Gluhwein

A German employee of mine, Elke Saile, told me about a drink called Gluhwein that is always enjoyed in Germany at Christmas time at the Christmas markets. It is basically a mulled red wine and it sounded delicious so I made a batch this Christmas. It was a simple recipe and it came out great. I'll definitely be making it again.
I got this recipe from food.com.

• ³⁄₄ cup water (or orange juice) - I used a little of each
• ³⁄₄ cup white sugar (or less to taste)
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 orange
• 10 whole cloves
• 1 (750 ml) bottle red wine

1. In a saucepan, combine the water, sugar, and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer.
2. Cut the orange in half, and squeeze the juice into the simmering water. Push the cloves into the outside of the orange peel, and place peel in the simmering water. Continue simmering for 30 minutes, until thick and syrupy.
3. Pour in the wine, and heat until steaming but not simmering. Remove the clove-studded orange halves.
4. Serve hot in mugs

Grated some nutmeg on top!

Emily caught me making a silly face.

 Merry Christmas!

2016 Thanksgiving

It was so nice to have Mark and Heather come visit us for Thanksgiving this year. Here are a few photos of their visit!

Heather and Mark and Kegs and Eggs at Lincoln Fill Station at 8 am!

Selfie with Emily - she took it of course

This Hindu temple is actually in Lilburn just a few miles from our house! Stunning.

Another shot at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir

Our annual first eggnog of the season!





 









Black Beauty Trouble

On the way to work the other day my clutch cable snapped while I was on N Druid Hills. I was able to ride slowly and pull over into the parking lot of a barbershop. I have a 24/7 help service through my BMW MOA membership which really comes in handy for these types of things and includes free towing for up to 100 miles. I had the bike towed to hourglass cycles. I'm really only putting this on my blog because I thought the small "tow" truck that came to get my bike was really cool and I wanted to post the photos. This was a good system and the bike was really secure. Check it out.

Hofftoberfest -2016

I've been really wanting to have an Oktoberfest party the last few years but never seem to be able to schedule it. Fall is my favorite time of year - perfect for riding motorcycles and outdoor gatherings. This year we finally planned an Oktoberfest (10/15/2016) which Michael Barringer then renamed Hofftoberfest which I loved. Hopefully Hofftoberfest will be a new annual tradition.

We had over a mix of friends in the neighborhood including close friends/neighbors, and friends from my or Drew's tennis teams including: Morgans, Barringers, Bryon and Amy Skinner, John and Patsy Evans, Sorokas, Lindsey and Wes Cameron, Shawn Lockhart, Heidi and Daniel Cowan, and Shana and her new boyfriend Ray (and son). I think that is about it. I think the only folks who couldn't make it were Blakes and Owens. I think it was about ~29 folks including our family.

So what did we do?

• All Hoffmasters wore our Hoffmaster beer shirts that my dad bought before he died
• Put together a Polka playlist on Spotify (thank you Emily). We alternated between this and Rammstein :)
• Ate lots of Brats and Mets (mettwurst I ordered from Cincinnati)
• Ate lots of great German themed side dishes folks brought
• Drank lots of great German lagers and wine

Drew, Alex, and Ben watching some TV away from the crowd

Food is served and more sausages are smoking on the Green Egg!

Hanging with Ray and Shana at the end of the night.

It was a great time and we almost had perfect weather. We had a few sprinkles that weren't in the forcast) but it wasn't enough to drive anybody inside.
Can't wait to do it again! The following weekend we went to the Cowans for what I call Oysterfest :)

Fall Motorcycle Camping

The family schedule just wasn't going to allow for any weekend camping anytime soon so I decided it was a good time to take a couple days off, load up the BMW, and head to the GA mountains for some riding and camping. I decided to head up on Thursday and go to a campground that didn't have electricity and didn't take reservations. I was looking for fellow tent campers and less RVs. I decided to look at Desoto Falls Camp ground first and managed to get a spot. I was lucky because cars were coming through most of Thursday and Friday looking for sites but it was full by Thursday afternoon.

Loaded and ready to head out

Unloaded after our ~ 2h trip north

My campsite....and Black Beauty hauling my firewood 

The campground location was beautiful and the campsite had everything I needed: pole for hanging garbage, picnic table, and fire pit/grill. The location was perfect in terms of riding - right in the middle of so many great roads. The only negative thing is that is right along side route 19/129 so you can really hear the traffic.

