More Beer!

If you have not noticed, beer is a recurring theme on my blog lately. Well, what can I say. I've got a new hobby. I'm a kid in a candy store. I'm the proverbial happy pig in the mud! And guess what? this is gonna be another post about BEER.
The Marquise and I bottled our second batch of beer last night. Everything went a lot smoother than last time. We got a bottle filler from the store and that helped tremendously. What a great invention. It is basically a long tube with a spring loaded valve at one end. You connect the free end to the bucket-o-beer with tubing and insert the other end into the beer bottle. You press the spring down against the bottom of the bottle and the valve opens up and fills the bottle up with beer. When the bottle is full, you just lift up the contraption and the beer flow stops. Wonderful!!!!
We did make a couple of changes to the beer this time around. Instead of using raw cane sugar, we used corn sugar. It is really interesting the difference in taste between the two sugars. The cane sugar mixture was a lot sweeter and the beer foamed up a lot more. The cane sugar produced a beer that had a slight "cidery" taste to it. The corn sugar is a lot mellower and there was almost no foaming during the bottling. I guess that is actually the way it is supposed to be, but so far, with the preliminary tasting, I think I liked the cane sugar a little better. I'll give a final review when the new beer is ready (about 3 weeks).
Now for any beer purists out there, yes, I know beer is not supposed to have sugar added to it. But, give us a break we are just starting out here. The Marquise and I decided to start out simple and easy. We wanted to get a couple of batches under our belts before we started on the more complicated recipes. I have already picked out another type of beer mix to try, so we will probably stay with the KISS method for the next batch also and then gradually get more complicated. Hopefully more complicated will equal better beer (even outstanding beer, maybe). I think our next step will be to substitute malt extract for the corn sugar. The question with that is what type of malt extract do we use and how much?

The Saga of the Braces Continues

It's been a while since I talked about the trials and tribulations of my orthodontically challenged teeth. Everything has been going pretty well so far, it really is quite amazing how quickly my teeth are moving around. It has gotten into a pretty boring routine. Every couple of weeks I go into the office and I get new wires and "chains" (they are plastic links that go between the teeth; no more rubber bands). My teeth immediately start to hurt all over again. They hurt for a couple of weeks and then settle down just in time to start everything all over again. A nice routine, until this past appointment. The orthodontist told me I needed to go to an oral surgeon to have some work done on my lower front gums. I need more support so that the four front teeth could be moved forward. Yeah, more fun!

Well, I had my surgery on Wednesday. I took the day off because I knew I wouldn't want to go back to work afterwards. My appointment was at 11:30. I got there a little early, just in case I had to do any extra paperwork. Luckily, I didn't. I was called back right around 1130; I thought this was going to be a really quick procedure. WRONG! Well, not exactly wrong. The procedure was not particularly long. The long part was waiting for the blasted surgeon for about 45 minutes AFTER he had numbed me. I was just getting ready to tell the assistant that we needed to reschedule when the doctor had more time when he came back. The Doctor comes in and starts immediately to work. No "sorry for the wait", no explanation, no "how are you doing Mr Lemis", nothing. I've had quickies in the bushes that were more talkative.

Well, I finally got out of there at 130p. 2 hours for a procedure that probably should have only taken about an hour. I made a quick run to Wendy's for one of their "shakes" ( I'll remember the name in a minute) and headed on home. I slept for about 2 hours and then picked up prescriptions and headed back home. Last night was predictably horrible, but today was much better than I thought it would be. It was a little uncomfortable from time to time, but I didn't have anywhere near the problems talking on the phones all day that I thought I would. So far everything looks really good. The added graft to the front of my gums has filled out my chin a little. I like the way it looks now.

FROSTY!!!!!!!! thats the word! Told ya I'd remember.

