Pictures

Here are some random photos of Christmas decorations. They didn't come out real great (some were very blurry) and you can't see all the Star Wars, Star Trek, and superhero ornaments but I thought I'd post them just the same.


This is the famous Matt poster. It's his High School photo surrounded by lots of candid shots (some with his brother "Muck", some with Steve, Shannon is in one.

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time there was a guy who started a web-log with good intentions of updating, and posting on a pretty regular basis. Never minding the fact that he couldn't update a regular journal once ever in his life. That is why I don't post on a regular basis, I'm just not programmed too.

Last night we hosted a Christmas party for our friends, It was a blast. Some of our guests had never been here before and were very impressed with the house. We finished decorating earlier that afternoon (downstairs) and hung a bunch of Star Wars and Star Trek ornaments (geeks). The bar looked very cool.

The picture is of my good friend Matt, I had to take it so we could add to our white elephant gift for next year. I'll try to take some photos of our loot and post it, but you already know how fast those will show up. Matt is a really good musician, he plays in a punk band called the Fleshies. You can get their CD's on Amazon, he's famous hence the home-made poster.

Painting again

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I've been busy. If you've seen Shannon's blog you will know that we
painted the dining room a few weeks ago. This weekend we painted the kitchen. Why all the painting? Well there was nothing wrong with the old color but it was just a little on the pink side. Something that neither of us noticed until we were moving in (it's very subtle). We are also planning on having Thanksgiving dinner here so we wanted it to look nice.

On Friday we all had the day off, so we started by painting the ceiling and trim. Daisy was helping. Later Friday evening we got rid of the kids and went to a play with a friend. I'd been wanting to see this play (10 little Indians) for a while because I think it was the first play I saw (I was like 8 or 9). Unfortunately this production was not (I'm searching for the correct term...Oh yes) good. They weren't bad, well really bad, but they just had no sense of timing. They turned what I consider to be a suspenseful murder mystery into a farce. Still it was nice to get out.
Saturday we woke up, made waffles and painted the walls in the kitchen. Not much wall space so this went pretty quickly. We didn't tape the ceiling or trim, so that took a little longer freehand. I think it looks good, but our house is starting to look like we really like yellow.

Later that night we went to Shannons Mom's house for dinner and dessert.
Well that was our weekend, how was yours?...What's that?...What picture of Morgan?...I don't know what you are talking about?

Crawl pics

I've been trying to load pictures from the bar crawl all week, but for some reason they won't load. Check the website www.castrovalleycrawl.com there are some good pictures of us (even one with apl).

last night we went rollerskating with Taylors school. We had lots of fun, and Taylor did a pretty good job (mostly you just hold her hand and skate, she glides). Morgan does pretty good, but when he skates it looks more like controlled falling. Last weekend I installed a new garbage disposal and I think I hurt my back (being all scrunched under the sink) I don't think the skating helped at all, because last night I was sore. Maybe it's just from the beer gut.

Crawling...

Well we don't have any pictures yet, because we didn't take the camera. I'm sure someone will eventually Email us some pics so we can post some. Shannon and I had a great time. It's funny because some people we only see once a year on the crawl, but everyone recognizes each other.

My friend Ryan, brought some friends with him. One happens to be a woman he's dating. She fell off the stage dancing on the stripper pole at Spanky"s (fourth bar from the end) and got sick at Duecets (third from the end). She's not hurt (aside from her pride) but has earned the nickname 'Crash'. The funny thing is this, every year Ryan, or someone he's with (ex-wife, girlfriend, etc.) gets sick, passes out, or generally makes a fool of themselves. Way to keep a tradition.

Most of the bars were happy to see us, only a couple seemed upset that 100 paying customers showed up to keep them busy. Toward the end people are over tipping all over the place, those bartenders should be raking in the money. Would you turn all of those potential tips away?

