things dennis

Love Things

2011-02-23T08:42:00.000-08:00

"Love is the expansion of two natures in such fashion that each include the other, each is enriched by the other" Lao Tzu

Love is good. It is good to be connected with another person. Comfortable with them, enriched by them, appreciated, accepted, and loved. My desire and hope is that this relationship is my last best one. She complements me in so many areas that it is a joy to be with her. We cook, play, attend concerts and operas together, and talk for hours and hours about everything. She sees the joy and beauty in the world around us. Giving of herself to so many people around her is very attractive to me. When I gaze on her when she is sleeping I am amazed at how lucky I am and how beautiful she really is both inside and out.

Divorce things or Things divorce

2010-09-02T07:11:00.000-07:00

Katherine and I are divorced. The decree came down from on high and as of 14 May 2010, I am no longer married to her. She is without a doubt a very kind, generous, loving, sensitive, and intelligent woman. We were not compatible. I didn't get along with her children (if I had realized earlier about her kids, I would never have married.) That is neither here nor there. We are finished. I suspect we will be friends, not close friends but acquaintances.

It was interesting. There is a saying, "When one door closes, another opens". And so it is, to quote Mr. Darcey in Pride & Prejudice" - I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look, or the words which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun." I am becoming attached to someone very dear to me. What began as friends hanging out with friends is now something more. Yet, it still must reveal itself completely. Everyday is a new feeling and a new discovery. Thoughts, emotions, feelings, and contemplation about where is it going. The journay is certainly exciting, however, the end is still far off. I am determined to let it ride and enjoy all these wonderful feelings, thoughts, and emotions of this thing we call love.

Dragonflies/damselflies & things Faribault

2010-09-02T07:02:00.001-07:00

ON Saturday, we woke up early and drove down to the River Bend Nature Center in Faribault. Kurt Mead, Minnesota Odonata Survey Project was giving a workshop. It was lovely, we met his family. There were only eight of us. A small but dedicated group. The day was hot and humid, a perfect August Summer's day. The air was alive with the hum of insects, bird's called in the trees, and a lovely breeze kept the sweat down to a trickle along my back. We checked out two place. One was along the Straight river just before it pours into the Cannon river. We did this in the morning. After lunch, we went out to the swampy land West of the nature center. It was there I caught the Rice County record - a Band-winged Meadowhawk. YOO HOO!!!!! I also caught a Twelve Spotted Skimmer on the fly. Lucky me!

After the workshop, I visited the graves of Dick, Deloris, and Ann on the hill and spent a few moments in contemplation.

Dragonflies & damselflies things

2010-08-03T07:54:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, I went up to St. John's Abbey with my friend Laurel to attend a seminar and field work on dragonflies and damselflies. It was really good. Kurt Mead, the Odonata Survey Project, i.e. dragonfly & damselfly project gave a really good introduction to these invertebrates. We had some classroom work and then we went out onto the field and swung our nets to catch damselflies and dragonflies. When we returned home, we went online and ordered a net and other things so we can do more surveying. In fact, we will be surveying the rest of this month and into next month until the frost comes. The coolest name for a dragonfly - Stygian Shadow Dragonfly. It sounds like the name of a superhero.

Things Shakespeare

2010-07-20T07:01:00.000-07:00

Sunday was a magnificent day. I went to Powderhorn Park and enjoyed a production of "A Midsummer's Night Dream" by Shakespeare. They had it in two locations about 50 yards apart. It was a great setting outside in a small grove near the lake. Perfect. The weather cooperated. The acting was fun. And like I said the setting was perfect.

Afterwards, I went to my son's home and ate pork chops and corn on the cob with them. As an after dinner treat, we watched two more episodes of 'Pacific', only one more to go. Watching it of course, is nothing like what those men had to endure. But it was a brutal, hard fought war against a very tough enemy. I bought one of the books the series is based on, "With the Old Breed" by Eugene Sledge. I am looking forward to reading it soon.

Age of Kali

2010-07-13T07:34:00.001-07:00

The Age of Kali: Indian Travels and Encounters by William Dalrymple

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another W. Dalrymple travel book and another great read. India comes alive and I know I wanted to go right straight away and visit it and see all the things he was writing about. A fantastic read.

View all my reviews >>

In Xanadu

2010-07-13T07:30:00.001-07:00

In Xanadu: A Quest by William Dalrymple

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of the best books I have read recently. I love to read anything by William Dalrymple. He is a fantastic writer. He mixes historical facts, narratives from ancient writers, his own views, and misadventures all with Scottish wit, charm, and fun.

View all my reviews >>

Far Bright Star

2010-07-13T07:04:00.000-07:00

Far Bright Star by Robert Olmstead

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good read. Novel about the U.S. Army expedition to capture Pancho Villa in 1916.

View all my reviews >>

Scotch things Happy Gnome

2010-03-05T19:45:00.000-08:00

Tasting at the Happy Gnome was very fun and what a deal. 11 whiskies for $11.54. Here is the line-up Scottish Leader (the weak sister of the group), Bunnahabhain 18, Bunnahabhain 12, Bunnahabhain 25, Tobermory 10, Ledaig 10, Black Bottle, Deanston 12, Deanston 30, Tobermory 15, and Drumgray Highland Cream Liquor. The best of the evening were Bunnahabhain 18 and 25, Deanston 30, Tobermory 15, and the Ledaig 10. This was a good tasting. The date of the tasting was 25 February.

Scotch things February

2010-03-05T19:34:00.000-08:00

Merlin's Rest first Thursday of the Month and Eileen and I host the Scotch whisky tasting. On the menu is Macallan 12, The Glenlivet 12, Glenfiddich 12, and Balvenie doublewood 12.
These are found in most bars, at least the first three. Old classics and some of the most popular single malts. Some people scoffed at the selection, however, they are classics for a reason. All of them are well made, tasty, wonderful nose, and well balanced.

Whisky Tasting @ Merlin's Rest - January

2010-02-19T18:52:00.000-08:00

Eileen and I presented the classic Speyside scotches, Balvenie Doublewood 12, Glenfiddich 12, The Glenlivet 12, and Macallan 12. Bagpipes leading the opening. It is good to revisit the old war horses and see why is it that they are so popular.

Balvenie Doublewood 12 - Nose: fruit, rich, sweet. Taste: floral, dried fruit sweetness, full bodied. Finish: long sweet finish.
Glenfiddich 12 - Nose: dried fruit, figs, plum. Taste: vanilla, sweet. Finish: nice lingering finish.
The Glenlivet 12 - Nose: fresh fruit, apples, vanilla. Taste: Light, fresh apples, vanilla, toffe. Finish: medium finish, toffish.
Macallan 12 - Nose: Sweet, woody, apple, vanilla, fruity, winey, raisin. Taste: bite in the back, burnt toffee. Finish: Long, pleasant finish, taste of wood, wine.

Next month 4 Irish whiskeys and a Welsh one.

San Francisco Friday Things

2010-02-19T17:38:00.000-08:00

King Tut!!! We took the bus to Golden Gate Park and the De Young Museum. The exhibit was amazing. It was brilliant. Of course, the biggest and coolest items do not travel but they had some very cool items. We then saw the Amish quilt exhibit was very remarkable and so cool to see textile art that was made 50 -100 years ago but so fresh as to design. I wandered around as well and saw the famous Peaceable Kingdom by Hicks.

In the park, there were statues of Robert Emmett and Robert Burns. How cool was that. We then walked to Haight Street and had lunch. We shopped along the street. Magnolia brew pub was visited and we tasted their Oyster Head Stout 4.9%(local oysters thrown into boil), Cole Porter 4.8%, and Dark Star Mild 3.6%. We then walked to the Toronado Bar and made happy hour. cash only and a great bar. We met a journalist who was interesting and convinced to try some of the local bars. We did it was okay. The great thing about it was that K and I bought some really cool hats that we not have bought had we not walked to this bar.

Behind things

2010-02-19T17:22:00.000-08:00

It has been awhile since I posted so here goes. We went to San Francisco for a long weekend. We visited Anchor Brewing, Muir Woods, John Muir's home, the King Tut Exhibit at the DeYoung Museum, Haight Ashbury, Toronoado bar, Magnolia Brew pub, and 21st Amendment.

Thursday, we arrived but had been delayed by fog. We made it to our hotel and then took the bus to the Anchor Brewery just making our 1:00 reservation. This brewery is old school. 100 bbl brewing kettle, open square fermenters, old style small batch conditioning tanks, and an old bottling line. Really good tour and then a tasting of everything they had on draft or bottle. So we tasted Steam, Liberty (1st IPA brewed in the U.S.), Humming, Bock, Porter (1st porter brewed in the U.S. in a long, long time), and the Old Foghorn Barleywine.

Afterwards, we walked to the 21st Amendment for a sampling and calamari. The beers we sampled were SFO organic olden ale ( crisp, clean 5.1%), Hell or Highwater Melon Wheat (refreshing 4.9%), Golden Doom (Belgian golden ale 7.5%), Holiday Spice Ale (clove, nutmeg 8.0%), Oyster Point Stout (sweet toffee, coffee, made with oysters 5.4%), Cranberry Cider (two Rivers Cider Co. Sacremento, 6.5%), and finally Old Portrero Rye whiskey made at Anchor. What a lovely dram. It was so good I had to buy me a bottle.

Solstice Things

2009-12-19T16:37:00.000-08:00

We had our Solstice Party last night and it was a very good time. We had great friends, great cheeses, and of course great beers. I will tray and remember all of the beers. Andrew brought a German Christmas Alt that was very delicious. Dave, Tom, and Gene brought two beers, a hefe and a doppelbock both very tasty though I enjoyed the doppel more as it had lots of tasty notes and mouth feel. Here is the list for the rest:
Granite City 1000th batch double IPA
Summit 90/s Scottish Ale
Summit Great Northern Porter
Summit Winter Ale
Rahr Winter Ale
St. Landelin French Christmas Ale
Golden Carolus Christmas
Duchesse de Bourgogne
Monk's Cafe Sour Red
Trader Joe's 2007
Trader Joe's 2009
Wreck the Halls
La Chouffe
Bell's Winter White Ale
Samuel Smith's Winter Ale Welcome
Samuel Adams Winter Porter
Killer Penguin Barleywine
Santa's Butt Winter Porter
Moylan's White Christmas Spiced Winter Lager
Southern Tier Chokolat
James's Double Brown ale
Barley John's Wild Brunette

Advent Season Things

2009-12-13T19:12:00.000-08:00

On 3 Dec. I played bagpipes and talked about Scotch whisky. Aberfeldy 12, Oban 14, Bunnahabhain 12, and Laphroaig Quarter Cask. It was a fun evening and fun to share my experiences with Scotch whisky especially from Islay. We went to see Robert Robinson at the Dakota. He was with Sam Reeves on piano. Brilliant! Sam is brilliant. Robert is brilliant. Great evening. Colder than a well diggers arse.

At 3 pm we drove to St. John's in the Wilderness for Nine Lessons and Carols. Absolutely beautiful!

Friday is our party. The solstice party for 2009. I think I deserve a bottle or two of expensive Scotch whisky to celebrate my 60th birthday. Port Ellen? Caol Ila? Laphroig 30? Ardbeg?

Flu Things

2009-11-06T21:54:00.000-08:00

I am so sick of being sick with this bloody swine flu. I have been out of work all week and I am still coughing and draining a wee bit. I am still tired and still feel lethargic about it all. It has been a royal pain in the buttocks. I was lucky to have one of my staff send me a link so I could access my email account at work and get some stuff done. I did catch up on my viewing of dvds, some painting, and some reading. I missed out on a play at the Guthrie Theatre, celebrating my friend's 40th birthday, playing bagpipes, drinking scotch, and making .... At least, I am still alive so far.

Halloween Black Beer Things

2009-11-04T12:49:00.000-08:00

Went into an ale house to get some beer,
the publican says, " we serve no red coats here".
Went to the Blue Nile on Halloween Eve on Friday, to taste Al's wonderful selection of stouts and porters. I was not disappointed. I dressed as a doctor and put on a troll mask. When I arrived I passed out candy bars to the patrons and no one recognized me till I demasked. Great fun and I received a a pint of Great Northern Porter for my effort. James, Brent, Doug, Colleen (later), Katherine (later), Thom, Andrew and Dan (his friend)were there. It was a good night. After the Blue Nile, K and I went to james & Marthas for a Halloween party where we met Eddie and Eileen. It was a splendid evening.

Here is the list for the beers at the Blue Nile. I was able to try some of all of these beers. They are listed in order of their ratings from the Center of Porter and Stout, Mpls. Chapter. [Three stars *** indicates the best beer, two ** indicate great but with some reservations, and one star * okay.

Sinebrychoff Porter ***+, Darkness 2009 ***+, Bells Expedition Stout ***+, Lion Stout***, Goose Island Bourbon County Stout*** (This is a sipping beer).

Flat Earth Black Helicopter**, Summit Great Northern Porter**, Nogne-O Porter **, Surly Darkness 2008 ** (Sweet), Surly Bender**, Troubador Obscura**, Bell's Rye Stout**, Founder's Breakfast Stout**

Tyranena The Deil Made Me Do It *, Southern Tier Oat, Imperial Oatmeal Stout*.

