the rest of 2015: a hellacious summary

It’s 2016!  And here’s an exciting fact: 5 days in to 2016 I have already taken time to sit and write some fiction snippets one two separate occasions, which is probably more than I bothered to do in the entirety of 2015 – uh, oops.

So I did some pretty cool stuff in the last quarter of the year since the last time I ventured on to this corner of the internet (AKA September), including but not limited to:

Central/Western Day in Kzoo
I haven’t been to a WMU football game in probably 7 years (since I graduated), so this year we snagged some tickets & made a day out of it that included nitro coffee, breakfast beers, seeing some alum friends I haven’t visited in ages, and a mini-brewery tour of some local (but new to me!) breweries.

This is how to do a flight.

Toronto Cask Days 2015
Cask Days was one of my very favorite events of 2014, so I was more than stoked to go back in 2015, especially since we got early-in tickets, & I have, in the past year, learned to pace myself so that by 5 PM at a beer festival I am not a stumbling mess that can’t stay awake to meet for dinner later on.

Also involved in this trip was my very best Ottawa friends, my very best Toronto friends, a fancy ass whole wild boar dinner (listen: flaky pastry crust with an apple & bacon filling, cranberry coulis & vanilla ice cream), late night post-Jays game burritos, me spending $50+ at David’s Tea, and a few new delightful Toronto breweries.

Starting the trip off right in Sarnia at 11 am.

One of my all time favorite breweries (Bellwoods); ALL of my all time favorite people.

I thought I was completely stuffed until someone brought me this apple bacon wonder.

Red Wings Season Ticket Holder Appreciation Night #2
The auto industry came through for me again - I was hoping to get a handful of extra pucks signed for a giant display in my living room, but the entire arena was SOLD OUT??? Of pucks???  Regardless, it was a fun (free) night of skating on NHL arena ice, my girlfriend got a bunch of signatures on the onesie I gifted her at a baby shower & luckily my real goal was still accomplished:

Montreal!!
I spent American Thanksgiving with my very favorite travel partner in Montreal accomplishing not only a new NHL arena (I’m at 11/30!), but also (among many others) getting to grab some evening beers at Dieu du Ciel!, which is a brewery responsible in large part for some of my deeper diving into craft beer styles & which I always swore I would make it to eventually, and doing forearm stands in front of a bizarre architectural anomaly that I inexplicably researched & wrote about back during my senior year of college.

Also, Montreal has some gorgeous architecture, bomb street art, solid breweries, and CAT CAFES.

(Also – this trip allowed for a brief little jaunt down to Ottawa to drink to excess & see some of my absolute favorite people.)

The original Montreal smoked meat. I desperately miss this.

My lil' babe Luna :)

Turkish brunch!

Christmas / New Years
I’d just like to show off that I made the actual most amazing gorgonzola, cranberry & walnut stuffed beef tenderloin with a molasses/bourbon glaze & I have perhaps never eaten something so delicious in all of my prior life.  And then when that was over, I made crème brulee cheesecake with an actual torch.

Also we went fowling, and to a whiskey distillery WITH DOGS!!!

Noble Fish forever.

Rye & Rue <3

Here’s this other thing that happened: I went to a semi-fancy NYE party that culminated in a wild(ly terrible) rendition of “I Think We’re Alone Now” sung in to a bottle of champagne at midnight, followed up with some wrestling. I’m an adult & you can’t prove otherwise.

summer updates

I used to be a really good blogger. I mean a REALLY good blogger. As in, I use to update my livejournal three and four times a day with what I was doing/eating/reading/cooking, etc (okay that probably actually makes me a seriously horrible blogger - nobody wants to know all the details of my many popcorn binges and tv episodes watched.) Now I'm a lazy blogger in love with the self-indulgent idea of having a blog that tracks all the genuinely cool experiences I have on a regular basis, but apparently still poor at the execution of this.

So, it's summer, and these are the lovely things I've done that bear noting:

• Spent an entire weekend with my best friend forever doing nothing but lying on my couch marathoning every Marvel movie (none of which I had seen). 

The snuggles of both my best lady friend and my kitty; what could be better.

• Went to Ottawa again for just shy of a week of Canadian beer shenanigans - I have far too much to say about this trip not to give it its own post.

Ottawa beers with my best Canadian friends!

• Spent my pre-birthday weekend with my Kalamazoo loves Tom & Joe - including sparkler fights in my driveway on the 4th, after a fancy dinner of grilled salmon and scallops, Tigers game with all my favorite boys in the world followed by an incredible all you can eat meat dinner at Texas de Brazil on the 5th, and a day spent brewing a Belgian Dubbel on the 6th.

KalamaBFFs!

First Tigers game of the season!

These boys are my life <3 

Brazilian cheesecake - we literally had to pass this around the table about ten times before it was gone; we were all so stuffed full of meat.

Looking scrubby with some lovely ladies (they were heading out to a club; I had just come from a ball game...)

For as obnoxious as we were, Texas de Brazil treated us soooo well.

Ghetto-rigged brew-in-bag setup.

How many people does it take to transfer wort from an 18" kettle...?

• Finally figured out a temporary sparge solution for our brew-in-bag beers & created what will hopefully be a successful RyePA with honey & peppercorns - outcome to follow after bottling next weekend ;) 

Manual sparge - might not be the easiest way, but it worked!

• Saw Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds for the 3rd time at the Masonic Temple - not only was it an incredible show, but Nick pulled me up onto a seat so he could spit "From Her To Infirmity" right into my face. It was super special that they played Detroit at all (I had previously only seen then in Toronto), but the set list, Nick's energy and interacting with the crowd, and the giant piano interlude (a man on the keys is probably the most attractive thing I can think of - especially one crooning "Love Letter" & "The Ship Song") one of the greatest shows I've ever been to. My buddy and I kept turning to each other and just staring in shock - aka the "I KNOW, right!?" face.

This man completes me.

That would be the rail I was moments later pulled up & over.

• Made many many visits to Eastern Market....& gotten a little carried away every time. My most favorite vendors: DROUGHT raw juices (never stop putting cinnamon in watermelon juice) The Brinery (Kimchi! Kimchi with garlic scapes and ramps!), Corridor Sausage, The Granola Tree (The Almond Joy peanut butter is just killing me), and of course Germack (Jumbo cashews get in my mouth). And of course a big shout out to all the local farms for the delicious produce & meats - I also bought my first ever whole chicken there last weekend - giblets and everything!

Like I said.....possibly just a LITTLE bit overboard!!

The biggest brussels sprouts you've ever seen in your life.

My beautiful roast chicken resting on a bed of baked garlic kale. A success, if I do say so myself :)

• Last week I had a bit of a whirlwind Thursday that led in to a crazy busy weekend - inducted a buddy into the world of craft beer Thursday night at Dragonmead (get the waffle fries with chili and jalapeños ALWAYS), bumbled hungover through the workday on Friday, and then recovered just in time to ride go-karts and play excessive amounts of mini-golf at my work picnic on Saturday. 

This boy is 400% trouble & I love every minute.

• Last but definitely not least, today I am finally, FINALLY getting an estimate on putting hardwood floors in my spare bedroom!! I've been wanting to build a mini "studio" for over a year now, but time and money have finally come together, and after spending an hour ripping up carpet this weekend, I'm good to go at last!! I've already got mirrors and gym supplies all picked out ;) Whew!

Now things have slowed down a little but it's definitely only temporary - got some big weekends coming up!!

HOW HAS EVERYONE ELSE'S JULY BEEN??