http://www.caffeineslug.com/ en-us ben@caffeineslug.com 2007-08-01T09:41:30-08:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.caffeineslug.com/mt/archive/000341.html Slightly late post...we went with some friends to the beer festival in Flagstaff a couple weekends ago. Lots of great beer and good weather. Also, I remembered to bring the camera! Entire gallery is here. Waiting to get in. We arrived about 45 minutes early, and bought the VIP tickets. We were about 20th in line maybe, and by the time the gates opened, there were probably 150 people behind us. The non-VIP line was just as long, but they had to wait an extra hour to get in. :-D Another VIP benefit, shaded seating, and an extra group of New Belgium people. There was no available seating at the rest of the event, so this was much appreciated. This is what it looked like during the first hour, when lines were relatively short or non-existant. In retrospect, the key was to drink as much beer as you could in this first hour, because after that you were waiting 20+ minutes for a refill. Same scene, a couple hours later. Obviously many more people. Fantastic idea - just mount all of your beer taps to the side of the van! Free fajitas in the VIP area. :-) All in all, it was a great time. New Belgium, Pyramid, Rogue, Dogfish Head, and lots of others I can't remember right now (but enjoyed thorougly). Will definitely go again next year!... 341@http://www.caffeineslug.com/ Beer 2007-08-01T09:41:30-08:00 http://www.caffeineslug.com/mt/archive/000340.html I think this is a record for me, in terms of time without posting. The last one was on June 1st, and here it is July 23rd. Hooray for breaking records I suppose. In those 50+ days a lot has certainly happened. We've moved into our house, and now we're dealing with all of the problems that nobody noticed before, or just coincidentally popped up shortly after we took the keys. Between those problems and new stuff we've had to buy/install, cash is flowing right out of our bank accounts like beer flowing out of Belgium. First, the garage floor received an epoxy coating before we went and filled up the garage with stuff. That was the most painless part so far, and I think it turned out ok. Shortly after that, one of the garage door springs broke (and of course, you have to replace both of them). The one part of the door not covered under the home warranty! Appliance delivery was next. We needed a fridge, washer, and dryer (and of course, we only overshot our budget by about...100%). Even with a slightly wider-than-standard front door, the fridge couldn't make it in without removing the doors. :-P Yet another reason I prefer double front doors! Next up, moving day! Fantastic, except three boxes were unaccounted for. We still don't know if they're really missing, or if it was just a number-calling error. Next, water softener installation. I wouldn't have thought it was almost $300 to have a softener installed when the loop is already there, ouch. Several days later, the a/c stopped working well. It was running constantly, and still not cooling the house really, so someone came out and recharged it. Home warranty use #1. While the garage floor looked good, the walls were something else entirely. The previous owner (PO hereafter) decided that when he needed to run a cable somewhere, the best way to do it was by stapling it to the wall or ceiling every few inches. When he removed the cables, he somehow managed to do it while leaving the staples still in the wall or ceiling. Nice. Stuff was hanging on the wall everywhere, and no matter what it was holding, not a single drywall anchor was to be found (nor did he ever manage to find a stud). After yet another trip to Lowes, Dave helped me tape off the floor and fill all the holes, and Teresa helped paint the walls. It looks much better now. Dishwasher stopped working! Was fine during the inspection of course. Home warranty use #2. This past week has been extra fun, as we had our first case of water damage. It looks like the drain for the a/c plugged up, and as a result, condensation was going everywhere except out the drain. Like into the walls, and out from underneath the baseboards. A flood company came out and indicated evidence of water in the garage, laundry room, and office. So now we've had a couple big loud fans in the garage and an industrial-sized dehumidifier in the office for several days. We blew out the drain with the shop vac (best purchase we've made so far), and it looks like it is draining correctly now. Finally, we thought it was time to get the spa up and running. It's a Dimension One spa, and there's just one dealer in Tucson for those (45 minutes away, of course). Fortunately the guy there was very friendly, explained to us how all of the features work, where all the parts are located, how to get it set up right, etc. Due to age and sun exposure, we needed new headrests and