Author: jason

Yesterday the stars aligned and it was finally brewing day! Hooray! Saturday I went and bought all the goodies I needed to make a batch of yum then I came home and sorted it all out. Threw the hops and yeast in the freezer and set off to run some more errands.

The hops and the yeast in the freezer.

So Sunday morning I got up all ready to brew, remembered that the hops and yeast were in the freezer and promptly started trying to find out where I could buy more yeast. I ended up having to wait till noon for The Homebrew Pro Shoppe to open and raced down there to get some new, not frozen, not dead beasties. On top of that I also did a little shopping for baked potato soup ingredients. I’d been meaning to try making some for a long time, so I invited a few people over for brew day and soup.

So anyway, brew day went really well. I learned a few new tricks that helped me burn myself with scalding water a lot less and the wort came out really well, I think. I also screwed up a few times cause I was trying to do too much at once. Added one addition of hops a little too early and added corriander and orange peel way too early. Hopefully the beer will still be beer.

This batch is supposed to be something along the lines of a Spring wit beer somewhere between New Belgium’s Sunshine Wheat and their Bier de Mars. I started with a basic wheat base (50% malted wheat and 50% pale malt), kept the hops pretty low and added corriander and sweet orange peel. I also picked up some peach extract that I am going to add to half the batch at kegging time. Feel free to stop by in a month and try it out! 🙂

As for the baked potato soup, that turned out pretty decent. It was my first try at any kind of soup that didn’t come from a can and it wasn’t bad. Could have used a little something, but edible and filling. That’ll definitly be the last time I try to make a complicated meal and beer at the same time. I was running around all crazy all day.

This morning I woke up to the happy sound of bubbling fermenters. A note to myself: Stirring helped. The fermenter I stirred the yeast into was going much faster than the one I didn’t, so I’ll need to do that from now on.

I’ll listen to the same damn song 500 times in one day. I ain’t afeared.
Tegan and Sara – Walking With a Ghost

Yea, so anyway, after about a three week hiatus I’ve finally started losing weight again. I got to about 229 before I left for Vegas and then maintained that pretty well for the past three weeks, never going above 230. This week I have been trying to get back into the groove and it’s going okay. First few days were hard, and I did some cheating but yesterday was solid.

So, drum roll… 225.8!
Woot!

I’m kind of trying to do about 10 lbs per month, and I might not make it this month, but I’ll catch up quick. If I can manage it that puts me at my goal of 200 right around the end of May which is perfect. That’s when the waverunner comes out.

Awww yeaaa…

Hey baby. Come around here often? How about you and me go back to my garage?

Eventually we will colonize other planets. Or at the very least our Moon, which will probably happen Real Soon Now™. I want to do this. I know it’ll be a life much like colonial America and the Internet access will really suck and I’ll probably just end up dead when my helmet fails or something but I want to do it anyway. I’d even be willing to reproduce, if you can imagine.

In todays issue of weird things that go wrong with my body I present for your enjoyment:
My Left Side is Colder Than My Right!

That’s right folks. For some reason my left arm, fingers, leg and toes are colder than my right. I assumed I had to be dreaming it up, but the doctor confirmed it this morning. Additionally he said that whole left big toe being numb for the past week is no big deal. Probably just a pinched nerve in my back or something.

I don’t really trust this guy.

It’s no secret that I am (was?) a giant fatass. I pretty much assumed it would kill me some day, but then a few months back when it nearly did I decided I didn’t want to die just yet. Since then I’ve lost about 32 lbs and it’s still going down. I work out regularly and the doctor said this morning that my bloodpressure is “perfect”. That’s all good news. But! My toe is still numb. Whenever something happens on the left side of my body that is out of the ordinary I always assume it’s a heartattack and I’m dying. This is what I am currently assuming.

The doctor checked the pulse all up and down my left and right sides and said I’m just fine and that he’s sure “it’s nothing fatal” but I think I am going to get a second opinion on that. Fatal is just so… permanent.

bold the states you’ve been to, underline the states you’ve lived in and italicize the state you’re in now…

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C /

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.

