Sunday, September 25, 2005
Mostly an Adventure, but Almost a Fiasco
So last month I gave Paul a bus ticket for his birthday. (No, I didn't send him packing...quick thinking though.) Since it was homemade, it didn't count, but I also reserved 2 spots on the Brew Bus Portland Brewery tour for Septembeer 24th. Finally we could check off a few more breweries from our enormous list!
Yesterday was the big day, so we went downtown to the Lloyd Center Mall Doubletree Hotel & waited for the acclaimed tour guy & local historian, Jim Long. That morning on the phone he told us the tour was going to be a little bit different than normal, but that he though we would really like it. Boy were we in for a surprise - the little difference was that the Brew Bus tour wasn't going to involve a BUS! Instead, his plan was to use public transportation (but not the busses). It was kind of neat, and even a little bit exciting when he neglected to buy us tickets for our Max ride, which faces a $200 fine.
We double-Max'ed over to our first spot, the biggest brewery in the state, Widmer Brothers. We were a little bit disappointed to hear that it's partially owned by Anheuser Busch, but since Widmer was never our fave... It was a really neat modern brewery though. We saw where they fill & label the bottles, make the beer, store the hops, and serve their beer. We both agreed that our tasting samples were just okay.
After that we went to one of the many McMenamin Brothers pubs, the White Eagle. Their beer was pretty good. Jim, the tour guide bought a few pints and split them 5 ways for us to taste, enough to add up to a full pint by the time we left by Taxi for the next place, Amnesia Brewery in the Mississippi District. There we did more of the same, tasting each beer from the lightest to the darkest. It was pretty good too, but I was starting to feel a bit tipsy. Thankfully, as appetizers were promised as part of the tour package, Jim purchased an italian sausage from the grill for us to split 6 ways. Mmmmm, was I full!
Then we took off to the last spot, Tuck's Brewery. We grabbed another cab to the west side & landed in the coolest spot we'd seen all day. Max, the brewmaster, had created a super-giant homebrew set-up (Paul's homebrew gear on steroids). Max only taps his 7-10 brews on Saturdays, and mans the bar himself. We learned a lot from him and he also gave us a spare tapper for free! Tuck's offered some amazing (some would say over-the-top) beers. One tasted like liquid smoke, and another tasted like creamy vanilla-raspberries, which this chick liked a lot (of course). I wish we had started the tour there, because I literally couldn't drink any more beer (ahem, maybe a couple more appetizers would have helped). Anyway, after that stop, our A.R. tour guide hailed another cab back to the starting line. What did we do then? Paul & I took off toward the Pearl district for some food. I wanted to try the most likely of places, Henry's Tavern, known for serving over 100 different beers on tap. Needless to say, I went there for the onion rings.
-Anne
Yesterday was the big day, so we went downtown to the Lloyd Center Mall Doubletree Hotel & waited for the acclaimed tour guy & local historian, Jim Long. That morning on the phone he told us the tour was going to be a little bit different than normal, but that he though we would really like it. Boy were we in for a surprise - the little difference was that the Brew Bus tour wasn't going to involve a BUS! Instead, his plan was to use public transportation (but not the busses). It was kind of neat, and even a little bit exciting when he neglected to buy us tickets for our Max ride, which faces a $200 fine.
We double-Max'ed over to our first spot, the biggest brewery in the state, Widmer Brothers. We were a little bit disappointed to hear that it's partially owned by Anheuser Busch, but since Widmer was never our fave... It was a really neat modern brewery though. We saw where they fill & label the bottles, make the beer, store the hops, and serve their beer. We both agreed that our tasting samples were just okay.
After that we went to one of the many McMenamin Brothers pubs, the White Eagle. Their beer was pretty good. Jim, the tour guide bought a few pints and split them 5 ways for us to taste, enough to add up to a full pint by the time we left by Taxi for the next place, Amnesia Brewery in the Mississippi District. There we did more of the same, tasting each beer from the lightest to the darkest. It was pretty good too, but I was starting to feel a bit tipsy. Thankfully, as appetizers were promised as part of the tour package, Jim purchased an italian sausage from the grill for us to split 6 ways. Mmmmm, was I full!
Then we took off to the last spot, Tuck's Brewery. We grabbed another cab to the west side & landed in the coolest spot we'd seen all day. Max, the brewmaster, had created a super-giant homebrew set-up (Paul's homebrew gear on steroids). Max only taps his 7-10 brews on Saturdays, and mans the bar himself. We learned a lot from him and he also gave us a spare tapper for free! Tuck's offered some amazing (some would say over-the-top) beers. One tasted like liquid smoke, and another tasted like creamy vanilla-raspberries, which this chick liked a lot (of course). I wish we had started the tour there, because I literally couldn't drink any more beer (ahem, maybe a couple more appetizers would have helped). Anyway, after that stop, our A.R. tour guide hailed another cab back to the starting line. What did we do then? Paul & I took off toward the Pearl district for some food. I wanted to try the most likely of places, Henry's Tavern, known for serving over 100 different beers on tap. Needless to say, I went there for the onion rings.
