This past weekend was an eventful one. Weeman and I spent Saturday morning running about town getting ingredients for homebrew. We’re using a recipe called “Sparrow Hawk Porter”, a really dark but sweet-tasting beer. It turns out there’s a shortage of hops, and the brewing store would only sell us 2 ounces worth. Luckily, that’s all we needed. Everything went well, except when we tried to strain the wort into the fermenter. The strainer I had ended up being way too small, and it clogged easily and often. I had to run to the store to get a bigger one (not bigger as far as mesh goes, bigger as in total size).

The yeast took a lot longer to kick in than the last time I brewed, or maybe it’s just that I was worried about it so much that it seemed longer. This afternoon it finally started foaming up really well, and now it’s flowing readily into the blow-off tube. That was a relief. I even prayed over it at one point when it seemed to be doing nothing.

So in a month we should have some kick-ass homebrew ready to drink.

Also this weekend was the US Open golf tournament, which I followed for the first time in forever. I got more interested in golf after playing with my dad and brother. It made me appreciate how amazing the pros are. It was pretty much the best golf tournament I’ve ever watched. At the end I was pulling for Rocco more than Tiger; it’s a shame he didn’t pull it off. But hey, quite an accomplishment.

We also went to Dave and Buster’s, which was fun. It wouldn’t have been as fun without the alcohol, as there really wasn’t a huge variety in games there, and the bowling alley was reserved for a private party.

Brian’s coming to visit this weekend, so I’m looking forward to that. I have to clean up the mess we made brewing beer before then, which I’m not so excited about.

I stayed home sick today due to a sore throat. It started to hit me last night, and I tried to head it off by eating crap tons of vitamin C, but alas. Nate is sick, too. We suspect we got it from the theme park we went to on Saturday.

My homebrew is ready to drink today, too, but unfortunately until I get better I won’t be drinking any.

I did manage to finish off Harry Potter 6 though. It read incredibly fast this time around. Only two days left until 7! I’m going to have to start my media blackout very soon to avoid any more spoilers. I’ve already seen one, and I’m quite keen on avoiding any more.

I found out today that Harry Potter 7 comes out three days earlier than I thought, so that leaves me little time left to finish re-reading book six. I’m about halfway through. I’m starting to get really excited about the release; I just reserved my copy at Border’s here in Nashville. It’s hard to believe that seven or eight months have passed since I first really starting looking forward to it. It’s a shame that I’m going to have to read it within a day or two, because the ending will surely be all over the internet in a matter of hours, if not minutes. There are a lot of assholes out there. I’d like to be able to read it leisurely during the course of a week or two.

Lately I’ve been a bit stressed out about bills and what not. It’s not that I don’t have the money to pay them; it’s just paying them that makes me anxious.

My latest batch of homebrew will be ready to drink this Wednesday. Fun, fun.

Today we were at Saucer, and I was playing around with the oil lamp. I put a napkin in there and it caught. Leah then says, “What do you expect to happen when you stick it in there??” Look for that quote at the top.

This morning I went to collect empty beer bottles; my current homebrew batch had been in the carboy for a week longer than normal. I went to Nate’s and got about 20, but those put together with the ones that were in my apartment only totaled about 32. So instead of buying the extra 18 or so bottles I needed, I went to the recycling center nearby. The pile of bottles in the dumpster wasn’t quite high enough to reach the door, so I had to reach inside it a bit. But I got the extra bottles I needed. I’m not sure what the people at the center thought of me leaving with a trash bag full of bottles.

With Stuffy and Joey’s help, I got the beer bottled. We tasted the uncarbonated beer, and it was pretty good. I’m looking forward to drinking it 10 days from now.

My co-worker Cole offered me a free ticket to Kentucky Kingdom for next weekend. It should be fun, and hopefully I’ll come back with my feet intact. Awful story.

I think I might try to get in touch with Brian, since he lives near there, and stay an extra night to visit. I haven’t seen him in a while.

I’ve only got a couple of days left before the fifth Harry Potter movie comes out, and I’ve still got half the book to re-read before then. I might have to spend a couple of hours tomorrow reading it. I’m looking forward to the new movie all the same.

This morning I bought Thom Yorke‘s solo album from iTunes. It’s alright. The first few songs are good, but I don’t really like the later songs as much.

Nate and I pwnd Burly today. Dag.

^_