These are great beers and it was ery sad that I became sick this weekend on Saturday and couln't get back there to try a few more sips of my favorites.

Fall things

2009-10-23T20:41:00.000-07:00

I have been working on putting away the gardens at home and at DeDe's. It is sad to see the flowers all gone with the bees, hummingbirds, and finches. There is more raking to do and a bit more putting the beds away for their long winter's nap. The lavender need to be protected and some of the other flowers.

Darkness Day is tomorrow Thom and I will pipe for it and perhaps get some bottles for drinking or the chance to buy some. We are also going to the St. Paul Whisky and Scotch Fest. Wow! a long day!
The Ommegang Rouge is so delightful that given enough money I would drink it for weeks.

Renaissance Fair Drinking Things

2009-09-28T19:35:00.000-07:00

I have been attending the Renaissance Festival since it began at its humble beginnings at Jonathan, West of Minneapolis. I have noticed for the last few years the shrinking of the Renaissance official goblet and mug. I then determined to do a small experiment with the mugs and goblets in my home and to see if my thoughts were correct. Below are my findings.

Mug 2009 with warrior and sword, looks more Medieval than Renaissance but they have always played fast and loose with history. It is more about fun and pretending than history. Mug 2009 - was 16 oz. filled to the brim. In comparison, I have a mug from 1984 which was a 20 oz. Imperial pint. It had the silhouette of a unicorn on the side in dark brown on a sandy brown base coat. The difference was not too bad for the number of years that have passed but it has declined.

Goblets are a different story. I have a 1985 Feast of Fantasy, 15th anniversary goblet white/lt. grey with fleur de lis designs stamped into the sides and blue accents. It held 160z.

The next goblet dated from 1998 bluish, purplish glaze with a natural lt. brown clay medallion with a wizard and a crumpled hat. The medallion proclaimed "Renaissance Festival 1998" and was 12 oz. to the top of the brim.

2000, Y2K, the goblet had a beautiful multi-cloured glaze of black, blue, red, gray glazes melting on the sides of the goblet. Inset was a natural lt. brown clay medallion saying "Rennaissance" and a portrait of "Elizabeth Regina". The goblet held 8 oz. if poured to the brim.

2005 goblet sported beautiful glazes over a green base. The natural lt. brown clay medallion proclaimed "Renaissance Fair" and had a dragon etched into the medallion. This size of the goblet bowl was a 7 oz pour to the brim.

Not terribly scientific but carefully done all the same. This gets me onto another pet peeve and that is bars claiming to be pouring pints when they are actually pouring 14 oz. or smaller and then pouring so as to produce a collar of foam that would be larger than that of an archbishop's cleric collar. They are already making loads of money on every keg and they are greedy, cheating honest people out of their rightful pint of beer.

Lake Superior Things

2009-09-26T05:21:00.000-07:00

Went up to Hovland with Brent seperately. Stopped at Fitger's to pickup beer and drop off beer and have lunch. The wild rice burger is amazing. It is my ritual to stop at Fitgers on the way up for lunch and beer to start vacation. Vacation begins in Duluth when I see the delta of the St. Louis river and the Twin Ports, Duluth and Superior. Mentally I am on vacation. It has started for me. Also, When I see the Twin Ports and Superior disappear from my sight travelling 35 south it is the end of vacation. The last beer and lunch at Fitgers and it is adios for awhile.

The cabin number 4 is the cabin we are guests at in Hovland. It is a rustic little thing built for shorter people. The kitchen looks onto the lake and our own private shore/beach. A nice Duluth gabbro, igneous rock slab beach. We have several residents we share the area with i.e. a red squirrel (very crabby), chipmunks, birds (esp. sea gulls), some chickadees, and other creatures.

The weather was perfect. Summer had waited until we arrived. Actually for the week prior, the week of, and two more weeks the North Shore had a wonderful summer. The days were splendid being warm, sunny, and soft breezes. The evenings were t-shirt and shorts weather. I enjoyed the stars late at night nude. I woke up in the middle of the night and went outside to look at the sky and it was pleasantly warm. The stars were amazing with the Milky Way just fantastic.

I played bagpipes for our little community. They enjoyed it very much. I also learned how to operate and use my Victor VI Victrola. So I have been able to play my old records and enjoy them. Lots of fun as I have had my Victrola sitting for at least 10 and probably 15 years. I picked it up on Gold Rush Days with Ann one year. Noy knowing anything about Victrolas, I bought it and it proved to be a very good machine. Jon rearranged the arm so it was correct and replaced the reproducer with the correct one. Like bagpipes they have one volume and you control it by opening the doors or shutting them.

Our routine is to go to the Trail Center for dinner, Nanabijou for Sunday brunch, Grand Marais Farmer's Market, the general store in Hovland for bread and pastries, and lots of hiking the trail. This time we went to the wee little ECLA church in Hovland, Trinity. What a nice service by a pastor that was really a gift. She delivered a lovely sermon and the whole feeling of the community was really nice.

Usually we take in lots of hiking but this time no. I was forced with a sore knee to relax more which was great. I am not much for relaxing but when forced to I enjoy it immensely.

The time up on the North Shore is always magical. I love it winter , spring, summer, or fall.

Michael Jackson ScotchThings

2009-09-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

I found the tasting notes of a Single Malt Whisky Seminar by Michael jackson held at Sherlock's Home on 11 October 1997. We tasted 8 whiskys; Invergordon 26 yr. single grain, Old Fettercairn 26 yr, Glendronach 15 yr, Dalmore 29 yr, Scapa 12 yr, Isle of Jura 30 yr, Bruichladdich 26 yr, and Laphroaig 15 yr. I piped at the event so I had a complimentary seating.

Invergordon 26 yrs, single grain, very rare, North of Inverness. Column distilling, pale in colour and aged in bourbon casks.
Old Fettercairn 26 yr. Highland, Eastern Highlands near Kirriemuir distilling since 1830's. Barley malt base like all scotch. Warm earthy, smooth, slight peatiness, good with food. It has a light body and a light colour.
Glendronach 15 yr., Highland, distilling since 1826, owned by Teacher's Scotch. This was aged in sherry, apricot and almondine notes, malty sweetness. Good for after dinner. These are direct fire stills.
Dalmore 29 yr, Highland, distilling since 1839. Aged in sherry amontillado casks giving it an orange marmalade taste and it tends to be good for blending.
Scapa 12 yr, Highland, Orkney Island. Salty tasting, aged in bourbon casks, slight peatiness with notes of chocolate and licorice.
Isle of Jura 30 yr, West Highland/Island Piney tasting and very smooth.
Bruichladdich 26 yr, Islay, Iron rock (?) and very smooth.
Laphroaig 15 yr, Islay, Peatiness, smoother than the 10 but not as smooth as the 30 yr.

It was kind of cool to find this a look back at the whole experience. I also have a signed copy of his New World Guide to Beer.

State Fair Things

2009-09-04T21:02:00.000-07:00

Went to the State Fair with Nic, Angie, Damian, and Ava. It was loads of fun. We saw the horse, pig, sheep barns. I drank 4 glasses of milk. We saw Ann's memorial brick at the DNR building. Looked at the fish in the fish pond. Went to Heritage Square and International Square and shopped around. I almost bought one of those East African skull caps but Nic and Damian thought I should then dye my beard with henna and wear a Somali men's dress. I had thought about getting one because Phil thought I looked wise in it. He had bought an African hat like mine at the RenFest. We saw the art exhibit. It was good but not as good overall. The drawing that won was an amazing piece of art. Nic got a Marine t-shirt for doing 20 pull-ups.

It is good going with them because I can buy somehting to eat and share it with 4 other people. Otherwise, I would roll out of there and be a 200 lbs. fat blob. We ate pot roast sandwiches, pulled pork sandwiches, deep fried candy bars, corn on the cob, onion rings, garlic fries, mango green tea slushee, malts, and other things that I can't even remember.

RenFest Things

2009-09-02T16:40:00.000-07:00

On Sunday 30 August, I poured beer, FlatEarth beer at the Renaissance Festival in Shakopee Minnesota with my friend Phil. It was Scottish weekend and FlatEarth Brewing sponsored the professional and amateur heavy games. It was a beautiful day for a games and a RenFest. The crowds were down due to the State Fair. We poured Belgian Pale, Ctygnus-X1 Porter, Element 115 (California common steam beer), and Bermuda Triangle Tripel. The tripel was nice and dry this year with very little residual sugars. The porter was very full bodied and tasty. The Belgian tasted very good. It was a beautiful day. Norm was there. He hasn't missed a beer tasting event in 16 years. Brenda (brent during the week) was there in his/her mini skirt, hot pink spandex tights and bandana. Brent the whiner was there with Jeff so it was a good time.

Ancient Wargame things

2009-08-17T20:13:00.000-07:00

Some friends of mine came over and we played Warhammer Ancients. The Romans vs. the Viking barbarians. It was a close run thing. The Vikings winning at the very end. The scenario was a Senator from Rome was coming to relieve a garrison. On the march and not far from the castrum the barbarians attacked. Light troops had very little chance being blown away in the opening moves. The legionaries more than made up for it. They really kicked and held their own until they had no one left and another group of barbarians joined in the melee. Don brought rules, terrain, and the war dogs. He also brought some nice IPA home brew. We played quickly and remembered rules when we could. Next time will be different. SPQR

Great Taste Midwest Things

2009-08-14T23:08:00.000-07:00

Great Taste of the Midwest was held in Olin Turnvile Park on Lake Monona in Madison Wisconsin on 8 August 2009. After sampling over 60 beers during the weekend, I picked what I thought were the best of the fest. Summit Kolsch and Oatmeal Stout (cask), Schaflys Kolsch, New Glarus Raspberry Tart, Dragonmead Belgian Wit, Surly Helles and Smoked Baltic Porter, Micky Finns Wit, Jolly Pumpkin Rioja Kriek, Mpls. Townhall Russian Imp. Stout with chocolate, and Dark Horse Stout.
The second best beers were Two Bros. Tripel & Domain du Page, Rock Bottom (chicago) Lemon Saison and Raspberry Saison (casks), Ale Asylum Tripel and Abbey, Fat Head Baltic Porter, DragonmeadScotch ale, Surly Oak Aged Bender (cask), Esser Pils, Jolly Pumpkin Maracaibo, Barley Island Single White Friar, Barley Johns Old 8 Porter, and Michigan Pierre Celis White.

I had some great beers at the Old Fashioned on Capitol Square. I don't remember the names but they were a dunkleweizen and a weiss. I also had an amazing perch fish fry dinner. WOW! It was delicious.

Clayton Things

2009-07-26T18:29:00.000-07:00

I will write about my Scottish trip very soon but first I wish to write about a little beer fest I attended. On Saturday, I went to Clayton Wisc. to the Clayton Sportsmen's Club Beer Fest. It was a great blast. There were brewers and breweries from several places Northwoods brewpub, Leinenkugel's, Flat Earth, Mantorville, Sand Creek, Summit, Viking, and the Bud distributor. Funny Miller wasn't there. The fest was held from 12 noon to 6 pm. It was lots of fun, though it seemed that it was going to rain. The rain held off until the very end when the heavens opened up and there was a deluge.

I played bagpipes for a few times. They played horseshoes, actually there was a tournament. Viking brewery brought their cannon and fired grapefruit out over the swampy ground to the trees. I poured beer for Summit. Summit Oktober Fest won the most satisfying beer award for the day. All in all it was a great day and we had loads of fun. We met new people and made new friends but that is what it is all about. Finding the commonality in us and enjoying our differences. Clayton Beer Fest is on my list for next year.

summer beer fest things

2009-06-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

Sunday 28 June 2009, six months to my birthday and the day of the Summer Beer Fest at Midway Stadium in St. Paul. Congratulations to Flat Earth Brewing for their Sunburst Apricot Ale voted the best of the Fest. It was very good and very refreshing. I piped at Noon for the VIP people and then at 1 pm for the brew masses. I piped with Josh.

The other beers I tasted were: Barley John's Little Rosie and Wild Brunette, Bell's Kalamazoo Stout, Fitger's Goose Island Apricot Wheat and Prince Humperdinck's Hefeweizen, Goose Island Matilda, Grand Teton Sweet Grass IPA and Bitch Creek ESB, Left Hand Milk Stout, Liftbridge Minnesota Tan (not too great), New Belgium Mothership Wit, Abbet Belgian style ale, New Holland Dragons Milk, Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence, RockBottom Bastogne Blonde & Intoxicator Rauchdopplebock, Rogue Mom Hefeweizen and Dead Guy Ale, Schell's Hefeweizen and Helles, Southern Tier Iniquity Imperial Black Ale, TownHall Belgian White Ale, Ol' Jack Frost Imperial Stout, and Konigshoeven/La Trappe Witt Beer. A few of my favorites are Kalamazoo Stout, La Trappe Witt, New Holland Drangons Milk, Left Hand Milk Stout, and Ol Jack Frost. It was a great time.

