiful day and what a feast. I didn't yhink I ate that much but I must have as I was completely and totally full. I took two naps. I finally got up sometime around 3 and went for a walk downtown and walked around some antique stores. When I went home around 4:30 - 5 pm they were ready for the journey home. We arrived home around 6 pm and I headed out to Brent's BAR game. Chris, John, Mike and Ron were there as was Brent. It was Ok but I really wanted to get out of there by 8:30.

K and I walked to the store the morning so she could get some presents for jenn her former step-daughter. Then off to fencing and what a work out. Brandon said we should try to break up the bout into increments. Jeff said I should try and not to concentrate on scoring points but relax and play. The points should come, essentially they both said similar things. It felt good to fence and work out and fencing is a good work out.

Uptown Tattoo things

Uptown Tattoo party at Surly Brewery on 15 November was really cool. Thom and I poured beer for the evening and played bagpipes a couple of times. I met lots of old friends, family, and friends of Nic and Angie. Ava was decked out like a little lady. Damian had his hair spiked. Nic and Angie were dressed to the nines. I wore my kilt with tux shirt and bowtie and katherine was dressed in a very nice dress. Bartending was very cool. I was able to see almost everyone. There were alot of beautiful tattooed women there. The food was awesome with roast pig and turkey from John and Cara. Brasa supplied the sides creamed spinach and baked mashed yams, yum, yum. The beer was Surly and people loved it and were drinking alot of it especially the Cynic, a saison formulated by Todd Haug. A good time was had by all!

Election things

Well, the election is over, sort of. I just wish that Obama had had significant coattails to bring in some more Democrats. Franken & Coleman are still locked in a recount battle. Bachmann won her seat. The district deserves someone that stupid and polarizing. Paulson won in the 3rd district against Madia. Can you believe it that old sod felon Tad Stevens was reelected? Unbelieveable! Alaskans are dumber than I thought. I sat and watched the election results drinking twenty year old Port and hoping for better results in other races. The concession speech by John McCain was very good and showed his true nature. This was a different person than what was on the campaign trail. It was a very good and heart felt speech. Obama's speech was really good and just struck a cord deep inside me. I am looking hopefully for the next four years to a new world. I stayed up an extra half hour watching a special on channel 2 about Isle Royale. I do hope I go there and get to hike.

Halloween things

Ale Saints Day at the Blue Nile on 2027 E. Franklin Ave. in Minneapolis's beautiful Seward neighborhood. Al the bar manager had put together an mazing selection of great beers (porters and stouts) for an extravaganza. At 4 Pm he opened a cask of Bell's Porter ***, 5 Pm cask of Summit Great Northern Porter with black treacle ***, 6 pm keg of Bell's Expedition Stout 2007 ***+ (this had matured so nicely and was so tasty it was a beautiful beer) and a 2008 keg ***, 7pm Surly Smoke Baltic Porter **+(not as good as at the brewery on Darkness day. The other beers on draft were Surly Darkness Russian Imperial Stout***+, Leininkugel's Big Eddy Russian Imperial Stout **, North Coast Old Rasputin Imperial Stout***, Moylan's (CA) Ryan O'Sullivan's RIS***, Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter**+, Summit Great Northern Porter**, Salopian Entire Butt English Porter**, Furthermore Three Feet Deep Smoked Stout* (too astringent, smoke not appealing), Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence Stout***+(this was so amazingly good), Surlyy Coffee Bender*(Too much coffee with my beer), Flat Earth Cygnus X-1 Rye Porter**+, Southern Tier Oatmeal Stout ***, Lion Stout(One of my all time favorites)***, Bell's Java Stout (too astringent coffee had a bad effect on this beer)*. Thom and I played some bagpipe tunes and had a good time. We were joined by Damian & Jen (preggers), and Doug.

After awhile we went over to Town Hall and had some food and you guessed it - more beer. I had a pint of stout (always good). We were joined by Katherine, Colleen, and Brent. The menu has changed and it was all very good. I had half a walleye sandwich with Brent, sweet potato fries, and deep fried green beans with spicy dipping sauce.

I worked on DeDe's yard on Saturday with DeDe, Damian, and Ava. Greg the electrician switched the boxes and updated the electrical for the house. On Sunday, Katherine and I worked all day on the yard and started to put the yard away for a long winter's nap. I visited Mike in the hospital and dropped off presents of leaves for everyone. Whew!!!!

