2011 Has been a really great year, a year that seemed to go by too quickly but great nonetheless. A lot of new and wonderful things came to me this year. This year was the first year I set a new years resolution and followed
through with it. I gave up cereal, I miss Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast
Crunch, and Golden Grahams greatly, but I'm not hungry 45 minutes after
breakfast anymore, that makes it worth it. I've had many good accomplishments and small changes to my usual lifestyle and am looking forward to more to come. Here's to 2012!....that is unless the world ends.
With no further ado, the highlights of 2011:
Best:
Movie (in theater): Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2
Just like when I closed the final book after finishing it, i left this movie feeling a bit empty. Since high school I've been looking forward to new Harry Potter books and movies and this year it all ended.
TV Show:
True Blood.
This year I even gave Lost a chance, boy did that show blow.
Concert: Flogging Molly, Congress Theater, Chicago
Flogging Molly seems to be a staple for this award, but it was also one of the only concerts I attended this year. It helped that the Chicago River was green.
Performance: Blue Man Group.
If you ever get the chance to see these guys, do it. If you can get tickets in the "splash zone" it is 100% worth the premium, their performance is enhanced by their blue facial expressions.
Album: Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
Wow. If you like music with electric guitars at all, buy this one.
Song: Electric Chapel - Lady Gaga
So goddamned catchy.
Game: Angry Birds Seasons
Smurfs Village is a close second though, really close.
Book: The Passage by Michael Cronin
Easily the best book of the year (of the few I read).
Gadget: Lil Mac II
A new laptop. A much needed upgrade and used extensively for work. Fantastic.
Bar Night: Las Vegas June 10-12th
Not really one night, but really I didn't stop imbibing the whole weekend. Bare, Glitter Gulch, Flamingo, Stratosphere, Downtown, +$200, 10 hours sleeping, no complaints.
Getaway: Michigan
Belated 1 year anniversary and a MUCH needed recharge from the crazy hours spent working the previous couple of months.
Garden Growth: Brussels Sprouts
I really think these are pretty gross frozen, but fresh from the garden...Yum!
Race: Grandma's Marathon
26.2 miles of exertion and a massage worth running to.
Construction: Garden trellis
I have no idea if this thing is going to stand the test of time, but I'll cross my fingers.
Intoxicating Beverage Tour: Yazoo Brewery, Nashville
The tour was pretty great, but the strangers we befriended iced the cake.
Events of Note:
Random: Sauerkraut failure. Grey Butt hair. Mohawk.
Obsession: Learning about Minimalist footwear, running and so on.
Newsworthy: Japan's destructive earthquake and tsunami.
Sparked the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.
News I'm oblivious to: Casey Anthony, Kardashians, Charlie Sheen.
Charlie Sheen jokes fall flat don't make them expecting me to laugh. Watching my facebook friends blow up over Casey and Kim was crazy. I couldn't believe how much hatred was expressed towards complete strangers' lives.
Travels: Chicago, Door County, Chicago again, Northern Georgia, Las Vegas, Duluth, Washburn, Michigan, Sand Ridge State Park.
The death of my wonderful old companion Chip.
First Annual Bockfest, 100% success.
Our new grill is amazing!
I lost about 15 pounds through this year and maintained that weight.
2012 has a great many things to look forward to. At work the winemaking process is moving more into my control, which is terrifying and exciting. Last year I resolved to write more blog entries to keep my faithful readers interested and this year I am going to improve on my sad improvement from 2009. There are a few travels that I am looking forward to, like a trip to Boston, Georgia, Tough Mudder Twin Cities, possibly California, and the usual adventures to see my great friends and family. I'm also looking forward to our newly enlarged garden, we added 72 square feet for more tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, and new things! This year maintaining and improving my fitness is also going to be a major goal. I also keep talking about building some sort of piece of furniture and I think this is going to be the year it happens, a lack of tools is no longer an excuse. I'm also excited to step up my homebrewing adventures by moving to all grain brewing for the first time! With that comes greater control and effort, but the quality of beer should improve. Another important goal is for me to read more books this year.
