The time has come

Well, the weekend I've been dreading is finally here. We've been packing like mad all week long and for the most part, are packed and ready to go. Picking up the truck tomorrow morning and loading it up. Driving to the Philly suburbs Sunday morning and unloading that afternoon. Then we live in a state of flux for awhile. But we'll be somewhere new with family and friends close by. Should be an adventure to say the least. I'm already looking forward to Sunday evening when most everything will be in the storage shed and all the heavy lifting will be done.

Moving. Again.

Once again, it's time for us to pack our stuff and get outta Dodge.  This will be my 7th move in 5 years.  We've been here in NoVA for a year and a half and it's been good to us.  We've made some good friends, enjoyed some good work (I got to try another career for awhile), and have been able to appreciate all that is the DC metro area.  As comfortable as we got here, it never really felt like home (at least not to me) and we always felt like this was a stop along the way.  And so, it seems, it was.  We're headed back to the Philadelphia area where we hope to stay for awhile.  And by awhile I mean as long as possible because I abhor moving.  I can't stand the packing, lifting, storage, unpacking, and all the moving-related stress that comes with it.  The plan is to buy a place in the suburbs within easy access of major highways and byways so that we can get into Center City when we need to but back out into the relative quiet of Bucks or Montgomery Counties with ease.  Probably won't be anything big or expensive but we'll definitely get more for our money up there than we will here in DC's market.  And if we ever want to come back to visit, it's a short ride down I-95.  Two months from now, we'll be dealing with I-76 rather than I-66 and the Northeast Extension instead of the Beltway.  I can't wait.

Earthshakes!!!

I just felt my first earthquake today. 1.8 on the richter scale. Which means it didn't do any damage to anything. But it left Josh and I very perplexed. Josh was worried that it was either an explosion (as we pray for no more terrorist attacks near DC) or an earthquake. His second guess was correct. It only felt like someone was moving furniture upstairs. But Josh called it. :-) Pretty cool. Just glad it wasn't terrorists, really.

We Post a LOT

Hey Josh, when was the last time we updated. Oh look, 2007 and it's March of 2008. What has happened?

Feels like life is going crazy fast. We just hit our two year anniversary last week. Low key celebration. Just like our low key celebration last year. :-) What can I say! We are low keyed people.

Josh has been to Florida twice in the past two weeks, once for work, once for music festival. This is the most he has been traveling since ... well... since he last worked for Sigma Nu. And he's still barely traveling. I always love the day he comes home from a trip, it's like Christmas for me. I remember when I worked at Juniata and we were totally long distance. It would be 4-6 weeks since I last saw him. I knew he'd be coming between like 6pm and 8pm and I would wait at the window starting at 6pm. Josh was due home yesterday from his trip to the Langerado music fest between 12 and 2. I had my cell phone on me the whole time. Sent him a text when I thought he'd be there, got a message back and hurried home as soon as I could get out.

Now I have him for about 3 weeks (until I leave for my next conference). Look forward to spending more time with him again.

Speaking of next conference, I'm headed to ACPA at the end of March. I hope to see all my Student Affairs buddies there. I'm currently in the market for a new job. Looking still in the Philly area. Would love something Student Activities in nature. So I'm looking for something that would have responsibilities in either club/organization management (this could include Greek Life) or something with leadership development, programming, and/or Orientation. I'm steering more towards the club and organization side, that's my real passion. Got a really nice email the other day complimenting my resume on the conference job search site. Hopefully that or any other type of position pan out into something good.

Josh has interrupted this post by calling. Maybe he missed me a little too. ;-)

Holiday Travels

Wow, so it's been a month since our last post.  Time has been flying by - I just mentioned to Kathy tonight that it seems like Halloween was only a week ago.  But, in actuality, it was awhile ago and we did manage to keep busy between then and now.

We spent a week up in Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving and saw lots of my family.  I spent a couple different days doing some beer-related stuff with Mike and Scott at Gordon Biersch, BURP meetings, and the bottling of our Big Brew Day Barleywine (which we've actually decided is a Double/Imperial IPA) and Brown Porter.  Both are really tasty.  We also had the chance to see "Avenue Q" while it was here in DC at the National Theatre.  It was a great time and I think we'd both recommend it to anyone (just remember to take your sense of humor with you).  Kathy has been busy with end-of-the-semester events right up until the Marymount University Christmas Party last night.  Speaking of Christmas parties - I went down to Headquarters in Lexington, VA last weekend for our Christmas party which consisted of a luncheon and a "Tacky Holiday Sweater" Party which was a great time.