More things Fall

It has been awhile since my last post. I am spending far too much time on watching the election polls and all the superfluous news articles related and sort of related. I want the election over with and done and Obama as president.

On a lighter note, I played bagpipes at the Darkness release at Surly and had loads of fun. Nic, my son designed the labels, t-shirt, poster for the Darkness this year.Josh Krage and I piped up and down the waiting line and at the gate. Just before the gate opened I played Darth Vader's March. We played some more tunes and then I drank just a bit too much. I need to stop that and rein in my consumption on that. The smoked Baltic porter was amazingly delicious and big. The oak-aged Bender was very delicious as well. Way too much fun for an old guy. In the evening, we had some friends over to try some of the West Coast beers. Brent, Karen, Doug, Phil, and Tina. We drank some very good ones Roots oragnic IPA Woody, Laurelwood organic IPA Green Elephant, Peak organic Pale Ale (not very good, very bland tasting), Ninkasi Double Believer Red Ale, Pelican Brewery Doryman's Dark Ale (my favorite), Fitger's Black Eye lager (not West Coast but very tasty), Lost Abbey Judgment Day (Belgian style quaddruple, cloyingly sweet, should have been laid down for at least a year), Lost Abbey ? Belgian style saison, very good tasting, delicious but big, and Surly Furious ( this beer is not nearly so hoppy in the can as it is on draft. This weekend at the Blue Nile will be Dark Ale Days featuring a host of dark beers. I will be getting a ride to and from this event. I have been lobbying my comrades as to sharing these big dark beers so we can try several of them. I hope it works. I do want to hang out with Katje after.

The garden is ready to put away for the winter. I was able to score some lavender from the grounds people, very kind of them. Now I have to protect them and bed them down well for the long winter. I will be digging up the parsley and oregano and bring it inside so we can have some fresh herbs. Lots to do yet before the snow flies. The election is six days away. I can't wait.

Things Fall

I love the Fall season. It was during this season 38 years ago I wooed Ann. I love the smell and feel of the Fall. There is always a certain time that the light is different than Summer. The smell and taste of the air is different. Pick apples, drives in the country looking at the leaves change. Getting the gardens tucked away for the winter. Preparing for winter. The smell of a fire with wood and leaves burning is one of my most visceral memories of Fall. Sunday dinners with roast beast, potatoes, veggies, cooked rolls. Racking the leaves and listening to Gopher football. Playing touch football. Bike riding the Cannon Falls trail or around the river road as it is amazingly beautiful down there.

Things Fall

Nic ran the TC marathon today. Damian and I volunteered at the food booth. My were we lucky, it rained really hard and if we had been any where else we would have been soaked and cold. Otherwise, we were cold. Volunteering was good. I was wiped out for the day though.

Ann's birthday was Friday and I thought about her quite abit. After work, I went to the Campuc Club as the guest of Phil Platt. I saw Thom, Omar, Dustin, and Cathy pouring. We listened to Doug Hoverson and had a great time. Afterwards, I went to Doss's house and gamed with Gary, George, Walter, Nick, and Greg. We played Catan. It was Ok but I would have rather played the History of the World. Ate far too much snacks and had a couple of beers. Saturday, I gave a tour at Summit. I need to work on my tour and make it a bit more coherent. We then went to James and Martha' home for a homebrew tasting party. Good beers and good conversation all around. We stayed till about 10:30 then headed home. I awoke around 6 am to prepare for the Marathon. Whew!!!

Autumn Brew Review Things

Well, another Autumn Brew Review and another year has pass into history. We adverted a near disaster as Thom did not have his bagpipe chanter. he had forgot it at pipe practice. So K brought my extra from home and we made it. Some note errors and some forgotten bits but it worked. Met up with Bob, Thom, Brent, Molly, Doug, Colleen, James, Adam, and all of my brewery friends. Afterwards, we went to Grumpy's NE and had some food and some beer. I threw out the beers I had as I just didn't like them. I made it home with the help of Bob by 9:30

