Small Thoughts for Small Minds

A few random pictures with nowhere to put them. So, here they are…

The trip down to Atlanta wasn’t all bad.

Joe and I both brought a cooler full of good beer. One of which was a nice winter warmer from Brooklyn Brewery:

Next weekend, Joe and I are going to get together to make a Bohemian-style pilsner. (Joe tore his rotator cuff at work - he needs help brewing (which involves a lot of lifting) and I’m all about helping people…) (…when beer is involved…)

When making a lager, you should pitch at least twice as much yeast as you would for an ale. To make ten gallons of lager, you should pitch yeast from a gallon or two of wort. My Erlenmeyer flask is only one liter, so I’ve got to ferment it out, chill to settle, pour off the supernatant, add more wort and repeat. Since I’m going out of town, I’ll probably only end up with three iterations (and as such three liters worth)…

Here’s the starter fermenting away on the stir-plate:

We haven’t quite finished cleaning up the Christmas mess. A few garment boxes are still laying around. Apparently, Oliver felt the need to give one a test drive…

That’s all for now. Maybe I’ll actually take some pictures in New York City…

On New Year’s Day, we were, of course, watching college football.

By the time evening rolled around, Kel, Donna and I were beat. It was a busy weekend. Saturday we drove down to Atlanta (along with Joe White, my friend from the homebrew club) to watch the Hokies (especially the crappy QB, Glennon) choke in the second half of the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, Sunday we drove back and stayed up to celebrate New Year’s Eve.

The kids, naturally, wanted to do, oh, everything with us on Monday. Oi…

After dinner, Keira decided to help us relax. She laid out a sleeping bag on the floor, gathered up some oil, a glass of water, a damp towel, a dry towel, and offered massage services.

I didn’t get off my lazy butt in time to take a picture of the kids massaging Kel, but here’s number two in line…

I’m sure that Dyson had a lot of tension that needed working out…

I was coerced into going next. Thankfully the camera angle keeps it from being more obvious why I’m currently dieting…

Dyson’s massaging my calves, if you couldn’t tell…

Kel & Dyson returned the favor for Keira…

Dyson didn’t feel that Donna should be left out…

And, yes, in case you were wondering, every day is "no pants day" for Dyson…

Sifting through my Yahoo! Mail bulk folder, I saw a spam with the following subject:

"Spammers, if they can be identified, can be sued."

But we can’t be identified, so you’re hosed! Bwa ha ha!

In a previous post, I wrote about Donna getting Keira saying, "We don’t need no stinky boy-ees!" while decorating Christmas cookies. I looked through my old pictures and found ‘em. It was 2000, so Keira was about 2 1/2…

(No large versions for these. The government was rationing pixels back then….)

I forgot how much my little girl used to smile…

(Now she gets all sullen like a teenager, but can still light up the room on occasion…)

Note: all pictures have larger versions - click on the picture to be magically transported to the not-full-sized-but-larger version…

It’s interesting to see the different ways Santa treats kids in the same house. Keira and Dyson got wrapped presents from Santa and Ian and Haley got unwrapped presents from Santa. That Santa - he’s a wacky guy!

For Keira and Dyson, Santa only brings four gifts apiece. They each spent some time compiling that list - they wanted to get it just right. Of course, Aunt Donna (and to a lesser extent, Mommy & Daddy) put Santa to shame…

Just a few presents piled under the tree. And around the tree. And relatively near the tree…

Oh, that mean Daddy/Uncle - forcing the poor kids to pose for photos when there are piles of presents just begging to be unwrapped! (In case you’re wondering - they’re looking at Donna as she snaps her own picture…)

Keira was happy to see that Santa got it right - a BLUE Nintendo DS.

Santa screwed up a bit for Haley. He got the color right (pink) but gave her a Nintendo DS Lite instead of a Nintendo DS. Jerry tries to read the directions while Ian flat out steals it from Haley and plays with it himself… (We never did figure out the difference between the DS and the DS Lite, other than the obvious - the lack of heft to the Lite.)

It’s amazing to me that Cabbage Patch dolls are a hot thing again. Ah, the beauty of marketing.

Keira is saving up her money to buy as many Cabbage Patch dolls as possible. Apparently one of her friends has twice as many as she does…

Grandma (my mother) helped make this smile happen…

Rick dropped by for a little while during the gift-unwrapping portion of the day.

Dyson was very helpful when it came to unwrapping Nana’s gifts (at least the ones from him). (Of course, Keira was constantly trying to help Dyson with his own gifts…)

Donna seems very concerned/perplexed. Perhaps she’s wondering how someone could actually wrap a present without using at least half of a roll of tape…

If you look in Karen’s lap, you’ll see Haley’s Nintendo DS. We had to take them from the girls just to get things back on track…

Unbridled enthusiasm! That’s why I love Christmas!!

