Hoyey!

It has been brought to our attention by our friend Sara (whose dad runs the friendly neighborhood National Wildlife Refuge), that the episode of Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe that was filmed in the area will be broadcast next Tuesday, the 28th. So if you watch Dirty Jobs, or just want to see what it's like up here in this neck of the continent, be sure to check it out!

Back in the Village...just a quick note

Woo! Got home yesterday late morning, took a nap, started the unpacking/settling in process...good times. Phone line wasn't transfered over like it was supposed to be my now, but it should be today...if I was supposed to call you when I got home, sorry!

I have a lot of backed-up posting (not to mention email) to catch up on, for sure...but it'll be a day or two until we're settled in enough to really make that a priority. But it'll get there. Oh, and FYI...we're back on filtered internet, which means no Facebook, no Myspace, no MSN Messenger for a while. So if you want to find me, drop me an email, comment here, or dust off the ol' AOL Messenger (AIM) if you have it...my contact name is 'przybby'.

Anyway, just wanted to say hi and let y'all know what's up. More to come, of course :-)

So...what's new with you?

Not much here, really since the last time I posted.

Oh wait.

I guess I did, like, get married and stuff. I suppose if you're being picky, you could count that as a "blog post worthy" event. The party certainly was so. The stories...and the pictures! Once I have enough of them in my grubby little hands to pick out the best, I'll be sure to post some, I promise.

Let's see, what else? Our batch of beer is bottled and conditioning...should be ready to drink right about when it's time for us to head back to AK this weekend...so sounds like a good excuse to have a party and get everyone to help us drink the 2 cases, right?

Right now we're just in boxing/packing/preparing mode...a few more days and it's back up to the soggy tundra! More (and more thorough) posts to be had then, rest assured :-)

Summer Project

As if planning a wedding wasn't enough of a project, we'd decided that we wanted to try brewing some beer this summer. You know, for fun. You see, if there's one thing Sara and I have in common (and trust me, there are more than a few), it's being into the whole DIY, "let's see if we can do X", "why buy X if we can make it better ourselves" kind of thing. Plus, homebrewing sounded like fun, and who doesn't like beer??

We figured out last weekend that if we got a batch started this week, we could actually get it done, bottled, conditioned and maybe even partially drank (with a little help from friends....hint hint!) before we head back up for the school year, so on Tuesday we stopped by the local brew shop and got our supplies, and Wednesday night we got a-brewing:

Getting the grist in the bag and ready to mash...notice the bottle of Central Waters on the counter and the empty sixer of Sam Adams in the background. What, are we supposed to work without inspiration??

Sara took this pic of me checking the temp of the mash...she thinks I look like an evil scientist.

Boil...boil, my precious wort!

Here's where we thought we had a problem. We finished brewing and got everything in the fermenter around midnight Wednesday night. Yesterday when I checked, the airlock was bubbling like crazy, so I knew the fermentation was going strong...but then this morning there was nothing! I watched for 5 minutes and didn't see a single bubble, so I thought something had gone wrong...most things I read said the fermentation should last about a week or so...but when I went to the brew shop to pick up a couple things today and asked the beerlady, she said it's possible that with the weather a little warmer, it might be done that quickly. Hmm. So I took a reading and whatdayaknow! Just about right!

Well jeez, we wouldn't want to waste that baby beer we had to take out for the test, now would we?? (Yes, Sara had just gotten out of the shower...a clean brewer is a happy brewer!)

Next, we get the liquid gold into the secondary fermenter, let it sit and mellow for a while, and then bottle 'er up! We'll let you know how it goes, that's for sure. But in the meantime, I think we've found a new hobby :-)

Even more random summer pics...

So our summer place...with the fenced back yard...oh yes, Loki is a big fan. He had a run-in with a bird the other day, so now his big thing is to hang out under this one specific tree, waiting for another bird to magically drop into his clutches. If one doesn't he tries to climb the tree...or dances on his back legs trying to reach the branches. Yeah, we never said he was particularly smart.

All the running around outside this summer requires adequate hydration, of course.

So we were out on a boat ride up north this past weekend, and we came across a flotilla of pontoon boats having soe kind of battle with big hoses and spraying water. Looked like a lot of fun, actually...it was pretty durn hot.

Just in case you've ever wondered what would happen if you stuck your camera lens into an empty beer bottle and took a picture...now you know.

Loki made a couple new friends today. Our friend Liz's dog Riggs (the Golden) was really, um, friendly...and then another guy came along where we were hanging out on the river and had a Doberman he was teaching to swim. So it was a big ol' dog party on the river.

Who'da thunk it...there ARE actually fish on this part of the river! Learn something new every day, I guess...

Random Summer Pics

My nephew's going to be a left-handed reliever. Or at least a utility infielder.

I think Loki likes the heat even less than we do.

We had a shower. It was fun.

So what have we been up to this summer?

Oh, a bunch of wedding planning....

And a little bit of this.

Ain't we cute? :-)

Summertime...

...and the livin' is easy.

So as you have likely deduced by now, there will probably be a limited few number of posts this summer on my Alaska blog, due to the fact that we're not, you know, in Alaska.

I may update here and there to post pics and let you know what's up...there's plenty going on, of course. Between wedding planning (not to mention the actual wedding), seeing people, catching/stocking up on stuff that I can't do during the school year, ya know...it should be a really, really fun summer.

And we'll certainly be doing a lot of this

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Weeeee!

So. After a truly hectic few days, here we sit at gate C3, waiting for our flight from Anchorage to the middle of the Middle-west, stomachs full of good food and maybe a couple beers :-P

See you in a few time zones!

Air Lab

So now that school's over and our days are filled with sleeping in and packing endless boxes, we've had a bunch of time to procrastinate take Loki swimming. We've even got him into dock-jumping. He was leery when we started...the first couple times he'd only do it once, and then only go in from shore the rest of the day...but once he got used to it and figured out how to keep his head mostly above water when he dives in, he loves it. Absolutely can not get enough. Check it out:

Now we just have to find a nice dock when we get home to WI this weekend :-P