Beers that I tried:
Schells - Dave Berg - Stout **, Bavarian Forest Dampfbier **, U Bier **
Barley John's - Colin & John - Oktober Fest *, Dark Knight Returns ***, Wild Brunette ***
Fitger's - Dave Hoops, Bob, Frank & Brian - Cherry Stout cask **, Cherry beer ***
Flat Earth - Jeff & Cathy - Cygnus X-1 **, Rode Haring Flanders Red Ale *, Winter Warlock ***
Great Waters - Boston Bob - Mr. Smooth Mild cask **, Pflugenpfalagen **, Saison **
Herkimer - Gustavo vale - Sky Pilot **, Vienna Country **
Lift Bridge - Farm Girl Saison **
McCann's - Chris - Middletown Braun **
MPLS Townhall Brewery - Mike Hoops, Adam & Pete - Oak Porter **, Scottis Wee Heavy ***, Chocolate Oatmeal Stout ***
Rock Bottom - Rolf - Smoked Porter cask ***, Saison **
Summit - Oatmeal Stout brett cask ***, Black Treacle GNP ***
Surly - Omar & Todd - #2 cranberry stout ***, Cynic & cranberries **, Tea bagged Furious *
Vine Park - Rabid Penguin Porter *
Avery - 15th anniversay Brett Gueze **, Avery New World Porter **
Boulevard - Bob's 47 Oktoberfest *
Butte Creek - Organic Porter **, Organic IPA **
City Brewing - Bar Harbor Real Ale *
Furthermore - 3 ft. Deep Stout ***, Knot Stock **
Left Hand - Milk Stout ***, JUJU Ginger *
Leininkugel - Big Eddy Russian Imperial Stout **
New Belgium - 1554 *
New Holland - John Haggerty - Dragon's Milk ***
Ommegang - Ommegeddon **, Hennepin **
Peak Organic - Pale Ale**, NutBrown **,
Shmaltz - ConeyIslandFreakToberFest**
Southern Tier - Unearthly Imperial IPA**, Heavy Weizen Imperial Hefe***, Cherry Saison*
Two Brothers - Domaine Du Page**
Tyranena - Chief Blackhawk Porter **
Victory Brewing - Golden Monkey Tripel **

Things North Shore

Well, Brent and I went up to the North Shore on 9 Sept. and I returned on 16 Sept. with Katherine. Brent and I had beautiful weather and a great time. Coming down the hill into Duluth on 35 is one of the best, most loveliest views in all the world. Seeing Lake Superior, I knew I had started my vacation. We stopped at Fitger's on the way up (we always stop on the way back as well), and had beers with lunch. The place we stay at is in Hovland. We stayed at Nordlof at the Sanger's cabin 4, Brent cabin 1. Our cabin was at the far end of the property on the lake with its own walk way to the lake front. It was an actual log cabin that had been retrofitted with electrical and plumbing. It had the kitchen table turned to the lake. Just a charming little cabin to stay in.

Brent and I walked during the day. He showed me around alot of the places he loves which was really cool as i am now getting to know the North Shore and Cook County even more. At night, we ate and drank. We drank lots of Fitger's beer and Macallan scotch 12 yrs. So there was lots of lively conversations. I grilled chicken and corn one night and made a chicken stir fry another night.

The sweethearts came up on Friday and we went for a walk to Magnetic Rock. Magnetic Rock is a glacial erratic (it was put there by the glacier) made up of magnitite. It stands in the middle of a pretty significant area. The area was part of the big blow down in 4 July 1999 when straight line winds toppled tens of thousands of trees. it is also the sight of two recent fires the Hamm lake fire from 2007 being the most recent. What was most interesting next to this very cool rock was that with the blow down and the fires you could see the landscape all around. Nature was coming back quickly but you could look for quite far. Great vistas! The sun was setting when we finished and we headed to the Trail Center for dinner. The Trail Center is on the Gunflint Trail about 29 miles from Grand Marais. It has great food and was voted by Esquire Magazine as one of the top ten restaurants in the country, spring 2008.

Saturday, we walked up to Lake Agnes. This was a very steep climb but again lovely vistas, and beautiful forest and lakes. We ate Karen's Green Glop/Green Goddess and it was really good. Mung beans, brown rice, vegetables, ginger, turmeric, cardamon, onions, and garlic. For dessert we had blueberry pie from the Satilite Inn. Delicious! Sunday brunch was at the Naniboujou Lodge. We arose early and what a feast. They have without doubt the best salmon. It is grilled on cedar planks and it is so bloody good. I went back and had 3 pieces. After we went to see the high falls on the Pidgeon River. I hadn't been there in 40+ years. K and I had bought a book on lichens of MN. We were looking all around at the various all around us.

