Category: Fun

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So, once again, how’s summer treating you?

Back in May, I posted this quasi-goal/”to do” list for my Spring/Summer. I thought I’d report on my lack of progress so far:

  • Lose weight. This is going quite badly, thank you very much. There are a variety of reasons why this is the case, but a lot of it has to do with being busier with schoolwork (teaching, meeting with students, scholarly projects, etc.) than I thought I was going to be, and my lack of willingness to stop stuffing my face with food and drink. I have been in my own version of “training” as of late though because I’m trying to be as ready as possible for our trip to Italy and Germany.
  • Oh, and as a tangent: I came across this web site on “How to Begin Running” this morning. Seems like an interesting plan to me. I have no interest in running marathons or anything like that, but being able to run a mile or two without stopping would be cool. I’ve never met anyone who jogs who is a fatty.
  • Write a book about eating. What book? Jeesh, this part of my summer has pretty much faded out of the picture. Besides getting distracted by other projects, both work and life, I guess I lost interest. Part of it was that after reading about competitive eating for a while, I got kind of bored, which made me doubt my or anyone else’s interest in reading a novel about eating. Who knows, maybe I’ll come back to this one.
  • Get up stupid early. Still no/yes on this one. I gave up setting the alarm at 5 am (though I might take this practice up during the school year), but I have regularly out of bed by about 6:30 am. It depends on when I go to bed. My latest thing has been to get up and get exercising, before coffee and everything. This has been something of a revelation to me since I have made it a point to start the day with a couple of cups of coffee before doing anything for– well, as long as I can remember. It turns out there is life before coffee, and the exercise thing is a lot easier for me if I “just do it” as they say.
  • House cleaning/maintenance. About the same as before. I’ve been focusing lately on turning our weed garden back into an herb garden with some success.
  • Italian phrases Ah, pizza? cappuccino? Rico suave? Actually, Annette and I made some progress on planning the Italian leg of our trip by booking some museums and such via the internet. I’ll probably save the Italian phrase stuff until the end of July/beginning of August though, after I am done with this pesky work stuff for a while.
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Family visit to the Museum of Science and Industry: The Movie

I’ve spent too much time over the last couple of days playing around with iMovie and the stuff from our trip to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. Here’s my result— warning, 12.8 MB!

A couple of quasi-fun facts about this:

  • I “borrowed” some of the sound resources from different places, and the opening and closing sound comes with iLife.
  • The cool photo album-like animations are built into iMovie.
  • Really, what was interesting about iMovie is that it’s surprisingly easy to just kind of figure out.

I’m looking forward to playing around with this stuff after our European trip….

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Another Ypsilanti July 4

Patriotic Will
As promised, here’s the second July 4 post, this one about the annual Ypsilanti July 4 parade. We watched it with Andre, Stephanie, their kids, Gerry and Stacy (or is that Staci?) on Cross Street. A good time was had by one and all. There were the usual things:

Lady Liberty….

Lady Lib

Bands….

Bands
Drum and Fife

Fire Trucks….
Old Fire Truck
New Fire trucks

(BTW, it seems to me that during the July 4 parade would be a good time to start a fire or, with all the police in the parade, a crime. Not that I would do that. I’m just saying.)

People in kilts….

Man in Kilt
More People in Kilts

Floats of the patriotic flavor….
Float

Tractors….
Nothin' runs like a Deere

Elvis…
Elvis

(Oh, and Elvisfest will be in town this coming weekend, for those inclined).

Puppets in military vehicles…
Weird Puppet

You know, the usual.

But I have to say that the religious floats were a little strange this year. There are always these sorts of things in these sorts of parades (this is the kind of “free speech” the Republicans like!), but this year kind of takes the cake.

First off, there was this odd Noah’s Ark-themed float:

Jesus Freaks

I don’t know about you, but when I think about July 4, I think of Noah. You know, Independence Day, etc.