I just like how my old license plate (on the wall in my brewing area) shines through over Kel’s shoulder… (And how Rick felt obligated to wear the Virgina Tech hat that Kel gave him for Christmas…)

It was tough to keep Dyson focused. He just wanted to play with what he already opened. In the forefront, you can see some of the toys apparently chosen just to piss me off - in addition to the toys shown, the set came with dozens of minuscule pieces that will never be properly put away…

Two or three times a year, Nana struggles down the stairs. She really loves seeing the kids opening their presents, and gets all teary-eyed every time she gets a present. So maybe the effort to battle the stairs is worth it…

You can see from her expression that she’d rather not pose for me. (I think she just might get that sarcastic streak from her parents. Could be…)

Dyson, on the other hand, exudes goofy excitement…

Here’s Dyson with one of his presents (from my sister Heidi). Apparently it’s a love/hate relationship….

Once the orgy of gift opening was done, it was almost impossible to get the girls’ attention. They spent all day (and the next several days) playing Nintendogs. And, no, I have no idea why they’re sitting in the baby porta-crib…

For dinner, I prepared one of our favorites, Seared Pork Tenderloin with Cocoa Spice Rub. It is terribly simple, yet completely delightful - you NEED to try it. Here’s a picture from the above link (I didn’t make the ravioli this time…)

After dinner, I had a chance to unwind with one of my presents - some beer from Hawaii, sent by my brother Eric & his wife Sherri.

Nothing caps off a perfect day like a bubble bath! Huzzah!!

On Wednesday, I made 10 gallons of hoppy pale ale. Seemed a perfect opportunity to try out one of my Christmas gifts - a pseudo Burton Union. (The arrangement that’s sitting on top of the box - as the foam gets forced out of the fermenter, the foam collapses back into liquid and returns to the fermenter.)

Also shown are the carboy carriers that I got for Christmas - now I need to decide if I like the design enough to get them for all of my carboys…

A couple of days after Christmas…

A little fighting, a little dancing. I guess we’re raising our own little redneck!

Actually the second picture is part of the "kick Bozo in the chest" sequence…

Keira was yelling things like, "This time it’s personal!" as she was pounding on the poor clown. Perhaps some kind of cathartic experience - she was afraid of clowns when she was younger…

I wish I had taken a picture of the trash sitting by the roadside. My goodness! Between the Christmas Eve party and all of the wrapping paper and product packaging, we had dozens of trash bags and boxes…

I got back from Oakland in the evening on Thursday, the 22nd. We were planning a family Christmas party on Saturday, the 24th (Christmas Eve, ya know…)

We spent the day on Friday cleaning the house. Even when Karen (Jerry’s wife) and Donna showed up to help, it wasn’t enough. So, we started again on Saturday morning. We had almost everything ready to go by 1 p.m. (when the party was scheduled to begin). No one shows up. What the? Kel’s brother Mike and his girlfriend (common law wife?) Karen were the first to arrive around 2:30. I thought it might be a bust, but it was more like the dam breaking. All told, we had (I think) 47 people (including us).

I was making hors d’oeuvres, giving tours, and handing out drinks during the first hour. During that time, Mike & Karen, and Kel’s nephew Scott & his family, and Kel’s brother Rick & his fiancée (huh? he’s not even divorced yet???) left before I got my camera out.

Here’s some of the crowd hanging out in the sun room.

Kel’s mom poses with her granddaughter, Tammy (daughter of Kel’s brother, Steve, wearing the green sweater), and Tammy’s daughters, Vivian (left) and Lauren (right).

Kel’s brother, Steve, and his girlfriend. (And, yes, he’s awake…)

The young lady on the left is Steve’s youngest daughter, Tabitha. Kel is holding Tabitha’s littlest one. (And apparently that was enough to get Kel’s "aww, I want another baby" thing out of the way…)

Kel’s brothers Tom (left) and Jerry (right) talk fantasy football. (In addition to Kel and myself, three of her brothers, one brother-in-law, two nephews, one son-of-a-niece, and one boyfriend-of-a-niece participated in the fantasy football league. Last weekend, I lost the playoff championship game to Scott with one of the worst weeks of the entire season. Sigh…)

An annual Christmas tradition (as opposed to a semiannual Christmas tradition?) with Kel’s family is drawing slips of paper to determine who sings which part of The Twelve Days of Christmas.

Some of us got into it more than others…

Keira gets along very well with her cousin, Haley. Haley and her family (Jerry, Karen & Ian) stayed with us over the Christmas weekend. That gave the two girls plenty of opportunity to do some collaboration. One of the things they planned was a Christmas concert. Haley had a recorder solo; Haley, Keira and Dyson sang Jingle Bells together; and Keira sang a solo.

The angel on the grandfather clock looks down on the three angels (devils?), Haley, Keira and Sarah (Tom’s daughter Jennifer’s daughter).

Tom’s son, Wesley, and his baby.

Of course, you should know by now that I enjoyed some "Christmas cheer" during the festivities. Perhaps that’s why the picture is out of focus…

(It’s a autofocus camera - but I usually check right after taking the picture…)

Anyway, here’s some mighty fine Delirium Noel…

After the guests headed out, we were down to eleven people (Kel & I, Dyson, Keira, Jerry & Karen, Ian, Haley, Kel’s parents, and (of course) Donna.) Keira and Haley put out notes for Santa, along with the traditional plate of cookies. They decided it would be more festive to include the little fake tree from Keira’s bedroom, along with a little "seed gift" for Santa’s inspiration…

After a full day of cleaning, partying and playing "Santa’s helpers", the adults are beat…

Next post, the insanity of Christmas morning!

