Beer!

It's a been a while with the move and everything, but this weekend Dan was finally able to cook up a batch of beer! His plan had originally been to make a wheat beer for me (my favorite of his beers) but the whole celiac thing makes that... yeah. So now, he's making me a wheat beer!

No really, he's making a gluten free wheat beer. It doesn't actually have any wheat in it, but it uses a (gluten free) yeast that is used in wheat beers which is really where a lot of the taste I love comes from.

This time he used a syrup (white sorghum) instead of making a all-grain mash like he has in the past. I like the idea of maybe one day he'll be able to make a GF beer with the full grains, but we need to get a better handle on what makes a GF beer good first. Though I will say, while I enjoy the nuances a homemade mash adds to the beer, I don't miss the house smelling like super sweet grains for days after a brew!

This Is More Like It

After excessive felting, Dan's slippers are all ready to go.

Honestly, they are probably between half an inch and an inch longer than they need to be but I just don't think they'll felt down any more. But Dan's happy with them (and is used to slightly long, floppy slippers) so that's what really matters!

Events Have Happened!

First off, sorry for the less than stellar cell phone pictures. But Dan and I went somewhere to which I figured I didn't need to drag my big camera. Yes, that's right, Dan and I had an event! And guess where we went?

Surprise! Somewhere beer-related! Specifically, the brewery of a local craft brewer, Rahr & Sons.

We went to their "VIP Pairing", which is basically a fancy excuse to drink beer and have some snacks. And even though I'm still not a big beer fan, I thought it was pretty cool! We had six different beer "samples" (in quotation marks because these samples were a generous eight-ish ounces) paired with six different mini-dishes made to accentuate a quality of the beer (or the beer to accentuate a quality in the food, for example the hops in one beer accentuating the heat in the jambalaya).

Check out the ABV of some of those beers. Yeah, Dan and I both were feeling fairly relaxed afterwards - and I only had half glasses of things!

  
  

Fortunately, there was a brewery tour after the tasting so I was able to work through the much smaller amount of beer I had had in order to safely drive us home. Dan, however, had not had small glasses (and had even had some of my beer) so he got to come home and put in an after-hours call to one of their work vendors while feeling... pleasantly relaxed.

The brewery tour was nifty, too. Rahr is a pretty small place so the tour (and the tasting before it) was actually run by their head brewer. So we got good information and got to poke around a tiny bit. It was surprising to see how small they were - easily the smallest brewery we've been to.

Beer folk always seem to be such an interesting bunch. Not necessarily home brewers like Dan (and a few of the other folks there) but the guys that make beer for a living. They seem to be a special breed - their style tends to be a bit homeless hipster with thick beards. And, naturally, they have their own brand of humor, too.

Yes, that says "Beer Recycling Facility (Restrooms)". Ah, beer folks.

Speaking of beer, why is it that I end up with so many beer-related things on my blog? I still don't really like beer. (Well, excluding a tiny number of wheat beers that I enjoy, but Dan tells me that I'm extremely particular.) But really, thanks to Dan's home-brewing I have an appreciation for the art of beer-making even if I don't typically like the (commercial) results. Even with my personal lack of beer-love, I totally give our first real event of the year a big ole thumbs up! I wouldn't be surprised if we end up doing more tastings there.

Hmm, I wonder if there's a place that runs regular tea tastings...

Poke

It's been two weeks since my last post so I figured it was about time to post an update. Not much is going on but here's a little overview.

Gidget is off her medication but still experiencing some pain. Nothing as bad as before - she's now chewing air instead of violently pawing - so I'm hopeful it is just the remodeling suggested by the dentist. We have a dentist appointment tomorrow and shall see what she says. All of the other kitties are doing fine. They are much more cuddly now, especially at night, since it is no longer 100°+ outside.

Speaking of the weather, things have finally started to get cold. We switched over to the heat yesterday. It didn't actually come on during the day, but it might have snuck on in the night. Maybe. Things haven't gotten down to freezing yet outside, though, so my Romas are still putting off tons of tomatoes. Now if I would only water them...

My shoulder is doing good. I have some days that are perfectly normal but then I overdo it by attempting something like ironing and I have a few sore days. But I scrubbed the shower the other day with only some slight twanging the next day, and then only when I reached cross-body. I was doing some easy yoga regularly but fell out of that with the post-ironing pain. I need to get back to it - the movements have really helped me get my range of motion back.

I'm knitting on a cardigan sweater and having mixed luck. I ripped out about 5" of work because I wasn't liking how it was turning out. I initially had ribbing at the bottom and front bands, but I didn't like the proportions - the bottom band was so much smaller than the larger front band, which was pulling in (I figure I hadn't picked up enough stitches). So I ripped out the bottom band ribbing and am in the process of replacing it with a simple folded hem. Then I'll re-do the button band ribbing but in 4/1 or 5/1 rib instead of 2/2 rib. I think that will take care of the problem of the ribbing pulling in too much. Additionally, I'll be doing an i-cord edging (which will be on the bottom edges of the front bands) to make it neater than the wrapped edge I was doing before. All that (combined with picking up enough stitches on the front) and I should be a lot happier with it. Add to that, the fit is perfect and I greatly enjoy the color mix of the yarn, so yay!

And in the way it goes with all my larger knitting project, I briefly interrupted it to knit a little project, a little Christmas star.

I think it's perfectly adorable (and the red is cashmere so it's delightfully soft, too) but after I finished it, I realized... we never have a Christmas tree. (Kitties, you know. They make it too much of an adventure.) So now I have an ornament and nothing to hang it on. Currently, it is hanging on the pull-knob of the barrister bookcase. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it but I'm still quite pleased with it. (And it's a great way to use up little bits of yarn!)

