Nicer days.

Boulder Canyon looking east.
Finally we are having some nicer days! Yesterday we set a record high. Katie and I both had off so we went to Boulder Canyon to climb.
We got a bit of a late start because I had to take my motorcycle in for the 10000 mile service (at 10700 miles - a little late). But we eventually made our way to Boulder and up the canyon. We had been at a spot a month or two ago and it was way too cold to climb. We went back to that spot and did a few routes.
I personally still feel quite scared when I am lead climbing outdoors. Strangely enough, I didn't feel this in SoIll. Maybe it's because here you feel so exposed. Literally climbing a cliff from a 10 foot wide section of flat rock overlooking a 100 ft drop and still several hundred feet down to the road after that. I guess that makes it a little scary and hard to concentrate and not have that fear.
One of the routes we did in Illinois was very run out - only 3 bolts in 50-60 feet and here they are every 8 feet or so. Yet in Illinois I felt perfectly calm. There you are in the canyon that is only 50-60 feet deep with big towers and trees all around you.
Anyway I did get a few good pictures..

Clouds above the ridge.

Katie cleaning our first route of the day.

Katie at the top of a scary 5.9.

Katie cleaning another route.
I heard from the motorcycle shop today and there are a few things they want to repair in addition to the service. Looks like this is going to cost me some money. Ugh. Oh well.
I have also started another blog to deal with my brewing adventures - rosebrewing.blogspot.com. I plan on also featuring reviews of commercially available beers that I drink. This one will be reserved for bikes and boulders and other goings on in our lives. I have added Katie as an author, so expect to see some posts from her as well.

and so on.

Finally got out for a ride this past week. We had three beautiful days in the 60's and then got snow yesterday. It looks like we only got 4 inches or so here, but I read parts of Boulder got 25+! Crazy.
I have been able to ride my motorcycle more often lately. I am still not able to ride every day since due to the weather, but at least I am off the bus sometimes. It started right up when I got it out of storage (the garage), so that is good. Hopefully within the next month I will be able to sell it and get a new ride.
Work has been alright. Things have slowed down a bit after a busy February. It is nice to have some slower nights, but I made really good money last month.
It has now been a year since we adopted Gunner! I am really happy about that and I think he is too. He has really come along way from the scared dog we got on day one. I think alot of his fear issues have been resolved, though he still has some odd tendencies here and there. Katie got him a new toy and I gave him his Kong with PB and food for dinner. I am very glad we got him and I can't imagine life without him!


Chef's fourth birthday was also the other day. He is such a sweet cat with tons of personality. I was looking at the little kitten pictures we have of him. Such a cutie. He got big so quick.
I am still working on my application for cu. It looks like I won't be done in time for fall. At this point I have yet to even look at the Fasfa, still have to get transcripts and so on. Starting in the spring would also give me more time to save up some money.
I currently have three batches of beer fermenting. The wild beer has been aging in the garage for a bit over three weeks now and I will bottle it this week. Two weeks ago I made a Grisette, which is a Belgian style similar to Saison, but of lower alcohol. This one should end up in the 3.5-4% abv range. It was made to be a light, refreshing summer beer. It will have the fruity and spicy yeast character of a stronger ale(along with refreshing hops), but you'll be able to have a few without getting wrecked. It is currently in the secondary fermenter with some oak cubes and chips.
This past week I brewed a now more traditional strength Saison, that should end up around 6+ percent alcohol. Unfortunately I knocked my hydrometer on the ground by accident so I didn't get an initial gravity reading. I used a different kind of mashing procedure called decoction mashing. It worked very well, however I made one mistake in my calculations and that was to use 212 as the boiling point of water. Here that number is around 203. Oh well, now I know for next time.
Anyway, I wanted to make both of these now so they will have some time to age before the summer comes around. I used the same yeast for both, so all I had to do was empty the primary fermenter and dump the new batch in.
I am going to transfer the Saison to the secondary in which I have the wild beer, adding some oak as well as a wild yeast and bacteria blend, in addition to not cleaning the fermenter out. This should give me a very complex and somewhat sour end product, which is how Saison once was according to my research. I also got some whole hops to dry hop with. Should be pretty amazing.

5 years!

Well, today marks five years since the last day of my cancer treatment and at this point i am considered 'cured'. It feels good to be alive. So many good things have happened in my life since then.
I decided to celebrate with a special beer. This is a bottle of Unibroue 10, a belgian style strong ale brewed by Unibroue to celebrate their tenth anniversary in 2002. I must have bought it sometime shortly after. I remember reading their information and them saying it could stand up to ten years or more of aging. While I did try a bottle back then, I made a promise with myself that I would hold onto this bottle for as long as possible. It is marked 3-3-2002 so I made it 8 years. It tastes great. It is a good occasion to have it and celebrate, but sad because I know I will never have another.

Pasta d'oh!

Since I know my sister just got her pasta maker, I figured I would post the dough recipe I use.
1.5 c semolina flour
1.5 c all purpose flour
1 t salt
1.25 c warm water
Mix all the dry in a bowl, add the wet, and mix until it starts to come together (there will still be loose, dry flour). Dump this out onto the counter and knead 3-5 minutes until the mixture is smooth. You may not incorporate all the loose flour, that is ok. At this point, you can cut the ball into four pieces, wrap each tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until needed (if used in the next week or so) or freeze. If you are going to use it immediately, let it rest about ten minutes.
I start by rolling it on number one for about ten passes, folding the dough over on itself after each pass. From there on, I will send it through 3 times per number setting up until five. You will probably have to add some semolina flour to the outsides of the dough to keep it from sticking to itself. When you get to five, let it rest uncovered for about ten minutes. I have been using the fettucini or thicker cutter to cut into pasta.
To cook it, have some boiling salted water ready to go. It'll take only 20-30 seconds to cook. Add your favorite sauce, meatballs, sausage, etc. YUM!