no more bedhead

Our annual trek east was somewhat up in the air due to some of Ellen's school obligations, so I was unable to give people the exact dates until about a week or so before we were ready to head out, resulting in my referring to this, tongue-in-cheek, as the "Last Minute Tour of New England". I think it may have worked out to our advantage as I was able to do some rapid scheduling without over-thinking things, and it turned out to be a very pleasant, restful week.

We arrived in Connecticut on Saturday evening, and within the hour I was at Village Pizza. (Had to get my "half roast beef grinder with mayo, cold, with everything".)  That out of the way, we settled in at mom's house.

Sunday saw us heading down to the Wethersfield Cove to see the Cove Warehouse.  Growing up a few houses away (I could actually see the warehouse from my bedroom window), I am intimately familiar with it. But my kids are not, and Kate really wanted to see it.  It was broken into over the winter, and through community donations has been rebuilt and reopened as an interactive display of commerce of early Wethersfield specifically, and the nascent nation in general.  The hours are limited to weekend days from 1:00-4:00, so we took advantage of our first day there to visit.

Cove Warehouse selfie

Wethersfield Cove panorama shot from window of Cove Warehouse

When I was a kid the warehouse was open frequently. I remember playing inside, and being stung by a boat-load (hive-load?) of bees once.  Then I guess funding dried up and it was closed for the rest of my time at home. It was fun to get back inside again after all these years.

After the nostalgia trip, we went over to my cousin Liz's house for a pool-party/family get-together.  She usually has us come over when we're in town, and unfortunately she was one of the people that I had not contacted. Nonetheless, she heard we were coming and invited us all over for pizza. Always a good time.

This time was special-er (is that a word?) because I got to visit with my cousin Michael, who I haven't seen in a few years as he's been unable to attend these get-togethers. He was wearing an awesome t-shirt featuring the old Hartford Whalers "Pucky the Whale" logo.  I was telling him about my jersey (from the later team years), and we were laughing that we were referring to the "new" logo for a team that ceased to exist in 1979!

We also got to visit with Liz's husband, Tom, who has been out of town on work-related trips the previous times we've done this. Turns out that Tom went to college in Vermont, so we talked about the places that we go during the second week of our vacation, and the Vermont micro-brew industry. He requested that we bring back a case of The Alchemist Brewery's Heady Topper (which I think is the best beer - ever) for him. I'm hoping we can manage that.

Sitting around Liz and Tom's pool selfie

On Monday, we had dinner at Auntie Marilyn's house. This year the menu included something new - ham loaf.  It was tasty, and Marilyn made enough for us to bring back to Mom's house so we had ham loaf sandwiches later in the week. It's always fun to visit at Auntie's as it's a chance for my siblings and me to get together and bust on each other. (Love you guys!)

Chinese food for dinner last night means more fortune(s).
I don't know if I would have chosen the word "befall", but I'll take it!!

Although I really want to be, I am not a hat person.

Oh, I've tried. I usually end up in baseball cap land.  I wore the occasional cap as a kid (and actually at one point had a cap for each major league team, but that's another blog post), and I had several versions of Boston Red Sox caps, because Sawx!  Since I started shaving my head I'm very conscious about wearing a cap when out in the sun during the summer.

In the late 70's - early 80's I had a Greek sailor's cap that I wore sometimes.  In the 90's for a while I wore a black fedora that I picked up on St. Mark's Place in Greenwich Village.  This was before all the hipsters discovered fedoras. But overall nothing really seemed to stick.

I bought a beret when the band was having its "rummage sale" and were getting rid of the surplus tuba berets. It's not in the greatest shape (the felt is great, but the band is quite ragged), and it's okay.  However, Ellen bought one too, and started wearing it regularly. I thought we'd look really dopey if we both wore one out together, so mine hangs above my desk.

The other issue I have is the size of my head. I have one of those big "pumpkin" heads, so it's hard to find a hat that fits well.  If you know anything about hat sizes, I'm a 7-7/8, or an 8.  That's huge.  So, getting a hat can be a challenge, especially as I want to try it on to make sure I won't be squeezing my head in a vise.

I have wanted a "driver's cap" for a while, something like Burt Lancaster's character* wore in Field of Dreams,

Lancaster and hat in Field of Dreams

 or like Burt Lancaster's character wore in Local Hero.

Lancaster and hat in Local Hero

[Hmmm...maybe I just want to be Burt Lancaster. I'll have to look into that one.]

Ladies and gentlemen, we have Bready Topper!



