Sorry about no July Posting, I've been lazy.

But now I can post three or four quick ones back to back thanks to my trip down to Calgary this week.

Jenn and I were married a bit over five years ago, five years ago this past Friday, to be exact, and to celebrate, we booked ourselves into the Palliser Hotel in Calgary. (Why the Palliser? Why Calgary? Keep looking for a future post to inform the Calgaryness)

While we were there, we ate out enough to make up for the no-new-food-reviews-in-months situation. The first place we ate was Earls, because we were looking for a place to eat at 9:30 on a Thursday night on Stephen Avenue that wasn't either hyper-expensive or straight pub food. It was an Earls.

The next morning, we decided to take breakfast at the Avenue Diner in the 100 block of Stephen Avenue. Upon walking in, you are greeted by a mid-sized, cheerful space with a long counter in front and tables towards the back on the way to an open kitchen. The Menu is small but enticing, with some wonderful sounding options. Jenn and I, being on vacation, each had a variation on eggs Benedict. Mine west-coast style with smoked salmon, and Jenn's Florentine, with spinach, shallots and smoky bacon. Each came with the same herbed Hollandaise sauce and hash-brown Yukon gold potatoes, as well as an organic cherry tomato, which more or less exploded into a flavour-bomb of tomato-ness as soon as you bit into it.

The food was knock-you-on-your-ass good. The ingredients were of obviously good quality and fresh and local. The portions were a good size and the price- at about $15.00 each, were higher than going to Smitty's but not substantially so, and for the value, they were great.

If you are having a hankering for breakfast (served all day) and you are in Downtown Calgary, go there. It is good.

Five cups of organic, fairly traded coffee.

Health food

For a person who makes their own yogurt and grows their own sprouts, I have a terrible attitude about "health food".

Of course I also make Aioli and Holandaise from scratch.....

Beer Celebration

To celebrate the kegging of my Treewhale Irish Red ale, I made Mac& Cheese.

I seethed some vidalia onions in butter, then made a roux and added a mixture of half red ale and half half-and-half. From there, I added a cup of lite cream cheese, a cup of applewood smoked cheddar and a cup of mozzarella. I blended in the macaroni and diced smoked ham, topped it with crumbs and baked it for a half hour.

That's what I'm talking about, baby... Yeah.

Owen didn't win something

Came in 5th in Canadian Brewer of the year http://www.canadianbreweroftheyear.com/winners.htm without really brewing that much this year. Big plans for summer, though. The Aurora Brewing Challenge wrap up was a fun time after several evenings of judging beers. We killed a noble pig and ate a great deal of home-made sauerkraut. It was lovely.

I know, I know, two beer posts in 3 days. Get over it.

So I won the 2010 Vanbrewers beer competition on the weekend. Best of Show. The grand prize? Yaletown Brewing makes a batch of your beer and sells it to customers. Woo hoo.

Black Irish Red

Today, over came Nick the Mighty Brewer, and we proceeded to make ourselves a batch of Irish Red Ale, which turned out a bit more Brown than we expected. It sure smelled good, though, and we are looking forward to trying it out in a few weeks. Also in the beer news this week, Last Sunday was Big Brew at Alley Kat Brewery, where I walked away with a couple of carboys of a pleasing American pale ale, one of which I will be dry-hopping, and the other will be, I dunno, infused with raspberry essence. Yes, that would be nice.

Edmonton International Beer Festival Sucked

I think the title to this post says it all, but just to give some detail, you can learn more about it at www.onbeer.org, where my good friedn Jason Foster keeps us all up-to-date about beer happenings in Western Canada.

Another recipe request

This time from Vanessa, for sticky rice in lotus leaves.

1. Steam a steamer of glutinous rice. Don't think you can use regular rice and it will turn out. It won't. I have tried to do this in a bamboo steamer according to directions with the recipe, but it turns out way better if you just put it in a rice cooker. It is easier too.

2. Soak 4 large lotus leaves in hot water for an hour or so. This takes some doing because they are so big. Cut them in half when they are ready. T&T doesn't carry these, so you will have to hit Lucky 97 in Edmonton, or another indie specialty grocer in the place where you are. They keep forever and they are dirt cheap,l so if you find them, get a couple packages if you really like these things. (One package will make a couple of double batches.

3. Soak 4 dried Chinese mushrooms and a couple of tablespoons of dried shrimp in boiling water for an hour or so. Chop them all up together.

4. Heat a wok. Ass oil, stir-fry 12 oz cubed chicken or ground pork until browned. Ass the shrimp and mushrooms, a clove of chopped garlic, 2 thinly sliced Chinese sausages, and 2 sliced green onions. Stir fry another 2 minutes. Add 1 TB oyster sauce, 1Tb light soy sauce, 1 Tb sugar and 1 tsp sesame oil. Mix well. Add 1 TB cornstarch dissolved in 3/4 cup water. simmer until thickened.

5. lay out a half a lotus leaf. put a generous handful of rice on the leaf and flatten it a bit. spoon a portion of the cooked mixture over the rice, and add another generous handful of rice on top. wrap up and lay aside. Repeat until you are out of something. If you are careful, you should run out of everything at once.

6. At this point, you can wrap and freeze, or you can steam them for 30 minutes. If steaming from frozen, steam longer.

7. You can double this recipe easily. I recommend it because doing it for a regular sized batch is a lot of work and soaking stuff, and doing it for a double batch is not that much harder. They freeze well, and they are super handy for an easy supper with some stir-fried veg or as part of a leisurely at-home dim-sum breakfast if you have some other dumplings in the freezer.

Calgary Style Ginger Beef recipe circa 1996

Ginger beef is not Chinese food. It is as Canadian as it gets. It was purportedly invented at the Silver Inn in Calgary sometime in the late 70s or early 80s, depending on who you ask. It quickly spread throughout Calgary, and now Canada (a Friend told me of a restaurant in Toronto advertising "Calgary Style Ginger Beef"). Edmonton's version is not the same, being sweeter, more of a sweet&sour beef with ginger, and lacking the darker flavours of the original.

In the early days of my use of the World Wide Web, I searched for Ginger beef recipes using the then state-of-the-art Alta Vista, and what should come up but the Ginger Beef Peking House in Brentwood, who had, inexplicably, posted their recipe on line for all to steal.

It works.

