Festival of Beards Week

In honor of my first attempt at growing a beard, this week was the first (annual?) Festival of Beards Week. After not-shaving for a week over Christmas, I decided to just keep letting in grow out of curiosity. Well, Jenni and I had both finally had enough of the "mountain man" look...

Here is the weekly array of beard configurations for Festival of Beards Week 2007:

Monday's neatly trimmed beard:


Tuesday's rendition of Chops & Goatee:


Wednesday's reduced chops and trimmed goatee:


Thursday's ridiculous Reno 911 style mustache:


Friday's soul patch and side burns:

Beer brewing and random house updates...

We have been dieing to brew our own beer for quite some time, and with Jenni's yeast experience, we figured we could make some kind of justifiable science experiment out of it in the process. So, for Valentine's day, I surprised Jenni with a pretty serious beer brew kit. This had big glass carboys and all kinds of tubes and whatnot. Northern Brewer is THE place to get all your homebrew supplies if you decide to give it a try. Seems pretty darn easy.

So, my friend Mike has been brewing his own beer since New Years and was in town for work, so we had a beer brewing night Wednesday night this week. Despite some work obligations we had until about 8:00, we still managed to get our Bavarian Dunkel (a dark German Lager) brewed and it is now fermenting in the basement. We'll see how it turned out in about 6-8 weeks! We'll keep you all updated and hopefully this and our other English and India Pale Ale brews will also go well.

Here are some pictures Jenni took while Mike, Tom (AKA Eddie) and I were siphoning and filtering the wort from the kettle, through a wort cooling device called the Chillzilla, and into the glass carboy, where it is currently fermenting:



As for the house? Well, the winter has taken its toll. Beer drinking/brewing, warmth, and sleep have taken over as our primary activities. We're still managing to make some progress. We are plastering and sanding the walls and ceilings in all of the bedrooms at one time. This has been a ton of work, as we have had to replace sections of drywall, fix damage from wall paper borders, the window installation, and a lot of general damage to the wall surfaces. The ceilings are essentially done (one more coat of paint, and the difference is already huge. As soon as we finish painting we're hoping to have the carpet and flooring work started. This may take some time, but it will make a huge difference in how we feel about the coziness of the house.

Also, as I previously wrote, we received our washer and dryer and are making progress on finishing up in the laundry room. The walls are finished, some ceiling touch-ups are required, and we're going to start installing the cabinets this weekend. Pictures to follow, of course!

If you have a few minutes, you should read this column about hanging cabinets. It's a really funny summary of what nearly every home improvement project entails to some degree. How to Hang a Cabinet

You're Damn Right I Got the Blues

If you're a fan of the Blues, you've surely heard of Buddy Guy. If not, it's time to open your eyes and ears to one of the best Blues musicians to ever play. He was Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn before either were able to even pick up a guitar and play.

A couple weekends ago we went to Buddy Guy's last concert at Legends (his blues club)in Chicago. Legends is on Columbia University property and when his lease ended, they announced plans to build a new student center on the site where Legends has been for the past 17 years. Legends is scheduled to close in the middle of the summer, so if you have never been... GO. If you have never heard the Blues... GO. While Buddy promised to do whatever it took to open a new club in the very near future, this was the last show of his annual January series of concerts that have been a staple in Chicago for many years.

Our friends Shane and Jen went along for their first time. Jenni and I have been to one of his shows here last year and also saw him at Ravinia 2 years ago. It's always an amazing and lively show, featuring Buddy walking among the audience and even outside in the dead of winter, only to re-enter among the crowd. This is a bit he picked up from Guitar Slim in his formative days growing up in Louisiana and kept with him to this day. Even at the age of 72 he get's it revved up and is a wild-man.

Here are some pictures from the concert, where we showed up 3.5 hours early to ensure we got a table and were able to sit and watch Buddy from close-up, as you can see here. I hope you'll go out and buy his box set, which is only $29 on Amazon.com and includes 3 great CD's and a DVD of live shows and interviews with Buddy about his life in the Blues music industry. Worth every penny.



Oh, and for an update on the house, we finally got our washer and dryer and have been doing laundry for days it seems! HAHA!