it is hot and humid in the midwest summer. perfect for a nice cold Leines to wet your whistle.

This morning I went for a run and for the first time since I began running again, just over a week ago, I feel like I hit a comfortable stride. If you’re a runner, you know that feeling. The feeling when your whole body slides into a rythm and you feel like you could just go and go at that speed. I think it helps that I stayed to relatively flat land. It feels good to be getting my running legs back.

After we built the rail road this weekend, we began work on the race track. The most common comment around the race track was, “more cars.” It was easier to sit and draw cars than it was to walk around bent over drawing the rail road though.

I saw something this morning that in retrospect I just wasn’t prepared for. As I turned onto the entrance ramp to 35E south, I looked at the meter lights (for those of you who don’t have these in your state, meter lights are stop lights that only let one or two cars onto the freeway at a time to help control the flow of traffic). All of the lights, red, yellow, and green, were lit up. I started to hit the brakes, speed up, hit the brakes and question all at the same time. It was just one of those weird moments that you realize you’ve been so conditioned for a certain experience, when you are confronted with something else, it really throws you.

Weird way to start the day. Luckily it is Monday which means $1 coffee downstairs in the lobby. Extra coffee this AM will be much appreciated.

In addition to cleaning the garage yesterday, Ryan and I spend some time creating this railroad on the driveway. I’m sad to say that though it was just chalk, it did seem like a fair amount of work (and bending over) to create it. Christopher had fun with it though.

The weekend is winding down and I should be working but instead I’m posting here and thinking I should really spend a little time in the backyard before the work starts. . . I mean, really there is plenty of time for that during the week, right?

Spent a little time up at my buddy, Ryan’s, house earlier today and helped with flaming the garage. And by help I mean I chatted and drank beer while he cleaned. Well, I did help move some heavy things to the shed.

Now, just sitting in the backyard reading for a bit waiting for Becky to get home. It is nice in the shade. A perfect summer day.

chillin’ the wort, originally uploaded by kregarious.

When making beer, after you’ve done your boil, you must chill the wort as quickly as possible down to a temperature that will make the yeast happy. This process gets to the heart of the two most important things about making beer. First, as mentioned, you want the yeast to be happy. Yeast is your friend. Yeast is what makes the wort into beer. Yeast is essential. Second, you’re looking to do this as fast as possible so that the wort isn’t open to the air very long. This gets to cleanliness. You need to opperate in as sterile an environment as possible so the yeast can ferment the sugars instead of bacteria growing something awful.

Those are the two priniciples to start from. However, the next thing I’d say is, don’t worry about it too much, this is something people have been doing a long time. I brew out of the home and generally have a beer or two while I make the next batch. That means that once or twice I’ve forgotten to get the yeast ready early enough. That means that my equipment is too big to wash all of it in the sink, so some has to get washed in the tub (which is also cleaned by the way). In all my batches I’ve only had one that was completely ruined and that was a problem with the yeast (note: not all yeast is the same and you cannot use bread yeast in a pinch). Another batch I ruined because I broke a thermometer into it but that hardly counts as it didn’t get past the wort stage. I recommend using metal meat thermometers (see photo).

I guess the lesson learned that I’m trying to get to is that in many things you can start with a few basic prinicples and then your best bet is really not to worry about it too much. Work off those initial ideas and then just do your best. As long as you do that, you can be relatively sure that your primary fermenter will bubble along and soon enough you’ll have a tasty beverage.

what you see here are the spent grains from the brew that are ready for the compost pile. i did get one suggestion to use them with a little milk or yogurt for breakfast because they look a lot like grapenuts. i think i’ll stick to the compost pile.

i was thinking last night that one of my favorite things about cooking (or brewing beer, which is a kind of cooking) is that the smell permeates the whole house. last night i made collard greens and the house smelled like spicey, garlicy, green goodness all night long.

going to be a rainy day here, it looks like. i guess that makes it easier to be at work.

yesterday was a great day and this was the view (slightly edited with a filter from camera+) out of the window near where i sit. i don’t have this view directly but i’m close. why was it a good day. i dunno, partly because i woke up yesterday and said, “today is going to be a great day.” and I guess partly because i just got a lot done and felt good about what i was doing.

i’ve spent a lot of time over the last year thinking about and defining what is important to me. i think it is most easily summed up in that what is most important to me are the connections. i’m fascinated by the large range of mediums we can all keep our connections open. some online and some not.

here is a good article looking at online life that i read yesterday morning to start off the day.

spent a little time brewing this weekend with dave and dave. (insert joke here about “this is my brother darryl, this is my other brother darryl”). i also decided to start running again this weekend. i am out of shape. it is officially. my legs hurt something fierce so this morning i had to settle for a walk. still, three days of exercise in a row is not bad. . . it’s a start. we’ll see how long i can keep it up for. i’m using run keeper to keep myself going.

today is a work at home day because i have an insurance inspector coming to take a look at my roof for hail damage. would be nice to have a new roof for the low low cost of a deductible.

the look in their eyes made me feel like such an intrusion. i’m sorry for the disturbance. please go back to whatever it is you were doing.

this photo makes me think of an honest days work. more with the hipstamatic here. . . probably going to see a lot of shots from that for a bit here. it’s a fun little program to play with.

well, i’m worried that my apple tree in the backyard has the black rot. it looks like it’s gone pretty far so i don’t know if we’ll be able to save it by pruning parts off the tree or not. i’m hoping so, if not. . . well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. i submitted a question to the u of mn extension services. that is a great website for getting information on things. check it out here: http://www.extension.org/ask

well, it is time to dive into the day, head first. time to put on some tunes and get to it.