Bathtub Leads to DIY Resolution

While tidying up the place in preparation for the baby shower I learned that there was no hot water in our upstairs bathtub.  This bathtub hardly ever sees any use since we rarely have overnight guests.   When I turned it to cold, cold water came out, yet when I turned it to hot, no water came out.

I have no problem doing electrical work on my house.  I replaced the recess lighting in our kitchen, installed all our speakers and volume control knobs throughout the house, and wired the house and installed the jacks for networking.  However, my skills do not extend into the realm of plumbing.  I keep having visions of scenes from the Money Pit.

 
This fear led me to call Mr. Rooter.   Melvin the plumber arrived in about an hour.  After a quick investigation his diagnosis was a bad cartridge.  Thirty minutes and $191 later and it was working again. 

I spent more than I needed to, but I had a $25 coupon which made me feel a little better.

I could kick myself for not doing this myself.  Next time I’ll just find some videos on YouTube to teach me how to be a plumber. 

Camcorder

One of the last big purchases we needed to make before Garrett arrived was a camcorder.  I knew I wanted it to be small and lightweight and be able to quickly start filming so we wouldn’t  miss any action and I knew I wanted HD.

We used our Wal-Mart gift cards that we got from the baby shower and I got the Panasonic HDC-SD9.

So far I’m pretty happy with the purchase.  It films in 1920x1080, has a 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound microphone, can pre-record, is ready to record in .6 seconds, has 10x optical zoom and 700x digital zoom, has optical image stabilization, face detection, and a 2.7:” screen.  It records on a SD card and it even came with an 8GB SD card that will hold 1 hour and 22 minutes on the highest resolution or over 3 hours on low resolution.  It also came with some decent video editing software too.

I can’t wait to start posting some videos.  Stay tuned.

9 Frogs

There were 9 frogs on my patio last night during the rain.

Week 34

We went back to see Dr. Jackson again this week.  Everything is going fine with Garrett. We go back on the 36th week where they will do a non-stress test and a few other tests.  After that we will start going every week until Garrett gets here.

It wasn’t necessary, but we asked for another ultrasound just for the heck of it because we haven’t seen the little guy in a while and we missed the chance at getting the 3D ultrasound.

This is the one of his head.  His head is 93mm ( 3.6” ) across and he’s no longer breach.  Dr. Jackson said, “he’s got a good-sized head.”

We also asked the doctor if he could check one more time to make sure its a boy because we’ve been hearing horror stories about couples who were told wrong.  He calmed our fears.

When Dr. Jackson printed out the photos he said, “There you go, both heads.”

Insulin Shots

Kelly went to the diabetes doctor again last week to monitor her gestational diabetes.  She was told that her blood sugar was still too high and that she would have to take insulin shots once a day before she goes to bed.  She also has a more restrictive diet now.

I feel so bad for her.  Not only does she have to go through all the normal unpleasantries of pregnancy, but now she has to stick herself four times a day to monitor her blood sugar and get a shot every night.  Being pregnant you should be able to eat anything you want but she is on a no-sweets, low-carb diet.

Crib Recall

I received an email from Babies R Us saying that the crib we bought there had been recalled.  Ours is the Jardine Americana Pecan 4 in 1. 

I went there to talk to the manager.  He said that since we only recently bought the set and we still had the receipt we could bring the receipt in and exchange all the furniture for a new set and when they delivered it they would put it together and pick up the old set including the recalled crib, which is above and beyond what I expected them to do.

We didn’t have the receipt with us, so before picking out a new set we went home to get it.  I double-checked the website again and noticed that the manufacture dates that were being recalled didn’t match the manufacture date of our crib.  Crisis averted.

Baby Shower

We had our baby shower May 2nd.  I don’t think our house has ever had so many people in it.  We probably had over 40 people show up.  Several of our good friends worked very hard to make this a nice event.  We had a bunch of “It’s a Boy!” balloons, beautiful blue and white flower arrangements, a lots and lots of great food and deserts.

 

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I can’t express how thankful we are to have such generous friends and family.  Garrett is set for the first few years of his life.

