If You'll Have Me

So I started using Google Reader to follow all my favorite blogs (don't worry, you're in there.), and because I wasn't coming here to dance the sidebar samba, I kinda forgot about producing my own content for others to follow.

Don't worry though, I've been doing plenty in the last three weeks. I went to Mobridge, SD for the weekend of the 4th. It was a good time; the highlight of which was a 16 team no holds barred (not really) bean bag tournament. It was a double elimination format, so after my team lost in the third round, we fought back through the consolation bracket to try and avenge our loss. We had to beat the team that beat us twice to win the championship, and won the first game, but lost the second one. It was great fun though, and the fans even did the Wave at one point during our finals match.

The weekend before that, I went to Nebraska City and picked four pounds of Montmorency cherries, which I turned into two pies (one with the almond extract in the filling and the other with the extract in the crust [very aromatic while working with it, needs a bit more to get the flavor to come through). Then I went up to Omaha for Shakespeare on the Green's performance of King Lear. I got there early enough to pick about 3 cups of mulberries, which I also turned into a pie (really tasty. I like the subtle flavor of mulberries.)

Forward to last weekend, I went to the Sunfest sponsored by Beer Corner USA in Omaha, which coincided nicely with the free Feist concert only 15 blocks away. At the beer fest, I tried to narrow my focus by sampling a few styles and comparing. I ranked the helles lagers, Kolsch, vienna lagers, and imperial porters and stouts. My pleasant surprise of the fest was the Eisenbahn Dourada from Brasil, which was in the Kolsch style, but had really great spice with an almost scotch ale finish.

As for the Feist concert, it was good. The Good Life, an Omaha group, and Juana Molina, an Argentine singer (who if looping yourself is a kid holding a stick, and Imogene Heap is a little leaguer, she is [insert favorite MLB star here]) opened for Leslie. Backing Ms. Feist for the concert was Clea Minaker, who does really great stuff with shadows/projection things. The performance was very good, and I appreciated that she didn't hold out her "popular" songs for an encore, she just made it all part of the show.

More to come about yestereen's Beer Advocate soiree. Suffice it now to say that I like beer people, and there are great beers and beer people near you.

Oh, after I went to the beer gathering last night I had a cake cone of peanut butter caramel and vanilla bean pear from Ivanna Cone.

Great Success!

That is my summation of my week and particularly Thursday night Bean Bags and Rhubarb.

My week started with the Fleishkuechle feed and late night trip home. Monday Karen called and we went to Ivanna Cone for ice cream. Tuesday Karen and Wendy and Michael and Buffy came over and played Phase 10.

Wednesday was the Fourth and was everything I'd hoped it to be. I started my day making rhubarb crisp and steamed squash with coconut custard. Then Wendy, Karen, and I went to Seward, NE for their Grand Parade. I saw Marsha and Tomas Bartulec and also Michelle Wehling. The parade wasn't that grand but entertaining enough. It helped that we were at the corner where the parade turned, so you got the drama of the different floats having to navigate the maneuver. After the parade, we came back to Lincoln and went to the fireworks at Oak Lake Park where we were joined by Michael, Buffy, Travis, Deidra, Randy, and Becca.

Thursday, as I said before, was great. Michael, Kyle, Scott, Tanya, Ben Yancer, Katie Carlson, Leslie de Flutier, Karen, Pauline Deeb, Wendy, Buffy, and Deidra all came over. I don't know if I forgot anyone; I really hope I didn't. We all played bean bags and ate the crisp and squash with custard that I'd prepared the day before. There was plenty of after party too: hanging out, talking, laughing.

Friday Wendy, Karen, and I went to Yia Yia's for pizza and such (I had a Left Hand Brewery [out of Longmont, CO] Black Jack Porter that was fine, but not close to Free State's Blackjack Porter). Then we came back to my place an played Phase 10, which Wendy won, and Monopoly, of which I was the victor.

Saturday I got some rhubarb from the farmer's market. But I was kinda worried because I only saw one booth selling it. Rhubarb might be going out of season, which changes the dynamics of my Thursday Night Rhubarb and Bean Bags. At the very least, it changes the dynamics of the recipes. Then Karen and I went to Something Else Sabbath School, Michel's Ville Grille (because Alladin's was closed for carpet renovations), the Something Else Sabbath School picnic in Pioneer's Park, and finished our day at Becca and Randy's with Buffy, Michael, Casey, Deidra, and Chris with some singing, talking, and munching of popcorn, fruit and ice cream.

So this week was brought to you by the letters K, W, B, and M, and the number 4.

We Few, We Happy Few

I had a red letter day yesterday.

