Mary’s birthday party was fantastic. We had sort of a plan when we arrived, but no definite plans. I knew I wanted a 10×10 ft tent, cheddar brauts, cake, beer, ribs, and tiki torches. We managed to get all these items and then some.

We got everything set up and ready to go just in time for people to start arriving. The tent was set up, the beer was chilled, the ribs were boiled and ready for grilling, the grill was lit and ready for foods and  the snacks were out. This would be a good time for guests.

People arrived just in time, the fun began, and the night went amazingly well. A 50th birthday party to remember. There was laughing, food and cake, presents, live music, friends, exploding grills, and blazing tiki torches. I don’t know how you can go wrong. Oh what a night.

The little gas grill was put out by all the bbq sauce slathered on the delicious smelling ribs. Not realizing just how long the grill was out, I pushed the little igniter button and the lit jumped 2 inches off the grill with out loud boom. It was a bit surprising and caught a few peoples attention. “I smell burning hair” said Mary, “what happened?” I explained.

Finding the plate of sausages and brauts empty, I removed a rack of ribs and threw on more sausages with the second slab of ribs. A bit later, I noticed there was no heating of the meats, so I announced, “I’m going to blow up the grill” and proceeded to push the ignition button. BOOM! This time I got a full 5 inches from the lid with a decent disc of flame erupting from the sides. Noticing everyone staring at me, I announced, “I said I was going to blow up the grill.” Sadly, no one caught any of this on film. Oh well. It would have made a great picture.

The rest of the evening was pretty mild as far as pyrotechnics are concerned. Much of the food and beer was devoured. Gabe finally got me to pull out Mary’s guitar and jam for a bit. A few of the guests had left and it was me, Gabe, Mary and Dwayne remaining. We chatted and sang a few songs and had a good time until it was time for Gabe and his crew to head out. After that the night wound down quickly. A quick clean up took place and we were all off to bed.

The whole evening seemed to go incredibly smooth and Mary really seemed to enjoy her birthday party. I know I had a good time, but it makes me so much happier to know that her 50th birthday was a birthday she enjoyed and will remember. Can’t ask for much more than that.

Happy Birthday Mary.

It’s good to be back on Oahu. Tomorrow is Mary’s birthday and we are throwing her a party, therefore, today was a day of shopping. Holly and Leif and I ventured out to Honolulu with a list that is party worthy. After two hours of being out, we managed to only visit Sears, Wendy’s, a motorcycle shop and Home Brew In Paradise. It was totally worth it though. Happy Father’s day. Holly bought my beer ingredients for me. I’m so excited to be able to brew another batch of beer again. I can’t wait to get back home now. 🙂

Our next two stops were the most important though – Wal Mart and Costco. We picked up so many delicious goodies that it will be impossible for Mary to say that she didn’t have a good 50th birthday.

Sunday of course is father’s day and the plan is to visit my favorite place in Honolulu (excluding the beer store as of recent), Gordon Beirsch. Oh how I love their beer. And it keeps me excited about brewing my own beer and of the future brewery/restaurant that I will be running. 🙂

The rest of our time here is pretty unplanned. The house here is crammed with Holly’s family from Indiana, and we are having a great time. I’m very glad that they were able to come out and visit and that we were able to get to Oahu at the same time.

I’ve really been in the mood for cheesecake for the past few weeks. I finally remembered to buy the ingredients this past weekend when we went to Kahului. There’s nothing like a costco sized block of cheesecake.

The recipe I used is from “Baking: From my home to yours” by Dorie Greenspan. Instead of using the classic graham cracker crust, I decided to use biscotti. Oh what a difference it made. The biscotti gave it a great subtle flavor that was wonderful. The cheesecake itself was incredibly light and fluffy. It was not a new york style cheesecake, but a tall and creamy cheesecake. Delicious. Check out the results.

It’s the end of the weekend. Yesterday we drove up to town to do some shopping and Holly had to go to Border’s to buy some books for the library summer reading program. It was a decent day and went pretty quick, topped off by finding some fresh coconuts in the middle of Hana hwy on the way home. Today on the other hand was a bit of a long day. Leif has a bit of a cold and hasn’t gone 5 minutes without letting us know. He was awake after his morning nap for 5 hours. That is  long time for him. He acted tired the whole time, rubbing his eyes, crying refusing to eat, that sort of thing. It’s been like that all day.

I woke up this morning a bit cranky myself and not feeling very productive. I was tired, wanted to stay in bed and didn’t want to face the day. The cats, particularly Tatoo, meowed and howled all night long. Tattoo is here visiting so she get get spayed. Unfortunately she is a bit of a night cat. Holly has been having issues with her joints and woke up in pain after a night of little sleep. All this said, I fought the urge to be a bum and started the day with a 2 mile or so run followed by throwing in two loads of laundry. Also on my to-do list for today was making a cheesecake. It is currently in the oven and almost ready. I had hoped to bottle a batch of beer today, but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen. I haven’t even checked the gravity yet. I’ll check it in a bit and if it’s at a good spot, I’ll bottle it tomorrow. As for the rest of the day, it was spend watching Leif, doing dishes, taking a short trip to the general store, vacuuming, and blogging. I suppose I wasn’t too much of a bum today. After all, I get a cheesecake out if it. 🙂

Well here it is. I’ve finally updated my site design. I’ve included a menu for artwork and photos and what not. I will be discontinuing my flickr page. I’ve migrated all my flickr images onto my page here. Plus more to come. I’m also going to increase the amount of beer blogging I do. I’m very excited about my beer adventures and will be sharing them. I’ve vair excited. So if you see any bugs or issues, please let me know so I can fix them. Keep in mind this was designed and implemented on a mac, so pc users beware.