a new top...conveniently available for just under $500. :-P We still need a new filter for it, and the LCD screen is barely readable. While filters are relatively cheap, I know the screen won't be. :-\ As far as I can remember, that's everything we've had to deal with. Some problems worse than others, all costing more money than we'd hope. That doesn't count the numerous trip to Lowes/Home Depot for things we just didn't own before, like hoses. At the very least, I think the house is almost to the point where it is clean enough to accept visitors. :-P... 340@http://www.caffeineslug.com/ Personal 2007-07-23T13:33:42-08:00 http://www.caffeineslug.com/mt/archive/000339.html The last couple months I've been mulling over the prospects when it comes to replacement golf grips. I've pretty much only used the Golf Pride Full Cord Tour Wrap - they came on my current set of clubs, and my previous two sets were equipped with those as well. The only downside to them as been that they're pretty rough on the hands. Grips look like they've come a long way in the last few years, and I haven't really been keeping up. As luck would have it though, I got to attend a focus group a couple weeks ago that was for golf grips - and I got to hit 15 identical clubs, all with different grips. They had several there that I had been considering, along with the old standby tour wrap. While I was somewhat biased against Winn grips going into it, they felt SO much better than anything out there that I went and switched. I chose the XF (extra firm, 5XWC) model, as I thought the original RF style was a bit too squishy. At $4 a grip they were pretty reasonably priced as well. I'm still concerned about the longevity, so we'll see how that goes. I've read mixed reviews. For now though, they feel great!... 339@http://www.caffeineslug.com/ Golf 2007-06-01T13:44:25-08:00 http://www.caffeineslug.com/mt/archive/000338.html The only real emergency is that here it is, afternoon of May 31, and I haven't had a post yet this month. :-P This morning Teresa and I closed on our first house, which is obviously exciting. The process went fairly quickly, about 3 weeks from the time we looked at it until closing. Here's an album with all of the photos we took while looking at houses - photos from the house we bought are right at the beginning, starting with the first picture and finishing with the picture of dogs in the backyard. The only visible change that will be made from the pictures is that the pink room will be painted white. The now-previous owners needed to rent it back from us for about a week, so we should have keys a week from Sunday!... 338@http://www.caffeineslug.com/ Personal 2007-05-31T15:28:01-08:00 http://www.caffeineslug.com/mt/archive/000337.html Last week, Evan decided to follow through with his idea for brewing the biggest (most alcoholic) beer he possibly could, and ingredients were ordered: 12 lbs of amber liquid malt extract 2 lbs of light dry malt extract 2 lbs of Belgian candi sugar 3 oz Yakima Magnum hops 1 package Alcotec 48 Hour Turbo Super Yeast The key ingredient being that yeast - the package claims it can generate 14% alcohol in 48 hours, or 20% alcohol in 5 days. It's not even really meant for beer. I'm fairly certain the whole batch is going to taste terrible. :-P The real excitement came the next morning, when I was walking down the hallway and smelled beer. Walk in, the carboy is foaming quite rapidly. Even worse, I look up and see this. The massive fermentation popped the stopper/airlock out of the carboy, and stuff went everywhere. It was on every wall in the room. It continued to foam all day, and I'd estimate that perhaps 30% of the beer was lost, it was amazing. So, we'll see how this batch turns out. I'm expecting the worst, so anything that's not terrible will be a pleasant surprise!... 337@http://www.caffeineslug.com/ Beer 2007-04-23T09:53:35-08:00 http://www.caffeineslug.com/mt/archive/000336.html A while back I was putting together a birthday wishlist at the request of friends and family, and on that list were two golf bags. Two, because both appeared to be excellent bags, but I couldn't decide which one I'd rather have. I thought that perhaps I might get lucky and get one, and the decision would be made for me. But no, I'm in the fortunate situation of receiving both golf bags, and now the ball is back in my court. :-P (fwiw, I'm looking for a cart bag because I use golfnow.com for most of my golf, and all of those courses include carts. I'll keep my current bag for any time I know I'll walk.) First up is the Titleist SC75 cart bag. This one is nearly perfect in every way - lots of big pockets, a big lined valuables pocket, a big insulated drink pocket, and it's just a good-looking bag. The biggest downside for me is the 14-way club divider, which apparently is a standard feature now on every cart bag. Second up is the . Proper 6-way club divider, four