Monday, August 25, 2008

Weekend 8/23 - 8/24

It was a good weekend. Saturday was spent recovering from our long day at the State Fair and catching up on some house cleaning, laundry, and other domestic activities. At the end of the day we decided we'd try to squeeze in a trip to pick up some necessities at Sam's Club and swing by our favorite swimming beach. It was late, so we were pretty rushed, but we did get our stuff from Sam's and make it to the beach in time for Griffin and I to swim for a half hour before the beach closed. Dina hung out with Caden and Rohan in the minivan. The swim area we go to is the Elm Creek Park swimming pond, a man-made sand bottom pond and beach. The water is chlorinated, but pretty lightly, so you can hardly smell it. After the swim Dina and I took the kids over to the "creative play area," which has the coolest playground structures around...bridges, swings, zip lines, tunnel slides...it's great, and Griffin had lots of fun and got lots of exercise. We stayed until the sun went down, then went home and had a little dinner and got the kids to bed.

Caden and Rohan didn't sleep great; probably because of their teeth coming in. That's nothing new; Dina and I are adjusting to having cruddy sleep at night. It's only temporary...every tooth they get is one tooth closer to them being done.

The next morning I got up and played bass in a church band. Pretty boring music, but it's all the playing I have time to do these days. After I got home Dina had to run off to a Creative Memories event, and my dad came into town. He stayed at our place that night because he had a doctor appointment the next morning. All the kids had fun seeing Grandpa Dice. After Dina came back from her event we all went out to Old Chicago for some yummy pizza and beer goodness (root beer in Griffin's case).

That night after Griffin and my dad went to bed, I bottled the batch of Scottish Light Ale I'd brewed. The oak chips that had been soaking in the beer gave it a very Scotch whisky smell. I'm looking forward to opening one in a couple of weeks to see how the taste comes out. Bottling took FOREVER though, since it was the first time I'd done it on my own, and I was using 12 ounce bottles; the previous time I bottled it was with a few other guys and with 22 ounce bottles, which sped the process up quite a bit. But as Ben says, the reward will be worth the work. Now I need to start thinking about when and what I'm going to brew next! Woot!

The Minnesota State Fair

The day after my blood donating experience, my mom came into town and joined my family in going to the Minnesota State Fair. I love the Fair. I think I only went once as a kid, which is really too bad, because I think I would have had a lot of fun. As it was I basically walked around in wonder at how much of everything there was. Livestock, people, grease...everything in abundance.

Griffin, my three-year-old, had an absolute blast. First of all, he loves spending time with Grandma Lynn. But he loves pretty much everything else about the Fair, too. Highlights for him were the Kidway rides, the huge corn dog (so long he could hardly reach the end), the fish tanks at the DNR building, the newborn animal barn, and the butterfly house.

Caden and Rohan had a pretty good time, too. They love being outside, feeling the wind, and soaking everything in that they see - and there was a lot for them to see! It was pretty warm outside, so for much of the day we had them wearing only their diapers. It is amazing how drawn people are to twin babies wearing diapers! There were countless "awwwwww" comments from people. Grandma Lynn couldn't get her fill of carrying a baby. I'm sure her arms were pretty sore the next day!

We had my mom up for the Fair last year, too, and it's a family tradition I like and want to continue. I love the feeling of creating family traditions for my family. It's very rewarding and fulfilling. I love being a dad!

In Which the Author Donates Blood, and Lives to Tell About It

(Note: prepare for rapid-fire. I've got some blog catching-up to do, and I'm listening to The Sword, which makes me type 150% harder than usual.)

Last Wednesday I gave blood. I've never donated blood before, I've only sold my plasma back when I was a college student. The last time I sold plasma, it was a bit embarrassing; I got light-headed after I was done, and had to sit in a chair for a half hour drinking a ginger ale before I was allowed to leave.

Anyway, my wife is a member of the Champlin Moms Club, and they organized a blood drive. My wife and I showed up for our appointments; we were among the first of the morning. After answering the exhaustive question list and getting my red blood count checked to make sure it was high enough, I was moved to the reclining chair apparatus. The nurse found a vein, tapped into it, and started filling up the blood bag. She was very nice, and even commented about my blood's nice bright red color.

The supervisor there was a small, thin, man of fifty-something years with a thick eastern European accent. That just shouldn't be allowed. I couldn't shake the feeling that he was a vampire. I kept my eyes on him. For a while, anyway.

I remember thinking about the frigid air conditioning, the annoyingly bland music they had playing in the speaker right next to my ear, and the faint sanitized smell in the air.

That's when I lost consciousness.

The next thing I knew, I was waking up...everything was dark and I heard voices saying my name very loudly. I was completely disoriented; I had no idea where I was, how I got there, or what I was doing...and it was scary. Eventually memory returned, and I realized what was going on. Luckily I had warned the staff about my previous plasma experience, just in case, so they were keeping an eye on me. Apparently I was extremely pale and shaking a little before they got me awake again. They had me drink a couple bottles of juice which had such a high sugar content that they immediately gave me nausea. I didn't retch, but my gut certainly didn't feel right.

I ended up taking a sick day from work and sleeping about six hours that day. I assume my body was hard at work replacing the blood that had been taken. I wasn't back to normal until the next morning. I'm glad to know that the pint of blood I gave will do someone good, but from now on the only pints I'll be dealing with are beer going into my body. No more donating blood for me.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Cleaning a Glass Carboy Sucks

I've always been a fan of beer. Well, not always, but since I've been of age. Or possibly slightly before. Anyway, this summer I've started homebrewing. Ben and Ryan have both been brewing for a while, and earlier this summer they lent me some spare equipment and helped me through the process of brewing and bottling my first batch. It was a Copper Ale, and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole process, from the serenity and wonderful aroma of the boil to the rewarding first taste a month later.

About a week ago I borrowed another friend's equipment to brew another batch with Ben and Ryan; this time it's a Light Scottish Ale. Over this weekend I had to crack open the fermenter to add some oak chips, and I decided that before I did so it was time to stop mooching off my friends and buy my own equipment.

I headed over to Midwest Homebrewing Supplies and bought a kit:

The kit contained all the basic supplies for brewing and bottling beer. I also bought some other accessories, like a wort chiller (very useful for quickly cooling down your beer-in-progress before putting it into a fermenter).

Let me just say that Midwest Homebrewing Supplies is an awesome place if you're interested in brewing. There's so much there to look at. I could wander for a long time looking at all the equipment for making beer and wine. I felt like a kid on Christmas when I drove out of that place! If anyone needs gift ideas for me, just head on over to their website.

So now I have joined the ever-growing legion of homebrewers. Should be a fun time! I'll post updates here about what I brew. Too bad for your sake, dear reader, that I can't post taste samples...

If you're not familiar with homebrewing you might be wondering about the title of this post. A glass carboy is that big glass bottle you see in the picture above. I used a borrowed carboy to ferment my Scottish Light Ale. Once I had my own carboy I siphoned the beer from the borrowed one to mine. That went fine, but then I had to clean the stuck-on dead yeast from the inside of the borrowed carboy. Look at the hole at the top of that thing - it's tiny! Cleaning the inside is no easy job. The long L-shaped brush in the picture helps, but it's still no easy task. Even though that part was a pain, I still enjoyed the process. I take that as a sign that this is a good hobby for me!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Some recent pics

I had a moment to toss a few photos up

Rohan and Caden having a fun time in the morning



Tribal drumming...at 6 months



Me and my boys!