2010 Has been a fantastic year for many reasons, the biggest one, my marriage to the former Ms. Davis. This year brought many fantastic things and ideas my way, and making them a part of my day to day has been an interesting journey that I am excited to continue.
Here's the breakdown:
Best:
Movie: Inception, I love movies that make you think. It didn't fall, right?
TV Show: Another year another season of TrueBlood. Its the only show I watch and I still love it. Season 3 fantastically better than two which in hindsight was less good than the first.
Concert: Third Eye Blind, This was a fantastic show from a band nobody knew was still around, these guys rock.
Album: I only bought one Album in 2010. No winners this year.
Song: Broken Bells - The Ghost Inside
Game: Angry Birds. Wow, I still can't stop playing.
Book: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, easy choice, this book was great.
Gadget: HTC EVO, this has changed my life.
Bar Night: Wisconsin Dells, $2 Jameson, dancing, and other things I can't remember.
Getaway: Spain.
Garden Growth: Sweet Potatoes!
Alcohol Fermenting Tour: The bus tour in Catalonia wine country.
Events of Note:
Random: Running as a hobby was (re?)started.
Obsession: Farmville. I'm still embarrassed with how much time I spent with it.
Newsworthy: Our corrupt Illinois governor getting ousted from office.
There are a lot of great reasons to look forward to in 2011. One of the bigge$t $adly can't be mentioned on the very public interweb$. I am also resolving to write more blog entries than I did in 2010, keeping my faithful readers better up to date on my life. Laura and I already have some exciting things planned for the upcoming year and I look forward to seeing what more it can throw at me.
2011, here I come.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Hows my little Pumpkin Brewer?
Another autumn another pumpkin beer. Last year, it was such a success we decided we ought to repeat our attempt, with a few modifications. Also I was so excited about it that I decided to make a double batch of the good stuff.
We ran into several great opportunities to learn from because of our modifications. Last year we decided we wanted an even stronger pumpkin flavor and to go a little easier on the spices. It was a good balance before, but we decided there was room for improvement. This year to create a stronger pumpkin flavor we opted for a pumpkin puree which worked great! Sort of. I imagined baking/grilling the pumpkins then a quick hop into the food processor and we would be set. Not so. Our food processor quickly turned it to mush but nothing circulated so it was still quite chunky and sticky, so we ended up mushing the pumpkins by hand.
Next up we steeped the puree and had a much better result than last year.
Ryan gratefully lent his wort chiller for the project and boy that works so much better than my lame method. Although it was a bit creative in construction the fact that it worked was great was all that mattered.
Sadly with this batch I learned the hard way that one needs to be quick with their wort after it has been chilled in two ways. Number one get the yest into the primary quick. Letting it hang out in open air after its been chilled is bad news. Number two, try and control the temperature in the house a bit better to get the beer ferment quicker. Since we made this in the fall we didn't really have the heat on and the house was never that warm. Also a yest starter may have helped. These things led to a very sad morning about 4 days after the initial boil.
Those spots aren't bubbles, its mold.
Thankfully the other batch began to bubble the day the first batch molded and we were able bottle without incident. It's not quite as good as last year and at this point I'm not sure how I will be to improve it, but I have a few ideas. Also for some reason this beer in incredibly foamy, pouring it without a 5 inch head is next time impossible to accomplish. It makes me think it may not have fermented long enough so I'll have to look that one up sometime.
In the meantime, here is a shot of 2010's Pumpkin Beer:
We ran into several great opportunities to learn from because of our modifications. Last year we decided we wanted an even stronger pumpkin flavor and to go a little easier on the spices. It was a good balance before, but we decided there was room for improvement. This year to create a stronger pumpkin flavor we opted for a pumpkin puree which worked great! Sort of. I imagined baking/grilling the pumpkins then a quick hop into the food processor and we would be set. Not so. Our food processor quickly turned it to mush but nothing circulated so it was still quite chunky and sticky, so we ended up mushing the pumpkins by hand.
Next up we steeped the puree and had a much better result than last year.
Ryan gratefully lent his wort chiller for the project and boy that works so much better than my lame method. Although it was a bit creative in construction the fact that it worked was great was all that mattered.
Sadly with this batch I learned the hard way that one needs to be quick with their wort after it has been chilled in two ways. Number one get the yest into the primary quick. Letting it hang out in open air after its been chilled is bad news. Number two, try and control the temperature in the house a bit better to get the beer ferment quicker. Since we made this in the fall we didn't really have the heat on and the house was never that warm. Also a yest starter may have helped. These things led to a very sad morning about 4 days after the initial boil.
