Month: August 2012 (Page 2 of 2)

67 Hours

From the time I left my house Friday morning until I returned very late Sunday night, I spent approximately 67 hours in, or traveling to-and-from, Kansas City. The obligatory run down of the weekend’s events.

I landed at 7:30 Friday morning. Having been up since 4:45 Eastern, I drove straight to The Roasterie to grab some coffee and enjoy the easy-going ambiance of Brookside. I followed that up with a few laps of the Plaza.

Thanks to my early arrival, I was able to break my three-year Oklahoma Joe’s drought. Even getting there right at 11, there was a healthy line. But we got our food pretty quickly and Mike A, Chris N, and I enjoyed Kansas City’s finest barbecue and some good conversation. My meal of the day was the Carolina Style with fries, my old standby.

Next, I was off to Lee’s Summit where my hosts, the N’s, live. While they took their kids to the water park I took a nap to get ready for the evening.

That night Mr & Mrs N, Chris N (no relation), and I enjoyed game one of the Royals-Rangers series in Mrs. Ns’ father’s seats. A loss, but a competitive loss and pleasant company. Some fair ballpark barbecue for dinner with a surprise batting helmet sundae from Chris for dessert.

Saturday, after an early breakfast with some former co-workers, I traveled to Leawood to meet Billy and Stacey B at the newest Oklahoma Joe’s location. I really liked the set-up of the Leawood store, as it kept the tradition of the long, in-store line going, but with lots and lots of room to actually eat. This time I went back to my original OK Joe’s favorite, the Z-Man.

Late in the afternoon, John N, Erick R, Steve B, and I returned to the K for game two of the Rangers-Royals series. Steve had obtained some pretty sweet seats from a client, so we were lucky enough to sit in the Crown Seats directly behind home plate. Not only do you get great seats, but you get access to the private club under the stands. We dined on some fine prime rib, had some terrific shrimp, and finished with some delightful desserts. Just the way baseball is supposed to be!

Once the game started, we took advantage of the waitress that served our section and enjoyed the texts from friends who were seeing us on TV at home. You could get spoiled sitting in those seats, but you are so close and low that once the ball is hit in the air, it’s hard to see exactly where it’s going. Free food and beer make up for it, though.

After the game we moved to the Plaza and O’Dowd’s deck. It was busy, as it was a pleasant night, but since it was 8:30 when we arrived, most of the people were our age. We laughed thinking back 15 years when we would have just started thinking about our plans for the evening at 8:30 on a Saturday night. We were extra lame when we headed home at 9:30 or so.

Sunday I meet Lisa and Roger D along with Erick R for brunch at Michael Forbes’ Grille in Brookside. Knowing I was heading back to the K for the third game of the series, I ate a tremendous amount of sausage, bacon, and sausage gravy. Because that’s exactly how you should load up before you’re going to go sit in 90-degree heat for three hours.

This time Billy and Stacey B joined me for the game, and we sat waaaaaay out in the outfield, farther away than I’ve ever sat at the K. But they were still fine seats. All that red meat at brunch and the heat conspired to limit me to one beer for the day. But I did throw down some ice cream and a large Topsy’s cherry limeade.

Between the heat and the long weekend, the last thing I wanted to do was sit through a long game. So the Rangers and Royals conspired to play stupid baseball late and send the game to extra innings. We did not stay for the free baseball. Fortunately I made it back to the N’s house in time to see the Rangers literally throw the game away in the bottom of the 10th. I doubt that would have happened had we stayed.

Mrs. N volunteered to grab some Gates for dinner. Turned out there was a long, post-game line, and they were out of burnt ends, so we cancelled those plans. I figured after all the food I’d had over the previous 60 hours, I should go lite for my final meal. Maybe a sandwich or something healthy like that. Which is exactly what I did.

I may need to slow down for awhile. Over the last two weeks we’ve had M’s birthday, with many, many treats. Next, a weekend with visiting friends that involved lots of eating. A couple’s night out on the town had me shoveling in food last Monday. I’ve had to sample my new beer. And then a weekend in Kansas City. When I stepped on the scale Monday morning, I weighed 10 pounds more than I did 10 days ago. Yikes. I hope it comes off as quickly as it went on.