Monday, our last day and we went up old Hiway 61 to the old border crossing. K and I used the book to identify more and more lichens. It was amazing to see what we could identify and what was there with lichens on lichens. We hiked part of the Grand Portage from Hiway 61 to the Beaver Dam 2.7 miles in. This was pretty nice being a fairly gentle walk and a very lovely day.

We drove back on Tuesday stopping at KKD pottery to view her very cool outhouse and check out her pottery. I bought a small bowl for flowers. It is a blue glazed raku firing. I think it if very nice.

September 6 things

Wow!! What a day 6 September was. I woke up and took a wee walk with K to Byerly's. I then drove over to Summit to give a tour. It was my first time with Amy's new dictum about how and what should be covered in a tour. It was fine. I then ran home and dressed to go to play at a wedding at St. Michael's Church Misery synod. Fun gig and a complete surprise for the groom. jane asked me to come back today to play for services 'Amazing Grace'. She also asked me about playing for their Christmas pageant. Then I jumped into the truck and sped onto Surly for Surly Fest. VIP ticket no stinking mug. I met Brett and talked with him which was fun. I also met Ellen and chatted with her in a civil and nice manner. She is 48 now. Looks fine too bad she is a real piece of work. I then headed out to pick up K and go to Nic's birthday party. We arrived as did the clouds. It was a fun little party. Nic grilled different kinds of brats and we had cole slaw, potato salad by K, babaganoush & pita, and chips. We went inside as it started to rain and get much colder. Ava hired herself out to play the piano for $4.00 an hour. I gave her $6.00 to play and she did a lovely job. Angie made the Tunnel of Fudge cake which is Nic's favorite and we had that with ice cream. K and I almost drove out to Hugo Stock at 9 pm but we were both really shagged. We came home and played scrabble for abit but I was so tired I was in bed by 10:15 and slept till 7:00.

Labor Day Things

It was a long weekend starting on Friday with going to the State Fair early to help Barb set up the MN Supreme Court Historical Society booth at 7 am. We set it and I worked till 10:30 am then went back to my truck to change into something more comfortable. I played my chanter for 45 minutes. After that I went out to see things I didn't see when I went with Nic and his family on 25 August or wouldn't do with Katherine. It was actually quite nice and liberating. No need to vacillate and hem and haw about this and that and take into consideration the other person's feeling about whether they wanted to do this or that ot eat this ot that. Ah, so very nice. Brent arrived late and right away it was beer time and whatever. Then Katherine arrived as did Karen. It was good to have had the time to myself.

Saturday, Katherine's 35th reunion in Buffalo. It was a very interesting event. I was introduced to all her old high school classmates. It was interesting to hear people to talk about what has gone on in their lives and read the class bio handout which caught people up with what everyone was doing. It truly was fun and interesting.

Sunday, a nice long bike ride down to lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles. K went back home to get ready for church and I went to work in the garden and putter around the house. I am not finding church very interesting or compelling. I know the message is always the same, however, the messenger is sometimes a problem. I met with the McGilps at Townhall and had some very good beers. Then I dashed over to Orchestra Hall to catch the TCC Gospel Chois do a small concert. It was very delightful and cool. We (Brent, Katje, and myself) went to Acadia and had some beers and share a sandwich.

Monday - Day of the March. We went to Menard's to get bricks for the pull off. The kids were to help their mother do this however, they are the laziest, good for nothings. Yet, they are paid an allowance for doing nothing but breathing. I went to Nic's house and picked him and Damian up and go to the peace march on the RNC. We parked up by Western and walked to the Capitol where we then waited for approx. 2 hours for the march to start. We met the McGilps and Eli their gradnson. When the march actually started down the street we moved at a pretty good pace. We met Nic's neighbors Pat, John and Jessie and marched with them. We were shouting " Hey Hey Ho Ho 13th Avenue Against the War!! Nic was embarassed as was damian. The march was permitted to go within about 200 ft. of the RNC Excel Center doing sort of a hairpin sort of turn around. Counter protesters were very few and the cops in riot gear were out in force. Dressed in black with shin guards, padding, helmets, tear gas launchers, Edina's armoured car, and mounted cops on bicylces and horses. It was pretty incredible. I am glad everyone was very cool. The organizers had people stationed between the cops and the marchers, that was very good. After we marched we had a ice cream by the cathedral as an ice cream truck had stopped. We then went home and it was good.