I made it. My experiment with beer bread has culminated in a loaf made with the best beer I have ever had - Heady Topper.  It came out almost perfect - maybe a skosh too long so the peaks in the crust were a little browner that I was shooting for.  But, the flavor is awesome!  Tastes just like the beer, with that rich, hoppy flavor to it. Definitely not one to make sandwiches with*, but a nice slab of bread washed down with a tasty beverage - yum!

* Now that I say that, I'm starting to wonder - would this be good with, say, corned beef?  Or would I make a stout bread for that?  Hmmm...I wonder what meat/cheese combo goes well with beer bread? I may have my next experiment!

We had Chinese food for dinner the other night.  After dinner, we had fortune cookies.  This is the one I got:

Back in February, we went to the International Motorcycle Show.  It was awesome.  (I got to sit on a 2014 Indian Chief Vintage - totally want!)  While there, we visited all the different manufacturers and many of them had cards to fill out so they could get your contact information, usually in the guise of running a contest of some sort. Triumph Motorcycles was no exception.

I wasn't all that impressed with the Triumph lineup, but the cruisers did catch my eye. Of those, I especially liked the Thunderbird LT. I dutifully filled out my contact card, listing that as the bike that I'd like to test ride.

Last week I got an email from someone at Triumph stating that I had indicated I was interested in a test ride, but hadn't listed a model. I emailed back that I was interested in the Thunderbird LT, and got a follow up email that she would contact "her counterpart" who would arrange for a test ride.

Yesterday morning I got an email from him (the counterpart) who said he had spoken with a salesman at the closest Triumph dealer and that guy would be contacting me. His email went on to say that unfortunately the dealership didn't have any Thunderbird LTs in stock.  About an hour later I got a call from the dealership and was told that they had, just 20 minutes earlier, gotten one on the sales floor. Psyched, I made arrangements to go in on Saturday for a test ride.

Perhaps 10 minutes later, the phone rang again. It was the salesman calling to report that he is not allowed to let people test drive that bike, but he could make me a good deal on one if I still wanted to stop by. Ummmm...yeah.

So, I saved myself $17,000 and I got this crappy Triumph pen from the motorcycle show.

It's getting to be spring. Or so they say. The weather isn't really cooperating with that.  Still, it's time to get ready.  That means it'll soon be time for motorcycle riding.  And, I'll need some boots.  I've been wearing my sneakers for all my riding so far, but reluctantly.  I want something a little more sturdy and something that will keep my laces out of the way.

I ordered some boots. Specifically, Joe Rocket Big Bang 2.0 boots, from Revzilla.com.  I like the style, and the price is right.

Shortly after ordering the boots, I was lacing up my sneakers and busted out the second loop that holds the laces. As it was the second one in the row on the left shoe, it made securing the shoe to my foot almost impossible. Time to go out and buy new sneakers, too.

Got myself some Merrell Catalyst Ventilator shoes, similar to the Merrell Moab Ventilators that I usually get. This time, I was looking to get away from the brown/earth tones, and I found ones that are predominantly grey with some blue trim and have yellow and black laces. The Catalyst are a style from a couple of years ago, so I got a decent price on them.

Here are some photos:

New Sneakers!

New Boots!

I've been on a bread-baking kick this week. Somehow, I got the idea to make a Heady Topper bread. Heady Topper, brewed by The Alchemist, is, IMHO, the best beer ever. Allow me to say that I'm really not a hoppy beer enthusiast (give me a good strong porter or stout any day), but Heady hits you over the head with the hops.  And I like it - it works for me somehow.

Again, for some reason, I decided I wanted to make bread using Heady Topper. But, I didn't want to use a can until I knew that the recipe was going to work. (Heady is only available in Vermont, so I have a somewhat limited supply, that can only be refreshed on trips east.)  I did a quick search and found a beer bread recipe that looked promising, so I figured I try it out and get a good feel for it before I took a stab at the final goal.  I also thought that "testing the recipe" would be a good way to use up some of the, um, less-than-stellar beers that are just sitting here.

My first attempt was with a straight-up ale.  Figured I couldn't go wrong there.  I picked a bottle of Oberon Ale from Bell's Brewery.  Oberon is a Pale Wheat Ale that I gave a 2.5 star rating (out of 5*) on Untappd. Mixed it up, threw it in the oven, and an hour later had a really nice loaf of bread. Crispy crust, good flavor, tasted like bread.

Wanting to make a side-by-side comparison, I immediately made another loaf, this time using Abita Brewing Company's Turbodog.  Turbodog is a dark brown ale (that I rated 2.5 stars on Untappd).  Again, it produced a nice loaf of bread with a good taste.  The only difference really was that it was darker in color. I really didn't notice a difference in taste in my comparison.

