Brewing and Grilling for Fun

Vacation Part 1

2011-03-30T19:47:00.000-06:00

Last week we loaded the car and headed off to Portland. Kommandant and I were heading to GameStorm 13. KnitTech and Perky were going down to do some knitting and some yarn crawling.

Wednesday - We had announced the plan was to be "wheels up" at 0600 (the plan was to tell our passengers that it would be 0600 so we could actually be on the road by 0800). They shocked us and got to the house early. The original plan was to take their car. Alas after trying to get everything packed we realized that plan wasn't going to work so we transferred everything to KnitTech's car "Faye" and were off at 0630. We arrived at Mom's house at 1500 (seems that I was adding an hour instead of subtracting in my estimation of arrival time). My sister and her boys were in town so we got to spend their last night in town. It was great seeing them and the boys were a lot of fun. Mom cooked up one her Spaghetti dinners that we all enjoyed. Even picky eater Kommandant enjoyed it.

Wednesday Evening/Night - One of my friends came down from Seattle. He spent a lot of time in Germany so he wanted to treat us to a night at a German Pub, or at least as close to one as Portland offers. We all met up at Prost and had a great time. It was great to see my friend and his twin brother. Hadn't seen him in about 20 years so we had a lot of catching up to do. He taught me how to do German toasts and introduced me to a fantastic beer called Aventinus. Not hoppy and a great malt flavor. My friend from Seattle handed me 2 bottles to take back with me in exchange for a 6 pack of my home brews. I hope he likes the Lambics and I hope that I'll be able to find Aventinus here in Boise.

Part 2 coming up.

Spring is here

2011-03-29T19:52:00.000-06:00

How can you tell its spring at the Tech household?

The briquettes start popping up

That's right, briquettes are available at ~~The $200 store~~ Costco. Let the hoarding begin.

Back to Brewing

2011-03-13T20:26:00.000-06:00

Tried to be a bit busy this weekend. Saturday I cleaned up the back patio. I think it turned out pretty good. Cats seem to like the clean loose dirt where I raked. Saturday afternoon KnitTech and I went to her Aunt's house as she needed her computer worked on.

Sunday it was back to brewing. I bottled up the All Idaho brew that our club brewed up back in January. I was making it a Lambic so I let it ferment for a pretty long time. There was a bit of a scare as I thought it had mold on it but after doing some panicked research it turned out to be okay. We tasted it and it is definitely a Lambic. Ended up with 38 bottles when all was done. FatCat Brewery is proud to announce their new Lambic. House Bunny.

I also transferred the Apple Mead to a secondary fermenter. This of course meant that I needed to take a sample to get a gravity reading. Which conveniently allowed us to sample it. Very nice apple and honey flavors. Its at about 5% alcohol now. Not a real accurate reading on this one since the original gravity was off the scale on my refractometer.

Next weekend the 2nd Mead will get transferred to a secondary and the plums added. Can't wait to check out its gravity (original reading was accurate) and get a taste. Although we won't be able to check the taste of the plums at that point.

Since I don't have a beer currently brewing its time to start planning for the next one. I'm really thinking that it will be a coffee based beer. Need to start looking for recipes..

Still Alive

2011-01-17T19:02:00.000-07:00

Yes, I've been seriously lazy about the blog. Just haven't felt like blogging and went through some serious Christmas doldrums..

Now its the beginning of a new year and time to start working it again. On the brewing front I bottled up our blackberry Lambic. It turned out pretty good, but doesn't have the strong blackberry flavor I was going for. I think next time we'll up the amount of blackberry that goes into it.

The brew club did our "Polar Bear" brew on new years. We have finally made our "All Idaho Brew". A brew made with all Idaho ingredients. Being the rebel that I am I'm fermenting my share with a Belgian Wit yeast and also some Brettanomyces. This will make more of a Lambic than an ale. Transferred it to a secondary this weekend and will be letting it keep fermenting for probably about another month..

Decided to do some more brewing this weekend. What does 36lbs of honey and 4 gallons of apple juice turn into?

How about 10 gallons of mead? The one on the left will end up being a plum mead. One of KnitTech's co-workers had a bunch of plums and we decided to give it a try. The one on the left was a request by Perky. I told her that I was going to make some Mead and if she wanted some she would need to pick up the honey (honey is expensive). She and KnitTech went off to the salon and made a side trip "The 200 dollar store" and came home with 18 more pounds of honey. I asked her what kind she wanted and after a quick conference with Kommandant it was decided that it would be apple. So the one on the right is the apple one.

Perky was supposed to bring over 4 gallons of apple juice on Sunday. Alas she wasn't able to. So KnitTech headed out and brought home 4 gallons (along with a few new plates). It's fermenting away and will be ready by Christmas time. Now to start building up a store of bottles..

I Voted

2010-11-03T10:08:00.000-06:00

As everyone knows. Yesterday was election day. KnitTech and I went after work and exercised our constitutional rights. This morning I got up and hit some web sites to see how it went. Seems I hit about 50%. We'll see how things turn out with the changes that happened.

Yesterday I also got to go in and pick up my new glasses. What a difference going to VisionOne makes. During the checkup I felt that they actually cared. Then today when I picked up the new glasses they fit great and I could see again. KnitTech vetoed my plan of running over the old glasses (I seriously hated them and will never return to the place that sold them to me).

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I have an alien in my yard!

2010-10-12T19:51:00.000-06:00

For several months while I was outside I could hear a "clicking/purring" noise. I kept telling the family that we had a Predator in our neighbor hood. By predator I mean one of these.

KnitTech kept telling me not to be crazy, its a woodpecker.

Well now I have proof. Look at this evidence.

If you have seen the Predator movies you know that they bleed a green blood. Now from this picture you can see some of the blood dripped onto my driveway. The strange red thing must be some sort of hypodermic needle that was used when he stopped to do some first aid. Unfortunately we drove over the puddle prior to the picture. I'm not sure if I should be happy or worried to have one of these aliens living in my back yard. I don't think I need to worry to much as I'm sure that in their hunting scheme an overweight nerd doesn't rank to high in the trophy count.

Post Tree Cutting Adventures

2010-09-26T19:37:00.000-06:00

Well its been a painful September for me.

FLASHBACK - About 2 months ago I felt a pain in my kidney. Now I've felt this before and knew I was passing a stone. I thought I would just power through it and started drinking lots of water. Later in the evening it was a trip to the ER. After speaking with the ER Dr he agreed that it was a stone and sent me home with pain meds, a strainer, but no CT scan. I'd been through it before so we both felt confident that it would pass.

FLASHBACK - On Friday 10 September I went to work and noticed some blood in my urine. I realized it was another stone starting. I popped some aspirin at work and started to try to get through the day. Alas 2 hours later I was on my way home. I still had some pain meds from the previous one so I took some of them and started chugging cranberry juice (Thank you Perky). KnitTech got home and offered to take me to the ER again. I tried to power through it but at 7pm we were in the ER. This time they did a CT scan. Bad news was that I had 2 stones now.. The one that I thought had passed earlier had not gone all the way through. It was a 7mm stone and it was 95% certain that it would not pass on its own. The new pain was a 2nd stone that was 4mm. Oh and as a bonus. Turns out that my other kidney has one in it just floating around at this point.. I was sent home with pain meds and an order to see my Urologist on Monday. The Dr stressed that if they wouldn't get me in to tell them that the ER Dr insisted..

FlashBack - Monday 13 September. Went to the Urologist and was told that its going to require surgery. The plan is to go up with a laser and break up the stone then use a "basket" to remove them. I start having visions of those "claw" games that kids use to get prizes, but a lot more painful.

FlashBack - Saturday 18 September. Into the Hospital for outpatient surgery at 7am. I remember checking in and going to prep, the anesthesiologist saying to "Breath into the mask" and then waking up in recovery where they immediately sent me back to the prep room with KnitTech. Surprisingly no pain. KnitTech reported that the Dr said everything went fine and that they didn't use the laser (bummer) and took out both stones whole (OWIE glad I was asleep). She got to see the stone and when some says "it was this big" and holds their fingers apart you can really feel shock.

Work was really good about the whole thing and I'll only have 1 day that I will not be paid for. I really prefer the old system we had for sick days.. Currently I have a "Stint" in that will be removed on the 5th of October. Not looking forward to that. I'll also get to talk to the Urologist at that point. On the plus side due to what the Dr told KnitTech we are currently back to working out and shedding some pounds. The Wii is really helping a lot. I've been slowly working my way down. Although the Wii says I should weigh 140 lbs I doubt I'll ever see that weight again. I'll be really happy with 200.

This was my Birthday weekend. The E-Clan picked up an Apron for me. I think I'm in love with it.

Thank You SandTech, ZombieTech (happy now that you have a cool nick?), AnarchyTech, and RunningTech.

Prior to getting that KnitTech asked where I wanted to go out for dinner on my birthday. I told her that I would rather just have her pick up a couple of steaks so I could cook them for us.

This is a T-bone with Blue Cheese and some grilled mushrooms and onions. Turned out incredible. KnitTech had a ribeye with the same but no Blue Cheese. Silly girl doesn't like Blue Cheese..

KnitTech gave me a killer gift certificate to All About Games. I'm not sure if I'll get a board game and supplement my Malifaux army.

Perky and Kommandant gave me the supplement to the Malifaux rules. This is making me lean towards more figures with KnitTech's gift.

I also received a very nice card and special gift from my Mom. I'm going to add her gift to some of my savings..

Thank you everyone..

Labor Day

2010-09-07T19:52:00.001-06:00

Isn't Labor Day a day to honor those do labor with a day off? Well look at what we did this weekend.

When we moved into our house there was a tree in the front yard that we really weren't fond of. We wanted to get rid of it almost from day one. In this picture it looks like its leaning towards the house but it really didn't It actually leaned towards the driveway (where the picture was taken). It dropped needles and grass wouldn't grow under it. It had to be trimmed to keep it off the house and up so you could mow under it. If you got out of the car wrong it would poke you in the face (happened to me many times).

I offered it to my Brother-in-law and Father-in-law since they heat with wood. But due to the fact that it had to fall in 1 direction or it would either hit powerlines or the house. They both opted out. I considered a craigslist post offering it to whoever wanted to cut it down but Mom pointed out that their may be some issues with that idea. One of KnitTechs co-workers also heats with wood. He is thinking of a tree trimming business so she asked if he wanted it. He said yes and came over on Sunday and we got to work.

Would you believe that is a 1000 dollar chain saw?

And she's down. We managed to drop it exactly where we wanted it. Didn't hit anything but the ground. Gutters were safe and no cars or people hit. The picture makes it look like its in the street but it was only about 3 feet in.

Several hours later the yard looked like this. We still need to rake and get the pile cleaned up. KnitTech's co-worker will be coming back on wednesday to haul off the brush pile. Don't worry they are going to a recycling place to be turned into ground cover for the city. He was back on Tuesday and split the wood and hauled it off. He also leveled out the stump so our Ogre will have a nice flat surface.

I'll get finished pictures when the pile is gone and we've raked it up.

Killed by Kobolds?

2010-09-07T08:41:00.000-06:00

This weekend we finally got in some gaming with the crew. Started a new HackMaster campaign. I went with my standard fantasy RPG charator, the Dwarven fighter. HackMaster is a bit different as all stats carry some fairly important weight. There is no "dump" stat where you can safely put a low score. Not to mention the HackMaster world is deadly. My Dwarven fighter started out pretty good, we were fighting a lot of Kobolds and he had taken out 2 of them. Then we came to a cave with 6 of the little buggers inside holding a family hostage. My not so subtle (and dishonored) fighter charged in and killed one of them instantly. The others stood up and started tossing small spears. This had been going on all evening and was really no threat. Until the GM (Dusty) rolled really really good for damage. 26 points of damage in 1 hit. I went from fighting to unconscious in 1 hit. Not only was my poor fighter down, he was down to -9 HP. The last Kobold was going to change targets when Dusty realized that he had stated that they were all going to attack me at the start of the round. So the last one threw his spear and hit for 5 more points of damage. My poor dwarf was finished. I started rolling up a new character while the gang continued fighting. When the dust cleared the group was battered but had won. While freeing the hostages Dusty told them that they found a halfling theif that had been with the others. Guess what the new character is. Yep, stepping out of my safety box and started playing a halfling theif. We'll see how long he lasts.

Had a really producttive weekend. Lawn is mowed, gate is fixed, and throwing knife targets are ready to hang. The best thing is that the server is up and fully functioning. I have a few more tweaks to make on it. Need to make sure webmail is configured. I want to get FTP running on it and should get ssh working so EricSki can log in and get his applets running. But the major stuff is working. If you email me and anything weird happens make sure to let me know so I can check the mail logs.

Stay tuned for another posting with pictures about the weekend either tonight or tomorrow. One more productive thing that you will be surprised about.

Fun Weekend

2010-08-22T15:38:00.000-06:00

Thursday and Friday nights classes just went through their 2nd to the last week. Next week is finals and I'm done with that for the semester. Found out that next semester its just 1 class and it will be on Mondays. I enjoy the larger paycheck that I get from teaching 2 classes but don't like the loss of sleep.

Saturday morning Havol Barkoff snuck into our bedroom and chewed up my breathing mask. This means that I won't be getting a good nights sleep till we replace it on Monday. Its making for a cranky weekend for the household. I spent a lot of Saturday working on the new server. Had the web and file sharing portions up and running. Just need to do the mail server and then some sundry stuff. It made for a good afternoon.

Saturday night was a lot of fun. We went out to dinner (Joe's Crab Shack) and then went to a comedy club and watched Doug Benson. He was hilarious, even KnitTech enjoyed it. She did do some serious drinking though. When we got home we found out that the entire neighborhood had lost power due to a storm. Oh well we lit some candles and continued having a good evening.

Sunday morning the problems started. I didn't sleep well and then when I came out KnitTech said that her computer wouldn't start. 3 hours later I had swapped her computer for the server and she was up and running. It's either a power supply or the motherboard. I hope its the supply since I went ahead and ordered one. Research on the net points that way. Now the server is back on hold till we can get that back up and running.

Busy Weekend

2010-08-16T19:09:00.001-06:00

KnitTech arranged for Kat to come over while I was at Fandemonium and help haul some "junk" off to the dump. Through a mis-communication she didn't bring enough muscle along with her so it had to be delayed. This weekend Dusty and his gang showed up shortly after I finished mowing (well I didn't get one side done but that was due to the fact that the neighbors were irrigating and had flooded it. I didn't think an electric mower and water would be a good combo). We started loading and cleaning the garage. 1 load went to the dump and 1 load went to their house. It definitely helped in the garage as KnitTech now has more room for her car. Alas it wasn't enough to give me space for mine so it'll be another winter with the truck outside. The back ~~storage room~~ office is much closer to being usable. Soon we'll be getting rid of some desks and a dresser making even more space.

2 years ago I bought a table for my "game room" (now Perky/Kommandants room). It was moved to the office and promptly buried. KnitTech has wanted a smaller kitchen table for quite some time so we were watching for one. During the "cleansing" the game table was uncovered and she looked at me and pointed out that since the game table has a leaf and could be expanded when needed it would be perfect for the kitchen. Guess what next weeks project is going to be?

Sunday morning I finished the little bit of mowing that was left (side was now dry), we went shopping, and then I made another batch of beer. It seems that the yeast I purchased a year ago didn't survive storage in the fridge. So tonight I ran to the local brew store and picked up some more. Hopefully this blackberry lambic will turn out good. Won't really know for about 6 months. Next up another 10 gallons of Mead..

September 5th will be another big event. The tree that we hate will be gone from in front of the house..

Back to the grind

2010-08-09T19:25:00.000-06:00

I survived Fandemonium. I ran a few games and had a lot of fun. Overall I don't think it was a good this year. Need to get out to GameStorm in Vancouver and see how it is. I think a convention that focuses on gaming as opposed to Fandom would be better. Saw a lot of crazy costumes at the con though.

On the home front things are hopping again. About a month ago the mower that mom gave us 10 years ago died.

It was a great mower. I had taken it to the shop twice over 2 years and it cut the lawn several times. Last month I mowed the front and sides and moved to the back yard. Made 2 swipes with the mower and heard a "pop" and the mower died. I thought I might have hit something but then I looked down and noticed a pool of oil on the deck and something shiny. A closer look revealed this:

Note the silver object in the lower left. That is a piece of the connecting rod. Also not the large hole in the block. I then realized that this mower would never run again. So I started watching Craigslist. Just missed on 2 good looking deals by about 30 minutes. Last week KnitTech and I were driving home from work and I saw a mower in front of the local pawnshop. We figured we could check it out the next day (I forgot that the next day was Friday and that I wouldn't be coming home with her). While at work I received a call from her but couldn't answer since I was on the phone with a customer. When made it to school I gave her a call and was informed that she had stopped by the pawn shop and picked up the mower.