Several of you have asked for it over the years, I have always said I would get around to it. Here it is, Owen's (stolen) recipe for Calgary Style Ginger Beef:

1/2 pound flank steak, sliced thinly against the grain

Batter:

1/2 egg
8 TB water
10 TB corn starch
1.5 TB flour
2 TB oil
1/4 TB white pepper

(combine batter, mix the beef up with the batter and deep-fry the strips of beef until crispy)

Sauce:
2 TB light soy sauce
1TB white vinegar
1.5 TB Mushroom soy sauce (dark soy sauce is an acceptable substitute)
0.5 TB Chinese cooking wine (or dry sherry)
1/4 cup water
8 TB sugar
1/4 TB or more crushed chilies

(mix together and put to one side before you start to assemble the final dish)

Slice 1 red and 1 green pepper (you can substitute celery, julienned carrots, baby leeks, whatever), chop 3 garlic cloves finely and julienne a hefty chunk of ginger, depending on taste. (At least the size of your thumb.)

Stir fry the vegetables you have chosen with the garlic and ginger until crispy. Ass the sauce mixture and bring to the boil. Add the beef strips and stir to coat with the sauce.

For authenticity stop here and serve. If you want a thicker sauce, you can add a little cornstarch and water and bring back to the boil.

There you have it. It is about as simple as it gets. Enjoy. I know you will try it, Kelly and Lesa.

24 Down

24 down, having brewed Dunkleweizen yesterday. Next up, Kolsch and California Common Beer, and then who knows?

My mistake

It isn't 16 down, I went back throught the blog and counted up, and it is 23 down, 57 to go after 30 months. Time to get brewing.

Brewing Doubles and Feeling.... Uh... Married.

Today, with a visit from Nick the Mighty Brewer, we brewed up two styles of India Pale Ale, English and American, both of which are going to be great. I expect to keg both within 10 days or so, though we will see. I want to have them both ready to head to the Cowtown Yeast Wranglers competition in February, which means they need to be bottled/kegged within about 2 weeks.

This means that we are 16 down and 64 to go, with a forecast of 2-3 more beers this month if the weather holds.

The world is my freezer.

Literally. The world is my freezer. I just made a big pot of soup and the portioned tubs of it are sitting on my deck because they it is colder out there than in my freezer, and also a lot more spacious.

For Christmas, I received a ton of great presents, one of which was Jim Murray's 2009 Whisky Bible, a document which purports to rate every known whisky. Scotch, Irish, English, Bourbon, Japanese, Nepalese, Norwegian, Spanish, Australian, and not the least of them is Canadian, or what we in Canada would call "Rye". Although a disproportionate amount of the text is devoted to Scottish Malt whiskeys, he repeatedly observes in his introductions to other sections that blended whiskeys are currently overlooked by whiskey drinkers around the world.

Being a patriot, and long having been an advocate of the principle that it is better to drink good rye than cheap Scotch, I turned my attention immediately to the Canadian section, where I found an interesting statement - that the 4 highest rated Canadian whiskeys in his book would give the four best whiskeys from any country a run for their money - presumably including Scotland. The second through fourth were rather obscure premium bottlings. The number 1 whiskey in Canada, described as a "National Treasure"? Bottom shelf booze. Literally. In my hometown, the top brand is a discount brand relegated to the bottom shelf, leaving room for more lofty drinks like Crown Royal.

Best Whiskey in Canada? Alberta Premium. So the man says. Who am I to argue?

A dedicated booze enthusiast, that's who. I went to the store.

This is a big whiskey. The Lagavulin of Canada. It grabs hold and shakes. Big body, big flavour, big aroma, big rye taste. Go get some if you are a rye drinker. It is worth the shame of being seen buying discount booze. This is a whiskey to run with the best premium spirits in the world.

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.

How do you spell, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"?

Say, you know that feeling you get when you walk down to the basement to put away the luggage that has been sitting in the garage since summer and you notice that there is an inch of water on the floor and a huge jet of water is shooting out of the TOP of your water heater? You know, its the same feeling you get when you really really really want to drink Gin until you fall asleep. Instead, you shout curses until your very ill wife comes downstairs and finds the shutoff valve. At least I was clever enough to also shut off the gas valve. Oh, and it was a year past its warranty.

Now we get to find out how long it takes to get a new water heater in the boonies. What fun. Oh boy I tell you what I SO want to buy a new water heater instead of a new cashmere suit or half a trip for two to Mexico or Jenn's books for the fall.

Driving into Spring

After the Edmonton Airport posted record low temperatures a couple of days this past week, including a -52 degree windchill, Jenn and I took a couple of days off and drove down to Calgary...

When we left, the temperature was -15, and when we arrived it was +8. Getting out of the car was like stepping into a new season - a season where your skin doesn't fall off within minutes of exposure to the outdoors. Birds were singing, water was running off of the roof, and there were patches of ground visible that had not been physically scraped clean of snow and ice.

The forecast calls for more of the same, above zero temperatures. I shall celebrate with brewing and a barbecue.

The little flashing red lightning bolt on my computer screen sez:

A COLD FRONT PASSED THROUGH THE EDMONTON REGION LATE YESTERDAY EVENING BRINGING SNOW AND STRONG NORTHWESTERLY WINDS. THE SNOW AND WIND HAVE COMBINED TO GIVE REDUCED VISIBILITIES IN BLOWING SNOW. SNOWFALL AMOUNTS NEAR 10 CM ARE LIKELY BEFORE THE SNOW GRADUALLY TAPERS OFF THIS MORNING. IN COLD LAKE IMPROVEMENT IS NOT EXPECTED UNTIL THIS AFTERNOON WITH HEAVIEST SNOWFALL AMOUNTS OCCURRING OVER SOUTHEASTERN SECTIONS. THIS WINTER STORM CAN PRODUCE POOR TRAVELLING CONDITIONS. PERSONS IN OR NEAR THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR UPDATED WARNINGS.


Mmmmmmm.... Winter Storm Warning in effect until well after my commute is over.

I am starting to not like winter. It should stop now.

In like a water buffalo, out like a snuffleuphaghus

The temperature outside, with wind chill, for those of you who do not live in Edmonton, is -40. At that particular temperature, it doesn't matter if it is Celsius or Fahrenheit. The old saw, in like a lion, out like a lamb, isn't really applicable. This is too horrible. For those of you who have spent the week in Cuba, and you know who you are, you have missed plenty of bad weather.

