Hows my little Bostonian?

 

Well friends, another weekend and another pin in our map! This pin belongs in the wonderful city of Boston Massachusetts. I think I can safely say, I love Boston. A couple of weeks ago I found a killer deal for two tickets from Chicago to Boston for $250 round-trip. A frenzy of phone calls and excitement led to a booking and a new adventure to visit my long lost friend Sarah Fuller and her wonderful dude John.

The trip started on a really exciting note, on our drive up to Chicago I smashed my car into a HUGE! deer carcass. Somehow because of a crazy combination of lighting and hill we didn't see it until we were basically on top of it. SMASH! After a lot of fur, blood, carnage, and a lost license plate we drove home and switched cars to continue our adventure. We had to, mine stunk so bad we could hardly stand it.

We arrived the following afternoon and started adventuring immediately. We were introduced to the lovely and convenient 'T' early on and walked ourselves through town. We got to see some ducks, statues, churches, a killer public library and a drink on top of the tallest building in town.

Pit-Stop for a kickass cupcake. mmm!

The fun continued on that evening to a unique event called 'The Donkey Show'. I'm not sure I will look at butterflies the same again. Contrary to what you're thinking this show is actually a theater performance based in a 70's Dance club (and we danced) and based off of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. Most of the characters who wore clothes did so in drag. I didn't understand the plot at any point, which I attribute to never seeing any version of the performance, written or otherwise. I did understand that aside from John and I every other dude there had to be also into dudes and understandably so. Regardless, I loved it, the whole glittery mess.

Laura is actually not in pain, nor angry.

Everyone woke up hungover the next morning, new adventures through the city was the fix. We had a really fun and packed day. We started with a trip to Harpoon Brewery and got to drink beer fresh from the tank, which was a first. Harpoon is the best brewery I've never heard of, and I've heard of a Yuengling. Brewery tours are best when the beer is good and the tastings are hearty, this was no exception. We bought a growler to go and carried it with us (full, mind you) to all of the rest of our adventures of the day.

After Harpoon we got excellent some Boston sea food staples which miraculously cured Laura of her brown bag sickness.

Next we went to the Boston Institute of Contemporary Arts. It was a very interesting experience, as an art major I really never want to say I hate art, but sometimes the shit that gets into a museum blows my mind. There were some really cool and interesting pieces hidden amongst the other art. I really liked this movie that had 9ish screens and you basically immersed yourself into the film with changing surroundings setting the place. I got a nice greeting from the guy in front when he told me "I can check your beer into the coat check for you".

After that we took our beer to Goorin Brothers Hat store. I loved it. Dark wood and hats everywhere. Laura and I both left with something new for our heads.

After that we drank the best Hot Coco I've ever tasted. Ever.

We took it easy that night remembering our previous night and looking ahead to everyone's big day next. We had a fantastic dinner of pizza, wine, and smiles aplenty.

Day three was epic.
It started off with a jaunt through Harvard looking for a geocache which was one of the coolest ones I've done. Mostly because of how public it is.

Next, Laura and I were ushered around Boston via John and the red line painted and paved through Boston known as the freedom trail. We walked all over the damn city with a private tour of a battleship and capped it off with a march up (and back down) 294 stairs to the top of the bunker hill memorial. We learned a lot about Boston's history and of America's as well. John proved to be an excellent tour guide filling the walking portions with his knowledge of events that unfolded around this historic city.

Handcock's headstone looks like a penis.

Ride in opposition.

We finished our grand adventure off with a great meal, followed by a fantastic dessert, and some tired legs.

It was so great to catch up with Sarah again and I miss her. The great thing about great friends is that even after not really hanging out for years you can step in right where you left off and things are good, really good. I loved Boston, its got nearly everything I miss about city life, people, useful public transportation, interesting and lively history, endless meal options, great places to drink, a large body of water, a few hills, and no corn anywhere. Would I go back? Absolutely.

Hows my little '11 recap?

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.

Hows my little holiday?

Christmas this year was very difficult to get into the spirit of and that familiar "Christmastime feeling" was completely absent. I tried too! Normally it just comes easy, the temperature drops, snow flies, I hear jingling bells in front of stores, and I lust at everyone's great Santa hats they wear. This year none of that happened! No matter how many times I listened to Michael Buble swoon me with his Christmas songs I just never felt it!

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.

Since my parents are living here and there we got to hang out with them for a delightful afternoon of fun and headed over to a Christmas party later where I learned I should stay away from gross whiskey and coke. My highlight was throwing hatchets/knives in the basement, I've now decided I should take that up as a hobby to better prepare for the end of the world. Zombies or not.

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.

Yesterday we took down our tree, which is a bit early for us but since that whole christmas feeling never really arrived, and we had a healthy fear that the dumbells on the tree stand and the string tied to the wall weren't going to hold forever.

I really miss snow.

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.

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!