Scotch Ale

Back in September when we attended the Scottish Festival, we enjoyed some Scottish Ale so I thought I would try brewing some of my own. I ordered the requisite materials and they arrived last week. As Sunday dawned cold and windy, it seemed a good day to do some brewing. I broke out the goods and heated up some water and started seeping the speciality grains. It's like making tea.

After seeping the grains for 15 minutes it's time to bring things to a boil and add the goodies - the malts and hops.

Boil the the mixture, now call wort, for an hour, cool down in an ice bath and pour the wort into the carboy and add yeast. Let ferment for two weeks before bottling. The ale in making is now sitting down in the laundry room fermenting away. It should be ready to drink around Christmas.

I can hardly wait.

Oh boy the weather has taken a turn for the worse. It feels more like winter than fall. The temperature on Saturday was in the low 70s. Today on the way to catch the vanpool, the temperature was a chilly 30 degrees and the weathermen were calling for snow flurries. So much for outdoor activities for the foreseeable future. Good napping weather though, which I did yesterday. Nothing like a late afternoon nap.

I've been a big fan of the TV show ER since it came on the scene 15 years ago. This is its final season. As part of this last season, they've been bringing back some of the series regulars from past years. Seeing Anthony Edwards reprise his role as Dr Mark Green last week, was a reminder how good this show has been over the years. I will definitely miss it when it's gone.

Another Weekend

The craziness that was work finally came to a head on Friday and we made an award. You can read what it is here. It's the first listing under Navy. There will be some trips to be made for kickoffs and what not, but the real heavy work is done. Now on to the next one.

I look back on the weekend and can't remember doing a whole lot. Friday was paying bills and doing some shopping to get things we need for us and the house. I also spent a lot of time getting the books for the rowing club up to date. I had fallen behind being away on vacation and the Coaches really did want their paychecks. Of course, no one really took responsibility for collecting the paperwork from the coaches so about half their timesheets were either missing or incomplete. To rectify this, I'm going back to my paperless system. Hopefully that will work a bit better.

Saturday morning was rowing practice. It was on the cool side when I arrived at the boathouse, in the low 60s. Our Coach put together a 50 Yr Old 8+ and a 40 Yr Old 8+ and we did two 20 minute race pieces starting at a 24 spm rate and building it up to 30 spm over time. It was a good solid workout and the first piece put us a good mile and a half above Ryan's Dam. It's where I would normally row my single to (5 1/2 miles from Sandy Run), but it's rare we get that far upstream when rowing the 8+s. We had really great water and didn't get waked once by any of the fishermen.

Sunday I got up early for a bike ride. Ann has been a little under the weather recently, so I went by myself again. I wanted to do a bit more than I usually do, so rather than the 20 or 25 mile rides I have been doing, I decided to go for 30 miles. I headed out from the Rt 28 parking lot and got on the W&OD Trail at the 24 Mile marker. I biked for 2 1/2 miles toward Leesburg before turning around and biking to Vienna and the 11.5 Mile marker and then back to the car. Total ride time was 2 hours and 9 minutes. It wasn't too bad, but my quads were really feeling it, especially since the ride ended with having to bike over the Rt 28 overpass right at the end. Average ride speed was 13.6 mph. When I got home, Ann and I decided to try making a frittata for brunch. I volunteered to make it since I generally do breakfast, but I think Ann was eager to try making it and soon took over the cooking duties. It turned out quite well. I'll post a picture of it tonight. After eating we just chilled out the rest of the day. We watched some DVR stored episodes on In Plain Sight, which we were both enjoying. The show stars Mary McCormack as Mary Shannon, a U.S. Marshall assigned to the Witness Protection Program. I thought the pilot was a bit shaky with some corny cliche dialog, but the show seems to have found its footing and is quite good. Its summer run has concluded, but it has been picked up for a second season. We also watched the conclusion of the Olympics (us and everyone else). The second week seemed to get lost after all the swimming and gymnastics of week one, but I think the Chinese overall did a good job in hosting Olympics. Ann threw out the idea of trying to go to some of the events in London in 2012. Maybe something to think about. Hopefully we'll be retired by then (fingers crossed).

EDITED TO ADD: Our (or rather Ann's) frittata:

Ann made it with bacon, onion and chedder cheese. One lesson learned was to make it in a smaller pan so it is thicker.