The UNwallowing Thread!

[brauhaus]

my daughter was up at 3am, by 5am she was still awake and still laying in bed with my wife and I, so we got up as a family and for the first time in a few months we had an actual home-cooked breakfast...

there is nothing like a nice big home-cooked breakfast to start the day.

 

[MNBugeater]

I can have a short temper and some days...just get irritated at the stupidest of things...

I was sitting on my deck along the Rainy River yesterday morning, scrubbing bottles to do some bottling later that day. It was a beautiful quiet sunny morning, about 65 and warming, I had a nice mug of coffee. It was just peaceful and a perfect morning sitting outside.

It was 0630. A sea plane, plane on floats, started up and began firing up its loud engine. It sounded like a 1200lb mosquito breaking the beautiful silence. This might have been the sorta thing I would have said, "Stupid A-hole, couldn't he wait until a decent hour..."

But no... It was a perfect morning. Coffee, Quiet, Homebrew tasks on the agenda for the day....and i said to myself. "Where else can I be or live and see this amazing little plane roar down the smooth as glass river and take off 400 ft from my deck". It was incredible. [Loud as hell, but incredible]

He pulled up, flew away and silence resumed. I went back to my bottle cleaning and coffee with a smile on my face.

What a great morning, thanks to my obsession/hobby of homebrewing

 

[ohiobrewtus]

I'm a big manly man who listend to metal and despises country music, but I heard this song at a wedding recently and I just lost it. I still can't listen to this song without tearing up.

[ame]http://youtube.com/watch?v=myO2e5Td3bg[/ame]

It made me realize how lucky I am to have 4 beautiful daughters and a wonderful wife that mean more to me than anything in this world. Being a good father and husband is the most important thing that I can do in this life and according to SWMBO I'm doing a pretty good job .

Anytime that I feel that I'm taking time with my girls for granted I watch this video and it makes me realize that I need to cherish the time I have with them while they're young because someday I'll be the dad crying his eyes out at the wedding.

 

[brauhaus]

I'm a big manly man who listend to metal and despises country music, but I heard this song at a wedding recently and I just lost it. I still can't listen to this song without tearing up.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=myO2e5Td3bg

It made me realize how lucky I am to have 4 beautiful daughters and a wonderful wife that mean more to me than anything in this world. Being a good father and husband is the most important thing that I can do in this life and according to SWMBO I'm doing a pretty good job .

Anytime that I feel that I'm taking time with my girls for granted I watch this video and it makes me realize that I need to cherish the time I have with them while they're young because someday I'll be the dad crying his eyes out at the wedding.

dear god, my daughter is a year old... i can't image what it'll be like when she gets married...

 

[the art guy]

It's a very good thing to remind yourself of what you have that you should NOT be taking for granted. Thanks to the original poster for presenting one of those reminders. Got a healthy family, beautiful kids, just enough money to pay the bills.

Yesterday my daughter brought home her first standardized test scores (she's 6). I have to admit that, like a lot of you, I'm skeptical of the value of such scores (and I'm an educator, so I may be even more skeptical). But when I saw 99, 99, 99 in the percentile boxes, I felt quite a surge of pride. Not that important in the big picture, but it made me feel good as a parent.

 

[bigjohnmilford]

I'm glad swmbo is coming back from her business trip today.

 

[bethlehembrewer]

Great thread!!

Today I am happy because I will be going on a 2 week vaca to the family cottage in Parry Sound, Ont. at the end of the month. After that I will be moving to Oregon, no job yet, but damn happy about the potential and the adventure. I am happy to have a great SWMBO and the fact that I actually like using SWMBO, because obeying her keeps me sane and in line. Happy about my wonderful English Setter who is like my child (not happy with the tick problem). Happy that Penske rental trucks called me and gave me $2,000 off the original price for a cross country move, plus an extra free day. Happy to sit in my office and listen to WBLM from Portland, ME. What I think is the best classic rock station, and happy to be able to get it via internet so I can listen from OR.

Finally I am happy to be on this site with all you great folks!!!!!!!!!

 

[the_bird]

Since nobody seems to be reading my blog , I'm going to cut and paste what I wrote this morning....

The Bean had an epiphany...

Posted Today at 08:55 AM by the_bird
So, we're lying in bed, reading The Bean's current favorite book - the Home Depot Big Book of Tools. Love my girl; she knows the difference between Phillips-head and flat-head screwdrivers, as well as what needlenose pliars are (even if she thinks the latter are used for picking boogers). She was VERY excited to help me build her a swingset last weekend, even if all she could do was hold onto the tape measure and wander away, "measuring" things.