Yep, Mr Anti-environmentalist has gone green with his lawn car. That is an electric mower. I used it for the first time today (that is why its dirty currently) and was surprised at how nice it mowed and how quiet it is. I can actually hear my podcasts while mowing (WOOT). It was a bit hard getting used to dragging an extension cord around behind me but once I got the hang of planning where I was going to be it was really easy. I also discovered that 1 cord is not quite long enough and had to add another. We are considering zero-scaping our front yard to become even more eco-friendly. Although since I'm lazy that may not happen.

The other big project going on here at the house is the server upgrade. Our little server has been trying to lose a fan for awhile. After a lot of trials I managed to get ahold of a good used desktop that supported SATA straight off the motherboard. Now when it gets done I'll have a server with more processing power than my laptop. Also once it is done I have another lesser box that will become a MythDora box and we can leap from the 1980s to the 21st century and retire our VCR.

Naked Dog

2010-08-01T18:55:00.000-06:00

This week HavoK got to get his first haircut. While I agree that he needed a summer cut to feel cooler, I don't really think it looks cool. He lost his signature tail and now just has a lions tail. They did keep his bangs though.

During most competitions I get to have some of my teammates ribs and pork butt. This last competition I just had him toss an extra butt with some of my rub on it so I had that covered. It was so hot out there that I just wasn't hungry so I didn't eat any of his ribs. I did watch the team next to us and thought that their recipe looked pretty good. So, we opted to cook up some ribs for ourselves this weekend. Tried some new flavor profiles and didn't really hit a bulls eye.. Guess that means I'll need to practice some more..

We opted for some corn on the cob to go with it.. Now that turned out great and leftover ones have been broken down and will go into some potato soup tomorrow night.

This upcoming weekend is Boise's only gaming convention, Fandemonium. Not sure if I'll get an update in next Sunday so be ready for one on Monday.

It's Over

2010-07-25T16:48:00.001-06:00

Well the competition is all over. Its Sunday and I've been home over 16 hours. 9 of those spent sleeping and I still feel like someone beat me up. I had a great time although it was HOT. Team Swine Stewards didn't do real well. We placed 21st out of 27 teams. I actually don't feel to bad with this kind of standing since the opposition we were up against were some really good teams. 3 of the teams were from out of state and trying for their 7th Grand Champion title so that they could go to the Jack Daniels competition. The team that won was one of those "professional" teams so they will be going to the Jack Daniels Comp.

My teammate has the score sheets so I can't get them posted but I can get these pix up.

Here is the Chicken we turned in:

Ribs:

Pork Butt:

Brisket:

I think that this was probably the best brisket I have ever made. A year of practicing has really paid off. It was super tender and very tasty as confirmed by KnitTech and my teammate. However, I just don't know where I went wrong with the judges. I'm seriously thinking of contacting some of the "experts" on the circuit around here and seeing if they would be willing to give me a class on brisket..

Trophies (to bad most of them are heading out of state)

When KnitTech came down (and I was mildly surprised she made it since it was HOT and she had to walk across the park and would be stuck with us for several hours) she brought the dreaded HavoK.. He seemed to enjoy himself. Now I'm one of those "people" that brings thier dog to a big public event. He was a great boy and really behaved himself. I'm really proud of him.

All the leftover brisket has been broken down and is packaged up for KnitTech's use in dinners and breakfasts. Tonight it'll be baked beans and brisket for dinner. This week some of KnitTech's awesome breakfast burritos.

It's Gonna be a Hectic Week

2010-07-19T18:30:00.000-06:00

First lets cover a few things from the past week.

I did some grilling on the weekend of the 10th. Needed to do a Turkey for the in-laws, so while smoking the turkey I tossed on some corned beef, and some chicken for our dinner.

The turkey turned out fantastic. Since it was poultry the cats gave it a thumbs up.

A few weeks ago I was mowing the lawn and the mower blew up. I mean it literally blew up.. I heard a bang and looked down. The piston rod was laying on the deck of the mower and the block had a big hole in it. Luckily its now high summer and the lawn is not growing very fast. The clan has a mower so we've been paying them to come over and mow. As a side benefit that means we get to see Baby Bird more often. Last weekend was a mowing weekend so guess who was here. I managed to her to stand still for a bit.

And one of her in action.

Now why is this week hectic? Well this weekend is Swine Stewards first competition of the year (well actually my partner snuck off and did one last weekend). It is going to be at The Boise Music Festival. We are willing to have guests come down and there may be a bonus if you do.

Here is the schedule

FRIDAY JULY 23RD.

8:00AM- VENUE OPENS FOR LOAD-IN. TEAM PACKETS DISTRIBUTED AT LOAD-IN
10:00AM- MEAT INSPECTIONS (INSTRUCTIONS FOR INSPECTION PROCESS IN YOUR PACKETS)
6:00 PM- COOKS MEETING
11:00PM-7:00 AM QUIET TIME ENFORCED

SATURDAY JULY 24TH.

11:00 AM- JUDGES MEETING
12:00 PM- CHICKEN TURN-IN
12:30 PM- RIBS TURN-IN
1:00 PM- PORK TURN-IN
1:30 PM- BRISKET TURN-IN
4:00PM- AWARDS

Friday will be pretty boring as its just setup and getting the cooking going. However, most of the teams will be in a more "chatty" mood. I know that I'll be putting my brisket on to cook about 4pm. I will be away from the event from 5pm - 11pm since I have to go teach that night. The next day is when it gets a bit more exciting. If you do come down be warned that from 11AM - to 1:30PM the teams will be prepping their turn ins and under a lot of stress. Really not a great time to be around us as we're a bit on the cranky side and not very friendly. After the last turn in at 1:30 there is a collective sigh of relaxation amongst the competitors as the race is finally over. This is the best time to see if "samples" will be given away. Most competitors cook up way more meat then they need to turn in and want to get rid of the extras. This is not mandatory and not a promise that it will happen. If you are polite it greatly enhances your chances of getting samples. I'd be willing to give some brisket to people I know, but will not be giving out to the general public. I'm not sure about whether or not my partner will be giving out samples. He generally sells his leftover pork butts to co-workers.

We would appreciate having as many friends as possible at the awards ceremony. The music festival will go on all day on Saturday according to the email I received "The venue will be closed to all vehicular traffic from 10:00AM Saturday until 12:00PM Saturday night." and "The only access to the venue on Saturday will be by “shuttle”. If you have friends coming to visit, refer them to the website Boise Music Festival for shuttle “pick-up” points." The good news is that our teams entry fee covers the entry fees for friends and family members. So if you come down either to see us or want to check out the music fest just make sure to say that you are with Team Swine Stewards and you should be able to get in for free.

A Roadtrip, Grilling, and some Explosions

2010-07-07T18:36:00.000-06:00

Saturday KnitTech and I decided to go up to McCall and spend the night at her parents. Her parents were out of town for a rendezvous so we headed off to the local flea market and then into town. The flea market was a bust (way to crowded and nothing interesting) but McCall was a lot of fun. Part of our plan was to try out a local brewpub. Alas, we discovered that ~~Messiah~~iPhones don't work in McCall. This killed the ability to use the map feature. Luckily KnitTech happened to know where a ~~drug~~knit shop was and wanted to check it out. The owner knew exactly where Salmon River Brewpub was and after selling some ~~drugs~~yarn to KnitTech gave her directions.

Salmon River Brewery is a unique little place. Very comfy and cheerful (and some of the cleanest bathrooms I've been in). The service was pretty slow but I'm not marking them down for that. It was the 4th of July weekend and they were really hopping. KnitTech tried the Smoked Salmon club:

We both felt that the smoked salmon was pretty dry and flavorless. Not gonna recommend this one.
I tried the 2 brat meal:

One was the "Lava" brat. They are serious with that name. Super spicy.. It was great going down.. Not so great that night. I'm still recommending it. The other was the smoked bacon brat. WOW! Incredible. Highly recommended.

While there I had to try some of the beers. The first was the Udaho Gold. A very lightly hopped amber. Super good and we ended up getting a growler of it to take home. Alas I didn't get a picture. The 2nd I tried was the Bramble. Another amber with a higher hop content:

I didn't find it as good as the Udaho gold but not bad either.

On the way home KnitTech spotted a field of Daisy s. Knowing how much mom likes them we stopped and snapped some pictures.

Sunday was the Fourth and perhaps one of my favorite holidays. We had the Clan, the E's, and one of Perky/Kommandants friends over (along with Perky and Kommandant). We offered to provide food if they provided fireworks. They accepted the trade. I cooked up some "Trencher" sandwiches, KnitTech made tater salad and they were both a big hit. As backup we also made some seriously good beer dogs.
Babybird started off not being happy since she was stuck in the truck.

DustyTomes getting ready to send some up.

Perky and crew setting up a "special" display.

Friday prior to all this HavoK went to the vet to get "tutored". He was a dejected little guy.

Rest assured he is back to his hyper self now.

Hello Blogger my old Friend

2010-06-29T19:24:00.001-06:00

No apologies for long times between postings.. It just doesn't seem to work. Its been a very busy June. We did our yearly trip to Jackpot for KnitTech's birthday. The first part of the day made me really think that this was the year that the casino would win. I managed to lose everything I played. Then the night came. KnitTech left me at the roulette table and went off with her aunt. I ended up losing for for first while and then luck came back and thumped me in the head. When I left the table (2am) I was way up and very happy. KnitTech got up much earlier than me and I gave her some of my chips. When I got into the shower she returned from her morning excursion. I asked if she had lost all her money and she emptied her pockets even farther ahead than I was. I think that overall we didn't home way ahead but we did come home pretty close to even. A win in my books.

The grill has been very busy. Seems I'm created a rib monster in KnitTech. We've done ribs several weeks in a row. While I don't feel they are competition quality they are definitely food quality. I think I've got the marinade down pat. Now need to work on a complimentary sauce for them. Between ribs I managed to grill up some pineapple. KnitTech and I didn't like the flavors but the gaming group seemed to. I'm not sure if they liked it because I cooked it or because it was really good. I need to let them know that I really really need constructive criticism when I cook. They won't kill me by saying "Yuck" if its not to their liking. Last weekend I also did some chicken (seems the Tyson company had a shortage on thighs as the choices were wings, legs, or breasts) legs and used my homemade sauce. Another big win..

It seems that Mother Nature didn't get the memo that 21 June was the first day of summer. It arrived yesterday with a vengeance. Remember when I was complaining about show at the beginning of June? Well 28 June it all turned around it was 100 degrees. Wow.. We were not prepared for that. Ended up getting out some fans and sleeping with no covers and the fan running. We survived along with Havok and the 3 kitties of the popsicle lips.. Today it dropped back down to the 80s. Much better.

Fourth of July plans? A nice 3 day weekend (woot no work on Monday). Saturday we are going to go up and stay overnight at the in laws. I twisted KnitTech's arm (not the tennis elbow one) and we will be dining at a brewpub in Cascade. I did some web searching and it looks like the best of the 2 available. We'll then go out and look at stars. According to the weather reports it should be comfortably cool up there. Sunday we'll return home and fire up the grill for the 4th. Dusty, Kat and the kids will be coming over. KnitTech is working on the menu. It looks like it will be burgers, dogs and I'm hoping some tater salad.

Well I'm outta here but will have pix next post.

Test for KnitTech

2010-06-09T17:48:00.001-06:00

How I spent Memorial Day and the following week

2010-06-05T14:31:00.000-06:00

I'm known as "The BBQ Guy" in my area at work (KnitTech also has a "BBQ Guy" in her area). I told the gang that I would be willing to smoke a brisket for anyone as long as I could cut it open and save a few pieces. This way I could practice for competitions One of my Co-workers took me up on the offer this weekend and since I had some open space on the grill I had KnitTech pick up 3 packages of "corned beef". We ground up a TON of black pepper and coated all 3 of them and I smoked them up. A bit of research and I learned that the difference between "Pastrami" and "Corned Beef" is that pastrami is smoked while corned beef is boiled. Yeppers, homemade Pastrami It turned out wondrous. I sliced one of the 3 into thin slices with the meat slicer that Mom gave us for Christmas 2 years ago, while the other 2 were chopped into chunks. KnitTech converted the chunks into hash for breakfast and then made breakfast burritos for a week of work breakfasts.

Monday we celebrated BabyBirds 3rd birthday. I tried to get "cute" pictures but she just wouldn't hold still. So you'll have to settle for these.

The little made out pretty good. She got gifts from Great-Grandparents, Grandparents, and her Aunt & Uncle. At least that was the stuff she got that day. Big hits were the "gardening stuff" from Aunt Perky & Uncle Kommandant, along with the really cool refrigerator magnet talking letters from my Mom. We must have heard the ABC song 100 times. I'm sure her parents are really enjoying it also.

Monday Aggie also got his toes clipped. Kommandant helped with this process and it actually went pretty good.

The downside. He doesn't make the little "clicking" sound when he sneaks up on you as you walk across the room.

And now the not so fun part. Wednesday when coming home from work I thought I was coming down with something. I had a faculty meeting that night so I didn't want to go to the Dr (not o mention it wasn't that bad). Thursday I got to work and started to feel a pain in my back. This slowly grew to the point where I couldn't sit or even talk coherently on the phone. Needless to say I left work early and headed to the ER. While there the Nurse asked "on a scale of 1 - 10, how much does it hurt?" I answered with a 6, and KnitTech piped in with "for the rest of the world that would be an 8". The nurse chuckled and said "well at least he didn't say 10 like most people. I think that Allie at HyperBole and Half has a much better representation of the pain scale. An IV and some pain med later and it was confirmed that I had another kidney stone. I'm not sure why my body likes to make stones. Guess I'll be drinking a lot more water with Citrus juice in it. I spent Thursday night stoned out of my mind on pain meds and under KnitTechs ~~demand~~ recommendation stayed home on Friday. Stone has passed and I'm feeling much better now.

1000 words*

2010-05-23T19:51:00.000-06:00

Remember the pork tenderloin I did last week. Well we took some it and sliced it into some nice looking chops. KnitTech breaded them and baked them for dinner. WOW did it turn out good.

We had a climatically strange weekend. Up till saturday the days have been pretty nice. Spring is here and we've been enjoying it. Some rain but that can be lived with. KnitTech had even turned the furnace off about 3 weeks ago. With windows open we've had some chilly nights but that just led to some snuggling. WELL!!!!! Saturday was planning on finally weeding out the front flowerbed so we can plant some peppers and tomatoes in it. KnitTech pointed out that I may want to reconsider when we saw this.

It is a bit tough to make out in the picture but that is SNOW. Yes snow in Boise at the end of may. Needless to say we spent Saturday indoors. Sabrina opted to spend it like this.

Sunday was a return to the marinade experiment. We had some pork ribs in the freezer and I wanted to grill them up. I used almost the same recipe I started with last weekend.

1 1/2 cup Virgin Olive Oil
1 1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Tblespoon Kosher Salt
1 Tblespoon of our homemade spice mix
1 1/2 Tblespoon Brown Sugar
6 Jalepenos (all but 1 cored and chopped)
1 entire head of garlic

This time I increased the Jalepenos and garlic. I also added some brown sugar. Sunday morning I put the racks into a vacuum bag with the marinade and sealed it up and let it sit in the fridge for about 3 hours. I put them on the grill and smoked them for about 2 hours, wrapped them in foil and let them bake for about another hour and then unwrapped and put some of the leftover marinade on them for another 20 mins. They turned out AWESOME. The pictures make them look way more burned then they actually were but wow they were great tasting.. Just a slight burn from the Jalapeno. Next change is to either leave 2 jalapenos whole or add a Habenaro. I want just a bit more heat in this marinade.

*Title blatantly stolen from KnitTech

Experiments and a Dr's Visit

2010-05-16T18:44:00.000-06:00

Tuesday of last week I started feeling a bit of a sore throat and my nose was running like crazy. Wednesday morning I woke up and called into work sick. A day of sleep and relaxation and I felt a lot better. Still would get real short of breathe from time to time but was able to work on Thursday. KnitTech kept worrying and hinting that I should go to the Dr but I felt I would be okay. I still had my inhaler and would take hits from it as needed. Friday things were still pretty much the same and I was informed that I had a Dr's appointment at 10:30. So it was off to the Dr. He took a look and listened and verdict is take these antibiotics and get a refill on the inhaler.. Seems that the perfect storm of a cold and my allergies had compounded and were making me miserable..

