I think I mentioned in a previous post that Amy got me a two-session beer making class. Well yesterday was class one. It was a blast and I think I want to eventually give it a try myself at home.

We started off meeting a couple of her friends, Jed and Cindy, for breakfast at 9 AM that live near the beer place. They were really nice and I enjoyed their company.

The class started at 11 AM and it was just a few blocks from where we had breakfast.



It was supposed to be us and another couple, but the other couple didn't show up so it was just us. I liked that because we got more personalized attention.

He poured us different types of beer to sample throughout the class. We also sampled three types of mead which I was excited to try. It was delicious! I always thought it was like sweet beer. It is actually just fermented honey. Surprisingly it tastes most similar to a white wine. He uses locally harvested honey which is neat. We could pick up on the florals, some pine, and various spicy notes. Whatever the bees foraged on really came out in the end result. Much more so than you can taste in just straight honey.

The instructor started soaking some barely malt and then cooking it around 6:30 in the morning. This is Amy stirring it after we dropped a satchel of crystal malt into it.



Here we have transferred the fresh malt from the kettle into the fermenter and are adding some canned malt. We added a can of hopped malt and a can of unhopped malt. He also added some hops to the mash in the kettle early in the morning.



These are the two cans of malt we added, the satchel of crystal malt, the vial of yeast, and the package of finishing hops we added to the fermenter right before we sealed it up.



The blue barrel is just city tap water that the instructor pulled the day before and let it sit so the chlorine could escape.



The orange tub on the table is where he first soaked the barley malt in the morning. The black thing on the table behind it is the kettle where he cooked the mash after it soaked for a while. He cooked it at 180 degrees.



We will go back in about three weeks to bottle the beer and take it home. At that time we can adjust the beer if it is too hoppy, not hoppy enough, adjust the specific gravity etc. He said a lot of home brewers don't adjust their beer before they bottle it and said you miss the opportunity to make a really good beer by skipping this step.

We will also add some corn sugar before we bottle it. This is how you carbonate the beer. It gives the yeast an easily digestible food source which results in lots of carbon dioxide. He said they use corn sugar rather than table sugar because the latter can give your beer an off taste.

I think I could see myself doing it at home. You don't need nearly as much expensive equipment as I thought:

A five gallon bucket to use as a fermenter with an airtight lid and a water valve on top to let the excess gases out and keep bacteria from getting in.

A kettle to cook the mash and a turkey fryer burner. I have the burner, but I would probably want to use a kettle that hasn't been used for anything else.

A hydrometer to check specific gravity.

A bottle capper.

Some siphon tubing.

That's it! I have a friend that does a little home brewing who said I could borrow his gear before I invest in my own.

It has been WAY too long since I have posted here. I have a lot to catch up on, so for now I think I will just do a summary to get back in the groove.

Probably the biggest thing is I was in Florida the last week of March for a much needed family vacation. Mom, Dad, Sister, bro-in-law, niece and nephew all shared a really nice condo right on the beach! It was a long, tough, and cold winter and a week in Florida really recharged my batteries. I have pictures and some videos I will post later.

For my birthday Amy got me a really neat gift: a two-session beer making class! Here are the details:

We'll cover all major aspects of brewing in this two-session class. In the first session you will brew a 6-gallon batch using the latest brewing techniques that truly produce a quality brew. Beer will ferment in our temperature-controlled cellar for 2 to 3 weeks. When ready, you choose a date to come in for the second session and bottle 50 to 60 bottles of your beer. We have many beer styles to choose from.

First Session:
•Factors that make quality beer
•In depth discussion on brewing ingredients
•Brewing techniques
•Hands-on brewing
•How to evaluate quality beer

Second Session:
•Bottling techniques
•Bottling your beer
(You can bring in your own bottles or purchase new ones for $10.95 per case (24 bottles)
•Capping your beer
•Beer storage
•Beer labeling. Label paper is $9.95 for 32 labels. You can customize a label design for a $45.00 set-up fee and 35 cents per label, or have one designed specially for you (quotes upon request)
•(Optional) Brew another batch.

You can choose any kind of beer you want to make. Because of this I have been researching and sampling different kinds of beer lately. Because of this I think I have decided my favorite kind of beer is pale ale.

Side note: beer can be divided into two types, lager and ale. The kind of yeast lager uses needs cooler temperatures and therefore longer brewing times and the yeast lives at the bottom of the brewing vessel. Ale yeast needs warmer temperature, shorter brew times, and lives at the top of the brewing vessel. I am probably overly generalizing, but lagers are milder and ales have a more complex taste. I am sure I will be writing more about this as I learn more.

