Counting
Yawwwwwn! I woke up two hours early, puttered around, got up, and arrived at work an hour early, though earlier arrivals will be the order of the day when my schedule kicks into high gear. I can hardly wait until I go home. I'm not usually a clock watcher. As of the writing of this sentence I have two hours and twenty eight minutes left.
Yesterday was a good day. Didn't sleep in as much as I'd hoped, and leisurely got ready for an excursion to so the Intiman's production of Intimate Apparel. My guest was my fourteen year old nephew. I'd thought it would surprise my folks, but it turns out they were at my brother's house when I arrived. They had just got back from cruise to Alaska, so they knew their grandson was coming. Jimmy has always been so full of energy that he couldn't sit still, and the last couple years has really focused on hockey and guitar. I've taken his younger sister to the opera, and his older sister to some shows, or at least I've invited her. I'm not sure if we ever avoided schedule conflicts.
Jimmy enjoyed the show tremendously. Several times after the show he said, "Tell me if you want to go to a show again." He's seen ballet and musicals -- he was in the high school production of The Music Man a couple years ago, where he played the little brother Winthrop and had a big growth spurt adding a little humor to the show because he'd grown to be bigger than Marian. I was a little worried he wouldn't enjoy a drama very much. Turns out I had nothing to worry about. He enjoyed it and got it. He and his younger sister are the acknowledged artists. I worry big sister might be a bit like the big brother in my family.
I had a voice mail from Gregory who called during the show, asking after my ETI experience. (I saw his performances in ETI.) I returned his call when I got home. He is getting settled in, waiting for classes at Rutgers to start, and wanted to hear of my ETI stuff thus far. His orientation is Wednesday or Thursday, with class starting the following day. He's been finding free furniture on curbs more available than in Seattle. He also found a used desk very cheap, but paid a premium for it with sweat and blood. He carried it a mile and a half back to his apartment. He's got a couple part time jobs lined up, and I'm hoping he can get some good financial aid so he can spend more time focused on the work of the MFA program itself.
Then I got back to my peach wine. It turns out I had between 16 and 17 gallons of must, and since I was siphoning it into carboys I needed the big bucket off the floor. 130 - 135 lbs. Not a huge weight by any means, but it was not set up for lifting. Lift it to the chair, then the armrest, then the counter. Got my exercise. This recipe calls for adding the sugar in three steps, instead of the usual one. With fruit wines sugar is added because they are not as sweet as grape wine, and to make matters worse it is generally two parts water to one part juice because most fruits have a much stronger flavor. The sugar from last Sunday was almost completely consumed, so I made some light syrup and brought it up some more. So far about 80% of the sugar has been added and in a week or two the remainder will go in with another racking (siphoning) of the wine into clean carboys. I'm thinking of starting some mead too. I think it would be nice to have some unique and tasty libations to celebrate the conclusion of ETI. Knock on wood.
Peach Wine Notes
=============================
Specific Gravity (density, with pure water being 1.000):
21 August: 1.062
28 August: 1.000
28 August: 1.020 (after adding syrup)
This brings the base line to 1.082, and I shoot for 1.100-1.110 which yields a nice dry wine at around 13% or 14% if I remember correctly. The small tastes of the must which is used for the hydrometer readings is very encouraging. I think this might even be better than the peach wine I made seven years ago. I had opened a bottle a month ago and it has aged very nicely, better than any others I think. I've three bottles left, with one of them going to the nice lady (Helen) at the fruit store.
Fifty one minutes left.
Yesterday was a good day. Didn't sleep in as much as I'd hoped, and leisurely got ready for an excursion to so the Intiman's production of Intimate Apparel. My guest was my fourteen year old nephew. I'd thought it would surprise my folks, but it turns out they were at my brother's house when I arrived. They had just got back from cruise to Alaska, so they knew their grandson was coming. Jimmy has always been so full of energy that he couldn't sit still, and the last couple years has really focused on hockey and guitar. I've taken his younger sister to the opera, and his older sister to some shows, or at least I've invited her. I'm not sure if we ever avoided schedule conflicts.
Jimmy enjoyed the show tremendously. Several times after the show he said, "Tell me if you want to go to a show again." He's seen ballet and musicals -- he was in the high school production of The Music Man a couple years ago, where he played the little brother Winthrop and had a big growth spurt adding a little humor to the show because he'd grown to be bigger than Marian. I was a little worried he wouldn't enjoy a drama very much. Turns out I had nothing to worry about. He enjoyed it and got it. He and his younger sister are the acknowledged artists. I worry big sister might be a bit like the big brother in my family.
I had a voice mail from Gregory who called during the show, asking after my ETI experience. (I saw his performances in ETI.) I returned his call when I got home. He is getting settled in, waiting for classes at Rutgers to start, and wanted to hear of my ETI stuff thus far. His orientation is Wednesday or Thursday, with class starting the following day. He's been finding free furniture on curbs more available than in Seattle. He also found a used desk very cheap, but paid a premium for it with sweat and blood. He carried it a mile and a half back to his apartment. He's got a couple part time jobs lined up, and I'm hoping he can get some good financial aid so he can spend more time focused on the work of the MFA program itself.
Then I got back to my peach wine. It turns out I had between 16 and 17 gallons of must, and since I was siphoning it into carboys I needed the big bucket off the floor. 130 - 135 lbs. Not a huge weight by any means, but it was not set up for lifting. Lift it to the chair, then the armrest, then the counter. Got my exercise. This recipe calls for adding the sugar in three steps, instead of the usual one. With fruit wines sugar is added because they are not as sweet as grape wine, and to make matters worse it is generally two parts water to one part juice because most fruits have a much stronger flavor. The sugar from last Sunday was almost completely consumed, so I made some light syrup and brought it up some more. So far about 80% of the sugar has been added and in a week or two the remainder will go in with another racking (siphoning) of the wine into clean carboys. I'm thinking of starting some mead too. I think it would be nice to have some unique and tasty libations to celebrate the conclusion of ETI. Knock on wood.
Peach Wine Notes
=============================
Specific Gravity (density, with pure water being 1.000):
21 August: 1.062
28 August: 1.000
28 August: 1.020 (after adding syrup)
This brings the base line to 1.082, and I shoot for 1.100-1.110 which yields a nice dry wine at around 13% or 14% if I remember correctly. The small tastes of the must which is used for the hydrometer readings is very encouraging. I think this might even be better than the peach wine I made seven years ago. I had opened a bottle a month ago and it has aged very nicely, better than any others I think. I've three bottles left, with one of them going to the nice lady (Helen) at the fruit store.
Fifty one minutes left.
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