2012, I'm ready for you.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Friday, December 30, 2011
Hows my little holiday?
Our Tree was a near disaster from the beginning since we fought with it for over an hour just to get the thing to stand up. Eventually we tied it to the wall, and weighted the stand down with dumbbells. We cut it down without any snow on the ground let alone any in the forecast. We didn't drink our premium hot chocolate while decorating it, because we were both sweaty and mad at its stupid challenging crooked trunk. We had strong chocolate martinis instead.
As a whole our Christmas holiday celebrations went well this year. Although I just realized it was pretty much sibling free, which 20 years ago might have been great, but a bit sad since this was the first year of our "every other" with our whole families.
For Christmas we headed up to the always delightful Washburn, Wisconsin to hang out with Laura's parents. We had tons of fun walking here and there, making the best gingerbread cookies ever (because they aren't rock hard even after a couple of days). Laura's family has a tradition of a snack supper on Christmas eve which was fantastic. Laura's Dad like every 5 year old decided we were opening presents then. So after our delicious meaty meal we opened our great gifts and digested. Laura and I saved a couple presents to open Christmas day because I just didn't feel right not saving any to open. For our dinner on Christmas we had Prime rib which Tim cooked phenomenally, I got a giant cut of it and savored the entire thing. I love me some Prime rib.
I really miss snow.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Hows my little kraut?
About two weeks ago I decided to make Sauerkraut. It is supposedly quite straightforward, easy, tasty, and only a tiny bit terrifying.
Here is how its done:
I wanted purple kraut so we used our last two purple cabbages from our garden. These were planted specifically for this project.
Step 1, finely chop your cabbage. I could have done this better.
Mix in some salt as you chop your cabbage
Throw in some more salt for good measure and mash up your cabbage to extract some liquid, the salt will extract more.
I found out that you can make it spicy so I threw in some delicious Transylvanian garlic and ground (really spicy) chili peppers.
Cover your almost kraut and put something heavy on the lid to keep everything pressed down.
Wait a few weeks. It is supposed to spontaneously ferment...
After about 11 days I noticed that our house went from smelling a bit strange to smelling like someone was depositing their awful shits underneath our floors. I thought "this is normal". Laura wouldn't let me forget about how stinky it was. I finally gave in and shut the guest room door to keep the smell out of the rest of the house. When I opened the door later I nearly gagged on the horrific smell of the room and decided that it was time to call off the project.
This morning we brought it outside. Good thing too. When we pulled off the cheesecloth the smell magnified tenfold.
Notice the bright blue mold on the bowl. Even with a light breeze I had to periodically run away to escape the smell.
The cabbage/Sauerkraut's final resting place. Back into the garden for some further decomposition and soil fertility enhancement.
So what did I do wrong?
Maybe a couple of things, Purple cabbage might have been the wrong choice. (but I don't want to admit that)
Before the sitting around for awhile stage you are supposed to add salty water until it covers your cabbage. I added regular water from our refrigerator, I should have probably boiled it beforehand too.
What else? I'm not sure. I do know that it will be difficult to convince Laura that it will be a good idea to attempt this experiment another time.
I'm happy our house doesn't stink anymore.
Here is how its done:
So what did I do wrong?
Maybe a couple of things, Purple cabbage might have been the wrong choice. (but I don't want to admit that)
Before the sitting around for awhile stage you are supposed to add salty water until it covers your cabbage. I added regular water from our refrigerator, I should have probably boiled it beforehand too.
What else? I'm not sure. I do know that it will be difficult to convince Laura that it will be a good idea to attempt this experiment another time.
I'm happy our house doesn't stink anymore.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Hows my little Whiskey drinker?
For my birthday this year Laura got me a new bottle of whiskey and I have been very excited to stage a whiskey sampling with what I have on hand to compare it with the new stuff. Its also a great way for me to sample a bunch of different ones next to each other to find out what I like best or least. So for you whiskey fans out there read on. Our selection is limited but a healthy variety. Unfortunately I just got a new tasty rye whiskey this week that didn't make the sampling.
