Today I will be heading down to Alley Kat to pack up some beers for shipping - I will be sending 8 beers out to the Regina ALES competition, which is a MCAB qualifier. THat means nothing to non-brewers, but needless to say I will be entering some beer in a big contest and hopefully I will win something. I think that this competition has actual medals, which would be nice. Then when I go to work I can put my medals up on the wall next to Jennifer Heil's gold medal picture.
Bwahahahahahaha!
Come to think of it, I have some wine competition medals that I could put up right now, and some certificates......
Yeah, that would be good.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Sunday, March 25, 2007
okay. You got me.
So for everyone who made it possible for me to not realize that I had a surprise (late) birthday party coming to me, thanks.
To everyone whose idea it was to get me to the location by saying that my sister-in-law had just scalded herself with a gallon of boiling water - not so cool - you will get yours.
It was pretty cool, though, a long cry from the four years in a row I had to bake my own birthday cake. I kinda like this whole "someone knows I'm alive" thing. I could get used to it.
Then tonight we had the college & careers fondue. We provided a fondue Neufchatel, which rocked. There were also a couple of attempts at Fondue Bourginon, which were, well, oil fondue, which is good for a party of 4-6, not so good for 14. The sauce Bearnaise was made with becel margarine and a package of Bearnaise mix from Safeway. Mennonites assume margarine and butter work the same in cooking. Not so much.
Anyway, it all tasted good. We also played "Apples to Apples" which is a rockin' cool game. Now I am going to go to bed.
To everyone whose idea it was to get me to the location by saying that my sister-in-law had just scalded herself with a gallon of boiling water - not so cool - you will get yours.
It was pretty cool, though, a long cry from the four years in a row I had to bake my own birthday cake. I kinda like this whole "someone knows I'm alive" thing. I could get used to it.
Then tonight we had the college & careers fondue. We provided a fondue Neufchatel, which rocked. There were also a couple of attempts at Fondue Bourginon, which were, well, oil fondue, which is good for a party of 4-6, not so good for 14. The sauce Bearnaise was made with becel margarine and a package of Bearnaise mix from Safeway. Mennonites assume margarine and butter work the same in cooking. Not so much.
Anyway, it all tasted good. We also played "Apples to Apples" which is a rockin' cool game. Now I am going to go to bed.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Look, I know I have been making boring posts lately
But the thing is, neither Jenn nor myself have had enough spare time or energy to do anything even remotely interesting for the last couple of months. We have been packing, doing laundry, and not even cooking anything good. We get home late, eat late, and pop in a dvd and fall asleep. It's a sad little existence, I know, but we assure you it will change once Jenn is out of school. Heck, Jenn may be able to do something interesting for your entertainment over the next week which is spring break at her school. I will, of course, continue to do interesting things that I can't talk about due to solicitor-client privilege.
Here's something marginally interesting- a movie poster has blown onto our deck from somewhere. Here, I'll go see what it is for...
"The Middle Man", which doesn't even show up on the IMDB. Sad.
I don't even get good garbage flying onto my deck.
Other interesting things this weekend are the beer tasting this afternoon at Alley Kat, through the Homebrewer's Guild, after which we go to a barbecue and "drink our dribs and drabs" party at which we hope to get rid of all the booze that we have where there is less than 2.5 cm left at the bottom of a bottle.
On Sunday, there is a chance that we will have DimSum with the Giant Albino and his Pole Dancing sister, in the evening we have a Fondue supper at church, birthday supper at family's and Jenn's mum and dad get back from Cancun, at which time, we will squeal on Jenn's little sister for doing all the bad things we know about her having done for the last week.
Because she would squeal on me and everyone else she knows if she could.
Anyway, I promise to try to be more interesting in the next little while. Ta.
Here's something marginally interesting- a movie poster has blown onto our deck from somewhere. Here, I'll go see what it is for...
"The Middle Man", which doesn't even show up on the IMDB. Sad.
I don't even get good garbage flying onto my deck.
Other interesting things this weekend are the beer tasting this afternoon at Alley Kat, through the Homebrewer's Guild, after which we go to a barbecue and "drink our dribs and drabs" party at which we hope to get rid of all the booze that we have where there is less than 2.5 cm left at the bottom of a bottle.
