Small Thoughts for Small Minds

As I mentioned in the post about the soup, Kel’s uncles and their wives stopped by for a while on Monday. Along with Kel’s dad and her brother, Mike, we all headed over to the rehab center to visit Kel’s mom.

Here she is with her brothers, Clair & Tom. (Tom sneaked up on the poor lady - no wonder she couldn’t get his name right!)

I got everyone to pose nicely for the camera. From the left, we have Tom, Joan, Barbara, Kel’s dad, Mike, Kel’s mom and Clair.

Here’s a casual shot…

Kel’s mom was doing better physically. She could lift her right arm at will, but couldn’t do much with it. She had no (physical) problem saying the words, but often had trouble coming up with the words to say.

She seemed in really good spirits, but tired.

She’s had a constant stream of visitors since she was moved to the rehab center. Obviously, that stream will start to trickle down. After all, her brothers can’t drive down from Indiana every week. Even those of us that live nearby will likely visit less frequently. Hopefully that won’t dampen her enthusiasm to recover, to avoid excessive frustration and depression when it takes longer than she hopes.

She definitely is doing all they ask of her. She wants to get home and "take care" of Kel’s dad.

Later that afternoon, Keira opened up some of her birthday presents. To Tom’s amusement, Clair became fixated on one of the gifts…

I do believe that is a piglet…

…or at least they’ll compromise when it comes to totally bitchin’ comfort!

Usually, if Oliver (orange & white cat) is sitting on the stairs, Seamus won’t even go near the stairs.

Seamus will only go near Oliver when they’re being fed. (They each have half of one of those little double bowls like this.)

I’m guessing Seamus was already on the bed and Oliver didn’t realize until he jumped up. By then, he couldn’t back down…

I’ve made several allusions to my diet.

Well, vacation time is (almost) here, so the jig is up. I’m already in Panama on work, a few days in advance of Kel, Donna & the kids. No scale here so I’ve backed off the diet.

Actually, I gave up a bit this past weekend. I’m sure I’ve already recovered a couple pounds, but that was to be expected once I started eating again…

The chart below was taped to the mirror in our bathroom. I originally had a shorter time span. Once that time expired, I entered the recorded data into a spreadsheet and set up a new scale (and slightly lowered my target weight). That’s why half of the data is nice and neat and the other half is hand-written…

I have the blue dots, Kel the pink. (I’ve succumbed to stereotypes, I know…) I went from 222 pounds to 182 pounds - a loss of 40 pounds, or one entire Dyson! Or, for the other geeks, 18%!

Because I sometimes pretend to be a gentleman, I am not showing you Kel’s weight, either before or after. Just know that she is on a different scale (on the graph - we use the same bathroom scale). And know that she looks totally fabulous…

The missing days show time out of town - mostly business trips. As you can see, I was sometimes good even when going out to eat in restaurants every night…

It’s interesting to see the (sometimes extreme) fluctuation from day to day… (Some of the spikes upward are the day after brewing with Joe. Hmmm…)

Here’s what I currently look like (and I do mean CURRENTLY - that’s what I’m wearing while I type this. Why am I still wearing a coat and tie at this hour, when it’s clear that my customer decided he has better things to do than have dinner with a supplier?)

I’d like to get back to 175 - but that’s something I haven’t been in a whole lot of years. Kel is so sweet - she says that I’m TOO SKINNY! Isn’t that nice?

Of course, what she means is that I’m too SCRAWNY. Which isn’t as readily obvious when I have a nice layer of fat covering my bones… Once the moobs* are gone, my lack of chest is pretty clear…

*Man boobs

If only I could somehow stay away from the computer long enough to start exercising on a regular basis…

When I was in Hamburg, Germany, for a few days last fall, we took the customer out to eat at fancy places each night. One of the nights I had a fantastic potato soup with a big chunk of smoked salmon in it. Since then, I’ve meant to try something similar.

Well last night proved an opportune time.

As I mentioned previously, a couple of Kel’s uncles and their wives (Clair & Barbara, Tom & Joan) stopped by yesterday to visit Kel’s mom at the rehab center (pictures from that when I get around to it). Kel invited them over for dinner. I worked from home yesterday so when they got here I could tell them how to get to the nursing home. I went with them and stopped at Kroger to buy SOMETHING to make for supper. (I decided to go with a stuffed beef tenderloin as the main course, by the way…)

For whatever reason, I decided to try the potato soup. Here’s what I did (ballpark measurements):

Creamy Potato & Leek Soup with Smoked Salmon

Serves 8 (as an appetizer)

• 6 cloves garlic, minced (or maybe more…)
• 2 small leeks, sliced thin (some reserved for garnish)
• 2 stalks celery, sliced thin
• olive oil
• 2 large potatoes (about 1.5 pounds total), diced
• 1 handful parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 6 ounces smoked salmon
• 2 ounces crumbled feta cheese (for garnish)
• Salt & pepper to taste (of course)

Sauté the garlic, leeks & celery over medium-high heat until soft. Add the potatoes to lightly brown them. Add the parsley and chicken stock and cook until the potatoes are cooked through. (Smaller dices = faster cooking time but slower prep time. I can dice fairly fast, so…)

After the potatoes are cooked, allow to cool somewhat. Add the cream and use a hand mixer to purée the soup. This can easily be made in advance and reheated just before serving.