The next day I thought I'd start moving toward my Heady goal, and I pulled out an Abita Jockamo IPA.  The Jockamo is an American Indian Pale Ale (wait, what?) and I actually enjoyed this offering from Abita, giving it 3.5 stars.  Still, this bottle went into the bowl.  What came out was pretty good. While I got the expected color difference from the other two loaves, what set this apart at first was the smell. It smelled like beer.  And not in that "down at the club, everyone has spilled their beer on the floor" kind of way. In a good way.  And, tasting it was great - it tasted hoppy.  There was a bitterness to the bread that was very unusual, yet satisfying.  This bodes well for the Heady bread (Bready?).

What's left of the IPA bread after one day. Nom, nom, nom!

In the meantime, I think I want to play around with the recipe some more. Maybe throw a stout at it to see how it reacts. Maybe try a smoked beer, or something unusual, just to see what happens.


*Heady Topper I rated a 5/5. I would have given it a 6.

Last night, Ellen and I went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It was part of Playhouse Square's Broadway Series. Originally it wasn't one of the offerings, instead "The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber" was supposed to be our March show.  We had already decided to opt out of that when they announced that Joseph would be replacing it.  I was happy because I actually wanted to see Joseph.  When I was a kid, Joseph was my sister's favorite soundtrack (or at least that's how I remember it based on the number of times I had to hear it), so I was familiar with the show and the music.

We got to the theatre later than normal, so I didn't have time to browse the Playbill as thoroughly as I wanted to, but I did notice that the two leads (Narrator - Diana DeGarmo,  and Joseph - Ace Young) were both American Idol "graduates".  Not only that, but they are married.  To each other.

The show opened with what first appeared to be smoke rising from the stage, but upon closer inspection proved to be a projection of smoke on a scrim.  As the lighting started to (slowly) rise, the figure of a sleeping man became apparent below where the smoke was being projected. The smoke then started to morph into images that swirled and changed, making it clear that this guy was dreaming.

This scene was framed by a false proscenium made of flown-in fabric. The sides were angled so that the bottom opening was wider than the top, and the top of the arch was made by a single straight fabric that was front of the other two.  It reminded me of a pharaoh's headpiece.  As the scrim rose and the guy woke up from his dream, projections started on this false proscenium.  They continued throughout the show as a way to set the scene, and were frankly amazing.

The lighting (by Howell Binkley) and projections (by Daniel Brodie) were consistently incredible throughout the course of the show. (I'll also shout out to scenic designer Beowulf Boritt, as I don't know which designer was responsible for which element, and suspect that they worked together closely to pull this off.)  There were some effects that stood out to me.  One was the interior lighting (or maybe projections?) of some of the set pieces. The set was very minimal - mostly blocks and platforms (door-sized) that could be carried around by the actors.  In a couple of instances some of the blocks glowed - clearly being lit internally.  Also there were three movable staircases, one of which was similarly lit internally.  The best part was that it was really subtle.  Both the stairs and the blocks looked like they could have just been reacting to the stage lights.

The other effect of note was projections on items other than the false proscenium (and other backdrops).  In one scene, Joseph's brothers were tending sheep (which appeared to be luaun board cutouts painted white). They picked up the sheep and held them together to create a "canvas" upon which was projected various graphical elements. Similarly, later in the show, angels costumed in white appeared on the stage. They came to the edge of the stage and held their arms out, allowing their flowing sleeves to merge together into another canvas for projection.  This concept culminated in the final scene when Joseph is standing on one of the stair units and the backdrop has been split into several pieces, all of which are attached to his coat. The backdrop then becomes a canvas for the projection of the continuation of his coat motif out and up over the cast.

Speaking of the coat, it was amazing (pardon the pun). Created by costume designer Jennifer Caprio, it was inspired by 12 stained glass windows that were created by Marc Chagall for the Abbell Synagogue at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem.  You can read the whole story on the Joseph website.  I can't even begin to explain it, so I'll just have to show you.

This is the design (front on top):



Here's a photo of the coat in production:

Joseph in his coat, with the Narrator

Much of the acting/performing was great - the brothers especially.  I wasn't impressed with the Narrator, her voice was shrill and couldn't project over the musicians (even mic'd).  Joseph wasn't bad. He had a nice voice and seemed at his best when he was playing off the other characters.  I couldn't help but think that these two were on this tour in order to draw people in - "You saw them on American Idol, now see them On Stage!"  But, the supporting cast was fantastic. The brothers had some great lines, and played a lot of comedic effect, and the Pharoah was wonderful with his Elvis persona.  Between the main characters and the company all on stage, the choreography had to work, and it did.

Jacob with some of his sons (Joseph's brothers)

It's been five years since the dog came home.

I might be warming up to him.