Yea…Buster likes snow.
Buster loving it!
Category archives: Life
Trail Finds
16Dec08Buster and I were out for a little hike the other day around the reservoir. Early on in the hike we found a perfectly good cantine that was filled with frozen water. Sort of a pain in the ass to carry around frozen water, but hell, a cantine is a cantine.
Near the end of the hike I saw something that just didn’t look right. A closer inspection revealed the grip of a black handgun sticking out of the leaves. Thankfully, no hands were attached to it. It turned out to be an air gun, the orange muzzle tip was the give away, ha. Not being real keen on shooting myself, I removed the magazine (fully loaded) and cleared the ball loaded in the barrel. Hmm…maybe a good craigslist item!
Gun and Cantine
Smoke on the Water
24Oct08A quick picture from walking the dog around the reservoir.
Smoke on the Water
Works been pretty crazy the last week or two. The leaves have been peaking all around us and I just haven’t been able to get out on the bike during the day, since it’s dark by 6:00 PM now. Things are going well though! Kristin has more freelance work than she ever has before and more keeps getting added every week. Buster is loving the New England Fall weather and all the animals that are in a flurry at this time of year…watch out squirrels and deer!
We all managed to get a quick hike in at the beautiful Blue Hills Reservation and Kristin took some fantastic photos. The hike was labeled moderate, but damn, it was pretty tough. Probably as tough as any of the sections I’ve hiked on the Appalachian Trail. A few sections resemble bouldering more than hiking, but it was definitely worth it -
Boston skyline from Blue Hills overlook (photo by Kristin)
I don’t know who had more fun, but I’d probably venture a guess that Buster had the best time…
Happy Busterman
More updates to come!
Maine…ly Organic
17Sep08Fat Boy Deluxe Brewing has gone organic. It was a pretty easy decision, a sack of organic grain is about $5 more than non-organic and that comes out to around 10 cents a pound more to go organic. The next question is probably is it any better? Well I can’t say just yet, I’ve only made a couple of batches using the organic grain. There’s been a IIPA and a super hoppy Red that both used organic grains, but regular old hops. Both turned out really well, but I think the Red turned out pretty exceptional. There was also an Imperial Belgian White brewed- known as Caustic Wit. It came with a nice little bill of spices and a 10% ABV to keep you in check.
Brewing IIPA in Maine
There are three all organic brews sitting in their fermentation buckets and carboys as I type. A Belgain Triple, an American Blonde, and an Oktoberfest syle ale. I’m hoping to get a chance to clear them up a little this week and rack them into kegs to be ready for the weekend. I’ll need to pick up some of the new 2008 organic hop crop before making anything too hoppy and I’ll probably need to a get a couple pounds of organic specialty malts before making anything else. But with Fall approaching, it seems to be a good time for whipping up a Brown ale and maybe a couple of stouts (both regular and imperial, because I know how much Steve likes the Old Rasputin clone).
Over the summer, we finally had a chance to show Kristin’s Mom what this whole brewing thing was about. Took the opportunity to brew up a Flanders Red sour ale that should take anywhere from 6 months to 3 years to be ready, ha. It’s sitting quitely in their basement, hopefully maturing well. For the brew session we brought out the lawn chairs in true Maine fashion.
Flanders Red in Maine
Fall is the best time for brewing. Cooler temperatures that are really great for clean ale fermentations, the harvesting of the new hop crop brings super fresh hops to market, and the changing of the leaves make it all the more enjoyable to enjoy a pint outside. Make sure you get your beers brewed for the 3rd annual Bootlegger’s Bliss, the weekend of November 1st…
My How Time Flies…
13Sep08Been a while since I’ve been in here – you should see the level of spam! Hmm, lot’s I could write about, but not much of it really matters. There was no SSWC08 after actually getting through registration and everything. There was a lot of reasons for missing it, but I’ll lump all the reasons together under low finances. Kristin and I were really looking forward to throwing down with all our friends, but it just wasn’t meant to be this time. Thankfully our little rough patch seems to be passing and we can’t wait to start catching up on some trips we’ve been promising – DC, Ocean City, Philly – you know who you are! You all are always welcome up here, we got spare bed space, beer on tap, and miles and miles of trails outside the door…
So what’s been going on? My parents made the trip to Bedford a couple of times. The last time they brought my grandparents to see our house for the first time. They spent a full week and it was nice to have some visitors. We sat on the back porch, listening to them tell stories of growing up in a very different time. Getting your history from somebody who lived through it is an amazing experience. I only wish I was a better writer, because the book that could be written on my grandparents would not soon be forgotten.