Those spots aren't bubbles, its mold.
Thankfully the other batch began to bubble the day the first batch molded and we were able bottle without incident. It's not quite as good as last year and at this point I'm not sure how I will be to improve it, but I have a few ideas. Also for some reason this beer in incredibly foamy, pouring it without a 5 inch head is next time impossible to accomplish. It makes me think it may not have fermented long enough so I'll have to look that one up sometime.
In the meantime, here is a shot of 2010's Pumpkin Beer:
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Hows my little reader in 2010?
I've decided I am going to update one post all year round with books that I have conquered rather than nestling small reviews in random posts throughout the year, this will be nice for me to look back to and for you to say, gosh what was that one book he read that sounded cool. I promise to keep the reviews brief and succinct so that by the end of the year it doesn't become unbearable.
Even though I started it it '09 I'm going to Mention:
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Road by Cormick McCarthy
This book was a stellar quick read about a father and son traveling across a post-apocalyptic America. Extremely touching, especially if you have a loved one you can relate it to. It made me want to brush up on my survival skills and invest in canned food as well.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
After reading War and Peace I was thought I needed something lighthearted and fun to read, so I picked up Catch-22 seeing the back cover reviews claiming hilarity and so on. Turns out it was another book about war, but this was a bizarre book full of weird characters and silly dialogue during a war. Remarkably it was still able to make some good anti-war statements while remaining, quite silly. I would recommend this for someone looking for a weird but good book.
"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" & "Through The Looking Glass"
I've read Alice in Wonderland before but in honor of the recent movie (which totally kicks ass) I decided to re-read it and actually get through, Through the Looking Glass. The stories are fantastical, weird, silly and bizarre, pretty much right up my alley. If you can believe it, the Disney animated version stayed extremely true to the original story, where Tim Burton's should have been called Alice's Return to Wonderland.
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Robert Langdon's third adventure through the world of symbology. This one takes place in like 12 hours and is located in Washington DC. As usual with a Dan Brown book ending a chapter leaves you yearning to read the next. If you were a fan of the first two in the series I would recommend this one as well. There was a big shocker at the ending, but the next 20 or so pages were a bit preachy, almost like he had a message to pass along to the rest of the world. After such a fast paced book the finale was a bit too calm. But still, an excellent story.
The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall
Where to start with this story... its heartfelt, genuine, and insanely funny. This is about a boy who gets his head run over by a mailman and little Edgar's highs and lows of his life following this accident. I'm having a hard time describing it beyond that. The story is fun and interesting to read. I would recommend it to anyone who has emotions.
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
Anyone who is a remote fan of reading, and the Wizard of Oz movie should give Wicked a try. It is a delightful spin from the movie told from an unlikely set of eyes, the Wicked Witch of the West Elphaba. The story zipped right along through her early life all the way up to her demise at the hands of Dorothy. The author definitely tries to sneak in a few moral lessons and opinions of the ways of the world, which got dry and long at times, but when he was actually telling the story it was fantastic. If you've seen the play you'll notice very quickly that it was only inspired by this book.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
It seems lately I've been finding books that have been written in non-traditional styles. The book thief is written in a way where Zusak throws you off every few pages with a phrase you can feel in your teeth, every now and then I would stop reading and think wow, that is a perfect and unexpected way to describe that. The story is about a young girl in Nazi Germany who is taken in by foster parents. And, She steals books. It is narrated by Death, who is remarkably fitting for a story in those times. From the beginning to the end I was engaged and constantly thinking about the difficulties of the times. I really loved this story, from the thoughtful way it was written to the interesting child perspective of the war. The Book Thief is not a depressing book but it has its moments, Death as you might imagine is a downer but really he is just like anyone else and is worked too hard, but still has time to appreciate the finer parts of human life. I don't say this too often, this is one of my favorite books I've ever read. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.
The Archbishop in Andalusia by Andrew Greeley
This book was handed to me by my Dad with the intention to learning a bit more about Spain. In that sense it was great, there were lots of cultural and historical notes all throughout this book that made it fascinating and wonderful to apply to my honeymoon there. The book itself taking that out of account was meh, it seemed like Greeley tries to make the reader feel like a moron by touting his firm grasp of the English language. It is a mystery but at no point did I wonder or care about how it was to be resolved.
