Tattoo things

I was tattooed by Nic onMonday 29 December. He put a picture that Ava drew of Ann in the summer 2001. I placed it on my right leg opposite of DeDe's drawing. I think it is very cool and I like it a lot. I need to get one from Damian. The number is now at 8, eight tattoos. I still want a large one on my right shoulder and arm. Thanks Nic.

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!!!!