It technically started with Wendy and Karen playing Go Fish at midnight. After they left I was able to assemble and bake a rhubarb custard pie. I was really happy with how it turned out. I think what helped the crust be "so light" was that I didn't over blend it when I mixed the liquid with the flour/shortening; plus, I didn't refrigerate it as long as normal. Then I went to bed.

I intended to leave at 9:30 to be able to casually (read legally) drive to Glenwood, IA to hear Amy's husband, Tim, preach. I was off by 23 minutes, but still arrived on time (the ol' time/distance value of speed). After church we had a delicious meal (of note was a marinated carrot dish that Amy made) at Tim and Amy's. Then we played bean bags, whilst Ben discussed his dream of a creator coffee collective house.

After some laying about, I went to Shakespeare on the Green to "mark territory" for the group while they gathered the picnic fixings (again Amy came through with a really great peanut sauce). This gave me an hour to read In Praise of Shadows and take an actual nap. Everyone arrived (A pleasant surprise was the arrival of Scott, Tanya, Jessica, and Katie.) and the play soon started.

I really enjoyed the performance of Henry V and was surprisingly touched by two things: first the tragedy of the boys who watched the luggage being killed by the fleeing French and second, that Henry had to ask the French herald whether he had won the day or not.

Because I had no timeline to get back home, I was able to drive the speed limit while thinking about the fine time had by all.

[UPDATE: The peanut sauce is now linked to the recipe.]

Beanbag-a-rhubarb a bop bam boo!

So after three attempts, Bean bag and Rhubarb Night has been the best yet, as far as I'm concerned. Mainly because I made the rhubarb crisp last night instead of the night of or not at all as previous times went.

Kyle and Cassie, Nate and Wanda, Angela, Wendy, and my sister were all in attendance. There was some good bean bagging with Angela and Kyle beating Marcy and me twice, and I was very pleased with the crisp tonight, though I'm probably not the most impartial judge.

After, Wendy and I went to Yia Yia's. I had a Saint-Sylvestre Gavroche French Red Ale (apparently Saint-Sylvestre is near Belgium so their beer is a bit in the Belgian style), which I enjoyed very much, and Wendy a Breckenridge Avalanche amber ale, which both of us liked. She got started on Breckenridge with their Proper Ale and still likes their offerings.

Jones Coffee Shop finally opened this week sometime just half a block south of my place, so I might be frequenting them in the future. Their espressos are just 1.75. I hope that the delay tonight is just the just-opened-and-working-out-the-kinks kind and not indicative of things to come.

A Party for No Reason

After a disappointing week discipline-wise, I had a wonderful Friday. I went running after work for seven miles. Then Angela and I went to Ivanna Cone for the much anticipated Ginger Lemongrass ice cream. She sent an email to request Honey Sesame for when Klaralyn comes to Lincoln. In the return email, Amy, the proprietor of that wonderful establishment, mentioned she had made a batch of Ginger Lemongrass. So I called on Wednesday to see if it was out front yet; it wasn't going to make it out that night because the other flavors weren't moving too fast. I called again yesterday and it finally made it to the board and "wasn't some secret flavor." After enjoying our dish and cone of ice cream, Angela and I each got some to take home. It really was a very impressive board of flavors that Ivanna Cone had going: Sweet Cream Vanilla, Dutch Chocolate, Mint Oreo, Coffee, Chambord (a favorite of Ellen's), Cinnamon, Ginger Lemongrass, Coconut Pecan (Angela go some of this for home with the GL), Kentucky Chocolate (a hint of bourbon), and Basalmic Strawberry Pear Sorbet. There are some flavors I'm missing, another sorbet for example, but still very very strong.

Then we played bean bags. Michael Barrett, a man about town in the downtown Lincoln area, was walking by and joined us for a few games. Our last game was the most hotly contested. She jumped out to an 8-0 lead, but I jumped back into it with a 6 point round. Then I got ahead 9-8. After some quality rounds by each of us we were tied at 13 for like three or four rounds. At this point Angela made a comment about how "this might get a bit tedious." Well, she ended the tedium with eight points the next round to win the match.

That was our party and it was grand.

"Happy Birthday To Me."

That is how I started my day, by singing Happy Birthday to myself (and I didn't pay royalties to Apple Recording Studios. Take that Beatles.)

[What follows is a fairly detailed account of my day, so if you are the browsing type: ACHTUNG!]

For breakfast, I had a big bowl of oatmeal with flaxseed meal and dried blueberries that plumped overnight in the fridge. My mother called and talked for a while. The day I was born she had rocky road ice cream and pizza after not having eaten much the previous two days. It was also a beautiful day weatherwise; however, the following day it snowed four inches (St. Paul, MN). My drive to work wasn't noteworthy except for a great song by Ben Taylor, son of James, that was on KRNU that I waited in the car to finish before going into work. This was the first of four songs I emotionally highlighted because it was my birthday.

