Yeasty and Lacking

I decanted some of my first Mr. Beer batch when Dad was in town, but it was way too soon and I'd hoped the flavor and clarity would improve with more bottle time, both on the shelf and in the fridge.  I took some to Carl-Bad and it was similar to that first opening, somewhat cloudy and with a yeast flavor I'm not totally fond of.  Even more fridge time has improved the clarity immensely, but there is still an off note on the flavor.  Not undrinkable, but I hope the second batch turns out better.  And Isaac gifted me some cash to get some more brews.  Thanks, Saac!

Speaking of Xmans.  We did pretty shabbily on the gifting to friends front.  I managed to get Legend of Drizzt boardgame for Ben and Amy but aside from that we had nothing to reciprocate with.  Not that it's strictly necessary, but still, this tarnishes our track record for gifting to pals.  We'll have to see what we can do to remedy the situation.

Thanks to Sage and Sarah for the Woodford Reserve.

Family Times

Christmas went off well.  The new van was delivered on Thursday and we immediately packed it up and took off for Carl-Bad.  Luckily leaving a day early got us ahead of the storm.  I heard at least one coworker who headed out for Carl-Bad Friday morning say it turned the three hour drive into seven.  It started snowing Thursday night and kept it up for two days straight.  While there I got a look at Rocky's still and talked moonshining with him, built a snowman and snow fort with Ross, ate some delicious brisket (twice), got some gifts (beer, a necklace, and flatware), and generally had a good time around family.  Having kids of my own now I think having that kind of family time, like we did when I was a kid and we'd visit Mississippi, is getting more important.  Maybe we should have trucked on up to Colorado like last year.  Ah, well, next maybe next time.

 

We got back in Xmas afternoon.  Got things squared away and even managed to fit the van in the garage with my car, but only just.  Until (or maybe unless) we get some stuff moved out of there it looks like I'm parking on the street.  This was the first morning and I've gotten spoilt enough that I probably ought to rediscover skills at things like scraping frost off of windshields.

 

Managed to hang with Saac a little, what with his limited time in town.  Sunday I went over to Ben's and had some beers with the guys while watching very, very crappy movies.  Blew out of work early Monday and met Ben and Isaac for lunch.  There was much lamentation for Heftymetals and times when people who aren't Ben had a lot of free time around the holidays.

Official: Dad

We bought a minivan last night; a 2012 Honda Odyssey.  Truthfully, Carrie did most of the buying.  She texted back and forth with 4 car dealerships, getting them to one-up each other till we came down to (what we hope is) a reasonable price.  These kids are gonna be riding in style.

Whuff

Let's see:
Party at Ben and Amy's house.  I did not Rockband, but I got some quality time in with the grumpy old folks in the back room; my people.  Spent the evening talking movies, comics, books, and whatnot with Tony, Amy, Charles, others, and for a brief time Hon. Bill.  Was nice.

Carrie went out of town to visit Alicia up in Denver, and Dad came into town to help out with the kids.  The two and a half days Carrie was gone went pretty smooth.  Had a good visit with Dad too.  Whenever he comes in to town he gets me off my ass and moving, at least a little more than I was.  After Carrie got back we got out twice, once with the kids on the desert trail in the middle of a neighborhood over in Sonoma Ranch, and once taking Piper up to the levee.  We also watched probably the funniest episode of It's Always Sunny ever ("Chardee MacDennis: The Game of Games").  Dad cooked a lot and I even cracked open one of my homebrews before he left.  It was early, but it still tasted pretty good, if a little yeasty.  I wanted to open one while he was in town, what with him buying me the Mr. Beer kit and all.  I'm letting them sit for longer than the kit tells you to, but more in line with what some of the fan communities makes better beer.  We'll have homebrew for Xmas at the very least.

Things with the kids are good.  We are having some small issues with them not wanting to eat, but it could be they don't like the high chairs anymore.  At daycare they sit them in chairs at a table.  Anyway, we got them a chair and table set for Xmas, so we'll see.  We set up the Xmas tree and decorated while they were napping last Saturday.  When they got up they were mesmerized and adorable.  For safety, we extended the fence we have in front of the entertainment center and made a space in the corner for the tree.  Seems to be working pretty well so far.  Oh, and so far this week they have slept through the night, without waking up once, every night.  Nice.

More holidays coming.  Carrie and I are taking the kids to Carl-Bad for Xmas, coming back Xmas day.  Aside from that I'm only taking a few days off around New Years, since Jon's likely not coming down this way.