The week before Christmas, I had to fly to Oakland, CA, for a meeting. (Two days traveling, one day allocated for the meeting, 90 minute meeting. Sigh.)

I picked my hotel (The Washington Inn) because it was right next to the Pacific Coast Brewing Company. Big, hoppy beers and free wi-fi. Perfect office space for a business traveler! (Food is not terribly impressive, though. Oh well…)

(I didn’t take any pictures of the brewpub, so I "borrowed" this one from their website…)

I got to Oakland just after lunch (Pacific time). I spent the afternoon at Pacific Coast working on my presentation for the next day and handling the typical day-to-day emails. I only had a couple of beers with lunch because I had dinner with another customer…

The day of the meeting arrived, and I still hadn’t heard from the customer about the TIME of the meeting, despite a slew of emails and voicemails asking for that very little, but critical, piece of information. (He is a Really Important Person, and I’m just a supplier…)

So, I got up early, ironed my shirt and got my suit ready and waited. He finally called around 10 a.m. and asked if we were still on for 2 p.m. Umm, okay…

Dang. I was hoping it would be a morning meeting so I could drive up to Napa Valley or something. Oh well.

After the meeting (where he didn’t want to see a presentation, nor did he let me complete a damned sentence without interrupting to tell me his Really Important Observations), I walked around the waterside (in my suit).

Here’s a view of some of the older cranes (which they’re trying to sell) at the port, as seen from Jack London Square. The cranes in the far background are pretty new - all with our controls…

A lone seagull just hanging out on the handrail. (For that very reason, most handrails are not something you’d want to touch with your, say, hand…)

Jack London Square is ready for Christmas:

After walking around for a bit, I went back to the hotel, changed out of my Sunday-go-to-meetin’ clothes, and drove up to Berkeley.

I think I saw a pretty much equal number of college students and homeless people in Berkeley…

My first stop was at Jupiter. It was a very cold night (just above freezing - unusual for the Bay Area). I sat out in the beer garden, but close to the fire. I had a couple of decent, but unremarkable, beers and a nice pizza. I definitely would like to go back when the weather is better (and the trumpet vines are in bloom - they’re all over the beer garden.) Another "borrowed" picture (this is the beer garden):

Then I walked to Triple Rock Brewery & Alehouse. Again, I had a couple of good beers, but nothing to write home a blog about. Yet another "borrowed" picture. (I gotta remember to carry my camera…)

I drove back to Oakland and finished the night at Pacific Coast. (Didn’t want to have too much to drink before driving back. Four beers in three or four hours should be okay…) Plus, I had a very early flight back to the east coast. (Luckily I had an upgrade on the Oakland/Chicago flight, so I could catch a few more zzzz’s…)

Next week, I’ve got a couple of presentations in the Newark area. My Swedish colleague, Hans, will be with me on this trip. He doesn’t like staying in working man kind of accommodations (like anything near the Newark airport/port), so we’ll be staying in Manhattan. I’m dieting (again) so I probably won’t seek out a lot of beer stops. Sigh…

When we moved into this house, we had far more space than we had furniture. As such, we were kinda "forced" to use Kel’s parents’ sectional set in the basement.

Now, three years later, we’ve gradually purchased some additional furniture (including "lift chairs" for Kel’s parents in the sun room and a double chair I got for cheap from the office next to mine). As such, we could move the leather couch and loveseat (that will look much better if I ever get around to cleaning them…) down into the basement. So, I finally hauled the sectional set off to the dump…

"And they packed up the family [room] and moved [it] to Beverly [err, Botetourt dump]"

Note: Yes, I’ve been MIA for a month or so. Crazy holidays are part of it. Laziness is another part…

A holiday tradition in our house is the baking of Christmas cookies. Kel uses a recipe from her grandmother to make sugar cookies. They’re pretty good, even from a non-cookie-eater like myself. (Although, I didn’t even try one this year. On the flip side, Kel has decided to start the new year with a diet, partially due to her enjoyment of these particular cookies.)

I don’t help out. As much as I like cooking, I was never into baking (perhaps because no-one will let me put garlic in the cookies…) If we go back a few years, when Keira was three (if’n I remember correctly), she helped Donna and Kel make the cookies. Donna, being her usual instigator self, got Keira saying, with great emphasis and amusement, things like, "We don’t need no stinky boys!" (With the last word pronounced like "boy-ees".)

This year, they recruited a couple of "boy-ees" to help out with the icing. (I’m pretty sure that the pancake syrup and salt & pepper are left over from breakfast, and not part of the cookie decorating process…)

Kel and Donna did most of the prep and all the oven work, though…

…but I’m pretty sure that the kids helped out a lot…

What was I doing during all of this? Watching football, of course…