Wil-Blog-O-Sphere

2009.05.10 | 8.13 pm

After a nice weekend, Chandra and I decided to treat ourselves to a real burger and fires at the Wagners Drive-in in Saint Louis Park - WRONG! Yet another cultural landmark is destined for the bulldozer.  It's getting a "Intergalactic Retro-Futuristic Makover". 

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2009.05.10 | 2.13 am

Today we had our first major gardening session.  We have been in the planning stages for weeks, but today we hit the 'dirt' running.  Gary brought out the video camera and shot some footage and make a little video of our endeavor. 

Here's the link to the video:

Gary - Chandra - Wilbur - Pam Gardening Video

2009.05.09 | 12.58 am

First day with Drupal 6.  Finally got the WYSIWYG editor working.  Don't ask.

More tomorrow.

2009.05.06 | 12.13 pm

I was out on a late-night caching run last night, and took a time-exposure of the local artwork. 

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Now that's art!

2009.05.03 | 4.00 pm

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From the Midtown Market on Lake Street.  I don't make this stuff up, I just take photos. 

2009.05.02 | 5.58 pm

BeerTools Pro Color Graphic

For this year's Big Brew, Chip Wlaton and I collaborated on a Saison.  We added some stuff to personalize this beer, and the results were amazing! 

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Watch out for this yeast, it's super stubborn!  I had mine on a heating pad on low for 8 weeks to keep the temperature at 85 degrees.  It was worth it, this came out very dry - tangy and citrusy!  Yummy!

2009.03.30 | 7.21 pm

BeerTools Pro Color Graphic

Here's the big idea - tap the neighbor's massive maple tree and harvest the sap.  Then use the sap INSTEAD of water to make beer.  The beer needs to be a slight thing to get some of the maple character to come through.  Soooo how about a cream ale?  I used Pearle hops and an all-grain recipe with all malt rather than using corn or rice adjuncts. 

When you make beer with maple sap, you don't get pancake maple syrup, instead you get a slightly woody spicy character.  So this beer was a success and failure.  We did get some extra alcohol from the maple sap, but the taste was not what people expected. 

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