jammed

Continued watching the Olympics friday night as we had done all week. Steph had a long run in the snow saturday morning while I soaked the labels off of ~60 bottles for my first batch of homebrew which I expect to bottle as soon as I get my bottle washer & drying tree sometime this week. When steph returned, we watched more olympics with some champagne in our swanky new olympic ring goblets that Alyssa hooked us up with at our party last week.



Stopped by hillside to do some tax related things, then took a quick trip to pearl street for some mountain stouts and a some shopping in the snow. More olympics then hit the hay. Sunday morning we were on our way to Beaver Creek by 5.30. Snowy roads the whole way there, so it was a bit slow going but worth it once we arrived - they had massive snowfall all weekend and we rode powder all day. Taking it all in - ahhhhh:



Well, for a few hours anyway. We left around 12.30 to get a jump on traffic, but wound up getting stuck in some of the worst traffic I've ever experienced. It was metered traffic every 20 minutes through the tunnel and then gridlocked to Idaho Springs - took us 4+ hours to get home. Killer day on the slopes, though.

presentine's weekend

I woke up friday morning with a hella cold - my head was a mess. I braved work in the AM, but then left at lunch and went home and slept on the couch. I had to rest up for our Olympic opening ceremonies party after all. We had a great food spread from various countries and a plethora of random imported brews, including a fine lager from the host province shown in action below:



Steph was not feeling so hot either so we slept in saturday morning, packed the voit and headed to Breck. As we got through the tunnel, we started getting snow which had been falling for a while. Visibility on the slopes was slight, but the powder up on the 6 & Imperial Chairs was fairly epic. We got in a solid 1/2 day until the lifts closed then checked into our hotey down the road in Frisco. Hit the hot tub, then walked down the street to a brew pub type eatery for some dinner. We had originally planned on heading home in the morning, but it had snowed all night and we couldn't pass up some more slope time. Got in a solid morning, then made a break for it to beat traffic which we did.



Stopped off at the Southern Sun to sample some of the fine brews on tap for Stout Month, then headed home. We were both pretty exhausted, but had plans to see the Devotchka Valentine's show at the Fox later so we rallied and journeyed to the hill. Had a casual sushi dinner, had some time to kill so we grabbed some coffee, then walked over to the venue. No opener and Devotchka started later than expected. It was sold out and a bit crowded down front where we were, but a great show nonetheless. I was a bit whacked out on cold meds so the ~2 hour set seemed to fly by. Sights from the show below:







Got home pretty late, proposed to Stephanie and was met with a resounding acceptance!

super

Headed over to Chippers for Alyssa's b-day friday night. Lately I've only been bowling on the wii, so it took a few lanes to get warmed up, but then I rolled fairly well.





Saturday we hit up Keystone, and we actually got a nice snowfall all day. Hit some nice powder in the trees of the Wolfden / Trap area. Next up we got ambitious and braved a hike to the top of the back bowls which led us to waist deep powder, if only for one run. Took a break then hit a few more runs before calling it day. I was exhausted.



After some dinner, Steph & I went to the Boulder Theater to watch the Second City comedy troupe perform improv - very funny stuff.



Sunday morning I played some Zelda, then we headed to Hillside for the Super Bowl. Compelling game this year and the right team won. Loved the bud light autotune ad - like a modern day wassssssup!

blech

I used to have this essential cassette-only mix from 1995, but have long since misplaced it. I did some searching around today et voila - some kind soul has mp3alized it for our listening pleasure. I highly recommend.



mixed by PC & Strictly Kev

Side A
Link - Amazon Amenity (Chameleon Remix)
Autechre - Second Peng
Seefeel - Tied
Nightmares On Wax - Back In Time
AFX* - Children Talking
B12 - Soundtrack Of Space
Plaid - Yamemm
Richard H. Kirk - World War Three
Autechre - Second Bad Vilbel
B12 - Scriptures

Side B
Link & E621 - Antacid (Jedi Knights Remix)
DJ Mink - Hey! Hey! Can U Relate (Hard Rap)
Sweet Exorcist - Clonk (Freebass)
Black Dog Productions - Caz
Nightmares On Wax - Sal Batardes
Seefeel - Spangle
LFO - Tied Up (Acid Mix)
LFO - Tied Up (Spiritualized Electric Mainline Remix)
Aphex Twin - Ventolin (Deep Gong Mix)
Polygon Window - Bike Pump Meets Bucket
Autechre - Basscadet (Tazmx)

wort alert

Rookie mistake - came home tuesday night to discover that the wort had pushed its way up into the airlock during the day. Those yeasts were sure active. Luckily I had some extra tubing to make a run off hose and the problem has been resolved, not without a bit of a mess though.

Pre mess:



Since I will be dry hopping my creation, I picked up a new 6.5 gallon glass carboy for the secondary. Once this batch has been bottled, I'll use the 6.5 for the primary fermentaion which should give it a little more room to gestate. Although I'll probably still use the run off hose justin.

crestys

Went about brewing my first batch of beer on saturday. Picked up a recipe kit for Crested Butte Porter from Hop To It, but then realized I did not have a pot large enough to cook with. Checked a bunch of places before finally finding a 20 quart pot from good ol' Target.

Ingredients included: 8oz Crystal 60, 8oz Gambrinus Honey, 6oz Chocolate Malt, 6oz Black Patent, 4oz Roasted Barley, 6.5lbs Light liquid malt extract, 8oz Amber malt extract, California 'chico' style yeast (I cannot recall the exact strain), three 1oz hop pellet varietals (Galina, Cascade, & Tettnang), and 5 gallons of local spring water.

The brewing process was an adventure to say the least, but very satisfying once I cooled down the wort, poured it into a 6 gallon glass carboy with vapor lock, and tucked it all away in the basement.



Grain bag.



Swanky new pot with see-thru lid.



The citrus was not part of the recipe, but really livens up the shot.



Sunday we met up with greg and headed to A-Basin for our first tracks of the season there. It was a chilly day even with the sun out. Once the snow softened a bit, we got some great runs in despite the occasional obstacle. We got home and grilled bison burgers for dinner and watched District 9 which was pretty darn cool. Prawn.