Work was good today, we had a big money day while avoiding that crunch time stress that can creep up on a busy day. During the all request lunch hour on the classic rock station, someone requested The Pretender by Jackson Browne (#2 of my fab four today). I went for lunch to Famous Dave's and had their delish bread pudding for dessert. I haven't had a better bread pudding from another restaurant, which is a neat find in a rib joint. Driving back to work a fun version of Waters of March by Gilberto was on the Brasilian radio show on Lincoln's community station KZUM (#3). Instead of getting a cake for my birthday celebration at work, I requested a fruit tray. This went over surprisingly well, with a much smaller percentage remaining than the run of the mill cakes we've had. On way home from work, I was listening to Iowa Western Community College's station, The River, and they were playing Buffy's favorite new song "Hey There Delilah" by the Plain White Ts (#4).

After work Marcy did a great job being the "birthday slave" by cleaning the apartment and making our small gathering go smoothly. We had a Coldstone Creamery ice cream cake, red velvet layered with chocolate ice cream covered in a ganache accented in raspberry sauces. The exclusive guest list included: Wanda and Nate, Kyle and Cassie, Angela, Karen, and Wendy.

Now is the time for a recap of the bean bag action. The first game pitted Wanda and me against Kyle and Nate. After jumping out to an early lead, Wanda and I fell behind, but we pulled it out in the end. The second game, after a break for cake, matched Marcy and me against Karen and Angela. Marcy and I controlled much of the match with a lead of 19 to 8 at one point. Then Angela started paying attention and Karen the Closer got closer and closer til they won. The final match of the evening was between Angela and me. She kept her form from her previous comeback effort and led much of the way, 20-15 going into the last round. Then with a flurry of ringers, I scored seven points to win the match 22-20.

After bean bags, Wendy and I went to Yia Yia's, and she got me an Olfabrikken porter. According to the bartender, it is on the top of many "best porter" lists. I liked it. Still not as complex as Free State's Black Jack porter, but well worth the price.

Then I got home and talked to my mother again. This time she did the listening :). And now I'm blogging about my day.

Something.

My last blog was mainly a report of events. I'll do some reviewing of said events. I didn't mention that the Black Jack Porter from Free State Brewing (Black Jack Porter: Baltic Porter is a somewhat blended style, popular in the countries bordering the Baltic Sea. It's based on the English Porter style and strongly influenced by Russian Imperial Stouts. The resulting dark ale is stronger and more full bodied than a traditional Porter but doesn't have the intensity of an Imperial Stout. What we have is a rich, malty beer with notes of chocolate and roast malt overtones. The flavor has been mellowed further by conditioning on a blend of French and American oak. Served unfiltered.) was magnificent. It had so much going on, yet it was all taking place in unity. I wish I'd had more than 5 ounces to explore it. One of the favorite porters I've tasted. The other three brews I had weren't that noteworthy.

As for the concert, Travis of the Gym Class Heroes was the desire of 70% of the room, and he knew it. I felt there was too much mugging for the crowd, but their cheers disagreed with me.
In other news, yesterday I got out the bean bag boards for the first time this year. The first bag I threw went in the hole. I've still got it.

As the anniversary of my birth hastens upon me, I feel I'm running out of time. For what, I don't know.

Gettin' Busy at Work

I mean order volume, not this. This is good because it matches exactly with the influx of our student workers, who are mostly new and seem very capable. Yesterday I was tired, but I remained energized throughout the day.

Last night was my penultimate Thursday Night: Bean Bags and Blubarb. That means that next Thursday, the 24th, at 7 pm will be my last of the season. This doesn't mean that I won't continue baking pie and playing bean bags, but I will be less deliberate about it. So, come one and most, and bring a friend and a dog. There will be blubarb pie and rhubarb crisp and maybe a surprise dessert.

Tonight I go to my first ever roller derby. The Mary Kay Mafia are taking on Gang Green. More on this later.

And if you haven't been to my other blog, Word Hoard, I invite you there. Just click the link "More of Me."

My Summer Vacation, Vol. 2

Where were wee? Oh yes.

July 3: Today I left for West Bend Recreational Area on the Missouri River at 7:30 am from Brighton, CO. Wyoming has a lot of nothing, and I got to see most of it. Then I entered the beautiful Black Hills and Hot Springs, where I visited my grandpa for a while. I also got to stop for an hour in Wall, SD, home of Wall Drug. There I purchased the rest of my shaving kit, a mug, a brush, and some shaving soap, to go with my straight razor and strop. Now all I need is the gumption to use them all. I arrived at West Bend very close to 8:30 pm. Just in time for supper.