Konigshoeven Things

2009-06-27T22:25:00.000-07:00

This Friday I went to Four Firkins, beer store, to meet Prior Father Isaac Majoor. He is in charge of brewing at the abbey. The Trappist abbey of Konigshoeven is the only abbey in the Netherlands, and it is one of seven Trappist monasteries brewing beer in Belgium and the Netherlands. The beers I tasted were the Dubbel, 7% with a deep reddish colour. It tasted of dried fruit, with amalty sweet character. The Tripel, 8% was the next in line. It had a rich golden colour. It tasted of spices, and slightly bitter with hops adding a bitter profile. Next in line and my favourite was the Quadrupel 10%, deep amber colour, rich flavour, fruit, slight sweet, slight hop bitterness. This beer has always been one of my all time faves.. It is especially good with bread, cheese, and fruit like peaches. Two new beers in the profile were very good and tasty. The Witte a traditional Belgian wheat beer with lots of spiciness, flavour, and character. Refreshing and satisfying like no other wheat you will have ever had. The last beer is St. Isid'or 125th anniversary Beer was brewed to commemorate the beginning of brewing at this abbey 125 years ago. A picture of the monk, Brother Isidorus that started the brewery is on the label and was its first brewer. The beer is a amber in colour and mildly sweet with a slightly bitter taste and a taste of fruit in the finish with a hop bitterness. This beer is a fund raiser as well. All the proceeds from the sale of this beer go to the establishment of a new monastery in Uganda. The monks came under pressure and threatened violence last year in Kenya at their monastery. So they uproot themselves and went off to Uganda to reestablish a new monastery to continue to do God's work. Donations can be made to the Monastery directly, so please do. www.konigshoeven.nl

They no longer make the refectory beer, the Enkel, this was a very light weight beer and weighed in at around 3.5 - 4%. This was a beer the monks drank for refreshment. Another note, they are trying to reclaim the name La Trappe, a name they used to market under in this country. As I said, they are one of seven Trappist monasteries brewing beer. At one time, they were denied the appellation Trappist due to their relationship with a local brewery. In 2005, when Phil and I made our pilgrimage to Belgium and the Netherlands we did not stop because they were no longer considered part of the Trappist fraternity. They are back now and selling their great beer in the USA once again. Amen.

Scotch things recent

2009-06-19T23:10:00.000-07:00

Wed. 17 June 2009, I attended a Scotch tasting at the Muddy Pig in St. Paul. What a tasting! It was brilliant and there was a bonus to it all which I will tell later. Speyside and Scott's selection of whiskies, rare whiskies.
We started off sampling Speyside 12 yr, a nice drinking whisky and made in a new distillery in Speyside. Nose was fruit, floral, vanilla, and toffee. Taste was malty, fruit, raisiny and slight peat. Finish was long and sweetish.
King's Crest, a 25 yr old blended whisky which was a real delight. An expensive whisky but it had lots of great nose and taste notes that I liked.
Bladnoch distilled 1984 bottled 2004. Nose light and floral, Taste peppery, malty. Finish light and sweetish and fairly long and pleasant.
Inverleven distilled 1979 bottled 2004. Nose citrusy and floral. Taste toffee, chocolate, and vanilla. Finish long, sweet, and fruit with a hint of vanilla.
Glen Mhor distilled 1978 bottled 2001. Nose has vanilla, fruit, and a hint of peat. Taste is sweet with hints of pepper and toffee. Finish is long, sweet, with hints of sried fruit and toffee.
Glen Rothes distilled 1980 bottled 2005. Nose is fruity and floral. Taste hints of nuts. Finish has long great finish, with fruit and nuts. It was a great delicious finish.
Longmorn/Glenlivet distilled 1971 bottled 2004. Nose has citrus and flowers. Taste is grapefruit. Finish was citrus, puckering, and long.
Aberlour distilled 1989 bottled 2007. Nose Floral. Taste spices amd cinnamon and vanilla. Finish was long, sweet, and malty.
Highland Park distilled 1986 bottled 2007. Nose iodine and malty with a hint of smoke. taste vanilla, peat, and fruit. Finish was long, sweet and dried fruit.
Bruichladdich distilled 1990 bottled 2004. Nose was sweet. Taste of toffee and vanilla. Finish nice and creamy.
Caol Ila distilled 1984 bottled 2007. Nose was all Islay smoke, peat, and malt. Taste smoke, sweet, and salty. Finish long smokey, peaty, Islay finish. This was my favorite and I have a bottle of this that I will drink.
North of Scotland distilled 1964 bottled 2003. Nose chocolate, vanilla, and a hint of tobacco. Taste chocolate, sweet, and malty. Finish was sweet and long lingering of the palate.

This was a splendid tasting of the Scott's Selection of bottlings. I was really pleased with the tasting and will probably buy some of the other bottlings.

First few things May 29009

2009-06-07T20:34:00.000-07:00

I had some Fettercairn 1824 and thought it very drinkble. I visited the distillery on Wed. after doing some hiking. Fin and I hiked up and saw some Pictish hill forts. We then went over to Fettercairn. The village still has its city gate which was very interesting. The whisky tasted of butterscotch and vanilla notes. The 10 yr old Jura was a wee bit harsh. Harsher than I suspected or knew.

At Loch Fyne Whiskies, I tried a few. I tasted the Living Cask. It was a bit harsh and woody. The living cask is a wooden cask of whisky that when it gets down to a certain level more whisky is added. The profile changes as new whisky is added. Next I tried was Teaninich 10 yr. This had some vanilla and berry notes. MacPhunn was tasted next. She had some sulphery notes in the aftertaste which was not pleasant. Three that I tasted and really liked were Ledaig 18 yr was the bottling of the year. Floral and sweet nose. The taste was spicy and nutty with a dry and delicate finish. Springbank 11 yr finished in a Madiera cask. Sweet delicate notes on the nose. Taste was dried fruit rich and berry like.The finish was long and sweet. The last one was the Mortlach 16 yr Flora & Fauna edition. This has a rich sweet nose like Christmas cake. The taste is just as rich and lingers a long while in the finish. The finish being rich sweet and dried fruit like.

Once on Islay, we had a welcoming dram of Arran 14 yr old. This was an easy drinking dram sweet, delicate, with vanilla and flower notes in the nose. The finish was sweet with a long finish.
It was offered by our German friends Gregor, Michael, Dagmar, Rainer, Sabine, Frank, and Kersten. They were staying at Torra cottage.

Islay 2009, Feis Ile

2009-06-05T21:33:00.000-07:00

Scotland. The Inner Hebrides islands of Islay and Jura are destinations of an annual pilgrimage of whisky drinkers, collectors, and connoisseurs. There are 9 distilleries on the two islands; Ardbeg, Bowmore, Bruichladdich, Bunnahabhain, Caol Ila, Jura, Kilchoman, Laphroaig, Lagavulin. For lovers of Scotch whisky with iodine, salt, peat, and smoke, this area is heaven on earth. I will be describing my experiences of drinking whisky for 16 days in May and June 2009.

May first things

2009-05-04T18:45:00.000-07:00

It has been 8 years since my wife Ann died from cancer. I miss her very much and think about her everyday. The grandchildren are growing and Nic and DeDe are older. Nic and Angie have a wonderful family. DeDe is doing well as a wine sales person. I am doing well. I thank the Lord everyday for having known Ann and having two wonderful childrfen with her.

Arborfest was lots of fun. Thom and I played bagpipes and I had an awful lot of Surly Smoke to drink. I think I need to stay away from that beer. Both times I have had it, I have drank way too much of it. It was a good fest. Saw some people I knew, James, Martha, Adam, Carol, Cathie, Jeff, Brian, Bob & Big Frank from Fitgers, Andre, Jeremy, and Brenda from Barley John's, Damian, Bob McKenzie, Mike from Schell's (he's a sales rep). Next day I was feeling a wee bit rough.

I gamed (Guns of Liberty) at Brent's with Mike, Ron (John's dad) & John. It was loads of fun. Especially rolling so well against Brent. My Jaegers chased his rifleman battalion out of the woods. We saw the backsides of those boys a couple of times. We loaded up our left and crushed his right. He called it a draw at the end of the game, however, in any regular set of rules a brigade with most of the regiments at under 50% would be gone from the field. He had one regt. still at full strength and 3 at 25%. The flank was crushed and it was all over except for the crying.

I then went to Townhall and Thom and I played for the blessing of the Maibock. They had a regular blessing service and we piped in the padre. Afterwards, we ate and drank at the expense of the Townhall. It was a good time. Good beer, good conversation and good food all of it made for a very memorable evening.

Sunday, I worked in the yard and then K and I went to the Living Green Expo. We stayed for two hours and left. We madesome contacts and got some ideas. We bought a few plants. I bailed on the piping at the May Day parade with Doug and his group but there is only so much I can do in a day.

We went over to DeDe's where she had made a beautiful dinner for us. We had artichoke dip, crudites, another dip, bread, gnocchi, salad, lovely cucumber infused water, and tomatoes. For dessert, she made us a cheese cake with cherries in Chambord liquer, and drizzled with strawberries liquified. It was so good. Before this lovely dinner, we all pitched in to help DeDe on her yard. Usually, it is me and Damian and Ava helping DeDe but this time we enlisted everyone Nic, Angie, Katherine, Ted, and me. We did a lot of work. Some plants were damaged but the yard is in good shape.

Guinness 250th Anniversary beer thing

2009-04-26T07:05:00.001-07:00

I found the 250th anniversary Guinness underwhelming. It does not have the good bite and full body and taste of the extra stout. It is better than the draught Guinness which is pure shite. This beer is definitely not in the same category as the Foreign Extra Stout, or the Special Extra Stout (Belgium only), or the Nigerian export. Actually, the Guinness' I had in Asia or the Caribbean are much better than this. I was really hoping for something really good. Perhaps they would have been better off resurrecting the porter. The porter is the beer that made the Guinness fortune and reputation. Now that would have been a real great idea. I guess Guinness has too many bean counters at Diageo looking at the bloody bottom line. With so many really good stouts and porters made in America and especially here in the Twin Cities, spend your money here and forget the Guinness 250th.

State Law Librarian Things

2009-04-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I did not get the position as acting state law librarian. The search team decided to put Judy Rehak in as acting State Law Librarian. Good choice, she will be really good for the library. She is a good patron and knows everyone in the library. She will lead impartially and well. I am especially glad DL did not get the position. It seemed he thought of himself as the 'chosen one' to lead the library. A real prat who is full of complete tosh.

I had not really thought about applying at first, however, nudged by my colleagues, I went for it. In the process, I realized I did have the potential to lead the library and do a good job.

Did I really and truly want it? No and then ... yes. I wanted to lead the librarian into a new direction using some of the new web 2.0 technology. I probably will still do that. I am very excited about the Twitter account for the library. Now I need to act on the MySpace and Facebook. The extra money would have been nice. I worked hard but neglected to tell them what I really wanted. This is now all in the past and the library will survive as it has in the past.

April Vacation Things Pt. 1

2009-04-15T08:12:00.000-07:00

Recovering still from the epic drive down to Orlando and back. It was a great trip, long but great. We had some amazing food down South. They are without a doubt the best place to go for real regional cooking. The bbq, the veggies, and the grits all are sooooo good. We had a good deal of eating Southern food with a few exceptions.

The first night we stopped in LeRoy, Illinois. The first place we stopped for real Southern cooking was at Swett's http://www.swettsrestaurant.com/ in Nashville. Chicken was the specialty and you could have it fried or rotisserie. Both were really good and the sides of cornbread, greens, squash, sweet potatoes, and mac & cheese were tasty. When we walked in some people going in, looked like a man and his mom, said it was the best place in Nashville. Rated by the tasters **** out of five. Afterwards, we stopped and saw the only full scale reproduction of the Parthenon (Athens). It was very cool.
That night we stopped in Decatur, Alabama.

The next day we stopped at the Ave Maria Grotto in Cullman, Alabama. The grotto was created by a monk from the Abbey of St. Bernard's http://www.avemariagrotto.com/index.php?cPath=159&osCsid= This grotto is a must see. The amount of time and dedication to this work was amazing. He did miniatures of famous buildings from all over the world, mostly religious. He does a miniature of the city of Jerusalem. It was all very cool. We also stopped in the Cullman Flea market bought some things. I bought whoopie pies from some Amish ladies, excellent. We also grabbed a snack of tacos. They were made with pulled pork and they were rated by our panel as a ***** treat. We arrived in Orlando at 10:30 that evening and katherine was there awaiting our arrival.

The following day, Kat and I went to Winter Park http://www.ci.winter-park.fl.us/
and the Skrades went to Wet & Wild. K and I sought out Vegas Cafe home of the Cuban sandwich. It was closed. We went across the street to Chan's for dim sum and it was very good. Rated **** by our impartial panel. K and I took a boat ride for an hour. It was very relaxing and then went to the Morse Museum http://www.morsemuseum.org/home.html This for me was one of the best things on the trip. They have an incredible collection of Louis Comfort Tiffany stained glass and art. They also have his Byzantine Chapel http://www.morsemuseum.org/collection/tiffany_chapel.html which is an amazingly beautiful, reverent work. It was created for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. They also have a nice painting collection and an American decorative arts collection from 1870-1920, roughly. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant Saigon not far from Chan's on Colonial Drive. We had a very tasty oriental meal. Rated *** 1/2 by our expert panel.