No 3D Ultrasound & No Tour

We went to the doctor on Wednesday for a checkup. Everything is fine. We asked him about possibly getting a 3D ultrasound, but he says it's too late to get one. There's a point in the pregnancy where it gets too crowded in the uterus for a good picture and the baby's face looks smooshed. We also asked him about possibly getting a tour of the new facilities, but he said we wouldn't be able to because they don't open until June. He said he hasn't even seen them yet.

He didn't have any other advise about the gestational diabetes other than to eat like the diabetes doctors said and continue to test sugar and keytones. In a few weeks we'll start going to the doctor every week instead of every two weeks.

Week 32

Just 8 weeks left! We were suppose to go to the doctor yesterday but it was flooding so bad here in Houston that the doctor's office was closed. We've rescheduled to this afternoon.

After going back to the diabetes doctor, we found out that Kelly does, in fact, have gestational diabetes. She has a blood sugar monitor that she has to use before and after each meal and she has to limit the amount of carbohydrates she eats for the rest of the pregnancy. After the pregnancy it can develop into type 2 diabetes so we'll be changing our eating/drinking habits starting now since she has a family history of diabetes.

Tree Hit by Lightning

My cousins, Gary & Jaree, live outside of Austin. They recently had a tree on their property hit by lightning. Check out these incredible pictures. Notice the oak tree right next to the one hit by lightning. They said they are going to name that tree Lucky.

That? That's the mop you could be saving with Geico.

Week 30

Last Friday we went to Memorial Herman Memorial City Hospital where we’ll be having the baby and preregistered in order to save time when we come back for the delivery.  While registering we found out that we’d be in the new tower of the hospital that opens this June.  Kelly also had to get her 2nd Rhogam injection.

Last time we went to the doctor they testing Kelly’s blood sugar.  The results came back and she may have a case of Gestational Diabetes.  This is like diabetes that you only get during your pregnancy and goes away after you have the baby.  They sent her to a diabetes specialist on Wednesday who did a couple of more tests.   They didn’t tell her that she was suppose to fast before the appointment so she goes back for more tests on Monday morning after fasting Sunday night.  She’ll have to drink that sugary drink again and wait around for three hours so they can get accurate test results.  They sent her home with a blood monitor to test her own blood a few times a day after she eats and record the blood sugar levels.

We’ve started going to the doctor every two weeks now.  We went this past Tuesday and they checked her weight, blood pressure, and the baby’s heartbeat.  Everything was normal and we go back in two weeks.

Stephen Lynch

Kelly and I went to see Stephen Lynch Saturday night at the Verizon Theater.  You may have seen him on Comedy Central.  He’s a comedian that plays funny songs on his guitar.   We had pretty good seats on the 3rd row because we bought tickets as soon as they went on sale.  We were about 15 feet from him.  He played about 4 songs from his old material and the rest of the show was stuff from his new album.  This guy is absolutely hilarious and he’s actually a really good musician and could probably have a non-comedy album.  One of my favorite old ones of his is “Lullaby.”  A couple of my favorite newer ones are “Fishin’ Hole” and “Waiting”

Week 28

We went to the doctor Monday morning.  He did a quick examination, poked around on Kelly’s belly, and checked the baby’s heartbeat.  Kelly also had to drink that sugary stuff and get blood taken to test for gestational diabetes.  Everything is fine but we’ll start going every two weeks now.

Now that Kelly is in the third trimester she is feeling a little more tired and has trouble sleeping because of the baby kicks but other than that she’s doing great.  I think the baby kicks are just the coolest thing.  They are really strong and sometimes you can actually see her belly bounce up and down!

She’s getting bigger and bigger every day and her belly button is very shallow.  She doesn’t feel very pretty and doesn’t like when I take pictures, but I think she is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen and I love her.

She said I could post this picture on the condition that I include a disclaimer that it is 1:00am, she’s sick, and not wearing makeup.

Baby Shower

As my friend Nathan said, “You get the hose, I’ll get the soap and rags.”

We’re getting ready for our baby shower which will be May 2nd.  Its a couples shower so not going to be  your typical baby shower.  It’s basically just a big party for Garrett before he gets here.  We’re sending out invitations this week.  If you don’t get one, don’t feel bad… consider this your invitation.

Contact us for more information.

We’re registered at Target & Babies ‘R’ Us.

Beer & Crawfish

Ah yes… two of my favorite things.