I need Shannon

Well Shannon comes home in a few days, and then things can get back to normal around here. I miss her and so do the kids (I think Daisy misses her too). I know she's doing well in class, better than I'm doing as a single dad (I suck at this). We've been talking every night, on the phone and online but her webcam seems to freeze up all the time. Tonight I wasn't feeling well so the kids let me rest, and my parents picked up some chicken legs for the kids. I've been trying to call Shannon and keep getting a recording...damn. She finally called me and didn't know there was anything wrong with her phone.

Last night my father called me and told me that my Uncle Joe had passed away. He was suffering from Alzheimers, in poor health, and pretty old too. I know it was expected, but I'm still really sad. When I was a kid we went to my Aunt and Uncles several times a week (they lived really close). I remember my dad and uncle sitting at the kitchen table talking. I remember that he always had a garden in the backyard. My sister always asks where I learned how to be handy around the house (tiling, painting, replacing sheetrock, basic household stuff) because our dad never did any of this stuff. My dad always called his brother-in-law Joe, and I think I just wanted to be able to do some of the things he did. He wasn't a master technician, or craftsman, he was just handy. He was always smiling, always funny.
At my wedding reception I offered to get him a beer, and he told he didn't drink. I didn't know this, I always assumed he had a beer or some wine with my dad. He told me that when he was young he was out with a friend and 3 women, they were all drinking. Later that evening his friend left with one of the women,leaving him with 2 (do you see where this is going). He told me that just as things were getting interesting he passed out, end of story. He said he never touched alcohol since.
I just keep remembering things about my Uncle, mostly just little things, but those are the things you miss. I'll miss you Uncle Joe' and I hope you're well. I think we have some of his old Tarzan books at my parents house, maybe I should read one.

Dark Carnival...

This morning, after we picked up the kids. I took everyone to my favorite book store, Dark Carnival. I love this place, they have so many books and not enough shelf space. It's one of those places you go to when you want a book that's kind of rare or not in hardback anymore. They specialize in science fiction, fantasy, and mysteries. I wasn't sure how Shannon was going to like this place, I mean I knew she would like the selection, but I wasn't so sure about the clutter. Stacks and stacks of books, it's kind of hard to navigate through and she's a bit of a neat freak (just "a bit").

Yesterday morning Taylor and made waffles. While they were cooking, and the steam was billowing out, she says "I can smell them". Then she waves the steam toward her and says "come to me"... No wait it was more like " c o m e t o m e" sort of like the wicked queen in 'Snow White'. I looked at her and thought "where the heck did that come from?"

Well, I know this post was kind of lame, but I had to post something because I'm not sure I'll have time in the next few weeks. Shannon will be gone, leaving me hear with two kids, AARRGH. The next post should be about the crawl. "What's the crawl" you ask? Here's the link www.castrovalleycrawl.com and here's the link to Dark Carnival too www.darkcarnival.com check them out, come to the crawl go to the bookstore eat some pizza.

See ya....

Sam

This is Samantha, my mom and dad's new puppy. She's very cute, and well behaved. My parents had to go to a wedding on Saturday, so we watched Sam for them. Daisy was a little rough with her at first, and Sam was a little afraid of Daisy, but after a while they were chasing each other around all over the house.

I kegged one batch of beer this weekend, I'll probably tap it next weekend before Shannon leaves for OK. I don't like when she is gone, I have a hard time getting everything done around here without her. She does most of the chores (which she tells me all the time) and I hate doing laundry. Besides, when she's gone I stay awake watching TV and don't get enough sleep.

Making beer.

Yesterday I made a batch of beer, and I thought "maybe I should do a little 'how to' blog" so here it goes. There are a few different types of home brewing; All grain, partial mash, and extract. Extract brewing is the most basic, all grain is the more time consuming and more difficult, and partial mash is an amalgam of the two.
I'm making an extract beer so my ingredients are; malt extract, grain (malted barly that has been roasted to different degrees of color and flavor), hops, yeast, and water.

