Day 15.032: MyShahRona

I'm enjoying this beer. 

Here's why:

1. It's hoppy but not stupidly strong in terms of alcohol content - a rare find.
2. Its name is a play on a classic late 70's pop song.
3. It's also a play on Dr. Shah who is the head of the Maine CDC and has been a constant presence during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (or 'Rona for short);
4. But mostly the hops and alcohol thing.

Day 13.165: Celebrating beers

One of the things that has changed due to our disrupted shopping habits, is that Exile #2 has been buying beer for me. She knows in general what I look for - but the specifics have been down to whatever s available and catches her eye.

Recently this has been two celebratory beers. The first is from Shipyard - celebrating Maine's 200th birthday (another celebration that has been rather seriously curtailed by the current situation). It comes with lots of different can designs celebrating Maine things:

The second is a special for June in its status as what we've been jokingly referring as "Pride Week" (I think it started with me misspeaking attempting to refer to Pride Month, but it has stuck!)

Hoppy Pride indeed!

Day 12.247: Bug Light

Despite the fact that we've been there many times before - and he even did a school project about it - E5N1 had just one question as we were on the way:

Is it BUG light or BUD light?

When we arrived,

I'd like to think that he was expecting to see something like this:

I guess this might well draw a crowd, but the people were there because Lighthouse Day was finishing up and there were people waiting for the last chance to go inside the actual Bug Light:

We enjoyed our visit - including a visit to the museum commemorating the Liberty Ships built nearby during the Second World War. While the rest of us read about them:

E5N1 did a scavenger hunt looking for the names of the ships in the pictures in the list of all the ships built during four very busy years:

Day 11.002: Beer season

Since my birthday falls on January 8th, you might think that I would get Epiphany themed gifts every year, but it has not been so. Hang on - someone's telling me that no-one in their right mind would ever have thought that. Oh well, I'm going to go with it...

This year I received a four pack of this particular local beer - Foundation Brewing Company's Epiphany. I suppose that it's possible that its name was not the main point. In fact this beer has been a topic of discussion in our household for quite a while - partly because it is award-winning highly-regarded and sought-after and partly because as a result of all that it is rather difficult to come by.

When Exile #2 asked in my favourite local beer store they all but laughed and told her it never makes it this far from the brewery (we are 17 miles away). In fact, she ended up skipping the middle-men altogether and going to the brewery itself to buy these cans for my Epiphany birthday and I very much enjoyed the first one this evening. I could easily have opened a second, but at 8% and in a 16 oz can, I decided that one was probably enough.

Day 10.341: Exile #2's Sunday Column #185

Exile #2 writes...

We have had quite a vigorous day. We woke up to beautiful blue skies, and decided to make the most of it, with a climb up Mount Agamenticus. It was pretty cold, but the snow was not too slick or too deep on the ground for us to have an enjoyable hike to the top for some spectacular views, including that of a very snowy Mount Washington.

We went home for a brief lunch before using what remained of the daylight to take a walk on the beach. We finished out with dinner, including a spectacular paddle of beers for some. Fun!

Day 10.174: Icy water and hot beer

It was E5N1's choice of activity today, "A proper beach trip with bathing suits."

Here are some of the activities (including evidence that Exile #2 prefers to stay out of the sun but is a hit with the ladybugs and that E5N1 doesn't always wear his goggles in the correct place). There is also a picture of all three kids (plus E5N1's friend) fairly deep in the water.

I really wanted to go in too, but by the time I was knee deep my survival instincts kicked in and I could go no further into the frankly frigid water. Somehow Exile #4 spent quite a long time in there (Exile #3 and E5N1 kept their water contact brief).

This evening, I cooked gluten-free beer can chicken on the grill and we tried key-lime-pie-s'mores - substituting lime curd in place of chocolate.

Even Exile #4 - who can't understand why you'd ever want less chocolate - begrudgingly enjoyed hers.

Day 9.350: Christmas in Maine #3

Carol service on the evening before, waking up, gifts and video calls to family, food, drink, a walk on the beach and a family board game - it seems like we're getting in the swing of this now!

Day 9.324: Drinking beer with a straw

The other night I drank my beer with a straw (or two).

Day 9.194: Beer o'clock

Here is a picture from beer o'clock last Sunday:

What could be better after a hard half marathon race on a hot summer's day than a beer and some live music?

Realising after you're drinking it that it's not yet 9:30 in the morning.  In my defence, it was nearly six hours after my day had started.

Day 9.059: Google Photos - beer edition

I was slow to give Google Photos a try. It took their announcement of the end-of-life of Picasa to persuade me to give it a whirl.

It's really pretty amazing. I just typed "beer" into the search bar for my photos and this is the first set of matches it generated:

There are a few false-positives (mostly completely understandable) but most of these photos do indeed include some kind of representation of beer. I can't help wondering if the game we played for a while matching photographic keywords with strangers around the world against the clock somehow contributed to this wonder of machine image recognition. Or maybe they just employ a lot of interns at the Googleplex?!

Day 8.328: Five for dinner

No, I didn't have five beers:

...just the one.

But we did have five family members around the table for a meal for the first time in a while. I think it's the first actual meal that Exile #4 has eaten since last Sunday. Although Exile #2 and E5N1 are both a bit under the weather, we are hopeful for a fairly functional weekend.

Day 8.294: Halloween!

With Halloween being a Saturday this year, we left our pumpkin carving to this morning and then, as soon as we'd had some quick dinner including one of the last beers from the selection my Dad bought while he was here - appropriately enough a Halloween Ale - it was time for the trick-or-treaters to start arriving.

We were better prepared than last year for the craziness of our neighborhood on this day of the year - our next door neighbors counted 415 kids at their door.

