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.

Willkommen Oktober!

Oktoberfest Dancers
Originally uploaded by petemorris.

It was a pretty standard week of work and school and errands to wind up the month of September. Probably the most noteworthy event was Tony's trip to the dentist--the final of three visits in the last month to get some cavities filled. And they saved the worst for last, but Tony was his usual brave self. (On a more pleasant dental note, he also lost his second baby tooth during the week, and the tooth fairy was able to drop by to give him an early birthday gift of sorts.) As you can guess from the photo, we closed the weekend today with a trip to the Oktoberfest celebration down in Torrance. The boys were pretty tired, but we all had a good time--even if I was the only family member to actually do the chicken dance. I was also the only family member to drink a full liter of beer; I wonder if there is any connection? Speaking of beer, no brewing this weekend, but the boys and I did stop by the homebrew shop to get ingredients for a wheat beer I plan to brew on Friday.

Weekend at the Fair

Sheep
Originally uploaded by petemorris.

Again, months have gone by since our last post. So rather than wait any longer for the right combo of time and energy to come along, I'm just going to put up something quick in the hopes of starting a weekly habit. After a very fun summer, including our family's first true "vacation" trip (two full weeks up the North Coast into Oregon), we're settled back into life here in L.A.. Tony is three weeks into First Grade and loves it, Everett is three weeks into Pre-School and loves it, I'm four weeks into another semester of teaching and, well, I'm four weeks into another semester of teaching, and Audrey's finally getting into the rhythm of the new schedule.

There was no soccer this weekend on account of the big Jewish and Muslim holidays. So we took the rare Fall Saturday off and went out to the L.A. County Fair. It was the usual good time, and like last year, not too hot. I already knew I had scored a second place in one of the homebrewing categories, but Audrey was very pleasantly surprised to learn that she not only took home a whole slew of ribbons, but also the Best in Show award for the Hand Embroidery division. Congratulations! We celebrated with the usual mix of Fair treats--although Audrey and the boys somehow missed out on the cotton candy. I did manage the trifecta, though, with tacos, craft beer, and handmade ice cream!! As you can imagine, today was recovery day for all of us back here at home--especially for me following a pretty nasty cold all last week. For a recovery day, though, it does sure seem like I did a lot of work.

As always, check out our Flickr page for photos.

Memorial Day Family Beach Ride

It was a home-oriented holiday weekend, but an enjoyable one nonetheless. We spent Saturday and Sunday running a few errands--such as shopping for gear for this summer's planned camping trip to Oregon--and working around the house, particularly in the front and back yards. No major (i.e., day-long) projects, but a little bit more than the usual lawn and garden maintenance. That left the Memorial Day holiday for play. Much to our relief, all three garbage trucks arrived on the early side--and Tony still HAS to see the trucks ALL the trucks if he's not otherwise stuck in school--which allowed us to get a not-late start for the day's main event. Under spectacularly sunny, 75-degree skies, we made a family bike ride along the beach from Playa del Rey to Manhattan Beach and back. (Click here for a map.) A full 12 miles round trip (!), this was far longer than the usual 3-mile loop Tony and I ride around the neighborhood. But Tony did great, finishing the whole ride with smile and without complaint. Meanwhile, Everett did very well in the bike trailer, too. Helping sustain us all was a short break for chili dogs at mile 3, and a longer break for ice cream and visit to Manhattan Beach pier aquarium at the 6-mile turnaround. What a great way to start summer.

New Photos and Year-to-Date Summary

Is a blog really a blog if new entries are never posted? I guess not. To begin to correct that situation, let me offer the following brief, but better than nothing, update of what the Morris family has been up to in 2006.

We basically returned to our normal routine in January and February, after another rain-filled but still enjoyable winter-holidays trip to the extended Bay Area. That trip included not only several days with Audrey's family in San Jose, but also a day trip to Sacramento (rainy, of course) which included visits to the Jelly Belly factory, the state railroad museum, and dinner with our friend Venus. Once back home in LA, it was back to school for Tony and I, and back to the daily routine for Audrey and Everett. We had the usual patches of winter illness pass through, although I somehow managed to escape the worst--must be all the homebrew I've been drinking. (My best New Year's resolution ever: make and drink more beer!) Inspired in part by high gas prices, I did most of my winter, pre-season bike training in the form of bike-commuting to/from work. Among the many benefits, I did not put on the usual 5-10 winter pounds, even with the added beer regimen.

Things got more interesting, and not in a good way, during March and April. First, I crashed at the very end of my first bike race of the season. Not that bad of a crash really, but some severely bruised ribs kept me off the bike for a few weeks. Two months later, I'm still reassessing what kind of a racing schedule to pursue this year. That's largely because in early April, just a couple of weeks after getting back on the bike, to take advantage of Tony and I sharing a Spring Break week, we drove up to my Dad's place in the mountains above Fresno. He had recently returned to Israel for the summer, so we didn't get to see him there. But we had a really nice time nonetheless, including some playtime in the snow. Unfortunately, situated only partway up the mountains as my father's place is (just below 4000 feet), he's very much in poison-oak country. Foolishly, ignorantly, stupidly, etc., I decided to spend a part of one day "clearing brush", which apparently included some of that dreaded poison oak. I spent the next two weeks--the second half of April--in total misery, with a horrific primary rash on both arms and not very pleasant secondary rash across much of the rest of my body, forming something of a map of my lymphatic system. My misery of course translated into the family's misery, and after two truly hellish weeks for all of us, and three trips to the doctor, I finally started to return to normal at the end of the month.

Thankfully, May has (so far) been a much better month for all of us. We've all been more or less healthy. I'm not only back at work but also back riding my bike and brewing beer. Tony and Everett are back in music class, and Tony is also now making great strides week-by-week at baseball (coach pitch this year, not T-ball). Audrey is just as rapidly learning the ins and outs of her long-overdue new sewing machine. And perhaps the biggest news of all: Everett is potty trained (more or less), and thus all ready to begin pre-school in the fall! So with the rains and illnesses of winter finally behind us, we've really been able to get a lot done around the house the past 2-3 weeks, as well as actually have some family fun. This most recently included a Mother's Day trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.

It is with this newfound sense of optimism and relief that we all now look forward to what promises to be a very welcome and enjoyable summer, with a short trip to San Diego and an extended driving tour to southern Oregon (volcanoes and sand dunes for the boys, breweries for me, birds and wildflowers and maybe a craft store or two for Audrey) already in the works. (Of course, during the month of June, there's a little thing called the World Cup, too.) Until then, you might wish to check out the latest batch of family photos I uploaded to our Flickr site.