RenFest things

Pouring beer for Flat Earth at the RenFest on Sunday is always amusing. I always enjoy the RenFest. There are the costumes people wear which are crazy and outrageous. There are some very fetching women very sexy in costumes. There are cool costumes. I especially saw one of articulated leather armour this man made for himself. All the tooling and articulation handled by himself. It was a true work of art. Getting hit on by women at my age is flattering. I think anyone would be flattered. It is nice to know that women still have an attraction to me. I cannot think why as I am chubby, greying, and short. The beers we poured were Black Helicopter, Bermuda Triangle, Belgian Pale, and Angry Planet. Lots of kilts all around and bagpipes by Twin Cities Metro. The best thing however was the ratcatcher. I was talking to his understudy a young man who ahs been doing the routine for a several years. He told me the original ratcatcher came to the fest once in awhile to do some comedy for the fun of it. Phil and I saw him in his old form.He was doing everthing adlib, extemporaneously with the crowd and the crowd loved it. I loved it as I hadn't laughed that hard in awhile.

Golden Beer things

Saturday evening, we had a critical mass of people to do a wee bit of analysis on golden beers. Now these golden beers could be any style as long as they were golden in colour. We tasted Oh, Brother! tripel from Two Bros.; Gouden Carolus, Cuvee de Keiser 2008; Granite City Wit and hefeweizen; Andrew & Rick's Tripel; Biere Blanche de Celtique from Britainny; Bermuda Triangle from Flat Earth; The two standout beers of the evening were Gouden Carolus and Blanche de Celtique. the judges were Bob & Michele McKenzie, Mark & Shona (bob's sister), Andrew, Damian, Katje, Brent, and dennis.

Weekend things

The weekend is upon us and upon me. K is off taking her daughter to University. They are driving through the day and will arrive there tonight. I am planning on playing and having some good fun. Friday night will be boardgaming with Greg, George, Walter, and Nick. Saturday off to the St. Paul Farmer's Market and listen to the Eddie's. Maybe work on the chimney in Quebec, maybe not. With K gone this affords me time to get away and go to a movie I want to see without this feeling of guilt or accommodation. Saturday is this summer's Golden Beer Fest, formerly the Yellow Beer Fest. Bring your favorite yellow beer to taste and share. Belgians will be prominent. Speaking of Belgian, I think of Belgium and going to see Belgium again. What a beautiful country and people especially the Flemings. The tasting should be fun as we have a number of people coming and it should be good fun.

Web 2.0 things

I am coming to the end of my class on web 2.0. It is rather sad as I had loads of fun looking at all these new things on the Internet. Now comes the hard part, not the final project, I already have that one nailed down. The actual decisions on what to utilities and web sites to use and what to discard and back out of. I have an account in Delicious but it seems that people are more interested in Diigo. Investigate further. FaceBook and MySpace, what are the things too keep me in one and not the other. 2ndLife, I want to see and experience it myself, however, do I really need to have a second life when my first life is so full? I see the benefits and uses of Flickr, wikis, and Youtube. My pictures will be organized in Flickr around my folders where I have been. I have created a wiki for my department using Peanut Butter (my final project). I have also created a wiki for the Monday night wargamers group using Wetpaint. This may not be the best one for this purpose but we can at least get our information started and explore another venue. A friend suggested Ning as an alternative. We'll check it out. I am also looking at sites that permit you to have everything right on a tool bar so you can monitor your sights all the time Flock and Yoono are two.

Pipeband Championships things

Scottish Pipeband Championships
This is a link to the Scottish 2008 championships held in May 2008. This last weekend was the World Championships in Glasgow on Glasgow Green, Simon Fraser University won the Championship.

