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Another fun week
Jun. 5th, 2007 10:12 amWe went to another River Jam last Thursday. This week it was a crappy version of the Indigo Girls (some group called Kennedy Rose), then The Features (alright, for generic radio rock), then Bonepony, then Donna the Buffalo. Jason and Zach came up and arrived just in time for Donna the Buffalo. The show was kind of short, but it was really good, and we had fun.
Saturday, our neighbor was having a birthday party and invited us up to the pool with his friends. There's a little pavilion next to our neighborhood pool that you can reserve for events (no charge). There were so many babies, nearly all of them a year or younger. Their daughter was the youngest at about 3 months. There were two others there that were a month or two older than Jonah. Chris' homebrew was a big hit. We didn't stay long enough to swim, but we had fun. Before we went up to that we had gone out to run some errands and stopped at Elliston Place Soda Shop. Man that place is great! The best milkshake I've ever had, and a really good patty melt type burger and onion rings. The place is so charming too. An old diner, in bad need of renovation, but really neat the way it shows it's age genuinely.
Sunday Chris brewed an Oktoberfest, after a rocky start with a problematic grain mill. He didn't mash in until about noon (three hours late). But still, the rest of the day went smoothly and he was finished by about 4:30 or so. Our friend Jonathan, a fellow brewer, had brought over some steaks to grill for lunch/dinner. These things were HUGE! They were about 2 inches thick and had to have weighed at least a pound each, if not more. They were sooo good though. We marinated them in some soy sauce and a pint of the barrel brew porter (a porter that was aged for 100 days or so in a Jack Daniels barrel).
I've been thinking about brewing some myself lately. I'd like to try a ginger beer, but I'm trying to decide what sort of base style to use. I'm thinking a ginger wheat would be awesome, but a Belgian Wit (without the coriander and orange peel) or an American wheat? And either way, I think I'd follow Chris' advice and use a neutral yeast. After that, we've got a bunch of orange blossom honey and it's apparently my job to make our first meads. We've got enough for a couple of melomels I think, depending on what sort of fruit we use (if it's sweet or tart). Should be fun, and a lot easier than brewing, other than the temperature situation and the need to age it for so long.
Jonah is getting to be more of a handful. He knows he's a little more mobile now, still not quite crawling, but definitely scooting and creeping. He's just not content to be confined to his high chair or his bouncy seat anymore. Luckily, since we have the crib now, that frees up the pack-n-play so I brought it downstairs and threw a bunch of toys in it and turned him loose. He still isn't content to be there very long, but long enough for me to get a few things done then go back to playing with him. I finally got caught up on the What to expect book. So far, so good. What's come naturally to us seems to be the right track. The only things I wasn't sure on was food. We go on Thursday for his 6 month check up (more shots, yippee). I picked up some extra veggies for him at the grocery yesterday too. When I'm done here, I'm going to go start steaming and mashing them and later we can try a feeding with those. The book warned of giving fruits first, since they might give him a sweet tooth. So I'm trying green beans, zucchini, and then on the sweet side some carrots and a sweet potato. Maybe next week we'll introduce a fruit or two.
Saturday, our neighbor was having a birthday party and invited us up to the pool with his friends. There's a little pavilion next to our neighborhood pool that you can reserve for events (no charge). There were so many babies, nearly all of them a year or younger. Their daughter was the youngest at about 3 months. There were two others there that were a month or two older than Jonah. Chris' homebrew was a big hit. We didn't stay long enough to swim, but we had fun. Before we went up to that we had gone out to run some errands and stopped at Elliston Place Soda Shop. Man that place is great! The best milkshake I've ever had, and a really good patty melt type burger and onion rings. The place is so charming too. An old diner, in bad need of renovation, but really neat the way it shows it's age genuinely.
Sunday Chris brewed an Oktoberfest, after a rocky start with a problematic grain mill. He didn't mash in until about noon (three hours late). But still, the rest of the day went smoothly and he was finished by about 4:30 or so. Our friend Jonathan, a fellow brewer, had brought over some steaks to grill for lunch/dinner. These things were HUGE! They were about 2 inches thick and had to have weighed at least a pound each, if not more. They were sooo good though. We marinated them in some soy sauce and a pint of the barrel brew porter (a porter that was aged for 100 days or so in a Jack Daniels barrel).
I've been thinking about brewing some myself lately. I'd like to try a ginger beer, but I'm trying to decide what sort of base style to use. I'm thinking a ginger wheat would be awesome, but a Belgian Wit (without the coriander and orange peel) or an American wheat? And either way, I think I'd follow Chris' advice and use a neutral yeast. After that, we've got a bunch of orange blossom honey and it's apparently my job to make our first meads. We've got enough for a couple of melomels I think, depending on what sort of fruit we use (if it's sweet or tart). Should be fun, and a lot easier than brewing, other than the temperature situation and the need to age it for so long.
Jonah is getting to be more of a handful. He knows he's a little more mobile now, still not quite crawling, but definitely scooting and creeping. He's just not content to be confined to his high chair or his bouncy seat anymore. Luckily, since we have the crib now, that frees up the pack-n-play so I brought it downstairs and threw a bunch of toys in it and turned him loose. He still isn't content to be there very long, but long enough for me to get a few things done then go back to playing with him. I finally got caught up on the What to expect book. So far, so good. What's come naturally to us seems to be the right track. The only things I wasn't sure on was food. We go on Thursday for his 6 month check up (more shots, yippee). I picked up some extra veggies for him at the grocery yesterday too. When I'm done here, I'm going to go start steaming and mashing them and later we can try a feeding with those. The book warned of giving fruits first, since they might give him a sweet tooth. So I'm trying green beans, zucchini, and then on the sweet side some carrots and a sweet potato. Maybe next week we'll introduce a fruit or two.