Beer and NASCAR

I have to say "God Bless the Marquise". She is my beer brewing buddy lately and (I'm not sure how this happened) we have been getting together on Sundays to drink our beer or brew our beer. For those of you who have not seen her blog, let me tell you one thing about her. She LOVES NASCAR. She is about as fanatical as one can be without getting scary. For those of you who have not yet experienced the joy that is home brewing, I'll give you one little insight, it takes a while. It is not a process that you can complete in an hour. I'm not even talking about the fermenting. There is quite a bit of prep work involved and a little longer "wait" time, just sitting around waiting for the wort to cool of enough to add the yeast. So, since we happen to be brewing on a Sunday AND we have all this extra time, the Marquise has been patiently explaining the weirdness that is NASCAR to me. Every time I think I'm getting a handle on the rules, mores, lingo, you name it, she throws something else at me that screws up my understanding of this phenomenon. She is trying, though. Trying really hard. The good thing about having the Marquise explain anything to you is that you get the full unabridged version. No Cliff notes for her. Not only did I get the recent events, I received instruction in the past glories, rivalries, wrecks and fisticuffs that had occurred over the past 20 years or so. I had to stop her when she started into everyone's wives, children and possible sexual orientation (OK, I didn't stop her on that one) . So far I have learned that the pit crew cannot let the tires go bouncing away, that there are no "passing" rules (it always looked to me like someone would just get out of the way all of a sudden). I'm still trying to figure out how they determine who is in 1st (especially after a major pit stop). Which I guess is really the most important part of the whole damn thing, isn't it? I'm still working on it though. The cars go round and round and round and round and...........

Beer, Beer, Beer

The beer that the Marquise and I started last month was ready for the "official" tasting last weekend. I have to admit that some of it turned out really good. Unfortunately, some of it also turned out pretty bad. I personally think that the smaller batch (see posting from Jan for explanation) produced a better tasting beer. I think the larger batch got contaminated with some bacteria or something. It seems that a lot of the bottles from the big batch have a really odd bitter taste to them. I asked the Marquise to taste some that she kept (we split all the bottles between us) from the large batch to see what she thinks about it. I tend to drink a little more beer than she does, which is why I got to the other batch first.
We have already started planning out next batch. We will probably stay with the same type of beer, but make a few modifications. I also think we should ask a lot more questions when we go to American Brewmaster. I think we now know what questions to even begin to ask.

Vacation!!!

Sorry for the delay in writing folks, but I was on vacation from 08 Feb to 16Feb. I took my yearly trip down to Key Colony Beach, Fl. Key Colony Beach is a small (very small) man-made island city in the Florida keys. The island was made about 50 years ago by dredging and filling in a shallow area just off shore of Marathon island. It is, understandably, mostly vacation homes. My mother and two of her best friends from High School have been renting a place down there for about the last 9 years. My trip this year was a little more eventful than usual, I was pick-pocketed. My wallet was stolen the first day I was down there. I had made the first of my two day trips to Key West and I was in one of the bars down there that evening when it was stolen. Luckily, I had planned on using my credit card for most things and did not have a lot of cash on me. Of course, I had to call up the credit card people and the bank people to cancel my cards. I also had to have my roommate FedEx my passport down to me so that I could get on the return flight. The rest of the week was relatively uneventful. What can you say about spending time with family and friends, having good food and wonderful weather?

Sunset Beach Club, Key Colony Beach, FL


The Memorial to the victims of the battleship Maine in the Key West Cemetery. The Maine exploded in Havana harbor in Feb of 1898 under suspicious circumstances. I do not believe the exact chain of events has ever been determined.


When I made my return plans, I was going to ride up with another friend to the Ft Lauderdale airport so I wouldn't have to pay for a bus up. My mom had said that Pat's plane was leaving in the mid afternoon. Well, he actually left around 12p and he had to have his car back by 1030a. My flight was not until 8p. Since I was in Ft Lauderdale, I decided to take the city bus out to the beaches. I was a little wary of doing this because I thought I'd have to do a lot of transfers and stuff. I had 1 transfer and it cost 2.50 each way. I spent the whole day on the beach. Just me and my luggage! I'm sure I looked like the best dressed homeless person around! Below is a sample of the scenery at the beach.