I got another off-leash permit for Mitch this year for the county's dog parks. I have taken him there a few times after work. It really tires him out. I usually make him wear a muzzle, not because he is aggressive towards other dogs or people, but because if I don't, he won't play but will scavenge for poop and grass to eat. The part that sucks is that people think he is aggressive or a bad dog when they see the muzzle. Maybe I will get a vest for him that says something like "The muzzle is just to keep me from eating poop."

(It's surprising how much easier the words flow with some Goose Island Honker's Ale in me!)

I just bought an 80 megabyte Zune MP3 player this week and love it. I ordered it from Amazon Tuesday morning and opted for the free Super Saver shipping option. The initial estimate was that I would receive it on May 9 which is 19 days. I received it in two days on Thursday! I downloaded and installed the Zune software before it arrived and set up a bunch of podcasts I wanted to subscribe to. When it arrived I was syncing the music, podcasts, and updating the firmware within 4 minutes (literally) of opening it up. It has built-in WiFi and I was able to set that up with my encrypted connection without reading the instructions in just a couple minutes. I can synch the latest podcasts anywhere in the house without the need to plug a cable into player. Neat!

Went to the doctor again this morning to get another shot of cortisone in my elbow for tendonitis.

I need to cut the grass today.

I am doing the neighborhood newsletter for a couple months while the woman that normally does it is on maternity leave. I am actually writing this post in order to procrastinate from working on it.

I use spoons a lot in the kitchen. One to stir the coffee grounds after I pour the water into the French press. One for my cereal. When I am cooking I will grab a spoon for tasting. Etc. It seemed that I was always running out of teaspoons. Amy had a great idea from watching a chef on one of the Food Network shows. I went to Wal-Mart and bought 4 packs of cheap teaspoons ($1 per pack) for a total of 24 spoons and keep them in an upright container next to the stove. Now I can grab a clean spoon without worrying if I am running out! Genius.

This is the great hand-drawn Valentine's I got in the mail today from my 7 year old nephew.

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I snapped this right outside my front door tonight after work.

My left elbow has been very painful since September. I finally mentioned it to my doctor today. He said it is just tennis elbow and gave me a shot of cortisone and Novocain. He was happy with my numbers. My A1c hasn't changed since last visit: 6.2.

After my appointment I went out to breakfast and then to an international grocery store just for something to do. I got some Bobak's Chicago style hot dogs and hard rolls, sauerkraut directly from the barrel, brown rice, Indian hot mix snack, Philippine soy sauce, eggs, and English muffins. The chica cashier flirted with me a little bit. That was nice.

I am off work today for Lincoln's birthday. I need to shovel the driveway in a little bit. The snow is letting up and there is just between one and two inches. It is fluffy too so it shouldn't be too bad.

This is a picture of the Freedom Train my nephew drew for me a few weeks back that I like.


Watched most of the Grammy's on Sunday and finally found out the difference between album of the year, record of the year, and song of the year.

Album of the year is awarded to the artist for the entire album.

Record of the year is awarded to the ARTIST for a particular song.
Song of the year is awarded to the WRITER for a particular song.

I am giving Mitch about a half ounce of salmon oil per day primarily for his dry skin, but it will also be good for his general well being (coat, joints, heart, cancer, etc.) He has dropped a couple pounds recently, but rather than increase his food right now I will see how the 136 added calories from the salmon oil does. He is 70.2 pounds. He was around 72 pounds. I would like to keep him between 72 and 75.

When I first moved to Chicago the first Chicago pizza I had was Giordano's and I did not like it. The cheese was so chewy it was like trying to chew a mouthful of rubber bands. It just would not break down, and it didn't have very much taste.

Then I found Lou Malnati's. Very good. Because it was nearby, one of the originals, and always got good reviews I never felt the need to experiment with other places when I was in the mood for Chicago pizza. On Sunday however we tried Gino's East. Excellent! The next time I want some Chicago pizza it is going to be a decision between these two places now.

On Super Bowl Sunday I watched the game at a friend's house from work and did not get in until late. When I got home the house was dark and Mitch did not meet me at the door. I figured he was upstairs already asleep.

I walked into the kitchen and turned the light on. As soon as I did that I heard a crinkling from the family room and then something popped up from the couch. It then made its way off of the couch and towards my general direction. This is what I came home to that night:


I snapped a quick pic with my cell phone before I rescued him.