Brain Droppings by George Carlin
Brain Droppings is hilarious. There are so many laugh out loud funny moments it can get a bit awkward to read because I felt like giggling or laughing so often. But this is not a good book to read from cover to cover. Its full of one liners brief thoughts and ramblings from George Carlin's brain. There are giant curse words and many opinions expressed that one could get embarrassed to have visible in public. Its so funny though and if someone were to be offended I'm sure ol George would be cursing them out in his grave. I would highly recommend this book as a bathroom reader or one for the nightstand, anywhere you don't have a lot of time to read but feel like doing something.
Under the Dome by Stephen King
It's been awhile since I've read a King book, when I saw this one on the shelf at Target and read the back it intrigued me quickly. The book has a giant cast, with all sorts of different characters trapped under the...you guessed it, dome. Since its a King book it takes place in a small town in Maine where one day a dome suddenly appears around a small town cutting them off from civilization almost entirely. A politician with a dirty side an Iraq vet and many more typical townsfolk try to wrestle back a normal life. People are killed, tormented, and lives are ruined because of their new predicament. The book was amazingly engaging, little mysteries popped up every few pages and were solved slowly as the book went on, and that was exciting because I didn't find myself wondering how it was going to end but what was going to come next. This was an excellent fast paced book that I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys a big good book.
The Broker by John Grisham
I've always thought of Grisham to be a boring author writing all sorts of books on Law and courtroom drama, none of which interest me, so when Laura picked this one out for our drive to Georgia I was admittedly not enthusiastic. This book proved me wrong though. Its an exciting adventure about a powerful lobbyist who gets involved with the wrong people and suddenly is an assassination target. He is shipped to Italy to hide undercover and has many different adventures. The book made me want to travel to Italy, or become a spy. It was definitely interesting and was surprised at a lack of Dull spots. I would recommend this book, its interesting, fast paced, and full of turns that you expect and don't.
Even though I started it it '09 I'm going to Mention:
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Road by Cormick McCarthy
This book was a stellar quick read about a father and son traveling across a post-apocalyptic America. Extremely touching, especially if you have a loved one you can relate it to. It made me want to brush up on my survival skills and invest in canned food as well.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
After reading War and Peace I was thought I needed something lighthearted and fun to read, so I picked up Catch-22 seeing the back cover reviews claiming hilarity and so on. Turns out it was another book about war, but this was a bizarre book full of weird characters and silly dialogue during a war. Remarkably it was still able to make some good anti-war statements while remaining, quite silly. I would recommend this for someone looking for a weird but good book.
"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" & "Through The Looking Glass"
I've read Alice in Wonderland before but in honor of the recent movie (which totally kicks ass) I decided to re-read it and actually get through, Through the Looking Glass. The stories are fantastical, weird, silly and bizarre, pretty much right up my alley. If you can believe it, the Disney animated version stayed extremely true to the original story, where Tim Burton's should have been called Alice's Return to Wonderland.
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Robert Langdon's third adventure through the world of symbology. This one takes place in like 12 hours and is located in Washington DC. As usual with a Dan Brown book ending a chapter leaves you yearning to read the next. If you were a fan of the first two in the series I would recommend this one as well. There was a big shocker at the ending, but the next 20 or so pages were a bit preachy, almost like he had a message to pass along to the rest of the world. After such a fast paced book the finale was a bit too calm. But still, an excellent story.
The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall
Where to start with this story... its heartfelt, genuine, and insanely funny. This is about a boy who gets his head run over by a mailman and little Edgar's highs and lows of his life following this accident. I'm having a hard time describing it beyond that. The story is fun and interesting to read. I would recommend it to anyone who has emotions.
Wicked by Gregory Maguire
Anyone who is a remote fan of reading, and the Wizard of Oz movie should give Wicked a try. It is a delightful spin from the movie told from an unlikely set of eyes, the Wicked Witch of the West Elphaba. The story zipped right along through her early life all the way up to her demise at the hands of Dorothy. The author definitely tries to sneak in a few moral lessons and opinions of the ways of the world, which got dry and long at times, but when he was actually telling the story it was fantastic. If you've seen the play you'll notice very quickly that it was only inspired by this book.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
It seems lately I've been finding books that have been written in non-traditional styles. The book thief is written in a way where Zusak throws you off every few pages with a phrase you can feel in your teeth, every now and then I would stop reading and think wow, that is a perfect and unexpected way to describe that. The story is about a young girl in Nazi Germany who is taken in by foster parents. And, She steals books. It is narrated by Death, who is remarkably fitting for a story in those times. From the beginning to the end I was engaged and constantly thinking about the difficulties of the times. I really loved this story, from the thoughtful way it was written to the interesting child perspective of the war. The Book Thief is not a depressing book but it has its moments, Death as you might imagine is a downer but really he is just like anyone else and is worked too hard, but still has time to appreciate the finer parts of human life. I don't say this too often, this is one of my favorite books I've ever read. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed.
