PokeHearth Night Out

Last week, Shane opted not to go to Pokemon League night. I was pretty surprised. This week, I took him straight after school. I needed gas and Costco is only a mile down the road from the game store (side note: prices are up 11 cents to $2.04 after Hurricane Harvey hit Houston).

Sadly, there weren't any other kids around. With the start of school, the usual crew must be busy. I played a quick game with Shane myself.

To show my love and support the game store, I picked up a new copy of Exploding Kittens for Carrie on the way out.

We didn't go straight home, though. I saw there was a Hearthstone gathering at a local beer hall. Shane and I went to see what it was. He was the only kid, but everyone was kind to him. Shane got to help one guy play against "the boss," and then got to look at things from "the boss's" computer he'd been playing against!

We only stayed a short time. Like I said, Shane was the only kid. Everyone was welcoming, but he has a set bed time (especially on a school night).

A quick confession:

On the way out, we saw a man begging from cars at a stop sign. He saw us and asked for some change or cash. He said he was stranded in Cville and needed to get to Lousia (the county east of ours). I had no cash and offered to buy him some food from where we'd just stepped out of if he was hungry. He started to accept, but then insisted he needed cash to help him get home. What would food do? I pointed out the Region 10 services building was next to the beer hall and there was a grocery store down the way (pay phones, atm, etc, plus closer to downtown). We shook hands and he went on his way.

When we got back to the car, I felt it was important to show Shane my wallet was empty and say a prayer for the man. If the man was telling the truth, I'm sorry I did not do more for him. Part of me hopes he was lying, but that's selfishly for my own conscience. If he had gone towards Region 10 (Open 24 hours - I checked), asked where a nearby church/police station was, or accepted the offer to sit and eat I would have been more convinced of his plight. I want to be generous, but I don't want to be foolish and aid lying or addictive behavior either.

Still, I might have handed over cash if I had any just in case it was the truth. Asking for money normally indicates some sort of problem and the world needs more kindness. I didn't, so it's a moot point.

School is Life

It's less than two weeks in, but I'm already all in at school. It's funny how quickly your present situation becomes your reality.

Also:

Being successful in previous years can build up a base confidence/competence, but otherwise doesn't factor in at all for living in the present. Do past champions feel that way years later?

Yup, Shane still likes after school playing.

"Can I play more?'

Shane wasn't ready to leave when I showed up Tuesday. He had a robot to finish. I pulled out my phone and gave him 10 minutes.

I don't worry about rushing to pick Shane up from afterschool care. He seems to enjoy it.

I did decide to try and grow his inner geek some. I pulled out Star Trek Panic to show Shane. I figured he'd like to spin around the Enterprise and shoot Romulans.

Good thing I remembered most of the rules. Carrie had put on some Star Trek Monday and Shane watched it with her (I think he'll watch anything so long as it's on TV). I think she should put it on more.

Nana Goes North Solo

Nana drove through town today! She was on her way north for Jama's 88th birthday. She went with me to pick Shane up from school.

Then we met up with Shelby and Patrick at Wegmans for dinner. Surprised at the surprise shot?

Nana snuck a sneak shot.

Shane was on eager standby to claim Nana's phone the moment she put it down.

We had a lovely conversation while he stared at Pokemon Go (and probably wondered why he couldn't find any Pokemon sitting in a restaurant booth).

I went to grab Carrie a treat after we ate.

There was enough time for a family photo!

Nana had me hold up her birthday gift for Jama for a photo on the way out.

Fun stuff!

We went our separate ways from there. Patrick and Shelby explored Wegmans, Nana was anxious to get on the road before dark, and I wanted to get home to check on Carrie and give her a fruit tart.

Bottling Day

Time to make mistakes, messes, and learn!

Two-thirds of the effort in home-brewing is cleaning again and again.

Step 1 for bottling (after clean and sanitize): Dissolve priming sugar.

Shane became very interested when it was time to use the siphon. Have I mentioned he's fascinated with how liquids flow?

He turned out to be helpful a couple of times. The pin at the bottom of the bottling wand got stuck open a time or two and I must have spilled at least half a bottle's worth of beer.

I only filled 7 bottles. I noticed too late that 6 of my bottles were pop tops and the other four were screw tops. A video online warned me that trying to put pop tops on a screw bottle with my hand capper could break the glass. I had one unopened beer in the fridge I used a screw top for and then had to pour out my excess (probably about a bottle's worth or more).