Sunset park at Key Colony Beach.

A Busy Weekend.

I didn't finish up my blog about last weekend. I know, its a little late, but at least the weekend hasn't rolled around again.
I covered Friday night in the previous post, so I am now on to Saturday night. The night started with dinner down at The Borough restaurant downtown. This was the first time either of us had been there. I had heard some good things about, so we decided to give it a try. I was very impressed when we entered, it has a very upscale yet comfy feeling to it. I was actually kinda expecting something a little more pretentious. I'm glad that was definitely not the case. I know the Marquise was happy with the place as soon as she saw that they had some Aussie wines. She ordered a burger for dinner and I got the meatball sub special. The Marquise really liked her burger. I, however, was not impressed with the sub special. The meatballs were bland and the marinara sauce was weak. They did have a killer chocolate dessert cocktail. The after dinner cocktail almost made up for dinner. I'll give them another try in the near future.
After dinner, the Marquise and I went over to the piano bar over at CCs. The wife of one of the Hercules Mulligan crew was performing there, Heather Patterson King. If I didn't like both of them so much, I would complain that its not fair that one family should have so much talent. Heather had sung some with the Mulligans, but she always held back, tried to blend in, that sort of stuff. I have to admit that from what I had heard there, I wasn't much impressed. It is frightening how wrong I can be sometimes. I was blown away from the first song she performed that night. She performed a mix of standards, blues, and some show tunes (it is a gay bar, after all). The music started at 10p and ended at 1a. I have to say, it was one of the most enjoyable evenings of music I have had in a long while.
I do need to mention the pianist there on Saturday, Jay wright. His talent is equally as impressive. Whenever Heather needed a short break, Jay was there to continue the entertainment. I have to admit, that my knowledge of the piano is pretty much limited to the "accompaniment" aspect. It was pretty much there to keep the chorus on pitch. It was a real eye-opener watching Jay perform. I found myself anticipating the portions of the songs where Jay could really let his talent shine. I certainly look forward to hearing him and Heather perform again.

A Busy Weekend.

The Marquise and I had a full schedule this past weekend. We went to Kilt night out at Tir Na Nog downtown on Friday night. They had two bands there, Old Blind Dog and Seven Nations. The original plan was to meet there early enough to get some dinner and then catch the shows. Things got a little off schedule, which is not that uncommon when dealing with the Marquise. Bless her little heart, but she's gonna be late for her own funeral. I decided to order some wings to get started. I should have known better. After wings and a couple of Guinnesses, I was no longer hungry (mostly because of the Guinness). The Marquise ordered a loaded potato. Actually, considering neither of us particularly care for the food at Tir Na Nog, I guess it worked out OK.

The first band was Old Blind Dog. They are a Scottish band that has a full touring schedule this winter here in the States. I guess it is better touring here in January and February that in Scotland. This was the first time I have had the opportunity to see them. I am very impressed. Usually, the first time you hear a band (especially one with a thick Scottish accent) it can be a little difficult to understand the lyrics. I had very little problems hearing (and understanding) the lyrics. The Marquise and I bought on of their CDs and I had a chance to listen to it today. I am even more impressed with their CD. I certainly hope I get a chance to see this band again.

Old Blind Dog

Old Blind Dog and some local dancers


The second band up was Seven Nations. They are a rock/celtic/Scottish band. They are a bit to rock for my taste (ears). At least in a relatively closed space like Tir Na Nog. I am listening to their website while I'm typing this and while the recording is not the best quality, it is much better than what I heard Friday night. The lead vocals were muffled, the volume was up so loud that it was hard to concentrate on the individual musicians. You know there is something wrong when the bagpipes get drowned out. They sounded like they were trying to outplay each other. The Marquise and I left during their break. They do, however, seem to have quite a local following around here. Maybe it was just a bad night for them.


Seven nations and audience participation.