In a couple hours from now I’m hoping to have my second batch of homebrew successfully kegged and then I will start the carbonation and cooling process. I just popped open the fermenter and took a specific gravity reading of 1.018. This isn’t much lower than the first batch (1.020), but the difference this time is that I started at a higher starting gravity of 1.050 (vs 1.045). This should equal out to a nice beer at 4.3% alcohol by volume.

Earlier today I made some modifications to the lines in the kegerator using this quick disconnect set, so that I can now easily switch from the lines needed for the Cornelius keg for homebrewing to the other lines and tap needed for a standard keg of beer, the Sanke keg. I also took apart my Cornerlius keg for cleaning and sanitizing. In a little bit I am going to put it all back together, finish the sanitizing and pressurization checks, and then I will move the beer from the fermenter to the keg. I’m hoping that by the end of the weekend I’ll be able to pour my first glass of Big Willie Pale Ale.

Wow, my adult hockey team won yet another game last night! For those of you who have lost count, that is now three in a row. As per usual, the stats from the game are not yet online, but I do know that I had one assist in the game. Once again I was playing defense, but still managed to get some great passing and shots on the goal. Unfortunately, I peaked at the score sheet after the game, and I was not credited with the assist. That’s alright, as I’m pretty sure I didn’t actually have all four of my previously credited assists. I just hope that I’m still the league leader in assists after the game. Check out the league statistics leaders and notice my name on there three times.

At one point in our game last night, it looked like our winning streak was going to come to an end. We were down 4-2 with around five minutes left in the game. Surprisingly, we snuck in two quick goals around the three or four minute mark. The game ended in regulation with score tied at four. From there we moved on to the overtime shootout. Each team had three chances to score, and we only needed two. The other team shot first and missed. Next a guy from our team took full advantage and scored on his shot. Then the other team missed again, we missed our chance, and finally the other team missed their last shot. We didn’t even need our third attempt to take the game 5-4. I’m really liking winning for a change.

In addition to trying my first 5-way this past weekend while in Cincinnati, I also found time to do some other Cincy things. My favorite of which was heading down on Saturday night to the Great American Ballpark to watch the Reds take on the Cleveland Indians. I hadn’t been inside the ballpark in a long time and I was happy to see all of the changes that have been made, especially the new giant LED scoreboard. The picture on this high-def screen is incredible and is a huge improvement over the old scoreboard. Here are a couple of pictures, the first of the old scoreboard, and the second is of the new.

I wish the new picture was from the same angle as the old, but you get the idea. The new scoreboard has amazing color compared to the old one. Notice that all of the old advertising has been moved from the bottom to both sides of the new scoreboard. You can see in the old picture that there is a video screen on the right side, but now the entire scoreboard can be used for video display. In the foreground you can also see one of the new smaller ribbon boards that were also installed throughout the stadium to replace the old and outdated. I’m happy to see that the Reds are continuing to make changes to their great ballpark.

I actually would have posted an update yesterday if I didn’t spend the entire afternoon and evening on the couch. Reason being, Kim and I woke up before 5 AM to catch a bus up to Boulder to run in the 31st annual BolderBoulder. This 10K race always takes place on Memorial Day and is the largest timed race in the country. There are a number of qualifying waves (21 to be exact) and loads more open waves after that. In fact, no other race in the world incorporates as many waves as they do. Since we didn’t have a qualifying time, we were placed into one of the open waves, though somewhat near the start, which I’m guessing was determined by our estimated finishing time of around 54 minutes.

So, we caught the first bus up to Boulder at 5:15, and eventually arrived around an hour later so we could pickup our packets, drop off our belongs to a mobile locker that would be there when we finished, and then found our spot in line for our estimated start of 7:32 AM. It took a little while to accomplish all of this with the estimated number of participants around 50,000, but we arrived early enough to avoid most lines. The first wave went off at 7 and surprisingly our wave did start on time, right around 7:32.

The run started off easy enough with a flat run for at least the first mile of the course. We started a little slow, just to make sure we had enough to get through the entire race. Prior to yesterday, the longest we’d run was four miles. Between miles one and three was primarily uphill, though not at a very steep grade. Our times for these first three miles stayed very consistent. The fourth mile had some ups and downs throughout, but we started to pick up the pace anyway, deciding that we were feeling good enough to make a push to get down closer to nine minute miles.