July 4: Anniversaire of our nation's Declaration of Independence. This day was spent reading, eating, sleeping, and playing bean bags, not necessarily in that order.

July 5: More of the same.

July 6: More of the same, this time with two small bean bag tournaments with 6 and 5 teams of two respectively. I managed to be one half of each winning team for both of them. This belies the fact that my sister beat me for the first time in what she says is 12 years, I don't think she's been playing that long though. We also had /flysh keek-luh/, spiced meat (in this case an 80/20 deer/beef mix) wrapped in dough and deep fried.I also did some swimming in the river today too.

July 7: Today we, the Dickhaut family and affiliates, fried some of the 150 some walleye caught at that point for brunch. Then at 1:30 I left to come back to Lincoln. On my way back I went through Burke, SD, hometown of an old friend Tyann nee Jeffries. Nothink else of note.

July 8: Today I went to the Farmer's Market with Ellen, before we went and visited Amy's place in Iowa. Then we scuttled back to go to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest with Karen. I liked it. I knew going into it that the ending was a bit open ended, which I expected, and was fine with.

July 9: This day was a barbecue at Karen's with a viewing of the first Pirates movie. Then some more bean bags.

Thus concludes my summer vacation, estivation if you will.

An Even Better Twelve Hours. Seriously.

So the last twelve hours were really great. They started around 4 when Karen finally brought over what turned out to be her most delicious veggie lasagna. We (Karen, Ellen, Scott, and I) had a first course of the lasagna, my Sierra Gold Creamy Mashed Potatoes, and Texas Cheese Toast. The second course was watermelon. Third course a bean bag beat down of Team P-Hartman; fourth course Ellen's Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie (judiciously juicy) a la mode chocolat. The fifth course was two more whoopings with a side of left-handed (sinister) smackdown of the aphorementioned Phartman.

Then Wendy arrived, and she and I went to the Saltdogs game. We were so close to the field (second row) by the on deck circle that I could (and did) personally query the St. Joe Blacksnakes on their ages. SS Jimmy Mojica is 21. CF Scooter Jordan is 24, but his team bio says otherwise.

The first Saltdogs game I went to this season, with Karen, a player and a coach were ejected from the other team. The second game I attended, with Wendy and Kyle, went extra innings with a Saltdogs loss. Third game, with Karen, Ellen, and Thomas Trumble, was in section 104. So this fourth game was a combo of all the previous. We sat in section 104, and after the manager and the catcher (Mikaela "Mischa" Dworken) and the starting pitcher (Mark Nussbeck), who was no longer pitching, were ejected from the game in the bottom of the 9th, we went to extra innings, in which the Saltdogs proceeded to concede the contest. So I'm hooked. Wendy and I will be in the self-same seats about twelve hours from now.

But if you were following along, we are not yet done with our twelve hours. The Saltdogs game ended at 10:30. Wendy and I went to Cracker (cuz it's so white) Barrel (cuz it's that much fun) for apple cakes with a side of hashbrowns and Wild Maine Blueberry Pancakes with a side o' grits. After picking up Mus and dropping me off, my time with Wendy endy(?).

Earlier in the day, I was autotuning the start of The Venture Bros. second season and happened across Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos at 4:00 am. So with Chuck Norris being all the rage, I autotuned that one too, not figuring I'd be awake, but preparing for the occasion. So happens, after I went to bed at 12:30, I woke up with a start at 3:51. So my preparation paid off. The episode begins with a "live-action" Norris pausing from his workout on the Total Gym and waning philosophic on the importance of recognizing and admitting your mistakes so that you will never repeat them. "This was the lesson we learned when we went to The Island of the Walking Dead." I also liked when he split the group up and said, "Kimo, Tabe, come with me." So Lone Ranger.

So ends our latest installment of what seems to be hourly recountings of my weekend/life. The next hours hold a viewing of The Third Man, An Inconvenient Truth (I'll tell you what's inconvenient--having to spell it.), and The Venture Bros., the Saltdogs, some shopping, some reading, and some web logging of it all. See you on the side that has been flipt.

Bean Season

Yesterday offically marked the beginning of bean bag season. That is because my apartment (me, Scott, and Sergey) played bean bags. I've still got it, but some humidity would help to keep the bags on the board.

Tonight is a concert at Sokol with Of Montreal.

On the running front: I finished my first 13 miles Tuesday. It took me a week. Hopefully two months from now, it will take considerably less time (it might be tough dodging traffic). Today, I'll try a longer run, 5 or 6 miles.

Bernie Taupin