Anyway, she sees a picture of a bucket with a word on it, and starts reading off the letters...

"N... a... i.... l... s. Nai.... that spells NAILS!"

She got SO exciting; her eyes started bugging out, they looked to be about six inches in diameter, her face just erupted in the biggest smile. She can "read" a few other words, stuff that she's memorized like CAT and DOG and BABY. There's probably a good ten or fifteen words she's been able to "read" for the past six months or so (she'll be 3 1/2 at the end of July).

But, this was the first time she really applied her phonetics - knowing what an "N" sounds like, and what an "A" and an "L" sound like, and used that to decode a word on her own. VERY exciting for her (and for me), I could see the light bulb turning on in her head...

More good news; wifey told me last night "Why don't you go buy yourself a grill for father's day?" She knows I want one, she knows we'll use it a lot, and there's a party coming up in a few weeks that we could really use a grill for. So - yeah, me! I'll prolly be begging for recommendations (I think I've set a budget of not much more than a couple hundred, so definately an entry-level grill).

 

[Chad]

After a couple of years of very hard work and some major ups and downs getting my book put together (plus a lot of butting heads with the marketing people), I found this yesterday:

Starred review in Publishers Weekly

LIFESTYLE

An Edge in the Kitchen: The Ultimate Guide to Kitchen Knives
Chad Ward. Morrow, $34.95 (240p) ISBN 9780061188480
Though humans have been using knives for about two and a half million years, you’ll be hard pressed to find as succinct and complete a collection of wisdom on the topic as this masterful volume from cook and writer Ward. He covers nearly everything, from construction and general knife care to proper storage and sharpening, giving cooks all the information they need. Detailed instructions on how to use the most common knives are bolstered with photos that thoroughly illustrate key techniques like dicing, chiffonade and julienne, as well as the lost art of cutting up a whole chicken. Though enthusiastic about his subject, Ward maintains a refreshing level of sanity throughout, reminding readers that they really only need three knives—a chef knife, a paring knife and a bread knife—to accomplish the vast majority of tasks. Better yet, Ward offers recommendations for budgets under $100, as well as reliable sources for custom-made kitchen knives (which “can be had for about the same price as you’d pay for the more pedestrian stuff”). Those looking for in-depth descriptions of every knife imaginable and/or detailed butchery instructions will not find it here, but those interested in upgrading or maintaining a reliable set of knives will find this book as indispensable as the tools themselves. (June)

That definitely does not suck. Thanks for the great thread Rich.
Chad

 

[Yooper]

ooooh, I got another one! Yesterday, I got an invoice from my ISP for this coming year. If you pay in advance, you get a big discount (it's $375 for one year, vs. $40/month). Anyway, I paid it last night.

Today, the IT guy was working in my office setting up a new printer/fax phone combo and he mentioned that my supervisor told him that they will be paying my internet from now on. So, I took my paypal receipt to work today and they are paying me the $375!

That made me think, "Hmmmm- better call the car repair place. I bet my car repair is going to be $375". Well, sure enough- the car repair bill is $395. So, I sort of "broke even" today- without even trying!

 

[perversatile]

I found out that I'm getting a stimulus check finally...and I decided to spend the entire thing on SWMBO.

I'm almost always broke, so I never really get to buy her all the stuff she deserves. She's a bit of a video game geek (although I'm not) and has felt quite left out of the console wars due to the fact that we never have $500+ to drop on a system. When I, out of the blue, present her with a brand new (60gb, yes the good one) PS3 and a copy of GTA, she will wet her britches for sure!

 

[BierMuncher]

This is a great thread. My Positive thing for the day is my son passed his speech and behavior development testing after a year of help from a specialist.

My SWMBO is a speech and hearing specialist in the school district. Headed to Philly in a few weeks to get certified as one of only a handful of coclear (sp) implant specialists in the nation. That makes me happy and proud.

Also:

• The sun is shining.
• The pool is just over 82 degrees.
• The lawn is already mowed.
• Tonight is my night off from the gym.
• I filled my gas tank just before a 20 cent increase yesterday.
• There's no hops shortage in my brewshop

...and I'm not signed up for any obligations this weekend. :rockin:

 

[Germey]

Crap- My company was bought last year and we had our 2nd round of big layoffs early in the year, leaving me picking up the functions for 3 separate departments
Result- I am strangely motivated by the new challenge and some of the new stuff I'm doing. Things could've been much worse.

Crap- My (very close, love him to death) Father in Law was diagnosed with esophageal cancer.
Result- They caught it super early and he is going to be fine, once he gets through the nasty recovery (ongoing). The recovery has been tough on all around him, especially my wife, who has a very hard time with things she can't control (more on that below). Things could've been much worse.

