Craft Brew Dinner #2

Last night was the fourth Heritage Series event at Dexter's Pub, featuring a six course dinner and different beers with each course.  We had gone to the first dinner back in January and had a real good time.  The second dinner was canceled.  The third we opted not to go to due to my wife was disgusted with a goose liver course - there's a fancy name for it that I forget now (I'm sure I wouldn't have eaten it either).  So this was the fourth dinner and featured a craft brewery from northern California, Anderson Valley Brewing Company, providing the refreshments.

As regular readers know, I am normally not a big beer connoisseur, but I do have fun with this event and tasting different brews with different foods.  Also, my wife and I have found we rather like the sour brews, and there were two featured with dinner. a lighter one with the first course and a much more sour one called The Kimmie, The Yink & The Holy Goze to go with dessert.  The beer rep did give us some back story on the brewery and explained each brew as it was presented.  The chef also came out with the courses explaining why he picked the dish to go with that particular brew.  Informative and tasty, too!

We had two friends along, Ted and Steve/Bob (don't ask), who are members of the local home brewer's guild and definitely know their way around a stout to an ale, IPAs to sour brews, and much more than I will ever know.  Although it can be like listening to a different language sometimes, I do like listening to my friend Ted and other beer people talk beer, and I enjoy the enthusiasm they always display.  So, they seemed to have a good time as well.

Anyway, my wife and I had much fun for a Monday night and I was still in bed on time with no ill effects this morning (while my wife planned today off, you know, just in case!).  Next month there is no Heritage Series dinner at Dexter's due to Madison Craft Beer Week and all the festivities that go with that, but June is Alaskan Brewing Company and July features the local Capitol Brewery from Middleton, WI, right next door.  Honestly, the menu dictates our wanting to go to these events.  Almost any craft brewery good enough to be featured will be interesting to us to try with different foods.

❄Oh, and it snowed today, Tuesday, 21 April, 2015.  No accumulations, just flurries.  Certainly not unheard of in this area, but it was tee shirt weather just this past weekend!  It may as well have been a day in late November today.  Ya gotta love Wisconsin in the Springtime!  Um.  Well, I don't have to love it but I gotta live with it!

Cat Crush*

This is exactly why I looked for a larger top for the new cat tree.  Now they have it and can both fit comfortably - and they do love the new cat tree, but I still find them on the porch, on the older cat tree stacked on top of each other.  It's a good thing they are very close, being brothers.  Their third birthday is Monday but they already got their present, maybe I'll just give them some treats that day.

The weather has been okay and the grass is turning green finally.  Plants are starting to come up and flowers have appeared here and there.  Kate got some planting done in the garden today, see pictures on our garden site.  Still, we are going to have overnight temperatures below freezing again early next week.  I've been stressing about my long list this spring, but it is still too early for much of it.  I want to be done with below freezing temperatures before I get out the power washer.  All in due time, I guess.  But there will be a dramatic change coming for us this week, stay tuned!

___   ___   ___

*Update:  The next morning.

I got a shot of the cats in their new cat tree for comparison.  They're still tight, but at least not on top of each other!

LLP Bonus - Nightwish

Live in New York last night to open the new tour!  I've been listening to the new cd since I received it from Amazon on the US release date, March 31.  I have already had them as a Latest Listening Pleasure a few times so did not want to do it again so readily, so this is just a new thing - a LLP Bonus!  I came across this video of last night's show in New York to open their US tour and I wanted to post it because it is the newest live video of them since year before last festival season, and we hear the newest songs live!  The new album, Endless Forms Most Beautiful, opened in the US top 40 last week.

The band's setlist was as follows:

01. Shudder Before The Beautiful
02. Yours Is An Empty Hope
03. Amaranth
04. She Is My Sin
05. Endless Forms Most Beautiful
06. My Walden
07. The Islander
08. Élan
09. Weak Fantasy
10. Storytime
11. Nemo
12. I Want My Tears Back
13. Stargazers
14. Sleeping Sun
15 The Greatest Show On Earth

Encore:

16. Ghost Love Score
17. Last Ride Of The Day

Via Blabbermouth

Yesterday...

...was my sixth blogday.  Over 850 posts, with this.      Um.     Yeah, seems about right.

Good Show, Badgers

(Click to view larger)  via ESPN

Early Cat Birthday and GO BADGERS!

Hamish, top, and Basil.