big pockets on the ends, looks great, and I've been liking Bridgestone's stuff lately. The downside here is that until the bag showed up at my door, I had never actually seen one in person, so it was really an unknown. First I did what any good golf nerd would do, and put my clubs in each bag to see how they'd fit and look. This is where I noticed that the Bridgestone was just a bit shorter than the Titleist. It's certainly easier to throw clubs in the Bridgestone, but I think they're actually displayed a little better in the Titleist. Two big downsides to the Titleist showed up though, that I didn't expect. Due to the narrow slot for each club, the shaft protector on the 3-wood's headcover either has to be tucked in to the slot, or it bunches up at the top. Also, the bag is actually so tall that my putter doesn't touch the bottom, which just feels weird to me. :-P In operation, just due to the material and design, the Bridgestone feels a lot more solid. Comparing the handles, for example: The Bridgestone is big and solid, while the Titleist is smaller and has some give to it. I'm sure this is just due to the fact that they were shooting for lightweight cart bag, perhaps one that could be carried occasionally. Honestly, the S74 is a more comparable bag to the Bridgestone, but I didn't really like the way that one looked. :-P One feature on the Titleist bothered me a big more than expected, and that's the shoulder strap. For a bag that will only be used on carts, it makes perfect sense to have it there, and it even tucks away nicely in its own pouch. When you do have to carry the bag though, it's upside-down and feels kind of weird. So I can't really get over the non-traditional placement. Pocket-wise, it's pretty much a wash between the two. The Titleist has big accessible pockets on each side of the bag, plus the previously-mentioned larger valuables/insulated pockets. The Bridgestone has fairly worthless pockets on two sides (the sides with the big Bridgestone name), as they're pretty tight and flat. The pockets on the ends though are gigantic. The biggest one can easily hold a pair of shoes and probably two jackets, without even looking full. The valuables pocket is on the same end, and it's pretty big as well. On the other end are two more really big pockets for balls, tees, whatever. I think the pockets will work out better than I initially expected. All that said, I'm going to go with the Bridgestone bag, and probably return the other one for a 585.H. :-D... 336@http://www.caffeineslug.com/ Golf 2007-04-23T09:06:33-08:00 http://www.caffeineslug.com/mt/archive/000335.html Jay helped me set the alignment before the event, and adjusting it pre- and post-event isn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, even though I have to adjust both camber and toe. Currently running -3.5° camber with 1/4" toe out for autocross, and I have to say, it looks pretty good. ;-) Some pics I took from the first time mounting up the wheels and tires (at 11:30 the night before an autox, of course).... 335@http://www.caffeineslug.com/ Evo 2007-04-16T09:23:16-08:00 http://www.caffeineslug.com/mt/archive/000334.html First autocross in the Evo was last weekend, and it was less than spectacular. Kumho SPT's are far from the tire of choice apparently. I started out inadvertently running with too little pressure, and perhaps the best word to describe them was "floppy." Any time the car had to move in something other than a straight line, they caused me problems. For Time Only runs I raised the pressure and they felt better...but I didn't go any faster. Great. All in all, it wasn't particularly fun. After finally receiving my new wheels and tires, I went to the Tucson event yesterday, and wow, what a difference. The car turned in a whole lot quicker, there was more grip, everything was great. I can't wait to drive it again. The Tucson event itself was a lot of fun - low turnout meant only two run groups and five runs each, with pay-per-run fun runs at the end. First car out was around 9:15, and I was packed up and ready to head home by 11:30. Except for a little first gear turnaround, the course itself was a lot of fun, with three slaloms heading out and another three heading back. Even had a fast straight finish.... 