Wife..

I bet none of you know as much as I do what a great wife I have! I was just thinking of the crazy first 1.5 years of marriage we've had and also how great it all has been! Wouldn't trade it!

Just look at all this B-day stuff she whipped up last Nov literally days after we moved in !! And she does so much more it's ridiculous!

I love you Molly!!

MMMM...BEER....

So I've been pretty excited about trying some new beers here in Iowa that are not available back east. And as always I'm a big supporter of buying local as often as you can to help promote smaller brewery's and let them now that people are taking notice that they are creating good tasting beer. So I was given permission the other day to run across the street and pick up a six pack and this is what ended up in our fridge. "Iowa Pale Ale" brewed by Millstream Brewing Company out of Amana, IA. I have never disliked pale ales but I rarely buy them, I'm not sure why, but this little guy reminded me that good pales are REAL GOOD PALES. I also liked their play on IPA but instead of India it's Iowa. I also like the trees made out of hops on their label. I don't feel that I'm capable of describing what is going on within the tastes of these beers given that there is such an incredible amount of work that that goes into them and I'm but a novice in this game. So I'll keep my comments to, it tasted great, and I like their artwork. As I become a little more learned maybe I'll venture into describing the flavors and the variety of hops being used in the beers I try but I have a ways to go.

I been eying this bottle in the store now since we moved here and I haven't tried it yet because of the cost. About $5.50 a bottle. So I finally caved (Molly wasn't with me). It's brewed in Scotland in the oldest inhabited home in the country! I gotta say this is the best beer I've had in a while. Brewed with Coriander it takes an interesting taste and is easy to drink even in light of it's 8% ABV. The color was a very pleasant dark cola brown with a very thin white head.

The Gift that Keeps on Giving!

My wonderful wife gave me a gift for Christmas this year that keeps on giving! It's a TrueBrew Gold home brewing kit!! I know!! So, after I read a ton more and scape together a little cash to buy ingredients I'll hopefully be brewing some tasty stouts and porters. Then when the weather warms pales and wheats... mmmm...
So the kit comes with a 7 gal food grade bucket with a hole in the top for a airlock and a hole near the bottom for a valve, a glass 6.5 gal carboy for second fermentation, a siphon hose with bottling valve, a brush for bottle cleaning, a hydrometer, an adhesive thermometer to stick to the carboy, an airlock and stopper, a bottle caper, cleaning solution and a beginners book to home brewing. So wish me luck and stay tuned to see what comes out of all this...

Calling for Snow...

So they are calling for up to 6 inches which I think we could get if it stays like this. These are the biggest snow flakes I've ever seen!

Finally!!!

For the first time since Molly and I have been married we finally got a decent internet connection! (I'll wait for the whistling and the applause to go down...) Don't get me wrong, we had internet in Charlotte, but it was less than fun walking around the house with the laptop looking for a single bar so that you can check your e-mail. However, this internet connectivity had it's bumps along the way... I called up the company we decided to go with just over two weeks ago and signed up for their DSL connection with no contracts for what I think was a pretty good price, $30 per first six months then up to $40 after that. After about 4-5 days later our modem showed up on our doorstep a letter stating to not hook it up until the internet was turned on, which was going to be that night (Wed) at 5pm. I plugged it in and waded through the instructions of what to do when. I didn't get very far when it was apparent that we had no signal. Hmm, I called our landlord Tom (who is great) and told him that our phone jack in the house had some cut wires and I think that might be the reason. He came out and checked everything out with an electrician and they said that there was a disconnect somewhere outside. Back on the phone with the internet people and made an appointment for the tech to come out on Monday between 8-12am b/c Molly was off that morning. Long story short they never showed up. Called them back on Monday evening and made an appointment for Tues. Never showed. Called them back and made an appointment for Wednesday. You guessed it! Called back again and the lady told me that they did come out on Tues but didn't find anything wrong outside. (I kept asking what happened to Monday or Wednesday and got no answer. So I made ANOTHER appointment for Thursday. The tech guy called me and said that it was disconnected in the box on the pole outside! I said "THAT WHAT I TOLD THEM!" So I have no idea what the guy who supposedly came out on Tuesday did but he certainly didn't check outside on the pole like what was suggested. Oh well that my rant about this whole thing. I'm glad that we have internet now but good grief!

1 Year Later

A few days ago Molly and I had our one year anniversary! Some of you may remember our wedding cake and how none of it was left nor did we really relish the idea of keeping some of it in our freezer just to pull it out in a year and say... Do we really want to eat this?! We thought of this while on our honeymoon in Camden, Maine and one day while we were perusing the merchandise in a adult beverage store it hit us!! We'll just get some beer and hang on to it and have that on our one year anniversary instead of frost bitten dried out cake! We purchased a beer that was local (Portland, Maine) this is what it said on the bottle;

"Perfect as an aperitif or to toast a special occasion, our golden colored tripel reserve has a complex fruit and spice aroma. Complemented by a full palate with suggestions of honey. A long, warm and soothing finish follows. Allagash Tripel is well suited to cellaring, and will continue to mature in the bottle and improve with age."
CHEERS!

The Not so New Wheels

So earlier this week I bought a truck to get me to and from work for a while. It's a '69 F-100 4x4 and it's not in super great shape but it runs and drives and will hopefully go through the snow pretty well. It has a little rust behind the front wheels and a tiny bit in the floor of the bed but other than that it's ok. Several dents here and there but hey, that what these old farm trucks were about. I don't think it's in good enough shape to keep long term so the plan is to drive it this winter and then look around for another cheap one with a little better body. We'll see what happens. As far as this one goes it's getting power brakes, a new windshield and stock steel wheels and hopefully stock bumper.
(I'll also be peeling off the Lynard Skynard sticker off the rear window!)