Visitors

Today was a long day. Had several meetings (which is unusual for me) and some visitors from California. I'm in sales and my respective territory is Northern California. Some of our field engineers who live in the Bay Area were in town for some training and we got to get together for dinner. It's nice to get that face time when you can. Ate way too much BBQ though.

On a political note, looks like Romney won out in Florida. I don't even know why the count Florida. I mean, seriously, have you ever met someone from Florida (natively or spent 10+ yrs there)that you can describe as awesome or amazing? .....I haven't either. A few pretty cool ones but nothing I can attribute beyond oranges and Daytona Beach make Florida more exciting than Alabama. And nobody looks at Alabama as a place the want to go to (not that there''s anything wrong with Alabama, I'm just saying that it does not have a reputation for being the most exciting state) Don't wanna piss anyone off. I kinda wanna go to Alabama just to hike, fish, and hunt. Anyhow, Florida sucks and should just sink. God hates Florida. He proved it when he gave them 5 hurricanes in a row. I would call that population control. Just sayin.... (yeah and it's my blog so I can say what I want) I was happy to see that at least a short population had some sense (in my opinion at least) and voted Ron Paul. In general discussions I've had, it seems people do not feel he has the backing (i.e. money) to win the Republican seat. I would have to agree with that. Apparently, Stupid America only cares about how we can keep welfare working for now. They are voting essentially between two evils for Republican nominee. Romney is a political corporate fat cat with only financial and personal gain in interest.  Gingrich is a snake who is willing to sell out or jump ship at the first sign of trouble. This is displayed by his failure to enter the draft, by his abandonment of first wife after being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Also later exemplified when he left his second wife (for a member of his staff, no less) after she was diagnosed with cancer. I can't  imagine this bastard preaching family values. Wish I had my own island. Anyone have an island they are looking to start a colony on? I can hunt, fish, build and I am pretty easy to get along with. Hit me up.

Triple D

Been watching some DIY Network and Food Channel lately.It has me really itching to buy a house. Just so I can gut the kitchen and bathroom and build them to my liking. The problem is, both are the likely the most expensive improvements one can make to a home. Luckily, I am fairly handy and can do most of the work myself. My ultimate goal is to buy a couple acres outside of Austin but still within a short drive where I can build my dream home over the course of about two to three years. At this point though, funding is limited due to student loans and credit card debt. Needless to say, the banks are not lining up to give guys like me a loan. Don't misinterpret this to say I do not pay my bills. I simply have maxed out my credit limit. This is largely due to an overpriced degree worth about as much as the paper it's printed on and an awesome wedding and honeymoon. My wife and I, like many young couples, found the world at our feet in our 20's. Now we find ourselves paying for it in our 30's. No worries though. It was full of great times and memories that I'll have for years. I try not to sweat the small stuff that I cannot immediately impact.

The Food Network's Diners, Dives, and Drive-ins has me wanting to go to New York. It seems like every place he goes to has the most amazing looking sandwiches. Everything from bologna and onion to these ridiculous prime rib french dips. Also wrote down a couple recipes I want to try. One of which was a beer cheese and potato soup. I remember having a great beer cheese coup in my late teens at a restaurant I worked at. I recall trying to recreate it once for my mother and uncle only to end in a disaster. The meal was still ok but not the soup. I plan to recreate this soup using my own beer and serve it in a bread bowl. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

On another note, I helped a good buddy with his first brew. He was the one who initially got me interested in homebrewing but it took him a year to make the leap. He brewed a Blue Moon clone that is going to be dangerously good. I brewed a Honey Wheat recipe. I brewed this several times last year, tweaking the recipe but this was my first time brewing it all-grain. I used BeerSmith to convert the ingredients so we'll see how it turns out. The Dog took a couple laps from my sweet wort as it was chilling and neither of us were paying attention. I don't give a shit, I'm still drinking it. I wound up with a higher efficiency (92%) vs. 52% I usually get and the only thing I did different was use bottled spring water over my regular tap water. City of Round Rock, your water sucks. Anyhow, I digress. My friend was really happy with how easy the process was and now he will be brewing his own beer from now on. He doesn't drink much so it should be easy. We moved some stuff around in his shed, ran power and hooked up some outlets as well as a temporary water source (i.e. water hose for chilling and washing). Now it is more conducive to brewing.

I have also come to note that I rather like my Dirty Nipple Belgian Tripel. This was my first attempt at this style. While I did not win the local brewhouse com petition, I learned that I make a pretty good Tripel, If I do say so myself. The pic below is  from  our brewfridge. I call it Skull tap (because there is a tap underneath). Cause I'm that original.