The weather was finally nice on a weekend so Chad & Melanie and Kelly & I went to the Saint Arnold’s brewery on Saturday.  Kelly was a trooper.  She can’t drink and was really sick but hung in there with us as we sipped down some sweet crazy goodness.

Afterwards we went to the Tequila Lopez 8th Annual Crawfish Cookoff.  We’ve been to this the last 3 years and its always a good time.  It’s all you can eat crawfish from several different cooking teams and live music.  I ate about 8lbs of crawfish, went home and took a nap.  I’d say that’s a pretty good day.

Down with the Sickness

Last week was horrible.  It started out with a sore throat on Sunday, then I developed a cough and a runny nose. I missed work Monday, Tuesday, worked from home half of Wednesday, and tried to go in on Thursday but left early because I couldn’t control my cough.  I got better Thursday night and went to work on Friday but then Kelly started getting the same symptoms. She’s been sick all weekend and is just now getting over it.  We went through 7 boxes of Puffs Plus last week.  There were a lot of people where I work who were out sick around the same time.

This season is horrible for getting sick so take care of yourselves.

Mike’s Wedding

My friend Mike, who I’ve know since high school, got married March 21st. I was in the wedding as a groomsmen. It was a really nice ceremony at Ashton Gardens. The food was awesome and the DJ was really cool. We had a great time and got to see some good friends that I haven’t seen in a while.

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Mike & Kylie seem very much in love. I’ve never seen Mike as happy as he was this day.

Garrett Michaud Strube

I don’t think I ever told everyone what our son’s name will be. We decided on Garrett Michaud Strube. Kelly saw or heard the name Garrett somewhere and really liked it and as it turns out that’s my grandmother’s maiden name. I just looked it up in our book of 35,000 baby names and its Irish and it means brave spearman. Michaud (pronounced mē'-shō) is French and is in honor of Kelly’s father.

Advanage

We had a big grease stain on our carpet from the bottom of an office chair.  We tried Resolve and Woolite and some other stuff and nothing worked.  A few weeks ago Kelly was at a friend’s house when a door-to-door sales lady came by selling a cleaning product.  The lady demonstrated it removing permanent marker from a white tennis shoe.  Kelly was sold. 

This stuff is pretty amazing.  It was $40 for 34oz, but it’s super concentrated.  We diluted it 20:1 with water and it got the grease stain out with just a few squirts and a rag.  I hate to sound like a commercial, but go get some Advanage.

The Nursery is Done

We got the nursery all put together and it looks sooo cute. For our first project like this I think we did a pretty good job. We might have gone a little overboard, but that’s okay. Everything came out just like we wanted and I think he’ll love it. Abigail is going nuts over the little stuffed animals on the mobile. She thinks they are hers. Now all we need is for him to hurry up and get here.

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iPhone

My friend Chad had an iPhone 3G 8GB, but he just got a new BlackBerry so he was looking to get rid of it for $200.  They cost that much if you get them from AT&T with a 2 year contract.  We already have AT&T, plus it is in perfect condition since he only had it a couple of months so it seemed like a pretty good deal.  Chad was also looking to buy an older computer for the boys.  This worked out pretty good because I had a old computer I just rebuilt and was about to sell.  It’s not too fancy and is only worth about $100. Chad and I worked out a deal and I gave him the computer and $100 for the iPhone.

Since I have my own BlackBerry for work I gave the iPhone to Kelly.  She loves it.  She says it is the best gadget ever.  After playing with it a little while and downloading some of the apps for it, I’d have to agree.  It’s pretty freaking cool.  I’m jealous.

Fat Puppy

We took Abigail to the vet bright and early yesterday morning to get her some shots she needed and a checkup.  She was a champ and didn’t mind the shots at all.  We were concerned about her allergies lately because she’d been licking her paws, rubbing her face, and her eyes were tearing.  The vet said that was all due to allergies and the elevated pollen levels in the area and that we could just give her Benadryl.

When they weighed her she was a whopping 17 lbs.  She is only suppose to be about 13 lbs.  We noticed she was getting a little thick a while back so we stopped leaving her food out all the time and just fed her a little bit twice a day.  The vet told us that the amount we were feeding her was equivalent to what you would feed a 20 lb. dog.  Plus we give her treats all the time so we are turning her into a real porker.  It might not seem that bad when you say she’s only gained 4 lbs, but when you only weigh 13 lbs. that’s bad.  That’s a 30% weight gain which is like me packing on about 60 lbs.  No wonder she snores.

