Spring Breakers?!?! ...not so much.

Spring Break was a particularly mellow one this year.  We agreed to rein in any extra spending in favor of saving it for our trip to Italy.  I really missed our usual snow shoeing excursion up Bear Pass in the blazing spring sun.  The drippy grey weather did NOT lend itself to much outdoor fun.  And outdoor fun is what's FREE in our world right now....
I did take Willa out for a promised blueberry french toast breakfast at our favorite cafe to start the week off.  On my work days she came in with me and had fun hanging out.  But mostly the week was spent relaxing at home, finalizing trip stuff-getting all that info plugged into apps on my phone, reading, and puttering while Willa got in some good hard imaginary play time.
We did cram a lot into our last weekend before school started, though.  A fast but hardcore 5k run in 10 inches of new snow-uuuuugghh, dinner at our house with friends who ran the race, too, a nice family skate ski the next morning, and celebrating Miles's birthday.

Breaky at the Middle Way Cafe

We've switched to all-grain beer brewing....

....and it's a LOT of work!!!  But when the sample from the first gravity reading tastes great, you know that beer is gonna be PHENOMENAL!!!!!

Beautiful handmade mash paddle Miles's friend made

Snuggle time with kid and cat



Witness the FITNESS, yo!!!  I'm thrilled that Willa can join us for short runs now! Plus, her fitness fashion is to die from for!!!

She's horse-crazy.  Doing some leather-working on a saddle she made for one of her Breyer horses.

I love when Miles comes home from work early to run with me! 

Shopping day.  Having a little hot cocoa and a cookie at Jitters

She got to pick out a special outfit for Italy

Deep into world-building

BAM!  And then the snow hits.  Saturday's Shamrock shuffle race.  

Tostadas and margaritas with good friends!

And an uproariously funny game of Cards Against Humanity!  ALWAYS is!

Miles's birthday!  Willa gave him the raku trout- the 5th to finish off his collection.

There won't be many more days of this this season!  Taking it all in while we can!

Love to play with my hunny!

Extremely tall peanut-butter-cup cake that Willa and I made

The Birthday Boy chose homemade mac-n-cheese and filet mignone for his b'day dinner.

Oh, hi, sun.  Thanks for making an appearance on the last afternoon of Spring Break.  

BREW-A-THON 2012!

Our brew...mmmmmm hops.....

...And I was sick.  :(
Yesterday was  National Homebrew Day-  "Brew-A-Thon" for the Anchorage area Great Northern Homebrewers.  At 8 am in the morning many nutters brewers hauled their brewing rigs to a fellow member's property and set up stations to commence concocting mucho batches of tasty beers.  Together outside in the Alaska spring (overcast, breezy, 40-ish degrees).   Miles and I brewed a Black Imperial IPA. Our second shot at improving the first one we brewed a while back.  It was a friendly festive climate with food, instruction for newbies and most folks brought homebrews to share throughout the day.  All we needed was some live music!  The gig was fun, I think, but...poor 'ol me...I woke up with rocks stuffed in my chest, a headache and a scratchy throat.  I spent the time just trying to stay warm.  I was so chilled and feelin' sucky that I wound up zonking out in the truck like a homeless person.  I was pretty useless....sorry, Hunny.  And I was very NOT into tasting much beer.  Not happy, me.  And looks like running is out for the weekend.  Meeeeeeeeeeehhhhh....
But here's some pics of the brew fest...

The 8 am GNBC toast

This guy is a sweetheart!

One of the nifty all-grain set ups!

Our rig

Ginger for their honey-ginger ale

Willa grooving on the Iodophor funkiness!

One way to cool your wort...

Tasting table

A week-ish in Facebook posts

April 13

~Um.....Miles made burgers for dinner. With chopped up bacon in them. Mucho delish! But.......I think I'm gonna puke noW......