It is a cheese cracker bag he dug out of the kitchen trash can. I have no idea how long he had his head stuck inside, but I am just glad he didn't suffocate.

I got a point-and-shoot camera this week (Canon SD1000) to compliment my full size digital SLR (Canon EOS 30D). One of the fun features it has is a time lapse movie mode. For your viewing please I present a time lapse video of me clearing the snow from the driveway this evening. I set the camera up on a tripod in a front bedroom.

Here is a quick video I shot of Mitch sitting on command!

Goliath used to follow me from room to room as I puttered around the house doing chores. Mitch follows me around the room as I do chores. It can bother people that aren't used to it, especially in the kitchen, but I have kind of developed a Mitch-RADAR and can sense when he is standing directly behind me ready to trip a less suspecting person. I like his attentiveness though.

Greyhounds are not really designed to sit, especially when they are right off the track because they are so tight and muscle bound, but I have been slowly working with Mitch and he can now sit on command! He still looks awkward doing it, but he doesn't seem to mind. I try to do it when he is excited, when he is jumping up and down when I pick up his leash, so he gets in the habit of listening to me when he is distracted. This so if he gets away from me on a walk or maybe in a fight at the dog park he can avoid injury or death by overcoming his natural urges to run or fight.

I had two days of training in the Loop for Python scripting. This is a link to a description of the class. I think it is going to be useful for me at work.

I bought a wide screen 22 inch monitor for my computer this week and I love it. It is a Samsung SyncMaster 226BW. I got it at Fry's for $270 after rebate. I can see column Z and row 46 on a spreadsheet! As I write this on Word I have it zoomed to 200% and I am sitting back in my chair about 4 feet away and I can see all the words perfectly without squinting. I will have to get a wireless keyboard now to make it even more convenient.

I have been wanting this saddle for my bike for over a year now, and everywhere I looked it was about $70. A few weeks ago I was wandering around the local Performance Bicycle store and they had it on sale for $50. I thought what the heck. It's a good price and I know I will buy it eventually so I might as well just get it. When I checked out it rang up for only $35! Yeah me!

I can't get this song out of my head. I find myself humming it to myself throughout the day.

"1 2 3 4" by Feist



One Two Three Four
Tell me that you love me more
Sleepless long nights
That is what my youth was for

Old teenage hopes are alive at your door
Left you with nothing but they want some more

Oh, you're changing your heart
Oh, You know who you are

Sweetheart bitterheart now I can tell you apart
Cosy and cold, put the horse before the cart

Those teenage hopes who have tears in their eyes
Too scared to own up to one little lie

Oh, you're changing your heart
Oh, you know who you are

One, two, three, four, five, six, nine, or ten
Money can't buy you back the love that you had then
One, two, three, four, five, six, nine, or ten
Money can't buy you back the love that you had then

Oh, you're changing your heart
Oh, you know who you are
Oh, you're changing your heart
Oh, you know who you are
Oh, who you are

For the teenage boys
They're breaking your heart
For the teenage boys
They're breaking your heart

My four favorite day-to-Day coffees are from Starbucks. They are:

Espresso Blend
French Roast
Italian Roast
Gold Coast Blend

Are these the absolutely best beans you can get? No, but the quality you get for the price are hard to beat, plus they are always easily available.

When I want to treat myself my favorites are

Black Cat Espresso Blend from Intelligentsia Coffee

Dead Man's Reach from Ravens Brew

I've found the best brewing method for my tastes is the French press.

I measure 5 tablespoons of unground beans for 0.5 liters of water or 8 tablespoons of beans for just under a liter of water and then grind them in a burr grinder at the coarsest setting.

After the water has come to a boil in my electric kettle I wait until I don't see any more bubble action in the water, put the grounds in the press, pour the water into the press, stir the brew well with a spoon, and then let it brew for 4.5 minutes. Don't let the coffee stay in the press after you have pressed it because it will keep extracting and give you a bitter and too strong coffee.

The most important thing you can get if you want good coffee at home is NOT the brewer, but the grinder. The little grinders with the spinning blades inside are not good for a couple reasons. The most important is because the particle size will not be consistent. Some particles will be smaller than average, others will be larger. The smaller ones will be over-extracted and the larger particles will not release their entire flavor.

What you want to get is a burr grinder. They are designed so all of the particles are uniform in size. I have the Braun KM30. Cuisinart also makes a good grinder. Both are in the $40 to $50 range.