My goal was to set up the sampling in order of smooth drinking to ground shaking bite. I was pretty darn close in my guess too.
Jameson 18 year
Light, smooth, creamy, a hint of spice and licorice, delightful! no whiskey burn but can feel the alcohol heat.
Laura's Take:
I actually don't mind it! Leaves a good aftertaste in my mouth.
Laura got me the 18 year for my birthday last year and it is phenominal. I recommend that everyone who likes whiskey to try this someday in their life. Especially since I'm going to polish mine off pretty soon. I love the idea of this whiskey having been aged in a barrel for 18 years. If I rewind my life to 18 years previous to my 26th birthday I would have been 8 years old. That would have put me in Mrs. Tokle's 2nd grade classroom where I met my first black friend ever. I rode the bus to school, and spent almost every moment I could playing outside with my best friend and neighbor Colin Jensen. What else happened that year? Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced for life in prison. Hurricane Andrew smashed its way through Florida. The pope formally apologized for the inquisition of Galileo. Bill Clinton was elected president. CDs overtook cassettes as the preferred medium for music purchases. The mall of America opened its doors for business, and I watched with jealousy kids playing in LEGOland on TV. Its amazing to think that during those events there was a cask full of Irish Whiskey sitting in a barrel awaiting my consumption.
Woodford Reserve
Surprisingly boozey, a nice smooth start and finish, very little burn.
Laura's Take:
It wasn't bad, but it burned a little bit, but a good burn.
Crown Royal Black
Super smooth, raw oak aroma and flavor. Easily smoother than Woodford.
Laura's Take:
It smells like a sauna.
George Dickel Barrel Select
Peppery and sawdust, has the most bite thus far. Solidly tasty.
Laura's Take:
It was ok, it tastes very alcoholy.
Jack Daniels
Tastes like banana's and goes down smooth and easy. No burn at all, probably should have been drank after the crown.
Laura's Take:
That's actually good! Surprising!
Four Roses Single Barrel 2011
Woah! Really great flavor, a very strong alcohol singe all over my mouth.
Laura's Take:
Burns the buds, but tasty.
This was my birthday present this year. A special limited edition Whiskey from Four Roses. Laura and I visited this distillery a few years ago but it was closed and we were sad. One of the best parts of this whiskey is that it is limited edition and STRONG! You have to burn off the top layer of your taste buds to truly enjoy sipping this one, but it's totally worth it. I love the handwriting on the bottle.
This whiskey is also 12 years old and once again I love to think about what was happening 12 years ago when I had no interest in alcohol or its consumption. Which would have put me in 1999. I would have finished 8th grade at Chippewa Middle School and Started my Freshman year at Mounds View High. I learned a lot about friendship that year and began solidifying friendships I still maintain to this day. I Also played football and managed to make the basketball team. What else happened while this whiskey was being born? Dr. "Death" Jack Kevorkian was convicted of murder (wrongfully if you ask me). Columbine High School Tragedy. I found and fell in love with a little program called Napster. I began my hatred for Britney Spears' music and learned I liked rock and roll, and listened to Kid Rock, Limp Bizkit, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and The Offspring. I sneaked into the Blair Witch Project, Loved the matrix, and idled through The Phantom Menace. An interesting year happened around this fresh charred oak barrel.
Jim Beam
Smooth but something of a strange flavor. Much more harsh compared to the other 80 proof drinks. My stance on using Jim as a mixer is upheld.
Laura's Take:
Not awful.
As you can see I will never become a professional drink blogger, because my descriptive words are nonexistent. I hope you enjoyed my small foray into the world of beverage blogging. I enjoyed myself and got even more excited that Laura learned that she can tolerate the wonderful world of whiskey!
Light, smooth, creamy, a hint of spice and licorice, delightful! no whiskey burn but can feel the alcohol heat.
Laura's Take:
I actually don't mind it! Leaves a good aftertaste in my mouth.
