twelve beers of christmas

It has got to be the only things I really wanted for Christmas. Erin dropped them on me early so I could have one a day and be done by tax season. Given my last couple of batches went so poorly, having some really good beer is a complete joy. The first one I tried was Goose Islands - Honkers Ale. I opened the bottle and spent 3 min just smelling it. It smelled like home brewing. The Styrian Golding hops, which I have used several times is just awesome. It smells fresh and light and delicious. That with a little of the yeasty smell and some of the steaming grain smell. I didn't even have to drink it to be happy.

But I did, and is was great. A simple, very well balanced, very flavorful, absolutely awesome ale. I'll keep my eyes on the look out for other beers by these guys. Get one if you can.

Windows's Fu(king windows

I recieved my windows 7 upgrade dvd (Free) in the mail Thursday. I was very excited as I was running vista and didn't much like it. I spent the next 72 hours trying to do everything I could think of to get the upgrade to work.
-first it failed
-then it took 35 hours to get 85% done, before locking up.
-then the DVD drive quit working
-then I got the dvd drived re installed and delete a bunch of programs hoping to get a successful re attempt of the upgrade.
-then the up grade worked. It took only about 45 min and it was all done, until I ran the updates
-then it installed 8 upgrades then uung on the last 2.
-then the system (now running in windows 7)would crash after about 3 min.
-then I cussed a lot, and tried to figure it out
-then I threw up my hands in discussed and did a clean install.
-which worked perfectly the first time.
-and now runs great, but I have to reinstall everything.

So I'm now pleased to report I have windows 7 and it is great. But I don't recommend the upgrade.

Random Items

I like the post Geoff does about random items in life, and event of the day. So here is my version, all items form the last week.
- Passed part one of the EA Exam, awesome.
- Saw Couples retreat, and laughed uncontrollably.
- Looked at Hank tonight and saw him start the change from a toddler to a little boy.
- After above beautiful moment Hank cut a wicked wet fart while standing up in the tub. I almost fell over with shock.
- Just about finished the remodeling work in the office. Really crossing my fingers that paperless office works for us.
- Loved hearing my Mom say, "Oh I love having 2 monitors"
- Found some letters that My dad wrote in the late 80's and loved reading how he wrote. It's not about what he said, but how he said it.
- Had an awesome dinner (burritos) and Mint parfait, all courtesy of my lovely wife.
- Cleaned out the garage so I can park my car in it.
- Had my car worked on (bye bye $280)

Life in a nutshell!

J Fuego

The other night was a surprisingly warm and pretty night. While I've been hitting the text book hard for the EA Exam I saw no reason not to enjoy myself while doing so, so I went outside. I broke out the double wide lawn chairs, a beer, My laptop (for studying), and a J. Fuego Natural, Toro, 6 1/2 x 52 Cigar.

The studying went well, but the cigar was great. It lit and drew very well for the entire smoke. Excellent 2 inch ash, and a very even smooth flavor. I didn't detect notes of anything, or a spice or other flavor. Just a cigar that tasted like it smelled, like smooth tobacco. The finish was good but unremarkable, except for the complete lack of any harshness.

It was a great smoke, and I will try to buy one again when I get the chance. Would be an excellent smoke to share.

Allergic on a cellular level

So while Erin and I are trying to figure out whey my sperm and her egg don't want to party together we started the next round of fertility treatment. Back we are, but for me at least it's not that scary. I feel we are not that infertile. Either my sperm just flat out swim the wrong direction, or Erin's egg is a fricken amazonian warrior fending off the attack.

Erin did offer up a different solution after our appointment today. While trying fill me on on why we haven't gotten the job done as of yet she said "I'm allergic to you on a cellular level"

There is nothing I can add to that.

Fathers Day

 
Fathers day was marked by sleepinmg in a little, and then having a killer breakfast of puff pancakes (crazy cool looking, and taste good too) and bacon. Then a little play with Henry, and a big run at naptime. Followed by some slides at the park, and genral chasing Hank around. It did get very windy in the park, but not so much to stop the boys from playing. All in all a very nice day.

Lazy Days

Weekends, which start Thursday night, are starting to have genuine lazy hours. No body is a bigger fan of these than I though I always seem to miss nap time b/c of some project or another.

From post 4-15

From post 4-15

Patio, Beer and Hank but not in that order

A bunch of doings at the Lincolns. 1st, Hank is good. He walks, he talks (that's a lie, he points and grunts) he sits on command and will bring you tickle mits then try to out run you while you get them on. No item of great note, just he's a whole lot of fun.