Just after the fourth mile the course took a very nice turn downhill, which we definitely capitalized on and picked up the pace below nine minute miles and closer to eight and a half. And just when we thought we were nearly done, one final uphill came out of nowhere! After making the turn onto Folsom Street you can see the end point, Folsom Field, but you quickly realize it is going to be tough getting up there. Amazingly our increase in speed continued and we actually ran the sixth mile in under eight and a half minutes. We really wanted to finish with an average of around nine minute miles, so we had to make up some time from our beginning miles.

After making the last big climb, we found ourselves running right into an entrance of the football stadium, and then making a loop around the field to the finish line. It was an amazing ending, with large crowds gathered throughout the stadium bleachers cheering everyone on. I’ve never experienced anything like it. And to make it all even better, we actually did complete our goal of running nine minute miles. You can follow this link to see the detailed results of our run.

Once we had crossed the finish line, we walked up toward the food and beverage area. After a quick stretch, we exchanged coupons on our bibs for a nice sized snack pack and a beer. We then walked up into the stands to cheer on the remaining runners and walkers. Once the course was nearly clear, they started the international team competition. Each team consisted of three elite runners representing one country or group. When these men and women entered the stadium to make the last sprint to the finish line, the stadium was nearly full and cheering as loud as possible. It was really something to see and experience. Ethiopia won both the women’s and men’s challenge, with two of their runners getting first and second in both races. The winning man finished with a time of 28:17, nearly twice as fast as we finished!

After all of the running was complete, they had a nice Memorial Day ceremony in the stadium with flag carrying parachuters, music, a twenty-one gun salute, and even a fly over from three F-16s. Once the ceremonies were over, the skies opened and it began pouring. We got soaked while waiting for the bus that would take us back to Denver, but I was just glad it waited until the run and ceremonies were over. It could have been much worse. And the run itself was great. If we decide to run it again, we now have a time that will qualify us to run in one of the earlier waves of the race.

True, I’ve had my share of 3-ways and even 4-ways in my life, but never a 5-way. This weekend, I plan to change that. Get your minds out of the gutters, I’m talking about what I’m going to eat at Skyline. I was always a 3-way kind of guy growing up, and over the past few years have expanded into the 4-way. And now I think I owe it to myself to try one of their 5-way’s with both onions and beans. The last time I was in Cincinnati I didn’t make it into a chili parlor once, and I’m determined to not let that happen again on this trip. Here’s to this experiment being as delicious as I’m imaging it will be.

Another hockey game last night and another win. That’s two in a row! I honestly can’t tell you the last time that has happened. Once the stats from last week were finally posted, I found out that I was credited with two assists in our 5-1 victory. Well I took a look at the score sheet from last night’s 5-3 win and I was given two more assists, taking the two game total to four. That may just be enough to be leading the league. We’ll see once the stats are posted.

Unfortunately I added two penalties to my stats as well. Since a couple of the regular defensemen were missing, I was moved back to play D for the game. I got called for our team’s first penalty, a very weak tripping call. Yes, the guy did fall, but I don’t think my stick was the reason for it. He should have received an academy award for his dive. And in the third period I received another penalty for interference, which was an okay call. I just wish the referee would have called the elbow that the other player delivered to my face mask. It even drew a little blood on my lip.

Our team has a rule that the player who gets the first penalty has to bring locker room beer for the following week, so I’ll be doing the honors next week. Hoping to make it three in a row.

With mixed results from my first homebrew, I’ve decided to move on and start on my second batch. My parents sent a kit for Big Ben Pale Ale for my birthday a couple of months ago. I cracked open this box and finally got around to brewing it a couple of Saturdays ago. I followed pretty much the same system as I used the first time in the brew process. Once again I was happy to find some bubbling in the airlock the day after brewing, so at least the fermentation started alright. I hope it does a little better this time around, and I’m thinking it should since the fermenter is at a slightly higher temperature than the first time.

