Last night was an odd one.

Jenn found out that the admin of her program had changed her schedule for next semester so that she needs to be in class on Monday until 6:30, go to a hospital yet to be determined, copy down information, leave there about 7:30, go home on her 45 minute to an hour commute, do a 2 hour research project, commute another hour into town and start her practicum shift at 7:00 AM. We figure about 5 hours of sleep on those nights. Needless to say she was livid.

Not allowing this misfortune or our generalized semi-sick state to inhibit our Friday night, we went shopping. Grocery shopping. Lucky 97 in Chinatown, which has a different, even more ethnic feel than T&T, and carries some even more obscure things. Some of my victories from last night? Real Pixian chili-bean paste, and it smells incredible... dried lotus leaves, they had lots, now I know where to find it... Hinianese Chicken Rice paste, tasty. Fresh water chestnuts, various kinds of Japanese snacks, and a few other odds and sods. I would have bought their excellent bitter Mellon if I thought anyone but me would eat it. Now all I need is some eggplant and my supper plans will come together nicely. I should have gotten some last night but I wasn't thinking.

Treewhale Brown

Today was Treewhale Southern English Brown Ale Attempt# 2 - which should be improved by the addition of a decent recipe and a thermometer that works. Also, it was the fastest single batch I think I have ever done, three and a half hours from start to cleanup being finished. It smells lovely. It should be ready to drink by the December EHG meeting.

XXX

You may have seen Andy Capp drinking bottles of stout with XXX on the front. Today I brewed my own - Treewhale Snowflake XXX Milk Stout. First brew-up in months, and well deserved. It should be very very tasty. It will be on draft very soon folks, call it Halloween.

Earth, Wind and Flyer

Saturday night, driving home from Mill Woods on the Whitemud freeway... Tumbleweeds. Genuine, high plains drifter tumbleweeds. I hit one with my car. Bad noise, but no damage. Lots of swerving. Got to the edge of town and it was biblical. The fields are all torn up from harvest and there hasn't been rain for who knows how long, add a 70 Mile an hour wind, and you have a dust storm you can hardly see through.

Sunday, ordained by our lord God as a day of rest, was spent painting and putting in baseboards. Then I made pork stuffed peppers with black bean garlic sauce and did three loads of laundry.

Today, Monday, was garbage day. When we got home, our garbage can had quite obviously become airborne at some time during the day, as it was rapidly headed for the coast. Had it not hit a neighbor's car, it would certainly have made it at least as far as the crescent across the main drag from us.

Tuesday, incidentally, is a day ordained by our lord God as a day of meeting with beer nerds, and that is what I intend to do tomorrow.

Lost and found

If you want to find your wife's missing keys (and they were lost for a month), you ought not to ask the question, "Where would my wife lose her keys?" This question will lead you to the places where she might put her keys, and obviously she has already looked there, and to her pockets which, being much smarter than you - and more attached to her keys, she has already gone through.

The question you ought to ask is, "If I was looking for _MY_ lost keys, where would I look?" The answer to that question (under the cushions of the living room chairs) will provide the answer to your quest in the form of car keys within seconds.

Reno progress report and Nursing

Jenn is now dome her first two weeks of the Nursing After Degree program. Two weeks down, 21.5 months to go.

In other news, the grout is sealed, the downstairs baseboards are all in and looking fabulous. Half done or so upstairs. Some touch up on the paint yet, and then clean everything up and organize the basement.

Bwah. This has been a long 3 months.

One more thing off the list

Just finished tiling the upstairs bathroom. Now just need to re-install the toilet, finish the baseboards, and clean up a bit, seal the grout downstairs and up, and I think we are done. Call it, two weeks of cursing and mitering, with just a bit of brad nailing to make it more fun.

Done soon

We finished the grout tonight, tomorrow we do some baseboards and move some furniture, and we are going to start living in a more normal home again. The upstairs bathroom tile never got done, but that will be a weekend project for me in the fall. It should be easy now that I have half an idea what I am doing.

And the place looks fabulous.

More renos, but almost done - promise.

So then - since the last post we have done the following:

Finished the upstairs hall and bedrooms

finished the laminate downstairs

pulled apart the kitchen

painted the kitchen back splash

sanded the downstairs floor

laid out the tile and cut where necessary

What is left?

