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!