Category: Fun

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I’m sure these sites aren’t legal…

… and probably won’t be around for that long. But in the meantime, two things I came across this morning:

A directory of each and every Calvin and Hobbes cartoon.

All about South Park, which includes (I think) every episode of the show.

The second one is particularly interesting to me. Given that high speed internet access is coming online fast and given all the other ways that there are television shows online for free or for a small fee, these two different boxes, the TV and the computer, are indeed merging into one. Heck, the stereo is already stuck inside this particular box….

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New Hammock!




Hammock 1

Originally uploaded by steven_d_krause.

In our backyard, we have two enormous pine trees– I mean like 5 stories tall– that are just the right distance appart for a hammock. In fact, we did have a hammock back there a couple years ago, but it was inexplicably destroyed in freak fight between squirrels and possibly a raccoon. But that’s a different story.

This story is, partly in honor of Father’s day, Annette and Will bought a new hammock. After the weeding this weekend, perhaps I’ll take a nap back there.


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The Beer Watcher II: Wheat Beer

We (meaning me, Bill H-D, and Steve B) started another batch of beer yesterday morning, a wheat beer recipe from “All Things Beer” called “Williamston Wheat.” Compared to the first season of the beer watcher, a recipe that involved moss, grain bags, multiple applications of hops, etc., etc., this recipe was ridiculously easy:

7 lbs Wheat/Barley malt extract
1 oz Saaz hops
Wyeast 3056 or Munton’s Ale dry yeast
3/4 cup priming sugar and caps

Directions:

Add the wheat/barley malt extract and 1 ounce of hops to 1 1/2 gallons of water and boil for 1 hour.

Cool down the wort, put it in the fermenter with 3 1/2 gallons water, pitch the yeast.

That’s it. Compared to last time, this beer practically makes itself.

I was late, and Steve B and Bill H-D already did the most active steps of this beer, which was boiling the water and adding the malt and the hops. So my roll here really was watching, especially since Steve and Bill spent a fair amount of time moving some furniture out to the driveway since there was a yard sale in progress. And actually, I only half-watched; I spent more time trying to figure out a new WordPress set-up.

Two amusing things happened in all of this that are photo-worthy, but unfortunately, the batteries in my camera died. One of the great fears of home-brewing (perhaps the only fear) is that of the dreaded boil-over, which is a danger when you add the syrupy malt extract. But Bill was really not worried about it because he had a new pot for cooking up the wort this time, a five gallon rig. The water wasn’t quite up to temprature, so he put on the lid, and, worry free with the largeness of the pot, we sat around at the kitchen table and chatted.

We heard the boil-over first. Bill and Steve B sprang into action, removed the lid, turned down the burner (we had some debate as to whether or not the electric element of a stove could properly be called a “burner”), and stirred. Tragedy was probably averted, but a lot of the hops boiled up and onto the sides of the pot. So I guess the test will be in the tasting, about a month or so from now (I think about a month).

The other photo-worthy moment involved Bill spilling enough of the ice water we were using for chilling the wort on himself to require a change of clothes before lunch.

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The last day of school is the best ever

Per my out of town’s wife command to blog about the Estabrook carnival, here are some pictures and comments. Though yesterday was about much more than the annual Estabrook Elementary carnival; oh, so much more than that…

Annette has been in California since Wednesday for a conference, so it’s been just me and Will around here and it’s pretty much going to be like that until Sunday night. I know Annette’s had a lot of fun out in LA, and while we miss her of course, we’re actually having fun of sorts, too.

Thursday was Will’s last soccer practice of the season (his last game is today– more photos etc. to come of that), and the coach asked parents to come to practice ready to play. Considering the fact that I’ve never played soccer before and I was playing against of eight-year-olds, I think I was able to move my fat-assed body around the field pretty well. And it’s something we should have been doing all year– the kids played harder than ever, I think because of the motivation to beat the parents.

Yesterday, Friday, was the last day of school. It started with a rocket launch in the morning. Will knew that as a kid I had done some stuff with model rockets, and so he wanted me to come. Long story short: some faculty from EMU came and did a demo with tiny but still impressive Estes rockets. I hadn’t really been a part of rocket launch in about 25 or 28 years, but what struck me was the “current” model rocket technology is pretty much identical to what I used way back when– same engines, same launch pad, same igniters, same quick and dramatic effect. Go figure.

Anyway, school was out early, so we went out for a special lunch typical of all rising fourth graders, I assume: we had sushi at Yotsuba.

And then, of course, the capper of the greatest day ever, the Estabrook Carnival.

Will Wall ClimbingTo be honest, I have loathed the carnival in the past, and still kinda found it unpleasant this year. But since Will is older (yes, a year makes a big difference at this stage), he doesn’t require a whole lot of supervision. So I spent much of my time chatting with friends and/or the parents of Will’s friends, including my friend and work colleague Jim K. who “volunteered” to work the carnival this year. (Interestingly, he was “bumped” from his presumed role at the duck pond to the much more lame job of supervising the shooting of basketballs in the gym.)

Water WarHighlights included the minigolf (pictured above); a win at the cakewalk (and where Will seemed to exhibit some of the characteristics of gambling addiction since he kept going back and wanting it more after each loss); a less than successful climb on the wall thing, and an exciting water war with friend Gage. For me, the moment that kind of summed it up was Will’s mishap in the “Water War,” captured here as a 2.3 MB mov file. You gotta love a kid who loves having a water balloon blow up in his face….

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What not to eat

I’m not entirely sure why, but this guy who keeps a blog called The Last Angry Young Man has embarked on a week where he has decided to eat nothing but monkey chow. He is keeping track of his adventures (complete with videos!) at a web site called The Monkey Chow Diaries. Funny stuff, and it is another one of those things to write in a memo to myself: don’t eat monkey chow.