Mortar, Grout, baseboards, touch up the paint, upstairs bathroom tile.

The renos continue apace

Back to the grind. This weekend, we pulled up the last of the upstairs carpet, bought subfloor for the living room, cut it, screwed it down, painted trim with our nifty paint sprayer, pulled up the carpet downstairs (not in that order) continued on the upstairs hall, put down most of the floor in the last bedroom, and went to the store to buy the tile, the thinset (we got the extra-good stuff) and the grout, plus a table saw, which is making the laminate go a heck of a lot faster. Crisis - our thinset says don't install on particleboard. Our subfloor - particleboard. I read further - can be installed over existing sheet vinyl! We just swapped our "remove the current floor" step with "sand the current floor to rough it up" step and can continue without a new subfloor. Woo Hoo.

My new office

My firm moves into our new office on Monday, we more than double our size and it is a great space. We can double-up on lawyers (already one lined up, maybe two) and it is in a great neigborhood. The best part so far is the fabulous tile pattern in the fronto hall. I'm sure I will find more to love. Pictures to follow.

All of a sudden I wish I was just renoing.

Late last weekend, after we had demolished the bedroom, we got a call that Jenn's Great Grandpa was in the hospital. This, in itself, although upsetting, was not the problem. The problem was Jenn's Great Grandma, who is not taking it well. The family have been pitching in to make sure that she is not by herself. Opa passed later this week and the Funeral is Monday. We hope to do some work tomorrow before going into town, but it is hard to find the energy.

Owen's got a nailgun.

Tremble.

A weekend off - and more painting.

As part of our extended not-having a real vacation-ness this year, Jenn and I took a long weekend in Jasper for Jenn to get her PADI open-water diving card (very cold in the lake) and for me to read the 100 mile diet and drink the beer at Jasper brewing Company. In between, we both napped about 3 hours a day. A glorious weekend.

Now we have returned and I will be starting in on the floor in the back bedroom tomorrow. With luck, I will be done one room by tomorrow night. Yeah. Right. And monkeys might fly out of my butt.

Painting

We are finished, except for some touch-ups and some edging that needs a bigger ladder. Next the floors. We have 850 square feet of laminate and 900 square feet of underlay, we have only to get the tools from our various hook-ups and start in. Weekend Jasper, Tuesday floors.

Almost done

One more coat on the stairs, one more accent wall in a bedroom, and a few touch-ups. That's it. Time to paint a 1200 square foot 2 level - 8 days, assuming we get one last coat on tomorrow.

In addition, we have de-junked and moved all our bookshelves to the basement, where we hope to find them permanent homes.

Also, as a special treat, and in lieu of using my bonus money to upgrade our Hyundai to something with lower miles, we picked up a new mattress. I don't know if it is comfortable yet, because every time I lay down on it, I immediately lose consciousness.

On the beer side, my new kegged pale ale is drinking a treat, and I hope to have the Trippel and a Municher Dunkel in kegs by the end of the week.

Tomorrow, our plans get even more interesting. After work, I am picking up our flooring, about 850 square feet of decent laminate, along with underlayment and perhaps stair nosing. I will also need to get some 1/2 inch plywood subfloor for a small part of the downstairs where there is not already additional subfloor. The good news is that our floor in the kitchen and hall already meet code for tile. Woo hoo.

Oh, yes, the tile. about 250 square feet of it, but that is going in last, as it will be the most disruptive, essentially keeping us out of our kitchen and front hall for quite some time. I am also considering a tile backspash in the kitchen, but really only if I don't need to put up any serious kind of backer-board. I dunno. And then the tile for the countertops............

Oh dear. I seem to have the bug.....

More painting

There is now only one room in the house that has not been completely repainted, the upstairs bedroom that I use as an office. The only reason for this is that it is full of all the stuff we have jammed into it to make enough room to paint the rest of the upstairs. The rest of the house has had between 1 and 4 coats of paint, the baseboards are all off, all that is left to be done is another coat on the stairs, hall, and downstairs, and only on the grey parts.

We started painting at 8:30, we finished at 10:45. We took a half hour for lunch, a half hour for supper (thank god for pizza delivery) and a hour to take a truckload of stuff to the dump and pick up our new mattress (comfortable). So, after 14 plus hours of moving and painting, I have settled in with both an unconscionably large glass of rye whisky and a glass of dry-hopped West-Coast style IPA. Beats Methocarbomol.

