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.

BWCAW Trip

Last week I finally got back to the BWCAW (Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness). It's been five years since I have been up there which is way too long. My brother was not able to go until his boys were old enough to go along. Well, I think it probably should have been a couple of more years before my nephews made the trip. They did well but are still too young to really enjoy it. The trip was planned as a nice easy 4 day trip but turned out as a 3 day trip since the boys were restless. There were going to be five of us going, me, my friend Jeff, my brother and my two nephews. Jeff had to back out on Monday so it ended up being just the four of us. Our entry point was number 47, Lizz Lake which is accessible via Poplar Lake. This is basically the same route that we took 5 years ago. We decided on this route again since it's pretty easy and thought it would be better with the boys. We went up Wednesday and stayed at Rockwood Lodge and Canoe Outfitters. They have a bunkhouse to stay in which is real convenient and allows us to put in first thing in the morning. I also rented a canoe from them. I was originally going to get a solo canoe for my gear and my dog Jake who was along for the trip as well. My brother asked if I would get a regular canoe instead of the solo and take one of my nephews with me so I went that route instead of the solo canoe.

Our original plan was to try and get down to Winchell Lake and base camp from there. We would have been able to make it but the boys were getting tired and were more than ready to stop so we stayed on Gaskin instead. Due to the boys restlessness we cut the trip short a day and came out on Saturday instead of Sunday. Still a fun trip and the day lost wasn't a big deal.

Thursday morning we got up and were in the water by 8 AM, just past our goal of 7:30. The trip in was pretty uneventful. I was pleased that Jake traveled well in the canoe as it was his first time. He doesn't really understand the idea or weight distribution in a canoe though but what can you expect from a dog? Of course that makes counterbalancing an 80 lb lab lying against the side of the canoe a challenge as I don't have a lot of room in the back seat to shift my weight to coutner him much. And with only a 60 lb or 80 lb kid in the front, they didn't help much either. At times we were at an even keel but usually we were listing to one side or the other! But we never tipped and Jake never decided he wanted to jump out in the middle of the lake so I am going to take that as a win. We got to our campsite around 1 in the afternoon and got everything setup. The boys were pretty well wiped out by that time and ready to go home already. I think they finally got quiet around 9 when they went to bed. Pat and I stayed up to look at the stars since niether of us get to see them in the city. Growing up outside of a small town, you really miss the stars living in the city. The sky was pretty bright that night especially considering that we were just four days removed from a new moon. There was a bright spot in the northern sky that I thought might be the northern lights. I didn't think it was though since it was colorless and not the sheets of light I have seen before. When I got back, I checked out http://www.spaceweather.com and sure enough, they were colorless northern lights. Apparently a camera may have picked up the colors but not to the naked eye. I didn't take any pictures, but should have I guess. They probably wouldn't have turned out anyway (more on that later).

Friday we just spent around the campsite trying to give the kids a rest. There was some talk on Thursday of just leaving on Friday but we thought it would be better if they had a day where they didn't have to portage or paddle. My brother took them to get them some walking sticks. A little while later Pat took one of my nephews out in the canoe to tip it and go swimming. While they were out I went and got a couple of pieces of wood and made a walking stick for both of my nephews. I'm sure my sister-in-law appreciated that! The nephew that didn't go out took the second canoe out by them a little while later, saw what fun they were having and they all came into shore and took the one canoe back out and they all tipped it a lot and swam a lot. I think this was probably the highlight of the trip for them. I took a bunch of pictures of this evolution but most didn't turn out unfortunately. That night my brother tried to get his boys to stay up and look at the stars with us but being well past their normal bedtime and being a little spooked by the darkness, the kids went to bed. They still saw some of them but if they had stayed up a little longer, the sky was beautiful. There was heat lightning going on like crazy that night which I haven't seen in a long time. The sky was much darker Friday since there were no Northern Lights this evening.

Saturday we took our time when we got up and had some breakfast. Then we broke camp and backtraked our way out a day early. Nothing major happened on Saturday. We showered back at Rockwood Lodge and got on the road. I didn't stop at Betty's Pies on the way back as I had planned but since we stopped on the way up I didn't feel it was necessary. I drove it straight through, just stopping for gas. I decided not to join my brother in the traditional stop at Grandma's in Duluth since I had Jake with me and didn't want him in his crate in the back of my truck that long.

