In only a couple days, we’re off to Sweden.  I just can’t wait to finally get over there.  It’ll be great seeing Charlotte’s family as always but I mostly can’t wait to see the land that made Charlotte for me.  (If you’re thinking what I was… I’m announcing that we’ll be on a trip on the Internet, don’t worry, we have a house sitter so it’ll be like we never left).

Well, I’ll leave you with a picture from our roses out front and a panorama from the new lens I’m borrowing from my dad of the bike ride I was just on.

We walked in and they asked if we wanted to go upstairs where the greek show would be starting shortly.  We looked at eachother and said sure.  We went up a small back stair to a nice little authentic greek setup.  Some long tables for a more family style dining.  Immediately i saw the bar tables and thought that was for us.  Turns out that was probably a nice choice as everyone else got pulled into the ‘show’ as it went on.

It was a great greek show… breaking plates, belly dancer, great music.  All in all, just a good time.  Mostly, its just fun being out with Charlotte and enjoying her.

Well, we’re staying nice and busy.  Last weekend we went to Omaha for Jason and Katie’s wedding.  That was a blast.  It was great to see everyone especially Jason and Katie.  It really turned into a nice fun filled weekend.  I can tell everyone is growing up slowly as there was less complete drunkeness and more catching up.  Part of that probably comes from being farther away from everyone.

In other fronts, I finally finished the beer fridge to a working point.  I still have finishing work to do but at least the inner plumbing is all up.  It works great and just in time for the next IPA.  I’m thinking this one will be something like Crazy Cat IPA.  It complements the Goofey Dog Porter quite nicely.

Anyway, seeing how its my birthday, I think we may head down to Ground Kontrol for a little arcade action.  Its always hard to believe how many people remember your birthday.  I seem to get people comming out of the wood work congradulating me.

To celebrate, we went to Andina last night for dinner. Its a Peruvian cuisine restaurant and absolutely wonderful. Its quite hard to describe but I’ll just say, there wasn’t a bite that was either expected or anything less than extraordinary.

Well, I’m sure we have many more wonderful years together.  I’m just excited to see what it brings.

In other news, we’re on the 3rd day of the perfect weather weekend.  Hopefully we get some yard work done today but as long as we get some more outside time, I’m perfectly happy.

Well, my wort is boiling so I better tend to it.

There are many beautiful waterfalls along the way.  Grant got a taste of what its like hiking with me.  Numerous quick stops for pictures.  I took the D90 w/ the 18-200 lens along.  Not too heavy but it meant Charlotte was carying the water/snacks for me.  Got a few nice pics (links below).

Up at the punchbowl falls, I walked down carefully to snap a few pics and the guy next to me (shooting a D70 I think) asked, “Want to get a wider angle shot there?”  I was a little confused at first but said “sure”.  He took off his 12mm lens w/ polarizing filter and handed it over to me.  I swapped him and put his on my camera.  It was amazing how much that little difference made.  I got the nice wide-angle shot of the falls.  I thanked him and handed him back his lens.  I asked what the little device he had on his hot-shoe was.  He had the Nikon GPS receiver.  I had heard about them but didn’t realize how small they are.  I’m sold, now I just need to scrounge up a couple dollars and get one for myself.  Especially on these hikes, it’d be awful nice.

Once we hit the 4 1/2 mile bridge, I decided we should head back for my sake.  I wasn’t doing bad at all but figured I still had that distance to head back.  Turns out it wasn’t a bad idea.  We got back and my feet were a bit sore.

After the hike, Grant came by for some buffalo burgers and a “tasting” of the Porter and IPA we have in stock.  Nothing like a homebrew.  Ahh, fun times.