Progress

Here's the update: since Monday afternoon we have done the following:

Painted the upstairs back bedroom (Royal Purple) (the one with the walk-in closet) - 4 coats - finished for paint but for a few touch-ups

Painted the upstairs bathroom (Chocolate brown) 2 coats and touch ups - finished.

Painted upstairs hallway (awesome blue - hints of black/grey) 1.5 coats (some places have two) Will need 1.5 more for a total of 3, will be finished tomorrow.

Our bedroom - one wall the colour of the hallway - will need 3.

Bought 360 LF of 3/4*3 1/2 baseboards on massive sale and moved them home in my Hyundai. It took two trips, one crushed finger, and a lot of shouting.

Still to come:

Other back bedroom - probably 3 coats.

Stairs and downstairs - 2-3 coats depending on colour.

That will be it for painting.

And then:

800 SQFT of laminate floor in the upstairs and half the downstairs.

300 SQFT ceramic tile in the Front half of the downstairs and the upstairs bathroom.

So we gots our summer planned.

Pictures to follow.

Painting

Since we aren't selling our house right away, we will be painting the house again. We'll be putting in some new floors, too, thanks to a hefty bonus rolling in. I might just be posting some pictures soonish.

Much Needed Rain

It is now impossible for me to sleep in too much on weekends, and I automatically get up at 7:20. This morning, we are getting a gentle rain that doesn't look ready to let up for a couple of hours, which hopefully will stop making this area look like a movie about the great depression in the 30s. Turns out all it takes for there to be rain is for me to water my lawn the night before.

Draft Beer Update -

Rebuilt and cleaned four kegs, picked up my gas today, hooked it all up and we have no leaks at 20# of pressure. Two beers will be ready to go in the kegs pdq, and then we will be rolling.

Ahhh, brewhouse beer kits, the joy of making beer in less than 15 minutes.

The best thing I have ever done in beermaking

I know that I talk about beer a lot on this blog, sometimes to the exclusion of interesting topics, but today I feel at liberty to jump in and brag up my latest move:

For the first time since starting to make beer 14 years ago, I will be putting it not in bottles, but in kegs. That's right, peoples, if you come over, there will be draft beer. While walking through Princess Auto's surplus section, I spotted 4 used Pepsi kegs, and quickly snapped them up. From there, it was only a short drive home to the internet where the good folks at Beer Beer and More Beer agreed, in exchange for just a few numbers read off a little plastic rectangle, to send me 4 rebuild kits, gas fittings, poppets, taps, hoses, clamps, Powdered Brewery Wash, dip tube brushes, gas regulators, and all the other little things that make those kegs come alive. Whoah, baby. Now all I need to do is find a "Free to good home" fridge and some help moving it, and I am set - blissful in the knowledge that I will never have to bottle again.

Aurora Brewing Challenge

This week was the Aurora Brewing Challenge - the annual BJCP sanctioned beer competition hosted by the Edmonton Homebrewer's Guild, and the only MCAP qualifier in Canada. (Masters Championship of Amateur Brewing) Nick the Mighty Brewer and I did quite well, taking 8 medals and second place in the Brewer of the Year completion. The winner really threw in a ton of beer, and deserved the win. Best of show was won by a fellow who entered only one beer - but it was a very good one, obviously. Jenn took part in the ladies auxiliary competition, judging themed beers made with rosemary. Ours didn't place in that competition, but as a consolation prize, we took a medal with it in the main competition, ahead of any of the others.

Long story short, that is the end of the competitive brewing season, and I am beered out.

Also, if you live in Alberta and you want a tasty cooler product, drink the coolers from Ambers Brewing. They are incredible. Way way way better than every other cooler on the market.

Latest News

Jenn has now been officially accepted the the U of A after degree in nursing.  I will therefore not be getting a new (or used) sports car for the foreseeable future.  On the other hand, I have been promised one when she graduates.

My exalted position

I never learned not to volunteer for things.