RenFest Things

We went to the RenFest early on Sunday morning arriving for the opening cannon. We are Katherine, Brent, Karen, and myself. We watched the new Snot, Snot jr. in Puke & Snot jr. It was just an excellent show. They skewed and screwed politicians especially republican politicians every which way. It was hilarious. I haven't seen them in years and it was really good. We saw the Arabian horse show and fire eaters. We saw Cassandra belly dance first and Alea second, latyer in the day. I started off the day drinking some fine Egyptian mead which is superb and followed by a second one later in the day. A hot day and alcohol especially mead can be a little bit too much. We saw the Vilification Tennis match which was hilarious. About mid-day we took a lunch break with apricot wheat ale and food. I made black bean salsa and K made couscous with summer squash. Both tasted great. It was a good day. We really bought nothing. I pretty much followed them around and did what they wanted to do save for watching Alea. She was an amazing dancer with a very lovely sensuous body. It is always a pleasure seeing and admiring a beautiful woman.

Things Beer Judging

I will be judging for the Minnesota State Fair homebrew competition tonight at the Fairgrounds. I have done it the last few years and it is always fun as I see people I haven't seen for awhile. Try some homebrews and write good comments and hopefully gentle in comments about their efforts. I had a couple of disasters myself in my brewing career i.e. a Holiday ale with too much cloves. What I learned was that a little bit of cloves goes a long way.

Granite City things

Stopped at Granite City Brewery & restaurant last night with my friend Brent. We shared a pizza bbq chicken and a couple of hefeweizens,their seasonal. The hefeweizen was very refreshing and in very good form. It had a good taste, mouth feel, the characteristic esters banana and clove were there. I think it was a very successful tasty beer. Most of the time we talked about everything under the sun. Gaming, miniatures, women, beer, surgery, and Renfest.

Things Flat Earth

Last night I went over to the Acadia cafe for a beer release of the Ovni from Flat Earth Brewing. Ovni is made in the style of a bier de garde. It was fun being there and supporting Jeff, the owner and brewer at Flat Earth. None of my friends made it as they were busy with other things. I had a couple of pints of Cygnus-X1 porter which was perfect for a summer's evening.

things ships

Duluth harbour, 1 August 2008: Damian and I roll into Duluth at 9:30 am hoping to view the three wooden ships in the harbour for their Maritime Fest. They were the U.S. Brig Niagara, The Madeleine, and the Pride of Baltimore II. There must have been 10,000 people there waiting to see the ships and mostly to see the Niagara. It was a bloody long line and we were in it for 4 1/2 hours. Standing in the sun as it was a near perfect day in Duluth with gentle breezes, warm temperatures, and beautiful skies. It was pretty neat to see the Niagara and be on deck. It is a pretty small ship when you compare it to the U.S. Frigate Constitution or HMS Victory. However, it was still pretty darn cool. I saw the other ships from dockside but didn't go on. I think I would do that again but perhaps go through the smaller lines first.

garden things

I picked my first zucchini last evening. I also picked some radishes still tasty inspite of the heat. It has been hotter than hell and the garden still seems to be doing well. Hopefully, all this nice hot weathe will translate into lovely tomatoes. We have a number of them on the vine. So far only the cherries are starting to ripen. The beans, cucumbers, dill, fennel, and basil are doing fantastic. We already made some fresh pesto one day.

The flowers are looking well. The ladyslippers seem to do doing well. The zinnias, nasturtiums, and marigolds haven't blossomed yet but soon. The rudbekia that the old woman in the Farmer's Market told me to buy is beautiful. I bought three plants from her as she said they were her last and she said they would be beautiful and they are with more red in the center and and orange on the fringe. The black blue salvia is still attracting hummingbirds and I have seen several butterflies and bees in the garden. Lucky us.

Cuzco pic

This pic was taken outside a roadside cafe where they serve chicha de jora (fermented beverage made with maize) and frutillada (chicha with strawberries added). Note the red flag, that tells the passerby that this place sells chicha de jora. (There is another chicha, chicha morada, which is made with blue corn and is very refreshing). You see them everywhere in Peru in the countryside. I had a frutillada and found it very refreshing and tasty. I was cautioned to drink not all of it as it may have an adverse effect on my bowels. This stand is an example of a tradition that is thousands of years old. An elderly woman was the proprietor. She made the food, fermented the beverages chicha de jora and frutillada. This is how women survived for thousands of years if they had been widowed or lived alone. There are no pensions for elderly in the third world. They survive by being part of the economy and providing a service. Women have brewed since the beginning of time. They cooked and the brewed. At this point in time, we reap the benefits of thousands of years of fermentation and cooking. Here's to women, God bless them all!

