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.