#31 - Brew my own beer

The post is a bit late, as a prep for my second batch, but here are the details....

Style: American Amber Ale
Date: 3-22-09

Malt: 3.3# plain amber extract, 2# plain amber dry extract, 8oz. crushed crystal malt
Hops: 2oz. Willamette

OG: 1.034
FG: 1.010
ABV: 3.2%

Fermented 7 days in the primary, 11 days in the secondary. Conditioned in the keg for 8 days @ 10psi. Initial taste test occurred on 4/16/09.


The overall response to the brew was solid. Had a good flavor without a lot of bite to it. The alcohol percentage was a bit lower than expected, but that was the only thing that came out different.

The keg finally kicked on 7/11/09, just under 3 months after it was first tasted.

#71 - Organize and display hot sauce bottle collection

Well now that I finally have a place to show off all these bottles, i got them all logged and on display in my office area. At the time of this posting, i have 27 total empties, with more on the way at all times. they are as follows:

#90 - Get a professional massage

So I'm a little behind on posting this item, but I got it done, regardless...


I took the liberty when taking the day off from work to fit in a nice arm/shoulder/back massage. I got the first timer discount at a local version of a "massage envy". The service was good, and I came out of there feeling a lot better than when I started, the downside was the chain feel it had and the fact that a return visit would either be close to twice as much or require me to be a regular monthly customer sort of put me off.

If I look into getting another one, it will probably be me trying to arrange something with the guy I got my initial ones done to work on my shoulder. Either way, it was nice to have something like that done to just pamper myself a bit.

#18 - Run 25 miles in one week

I had forgotten about this item while I was completing it. While the marathon could technically count for this as well, I wanted to get this the old fashioned way. I go back to mid October in my training to reach this goal.

Tues. Oct 14 - 3 mi
Wed. Oct 15 - 4k (~2.5 mi)
Thurs. Oct 16 - 19 mi
Mon. Oct 20 - 2 mi

Total - 26.5 mi



Looking at the fact that I had to run my longest training run ever as part of it makes me wonder if I will be able to reach the 40 miles in a week goal. However, I think that if i continue to keep running, I could very well peak with a 40+ mile week if I pull regular runs that are of a longer distance (8 miles on each of 5 runs maybe?)

#20 - Run a Marathon

After spending two days in the city, the race finally arrived. I woke up around 6:15am, got myself changed into my race gear, grabbed a bagel and got in the car to head to the start area. By the time we got through the traffic, it was close to 8am, and i spent the next 90 minutes trying to keep warm in the enormous starting area and eating up as much as i could.

Finally it was time to get into the starting corrals and slowly moving to the start line. After about 20 minutes of meandering around the perimeter, I could hear Bruce Springsteen's "born to run" blasting from the speakers as i approached the starting gate around the corner.

Going over the bridge was fueled with adrenaline and some amazing sites with Manhattan and the statue of liberty quite a bit in the distance. Throughout Brooklyn, the streets were wide and straight, but crowds and bands lined the whole way bringing lots of excitement to all the runners.

At the halfway mark came the next bridge which took the route into Queens. I crossed the bridge feeling remarkably strong for being halfway in! The crowds here were a little spotty, but were really loud when they were there to push to the hardest bridge, the Queensboro bridge.

Now in Manhattan, the route went up first avenue all the way to the Bronx. About this point, near miles 17 and 18 is when i had to take some short breaks to walk. The bridge into the Bronx came just after the 20 mile mark. I got a little bit of a boost here, possibly due to all the bends and turns in the roads.

Turning back into Manhattan on 5th avenue now was close to the home stretch. Again a little bit of walking, but still moving fairly steady. After what seemed like an eternity, the route turned into Central Park at 90th street. Rolling hills up and down made for an interesting stretch here, but great crowd support helped keep ma and many others going.

At the bottom of the park, the route turned to the east to go along the front and to Columbus circle to turn into the finish. With about half mile to go, I spotted my sister jumping up and down with my dad and I knew the race was almost over. Adrenaline fueled my finish, and the last 400 meters back into the park felt completely amazing.

