It's been a busy week at the Toye homestead.
I finally finished my mash tun construction project. A mash tun is a vessel in which crushed grains and hot water are combined to convert the starches from the malted grain into sugars which the yeast will be able to ferment. It took 4 trips to the two hardware superstores in town because neither could manage to carry all the parts I needed. So after getting the braided hose, barbs, fittings, washers and valves and after 2 leaky tests, I now have a vessel that I think will work! This is in anticipation of my switch from extract to all-grain brewing. Next I need to procure a 7-8 gallon pot to boil the wort that is made in my new mash tun and a burner to heat it with.
I organized the garage, for the most part. This involved a lot of making shelves out to the roof joists and putting stuff we won't use much, like all the Xmas decorations and the camping stuff, up there. I also went through a bunch of boxes and found a few things that I thought we had lost forever, so that was very encouraging. I wish I could say this was just because I decided that the garage needed to be clean, but I wanted things that could be ruined by water/melting snow up and off of the floor. I also wanted the place cleaner so that when it does get to be brewing time, I have less work to do. I am banished from the house due to overwhelming fumes reminiscent of green bean and whoppers when I brew. I also fixed the window that I broke while breaking in the weekend Heidi drove off with the garage door opener for 2 days. I felt productive at least!
I also got a chance to go out with Heidi on Saturday night after work. We went up to Cedar Rapids to catch an Inch 75 show. Actually I would not have gone except Heidi got there and the doorman wouldn't let her in without ID. So she had to trek all the way home and by that time I had gotten a chance to eat and change. It was a good time and Chris and the guys always put on a good show.
Tonight though was a proud papa night. Syd has hockey every Monday night and she has been really reluctant to let go of the chair and skate on her own. She was one of two last time and tonight still using the chair. Tonight however was the first night that they actually had pucks out there. Syd looked as though she decided the security of the chair was not as important to her as the fun of knocking around a puck. She made me really proud tonight and given the chance to use the chair again later on she said she was done with it. Go Syd! I am going to try to attach a crappy cell phone video of her tonight below.
This is not the only proud dad moment. Ian came home and he had a 100 on his Algebra midterm and a 96 on his American Studies midterm. He really seems to be happier in High School and his grades are much improved. Go Ian!
Video hopefully:
Monday, September 29, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
New Place and the Kiddos
It's been a long and trying summer. We spent a little over a month living at my sister-in-law's house. It's a three bedroom duplex. We had our top mattress that we would put down and stand up kinda like a Murphy bed in her office/spare room. Syd slept in CT's bed. Ian slept on the hide-a-bed in the couch in the living room and CT and Bri slept in Bri's bed in her room. We managed fairly well but I really had hoped to be out before school started, but that is mid/late August here in Iowa, so it was 2 weeks after school started before we finally moved in here.
We are lucky to have found this place. I spent most of August scanning the papers and craigslist for open 3 bedrooms in the Iowa City area. Every time we went to look at a place there were like 3 or 4 other people looking there too. Rents jumped at least 100 bucks this year as so many displaced people were looking for new places to live. Add the college kids coming back to town and it was starting to look nearly impossible. We decided to take a Thursday (one of my days off) and drive around town and stop in places and look for 'for rent' signs. We had no luck all day and as we were headed back to Bri's house we saw a sign in this sleepy little neighborhood. We said what the hell and pulled in and gave the number a call.
The lady that answered said the duplex we had stopped at was available as was another down the street. She came right up the street and showed us the 3 bedroom. It was nice but the bedrooms were kinda small. Then we looked at the 2 bedroom. It had a finished basement and the master bedroom was huge. The carpets look like shit, but Ian has basicly the entire "basement" room to himself, which is a walkout to the backyard. There is a storage room, laundry room, fireplace, dining area, deck off the living room and patio outside Ian's room and 2 big closets in the master bedroom. There is also a one car garage.
The neighborhood is nice. It's a cul-de-sac with a little playground. Tons of kids around Syd's age. It borders on Brown Deer Golf Course and is in the same school district for Ian's high school but a nicer elementary (Kate Wickam) for Syd. Win, win, win, especially after spending the last three years in the crappy 'hood we were in. It is much more expensive than the last place but worth every damn dime. I love this place.
The biggest downside (other than the carpets) is that we had to give Tulip up for adoption. FEMA is supposed to do a story about her and hopefully she is placed with a family that can give her the room to run that she deserves. For all her pain in ass moments, she was a good dog and has gotten the worst out of this flood of all of us.