Second, one of these church groups had the unfortunate theme of “I walk in Jesus name.” Now, for those of you who aren’t English geek-types, this should be “I walk in Jesus’ name–” that is, the “possessive s,” which, as any third grader can tell you, is indicated with an apostrophe. Unless you’re Albertson‘s grocery store, but even then, it’ll be the subject of a protest. Anyway, to see that grammar error about 150 times in a row was a bit much for this English professor.

Third, and most weird, was this religious float that involved African-Americans doing mime, which had the unfortunate and I assume unintended effect of a sort of reverse black face minstrel show, and a large cross with an American flag theme. Here’s a few seconds of kind of bad video (from my camera) to give you an idea of what I’m talking about here (warning: 12.5 MB). I’m not sure my video does it justice, but it was jaw-dropping distrubing, if you ask me.

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Museum of Science and Industry: DaVinci, Subs, and More!




Will Making Candy

Originally uploaded by steven_d_krause.

This is the first of what I expect will be two posts today on July 4 (I’m sure I’ll have picts and commentary from the famous Ypsi July 4 parade later on this morning), this first post about our recent adventures at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. Very cool, though I have to say that the purposefully dim lighting throughout most of the museum spaces means that some of my photos here are a bit suspect.

I recall going to this museum when I was a kid about Will’s age; I believe it was part of a Cub Scout trip when I lived in Davenport, IA, one where we left early in the morning on a bus, did the museum, and then came back late in the day. Much was the same, and much was different, at least based on my fuzzy memory.

For this particular trip, I planned it all over the phone and bought us a fistful of tickets for the various special exhibits. We started with the special Leonardo da Vinci Exhibit, which was one of the things that I for one really wanted to see. It did not disappoint, though as I think about it now, it is interesting how it didn’t really involve a whole lot of “original” da Vinci stuff– just one page from his famous notebooks, and that was kind of off to the side.

Most of the exhibit was of models of things that da Vinci either invented or imagined, like this model of a parachute:

da Vinci parachute

Much of the exhibit involved things that you could make work, like this thing Will is bonking:

da Vinci thing

And much of it was kind of “audience participation,” like this bridge that Will helped build:

Will building bridge

The museum still has an enormous model train set-up; here’s just one small piece:

trains

Then there was this train with model John Deere tractors I thought was pretty cool:

Deere train

We saw an exhibit on frogs that involved a pretty neat virtual disection tool, which naturally brought back memories for Annette and me on disecting the real thing:

Frog disection

We saw this kind of cool Omnimax movie about ancient Greece, but that was probably a mistake because we ended up running out of time and didn’t have time to go through the coal mine (I guess that’ll be next time). We did get to see the U-505 submarine, which is indeed a real German sub (think Das Boot) captured during World War II. When I was a kid, they had this thing parked outside; but now it’s in a new and spiffy inside facility. Sadly, it was pretty dim in there and they wouldn’t let you take pictures inside the sub (there is this virtual tour of the inside available on the web). Here’s a shot of the sub looking down the bow from the observation deck above the exhibit:

Sub 1

And here’s one along the side where you go in for the tour:

Sub 2

There was a whole bunch of other stuff too, and plenty of things to justify a return trip, but I’ll leave you with this weird picture of a Side Show diorama:

Weird Side Show

This thing was inside a case, about the size of a large dining room table, and it moved around and such. I think it’s one of those exhibits from the past that someone at the museum just couldn’t throw away.

Oh yeah– the picture at the top of Will making candy, which was one of the highlights for him, was in the gift shop. We bought him a token, he was able to select his flavors, and the machine pressed the powder into little sweet-tart-type candies.

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The Beer Watcher II: Racking

Direct from Bill HD (aka (“The Beer Master”) himself:

The beer racked into the carboy:

Racked Hefeweizen

What brewing is really all about:

Brewing = cleaning

(Which, btw, is why I am more or less a beer watcher rather than a beer master– ed.)

What’s a “hefeweizen?” you ask?