System check.
Clock – failed.
Gyros – failed.
Temperature management – failed.
Toxin cleaners – failed.
CPU – failed.

6:50am.
It’s been a long few days. Don’t ask me to count how many. Obviously I am getting older. I can tell by the way the Sun does that up down thing, but I am not sure if “older” can account for my inability to continuously rock the house like I used to.

I’ve been drinking now for three days straight. See, I counted. I’ve also not been dieting, and I find that my body is not up to the task at hand. It’s next to impossible to eat a small meal here. I start with good intentions and end up consuming enough food to last two days on my “normal” diet. And then I’m miserable for a few hours because I am so stuffed, and I do it again.

Today I’ve decided to get back on the diet. If we were eating in nice restaurants with incredible food I could justify the pigging, but we’re just eating shit and it’s not worth it. So as soon as I wake up, or go back to sleep and then wake up or something I’m going to strut down to Walgreens, get me some Slim Fast and start to starve again.

So that all sounded depressing and sad. Here’s the good news:
It’s been big fun so far. We saw Mystere on Wednesday night, which I had seen before, and it was awesome. JoLynn, Adam, Scott and Christine all went and thought it was great, which made me happy since I had recommended it over and over and over.
I’m doing pretty well in the money department. This morning I won $20 on slots, which is nothing, but it got me interested in playing so I headed for the blackjack tables.

My style of blackjack is one of barely controlled panic and confusion. I don’t really know how to play and I don’t know all the little tricks like doubleing down, and insurance, and splitting and that “even money” thing. I just do what feels about right, usually pissing someone off, and I generally come out ahead.
Today I won about $100, which was cool. That was about how much I spent the day before on food, drinks and various shit so I didn’t even have to hit the ATM today. What a deal!

More people arrived today, and we got ahold of the party suite, which ruled. I got to meet a few Fazers I hadn’t before, and some I don’t even know from the site. I also spent some time with the old and faithful. Jay rolled in this morning, and Abby this evening.

I note that I am speaking as if it’s yesterday. Just accept it and move on please.

The party suite is pretty great. Very comfy. Lots of chairs, couches and such. We have a little bar and fridge, which was unexpected, so that rules. I didn’t spend much time there today cause I ate myself into a coma and went to bed at like 10pm. Lame. I’ll try to snap out of it and be more awesome tonight.

The Gemstone folks are partying like rock stars in the suite right above us. They had two kegs on ice and two more in reserve, along with giant piles of bottled alcohol. They were streaming past all day and evening. There’s millions of them.

7:07am.
I was asleep when Adam and JoLynn came in, woke up and we chatted for a bit. Scott stopped by to pick up some loot and I found that when everyone had settled down I was wide awake and tired as hell. Been trying to get back to sleep since 4am and it’s not happening. Watched the Sun come up with the mountains in the distance and now I’m chilling to some Groove Salad and gain a bit of normalcy before trying to sleep more.

7:09am.
End of transmission.

So, Saturday night Adam, JoLynn, Scott, Jenny, Francie and myself got all dressed up and went to Back to the Prom 2005. This was a charity event for The University Academy that JoLynn’s company got tickets to. If we had actually had to buy the tickets I’m pretty we couldn’t have afforded them with our combined riches. It was that kind of event.

The event was held at the Regency Hyatt and there was great food by the Peppercorn Duck Club, an open bar and a really great band that played 70s/disco/dance standards. Mmm… I was even convinced to dance a few times and utterly embarassed myself. So there’s that.

After the prom we headed over to Kelly’s for some post party partying and in standard form that’s all I remember. I’m blaming the free wine I drank all night. I’ve found most of my tux though, so that’s good.

Top, from left: Scott, Jenny, Jason
Bottom, from left: JoLynn, Adam, Francie

My memories are movies.
Impossible things from an impossible time that couldn’t have happened.
I cover my face as they click away to hide the shock.
And in tomorrow, I hear the camera start anew.

This is how I feel tonight, and it’s joy. I assure you.