Stream running through the campground

On Thursday, I pretty much just road to camp via Dahlonega and enjoyed the campsite. Had to make a quick trip to a close by BBQ joint that also sells firewood. I love the image of my BMW loaded with firewood. I did the short hikes to the upper falls (3/4 mile) and lower falls (1/4 mile). Both were very pleasant and easy hikes. The falls weren't very impressive but I think the water flow was greatly reduced due to the lack of rain we've had this summer. It was pretty much just a trickle.

The upper falls

Grilling some spicy mettwurst for dinner

Friday morning I got up around 7:30 am and made some coffee. That is my favorite part of camping. Something about coffee at a campground after a horrible night sleep is just so perfect. And a horrible night of sleep it was. It was practically raining acorns and you wouldn't believe how much noise they make coming down. All that noise combined with all the signs I read about bear activity and properly storing food (still don't know what to do) had me plenty skittish the first couple hours in bed.

After coffee, I went for an hour ride. I headed down to Turners Corner and took a right back toward the princess rock pile. Then I headed north towards Suches and took a right onto 180 (Wolfpen gap) over towards Vogel park and then back down 19 to Desoto falls. It is a great loop. A fellow camper also suggested I try Russel-Brasstown skyway (?) toward Helen. I think that might be RT 348. I should try that next time. I got a little nervous when the gas station at the corner of 60 and 180 didn't have any gas but the little convenient store on 19 near Turners Corner had a single pump of 89. I was a little worried about it since I usually only use 93 octane but didn't seem to affect the bike at all. I enjoyed the curves so much more the 2nd day. Living and commuting in Atlanta does not give me much practice on curves. But after 2 days I got back in the groove and really started enjoying the curves again. I helped that there was nobody riding my ass waiting to pass.

Not sure if I'll get to do anymore motorcycle camping again this fall, but hopefully the wife and I can at least go up again for a day ride. It is so beautiful in the fall.

Anthrax Concert with Drew

Drew and I went to see Anthrax last Wednesday (Oct 5th, 2016) at the Tabernacle. It was Death Angel, Anthrax, and Slayer but we were really there to see Anthrax. I had seen them in the late 80's and was looking forward to seeing them again especially since I'm really loving their new album, For All Kings.


Waiting for Anthrax to start

I've been to a few metal shows with Drew that have had mosh pits but neither of us has had the guts to take the plunge. They just look so violent and there is some huge dudes in there. I don't know how I used to do it when I was in high school. But when Anthrax started playing Caught In A Mosh I just decided I had to jump in. The seas divided and I entered the fray. Within one step my cell phone snapped off my side holster. That was stupid - should have given that to Drew or put it in my pocked. Somehow I managed to quickly pick it up before someone stepped on. Then I started flying around the circle slamming into folks. I was probably only out there for a minute but when I came back to Drew my hands were on my knees and I was breathing HARD. What a blast! What a workout! I encouraged Drew to give it a try and finally convinced him. God bless his timid soul. He didn't stay out there long but he did it, didn't get hurt, and I think had fun! I could have never imagined that one day my son and I would mosh together at an Anthrax concert. What a blessed life.


This cross between Predator and Jason was in the mosh pit!

Got new shirts and CD after the show

Good night!

Rock on!

Slayer take the statge

Anthrax put on a great show and I think they played 4 songs off their new album in addition to some old classics. They definitely just aren't playing the old stuff. The fans are loving their new album and want to hear it. What a great show. The perfect show for Drew's first mosh!

Shambhala - Wisdom In Everyday Live

I just completed the 5th course in the "everyday life" series at the Atlanta Shambhala Center: Wisdom In Everyday Life (WIEL). Usually these course are over 5 weeks but his one was done over a weekend (Sept 30-Oct 2nd). It was a small class: only five students and our teacher - Shastri Janet. I always enjoy the classes but the small classes even made it nicer. This is the first time I've taken a picture of our class.  Here we are: Clark, myself and Stephen in the back. Janet, Marina, and Joy in the front.



Koala Time Down Under

Decided to share another photo from the past. I'm putting it under my "relax" tab which is ironic because it was a work trip. I was in Townsville, Australia for a melioidosis conference. While I was there I actually got to go out to Magnetic Island and saw Koalas in the wild (this photo is not from there). They are hard to spot in the trees but we did manage to see a couple (unusually because someone else spotted them first). On our day home we squeezed in a quick trip to the Billabong Sanctuary before we headed to the airport. Billabong is a wildlife park in Townsville that is kind of like a cool zoo in the forest where you can interact with some of the animals. I got to feed Kangaroos and hold this little beauty below while I was there. Australia is such a beautiful place which so much cool wildlife. I particularly like the birds and flying foxes (fruit bats)!