I am still without a phone, at least until Saturday, so don't be offended if I haven't called or returned your call.

Winter... slowly..... killing me...... Must............ make it.............. to Spring.............. gasp!

Same old, same old

So in the past two weeks, we have replaced the temperature sensor, coolant, thermostat and timing belt in the Hyundai, to the tune of a grand, and now my phone had up and died, thirteen months after buying it and three weeks after the warranty ran out. I am not impressed. Needless to say, any thoughts we might have had about disposable income this month are up in flames. Sigh.

La Boheme Edmonton

Restaurant review for La Boheme

La Boheme is located on 112 Avenue and 64th street in Edmonton in a Bed & Breakfast that has been converted from a block of Pre-WWI luxury apartments. The theme is french, the focus, according to the website, is southern french and Rhone. Notwithstanding this assertion, and apart from a Moroccan Style couscous on the menu, the theme seems to be squarely in the traditional cuisine bourgeois that one would like to expect in a French restaurant.

We arrived at 7:15 for our 7:30 reservation, and were directed immediately to our table, which was set up with two low lounge chairs, leaving the patron leaned back and low at the table. It felt like you were at the kiddie table. On the walls were cheap "french" art prints from Home Outfitters of the type one would buy if one wanted to do a "Paris" themed room in a showhome. The bar was behind us, and had a collection of vintage 'stubbies' along the top. 'Trying very hard to be charming' would be my description of the decor, and throughout the evening, I was back and forth between my impression that this place was either trying too hard or not trying hard enough.

If a place wants to be a cheerful bistro where people can get good french food in a fun atmosphere, that is what it should be. If a restaurant is a fine-dining restaurant, that is what it should be. It should not have the worst aspects of each.

Lets start with the prices - we went because they started a marketing scheme through our local Costco whereby they would sell $100.00 gift cards for $70.00, thereby bringing in the crowd they would not normally get. In reality, they have simply raised the price of the Prix Fixe menu from 70 to 100 dollars to compensate. It still says $70.00 on the website, and that was not the first time we ran into price discrepancies that night.

Soon upon being seated we opted out of the prix fixe in favour of the a-la-carte (a much cheaper option) I ordered escargots in a puff pastry shell with garlic cream emulsion and Jenn, being adventurous, had the soupe a l'onion gratinee, or french onion soup. For a main, I ordered rack of lamb demi-glace medium rare, and jenn ordered the supreme of chicken with a fig and port demi-glace and camborzola cheese. The house wine selection was good, I had a glass of Chapoutier Rhone and Jenn had the house rose.

Then we started to wait.

Bread arrived - 4 small pieces of warmed over baguette, along with little plastic tubs of dairymaid butter. Here is where I first started to get the impression that something was wrong. In a restaurant where the set menu is $100.00 plus wine, you don't serve plastic tubs of butter that wouldn't be out of place at a cheap roadside diner. Hell, even Denny's provides a tub of whipped butter if you get the pancakes. How hard is it to do a few curls of butter for your guests? As the bread was going on the table, the basket overturned, and flew on the floor. Another was provided, but this was the first sign that our servers were not the 'a' team.

CRASH! A stack of plates comes crashing down in the kitchen.

I look at Jenn as two old guys in berets speaking to each other in broad Albertan twangs sit down for coffee at the next table, talking about used cars and casinos. Loudly.

Eventually the appetizers arrive. Mine is placed too far to the right and on top of my knife. If it had been the soup of the day, it would have been on my lap. We dig in. Both are salty.... very salty, but what do you expect from french onion soup? Mine was at least tasty. Can't really screw up garlic and cream. The puff pastry shell was kind of tough. I've done better pastry myself, and I am quite the neophyte. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the shells are pre-made and frozen until needed. The plate holding each appy was on a larger charger plate with a paper napkin between. Not a fancy one either, the kind you buy by the thousand at Costco.

The old guys in berets get up, wander over to an empty table, pull the chairs around, and, I kid you not, pulled out a fiddle and accordion and began playing jazz standards. It seemed like a kind of desperate attempt to seem french. If I had come across a restaurant doing this in France, I would have probably given it a wide berth, as it was obviously directed at yokel tourists.

The empty cocktail glass that a waitress had left on the empty table in the middle of the room was still there some time later.

Then the espresso machine began to flood the area behind the bar. Mop, mop, mop.....CRASH! Another something hits the floor in the kitchen.

Jenn was parched after the salt in her soup, and her water was long since empty.... I gave her mine. It was a long time before they were filled again.

Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Went the ancient Pepsi cooler behind the bar, until the maitre-d went over and slapped it hard in the logo across the top - behind which the compressor was having a seizure.

Time passed. Patience waned. At 8:45, well over an hour after we had ordered, our mains arrived, coated in the saltiest demi-glace I have ever tasted. By that time, Jenn's rose was warm. Jenn couldn't finish her chicken. I made an effort on my rack of lamb, which was, at least, cooked medium-rare, and even dug into the blandest herbed mashed potatoes I have ever had. Nothing was outstanding. Nothing was worth the price on the menu. We complained about the saltiness of the demi-glace and looked at the dessert menu. We decided - based on the other food - to give dessert a miss. We just wanted to leave. The bill arrived, and Jenn's chicken was $4.00 more than the price on the menu, notwithstanding it was not a bargain t that price either, we decided not to complain but to pay up and leave.

$125.00 including tax and tip for a meal with no dessert and two glasses of house wine.

I give La Boheme a failing grade.

Those of you who know me know that while I may be a bit of a connoisseur, I am not a snob. I will dig into a good corn-dog or greasy diner breakfast with equal enthusiasm as I hold for hommard a l'americainne grattinee or a hundred bucks worth of prime sushi. The problem isn't that I am snobby, or that I am looking to find fault. I went to La Boheme half desperate to have a good experience. What I got was food with low scores for execution and a staff who would have gotten themselves fired from any Earls they might have been lucky enough to be hired at. The whole thing reeked of a non-pro status, and that isn't worth the price of admission.

So here's what's happening on the Car/Cashmere front

The car won. Ultimately, no matter how fabulous, I can't drive a suit from Spruce Grove to Edmonton. Now I am planning to catch up some deferred maintenance on the Sonata, since I've already dropped two grand into it this year, I may as well drop the extra grand and let it carry me another 30,000 klicks. The Civic might be leaving us if we can arrange it. Depending on our money situation, we may end up financing a new vehicle, or, more likely, buying a nearly new used car when a hefty bonus or our accident settlement or tax refund or other unexpected windfall comes in. Really, all we need is something that is not so worn out as the Civic's 190,000 km. It doesn't have to be super fancy, it would be nice if it had AC.