The Archbishop in Andalusia by Andrew Greeley
This book was handed to me by my Dad with the intention to learning a bit more about Spain. In that sense it was great, there were lots of cultural and historical notes all throughout this book that made it fascinating and wonderful to apply to my honeymoon there. The book itself taking that out of account was meh, it seemed like Greeley tries to make the reader feel like a moron by touting his firm grasp of the English language. It is a mystery but at no point did I wonder or care about how it was to be resolved.
Brain Droppings by George Carlin
Brain Droppings is hilarious. There are so many laugh out loud funny moments it can get a bit awkward to read because I felt like giggling or laughing so often. But this is not a good book to read from cover to cover. Its full of one liners brief thoughts and ramblings from George Carlin's brain. There are giant curse words and many opinions expressed that one could get embarrassed to have visible in public. Its so funny though and if someone were to be offended I'm sure ol George would be cursing them out in his grave. I would highly recommend this book as a bathroom reader or one for the nightstand, anywhere you don't have a lot of time to read but feel like doing something.
Under the Dome by Stephen King
It's been awhile since I've read a King book, when I saw this one on the shelf at Target and read the back it intrigued me quickly. The book has a giant cast, with all sorts of different characters trapped under the...you guessed it, dome. Since its a King book it takes place in a small town in Maine where one day a dome suddenly appears around a small town cutting them off from civilization almost entirely. A politician with a dirty side an Iraq vet and many more typical townsfolk try to wrestle back a normal life. People are killed, tormented, and lives are ruined because of their new predicament. The book was amazingly engaging, little mysteries popped up every few pages and were solved slowly as the book went on, and that was exciting because I didn't find myself wondering how it was going to end but what was going to come next. This was an excellent fast paced book that I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys a big good book.
The Broker by John Grisham
I've always thought of Grisham to be a boring author writing all sorts of books on Law and courtroom drama, none of which interest me, so when Laura picked this one out for our drive to Georgia I was admittedly not enthusiastic. This book proved me wrong though. Its an exciting adventure about a powerful lobbyist who gets involved with the wrong people and suddenly is an assassination target. He is shipped to Italy to hide undercover and has many different adventures. The book made me want to travel to Italy, or become a spy. It was definitely interesting and was surprised at a lack of Dull spots. I would recommend this book, its interesting, fast paced, and full of turns that you expect and don't.
Monday, December 06, 2010
Hows my little Runner?
Tonight I ran outside for 2.79 miles in below freezing conditions. This is crazy for many reasons.
Reason number one. I have signed up to run a marathon.
I've paid my moneys and I can't get a refund, I'm hooked. The marathon I will be running in is Grandma's Marathon up der in Duluth Minnesota. Awhile back I was chatting with my pal Aaron over dollar beers and we somehow came to the conclusion that we should run this marathon. His moving to Duluth made it our destiny. I'm still not sure how I'm going to do this since I've never ran anything farther than 6 miles at one time ever.
Another reason this is a silly Idea? The marathon is in the middle of June, meaning most of my training is going to be done in the winter. This leads me to my first statement, tonight I ran outside and the temperature was 15 degrees.
This summer I did some jogging to keep myself trim for the honeymoon/wedding and got pretty decent at surviving the heat. Although I never liked it I could handle it. Coming back from a run and sitting down and creating my own puddle of sweat is not something I enjoy. So now that it's winter I'm far from prepared to running in this kind of weather.
My first dilemma was what to wear, In the summer I wear shorts socks and shoes. Tonight I wore tights on bottom and top, another shirt, gloves, and an old jacket.My biggest hangup with cold weather training is what to wear on my legs. I recently acquired some sexy running tights and my dilemma was, tights and shorts or just tights. So of course I did some research on the interwebs and found some mixed reviews on how to wear said running tights. The comments I read seemed to be mixed, folks would proudly boast I run in tights only! or I wear shorts as well because I don't want people looking at my goods. After reading several people's logic I decided tights only since my running shorts on top wouldn't be worth a damn for heat retention.