*************UPDATE************

Holy smokes. It seems some people have wizened up and listened to what I have been saying for a while.

"Many American soda brands are sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, a heart-harming man-made compound derived mainly from genetically engineered corn. The problem? Genetically engineered ingredients have only been in our food chain since the 1990s, and we don't know their long-term health impacts because the corporations that developed the crops never had to test them for long-term safety. Case in point: Some recent findings suggest that genetically engineered crops are linked to digestive tract damage, accelerated aging, and even infertility!"

Rainy Day

Finally had some rain today. It's been "damp" on and off but we had a good rain today with more on the way. I'm not usually one to make talk of the weather unless I don't know someone or just have nothing of quality to say. It's one of those things you generally talk to anyone about at any time.However, with the drought we had over the summer and all of the wildfires, it's just nice to have a little rain. I just had to get that out of the way.

Had a nice weekend at my Mom's. Got hang out with some old friends. It was my friend Sisco's birthday so we went out and had some drinks. ....Ok, we had a lotB of drinks but we were safe and had a designated driver, my lovely wife (thank you baby). Also, got to see my Uncle Pee Wee. Great guy. He has some acreage with lots of mesquite trees that he has to constantly work at to keep it maintained. Needless to say, he has plenty of good mesquite for smoking. Since I typically cook on the pit every Sunday, he chopped me up a bunch of discs to soak and use for smoking. I really appreciate my family. They are great.
Spent some time at my Bro and sis in-law's house and got to see my nephew. Little guy is solid as a rock. Not fat or anything, mind you, just solid and PACKED with energy. I need to figure out how to can and sell that stuff. I could make a fortune.

Watched some football. It seem that the two teams I like least in the league (if I could throw the EAgles in there it would be a perfect storm) made it to the Super Bowl. I now have only 2 reasons to watch; commercials and to see if my squares pay off. OF course, I don't have to watch the game for any of that but I can't NOT watch the Super Bowl. I was really pulling for the 49ers but that got shot to hell late in the 4th.

In other news Newt Gingrich has all but erased Mitt Romney's 23-percentage-point lead of a week ago among Republican voters nationally, and the two candidates are now essentially tied, at 29% for Romney and 28% for Gingrich. Congratulations! You two Washington shitheels are officially approved by almost one-third of half of the goat pinching states you're so aggressively flaunted your corporate thievery earnings and bribery donations in. Come on to Texas. Yeah, we've had some dumb ones like any other state, but we've got some real smart one's too. Take Dr. Ron Paul for instance. He hasn't had much media coverage and some don't take him seriously but he has some good ideas AND he's the only one running who has not taken any corporate superpac money, has not signed up for his congressional pension(12 years in Congress mind you), never accepted welfare or medicaid when he was a practicing Dr., Instead he lowered his fees to whatever his patients could pay. He actually served his country rather than his country club. I could go on all night. Hope I have not stirred up any political fires. I doubt it at this point, such low traffic, not worried about anyone reading my blog. 

Odds and Ends

I had a nice weekend working on little odds and ends around the house. I built a little shoe shelf for my girls. They have more shoes than one can imagine. My wife sent a pic to my phone of a model she saw in the store and liked. It was around $29 if I remember correctly but was only 2' long. I told her I could build one really easy for less. So I took a trip to Lowe's (which is so close, it's dangerously convenient) and picked up a 1"x10"x10', a 1"x2"x8', and a small can of stain. Total cost $19.99 with tax. Almost doesn't get any better considering I only had a $20. I still had my bank card but really thought I could do this for under $20 and I was right.

I ended up making a second trip to Lowe's that day. A friend had a neat idea for a stainless steel drip tray for my kegerator. Lowe's sells a small stainless box for smoking woodchips that has a fliptop lid with holes. Simply use magnets to hold it up. They sell for $10.http://www.lowes.com/pd_183371-47981-42023_0__?productId=3052377&Ntt=stainless+box&pl=1&currentURL=%2Fpl__0__s%3FNtt%3Dstainless%2Bbox&facetInfo=  The real ones at the homebrew supply are $32 so I figured I saved myself $22 on that little idea. Thanks Geoff!

Another little project I'm working on is my 15gal conical fermenter. For those that are not familiar with what this is, you can learn more herehttp://bit.ly/zrJaKs. I am currently brewing 5gal batches and am looking to up my production to 10gal brews. Its the same amount of work but double the beer ☺. I have been wanting one for a while but the price has prevented me from being able to afford it. It's hard to justify to SWMBO that you want to spend $500 on something that a $5 plastic bucket can do. So... to meet in the middle, I opted for a plastic conical. Now, the one I purchased is typically used for bio-diesel production. It's called an induction tank. I've been reading about how others have done this and had great results. Granted, it's not going to be s nice as the stainless option but at a fifth of the cost, I am ok with that. I'll post pics of it once complete. So far, all I have done is attach the plumbing to the bottom. I still need to build a stand for it.