It was a big weekend in a lot of ways. I got to see many great friends. Eat lots of great food. Drink a few beers. And watch some baseball. It’s been a very busy six or seven weeks. We finally have a weekend coming up with nothing on the calendar, which comes at the perfect time since M. and C. begin school next week.

Thanks to everyone who helped make my weekend in Kansas City terrific.

First Taste

I couldn’t wait any longer, so last night I cracked open my first bottle of my first batch of beer. While I found it lacking in a few areas, I am reasonably pleased with how the B. Brewery’s first beer, Naismith Nut Brown Ale, turned out.

My first concern, as I mentioned last week, was that I had presented too much oxygen in the bottling process and there might be some off odors/flavors present. First thing I did last night was smell the beer. All I smelled was the pleasant, malty, nuttiness you expect from a brown ale. When I poured it, the beer produced a terrific head, a sign the bottle conditining had worked properly. Another sniff before tasting and still no off odors. Then the first taste. It was pretty darn good. I don’t think anyone would confuse it with a quality brown ale you would get from a microbrewer, but the beer had the lingering maltiness that I love from the style.1

The beer continued to drink well as I worked through the glass, but a couple issues popped up. First, if anything the beer was over-carbonated. I left too much liquid behind when I poured from the boiling kettle to the fermenter, so my final yield was 43 bottles instead of the 50 or so that I should have got. I guess that was a big enough discrepancy to make the final product a little too bubbly.

Second, the flavor is not quite as full as I would expect or prefer. I don’t know if it’s the carbonation that is hiding the flavor or something else. I would say 80% of the taste is fine, but you don’t get hit with the delicious, nut-browniness at the beginning of your sip. I’m going to send a couple bottles to one of my brothers in brewing and see what his thoughts are.

But overall I’m very pleased with the final result. This is only based on one bottle, so hopefully that will still be true as I drink more and the beer ages a little more. My biggest concern about home brewing was doing something wrong and having two cases of beer that I didn’t like and couldn’t get rid of. That’s not a problem, which for a first batch, is enough to call it a success.

Now I have to figure out what to brew next.


  1. I have a six pack of Red Hook Nut Brown Ale in the fridge. If you like that style, find some of this, because it is excellent. It’s so good it probably made it hard for me to evaluate my beer. 

Tubing

Another entry into the list of things the girls did for the first time in the summer of 2012: tubing on a lake.

Thanks to some friends, the girls got to go out on a boat over the weekend. M. and C. both got a couple turns on the tube behind the boat. Both had great times.

M. was the first up. I was a little surprised at how eager she was to get out on the water given her cautious nature. But she had been watching older kids in our group tube for awhile and I guess that helped her get over any qualms she had about doing it. We took a lap of the lake, at a moderate speed, and she did fantastic. No wipeouts, no moments where she struggled to stay on. She even gave us a thumbs up to go faster a couple times.

Then it was C.’s turn. Where M. may have gained confidence from watching the others, C. had no fear to begin with. She decided was going to do everything the bigger kids had done. So, as soon as we took off, she throws her hands in the air, pops up onto her knees, and shows how she can ride without hanging on. First time ever on a tube and she’s already doing tricks. That’s about right.

I got her to lay back down and hang on, but she was busy rocking her tube, trying to crash into her tubing partner on turns, and lifting her arms up every chance she got. Then we made the big turn and the end of the lake. Her tube rocketed around the turn, hit the wake, and when it slammed into the lake surface, she flew off. This she did not like so much. She screamed and cried, I think more out of fear the boat was leaving her than any pain or surprise from getting tossed. She calmed down just enough to swim at a near world record pace to get back to her tube. With some help from her partner, she climbed back on and was ready to go again.

They went out again Saturday. While I was not with them, then, I heard they did great then, too. No wipeouts for either girl this time.

Both times L. watched from the boat. She did not love the boat, both times getting grumpy and closing her eyes after a while. Probably not a lot of fun to be the only kid on the boat who didn’t get a turn. Maybe next year she’ll be ready.

Diving boards. Plane rides. Trips to the mountains. And now tubing. It’s been quite a summer.

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