Laura got me the 18 year for my birthday last year and it is phenominal. I recommend that everyone who likes whiskey to try this someday in their life. Especially since I'm going to polish mine off pretty soon. I love the idea of this whiskey having been aged in a barrel for 18 years. If I rewind my life to 18 years previous to my 26th birthday I would have been 8 years old. That would have put me in Mrs. Tokle's 2nd grade classroom where I met my first black friend ever. I rode the bus to school, and spent almost every moment I could playing outside with my best friend and neighbor Colin Jensen. What else happened that year? Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced for life in prison. Hurricane Andrew smashed its way through Florida. The pope formally apologized for the inquisition of Galileo. Bill Clinton was elected president. CDs overtook cassettes as the preferred medium for music purchases. The mall of America opened its doors for business, and I watched with jealousy kids playing in LEGOland on TV. Its amazing to think that during those events there was a cask full of Irish Whiskey sitting in a barrel awaiting my consumption.
Surprisingly boozey, a nice smooth start and finish, very little burn.
Laura's Take:
It wasn't bad, but it burned a little bit, but a good burn.
Super smooth, raw oak aroma and flavor. Easily smoother than Woodford.
Laura's Take:
It smells like a sauna.
Peppery and sawdust, has the most bite thus far. Solidly tasty.
Laura's Take:
It was ok, it tastes very alcoholy.
Tastes like banana's and goes down smooth and easy. No burn at all, probably should have been drank after the crown.
Laura's Take:
That's actually good! Surprising!
Woah! Really great flavor, a very strong alcohol singe all over my mouth.
Laura's Take:
Burns the buds, but tasty.
This was my birthday present this year. A special limited edition Whiskey from Four Roses. Laura and I visited this distillery a few years ago but it was closed and we were sad. One of the best parts of this whiskey is that it is limited edition and STRONG! You have to burn off the top layer of your taste buds to truly enjoy sipping this one, but it's totally worth it. I love the handwriting on the bottle.
Smooth but something of a strange flavor. Much more harsh compared to the other 80 proof drinks. My stance on using Jim as a mixer is upheld.
Laura's Take:
Not awful.
As you can see I will never become a professional drink blogger, because my descriptive words are nonexistent. I hope you enjoyed my small foray into the world of beverage blogging. I enjoyed myself and got even more excited that Laura learned that she can tolerate the wonderful world of whiskey!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Hows my little busy beaver?
Today's post is epic in length, so get comfy.
Last we left off in the life of Tony was a bit of a sad note (minus the 1 year anniversary) so this post promises to be much more chipper. Starting in August life for me got incredibly busy with work. A time known as harvest. This was a time of year that was proclaimed to be crazy and very busy. I think that was an understatement. Six day work weeks, with 10-14 hour days becoming the norm, it was draining both physically and mentally. I came home wanting nothing but rest. It was exhausting and very physical work. The best part about it though, I never once came home and said 'I hate this' or 'when will it end'. Yes it was busy and tiring but I got to meet lots of great people, really learn how wine is made, and best of all I got to be outside the whole time. Standing in the sun and cleaning something caked with grape skins and stems beats clicking a mouse and looking through a window at the same sun any day. I learned so much during the process, and now that it has slowed down I feel like I've learned even more. Which is great.
Just as I was about to fill in the world of happenings in my life since the end of August/September the batteries died in my keyboard and mouse all died at once. I've been hell bent on getting the best battery charger in the universe and so I finally had an excuse to set out to find it. I used to love and cherish my rechargeable batteries (circa 2001) but I had a terrible problem of forgetting them on the charger and they would ooze their insides all over and ruin the batteries. So I found one that shuts off after a completed charge and now I'm back in the bloggers seat. I'm excited about not blowing boatloads of cash on batteries anymore.
One very exciting thing in my life is a new laptop! Old Lil Mac the first gave up the ghost a year or so ago and with a new excuse to get one (work) I dove in. Isn't she pretty?
This picture represents a large percentage of my disposable income since 2004.
Next up: Pears!
