Happy Birthday Tony!

Happy Birthday Tony!
Originally uploaded by petemorris.

It was a fun-filled end to an otherwise ordinary week. The big event was Tony's seventh birthday on Friday! His party with friends will be in a couple of weeks, so the celebration on the actual day was a little subdued. Still, it included a number of fun presents and a dinner-time visit by Grammo and Woody. And Tony being the chip off the old block that he is, escorted us all to a special dinner by the airport at In-n-Out!! Saturday included the usual AYSO soccer game in the morning, with the added new twist of Everett taking his first music class of the fall. The day then culminated in some quality couch time in the evening as our Golden Bears thoroughly steamrolled the Ducks of UO in an absolutely magical display at Strawberry Canyon. Memorial Stadium has never looked or sounded better. With their new golden jerseys, after taking or copying just about every other element of the Ducks' successful football program, coach Tedford's boys appear to have now taken Oregon's mojo as well. Go Bears!! To close out the weekend on Sunday, we spent the better part of the day at a fun community fair of sorts down in the Marina. A Coast Guard helicopter rescue demonstration was the centerpiece, but the real highlight for the boys was their extended play time in some of the biggest bounce houses you'll ever see. Back on the home front, Friday was also a brew day for me. I bottled my long-fermenting-and-dry-hopping Century IPA, which attenuated more that I expected, meaning less residual sweetness than I had planned to balance out what was already going to be a pretty hoppy brew. Even so, it tastes (and smells!) like a promising beer. As for Friday's new brew, it was a revised version of this summer's Wheelmen Wheat, which won a second place ribbon at the L.A. County Fair. To liven it up just a tad, I included a small amount of rye malt in the grist and added some Amarillo hops I had left over from the IPA to the end of the boil. It's too early to tell how it will turn out, but so far so good; indeed, the primary fermentation appears to be largely complete already.