Linda Buckley-Archer - The Time Travelers

Some kid's books work for me and others are just kid's books.  This one caught my eye frankly because I love James Jean art and he does the covers for this trilogy.  So call me shallow but I only read this because of the cover art.

Don't get me wrong the story was good and interesting and all but the kid in me didn't go oooohhhh.

Just another time traveling set up.  

Colorado Symphony - Show II

Second show of the season.  Three pieces:  Bernstein - Overture to Candide, Glass - Violin Concerto No. 2, "The American Four Seasons", and Beethoven - Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92.  Desire to see "The American Four Seasons" and special guest violinist,  Robert McDuffie, played this piece.  Did not realize Glass actually wrote the piece for McDuffie.  Fascinating to see someone play a piece created for him.  Nice piece although didn't think it had a whole lot in common with the real "Four Seasons".  OK show.

Erin Mortensen - The Night Circus

There is an email in the book and I just can't leave an email without saying something.. So this is what I said, "I loved the night out at the circus....when will you return? I wrote a little poem:

Mystery big top
It is not all black and white

Magic or dreaming?"

This is the response...

Thank you for your interest in Le Cirque des Rêves! If you are inquiring as to the itinerary of the circus, we apologize, but it is against our policy to disclose information about current or upcoming locations. Other inquiries will be responded to in as timely a manner as possible. Cheers, Erin Erin Morgenstern assistant to Mr. Clarke erin@nightcircus.com

Darn I was hoping to get tickets ;)  And frankly the circus would have been better than the book.  I thought the book was beautifully descriptive and imaginative but in the end there were too many unanswered plot points, mysteries, and in the end I really didn't care about the two main magicians in the story.  The love story didn't grab me and when the book was over I was least concern about the characters and more sad not to have more circus room reveals.  My favorite would be the room of jars...

OK read but nothing special...

Haiku Wednesday

Line of Poetry

Drinker distinction?
"Wine is bottled poetry"
Beer's box score haiku

Haiku Beer #2

Haiku #2 was a recipe from my local beer store in which I desired to make an amber ale.  Called DYB Bronco Amber Extract (5.3% ABV, not verified) it was made with the following ingredients:

1) 0.05 lbs Belgian Caramel
2) 0.05 lbs Golden Naked Oats
3) 0.06 lbs Crystal 150L
4) 1.45 lbs Briess Golden Light Liquid (Malt Extract)

5) 0.1 oz Warrior (16%AA)
6) 0.1 oz Willamette Type 90 (4.8%AA)

7) White Labs WLP001 California Ale (Liquid)

Used StarSan sanitizer which is a lot more friendly than the C-Brite.  

The Mash

Heated 2.5 quarts (10 cups) of water (refrigerator water which is carbon filtered) to 154-160 deg F.  Add grain and mixed.  Cooked for 60 minutes at 144-152 deg F and stirred fairly frequently (not a lot of grain on this recipe).  Once heated, heat can be removed and then added again around 30 - 40 minutes.  After the mash, I then added the liquid malt.  Straight sugar!  Wow that is an easy way to add sugar.

The Sparge

Heated additional 4 quarts of water (refrigerator water) to boiling then transferred to gallon fermentation jug.  Set up the strainer over the second pot and added the hot grain mash.  Then poured the heated water from the jug over the grains and into the second pot.  Once done recirculated the wort back through the grain once more into the original pot.

The Boil

Heated the wort until it began to boil at approximately 210 deg F.  This was done with just the middle heat on the inside burner on my stove.  Boil lasted 60 minutes with 0.1 oz of Warrior Hops at the start of the boil then added 0.1 oz of the Willamette Hops with 15 minutes to go then the final 0.1 oz of Willamette with 1 minute to go.  

The Fermentation

Placed the brew pot into the sink with ice allowing the temperature to decrease to 70 deg F.  Allowed the mix to settle this time although not a lot of sediment on this one as the grain was pretty light.  When pouring into the fermentor it should be strained into a larger pot then transferred to the fermentor has it is tough to filter and pour through the funnel.  After the fermentor is full, the yeast was added and throughly mixed to aerate the liquid.  Note:  Liquid yeast is designed for 5 gallon batches.  It is suppose to warm to room temperature before adding and then to correctly mix I shook which was a disaster!  Foamed up and was impossible to tell how much yeast was added.  I estimated maybe I added twice as much?  

The yeast began fermentation and a fairly inconsistent burp began as compared to my first batch.  Excessive bubbling later in the fermentation and filled into the tubing.  Primary fermentation lasted for about 36 hours.  Transferred beer to the basement and put in the airlock which was a bit too early has additional CO2 filled the airlock.  Wonder if the added yeast was cause of this?  Allowed to sit for 2 weeks.

The Bottling

Used bottling sugar this time and dissolved this in 1/4 cup of water, I siphoned the beer into a pot and then bottled into 7 x 500 mL bottles.  Smelled and looks good.  Allowed to sit for another 2 weeks.

The Tasting

Opened and tried on 11/16/11. Some slight carbonation probably needed an extra week (?).  See photo.  After additional week carbonation was a bit more.   Good basic flavor.  First bottled tasted like a amber.  With each additional opening the amber shifted into a more fruity flavor?