Nex day we went to Universal World http://www.universalorlando.com/index.html?__source=ps.yssp.tlp and spent the going on rides and walking around. I went on two rides that were completely different than what I usually do. The Revenge of the Mummy and the Simpson's Ride. I thought I was going to lose it both times. We also went to four other things Disaster (Nic was picked as an extra), Jaws, Horror Film techniques, Terminator 3D, Shrek 3d, and Universal City Walk. After a long day of walking we decided to stay close to our hotel, Best Western Universal. In the evening we went to Kobe Japanese Steak House and had a teppanaki meal which was very good. Rated **** by our non-partisan panel.

The Skrades went to the other half of the Universal Theme Park and I took Katherine to the Airport. We stopped at Vegas and split a sandwich and I drove to Winter Park to search out more museums. I stopped at the Cornell Museum in Rollins College, $5.00 and the Orlando Museum of Art, $8.00. The Orlando MOA wasn't worth the price of admission. The best things I saw were the African art mostly textiles, Aztec and Zapotec art, and a very nice collection of netsukes. Rollins had an exhibit of portraits of ladys from around the turn of the century 1900 and a small exhibit of Delftware. We are lucky to have a very strong art scene in the Twin Cities.
That evening we went for pizza. It was okay. It was rated *** by our discerning panel of judges.

To be continued....

Scotch Whisky Things

2009-03-29T11:33:00.000-07:00

Here is the results from a tasting that happened a last year. I must confess I am particular to islay Scotches. Three stars is the highest.

** Bruichladdich 14 yrs - Islay single malt, bourbon cask and finished in a sherry cask, great nose with vanilla, dried fruit. Finish is long with beautiful legs.
*** Bruichladdich - 32 yrs (1970)- Islay single malt, 100% bourbon cask, viscous with beautiful legs, pear and vanilla notes, slight taste of salt in the front, smoky peat in the aftertaste. A superb dram!!
** Glen Moray, Serendipity - Highland single malt, smoky and lemony
** Ardbeg Uigeadail, Islay single malt, cask strength, distilled in the 1990's, Scottish edition, sherry notes, smoky, 108.4, phenolic peat characteristics, toasty
**3/4 Laphroaig 10 yr., Islay single malt, cask strength, bourbon cask sweetness (Maker's Mark bourbon casks), astringent long finish.
** Bruichladdich, Infinity, Islay single malt, caramel notes, fiery nose with smoke and peat
** Glenmorangie Ardbeg, Islay single malt, 1st fill casks, very young, sassy, peppery
*** Ardbeg 1976, Islay single malt, smooth, bottled 2004. This is a perfect whisky with all the characteristics you love in an Islay single malt. YUM YUM YUM!!!!
*** Port Ellen, Islay single malt, distillery closed in 1983, Diageo releases bottlings every now and then, this is one of the great single malts of the island of Islay. YUM YUM YUM!!!!!

There you go. My memory is slightly hazy about the tasting but somethings are never forgotten i.e. a lovely kiss, a memorable moment in ones life, and a memorable single malt.

Feis Things

2009-03-24T18:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I am getting closer to putting all the pieces for the Islay trip together. Bowmore Distillery emailed back with the times for our tours and tastings. We are now booked on tours, tastings, lodgings, and airlines. I need to hire a car and obtain my ferry tickets from Kennecraig to Port Askaig and back. John will be handling another set off tours between 31 May and 3 June.

Here is the schedule for the Islay Feis:
http://islayfestival.org//activate.php?name=Sebastiaan69&sess=3e2dd58790c152024e55bb3e462b07f3

We will be visiting Kilchoman, Lagavulin, Bruichladdich, Caol Ila, Laphroaig, Bowmore, Jura, Bunnahabhain, Ardbeg distlleries. A distillery a day for 9 days. Perhaps a few more when we return to the mainland.

March things

2009-03-23T09:47:00.001-07:00

I haven't posted on the blog for awhile. For those of you who are following me, I am sorry. In the intervening time, I had been busy preparing for St. patrick's Day and playing with band on all of their gigs.We did Emmetsburg which was really good but a long, long day. I even curtailed my day by 5 hours, stopping around 9pm. Some of the lads continued on till 2-3am. I was quite good as I did not drink anything till our next to last bar, the Corner Bar. Their we were able to score some Sam Adams Winter lager and Michelob Amber Bock. Okay beers, but better than all the varations of light beer you could swill and some even light green beer. YUM YUM YUM!!! I drank a whisky and some beer. At the last gig, we ate and had some more normal beer, Fat Tire, Guinness, and something else. It was a lot of time spent doing this gig, however, the people of Emmetsburg love us. We can do no wrong. The weekend was shot.

On Monday, Thom and I played at Barley John's Brewpub for their 9th anniversary. We had food and beer. I drank the Anniversary Ale (red ale with lots of hops), Wild Brunette, and a couple of the Double Oat stout (excellent). A good time was had by all and we played really well. Damian, Molly, and Doug were there as well.

St. Patrick's Day, I came to work to do time cards and left around 9:30 to catch a bus to O'Gara's. The band always meets at O'Gara's and has for years. I guess always. There we tuned up and took a band picture jumped onto the bus and went to Summit. Bill Gilchrist joined us as well to hitch a ride to the parade. At Summit Brewing, we played for the employees and their yearly St. Pat's feast provided by Rahr Maltings. We played and then went onto the bus to the St. Paul parade. We were no. 29th in line. We played a lot. It felt like it was no stop. The weather was nice not as nice as Monday but really nice. We played through the landmark center for their IMDA event hosted by Phil. After the play through, we walked to the Liffey and played there as well as having some beers. We then got on the bus and went to the Bulldog in Lowertown, St. Paul. Played in and then had some world class beers, Maredsous 8 and the Duchess de Bourgonine. We made some converts to those beers. We then went back to O'Gara's for the world's shortest St. Patrick's Day Parade. We had a couple of beers. I actually shared one with Mary.

For Mary, this was her first parade and first St. Patrick's day. She was a good sport. A woman asked her what was under her kilt and she said, "running shorts". So we instructed her on clever retorts to the silly request. In O'Gara's, I was playing behind her, when we walked through a fetching brunette slapped her on the bum as she marched through. I related this to her and other band members and we had a laugh. But Mary did not want to be fetching to anyone especially another woman so she let her hair down. In her kilt though, I could see where someone think she amy be a guy. She has an androgynous look about her. I think she looks feminine but I am one person.

Thom and I then off to Barley John's to play for the crowd there. By this time our reeds were really wet so we needed to air dry them so we could actually play them. We met John's mother in law and children Rose and Nick. We couldn't play for them because our reeds were so wet. We did get them dried out enough to play a couple of tunes. We had drinks and food here as well. I should say really good food and really, really good beer. We met Katherine, Damian, Jen, and Jen's friend Terry who took to perry cider as a duck to water. I think she drank 3 glasses full which is a lot considering the perry is at wine strength. Katherine and I shared a Pizza Laura (named after John's lovely wife Laura), a vegetarian pizza which is to die for.

Next day, I was so shagged. I hurt everywhere. I went to the Historical Society for a CALCO meeting and learned more about Twitter. We also saw an exhibit on maps curated by Pat Coleman. the map exhibition was excellent.

Grand Marais Things

2009-02-19T07:06:00.000-08:00

We left for Grand Marais on a beautiful Saturday morning 14 February headed for up North. Our ultimate destination was the Outpost Motel in Colville, MN 8 miles east of Grand Marais. We would stay until 17 February. The journey up was uneventful save for all the bathroom stops on the way up, too much water before the trip. We had an audio book along as well 'Kalahari Typing Club for Men' by Alexander McColl Smith. We really enjoyed this book and finished it in our room when we arrived.

Our first stop on our journey was at Fitger's Brewhouse. It is the official beginning and ending of my trips to the North Shore. It has been with all the women I have been with since Ann has died. K and I had lunch and I had beer with my food. She had the best veggie burger the the world the Fitger's wild rice burger and I had the Turkey ruben with a small salad. I started out with the Champagne of the North, a Berliner weisse with raspberry syrup. I followed it with an Antwerp ale and finished it off with a Black Paddle porter. All were really tasty and hit the spot.
When we were finishing up with lunch, who should walk in but Cathy and Jeff. It was our second chance meeting with them in Fitger's. Pretty, amazing but great minds think alike or so it seems.

We headed North and to our final destination, the Outpost Motel. We stopped in Grand Marais at the Coop for some extra food stuff for our stay. We checked in and started to relax straight away. We played scrabble, read, listened to music, and ate. The book I started and read the whole time I was up ther was Shenandoah 1962 by Cozzens. Heralded as the definitive book on Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign. It is a good book, easy to read and the author does well to use both sources and display everyone with all the talents and foibles. He includes Jackson as well. I am a Jackson fan and have been since I was a wee lad but there really wasn't much in the way other things to reveal. He probably is one of the most written about American commander and famous save for Washington. I am finishing up with the book now and should have it completed by the weekend . Jackson is about to give the Yankees a thrashing on the upper valley at Port Republic and Cross Keys.

On Sunday, we walked part of the Devil Track River, Superior Hiking Trail in our hiking boots. We did well until the last hill it was deep and no one had ventured it until we did. There was no use negotiating the climb as it would mean climbing on our hands and knees in 3 foot snow sinking continually. We turned back after trying for 15 minutes. On the way back, we slid down some slopes. It seemed easier to do that than risk a slip and not controlled slide. On the last slope I was going way too fast and hit a bump and strained my back. My poor back, it was the same injury or felt like it, as I had a year ago. I was in pain. When we got back to our cabin I iced it, streched it, and had K massage it. She does not know how to massage. She tries and wants to but she just doesn't have the skill. She is just rough and ready treating the muscles like they were something else. I was bouncing on the bed from her ministrations. God bless her. She tries but my god she is a not a sensualist. We went out to listen to music at the Gunflint Tavern and have some dinner. We had their veggie pizza. Excellent!!! I had a couple of Summit Oatmeal stouts, medicinally taken.

Monday, I stayed in and made a nice veggie curry stew with baked apples for dessert. K went skiing along the shore and was out for over an hour. I read my book, Shenandoah 1862 and played my chanter to nail down some tunes. We played scrabble, cards, listened to music ate. I stretched my back. K read Bill Bryson's book 'Neither Here Nor There'. I looked at it and it is the usual Bill Bryson, lots of humor and interesting facts put together in a great volume.

Tuesday, packing up and getting ready for the journay home. We stopped in at the Ben Franklin in Grand Marais and K bought some very warm mittens. I bought Bananagrams for Jeanne's b-day. It was nasty and snwoing when we left Grand Marais but not enough to call in and say we are stuck up North. I can't image K ever doing that though. We stopped in at Fitger's on the way back. K had a Smoked lake Trout wrap and I the fungus burger. We also picked up beer courtesy of the lads for our cellar at home. It was a good trip.

When I arrived home, Brent told me he was going in for surgery the next day, hip replacement surgery. So I went over to his place to hear him piss and moan about everything but mostly to allay his fears about his surgery and help him to order his place. What a fucking mess! What is it about single guys and housekeeping. They need mothers and/or a spouse but they are the biggest slobs and there is no excuse. I am wandering so time to sign off.

Lutheran Sunday Supper Things

2009-02-08T18:44:00.000-08:00

I always have great fun at a church potluck. Lutheran church ladies make the best hot dishes. The various dishes are so nuch fun to look at and taste. What with the variety of spices, how much beef, or chicken, tomatoes, and onions. Everyone brings such great hotdishes, salads, and a potpourri of whatever. You will see 3 or 4 ramen Asian salads, some with sunflower seeds, cabbage, and other greens. There are some with lots of ramen noodles.

There are several different noodle dishes featuring tomatoes, beef, and some seasoning. Some jello dishes are on the table. We have a lovely raspberry jello surprise and then the lime jello marshmallow cottage cheese surprise. Beans are in various dishes and all of them are good tasting. There were several three bean salads. Some are bean salads with corn, peppers, and at least three different beans. Black beans, red beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans are all featured at the church dinner. Bean and beef crock pot dishes in a variety of combinations make their appearance and are quite tasty. There is fried chicken, cocktail wieners, and meatballs.

For drinks, we have church coffee a combination of half decaf and half regular coffee. Water and Countrytime powdered lemonade for the non-coffee drinkers. But the best part fo the dinner are the people and the conversations. It is a unique social gathering and should be done once a month.

Things Winterfest

2009-02-07T13:17:00.000-08:00

Another Winterfest has come and gone. Beers were consumed and they were for the most part really good. Conversation was good. Glasses were dropped. Fun was had by all. It was held at the History Center this year and I am not sure about it. The setting was lovely but it was spread out over two floors and it was crowded. It had problems. I believe I prefer the Landmark Center. Thom and I lead off the fest with bagpipes, the traditional start of Winterfest and the Autumn Brew Review. What is fun about Winterfest is that all the brewers are Minnesota brewers. We have a great group of brewers here and they make world class beers. It is very cool to be here in Minnesota now.