Now that I'm making wine for a living I thought I should try my hand at fruit winemaking at home again, which until last night had been a complete failure. Laura's co-worker offered some pears from their tree and when asked how many we would like I said, "as many as you want to give us" which ended up being six 5 gallon buckets full, or this sculpture. It took Laura and I approximately 12 hours combined to peel and chop all of these little buggers. Two days after we finished the job I found a little gem in a book that read similar to this "it is unnecessary to skin pears for wine making" this caused me to weep only a little. So after we froze the pears, something one should do when making a fruit wine, I borrowed our little press from work and set about juicing them. Like so:
This is our whole batch of chopped, slightly (accidentally) frozen pears
Juice!
More juice!
Crap I added to the wine, excluding that garlic bulb back there.
A full bucket, quite tricky to bring from outside to in.
Check out my oxidized juice, this made me nervous for brown wine.
A miracle! The juice clears up during fermentation!
The 6 gallon batch is set to be a holiday spice blend, from top to bottom that is 1/3 vanilla bean purchased in Barcelona, whole cloves, a cinnamon stick, and a nutmeg...nut. Another full gallon will be plain 'ol pear wine, AKA the control group in the experiment. So this is my biggest batch of home made wine yet, pretty cool.
For our first (belated) anniversary Laura took me up to Michigan for a completely fantastic getaway. She found us a great B&B on the shore of Lake Michigan where we were able to walk the along the lake searching for beach glass and fly my big kite. They had hot tub which was a fantastic way to unwind at the end of the day.
Found boat.
There was a big storm the day before we arrived and we found this washed up on shore. As much as I hate aluminum canoes, they really can take a beating.
While we were there we explored a bunch of really cool and a couple not so cool wineries:
Favorite winery/brewery/distillery of the trip
Pinot Noir?
A still!!
Their harvest was just beginning, I was thankful that ours was pretty much wrapped up.
I loved our trip out there so much, I was able to relax for more than one day in a row and we came home feeling rejuvenated and excited about many more years of life together.
The next weekend Laura's parents came down for a fun visit to frollic in the fall weather. We took them to the great place called Allerton park which has tons of sculptures, a giant mansion and some great walking trails.
On another day we explored a crazy awesome corn maze over in Indiana.
I was picking hay out of my underwear for the rest of the day because of this shot. Remember kids, crack kills.
Its pretty rare to see so much corn growing in one spot so we got a picture of it all...
We Finished!
After that I needed a break from everyone and everything, as you can see we had been very busy with going places and doing things. So for the weekend of my birthday we went to a new place and did nothing! It was so great! We went to Sand Ridge State Park and did almost nothing. We attempted a hike but turns out this park was a giant sand dune 50 years ago and all of the trails are sand, it was like walking on a beach but without water anywhere close. We set out for a five mile loop and managed about a mile before we turned back. Quote of the day "Tony, I'm not having fun" "me neither" and we turned around without another word. After that we ate my unseasoned yet still delicious foil dinner and slept through a peaceful rain long into our slow starting morning. Would I go back, not without a horse to ride. So probably not.
This is what the trails were. Note the lack of any solid footing.
For some reason the State Park system in Illinois thought Prohibition was a good idea and doesn't permit alcohol in any of the parks. (I'm sure ethanol is excluded though) So we brought a disguise for our wine bottle.
We had an alternative motive for camping, which was to use our new screen tent. I've been in the market for a canopy tent of some sort since last winter for our BockFest shenanigans and Laura one day said, "why don't you just get a screen tent, that way we will use it more than once a year?" A good point taken. Turns out most screen tents are really shitty. What I wanted was something simple. A screen tent with a tall roof (obviously). It also needed walls to keep out the rain should it decide to do that while using said tent. After much research we ended up with this beauty:
It's HUGE! We joked about pitching our tent inside it, but since it had the picnic table in it already we decided to forgo that idea. This thing has enough space for a picnic table, a cooler or two, and easily four camp chairs with room to move. All of the walls are attached and roll up, or can be stretched out into an awning, or tied down to keep the wind and rain out. I'm excited to have this guy around for years and years.