This was surprisingly awesome. First, I felt super sexy, next, in fifteen degree weather I managed to stay warm. Aside from my first 10 steps, my legs were comfy. This was until I ran into the wind. This sucked, aside from my cold face, I had another sensitive portion of my body do it's best at screaming and hiding. Sadly it failed and just hurt so bad I had to turn around head back into town where I could use houses and trees as wind-blocks. I love the cold, but apparently not all of me does.
And the best part about my run? Within the first five minutes of my run a car pulled up next to me and asked if I needed a ride. I wish I was more on the spot but I just yelled, No thanks! I'm just out for a run! I bet she pulled away thinking I am the craziest person in the county.
I learned a couple of important things about running in the cold tonight.
Number one:
Find out a way to keep all of my bits warm.
Number two:
Get a jacket that will be visible at night.
Number three:
Wear a headlamp, running in the dark is ok, running on ice in the dark is not.
In other related running news, Laura and I have signed up to run a Warrior Dash in Georgia. It will be a Jacobson vs. Davis Challenge. Neither team cares who wins but we are all excited to dress in absurd outfits and run/jump/crawl our way to the finish. I'm excited to drink a beer or two and watch other absurd looking southerners cross the finish. If you haven't heard of the Warrior Dash, check it out.
I'm also running in the Champaign Marathon, I'm doing the iChallenge which is a 5k on Friday and a half marathon on Saturday. I'm running the half marathon as an excuse to make sure I'm training properly for a full Marathon. Good times!
Reason number one. I have signed up to run a marathon.
I've paid my moneys and I can't get a refund, I'm hooked. The marathon I will be running in is Grandma's Marathon up der in Duluth Minnesota. Awhile back I was chatting with my pal Aaron over dollar beers and we somehow came to the conclusion that we should run this marathon. His moving to Duluth made it our destiny. I'm still not sure how I'm going to do this since I've never ran anything farther than 6 miles at one time ever.
Another reason this is a silly Idea? The marathon is in the middle of June, meaning most of my training is going to be done in the winter. This leads me to my first statement, tonight I ran outside and the temperature was 15 degrees.
This summer I did some jogging to keep myself trim for the honeymoon/wedding and got pretty decent at surviving the heat. Although I never liked it I could handle it. Coming back from a run and sitting down and creating my own puddle of sweat is not something I enjoy. So now that it's winter I'm far from prepared to running in this kind of weather.
My first dilemma was what to wear, In the summer I wear shorts socks and shoes. Tonight I wore tights on bottom and top, another shirt, gloves, and an old jacket.My biggest hangup with cold weather training is what to wear on my legs. I recently acquired some sexy running tights and my dilemma was, tights and shorts or just tights. So of course I did some research on the interwebs and found some mixed reviews on how to wear said running tights. The comments I read seemed to be mixed, folks would proudly boast I run in tights only! or I wear shorts as well because I don't want people looking at my goods. After reading several people's logic I decided tights only since my running shorts on top wouldn't be worth a damn for heat retention.
This was surprisingly awesome. First, I felt super sexy, next, in fifteen degree weather I managed to stay warm. Aside from my first 10 steps, my legs were comfy. This was until I ran into the wind. This sucked, aside from my cold face, I had another sensitive portion of my body do it's best at screaming and hiding. Sadly it failed and just hurt so bad I had to turn around head back into town where I could use houses and trees as wind-blocks. I love the cold, but apparently not all of me does.
And the best part about my run? Within the first five minutes of my run a car pulled up next to me and asked if I needed a ride. I wish I was more on the spot but I just yelled, No thanks! I'm just out for a run! I bet she pulled away thinking I am the craziest person in the county.
I learned a couple of important things about running in the cold tonight.
Number one:
Find out a way to keep all of my bits warm.
Number two:
Get a jacket that will be visible at night.
Number three:
Wear a headlamp, running in the dark is ok, running on ice in the dark is not.
In other related running news, Laura and I have signed up to run a Warrior Dash in Georgia. It will be a Jacobson vs. Davis Challenge. Neither team cares who wins but we are all excited to dress in absurd outfits and run/jump/crawl our way to the finish. I'm excited to drink a beer or two and watch other absurd looking southerners cross the finish. If you haven't heard of the Warrior Dash, check it out.
I'm also running in the Champaign Marathon, I'm doing the iChallenge which is a 5k on Friday and a half marathon on Saturday. I'm running the half marathon as an excuse to make sure I'm training properly for a full Marathon. Good times!
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