Small Thoughts for Small Minds

Kel’s brother and his wife are getting divorced. This has been ongoing for three years or so. She’s finally moved out. Into our house. With her three daughters.

We now have ten people living in the house.

Not that I’m complaining. She’s helping with the old people and the kids while Kel & I are at work.

Keira and Dyson really like their cousins, at least so far….

My only concern is that Chelsea and Brittney (15 and 14 respectively) don’t have any "private space". They’re all sharing the guest bedroom and the guest bathroom. While it is a very large guest bedroom, it is still a single space. Of course, the house has a lot of rooms, so hopefully when they need space they can find it.

They’re going back to Richmond today (for the holiday weekend). Since I’ve been on the road since they’ve arrived, I haven’t really seen how well the situation is working.

Well, almost time to head to the airport….

Welcome to the Shyzaboy blog. All about my kids, my homebrew, my business (and sometimes personal) travel, and my crazy projects.

Please bear with me as I learn the tools provided, as well as learning what it is I actually want to accomplish with this blog.

While this is an introductory post, I’m not going to introduce myself. If you don’t already know me, you’re gonna have to suffer through my writing to gain both context and character. If that is a problem for you, then you probably won’t want to read further. (Just a disclaimer, more than an emotionally defensive tactic…) (Oh, I will tell you this much: I write (and think and speak) parenthetically and elliptically. It is a true representation of my expression….)

I am in the Sheraton Milwaukee Brookfield at the moment. I needed to spend a few days with my boss, so I came up north after meeting with a customer in Houston on Tuesday.

As usual, I searched out different and interesting beers. New Glarus Brewing Company (New Glarus, WI) usually has some interesting offerings. Today I found their Cherry Stout. While not as "stouty" as I would like, it was certainly dramatic. A bit more sour than their famous (within beer geek circles) Wisconsin Belgian Red (which, in my mind misses the mark on the "Belgian" part, but is still absolutely fantastic).

Certainly worth trying…

Unfortunately, the beer that I’m currently drinking, Founders’ Dry Hopped Pale Ale is severely oxidized. Poop…

Away (at least on the surface) from beer for a moment….

My (current) eternal project took a few steps forward this past weekend. I added a bunch of the crenellations, put up 40% of the screening, and added a floor to the bottom level of the square tower. I had a lot of problems with the screen framework (plastic) shattering in the miter saw. A colleague told me to turn the miter blade around. I’ll try that this weekend. If it works, I’ll finish the screening. (With the exception of the screen door. The sandbox wouldn’t be much use if the little monkeys couldn’t get in at all…) I ran out of scrap wood to make the crenellations. (To Kel’s dismay, I’ve been saving all of my scraps while building the playground. In a big pile. On our driveway.)

Here’s what it looks like at the moment:

I need to do some searching on the web to find a (hopefully local) provider of the playground mulch made out of recycled tires. I want the stuff dyed blue so my castle can have a "moat". (The entrance to the sandbox will be a "drawbridge"…)

I’m gonna go read (and drink crappy, oxidized beer) now…