April 14

~Early run with Miles to work off those greasy, heinous, puke-worthy burgers we ate last night!!!! SO not worth it, the way my body feels today. Looking forward to a glorious salad later....

~Ahhhh....blessed, blessed coffee.... Run done, now heading out to retrieve the Great Northern Brewer's Club Brew Russian Imperial Stout that we helped brew. Aged in both brandy and oak barrels...we'll be bringing home 5 gallons!!!!!!!!

April 19

~"I don't run away from a challenge because I am afraid. Instead, I run toward it because the only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your feet." -Nadia Comaneci

April 20

~I'VE GOT WOOD!!!! But the idiots delivered it to the WRONG house... Guess we'll be getting a workout tonight by hauling it all back to our driveway by hand. FINALLY getting the interior wall started! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Delivered to the WRONG fucking property, of course.  Hello? Some ass-hat enjoying 4:20 apparently felt this yet to be poured foundation was ready for framing?!? What did he think this wee pile of INTERIOR wood was going to become?!?!?  Rant over.

~Taste testing the 49er Brown.....Oh, day-um!!! Clean, dry...no overwhelming malt coating the tongue...wonderfully balanced! up next? The Renaissance Trappist Ale! ........

Here's my Chocolate bock .  We finally taste tested it against the Sam Adams version. Mine is better(The lighter colored beer), methinks! Lighter, happier on the tongue, and more of the chocolate and vanilla coming through..without the coated tongue feel. 'Taint a bad beer!

~Oh, LAWS, yes!!!!! Seductive elixer!!! We decided to brew another batch just on the nose alone! haden't even had a sip yet!The Trappist RAWKS!!!! A bit green, but...... A delightful dance of flavors on the tongue....nice loooooooong finish! Some sweet overtones yet dry overall. This stuff is gonna KILL once it ages and mellows. Down into the crawl space with ye, demon drink!!!!!

~

Sunday April 23

~Sweet day! Hours of photo editing done...FAST run as the sky was clearing....AND WE GOT THE FRAMING OF OUR INTERIOR WALL ALMOST DONE!!!!!! Finally, PROGRESS on the new addition! We are imbibing in the porter and brown beers Miles unearthed from the bowels of the crawl space. The porter is over 10 years old and the brown, 12!!!! The porter that we HATED 10 years ago has aged AMAZINGLY! Shit is the BAwLS!!!!!

~Blend of reds in the glass....rack-o-lamb on the grill, roasted po-tay-toes Bitches!!!!!!

Monday April 24

~Tacked on a "little extra" to my run today and realized it was about 2 more miles! That makes a 7 miler for me today! Calves are a bit sore...we'll see how they feel in the morn. Mojito chicken tonight!

Something wicked this way comes...

A kick-ass homebrewed chocolate bock is gettin' borned in the garage!
Over the summer when Miles was on a daddy/daughter trip with Willa, I helped myself to a lone bottle of Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock that I found on the food shelf in the garage.  DIVINE!!!!  Full and rich and smooth and chocolaty fuckin' chocolateness and, and...
And as far as I can see, unless SANTA wants to fill my stocking with some, the SA stuff only comes in one of those holiday variety packs which I'm not going to buy for just the 2 bocks inside. So I've brewed my own damn batch, Sam!!!   - under Miles's supervision since it's been a few years since I've brewed.   
So my 5 glorious gallons of liquid mana of the gods is happily bubbling away. This weekend we rack it to the secondary...and then more tortuous waiting. It's looking like January or February before I can crack that first one open....

Miles's Road Rash IPA.   Named after my wipe out on the road while running on ice.  Love you hunny, ya little shit!

Bottling his IPA.  His magic wand broke after 15 years of use.  Cuz he's a wise-ass and karma's a bitch.

After we bottled the IPA I started on the Chocolate Bock.  Busy beer day!

Oh, HELLS yes.  I keep waiting to see the glutinous fat kid emerge and get sucked up Willy Wonka's tube.