334@http://www.caffeineslug.com/ Evo 2007-04-16T09:21:21-08:00 http://www.caffeineslug.com/mt/archive/000333.html Seemingly the entire weekend was spent on car-related stuff, and lots got done. Clint and Brad came over on Saturday, and the previous statement about spring compressors held true to an even greater extent. First up was the task of putting the stock shocks, springs, intake, and exhaust manifold back on the car. Intake and manifold were pretty straightforward, and removal of each shock/spring takes about 4 minutes. Then the spring compressor fun began. Basically, we couldn't compress the stock spring without the compressors slipping to one side, and just trying to compress the first one took a solid hour. Final solution? Buy another set of spring compressors, and just put so many of them on that they can't slip enough to create a problem! :-P After that, everything went pretty smoothly. So now I have the car back at stock ride height, and man, it's not fun at all any more. Turn-in is slow, it rolls all over the place, and ride height feels like that of a small SUV. :-\ After that, we attempted to put my new camber plates in the Evo. The instructions were entirely in Japanese, so they were of no use. The stock strut assembly came out easily, and the whole process went pretty smoothly, except for a couple little spacers that seem to have a place to go. So both plates go in, I shove the struts all the way in to max out the camber, tighten things up, and go for a test drive. "Clunk clunk clunk" Fantastic, it's making noise, and I'm running out of time. I had to leave by 5:20 or so to make it to a softball tournament, and the car work isn't complete. Fortunately Brad and Clint come through, and offer to stick around and fix it for me. As it turns out, those spacers were needed underneath the top mounting bolt, as otherwise the bolt runs out of threads before it's all the way down. I drove the car when I came home, and it felt great. Now off for an alignment this week, wait for my wheels and tires to come in this week, and I'll be ready for this Saturday's autocross. Sunday I spent plenty of time cleaning up the Integra parts I removed so they can go up for sale, and cleaning up the garage in general from the previous day's activities. Evan also came over to put a new fuel filter in his Camaro, which made the garage smell all kinds of fumey. Finally, I went to two different Costcos today, including one I had never been to before (near Val Vista and the 202). :-D... 333@http://www.caffeineslug.com/ Projects 2007-04-01T23:35:22-08:00 http://www.caffeineslug.com/mt/archive/000332.html A couple weeks ago while in Albuquerque with Teresa, I played a round of golf at Santa Ana Golf Club while she had an all-day job interview. I was happy to see that the course had a set of pretty long tees, with the scorecard showing 7298 yards. The par 5's have lengths of 600, 599, 633, and 534. :-o Despite not playing in a couple months, I was doing really well. I was hitting a ton of greens, and I was pretty solid with the putter from 10 feet and in, for the most part. The front nine was relatively uneventful. One 3-putt, a couple shots in the sand, and I finished with a 3-over 39. Good start! Back nine started well, but I just couldn't hit a birdie putt. Starting on the 8th hole I had a string of eight greens-in-regulation in a row, and I didn't make a single birdie. That's terrible. Still, I didn't 3-putt any of those, so there I was through 16 holes sitting at +3. Then one of the guys playing with me did something incredibly stupid: he says "so you're what, about 3 over?" He probably didn't know any better, but he totally jinxed my round, and I knew it. Letting myself think about it was surely a mental error on my part. I proceeded to hit my worst drive of the day off the tee, and long story short, I make a 9 on a par 4. :-( Now I have to go -1 on the last two holes just to shoot a 79, and they're both par 5s. The first is the 633 yard hole, and there's a big crosswind blowing now. I hit a long drive, but it goes off to the right considerably. I catch my 3 wood pretty solid and the ball makes it back to the fairway, leaving me about 100 yards out. I knock my wedge to about 4 feet - perfect! Then I miss the putt. :-( Last hole is the 534 yard par 5, but now it's going straight into a really strong wind, and there's a lake right in front of the green. I hit a good drive, nice and low and right down the middle. I have to clear about 220 yards to get over the water, and if I don't make a birdie there's no 79, so I go for it. The shot went straight, but I caught it just a little fat. While that wouldn't normally have been a problem, in this case it popped the ball up in the air, the wind caught it, and right into the water it went. :-( So my would-be 75 turned into an 81. Still a great round given how little I've played lately, but the things it could have been...... 332@http://www.caffeineslug.com/ Golf 2007-03-25T21:34:08-08:00 http://www.caffeineslug.com/mt/archive/000331.html Last week Clayton and I put some Mazdaspeed springs on his new Miata one day after work. A few things came of it: 1. Working on clean new cars is way better than working on old dirty cars. 2. Spring compressors are a huge pain. 3. My impact wrench is pathetic. Items 2 and 3 kind of go hand-in-hand. Using the impact wrench is definitely the fastest and easiest method of closing up the spring compressors, but mine is so incredibly weak and inefficient that it took forever, and my decent-sized tank was emptying pretty