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!