-Anne
Sew-O-Rama
Our new comfy sofa in the basement is now complimented by our new(er) quilt, comfy pillows, & matching window dressings! Not too fancy, but they'll do the trick. The quilt was made from 7-8 pieces of flannel leftover from my lounge pants stitch.
Take note: if you look closely, you can see our next H.I. project lurking behind the curtains. Now for the other 5 rooms...
Monday, September 05, 2005
Little House
We're relieved to report that we've heard from a few more folks from MS/LA since this time last week. There are plenty of friends that we haven't made contact with, but also haven't seen on the Katrina Survivor Connection list. We suppose that either means that they're okay & we're just out of the loop, or they're missing & people who know this don't have access to the internet. We're trying to be patient...
Our last post displayed Aereal photos from NOAA of Bay St. Louis, Long Beach, and Ocean Springs (in that order). Seeing an overhead view of the BSL house, most-likely intact, has triggered my mind-a-churning over what did happen to the Little House (or Lil' house, if you're below the M-D Line). Is the shed still there? I'd loved to have seen it years ago when there was a little outdoor sink attached to it. We know those old Live Oaks next door & across the street must have fallen. Are all the old drippy windows intact? I can't believe that old tin roof stayed put, not to mention the whole house! When we were boarding up for Ivan last year, our landlord told us he bought the house for $25,000 in 1995-ish. Boy how times have changed! Whew, in our 3 years there, we must have brewed 50 gallons of beer, swept up more than 10# of floating cat fur, watched our Dr. Seuss plant grow 2 feet, and turned out a whole crop of yummy mushrooms between the bathroom walls. It was a good pick, & the rent was right!
Anne
Our last post displayed Aereal photos from NOAA of Bay St. Louis, Long Beach, and Ocean Springs (in that order). Seeing an overhead view of the BSL house, most-likely intact, has triggered my mind-a-churning over what did happen to the Little House (or Lil' house, if you're below the M-D Line). Is the shed still there? I'd loved to have seen it years ago when there was a little outdoor sink attached to it. We know those old Live Oaks next door & across the street must have fallen. Are all the old drippy windows intact? I can't believe that old tin roof stayed put, not to mention the whole house! When we were boarding up for Ivan last year, our landlord told us he bought the house for $25,000 in 1995-ish. Boy how times have changed! Whew, in our 3 years there, we must have brewed 50 gallons of beer, swept up more than 10# of floating cat fur, watched our Dr. Seuss plant grow 2 feet, and turned out a whole crop of yummy mushrooms between the bathroom walls. It was a good pick, & the rent was right!
Anne
Friday, September 02, 2005
Wow
Well, we've joined everyone & their brother in deciding that we're tired of squinting at NOAA's aerial photos. We grabbed a few of their maps & marked a few things noted in e-mails from friends. If you ever visited us at Arbor Station in Long Beach or downtown BSL, you might recognize a few things. The image with the "Shadowlawn" label is in Ocean Springs where we got married.
Take a look at our new link on the sidebar, containing full-sized/zoomed out images of these + a few more. You can also look on the NOAA web site to explore the entire Gulf Coast here
We'll leave the rumors up to (other) Blogs & mass media. Let us know if you want any other landmarks noted.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Crater Lake
Hey everybody. As you can see from the title of this one, we spent about 3 days at Crater Lake in the backcountry. We started out on the rim of the lake and after a couple of miles of hiking, we headed west into the backcountry. We intended to do about 25 miles over the three days but due to a lack of water we had to chop it down to about 14. We hiked in about 10 miles or so and set up a base camp on Friday. Then on Saturday we took a couple of day hikes totaling maybe 4 or 5 miles. Then on Sunday we hiked back up to the rim of the lake to make our exit. It was a very beautiful area as you can see. The water was an amazing color of blue and the Cascade range all around was beautiful. Be sure to check out the photo link on the right for more pictures of this great weekend!
Monday, August 29, 2005
Sunday & August
While recovering from another adventurous weekend, this time @ Crater Lake, we found out that our old stompin' ground was about to receive a huge hurricane. It was kind of annoying to continually hear the news drone on about New Orleans - big drama opportunity - when all the models predicted Katrina arriving in our former front yard. We hear that right now there is no communication or thoroughfare to between Bay St. Louis & Biloxi, but we are very curious to see the storm's impact and to hear from our friends. Tomorrow...
