Kid Fun

Had my grandson Nick over this week - Monday through Wednesday - and had a blast.  He's almost thirteen now and very good natured, so he is agreeable to doing most anything.

On Monday evening we met my walking group at the Greenway to walk three miles. On the way there he kept telling me "I don't know if I can walk three miles, Maw Maw!"  I knew he could though and as it turned out, he did it skipping, walking backwards, and overlapping us. He was quite proud of himself.

Afterwards, we all took him to our usual Monday night restaurant for a beer and sandwich - no, he didn't get to enjoy a beer with us, but he did quite enjoy his hamburger and fries.

Tuesday we went over to visit cousins, Angel, Cole and Gavin. Nick wanted to see who was the taller now, him or Angel.  Angel just turned thirteen in July and Nick will turn thirteen in January, so they are six months apart.  They've always been close in height. Both are going to be tall. Angel has always been taller than Nick. This time though, Nick felt he might have edged her out.

As it turned out, Nick was right. He was taller.  I told him, though, to enjoy it while he can.  Next visit might be an entirely different story.

Angel and Nicholas

I barely got away from there without bringing everybody with us, but Nick and I had our own plans.  We were going to eat Mexican, Nick's favorite, but not a favorite of the others, so we promised to come back on Wednesday and take Cole and Gavin with us for lunch at McDonald's.  Angel had big girl plans.

Nick gave the Mexican restaurant a thumbs up, and then we decided on a movie.  That's what's so nice about kids.  They are pretty much game for anything. The Green Lantern was playing at the $2 theatre and so we decided to go back and get Cole.

Eight year old Cole with Nicholas

Of course, Cole was thrilled to be going and begged to spend the night with us as well, so now we had new plans.  The Green Lantern turned out not be a good idea, as we ended up leaving about 30 minutes into the movie.  The action was just too scary for Cole and I didn't want him having nightmares. So we packed it in, drove home and got out the old Monopoly game - actually it was NC Stateopoly. By midnight I was begging to  "please, let's go to bed!"

Where do they get all their energy?

Oh, did I mention we had stopped by Krispy Kreme doughnuts on our way home...?

Everybody woke up on Wednesday morning raring to go...well maybe I didn't so much, but I did manage to hang in there.  Nick and Cole wanted to pick back up with Stateopoly, but I talked them out of it.  Instead, we all played computer games (mostly Angry Birds) until time to pick up Gavin for our lunch at McDonald's.

While at McDonald's, I bet I got a a million comments about how cute my guys were.  I couldn't agree with them more!

Cole, Nicholas and Gavin

We left there and went to a local car dealership to look at new Camaros.  That's what Nick wants when he turns sixteen.  I never thought about it before, but they are actually really good looking cars!    Pretty expensive too!.   Nick says he's saving his money - only has about $30,000 to go :)

Cole dragged us over to the Ford Mustangs....

Cole wanted the red Mustang

It was Gavin's idea to drive through the Honda dealership. Ha!  Five years old and already the most practical!

Anyways, that was it.  I dropped off the last kid at 6:30 pm and then hit the sack exhausted around 8:30 pm.  In two days, I had listened to more hard rock and rap than I've listened to in a lifetime. I  learned how to share my desktop in a Skype session.  I saw about 1/3 of The Green Lantern, and ran up a pretty high score in Angry Birds!

Today, the house is so quiet it's deafening...maybe I'll play a little Angry Birds!

Beer Tasting

Well, it's been four weeks since I started brewing my first batch of beer.  Yesterday was beer tasting day. I guess you could say that I finally got to taste the fruits of my labor.

I was actually very excited. I almost opened a bottle last week just to see how it was coming along. I figured I'd video the tasting and didn't want to be surprised if it tasted terrible. I kept thinking about Geraldo Revira when he opened Al Capone's secret vault on live TV several years ago expecting to find great riches, maybe even bodies, but found literally nothing. I like Geraldo, so I was embarrassed for him. Anyway, this is not live TV and I figured if my beer tastes awful, I'll just try another batch!

I actually waited for Bob to go to band practice before I did the tasting.  I didn't want anybody around, just in case it didn't even resemble beer. 

Actually, it was pretty good.  It looked like beer, poured like beer, smelled like beer, and tasted like beer!  I can't say I actually liked the taste, but then again, when I do drink a beer, it most usually contains a piece of fruit or two.  This is an Amber ale and tasted slightly bitter.  I didn't know if it was supposed to be a little bitter or if I'd done something wrong.

Anyway, Bob tasted it when he came in and liked it.  Said it was really good.  Liked the second one even better!  I thought maybe he was just being nice, so I went out later today and bought a six-pack of a very well-known Amber ale and did a comparison test...

Apparently, Amber ales do taste slightly bitter!!

I'll take that as a test passed!! 

Cheers!