Saturday we went to ~~Costco~~ the $200 store and while I was there I picked up Steven Raichlen's new book Planet Barbecue. Very interesting book. Lots of new recipes, techniques, and ingredients. Looks like the Tech's will make making some excursions into some of our cities cultural food markets.

While we were there I grabbed a pork tenderloin. This is a cut of meat that I have a real love/hate relationship with it. I can get the outside to taste great but the inside is always dry and not very flavorful. I've been reading Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue Sauces. This is another "must have" book for a new pit master. The great thing about it is that it doesn't just give a recipe but also gives the reasoning behind the ingredients and amounts. This helps a lot in making your own sauces, rubs, marinades, mops, and salsas. I came up with this as a test marinade:

1 cup Virgin Olive Oil
1 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Tblespoon Kosher Salt
1 Tblespoon of our homemade spice mix
2 Jalepenos (cored and chopped)
8 cloves of garlic

I put all that into the food processor and emulsified the heck out of it.

The Tenderloin was butterflied out and put in a zip lock bag, then the marinade was poured over the top. I reserved about a 1/2 cup of the mixture for use as a mop during grilling. I tied the roast back up into a nice cylinder and put it on the rotisserie spear. About 2 hours later it was done and during the cook we mopped it with the reserved marinade. It turned out nice and moist which is a major change in previous results.

It turned out pretty good, not spectacular but definitely not a failure. Next time I think I'll let it marinate overnight. I also think a tblespoon of brown sugar in the mix will help counter some of the vinegar. Well also try some white vinegar instead of the apple cider and see if that makes a change. Overall I would rank it a solid B for a grade.

Happy Birthday Mom

2010-05-11T05:39:00.002-06:00

I'll be nice and not give out a year. Hope you have a great day and that you spend it relaxing with your new roommates. Curl up with a good book and maybe put a movie into your DVD player.

Happy Birthday!!!

1/3rd Gone?

2010-05-05T19:16:00.000-06:00

What is the deal with time? When I was a kid the time it took to go from January to June seemed like it was measured in months instead of days. Now that I'm an "adult" it seems to me measured in hours instead of days. The year is already 1/3rd of the over and it seems like it just started..

Its looking like July is going to be the big competition month. First off we'll have the 4th of July weekend. I'm sure I'll be grilling something up for that. Then for the next three weeks there are competitions.

July 16/17 - City of Trees, Declo Idaho
July 23/24 - Boise Music Festival, Boise Idaho
July [Date not set yet] Hailey Idaho

I don't think I'll be going to the one in Declo as it is a bit of a drive and also isn't a "sanctioned" event. If it was the only one in July I would go but with 1 and possibly 2 others I think I'll pass. John [the other half of the team] is thinking the same thing.

It appears that our favorite competition "The Eagle RibFest" may not be happening this year. But, the new Boise Music Festival competition will be taking its place and it should be a good one. Also it'll be way closer to home..

I've been horribly lazy the first part of the year. Now trying to get back on track which means I've been going to the gym on weekdays again. Spending an hour a day on the cardio machines and starting next week I'll be adding weight training again. Yea.. the body is starting to complain already..

Grilling Time

2010-04-25T18:26:00.000-06:00

This weekend there was supposed to be a mini bbq competition. Unfortunately, at the last minute just about everyone pulled out. So we didn't get to have one. They still did a minor version but no pork shoulder or brisket. So I had already planned on doing some brisket for KnitTech and went ahead with it anyway.

Here is one of the pre-trimming. Note all the fat on it. That piece in the upper left hand corner is a huge chunk. Then on the backside is a layer about 1/2 inch thick.

And here we are after trimming. I think I must have cut about a pound of fat off of this brisket (about normal for a full brisket). The backside is about an 1/8 inch now.

Two briskets trimmed, rubbed and ready to on the grill

On the grill and ready to cook. KnitTech ended up doing part of the cook since I had to go and teach. We started them cooking at 11am friday. They were done 11pm friday evening. Due to me going to school some steps had to be skipped. They should have been foiled at about 9pm. They still turned out fantastic and we ended up with 19 packages after trimming.

Sunday we decided to fire up the grill again (Yea we never get enough grilling) and do some "Green Lightning Shrimp". This is one of our favs. We also did some asparagus to go with it. Leftovers will be used with some pasta tomorrow and will be fantastic again.

Still Alive Despite my Kidneys Best Attempts At Killing Me

2010-04-21T19:42:00.000-06:00

Last weekend proved to be an interesting one.

Friday 05:00 - Drink coffee that KnitTech bought for me last night.

Friday 05:00 - Drink my morning wake up Tea.

Friday 10:00 - KnitTech brings me a plate of her groups potluck. She made a really great dip. Drink Cherry Coke Zero.

Friday 10:30 - Chat with TNG about tomorrows upcoming game night. He is excited that we will be having "Finger Food" night that will include KnitTechs dip.

Friday 12:30 - KnitTech gets ready to go home. Does not want to take dip home so she brings it my bay so that my co=workers could finish it off. Drink diet Lemon-Lime.

Friday 13:00 - Dip has been wiped out by coworkers. Many reports that it is "Awesome". Drink another Lemon-Lime.

Friday 13:30 - Pack up to go home. Realize that I have no waters for school. Pack 3 Cherry Coke Zeros in bag for evening.

Friday 15:00 - School prepwork done. Stop in teachers lounge and drink a Styrofoam cup of cold water.

Friday 18:00 - Start Class. Drink Diet Coke Zero while lecturing.

Friday 20:30 - Start another Diet Coke Zero during lab.

Friday 2130 - Feel ache in side and feel the need to use bathroom. Pain starts to escalate.

Friday 22:10 - Last Student leaves classroom. Head to truck. Barely able to walk straight.

Friday 22:40 - After another trip to bathroom make it to truck gasping.

Friday 23:10 - Arrive home not totally remembering trip. Stumble in leaving everything but keys in truck. Explain to KnitTech that I think I'm passing a kidney stone. Refuse offer of trip to ER. Accept offer to clean and fill tub. Take 2 tylenol PMs and start soak in luxurious warmth.

Saturday 00:00 - Crawl into bed with KnitTech and huddle against "Steve"*.

Saturday 02:00 - Wake up in pain. Attempt to throw up. Due to the fact that I haven't eaten since 10:30 the day before achieve nothing but a cramp for this effort. Pop 2 more Tylenol PMs and soak in the tub for 30 minutes.

Saturday 02:30 - Back into bed.

Saturday 04:00 - Wake up in pain. Body again feels the need to attempt throwing up. At least I had drank a glass of water so effort isn't totally wasted. Soak in tub again (warm water really helps)

Saturday 04:30 - Pop 2 more Tylenol PMs. While drinking water read the bottle. Hmmm recommended dosage is 2 pills in a 24 hour period. Realize that I have now taken enough for 3 days. Realize that it does help and crawl back into bed.

Saturday 06:30 - Awaken in pain again. While staggering to bathroom KnitTech offers last codeine pill from last kidney stone attack. Gratefully take it. Fall back to sleep in drugged out bliss.

Saturday 09:30 - Awaken with KnitTech. Pain level way down. KnitTech plans on shopping. Admit that I'm in no condition to attempt this. Beg her to pickup some gatorade and pudding so I will have something that I can attempt to eat. When asked say would like chocolate in case it needs to come back up.

Saturday 10:00 - KnitTech returns with supplies. Eat some pudding and drink Gatorade. Switch from Tylenol to Excedrin.

Saturday 10:00 to 22:00 - spend the day dozing, taking Excedrin and drinking Gatorade. Pain down to a bearable level. DustyTomes and TaxTech come over and we watch some movies.

Saturday 22:30 - back to bed having taken some Excedrin.

Sunday 0900 - Wake up surprised that I had slept all night and now with just an ache.

Spend the day Sunday relaxing and watching a movies. Able to return to work on Monday.

Tuesday we had a storm roll through. I went out snapped this picture. Now I know all my friends and relatives back in Vancouver will be thinking "yea, rain.. Thats something new." But, we don't get these kinds of storms that often here in the desert.

*Note - Steve is a body sized stuffed alligator pillow.

I'm Mobile Again

2010-04-06T19:26:00.002-06:00

She isn't the prettiest pickup but she's mine.

When I was looking for a replacement, I did a lot of internet searching. I know that with the price range I was looking in that I wouldn't be getting something real fancy. The ad for it showed pretty much the same pictures and the grammar was truly bad. KnitTech's comment was "No way, look the guy can't even spell". I called and set up a meet to look at it anyway. Turns out that the gentleman's primary language was Spanish. He had bought the pickup for his mom to take to Mexico. He had then spent the last year rebuilding it so that she wouldn't have problems (well as a house painter he traded work for work on the truck). Turns out that the entire power train and front end has been rebuilt. She runs great, sounds great and is even cleaner on the inside than one that we test drove from a carlot. And the price was even lower than I expected to have to pay. Needless to say we jumped on the deal. Next step removing the stickers that are on it and replacing them with mine.

Its April in Boise. One would think that it would be a bit more springlike. With spring comes the time to Mow the lawn. Since the backyard was full of Havok's "leavings" and all his bones and toys, I asked the roomies to clean it up so I could mow. Perky was really nice and cleaned it up while she was on spring break. She even graciously raked the front lawn. Check out this spring in Boise.

Yes, that is SNOW.. I think we've had more snow this spring then we did all winter. On the plus side they were saying that the snow pack was lower than normal so I'm sure we needed it.

Easter Sunday was spent going out to lunch with the Clan. We gave babybird a basket full of sugary goodness to wind her up for her parents. Perky got some pix hopefully she'll get them posted.

Eldest's Birthday

2010-03-29T18:47:00.000-06:00

Today is the Eldest's 23rd birthday. Her Grandpa and Grandma were down and took everyone out to dinner at a Chinese buffet. While there I managed to get a most of the group picture.

How about this face. Doesn't look like someone is plotting?

KnitTech isn't the only one that gets a supervisor when working.

We took today off of work. My original plan was to do some weeding and work on the hops. Well at least the strings got set up. I looked at them last week and thought, "hmmm need to run strings soon". This week I looked and realized that if I waited another week there may be problems.

Next week I'll get it all weeded out and I think I'll get some dirt to fill in. I also want to get some mint or horseradish to plant in the empty areas. I'm hoping that the mint will cover the "kitty" smell since they seem to feel the whole area is their litter box.

While shopping we couldn't decide on what was wanted for dinner. Well it seems that I've created an addict as KnitTech wanted ribs again. This will make 3 weeks in a row (not that I'm complaining). On the plus side. This time I got a picture.

And I think I'll close this out with a cute smile from BabyBird.

Teaching Again

2010-03-25T18:24:00.000-06:00

Last Friday was the first day back to school for ITT students. I'm teaching IT302 (Linux Server Admin), this is a great class to teach as it is the advanced Linux class and I love it. Over the course of the last few semesters I've become very familiar with the course and feel very confident. So with this attitude I walked into class last Friday. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the text book had changed (again). I had the "college" edition, the edition that we had been using for the last 2 semesters. My students had the 6th edition (the updated version for Fedora 12). A quick trip down to the program chairs office and I also had the new edition. Hmmm all of my syllabus was written for the old edition. It appears that the new edition has some more detailed information on some of the topics so its about 12 pages off of what I had. I'm slowly updating the syllabus to match the new book.

The gaming ribfest turned out pretty interesting. I told all the participants that they would need to drop off a rack of ribs (pork or beef) on the Friday prior to game night. I also defined a rack as having at least 8 ribs. By my math this should have given me 7 racks of ribs. Just enough to fill the grill. However, I didn't think this all the way through. KnitTech and I had 2 racks of babyback ribs, OT and his Kender wife brought 2 racks of beef, so far so good. Dusty and Kat showed up with 1 rack of pork spare ribs, 1 rack of beef, and a larger rack of beef. TNG wasn't able to find a good set of ribs so he brought some country style beef ribs. ACK.. now I had to many ribs. I managed to get all but the country style ribs onto the grill. Cooked them up and they turned out great. I then moved the coals up into the main grill and direct cooked the country style ribs. OT and I thought they turned out perfect (just a bit rare which we liked), TNG doesn't like his meat that rare so he wasn't as impressed. After feasting KnitTech packaged up all the leftovers and handed them out to the respective people that brought them.

After that it was game time..

Global Warming?

2010-03-16T17:59:00.001-06:00

This weekend both KnitTech and I were feeling sick. We aren't sure if it was Perky, Kommandant, or oneof our Cow-Workers that gave it to us. It was a bummber because it was the first Friday I've had off in 11 weeks and this week the new semester starts so I won't have a friday off for another 11 weeks. We were hoping for some "adult" time.

During one of the many trips from the bed to the bathroom over the night I noticed that was pretty bright in the back yard. We got up early saturday and discovered this.

Ummmm yea.. Its mid march. Thats snow. Yea, Yea, I know.. Global Climate Change.. Needless to say we still drove to the store...

The truck is still broken. I drove it to Schucks and had them test the electrical. All is good. Funny it still won't start. It looks like its something with the positive side of the electrical. I don't know if it'll be fixed or replaced. We're a 1 car family currently. Adjusted our work schedule and we'll see how it ends up. KnitTech gets to sleep in an hour.. I get to get up an hour earlier. Although having the afternoon together is really nice. Now if we could just get over the sickness we are suffering.

Sunday we went to the store for our weekly shopping trip. As we walked in they had a freezer full of pork ribs on sale. KnitTech did a [homer voice]Hmmmm Ribs[/homervoice]. I pointed out that it would take 4 to 6 hours and I was supposedly gaming with some friends that day. While shopping I called the friend that was running it to confirm. Oops game off.. So while in the meat section we grabbed 2 racks of beef and 2 racks of pork ribs. I prepped them and cooked them up. WOW.. They were to tender for a competition entry but perfect for home. We froze up the leftovers and have a few more meals in the freezer. Very happy with them.

This led to the decision that for this weekends game session we'll do ribs for the gang. I sent out messages to all the players that if they drop off a rack of ribs either prior to or on friday I'll have them cooked up for game night. I've gotten several confirmations so it should work out good. KnitTech picked up 2 racks of pork ribs and I figure there will be a few beef ones from the other players. I'll get pix of them.

Also I want to publicly post a big thanks to Kommandant for the very thorough cleaning he did on monday. THANK YOU KOMMANDANT

MMMMMMM Movies.....

2010-03-10T17:34:00.005-07:00

OH YEA..... Can't wait for December

If this is half as good as the original It'll be AWESOME

Another Childhood favorite coming to the big screen.

Undecided on this one

Another I'm undecided on.

Probably a DVD addition but then I love Shrek

Arrrrrrrgggggg

2010-03-09T11:00:00.001-07:00

Had to jump the battery to get the truck started this morning. Worked out a deal with my supervisor to work a 5:00 to 13:30 schedule for the rest of the week. This way I can carpool with Knittech. Looks like more work on the truck this weekend.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

It was an interesting Week.

2010-03-08T18:42:00.000-07:00

Well as we found out last night, the good news that I'm not going to be an vegetarian for a year. District 9 didn't win the oscar for best picture. Congratulations to The Hurt Locker for winning. To be honest we haven't seen that one. I'll have to NetFlix it or wait till the roommates rent it. At least Avatar didn't win. That's another one I'm waiting to get out of the cheap bin to buy. Not going to see it in the theater or pay full price for the DVD..

Last Tuesday I got up and went out to go to work. Sat down the discovered that the truck wouldn't start. So I called into work and said I wouldn't be making it in. Spent the morning working on and with a jump managed to get it started. Wednesday I got up and it wouldn't start again. This time jumping didn't work. I was getting 1 click when I turned the key. Okay.. I figured it was the started. Jacked up the truck and spent the day getting the starter out. Did you know that on a 1994 Nissan the starter is in an incredibly tight space? Neither did I but I do now. I called my boss and let him know I wouldn't be in on Thursday either since this process was taking all day. After getting the starter out I had KnitTech take me to Schucks. The nice man behind the counter tested the starter and let me know that it was working fine. He thought it might be the battery. Well dang I had that out in the first half hour.. Ran home and grabbed the battery and headed back to Schucks. After testing the battery it was found that it was fine.. FRAK now what could it be. I got home put everything back together and voila. Now the truck starts.. Well its been starting since then. We'll see how this week goes..

This was a gaming weekend. So I opted to do some experimenting with the grill. I've been wanting to make a meatloaf that even those that don't like meatloaf would like. I mixed up some ground turkey and ground beef with some spices, diced jalapenos, diced onion, bread crumbs and a couple of eggs.. Formed it into a nice loaf and put it on the grill. 2 and half hours on the smoker with indirect heat and voila it was a meatloaf that everyone liked.