The rest of the month-to-date has been pretty busy & exciting too. Paul brewed 2 batches of beer, plus he celebrated the beginning of his 3rd decade on the 19th. Before that, Anne's Mom came & visited for a week! We ate pretty well, toured an open house at Ladds Crossing, hung out, visited a few local parks, drove to the Pacific coast, and did some gardening & extravagant garden planning. This afteroon we recieved a good surprise in the mail too - photos from the week's activities!
The rest of the month-to-date has been pretty busy & exciting too. Paul brewed 2 batches of beer, plus he celebrated the beginning of his 3rd decade on the 19th. Before that, Anne's Mom came & visited for a week! We ate pretty well, toured an open house at Ladds Crossing, hung out, visited a few local parks, drove to the Pacific coast, and did some gardening & extravagant garden planning. This afteroon we recieved a good surprise in the mail too - photos from the week's activities!
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Health Nut
No one knows the hardships of the overweight cat. The Great Gatsby tries to eat a healthy, balanced diet, and get plenty of rest, but nothing seems to work! We think its his thyroid or maybe his metabolism is low.
Plus, as every cat knows, when they hit the big 4, it's like you can't eat anything without it heading straight for your draggy waddle belly. It makes exercising uncomfortable, as the draggy waddle belly tends to skim along the dewy, sharp grass blades whenever running is encited.
Sigh... What makes it even harder is that his brother (he's adopted, but don't tell him) is such an athlete (he must run everywhere) and seems eat as much as he wants. It's just not fair!
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Cone-Heads
Well, my hops finally "grew up" this past weekend. As you can see from the pictures, the cones are fully developed and much bigger than the bracts that used to be in their place. I knew that they were ready when the edges of the cones became slightly browned. Also, when I crushed the cone between my fingers, the yellow lupulin glands were really obvious, both in color and smell. There is nothing
like the smell of fresh hops! I only got about 100 cones this year which is probably only enough for 1 batch of beer. Next year should produce a much larger harvest as the root structure will be better developed. Next stop...The brew kettle.
Monday, August 15, 2005
Da Beach
Again!
We visited Oceanside beach & Meares St. Park with Anne's Mom on Sunday. It was chilly & foggy!
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Race Day
This morning I did my first competitive event in Oregon: the All Womens Duathlon: 5K Run/12.5 mile Bike/5K Run.
I was happy to have my support crew (Paul) along for the race & the post-race party. He took some pics, cheered me on, & shared my pizza.
The experience was very different than any other race I've attended in Mississippi/Louisiana. First, the weather was awesome - I checked weather.com when we got home at noon, and the temp was still below 80, & humidity was @ 30%! Last night I froze a water bottle to use on the bike - the idea is that between the time you take the bottle out of the freezer at 6 am & the time you drink out of it at 9 am, it thaws. Not here though! It was still nearly completely frozen at 8 am. Good thing I brought a back-up!
Another thing was different was the way everybody interacted. I'm used to just doing my thing, maybe saying hello to a few people, and not really having too much conversation with other racers before, during, & after the race. Today I must have talked to over 10-15 other women before, during, and after the race. It was fun, and I'm still wondering what factor changed the way my race went. Hmmm....
Oh yeah, I think I got 5th or 6th place overall, and 3rd in my age group. The girl in blue in the "Finish Line" photo was in my age group - it was close! The results should be up (SOMEday) here.
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Lush
Can you believe the OR Brewers Fest offers (for $25) one official tasting mug, 12 tokens (or 3 beers), an official program, and a pen? As if some beer geek is going to get so wasted on 3 festival beers that he/she needs a pen to check off their booth attendance!! There were some big time geeks there; we almost count.
Our favorite beers: Watermelon Wheat, from the 21st Amemendment Brewery in SF. Paul says it tasted like a Jolly Rancher + wheat beer! Also, the Flying Fish Dubbel Trubbel from some brewery in NJ was awesome. Taastty!
Next year we might volunteer. Free Tokens!
- Anne
Hoppy Days are Here
I guess it's time for an update on my hop vines. Over the past 2 months, they have grown to be about 12 feet in height. In the last two weeks they have started to show growths called burrs. These will eventually become the hop cones that I will use in the beer. Some of the burrs have started to show bracteoles on them (petals). According to my Homebrewers Garden book, it should only be a short time until the cones are fully developed and ready to harvest.
I have two types growing, Cascade (on the left) and Willamette (on the right). The cascade seem to be yielding much more than the Willamette. I'd guess I have about 100 burrs in total (probably only enough for 2 batches).
The first year always has a pretty low yield, but next year I will have enough that I will need to store them in the freezer. I'll do another update at harvesting time.
- Paul
Mmmm, Beer!
Yesterday we went to the Oregon Brewers Festival. It's probably the biggest one of the year. I believe they had about 75 beers on tap to try (though we couldn't possibly try them all...or could we?). It was located right on the river in downtown Portland. Besides beers to taste, there were all sorts of booths set up with information about hop growing, brewing set-ups, and brewing clubs. Very Cool!