weekend things

I had a pretty good weekend. I met with friends on Friday night. Saturday, we went to dinner at a friend's home and they had made a lovely meal of spring rolls with plum sauce, hoisin sauce, peanut sauce, and hot chili sauce. White and rose wine was served as well as tea. The main entree was a lovely pasta salad with pesto, dried tomatoes, and pine nuts and fresh baked bread. Dessert was home made frozen yogurt strawberry, blueberry and berries with blueberries on top. We saw their collection bonsai trees and they talked about all the travails they have with keeping them watered and in good form. We listened to bagpipe music and showed off our pictures from Scotland and Portland. My friends had gone to Scotland in June. Specifically, they went to the Outer Hebrides, Harris and Lewis, England, and Peebles. I had gone to Scotland at the end of May and beginning of June and visited Islay, Jura, Kintyre Peninsula, Speyside, and Glen Clova. We also showed our pictures from Portland. Listening to music from the Western Isles is always so much fun and they enjoy it as much as we do.

Sunday, I had brunch with my son and his family. They have been hosting an exchange student from Grenoble France for the last three weeks. It was very nice to meet him. I also weeded and watered my butterfly garden. Yesterday, I sighted hummingbirds and butterflies in the garden.

My granddaughter is in the state girls soccer tournament. I went to act as a supporter and cheerleader. Unfortunately, I did not add any luck as they lost a close one 3 -2. After, the tournament it was upstairs and looking at rss feeds, social networks, and loading pictures from out trips to Picasa (that was a bloody long slog). Tonight, I am hoping this will be far easier.

Cuzco 2007

 

Beer things

Last night I gave two brewery tours at Summit Brewery St. Paul, MN to the folks visiting there to participate in the Lighting Run. Lots of bike or hogs, young and old, tattooed or not, and in leathers or not, and all of them enjoying a perfect evening as the humidity had dissapated and there was a gentle breeze. The tours were smaller, 12-24 people. I gave them an abbreviated tour which still took around 40 minutes. When I wasn't talking about Summit I was pouring it for people, a lot of them had never had Summit and never had a full bodied craft beer. It was fun.

After the tours, I went to Barley John's brew pub and met Molly and Doug. We sat outside enjoying the perfect Minnesota summer evening. I had two beers their Wild Brunette and the Old 8 Porter. I hadn't had any beers at Summit as I don't like to give tours and drink beer. We talked of many things. Doug has been going crazy with geneology and has discovered all sorts of links to his family. I told them of my adventures in Portland and all beers that were sampled for research purposes. I also told them about the exciting and fun seminars I had taken at the AALL Convention. Great evening talking beer, computer and Internet technology, and whatever else was interesting under the evening sky.

RSS Things

Adding these RSS links was rather difficult and yet easy once I actually did it. I probably spent more time than I should have, however, I've read a number of articles and saw explanations of what RSS is on YouTube. Learning all this new material is mind blowing. I hope to spend part of the weekend working on my RSS links, feeds, and sharing it all with friends and colleagues.

Playing with things in my and for my blog

I have had a long and interesting morning setting up this blog. It has been fun and with some timely questions to staff that have more experience and expertise I have finally started my blog. Now I am adding content and things i.e. avatar, rss, and favorite things.I may actually get something going here.

On Tuesday evening, after band practice and needing some neck oil to relieve a parched throat and a dry tongue. My friend Thom and I went to the Muddy Pig and we had a couple of glasses. Thom had a beer called Rogue Latona and Cain & Ebel. I had a Domain du page and a Matilda from Goose Island . It was a nice, pleasant way to finish off a Tuesday of bagpipes and drums.

My first post to my blog

The setting up of the blog was relatively painless. I took a walk this morning to clear my head and thought about blogging and rss feeds. So I thought I would just jump in and do it. It has been interesting to see over the last few days since I came back from Portland all the various blogs I've been looking at. It has really gotten me excited to the point where I am emailing to colleagues about various blogs and what we like about them or don't like about them. This is all in preparation for creating our own. By generating enough enthusiasm I hope to get all the staff involved with adding to our own library blog.