Category: Life

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Not 40 yet party a successful kick-off to my “birthday week”

One thing that I regret from my “not 40 yet” birthday party last night was I forgot to get out my digital camera and snap some picts. Just as well I suppose, since the crowd that was here last night, mostly fellow faculty members and teachers at EMU, isn’t exactly the kind of people who like to have pictures of themselves partying circulating out in the blog-o-sphere or in places like MySpace or Facebook.

Though as an aside, wouldn’t that be kind of funny? I’m telling ya, if parents out there scared of MySpace of Facebook or whatever really want to stop the kids from using those things, the smartest thing they could do is start posting stuff there themselves. Because once the “grown-ups” start using those things, it is so un-cool.

Anyway, we had a great time. A few memories/thoughts/recollections in no particular order:

  • My friends from way WAY back in the day, Troy and Lisa, were able to make it all the way from Chicago. Well, they were actually coming from Lansing, where they were visiting family, and we were kind of a convenient pit-stop. But it was fantastic that they were able to make it. I’ve known Troy since seventh grade, I’ve known Lisa since high school, I was the best man at their wedding, etc., etc. Good times, and it was great they could be here.
  • Lots and lots and LOTS of food, too much food, it turned out. Spinach pie, jalepeno poppers, onion fritters, cheeses, veggies, sushi, dips, chips, cookies, etc., etc., etc.
  • I got a few cool gifts, even though I wasn’t asking for any. Carol and Clayton gave me a lovely picture book/poetry book; Cheryl gave me a nice plant; a number of people gave me various alcoholic beverages (I’m not sure exactly what that’s supposed to say).
  • I got a few fun/funny/goofy gifts, too. Laura gave me this old inspirational/advice book from the 1930s called Life Begins at Forty. Oddly, there appears to have been a movie made of this book. Christine H. gave me some cards, which she informed me were a “re-gifting” item, and she also gave me some sort of Asian dried food product in a bag that she thought was attractive. The food product served as a fine party game at the end of the evening. Everyone left tried one in order to guess what it was; this morning, sober and in better light, it seems to me like they are some sort of date. I thought they tasted vaguely like petroleum.
  • Rachel brought a cake that she baked. It was quite yummy, and I was able to cut it up and distribute it and avoid the singing of “Happy Birthday.”
  • The kids, sent to their own “party” in the basement, broke into a stash of fruit roll-ups. Rather amusing.
  • I drank plenty and had lots of fun, but to tell the truth, I am more “tired” than hung-0ver from my excess. Which is good.
  • Without sounding all hokey about it all, nights like last night give me comfort in that Annette and Will and I have a lot of good friends.

Like I said, an excellent start to birthday week. I say “birthday week” because it seems to me that one day is not nearly enough time to celebrate a birthday. Frankly, I would prefer a “birthday month” (Lisa told me at brunch this morning that a friend of hers was trying to advance the concept of the “birthday year” celebration– that might be going too far), but Annette wasn’t going for that, so a week seems like a fair compromise.

And practically-speaking, it really is a “birthday week.” I’m going to be at a conference from Tuesday to Friday of next week, and much of that adventure will basically be a party, and I’m hoping to celebrate my “real” birthday on Saturday with the family here. That’s a week right there.

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Hmmm…. Doughnut Burger….

Doughnut Burger?

On the Colbert Report tonight, they had a little report on about something that’s being served at some minor league baseball park that is essentially a cheeseburger with a Krispy Kreme doughnut as a bun.

Now, look: I’m all about the cheeseburgers, and I’m all about the Krispy Kreme. Together? I dunno, that sounds kinda gross.

Though maybe it has a “sweet ‘n salty” kinda thing, like the pretzels in Chubby Hubby ice cream….

Click here to see a more complete story.

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The Beer Watcher: Hmmm, it’s beer….

Beer!