Their official birthday is not until April 20, as far as we know, so Basil and Hamish got their gift early this year.  We are still waiting on the weather to stay above freezing overnight consistently before I get started with the power washer chores outside, so since I had the time this past weekend I cut a base and assembled the new cat tree early.  I also adapted an old TV turntable for one of the new lamps.  It feels good to get outside and make stuff out of wood again!

While the new cat tree is larger than the old one, it still has the same type of base, with carpet folded over the edges, so it is not as stable as I would like, especially when they get a running start at it, so I added a base to give it weight and stability.  Nothing too difficult to do and it may save a window (or a cat) someday.  I should have used a darker stain on the wood, that is something I can go back and redo later if I want.  The new cat tree has one less level than the old one, but the levels are larger and overall it is about 6 inches taller.  The top area is also larger than the old one so when they share the space now they will not have to lay on top of each other as much as before.

Still tight on top for 2, but better than before!

Also, we used to have a turntable under our old (large, boxy) television so we could turn it to face wherever we needed it to in the living room.  Now we have a new, flat screen TV that is mounted on the wall so this was sitting downstairs collecting dust.  I made a cardboard template of the base of the swing arm lamp to get an approximate size and trimmed down the turntable so it would fit in the corner and still turn with no problems.  Now we can swing the lamp out much more easily to get at the window behind it.  Not real exciting, and I did not take pictures.

The old cat tree has been moved to the back porch for the summer.  When we have the patio door open I can just see the cats running the length of the house from one cat tree to the other!  This fall, once it is cold enough to keep the patio door shut for the season the old one will be trashed.  They have had it for two years and it is getting pretty worn.  Happy birthday, Basil and Hamish!

Also, tonight the Wisconsin Badgers take on the Duke Blue Devils for the NCAA College Men's Basketball Championship!  The Badgers beat the unbeaten Kentucky Wildcats on Saturday night, avenging last year's Final Four loss to them by one point.  This team is good enough to get it done.  No matter what happens, it has been a wonderful season to follow the Badgers.  I see no reason they will not follow through with their stated goal - and bring home a National Championship! 

GO BADGERS!

Just Okay Friday

Well, I wound up disappointing my wife in one of those ways that I should have seen coming but I'm a man therefore stupid blind to all hints and unable to understand the simplest gestures until all is lost and apologies are even a last ditch, lame sounding, even-I-don't-believe-me pathetic gesture.

My lovely wife wanted to spend our rare afternoon off together making a short round of our favorite bar/restaurants and have an appropriate drink and appetizer/food item at each place.  I don't eat much during the day so did not have much of an appetite when we started out, and well, my lack of appetite at the time made my wife not order anything and it just did not turn out like she wanted.  I went about it too casually and should have looked at our time this afternoon more like a date.  By not doing so, I let her down.

Mr. Donut may have saved an ugly fight, tonight.  After exiting our last stop and realizing how bad I messed up we were stopped in the parking lot just before getting into our car by the owner of a well respected local bakery who insisted on giving us his last box of donuts out of the back of his luxury SUV.  His name is Marv and he seemed a very nice man who was in a grand mood.  Today was Good Friday so maybe he was out seeing clients and making deliveries and some friends along the way.  I don't know why, but the donuts were delicious!  The (taped shut) box had 15 in it and you could tell by the freshness that they had been baked that morning.  After we (me) ate more than a  few and before sugar shock kicked in my wife smartly wrapped and froze half or more of them for another day.



I was Homer Simpson today in more ways than one.  Mmm, donuts...  Not good.

This and Thats for March

I feel as though I have been slacking, not writing as often as I should.  Nothing has been going on that I have needed to write about, and backing off from posting as frivolously as I had in the past was part of my plan when I took some time off from blogging recently.  So I guess I should just get over it.  I know I'm not going away, just posting less than I have.

Now, having said that again, to start off this This and Thats post is a blurb from a draft I wrote back in December, after I made my decision to back off a bit.