All this knitting though, and I must admit: I'm kind of itching to crochet a doily. Or knit a lavender-filled moth. Or, oh yeah, finish my sweater!

Oh, and I almost forgot! One of my New Year's resolutions was to try more tea vendors. I've successfully ordered from two of the three new vendors I mentioned back in January (TeaSpring (which I posted about) and American Tea Room (which I forgot to post about)) with Sugimoto being the odd man out. Well, I'm making an executive decision and calling this goal accomplished. The other week, I ordered from new-to-me vendor Verdant Tea specifically to get some of their divine-and-destinted-to-be-a-favorite Laoshan Black. Next year Sugimoto will still be a new-to-me vendor so maybe we can try again.

Of course, as far as other resolutions go, I'm oh so very behind on my 'read 24 "real" books' goal and am stuck on number eighteen. One behind where I ended up last year and I have a month and a half to at least tie. So I'm adjusting my goal to 'read more "real" books than I did last year'.

And I think I've exhausted every possible news topic. Well, other than Dan but nothing new there - he's working. A lot. Oh, he did make me an orange-honey wheat beer that's pretty fantastic. And he did another pumpkin beer which is practically pie in a cup. So the brewing is still going strong. We have bottle-conditioning beer in about half our closets.

So that's it, that's the news here. A gripping page turner, is it not? But all in all, it's doing pretty good, I think!

Good News, Bad News

Some mixed news on the health front lately. First, the good news: I've finally found an herbal anti-inflamatory that works really well! I haven't found a corn-free OTC NSAID, so what should be my biggest help in the fight against bursitis has been something I've not been able to utilize. But last week, I got some boswellia serrata and curcumin (turmeric extract) and the change has been massive! Six days after I started taking them and suddenly I could move my shoulder with almost no pain! Today, day nine, I have no pain and only a slight bit of weakness and tightness. It's kind of amazing!

I'm still being really cautious because I've re-injured myself way too many times so I'm a bit nervous, but I'm really hopeful that I'm well on my way to normal shoulder use! Yay! This is especially good because the week before last, I had to break out the sling again. Boo! But the sling-needing made me search for more alternatives to NSAIDs, which resulted in the boswellia and turmeric, so I suppose the sling wasn't all bad.

Something that is kind of bad, though: Gidget is still having mouth-pawing issues. We went back to the doctor again on Thursday and got a prescription for amitriptyline. The dentist said something about using it to reset her pain pathways. It will take a couple of days to see the full effect, but already she seems willing to spend a bit longer at the food bowl than before and that's usually a good indicator of pain level so I'm hopeful.

We had to get the medicine compounded since it is a small dose but that small dose comes in big capsules. I've been putting them in the much-loved Pill Pockets and that's working so far. Gidget has to chew it some which breaks open the capsule in the treat so there is some drooling and icky kitty faces involved in taking the meds, but so far she hasn't wised up that Pill Pocket = bitterness and drooling and she keeps eagerly eating them. Perhaps she only remembers the math of Pill Pocket = yummy salmon.

Other bad health news: Dan's gout is flaring again. If it wasn't so obviously painful for him, I might find it funny that someone so young, normal-weighted and relatively healthy had "the disease of kings", but the poor guy can barely walk when it is this bad so instead I am just sad. Apparently it is genetic and runs in his family. His outbreaks don't seem to be diet related - we don't much of the typical gout-causing food at all - except potentially beer, and even that he doesn't drink to a level that could be considered indulgence, much less overindulgence.

He's doing all sorts of stuff that have helped in the past plus added in the boswellia serrata and curcumin (since they are supposed to be good for inflammation and arthritis, both headings which gout falls under) so fingers crossed he's better soon.

Ironically, it seems that I'm currently the healthiest one in the house right now. That's fairly shocking.

Beer Updates

Last weekend, Dan started brewing his third beer. This one is going to be a pumpkin one, too, but sorghum-based and it will be gluten-free.

He's not all that huge on the gluten-free beers that are commercially available, but then, he's not big on the "typical" commercially available beers either and I'm pretty sure that's what the gluten-free ones are trying to recreate. So hopefully, his version of a gluten-free will be more in line with his fancier commercial beer tastes.

He does love the pumpkin beers, though so it's really no surprise that he's making a second one. His first one turned out very nice though I think he wants a little more pie flavor, which this one should have.

Of course, even if this one goes the way of other unimpressive gluten-free beers, he'll have himself the pretty fun challenge of making a good gluten-free beer that he (and my mom) like.

It's always nice to have goals.

It Has Begun!

Dan and I both have officially started new hobbies. As of yesterday, I finished off what I am calling my practice pretzel and started my first real knit project!

The practice pretzel

The official project!

I think(/hope) that this will be really pretty when it is done. So far I love the cuddly look and the great color change.

Of course, I allowed myself to start my knit project because my faux-weave wrap is finished!

I love it lots - the colors are bright without being too obnoxious and the hole-y material blocks just enough chill that it will be perfect when I am cool but don't need something cuddly to wear. Yay!

In other, hobby-related news, Dan has officially started his new hobby of beer brewing. Today all his on-order things (thermostat, big pot, etc) arrived so he got a yeast starter going tonight.

The yeast

Starting the Yeast Starter

Boiling

So lots of hobby-making going on in the house now.

Also going on in the house is a hopefully healing Happy cat. She's still got a big hole in her but the inflammation is less and she seems more upset about being in the room without her people than she does about having an open wound. Of course, the pain medication might have something to do with that, too. Hopefully she won't make anal sac ruptures her new hobby.