Getting Close

Here's Beth right before Yoga.  38 Weeks down!  He's comin soon!

Protecting that Belly

Lunch at Sneakers, making sure nothing gets on Lawson's head.

Strut yer stuff

 Art hop is pretty fun..usually we just goto wherever the best music is playing.  But last year, Beth was a model for the STRUT fashion show.  Our friend, Amy Wild, takes part in the fashion show presenting her line of clothes - Where.

With Beth knowing she would be 9 months pregnant for the Fashion show this year, she graciously volunteered me to be part of it.  I of course, not thinking about it, agreed.   A few months passed by and then I remembered that the fashion show was coming up and I had volunteered.  I went in for a fitting and all the fun stuff, but I was quite nervous. Like, more nervous than directing my first band concert, or my senior recital in college, or for playing for 750+ people at Higher Ground.

 It was a pretty fun day of lounging around a parking lot, watching the weather change from fine, to not so fine, back to fine again and then to beautiful.  (Beth had gone home with the camera to get off her feet for a bit, so I don't have any good pictures of the awesome pink and blue clouds.)

Here's a (short) clip of Diedre and myself walking down the runway.  Nothing like a blinding light in your face and a skinny cat walk to give you the wobbles.

Also, some "Professional Photos" if you want to buy a picture of my beautiful face..or, more realistically, another beautiful face!

Labor Day

We occasionally brew a few batches of beer each year.  Last spring we did quite a few:

Ginger Lavender Pale Ale

Citra Black IPA

Nut Brown Ale

Pale Ale with Summit and Cascades

A Double Citra IPA

and a Chocolate Mint Stout.

This labor day we did two new batches for the winter.  A Smoked Peat Porter and a Belgian Saison.

 For the Porter, we used the fresh Willamete hops I picked up at Aunt Lynn & Uncle Geoff's house.   

We brewed the batch as the recipe called for, but we dropped all of the fresh hops into the primary, then transfered the beer into the primary onto the fresh hops.

A few more pics from Labor day:  

Beth & Lawson at 36 weeks and Natty enjoying a crisp Bud Light Margarita.  Yum.

Up in a Balloon

One of the many things I inherited from my Pops was a love for hot air balloons.  I can remember spotting them in the air and my Dad trying to chase them down in our old periwinkle mini-van and seeing if we could find where they landed.

When Beth and I driving around, I always point them out, but never chase.  However, I do have a balloon tattoo.  (It inflates when I flex...sorta)

My old band, Pretty & Nice, had a tune called Up in a Balloon.  (Maybe they'll play it if you beg...or not)


This is what we saw coming back home last night.

I naturally sped home, jumped out of the car and took this video as it went right over our house.  It was so low, we could talk yell to them.  

We had to get going to our friends house for dinner so we couldn't chase.  I think it landed in the field across the street from St. Mike's college right next to Lime Kiln Rd.  Pretty awesome and made my night.

Hops!

I love getting out of the house early and doing something productive.  Yesterday morning, I took a nice drive through some detoured roads in Colchester up to Fairfax and picked some hops from Lynn & Geoff's house!

We believe they are Willamette hops, but I'm not 100% certain.

Even after watching videos of hop harvesting, I didn't realize that they were a tad sticky and after two, 1-gallon freezer bags, my fingers were quite sticky.

Nate, Sam, Tor and I will be doing two batches on Labor Day.  Hopefully we'll be able to put them to good use.