Button Up

Today the temperature topped out at a whopping 18*F. Brrrrski!

Which made it a busy afternoon at the Marek household.

Our buddy Jake stopped by to help with a long delayed "button up the garage" project. Drywall is his specialty!

The garage gets below freezing during the winter despite the insulation.

And the super crappy non-insulated window. Tried to find a replacement for that this summer with no luck. The drywall is needed so we have an even surface to put up one of those plastic wrap over the window kits. Not sure if the rest of the garage will get drywalled this winter, but it's a start. They sure worked hard!

Me?

I snapped a couple of rogue pictures and ran back into the warm house to do yoga. : )

Yoga today (much overdue) was a free 20 minute class from Yoga Download that I thought I'd try before I sign up. The great part about Yoga Download is you don't stream (although you can) and once you get the class downloaded, it's yours to keep. If you have a yoga background, the audio files are pretty easy to follow although a little strange until you get used to the instructor and their style transitioning from one pose to the next without visual cues to depend on.

This was my first class and it was pretty good. Need to practice the audio file only thing a bit to see if I really like it or not. There are full video files but they're pretty big and take a long time to download. Haven't viewed the one I downloaded yet. I'll let you know when I do!

When they finished their work, they came in and it was time for...

12 Brews of Christmas!

For the sixth brew of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

 ...Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale! Chosen specifically to celebrate their work and for the picture of the nice cozy house...as ours will be now that we've they've worked on the garage.

Thanks, guys!

Super hoppy in an IPA sort of way. Really tasty with frosted sugar cookies...I mean, it really seemed like it would be good with something sweet, like a frosted sugar cookie.

Not that I'd know.

I imagine it would mellow out the bitter hoppiness a bit. If super hoppy wasn't your thing. Like it isn't so much mine.

Remember when I said I like to pick beers by the label? If I learned to read the labels, I might just pick some that aren't so hoppy-based.

But where would be the fun in that?

T pulled out another one he picked up, one of those really big bottles that you couldn't possibly drink all by yourself but is great to pull out and split with some friends...

Lagunitas' Wilco Tango Foxtrot (WTF!). T said I picked this out at a beer tasting at The Ale Jail last winter but it seems this is a spring seasonal so I think he got it on his own. But had I been there, I think I would have picked it out anyway...

...the dog is so cute!

But really, I just love the name...A Malty, Robust, Jobless Recovery Ale.

Where do they come up with this stuff??!?

Love it!

We wine-tasted it to see what flavors we could get from it...caramel, tobacco, cherrywood, chocolate, woody, malt (caramel was mine...the rest were theirs...fancy pants-ers!). The fun part about tasting like this is that there is no right or wrong answer. Just throw out any association that comes up. Tasty brew #2.

By then, it was dinner time and since we had no plans and Jake was happy hanging out, we ordered a BBQ Chicken pizza from nearby Carbone's. Yummy! And they deliver, too. Bonus. Hungry boys decimated the 'za before pictures could be taken.

Tired of that excuse yet? Me, too! Might need to start eating more often so we're not so hungry all the time!

Tasty sauce, LOTS of chicken, bacon and red onion...and a nice thin crust.

Now for a soak in a steaming hot tub flavored with Rock River Soap Company's bath salts -- Peppermint, Spearmint, Lavender and Grapefruit...one of the combinations Scott came up with for me. Thanks, Scott!

Ahhhhhhh...

How are you spending your evening?//