Things are running along as well as can be expected here in the friendly confines of SPT. Readership has its fluctuations ranging from abbot 450 to 600 per day, but I’m glad to announce that with just over 2,800 posts, we’ve had over a half million page views. Woo hyphen Hoo!

I’ve had an offer from another advertiser but I’m not too sure what to make of it. There’s really not a not of Google search results on the firm and one blog post pits them as being a little shady. I have the guy’s email sitting in my inbox waiting for a reply but I think I’ll let it cook there for awhile.

There’s been no beef about the lack of the Weekly Babes post and the sidebar activity remains the same. I now have the art of putting up new thumbnails down to a science, as it were, and things keep chugging along. The HTML sometimes gives me a challenge at times.

One thing I regretted doing was removing the SPT Faves from the menu bar just below the header graphic. I’ve started to reassemble them back together and I’m thinking of plunking them in the right sidebar. I’ll be working on that over the next few days or so.

Just in time for the shitty Illinois weather, my bike has returned from the shop. No charge. Thank you very much, D&S Motorsports for taking care of a problem we probably caused ourselves (my son and I.) Apparently the new jet kit that we installed made the carb mixture too rich. That explained the black smoke on startup and the crappy steadystate cruise speeds. They installed new jets to make her run a little leaner and she’s back in the garage just in time to be treated with some StaBil for the winter. Starting next April, I plan to sleep on the bike at least three or four nights a week.

The last batch of homebrew turned out really well, but I’m afraid that my mouth is getting me into trouble. There are so many people at work and personal friends who want to taste it that I’m afraid we might again, give most of it away. The first batch of Frabekurji yielded 49 bottles. My boys and I drank probably 11 of ‘em between us. Mybe it’s time to brew bigger batches. Yes. And go into all-grain brewing. More equipment to buy, brew beer out in the Manly Garage, propane. Strike! Sparge! Ferment. Drink ten gallons in a sitting. … You get the idea.

I have been so impressed with the taste of some of the Abbey ales and Belgian beers that I’d like to brew one for myself next batch. I’ve located an online store, Northern Brewer, that handles pretty much all of the ingredients I’ll need. The recipe, a Belgian strong ale comes from a book, Clone Brews by Tess and Mark Szamatulski, a beer which I’d love to brew and drink. I haven’t calculated the cost yet but the ingredients sound interesting. Gambrinus honey malt, clover honey, Curacao bitter orange peel. coriander, etc. Where do the original guys come up with these ingredients? I find it amazing. The predicted ABV is either 8.5 or 12 percent. The book is really unclear on that. Also, the boiling method is different, doing grains in three batches of a half gallon each. But we’ll try it.

During the course of learning about beer, I’ve found that different drinking vessels can enhance the taste of beer. As is in my nature, I started collecting beer glasses of different shapes and sizes. Soon, I ran out of room and my wife was getting on my case about putting them somewhere. That started a quest to find the perfect beer glass cabinet. I scoured Ikea high and low. Sears, Walmart, Target, JC Penny. Finally I hit the second-hand store. Close but no cigar. I visited a resale shop in downtown Morris and BINGO! I’d found it. A two-piece hutch arrangement with glass doors, glass shelves, a drawer and lower storage. AND it had a light in it. I couldn’t pass up the $80 price tag. It’s now positioned just outside the kitchen plugged into the wall socket. I turn the light on in the afternoon and my wife turns it off when her eyeballs start to hurt. Life is good.

I picked up a deal on a 1 terabyte external hard drive which I now have attached to the Airport Extreme. It will hold backups of my two Macs, be the repository for iTunes and iPhoto and also anything else I decide to throw up there. I’d also like to install and learn MAMP, software which will me keep the contents of the site here locally so I can dick around with it without any repercussions.

Digitally and analogly (?) I’m still happy running this site. We have a lot going for us. The Sunday Slinks as well as the weekly features you’ve come to expect, give me great pleasure. It’s a challenge and a reward all the way around. From the planning to the execution. I’m glad to have the opportunity and the wherewithal to share these topics with you on a daily basis. I have a lot of fun and I hope you do too. Once again, thanks for visiting.