Sorry No Pix

2010-03-01T17:04:00.001-07:00

The best laid plans sometimes fail..   Friday at work I was informed by KnitTech that we were having dinner with the clan on Sunday.. I mis-understood and thought that meant we were heading to Nampa for dinner.. When I got home from teaching she explained that they were coming for dinner to our house.   We thought about some various options and settled on BBQ'd chicken. So we went shopping Saturday morning and picked up 2 packages of thighs and some sauces. I whipped up one of sauce mixes (turned out very good and not spicy) and was ready for the next day.

Sunday we had breakfast with KnitTechs Aunt and Uncle.   The clan was supposed to come to that also but failed to show. While there we invited them (Aunt and Uncle) to dinner. They agreed to come so it was going to be a nice big get together.   I cooked up the thighs, KnitTech made a salad, and we were ready. Aunt and Uncle called and canceled. Okay we still have the clan coming.. Dinnertime rolls around and still no sign. KnitTech calls and we find out that Baby Bird is sick and they won't be coming.   So much for my plans to have a bunch of pix to post. On the plus side we have enough chicken thighs for a few dinners..

I'm putting this promise out here in writing so you can all be my witness. If District 9 (The movie that I think should win) wins an Oscar for Best picture I promise to become a vegetarian for a year. That's vegetarian not vegan so I'll still eat dairy but no meat.

I wonder how Tofu Brisket tastes.

Pix Post

2010-02-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

Okay so being able to create posts from the phone didn't speed them up. The promised pix are getting posted though. Is that a good enough trade?

Baby bird after her first overnight with Grandma and Grandpa

Gotta love that wild hair.

Convert and family LOVE brisket. So we cooked one up for her baby shower.

While cooking up the brisket I smoked 2 pork butts. What was left after bagging them up was added to the breakfast fixings. Here it is ready to fill some burritos.

Filling and rolling

Rolled and wrapped.

Breakfast for a week, ready to go.

Tis the season for the cats to try to kill me. To fill the void that Peaches left, Sabrina (aka The Blob) has been attempting to kill me with allergies. Here she is plotting from the coffee table.

Okay I'm off to bed. Must be rested for the power long day that my Fridays are. Mom shoot me an email or a comment as to when a good time to call this weekend will be.

Trying Something New

2010-02-15T07:42:00.000-07:00

While exploring the aps store I found an ap that links to Blogger. Maybe this will get posts out faster.

When I got home from teaching on the 5th I was intercepted at the door and told to be quiet. Seems we had a baby bird spending the night. Her parents were in the process of moving and didn't need an extra supervisor. I got some pictures and will get them posted. Poor Havoc terrorizes her so when he was in the room she hid on grandpas lap. We also discovered that she is afraid of Aggie.

Since the superbowl is an anniversery for Knittech and I we celebrated by grilling up some steaks. Alas while not a sacrifice to the BBQ gods they just weren't spectacular. Made up for it this weekend by making some country style pork ribs. I had watched a cooking show that morning and used some tricks they used on chicken and we really liked how they turned out. Even wiped up a pretty decent sauce with what we had on hand.

We went out Saturday and did some sale shopping. The Hollywood Video in town is closing up and selling off everything. We knew the selection would be pretty picked over but wanted to see if they would have some old classics. Turns out they did and we picked up about 15 movies. We then swung by All About Games to get the Cosmic Encounters Expansion (awesome). Kommandant informed us that Hasting had whole series on sale for 20 bux each. A trip to Hastings and we came home with seasons 1 and 2 of Bones along with season 3 of Heroes. Needless to say this weeken was spent mainlining season 1 of Bones.

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Ribs, Ribs, Ribs

2010-01-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

Still working mandatory overtime at job 1. I have been going to the gym after work even with the overtime so I've been good. Last weekend when KnitTech and I went to Cash and Carry to get the Briskets we saw that they had some trimmed spare ribs. She wanted to cook them up last weekend but instead I recommended that we save them for game weekend. She opted to wait. Well this being game weekend was the time. We had DustyTomes bring some beef ribs and cooked them all up. They were a bit overcooked for a competition but super tender and very well enjoyed. We ended up having some of the leftovers with Perky for Dinner on Sunday and I still have 5 ribs that I will be taking in for lunch at work tomorrow. Sorry I didn't get pix of them.

Kommandant has gotten me into a new Minature game called Malifaux. Its a combination of Victorian Era Steampunk, Magic, and Westerns. I opted to go with an Outcast army and then picked up a Neverborn army so that if someone wants to play but doesn't have their own army they can use one of mine. Kommandant wants to be on the Demo Team for the game so he needed 2 painted armies. He arranged to have a friend paint mine up so he can use them. Big thanks as that means I now have 2 fully painted armies.

The Outcasts

The Neverborn

Instead of just sitting around the house we packed up Perky and Havoc and headed down to the river. Havoc had a great time and we really enjoyed ourselves. I'm sure we'll be doing it again. A bit disappointed that the nature center is a dog free zone.

Aggie has really been enjoying himself. We let him out about every night and he gets to run around. Brina still doesn't know what to do with him.

Catching up on MLK day

2010-01-18T18:37:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was a super busy one. It was the clubs group brew. I did the cooking and made 2 Bacon Explosions. They turned out really good and the group seemed to really like them.

Since I'm trying to do a practice Brisket every month this was grill weekend. The 14 year old I work with wanted to sponser one. So I did one for him and one for us. The one for him turned out INCREDIBLE.

That was our brisket so it ended up chopped up and bagged for future meals. KnitTech likes to have a lot stored up in the freezer.

Sorry about the quality of the pix. Those were taken with my cellphone so that I could text them to the sponsor. Next month It's going to be a brisket and pork shoulder.

Monday we finally cooked up something new. It was another rotisserie grill.

Now I know what your saying. That looks like any of the roasts that I've done on the grill since I got the rotisserie. But wait take a look at it after its turned a bit.

Thats right.. The clan gave us a rabbit and we cooked it up. I was a bit leery about it. Hadn't had rabbit since the airport years and that was fried. This a new thing and thos can always be scary. Well surprise it turned out great.

On a side note due to working overtime last week I didn't make it to the gym. This week I'm going overtime or not. I'm also back to drinking more lemon or lime juice. I think I passed another stone on saturday.

First Post of 2010

2010-01-03T18:11:00.001-07:00

I'm not going to make a bunch of promises this year. I'm planning on hitting the gym hard and have some "attainable" short term goals in that matter. After the eating fest that the last month has been this should be a good thing.

Next Saturday is our club group brew. I'll be cooking at it since I volunteered last year and they seemed to enjoy it. I'm planning on making one of the dreaded bacon explosions for the gang. I'll post pictures after the event.

Santa left KnitTech a pineapple in her stocking. We've been wanting to do Huli Huli chicken and pineapple for a few years and this was our chance.

It turned out great. The chicken had a nice sweet flavor with the glaze we put on it. The pineapple was even better although it had a slight chicken flavor. We're thinking of just doing 2 pineapples for a game night in the future.

And the Guinea Pigs have moved out. So we needed to replace the empty spot in our lives. OT and the Kender needed to get rid of one of their ferrets (they had 3) so we offered to "borrow" one and see how it works out. Meet Agamemnon (Aggie for short).

He has been great. No "accidents" when he is out running around and using his litter box in his cage. The cats aren't sure what to do. Fran follows him around and just watches him. Havoc wants to play with him and barks at him. Aggie just runs and hides. We don't let Daizy get near him as she tends to attack any living thing in sight. I'm not sure who would win in that fight, Daizy or Aggie.

Stille Nacht

2009-12-24T18:43:00.001-07:00

This is perhaps the most beautiful versions of this song I've ever heard. Fell in love with it the first time I heard it.

#2

2009-12-23T19:25:00.001-07:00

Second appearance of the song and the artist. This is my 2nd most favorite Christmas song.

TSO

2009-12-22T19:30:00.003-07:00

As I mentioned last week KnitTech is not a fan of Christmas music. However, there is a group that does some non-standard versions of some classic Christmas Melodies. We've actually gone to see them in concert. Hoping to make seeing them more of a tradition, although we have missed them that last 2 years. Please enjoy the Trans Siberian Orchestra. I highly recommend going to see them when you get a chance.

BTW I hope everyone had a great Winters Solstice last night.. I know I did. And a happy 21st Perky (now you can try some of my brews).

Another Version of Little Drummer Boy

2009-12-21T18:06:00.001-07:00

I've always liked this video.

Chanukah (Hanukkah) Song

2009-12-19T21:03:00.001-07:00

I'm not Jewish but I do enjoy Adam Sandlers Chanukah Song.

One for KnitTech

2009-12-17T18:44:00.002-07:00

KnitTech is not a fan of Christmas music. If we left it up to her we would only be allowed to play it on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I subscribe to the philosiphy of starting to play Christmas music the day after Thanksgiving. This one however, is one that she does like

Also YouTube has disabled embedding for the actual video it is available here if you want to see it.

Mom Gets 2

2009-12-16T19:36:00.002-07:00

Two of Mom's favorite artists are Elvis and Alice Cooper (yeppers, weird combo). So today is a double shot. I was hoping to find them both performing the same song. Alas YouTube has let me down.

We'll start with some Elvis.

And now a little Alice Cooper. Even KnitTech liked this one.

For Dad

2009-12-15T18:43:00.002-07:00

My dad was a country music fan. I didn't acquire the country music gene but there are a few performers that I enjoy listening to. Silent Night is a song that when performed right can bring tears to my eyes (this is another song you will see again). This performance by Reba is one that can get me every time.

Do You Hear What I Hear

2009-12-14T20:25:00.002-07:00

Many years ago my "adoptive" dad took me and his sons to OMSI. We went to the planetarium and they had a show about the Christmas star. I can't really remember what all the facts that they presented were but it was an introduction to this song. It has always been one of my all time favorite Christmas songs (be warned you will be seeing again before Christmas). Mannheim Steamroller did this version long after I heard the original. I really like the way they did it but again I'm not a huge fan of video.

Posting?

2009-12-13T19:23:00.002-07:00

Sorry readers. I'm just having trouble coming up with posts. Instead I'm going to start doing some of my favorite christmas songs.

We'll start off with Mannheim Steamrollers - Little Drummer Boy. I'm not real crazy about the story they opted to go with for the video but I love this song.

Tuesday Game Nite

2009-11-05T18:15:00.002-07:00

Tuesdays are Board Game Nite at AAG. Since I'm not currently working overtime at job1 or teaching at job2 on Tuesdays I get to go and play. This weekend OT and his Kender wife were there also. We were hoping for another co-worker but he couldn't make it due to an emergency. The plan was to play Pandemic and Small World

OT had picked up a copy of Red November. Red November proved to be an interesting game. It plays fairly quick and has a unique way of determining who goes first. One of the mechanics that you can use to get bonuses for actions is to "drink grog". While playing we decided on a way to turn it into a "drinking game". Of course this won't be a viable option down at AAG but for home games it could be fun.

Red November Drinking Game Rules
Take 1 drink whenever:
Your Gnome drinks
You fail a task

Chug your drink whenever:
Your Gnome dies
The Sub is destroyed

BTW if your interested in joining us at Tuesday game night. Come on down. We try to start at 6pm but it usually starts between 6 and 7.

It Lives!

2009-11-02T20:06:00.002-07:00

I've been a funk for the last month. This led to me avoiding the blog. Hopefully, things will be looking up soon and I can get back to regular posting.

Just to prove that I'm really alive and this isn't KnitTech and Perky faking a post to throw off the police investigation here is a picture of me surrounded by the cats. Generally, KnitTech is the "Crazy Cat Lady". Seems I'm becoming the "Crazy Cat Man".

That is Peaches on the back of the Chair and Uggy on the arm. Sabrina and Fran are at my feet. Seems that Havoc is bringing detente amongst the cats.

Late September was birthday number 44 for me. KnitTech helped add to the collection of blades in the house. One of my favorite movies is "Serenity". BudK released some replicas from the movie. And I had to have them.

Now I can get KnitTech to recreate this scene for me.

While ordering those I picked up the knives that were in "The Chronicles of Riddick".

So I can do this scene for KnitTech

Since it was the 44th birthday and I'll soon be needing a cane I picked one up.

But since I order everything from BudK you can rest assured its not a normal cane.

And finally since it was on sale I opted to get a "DemonSlayer Blade".

I'm not as happy with this one as it has a truly horrible balances. But then since I watch "Supernatural" or as its called at here at Chez Tech "The yummy yummy hot guy show", you only have to hit a demon once with a demon slaying blade. Handy, since this is to heavy to do a lot of swinging with.

Halloween was the celebration of 19 years of marriage. We took the Friday prior to Halloween off of work. Look what happened.

Look closely along the eves of the house. Yes folks that is snow. Thankfully it wasn't really cold enough for it to stick. I hope this isn't a sign of the season to come.

Perky decided that the cats needed to have a costume. So they became angels. Needless to say Uggy wasn't enthused with this option. Sabrina on the other hand really didn't seem to care.

We also got to see BabyBird as she came over to Trick or Treat (our first of the day and 50% of all the trick or treaters we had). Isn't this a cute little Tinkerbell?

And here we are after eating as much candy as Grandpa and Grandma could give her.

Well that's it for today. I'm hoping to keep up a semi-regular schedule of posting this month. Keep your fingers crossed.

Eagle Rib Fest - Part 2

2009-09-09T19:00:00.002-06:00

It was a LONG hot weekend. I seem to have overdosed on Vitamin D during the event (Vitamin D comes from the Sun and I didn't have sunscreen if you get my drift). We had a great time and did very well.

Here is the camp after we got it setup.

The grills ready to start rocking.

Chicken ready to be entered.

Ribs ready to be entered.

Pork Shoulder ready to be entered.

Brisket ready to be entered (Check out that smoke ring).

The awards ceremony was a ton of fun. It was great having KnitTech sitting with me for the first time. Alas it turns out the brisket didn't quite make out as well as we hoped. On the other hand We took First in Chicken and 2nd in Pork. My Brisket was a distant 20th and the ribs took 23rd. Even with those 2 drops Team Swine Stewards took 7th place overall. Here we are getting the Pork Award.

The Grand Champion trophy along with a possibility of going to the Jack Daniels contest went to Team Home on the Range. Depending on what happens at the Big Chill next spring they may be the team representing Idaho.

Looking at the scores I hit on brisket it wasn't a bad brisket, it just wasn't an outstanding brisket. Definitely did a couple of things wrong and will working on these issues. The current plan is to try and do brisket a month. I've got a couple of workmates that want to sponsor the first 2. Basically if you sponsor one, you buy it and I'll cook it up for practice. Then I'll break it down and bring you the meat. Let me know if your interested.

Eagle Rib Fest - Part 1

2009-09-04T20:52:00.003-06:00

It's time for the Eagle Rib fest. Team Swine Steward will be onsite for 2 days instead of our original plan of 1 day. It seems that we are having a "Peoples Choice" category. So here is the planned schedule.

Saturday

8:00AM - Leave house to go to the site.
11:00AM - Venue opens to Public and Alcohol
3:00PM - Pork for People's Choice starts cooking
8:30pm - Alcohol sales end
9:00 - Venue Closed to public

Sunday
7:00AM Run home for shower and to pickup up food
10:00AM Be back at Venue
11:00AM - Venue opens to Public and Alcohol
11:00AM - Meat Inspection
11:30AM - People's Choice Cooks meeting
12:00PM - Judging for People's Choice Container contest
12:30PM - People's Choice registration begins
2:00PM - People's Choice begins
3:00PM - KCBS Cooks Meeting
5:00PM - People's Choice ends
6:00PM - Sid dish Turn-in
8:30PM - Alcohol sales end
9:00PM - Venue Closed to public
11:00PM - Quiet Time until 7am

Monday
11:00AM - Venue opens to Public and Alcohol
12:00PM - Chicken Turn in
12:30PM - Ribs Turn in
1:00PM - Pork Turn in
1:30PM - Brisket Turn in
5:00PM - Awards at Main Stage

Okay so what does this mean to you my friends.

A - If you want to be in on the Peoples Choice tasting and judging. Be there by 12:30PM on Sunday to get registered. There are only 200 slots and I imagine they will fill fast.

B - If you are there between 11:30PM - 1:30PM on Sunday don't bother the contestants. We'll all be cranky and prepping our entries. However, offering to run a camera and get pictures of our entries would be greatly appreciated.

C - If you want some free food to sample, it generally happens after the Brisket turn in. Most of the contestants WAY overcook and are generally giving out their leftovers after they are done entering everything. Our team will not be giving out food. I've sold both my briskets and my partner has sold all his Pork Shoulders. Sorry about that.. Other competitors may be giving out theirs but don't consider it a promise.