Here are my notes about the beers I sampled last night in the order of the program. The grading system is three points with 3 being the best and I would buy it, 2 I would drink it, and 1 give it to a friend (just kidding) flush it.
AUGUST SCHELL: Hopfenmalz 2 1/2 pts. I really liked the malt profile in this beer, very drinkable. U bier(cask) - 2 1/2 I liked the unfiltered pils a lot. Pils is not a favorite style of mine so this is big.
BARLEY JOHN'S: Schwartzbier - 2 pts. Changed from when I had it on my birthday, not as tasty as I remember. Dark Knight Returns - 2 1/2 pts. This is a winter by the fire beer to savor for the whole evening. Winter ale - 2 1/4pts. I enjoyed it more than the Summit Winter ale, a good beer.
BRAU BROS: Sheephead ale - 2 1/4pts. They use their own home grown hops. It is a darn good beer. Vanilla Bean Cream Stout(cask)- 2 1/2pts. This is a very nice session beer, tasty, nice vanilla & choco notes.
COLD SPRING: John Henry - 1/2pt. As Thom noted, neither imperial or a stout. There was something missing from the taste. Very disappointing.
FITGER'S: Gale Force Cranberry Ale - 2pts. This is best when fresh. This had age and was totally different from the fresh product. Bourbon Barrel Aged Edmund Imperial Stout - 2 3/4pts. I love their stout and this was really, really good. Procrastinator Dopplebock - 2 1/2pts. A very good dopple, lots of malt and flavour. Collaboration Cherry Grand Cru - 2 1/2pts. I really liked this one as well, however, I really liked the Grand Cru (TownHall) by itself. Fitger's Framboise - 2 pts. Tart, sour, but very tasty and I believe with a little aging will be outstanding.
FLAT EARTH: Winter Warlock Golden Barleywine - 2 1/2pts. Really good, a very tasty and drinkable barleywine. Cygnus X-1 Xanadu - 2 3/4pts. orange infused porter, a chocolate bar with orange peel. YUM YUM!
GRANITE CITY: Oak Aged Scottish Ale - 2 3/4pts. I really liked this beer, a good session beer. Low gravity, 4.5% so it was a rare one amongst all of the big boys. I enjoy their Scottish ale.
GREAT WATERS: Brother Stiffe's - 2 1/2pts. Really good. Betelguese - 2 3/4pts. Chocolate porter really well made and tasty. Yuletide - 2 1/2pts. This wheat surprised me with how well balanced it was. King Boreas Imperial Witbeer - 2 3/4pts. Another really good and drinkable wheat beer. Three Horizons Belgian Pale Ale - 2 pts. Good beer. Pup Tent Stout(cask)- 2 3/4pts. This was a really really good stout and the passion fruit was well balanced. Mon Cheri(cask) - 3 pts. Vanilla cherry stout with good balance and taste, nothing was overwhelming.
LIFTBRIDGE: Imperial Stout(cask)- 1pt. Disappointing. Facemeltor Barley Wine(cask) - 1pt. Great name, disappointing beer. Belgian Biscotti - 1pt. I ate a biscotti with it. The biscotti was better than the beer. Farm Girl Saison - 2 1/2pts. A good tasty saison even after an evening of drinking it tasted good.
McCANN'S: Apicot Coriander Ale - 1pt. Too fruity by half.
ROCK BOTTOM: Tripel Framboise - 2 1/2pts. Good balance for the fruit and the beer. Smoked Porter - 2 1/2pts I really like smoked porters. Hop Bomb Double IPA - 2 1/2pts. This was a very drinkable IPA, well balanced with a good amount of malt to offset the hops.
SUMMIT: Winter Ale(cask) - 2 1/4pt. My favorite Summit but it tasted a bit astringent in the finish. Extra Pale Ale(cask) - 2pts. Good EPA but dry hopped with Amarillo hops, not my favorite.
SURLY:Bourbon One - 2 3/4pts. This one won the Snowshoe award. I thought the Darkness was better. TWO - 2pts. A bit tart, this was tastier when it was fresh. Three - 2pts. Darkness - 3pts. I enjoyed this beer very much. The best stout of the night. Smoke - 2 3/4pts. Really good but not like it was straight out of the tanks at the Darkness fest. Mild - 2 3/4pts. I love a good mild and Todd does a great job. Brackett - 2 1/2pts. This was a very good beer/mead.
THE HERKIMER: High Point Dunkel - 2 pts. good dunkel. Bock - 1 pt. Forgettable.
TOWN HALL: Twisted Reality Barley Wine - 2 1/2pts really good. Batch 1000 - 2 1/2pts Souped up Masala Mama, good. Chipotle Wee Heavy - 2 pts. Takes your taste buds for a ride.
Grand Cru - 3pts. Another one of my favorites of the night. Coconut Milk Stout - 2 pts. Too sweet, too much coconut. Kentucky Dessert(cask) - 2pts. Too much bourbon in my stout.
VINE PARK: Black Magic Imperial Stout - 2pts. Good stout with coffee and chocolate notes.

Stout & Imperial Stout Things

2009-01-31T15:56:00.000-08:00

Friday 30 January was the meeting of the Orval Malt Tasting Society. The subject that was explored were stouts and imperial stouts. We had a glorious tasting and sampled a wonderful selection of beers. Lacking in the tasting was one of the best stouts made and that is Rogue's Shakespeare Stout, a truly world class beer. The winners of the evening share the top spot - New Holland Poet Stout and Mcauslan's St. Ambroise Stout with 5 votes each. Second place was also shared by Victory Storm King and Guinness Foreign Extra Stout(Dublin). Bronze medals went to Flat Earth Black Helicopter Coffee Stout, Southern Tier Imperial Choklat Stout, and Deschutes Obsidian Stout. The stinker of the night was Podge Belgian Imperial Stout it was universally thought of as undrinkable.

Here is the list of the evenings libations:
Gene's Hershey's Chocolate Quaker Oats Stout, St. Ambroise Stout, Moylan's Dragoons Dry Irish Stout, Stockyard Oatmeal Stout (Trader Joe's), Schell's Stout, Flat Earth Black Helicopter Coffee Stout 4.8%, Guinness Extra Stout (Canada), Guinness Foreign Extra Stout 7.5%(Nigeria), Guinness Foreign Extra Stout 7.5% (Dublin), Poet Stout 5%(New Holland), Surly 2 cranberry stout, Southern Tier Imperial Choklat Stout, Podge Belgian Imperial Stout 10.5 %, Boulevard Imperial Stout (smoke stack series) Avery Mephistopheles Imperial Stout 15.9%, Avery Out of Bounds Stout, Fitgers Big Boat Oatmeal Stout, Deschutes Obsidian Stout 6.4%, Titanic Stout 4.5%(Champion Bottled Beer of Britain 2004), Bell's Expedition Stout, Victory Storm King Stout, ABC Stout 8%(Cambodia), Cooper's Best Extra Stout, Sprecher Russian Imperial Stout, Weyerbacher Old Heathen Imperial Stout 8%, Stoudt's Fat Dog Imperial Oatmeal Stout, Alaskan Oatmeal Stout, Viking Big Swede Imperial Stout, Dragon Stout 7.5%, Weyerbacher Raspberry Imperial Stout. We had some nice IPA from Flat Earth for a palate cleanser after having so much malt, chocolate, and alcohol. All in all in it was a very good tasting of some of the best and most unusal stouts around. It was a successful tasting for the club. Meeting was called at 1:30 am, 31 January 2009.

Burns Nite Things

2009-01-28T11:30:00.000-08:00

The 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns (25th January) was celebrated in Orval at Chez Skrade. A good time was had by everyone, at least that is what they said. Katherine and I provided haggis, veggie haggis, tatties, cheese, scotch, and soda bread . Our guests Colleen, Doug, Molly, Jeff, Cathy, John, Steve, Damian, Jenn, Bob, Michele brought goodies to share as well. We started off the night with a social hour and then at 7:15 pm CST. I piped in the haggis, Bob recited the customary Ode to a Haggis by Burns and we sat down to eat. We had clapshot, Guinness stew, more cheese, more scotch, beer from Flat Earth, salad, and lots of fun. Around 8:30 pm we had the customary toasts to the President, the Queen, laddies, lassies, departed friends, and whatever else we could think of in the way of toasts. All in all it was a good evening of friendship and warmth. Perhaps we will do it again next year.

The scotches on deck for sampling were Lagavulin (16), Highland Park (18), Glen Moray (10 sherry cask), Glen Farclas (12), Bunnahabhain (18), Jura, Bowmore, and a couple of others I forget.

Bagpipe things

2009-01-19T19:36:00.000-08:00

I was in Kansas City, MO for the Winter Storm 2009 events and concert. This event is about bagpipes and drumming, Scottish drumming. The best pipers and drummers from around the world come to the bleak cold Midwest every year to give lessons, compete for prizes and money, participate in a concert, and connect with fans, friends, and colleagues from around the world. This event is sponsored by MHAF - Midwest Highland Arts Fund, a non-profit group dedicated to the promotion and support of piping and drumming. I flew down on Thursday and flew back home on Sunday. It was an incredibly amazing event. Here are the best pipers and drummers in the world playing.

Thursday, I volunteered to help sign in pipers and drummers. It was colder in that hotel than it was my garage in Minnesota. For a Marriott not to keep the lobby and 2d floor heated is just beyond belief considering what you pay for a room there. Thom and I stayed at the Holiday Inn across the street. I turned in around 2 am and Thom came in around 3am and went to sleep around 5am. We got up at 6:30 am.

Friday, I was dressed in my Highland outfit and I spent the day running the timing lights. The timing lights were timed so when the piper came out to play for the judges, he had 4 minutes to tune his pipes and then start his competition set of tunes. So I manned the lights from 8 am to 5 pm and by the end of that shift I was completely shagged. The piping was remarkably outstanding. You look at the lineup of contestants and judges and they are the top namesin North America and Scotland. At 11 pm they had the awards ceremony for all the different competitions from the whole day. I was able to figure out some and completely lost it on others. I went to bed early in the morning, 3 am.

Saturday, I helped set up the community Church for the evening's concert and then went for a wee walk. The church was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and it was a real gem. built to FLW's height requirements. The space is charming, intimate, and wonderful acoustically. I also had some Gate's BBQ brought in by the sponsors. YUM YUM!! I am glad I do not live in KC. I stumbled on the Nelson Atkins Art Museum. What a lucky break for me! I wandered in and saw the various galleries. They have a gorgeous Caravaggio - St John the Baptist in the Wilderness, a painting of such beauty and depth. They also had two Lucas Cranach the Elder paintings - Three Graces and the Last Judgment. The Three Graces was just beautiful and invoked memories of the past. I walked around and watched people looking at the art as I myself looked at the art. People watching is great fun and two great places are museums and airports.

The concert that night was so cool. The piping was world class as was the drumming. The cd will be out next year. I picked up the cd from last year and it is a real show stopper. There was an old grandma sitting in front of me. She had been brought to the concert by her grandson. She must have been in her nineties but she loved the piping and drumming. After the concert was the party - Winter Steam. Newcastle Brown Ale sponsored the event and provided a prodigious amount of beer for the festivities.The party lasted all night. I finally went to bed at 4 am so I could get up for my 8:30am shuttle to the airport.

Would I go again? Hell, yes! It was very exciting to be part of this event. A major world event in the piping and drumming world right here in the Midwest. Thank you MHAF for all your work at making this a truly great event.

Scotch things

2009-01-11T19:46:00.001-08:00

We went to John & Deb's home last night for a scotch tasting. The gang was there Thom, Steve, Charles, Phil, Bob, Damian and myself. There were 5 scotches presented by John: Bruichladdich 20 yrs old - bourbon cask, legs close together as a virgin (good viscosity), Nose - vanilla, pear, heather, sea, iodine, grassy, peppery. Finish - woody and long. Glengoyne 16 yrs old 15 years in bourbon casks then 1 year in Scottish oak, darker colour, warming. Nose - spicy, vanilla, butterscotch. Mouth - maple syrup, butterscotch, woody. Finish - woody, astringent. Glengoyne 15 yrs. Nose - butterscocth, citris, vanilla, pepper, creme brulee. mouth: mold, old shoe, musty warehouse. Glen Grant 30 yrs., cask strength, sherry butt. Nose - strong sherry, brandy nose, dried fruit. Mouth - sherry, brandy like, dried fruit. Finish - fruity and long. LAPHROAIG 30 yrs. Nose - peat, smoke, vanilla. Mouth - astringent. H2O added less smoke. This is the best whisky I have ever tasted. Good balance and complexity, it is best without water. Lagavulin 16 yrs. just a really good whisky. Port Charlotte 5 yrs. 46% Nose - iodine, fruit prickly, smoke, charcoal. Mouth- light, vanilla, sweet. Finish - short. Gordon MacPhail Imperil 14 yrs. Sweet, slight smokey taste and nose, fruit, dry finish. Laphroaig 15 yr This is a very tasting whisky and one of my personal favorites. A good time was had by all and I especially had a very good time as I was completely comatose till 9 this morning.

Summit Things

2009-01-10T15:22:00.000-08:00

I was the tour guide today at Summit. It is very cool talking about beer and Summit. I had a great time. It is funny, I always flog the Great Northern Porter and the Oatmeal Stout. Invariably, the people taking the cue try it and enjoy drinking it. The pouring was fast and furious. We served over 100 people three beers each. It was mad.