In other news, I will be putting my first lager (German Pilsner) in bottles this weekend. We shall see how it turns out. My second lager will be bottled within the next month or two, an American Premium Lager brewed on Saturday.

Irony

Price of a cashmere blend Canali suit currently on hold for me at my consignment store: $477.00

Cost of a new thermostat and heat sensor to prevent my car from stalling in traffic at unfortunate times: $477.00.

Owen's absolute Maximum disposable income this month: $477.00.

A perfectly reasonable question

...has been raised, that being, "What does BJCP stand for?" The answer: Beer Judge Certification Program.

The BJCP is an organization dedicated to increasing knowledge about and appreciation of good beer and developing the skills of beer tasting and beer judging. I am a member and a Certified Level Judge.

The BJCP has, through the efforts of certain individuals, developed a set of guidelines for the tasting and judging of 80 of the most common beer styles, or rather of 79 styles and one catch-all category. It is my goal to brew every style on those guidelines and by doing so increase my knowledge and understanding of beer and brewing, try beers that are not available commercially in Canada, and generally have a good time and feel accomplished. I really enjoy the process of making beer because my work does not produce anything more tangible than fat piles of paper and hurt feelings, and this lets me feel connected to a product. Slow beer, as it were. Also, this process is a lot simpler than the Julie/Julia Project, which was a bit of the inspiration for it. I cheat a bit by using recipes drawn from various sources including Brew Your Own Magazine and the excellent book, "Brewing Classic Styles" if not verbatim than certainly as inspiration.

A long week

Toady is the latest in a series of days where I am the only lawyer in the office. Needless to say, I am getting a lot of work done because I have four assistants at my disposal. The down side is that I am dealing with everyone else's strangeness as well as my own, which is putting a premium on my time. At the same time, Jenn seems to have injured her elbow by hitting it on a doorknob at school, and has the sort of lung-filling cough that I associate with septuagenarian two-pack a day smokers. Throw into that mix the fact that on my way to court this morning - to sort out a problem that Legal Aid was having in telling clients that we are acting for them when we are not, I slipped on 3 inch thick ice on the sidewalk and landed heavily on my wrist and hip, bruising both of them as well as my ego. Now I am taking a break from work here at the office as I wait the last ten minutes for my 6:00 PM appointment.

All of this is conspiring to wear me out a little. I would like nothing better than to go to bed early on Friday and sleep until sometime on Sunday afternoon, but if I did that, no beer would get made this weekend, and that would be a shame. Last weekend Nick and I started in on Style 10C, American Brown Ale. With that one and a German Pilsner to bottle, and possibly another to start this weekend, I have a busy Saturday ahead of me if Nick is free.

Just to recap on the beer, for those who vaguely care, I started this quest to brew every style in the BJCP guidelines about two years ago, and began to do it seriously about a year ago. Of the 80 styles in the guidelines, I have brewed 14, and of those, I just sent 10 to competition in Calgary. We will have to see how we do.

Not sure what the next style we will be taking on will be, but I suspect that we may have to try out a Trappist - possibly a dubbel. If we had any Northern Brewer Hops, we would be setting into California Common Beer, but the shortage has hit us hard in that respect. Those fellows at Anchor seem to have cornered the market, and I may need to use my Californial Lager yeast to fire us up a Cream Ale and maybe Blonde as well.

All of the beer promises to take less time now that I have sprung for the $4.00 adapter that will allow me to attach my drill to my malt mill and change from 60 RPM to 360 RPM. Yeah. That's what we need here... More Power.

Cashmiracle on 120th Street

I have posted previously about my not-so-secret, not-so-shameful lust for the ultimate items of mixed conformity/non-conformity, finely tailored woolen goods. I have posted previously the whys and hows of my habit. Today, I must give a nod to the near-telepathic, deal-with-the-devil customer skills of the propriotrix of my favourite consignment shop.

The sign in the window said "Blowout Sale". I was naturally concerned that this equated to "Going out of Business Sale", and went inside on my way back from court. Not at all, simply getting rid of the winter gear in favour of some spring items and cruise-wear.

I will not buy a suit. I will not buy a suit. I will not buy a suit. I will not buy a suit.

I need a shirt.

A nice semi-casual shirt;

something bright;

maybe with french cuffs.

Say, it can't hurt to look at the 42 regular section, can it? Just to see? Just to look? I'm not buying you understand... Oh...... Oh My............. Canali Charcoal chalk-stripe...... Cashmere? Oh my word........ 30% off? Let me see, at $1800.00 regular off the rack new, I'm already getting about 60% off this apparently new suit..... and another 30% would make it.........

NO! No, I shan't buy a suit.

I will not buy a suit. I will not buy a suit. I will not buy a suit. Ooh! Paisley!

I need a paisley shirt. And that pink Hugo Boss with the french Cuffs for $12.00. That will do nicely. I'll just go try this on.

What? Yes? Yes they both seem to fit, I don't suppose I could trouble you for some cufflinks just to see? What? Yes, actually...... I did see that Canali Chalk Stripe...... Yes, I know it's cashmere......................

......

......

Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt to just try it on........

Oh.....

Oh my......

Yes, I see that it doesn't even need to be tailored. The cuffs hang just so, the pants break just right...........

Let me see...... the mortgage payment goes through the first..........

Could you hold this for me until, say, Valentine's Day?

Of course she could........

Beer Stuff toady

Today, with a visit from Nick the Mighty Brewer, we racked the lager we made last wek, a german pilsner, and started an American Amber ale (10B).

That's about it.

F-4

F-4 pounds.  That was the verdict when I woke up this morning, notwithstanding the fact that I blew my diet badly on Friday with a trip to Shan-E-Punjab (I think that's what it's called) located in a converted Arby's in Mill Woods.  Mmmmm, Butter Chicken.

Also this weekend Nick the mighty brewer came by and we cooked up a batch of German Pilsner, our first stab at a lager, since Saturday was the first day in about two months where we could stand to be on the deck for any amount of time.  It seemed to go well.

This weekend was not long enough.  I think I slept through most of it.  I am not impressed to be going back to work on Monday.