Ian seems to be be thriving in High School. All his teachers had great things to say about him at back to school night. Syd is struggling academically still, but much happier in her new school. There is a serious lack of thug kids to bother her here. She's still too little for the snobby girls to bother her yet I think, which is the problem she'll face here I think since it is the richer area of town. She's already mentioned some prissy girl who flaunts all the newest and greatest things her parents have bought her and put down other kids for not having them. Syd's not bothered by it though, she thinks the girl is a jerk to act that way.
Syd started hockey last week and had her second session tonight. I will be uploading pics to picasa in a little bit. (Pics are up here.) I am so proud of her!
Ian turned 15 yesterday. That makes me feel freakin old. We got him tickets to see his favorite band, Avenged Sevenfold, because it was all that he asked for. We gave them to him last Thursday and they announced on Friday morning that the lead singer strained his voice and the band cancelled all their shows for the rest of this year at his Dr's suggestion. There are 3 other bands on the bill though and he still wants to go, so we'll be treking out to the Quad Cities tomorrow night.
He and his mother made a trek out to Des Moines at 3am on his birthday to wait in line for Metallica tickets that went on sale at 5am. Most of the group there got tickets like 15 feet from the stage. The old lady he got stuck with misheard him and his ticket is for a section further back, but I think he'll end up being up with us since he actually braved the rain and crud to wait in line with Heidi and our friends.
Anyways it's getting late, and I am going to wrap this up. With us getting settled in I should be able to update more often.
ttfn
We are lucky to have found this place. I spent most of August scanning the papers and craigslist for open 3 bedrooms in the Iowa City area. Every time we went to look at a place there were like 3 or 4 other people looking there too. Rents jumped at least 100 bucks this year as so many displaced people were looking for new places to live. Add the college kids coming back to town and it was starting to look nearly impossible. We decided to take a Thursday (one of my days off) and drive around town and stop in places and look for 'for rent' signs. We had no luck all day and as we were headed back to Bri's house we saw a sign in this sleepy little neighborhood. We said what the hell and pulled in and gave the number a call.
The lady that answered said the duplex we had stopped at was available as was another down the street. She came right up the street and showed us the 3 bedroom. It was nice but the bedrooms were kinda small. Then we looked at the 2 bedroom. It had a finished basement and the master bedroom was huge. The carpets look like shit, but Ian has basicly the entire "basement" room to himself, which is a walkout to the backyard. There is a storage room, laundry room, fireplace, dining area, deck off the living room and patio outside Ian's room and 2 big closets in the master bedroom. There is also a one car garage.
The neighborhood is nice. It's a cul-de-sac with a little playground. Tons of kids around Syd's age. It borders on Brown Deer Golf Course and is in the same school district for Ian's high school but a nicer elementary (Kate Wickam) for Syd. Win, win, win, especially after spending the last three years in the crappy 'hood we were in. It is much more expensive than the last place but worth every damn dime. I love this place.
The biggest downside (other than the carpets) is that we had to give Tulip up for adoption. FEMA is supposed to do a story about her and hopefully she is placed with a family that can give her the room to run that she deserves. For all her pain in ass moments, she was a good dog and has gotten the worst out of this flood of all of us.
Ian seems to be be thriving in High School. All his teachers had great things to say about him at back to school night. Syd is struggling academically still, but much happier in her new school. There is a serious lack of thug kids to bother her here. She's still too little for the snobby girls to bother her yet I think, which is the problem she'll face here I think since it is the richer area of town. She's already mentioned some prissy girl who flaunts all the newest and greatest things her parents have bought her and put down other kids for not having them. Syd's not bothered by it though, she thinks the girl is a jerk to act that way.
Syd started hockey last week and had her second session tonight. I will be uploading pics to picasa in a little bit. (Pics are up here.) I am so proud of her!
Ian turned 15 yesterday. That makes me feel freakin old. We got him tickets to see his favorite band, Avenged Sevenfold, because it was all that he asked for. We gave them to him last Thursday and they announced on Friday morning that the lead singer strained his voice and the band cancelled all their shows for the rest of this year at his Dr's suggestion. There are 3 other bands on the bill though and he still wants to go, so we'll be treking out to the Quad Cities tomorrow night.
He and his mother made a trek out to Des Moines at 3am on his birthday to wait in line for Metallica tickets that went on sale at 5am. Most of the group there got tickets like 15 feet from the stage. The old lady he got stuck with misheard him and his ticket is for a section further back, but I think he'll end up being up with us since he actually braved the rain and crud to wait in line with Heidi and our friends.
Anyways it's getting late, and I am going to wrap this up. With us getting settled in I should be able to update more often.
ttfn
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)