D - Gaming - I'm bring Pandemic and OT said he may bring SpaceHulk down. Since there will be some downtime over the course of both nights I think we can get some gaming in. Shoot me a text or give me a call and we'll set something up.

E - Food, there are going to be 3 grills in our team area. At least one of them will be empty untill Sunday morning. Bring some stuff to Grill and we'll be happy to cook it up.

F - Team Swine Stewards would love to have you there at the Awards ceremony on Sunday to cheer us on.

NOTE - The entry fee for the event is a donation to the Food Bank. Entry for the People's Choice is $5.00.

Is August really almost over?

2009-08-27T16:28:00.003-06:00

WoW this month has just SCREAMED by. And I've been super busy. Lets see.

News at work1 - Yea I'm currently operating under a microscope at work so there is no more surfing (including on the ~~Messiah~~Iphone at work. Needless to say this has put a crimp on posting and reading blogs.

News at work2 - Last Monday was the final for school. Gave it and had the majority pass. Had 1 student that I thought was going to totally bomb. Thankfully he showed up (late) and took his test. I was nice and gave him another day to get the rest of his homework in. He scraped by with a low C. September 8th is the first day of the next semester. Back to teaching Linux. WOOT!

Fandemonium - The first weekend of August, immediately after my last post was Fandemonium. What a great time we had. Gaming, movies, More gaming and costumes. I didn't dress up but my friend Matt did.

Matt was participating in the costume dance. hard to believe that this is one of the smartest brewers I know.

Vancouver - The weekend after Fandemonium, KnitTech and I took a road trip back to my hometown of Vancouver Wa. Had a great weekend and got to visit my mom, some old friends and family. I took the camera with us and then promptly forgot to use it. On the way out of town we stopped by Voodoo Doughnuts and tried:

The Voodoo Doughnut (The Voodoo Doll)

The Bacon Maple Bar

One would think that bacon and maple bar would not go together. One would be wrong in that thinking. Its wondrous..

We also stopped by the greatest book store in the world Powell's Books. Sorry Bruce, but Rediscovered Books just isn't up to Powell's Books. Imagine a city block, 3 levels and all new and used books. I was in heaven.

Last weekend was a practice run for the BBQ competition that is coming up. I did a brisket and it turned out fantastic. Super tender, Juicy and great tasting. I'm thinking of doing another one this weekend. If not Brisket then I'll do a couple of pork shoulders.

200th Post!

2009-08-07T22:54:00.002-06:00

Here it is.. The Big event. My 200th post. Its been a slow ride since I don't post as much at KnitTech and I'm not nearly as entertaining but we've seen a lot.

Lets see

21 posts in 2006
48 posts in 2007
75 posts in 2008
and
54 posts so far in 2009.

All I can say is that I'm getting better at posting. So what is the big event. Well KnitTech always does a contest pertaining to her hobby. So I'll just ~~steal~~ borrow her idea.

I will be giving away either something grilled or something brewed (If the winner is under 21 it will be grilled, if over 21 then its their choice) to a randomly selected commenter on this post. The comment must be put on the blog (if you post anonymously make sure to include your name or handle in the comment). Comments made on facebook will not count on this. Winner will be announced on my first post after 31 August.

Still Kicking

2009-08-04T17:23:00.002-06:00

The trips back to the gym are still going. I've been a good boy and kept going so thats working out well. Teaching is going great. The students and I seem to have clicked finally. Although I've had a few drop for various reasons. Thankfully none of those reasons have been 'because I can't stand the instructor'. This semester has been an interesting challenge in that I haven't taught the course in a long time and the majority of these students are electronics students and they definately think differently than IT students. I'm really enjoying the challenge (finally).

Work has proven to be interesting. I've been kinda down on how I feel about my job and it must have shown more than I thought. Needless to say I was called to task and now I'm working a lot harder. I gotta admit it was an eye opener for me. I think 2 years doing basically the same thing in RDM has finally gotten to me. Time to start looking for a new direction to try.

Saturday was OT's birthday (I think he's finally old enough to legally drink :>). His wife the Kender had everyone over and it was a really fun time. Must admit there was a lot of alcohol flowing and a partook of some. It was pointed out that I'm "a quiet" drunk. I didn't tell them that I learned the skill back in the Air Force. When one doesn't speak much they can't make a fool of themselves. A lesson that can be hard to learn. I did manage to get some blackmail pictures of OT and passed them on to K-hat at work. KnitTech was the designated driver and didn't do much more than some tasting. OT had me try one of his Cigars. That was an interesting new experience. I think I could live with having a Cigar from time to time. Doubt I'll want to go overboard and get the whole humidor route.

Dusty and Kat were also at the party. Yes, we sacrificed game night for a birthday, what is the world coming to? Kat was the designated driver in that group. Dusty partook of a lot of drinking and he is not a quiet drinker. Needless to say he fit right in. One of his early comments was "This is the first time in a long time, that I've been in a group this large and they weren't dice slingers. A few hours later another dice slinger showed up. I'm not sure if he even noticed.

August is going to be a pretty busy month. This weekend is Fandemonium. I'm going to be running a few games. "Granddaughter that isn't" did yard work to earn her trip. I'm trying to get ahold of her to verify. Called and left a message. While Fandemonium isn't a large convention its Boise only convention.

The weekend of the 15th we are going to make a trip to Vancouver. We didn't think we would make it but we decided to go for it. Current plans are to leave 4am Saturday morning. That will put us in town about noon on Saturday. Time to shoot some emails out to make some plans.

That end of the month (Okay so Labor day is actually in September) is The Eagle Rib Fest. Our team The Swine Stewards will be competing. 2nd competition of the year for me. 3rd competition for my partner. He was up in Declo last weekend for a spur of the moment competition. He said that he placed 13 out of 14 in Brisket. According to him he thinks he got that good because some was disqualified. After his great showing in the pork categories at our last competition I was afraid I might not be needed anymore. I guess I don't need to worry. I would really like to do another practice run prior to the competition but I don't know if funds and time will allow. Anyone want to sponsor a brisket?

The Big Event is the next post. I'm hoping to do it Thursday or Friday so be sure to tune in.

Confession Time

2009-07-27T18:36:00.005-06:00

For the last few weeks I have been a slacker and haven't been going to the gym. I've been using such excuses as "I'm working overtime" and "It's to hot". Well the backsliding has started to show and today even though I had to work overtime I went back to the gym. Man I'm hurting. worked up a serious sweat and burnt some cals. KnitTech said that she will start the irrigation tomorrow so I'll be back. I'm hoping that by next Monday I can be back into the swing of things.

Brewed up some Mead this weekend. Way late start on it for the year but I think I can have it ready for Christmas time. We have about 10 pounds of Cherries in the freezer that will be added in a couple of weeks. I've got 10 gallons fermenting away so we'll have 5 gallons of Cherry and 5 gallons of Blackberry. I can't wait to try the blackberry I think it will turn out great. Hmmm if I brew up another 10 gallons and make another vanilla and a blueberry one I can have Red, White and Blue Meads next 4th of July. I'll bet I can sell this idea to KnitTech.

My "Ghetto" hop garden is doing great. Check this out.

Cute little hop flowers

Something has been eating on the leaves. We looked around and found a grasshopper. Tried to get a picture but he escaped. I did find this on one of flowers.

I don't think Ladybugs take out grasshoppers but I'm sure that they are helping with anything else trying to eat my hops. Yea.. I know it's a blurry picture. I tried to get a better one but the little fellow managed to dig in and hide.

2 only 2 more to go.

A very Pleasant Surprise II

2009-07-21T19:16:00.002-06:00

Since Perky and Kommandant were off camping when Lil Sis and the boys were over on Sunday, we thought we would try again. This time we arranged to get the Clan over at the same time. With a minor hiccup everything worked out perfect.

How about a gratuitous picture of Babybird.

Babybird rocking out in the chair. She definately seems to like the chair.

It seems that Babybird has a nemesis here at "Chez Tech". Havoc terrifies her. She spent a lot of time in her moms lap but managed to sit with KnitTech and point out the evil one.

Here is one for you mom. Hope it falls under the "cute" classification.

While the adults chatted A and E got a bit bored. KnitTech hooked them up with "Plants Vs Zombies" on her computer. They really enjoyed the game.

LilSis got to meet the dreaded Havoc(BoneCrusher).

Before they headed out I managed to get a shot of everyone together. In hindsight doing it against the garage door in the sun may have been a bad idea.

The hiccup that I mentioned is the joy I'm experiencing as a pass a kidney stone. Noticed some pain this morning on the way to work. While there it steadily got worse and worse as the day went on. I left work after 4 hours and popped some exta strength excedrin PM and passed out. When I woke up the pain was flaring again so I popped to more. It was a tolerable level but made the visit a lot of fun. It's 7pm now and I think its finally moved past the "fun" parts of its trip. I have a feeling I'll be staying home from work tomorrow. Oh Joy.

Also for anyone keeping track it is horrifyingly hot here this week. Been over 100 for the last few days. As a plus I finally got a new toy for our Iphones. We now have an FM transmitter and car adaptor. No losing radio stations on the trip next month and we get to listen to music we want to here not what some DJ decides is best for us.. WOOHOO.

As a final note - 3 more to go.

A very Pleasant Surprise

2009-07-20T15:44:00.004-06:00

Prior to the start of this weekend KnitTech and I had made some plans.. Saturday the Clan was going to come over and give me the info on the Netbook so I can call support and growl at them.. I was going to run to Nampa to get yeast for some mead (1 batch Cherry, 1 batch Blackberry). Saturday evening was Dinner at KnitTechs friend K and her fiance's house. Then Sunday was packed with going to the Eco fest at the Grove (All natural beer was going to be served) and then on Sunday I would be making mead.

Well it kinda fell apart. Saturday morning there was a rambling phone message from the clan that we really couldn't quite decipher, except for the part of them not coming. I did the Nampa run and then that evening we had a really great time with K and her Fiance. Then came the phone call and the events on Sunday.

Seems that we had some visitors from California.

Check out these 2.

Yeppers, Little Sis and my Nephews A&E were in town visiting. They came over and spent about 3 hours with us. I managed to entertain the boys with Legos and a game of Cosmic Wimpout. They really seemed to enjoy it. when they were heading out I gave them the game. It involves some adding so I'm sure it will be enjoyed.

Kommandant and Perky were off to his family reunion in La Grande so they missed seeing the gang from Cali. Luckily Little Sis and the boys will be in town till Thursday so arrangements have been made to have another visit tomorrow (I thought it was today)? We've tried to contact "The Clan" to see if they want to come by but don't know if that will happen.

After the Sunday events I cooked up some dogs for dinner. While we were at the store in the morning I saw a gentleman picking out corn and suddenly it hit me. A serious craving for grilled Corn on the Cob. KnitTech gave me a look of "are you crazy". Then when dinner was served wasn't sure she wanted any. I buttered one of the ears up and turned to wash my hands (yea it was a butter frenzy). When I turned back around she was attacking the one I had just buttered. I buttered up the second and hmmm it was good.

Here was dinner prior to serving. Chorizos on the right and franks on the left with corn in the middle.

Note - The Franks are cooked the way KnitTech likes them. Its not a mistake that they are burnt like that.

4 more remaining.

2 posts in 1 day?

2009-07-14T16:30:00.005-06:00

Just in case I don't get this post up tomorrow I'm doing 2 in 1 day.

As promised here are some pix from last weekend and also some from today. It's been awhile since I'm posted for the "grill" portion of the blog. Well here you go.

While shopping I noticed a freezer full of Cornish Game Hens. We hadn't had them for a long time so I figured lets see how they do on a rotisserie. I opted to spice them up as normal as also wrapped bacon around them. It was an idea that KnitTech told me she had seen on the FoodNetwork.

Here they are cooking away. Note for Mom. I'm still getting a lot of use out of the birthday present. Still very much in love with it.

On the counter ready to be cut up.

These were cooked up on Saturday which is game night. Due to OT having another commitment the game group opted to not do our regular dinner. These chickens were pretty big. Kat and OT had come over early so they were present at dinner. Needless to say it was a HUGE hit and KnitTech has proclaimed that it WILL be made again. I'm also thinking that doing the same thing with a pork tenerloin may prove interesting also.

Tonight, we didn't know what to do with dinner. KnitTech took the car in to get new tires and since Perky drove her they headed to the store to look into dinner. She didn't want to do the freezer lottery at breakfast time so she picked up some steaks. Onto the grill they went and TADA...

We had about half of them for dinner and the other halves will be cut into strips and made into breakfast burritos tomorrow morning. KnitTech has been making our breakfasts and they are perfect.

Even Havoc got to enjoy some steak. I gave him the bone from mine and he has a new love. Woe to the person that tries to take this away from him.

As for Havoc, he is still trying to make friends with Sabrina. Unfortunately she is not accepting him as a friend.

He is just about big enough to jump up onto the furniture on his own. Perky decided he needed a new bed and knitted one up for him. I think he likes it.

BTW 5 more to go.

Tripping out of the Starting Blocks

2009-07-14T04:24:00.002-06:00

After a really good weekend, it seems that fate decided to smack us around. I had some pictures from the weekend and meant to get them posted but ended up having to work on some MP3 conversions and ran out of time to work on the post (I should have realized what the week was going to be like with that warning).

When we prepared to leave work on Monday KnitTech discovered we had a flat (drivers side front). I dug out the spare (one of those stupid doughnut spares). When I went to remove the flat I discovered that the hubcap is held on by a "special" bolt that requires a "special" socket to remove. Hmmm seems we don't have the "special" tool to remove then. KnitTech searched the car and came up with nothing. I fiddled around with it and managed to get it removed without destroying the hubcap. I then put the spare on and started to lower the car. Oh joy the spare is flat also.

We called the kids and SURPRISE they aren't answering. Kept calling and leaving texts and didn't get anything. KnitTech called her friend and she came and rescued us. While driving to the station to get air Kommandant called back. He was in the shower (45 minute shower?). I told him that we had been rescued. Would you believe that compressed air is now 75 cents. I didn't realize that air is becoming a rare commodity. Sheesh I remember it being free. Then a quarter. WTF?

Got back to work and put the tire on. By this time (almost 2 hours after work) my friends are getting off. Now I have plenty of help. Limped the car home and grabbed my check from ITT (it was being saved for the trip to Vancouver in Aug). Ran tto the bank and deposited ("Do you know what your balance is?"), then it was off to the tire store. Hmmm seems KnitTech's car requires tires made of plutonium and the cheapest ones are 82 bux each. After all the extra "charges) these tires are going to be $440. Not that much in the account. Well Tuesday is payday so I told them to hold up on everything and I'll be back tomorrow.

Got home feeling filthy and hot. Changed into my loaf around clothes (shorts and a shirt), when KnitTech reminded me that at 5pm the ~~annoying~~ window people are coming over. Oh yea these are the guys that have been calling and trying to sell us vinyl windows since December (they had to be delayed due to the furnace issue). Seems that our house was selected to get a discount on the windows if we let them put a sign in our yard. After going through his spiel and having all 4 of the cats come and check him out (I don't know what entity is possessing Fran, as she was actually being sociable), we signed the paperwork and will be getting 7 new windows installed for significantly less then I figured. This is assuming the credit check pans out (I'm not holding my breath on that).

Of course that managed to take about 2 hours and pretty much between the tires and windows killed Monday after work. Tuesday will be a trip back to the tire store and we'll see if the week looks better or not.

6 more to go

The Coolest Dice Bag in the World

2009-07-05T16:47:00.005-06:00

As everyone should know. KnitTech knits alot. Fairly often she knits up something for me. Since I've been running games for the gang I've started building up a bit of a dice collection. I was keeping them in a bowl but everyone kept touching them and corrupting them against me. A few months ago KnitTech came across a pattern for a dice bag and asked if I wanted one. I told he OH YEA I want one (That may not be a direct quote). Well she has finished it and here it is.

Check it out.. My own personal Cthulhu dice bag.

Here it is cradling my dice in its protective grasp.

Now my dice are being protected by an Elder God. No more corruption of my luck by the players. Although KnitTech did try to get me by knitting it with the dreaded Alpaca yarn. But that won't work. They are still lovingly protected in the soft cavern of my own Dice Bag.

(7 more to go)

Cats and Dogs

2009-07-05T16:33:00.004-06:00

July in Idaho is HOT. Unfortunately, it's only going to get hotter. The animals of the house seem to handle it in pretty much the same fashion. They sleep. According to what I've read Cats sleep an average of 15 hours a day. Now this doesn't seem very fair. They sleep almost the same number of hours that I'm up.

Sabrina napping on the cool floor.