Let’s see, spent my 31st birthday up in Maine. We stopped by Portsmouth Brewing on the way up and Kristin let me get one of their growlers of IPA as a present. Pretty good IPA, even better growler…
Growler, photo by Kristin
Work has been good. It’s slowed down quite a bit recently, which means I’m working a more normal schedule. Still locked away in a lab, away from internet, email, phone, etc., but at least when the day is done I can head out and it’s still daylight outside. I’ve been using ESRI’s ArcGIS more lately and I gotta say, it pretty much sucks ass. For those who don’t know what ArcGIS is, it’s basically a very large GIS (Geographical Information System) software set. Most of the stuff we use it for is highly CPU intensive, so we have pretty beefy computers. Here’s the rub, all the computer power we can buy and all the software does is slow down! It can’t take advantage of a 64 bit machine and it can’t can’t take advantage of multi-core technology (this is a killer, because it means a single processor machine is actually quicker)…talk about lame! Oh, but wait, ESRI is on it…should be ready sometime in 2010…nice, jerks.
Anyway, I’ve also been doing some riding, not as much as I’d like, but a lot of the rides have been excellent. A few mini-epics here and there and I’ve been riding the Minuteman path and it’s BCT dirt extension more and more lately just to put in the miles. From the house to the end of the bikepath and back is right at 20 miles.
There was an awesome ride that I kind of pushed my way into, the BADASS, only to have it all go horribly wrong. You know it’s going to be a good time when you’re the first one to drop out before you reach the PR, which is like 3 miles into the ride, ha. It was mostly because I had jammed my thumb a day earlier and it was really difficult to grip the bar (boohoo, I know). On top of that my rear wheel was tweaked before the ride, so I put on a different wheel (with different tube/tire combo). First set of rocks I got a slow flat that didn’t rear it’s head until reaching the first road climb. I dropped out right after talking to one of the guys and telling him people shouldn’t wait for me (I noticed my rear flat as he was making the turn ahead of me). Got home, pulled the wheel, trued the original rear wheel, threw on a new chain from deep in the parts box, even found a set of rotors that were in better condition than the ones I was using, so I switched those out. Now the bike is running well, but a few weeks later and I still have a bum thumb…something must be cracked/broken. At least the road/path riding is now tolerable. It just sucks though, I was really looking forward to the long ride and if I was them I probably wouldn’t be too quick to invite me back. Oh well, just gotta ride hard and get stronger, so if there is a next time, it’s not such a disgrace. The first time I rode with of them I ended up cracking my collarbone, the second time was in some crazy snow and I was just sucking wind, then this for the third time!
Finally decided to pull the OMM rack off the commuter and put it on Aretha and now it’s all ready to go for some S24O action. Plenty of loverly spots for it out here. Ride, ride, ride…pull off, camp, crack a semi-cold beverage, wake up and head back home – hopefully using a different route. Should be a good Fall activity, considering temperatures are dropping and leaves are already changing.
One fun thing Kristin and I did manage to do this summer was get down to NYC to see 2 Skinnee J’s live. We took a new Skinnees fan, Notte (Kristin’s friend from Syracuse who now lives in the Boston area) and our beautiful as ever hostess, Kim. It wasn’t the best show I’ve ever seen the Skinnees play – that honor belongs to the time they came out in spaceman outfits, lots of smoke, and playing Irresistable Force, not to mention they were touring with Fishbone! It was still a great show, especially considering they haven’t played live in something like 5 years and this was only a one week tour. Lot’s of crowd participation and one of my favorite parts of the night were when they released 500 or so bouncy balls with glow sticks in the middle. Talk about pure chaos! Check out the video taken from the other side of the room…
Oh, and the opening band was Tragedy – a metal tribute to the BeeGees…talk about some funny shit!