In each bowl, place a chunk of smoked salmon (about 3/4 ounce). Pour the soup over the salmon and then sprinkle feta cheese and the reserved (thinly sliced) leeks over the center of the soup.

I don’t know that it tasted anything like the soup that inspired it, but everyone seemed to really like it. I (personally) thought it was fabulous! (I’m a salt hound, but I don’t cook with much salt, because of Kel’s dad & his heart problems. I thought salt improved the flavor profile, but not everyone added any…)

It seems like a lot of garlic, and the kitchen really smells of garlic while cooking, but the flavor of garlic is only a relatively small component of the overall profile.

If you make this, please report back!

…but I’m an enabler…

He asked me to cut leg holes in a gift bag (laying around after Keira’s birthday party yesterday). So I did.

Quite the gift, huh?

So to speak…

Last Friday (the 16th) I flew from LA to Oakland, getting into my hotel (near the Oakland airport, thanks to my boss wanting to stick with his preferred hotel chain for the points) around 3 p.m. My boss wasn’t scheduled to get in for another four hours or so.

So, like usual, I consulted my beer travel resources. Using beermapping.com, I found that Drake’s Brewing Company was less than two miles from the hotel. I checked out their website and saw that they had brewery tours and tastings every Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. Cool!

So I decided to wander over and check them out.

On the way, I found this "weed" growing next to the sidewalk…

Anyway…

I got to the address and found a huge building holding a bunch of stores, including an Office Depot and a Home Depot. Hmm. Where the heck is the brewery? I asked a security guard (Pinkerton) at the Home Depot. Turns out he’s also a homebrewer, so we chatted for awhile. He had never been to the brewery but remembered seeing their truck around the back of the building.

I found it.

Here’s the door to their "office":

Turns out to be more than just a tour and tasting…

$15 for a logo glass with beer, plus tokens for three refills. Not a bad price. (But bad for the ol’ diet, of course!)

They set up a fence around the parking lot, started pouring beer and a party broke out. And it happens every Friday…

It was a perfect spring day and a perfect way to enjoy it!

I started out with their IPA, which should surprise no one!

I also had their 1500 Pale Ale and their NoneTheWizer.

Nice panel truck for deliveries…

The gentleman with his back to us in the picture below was grilling through the whole time. He cut the grilled meat into bit-sized pieces and everyone just grazed on it. Delicious (especially since it was free)!

They put the bar in front of their garage door. You can see the brewing equipment in the background. 

They didn’t do tours, claiming they didn’t have enough people on this particular day.

I picked up a few to bring home with me.

I consumed a couple after I ran out of tokens (I actually "bought" someone a beer, so I didn’t use all my tokens on me…) and gave one away. The rest somehow got consumed at the hotel during the following week, before I returned to Roanoke. Oops..

Here’s one back at the hotel room…

I talked to a lady that pilots barges in the bay and an artist that pulled out a three-ringed binder with pictures of all his paintings. Interesting crowd…

Here’s where they store their base malt, with a worm screw to bring it into the brewery…

The worm screw brings it in and they measure it out and mill it, adding the additional grains as required.

Rodger Davis, one of the two brewers, gave me a tour after the "tour & tasting" ended. Well, I kinda ambushed him. After the party was over (and I helped put up the fencing), I just walked into the brewery without invitation. He was very nice about it, though.

Here’s Rodger doing a quality control check on a fermenting beer…

After the mash is done, the spent grains are transferred outside. Looks like they are used by a farmer, likely as a supplement to cattle feed.

My spent grains only supplement the local landfill…

Rodger gave me some samples directly from a couple of fermenters. Tasty!

He also gave me a bottle of their hefeweizen to bring home.

Even more importantly, he gave me a ride back to my hotel. I said that I’d be fine walking back, but he was probably right (after all those "tastings" and since it was after dark by then)…

Very nice guy!

For my next trip to Oakland (which may not be soon, but this was my third in three months!) I’ll definitely have to schedule my return for Saturday so I can visit Drake’s again…

Speaking of Drake’s, while I was at Pacific Coast Brewing Company for dinner, I had a glass of Drake’s Double IPA. OH MY GOD! I think that may be the best beer I’ve EVER had. Wow! I didn’t see it for sale at BevMo, or I might’ve bought their entire supply and shipped it home…

After nine days in California, I got home yesterday around 6 p.m.

We were having dinner (I made my favorite quick and easy meal, pork tenderloin with a cocoa/spice rub, plus veggies) when Keira asked if I brought anything home for them. I replied, "No, but I brought something home for me!" She looked disgusted and said, "Let me guess - beer." I said, "Not just beer, but also three beer glasses!" Dyson chimed in with, "I was hoping toys…"

Here they all are, along with the beer glasses… (As always, you can click on the picture to see the full-sized version.)

