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.