Beer Reviews

It has been awhile since we had a beer review on Lug Bros, so here are two beers that I have been enjoying lately.

The first is Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA, a supposedly even hoppier version of Sierra Nevada than usual, which is funny because it actually tasted less hoppy than most of the Sierra Nevada regular brew that I have had. This was possibly due to the slightly higher alcohol content than the regular beer (7.2% versus 6.5%).

All in all a very enjoyable and drinkable beer.



The other beer is Celis Grand Cru, a Belgian inspired beer from the Michigan Brewing Company in Webberville. This is a Belgain golden ale with various spices and Curaco orange peels added during the brewing process. It has a nice tangy taste, has quite a bit of carbination, and a surprisingly sweet finish (lots of sugars) (Yes, I know that I sound just like Michael Jackson with that review). I was surprised to find this beer down here in Indiana, but the Keg (the local good beer store, has quite a selection of Michigan beers) as I had never heard of this brewery before. The beer is actually the creation of Pierre Celis, the brew master behind Hoegardeen from Belgium. This has become one of my favorite beers.

Littlest Lug Bros

Here is Sam in his first offical Lug Bros. photo, doesn't he just look thrilled.

He is doing really well, it is amazing how much he has grown in just a week.
Sam is continuing to learn how to keep us awake at night, his latest trick is to almost fall
asleep and jerk himself awake with a big grunt.

More Sam Pictures

Here are some more pictures of Sam from the past few days.

Grits

On Saturday, I got out for my first road ride in awhile. I rode with a couple of people from my old team. The day was supposed to be partly sunny and around 60 degrees, but it turned out to be cloudy, and I doubt the temp got above 50. This was one of the first warm days after the snow and ice storm last week, so was lots of road grit and water around, plus in some places even still some ice on the road.

We did a little over 40 miles, all the time trying to stay out of the way of a 15 mph wind coming out of the southwest. We rode from Memphis (about 15 miles north of Utica), and headed up into Washington and Scott counties (neither of which are know for their stellar road maintenance). It was fun to be out on the roads again, but after riding through the third 2 inch deep stream of melting snow running across the road our feet started to get cold. Then, Jerry who was leading the ride took us on several knobs, which only added to the fun (at the end of the ride I told him he had a new nickname, the Marquis de Sade). But we all made it back in one piece, so it went well, but I then had a hour's worth of work cleaning up my bike.

Sam comes home

Yesterday was a momentous day in the 4 day of life of Samuel Robert as it was the first time he came home (along with his first car ride, getting licked by the dogs, being outside, etc, etc) - so much stuff is in brand new when you are only 4 days old.
We finally got the okay from the hospital to bring the boy home around 4:30 and so we got him all loaded up and in car and got home around 5:00. So here is Sam in his car seat just after we got home and then the dogs meeting him for the first time.
Both dogs are extremely concerned about Sam. Ben was jumping up at every little sound that Sam made last night.

Baby

We are pleased to welcome Samuel Robert Stifler into the world. He was born last night (January 29) at 10.50 PM. He weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces and is 22 inches tall.

He is currently at Kosairs Childrens Hospital due to some complications with his lungs, but he is doing wonderfully and hopefully he will be home soon.

Kate and I are so happy and proud to be parents.

Deem Lake

Today it was a balmy 30 degrees, as compared to the single digit weather that the Ohio Valley had the previous couple of days, but the wind was gusting between 10 and 20 miles an hour, so I decided to ride out at Deem Lake rather than try and tackle a road ride.

Fortunately, I had much better luck today that my last ride out here, as my pedal did not come loose today. I met one of my old teammates in the parking lot and we headed off on the fire roads for about 2 hour ride.

This area must have been hit hard by the remants of Hurricane Ike back in September because there were lots of trees down in the forest. The fire roads that we were riding on follow the ridges of the hills in this area and so we were at the highest points for most of the knobs, and thus the areas that got hit the hardest by the hurricane. There were several trees that we passed that had literally been ripped out of the rock that they were growing in, by the wind. It is something that I have never seen before, unfortunately I did not have my cell phone with me to take some pictures of it. Instead these pictures just come from after the ride, one of a back water of Deem Lake and the other of one of the local fire roads.