I guess there has been a lot going on, considering I didn’t talk about going to Maine, hanging out with Mike & Cindy, brewing up some beer, or even the 3rd anniversary of being married to my incredible wife Kristin…at least that gives me a few fun things to write up now that I’m back and trying to dig through the memory banks. More to come!
Hi, I’m David…and you are?
31Mar08Wow, almost 2 months have gone by since the last post, insane. Time to add some air in the tires of this dusty thing. As I’ve said before, most of the time I post is due to getting a moment at work where I can jump online. That becomes much harder to do when you’re stuck in a windowless secure lab for 8 hours a day. Once I’m out of work I end up doing other things than looking at a computer, so I’m behind on posting, behind on reading my newsreader, but not behind on mountain biking through sunsets, brewing kick ass beer, and most certainly not behind in snowboarding into the wee hours of the morning. We’re still living life up here in beautiful New England and while it’s still cold, you can smell Spring all around.
Did my first group mountain bike ride, um, probably more than a month ago now. 5 of us took to the PR to do our part in breaking in the trail after a fresh snow. Good group of guys and girls and I had a lot of fun. Hope to do some more rides with them, especially as we warm up here. I also got in a TNS, while it was on a Monday and it was a solo effort, I’ll still call it a TNS for now. Basically rode out to the bike path and over to the dirt BCT extension and out to Concord. Made it out to Main Streets Cafe, where I had a Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale before hopping back on the bike and riding home. The ride was good and the classic American Brown ale was the topping on the cake.
One of my recent night rides with Hog turned out to be an eye opening experience. My lights for biking are old. How old? Old enough that the batteries no longer hold a charge longer than an hour and if the moon is bright I wonder if my lights are actually on or not. So on this night, I just didn’t bring my lights figuring we would ride until dark and then I would get myself out to the road and slum it home. Hog had other ideas and whipped out a NiteRider Minewt X2. This thing is small and bright! An LED light that also comes in around $160 street price and lasts for up to 7 hours…yea, thats a long time, ha. So when it comes time to replace my aging (dying) lights, the Minewt is definitely on the short list.
As most of you know, it’s been a pretty cold and snowy winter. One night Mike and I were taking advantage of a current snowstorm and using our season passes at the mountain and go figure, the mountain has one night a year where they are open for a full 24 hours and that was the night. We stayed out on the snow until about 2:30 AM, riding some uber soft smooth closed trails. Best snowboarding night…ever.
Oh and the beer! I’ve been having some issues with my mash tun lately, so Mike and built a new one out of a 52qt cooler. Figured if we were going to go all out, we should go big time. Just for anyone wondering, a 52qt cooler can hold 33 pounds of grain and around 12 gallons of water…and it’s f’n heavy! We brewed up two IPAs from the one giant mash and seperate smaller mash was used to do up a Belgian Dubbel. 3 batches in a day, not too shabby.
But the biggest announcement on the blog, has to be this:
That’s right damnit, it’s official…
Boston Globe article
08Feb08The Boston Globe just ran a really good article on Sheldon Brown, including a really nice photo of his family. Check it out here. More importantly though, they gave this bit of information:
A memorial service will be held at 1:30 p.m. March 2, at the First Unitarian Society in Newton, in West Newton.
Might be an excellent time for a memorial ride to show support for Harriet, George, and Tova…
RIP Sheldon Brown
04Feb08Looks like the news is starting to circulate, Sheldon Brown has passed away from a massive heart attack. Whether you prefer dirt to road or Sunday strolls to races, you’ve probably at one time or will in the future use information provided Sheldon. He was a champion of all that was cycling. Our thoughts go out to his family, may he rest in peace.
