Saturday I was by myself.  The girls went to Chicago Friday and left me alone with the animals.

So hey I took advantage of me time and brewed a 3 gallon batch of Ale.  Pale Ale.  Pale Ale with my own homegrown hops.

 Dad would have been happy I did this on his birthday.

Yes this is what fermentation looks like.  Thats all natural nothing stirring that.  Just yeast going crazy.

Woo! let the winter activities keep on rolling! So Sunday I went skiing, and Monday being a holiday for me, I went snowboarding! My annual trip up to Cascade Mountain. This time is wasn't solo, I went with an in-law of sorts - Dave.  He's married to my niece Katie.  He asked me at the annual holiday party if my snowboard ever left my office wall.  Of course it does, sometimes....

He mentioned he was a boarder from way back.  Since I don't have any other friends that partake in these foolish activities, I asked him to go.  He's the same age as my brother, so hey it's not like he's way younger than me.

The day was pretty nice, overcast with flurries all day.  Took me a while to get back up to speed but wasn't too bad,  would get tired, sloppy and then fall.  (Did I mention how sore I was from the skiing the day before?) Took a break and go back out for more.  We did about 18 runs all day, not bad since it was packed (longer lift lines) and I am out of shape (recurring theme).

We stayed until about 5:30 then headed home.  Stopping at the Boat House for dinner.  The Boat House on Fox Lake.  The same one we stopped at over three years ago when I went with the kids.

Last time:

 It was dead, with un-approving old people....

This time, all you can eat wings for $8.00 brings them in.  I was a little sad because it brought back the memories of going with them and that was the last time we all went as a family. 

Anyway, here is a little snippet of the day from my GPS/heart monitor again.  Kid of funny you can see the heart rate go up as I go down and then it slows as we ride the lift back to the top.  Also neat to see the elevation graphs.  

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy 14th Birthday to my Awesome daughter Mackenzie!

Hope you have a great day.

Only 10 years ago!

So it's cold and I put the bike away for the winter.  But I got cross country skis to make up the difference.

I put them to use last weekend.  Man it's been a long time since I skied x-crounty.  Like close to 30 years.  Jim and each had a pair for skis and would go through Currie park and the Menominee river parkway for some fun adventures.

Fast forward to Sunday and - There I was at the Zillmer Trails.  This place is specifically for skiing and hiking.  There is a warming house with a wood burning stove and tables and chairs groomed trails and nice parking lot.  When I got there I was a little apprehensive. The lot was packed.  Great, time to re-learn in front of a bunch of people.  I almost left.   Actually the place is big enough that you don't run into a ton of people,  there were plenty but it did not make it for a crowded trail system.

So I headed out on the brown 'easiest' trail.   Only 1.2 Miles in length.  Yea, I fell a few times as I got my legs underneath me.  But it became quite enjoyable and the scenery was nice. 

The weather was great too.  Mid 20's sunny.  Perfect.  I almost ditched my jacket shell, once I was warmed up.

After I looped around the brown trail - I decided to hit the green trail,  'more difficult' this one was 1.8 miles.  Again, not too bad, I could feel the quad's burning and the other little used mucsles begin to protest but I had to get a little more in.  This trail had a bit more hill to it, both up and down, makes some exciting sections.  Near the end, I flopped and used a pole to help me back up, bad idea.  my fat ass bent that sucker.  So I bent it back a bit.  But it's kinked a few places.  Oh well.  

Some of the detail with my GPS and heart rate monitor

I restarted a somewhat of a tradition I had done a while ago.  I got a jigsaw puzzle for the family for Christmas.  It was a spur of the moment thing.

So we started putting it together before Joel went back to school.  I set up the GoPro to take pictures every 5 seconds.  I then put it in a movie.  Of course, We forgot to set it up for the other days we worked on it.

Enjoy the video of us making a 1000 piece puzzle of a picture of Venice, Italy.

Good family time!

Well the holidays are officially over.  No,we took down the decorations well before new years.

I am talking about Joel going back to school.  Took him to the airport yesterday and while it's not as hard as it used to be it's still tough to see him go.  Tracy and I get a little misty as we see him walk to the gate.  I guess its all in preparation for him to eventually be on his own for good.

With all the cold an snow I look out at the deck, see the grill and wonder when the next time I will fire that bad boy up.  My guess maybe late February.  Plus I have to get a few parts for the gas ignition system.  Or just go back to paper chimney to start it.

All told last year I grilled over 84 pounds of assorted barn yard animals. Tasty.  Let's not forget to count the pizzas I made.  Which by my calculation* is the equivalent of a 36" round pizza.  Mama Mia!

*  11 total  11" personal pizzas

Area of a circle = π * r ²  (we are estimating my pizzas to be somewhat circle shaped)

so (3.14* 5.5²)*11 = 1044 Sq inches

to bring that back into one large pie (π haha) we reverse it a bit

1044/3.14=r²

332=r²

or r=18.2"  So a 36" diameter pizza.

And there is your math lesson for the year!  (I did this with no help from the internet either.)

New Year

Here it is, another new year and another fresh start, maybe.

Not sure what I will resolve to do in 2014.  How about get outside more,  got skis for Christmas, now we just need a little more snow.  That warm Saturday did a number on the trails. Come spring I also plan to get out on the bike more,  I did almost 90 miles of trail riding last year.  Lets see if I can go over 100. Maybe even some camping or hiking.  Would really like to get out on the water too.  Took those Kayaking lessons so I can't let that go to waste.  Fishing would be fun too.  How about a bigger, better garden?  Sure why not, hops went well last year no reason they should not do even better now they are established.  Shouldn't be that hard to do.  Outside also means I probably should paint the trim and windows this year too.  I put that off from last year.

How about eat better,  yet another thing that's easy to say and another to actually do.  That is probably a standard for most people.  Eat better, lose weight, work out kind of stuff.  2 Weeks later we all know where that ends up.  Not only watch what I eat but eat higher quality food.  Try new things.  Maybe increase my caffeine intake a bit. Heck I only have 2 months before I can actually say I went 12 months without coffee and most caffeine.  Almost, I mean I did have a cup here and there but the crave is gone.  

Some other improvements would be listen better, increase my patience and relax more.

That's about it.  Simple things if I accomplish them will be nice, but nothing will fall apart if I don't.  See I am already getting that relax part down.

Have a great 2014.