It is occurring to me that I need to start posting on here more regularly. This way my posts aren't so damn long. I'm still new to this so bear with me.
Lastly, I brewed a batch of Pale Ale this weekend. It's a new recipe so I hope it turns out ok. I'm always nervous about a "first time" recipe. You never know how they'll turn out. This was a tested recipe so I'm a bit less concerned this time.I tried out my new hop balls this brew. Hop balls prevent small grains from plugging up your drain on the brew kettle when using large amounts of pellet hops. They worked great. I think I'll continue to use them as long as I don't notice any effect on the beer. Being that I've never brewed this one, I'll likely not notice if they impact the taste until I've brewed one of my regular recipes. Speaking of first time recipes, I recently brewed a Belgian Tripel for a competition. There is a local cinema brewhouse that lets local homebrew clubs compete for a tap handle. It's pretty awesome. They give you a style and a deadline and the winner get their beer brewed on their system and served to the general public for 90 days. Anyhow, the style guidelines for this go round was a Belgian Tripel. I had never brewed one and I really don't care for this style of beer but I want to grow as a brewer and also get my beer out there. So I did a lot of reading on the history and the traditional ingredients and brewing techniques and turned in my submission on Saturday. I tried one Friday night to see how it was coming along.....tasted like syrupy horse ass to me but I say that about most beers of this style. I just don't care a lot for them. If it turns out that I win, I'll post the official recipe and links to the theatre.

I grill every Sunday. It's my excuse to spend the day hiding outside of the house. This week my wife bought these cranberry pork sausages. I was doubtful but MAN they are good. I plan to get more of these. I don't know the brand but I'll be sure to post when I get some more. I don't ordinarily condone such things as fruit in my carne, its a sign of fruitiness, but this was pretty tasty. More on the fruity meat later....... hahaha.....

El Raton

Stayed home today with my youngest daughter. She has strep throat. We spent a lot of time snuggling and watching TV. Felt good to be lazy for a day. Get to do it tomorrow too☺.

Spent some time this evening working on a trap for El Raton . I spend a good amount of time hanging out in the garage. I keep the door open most of the time and while I wasn't looking or paying attention, a visitor decided to move in. I first found signs of it's presence after noticing a bag of bird seed with a small hole chewed in the bag. A day or two later I found a new bag of dog treats with a hole in it. I thought at first that it was a small mouse. My wife bought a few live traps and I set them out. I checked 2 days later and they were gone. I set one more larger trap. It too disappeared. It couldn't have been the wife or kids. The wife wants this thing gone and the kids are too small to get to the places where I put them. Finally, my wife got a glimpse of it. She says its a rat. Big, ass rat! I had a problem with rats once before. I used to own a large boa and python and raised my own rats for a while. At least, until they got out one day. Anyhow, I no longer underestimate the brainpower of a rat. They're really smart creatures. I bought a couple old fashioned rat traps. The big ones that would break your finger if it got hit by the bar. I initially put some bread on them and came back to find them raided clean 15 minutes later. I decided to put peanut butter coated in oatmeal, thinking it would definitely cause them to trip the lever. Wrong again. They simply licked it clean. I next put some bread on there and took a small piece of 26 gauge wire and wrapped it around the bread. This almost worked. It set the trap off but El Raton got away. Now the traps have sat untouched for three days. I think he knows what the traps look like and is avoiding them. I disguised them in paper towels and placed a box over it. Hopefully I can get this little bugger out before he causes any major damage.

Saw that Ron Paul has come in second in the New Hampshire primarys. Go Ron Paul!!!

Headcold

I've had a headcold that has had me in bed for the past couple days. I rarely get sick but when I do, it really sucks. I have been getting plenty of rest and staying well hydrated. The drugs are helping as well☺.

Laying here I think of things randomly and think to myself, "Oh, write that down". Before I can do that though, I either have a sneezing fit or I fall asleep. Of the many random things that drifted through my mind as drifted in and out of conciousness was that of Republican GOP candidate Ron Paul. I see he finished a close 3rd in the Iowa caucuses behind the Romney and Santorum who were almost a dead tie. I'm not big on politics but everything I've read on Dr. Paul is great. I agree with a lot of his opinions on welfare, foreign policy, and government. I really hope he makes it into the primaries this time around. http://www.ronpaul.com/