Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Wow, where did the week go?

I just looked at my last post and it was all of a week ago. It seems like almost yesterday!

Well, Let me get you caught up on my life here. Last Friday I decided to head on out to Tir Na Nog for some after work music and drinks. The band, Barrowburn was there from 7 - 9p. I have heard them a couple of times and they are really good. They are all superb musicians. They was a new guy that played th guitar and sang while Barrowburn was on break. His first name was TJ, but I can't remember his last name. He was very good. Evidently he is new in town and Annie has been giving him a lot of opportunity to show his stuff. I am not normally a fan of "a man and his guitar" act. The music usually begins to sound all the same after about 4 or 5 songs. This was not the case with TJ. I was really impressed with his music. I was so impressed, that I decided to return on Saturday night when he had a chance to perform a full set. However, before I made it out to Tir Na Nog on Saturday night, I went over to Carborro and met up with Zoe. She took me out to lunch for my birthday. We were going to go to Milltown, but decided at the last minute to go to Tyler's Tavern instead. The beer selection at Tyler's is not as extensive as at Milltown, but the have a much wider variety. Milltown is really known for its selection of Belgian beer. They have some others, but it is mostly Belgian beer.

All in all, a busy weekend during which I spent way to much money at Tir Na Nog. But, it was all worth it.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Mr. Beer,

Well, since it was snowing here and I had the day off already, I decided to pull out the Mr. Beer "keg" that my roomie got for Christmas and see what it can do. It was pretty much the same as the regular beer mixes I have been using from American Brewmasters, just on a smaller scale (about 1/3). The kit came with a can of mix and pouch of "booster". I thought the booster would be malt extract. No, it was just corn sugar. I have an idea how this batch will turn out; relatively weak tasting, with a distinct "apple" taste. It will probably have pretty good alcohol content, though. I'll know in about 2 weeks.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Happy birthday to me!

Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday to me!
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday,
Happy birthday to MEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


(it's tomorrow)

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Happy end of the weekend to you

Well, its the end of another weekend. This one was a little hurried because I had to go up to my Mom's and do the "great puppy swap of 2009". I take care of my Mom's dog while she is in Florida. I got to drive up there Friday night, which, as most people know, was one of the coldest nights on record for many, many years. I am so glad my truck heater works (my last truck didn't have heat). However, the cruise control decided to die about half way through the trip. It has an off-n-on short in it. Its been working pretty consistently for about 2 years now, so I guess I can't complain to much. It went off this afternoon, but luckily, only for about 1/4 of the trip.

Since my birthday is Tues (nice that Obama is throwing me such a big party!), we had my birthday Breakfast this morning. We would have had a regular birthday dinner on Saturday, but my brother and his wife already had plans for another birthday party that night. Instead of a birthday cake, we had birthday cupcakes. Itried to go for muffins, but Mom wanted something more cake-y.

Oh, By the way, I set up a Facebook account last Thursday. Y'all can now find me there also (as well as some of my crazy family).

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

New Beer

Well, its been a little over a week since the Marquise and I bottled the latest batch of beer and it is time for the first tasting. Just to bring everyone up to speed, the last batch of beer was a Munich Bock by Munton's. It is another dark beer. I think it turned out a lot sweeter than it is supposed to. It may not have completely fermented. We had some concern because it stopped bubbling about a day and a half earlier than expected. It is very smooth, however, and only marginally hoppy (however, that may be because it is a pre-mix). It is really not what I expected. It is actually very similar to the Irish Stout we made last time. It is pretty good so far. we'll have to see what the next couple of weeks brings.

On another slightly different topic, I have to tell y'all what happened Tuesday night! One of my roomate's Aunts spent a night here on her way somewhere else (farther east, I think). While she was here, she gave Ralph a slightly late Christmas present. She gave him a Mr Beer brewing kit! It is so cute! It is a 2 gallon container whith a spigot, some plastic bottles and a wee little can of beer mix! I advised her that while I knew she gave it to Ralph, it was actually mine. It'll be interesting to see what I can use it for. I'm thinking cider and maybe some strawberry wine.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Happy Thursday

Happy Thursday to everyone! One more day til the weekend. We have almost made it through another week. Yippee! Just a quick reminder for all of you that are in the RDU area. Hercules Mulligan will be playing tomorrow night at Tir Na Nog. Come on over for a pint and enjoy the music. It is a great way to start the weekend!

Saturday, January 3, 2009

I'm Back.

Sorry for the delay in posting, folks, but with my back being out and the holidays, I just let it slip.
Here is a quick update on what has been going on around here. Below is the scarf that I made for the Marquise. It is crocheted from a metallic-looking yarn called Chiara. While the scarf turned out wonderful, I really do not like crocheting this particular pattern. I made a baby blanket with the same pattern and should have learned my lesson then.

Below is my Christmas present from my Mom. It is a new book out by Drew Emborsky and has some really wonderful patterns in it.


Here is a sweater I made from one of the patterns. The yarn is 75% acrylic and 25% alpaca. Really soft and really comfy.

This is my next project. It is a sweater for one of my roommates. No fancy yarn here, just the good old stand-by, Simply Soft from Caron.


I am heading over to the Marquise's today to bottle the first batch of beer this year. It is a Munich Bock. It looked and smelled wonderful going into the fermenter, we'll have to see how it comes out! It's been waaaaay to long since we brewed out last batch (September, I believe.).