According to the German Beer Guide, it’s

“Hefe” means yeast, “Weizen” means wheat. Hefeweizen is a top fermented, unfiltered, bottle conditioned wheat beer with a noticeable yeast sediment and a cloudy appearance. Wheat beers are also referred to as /Weissbiers/ (white beers) because before the invention of pale lagers and pale ales, most beers were dark. Wheat beers were the exception as the wheat content lightened the colour of the beer.

Hefeweizens are usually quite sweet and fruity, with a full body. The typical hefeweizen taste, which distinguishes it from its Belgian wheat beer cousins is produced by the types of yeast used in Bavaria. There are often medicinal or clove flavours, produced by chemicals called phenols engendered by the yeast. Other chemicals produced by the yeast, called esters, produce bubble gum, banana and vanilla flavours. Esters are also used in sweets like pear drops or fruit gums. Hefeweizens are very lightly hopped so have little bitterness and harshness. The ratio of wheat to barley malt used is commonly around 50:50 but the wheat portion may rise to as much as 70%. With the exception of Gose, German wheat beer brewers don’t add coriander or other botanicals and spices to their beer as Belgian brewers do.

Bill also expressed some concern about potential contamination because of the blow-off, but I’m guessing we’ll be okay. We’ll get Bennie to taste it first just to be sure, though.

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The Point, part 2 (and then some)

To tell you the truth, I don’t have a whole lot of interesting things to add to my previous post on this family trip/reunion. But since I started with “part 1,” I figure I ought to have a “part 2.” So here’s what happened:

  • Hung out Friday morning at the hotel, mostly recovering from the drive. The Stevens Point La Quinta Inn was pretty so-so. Their web site claims “La Quinta” is Spanish for high-speed Internet. Ha. More like “Spanish for spotty Internet,” or “Spanish for ‘next to Denny’s'” (that’s my sister Jill’s line) or “Spanish for ‘just kinda crappy hotel.'” But it was conveniently located, right next to the country club, even if people at the hotel didn’t know where the country club is.
  • Went to the Stevens Point Country Club on that Friday afternoon, which was where many of the events were. I played golf that afternoon with my cousin/our host Scott, and my Uncle Paul, and my gimpy father rode along. Anyway, while we played on the course, Will played by the pool and Annette, still gimpy herself of course, sat and read. A good time seemed to have been had.
  • The course was great– very well-kept, challenging but not crazy-hard, etc. I played like shit, hitting it into the woods on just about every hole, but, because the trees were all pine and they kept it pretty clean underneath those trees, I didn’t lose a ball all day. And I got good at the punch-out shot. I also bought a cool hat. Along with my Point beer, I now have two official SP memories. Sadly, no snow globes were available.
  • Got up first thing Saturday morning, basically before anyone else, and decided to take a bit of a brief driving tour of Stevens Point. Now I understand why there aren’t a lot of other SP souvenirs. I did find out they have a Starbucks, and even one with a drive-thru.
  • I actually spent a fair amount of time on Saturday morning grading, which helped me get a bit caught up from this week of events.
  • I tried to play golf on Saturday afternoon with my uncle Paul again and some other far-flung relatives, but we ended up behind the slowest foursome in the history of the universe and then we got poured on about the 6th hole. Oh well… Anyway, while I was trying to golf, Annette and Will were once again by the pool.
  • I’d write more about the various family events, but, well, those are probably even less interesting to anyone who wasn’t there than what I’ve written already. It was a good time, but it was fairly typical reunion stuff– talk, food, drink, etc. I like all of these folks, but of course, even though my cousins are technically my “family,” I don’t really know them that well. By the way, what’s the spouse of a cousin to me? What about my cousins’ kids– are those second cousins? And what’s the relationship between my kid and my cousins’ kids? It’s all very confusing.
  • Annette and I high-tailed it out of there at 6 am Sunday morning, leaving Will with the grandparents. This week is “Krause kid camp,” where my Ps take their grandkids (the ones out of diapers, at least) for a few days. I’m sure I’ll have a post or so on that next week.
  • And now the “and then some” part: We were home for all of 30 minutes when we went out to pick up Laura (who Annette has known for like 20 years now) from (of all things!) a Scrabble tournament in Hazel Park, MI. The whole Scrabble thing is its own long and (to me, at least) strange story I won’t tell now, but basically, she was here from Viriginia for it, and we had a pleasant, less than 24 hour visit with her: hanging about, dinner last night, and breakfast this morning. Here’s the picture of these two I threatened at breakfast to put on my blog:
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The Point, part 1