Lots and Lots

Thanksgiving: Lots of family time, also, unfortunately, lots of not feeling so great. Pulled some kind of sinus business Tuesday, and it lasted through Wednesday. Carrie and I both had some stomach bug Wednesday as well. Jon got in that night and I was well enough to have a few beers with him. We forwent Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving Day and had it Friday instead. Jon was here, Agnes and the kids too, her parents, mom, the Sharons. I found a turkey recipe that knocks out the bird in 2.5 hours. Good food, good company, but with recent sickness and staying up too late (including a perfectly fine time playing MW3 till much too late with Cameron and Derek) I felt worn out all weekend. Saac, Jenni, Sage, and Sarah were in town. Managed to make time to get together a couple of times, including a nice outing to High Desert for both Carrie and I while mom watched the kids. Oh, and we got together a kickball game on Saturday. It was windy and cold, but we ran around and kicked balls with gusto. The past nine months or so of no exercise are readily apparent in the pain in my lower extremities.

Nathan stopped by on his was to Tucson for a quick visit, Sunday. I was feeling poorly most of the day, then contracted a 102F fever in the afternoon. Ended up taking Monday off. Feeling much better, but with the recurrent sinus crap I decided to go ahead and take the antibiotics I picked up the end of last month. Could just be the dry weather but who knows.

No gaming this Friday, again. There supposed to be a RockBand party instead, but I think Conner's 3rd birthday is happening then too, so we'll probably take the babies over to that.

I crammed through Storm of Swords and am on to Feast for Crows. Enjoying it immensely, the story as much as being back in the habit of reading frequently again.

I owe Kenny a callback. My apologies.

Finally, I put up my first Mr. Beer batch weekend before last. Dad sent the kit to me for my birthday. I'll bottle it in the next few days and it should be ready to drink by the time Dad comes in to town next week.

Surprise, Thard!

Regular-type Friday gaming continues to elude. In its place we gamed some 4e with 4e-virgin Nathan, and Bill, with Ben running. I made a minotaur who worshiped a potbellied, tattooed, crocodile helmet-wearing god named Thard Harr. That was as far as I got in the description of the god before deciding it was definitely the god for Bjorkus. This, naturally, drove the game. Turns out Thard Harr is some kind of dwarf jungle god. Still awesome.

Saturday was birthday day. Started with a nice little outing, just me, Carrie, and the kids. We Arby-ed the crap out of lunch. After Paige and Owen settled in for a long nap, which left me time to crack open (Carrie's gift) Modern Warfare 3 for two solid hours of shooting bad guys. After that, High Desert with Alex and Traci. After that, Carrie surprised me by hiring a babysitter so we could go out to dinner. We had a beer at the bar then headed out to Luna Rosa where we were met by Alex, Traci, Joe, and Ben. After that, we stopped briefly at Joe's then went home. That's right, we were home before 9:30. 37 and still rockin.

Cooking chicken and dumplings tomorrow.

Crotchety

Post, dammit!

Last Friday was a lack of gaming, but an abundance of Novembrew. Headed out with Alex and met up with Jason, Lynn, and Steve Nelli. Drank lots of delicious beer in 2 oz portions. Almost didn't finish out all 30 tastings in the allotted 3 hours, but High Desert hooked us up at the end. Of note was the Chocolate Coffee Piñon Stout from Mimbres Brewing out of Deming, and Woodchuck's Summer Cider. Not usually a fan of cider but that stuff was mellow and tasty, without the bite I get from most cider (which reminds me of the ham/cider story from my trip to Seattle...Sage and Sarah had some cider in the fridge at the same time as a ham and complained that the cider tasted too much of ham...maybe you had to be there). After the tasting, we hit up Zeffiro's for some pizza, and Starbucks for some coffee. Made for an satisfyingly inebriated early evening.

Saturday Carrie took the kids to Carlsbad. I jumped on the opportunity of an empty house (coupled with lousy weather) to spend a whole 24 hours eating fast food and playing through all of Gears of War 3, campaign and multiplayer with Cameron. Also spent hours reading more of Storm of Swords. A very quiet weekend. Unfortunately I missed out on both Saac and Renn Faire-ing.

Paige has been tottering all over the place, even going so far as forgoing crawling despite falling on her butt repeatedly in a very short timeframe. Owen is taking his time catching up, but he's getting there. Last night mom had us over for delicious chicken stew and lots of kids exploring mom's house.
Turning 37 on Saturday. Wow.