Porter Things

2009-01-08T19:59:00.000-08:00

2 January 2009, I held a porter tasting or some friends. We tasted 20 porters and 6 stouts mostly of the imperial variety. The tasters were: myself, Patrick, Thom, Bob, Damian, Andrew, Mike, Brian, Phil and Tina. The porters were Fitger's Parr's porter, Olfabrikken Danish porter, Capitol Baltic porter, Bell's porter, Mudpuppy porter (Central Waters, WI), Badger porter (Black River Falls, WI), Tyranena Devil made me do it coffee porter, Summit Great Northern porter, Surly Bender, Rogue Mocha porter, Smuttynose Robust porter, Zywiec porter (Poland), Gonzo Imperial porter (Flying Dog, Denver), Baltika 6 (Russia), Nogne O (Norway), Cygnuc X-1 (Flat Earth), Cygnus X-1 cherry infused, Samuel Smith Taddy porter, Harviestoun Old Engine Oil, Okochim porter. The best of the night were Olfabrikken, Harviestoun Old Engine Oil, and Nogne O. The worst was Capitol's Baltic porter. It was terrible, thin, tasteless, no character, and no redeeming qualities.

The imperial stouts were Pozharnik Imperial stout, Speedway Stout (Alesmith), Southern Tier (NY) Creme Brulee Chocolate stout, Pizza Port Santa's Little Helper, Obovoid (Boulder), and Tenfiddy (Oskar Blues, Lyon, CO). The best were Speedway but it needed another year lying still and Tenfiddy (in a can) just excellent. The worst and almost unpalatable was the Southern Tier too sweet in the bottle. Perhaps some aging might mellow it out. The taste and smell stayed with you as well.

Tattoo things

2009-01-08T19:55:00.000-08:00

I was tattooed by Nic onMonday 29 December. He put a picture that Ava drew of Ann in the summer 2001. I placed it on my right leg opposite of DeDe's drawing. I think it is very cool and I like it a lot. I need to get one from Damian. The number is now at 8, eight tattoos. I still want a large one on my right shoulder and arm. Thanks Nic.

Christmas things

2008-12-24T07:25:00.000-08:00

here it is 24 December, Christmas eve, and I am all finished with my shopping (I hope). last night I shared some beverages with Doug, Colleen, and Molly. Good conversations and good beer at TownHall Brewery. What more can you ask for? I had a Scaldis Noel which was sweet and flavorful. Definitely a sipping beer for a winter's night, a cold winter's night. I also had two pints of milk stout. Those were absolutely delicious and tasty with lots of depth and character. It had hints of chocolate, coffee, toffee, dried savory fruit, and hints of vanilla.

On Sunday, we had the Skrade family Christmas and it was a good time. Angie came down with vertigo and Nic took her to urgent care. they called me to come over early to take care of the ham and glaze it. I also hung around with the kids. before I went to Nic's home, I dropped off some beer for the McGilp's. In the afternoon, I took Damian over to Brent's home to shovel his sidewalks and to do some grocery shopping for him. He is invalided at home.

The dinner was delicious. We had ham, cheesy potatoes, squash (prepared with ginger, maple syrup, and olive oil), salad, cranberry sauce, and cookies. We exchanged gifts after dinner. I think everyone was very happy at their presents. angie had been wishing for a couple more place settings of Lenox Christmas bone china and she was happy to get it. I picked it up last year the day after Christmas. Gears of War 2 was Nic's gift and some art books. DeDe was given a cook book 'Soul Vegetarian', Fashion Encyclopedia, pie weights, and china. Ava asked for and received manga. She has so much manga especially some of the very specific titles like Fruits basket, Mixed Vegetables, Muyho & Roji. WOW!!!! Damian received books from the Saxon series, French Dunnies, and Fallout 3. K and I received a gift certificate to the Nicollet Island Inn from DeDe. I received the 2nd season of Rome and a Japanese demon.

On saturday, Ava and I went to the Nutcracker, Loyce Houlton's Nutcracker which quite an extravaganza. Ava had a cold and coughed quite a bit. We ate at the Rock Bottom restaurant. I had a busy day, Summit in the morning, Ava in the afternoon, and I shoveled DeDe's driveway then came home and shoveled our driveway. I was shagged. So I called K to say I was not coming to the TCGC concert at Bethel. Instead, I out on Seven Samurai and had a good time watching the remastered version. It was just beautiful. A couple of beers and snacks and I was in hog heaven.

Friday was the Solstice Party and we had a really good time. I came home early picked up some things at the store. I cleaned a bit and just got ready for the evening. It was good to see everyone. K commented on that there were around 30 people there. I guess there was. Karen gave me a cd of Bob Wills with Tommy Duncan. It is so good! My freinds brought some nice beers: Anchor Christmas 2007 and 2008, Rush River Winter warmer, Chimay Blue, Sam Adams Chocolate Bock, Flat Earth vanilla porter, and a variety of winter warmers from New England. Great beers except for the Rush River, quite forgettable.

Things Christmas

2008-12-11T07:12:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are in the throes of another Christmas season. The lights are up on the tree outside, the cards will be mailed, parties are planned, the days are being mapped out. This is so I may be able to participate in as many events as is humanly possible. The goal is to sample drinks and food without achieving a massive weight gain. Here is the schedule until 4 January:

11 Dec. - Ava's concert with tenor sax at Anwatin.
12 Dec. - Game at Doss's home.
13 Dec. - (killer day) Go and visit Alsadhu 10 am, fencing 12-1, Bjorn's Harn game 1-6? maybe?, Mark & Sue's wedding reception 2-8, Brian Boru Band party 7 - ????. Holy Hannah that will be one full day. I doubt Katherine will accompany me as Ellen is coming into town and she has practice all morning and going to watch Adam sing at 7 pm.
14 Dec. - Visit Mike W., make pumpkin bread for the MJC party.
15 Dec. - Stop at TownHall for some milk stout and then to Brent's for a game of Harn with Bjorn.
16 Dec. - Band practice, Stub & Herbs K-9 on draft.
17 Dec. - RockBottom $5.00 growlers, $2.75 beers, Old Curmudgeon on at 6 pm.
18 Dec. - Adam's Winter Concert 7 pm.
19 Dec. - 1/2 day off, Solstice Party starts at 7 pm
20 Dec. - Work at Summit 10:30 - 12:30 pick up Ava and go to RockBottom for lunch and Nutcracker at the State. DO NOT FORGET THE TICKETS OR THE ROCKBOTTOM $10
21 Dec. - Christmas at Nic's home with Grandma Dee
22 Dec. - Making Christmas cookies
23 Dec. - Fencing or band practice
24 Dec. - Church service
25 Dec. - Christmas Day at Cindy's home, Alex More's birthday
26 Dec. - Go to the stores early for cards at Barnes & Noble, ornaments at Macy's, and fencing. Game at Alan Coleman's home.
27 Dec. - Game at Alan Coleman's home or Stout Tasting.
28 Dec. - Open house at George and Anna Atkin's home. My birthday brunch at DeDe's home.
29 Dec. - Game at Brent's
30 Dec. - Fencing, Wendy's birthday
31 Dec. - Home? New Year's Eve with Nic & Angie and bowling?
01 Jan. - Bowl games
02 Jan. -
03 Jan. - Katherine's birthday, my mother's birthday
04 Jan. - Laurel's Birthday - send card

What a line-up and there will probably be more to add to the list. I hope I make it through the holidays with slight weight gain, good blood pressure, a good liver, and piece of mind.

Thanksgiving Things

2008-11-29T21:21:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving. K and I started working on the T-day dinner the weekend before. I made cranberry sauce and it was lovely. I made it on Sunday. During the rest of the week I picked up various things for the dinner. We were having Nic and Angie, Damian and Ava, DeDe and Ted. I called Laurel but no answer. Wednesday I picked up the turkey at Evertt's Meat market and picked up some bread from New French Bakery. K and I made dressing that night and put the turkey in a cooler to soak up brine. I brined it with trappist beer and salt water.

Thursday morning, T-day the rest of the stuff was being prepared. We put the turkey in at 8 am and prepared the rest of the stuff. DeDe arrived on time with Ted. They had made a lovely bruchetta appretizer of melon, and tomatoes with poppy seeds. DeDe made a spinach salad that was very delicious. Nic and Angie and the kids arrived. We checked the turkey not done. I increased the temp. We had dressing and sweet potatoes with maple syrup heating in the oven. Nic made green bean cassarole and Angie made a pumpkin pie. Potatoes are done. Salad is ready and all the fixing except the bloody turkey, literally bloody on one bloody side the other side was nicely done. Go figure. So I cut the turkey on the done side and we slipped it back in to finish off cooking whilst we ate dinner. Everything was perfect. We stopped before we ate and gave thanks for our family. I got choked up. DeDe was thankful for everyone being healthy. Nic was thankful for his family. Katje was thankful to be fully accepted into the family. DeDe said "We love you." She is a sweety. What a good meal. Afterwards, we talked around the table about all sorts of things. Family and the world and the economy all were discussed. We even talked abit about religion and judaism. When DeDe left we laid around and talked some more. We ate so much food. That evening K and I made a lovely delicious apple cabbage salad for the party at Brad & Linda's home. Nic told me that Ava had said it was a delicious dinner except there were no cranberries. I had left the homemade cranberries and the two cans of jellied cranberries in the refrigerator. What a dolt!!! The homemade cranberries tasted really good. I have been eating with the dressing for two days now.

Next morning, at 5:30 I went shopping and I went to Holiday to wash my car at the Minnetonka & 100 station. I then went to Kohl's and spent. Then to Target and spent more. I checked out Best Buy but no money was spent. Barnes & Noble was checked out and I spent more there. I started to head home close to 9am and K called me. I was driving so it was hard to talk. I went home and they followed me and picked me up. We then went to Mike's home and proceeded to Litchfield Brad and Linda's home. What a beautiful day and what a feast. I didn't yhink I ate that much but I must have as I was completely and totally full. I took two naps. I finally got up sometime around 3 and went for a walk downtown and walked around some antique stores. When I went home around 4:30 - 5 pm they were ready for the journey home. We arrived home around 6 pm and I headed out to Brent's BAR game. Chris, John, Mike and Ron were there as was Brent. It was Ok but I really wanted to get out of there by 8:30.

K and I walked to the store the morning so she could get some presents for jenn her former step-daughter. Then off to fencing and what a work out. Brandon said we should try to break up the bout into increments. Jeff said I should try and not to concentrate on scoring points but relax and play. The points should come, essentially they both said similar things. It felt good to fence and work out and fencing is a good work out.

Uptown Tattoo things

2008-11-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

Uptown Tattoo party at Surly Brewery on 15 November was really cool. Thom and I poured beer for the evening and played bagpipes a couple of times. I met lots of old friends, family, and friends of Nic and Angie. Ava was decked out like a little lady. Damian had his hair spiked. Nic and Angie were dressed to the nines. I wore my kilt with tux shirt and bowtie and katherine was dressed in a very nice dress. Bartending was very cool. I was able to see almost everyone. There were alot of beautiful tattooed women there. The food was awesome with roast pig and turkey from John and Cara. Brasa supplied the sides creamed spinach and baked mashed yams, yum, yum. The beer was Surly and people loved it and were drinking alot of it especially the Cynic, a saison formulated by Todd Haug. A good time was had by all!

Election things

2008-11-06T06:46:00.000-08:00

Well, the election is over, sort of. I just wish that Obama had had significant coattails to bring in some more Democrats. Franken & Coleman are still locked in a recount battle. Bachmann won her seat. The district deserves someone that stupid and polarizing. Paulson won in the 3rd district against Madia. Can you believe it that old sod felon Tad Stevens was reelected? Unbelieveable! Alaskans are dumber than I thought. I sat and watched the election results drinking twenty year old Port and hoping for better results in other races. The concession speech by John McCain was very good and showed his true nature. This was a different person than what was on the campaign trail. It was a very good and heart felt speech. Obama's speech was really good and just struck a cord deep inside me. I am looking hopefully for the next four years to a new world. I stayed up an extra half hour watching a special on channel 2 about Isle Royale. I do hope I go there and get to hike.

Halloween things

2008-11-03T06:50:00.000-08:00

Ale Saints Day at the Blue Nile on 2027 E. Franklin Ave. in Minneapolis's beautiful Seward neighborhood. Al the bar manager had put together an mazing selection of great beers (porters and stouts) for an extravaganza. At 4 Pm he opened a cask of Bell's Porter ***, 5 Pm cask of Summit Great Northern Porter with black treacle ***, 6 pm keg of Bell's Expedition Stout 2007 ***+ (this had matured so nicely and was so tasty it was a beautiful beer) and a 2008 keg ***, 7pm Surly Smoke Baltic Porter **+(not as good as at the brewery on Darkness day. The other beers on draft were Surly Darkness Russian Imperial Stout***+, Leininkugel's Big Eddy Russian Imperial Stout **, North Coast Old Rasputin Imperial Stout***, Moylan's (CA) Ryan O'Sullivan's RIS***, Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter**+, Summit Great Northern Porter**, Salopian Entire Butt English Porter**, Furthermore Three Feet Deep Smoked Stout* (too astringent, smoke not appealing), Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence Stout***+(this was so amazingly good), Surlyy Coffee Bender*(Too much coffee with my beer), Flat Earth Cygnus X-1 Rye Porter**+, Southern Tier Oatmeal Stout ***, Lion Stout(One of my all time favorites)***, Bell's Java Stout (too astringent coffee had a bad effect on this beer)*. Thom and I played some bagpipe tunes and had a good time. We were joined by Damian & Jen (preggers), and Doug.