Well, here is is, real beer, the homebrew that I had a very modest part in. Actually, I first opened one of these babies late Wednesday night after we got back home after a long flight home from Florida. I mentioned it in an email to brewmaster Bill and fellow beer watcher Steve B., and Bill asked “Well, where’s the blog entry?”

Okay, here ya go.

A few more details, at least a rating according to this stuff on ratebeer.com:

  • Appearance: As you can see here in the picture, damn, it looks like beer. Real beer, the kind you might buy at a store and everything. When I opened it, it had a satisfying “thwack” sound when the cap popped off. Nice color (a wee-bit cloudy), nice head, and yes, the carbonation worked out great.
  • Aroma: Yep, smells like beer. A nice hoppy IPA, straight-forward though not over-powering at all.
  • Palate: I’m a little fuzzy on the directions for this category, but I guess I’d say smooth and gentle, full, rich, ah, beer-y.
  • Flavour: Who are these people at ratebeer.com, Canadians? Brits? What’s with the “u” in flavo(u)r? Anyway, it very much reminds me of Bell’s Two Hearted Ale, which was the goal of the recipe that we bought oh so long ago. There’s a sort of subtle sweetness there, and again, a pleasant richness.
  • Overall: Darn good beer, a brew that not only tastes great on its own terms, but it has what I would describe as a satisfying freshness. And hey, it doesn’t hurt that it’s homemade.

We’re having a party here in a couple of weeks, and it’s going to be touch and go to see if there is any of that beer left. Hmm, beer….

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Random thoughts on The Oscars (TM)

Before I get out the door and go to school….

  • I thought Jon Stewart and his whole Daily Show-like approach to the show was great. Hollywood needs a good smart-ass.
  • We actually saw two movies that won Oscars this year: Crash and Wallace and Grommit. Go figure. Both of them were really good, for obviously different reasons.
  • Personally, I don’t think people voted “against” Brokeback Mountain as much as the running was probably split three or four ways and Crash came out on top. But I don’t have any unique insight on this.
  • We haven’t seen Brokeback Mountain; actually, we almost went to it, but we went and saw Goodnight, and Good Luck instead (also a great movie). To be honest, I’m not that interested in Seeing Brokeback Mountain, though I’m sure we’ll rent it at some point. This is probably obvious, but it has nothing to do with the “gay thing” for either me or Annette. Rather, it has more to do with the “love story” “cowboy/western” thing, two film elements that really are not on my “must see” list. I mean, if it was a hetro couple getting it on in a love that was “denied” in some way, I’d probably never see it.
  • I thought “the academy” has a lot of nerve bitching about DVD sales (which they did directly and indirectly in a couple of different segments last night) when a) the vast majority of movies nominated for the Oscar this year don’t really demand the “big screen,” b) movies that really do look good on the big screen are typically passed over for Oscars (The Revenge of the Sith, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, King Kong okay, okay, King Kong did win a bunch of awards for special effects), c) actually “going” to the movies is an increasingly unpleasant and expensive experience, and d) DVD sales are what is saving Hollywood’s dropping box-office numbers collective ass right now.
  • Thing #1 to remember if I ever win an Oscar: be sure to thank my wife and son before I thank anyone else.
  • Thing #2 to remember if I ever win an Oscar: if I win and then go up on stage with the person I won with (a co-writer, a co-producer, etc.), then I either want to talk first or I want to make damn sure that the first person doesn’t ramble on so long as to cut the second person off.
  • It is indeed still “Hard Out Here for a Pimp.” Afterall, Phil Collins beat out “Blame Canada” a few years ago….
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Well, duh… or is that doh?


You Are a Glazed Donut


Okay, you know that you’re plain – and you’re cool with that.
You prefer not to let anything distract from your sweetness.
Your appeal is understated yet universal. Everyone dig you.
And in a pinch, you’ll probably get eaten.

(Kind of a so-so quiz; I stumbled across it while commenting on a student blog and it distracted me and….)

