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I am in he bittersweet process of putting away the Christmas decorations. Yesterday, I took care of quite a few, leaving only the Christmas tree to undecorate, take apart and store until late November. It is bittersweet because many of the decorations were among the last things Marie actually...

Sometimes, those major life changes are beyond our control. My "new normal" as a widower was most definitely NOT at the top of my list of changes to be made. Now that the change has been made for me, I have other changes I must face, and in good time, I will face them. glenn514:mug:

Not long at all. I brewed it on Tuesday, 15 September 2015. I racked it to secondary on Wednesday, 30 September 2015, which is when I added the bourbon and the oak chips. I bottled it on Monday, 7 December 2015, so it had been in the secondary for over two months. From bottling to this past...

As an experiment, I tried to cap a "twisty" with my usual Red Baron capper. I could NOT get the cap tight enough to prevent it from turning on the top of the bottle! The vast majority of my pop-top bottles are either Boston Brewing [aka Sam Adams brews] or New Glarus Brewing [aka Spotted Cow]...

My daughter and her husband and I each had one with some fantastic steak on Sunday evening. While this current batch needs to age a bit longer, it is already extremely tasty! And my son-in-law could not get over how well the beer paired with the steak! By March 2016, this batch will be almost...

Joy, Nathan and little Abel flew out yesterday afternoon and arrived safely and soundly at Love Field in Dallas around 500pm. Amanda’s flight from O’Hare ended up getting cancelled, but she was booked onto a new flight which had a leg from Houston to College Station. She arrived at home last...

We had a wonderful “Service of Remembrance and Celebration” for Marie yesterday at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Crystal Lake. Pastor Rubeck shared the Word of God powerfully with us, reminding us to rejoice and remain faithful. Dr. John Behnke led us boldly and bravely in the hymnody...

Oldest daughter, her husband and my newest grandson arrived safely on Wednesday evening. They are staying with second-oldest daughter and her husband in Schaumburg, Illinois. We had an opportunity last night to spend some time together, and I got to hold #3 grandchild who was born on 22...

Last week, I had difficulty attempting to place Marie's obituary into our local daily newspaper. I finally succeeded this morning. Obviously, many employees were on vacation between the holidays, and I cannot place any blame on them. I would imagine that funeral homes with standing obit...

Christmas 2009...one of the few Christmas celebrations with all six of us together. glenn514:mug:

I want and need to take some time to offer my humble thanks to all my fellow brewers and brewerettes who have offered words of encouragement, support and comfort to me over the past five months. I was fortunate to have several support systems, in addition to my four daughters. And I began...

A Service of Remembrance and Celebration for Marie will be held on Saturday, 9 January 2016 beginning at 100pm at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, 932 McHenry Avenue, Crystal Lake, Illinois. Rev. Larry Rubeck, pastor of Prince of Peace, will lead us in worship and share the Word of God with us...

The hymn that AZ IPA mentioned above is an English hymn by Ralph Vaughn Williams. All eight stanzas are packed full of strength, comfort and endurance for those of us who linger here while our loved ones are celebrating with the angels, archangels and the whole company of heaven. A favorite...

At 1002pm this evening, our Lord called Marie Annette Bilyea Mahnke home to Himself forever. She died peacefully, while I held her hand and daughter Liesl and husband Jim attended. Her remains will be cremated and a service of remembrance and celebration will be held some time in January. I...

The martini's were wonderful. Dinner was quite good...all beef hot dogs done on the grill with some wonderful Bush's Grillin' Beans. And the Sam Adams Winter Lager went well with the dogs and beans. Now, a bit more martini, give Marie her evening meds and care for her...and then BED...

Martini it is! But I most definitely will have a homebrew with dinner. glenn514:)

Or maybe a martini????? glenn514:mug:

Some good news, for a change!!! Prior to Marie's strokes, she had a UTI and was being treated for that. It continued in the hospital and eventually developed into c-diff, which is an infection of the digestive system. Toward the end of her stay at the nursing home, she was being given...

As they were growing up, when I did something or other for any of my four daughters, they would say, "Dad, you don't have to do that. So-and-so's Dad doesn't do that!" And my reply was always, "Well, THIS Dad does!" And it was always something extra-ordinary, like driving 100 miles to change...

Indeed, we will most definitely celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ! Obviously, I have done absolutely NO shopping. And even if I did have the time, I have no idea what my daughters want/need or what my grandchildren want/need. So, the tree is up, but there are no wrapped gifts under it...