We are going  to cut back the amount we feed her and the number of treats she gets.

Review of “Watchmen”

After seeing the trailer to “Watchmen” I was hyped up long before it was released, I decided to go see it .  I’d had no previous exposure to the story.  Everything I knew about Watchmen was what I saw in the trailer.  Except that it was directed by Zack Snyder who directed 300….a movie which I thought was really good.   “Cool,” I thought, “a sort of dark-anti-super-hero movie adapted from a graphic novel I never read.”

Knowing nothing about the movie, but noticing the excitement in my voice each time I reminded her that the movie was opening this weekend, Kelly reluctantly agreed to go.  We went to the 3:20 showing at the Alamo Drafthouse West Oaks.  We had some chili cheese fries and a pizza and settled in to watch a movie that looked like it had potential to be really good.  After all, it made $25M the first day, and according to reviews on IMDB.com 17,000 people gave it an average of 8.3 /10

The first scene was, by far, the best scene in the movie.  It was a really cool fight scene between a retired super-hero and an assassin trying to kill him.  Everything up until the opening credits rolled was cool.  It just went downhill from there.  We were completely bored and disinterested after about 20 minutes in to the movie.  There was long drawn out back story establishing the setting and how the characters once lived and what led them to what they are now.  Its about an alternate 1985 where the US and Russia are on the brink of nuclear war, Nixon is on his 5th presidential term, and super-heroes that don’t have any powers except martial arts skills, run around in stupid costumes not solving crime.

It dove deeply in to all the characters’ pasts but there wasn’t any thing going on.  Kelly looked at me several times during the movie and said, “really?”   The whole movie is long and dull marked with little bits of surprising explosive violence.  There’s barely any meaningful conflict that had anything to do with the story until the last part of the movie.  But after about 30 minutes you don’t really care what happens to the characters or this alternate history.  This movie was a waste of 2 hours and 43 minutes and $14.

Nursery Progress

We’ve made quite a bit of progress on the nursery.

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We went back to Home Depot and got a gallon of brown paint. It’s called Aviary Nest by Freshaire. This is the new non-toxic zero-VOC paint that doesn’t smell bad. It looks really good with the green and matches perfectly with the theme.

Northern Pear Tree

Aviary Nest

Babies ‘R Us called and said the furniture arrived so I picked it up the boxes, brought them home, and put them in the garage.

After we painted we hung the border, and the curtains and valance. Then I put together the rocking chair and the dresser.

All that’s left to do is put together the changing table and the crib, and hang some more stuff on the walls. Almost done!

Nursery

A couple of days after we found out we are going to have a boy we went to Babies 'R' Us and bought a crib, changing table, dresser, and rocking chair. We also got the bedding and decorations that we had already picked out (in case it was a boy). It's called Zanzibar and its got elephants, giraffes, zebras, monkeys, turtles, birds and alligators on it. It's really cute. This picture is from the website - not the nursery. We also went to Home Depot and got some paint and some paint supplies. Its called Northern Pear Tree and its a greenish mint-color that looks like this:


After we got home we decided to go back and get a brown color too. We're going to do brown on the bottom and then the border and then the green on top. We are still cleaning out the room and there is just a little bit of stuff left in there. I'm hoping to get it finished by next weekend so we can paint. The furniture is on order so it will be here in about 2 more weeks.

Anatomical Ultrasound

Here is the first 3 minutes of the anatomical ultrasound where we found out we're having a boy.

We're Having a Boy!

We finally found out what we're having. It's a boy! We went to the doctor today and they did the fancy anatomical ultrasound that has a lot more detail than the normal one.

Afterwards, we went across the street to the mall and did a little shopping and got some little boy clothes.

It's such a relief to finally know what we're having so now we can think about boy stuff.

Computer Desk

Since the office is going to become the baby's room we're moving the computer and all the books into the game room and getting rid of the couch. Neither of us like the computer desk we have now so we went shopping for a new one for the game room.