Art - something old and something new

I found some old drawings I did when I was a kid of Eddie. He was the mascot of Iron Maiden and appears on all of their album covers. A couple years ago, I convinced Emily to draw one of their album covers of Eddie as well (she was 12). She loves to draw but this was definitely not the type of thing she liked to draw. She didn't want to do it but she did it for me because I begged :)
I love how she kind of turned it into a card for me. She is so sweet.



My first Eddie drawing (the edges got cut off during the scan due to the size of the paper)

My 2nd drawing of their live album

Emily's version of the Killers album

Smelly Stickers!

When I was in the 5th grade in New Jersey, scratch and sniff (smelly) stickers were the thing to collect. We traded them big time and it was competitive. Sometimes you couldn't tell what they were supposed to smell like by the picture and it's a surprise. You just give them a little scratch and then smell them. It was so much fun. As you can see, some of mine have been scratched a lot. Can you believe some of them actually still smell! Not strong - but they do still work. Amazing. We'll you can't scratch them in my blog but maybe one of you will find them in my old trapper keeper (with a metal button - not Velcro) one day and can give them a try.

I think the car smelled like gasoline and the skates were leather.

Looks like I was missing 1 bubble gum smurf! There was 3 of each scent.

The mini stickers we in demand when they came out!

My Early Art and Love of Birds

Well kids, thought I would share a few things from my childhood that I stumbled upon recently. I loved birds and drawing at a young age. I remember memorizing every bird name in a book of N. American birds that I got from school. My love of birds hasn't diminished but I seem to have lost the art interest. I always put my age on my early drawings. I think I thought I was going to be famous one day and wanted to document when I did these things :)
This work seems to be done with markers but I remember doing a lot with pastel chalks as well.

Next up - my scratch and sniff sticker collection.

1989-90UNH Freshman Crew

I decided it was time to add and discuss the 5th "R" of my blog - Rowing. I haven't rowed in about 25 years but it was a huge part of my life at UNH for my freshman and sophomore years. Even though it was certainly my biggest sporting accomplishments and rowing in my fresh 8-man boat was probably one of the highs of my life, it has drifted into foggy memory as the years have passed. So why bring it up and write about it now when I'm 45? Well, it's because I just read a wonderful book called The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. It is about Joe Rantz, his life, his years rowing at the University of Washington, and pursuit of the gold medal at Adolf Hitler's 1936 Olympics in Berlin. It was a fantastic story and I'm so glad it was told. In addition, for me, it brought back so many memories of trying to row freshman year, ergometers, seat races, blisters on hands, double workouts in the winter, rowing through ice, ice sickles on my beard, defeat, and victory. Although I certainly wasn't at their level, I know what those boys went through and I cried when it was over as I was reading the epilogue. Then I decided I needed to write down my little story and preserve it for me and my kids.

In the fall season we did head races. I think those were 3 miles long and we probably on did one or two. I remember we did one at Dartmouth but I don't recall to much about it. As freshman we were focused on learning the technique of rowing and getting in shape. I think there was only 2 guys who had any previous rowing experience and I wasn't one of them. Early in the process we picked sides to row on and I became a starboard rower. We hit the water nice and early so that we were back off the water (Oyster river) and had time to run back to campus before 8 am classes. Getting up that early every day of the week in college was no easy task but your boat didn't appreciate it too much if you didn't show and thus they were short a man.

In the winter, once the river froze, we did lots of land training which included running, weights, stairs, and ergometers (rowing machines). I thought ergometers were pure hell back then. We would sometimes workout twice a day in winter and during spring break we went down to Tampa Bay FL to row in warmer weather twice a day.

By spring the boats were set and I was in the first freshman it. Starting from the bow of the boat (1 seat), it consisted of: Eric Burroughs ("Bucko"), Derek Whipple, Dewitt Newton ("Dewar"), Matt Collins, Luke Ramsey, Graham Duncan, Alex Hoffmaster, John Harris, and Kristina Louise Delaney (coxswain). I didn't know any of them before we met our freshman year at crew. But I spent more time with them than anyone else that year and we had so much fun. We went through a lot together.