On the weekend, Jenn and I were at a conference in Lake Louise for divorce lawyers, when the Edmonton Homebrewers Guild was holding their monthly meeting and annual executive elections. I, being the good sport that I am, offered to let my name stand for the presidency of the Edmonton Homebrewers Guild. Needless to say, despite my absence, and perhaps because of it, I was elected (or possibly acclaimed, which I expect is more likely).

Now I just have to figure out how to go about ruling with an iron fist.

Cashmere-ical Redux

Today, having finished work at a reasonable time, I wandered over to my Consignment store and popped my head in the door. This store had been the scene of my great disappointment, the notion that $477.00 was better spent on car repairs than a really fabulous suit.

Well, two months later, and with the sticker price knocked down another $100.00, the suit was still on the rack and I am all of a sudden flush with suit money (and my old charcoal suit getting shiny around the shoulders). Long story short, I am the proud owner of a gorgeous, conservative, Italian hand made designer cashmere suit, for about what I would pay for a cheap suit at a clearance outlet.

Sometimes good things happen to me. Other times, I just get new work clothes and that makes me happy too.

Beerstuff

since the last time I mentioned beer, Nick the Mighty Brewer and I have made the following styles:

1C American Premium Lager
2A German Pilsner
21 Rosemary Herbed Scottish 80/
1E Dortmunder Export
17 A Berlinner Weiss

Mmmmm, beer.

The proof

You would not believe how hard they tried to get me to keep the account open. I had to tell the guy about 10 times to shut the bugger down.I thought they wanted people not to havecredit. Aren't people's limits being arbitrarily lowered around the country?

Our little victory

It was long overdue. As of today, Jenn and I have no credit card debt. With Jenn not working full time (very part time, in fact) and the troubles last year, and the expenses of Jenn's classes, we couldn't seem to get ahead, but now, in one fell swoop, we have gotten a rancid little monkey off our backs and taken the scissors to the bastards, for the most part. What joy. Just in time to start saving towards Jenn's tuition for fall.

Jenn and Owen finally get something they want

Notwithstanding the persistent annoyance of water heaters and such, we have finally sprung for a car under warranty.  Last year's (base) model, discounted, lengthy financing, but here we have something that will carry us a while before needing costly repairs, and if it does, someone else will be covering it, thank you very much.  We have swapped the uncertainty of an unreliable car for the certainty of our payment, which is a swap I am willing to make with Jenn going back to school.

She doesn't have a name yet, but she is Bright electric blue, and we love her very much.  If you see someone in their front drive applying name-brand car finishes, it might be us.

This is starting to get a little old.

Just a little bit of winter left for us to deal with here in the gret white north.


HEAVY SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW EXPECTED FOR TONIGHT AND SUNDAY. THIS IS A WARNING THAT DANGEROUS WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE IMMINENT OR OCCURRING IN THESE REGIONS. MONITOR WEATHER CONDITIONS...LISTEN FOR UPDATED STATEMENTS.
A STRONG LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM CURRENTLY DEVELOPING OVER SOUTHERN ALBERTA AND MONTANA IS FORECAST TO MOVE NORTH-NORTHEAST THROUGH SOUTHEASTERN ALBERTA TONIGHT AND INTO CENTRAL SASKATCHEWAN BY SUNDAY. SNOW WILL START OVER SOUTHERN ALBERTA THIS EVENING AND SPREAD INTO THE CENTRAL AND NORTHERN ALBERTA LATE OVERNIGHT AND EARLY SUNDAY MORNING. ON SUNDAY WIDESPREAD HEAVY SNOW CAN BE EXPECTED OVER MANY LOCALITIES WITH AMOUNTS IN THE RANGE BETWEEN 10 TO 20 CENTIMETRES BY SUNDAY EVENING. IN ADDITION STRONG WINDS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS SYSTEM CAN PRODUCE POOR VISIBILITY IN OPEN AREAS DUE TO BLOWING SNOW.

Same day service, classic small-town gouging.

The answer to "How fast can Owen and Jenn get a new hot water tank?" is apparently four hours from first making that call. The answer to the question "What will it cost"? is exactly as much as it would cost to pay a city plumber to come and do it, except the city plumber would be charging almost half the install fee as mileage to and from Spruce Grove, and the locals just jack up their prices and pocket the difference.

So, a thousand bucks later, I get to sit back and bask in the joy of my brand-new water heater, and Wonder just what will be the next thing to go horribly horribly wrong with the house.