Day 1: F - 0

Well, after an indulgent holiday season, which followed close on the heels of a generally indulgent year, food wise, I stepped up on the scale today and decided that I have let myself go completely to seed.  I have let myself get fat.  My clothes still fit, after a fashion, but I am a long way from my best weight.  Here I am, fat.  How much do I weigh?  Unimportant.  I am assigning my weight the variable "F" (as in 'Fat').  

My goal?  F-25 pounds by July 30, 2009.

How to do it?

I am going back to the formula that worked for me so well the last time - STOP EATING SO MUCH CRAP!  I might even try the other option open which is, of course - GET OFF YOUR DUFF!

Wish me luck people, and remember that your constant ridicule when I publicly fail (as I will be tracking this) is vital to my progress.

Merry Christmas

Well, two turkey dinners down, and one to go, now that we were invited (at 8:45 on Christmas Day) to a boxing day feast with Jenn's Dad's Brother's side of the family.  A good time is promised to be had by all, but if I see another bite of turkey, I think I will go mental.  If you'll excuse me, I got two bottles of scotch for Christmas, and I need to get to work on that.  They aren't just going to drink themselves.  

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Frozen Projectile Vomit

You know that feeling you get when you walk out to your car on a brisk -32 degree morning and you look in the back seat of your car and it appears that someone has had massive projectile vomiting and the vomit is now frozen to your seats, carpet, door panels and ceiling?  

I do.

Turns out I left a can of cola under the back seat during our last road trip to Calgary and it went off in the middle of the night, spraying frozen cola into the upholstery.  I did not have a good morning that morning.  I had to use my ice scraper to get the coke off the seats and roof.  I was not a happy camper.  Once it is above freezing for a few days, I will have to shampoo the whole back of the car.  

Ugh.

What should we be able to do? A request for input:

Yesterday, our articling student at work was late.  I was later, but that is not the issue.  The reason she was late was that her car would not start and needed to be boosted because of the cold.  Instead, her Mother drover her to work.  They had a working car and jumper cables, but did not boost the car themselves.  Why not?  "My dad wasn't there."

Really?

Is that were we are as a society that a young lady of reasonable intelligence can't jump start a car without her father doing it for her?

It got me to thinking, and chatting with a handful of people, what should a person be able to do by the time they reach adulthood?  We came up with a list.  I hope that my readers will provide any additional suggestions.

1. Jump start a car.  This is important because you can use it to help people, help yourself, avoid a 5 hour wait for the auto club, and if a good Samaritan is doing it wrong to your vehicle, they might set your engine on fire before they get your car started.

2. Change a tire.  See 1.

3. Drive a manual transmission.

4. Ride a bicycle.

5. Swim 100 meters without stopping.  This could save your life.

6. Cook a meal for 8 from scratch.  One that is reasonably impressive.  Everyone needs a party piece, and the skills you learn doing this will probably carry over to any number of other preparations.

7. Start a campfire.  Not in heavy winds without matches or tools, just under normal circumstances and without making yourself look like an ass.  I have taught bright 11 year olds to do this, you should be able to as well.

8. Chop wood without injuring yourself.  Again, 11 year olds.

9. Eat a formal dinner without embarrassing yourself.  Come on now people, is this really difficult?

10. Tie a necktie.  If you are a female, you must be able to do it in reverse for your partner who lacks this skill.  It is never acceptable to tie a tie once and leave it that way on the hanger.  It will damage the tie, shortening its life and creasing it in terrible ways, and you will look silly because of it.

11. Iron a shirt without damaging it.

12. Polish your shoes with a paste polish, not the kind that squeezes out of a bottle onto a sponge.  There is a reason they still make the old-fashioned stuff, it works a hundred times better.

13. The next two made the list because of some of the younger people I have met who have problems with them.  Tie your shoes.  Velcro and slip-on skate shoes have not made shoelaces obsolete.  It is also not acceptable to leave the shoes tied and treat them as slip-ons because, first it makes you look silly, and second it will result in damage to your shoes, feet and posture.

14. Tell analog time without thinking about it.  If you have to use the words "big hand" and "little hand" in your head, you need to work on this skill.

15. Tell 'Military' or 24 hour time without thinking about it.  When you are at the airport looking at the flight arrivals screen, you don't want to ask stupid questions.

16. Play an instrument and read sheet music.  This may be the most difficult set of skills on the list, but if you master them you have achieved something of value.

17. Perform general first aid.  You could save a life.  It may be yours.

18. Tell three jokes suitable for mixed company.  They should be funny, and you should be able to tell them with some panache.

19. Hammer in a nail without injuring yourself or bending it in half.

20. Make change without electronic assistance.  I am constantly shocked at how many people in the retail trade can't do this - a skill that takes one minute to learn.

21. Tip appropriately without asking silly questions or using a calculator.

22. Sew on a button and hem a pair or pants.  I admit that I cannot do the latter.  It irks me that I have to pay someone to do it for me.

My dad, being somewhat more frontiers-y than I am, made three additional suggestions, which I include in decreasing order of my own perception of their relevance.

23. Load and fire a firearm safely.  I actually agree with this for a number of reasons and was waffling about whether to include it myself.  First, when the zombie apocalypse comes, everyone will need to know how to do this, it just makes sense.  Second, even in the absence of zombies, I can conceive of social circumstances where a person might be called upon to fire a firearm.  I don;t want to be the fellow who doesn't join the lads  for a day's trap shooting because I am embarrassed by my lack of knowledge.  Ultimately, firearms are still somewhat prevalent in north American society, less so in Canada, but still there, and it would benefit a person to have a working knowledge of something so potentially dangerous that they may interact with.  That having been said, the other reason is that shooting guns is totally fun.  I don't believe in private citizens using firearms for "protection", I don't hunt, all I do is enjoy the act of shooting.  

24. Operate a chainsaw.  Arguably it is more likely that a person will be called upon to operate a chainsaw than a firearm, but I don't foresee the likelihood of a social interaction involving chainsaws.  That having been said, if the power is out and you need firewood, this is a handy skill to have.

25. Castrate cattle.  What can I say?  My dad put in some farm time as a child.  I cannot reasonably foresee any person being called upon unexpectedly to castrate cattle, nor can I foresee someone placed in that situation being left to the task without instruction.

There you have it.  I definitely need a new #25.  Help if you will.

Well, it had to end sooner or later.

