Halloween Edition

Happy Halloween!

I did something this year that I've never done before. I sent out a few Halloween Cards. It was easy and inexpensive, so it's my fabulous find for the week. (I only sent out a few, so don't feel bad if you didn't get one.)

I realized a few years ago that thanks to digital photography, Christmas cards are tons easier than they used to be. It came to my attention this fall that you can do digital photo cards for just about any holiday or for no reason at all. You can get photo cards at a variety of places. Sam's Club, Snapfish, and Kodak Gallery are just a few. I've received photo post cards and note cards from some of you - super cute. I know some of you that design and print your own - impressive. You can even make postage stamps with pictures on them now. I love receiving photo correspondence in the mail, don't you?

Saturday School

To all of our loyal readers, this is Jon. I have something post-worthy to share with you.

Lindsay gave me a gift certificate for my birthday to attend the brew school at Saugatuck Brewing Company (Saugatuck, Michigan). I drove to the brewery and pub before they opened on Saturday and met the brewers that make the delicious beer there. Barry is the president and head brewer, I asked about his background and after 20 years as a traveling salesmen, (tasting the local beer in more than 50 countries) he enrolled in a brewing college in Germany to learn the craft. He shared with me a wealth of knowledge and a whole lot of in depth science behind the brewing process.

First things first, I had to sample a variety of Saugatuck Brewing's beers and appraise them. I had in mind to make a classic American Pale Ale, so Barry made me a custom reciepe based on all of my input. I weighed four different grains(23.5 lbs) and ground them up. Then I steeped the grains in my assigned brew kettle. We weighed out three varieties of hops for bittering, flavor, and aroma. With the reciepe and a timer everything is added at the proper time. When the wort (unfermented beer) is cooled and settled, we transfered it to a fermenting vessel and before adding the yeast I measured the original gravity and sampled the brew. It tasted like sweet tea with hops. Right now my batch of brew is sitting in the kitchen of Saugatuck Brewing. In one week they will transfer it to a conditioning keg and after two weeks I go back to bottle it. I can make custom labels for the bottles, but I am struggling with what to name it, any ideas?

Over and Over and Over Again

It's been almost two weeks of trying, and tonight we had a major victory. I was just about ready to give up. We've been introducing Brighton to veggies. We started with green beans and this week we've been doing peas. We've been at it for two weeks, and Brighton was not really interested. He almost seemed to plead with us to just move on to the rice cereal night after night. Then this week he learned how to shut his lips tightly to prevent us from getting in. He's really turning into the stinker we called him long before he was even here.
Tonight he ate a whole jar of peas! Two and a half ounces of peas. I am still in shock about it. I'm not sure yet if it was a break through or a fluke. We'll see. When he wasn't eating his veggies he would over and over and over again eat his feet with socks on. It makes for some great laughs and even bigger messes. Until tonight I would have told you he likes eating his socks better than eating vegetables.

Brighton is also rolling over and over and over again. He hasn't figured out how to get back yet, but he is pretty much obsessed with rolling over onto his stomach. He doesn't like being left there for too long, but the second we flip him back, he rolls over again.

What are you doing over and over and over again?

Brighton - person, place & thing

Even with a whole extra day added to our weekend, Monday came too quickly. We had a GREAT time in Troy. We did a lot of the things we would typically do on our weekend trips to Chicago, but the whole weekend was much less expensive and much easier with Brighton. We are already making plans to go back.

We only took a few pictures...

Brighton has the eating out thing down.

In case you can't read the glass, this is us in front of Brighton Collectibles. We passed Brighton, Michigan on our drive too. I just realized the name Brighton is the name of a person, place and thing. Anyway, we didn't tell the folks at Brighton that our son was named Brighton. The store is pretty fabulous, but I didn't want them to think we were obsessed super fans. This picture will probably require some explaining over the years. We didn't name our son after this store (or the city for that matter). It's simply an interesting coincidence and picture opportunity.

If you feel that Brighton Collectibles is a Fabulous Find, I can definitely support you in that. However, Brighton, the name of our son, wins the Brighton noun contest, wouldn't you agree?

Hope you have a great week!