One of these days I want to get the KitchenAid grinder. It is $200 which is why I don't have one right now.

Mitch told me to make this super-cool post.

Watch video

My new theme song.

Kenny Loggins
"I'm Alright"



I'm alright
Nobody worry 'bout me
Why you got to gimme a fight?
Can't you just let it be?

I'm alright
Don't nobody worry 'bout me
You got to gimme a fight
Why don't you just let me be

Do what you like,
Doing it nat'rally
But if it's too easy
They're gonna disagree

It's your life
And isn't it a mystery
If it's nobody's bus'ness
It's everybody's game

Gotta catch you later
No, no, cannonball it right away

Some Cinderella kid
Get it up and get you a job
(Dip dip dip dip dip dip dip dip)

I'm alright
Nobody worry 'bout me
Why you got to gimme a fight?
Can't you just let it be?

I'm alright
Don't nobody worry 'bout me
You got to gimme a fight
Why don't you just let me be

Who do you want?
Who you be today?
And who is it really
Makin' up your mind?

You wanna listen to the man?
Pay attention to the magistrate
And while I got you in the mood
Listen to your

Own heart beatin'
Own heart beatin'
Own heart beatin'
Own heart beatin'

Don't it get you movin'
It make me feel good

Wow, Cinderella kid
Then give it up and give it the job
(dip dip dip dip dip dip dip dip)
(Boom, boom, boom, boom)

I'm alright
Nobody worry 'bout me
Why you got to gimme a fight?
Can't you just let it be?

I'm alright
Don't nobody worry 'bout me
You got to gimme a fight
Why don't you just let me be

I'm alright
Nobody worry 'bout me
Why you got to gimme a fight?
Can't you just let it be?

I'm alright
I'm alright
Just let me be

Immediate Saturday plans: rake leaves, pick up dog poop, cut grass, rip up tomato plants and other annuals, cut off dead parts of perennials.

After that I will shower and run some grocery store errands, and then watch Ohio State play Illinois.

My A1c was 6.2 on Saturday. Three months ago it was 6.5.

I weighed Mitch tonight and he was 71.6 pounds. He is getting about 700 caleries per day plus assorted bits of plastic.

At my brother in law's urging I just purchased the SpaceNavigator 3D mouse I wrote about earlier. I got it at Amazon for $50 and free shipping.

If you felt the Earth move a little bit today it was because my parents bought a laptop computer and a wireless router. I never thought I would see the day.

I had about 50 or 60 trick-or-treaters tonight.

Mitch liked it. He just stood at the door and smelled everyone's bag as I dropped candy into them.

Everyone really liked him except for one mom that grabbed her daughter and pulled her back about 10 feet. When she saw that Mitch just liked greeting everyone and getting his head scratched by the kids she let her daughter come to the door. He never once tried to dart out or even step on the porch. He is such a good boy.

I haven't really felt like posting much the last few months. Part of the reason is the template for my blog "broke" and I didn't feel like taking the time to fix it. The biggest thing that was wrong was the archives disappeared. To fix it I had to select a new template and lose all of my previous customizations. Before I restore those customizations I will live with this template for a bit and see what I think about it. Any comments on it are welcome.

I am sitting on the couch waiting for trick-or-treaters. At 8 PM I am going to turn off the porch and foyer lights and go upstairs and do a few chores.

I have my summer-weight bedspread in the dryer right now.

I am going to try and post more regularly. At first it might just be a sentence or two about something I did until I can get back in the groove.

This is a 3-D mouse called the SpaceNavigator and I think I will probably end up buying it soon.

You can use it in Google Earth, Live Search Maps my favorite on-line mapping site, ArcMap, PhotoShop, CAD programs, etc. Rather than try and explain why it is so cool, just take a look at these videos of someone navigating the applications with the 3-D mouse.

Mitch weighed in tonight at 73.7 pounds. I guess I will drop him to 14 ounces of food per day.

An update on Mitch's weight and food: For the last several weeks I have weighed Mitch on Sundays and if his weight hasn't changed from the previous week I have added an extra ounce to his daily ration.

This morning he weighed-in at 70.8 pounds which is an extra pound since last Sunday's weigh-in. This last week he has been on 15 ounces per day. I am going to keep him at 15 ounces per day until he adds another three or four pounds.

Once he is in the 73 – 74 pound range I will take away an ounce and see how things go. I don't think I want him over 75 pounds.