Moving on our patio is currently going in. This is the same patio that has not been approved by the HOA, and we have no idea if the town requires a permit (Erin says the neighbor said he herd we didn't need one). But one way or the other it's going in. I'll have pic's as it comes along.

Beer is brewing again. Last Thursday I got it kicked off with a nut brown ale, and tonight I did and IPA featuring nugget and fuggles hops. My wife and I had a minor skirmish over where the beer could be while fermenting, She didn't want to see it or have Hank find it, and I wanted it on the main level for tempature control. So after much looking around the same couple of rooms I discovered this great spot...


It's a radiator cover that we bought 2 of and this one is in the bath room by the front door. Since the bathroom has an auto closing door it's hank proof, and even if hank has the unfortunate distinction of needing to join a parent in the room, he still cant get to the buckets. Erin can't see them, and the CO^2 they give off has the added benefit of a brewery air fresher.

I'll have to use the other one in the basement for aging beer's out of the light.

The tax business slowed a bit but we are still back logged with work so ton's to do. Random phone calls seem to take huge chunks of time. as does checking the stockmarket. On a personal note, I've managed to keep up running 3-5 times/week for 3 weeks now and feel much better for it. I'd still like a local running buddy like I had before in Frederick, but no luck yet.

Relaxed summer day

Nothing of note to report, but why not. Hank and family had a very chill day today, relaxing and playing. We wen't to neighbor Ella's 2nd birthday party which was a hoot. They had little water slides and a Elmo sprinkler, and lots of good clean summer fun. We stayed for 2 hours, had ice cream and cupcakes, then cam back hoem for family nap time. All around a pleasant day.

I'm Back

Ok, tax season is kinda like shipping me off to another planet for 3 months where I just get to make phone calls every now and again. Now that I'm back I have to re adjust to normal life. I have to relearn my routine, and what to do with spare time. I spend an alarming large amount of time sitting around thinking about what I should do, and very little time doing anything. I need a kick start. Of course I'm only 2 days into normal life.

So, changes since I last blogged...

- Hank is a walker now. He prefers to walk than crawl, but he's not that good at it yet.
- We are down one kitty. Murphy had kidney problems in the past, but it snuck us on him really bad about 3 weeks ago. Nothing to do but end the suffering. He miss him, but not as much as I though we would. There was 24 hours of tears and being up set, then, life as usual. I still think of him often, mostly sad that he doesn't get to cause any trouble any more. The shoe laces are safe now, and that's a little sad. Bye Murph Murph.
- I've had a hair cut. I go 3 months without and it kills me. I feel much better.
- I've lost 10 pounds. I'm thinking stress and being to busy to eat.
- Oh, after that hair cut I noticed I have even less hair than I used to. Son of a ...

Well here is to rejoining regular life.

8 down 4 to go

So if you were wondering how tax season is going, the answer is very fast. And thank god it's going fast. My weekly hours in the office are averaging 65. I know some people work those type of hours year round, to which I say your nuts. I'm fried and barely hanging on at 65 hours a week, I can't imagine what it would be like doing it year round.

So with 8 weeks down and 4 to go of the hard core season, I'm ready to be done. This week is the time to get on mail-ins Something which should have started earlier, and try to get caught up. Erin and I are doing well enough, and hank is a delight. He's started walking between people 3 or 4 steps so we are getting close to losing our sanity.

Basketball team shut out.

So did you all here about the Girls basket ball team that was recently shut out 100-0. It made CNN and a bunch of other news outlets. Well it turns out that the school that lost is a school for girls with learning disabilities, like dyslexia and such.

Well it occurred to me that that might be a good thing. Maybe they think they barely lost 001-0.

Can't quite move yet...

So I love google sites, but I can't quite get the features I want for a blog there. I can write the blog, I can have the latest post put on the front page, along with but separate from the latest Cigar and beer reviews. But I can;t get Comments to work the way I want. You can have people comment on your home page, but not on your log entry. And the blog highlights on the opening page don't include pics or videos that are in the blog. So It a close but not quite for the Blog. But For a lot of other stuff It;s swell. I'm going to keep both going for the moment.

Erin and I are thrilled to have gotten our first ever flu shots today. Maybe that will keep the worst of it away this season. Tax season is off and running. I finished my first return Today even if it was a 2007 return. I have my first appointment for 2008 tomorrow. It should be fun.

Hank is walking (while holding fingers) all over the place. In his walker he goes everywhere. We like playing where's DaDa. Lots of fun. At bed time tonight he was just being goofy. He didn't really want his bottle, but he wanted to crawl on DaDa, and Blow raspberries on my forearm. I was game for 15-20 min, but then I had to put him in the crib. He didn't seem to care. 1o min later he's still in there jabbering to him self content as can be. Silly kid.