Its so hot out that Sabrina needs a nap after eating. Why bother waddling all the way to a standard bed. The bowl makes a great pillow.

Havoc is going along with the cats school of thought on dealing with the heat. However he seems to have claimed the new chair. Odd I thought that I had implemented a "no pets on the new chair rule"..

Well I suppose that since they are all wearing fur coats they can be excused for just wanting to sleep.

(8 to go)

4th of July Weekend

2009-07-05T15:30:00.005-06:00

The weekend started with having Friday off. KnitTech had said that if the shower door got fixed we would go see the new Transformers movie. (side note - When we returned from Jackpot it was discovered that shower door was falling apart. We did a trip to Home Depot and ordered a new one. Seems that one of the major components of shower doors must be some sort of precious metal as they are expensive). OT came over after work on Thursday and we managed to get the door installed. Turned out looking pretty good. Had a few minor bumps along the way but we did it.

As for the Transformers. I'm just not all that interested in this years "Big" summer release. So I banked I'll save the trip to the movies for when GI Joe comes out.

I spent the majority of Friday down at All About Games and also bought some fireworks from a former student/Co-workers stand.

The 4th dawned to a hot day. We had set up plans to go to S&M's house since they have a pool. Dusty, Kat, S and E were there as is our yearly 4th celebration. Kommandant, Perky and Havoc also came. It was a great day of grilling and swimming. Plenty of food to go around. I didn't remember to bring the camera until after the grilling was done so I didn't get pix till later.

DustyTomes relaxing by the pool after surviving a migraine.

"E" plotting to get someone wet.

"E" coming down the slide.

Now "E" is threatening the cameraman!

Kat relaxing after swimming.

"L" of the S&M clan doesn't like to have his picture taken. I spent most of the afternoon with him hanging from my back trying to dunk me.

A rare picture of me that I like.

"S" isn't a big swim fan.

"S" in the pool and ambushing with the gun.

The S in S&M surprised by the camera.

Even Kommandant and Havoc got in the pool. Havoc wasn't a huge fan of swimming. And earlier I dropped a hotdog while grilling. He was right there to take care of the mistake but learned the hard way that food right of the grill is pretty hot. He was then very wary of hotdogs.

After spending the day swimming and eating burgers. Along with a side trip of shooting S's paintball gun. (That was a ton of fun. Could it be a new hobby on the horizon). We came home and lit off some fireworks. Prior to the big stuff going off I got some pix of everyone with sparklers. It was a lot darker out than the pictures make it appear.

Overall it was a long hot day that was a load of fun. It was great spending a day with S&M and L. The DustyTome & Kat clan are always fun. "E" seemed to have fun in the pool with us in massive squirt gun fights. Then of course everyone loved the fireworks. KnitTech was even able to get me with some of her favorite firework.

(9 more to go)

Another Sunday

2009-06-28T18:59:00.003-06:00

I survived another week. Had some ups and downs with it. It seems that my teaching styly just wasn't working well with my new students so on thursday I got called into the Program Chairs office. Needless to say I was sweating it pretty hard. Turns out they weren't overly concerned and just wanted to give me some ideas of how to make some changes. Friday I implemented the changes and I feel things went pretty well. We'll see wha the students thing. Saturday morning I got to go in and tutor a pair of electronic students on using Linux. They are working on their capstone project and wanted to us Linux. I hooked them up with Fedora Core 8 and showed them how to use it. They seemed really positive about it, but may call on me again if needed. I told them to make sure to let me know when they are doing the captstone presentation and I would go.

Friday when KnitTech and Perky got home they had a huge metal bowl. KnitTech said "Surprise" you have a new popcorn bowl that you can't break this time. My old one had cracked in the dishwasher and we didn't have one to really replace it with. Now I do. When I got home after class Perky and Kommandant were watching movies and had made popcorn for the new bowl. Yep we proved it works. The next day it was discovered that washing it may be an issue as it doesn't quite fit in the sink. DOH..

While KnitTech and Perky were coming home on friday they noticed another yardsale just down the street from us. We walked down to see what they had and found a nice chair. The recliner that I have had for the last few years was getting a little beat up. While the new chair isn't a recliner it is way overstuffed and super comfy. My laptop setup doesn't really quite fit in it but I like it. Head of the KnitTech's Site and she will have pictures.

Game night didn't work out as OT decided he would rather go and weld with his dad instead of gaming. So it was a movie night. We set Kat and Dusty up with computers and played some "Zombies Vs Plants". Everyone seemed to have fun and I sent a copy of the game home with them. I'm sure they and the boys will be super addicted soon. When the TVs did the big digital changeover Dusty decided he wasn't going to do it. So now they don't get TV at their house (shocking I know). I asked if it had changed things and now more is getting done. Kat said she is getting more cleaning done but everyone else has just changed to using the computer. The friend of theirs that lives with them now swears by Hulu. Since KnitTech picked us up a new TV we will stick to keeping one.

On the home front when we got back from Jackpot we discovered that the shower door was finally giving up the ghost. It's been a long process. I fixed the shower in the main bathroom (okay it only took like 6 years) and we went to Home Depot and ordered a new shower door. Since ours is a weird size we ended up having to order one. I picked it up today and we got ready to install. Seems that I'll need to get some new drillbits (masonary) to do the job. I'm pretty confident it won't be to bad (Yea famous last words). The old door is off so we'll be using the other shower tomorrow. Hmm should I leave it a mess like the roomies did when they used ours?

[10 more to go]

Where we went last weekend.

2009-06-21T19:06:00.002-06:00

Last weekend we headed up to Cascade to celebrate KnitTech's birthday with her parents. It was a lot of fun. On the way up we stopped by the Flea Market and looked around. Picked up some new Knives for the walls (pictures forthcoming). We had dinner with the inlaws and got to see their new floors. Very nice self installed. Now KnitTech wants new floors. We slept overnight in the camper and it wasn't to bad. Not nearly as cold as it was over christmas.

Catching Up

2009-06-18T19:02:00.003-06:00

June is the mid-point of the year and WOW it is flying by. Sorry about falling behind in posts. On the work front things are staying pretty normal at job #1. We had a 2 week summer break at Job #2 and now that is over. Last Friday it was "back to school time". This semester it's only 1 class. Intro to networking. Sigh no Linux this semester. I received my ratings for last semester and the students really liked me. I'm glad I'm getting through to them on how good Linux is. Yea it requires a bit of "boxing" (as OT calls it), but its nice and stable. Earlier I had decided that M$ and WindowsXP had finally pushed me over the edge. I was ready to dump it completely from the computer and just go Linux. I started getting Linux loaded and started "boxing" with my wireless. Linux won round 1 so I decided to just get a PCMCIA ethernet card to replace the dead nic on my laptop. Even checked the web and found a card that worked well with Linux (round 2 was going to be mine). When the card arrived I discovered that in their infinite wisdom Dell had not put a PCMCIA card on the laptop and instead went with an express card slot. Oops round 2 called on a technicality. Okay, so now it's time to get out the big guns. While learning how to take car of a friends cat while he was out of town we started round 3 with the wireless. 1 load of Fedora Core 11 and some tweaking and the laptop is now online with wireless. ding ding I win with a knockout. Take that Linux. Now on to getting everything need up and running without Windows.

June 12th is KnitTech's birthday. As is our tradition we headed off to Jackpot to do some gambling. Or as FIL says "your just going to be giving your money to the mafia". Well it seems that the mob isn't going to be liking us we came home $8 ahead. And they even gave us a room for free (coupon for 1 night free as long as you stay on a Sunday - Thursday night). Basically the trip cost us a tank of gas and dinner and breakfast. I call it a win. We also took OT and his wife ADD and also Dusty and Kat. I believe Dusty and Kat did end up donating to the mafia while OT and ADD also came home ahead.

My cellphone (Treo 750) was getting old. Yes it worked but it just wasn't doing everything I needed anymore. Palm has just released a new PDA (pre) but it was only going to be available through Verizon. We didn't want to change providers. Apple also just released a new Iphone and dropped the price on the older models. SO.... With my winnings from Jackpot we headed to the AT&T store prior to going up to Cascade for the weekend. Yes I've joined a cult. I'm now the proud owner of an Iphone. I've never been a big fan of Macs but now that I've started using this I don't know how I functioned without one. Daytimer, calendar, TV guide, movie lists, GPS, MP3 player, video player, internet access, and phone all in 1 small package? Oh yea, and I can even load my books on it and read them from anywhere. Don't worry I'm not going to totally convert to Mac. I still think their computer are only useful when scrubbed and reloaded with Linux..

My Ghetto hop garden is turning into a jungle. my original plans with stringing it up fell apart fairly quickly so many strings have been added and its filling them.

ADD got some starts going from some cuttings we made earlier in the season. Wednesday evening she came over and we planted them in the empty spots under the window. I figure they won't do much this year but next year I'm going to have my green curtain. I'll also be starting several more plants in the back of the house also. I've finally got that flower bed nuked of growth and ready for cleaning.

And now since I know Tiff-Tiff's Dad likes to see havoc here are few pix of him in action.

Here he is posing while I was getting pictures of the hops.

Early pictures of meeting Sabrina and Fran in the yard.

And to finish. A picture of Sabrina for K-Hat.

PS - I got the reminder mom. And note that I did get it posted on the 17th.. :>

No Longer MIA

2009-06-17T19:36:00.000-06:00

Post tomorrow I promise.

Algae Ale finished

2009-06-01T19:33:00.003-06:00

Several months ago OT and I brewed up a double batch of what we were going to call Smurf Ale. This was my "signature" Mtn Dew brew. We were hoping that since it was made with Mtn Dew Voltage that it would be a really cool electric blue. However, while fermenting it turned a real ~~gross~~ interesting green. Two weeks ago I bottled it and used all the aluminum Mtn Dew bottles that my friends had been saving for me. Last week I opened the first bottle and gave it a try. WOW! Aging for 3 months in the fermenter really made it taste great. It is very smooth like the Belgian its based off of and has a very slight hint of raspberry. I'm super happy with how this turned out. So here are the first official view of Fat Cat Brewery's Algae Ale. Don't let the name scare you off. Its a tasty one.

Love the bottle and it doesn't really look that green in a glass.

BabyBirds 2nd Birthday

2009-06-01T19:16:00.003-06:00

Okay.. I'm late with this one.

Last week was BabyBirds 2nd Birthday. The little scamp seemed to score 3 different parties and Wednesday was the one at our house. I managed to get some pix of the big occasion.

We had cupcakes instead of a full cake. Fewer calories this way.

Babybird liked the cupcakes (even better than she liked Grandpa's bbqd chicken)

There must always a picture of baby with cake on face.

Always the cutie.

Present time! Look its a playskool farm. (Note to Mom - She is sitting in the chair and she seemed to like it)

WOW! My very own cellphone. Now I can chat with friend Elmo. This was a huge hit.

Even more fun. A toy with lots of pieces. Thank you GGma.

Clothes and some stuffed animals from GGma and GGpa E.

Now Aunt Perky is teasing the birthday girl with a big penguin.

Now for an obligatory cute picture of ~~Wicket~~ Havoc the terror of Chez Tech. He's in training to be a cage fighter (if you haven't seen Napoleon Dynamite you won't get that)

And to go along with cute pets. Here is one of Sabrina for K-Hat. He is in love with our ~~Fat~~ Big-boned Kitty. She is pouting outside the bedroom door that was closed while KnitTech was blocking out some knitted goods. The full story of pouting kitties and blocked knitting available soon(tm) at KnitTech's Site.

I Can't Wait

2009-05-27T17:32:00.002-06:00

Okay, I'm going to admit it. I grew up watching a lot of Saturday morning cartoons. One of my favorites was "Land of the Lost". It was a live action show done by Sid and Marty Croft. Now Will Farrell is doing a remake of the series. I think I'm the only one in the family that wants to see this one. I'm tempted to wait till its at the cheap theater but I may have to sneak out some Saturday and see it..

Blue Chair & Memorial Day weekend

2009-05-25T16:57:00.003-06:00

Things have been busy at Chez Tech. Last weekend I managed to get the fence that was about to fall down repaired. I managed to get the ~~Smurf~~ Algae Ale bottled into the cool aluminum Mtn Dew bottles. Should be ready to drink next weekend so I'll get pictures then. OT's batch will be bottled next weekend.

Last time we visited Mom she sent back the little blue chair that I had when I was a young one. It had a broken leg that needed to be repaired. I had a couple of ideas on how to do this but since I'm not that good at carpentry I kept putting it off. Suddenly it dawned on me. My Father-in-law is good at carpentry. The next time he came over I asked him if he could repair it (okay KnitTech did since I was at work). This weekend the repaired leg was returned and the chair was re-assembled.

Here it is all assembled and awaiting BabyBird to try it out.

Here is the repaired leg. All new dowel/peg in place.

And as all things at Chez Tech go. It had to meet cat approval. It passed. Peaches has been napping on it for a couple of days.

The original plans for Memorial day were to have the Clan over and celebrate BabyBirds 2nd birthday. I thawed out some chicken thighs and planned on grilling them up. Alas the clan headed over to the other grandparents house and won't be here till Wednesday. I grilled the chicken anyway. More thighs are thawing for Wednesday. KnitTech's review of the chicken - "This is just horrible, you better not eat any. I'll take one for the team and eat it all so you don't have to". Needless to say I didn't buy it and ate some also.

The roommates took the ~~Noisy Bird~~ Daizy and ~~Wicket~~ Havoc up to Kommandants Moms for the weekend. There was a lot of peace and some fun times for KnitTech and I. Memorial day ~~Wicket~~Havoc came home. He must have had a real tough weekend.

Needless to say the cats were not impressed that he returned.

Mom.. What will be a good time to call on Wednesday since the clan will be here?

Shakeup at the Chez Tech House

2009-05-17T18:36:00.004-06:00

Saturday afternoon. Fran comes inside.

"I sense a great disturbance in the force"

"Oh NO! What the heck is this in my house??!!"

"That's right, I'm the cutest one in the house now."

This is ~~Wicket~~ Havoc. Perky's latest acquisition. He is a A Shih Tzu Pomeranian Mix, otherwise known as a Shiranian. I'm working at teaching him to chase toes.

Fran decided that between this thing and the bird she was moving outside. She spent the day Saturday darting in from time to time to just a bite to eat and then ran back outside.

Peaches seems to have accepted the fact that she will never be an "only animal" at Chez Tech. I don't even thing she has hissed at the newcomer.

Sabrina is also pretty accepting. Especially since ~~Wicket~~ Havoc doesn't always clean off his plate and she is more than happy to do that for him.

Uggy really doesn't seem to care.

Sunday all 4 of the cats were sprawled on our bed. I tried to get a picture but Peaches generally refuses to associate with the others and immediately moved off the bed to prevent the possibility of there being photographic proof. KnitTech claims that they were really having a meeting to determine what to do about the interloper. But every time a human came in they hid the fact by pretending to be asleep.

Fran's Nemesis

2009-05-13T19:17:00.003-06:00

KnitTech has seen Fran stand up to a young raccoon in our yard. She doesn't put up with any guff from us humans. However, a tiny JenDay Conure named Daizy can strike fear into her.

This little bird also has the ability to chase Sabrina.

[Note - I had to edit and embed this video all on my own] Isn't learning fun?

Happy Birthday Mom

2009-05-11T16:45:00.002-06:00

Today is my Mom's birthday. I won't say how old she is but as the saying goes you only as old as you feel. She works in her yard very hard and keeps it looking fantastic. Me I have a yard about 1/10th the size of hers and I'm to lazy to mow it every week like it should be (although so far this year I've only missed 1 week and I'm blaming the rain for that).

Have a great day Mom and I hope it turns out special.

Love your Son
GrillTech

Mothers Day (now with pictures)

2009-05-10T19:04:00.002-06:00

A very happy Mothers day to my Mother and KnitTech. KnitTech had a really great time and I'm hoping that Mom did also. I tried to call but managed to get get voicemail both times. If I don't hear back from her tonight I'll give a call tomorrow when we get home from the gym..

I asked KnitTech what she wanted for dinner and she decided on steak. We had planned on doing ribs on Saturday but then our movie and lunch plans ran long so steak was moved off the list and the ribs were moved to Sunday. This time I opted to make them the same way we cook them up during the competitions. It was the 3-2-1 method. 3 hours on indirect heat, 2 hours wrapped in tinfoil and then 1 hour out of the foil and brushed with sauce. These turned out fall of the bone tender and were very possibly the best ribs I've ever cooked up. The whole family loved them and wolfed them down.

The last picture is of the leftovers on the plate. Due to the rush for ribs I didn't get a picture of the fully loaded plate.