After awhile we went over to Town Hall and had some food and you guessed it - more beer. I had a pint of stout (always good). We were joined by Katherine, Colleen, and Brent. The menu has changed and it was all very good. I had half a walleye sandwich with Brent, sweet potato fries, and deep fried green beans with spicy dipping sauce.

I worked on DeDe's yard on Saturday with DeDe, Damian, and Ava. Greg the electrician switched the boxes and updated the electrical for the house. On Sunday, Katherine and I worked all day on the yard and started to put the yard away for a long winter's nap. I visited Mike in the hospital and dropped off presents of leaves for everyone. Whew!!!!

More things Fall

2008-10-29T06:49:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since my last post. I am spending far too much time on watching the election polls and all the superfluous news articles related and sort of related. I want the election over with and done and Obama as president.

On a lighter note, I played bagpipes at the Darkness release at Surly and had loads of fun. Nic, my son designed the labels, t-shirt, poster for the Darkness this year.Josh Krage and I piped up and down the waiting line and at the gate. Just before the gate opened I played Darth Vader's March. We played some more tunes and then I drank just a bit too much. I need to stop that and rein in my consumption on that. The smoked Baltic porter was amazingly delicious and big. The oak-aged Bender was very delicious as well. Way too much fun for an old guy. In the evening, we had some friends over to try some of the West Coast beers. Brent, Karen, Doug, Phil, and Tina. We drank some very good ones Roots oragnic IPA Woody, Laurelwood organic IPA Green Elephant, Peak organic Pale Ale (not very good, very bland tasting), Ninkasi Double Believer Red Ale, Pelican Brewery Doryman's Dark Ale (my favorite), Fitger's Black Eye lager (not West Coast but very tasty), Lost Abbey Judgment Day (Belgian style quaddruple, cloyingly sweet, should have been laid down for at least a year), Lost Abbey ? Belgian style saison, very good tasting, delicious but big, and Surly Furious ( this beer is not nearly so hoppy in the can as it is on draft. This weekend at the Blue Nile will be Dark Ale Days featuring a host of dark beers. I will be getting a ride to and from this event. I have been lobbying my comrades as to sharing these big dark beers so we can try several of them. I hope it works. I do want to hang out with Katje after.

The garden is ready to put away for the winter. I was able to score some lavender from the grounds people, very kind of them. Now I have to protect them and bed them down well for the long winter. I will be digging up the parsley and oregano and bring it inside so we can have some fresh herbs. Lots to do yet before the snow flies. The election is six days away. I can't wait.

Things Fall

2008-10-08T07:31:00.000-07:00

I love the Fall season. It was during this season 38 years ago I wooed Ann. I love the smell and feel of the Fall. There is always a certain time that the light is different than Summer. The smell and taste of the air is different. Pick apples, drives in the country looking at the leaves change. Getting the gardens tucked away for the winter. Preparing for winter. The smell of a fire with wood and leaves burning is one of my most visceral memories of Fall. Sunday dinners with roast beast, potatoes, veggies, cooked rolls. Racking the leaves and listening to Gopher football. Playing touch football. Bike riding the Cannon Falls trail or around the river road as it is amazingly beautiful down there.

Things Fall

2008-10-05T20:35:00.000-07:00

Nic ran the TC marathon today. Damian and I volunteered at the food booth. My were we lucky, it rained really hard and if we had been any where else we would have been soaked and cold. Otherwise, we were cold. Volunteering was good. I was wiped out for the day though.

Ann's birthday was Friday and I thought about her quite abit. After work, I went to the Campuc Club as the guest of Phil Platt. I saw Thom, Omar, Dustin, and Cathy pouring. We listened to Doug Hoverson and had a great time. Afterwards, I went to Doss's house and gamed with Gary, George, Walter, Nick, and Greg. We played Catan. It was Ok but I would have rather played the History of the World. Ate far too much snacks and had a couple of beers. Saturday, I gave a tour at Summit. I need to work on my tour and make it a bit more coherent. We then went to James and Martha' home for a homebrew tasting party. Good beers and good conversation all around. We stayed till about 10:30 then headed home. I awoke around 6 am to prepare for the Marathon. Whew!!!

Autumn Brew Review Things

2008-09-28T18:47:00.000-07:00

Well, another Autumn Brew Review and another year has pass into history. We adverted a near disaster as Thom did not have his bagpipe chanter. he had forgot it at pipe practice. So K brought my extra from home and we made it. Some note errors and some forgotten bits but it worked. Met up with Bob, Thom, Brent, Molly, Doug, Colleen, James, Adam, and all of my brewery friends. Afterwards, we went to Grumpy's NE and had some food and some beer. I threw out the beers I had as I just didn't like them. I made it home with the help of Bob by 9:30

Beers that I tried:
Schells - Dave Berg - Stout **, Bavarian Forest Dampfbier **, U Bier **
Barley John's - Colin & John - Oktober Fest *, Dark Knight Returns ***, Wild Brunette ***
Fitger's - Dave Hoops, Bob, Frank & Brian - Cherry Stout cask **, Cherry beer ***
Flat Earth - Jeff & Cathy - Cygnus X-1 **, Rode Haring Flanders Red Ale *, Winter Warlock ***
Great Waters - Boston Bob - Mr. Smooth Mild cask **, Pflugenpfalagen **, Saison **
Herkimer - Gustavo vale - Sky Pilot **, Vienna Country **
Lift Bridge - Farm Girl Saison **
McCann's - Chris - Middletown Braun **
MPLS Townhall Brewery - Mike Hoops, Adam & Pete - Oak Porter **, Scottis Wee Heavy ***, Chocolate Oatmeal Stout ***
Rock Bottom - Rolf - Smoked Porter cask ***, Saison **
Summit - Oatmeal Stout brett cask ***, Black Treacle GNP ***
Surly - Omar & Todd - #2 cranberry stout ***, Cynic & cranberries **, Tea bagged Furious *
Vine Park - Rabid Penguin Porter *
Avery - 15th anniversay Brett Gueze **, Avery New World Porter **
Boulevard - Bob's 47 Oktoberfest *
Butte Creek - Organic Porter **, Organic IPA **
City Brewing - Bar Harbor Real Ale *
Furthermore - 3 ft. Deep Stout ***, Knot Stock **
Left Hand - Milk Stout ***, JUJU Ginger *
Leininkugel - Big Eddy Russian Imperial Stout **
New Belgium - 1554 *
New Holland - John Haggerty - Dragon's Milk ***
Ommegang - Ommegeddon **, Hennepin **
Peak Organic - Pale Ale**, NutBrown **,
Shmaltz - ConeyIslandFreakToberFest**
Southern Tier - Unearthly Imperial IPA**, Heavy Weizen Imperial Hefe***, Cherry Saison*
Two Brothers - Domaine Du Page**
Tyranena - Chief Blackhawk Porter **
Victory Brewing - Golden Monkey Tripel **

Things North Shore

2008-09-18T06:56:00.000-07:00

Well, Brent and I went up to the North Shore on 9 Sept. and I returned on 16 Sept. with Katherine. Brent and I had beautiful weather and a great time. Coming down the hill into Duluth on 35 is one of the best, most loveliest views in all the world. Seeing Lake Superior, I knew I had started my vacation. We stopped at Fitger's on the way up (we always stop on the way back as well), and had beers with lunch. The place we stay at is in Hovland. We stayed at Nordlof at the Sanger's cabin 4, Brent cabin 1. Our cabin was at the far end of the property on the lake with its own walk way to the lake front. It was an actual log cabin that had been retrofitted with electrical and plumbing. It had the kitchen table turned to the lake. Just a charming little cabin to stay in.

Brent and I walked during the day. He showed me around alot of the places he loves which was really cool as i am now getting to know the North Shore and Cook County even more. At night, we ate and drank. We drank lots of Fitger's beer and Macallan scotch 12 yrs. So there was lots of lively conversations. I grilled chicken and corn one night and made a chicken stir fry another night.

The sweethearts came up on Friday and we went for a walk to Magnetic Rock. Magnetic Rock is a glacial erratic (it was put there by the glacier) made up of magnitite. It stands in the middle of a pretty significant area. The area was part of the big blow down in 4 July 1999 when straight line winds toppled tens of thousands of trees. it is also the sight of two recent fires the Hamm lake fire from 2007 being the most recent. What was most interesting next to this very cool rock was that with the blow down and the fires you could see the landscape all around. Nature was coming back quickly but you could look for quite far. Great vistas! The sun was setting when we finished and we headed to the Trail Center for dinner. The Trail Center is on the Gunflint Trail about 29 miles from Grand Marais. It has great food and was voted by Esquire Magazine as one of the top ten restaurants in the country, spring 2008.

Saturday, we walked up to Lake Agnes. This was a very steep climb but again lovely vistas, and beautiful forest and lakes. We ate Karen's Green Glop/Green Goddess and it was really good. Mung beans, brown rice, vegetables, ginger, turmeric, cardamon, onions, and garlic. For dessert we had blueberry pie from the Satilite Inn. Delicious! Sunday brunch was at the Naniboujou Lodge. We arose early and what a feast. They have without doubt the best salmon. It is grilled on cedar planks and it is so bloody good. I went back and had 3 pieces. After we went to see the high falls on the Pidgeon River. I hadn't been there in 40+ years. K and I had bought a book on lichens of MN. We were looking all around at the various all around us.

Monday, our last day and we went up old Hiway 61 to the old border crossing. K and I used the book to identify more and more lichens. It was amazing to see what we could identify and what was there with lichens on lichens. We hiked part of the Grand Portage from Hiway 61 to the Beaver Dam 2.7 miles in. This was pretty nice being a fairly gentle walk and a very lovely day.

We drove back on Tuesday stopping at KKD pottery to view her very cool outhouse and check out her pottery. I bought a small bowl for flowers. It is a blue glazed raku firing. I think it if very nice.

September 6 things

2008-09-07T15:41:00.000-07:00

Wow!! What a day 6 September was. I woke up and took a wee walk with K to Byerly's. I then drove over to Summit to give a tour. It was my first time with Amy's new dictum about how and what should be covered in a tour. It was fine. I then ran home and dressed to go to play at a wedding at St. Michael's Church Misery synod. Fun gig and a complete surprise for the groom. jane asked me to come back today to play for services 'Amazing Grace'. She also asked me about playing for their Christmas pageant. Then I jumped into the truck and sped onto Surly for Surly Fest. VIP ticket no stinking mug. I met Brett and talked with him which was fun. I also met Ellen and chatted with her in a civil and nice manner. She is 48 now. Looks fine too bad she is a real piece of work. I then headed out to pick up K and go to Nic's birthday party. We arrived as did the clouds. It was a fun little party. Nic grilled different kinds of brats and we had cole slaw, potato salad by K, babaganoush & pita, and chips. We went inside as it started to rain and get much colder. Ava hired herself out to play the piano for $4.00 an hour. I gave her $6.00 to play and she did a lovely job. Angie made the Tunnel of Fudge cake which is Nic's favorite and we had that with ice cream. K and I almost drove out to Hugo Stock at 9 pm but we were both really shagged. We came home and played scrabble for abit but I was so tired I was in bed by 10:15 and slept till 7:00.

Labor Day Things

2008-09-02T10:31:00.000-07:00

It was a long weekend starting on Friday with going to the State Fair early to help Barb set up the MN Supreme Court Historical Society booth at 7 am. We set it and I worked till 10:30 am then went back to my truck to change into something more comfortable. I played my chanter for 45 minutes. After that I went out to see things I didn't see when I went with Nic and his family on 25 August or wouldn't do with Katherine. It was actually quite nice and liberating. No need to vacillate and hem and haw about this and that and take into consideration the other person's feeling about whether they wanted to do this or that ot eat this ot that. Ah, so very nice. Brent arrived late and right away it was beer time and whatever. Then Katherine arrived as did Karen. It was good to have had the time to myself.

Saturday, Katherine's 35th reunion in Buffalo. It was a very interesting event. I was introduced to all her old high school classmates. It was interesting to hear people to talk about what has gone on in their lives and read the class bio handout which caught people up with what everyone was doing. It truly was fun and interesting.

Sunday, a nice long bike ride down to lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles. K went back home to get ready for church and I went to work in the garden and putter around the house. I am not finding church very interesting or compelling. I know the message is always the same, however, the messenger is sometimes a problem. I met with the McGilps at Townhall and had some very good beers. Then I dashed over to Orchestra Hall to catch the TCC Gospel Chois do a small concert. It was very delightful and cool. We (Brent, Katje, and myself) went to Acadia and had some beers and share a sandwich.

Monday - Day of the March. We went to Menard's to get bricks for the pull off. The kids were to help their mother do this however, they are the laziest, good for nothings. Yet, they are paid an allowance for doing nothing but breathing. I went to Nic's house and picked him and Damian up and go to the peace march on the RNC. We parked up by Western and walked to the Capitol where we then waited for approx. 2 hours for the march to start. We met the McGilps and Eli their gradnson. When the march actually started down the street we moved at a pretty good pace. We met Nic's neighbors Pat, John and Jessie and marched with them. We were shouting " Hey Hey Ho Ho 13th Avenue Against the War!! Nic was embarassed as was damian. The march was permitted to go within about 200 ft. of the RNC Excel Center doing sort of a hairpin sort of turn around. Counter protesters were very few and the cops in riot gear were out in force. Dressed in black with shin guards, padding, helmets, tear gas launchers, Edina's armoured car, and mounted cops on bicylces and horses. It was pretty incredible. I am glad everyone was very cool. The organizers had people stationed between the cops and the marchers, that was very good. After we marched we had a ice cream by the cathedral as an ice cream truck had stopped. We then went home and it was good.