Crap- I was sent out of town for training. On the last day, the same morning the FIL was going under the knife, my wife was getting the kids ready for school with added stress of my mother staying with us to help out, and the entire contents of a shower and a bath backed up out of the downstairs toilet and ruined the floor and many walls.
Result- We now have a very nice tile floor, (much nicer that the old Pergo). The insurance paid for that, 3 new toilets, a backsplash that I hadn't gotten to in the kitchen yet, plus a little more. Also the aformentioned kitchen that I've been working on for almost 2 years, was not damaged at all.
The rock bottom experience seems to have had a serious impact on my wife and her perception of things. She is much better at saying "things could be much worse"

Crap- on the same day 2 palates of the aforementioned tile plus 3 toilets were delivered and plunked down in our already crowded garage (full of displaced stuff as I was in the middle of all the prep work for the floor and wall repair) I broke my left tibia and fibula playing soccer at work.
Result- Don't get me wrong, being laid up has sucked, but I have learned a valuable lesson in humility and depending on others. Where I would ordinarily insist on being an island, I have had to depend on my wife and friends, and all have dazzled me with their generosity. The break was very clean and I had a very good surgeon. Today marks 5 weeks and I am walking with a fair limp, but no crutches and no cast or brace. My cost for the whole thing was $160 for the ambulance ride (worth it just for the morphine).
There's more, but that is too much already.
Things could be worse...
Life is beautiful because I am acutely aware that things could be worse.

 

[olllllo]

If the glass is half empty.... Fill it.
Everyone here knows how to make more!

 

[Dr_Deathweed]

This is the last summer "off" that I will probably ever have because my next year of school runs directly into my last year for my DVM. When I say "runs directly into..." I mean we start 4th year clinical rotations within hours of our last 3rd year final. I had set up to work with a local vet for the summer to gain more clinical experience and to earn a little cash to help my wife out with the bills and to pay for my bad habits and hobby's that just seem to keep growing

Two weeks before my finals, I called the vet I was supposed to work with this summer, and he had apparently forgotten about our interview and had hired someone else. This kinda ticked me off but at the same time, he was an older gentleman, but still....

This left me unemployed, and unable to find work. (In a town with a vet school with some 500 vet students and the thousands of potential applicants around, vet jobs are kinda scarce in this area) I don't want to leave town for work because gas prices make commuting just not worth it, and I don't want to leave my wife alone here for the summer. 4 weeks ago I was stressed about not being able to make any money and having nothing to do for the summer.....

Because of my "forgotten employment" I have gotten to do the following:

1. I have done A LOT of auto work... I fixed my car which was having problems (I have a thread somewhere...) Been able to tune up my wifes car which was in sad need of it, Am planing to do a little body work on both of our vehicles, and am rebuilding a truck that I wrecked (my fault, but the guy was running without headlights in the rain.....). Not only am I getting the sunshine that I haven't been able to get in the last few years, but I am learning a lot of new skills! (to accompany my bo staff skills )

2. Brewing time! I stocked up on grain and hops a few months ago, but really haven't been able to do as much brewing as I would have liked. the result: a LOT of empty kegs and bottles....

3. I built the fermentation cabinet I have been planning for quite awhile! Still have a tiny bit of work to do, but it is almost there.

4. For the first time since I have known her, I will get to not only be with my wife for her birthday, but will be able to do something for her. She has worked SO hard to support my lazy bum, that I convinced her to take her birthday weekend off, and I am going to take her to the coast for some lazy beach time.

5. There is a conference in New Orleans, and one of my good friends is getting married in Pittsburgh that I had planned on not being able to make. Now, not only do I get to go to both, but I convinced my wife to use some more of her vacation stockpile and we are going to go an a road trip of the Eastern US, seeing and staying with some friends we have not been able to see for awhile. My wife has always wanted to see DC, and I finally get to take her!

6. I know I am spending money left and right on these things, and being the financial guru of our household, I was getting kinda stressed for awhile about paying for it all. My oh so awesome loving wife told me to relax and enjoy, we have the savings and can get student loans in the fall to help with tuition. She said to enjoy my last summer, because after this, I will be supporting HER lazy bum

I guess in the end, as I sit here sipping a homebrew, I am glad that my employment was forgotten about ....

 

[RichBrewer]

I found out that I'm getting a stimulus check finally...and I decided to spend the entire thing on SWMBO.