We didn't find anything we liked at OfficeMax, so we went to OfficeDepot. We found a cornerdesk with a hutch, a bookcase, and a rolling file for about $400. The rolling file was 75% off and it'll all be delivered tomorrow.

Next is the fun part... Putting it all together.

Baby is 50% Complete

Today is day number 140 of the baby making project. Kelly is 20 weeks pregnant! She has 140 days left so we are exactly half way there.

It sure seems to be going fast. But on the other hand it's not fast enough. We're really anxious and excited to find out what the sex will be next week.
We went to Baby's R Us yesterday to oooh and aaaah over all the stuf we want to buy. But we're holding off until we know what the sex is.

Kelly's feeling lots of kicks or punches all the time. Sometimes I'm able to catch a few too. Last week Kelly got a real hard kick or a punch while she was driving. It surprised her so much she yelled out. Then she cracked herself up so bad she couldn't stop laughing.

It won't be too much longer until she'll have to move her seat back so she can get in the car.

New Computer

I can't live without a computer for too long so I quickly started shopping. We have a partnership with Dell at work so I can get discounts on Dell PCs. I started shopping online and found one I wanted for about $600.

I wanted to go to Fry's to check out what they had too so Kelly and I went there this afternoon. We found the Gateway DX4200-11 which was the same price as the Dell but it had better specs so we went ahead and bought it.

Here are the specs:

• AMD Phenom x4 9550 Quad-Core
• 6GB DDR2 RAM
• 750GB SATA HD
• DVDRW
• ATI Radeon HD 3200 256MB
• Windows Visat Home Premium 64bit

After about 2 hours of moving in, I'm using it right now and I love it.

Red Ring of Death

I don't know what's going on with all the electronics around me but my Xbox 360 quit working today. Maybe I have some kind of electrostatic field emminating from my body that zaps electronics.

I sat down to play some Fallout 3 and about 5 minutes into the game the Xbox froze. I restarted it and then about 4 minutes into the game it froze. I tried another game and about 3 minutes into it, it froze. Then it would just freeze on the menus. Then it would freeze on the startup screen. And finally, it wouldn't boot at all and I got the dreaded red ring of death error.



I took it back to Best Buy, hoping they would be able to replace it, but it was past the end of my product protection plan. I had to contact Microsoft and request a repair. Since the warranty against the ROD is 3 years it was still well within the time limit. The only catch it you have to ship ot to them and have them repair it and send it back. This can take several weeks.

They say, if you love something set it free and if it returns to you, love it forever. So I boxed it up and set it off to the repair center. I miss it already.

Computer Kaput

Our home computer died this evening.

I came home today and tried to get on the Internet. It was running really slow so I restarted it, only it didn't come back on. I don't know what the problem is but it is most likely the motherboard since it won't even post. Luckily all our pictures, movies, and music are on an external 500GB USB drive.

I suppose it was time its time to go. It had a good run and lived a long, full, life.

Adios amigo.

Week 19

Kelly is getting over being sick. She's had a sinus infection, runny nose, sore throat, coughing, etc. She's had trouble sleeping and it pretty much sucks. She's getting over it now but this last week hasn't been fun. There's almost nothing you can do about it when you're pregnant. She's been taking a lot of vitamin C, eating a lot of soup, drinking a lot of water, using a humidifier, and Vick's Vapo-Rub. All of this seemed to help and she's almost well.

My 35th Birthday Party

On Saturday we had a bunch of friends and family come over for my birthday.

Several friends helped out with the food and we made fajitas, spanish rice, refried beans, queso and guacamole. I filled the ice chest up with beer and we had about 20 - 25 people come by. It was a great time. We had the Rockets game on and after that we ordered the UFC fight. I had a cake, everyone sang Happy Birthday, we played beer pong, darts, and Rock Band. It was exactly how I wanted to spend the evening. It was a really great time.

First Home Brew - Part III

On Saturday I tried out my first batch of beer. It wasn't very carbonated and there wasn't a head on the beer when I poured it. It tasted a little sort of like cider. According to this article, I may have put too much sugar in the bottles. I thought I followed the instructions as best I could, but it's not drinkable.

Hopefully the second batch of Ocktoberfest will be better. I think this time I'm going to use smaller bottles, dark glass, and make sure I get the sugar amount exactly right this time.

Week 17

The good news is everything is fine, but the bad news is we can't buy any pink or blue stuff just yet.