After I escorted Team Rocket around to gather their share of candy, E5N1 took a turn giving out some more of ours to the stragglers.

It all looked something like this:

Day 8.242: Lost and found

Last November, after we had been in the house for seven months or so, we recorded a second album of songs as our little musical project. We managed this despite the fact that a large number of the cables, adapters and even microphones that we had used to make our first recording had not turned up despite plenty of concerted looking and the fact that we had unpacked everything.

We've now been here for well over a year and recently I started setting up to make another recording and found myself getting more and more annoyed that the items were still missing. I was almost at the point of buying some replacements when I decided to have an umpteenth look for the missing items.

Having turned out various closets again and opened bags and boxes I knew I had looked in before, I despairingly looked around the unfinished part of the basement. I saw the beer brewing stuff on the shelf and thought, not for the first time, that I really must brew some more beer soon. Then I realised that the brew keg was on one shelf and the bottles were on the next shelf and that didn't leave much of the kit to be in the still-sealed-from-the-move box.

I think you know where this is going. Sure enough, stuffed into the box on top of the remaining few bits of beer home-brew equipment was this box:

Exile #2 must have packed all the good stuff in there when she dis-assembled the recording studio as we were getting ready to sell the house and the movers must have slipped it in before taping up the beer kit box.

I suppose, to be fair, it is a beer box in itself.

Much more importantly, I now have all the recording equipment I have been missing.

Day 8.231: Beginning and end

The middle of the day was great today - we had a hike, Exile #4 went to a birthday party, we did some much-needed yard-work, but since I don't have time to do our hike justice tonight, I'll tell you about the beginning and end of the day instead.

My day started with a long run (not long by marathon-training standards - but as long as I've done in a few weeks). I stopped at around half way to take a few photos. It looked like this:

Later, we spotted a rare mammal in the back-yard. This is a very secretive creature, rarely coming out of its den except to eat, but today it spent some time hanging around outside:

If you can't make it out from this photo, it's an Exile #3.

And my day ended with this:

A 22 oz bottle of 9.3% beer - which probably explains everything else.

Day 8.174: "Winter" and ...

We had a busy day - it was a day off work for Independence Day "observed" since tomorrow is Saturday. I have reports and photos from two outings, but they will wait.

I enjoyed this local beer this evening. It's not my favourite - a little too light for my taste even on a summer evening. Maybe I'll try it from the bottle with a chunk of lime "Corona-style" next time but it's extremely drinkable. Anyway, on the label it comments on there really being only two seasons here.

It's not the first time I've heard something like this.

Americans seem somewhat obsessed with the seasons. I remember a work-contact in Missouri commenting very early in our acquaintance that they had four distinct seasons there. This was some time before I moved to the US and I found it somewhat bemusing that it would be worthy of comment. Then there is the marking of the equinoxes and solstices with "First official day of ..." or "First full day of ..." whatever new season the astronomical event is ushering in.

A few months after our move to this country, we attended our first Fourth of July gathering, one of the attendees said to me, "You know we only have two seasons here."

"Oh yes?" I said, only partially surprised.

"Yes - 'winter' and 'the Fourth of July'!"

We'll do our best to make the most of it tomorrow.

Day 8.137: Bad joke, from Vermont

While I'm filling in the gaps from the weekend, this is what happened after I made burgers and then we toasted the marshmallows:

But wait, there's s'more...

Sorry - I can hear it now, "You think you're funny Daddy, but you're really not. At all."

Anyway, the beer is a very tasty ale from Vermont (I've allowed myself to branch out from Maine beers to other New England states) which has only just become available in bottles. This was the last bottle in the store when I found it, but I will be getting more if I see it again.

Day 7.248: Last cook-out of summer?

The equinox, and therefore the official end of summer (in the US at least), is still a week away, so another summer cook-out could be managed, but as the days go by it feels less and less like summer, and when I finally got outside to cook this very nice piece of lamb and some accompanying vegetables on Saturday evening it was rainy and not very summery at all.

On the other hand, the meal was excellent, as was the beer I accompanied it with and we even managed some rainy-day s'mores for dessert.

Cooking on the grill always turns a meal into an event. I wonder how many times we'll use it in the non-summer seasons ahead.

Day 7.156: Exile #2's Sunday Column #9

Exile #2 writes...

Exile #1 was up early, as is his custom on Sunday mornings, to notch up 12 miles of running before breakfast. On his return, we treated him with coffee and a bacon butty (sandwich to our US friends...) before the ritual presentation of the Fathers' Day cards.

It is always revealing to see how your children approach this task. Exile #3 reminded her Dad  (with some relish) that he is definitely not funny, Exile #4 took the opportunity to say that he is generally awesome, despite being occasionally yell-y, whilst E5N1 revealed that he currently sees himself and his Dad as this dynamic duo:

In addition we presented him with a book about Maine beers, interpreted by Exile #1 as part history, part to-do list.

We then all decamped for an hour to the noticeably busier beach before coming home to strike up the BBQ. While waiting for the coals to be ready, Exile #1 had an opportunity to show his heroic dad qualities again by rescuing a newt that was seemingly in trouble in a large bucket of water. We named him "Figgy", then released him to take his chances against the hordes of neighborhood cats. This was not the only bit of animal rescue Exile #1 managed in the last week or so, but I'll leave that story to him.

In other news this week, Exile #4 hit double figures, dioramas and portfolios started drifting home and E5N1 had his end of school show of work. The children enthusiastically shared songs, hamming it up entirely for their going to the beach song and pulling every heart string for My Wish. Despite still feeling like newcomers to the class, it was hard not to be caught up in the exuberance (or was it hysteria? With 2 1/2 school days left to go I'm not sure...).

Have a great week and Happy Fathers' Day to all those being Dads out there!