The next weekend was Darktober Fest and Halloween! This year I went all out and made my own costume. For some reason I decided I wanted to be a scarecrow made entirely from burlap. Which is itchy business. I used this site for the pants and they are so easy! I'm thinking about making a pair of PJ pants for myself now since they didn't take much time at at all!
Jinx helped me a bunch.
Matt Damon and our new foreign friend
A bachelor party check off, 20 empty glasses stacked in a tower.
Worlds most obnoxious pants
Me winning a chugging contest
Him not winning. Go team USA!
Amanda, Andy and I were excited about travelers not wanting glasses in their carry on. Laura is not.
Bee pollen shots. They tasted like hay smells.
Booze Booze Booze Booze, Hangover. Bee Pollen?
I assumed all of Nashville roads would be cobblestones, not so. Only this alley was.
For the finale of this longass post...The Festival of Trees Gala! For you out of towners the Festival of Trees is a giant fundraiser for the local Danville hospital foundation. This is the hospital you don't want to get stuck at on the wrong side of an emergency (says some funeral directors I have formerly been associated with). Anyway, all of these companies and individuals buy these fake christmas trees and decorate them to the nine. To kick off the whole deal they throw a gala, AKA a big event where old people dress in clothing not appropriate for their size and age, which is held in the local hockey arena. There is free wine and beer along with a martini bar hosted by a bar which is ironically is not in the county the hospital serves. Laura and I love the event because there is some phenomenal people watching and looking around at the decorated trees is nice too. We had a wonderful time and got some exciting martini glasses that light up different colors, but I didn't get a picture of those, so here is a picture of us instead:
Last we left off in the life of Tony was a bit of a sad note (minus the 1 year anniversary) so this post promises to be much more chipper. Starting in August life for me got incredibly busy with work. A time known as harvest. This was a time of year that was proclaimed to be crazy and very busy. I think that was an understatement. Six day work weeks, with 10-14 hour days becoming the norm, it was draining both physically and mentally. I came home wanting nothing but rest. It was exhausting and very physical work. The best part about it though, I never once came home and said 'I hate this' or 'when will it end'. Yes it was busy and tiring but I got to meet lots of great people, really learn how wine is made, and best of all I got to be outside the whole time. Standing in the sun and cleaning something caked with grape skins and stems beats clicking a mouse and looking through a window at the same sun any day. I learned so much during the process, and now that it has slowed down I feel like I've learned even more. Which is great.
Just as I was about to fill in the world of happenings in my life since the end of August/September the batteries died in my keyboard and mouse all died at once. I've been hell bent on getting the best battery charger in the universe and so I finally had an excuse to set out to find it. I used to love and cherish my rechargeable batteries (circa 2001) but I had a terrible problem of forgetting them on the charger and they would ooze their insides all over and ruin the batteries. So I found one that shuts off after a completed charge and now I'm back in the bloggers seat. I'm excited about not blowing boatloads of cash on batteries anymore.
One very exciting thing in my life is a new laptop! Old Lil Mac the first gave up the ghost a year or so ago and with a new excuse to get one (work) I dove in. Isn't she pretty?
Next up: Pears!
Now that I'm making wine for a living I thought I should try my hand at fruit winemaking at home again, which until last night had been a complete failure. Laura's co-worker offered some pears from their tree and when asked how many we would like I said, "as many as you want to give us" which ended up being six 5 gallon buckets full, or this sculpture. It took Laura and I approximately 12 hours combined to peel and chop all of these little buggers. Two days after we finished the job I found a little gem in a book that read similar to this "it is unnecessary to skin pears for wine making" this caused me to weep only a little. So after we froze the pears, something one should do when making a fruit wine, I borrowed our little press from work and set about juicing them. Like so:
For our first (belated) anniversary Laura took me up to Michigan for a completely fantastic getaway. She found us a great B&B on the shore of Lake Michigan where we were able to walk the along the lake searching for beach glass and fly my big kite. They had hot tub which was a fantastic way to unwind at the end of the day.