Needless to say Babybird was over for the festivities and between grilling pictures were taken. I'm hoping these are "cute" ones for Mom.

Here she is with her mom checking out the Guinea Rats while they were out in backyard.

I was cleaning up the back patio and when she saw the camera in action she came running.

Helping Grandma Knit.

Look someone gave me a timer to play with.

It's a happy Babybird

Post dinner bathtime.

What do you mean the bath is over?

Okay happy baby has returned.

Perky and Kommandant took their pets outside for the day.

One of the rare "quiet times" for Daizy.

Fran who gets to go outside pretty much at will had to watch the other animals while they were outside. Alas the humans did not appreciate her "stalking" of the other pets.

I'm a Lemming also

2009-05-06T09:58:00.001-06:00

You are 73% likely to survive an invasion

Although you were a main man/woman in the group you werent quite in the highest ranks, you were highly respected but some of your desicions werent the best, you survived but at what cost?

You were: The one that does what is neccessary to survive. No matter the cost

If your country was attacked would you survive?
Take More Quizzes

Spring has Sprung

2009-05-03T19:15:00.002-06:00

You can always tell when spring hits at the Tech household. Peaches being a long haired cat that goes outdoor tends to get mats and all sorts of debris in her hair. A few years ago we discovered that if she got shaved in the spring life was easier for both her and us. So Friday was haircut day for Peaches. The big sign of spring at Chez Tech.

Game night led to some experimentation on the cooking front. I need a potato recipe that I can grill up and enter in the Labor Day competition. I tried an idea that I had but it didn't really work out so its back to the drawing board. Anyone have some ideas they want to pass on? On the other hand this worked out great.

This week is the last week at work for a friend of mine. He will be deployed to Texas with the Army for the next year. As a goodbye request he asked me to make a Bacon Explosion for him. So I picked up the ingredients and made 2 of them.

Number 1 has a barbecue sauce and blue cheese filling.

Number 2 was a request by my army friend. This one has a steak sauce, Pepperoni, and Mozzarella filling. I'm not to sure how this is going to taste. I'll let you know tomorrow.

Here they are ready for the grill.

Due to a nasty rainstorm KnitTech took the cooking picture from under the cover of the porch.

And here they are off the grill and resting. I'm thinking these are going to fit the bill perfectly.

2009-04-30T03:57:00.002-06:00

Your a water Dragon! Congrats! Like ice dragons, you are extremly powerful, but show it more often. You are a leader, and like to speak your opinion. AND, you are charming, swift, and great at dancing, ou enjoy getting stuck in the rain, playing with friends, and swimming anywhere! Wat-ER you wating for?

Hops, Dinner, and Future Breakfasts

2009-04-26T18:09:00.002-06:00

Well the hops are just shooting up the runners. I'm seriously going to have to figure out what I'm going to do about the height. At a real hop farm they have about 20 feet to go up. Since I have them going on the side of the house I only have 10 feet. I'm hoping that I can convince them that they want to grow horizontally so I can work on the "Green Curtain" idea.

Check out that growth. I didn't measure but I'm pretty sure that we're looking at over 2 feet of growth since last Sunday. These guys just want to shoot up. No actual hops on them yet but come late summer they are going to Smell SO good.

For dinner I rotisseried a pork roast. Now in the past pork roast has turned out pretty dry and not very tasty. So when we bought the roast at ~~The 200 Dollar Store~~ Costco. I told KnitTech that this was going to get brined. Yesterday while I was gaming she made the brine and we loaded the roast and bring into bag and let that soak all night. Today she whipped up a rub and it went onto the rotisserie. After 30 minutes it seemed to be drying out so we made a mop with some vinegar and the left over rub, then started soaking it down every 15 minutes.

Here is how it turned out:

Note how juicy it still is.

And now cut and served with KnitTech's fantastic grilled taters.

Turned out to be juicy and oh so flavorful.

The leftovers were diced up and added to the leftover taters. KnitTech has been scrambling up some eggs, adding roasted taters and some meat and rolling it into a breakfast burrito. Oh yea nice and tasty breakfasts all week. Here we go all ready to have eggs added and rolled into a tortilla for breakfast.

More Hops

2009-04-19T18:16:00.002-06:00

Another week down. The hops are just shooting up towards the roof. This week I'll need to expand my latticework. I decided to add some markers to see just how fast these are growing.

Hop1

Hop2

Hop3

Unfortunately, the other 3 plants are not showing signs of life..

Spent the morning mowing the lawn. Last week I managed to get it 90% done. While I was doing the "garden" area I hit a rock. When I went back to the regular area it was cutting really close (scalping). The mower seemed to be working really hard to so I went and cleaned it off. When I went to start it again, it was making a weird banging sound. I looked at the blade and discovered I had a bend in it pointing down. This was dragging real bad. This morning KnitTech and I bought a new new blade and I mowed the entire thing. Looks really good. The cats are upset because now they don't have anyplace to hide in the backyard.

On the grill front I cooked up a pair of chickens for the game group last night. The Gang seemed to like it. Alas no pictures. For dinner tonight it was grilled Salmon and KnitTech's roasted potatoes. I also grilled up a steak for tomorrows breakfast (breakfast burritos) and dinner.

A Quiz

2009-04-13T05:57:00.000-06:00

Your rainbow is shaded green.

What is says about you: You are an intelligent person. You feel strong ties to nature and your mood changes with its cycles. Those around you admire your fresh outlook and vitality.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

While I do love green I'm not sure if I agree with the rest of it.

Happy Easter

2009-04-12T17:46:00.003-06:00

Since its spring I decided to go with a new format. What does everyone think? Better? Worse?

We celebrated Easter today. Eldest daughter, BabyBird and her Hubby came over. For dinner I cooked up a couple of Pork Shoulders and made some pulled pork. I really think that this is my year of grilling. They turned out fantastic. Alas, no pictures though. KnitTech says that she'll let me make them again so we'll get pix next time.

I did get pictures of BabyBird and her Easter Basket.

Her new Sunglasses were a big hit

Check me out with my new shades...

I'm sure there is some more candy in these eggs.

Now on a new track, I'm going to post pictures of the hop plants every Sunday. That way everyone won't think I'm crazy when I talk about how fast these plants grow.

These flower beds were weeded (and cat poo removed) last monday. I also hung the strings so they would have something to climb. None of them were over halfway up the cages. It's almost like they saw the strings and decided to go for it. I swear that they grew at least a foot in 4 days. Now everyone will get to check it out.

Quick Post

2009-04-09T05:32:00.003-06:00

Shhhhh I'm cheating and posting from work. Don't tell the network nazis.

Yesterday I had an eye appointment. I broke my glasses about 3 weeks ago and KnitTech made an appointment for me when she did hers last week. Now, for the last 10 years we have used the same eye Dr. At 11am yesterday I showed up at the regular place and they looked at me in shock and said I don't see any appointment for you. I told them that my wife had made it and had been in last week. They checked the records and informed me that she hadn't been in for about an year.

I stepped out and called KnitTech, turns out that she had scheduled the appointment at a different place. She also pointed out it was stated so in the appointment she had sent me. OOPs, I dashed across town only to get to the office about 15 minutes late. I was told that I would need to reschedule. Luckily I was able to get an appointment at 3:30 the same day.

Several hours later and I was getting checked out. Went through everything and ended up having it confirmed that I need Bifocals (I figured this would be needed since I have to slide my glasses down my nose to read things close up). This is one of those "1 hour places" so I had figured we would go to dinner and then I could get the glasses. NOPE, the lab didn't have the lenses needed in stock so it will be up to 10 days.

On the other hand dinner was good.

The Big Chill

2009-04-04T21:10:00.003-06:00

Friday 3/April/09 and Saturday 4/April/09 was the Idaho's first bbq competition of the 2009 season. My partner BBQr and I have a team called "The Swine Stewards". This name is a VAST improvement over last years "Grilltech Helpdesk". Needless to say we were there bright and early on Friday. Due to Al Gores dreaded "Global Warming" it was snowing in April. The winds were blowing and it was FREEZING. But like the pros we are, we continued on. We managed to get the area setup without any frostbitten extremities.

The first day we started cooking the Brisket and Pork ~~butt~~ Shoulder. I was cooking 2 Briskets and BBQr was cooking up 6 Pork ~~butts~~ Shoulders. At 4pm we had the cooks meeting where all the competition participants learned the various rules (competition standard rules) and they gave out the ingredients for the "Iron Chef" competition. The Iron Chef was kind of a "Free for all" but we had to use the ingredients that we were given. We were also limited to 2 hours time. We could add ingredients and they could be cooked in any way. Unfortunately, I had to teach that night so I left after the cooks meeting. We also only had our grills and no extra spices or pots and pans. BBQr opted to not enter the Iron Chef part since it wasn't required for the competition. The ingredients we were given:

2 Tomatillos

1 can spam

1/2 lb of Pepper jack cheese

1 small can of Cream Corn

6 strips of bacon

1 bag of shell noodles

1 bag of corn flakes

I think that if we had put our heads to it and been willing to run to the local store we could have come up with something to cook up.

When I returned at midnight the site was quiet and it was about 38 degrees. BBQr had kept the grills going so they were nice and warm but everything was freaking cold. We headed off to our trucks and tried to get a few hours of sleep. Due to the fact that the park we were at (Bernard Fisher park in Kuna) was right next to some train tracks and there was a train passing through about every 30 minutes. I didn't get a very good sleep. I checked the grill every 2 hours and made sure it was keeping a good temp. The next morning we gut up to wind and cold. BBQr's girlfriend M showed up with coffee and we started the day.

BBQr started the Ribs and I wrapped the brisket in foil to keep it going. Temp was moving pretty slow so I upped the number of briquettes. As per my previous posts we had a specific timeline to turn in our entries. Chicken was first at Noon. BBQr wasn't very confident with his entry. There was a late start on it and while cooked fully it wasn't cooked as well as he wanted. To his surprise we placed 6th out of 15. Alas prizes are only awarded to 5th place in this competition.

Next entry was Ribs at 12:30. BBQr had cooked up 6 racks. Of those 6 he decided on the 3 best racks and slathered them in his Cherry sauce. Some of his girlfriends family were present (and ready for taste tests) along with the team. We all thought they tasted incredible. After how well we did in ribs at last years competition I figured we had a sure bet. We placed 12th. I'm going with the fact that BBQr's "nemesis" (Andrew's Rib Shack) wasn't there so he didn't full a full effort into it. I'm sure he'll argue against this theory.

The next item up was Pork ~~Butt~~ shoulder (AKA Boston Butt or Pulled Pork). Again the cheering section thought it was great. The sauce complimented it perfectly and instead of shredding it up like we did last year (and having it look like a bunch of dog food), BBQr left it in larger pieces. Each piece artistically dipped in sauce. It must have worked as we placed 1st in this category.

And finally I was up. The night of freezing culminated in this. Earlier I had dropped one of the 2 out of the lineup. It was cooking way to slow and I was a bit leery of the Tabasco mustard and how the judges would react to the spiciness. The first brisket however, had been brined for an hour and then put on the fire. It had cooked to a perfect 210 internal degrees and then had rested for 2 hours wrapped in foil, a towel, and in the cooler. It was as tender as warm butter. Definitely, in the top 2 briskets I had ever cooked. Vindication for the low score I hit in brisket last year was in sight. AND.... I placed 8th. Not a reward winning score but I am way happy with it. The scores were great for tenderness, good for appearance, but not as good for flavor. I've got the mechanics now to start playing with the chemistry. While not high scoring I was right in the middle of the pack on scores. within 1 point of 3 points of 5 other teams. Hmmm my nemesis also wasn't there so maybe I can use that excuse.

Overall The Swine Stewards placed 4th. We were .0004 points from taking 3rd. For BBQr's 3rd competition and my 2nd we are very happy with these results.

I brought some of the brisket home and let KnitTech give it a try. She liked it but pointed out it was salty. I'm thinking that, that may be why the judges hit me on taste. So I have a starting point on what to adjust.

I need to tip my hat to OT. A long time ago I was talking to him about needing to make some baskets to hold lit briquettes. This would allow much better heat control. OT recommended going to the Restaurant Supply Store and getting some french fry baskets. We did and after cutting off the handles they worked perfectly. Now I just need a small trash can to hold the ashes as I empty them. This plan didn't work at this competition since the ash buckets were clear across the park. I didn't want to remove the coals from the grill for the time it would have taken to walk.

Next step Labor Day at the Eagle Rib Fest. I'm bringing home a ribbon for Brisket from this one.

Eagle Rib Fest

Grilled Philly Cheesesteaks and another competition.

2009-03-29T18:47:00.004-06:00

In order to save money Knittech and I have been freezing a lot of leftovers. I'll have to say it again, "Get a foodsaver, it may require an upfront expenditure but will pay for itself". We now buy big packs of meat and freeze them into smaller servings. The food saver goes a long way in preventing freezer burn. We also take our leftovers and freeze them into individual servings. This makes for very quick dinners during the week.

Last friday KnitTech found some steaks that had been frozen prior to the food saver purchase and she wanted to use them up before they were freezer burned. She decided that on Saturday we were going to have some grilled Philly Cheesesteaks. One of our favorites.

I grilled up the peppers, onions and steaks and we chopped them up.

This was then used to fill up some hollowed out bread and topped with some Swiss Cheese.

Then it was all placed under a broiler for a few minutes.

It turned out really good. KnitTech used a loaf of Rosemary bread and mine was an Asiago french bread. Both nice and tasty. I was pretty skimpy with the cheese and figure next time I'll go a bit heavier. The leftover sandwiches were wrapped up and will go to work for lunch this week. The leftover filling was broken into individual servings and ran through he food saver then off to the freezer for future dinners.

The other big news on the grilling front happens next weekend. Friday 3 April and Saturday 4 April is the first Idaho Grill competition. The Swine Stewards are going to be competing again. I'll be doing Brisket and my partner will be doing Pork ~~Shoulder~~ Butt, Pork Ribs, and Chicken. I hoping to place way better than tying for 19th place.

EVENT SCHEDULE:
Friday, April 3rd. 6:00AM – 2:00PM Vendors / Teams arrive / set up
2:00PM – Meat inspection
4:00PM – Venue opens for vending
Cooks meeting - Iron Chef ingredients distributed
6:00PM – Iron Chef Judges meeting
7:00PM- Iron Chef turn-in (results at Saturday’s awards)
11:00PM- 7:00AM Quiet time (enforced)

Saturday, April 4th.
10:00AM – Venue opens for vending
11:00AM – Judges meeting
12:00PM – Chicken Turn-In
12:30PM – Ribs Turn-In
1:00PM – Pork Turn-In
1:30PM – Brisket Turn-In
4:00PM – Awards

Just to give a bit of a hint. If you want to try out some of the entries come down around 1:30. In my experience after the rush of getting everything turned in teams tend to give out their leftovers to the public. Don't take this as a promise as its up to the teams. Also if you are there during the turn ins don't be offended if it seems like the teams are ignoring you. It is a pretty tense time and they tend to get a bit grumpy as they are trying to get everything just right.

Hope to see some of my friends there.

Happy Birthday Eldest Daughter

2009-03-29T18:31:00.002-06:00

Today is Eldest Daughters 22nd Birthday. In order to celebrate we took her out to lunch then went to their new house. I remembered the camera and managed to get a few pictures. Although most of them were of BabyBird.

Here is Eldest Daughter at Lunch.

Here is the Birthday Girl opening presents and reading her cards.

And now some of BabyBird. Here she is on my lap.

Eating some M&Ms at the birthday lunch. She was given an M&M by her aunt Perky. This led to her needing her own bowl of them.

Anyone want a drink?

Coming out of the kitchen and looking to make some trouble.

Saying good by to Grandma.

Hmmm, Aunt Perky is teaching her a new trick.

Happy Birthday Eldest!!!!

copying Perky

2009-03-25T19:23:00.000-06:00

Well at least I like rain.

What element of the nature are you? Your Result: Rain The merciless requiem that cleanses the field; you are mainly an optimist and are very cheerful, but when you are serious, you can be scary. You are devoted to doing your favourite thing, and takes it as no joke.
Mist
Storm
Sun
Sky
Thunder
Cloud
What element of the nature are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Teaching

2009-03-22T00:37:00.003-06:00

This semester I have a class that really seems to be getting Linux. Its my "Linux Desktop" class. All of the students seem to be genuinely excited about using Linux. I also have a couple of students that have used different distros and are pretty familiar with it. The fun part is that I'm also learning from them. They are asking great questions and are trying some original stuff, we then have to figure out how to make it work. I had a student that was running Ubuntu on his laptop, after installing Fedora Core 8 we found out that Fedora and Ubuntu don't like to play well together. Well, actually they play well together, but Fedora overwrote grub and we couldn't get back to Ubuntu. This required some experimentation and Internet searches to find a way to fix it. We did and now both he and I know how to fix that issue and also some others. Several students are very excited about using Linux and are now installing at home to use it on their own. My favorite quote from this week "I feel like I've been let out of prison". It really makes an instructor feel great.

