Ode to my Hefe

Oh my sweet Hefe, how I worried so,
I prematurely assumed that you would just blow.
But last evening I decided to check.
Bored and thirsty, I decided "What the heck?"
The cap came off with an audible "hiss"
At that moment I knew nothing was amiss.
Out of the bottle you poured oh so golden,
a reminder of great german beers of olden.
And finally, a taste; oh so cautious at first....
All Banana and clove to quench my thirst.

Another 7-8 days and it will be 100% ready. I don't want to say this too early, or too loudly, but this is one of the best beers that I've ever had. I shall not compare to other homebrewers in the world, because everyone's taste is different... which is why many of us get into it in the first place. But this is the first time I have been 100% satisified with the results of my home brewing experience.

Thanksgiving

Up here in the pacific nortwest we had a great Thanksgiving. Molly made a 5lb turkey, infused with Guwerztraminer (its a sweet, german white wine), and we bought a honey baked ham. The turkey was a little better than the ham, oddly enough. We also had camebert mashed potatoes, which were great, rolls, 3 different pies (apple, pecan and pumpkin). We had our friends Lindz and Josh over, and had a great time. We also had a nice brunch with a egg caserole, ham and pluck-its. Yum!

That evening we broke out the Guitar Hero and Dance Dance revolution which recently
came out for the WII.

For those who don't know, Thanksgiving is a wino (or wineaux if you're french) weekend up here in portland. Many of the wineries that are never open otherwise are open that weekend (also memorial weekend)... so we did wine tasting on Friday and Saturday... took it easy on sunday. It was much, much fun.

The wednesday before thanksgiving I bottled my Hefewizen. It didn't quite reach its "recommeded" terminal gravity of 1.012... but it came down from 1.055 to 1.022. So I'm a little concerned that I somehow killed off the yeast 80% through the fermentation cycle... but I swear it hadn't bubbled in like 3-4 days when I decided to bottle. Worst-case scenario... I'll reopen all the bottles, pour into my ale-pail and add some more yeast for another 3-4 days then rebottle. It's been over a week, so I may just open a bottle and see if it is carbonating at all. Suggestions, fellow homebrewers?

Finally

Can't eat off these plates!

Hold your tongue and describe this picture

If you came up with something like "IIG AAHHOOE" then you win the prize.

Big Apple

The Oregon Coast

Happened to be digging around the camera today and I found I had not posted these pictures yet. Sorry! It was a beautiful day... we even saw whales.

The Coast

Where to begin...

Well, I really don't have an excuse for not writing much lately, except the fact that I really haven't done anything too exciting. Nothing worthy of blogging.

I've been working a lot. I'm writing some very cool software right now, basically a message processing system. Sort of a message dispatcher, but its kind of "multi-cast" and could be synchronous or asynchronous. The uses of this application are not fully understood yet (even by me) but everytime I try to think of how I can use it, I come up with at least 5 new things. So that will be exciting to have this new tool to use. Probably have another week on that, then I'll be starting an application that lets you build dynamic forms online... either that or a file sharing tool, not sure which one I'll do first.

Here at home not too much has been going on. I still don't have tags for my car, so I'm homebound all day... which is good in a way. I do have the last form that needs to be completed then I can go pick up the tags, but I don't have a way to get to the DMV easily during operating hours, so I'm still stuck.

I've made a couple of beers... My pumpkin turned out very tasty, but just a tad bit flat. Next time I'll add more priming sugar. Last weekend I started a hard cider and a Hefewisien. The Hefe is brewing at about 80 degrees... have it sitting on a hotpad. I was told by a reliable source that the warmer temperature really brings out the banana and clove in them. It's bubbling like mad right now, so I guess I haven't killed the yeast :) The cider will take approx 6 months.

Upcoming trips? Yes, actually. For Molly's birthday, and/or possibly thanksgiving weekend we're going to Mt. Hood to go skiing. Yeah, those who know me well have heard many times that I would never go skiing. But I've changed my mind, bought some equipment, and I think I'll enjoy it. Wish me luck, and I hope I don't break a leg. If Mol takes out a huge life insurance policy on me a few weeks before, be suspicious.

Molly just got back from Chicago where she spend the weekend with her Mom and her step-sister-in-law: Sunny (or Sonny... not 100% sure), feel free to correct me. She said she had a wonderful time, except she had to split a double bed with her Mom. I barely would want to split a double bed with myself.

For thanksgiving Molly and I are staying here in town. We've planned a breakfast and a dinner... ALL of the wineries are open Thanksgiving weekend (there are many only open thanksgiving and memorial weekends) So we plan on visiting some that we've never seen before. We are all very excited about it. We're going to inject Gewurztraminer under the skin of the old turkey. We hear that it is to die for. We're also going to get a ham for thanksgiving morning. Yum. Then, large failure piles. :)

Thats all I got! Every body remember to wish Molly a happy birthday, December 9th.

Vote yes on "NUMBER FIFTY!"

Proposition #50 was on the recent Oregon ballot. Now seriously guys, who could vote "No" on French fries on top of cupcakes?