While we were there we explored a bunch of really cool and a couple not so cool wineries:
I loved our trip out there so much, I was able to relax for more than one day in a row and we came home feeling rejuvenated and excited about many more years of life together.
The next weekend Laura's parents came down for a fun visit to frollic in the fall weather. We took them to the great place called Allerton park which has tons of sculptures, a giant mansion and some great walking trails.
On another day we explored a crazy awesome corn maze over in Indiana.
After that I needed a break from everyone and everything, as you can see we had been very busy with going places and doing things. So for the weekend of my birthday we went to a new place and did nothing! It was so great! We went to Sand Ridge State Park and did almost nothing. We attempted a hike but turns out this park was a giant sand dune 50 years ago and all of the trails are sand, it was like walking on a beach but without water anywhere close. We set out for a five mile loop and managed about a mile before we turned back. Quote of the day "Tony, I'm not having fun" "me neither" and we turned around without another word. After that we ate my unseasoned yet still delicious foil dinner and slept through a peaceful rain long into our slow starting morning. Would I go back, not without a horse to ride. So probably not.
We had an alternative motive for camping, which was to use our new screen tent. I've been in the market for a canopy tent of some sort since last winter for our BockFest shenanigans and Laura one day said, "why don't you just get a screen tent, that way we will use it more than once a year?" A good point taken. Turns out most screen tents are really shitty. What I wanted was something simple. A screen tent with a tall roof (obviously). It also needed walls to keep out the rain should it decide to do that while using said tent. After much research we ended up with this beauty:
The next weekend was Darktober Fest and Halloween! This year I went all out and made my own costume. For some reason I decided I wanted to be a scarecrow made entirely from burlap. Which is itchy business. I used this site for the pants and they are so easy! I'm thinking about making a pair of PJ pants for myself now since they didn't take much time at at all!
Jinx helped me a bunch.
My final costume:
Laura won the creepy zombie award:
My parents won best couple costume:
They make a couple of a good dead skunks.
Whew. The busy lives of the Jacobson family kept going but this is the home stretch! A couple of weeks ago we headed down to Music City, thats Nashville to you laymen. My lovey sister and her husband ushered us around their stomping grounds for a great weekend filled with fun and surprise. First off were these really great (edible) sheep that welcomed us after a long 5+ hour drive.
The next day we headed up to the Yazoo brewery for a tour filled with
interesting info and generous pours of the good stuff. While on the tour
we ran into a group of Brits who were out celebrating a bachelor party
(in Nashville?). We ended up hanging out with them for quite awhile and
as it turns out I look like Ben Afleck. I disagree, but they were a fun
bunch. After that we headed downtown for an evening of food and on foot
exploration. We ran into our British friends again at Tootsies randomly for a brief
moment before one got kicked out for removing his shirt on stage with ladies present. We also enjoyed a pretty underwhelming experience at Coyote
Ugly, I've since decided is not a place worth going back to.
Especially if you have to pay a cover.
Oops!
The next day brought us good fun at centennial park where they have a giant Greek Parthenon building that now stores art for people to look at. We didn't have a chance to look at that but we did walk around and take some pictures. We also hit up Third Man Records, which is very tiny, and picked up some new vinyl from a band called the Greenhornes, very good stuff.
For the finale of this longass post...The Festival of Trees Gala! For you out of towners the Festival of Trees is a giant fundraiser for the local Danville hospital foundation. This is the hospital you don't want to get stuck at on the wrong side of an emergency (says some funeral directors I have formerly been associated with). Anyway, all of these companies and individuals buy these fake christmas trees and decorate them to the nine. To kick off the whole deal they throw a gala, AKA a big event where old people dress in clothing not appropriate for their size and age, which is held in the local hockey arena. There is free wine and beer along with a martini bar hosted by a bar which is ironically is not in the county the hospital serves. Laura and I love the event because there is some phenomenal people watching and looking around at the decorated trees is nice too. We had a wonderful time and got some exciting martini glasses that light up different colors, but I didn't get a picture of those, so here is a picture of us instead:
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