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The Beer Watcher: Brewing (really, bottling), part 3

How is the beer making going, you ask? Well, I am reminded of one of the audience call and response bits in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. There’s a part where Frank-n-furter is adding weird chemicals/food coloring to the vat where his creation, Rocky, is being, ah, created. Half the audience calls out “Is it soup yet?” The other half responds “Not yet!” This goes on until Rocky’s head is revealed, at which point everyone yells “It’s soup!!”

So, is it beer yet? Not yet! (but almost).

We went through the last step in the process this past Sunday at Bill H-D’s place– the last step besides seriously drinking, that is– which is bottling. Here’s a run-down of what happened:

Beer 1
First off, this is it, what has been sitting around for about a month now: this, my friends, is beer. At least it’s beer still in the carboy (that’s what you call the big jar) with all the hops and other miscellaneous “stuff” floating around in there– again, think flavor crystals– and before bottling and subsequent additional aging (and carbonation). The little doo-hicky at the top is the air lock, which allows gases to escape (conveniently preventing an explosion) and yet prevents air from getting in.

Now, the first step in bottling is cleaning and sterilizing the bottles.

Beer 2
Here’s Bill getting bottles out of the dishwasher.

Beer 3
And here’s the sanitation assembly line. I handed a bottle to Bill (seated), who filled it with the food-grade sterilizing solution (which is in the same container we will later use to fill the bottles with beer), and he handed it to Steve B.

Beer 4
Man, I love to sanitize!

Beer 5
After we were done sanitizing (and thus we now had an empty and sterilized bucket), it was time for bottling. In this picture, I am adding the “priming” mixture (I believe just disolved corn syrup and water) to the bucket. The idea here is that the remaining yeast in the beer will be reactivated in the bottles, thus producing carbonation and more complete beer-y goodness. In the background, you can see Bill holding the siphoning apparatus.

Beer 6
This is where gravity comes into play: Bill has stuck one end of the siphoning hose into the carboy with the beer. Connected to the hose is a long plastic tube which has a filter on it (the hops and other flavor crystals have done their job) and which reaches to the bottom of the carboy. In the hose, Bill has added a bit of water. He dropped the hose with a bit of water into the bucket, that started sucking out the beer, and thus beer started moving from the carboy to the bucket, as seen here:

Beer 7
I feel I look especially fat and stupid in this picture, but I thought it was useful to a siphoning photo, and I look even more idiotic in this picture. The point is that with our friend gravity (it’s not just a theory, it’s the law), the carboy was empty in a matter of minutes. Keep this in mind if you have to siphon gas or something– much more pleasant than sucking on the hose.

Beer 8
Here’s Bill working to suck out every last drop, though I think we still ended up with a good five bottles worth of beer stuck in the sludge.

Beer 9
So we sampled a tad of beer to test the alcohol content with the hydrometer (around 7% alcohol, if I recall)….

Beer 10
… the color of the beer is admired…

Beer 11
.. and the beer is sampled. Actually, I kid with this look where I was going for a sort of pirate-like “ARRRRGGGG!” It’s very very tasty beer, much like Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale, as was promised by the recipe we picked out. And of course we get to taste the satisfaction of the home-made brew.

Then, it was bottling time.

Beer 12
Basically, it was pretty much a repeat of the sanitizing process: I hand Bill a bottle, he fills it with beer, and he passes it to Steve B. There was one additional step though:

Beer 13
The bottles were capped. On Alton Brown’s Good Eats episode where he makes beer, he poo-poos the capping thing in favor of those Grolsch-styled bottle stoppers that attach to the top. Maybe, but I have to say the capper is pretty cool.

Beer 14
The old hops/brewing spooge was dumped out of the carboy, some things were cleaned up, and:

Beer 15
Beer.

Steve B. and I took our individual cases (really, about 16 beers I think– we ended up with a little less than expected), and then it was time to (what else?) go out and have some beers and lunch. The whole process took us about 2 and half hours, considerably quicker than it took Bill the last time he did this all alone.