• "In my first year and two thirds, 2009 and 2010, I posted at an amazing rate of about 20 posts a month.  I took to it quickly and buying our first house at the same time gave me some material to work with.  In 2011 I slowed a bit to about 8 or so posts a month on average.  I think I realized how much time I spent on posting crap.  2012 and 2013 - coincidentally have 99 posts each.  I found my rhythm.  This year was on the same pace, perhaps a few more even, until something... changed.  Changed in that my computer, 10-15% of my normal 24 hour day, took a dump on me.  Changed how I looked at how I spent my time.  Changed because I wanted it to.  Hell, I needed it to." - Scoakat's Blog draft from December, 2014.
• My most recent post was on a day we reached over 70º F, we haven't been even close to that since.  Mother Nature has given us more snow on a few occasions, and I have had to get back out some winter gear for the temperatures.  This week we are to settle in with highs mostly in the 60's.  Hopefully it can finally be - and stay - spring.
• I bought a power washer a few weeks ago.  I liked the gas powered ones a lot but I didn't feel I could justify the higher cost and maintenance for the few uses a year it would get so i got an electric.  I have assembled it but I have not tested it yet, the temperatures have not been warm enough to start anything.  It looks like next weekend I can finally test it out and get started on our foundation - cleaning, sealing and repainting before the flowers come up.
• We bought two very nice new floor lamps for the living room recently so the living room is almost how we want it to be.  We still need a couple nice end tables to replace the very cheap temporary things I bought a few years ago.  And we need to get rid of my La-Z-Boy recliner, it is just too big for the room (and not the best for my back).  We need to replace it with a different kind of living room chair, one that fits and matches the space we are creating.
• We also bought a very nice light fixture for the bedroom (pictured above).  Before, there was just a plain, white ceiling fan without a light.  Since we've had the house I would often hit the switch wanting a light to go on, even recently still, so it was time to get rid of the little used fan and replace it with a nice light fixture.  We could have gotten a cheap but adequate replacement like we did in the other bedroom, our office, when we moved in, but we wanted something nicer.  My wife pointed out one or two of this style and eventually I really warmed up to it.  It was for sure expensive, but it looks great in there I think it is worth it.
• My next two big projects are to look up tree removal services to utilize in the very near future, and to start looking for a new car.  I want both done by summer, and hopefully done by the end of May, my next extended time off from work.  I also have a new shelf to assemble downstairs.  I write that now to remind myself to do it, it's been down there waiting for 2 weeks.
• The new Nightwish album will be released in the US on Tuesday.  Amazon says I should receive it that day so it should be here when I get home from work.  I can't remember anticipating a new release like this in a long time.  Of course, I've had it free from the internet already for about a week, but I do not want to listen to it yet.  I want the CD so I can hold it and read it and follow along with the lyrics, like people used to do for a much anticipated release.  These days most things are leaked early and shared, long before the artist intended.
• I've noted here before how it is a pretty good time to be a sports fan in Wisconsin, and it still is.  The Wisconsin Men's Basketball Badgers have reached the Final Four for the second year in a row.  They play Kentucky next Saturday in a Final Four rematch from last year when we lost to them by one point.  The Badgers are better this year than they were last year, I think they can get by Kentucky and go for the national championship!  I'd love to see that happen but it will be tough, only one team in the tourney ends with a 'W' and only the best are left.  (Congrats to Michigan State, too.  May we meet in the championship game!)

Thanks for stopping by and checking out what my wife and I are up to.  I have high hopes, as we do every spring, but our to-do list this year is very specific and there is much on it - and it is to be done very soon.

We also have enough fun things scheduled out that I'm sure I'll have more to share here in the coming months.  Weather permitting, of course, it would be nice to be able to fully come out of winter hibernation!

Sprung Spring

Just a quick note to acknowledge the dramatic change in our weather.  In a week our high temperatures raised over 40 degrees, from highs in the teens or lower at the end of the previous week (Grandma's funeral) to over 50º F by the middle of last week.  Right now it is 71º F.  Very nice.  I have to re-learn how to dress myself.  Winter coat in the morning, light jacket midday and none in the evening?  Who carries two coats around all day?  Sigh.  I'll adapt, I always do!

Pictured here is the yard on Saturday.  The only snow left was in the shade along the back fence.  Today there is no snow left in the yard and after work we got a little bit of raking and picking up sticks done.  There is always much to do in spring, waiting for the proper time can be difficult, though.  I finally got my pressure washer, it will first be used to clean the foundation (and I may as well get the siding while I'm at it) so we can repaint it before the plants come up.

Daylight Saving Time

How is this still a thing?  

A bit late for the topic, but I must agree.  There are no discernible benefits to our bi-annual time shift, so why do we continue what is generally viewed as a useless tradition?  Dubya (President George W. Bush) altered the dates for no apparent reason in 2005.  That's enough for me now, I blame him!

In reality I think we would all adjust rather easily.  The video is entertaining - watch it!


via B&P