Today we went back to see Dr. Jackson. There was a possibility that we might find out the sex of the baby this visit, but we weren't able to. It's still a little too early to tell. We go back February 10th for the level 2 ultrasound. This type of ultrasound shows a lot more detail. I didn't expect we would to be able to tell because most of the books say you can't tell the sex until about the 20th week. Even though it was too early we were still hopeful.

It was pretty disappointing, but the great news is everything else is fine. Kelly's weight and blood pressure are fine, and we haven't had any concerns. The AFP screening came back fine which is really great news and rules out a lot of possible problems. Also recently Kelly has really started to feel some movement from the baby.

The picture from the ultrasound isn't very good and doesn't show anything but the head which is 45mm (1 3/4") from ear to ear. But when the ultrasound was moving around we were able to see the head, arms, legs, spine, and heart. The doctor said everything was fine and we also got to hear the heartbeat really well this time. It sounds like a little hummingbird.

Aren't we spoiled by technology? A few years ago most women didn't have ultrasounds or know the sex of the baby until it came out.

Cheech & Chong

Our friend's Chad & Melanie called us Friday to invite us to go with them to see Cheech & Chong on Saturday. I missed them when they did a show here on Halloween, so I was stoked to get to see them this time. Melanie gave Chad 4 tickets to see them for Christmas. It was real nice of them to ask us to go. They played at the Verizon Theatre downdown, so we ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe right next door before the show.

It was a good show, they did a bunch of skits and some old material. The show was about an hour and a half and I got a tie-dyed concert shirt.

Cheap Beer

By the time I bottled my first batch of beer I wanted to have the ingredients to make a second. The kit only came with one recipe. I looked online and the normal brew packs that come in all different flavors and make 2 gallons run about $13. I remembered seeing a variety 3 pack at Bed Bath & Beyond so after dinner a few nights ago, Kelly and I stopped by the BBB by our house to check.

They had two left and they were $30 each. They come with a pale ale, a wheat beer, and a Oktoberfest. That's a better deal than online, so I got one. I also had a $10 off coupon on $30 or more that expired that day.

When I went to check out, it rang up as 1/2 off! So I got the other one too. So what would have cost me $78 online, I was able to get for $20. Nice! I think I'll try the Oktoberfest next.

First Home Brew - Part II

Its time to bottle my first batch of brew. On Friday it had been it fermenting for 10 days. First I got all the bottles together and rinsed them out. Since I had two gallons of beer to bottle, I gathered up all the bottles I could. If I was going to use glass bottles, I would have to get metal lids and a capper. I'll get that stuff eventually, but this time I'm just going to use old soda bottles. The instructions say this is okay. In order to test if the beer is ready to bottle the instructions say, "Taste it. If it tastes like flat beer, then its ready to bottle. If its sweet, let it ferment longer." I tasted it and it definateley tasted like room-temperature flat beer.

The first step is to sanitize the bottles, this is done by putting the rest of the no-rinse power in a 1 gallon container and mixing it with warm water. Then you fill all the containers half way, shake them up, and let them sit a while.

After you drain the bottles, you put a measured amount of sugar in each bottle. This is what will make the beer sweeter and cause it to carbonate.

Then you fill each bottle almost all the way full using the tap from the fermenter.

Then you screw on the caps (provided) and turn it over a few times to make sure all the sugar dissolves.


Viola! I have two gallons of beer. Its actually pretty clear. The instructions said that there might be some sediment in it from the yeast, but i didn't see any of that. Below you can see the writing on the opposite side of the bottle and my fingers.

Now I have to condition the bottles. Now I just have to set them somewhere out of the sunlight at room0temperature for a week. I chose the bottom of the pantry. In a week they will be carbonated, and I'll put them in the fridge to cool.

Waiting is the hardest part.

First Home Brew - Part I

I've been wanting to try to brew my own beer for a while. I typically go overboard on paraphernalia for new hobbies so I wanted to start small with this one, try it out and see if I like it before I spend too much money.

On Tuesday I broke out the new Mr. Beer Deluxe Edition Beer Kit that I got for Christmas. I assembled the fermenter and laid out all the stuff.



