What did YOU do over Thanksgiving?

I love me a good 4-day weekend.

Wednesday night, my buddy and I stayed up late drinking homebrews and some extra-extra smoky scotch (Ardbeg), then woke up on Thursday morning and made some nog from scratch. Damn good stuff, but talk about rich! Dinner was great, but I was so tired from staying up late and getting up early (and the tryptophan didn't help either) that I went to sleep at 9:30. Woke up at 3:30am on Friday to, for the first (and probably last) time in my life to wait in line outside Circuit City. Picked up a 42" Aquos, normally $1800, Black Friday deal of $800. So the 2 hours spent embarrassing myself in line outside CC at 4am netted us a grand in savings. Not bad. Here she is, all set up.



I bought an HD DVD player for $60 at Sam's Club, but then they want $30 for the HD DVD's. Bollocks! And Blockbuster is backing sony and just carrying BluRay, so no dice there. All I wanted to do was see the thing in true HDMI splendor, but I was out of luck. Dish gets here on Wednesday with a HD DVR set, and Netflix has some good HD titles, so...maybe a couple more days. San Andreas through the S-vid output on my laptop looks pretty damn good though!

So then, on Saturday, I woke up at 5am and put on 5 layers of clothing to go sit in the 20f darkness with my 35 remington. After a couple hours, a few doe's tried to sneak up behind me, and I took one of them. Had to drag her up the hill to a point where I could get the truck to, which was really, really back-breaking. Field-dressed her at the top of the hill, took her home in the truck, and slaughtered/butchered her ourselves. Gotta love it when your wife helps cut up your kill!



Oh, and what looks like an axe handle sticking out of its gut is actually an old well pump handle leaning against the tree behind it.

Then we watched to Hokies beat the Cavs, and all was well.

So what did YOU do?

I didn't drink enough. I also worked everyday except Thursday.

And FWIW, the whole tryptophan thing is a myth

EDIT: It doesn't really look like the well-pump is coming out of his gut...ummmm.......n/m.

Ate, drank and worked on my basement. Nothing special, but I did get to sleep in more than I usually do.

I had a baby for thanksgiving.....(no wait a minute)

We didn't eat a baby, my wife had a baby. 8 lbs on the nose and equipped with a penis.

cheezydemon said:

I had a baby for thanksgiving.....(no wait a minute)

We didn't eat a baby, my wife had a baby. 8 lbs on the nose and equipped with a penis.

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Congrats!!!!!!!!

Went to my in-laws, ate bad food (seriously, for Thanksgiving), came home and played WOW.

I pretty much did nothing but drink multiple pints of stout, play the third Phoenix Wright game, and go to a barbecue place when my parents came by to visit on Saturday. Didn't have any turkey.

Drank a lot of beer, finished my kegerator, watched a ton of football, 2 tday dinners on Thursday (my family then hers).

Did I mention that I drank a lot of beer?

Drove to Alabama last monday, then rode with the family up to NC for the big day. Halfway home to TExas now, catching some lunch. I put two kegs on co2 before I left, they should be good and kegged. Can't wait to finish this 13 hour drive by tapping some new kegs.

Never butchered the deer myself. Is it tough? DId you get all the meat? We just usually clean it then drop it at the processors. I went out and saw 6 does, but let em go. Was after a big daddy

cheezydemon said:

I had a baby for thanksgiving.....(no wait a minute)

We didn't eat a baby, my wife had a baby. 8 lbs on the nose and equipped with a penis.

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Congratulations! Your first?

rdwj said:

Congrats!!!!!!!!

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Thanks! Did I mention that it had a penis? My first two kids did not come with one, so I had given up hope. Wonders never cease.

Spent the weekend at the in-laws, so just hung out and played with my son. It was great to play with him since I only get to see him after I pick him up from daycare, which is about 2-3 hours before he goes to bed. His language is really developing and he's working on potty-training himself so right now is a nice, enjoyable age.

cheezydemon said:

Thanks! Did I mention that it had a penis? My first two kids did not come with one, so I had given up hope. Wonders never cease.