The spring season is the major racing season. The races are 2,000 m sprints. I found an old schedule that says we raced the following:
April 7 Dartmouth
April 14 Tufts and Weslyan at Boston
April 21 Temple
April 28 Phillips Exeter Academy
April 29 Harvard
May 5 New England Championships
May 11,12 Dad Vail Regatta (considered at the time our div II national)

I honestly don't remember the Dartmouth or Temple races but it looks like we came in 2nd to temple down in Philly. I certainly remember the race in Boston. It was cold with really rough water (maybe some rain as well). Our coach, Sean O'Connell, really wanted to win. He had major competitive issues or some sort of grudge with the Tufts coach I think. It didn't' go well. We were generally not a good rough water crew, which may have gotten in our heads. By the time the race started I was freezing and could barely feel my hands. I caught a "crab" at some point in the race which certainly didn't help our cause. We came in 2nd to Tufts.

The Harvard race was a highlight. Our coach talked to theirs so that they would bring a freshman crew with an equivalent amount of talent to our boat to race us (with only a couple rowers with prior experience). I think it was their 3rd freshman eight but I can't be sure. We won the race and I have a Harvard crew shirt (losers give you their shirts in crew) to show for it. I was glowing the rest the day.

Clip from our University paper on our Harvard race.

New England Championships
 
We were starting to peak at just the right time heading into the New England Championships and then down to Dad Vail for the nationals. Then there was a minor hiccup. Sometime after the Harvard race I broke my foot playing intramural basketball. I went to the UNH clinic where they took an X-ray and confirmed it was broken. The doctor was about to start having a cast put on my foot and lower leg but I knew I wouldn't be able to row like that and I just couldn't stop now. I asked the doctor if I absolutely needed the cast and if it would be okay to row. I explained my whole situation and he agreed that if I used crutches and didn't walk on it, that it would be ok to row since rowing was more of a pushing motion. Coach sure was relieved. Changing the chemistry of the boat right before all the championships would not be good.

The New England Championships were raced on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester MA. There was no docks. You just waded out into the water, set your boat down, and then got in. Except for me of course :) Because of my broken foot I had 2 teammates carry me and set me in the boat. I'm sure someone has a picture of that but I don't. It was quite a sight and I heard lots of other crews talking about it later and wondering what was going on. There were 18 schools in the freshman (novice) competition including Tufts and Coast Guard. We really wanted to show Tufts and everyone else that we were a much better crew then we showed earlier in the season. The water was calm so there would be no excuses this time. We won our heat and had the fastest heat time of any boat. In the finals we raced to victory over Connecticut College, UMass, URI, Coast Guard and Tufts! Victory could not be much sweeter. We got a lot of crew jerseys from our competitors that day!



Getting in our boat for the race. I'm in the 7 seat.

Gold medals and championship trophy!

Article on our victory in the university newspaper

Dad Vail Regatta (Div II National Championships)

The Dad Vail Regatta was out national championship race which is held in Philadelphia on the Schuylkill River. The river banks were loaded with racing shells. It was an amazing site to see all the different schools and boats there to race. I'm not sure how many boats were entered in the novice 8 category but I believe we had to race in 2 heats prior to the final heat. I think only the top 2 boats advanced from each heat. Unlike the New Englands, we didn't dominate our heats and I believe we struggled to get the 2nd spot each time. I believe we struggled in both of those heats because of rough water but we gutted through it. The water was calmer in the finals and we were ready to go for it. We raced a solid race and gave it our best but ending up losing to our nemesis, Temple University. We know we gave it our all and so I don't think anyone was disappointed with our effort or the Silver medal. It as amazing. My family came down to watch as well which was really cool. Karl was there taking pictures (most of these) along with my mom and Brad. I don't recall if Crae was there or not. I'll have to ask him about that.

Me with mom and Brad between races

Racing - probably in one of the heats

More race action!

Rowing up to get our medals

Karl (Poppy) was on the dock or close by taking these pictures

Rowing away with our medals

Carrying the boat back to shore

My freshman year at UNH was amazing. I enjoyed my classes, declared my major in microbiology, and made some great friends in my dorm. But crew and my freshman boat affected my in ways that can't easily be described. The dedication, teamwork, depending on others, time management, pushing through the pain, the camaraderie, the fun...the lessons were endless.