Matt, Chelsea, and I took off for Hawaii on the 10th of August. I managed to find a place to nap on the plane, far away from the crying baby. Matt and Chelsea were not so lucky. The baby was positioned directly behind them. After that, we promptly went to the grocery store and got all set up for a long bout of relaxation. We've been in the ocean every day thus far. Here are some photos of our trip.

This is the biggest beer we've ever made. Nearly 50 pounds of grain, just over half a pound of potent hops, and a 14 hour brew day. We started at 10 AM and didn't finish until just past midnight.

(more...)

What if people just gave things to one another because they could. What if one day you were walking down the sidewalk, and a person approached you, just to hand you a flower. How about a person standing on the sidewalk playing a 12 string touch guitar, just giving their music to the world around them, with no expectation of receiving anything in return. It happens, and it's truly beautiful when it does. These are the events where a real connection happens. Sure it's nice to meet people working at your favorite music store, or pizza place, but it's an entirely different interaction.

(more...)

I got lucky tonight. Someone mentioned that Bliss was in town. She was out on treasure island, and I went to go see her. It was really fun bringing a few friends that hadn't seen her before, she's really a serious piece of work. Here's someone's flickr photo of her at burning man.

My very good friend Caius, took me to visit a goat farm an hours drive North of San Francisco. It was a really wonderful day, with super friendly goats, warm sun, ocean breeze, and a brilliant quesadilla.  I love the sound of the kids munching the grass. Laying there in a hammock, between a couple of pine trees, close enough to the ocean to hear it, surrounded by edible flowers, I really couldn't help but wonder what I was doing with my life. Why don't I live on a goat farm?

A couple of friends got together to paint a wall. I just thought it was coming together really well, and would share the photos. Yep, that's Bukowski.

Well, here are. Some photos. Over the past weekend, it finally happened. We drilled the last two holes, and we now have four taps on our kegerator, and of course four different home brews.

Matt and I got a bit serious about putting a real brew stand together this past weekend. Kudos to Matt for really pulling everything together!
We got some really helpful instructions from http://www.aleiens.com/profiles/blogs/wallace-the-weldless-brew

Since the dawn of time, parking in San Francisco has been impossible. The DPT was born to protect the parking turnover rate, and ensure running errands was possible. Time limits in permit neighborhoods were enforced to protect the resident's ability to park. But somewhere along the line something went terribly wrong.

(more...)

Lachlan, Jesse, and I have been gearing up for our first season of trad (traditional) climbing. Lachlan and I both have pretty complete racks at this point. On my own rack I have nine cams, two sets of nuts, and all sorts of other fun little things (slings, runners, beaners, ropes, webbing, and quickdraws). Our first legit multi-pitch climb will likely be the greater spire at Phantom Spires in the South Lake Tahoe area. I'm getting really excited for the day. I've been imaging sitting halfway up the cliff eating the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich ever. (more...)

This is another awesome person who's doing awesome things with their time. I leave the house, she's drawing. I come back, she's drawing. It's hard to catch her not drawing, if she's not busy at work... Anyway, she has some really nice stuff, you should look at it. www.chelseadraws.com

After a certain someone asked me to, I decided it was in fact high time to carve a spot out in the garage, and make some beads. It's not exactly a passion of mine, but I do quite enjoy it. There's something absolutely gratifying about heating glass to the point of melting. It would be wonderful to try it on a larger scale some day. I intended to give them away as gifts for the holidays, but seeing as it's already December 25th... they're going to be late.

If you've never tried making beads, it's something that's really pretty easy to accomplish. Usually the first couple of beads end up being a complete goopy mess, but then you start to get a handle on things. You can pick up everything you need online for around $120. I bought most everything I have from one place online that sells a packaged kit.