So, was it worth it? Will I do it again? Well, I don’t think it’s worth it for me to go out and buy a kit of my own. But it is a pleasant-enough social activity, and Bill and Steve B. and I are already talking about another round of brewing (this time at Steve B.’s house since he has a bigger kitchen), perhaps a lovely wheat ale. In the mean-time, it’s a couple of weeks in the bottle and then drinkin’ time.

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The Beer Watcher: Brewing, part 2

Technically, I believe the process is called “racking.” Neither Steve B. nor I were there, so here’s the report from our beer master, Bill H-D:

Ok, the beer has been racked to the secondary fermentation vessel. All went well. No spills, no drops. Our still immature little IPA has quite a lot of character already – it is way more hoppy and “dry” tasting than Taste the Joy was. No off flavors or spoilage that I could pick up during the taste test either. So we are on track. In about 10 days, I’ll start testing the specific gravity to see where we are with alcohol content.

Bill uploaded pictures to his flickr account; here they are:

racking 1
First, there’s the cleaning (I hope he cleaned the tub before this…)

racking 2
Second, there’s the “dry hopping,” where Bill is pouring even more dry hops into this big glass bottle called a carboy.

racking 3
Here Bill is preparing the siphoning set-up, the so-called “racking” of the wort from the fermentation bucket to the carboy, which is now on the floor.

racking 4
“Siphon action,” as Bill labels it.

racking 5
Here the wort is getting sucked out of the fermentation bucket. That residue on the side of the bucket at the top? Flavor crystals, my friend.

racking 6
This is Bill taste-testing the beer– the label on Bill’s Flickr site is “taste test, mmmm, hoppy!”

racking 7
And here is the wort in the carboy ready for secondary fermentation, which will generate even more rich beer-y goodness.

As witnessed in photos, it looks to me like this is what Bill said it was: probably the least time-consuming part of the process. Right now, it looks like we’ll bottle a couple weekends from now. Stay tuned….

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What’s so funny?

After we got home from a lovely party at Andre’s and Stephanie’s place last night (and by the way, thanks for a great time, thanks for all the scotch, sorry about that glass– I’m not sure if it was Jim knocking into me or if I just dropped it or what– nice pictures, I guess I missed the blood gushing out of the kid’s leg, and there’s nothing like a night of excess to re-start a proper eating and exercise program), we went home and watched The Aristocrats. We rented it Friday and had intended to watch it the night before last, but we were too pooped, and we had originally intended to watch it Sunday or something. But we got home early enough and Andre was so enthusisastic about at the party (and on his blog), we decided to watch it last night.

We were disappointed.

Most of my loyal readers are probably familiar with the basic premise of the movie, but just in case you’re not: the movie is a documentary/comedy about an infamous dirty joke comedians tell each other, in which a family goes to a talent agent, performs some disgusting act (it inevitably involves incest, blood, beastiality, etc., etc.), and then ends with the same basic punchline: “The talent agent asked ‘what do you call the act?’ The man answered ‘The Aristocrats.'” The comedy comes in the middle portion of the joke, and this is where comedians try to out-do each other in terms of coming up with disgusting things that make up the act.

Now, I should point out that I don’t think neither Annette nor I were offended. I mean, we knew what we were getting ourselves into. And I like dirty jokes just fine. But I dunno, to me, this just didn’t live up to the hype.

Don’t get me wrong– it’s definitely worth a rental, and there were moments that were pretty good. And as a documentary, I thought it was pretty effective and interesting, a sort of “behind the scenes” look at the craft of comedy. But I guess I found it more “interesting” than “funny.”

I suppose it’s just a matter of tastes. Andre talks on his blog about how he thought Anchorman didn’t live up to the hype, but I still will sit and watch that when it crops up on HBO (which it does quite frequently). If you ask me, that’s comedy….