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Yeah, congrats! Too bad he'll go through life being beat up by women. If you've been spoiled by having girls, be prepared for a completely different experience. Boys are crazy.

Cheesefood said:

Spent the weekend at the in-laws, so just hung out and played with my son. It was great to play with him since I only get to see him after I pick him up from daycare, which is about 2-3 hours before he goes to bed. His language is really developing and he's working on potty-training himself so right now is a nice, enjoyable age.

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It's an amazing time right now, isn't it?

I had to work on Friday, so no four-day weekend. Spent half of Saturday with Cassie shopping at the HBS, then went back into the office on Saturday night to get ready for a meeting 1st thing on Monday (since I didn't want to go in on Sunday). Was able to brew yesterday morning, then spent the afternoon sanding drywall mud. Fun.

Cheesefood said:

Yeah, congrats! Too bad he'll go through life being beat up by women. If you've been spoiled by having girls, be prepared for a completely different experience. Boys are crazy.

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No doubt! I know I was.(Is that you in your avatar? and what does the sign say?)

cheezydemon said:

No doubt! I know I was.(Is that you in your avatar? and what does the sign say?)

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Yes, that's me. My sign says "I Rim Tubgirl"

Ó Flannagáin said:

Never butchered the deer myself. Is it tough? DId you get all the meat? We just usually clean it then drop it at the processors. I went out and saw 6 does, but let em go. Was after a big daddy

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Actually it went relatively quickly. Took my dad and I maybe 30 minutes to get the hide off, then another 20 minutes or so to carve the major cuts off the carcass (backstraps, shoulders, hind quarters). The longest part is the butchering...cutting up the quarters into roasts and stew meat. And my wife is pretty particular about how much fat and silvery skin get into the meat...even the stew cubes...so that took a couple hours all told. I spent a little more time carving whatever was left off of the carcass for stew. It's a bit of a PITA, but in my book, it's better than having to haul it to an abattoir and then paying $70 for them to butcher it.

I wasn't worried about hauling in the prize buck. I primarily hunt for the meat. Last year I snagged 3 the day after thanksgiving, and that has kept us stocked for the whole year, even after giving a bunch to my dad and some to various friends.

Then the wife made some badass venison stew last night. :rockin:

cheezydemon said:

Thanks! Did I mention that it had a penis? My first two kids did not come with one, so I had given up hope. Wonders never cease.

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Yeah, congrats on that. I wish you the best of luck when those girls hit puberty. :cross:

Thanks evan

Am I missing it cheese? I rim tubgirl............inside joke or am I looking past it?

cheezydemon said:

Thanks evan

Am I missing it cheese? I rim tubgirl............inside joke or am I looking past it?

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Do you know who tubgirl is??? Now you do.

Got my family Snookerd on home brew after eating too much turkey & fixins. Cleaned out the back room ( making room for brew gear) Tiled and grouted the "new Dining room" floor and table base thing (don't ask - my wife is a architect). Man oh man Slate tile looks sooo freakin good bit is a major PITA to Grout! Then I even got to screw around in the blacksmith shop for an afternoon, forged a pair of viking axes and some other fun stuff . Man - All weekends should be 4 days long !

i went to a friends place to eat dinner and then we rolled over to another friends to smoke and drink to our hearts content. When i got there i realized he had bought a turkey fryer for making his thanksgiving dinner!!!

i stayed the night and the next day we went out to morebeer for ingredients and to finish my mash tun. somehow, the false bottom was forgotten (i swear it was on the counter but i wasn't charged for it) so my first attempt at all-grain was a failure (draining was completely stuck so we just sparged in a colander.)

53% efficiency...yuck. I had bought extract just in case tho, so we have a nice partial mash on the way and now my friend is totally into it! i have a feeling i'll be brewing much more often now! (another place to store carboys and bottles, heh) i'm getting the false bottom this week and attempting my first REAL all-grain in the next week or two!

I had a tooth removed, drank home brew and failed to brew 2 out of 3 days.