quickly. It's the one that came with my compressor, so I suppose I should expect this weakness, but it's still lame. That said, I'm not looking for a new one. I think a few good price/performance models are the Husky Composite, Ingersoll-Rand Super Duty, and Craftsman Professional. But back to the Miata, overall the install went fairly well, and I got a set of wheel sockets for my trouble. The car sits low enough that it's pretty close to "just right," and to my surprise, it seems to actually ride better as well. Win-win!... 331@http://www.caffeineslug.com/ Projects 2007-03-25T21:13:01-08:00 http://www.caffeineslug.com/mt/archive/000330.html More beer bottles! Jon and I decided to have a Belgian ale blind taste test. He stated that Chimay is the best Blegian period, while I contend that there are many American-made Belgian ales that are every bit as good (or better) for less money. For reference, Chimay at a liquor store for about $9 for a 750ml bottle. Many of the American brews are $4-5 for a 22oz (about 650ml) bottle. For the comparison, we sampled two real Belgians (Chimay Blue and Tripel Karmeliet) and three American Belgians (The Reverand, Brother David's Triple, and Trippel by Green Flash Brewing). At the very least, we'll find out which spelling of Tripel/Triple/Trippel is the best. ;-) We basically tasted them all, and ranked them by preference. The general consensus was that the GFB Trippel was excellent, especially for the price. The Chimay was right behind, and BD's Triple shortly after that. The Reverend didn't do so well, and Tripel Karmeliet was way in the back. Both it and the Chimay didn't taste like they were right (the Tripel Karmeliet was picked up at the suggestion of someone at Bevmo). So, given that GFB Trippel was up at the top at half the price of Chimay, I'd declare it the clear winner.... 330@http://www.caffeineslug.com/ Beer 2007-03-25T20:58:20-08:00 http://www.caffeineslug.com/mt/archive/000329.html As I'm finishing up my first batch of beer, it was time to start the second, from a kit called "Packs-a-punch Porter". Learning from my past mistakes (which still resulted in a drinkable product), I was now free to correct those mistakes and make all new ones! I steeped the grains at the right temperature. I added the hops at the right time. I used better yeast. I took out the useless filter in the funnel. Everything went smoothly...except...I let the brew pot boil over. Instruction sheets for beer kits only have one line in all caps, and that is "DO NOT LET THE WORT BOIL OVER". So of course I had to do just that. It was taking forever to come to a boil after I added all of the malt extract and hops. I put the lid on so it could keep some heat in (mistake #1). Then, I went and did something else for about 3 minutes (mistake #2). I come back to see wort EVERYWHERE. I thought I wouldn't have enough heat to bring it to a boil. I thought my pot was so big it could never boil over. I thought it wouldn't happen to me. :-P At least now I have something to improve upon next time! This was my first time using the hydrometer that came with my kit as well, and it started out measuring a reasonable 1.060, which is right in the range specified by the kit. This past week I transferred it to secondary, and it had gone down to 1.020. Hopefully after two weeks in secondary it'll drop a bit lower, then I'll be ready to bottle. Should be drinking the next batch in about a month!... 329@http://www.caffeineslug.com/ Beer 2007-03-25T20:50:37-08:00 http://www.caffeineslug.com/mt/archive/000328.html An interesting co-drive opportunity had me going to the San Diego National Tour last weekend - a 1985 Camaro running in CP. (Click for full size on all of these.) Weighed in at just over 3100 lbs, supposedly 525hp, and fresh 12" wide slicks. Despite all that, it wasn't all that fast on the courses we ran. :-P It was fun to drive though, once I realized that you had to be sliding around a bit to be fast. I was not fast. I hadn't been to a tour in a couple years now, so it was nice to see so many well-prepared cars in person again. My album with lots of pics is here.... 328@http://www.caffeineslug.com/ Racing 2007-03-25T20:42:49-08:00 http://www.caffeineslug.com/mt/archive/000327.html I finally bought Brian's Evo, fulfilling the prophesy I foretold just before Brian bought the car himself. I'll be running it in STU, so some initial purchases have already been made: 1. 5Zigen FN01R-C 17x9 wheels 2. Yokohama Advan Neova 245/40-17 wheels 3. Cusco front camber plates So to complete the setup I'd still need a turboback exhaust, ecu flash, and some coilovers. Gas mileage is a bit worse than the Integra - a tank of basically 100% city driving delivered 18.1 mpg, while a tank of 100% highway gave me 22.7 mpg (Integra returned about 26/28 city/highway). At least the miles are more fun now. :-P... 327@http://www.caffeineslug.com/ Evo 2007-03-25T20:34:31-08:00