Memorial ride tonight…
More Snow!
14Jan08So we’ve had a couple of big storms here in the last month or two. After today though, I can certainly say I’ve been through a Nor’Easter and survived. The weather forecast for today said 10-15″ of the white stuff. Out to shovel this morning and we had about 7 inches or so already and it’s supposed to keep on snowing clear through the next rush hour. A nice powdery 4 inches on top of a wet and heavy bottom layer. Sure makes shoveling a good workout.
Last Friday I ended up getting a bum foot somehow. The muscle on top of the foot just below the ankle area is really swollen and red and the tendons or ligaments or whatever the cables are that run down through the middle of your ankle and into your foot are tender to the touch. Tender meaning it hurts like F when you simply touch it. So I got a bit of a limp and I look a little gimpy, but other than that I’m hoping it will fade away fast. Hoping it was just from doing a lot of walking in my trainers (British enough for you Fletcher!) that are pretty old and used up.
Mounted up Aretha this morning and made a beeline for work. Only a few cars out there, which was nice. With some heavy snow still coming down I got to work with that nice covered in white look, but luckily I remembered the sun glasses to keep it out of my eyes and the scarf was a nice touch. Too bad that after I got to work I found out that both of the labs I needed to do some work in were off-line and closed until further notice. Right….nobody could send an email about that before this morning?
Hm, if I can figure out how to duct tape the camera to my head, maybe I’ll get some commuting video, ha.
Kristin’s parents made it into town this weekend. We had planned on heading over to Walden Pond and checking it out, since neither of us has been there yet. Instead we ended up playing Wii most of the day. It would have been nice to get outside, but it’s really hard to pull people away from the Wii the first time they end up playing. Bet they were sore yesterday!
I did manage to get two starters going. A smackpack of Wyeast 3787 Trappist ale yeast I had smacked a few days ago was now nice and swollen, figured I should step it up a little more, so it’s in the flask and showing signs of fermentation this morning. Hopefully I can quadruple the yeast by the end of the week. Also made a starter of Brettanomyces Bruxellensis. This is supposed to be a more mellow strain of Brett and it’s supposedly what is used in Orval. Hoping to do some experimenting as I also have a tube of Brettanomyces Lambicus, which is supposed to be much more funky. As the name says, this is the strain most often found in Lambic beers and is much more intense. I think it will be interesting to try and make two of the same beers and only change up the Brett strain that I use. Guess I’ll see if Brett can be stepped up in a starter like a regular packet of yeast…hope so!
New England New Year
08Jan08First weekend of 2008 and it ended up being really nice out. Not nearly as cold as it’s been lately, got all the way up into the low 40’s. We took the warm weather opportunity to do some snow hiking out in the PR. Looks like a few other hikers have been out there and packed down the snow previously, but not a whole lot of fresh tracks. Saw some cross country ski rails, but again, nothing fresh. We managed a few miles of rolling hills, saw some of the old cars buried under the snow, left over from when the area used to be car junkyard. Showed Kristin the over under, a rickety old tree branch bridge that has seen better days with a nice trail that dips under the bridge. Good stuff.
Also managed to get in two nights of snowboarding at Wachusett Mountain. Saturday night was a little packed, since it was in the 40’s and it wasn’t a school night. The lifts always clear out with about 30 minutes to go in the night and you can pack in a few clear slope runs. Sunday night was a lot less packed, so we managed to get in a bunch of runs in the 2 hours or so of riding. It’s funny, no matter how much I board, my first run of the night is always a relearning session, slow and steady carving. By the end off the night I’m back up to speed and really enjoying myself. Hopefully the skills will get better as I get more riding in. At some point I’ll also be selling off my board to get one more suitable for my size, since JB tells me I’m running a little big. All in due time!
Hope everyone is enjoying their weather, it’s just loverly up here today. Might get as high as 60 up in this place. At 40 something for this morning’s commute, it was like a Spring day!