The Dog Days of Summer

Neither Megan nor I can remember a time when Gizmo was so tired.  She spends pretty much half of her day playing with Mickey.  The two then spend the other half of the day napping in close proximity to one another.  They are becoming the best of friends!

The only one who picks better spots to nap than Megan is Gizmo.

Mickey, for some unknown reason, always sits like a person in this chair.

My friend John brews coffee in this really strange but delicious way.  He is trying to teach me how.

Gizmo and I went over to John's one day last week so he could teach us how to brew beer.

Turns out it is quite a process.

John at one point told me what each of these steps was called and what were doing, but the correct vocabulary escapes me at this point in time.  I am stirring something right here....."mash" maybe?

Here we are pulling "wort" out of the shell after boiling and stirring it for an hour.

If I could drink wort everyday I would.  The stuff is delicious.  It is basically pre-fermented beer that is really sugary and sweet.  When you put yeast into the mix, it begins to consume the sugars in the wort thereby turning it into beer.  (Note: the real explanation is significantly more elaborate than this)

After we drained all of the wort out we were left with a keg full of grain and corn.

Gizmo was being uncooperative while we were trying to take a picture of her, John, and Genevieve.

She eventually graced us with her photogenic face.

Megan's parents have a black cat named Truman.  I woke him up to take a picture.  It was quite a struggle to get that one eye open.

Today, Megan and I went up to Fort Collins to visit some of our friends.  No trip to Fort Collins is complete without a trip to the Rio....

....and at least one brewery.

After hanging out in Old Town we went back to our friends' house to grill up some dinner.  I opened their fridge hoping to find a beer, but alas there was none.  I did however find three mostly drank bottles of wine.  We made do.

This is Megan's old college friend, Cinnamon.

Just like old times!