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Excuse #223
We've (okay, just me - Anne - since I'm the one who wrote that dumb "post resolution") been busted. Again.
Not that there are any excuses in there, but in a nutshell, this was our last week and a half.
Last weekend we were sooooooo productive. In the morning I taught 2 of my 19 Baby Boot Camp classes of the week (usually I do a managable 7) and Paul got groceries and cleaned the house some. We grabbed lunch at the famous Otto's Sausage place in Woodstock and then went to Paul's boss' house to buy her Window AC (just in time for the 90's on Mon.). Then we went and picked up a U-Haul & on to get our new Futon Sofa. After we came home with our new sofa, THEN we loaded up the remains of our fmr. bathroom: sink, linoleum, Throne, cabinets, bath tile, and other misc. junk. When we left the Metro Trash Center, we weighed in at 800 pounds less than when we entered. It was a very organized place, and we got to unload the trash. Paul & I took turns seeing who could launch our trash the farthest.
Whew! I think we just hung out on Sunday, leaving plenty of time to post a Blog. Instead, I just added this item to our Blog Wish List:
http://www.meowmeowboulder.com/dial-an-excuse.html
The rest of the week was a blur: I ran all over the city teaching the rest of my class schedule - got in three 1-hour workouts per day sometimes. Paul droned on to work every morning @ 5:45, and got back at 4:00. Who knows WHAT he actually does there, but he's always pretty tired. (Maybe its all that late-night Big Brother viewing).
Friday (yesterday) was neat too. I got to meet Paul's co-workers at the company picnic. It was a great deal, and fun. Paul didn't even have to go to work as long as he got to the picnic site by 10:00 for the awards presentation. After we ate they had prize drawings, a water balloon toss, Bingo, & a fun run/walk! We left at 2:00 and Paul didn't have to go back to work, fill out leave slips, or do anything like NAVO required! Welcome to the Army!
After the picnic we met a guy south of the city in Wilsonville - love the traffic: 20 miles in 90 minutes! He wanted to see our Civic that we're trying to sell. It ended up being worth the trip. He's sending a check to our bank on Monday. Yay, we're loan free! Oh yeah, except for that pesky mortgate.
So now its Saturday. We're headed to the Oregon Brew Festival on the waterfront. We'll post pictures later (but I'm not making any promises - they jinx me!).
Cheers!
- Anne
Not that there are any excuses in there, but in a nutshell, this was our last week and a half.
Last weekend we were sooooooo productive. In the morning I taught 2 of my 19 Baby Boot Camp classes of the week (usually I do a managable 7) and Paul got groceries and cleaned the house some. We grabbed lunch at the famous Otto's Sausage place in Woodstock and then went to Paul's boss' house to buy her Window AC (just in time for the 90's on Mon.). Then we went and picked up a U-Haul & on to get our new Futon Sofa. After we came home with our new sofa, THEN we loaded up the remains of our fmr. bathroom: sink, linoleum, Throne, cabinets, bath tile, and other misc. junk. When we left the Metro Trash Center, we weighed in at 800 pounds less than when we entered. It was a very organized place, and we got to unload the trash. Paul & I took turns seeing who could launch our trash the farthest.
Whew! I think we just hung out on Sunday, leaving plenty of time to post a Blog. Instead, I just added this item to our Blog Wish List:
http://www.meowmeowboulder.com/dial-an-excuse.html
The rest of the week was a blur: I ran all over the city teaching the rest of my class schedule - got in three 1-hour workouts per day sometimes. Paul droned on to work every morning @ 5:45, and got back at 4:00. Who knows WHAT he actually does there, but he's always pretty tired. (Maybe its all that late-night Big Brother viewing).
Friday (yesterday) was neat too. I got to meet Paul's co-workers at the company picnic. It was a great deal, and fun. Paul didn't even have to go to work as long as he got to the picnic site by 10:00 for the awards presentation. After we ate they had prize drawings, a water balloon toss, Bingo, & a fun run/walk! We left at 2:00 and Paul didn't have to go back to work, fill out leave slips, or do anything like NAVO required! Welcome to the Army!
After the picnic we met a guy south of the city in Wilsonville - love the traffic: 20 miles in 90 minutes! He wanted to see our Civic that we're trying to sell. It ended up being worth the trip. He's sending a check to our bank on Monday. Yay, we're loan free! Oh yeah, except for that pesky mortgate.
So now its Saturday. We're headed to the Oregon Brew Festival on the waterfront. We'll post pictures later (but I'm not making any promises - they jinx me!).
Cheers!
- Anne
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Oops
Its been 8 days since we last posted a Blog (This one counts, BTW).
We're turning over a new leaf - from now on, we'll post no less than every six days!
We're turning over a new leaf - from now on, we'll post no less than every six days!
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