Carolina Tailgate

Pictures are posted for the Carolina tailgate. Pic can be found HERE. I was going to write something about it but you are getting the Reader's Digest version. Got down to the Rapid Park lot around 6:30 with the wife, got parked and started setting up. Saw Dave pull in around 6:45, watched him drive around and not find us. He parked by the entrance so we watched him sit there for 20 minutes before he finally saw us. Dutch, Amy and the gang got there around 7:30 or so. Started drinking. Dan made good food. Miller Lite eye candy (20 yr old girls) stopped by with free towels and a bottle opener that looked like a Viking helmet. Hung the opener off my zipper. Watched Jenn and Molly play a new tailgate game, "the wiener toss". Apparently tofu hot dogs are not good for anything else. Drank some more, went to the game, came back, had a few post game beers then went home. Wife drove me home so I did not break any laws pertaining to the consumption of alcohol and operating a motor vehicle.

Brewed a batch of Northern Brewer Winter Warmer last night. Not much activity in the fermenter this morning. I expect a longer lag time with this high gravity beer but hopefully the activity will pick up by this evening. Otherwise I am going to start thinking that I screwed something up with my yeast starter. Go Beer!

Dance Magazine?!?

So I'm at the Viking game yesterday. I might have been a little drunk since I started tailgating at the usual 6:30 AM. Anyway, the four seats next to my seats are corporate seats that some company in Rochester owns. I don't think in the last 4 years that I have ever seen the same people in those seats. Yesterday there is a girl that appeared to be 11 or 12 sitting next to my wife in one of these seats. I notice before the game starts that she is reading something. I assume it's the game program or something and don't pay it much attention. Sometime later I notice that it's not the game program but a magazine dedicated to dance. Now I don't think this is like a ballroom dance thing but seems to be like a cheerleader/danceline sort of magazine. Now first off I didn't even know that this sort of magazine existed let alone that someone would buy it. Second, you don't read a dance magazine at an NFL game! Corporate seats suck to begin with but this took the cake that instead of a real fan having a chance to see a game, a bored 12 year old girl sat 13 rows up in the endzone reading her dance magazine for the entire game. The most interest she showed is when the Viking Cheerleaders did something. I think she was offended when Ragnar started imitating the cheerleaders moves. I thought Ragnar did a pretty good job!

I'll try to post some pics from the tailgate tomorrow if I can remember to bring in my camera.

Skol!

Motorcycle for Sale

If you know of anyone in the Twin Cities area looking for a motorcycle, I'm trying to sell mine. Details are below. I'm not quitting riding, I just want to get a new bike. This one has served me well but I want to get a new 2007 HD Softail Custom. It's the bike I've wanted since I was young and HD finally brought them back. That and HD now uas a 96 ci motor instead of the 88 and a 6 speed transmission as default. My current motorcycle was supposed to be a temp bike for 1 or 2 years, now 6 years down the road.... sigh...

1994 XLH Sportster 883 Deluxe. Forward controls, lots of chrome, 3.5 gallon gas tank, detachable windshield, saddlebags, Screaming Eagle ignition and S&S air cleaner. New battery this spring. New tires on front and back at 23,500. Speedo, tach and oil pressure gauges. 25,500 miles - $4000

Up-Downs @ 34 = Bad Idear

The wife and I are exercising this morning, following some aerobic/cardio routine thing.  We get to this part that we do "fast feet"  This is bascially running in place real fast.  You move your feet as fast as you can.  This reminded me of the old high school football "exercise" called Up-Downs.  With up=downs, you move your feet as fast as you can until some signal from your coach tells you to drop (whistle, yell "DROP!", etc).  Then you have to get back up as fast as you can k  Part of the drop (at least how we did it) was to basically land on your chest and not really break your fall in anyway.  This goes on in football practice until the coach tires of what I assume is a pretty humorious scene.  So I put my hands up in like my old linebacker stance while I was doing this exercise today, goofing around.  The wife asks what am I doing and I explain this to her.  For some reason I ended up doing two up-downs in the basement.  Either she didn't understand the description and wanted to see what one looked like or she completely understood the description and wanted to see if I was dumb enough to do one.  Like I said, I did two.  Let me detail the problems with this. 

1. A basement concrete floor is much harder than the ground even if covered with carpeting and a pad
   
2. In football practice you have shoulder pads on
   
3. I have 25 more lbs than I did 16 years ago. more weight=more force when I hit the ground
   
4. I'm fricken 34 not 17!

Well on one of the up-downs that I did I hit my jaw a little bit on the floor, not bad or anything just enough to make it sore.  On the other one, or heck maybe the same one, I'm surprised I did not break my sternum or ribs.  It sure as heck didn't feel real good.  Next time I decide to do up-downs, I'm going to try and remember this....

 

Mead is Compleat

If you forgot, I made my first batch of mead a little over a year ago. I've been "bulk aging" it for a while now. Bulk Aging = too lazy to bottle. Well, I finally bottled it over the long weekend. It's been a year since I first started this batch. As you can see, it came out looking real good. I don't know if I'm totally enamored with the flavor though. I think it's a little too sweet. I did brew a sweet mead so I did expect some sweetness from it. It's also still a little "hot" but it's not overpowering and that should mellow with a little more aging. Overall I am happy with it. Now I have 24 bottles of a very sweet mead and my wife doesn't drink much. Oh well, looks like I have some gifts to give away as well as a fair amount of drinking to do! These should be really good at a late season tailgate. I'll probably warm it up a little and maybe steep some spices like nutmeg and cinamon in it. That should warm us sufficiently before we go into the Vikings games! I'm going to start brewing to other mead variants within the next couple of months. The first is an ABC Mead, Apple Butter Cyser. The recipe is much more complex than a regular mead and you use apple cider instead of water to mix with the honey. By all accounts this is a real tasty mead but can take some time to age properly. The other one I'm going to make is a heavy braggot. This recipe is much simpler than the ABC but should be an outstanding taste. I'll keep ya posted as I progress. Below is a pic from when I first pitched the must, you clearly see the difference.