I was really disappointed that many of my pictures didn't turn out. It took both my digital camera and 35mm camera. I only took about 5 pics with the digital and the rest with my 35mm Canon. I wanted to use the 35mm since I feel they take much better scenery shots and I have a zoom lense on my cameral. I took about 2 1/2 rolls - 3 rolls of pics. On two of the rolls I lost 28 out of 48 pictures. i don't know if it was my camera of the film. looking at the negatives, I think something happened to the film but I really don't know. I am really dissapointed by this but what can you do. I'll upload what I have one of these days somewhere and post a link to them.

I Quit Smoking

On July 10th I quit smoking. things are going well with it. I'm using the patch and that certainly is helping. Anyway, here are the propoganda numbers from http://quitplan.quitnet.com. I guess the biggest number to me is the 403 cigarettes not smoked. Makes me realize how much I used to smoke.


Your Quit Date is: 7/9/2006 10:30:00 PM
Time Smoke-Free: 22 days, 9 hours, 23 minutes and 57 seconds
Cigarettes NOT smoked: 403
Lifetime Saved: 3 days, 1 hour
Money Saved: $82.80

Live Play - 1/13 & 11/55

Friday was a special installment of our home game. We had a special guest from out of town so we scheduled an extra game so that the famous j0hngalt (Lance) could play. He was in town from Iowa for work so what better reason to have a poker game? Lance played well and finished third and I finished 1st for $60 from a $10 buy-in. This game isn't really for the money, it's for the friendly competition. Always a good time but the night can get late. We started at 7:30 and we finished up at around 2:30 AM. Quite a long game for only 13 people!! I didn't donk off any chips or do anything stupid which helped. The main hand that got me the win was when I made my standard raise with American Airlines. Lance looked down and went all-in with his big stack. There were still a couple of people left so I tried to look distressed hoping maybe someone else woke up with some semblance of a hand. Nope, got folded to me and I insta-called, neither of us improved and I doulbed up nicely to about 42k and took the chip lead. Mike busted out Joel (again) with a "brilliant" call with QJ sooted and barely took over the chip lead from me. That set the stage for what would become our heads up match which Mike entered slightly ahead of me. We battled it out for a while and at that time in the morning I'm getting pretty tired. I raised what had been our standard raise heads up and Mike went all-in on me thinking of trying to resteal. Unfortunatly for him I had a real hand, AQ and called. Mike turns over 35d and it's all over. We played heads up for probaly 45 minutes, a fun time. This home game does nothing but improve your game with the level of the players at it. Hopefully this win will turn into a trend!

That evening we decided to drive up to Hinkley's Grand Casino and play in their Saturday tournament. The buy-in was 150+20. Five of us drove up for the tournament. 10k starting chips, blinds 20 minutes long starting out at 50/100 with a gradual increase, at first. Nothing major really happened for me with hands. I had AK once early that got me the blinds when I standard raised, AQ twice, pp9 twice, pp5 once and KQ once. Outside of that I didn't even have any connectors I could play. I did get TJo in late position once and played it. I spiked a J on the river but the board was paired and there was a straight possibility on the board where someone just needed a 9 to complete it. The BB went all-in on the river and it got folded around to me. The BB had been overbetting a lot of stuff like this and I was unsure what his bet meant. I had him covered and it would have brought me down to 5k if I called and was beat, still a little to work with but it was early enough that I decided to pick a better spot than this and mucked. I steadily built my stack up to around 23k when the blind structure went like this, 400/800, 500/1000, 1000/2000, 200/4000! We go from a nice structure to two doubles in a row. That basically put me in dire straights being card dead. I stole a couple of blinds here and there trying to stay alive and hopefully find a spot where I could double. That event never occurred though. I eventually went all-in UTG with J5 soooted when I only had about 2.5x BB left, I didn't want to be blinded out and this was the best hand I had seen in a long time. It gets folded around to the BB who contemplates folding! But he finally decides to call and turns over K3 or something. I hit a jack and doulbe up. A round or two later I'm in the same situation again not having picked up a hand. I should have moved all-in UTG again without looking but I looked had trash, mucked and hoped my BB was going to be decent since I was going to put the rest in no matter what. A late position raised my BB almost the rest of my stack, and I reraised for my last 1k and he of course called. My 78 wen up against his KJ, neither of us improved and I was done. I'm happy with how I played in this tournament but there's not much you can do without cards and not getting paid off a lot when you do have something. I know it's not about the cards but it helps. I tried to put myself in a position that when I got some resemblance of a hand that I might get paid off but that never materialized. Oh well, still a fun time with friends!