It seems really simple. Alot of the work is already done for you and comes with a "High Country Canadian Draft" recipe which is described as "extremely pale in color and bold in character. An exceptionally hop accented beer, it is preferred by those who demand that extra "Kick". This beer brews up clean and impressive." It takes about 2 weeks and makes 2 gallons of beer.

The possibilities are endless on what you can brew, but I'm going to just try the simple basic stuff for the first time out.

Step 1 - Sanitation
You put some water in the fermenter and you dump a little package of this no-rinse sanitizer in there along with all your utensils.

Then you let it sit for a few minutes, drain a little of the water onto a plate and take all the utensils out and put them on a plate and empty the fermenter.


Step 2 - Brewing
Put a gallon of clean water in the fermenter. I used Kroger purified water. The second hardest thing to do in the whole process was take this picture while trying to pour the water.


Then you place the malted hops in some hot water so it will pour easier.

Then you put 3 cups of water in a pot and start adding the booster. The booster is the sugar that the yeast is going to turn into alcohol and CO2.

This part was a little hard too, because the booster kept clumping up. It was hard to get it to dissolve in room-temperature water, but that's what the instructions said to do. It said to wait until it was dissolved before heating it to a boil.

Then open the can of malted hops which is thick, brown and syrupy and smells remarkable like a brewery.


Then you add the malted hops to the booster mixture. This is called the wort.

Then you pour the wort into the fermenter and spill some all over the counter, the fermenter, down the kitchen cabinets and on the floor (optional).

I guess I need a big funnel or a pot that's easier to pour out of. After I got that all cleaned up, it was time to add the yeast. I think the owner of St. Arnold's put it best when he said, "basically the way yeast works is it eats sugar, pisses alcohol, and farts CO2."

Dump them in the fermenter and mix it up.

Then screw the lid on, set it aside and wait a week or two.

It begins to bubble and you can see the CO2 being made. Tomorrow it will have been in there a week, so over the next few days I'm going to get some bottles together and proceed to the next step of conditioning.

Holidays 2008

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We had a great time visiting with friends and family. I was off work from Dec 19th to Jan 5th.

Kelly and I exchanged gifts Christmas Eve morning. I got Kelly a nice purse. Kelly and I spent Christmas Eve day at my mom's house. We had a pot roast and exchanged gifts. We got some blankets and some stuff for the house and took Abigail to visit too.


Christmas Eve evening we went to Kelly's mom's house and had fajitas and exchanged gifts with her mom, aunt Faye, and grandma. We had a good time and I got a home brew kit that I'd been wanting and Kelly got a bunch of maternity clothes. Peggy's house at Christmas time is a sight to see. It always looks like a Christmas bomb went off.


Christmas day at lunch we went back to Kelly's mom's house where she made a spectacular prime rib dinner. We exchanged gifts with her brother Jason and sister Amanda and their kids Tyler and Trent. Tyler is 8 years old so we got him some Hot Wheels. I really wanted to play with them, but we had were on a tight schedule and left to go to my dad and stepmom's.

We wanted to make this our last stop because we always end up staying up late and drinking* and playing games with my step sister Shannon, her husband Brad, her cousin Jessi and Jessi's boyfriend David. We exchanged gifts with everyone and I got a huge 152-quart ice chest, Kelly got a massage gift certificate, and we got a fondue maker. I also made some wassail. Here is the recipe:

For New Years we went over to our friend's Jennifer & Roman's house. We hung out with friends and they had tons of food. We drank* and shot fireworks and then played Catch Phrase until the wee hours. That was lots and lots of fun.

On Friday we went to Moe's to see the Bellamy Brothers with some friends. My mom came out and we had a great time drinking*.

On Saturday we met up with some friends for lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings and we decided to make an evening out of it so everyone came back to our house and we played beer pong and drank*.

I went back to work today which was a bummer, but I got to spend my vacation exactly like I wanted to. On the days we didn't have stuff planned I laid around in my pajamas on the couch and played video games. It was the perfect staycation.

* - Not Kelly :(

Missed Appointment

I was going to take Kelly to the doctor’s office to do some blood work on December 29^th, but we slept right through it. We rescheduled it to this morning. Kelly went and they took a vile of blood. I don't know what it was for.

We go back January 13th for the anatomical ultrasound. That might be when we get to find out what the sex is.