First I weigh the grain, this recipe calls three types of grain.

Second, I steep the grain in the water for about 20 minutes. The water should not be boiling but should be about 170 F, usually I steep the grain as the water is getting hot, it takes a long time to boil 6 1/2 gallons of water. After removing the grain bring the water to a boil.

Step three, when the water is boiling I add and stir in the malt extract. Always turn off, or reduce the heat when adding the extract. It will sink to the bottom and burn. Return to a boil.

Step four, add the hops. These are the bittering hops, they are added to give that distinct hop flavor and as a preservative. Sometimes I will add the hops at three different intervals for different flavor characteristics.

Step five, boil and wait. Boil for 60 minutes (a good rolling boil) watch out for boil overs. At the end of the boil I add a small amount of hops, these are the aromatic hops. At this point its called wort (pronounced like word but with a 'T') it should be cooled as quickly as possible, either with a wort chiller ( a copper coil immersed in the wort, with cold water running through it) or by transferring the wort to a sanitized bucket and immersing the bucket in ice.

Transfer a small amount of wort to a beaker and measure it for sugar content (specific gravity).

Add the yeast and an airlock (lets CO2 out but won' let anything in) and place somewhere the temperature wont fluctuate too much. Wait... I like to rack the beer after about a week (move from one container to another) because it helps to clarify the beer. Wait about another week, then bottle or keg the beer (it's beer now). If I bottle it, it will be ready in about 2 weeks. If I keg it, it's ready in a few days.

Well,I know this was a long blog and I probably won't get many comments but I thought some people might be interested in how to homebrew. If you are interested in homebrewing, check out www.morebeer.com

I'll let you know how this batch turns out.

After that long break...

These are a couple of shelves that I bought at Disneyland about 7 or 8 years ago. I've always liked them,I wouldn't say they're subtle, but they aren't as blatantly Disney as some things I've seen. Anyway I was told to post these for Apl.

This is a picture of the hops, they look like little green pine cones. This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago, but I've been busy re-reading the Harry Potter series again. I finished the last book and decided I needed to read them again. In 'the Order of the phoenix' when they are cleaning out number 12 Grimwald place, they find a large gold locket that none of them can open. Serius Black's brother was named Regulus...R.B...possibly R.A.B. For all you geeks out there, check it out.

The other reason I haven't posted in a while is because I didn't want to just rant again. We are having issues with our neighbor and it's really been gnawing away at my insides. But I don't want to just bitch about it on my blog because I don't want anyone to think that all I do is complain. Well any way, I'm hoping to brew a batch of beer this weekend. Maybe I'll make another batch of creme brulee, drink some port, smoke a cigar and relax.

Ranting

If you've seen my comments on Shannon's blog, then you'll know what I am referring to. If not then you might want to read hers to get up to speed.

Why do stupid people have to ruin everything!?! You know the people I'm talking about, the people that failed kindergarten...Can you stand in a line? Do you know what a line is? Do they have lines in your country(state,city,town)? Can you just wait your f---ing turn! These are the people that think they deserve extra, because they did an extra special job of wiping their ass this morning...Well I'm here to tell you, you didn't and you still smell like shit so f--- off.

Why is there gum on the walls of the Materhorn? Just couldn't wait those extra 50 seconds until the ride was over to throw it away in the trash can properly? Why do you insist on being in places that you clearly are not meant to be? I hate you and you ugly, dirty, smelly rotten kids too. Perhaps you should not have squandered your money on vacation, and put it towards your kids education. Maybe then the chain of inbred assholes will be broken? Probably not though, I expect my kids will have the same low tolerance for stupid people that I do.

Now then,

Having a great time, wish you were here.

...I'm on vacation

I meant to post something before I left, but I was busy getting ready to go. We are in Disneyland and having a great time, but this is the second time I've come here with kids. They are great because they are so excited, but they slow you down. At 2 o'clock everyone needs a nap, I could probably get by without one but everyone else is doing it....Well anyway everyone is awake and I'm trying to get them going so we can go back to the park.