I’m hoping the fermentation will be finished this coming weekend, and then this time I will transferring it all into a Cornelius keg (also a birthday gift) instead of bottling it all. This is supposed to be much easier than bottling, and I should be able to carbonate the beer really quickly with some forced CO2. I still have to make some modifications to my lines in the kegorator, but eventually that’s exactly where this brew is going. I can’t wait to have my own beer ready and waiting on tap at all times. I just hope I enjoy this batch a little more than the last, which I’ve started using in some of my cooking. I used a bottle of the beer in place of water in a recent batch of turkey chili. I think this really added to the flavor of the food, and I’m happy I’ve found a use for it!

Due to a magically disappearing device, I had to buy a replacement mp3 player. I’ve still never taken the iPod plunge, and keeping the trend alive, decided to go with the Sansa Clip. I enjoyed the missing Sansa Express for a couple of years and since it was no longer available for sale, I decided to go with the next smallest model available. I need to keep it simple so that I can easily run with it. I bought my mom the Clip a year or two ago and I never heard anything bad about it.

Now that I’ve had my hands on it for a couple of days, I can say that it is really similar to the Express I was used to. Though the display isn’t the best, it gets the job done. There aren’t too many fancy features, but that’s not what I wanted. I just want to easily be able to select an album to listen to, hit play, and start running. My one complaint so far is that the Clip doesn’t have an expandable memory slot like the Express had. I did upgrade from 1GB before to 4GB, but you never know when I’ll want even more available. Oh well, it was hard to beat for the $60 price tag.

Oh yeah, one amazing thing was the preloaded music that it came with. I was shocked to find O.A.R.’s “Whose Chariot?” from the November 27, 2004 show at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. Not only was I actually at this show, but I also taped it. However, I think the included track actually comes from the other recording of the night direct from the soundboard. Still pretty dang cool!

Saturday afternoon, Kim and I took a trip to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. We made advanced reservations online for the Expedition Health exhibit, arrived at our scheduled time, and we immediately starting working our way through the crowds. Upon entry, we were given a Peak Pass card, which was inserted into various stations throughout the exhibit, recording various data along the way.

Though many of the stations are a bit more kid friendly than I was hoping, there are still some amazing machines throughout. One of my favorites was a vein viewer machine, which magically displayed your veins on your arm and even allowed to see the direction of blood flow. Also there was a machine where two people sit down across from each other, put on a head strap, and try to relax. The winner is the person who is more relaxed. I beat Kim in this challenge!

After spending at least two hours throughout this exhibit, we caught a movie at the IMAX, Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk. The movie is full of action-packed river rafting sequences, great music provided from the Dave Matthews Band, and lessons on how everyone can help conserve our limited clean, fresh water. Though I’m already aware of most of what I can do to help, the movie seemed to open the eyes of many of the older folks in the group, as evident from a conversation I overheard after the film.

We also explored the various wildlife exhibits and the space odyssey section. Overall, I was shocked at how much was inside the museum and even though we probably saw less than half of what is displayed, we still managed to spend over five hours there. You could easily spend an entire day at the museum if you wanted to see it all in one visit. I was definitely impressed after our visit and would not be opposed to visiting again in the future.

Disaster! Since last reporting good things about my fish tank, it has all gone way downhill. In these two months, the algae levels have been uncontrollable at best. I tried adding a bunch of snails to the tank, but those quickly disappeared. I’ve never had good luck with any snails, and I cannot determine if either the hermit crabs are finding an easy snack or if there is something wrong with the tank itself. So that attempt to clear out the algae failed. I tried limiting the amount of time that the new lights are on, but that didn’t help much either.

So I had to resort to extreme cleaning sessions every couple of weeks. I would scrape and remove as much algae as possible, but these sessions didn’t seem to have positive effects on the fish. I think I stressed one of the clownfish into shock a month ago or so, and though I tried to help him out, he eventually found his way to the toilet bowl in the sky. Since that time, I’m assuming that the six line wrasse experienced a similar fate, though I never could find any of his remains. And just last night, I found my last remaining clownfish on the sand bed of the tank.

This is an all time low for the tank, and I’m not sure what I’m going to do. The only form of life left are a couple of hermit crabs that I’ve had for a long time. It seems nothing can kills those guys. So I am considering starting over with the tank, though I will keep the live rock submerged in salt water, as to preserve any beneficial qualities left. Perhaps I should remove all or most of the sand currently in the tank, and replace it with live sand from a fish store. Or maybe I should just give up on it and sell what I’ve invested into this super frustrating hobby.