I planned to do a bitter and a hefe, but I only managed to get the bitter done.

Luckily, i kegged 4 or 5 batches and did the cleanup, so it all balances out.

Oakwoodforge said:

Man oh man Slate tile looks sooo freakin good bit is a major PITA to Grout!

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Please tell me you used the release solution for natural stone. I had the same problem with my basement shower. grout stuck like a *****! I figured out the trick before I did the floor. I have another 300sf to do soon.

Still in Seattle! At least till tomorrow morning. I found a bunch of microbrews to take home and have sampled more. More sampling in a few minutes. I'll update the take home results when I get home tomorrow.

Went to one of SWMBO's co-workers' house for thanksgiving dinner. Trying to eat a nice dinner with 3 doctors talking about work is impossible for me. I mean seriously, we don't want to hear details about surgeries while trying to eat, at least I don't. I didn't have much to eat and ended up leaving hungrier than when I arrived. And the 6pack of micro brew I brought somehow ended up getting badly shaken up on the drive over there and the first bottle gushed all over the place so no brew for me either. I was hungry and sober at the end of Thanksgiving dinner and that's just about a sin.

I did bottle my SNPA clone and brew a rye ale the next day. The colder weather helped with cooling the wort outside.

I had a few brews throughout the weekend along with some apple wine. All together, it was a pretty laid back 4 day weekend for me.

Dear GOD Cheesefood!!!!! I did not need to see that.(lol)

So here's the scoop on my weekend:

Saturday I went to the Pike Brewery in downtown Seattle and had lunch. I had the sampler which included the Blonde, Pale Ale, IPA, Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale, Stout, and Tandem Double Ale. All of ther beers were great. I think I detected a little diacetyl in the Scotch ale...

Walked around the market there and bought all kinds of stuff... Jam, Honey, Cheese, Tea...

Went to the Red Hook Brewery in Woodinville for dinner. Had the tour, and beers. Answered "Reinheitsgebot" correctly on the tour and got another beer. Blackhook Porter on nitro is yummy. Had dinner and tried the ESB on cask, also yummy.

Monday stopped by Mountain Homebrew Supply in Kirkland, which is litterally just around the corner from where we were staying. (All you Costco fans, yes, that Kirkland) That is one fantastic homebrew store. I was talking to one of the guys in there for several minutes about all kinds of stuff, including the hop shortage. Short answer, new crop should be coming online in January or so, and most bigger breweries have contracts for a few years so should have their hop supply. The store also planned accordingly and have a bunch of hops in the freezer. He also pointed me to a specialty beer shop in Redmond, (yes the home of Microsoft) called "Malt and Vine" They had everything in there and I walked out of there with 9 bottles of beer and 2 bottles of local wine. They do mail order if you are interested. That night we went to the Tap House where I had Snoqualmie Copperhead, Elysian IPA, and not local but on nitro, North Coast Old Raspitin Russian Imperial Stout. What a fantastic dinner. I ended up packing two boxes full of beer to take home. I came back with:

1 six-pack Bridgeport IPA (I love the stuff and can't get it fresh at home)
1 six-pack Red Hook Blackhook Porter
1 six-pack Widmer Bros. Snow Plow Milk Stout
1 22 oz. Snoqualmie Wildcat IPA
1 22 oz. Elysian Dragonstooth Stout
1 22 oz. Lazy Boy Brewing IPA
1 22 oz. Deschutes Hop Trip Fresh Hop Pale Ale
1 22 oz. Harmon Brown's Point ESB
1 12 oz. Hair of the Dog Adam
1 12 oz. Hair of the Dog Fred
1 12 oz. Hair of the Dog Ruth
1 12 oz. Hair of the Dog Doggie Claws Barleywine

Went to SWMBO's family's home in BFE (literally next to Palo Verde), drank lots of my beer and smoked a bird.

Wild

bling.....

Cheesefood said:

Yes, that's me. My sign says "I Rim Tubgirl"

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You have a bigger version of that pic?


I fried a turkey for the first time friday, it was teh best ever!