On Sunday, there is a chance that we will have DimSum with the Giant Albino and his Pole Dancing sister, in the evening we have a Fondue supper at church, birthday supper at family's and Jenn's mum and dad get back from Cancun, at which time, we will squeal on Jenn's little sister for doing all the bad things we know about her having done for the last week.
Because she would squeal on me and everyone else she knows if she could.
Anyway, I promise to try to be more interesting in the next little while. Ta.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
closer to the floor.
Here I am, four loads of laundry closer to the floor of our bedroom, and there's no end in sight. Jenn is at parent-teacher interviews, and I'm slaving away over the 8th floor laundry, because all the laundries within a floor of my apartment are in use. I guess hump-day is also laundry day. Tomorrow I may wind up having supper and beers with Mel & Nick, as my assistance may be desired in the beer-making realm. I think I'll drop off a couple of carboys while I'm at it, all the better to not have to move to my new house all at once.
Work is busy as ever, and this weekend promises to be at least a little break, with a beer tasting on Saturday and fondue on Sunday. I need to figure out what we'll be bringing.
Anyway, time to load another pile into the washer upstairs.
Work is busy as ever, and this weekend promises to be at least a little break, with a beer tasting on Saturday and fondue on Sunday. I need to figure out what we'll be bringing.
Anyway, time to load another pile into the washer upstairs.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Wife back, Oil Losing.
Some good, some bad. The Oil are in the midst of an 8 game losing streak, but my wife is home and my Cats have stopped bothering me so much. I also bought a book at the used-book store in Stony Plain - The Homebrewer's Companion. I love it when a book I have been meaning to pick up shows up in mint condition for half price at a used book store.
Today, I also had the fun of working through lunch and about an hour late. Busy week so far and it's only Monday. On the up side, both my meetings for today jammed out at the last minute, so I didn't have anything much to distract me today, and I managed to get a lot of work done.
For my birthday I got the 1st and 2nd seasons of Dinosaurs on DVD. I'm rather enjoying it. It has a muppet-y feel, being a Henson production. We will see how it stands up after a few more episodes. One thing is for certain, the baby dinosaur reminds us a lot of Koda.
Today, I also had the fun of working through lunch and about an hour late. Busy week so far and it's only Monday. On the up side, both my meetings for today jammed out at the last minute, so I didn't have anything much to distract me today, and I managed to get a lot of work done.
For my birthday I got the 1st and 2nd seasons of Dinosaurs on DVD. I'm rather enjoying it. It has a muppet-y feel, being a Henson production. We will see how it stands up after a few more episodes. One thing is for certain, the baby dinosaur reminds us a lot of Koda.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
I miss my wife.
Jenn is at a conference in the 'Peg, and here I am all alone and sad. If it weren't for the fact that cats are extra love-y right now, I would be having a serious hug-deficiency. As it stands, even Koda is touching me of his own free will.
Today I did something that most people will find incredibly dull but that I thought was really exciting. I made an "all grain" beer. This is the first beer that I have made using crushed malted barley instead of malt extract or kits. It actually was a lot less complicated that I had expected. the hard part - getting the unfermented beer out of the grains- was actually pretty easy. The equipment that I built for it worked perfectly, and everything ran super smooth. All in all, a pretty good show. We'll see for sure when we taste the beer. Big shoutout goes to Nick for his awesome co-brewmastering and generally doing a ton of the work. Technically, it is his beer, but I feel a certain proprietary interest in the formulation and processes.
Today I did something that most people will find incredibly dull but that I thought was really exciting. I made an "all grain" beer. This is the first beer that I have made using crushed malted barley instead of malt extract or kits. It actually was a lot less complicated that I had expected. the hard part - getting the unfermented beer out of the grains- was actually pretty easy. The equipment that I built for it worked perfectly, and everything ran super smooth. All in all, a pretty good show. We'll see for sure when we taste the beer. Big shoutout goes to Nick for his awesome co-brewmastering and generally doing a ton of the work. Technically, it is his beer, but I feel a certain proprietary interest in the formulation and processes.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Owen's Birthday
On Thursday next, I will celebrate the 5th anniversary of my 25th birthday. In other words, I will be turning 29 again. For those who wish to spend time with me, you will be required to do so on the weekend after the 9th to the 11th while Jenn is out of town, and you will be required to do the driving and the buying of drinks.
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