Your basic red ale

It's tasty full well balanced

Will brew more of this

Colorado Symphony - Show II

First show of the season.  Three pieces:  Beethoven - Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43, Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op 15, and Holst - The Planets, Op 32.  Obviously the reason for this show was The Planets.  Always good to hear especially Mars and Jupiter.  This go around they played to a video showing the planets.  I thought the video could have been a bit more dynamic especially with the missions to Jupiter and Saturn but hey they aren't astronomers and heck Holst when he did the symphony was supposedly more into the astrology aspects of planets.  

Haiku Wednesday

Fall Colors

Season's ebb and flow
Tree's clocks sway with a rhythm
Time's up on Summer

R.E.M - Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight

Not quite my favorite band, not quite really anything.  R.E.M is one of those bands that just plays in the background of my life, not really as an active participant but something that is meaningful.  My musical history start around 7th grade when I got some music as a birthday present (Quiet Riot and Def Leppard). Thankfully I didn't go down that road of head banging and what not.  When I hit 9th grade I would take road trips with the track team and the older kids had certain musical interests.  At the time, U2's Joshua Tree had just come out and R.E.M just happened to be a band from Athens, GA where most of the seniors on the track team were going to college.  R.E.M at the time represented that "I can't wait to get to college" feel that most seniors have.  Plus throw in the Inside/Out movie and R.E.M was one of those "bands"that every high school kid wanted to know about because it was a college "cool" thing.  Once I got over calling them  rem instead of R...E...M I got to know the band.

Didn't hurt that Lifes Rich Pageant (1986) and Document (1987) came out in my music formative years either.  Either way Lifes Rich Pageant has become one of my top 5 albums.  Just a simple album that when played takes me back to age 15-16 when the world was new and full of something to find.  R.E.M was prolific in their albums and they kept me company through 8 years of school (HS and college) by releasing five albums in that time.  Their last great album for me was New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996).  Not for sure but at the time I was spending a lot of time in the car due to my work being far away and so I got to listen to a lot of music.  This one kept me company and the album cover reminded me of where I lived!

So all in all a great band.  Not a "must see" but solid.  I did see them a few years ago in a small concert hall in Denver.  Great to hear the music, not so good to see Stipe having to suck on oxygen for almost the whole second half of the show.  Glad the band could go out on its own terms.  I do think that when their drummer, Bill Berry, left; R.E.M lost a step or two.  As another famous drummer, Larry Mullen, Jr said it best, "People say, 'Why don't you do interviews? What do you think about this? What do you think about that?' My job in the band is to play drums, to get up on stage and hold the band together. That's what I do. At the end of the day that's all that's important. Everything else is irrelevant."  Drummers hold bands together, drummers are the spine of the band...and I think R.E.M lost something back in 1997.  

Anyway top favorite albums:
1. Lifes Rich Pageant
2. New Adventures in Hi-Fi
3. Document
4. Green
5.  Fables of Reconstruction

Favorite Songs:
1.  Cuyahoga
2.  Superman
3.  So Fast, So Numb
4.  E-Bow the Letter
5.  Finest Worksong
6.  Driver 8
7.  The One I Love
8.  Half a World Away
9.  Let Me In
10.  Crush with Eyeliner
11.  Sweetness Follows

And finally one of the better websites ever on R.E.M and can be found here....

Haiku Wednesday

Beer Making

All about the yeast
Bubbles! Does its happy dance
Magic in bottle

Rox Talk

The Week That Was

A 1-5 week against the Brewers and Giants. The Rox currently stand at 70-82.  Seventeen and half games behind the D-Backs for the division lead in fourth place. Currently 38-40 at home and 32-42 on the road, the Rox have been outscored by its opponents 722-694 (expected wins is 73 versus historical wins at 70). On pace for 75 wins with 740 runs scored and 770 runs against. Playoff indicator (Runs scored/Runs Against ratio) is 0.96 (1.16 indicates high playoff potential).

Is this the most disappointing team in Rox history?  To me there are eerily similarities between this team and the 2008 team.  In 2008, Rox were coming off their World Series run and besides having the same team intact went out and finished with 74 wins.  This year, with even greater expectations based on the Tulo, CarGo, de la Rosa signings, this team was certain to compete with Giants (4-11 head to head so far) and maybe win their first division title.  In both years expectations shackled the team and obviously this year's team has dealt with injuries.

Going into the season the expectations were that the offense would be OK.  This turned out to be wrong.  Team never seemed to get on track.  CarGo struggled out of the gate, Dex again spent time in the minors, Stewart was a complete bust, second base a black hole, and Smith, a very average player, did OK but Rox need more power from their outfield.  Tulo had his moments and frighteningly still had a monster year, imagine some consistency and some consistency around him in the batting order (?). In the end only Helton had a year worth remembering.

Pitching was to be the mainstay with U-Ball, de la Rosa, Chacin, Hammel, and Rogers/Cook.  And for the most part pitching was the reason for the monster start with some timely hitting.  But U-Ball never got on track, de la Rosa got hurt, Chacin still too young to be anchoring a staff, and well Hammel is Hammel.  He will get you 10-12 wins and lose 10-12.  Rogers/Cook never really settled in due to injuries.  In the end this year will be blamed on the Staff and injuries due to this Staff.

Bullpen was OK.  Had a rough patch middle of the season and of course the roller coaster ride that is Huston Street but at least in the off season management doesn't have to worry too much about the relief corp. As a fan this season hurt the most.  2008 we were still feeding off the World Series.  It has been a long 4 years now and this season was supposed to be different...problem is will 2012 truly be any different?