And here are all the beers laid out end to end (so you can see that I have a bit of a consistent theme in my selection).

Yes, that is seven 22 ounce bombers, one 500 ml, one 12 ouncer and two 6 ouncers. Eleven bottles total.

I had to buy a second suitcase…

Well, just a cheap Wal-Mart duffel bag to hold a bunch of my clothes that were displaced from the suitcase. Despite that, my main suitcase (with all the beer individually wrapped in pants or shirts) was still 8 pounds over the per-bag limit of 50. Maybe because I was flying first class (complimentary upgrade from Delta) or because the counter agent didn’t look, I got away with it…

I packed the glassware carefully in (clean) socks and newspaper and carried them in my backpack.

After this weekend, I am DONE with my diet. But, early next week I leave for Panama (work and vacation). After that, I’m traveling for a big part of April and May.  Between all of these beers and all of the ones already taking up the entirety of my beer fridge, I will have to put in some serious overtime to taste them all!

Who wants to help?

(Note: to avoid pronoun confusion, I will refer to Kel’s mom as "Nana", which is what the kid’s call her.)

Last Monday (12 March), when Kel and the kids got home, she said "hi" to her mom (and Nana replied in the same fashion) and then went downstairs to change. When she came back up, Nana was largely unresponsive. Concerned about her blood sugar being low, Kel tried to ask when she last had something to eat. Her mom either responded incoherently or said she was tired.

Concerned, Kel came out (I was talking to the siding guy) and asked me to come in. We couldn’t get Nana to eat anything so we called 911. While they were dispatching an EMT, they asked if she knew her own name. Kel kept trying to ask, to no success.

The EMT determined that her blood sugar was fine. Now concerned about a stroke, they took her to the hospital. A couple of days later, they determined (definitively) that she DID have a stroke. Kel visited her at the hospital a number of times. She was still unable to speak coherently and couldn’t move her right arm.

The day before yesterday, Kel took her mom to a rest home/rehabilitation center.

I got back from my business trip to California yesterday late afternoon. Kel’s dad told me that Nana was doing much better - that she was able to lift her right arm, and could talk well enough to get across her thoughts, although she still struggled with words on occasion.

So I thought it would be good if the kids and I visited her on the way to school/work this morning (after all, I haven’t seen her since the day of her stroke, ten days previously). (Kel also stopped there on her way to work to handle some paperwork and visit. We ran into her as she was leaving.) She seemed to be in good spirits and said that she was going to work hard to get better.

Like most of us would, she struggled to use her non-dominant hand (her left) for tasks that she’d normally do with her partially paralyzed hand (her right).

She was very happy to see Dyson and Keira and bragged about them to the nurses.

She wasn’t able to say everything she tried to say, but did pretty well.

It’s too early to say how she’ll do with the rehab on her right side. She doesn’t seem to be getting as worn out as last week (per Kel’s observations).

One of her brothers and his wife (Bob & Annette) is going to visit her today, and couple of other brothers and their wives (Tom & Joan, Clair & Barbara) will visit next week. (The brothers are all heading to their oldest brother, John’s, birthday party on Sunday - he’ll be 90.)

A couple of weekends ago, Kel undertook the bold (and unenviable) task of cleaning out Keira’s room.

<Shudder>

If I was thinking, I would’ve taken a before picture or two. It would’ve been remarkably similar to those shocking photos taken after a hurricane or tornado. (I managed to get a pin stuck into the bottom of my foot on TWO occasions just visiting during the Herculean project…)

Anyway, after five large trashbags stuffed with trash, bags of clothing to be donated to charity and/or friends/family, and a bag of stuffed animals to be donated to charity, we were finally able to find and vacuum the floor. (This was about ten to twelve hours later, so Kel dragged me upstairs to do the vacuuming while she collapsed in a heap…)

Last weekend, Kel and Donna painted the room, with a wee bit of help from Keira (until she got bored).

After the primer and the selected color, the trim…

And the final results…

And top it off with new sheets and bedspread…

Next on the list, a new carpet to replace the one Keira has TOTALLY trashed…

It will be interesting to see how long Keira can keep her room clean…

Due to problems that will become evident when I post pictures next week (!), we hired a company to put up vinyl siding on our house. (And how I cringe to cover up real wood with plastic…)

Anyway, to get ready for them, I felt it would be polite to trim back the holly (and the other pointy leaf evergreen) growing along the front of the house.

While doing so, I noticed a set of footprints leading from the driveway to the front door and back. Since the front of the house faces almost due north, not a lot of sunlight gets to the bit of yard closest to that side of the house. I guess that’s why very little grass grows there and it is covered mostly with some low growing (ground cover) plant with little round leaves.

The leaves were dead in the prints. I guess the plants had been frozen when the unknown person took his/her walk. I dunno why just stepping on them once killed them so effectively…

Huh…