Up until now, the weather has been enough to make Ralph Klein believe in global warming.  That will change on the weekend when it is set to drop to -30 for the first time this year.  

That more or less puts the kibosh on any brewing I was planning to do on the weekend.  What may have to get done is the laundry that has been piling up and the ironing that I have been avoiding for so long.  All that aside, I can honestly say that the Christmas season is starting to get a little dull ever since I finished my shopping.  We aren't even hosting a dinner this year, so there is really nothing to panic about.

This means that I will need to get something going.  I need to plan a party.  Yes.  Party.  Jenn will love that.

Grey Cup Weekend

It was a long weekend.  Not very relaxing.  On the up side, on Sunday, Nick and I fired up a batch of Beer - 8 C Extra Special Bitter - which means that we have finished one entire category of beer from the list - English pale ale.  It smells really good, too.

I have also managed to lay my hands on some English "special Roast" and "Brown Malt" which will expand some of the types of beer I can make right now.  That having been said, I am thinking of trying to brew some lager this winter as one corner of my basement is reliably about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, so that opens up a large portion of previously accessed beers.

Also fun is the fact that I seem to be settling files at a tremendous rate, so that I might have room to take on new clients after Christmas.  

Maybe I can use this parchment to keep cookies from sticking...

So here I am, with yet another university degree on my wall.  BA, LLB, LLM.  How does this affect my life?  New business cards.  Any other way?  Not really.  I'm published in the library of Parliament, does that count?

To celebrate, gonna make beer and watch the Grey Cup.  Not quite sure what kind of beer yet.  Maybe ESB, maybe porter.

Christmas shopping and beer

Yesterday, Jenn and I celebrated our Sunday by going to Costco and doing our Christmas shopping.  There are few things I like more than going to Costco at Christmas and finding some of the best and most acclaimed books of the year (and I am thinking particularly of cookbooks) for about half of what I would pay anywhere else.  I also love it when their cheese selection goes from 20 to 60 overnight.  That makes me happy.

When we got home, Jenn helped me to bottle two batches of beer, an Imperial (or double) India Pale Ale, clocking in at 7.3% ABV and well over 100 IBU, which had a lovely grapefruit aroma and is called Amarillo Sunset, and a Belgian Golden Strong of about 9% which I haven't named yet.  Needless to say, large bottles of these two should be treated with caution.

Obligatory Obama Victory Post

I finally feel as though our long global nightmare - the failed experiment called neoconservatism - might starting the slow but inevitable road to the end.  The death-throes might linger, but the next time the same ideas come around, hopefully it will be under some new moniker.  I will be satisfied with a couple of terms of centre-left classical liberalism with some social conscience thrown in for good measure.  

Obama invoked Lincoln, when he spoke about the "Better angels" of America's nature.  It has been a long time since most of the world has seen that from the American administration.  I hope that the new administration can remind the rest of the world what we love about America - not the power or wealth or culture (trust me, it ain't any of those things) - but the real ideology of America that people are basically good, that if left alone most people will do the right thing, and that if you aren't hurting anyone, more power to you.  The Americans I have ever dealt with have been kind, generous, more or less charming, and most have a fascinating optimism about the world and its perfectibility.  I love that.  

I have heard America compared to a big, friendly, badly trained dog.  You might get slobbered on, things might get knocked over or your yard dug up, but mostly intentions are good if you don't annoy it too much.  For too many years, the dog has gone from a friendly pup to a fear-biting and suspicious pound dog.

Lets keep our fingers crossed for the good dog to come back. 

Two more beers and other news

On Thanksgiving Nick and I brewed a Belgian Golden Strong, a style you may have seen in the store as "Fin Du Monde" or "Delerium Tremens" or "Duvel"  And clocks in at 8% + alcohol.  The other one we made was an Imperial India Pale Ale, a style developed in the US which has an awful lot of hops in it.  It was our way of celebrating the hop harvest and having five pounds in the freezer at once, a pound of which all went into one batch of beer.  Fabulous.  It smells great.

The other news is that the principal of the school where Jenn had so many problems last year is no longer the principal of that or any school, a change that occurred in the middle of October, no less, which seems to me to be an indication that there were some serious problems with her, probably from many sides.  Jenn just figures that her victory is complete.

Scoring one for the good guys:

Ok... remember back a few years, and the latest greatest thing to come from LucasArts was "X-Wing" which put you in the seat of the fighter spacecraft of the Rebel Alliance?  That was fun and all, but a couple of years later, a much more fun game came out... similar in most ways, similar but improved controls and graphics... but instead, for the first time in franchise history, you were on the side of the Evil Empire.  It felt good.  Oh, the evil.  Bringing order to chaos, imposing your will on radical elements and pacifying cultures through force, just like the Republican Party.

Well, lets just say it can be fun to be the bad guy.  

Which is why I feel odd having just plonked down hard earned cash for that most counter-cultural of desktop computers.  Yes, folks, I am now a Mac User.  For the above-noted evil-empire-type reasons, I have been a PC user for many years, but now that I am married, I no longer get my way, and I am instead forced to embrace the attitudes and OS preferences of my beloved.  And here it is.  I have bought into the Rebel Alliance of computers.

How is it?

Not bad.

Although the selection of game titles is thin.

Success

Yesterday I picked up my new (to me) suit and sport coat from the tiny Vietnamese tailor with foot thick glasses.  The suit isn't anything special, Arnold Brandt, a made in Canada number, not outsourced, grey, with pick-stitching on the lapels, which the tailor was good enough to do the cuffs on... a suit that at Harry Rosen would have listed about $800 or up.

He wouldn't stop raving about my sport-coat, though.  "You no a tailor, so you don't know about these things, but I see inside!  That very good.  You buy good like that and you wear 10 Year!"

Oh, who made the sport coat?  Samuelshon.  Rack price, $999.00.  Picked it up for around $130.00.  

I am so going back to that store.

The other thing is that they have a selection of formalwear that they blow out really really cheap.  Good tuxes for $100-$150, which means that it would be cheaper to buy one than to rent, which means that I am on her "look for this for me" list.

I went over all this with the owner just after my purchases and after mentioning that I only wear vintage cufflinks.  She walks me back to the formalwear section, and takes a look in my size and says, "There's nothing here that you would want.  You want a shawl collar with satin facings, right?"  

Okay, first, yes.  Second, am I really that easy, was it the vintage cufflink thing?  Third, is it odd that a man barely in his thirties who is currently sitting around in a t-shirt that says "Drunken Lazy Bastard" in block letters across the back has an opinion about this?