Fun and wine, or wine and fun...

So if you've seen Shannon's blog (www.knittinggeek.blogspot.com) you should know that we went wine tasting this weekend. Let me try to expand on this subject a bit. I really like wine...I really like beer too. Does this make me an alcoholic? No, it just makes me a fun date. We ate lunch at Cafe Don Giovanni, really f---ing good. Steve orders a half bottle of Rombauer chardonnay, we were impressed with this wine and Steve said we'd get there later because he wanted another bottle. Next we went to Trendle ( I think ) the wine was good but I didn't buy any. Then we went to St.Supery, it was pretty busy because we think there was a wedding setting up. Most of their wines where excellent, but one of the sauvignon blanc's tasted like grapefruit juice. Shannon did not like it. Their best wine was a moscato, we bought one, can't wait to drink it. Next we went next door to Peju, this place was packed and they were trying to do tasting in groups. We waited for about 15 mins. Then left. I think this is where I let Mang start driving. We drove on a bit and went to Beaulieu Vineyard. As soon as we walked in the door they handed us a glass of sauvignon blanc, we walked to the bar and tasted more wine but the best thing about this winery was that the guy behind the bar recognized Steve and Mang from their honey moon almost a year ago. When they had come in then he knew it was their honeymoon because Mangs hair was still done-up, her nails were done, and Steve's ring was way too shiny. He let us taste for free, then we went downstairs and bought more wine. An Alsatian style gewurtztraminer, and a pinot noir vin gris, both very good summer drinking wines. By this this time I'm pretty tipsy and Steve must have been too, because he was just talking up a storm. Finally we drive to Rombauer, it's about 4:30 and they stop tasting at 5:00. We tasted 3 wines here, but not the chardonnay. Why not? Because they were out of the '03 but the '04 was going to be just as good, and there's no reason to taste it because everyone is waiting to buy it anyway. Kind of snotty...But we bought it anyway. Then I overheard someone tasting the port, may I please try some ( I love port), it was amazing. We'd (pretty much spent all our money (we still had enough for dinner) but it was so good we had to buy it ( thank you Shannon ).

Anyway,we ate dinner at Mustards Grill while our wine buzz was wearing off. We tried to go somewhere for dessert but they were closed. So we just drove home very full and very tired.

pictures of Steve tasting and later chatting in the car. A sculpture outside St. Supery.

The not so long weekend

This is an update on how the hops are growing. To anyone interested in gardening, I highly recommend planting some hops . They just need water and they grow like 15 feet high.

Well I guess I milked that long enough, 17 comments on one post was pretty good I think.

Last weekend I was so busy I felt like I ran myself ragged. This weekend however I have nothing to do, not one thing, nada. Even the honey-do list is pretty short. Man it feels nice to not have any responsibilities. Of course Shannon will read this and come up with a list so I may have blown a relaxing weekend all to hell.

I do have projects that need to get done, but nothing really pressing. We just got a new entertainment center that I need to sand and stain. We're going to take out the the carpet around the bar and install tile. We need a new garbage disposal, but none of this stuff has to be done in a weekend or by a certain date.

Soon all this lazy time will catch up with me and everything will be back to normal.

The Long Weekend

This was the end of my long weekend. I made this wedding cake for my friend Dave.

All right, I guess I'll blog too

So my wife has this blog, and I've been reading it, making comments and stuff. Her sister and mother do blogs, it all gets somewhat addicting, so here is mine.

My name is William, I live in a suburb of San Francisco with my wife and 2 kids. Life is just peachy. I have more hobbies than time, making beer, playing the drums, reading comics, anything to do with Star Wars...You get the picture. Well now I guess blogging will be another hobby, but I think I'll have to learn to type . I've been putting it off for 30 something years and I just can't escape it anymore.