I finally reached the finish line after a journey of 5 hours, 6 minutes and 3 seconds. Crossing that line was one of the best feelings I have ever experienced. The months of preparation proved to be well worth the struggle to get through it all, and while I may never do it again, i will never forget that moment!

#61 - Spend a day at the waters of Ohiopyle

This one sort of came up without me realizing it was on my list. But either way, I spend Sunday June 29th on a day out with Kate going to Laurel Caverns and then over to Ohiopyle for the afternoon just enjoying the nature and (at least me) getting my feet wet in the Yough.

So as the reason for putting it on the list, enjoying nature, lived up to its full potential and it was a fantastic day! And of course, it was ended with ice cream at pages, which can't be beat.

#10 - Finish reading the rest of the Rolling Stone magazines

As stated in the previous post, i started to read quite a bit in broken pieces while at work, so naturally magazines were the best choice. A book would be a little more difficult since the lengths of time that i have to read often arent long enough to finish pages and such and i need to have the ability to just up and go when called upon to grab a sample.

So when i realized that i was going to be able to motor through magazines pretty quickly, i started packing up back issues in my bag along with my food. So after about 2/3 weeks of this, i have completed 4 issues back(including 1 double issue) and have alomst completed another double issue as well as kept up with other reading materials (like my new subscription to beer magazine).

While i technically have about two years worth of issues piled up in my room now, i will at some point choose a completion point. Most of the older issues have most of the shorter articles read, and only have the longer stories in the back to catch up on. many of the time dated articles and ones that i doubt i will get into will just be skipped over. hopefully this task will be completed before i make my next move so that i can trip down on the bulk and there is less to carry around.

#9 - Read the new Rolling Stone cover to cover within the week

So i've been a little too busy to update this immediately, but i completed this one last week over the course of two days. I took the latest issue (#1048) into work with me and started reading it during down time between tests and the more and more frequent breakdowns which left with an hour or more at a time to just sit there and read. Since i can't really go anywhere, i get through the articles a lot faster and i ended up finishing the whole thing with little effort.

#15 - Do push ups every other day for a month

So for this one, i realized that with the downtime i have at work right now, i should try to use it for something besides sitting and half sleeping in that uncomfortable chair. so i started to do pushups and situps, even though the space i am in is pretty dirty.

Today marks the start of this item, and I will make sure that i do at least 1 set of 20 push-ups every other day until the 11th of April. Right now i only require myself 1 set, but i'd like to be able to easily complete 2, or maybe even try and do 3 before i finish. my arms are weak and so that will be real hard for me to build up to.


Success! I did this item a lot easier than i thought i would. i never could really force myself to do pushups before, but i think the down time at work, especially over nights, was what got me to do it. many days i did them even if i didnt need to. since there would be days/nights of work with little to do, doing pushups and stretching out was one way to make sure i didnt get too crazy cooped up in that trailer. as with the situps, i hope that i can keep this one going for as long as i can manage, even if its more irregular.

#52 - Make someone else a mix CD

This item i thought would be a lot harder than it ended up being. I think part of it was the subject, but iwas definietly more free flowing when i put this together and it went real quick.

I started compiling some tracks to make this CD for Kels one night and by the next day, had 20-25 songs that i thought would work. i tried to pick songs that she would enjoy, but didnt know already. and since she admittingly didnt follow too deeply into alot of types of music, that made it a little easier for me. i think when i make mixes for people, i tend to try and stretch too exotic sometimes and thats what gets me into trouble.

after i paired it down to just 18 songs, i started to order them. the first and last songs were obvious for me, so getting the ones in the middle to flow nicely was the only difficult part. so i picked through the beginnings and ends of all the songs and sort of mixed it around and thats the part that went really unexpectedly well.

i just ripped the disc and will hopefully post it in the mail by monday. and then of course, i hope she enjoys the songs i picked! once it arrives, this item can officially be completed, but i deem it worthy enough to be done now.