Yeah, I'm going back there, but I promise, only for ties right now.  (ties you can't even buy in Canada, $12.00)

Oh dear... My spending money budget is going to go out the window.

The new black

Bonus time has come and gone, new appliances s have been purchased, and the subject of a soon-to-come post has been expensively embraced by the family. It has come time for Owen to consider the fact that since beginning his law practice five years ago, he has not been able to afford a new suit.

"But Owen", you say, "surely a successful Barrister such as yourself can afford to buy any number of quality work-related garments! And anyway, you took two years off to "find yourself" and "get married" and "get a Masters" and "Goof Off"".

Fair enough. There have been some new shirts ($1.00 each at a charity sale), shoes (Florshiem Half-Brogues in Black, and a re-soling of my Florshiem Oxfords - leaving me with enough dress shoes to last me for years), barrister's waistcoat (Firm paid), an overcoat (Navy, good wool, no cashmere, on sale at the Bay on Boxing Day) some ties (gifts) and gold vintage Tiffany and Heirloom Cloisonne cuff links (also gifts, and ones I cherish).

My suits, however, have seen better days.

The cuffs on the pants, for example, are starting to go. Also, when I bought my suits, I was about 35 pounds heavier, and it shows in the cut. Even with the pants taken in once, they don't fit well, and I look like I am wearing my big brother's clothes. Even my best dress shits, and my only french cuffs, are wearing out.

I could, you know, go out and buy a suit at any time for cheap. Hell, Moores sells them for $139.00 four times a year. The problem with a cheap suit, and I have owned cheap suits, is that they make you Feel cheap. Further, the website describes the availability of "High Performance" suit fabrics. I am loath to buy a suit at a store that will be willing to sell me a suit in ripstop nylon or red and yellow sharkskin corduroy. The problem I have is one of being spoiled for life. It happened like this:

For years, I remember my dad coming home from work in his uniform. Unlike some of the dads in the neighborhood (I lived near an army base) his uniform was one of a starkly conservative dark business suit with a solid coloured shirt, barrel cuffs, point collars, well-shined shoes (I remember watching him sit with his shoe shine box, polishing his shoes, it stuck with me...) latterly the suits were Samuelsohn, whose off-brand - Cambridge - I wear now. (If I wanted to buy Samuelsohn today, I would be looking at $1800.00, which I can't really afford at this point) The only nod to his up-from-the-ranks background at the company was the only briefcase I have ever known him to carry, a brown plastic Samsonite, engraved as a presentation piece, and of such obvious and crippling sentimental value that carrying it in the latter stages of his career could only have been described as eccentric.

We all turn into our fathers, I suppose. I remember as a young teenager my dad explaining why he would spend that kind of money for a suit, "You only have to buy it once." Little did I know that this was true in more ways than one. Not only are good suits durable in the extreme, but they are as addictive as cigarettes (the other part of my dad's uniform, being a pack of Craven "A" King Sized). Once you wear a good suit, the idea that it is uncomfortable or awkward to wear a suit and tie is forever abolished, and you will generally refuse to wear a suit that does not conform to your newly raised standards.

He still wears Sameulsohn, my dad, creature of habit that he is. A sport coat on sale at Ed Williams in Calgary that feels wonderful, and will last another 20 years. I think back to my dad's unused suits and regret that we no longer wear the same size as one another, as we did for a brief period in 1993.

When I graduated from law school in 2003, I scammed a line of credit from my bank, "I'm starting my first job out of law school in two weeks and I need walking around money". Little did they realize what an articling student is paid. Flush with good credit, I lashed out for a car (black) Johnson & Murphey shoes to complement my Florshiems, and two Cambridge brand suits. One Charcoal worsted, and one summer-weight pale grey. I have never spent so much money on clothes in one day before or since. Not even in most years. I was hooked from that day forward.

And now, here I am, married, homeowner, piled with responsibility, with little hope of satisfying the desire I have (some would say conformist snobbery, but I reserve that label for those wearing Prada and D&G, conservative business attire is hardly conformist these days) for fine woolen goods. There is a ray of hope, though. I have just discovered on the internet a store, four blocks from my office, that sells, "gently used" men's designer suits. Armani, Zenga, (Yawn) Hugo Boss... and down at the bottom of the page, "Samuelsohn".

It could be worse, a pack a day of cigarettes is still a two-Samuelsohn-a-year equivalent.

Unexpected expenses 101

Or, rather, $375.00, the tab for a new as-is clearance floor model washing machine.

Funny how you get used to being able to do laundry whenever you feel like it without searching for quarters and going for a drive, isn't it? Well, on Sunday, our laundry machine decided that it's drain pump would be better off making a burning electric motor smell than moving water out of the washer. As an entry level washer, it would cost more to fix than to replace, so off I go to the local furniture store, let's call it "The Cinder-Block", where I plonked down my much abused plastic for the cheapest thing in the department, which happens to be a rather nice washer marked down $200.00 because the bleach dispenser cap is missing. I can mix up my own bleach, thank you very much.

The down side of this is that they don't deliver to my area (who does, indeed) so I get to spend my Saturday moving laundry machines up and down the stairs to my basement.

All this comes at the same time as Jenn finding out that she will not be needed to cover the leave she had been subbing for for the first two weeks of school, leaving her at a .17 FTE, without benefits, and us a little poor for right now. Our best hope for not having to subsist on the crumbs we can scrape out of the bottom of the toaster will be my quarter-end bonus next Tuesday. Here's hoping it's not small.

I gots those four-time stage-crossin' mortarboardin' blues...

Against my better judgment, I have decided to attend my November 20th convocation. I now have two attendees and three tickets. The third ticket is up for grabs, and there may be more available. If anyone wants to be bored to tears for no good reason, just let me know. Personally, I think convocation is just a scam to get another $35.00 fee out of me and to make me sit around wasting a whole day on a work day when I could be out getting people divorced.

This one will make # 4. High school, BA, LLB. and now LL.M. Oddly, the one I seem to actually remember is high school.

The other news is that Jenn has a job full time staring Tuesday. She will be teaching .829 FTE at an elementary school covering what appears at this point to be a long-term leave. There may be more permanent jobs show up soon, we don't know. Next year is looking good because 6 new Jr and Sr high schools re opening in Edmonton and there will be a wave of retirements, too, most likely, so there will probably be a ton of positions opening up, at which she will get an insider's crack, being employed by the board and all. So this year we eat, next yer, maybe even more.