I'm almost always broke, so I never really get to buy her all the stuff she deserves. She's a bit of a video game geek (although I'm not) and has felt quite left out of the console wars due to the fact that we never have $500+ to drop on a system. When I, out of the blue, present her with a brand new (60gb, yes the good one) PS3 and a copy of GTA, she will wet her britches for sure!

That seems like a total waste of money to me and I commend you! Nothing better than loving someone so much that you want to do something so nice for her!

 

[RichBrewer]

Thunderstorms rolled through where I work this afternoon and it rained pretty good. I love thunderstorms! The air smelled so fresh after it cleared.
I love Colorado!

Is there anything better than to be snuggled up with that special someone at night during a thunderstorm? The sound of the rain against the house. The flashes of lightning. The rumble of thunder off in the distance. Oh my...
What a nice thought.

 

[BrewBob]

Drinking homebrew, it's storming outside and I'm about to eat a chicken dinner with the pregnant SWMBO.

Doesn't get much better, really.

 

[MNBugeater]

Thanks Rich for starting this thread....I've come back to it 3-4 times when things 'seem' crappy. Makes me forget what I was upset about and think about better things.

Amazing how one can feel a sense of 'friendship' with people you have never met.

Thanks again...

 

[arturo7]

I just made a great cup of coffee!

 

[RICLARK]

Had some positive news today, MY swmbo got a full time job at the biggest local hospital making 5 dollars an hours more than what I make, I just wanna take a huge sigh of relief because I dont think I will be as stressed out anymore trying to pay every bill we have and rent and childcare.

 

[dblvsn]

Lately I've been really upset with work in that I've been traveling pretty non stop for the last 6 months. A couple months back we found out we were expecting our first child which really put a smile on my face. The wife has been extremely sick the last month + and I've felt guilt for not being around as much. So I made some phone calls and started rearranging schedules. I've been able to work from home the last couple weeks now which has put an even bigger smile on my face. I'm actually sleeping better, less cranky and getting to spend more time with my wife. Oh and I get to brew more! Good to have the happy feelings inside again.

 

[BrewWench]

Is there anything better than to be snuggled up with that special someone at night during a thunderstorm? The sound of the rain against the house. The flashes of lightning. The rumble of thunder off in the distance. Oh my...
What a nice thought.

<points at title of thread while eyeing Richbrewer>

I actually have some good news. I've been having the worst time with my Master's thesis and I'm so close to being finished, but it's been a rough ride lately complete with health issues. I got a rather uplifting email from my graduate advisor this morning, so that was inspiring.

 

[BrewWench]

Oh, and I absolutely love my car. Everytime I drive it I think about how much I love it! I've never had that experience before, really, and it's really nice for once.

 

[JustDave]

Great thread!

Our company just built a beautiful new building on the water, and I transferred there. It's still got that "new office smell".

The best part is that I drive in the opposite direction of traffic, so the commute is tit. Life is good!

 

[JustDave]

Oh, and SWMBO's ****s have gotten bigger since going on the pill. Score!

 

[Buford]

AC's busted, haven't made beer in months, but I'm married now and SWMBO is a hottie, so I'm not complaining

 

[xamers]

We have 8 healthy ducklings swimming around in the pond next to our house. I could care less but the kids love them and I like to see my kids happy.

On another positive note, the Redtail hawk that patrols our neighborhood can't get at the ducklings because they're now too big. SUCKER! This is the same hawk that mindlessly let field mice ruin our front lawn under an inch of snow this winter without acting the part of a predator hawk and eating them. It pleasures me to see the hawk suffering.

Good times around our house this spring!

 

[RichBrewer]

Is there anything better than to be snuggled up with that special someone at night during a thunderstorm? The sound of the rain against the house. The flashes of lightning. The rumble of thunder off in the distance. Oh my...
What a nice thought.

<points at title of thread while eyeing Richbrewer>

Actually that wasn't wallowing. Gosh I hope it didn't sound like it! It was a very pleasent thought that lifted my spirits.

 

[RichBrewer]

I'm feeling pretty darn good this evening.

Lately when I walk I try to say hi to the people I encounter. I realized I've been kind of selective with who I greet. Some people seem unfriendly or mad. I figure kids don't want to talk to me anyway. Well, tonight I decided to greet everyone who crossed my path and I made an amazing discovery. I noticed that my perception of people changed as soon as I said hi to them. It's like their face changed and I felt differently about them. Someone who I though was mad wasn't mad any more. Someone I perceived as conceded seemed friendly. I'm not trying to imply that by me greeting these people that their mood changed. I'm saying that the way I looked at them and perceived them changed. I'm going to do a lot more of this. I'll do it for me and just maybe I might improve someones day slightly by being friendly to them. It sure can't hurt!