Now we're only two days away from our big Holiday Trip up and down the East Coast.  It all starts on Friday the 21st as we head up to Pennsylvania for Christmas with the Nay's.  Then it's home for a night on the 27th before heading back out on the 28th - headed for Venice, Florida.  The Florida leg includes stopping in South Carolina, North Carolina, Melbourne, FL and Venice FL over the course of 8 days.  If our plans hold true, we'll get to see lots of friends and family over the course of the 15 day trip.  We're excited to see everyone and to get out of the basement for awhile (even if that means listening to Dory "meow" constantly for 1000+ miles).  Luckily we've got 2 loaded iPods between us to drown her out.

We'll definitely have access to the internet during our trip so feel free to drop us a comment and let us know where you're at and how your Holiday break is going.  Safe travels, Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays!

An Impressive Lodge Night

Since moving away from Pennsylvania, I haven't been involved with my mother lodge (Penn-Morris Lodge #778 in Woodside, PA) and have been missing the Masonic fellowship that I enjoyed there. So I've been looking for a local Masonic lodge to get involved with and in the last few months I've found a lodge that I've come to enjoy visiting - Cherrydale Lodge #42 in Arlington, VA. I particularly enjoy the fact that there is a strong presence of involved, younger members, something that is lacking in many of the lodges I know of. Anyway, last night was a special meeting and I'm happy that I was able to attend. A member of Cherrydale Lodge, Bro. Stewart Miner, was receiving his 50-Year Pin. While I had heard his name mentioned a few times over the course of my visits to Cherrydale, I had no idea how involved Bro. Miner is and had been in Virginia and DC Freemasonry. Not only is he a Past Master of Cherrydale Lodge, he is also a Past Grand Master of all Freemasons in Virginia. I'm sorry to say I can't remember all of his past titles but they were numerous, having served the Grand Lodge of Virginia, the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia, and in many other capacities for Masonry for 50 years. As Bro. Miner is also a member of another local lodge, Andrew Jackson Lodge #120, a joint communication was held in that lodge's room at the George Washington National Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, VA.












While I'm sure Cherrydale Lodge would have enjoyed hosting the event, the Masonic Temple has considerably more space and made for a great evening. While I had toured the building on at least 2 previous occasions, I had never been in the North Lodge Room, where Andrew Jackson Lodge #120 meets regularly. It was the largest Lodge room I've ever been in, with a fair sized first floor and a very large balcony all under a huge vaulted roof. Because there were so many visiting Masonic dignitaries (including the current Grand Master of Virginia, the Grand Master of DC, and a Past Grand Master of Prince Hall Masons in Virginia), the majority of us sat in the balcony where we were afforded a great view of the evening's events. Upon the closing of Lodge, I was able to get a couple of photos of the room.
Looking towards the East, with the Master's station just visible through the remaining crowd:










Towards the West, with a large portion of the balcony and organ station above:










It was a great night of Masonic fellowship and I'm happy I was able to be a small part of it. I look forward to attending more Cherrydale Lodge functions, especially December's 1st Stated Meeting when I will find out if my petition for plural membership in their lodge is accepted.

Big Brew Day - 11.10.07

This past Saturday, Scott, Mike, James, and I gathered together for a "big brew day." The idea was to use a lot of ingredients that we had leftover from previous batches. Because we tend to brew separately most of the time, we had a great range of grains, hops, and sugars to choose from. By the time we had all of the potential ingredients in the open, they completely covered Scott's dining room table. To get the most out of the day and our ingredients, we decided to do a parti-gyle brew day, which would mean running off two beers from the same mash. After taking some time to decide what we wanted to brew and how we would differ the second batch, we went ahead with our brewing.

In the end, our first batch ended up as an American Barleywine with a whole lot of hops (about 150-175 IBUs). Based on the small tastes we took before going into the fermenter, it's actually a really well balanced beer. If all goes according to plan, the barleywine should end up at about 9.1% ABV.

Here's a picture of the Barleywine in mid-boil:










To differentiate our second batch, we decided to add some dark grains to the mash before running off. We added just .5 lb of Roasted Barley and .5 lb of Chocolate Wheat and mashed for 15 minutes. When we ran it off, we were really pleased with the change we could see. In the boil, we added English hops to provide even more difference from the barleywine. Based on the numbers, this second beer will fall into the category of a Robust Porter and will come in around 5.2% ABV.

Notice the difference in color for the porter?










Just for fun, I took a quick video of the worts in mid-boil:


This ended up being a great brewday as we got 2 5-gallon batches completed, tasted beers all day, and smoked some cigars to close out the evening. I'm definitely looking forward to doing something like this again soon.