Posties

2009-03-18T15:59:00.002-06:00

Is it a subliminal thing or am I getting old? Last friday I finished teaching and headed to the gym. Get into the locker room, open my bag and oops. I had a shirt and shoes but no sweats. I wasn't going to do a workout in my slacks so I packed back up and went home. Surprised KnitTech by being home early. Then last night I left the game store at 9:30 and headed to the gym. Open the bag and 2 pairs of sweats no shirt. I opted to not workout in the sweater that KnitTech made me. So the question is, am I sublimanally not wanting to workout or just getting old and forgetful?

I'm finally getting used to the new work schedule. Although, Tuesday (game night) and Thursday (School night) make for some seriously long day. The plus side is that I only work 3 days a week. Woot.

School has started back up. I'm still "Linux Man" at ITT. I've got the advanced Linux Server class on Thursdays. It's a lot of fun since I was the one that taught all the students basic Linux so I already know their names. Fridays are the Intro to Linux class. This one is also a lot of fun as it is always a bunch of students that don't know about Linux. There is always a big "fear" thing about learning a new operating system. At the end I generally have made a few converts and none of them fear Linux like they did in the beginning. I like to tell them "Don't fear the Penguin".

KnitTech managed to give me her flu. I held off as long as I could. Now I'm slightly stuffed up and achy. Also have a head splitting headache that comes and goes.

There is a grill competition the first weekend of April. I've scheduled the time off for it but it seems that my partner may not be able to compete so we're not sure if we'll be going. We are definately on for the one over Labor day weekend but may need to pass on this one. I'll let you know what happens with it.

Uck

2009-03-12T03:20:00.003-06:00

Well it seems that Knittech has given me the gift of "Stuffy nose and sore throat". I called into work sick today and will be back in bed soon. On a lighter note. I grabbed this from her blog.

Which creature of the night are you? Your Result: Sorceror Control is the name of your game. You are a studied tactician and scientist and you seek a kingdom where things make sense, damn the morals, even if you have to create it. You are cold, calm and calculating.
Cthulu Spawn
Werewolf
Demon
Ghost
Incubus/Succubus
Vampire
Which creature of the night are you? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I'm okay with being a sorceror but was kinda hoping for Cthulhu Spawn..

I have 5

2009-03-05T19:28:00.004-07:00

2 posts back I posted an invitation offering to give some presents out to the first 5 people to post comments. Now technically it included the stipulation that you were supposed to make your own offer on your blog, but I'm gonna let that slide.

So sometime between now and next February these 5 people will be getting a gift.

Matt Weyen

heather

Carrie Penny

Perkygoth

k-tax

Now Matt, Heather, and Perky are local so I can deliver pretty easy. Carrie, you'll need to shoot me an email with your address. Now the last one. K-tax, I posted a comment asking who you were. After 2 days of thinking I'm going to out on a limb and guess that your Mrs DustyTomes. Good ~~nick~~ handle if thats you. If not shoot me an email to let me know who you are..

Grill Day

2009-03-01T19:00:00.002-07:00

Tomorrow we are having a potluck at work. Since everyone at work has been asking about me making a Bacon Explosion. Well I went ahead and made 3 of them for the pot luck.

It was started by creating a nice bacon blanket. Finding good shaped bacon proved to be a bigger challenge than I thought.

KnitTech cooked up some Jalapenos and Onions for the stuffing.

Added a layer of sausage.

Rolled up and ready to get grilled.

And the grill is loaded. We also did some chicken for dinner. I used indirect grilling so the coals were off to the side.

Added some more seasoning.

Chicken was done and ready to come off first.

The Bacon Explosion need some more time.

Finished and resting in the kitchen.

Seems that one of them actually exploded. I'm sure it will still get eaten.

And here is the chicken. Turned out super good. Although I thought it was a bit overcooked. The new sauce I made was perfect. The spices hit a perfect heat level.

Brew Day

2009-02-25T19:14:00.003-07:00

I spent the morning bottling and transferring beers today. Wednesdays are a no work day and I had a dentist appointment at 2pm, I had the entire day to kill. Even though I hadn't made to bed until midnight I had KnitTech get me up when she went to work. Started early as I knew it would take awhile to get the bottles ready.

First thing I loaded the dishwasher with bottles to get them sanitized for bottling. I then went and grabbed the primaries full of Smurf ale and prepared to transfer them to a secondary. Alas it seems that Smurf Ale is a failure in the visual department. Voltage is a great looking blue color, however it seems that when mixed with malt and hops it turns to a very green color.

I tested the gravity and its looking good. Started at 1.048 and is currently down to 1.004. Working out just like the first versions did. I also drank the test samples (think flat beer) and it tastes pretty good. I'm happy with all but the color. Although due to the color change it can be named to go with the other versions. We named the first 2 after characters in the game Jazz Jackrabbit2.

On the left is Spaz Bunny. Since the CodeRed version stayed red it was named after him thus Spaz Bunny Beer. On the right is Lola Bunny. Since the regular version stayed yellow we have Lola Bunny Beer. And with this new version turning green. We finally have an official Jazz Bunny Beer. Now this isn't truly official yet as we haven't seen the final product. I have 1 more trick I'm going to toss at it and we'll see if that blues it back up. No matter what we will either have Smurf Ale or Jazz Bunny Beer. We'll see.

KnitTech drank a bottle of SunnyBunny2. When I poured it into the glass I just had to get a picture of it. Look at how beautiful this turned out. The color is great. The aroma really hits with the pineapple and the ginger isn't overpowering. KnitTech wants me to double the amount of Pineapple in the next batch to see if we can bring out more of its flavor.

While commenting on Carrie Penny's blog I decided to go along with the plan.

==============================================================
The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.

- What I create will be just for you.

- It'll be done in the next 12 months.

- You have no clue what it's going to be.

- I reserve the right to do something unusual.

The catch? You have to put this in your blog as well. Pass on the love!
==============================================================

Since as you can guess it will be a beer I'll have to add an addendum.

- You must be over 21 years old

A New Addiction!

2009-02-22T18:56:00.002-07:00

I finally received my grade for my last class. Yeppers I aced it. So that means I've graduated with my degree. I don't have the "official" documentation but I can say its un-official.

As a celebration KnitTech has inflicted a new addiction onto me. We went and got tattoos. These are tats that we have talked about for 10 years now.

First KnitTech's. This was done on her right shoulder

Here is mine. Done on my left shoulder.

And here we are shoulder to shoulder.

Like I said we've been talking about getting these tattoos for about 10 years now. The image was ~~stolen~~ borrowed from the Sobe logo. Hers is purple with green stripes while mine is green with purple stripes. Purple being KnitTech's favorite color and green being mine. Since they fit together like yin and yang when we walk side by side we make a set.

I had heard a lot of horror stories about getting tattoos and was a bit worried. I didn't find it all that painful during the process. Afterwards it feels a lot like a sunburn. Today it only hurts if someone puts their hand on it. Not to bad at all.

Busy Busy Busy

2009-02-16T18:10:00.002-07:00

Okay, first the awesome news.. Tonight is my last night of class. Assuming that I pass this class, I'll have my Masters. Woo Hoo. I'll post when the "official" announcement comes through. No, I will not be going to Phoenix to do the "march" across the stage. Hopefully this will free up some time.

Another time saver for me is my new work schedule. Starting last week I now work Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Yea I know it sounds like my hours are getting cut back but they aren't.. I work 2 13 hour days and 1 14 hour day. No, I'm not insane. My logic is that I'm going to be up for over 14 hours in a typical day so why not spend the majority of the day at work. I'm now working less then half the number of days in a week. Yes, every weekend is a 3 day weekend.

Downside to the new schedule, I told my other boss that the new schedule and that I could now work days teaching. He said we don't have any day classes but I have your schedule for next semester. I'm teaching Linux Thursday and Friday nights. Oops. This means I get to go to work job 1 work all day and then dash across the street to job 2. KnitTech said "No way you are not working back to back like that". I spoke to boss at job 1 and he said the same thing. So it looks like I'll be switching Fridays for Mondays.

This weekend O'Terrorist came over and we finally mad the SmurfAle. When it started everything looked on the line for the name.

Isn't that a gorgeous blue color. Yep, that would be smurf ale. Then we did the mash, boil, and added hops. Finished product looks like this.

I'm hoping the color settles back out to blue. If not we may end up with either AlgeaAle or better yet.. HULKAle.

I'm including the following 2 pictures at the request of Mom. She wanted some cute pictures of BabyBird. I'm still going through the collection and post more as I find or take them. The first is from a Saturday when KnitTech was out taking pictures of finished knitting and BabyBird was outside with them. The second is inside the same day BabyBird is on my chair with Grandma D.

Note to Mom. Right-click on the the picture and choose "save as". That will let you save them to your computer.

Quiz from my Sister

2009-02-12T09:39:00.004-07:00

I promise to have a real post tomorrow. This has been a super busy week and the end is next Monday. To fill in for today, here is a quiz that my sister sent me. I'm hoping that by posting it here and tagging KnitTech, Perky, Babyblue (I don't care that will always be your name to me) and all my other readers will fulfill the requirements.

TAKE 3 MINUTES
TRY THIS - IT WILL FREAK YOU OUT.
THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO ME SAID
HER WISH CAME TRUE 10 MINUTES AFTER SHE FORWARDED THE EMAIL (okay my sister didn't say this but it was part of the quiz)

NO CHEATING !!!!
THIS GAME HAS A FUNNY / CREEPY OUTCOME.
DO NOT READ AHEAD, JUST DO IT.
IT TAKES ABOUT 3 MINUTES - WORTH A TRY

1st. Get PEN and PAPER

2nd. WHEN CHOOSING NAMES, MAKE SURE THEY ARE REAL PEOPLE THAT YOU ACTUALLY KNOW

3rd. GO WITH YOUR FIRST INSTINCTS !!!!! Very important for=2 0good results.

4th. SCROLL DOWN
ONE LINE AT THE TIME
DON`T READ AHEAD
OTHERWISE
YOU WILL RUIN THE FUN.

1. On a blank sheet of paper, WRITE NUMBERS 1 through 11 in a COLUMN on the LEFT.

2. BESIDE the NUMBERS 1 & 2, WRITE DOWN ANY 2 NUMBERS YOU WANT.

3. BESIDE the NUMBERS 3 & 7 ,WRITE DOWN THE NAMES OF TWO MEMBERS OF THE OPPOSITE SEX.

CAUTION: DO NOT LOOK AHEAD or IT WILL NOT TURN OUT RIGHT

4. WRITE ANTONE'S NAME(like FRIENDS or FAMILY...)next to 4, 5, & 6.

DON`T CHEAT OR YOU`LL BE UPSET THAT YOU DID

5. WRITE down FOUR SONG TITLES in 8, 9, 10, & 11

6. Finally, MAKE A WISH

ARE YOU READY?
HERE IS THE
KEY TO THE GAME

[My answers are italicized]

1 . THE NUMBER of PEOPLE YOU MUST TELL ABOUT THIS GAME is found in SPACE 2

Crap! I put down 31. Hopefully I have 31 readers.

2. THE PERSON IN SPACE 3 IS THE ONE YOU LOVE

Okay, I put KnitTech so this was accurate.

3. THE PERSON YOU LIKE but your relationship CANNOT WORK is in SPACE 7

Now this is weird, I put down the Evil Bunny.

4. YOU CARE MOST about the PERSON you put in SPACE 4

Another weird one. I put down DustyTomes. I've known him a long time so it makes sense.

5. THE PERSON YOU NAME IN NUMBER 5 IS THE ONE WHO KNOWS YOU VERY WELL.

I put Mr Sota (an old friend) so another true one.

6. THE PERSON YOU NAMED IN 6 IS YOUR LUCKY STAR

I had put J (co-worker and new game group member). I guess its a good thing he comes with us to Jackpot. Hmm also need to come up with a handle for him.

7.. THE SONG IN 8 IS THE SONG THAT MATCHES WITH THE PERSON IN NUMBER 3

Hmmm I put Dr Feelgood. I suppose that I do make KnitTech feel good, but our song is Crazy by Icehouse. Or is this implying that I'm her drug of choice?

8. THE TITLE IN 9 IS THE SONG FOR THE PERSON IN 7

I put Pink Floyd's "Vera" in this slot. I heard it yesterday on the radio and its been rattling around in my head since. I like the song but I have no clue how it applies to me and "Evil Bunny".

9. THE 10 TH SPACE IS THE SONG THAT TELLS YOU MOST ABOUT YOUR MIND

Wow! I selected "Time Warp" from Rocky Horror Picture show for this one. Maybe that explains a few things.

10. AND 11 IS THE SONG TELLING HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT LIFE

Another interesting interpretation coming in here. I put "Bat Out of Hell" by Meat Loaf for this one. Seems I have some weird feelings about life.

11. NUMBER 1 IS YOUR LUCKY NUMBER

I put 12 (KnitTech's Birthday) for this. Since its a number I play in Roulette it must be lucky.

SEND THIS TO A MINIMUM OF 10 PEOPLE WITHIN AN HOUR OF READING THIS.

I thought that line 2 told use to send to that many?

IF YOU DO, YOUR WISH WILL COME TRUE.

IF YOU FAIL TO, IT WILL BECOME THE OPPOSITE

STRANGE HOW IT SEEMS TO WORK.

I'll let everyone know if I win the lottery. Although I didn't specify when so it could be awhile.

A quickie

2009-02-04T18:44:00.003-07:00

Just wanted to get a quickie in:

AWESOME monday night

Grilled Steaks Sunday

Sunny Bunny II bottled

New Workout is EVIL

Love teaching Linux

2 weeks from my Masters Degree

New headlight installed

No Police action both to and from school

Morning after teaching comes WAY to early

Perky doesn't want to read IT

Game Night on Saturday

Voltage is BACK!!!!

Smurf Ale is going to be made

SuperBowl Sunday

2009-02-01T18:43:00.002-07:00

Not only was today the Superbowl but its also a special Anniversery for KnitTech and I. It was 20 years ago that we had our first date. Now I haven't marked an exact date on the calendar but we always celebrate it on SuperBowl Sunday.

20 years with KnitTech have been great. "She is My Sun, My Moon, My Starlit sky"(yes, we know that isn't my own quote). How she puts up with me at times proves she has the patience of saint since I have the memory of her cat Uggy. I can't seem to remember things that I should. Ask her about the Burt's Bees.. Over that time we've raised to great daughters and had many adventures together. I'm ready for next 20.

Love you KnitTech

"Rolling Probable Cause"

2009-01-28T18:12:00.003-07:00

Yesterday was a teaching day. As I was driving to class I saw a cop pull a u-turn in behind me. Now I had been doing 42 in a 35 but was moving with all the other traffic. I pulled into a local bank and dug out my liscense, proof of insurance and registration (all up to date).. The Office asked if I knew why he had pulled me over. I said No.. He told me that one of my headlights was out. Dang. He then asked if I had any warrants. Nope. Then he went back and ran my info. Yep, I'm clean. He didn't give me a ticket but recommended that I remove my trailer hitch since it partially covers my liscence plate. Hmmm I've had that for the entire time I owned the truck so I don't think I will. No other officer has complained (not that I get pulled over that often). This was about 5pm.

I continued on and taught my class. Now flash forward to 10:30pm. I'm tired after a long day (alarm goes off at 3:30am every day) and heading home for bed. I'm almost out of Garden City and see flashing lights in my rearview mirror. Another officer (female this time) pulls me over. I dig out the info and she asks "do you kow why I pulled you over?" I replied "Because my headlight is out? I was pulled over by another officer on my way to work and I'm heading home now". She got a disappointed look and handed me back my registration and insurance. Again I'm asked "Do you have any warrants?" "Just the one for murder, but the other officer didn't want to pursue that [I thought]". "No I don't [I said]". She went off and ran the info and yep I'm still clean. She let me go without a ticket and I made it all the way home.

Now the truck isn't in the best of shape but I really don't think it screams "Criminal" or "Drug Dealer". I think I'll just call it "rolling probable cause".

P.S. Good thing none of my friends had given several cases of empty beer bottles like they have in the past. That would have just been a perfect thing to have to explain if the bed had been full of empties.

Hey look another quiz

2009-01-27T05:51:00.001-07:00

I know, I know.. ~~Puzzles~~Quizzes don't count. But this one was way to important to pass up.