RenFest things

2008-08-27T12:54:00.000-07:00

Pouring beer for Flat Earth at the RenFest on Sunday is always amusing. I always enjoy the RenFest. There are the costumes people wear which are crazy and outrageous. There are some very fetching women very sexy in costumes. There are cool costumes. I especially saw one of articulated leather armour this man made for himself. All the tooling and articulation handled by himself. It was a true work of art. Getting hit on by women at my age is flattering. I think anyone would be flattered. It is nice to know that women still have an attraction to me. I cannot think why as I am chubby, greying, and short. The beers we poured were Black Helicopter, Bermuda Triangle, Belgian Pale, and Angry Planet. Lots of kilts all around and bagpipes by Twin Cities Metro. The best thing however was the ratcatcher. I was talking to his understudy a young man who ahs been doing the routine for a several years. He told me the original ratcatcher came to the fest once in awhile to do some comedy for the fun of it. Phil and I saw him in his old form.He was doing everthing adlib, extemporaneously with the crowd and the crowd loved it. I loved it as I hadn't laughed that hard in awhile.

Golden Beer things

2008-08-27T12:46:00.000-07:00

Saturday evening, we had a critical mass of people to do a wee bit of analysis on golden beers. Now these golden beers could be any style as long as they were golden in colour. We tasted Oh, Brother! tripel from Two Bros.; Gouden Carolus, Cuvee de Keiser 2008; Granite City Wit and hefeweizen; Andrew & Rick's Tripel; Biere Blanche de Celtique from Britainny; Bermuda Triangle from Flat Earth; The two standout beers of the evening were Gouden Carolus and Blanche de Celtique. the judges were Bob & Michele McKenzie, Mark & Shona (bob's sister), Andrew, Damian, Katje, Brent, and dennis.

Weekend things

2008-08-22T04:32:00.000-07:00

The weekend is upon us and upon me. K is off taking her daughter to University. They are driving through the day and will arrive there tonight. I am planning on playing and having some good fun. Friday night will be boardgaming with Greg, George, Walter, and Nick. Saturday off to the St. Paul Farmer's Market and listen to the Eddie's. Maybe work on the chimney in Quebec, maybe not. With K gone this affords me time to get away and go to a movie I want to see without this feeling of guilt or accommodation. Saturday is this summer's Golden Beer Fest, formerly the Yellow Beer Fest. Bring your favorite yellow beer to taste and share. Belgians will be prominent. Speaking of Belgian, I think of Belgium and going to see Belgium again. What a beautiful country and people especially the Flemings. The tasting should be fun as we have a number of people coming and it should be good fun.

Web 2.0 things

2008-08-20T09:54:00.000-07:00

I am coming to the end of my class on web 2.0. It is rather sad as I had loads of fun looking at all these new things on the Internet. Now comes the hard part, not the final project, I already have that one nailed down. The actual decisions on what to utilities and web sites to use and what to discard and back out of. I have an account in Delicious but it seems that people are more interested in Diigo. Investigate further. FaceBook and MySpace, what are the things too keep me in one and not the other. 2ndLife, I want to see and experience it myself, however, do I really need to have a second life when my first life is so full? I see the benefits and uses of Flickr, wikis, and Youtube. My pictures will be organized in Flickr around my folders where I have been. I have created a wiki for my department using Peanut Butter (my final project). I have also created a wiki for the Monday night wargamers group using Wetpaint. This may not be the best one for this purpose but we can at least get our information started and explore another venue. A friend suggested Ning as an alternative. We'll check it out. I am also looking at sites that permit you to have everything right on a tool bar so you can monitor your sights all the time Flock and Yoono are two.

Pipeband Championships things

2008-08-18T20:25:00.000-07:00

Scottish Pipeband Championships
This is a link to the Scottish 2008 championships held in May 2008. This last weekend was the World Championships in Glasgow on Glasgow Green, Simon Fraser University won the Championship.

RenFest Things

2008-08-18T20:14:00.000-07:00

We went to the RenFest early on Sunday morning arriving for the opening cannon. We are Katherine, Brent, Karen, and myself. We watched the new Snot, Snot jr. in Puke & Snot jr. It was just an excellent show. They skewed and screwed politicians especially republican politicians every which way. It was hilarious. I haven't seen them in years and it was really good. We saw the Arabian horse show and fire eaters. We saw Cassandra belly dance first and Alea second, latyer in the day. I started off the day drinking some fine Egyptian mead which is superb and followed by a second one later in the day. A hot day and alcohol especially mead can be a little bit too much. We saw the Vilification Tennis match which was hilarious. About mid-day we took a lunch break with apricot wheat ale and food. I made black bean salsa and K made couscous with summer squash. Both tasted great. It was a good day. We really bought nothing. I pretty much followed them around and did what they wanted to do save for watching Alea. She was an amazing dancer with a very lovely sensuous body. It is always a pleasure seeing and admiring a beautiful woman.

Things Beer Judging

2008-08-15T14:02:00.001-07:00

I will be judging for the Minnesota State Fair homebrew competition tonight at the Fairgrounds. I have done it the last few years and it is always fun as I see people I haven't seen for awhile. Try some homebrews and write good comments and hopefully gentle in comments about their efforts. I had a couple of disasters myself in my brewing career i.e. a Holiday ale with too much cloves. What I learned was that a little bit of cloves goes a long way.

Granite City things

2008-08-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

Stopped at Granite City Brewery & restaurant last night with my friend Brent. We shared a pizza bbq chicken and a couple of hefeweizens,their seasonal. The hefeweizen was very refreshing and in very good form. It had a good taste, mouth feel, the characteristic esters banana and clove were there. I think it was a very successful tasty beer. Most of the time we talked about everything under the sun. Gaming, miniatures, women, beer, surgery, and Renfest.

Things Flat Earth

2008-08-07T08:51:00.000-07:00

Last night I went over to the Acadia cafe for a beer release of the Ovni from Flat Earth Brewing. Ovni is made in the style of a bier de garde. It was fun being there and supporting Jeff, the owner and brewer at Flat Earth. None of my friends made it as they were busy with other things. I had a couple of pints of Cygnus-X1 porter which was perfect for a summer's evening.

things ships

2008-08-05T09:16:00.000-07:00

Duluth harbour, 1 August 2008: Damian and I roll into Duluth at 9:30 am hoping to view the three wooden ships in the harbour for their Maritime Fest. They were the U.S. Brig Niagara, The Madeleine, and the Pride of Baltimore II. There must have been 10,000 people there waiting to see the ships and mostly to see the Niagara. It was a bloody long line and we were in it for 4 1/2 hours. Standing in the sun as it was a near perfect day in Duluth with gentle breezes, warm temperatures, and beautiful skies. It was pretty neat to see the Niagara and be on deck. It is a pretty small ship when you compare it to the U.S. Frigate Constitution or HMS Victory. However, it was still pretty darn cool. I saw the other ships from dockside but didn't go on. I think I would do that again but perhaps go through the smaller lines first.

garden things

2008-07-31T09:15:00.000-07:00

I picked my first zucchini last evening. I also picked some radishes still tasty inspite of the heat. It has been hotter than hell and the garden still seems to be doing well. Hopefully, all this nice hot weathe will translate into lovely tomatoes. We have a number of them on the vine. So far only the cherries are starting to ripen. The beans, cucumbers, dill, fennel, and basil are doing fantastic. We already made some fresh pesto one day.

The flowers are looking well. The ladyslippers seem to do doing well. The zinnias, nasturtiums, and marigolds haven't blossomed yet but soon. The rudbekia that the old woman in the Farmer's Market told me to buy is beautiful. I bought three plants from her as she said they were her last and she said they would be beautiful and they are with more red in the center and and orange on the fringe. The black blue salvia is still attracting hummingbirds and I have seen several butterflies and bees in the garden. Lucky us.

Cuzco pic

2008-07-29T07:24:00.000-07:00

This pic was taken outside a roadside cafe where they serve chicha de jora (fermented beverage made with maize) and frutillada (chicha with strawberries added). Note the red flag, that tells the passerby that this place sells chicha de jora. (There is another chicha, chicha morada, which is made with blue corn and is very refreshing). You see them everywhere in Peru in the countryside. I had a frutillada and found it very refreshing and tasty. I was cautioned to drink not all of it as it may have an adverse effect on my bowels. This stand is an example of a tradition that is thousands of years old. An elderly woman was the proprietor. She made the food, fermented the beverages chicha de jora and frutillada. This is how women survived for thousands of years if they had been widowed or lived alone. There are no pensions for elderly in the third world. They survive by being part of the economy and providing a service. Women have brewed since the beginning of time. They cooked and the brewed. At this point in time, we reap the benefits of thousands of years of fermentation and cooking. Here's to women, God bless them all!

weekend things

2008-07-28T13:26:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty good weekend. I met with friends on Friday night. Saturday, we went to dinner at a friend's home and they had made a lovely meal of spring rolls with plum sauce, hoisin sauce, peanut sauce, and hot chili sauce. White and rose wine was served as well as tea. The main entree was a lovely pasta salad with pesto, dried tomatoes, and pine nuts and fresh baked bread. Dessert was home made frozen yogurt strawberry, blueberry and berries with blueberries on top. We saw their collection bonsai trees and they talked about all the travails they have with keeping them watered and in good form. We listened to bagpipe music and showed off our pictures from Scotland and Portland. My friends had gone to Scotland in June. Specifically, they went to the Outer Hebrides, Harris and Lewis, England, and Peebles. I had gone to Scotland at the end of May and beginning of June and visited Islay, Jura, Kintyre Peninsula, Speyside, and Glen Clova. We also showed our pictures from Portland. Listening to music from the Western Isles is always so much fun and they enjoy it as much as we do.

Sunday, I had brunch with my son and his family. They have been hosting an exchange student from Grenoble France for the last three weeks. It was very nice to meet him. I also weeded and watered my butterfly garden. Yesterday, I sighted hummingbirds and butterflies in the garden.

My granddaughter is in the state girls soccer tournament. I went to act as a supporter and cheerleader. Unfortunately, I did not add any luck as they lost a close one 3 -2. After, the tournament it was upstairs and looking at rss feeds, social networks, and loading pictures from out trips to Picasa (that was a bloody long slog). Tonight, I am hoping this will be far easier.

Cuzco 2007

2008-07-27T13:58:00.000-07:00

Beer things

2008-07-26T06:48:00.000-07:00

Last night I gave two brewery tours at Summit Brewery St. Paul, MN to the folks visiting there to participate in the Lighting Run. Lots of bike or hogs, young and old, tattooed or not, and in leathers or not, and all of them enjoying a perfect evening as the humidity had dissapated and there was a gentle breeze. The tours were smaller, 12-24 people. I gave them an abbreviated tour which still took around 40 minutes. When I wasn't talking about Summit I was pouring it for people, a lot of them had never had Summit and never had a full bodied craft beer. It was fun.

After the tours, I went to Barley John's brew pub and met Molly and Doug. We sat outside enjoying the perfect Minnesota summer evening. I had two beers their Wild Brunette and the Old 8 Porter. I hadn't had any beers at Summit as I don't like to give tours and drink beer. We talked of many things. Doug has been going crazy with geneology and has discovered all sorts of links to his family. I told them of my adventures in Portland and all beers that were sampled for research purposes. I also told them about the exciting and fun seminars I had taken at the AALL Convention. Great evening talking beer, computer and Internet technology, and whatever else was interesting under the evening sky.

RSS Things

2008-07-25T14:13:00.000-07:00

Adding these RSS links was rather difficult and yet easy once I actually did it. I probably spent more time than I should have, however, I've read a number of articles and saw explanations of what RSS is on YouTube. Learning all this new material is mind blowing. I hope to spend part of the weekend working on my RSS links, feeds, and sharing it all with friends and colleagues.

Playing with things in my and for my blog

2008-07-24T13:34:00.000-07:00

I have had a long and interesting morning setting up this blog. It has been fun and with some timely questions to staff that have more experience and expertise I have finally started my blog. Now I am adding content and things i.e. avatar, rss, and favorite things.I may actually get something going here.

On Tuesday evening, after band practice and needing some neck oil to relieve a parched throat and a dry tongue. My friend Thom and I went to the Muddy Pig and we had a couple of glasses. Thom had a beer called Rogue Latona and Cain & Ebel. I had a Domain du page and a Matilda from Goose Island . It was a nice, pleasant way to finish off a Tuesday of bagpipes and drums.

My first post to my blog

2008-07-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

The setting up of the blog was relatively painless. I took a walk this morning to clear my head and thought about blogging and rss feeds. So I thought I would just jump in and do it. It has been interesting to see over the last few days since I came back from Portland all the various blogs I've been looking at. It has really gotten me excited to the point where I am emailing to colleagues about various blogs and what we like about them or don't like about them. This is all in preparation for creating our own. By generating enough enthusiasm I hope to get all the staff involved with adding to our own library blog.