After a break, I cleaned everything and started batch #2. I feel like I learned a lot from the first batch and I wanted to use my improved technique at least once. This time, I had a kit for a kolsch.

The recipe didn't mention how much water to start with. I committed the opposite of the mistake I made the first time: I put too much water in to start. The pot overflowed a little when I started to gingerly add my dehydrated grains. I had to skim a little off and then go back to adding. It was only a little spill, but I can confirm wort makes for a crusty, sticky mess.

The sink acted as a wort chiller again.

Two more lessons:
1) Our ice maker doesn't make ice very quickly. In 12 hours I had maybe three or four times the ice I had last time.
2) It takes a lot more ice than that.

The initial cooldown was faster, but it still took me 50 minutes to get the wort to around 80 degrees. The instructions didn't say to stir, so I didn't (I found a website later that said, "Stir" but too late). The sediment almost looked like a loaf of bread.

Funny bad idea staged shot:

I took an OG reading this time and it was a little lower than it should have been. Good enough for me, though. I threw it in the fermenter and called it a night.

The beers were hanging out on the shelf above.

I think this is it for me. I was more interested in the learning and the experience than the beer. Maybe it will help me connect with someone or understand a story. I don't drink 10 beers in three weeks, so there's no reason to maintain production. It's more expensive per bottle to brew my own beer than to let a professional do it. Five gallon kits are more economical, but if I don't drink 10 brews in the time it takes to free up bottles for the next batch what would I do with 50?

I'd love for one of these batches to turn out, but screw-ups make for good stories, too. 

On Stage Shane

The kids sang in church today. Can you guess which one is ours?

I should have filmed the whole thing. I didn't think the pictures would take in zoom and in the dark, and I didn't want Shane's head to swell too much.

Carrie and I enjoyed the show. 

I pulled out the camera again to catch the end of it.

Out and About Saturday

Tay's family had a garage/moving sale Saturday. Shane and I showed up for moral support.

And to try out the wares.

*Squish!*

*Stretch!*

We hung out for about an hour. Tay baked some muffins and Shane met their cat, Pipsqueak.

I like to think we helped drum up interest.

In reality, Shane climbed around and had a ton of fun with a bungee cord.

Shane would have been happy to hang out with Tay all day, but I didn't want to overstay our welcome. Plus, there were library books to return. Shane was mesmerized by the new parking meters about to go into effect.

I loved seeing him browse books.

I can't get him to do this at home. I enjoyed it while it lasted.

We would have stayed longer, but I set up a play date with Dylan and Eli. John and I took the boys on a walk through the woods.

Dylan loaded up his pockets with rocks and grabbed two whacking sticks in case there were any snakes. He gave his dad a few extra just in case.

I wish I could say that the boys were so worn out they crashed and got along when we returned. However, we had to deal with multiple Dylan and Eli conflicts with Shane narrating until we got to that point.

When Krista got home from work, the boys got popsicles and climbed the wall outside.

The hose came out next. Civil engineering 101. Dylan and Eli worked the hose while Shane inspected the water flow downhill.

The water must not have been flowing fast enough. If there were 2 tons of rocks filling the trench, the boys removed one.

Shane and I cleared out for dinner. We went by Wegmans on the way home to meet up with Mommy. She'd been out all day checking on Nibs and riding. Everyone got to enjoy the beautiful weather!

Shane and I got back home a little after 7 PM. We went up to the garage sale somewhere close to 8:30 AM, so it was an out and about type of day!

First Week of First Grade

Well, Shane survived his first week! Carrie and I tried to pick him up Friday.....Key word: 'Tried.' He was playing on a computer. We got a nod.

After we pried Shane's hands off the keyboard, we went out for dinner. We finally went to the new Korean restaurant on Main St, Doma ('new' as in 'open last year').

If someone opens a Korean Bakery Carrie will drag us to that much quicker.

Shane enjoyed his first week. He didn't have much to report. My first week went well, too. We had a lot of kids Wednesday and then our numbers dipped. I guess the kids wanted to make sure we were still around. That filled their work quotas.

Around the Neighborhood

Shane opted not to go to Pokemon Night Thursday. I was shocked. He said he was "too tired."

Went went outside instead. He didn't look tired.

We've knocked on Silas and Monica's door a couple of times in the past week to ask if Zora could play. Here, the boys tried to race her.

They did better than expected.

Largely, because Zora turned around to look for the ball. She didn't know a race was on.