Greetings from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, where we’re at right now for a smallish family reunion type event– on my mom’s side. Why Stevens Point, you ask? Because this was one of my cousin’s ideas in the first place, he lives in Stevens Point, he’s the manager of a country club (the site of many of the events), and it’s a good location for most of the family, most of whom are from Wisconsin.

We had the trip from hell yesterday getting her in the first place. A late start, getting stuck for an hour before we even left town, rush hour traffic in Chicago, construction, accidents, etc., etc., turned an 8 hour trip into an 11 hour one. Given that Annette rode in the back of a rented mini-van with her leg propped up the whole way, you can imagine how thrilled she is with it all.

The hotel is fine, though my wireless access is sketchy. Got up this morning for a little grocery and wine/beer shopping, and I was struck by two things. First, even out here, in the relative middle of nowhere, you can pretty much get anything you want in terms of food items, decent coffee, decent wine, etc. You might be saying “well, duh,” but I can remember a time in Iowa and Wisconsin where that wasn’t the case.

Second, I was reminded of the local beverage, Point Beer. It’s good but nothing remarkable– kind of like Leinenkugel, but I’ve never seen it for sale anywhere outside of Wisconsin. I remember when a friend of mine way way back when collected beer cans, the Point “blue bullet” was a sought-after item. Point appears to have gone a bit more up-scale. Pictured above are examples from the “sampler pack” of beer I bought, along with one of the root beers I bought.

Anyway, things with this reunion (as is the case with all things with this side of the family) are pretty casual. Played golf with my cousin and one of my uncles while my injured father rode along and my injured wife sat by the pool watching Will as he played in the water for about three hours. So far, so good.

Now it’s time to enjoy a Point!

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The Beer Watcher II: Blow-off!

From “the beer master” Bill HD comes news:

Well, some drama happened regarding our wort. I went down to check it last night and the airlock was blown off the top – it had clogged with hops and foamy beer stuff and there was some on the wall nearby too. So I guess we had a very vigorous yeast colony going. When I opened the lid it was quite foamy in there too. Not sure what that means for the whole process – I cleaned up the airlock and put it back on and it was hopping and popping normally.

This could be bad, I guess, if there was any contamination. Also, the beer guy says that if the yeast is too active for too long, they basically eat everything and the beer doesn’t have any flavors at all. I don’t think this is going to be the case since it was some sort of airlock clog that caused the mishap. But we’ll see come racking time, I guess, whether it is worth continuing or whether we have our first failed batch.

Bill further consulted his guru/master, “The Beer Guy” (aka the book he has), and discovered that this event is common enough in home brewing to have a name: a “blow-off.” Apparently, it isn’t as serious as we had originally feared:

If the fermentation is so vigorous that the foam pops the airlock out of the lid, just rinse it out with sanitizer solution and wipe off the lid before replacing it. Contamination is not a big problem during the primary phase. With so much coming out of the fermenter, not much gets in. If the fermentation keeps filling the airlock with crud and popping it out, there is an alternative, a blowoff hose.

Bill went on to add:

I cleaned out the airlock, sterilized it again, stuck it back on and it seems to be going along fine. It also smells very much like a normal batch, for what that’s worth. As for why, the books I have consulted say that it just happens sometimes when you get a vigorous ferment. They recommend having a blowoff tube for such occasions, or going to a 7 gallon primary fermenter. But it seems to be a minor issue by all accounts.

So, we’ll see what happens. I guess the beer master will be getting the first taste and the beer watchers will be watching not the beer but the master for the results.