Pursuit of Hoppy-ness!

I have given up all pretense of any regular update to this blog. As it is I figured that "Well, it's been a week or two since my last update, guess I post something." Only to find out that it's actually been three weeks since last we spoke. Oh well, frankly, I have been so busy at work lately that I have had absolutely nothing of interest happen that I'm able to blog about.

I did get a fair amount of project related stuff accomplished this last weekend, almost none of it actually planned. The only item that I really had intended to do was the dry-hopping of my latest endeavor, California IPA. I'm not actually sure what makes an India Pale Ale a California IPA, but no matter, the sample I had at MoreBeer in Riverside tasted extremely promising. Anyway, I boiled up a batch the weekend before last, sometime around when the Chargers were going done in flames against the New York Jets.

Dry hopping is a new technique for me, something I should probably not be attempting at this point. I mean if I can't accomplish the basic techniques to my own satisfaction, why would I start throwing new wrinkles into the mix. But the siren song of the IPA won me over. I picked up a packet of Citra hops at Morebeer last week. They smelled FABULOUS, but then I'm a hoppy kind of guy. Hops in fact are interesting little buggers. I guess interesting little gals, as I have learned that they are actually female flowers.

Anyway, I'm dry hopping the beer in my secondary fermenter as we speak. Next weekend to the bottles, a couple weeks worth of fermentation and another couple for aging and my around the end of February maybe I'll have a beer to drink.

I continue to consume my Holiday Ale, the taste actually having grown on me. I was a little disappointed at first, maybe because I didn't age it long enough, but it's a somewhat serviceable beverage.

The other projects I completed last weekend were mostly Leo-induced. It POURED rain here over most of last week and the yard is a complete mud bowl. Needless to say, Leo has the sense to stay out of neither rain nor mud, so every evening we return home to find him soaked, dirty and freezing. He got a bath about every night last week just so we could let him in the house. So, Denise decided the dog needed a covered area to get out of the rain. One would think that the garage would be sufficient, but he refuses to stay in there. So, I spent a good chunk of Saturday putting up plastic roofing sheets on our patio cover trellis. It's raining now, the patio is staying relatively dry, but the whole endeavor is likely doomed to failure for one simple reason; Leo will probably not stay under the damn thing.

In addition to the cover, Denise decided the dog needed a raised platform under his bed, someplace to sleep under the new patio roof. I dutifully built the dog a new bed, which he seems to regard as some sort of fiendish trap. So far Denise has only lured him onto the thing once, with copious doggie treats, but alas the mattress slipped as he was getting off it and now he's more afraid of it than ever.

Another lesser feat was installation of a hot water recirculating pump for our bathroom. I think I mentioned previously that because our water heater is so far from our bathroom that we have to run about 2-1/2 gallons of water down the drain whenever we want to shower, just to get to the hot water. We were saving the cold water in buckets and using it to water the garden, but in the midst of the rainy season that was pretty pointless. The new pump seems to be working well, operates on a timer, so that nice hot (or at least tolerably lukewarm) water awaits for my morning shower. We'll have to watch the electric bills to see if this whole plan comes back to bite us.

Multiple other projects ensued, but my favorite was either the Tempeh Shepperd's Pie that I made for Sunday dinner or maybe it was the half-dozen Caipiroskas that I mixed up and consumed. (Actually I modified the recipe; halved the vodka and added some club soda - very refreshing after a long weekend of projecting. And a very satisfying way to use up the glut of limes from our tree.)

But enough about me. Both boys are now back in school, Jacob having left on Thursday the 14th to make the drive with a couple friends. Sounds like an epic trip, leaving Temecula around 8:00AM and arriving at Humbolt around 2:30AM on the 15th. He is now taking classes in natural resources, communications, logical writing(?), guitar and Aikido.

Denise was finally able to schedule Jake's surgery for his wisdom teeth removal and bone graft. We have that to look forward to in March.

Nicholas is winding down his college career, hanging out with his girlfriend, snow skiing up at Tahoe, spending money he doesn't have and having a generally good time. Can't say as I blame him. Oh, and he is now a vegetarian. Not sure if he's gone the whole vegan thing. I'm pretty sure beer is still allowed in his diet.