Test results

Some of you may remember my April 22 Beer Judge Certification Program exam. While I was away camping in Fairmont, the results came in by e-mail. I scored 83/100 on the tasting portion and 90/100 on the written portion. What this means is that (if you apply last year's statistics to this one) I am in the top 10% or so of exam writers. This thrilled me to no small extent.

Also camping was good, but I ate wayyyyyy too much everything.

Aaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnnd.............Done

As of August 22, 2008, I have completed all of the requirements of Master of Laws. My convocation is on November 20, and if you want to celebrate, I think I may be feeling partyish at that point. This is the culmination of 4 years of research, hard work and procrastination, and I feel like I have accomplished something. About 6 students per year start their LL.M at the U of A, and every time someone graduates, an announcement is made via e-mail to the rest of the students. About 6 people have completed in the 4 years I have been at it. I suspect that the drop-out rate is around 75%, on that basis.

So, big kudos for me.

Hemi-demi-semi done his thesis, he quavered...

I handed in my revisions Tuesday, today (Wednesday) got a call from my advisor saying he would call back tonight with an hour or so worth of revisions still needed, but nothing major, which means (If he ever does call) that I may be able to hand in my thesis by this Friday, rather than next and by doing so:
1) Be able to actually enjoy camping;
2) Be flipping well finished.

Also today, I went to court and actually WON! Completely won, like, on everything. And it was actually over an amount of money worth fighting over, too. I called my client to let them know we won, and they seemed kinda noncommittal. If I was about to get as much money as they re, I would be flipping thrilled.

This week seems to be my week of settling files. About 2 per day. If this keeps up, I will be able to take new clients again soon. And other clients fired me, which works just as well for reducing workload, if not more so because inevitably it is on high-conflict files that you get fired, and dropping one of those is as good as dropping three or four regular files.

Plus people seem to actually have recognized the fact that they have to pay their lawyer in a timely and complete fashion, which is a giant bonus when you are trying to justify your existence. A fellow needs to do more around the office than look pretty and drink his weight in beer

Update

How has the thesis writing been going? Good during the weekend, not as good weeknights, which has put me a little behind. I have therefore ordered a "Do it yourself long weekend kit" consisting of telling your boss you aren't coming in on Friday, a box of Popsicles, and 72 straight hours of quality time with my word processor. On the up side, I seem to be getting ahead at work, although I have yet to find a good balance between hyper-busy and kinda bored. At least hyper-busy means that I might make some bonus money this quarter to keep the wolves at bay. I seem to have managed to wind up in court four days next week. Not sure how that happened. Then we are going camping, which should be fun.

My main complaint lately is that the Olympics are too cool, and i wind up staying up past my bedtime to watch. I think they need to make sports less interesting.

Owen's Thesis

So it turns out that my defence was not on the 12th, but rather on the 1st, which was today. This was not a surprise to me, it just didn't make it onto my blog. The defence itself took 3 hours and the verdict was passed subject to revisions, which is exactly what I expected to happen. The practical outcome of this is that I have one more round of revisions to do to my thesis before I am done, but I don't have to go back before the committee. I will, however, be disappearing from view and spending most of my time working on the bloody thing some more until it is done. It could take me a few days, it could take me two weeks, but I will not be doing anything else until I am done, because I don't want to have to jump through the hoops needed to re-register for an additional semester after the technical end date of my program.

Wow

Today I finished the formatting for my thesis, tomorrow, I hand in a copy at FGSR, August 12, I defend, I submit almost right away after that.

Wow. Almost done. I wonder what I will feel guilty about not doing once it's done.

To celebrate, I will make beer.

More boring things that only interest me

This Canada Day weekend, I have worked on finishing my thesis (target date: Wednesday) and made two batches of beer, an Oatmeal Stout and Southern English Brown Ale This brings me to a total of 7 of 80, or almost 10% of the way to my goal. The addition of an electronic thermometer has really helped to have the beer turn out properly. Bottling of the Special bitter will be next weekend, and if i have enough bottles, I will bottle the stout too.

Our latest happenings and some beer

Just to keep people up to date, Jenn returned safely from the United states, although not without incident. Due to construction in Chicago, her bus from South Bend was delayed by almost an hour and she missed her check-in for the flight to Calgary. You can imagine the stream of increasingly agitated texts that I got. The good folks at United Airlines were good enough to stand her by for the direct flight to Edmonton leaving three hours later, which still had her home 45 minutes early. The bottom line there is that the only reason she wasn't on that flight in the first place was because it would have been an extra $300 if we had booked it that way.

When she got home, Jenn started in on Physio for her arm, which has been going well - and her arm is now out of the sling most of the time. She did have a bad ear infection, a flu, and what appears now to be a lung infection. I haven't caught any of this yet, but I assume it is only a matter of time until I do.

Jenn's work has been winding down as she is now supervising exams and shutting down the classroom for the summer. She won't be taking over the Mat Leave she had been promised and pressured to take, because they found a Catholic candidate at the last minute. She has, however, set up a program where she will be teaching band for distance-learning students throughout Edmonton, which means that she has a foot in the door at Edmonton Public. She has also applied to teach summer school and to do a few other sundry things to scrape together what (If I were to be earning it) I would call Beer Money, but I'm sure she would be more likely to spend on other more useful things.

At my work, a new articling student started at the beginning of the week, which has been kind of interesting. It really makes you appreciate how steep the learning curve was for you at the start of your career to see someone else go through it. I have also started taking new clients again for the first time in about three months.

Finally the beer News - After careful consideration of our ongoing likelihood of selling the house on any given day, I decided that my need to make my own beer outweighed my need for a spotless house, and I had Nick the Mighty Brewer over for some brewing. We hit Style 8B (English Special Bitter) with the following recipe:

4.4 KG 2 row pale malt
227 G Dark Munich
227 G Med Crystal
60 G Chocolate Malt

Single infusion Mash at 153 F

11 G Warrior @ 16.3% 60 Min
11 G Fuggles @ 4.5% & 7 G Hallertau @ 3.7% 20 Minutes
11 G Fuggles @ 4.5% & 7 G Hallertau @ 3.7% 1 minute

It seems pretty good so far. I'll let you know when I bottle if it tastes any good.