Couldn't think of a "B" word for planes. :D

My first batch of homebrew is coming along exactly as it should. On Saturday evening we transferred it from the primary fermenter to secondary, drawing a small sample to test for specific gravity. It was in the range it should be, so all is proceeding well. We tasted the sample, and it tastes like slightly weak, non-carbonated beer - which is what it is! No off-flavors at all - at least not to our untrained tastebuds.

So, in about a week, we'll be bottling it, then 1-2 weeks later, it'll be ready for drinking and giving probably 80% of the batch away, as we don't drink a ton of beer. There'll be some happy people for sure. ;)

As I said in the last post, I have the chance to learn to hunt, and use some very nice non-public land to do so, so on Saturday I headed over to Arrows 3 and purchased a hunting bow. It's a very popular entry level hunting bow - a PSE Stinger NI. I bought it fully setup and ready to shoot/hunt with - arrow rest, sight, peep, you name it. After having some arrows made for me, I used their indoor range to roughly sight it in at 20 yards, with the help of my friend Chad.

I haven't shot a bow in about 20 years, and even then I had no training or clue about how to do it. I just picked up a friend's bow and shot it, doing basically everything wrong. But, I did hit targets and I wasn't too bad. So now, 20 years later, wanting to "do it right," I wondered how I'd do. Well, my second shot grazed the fletching of my first. ;) So, I have a "trophy arrow" with 1 cut fletching. I've got a lot of practicing to do - a HUGE lot - but, at least I have the confidence I'll be at least moderately skilled at archery. And it's fun!

Chad is moving, and downsizing some hobbies, so he had some R/C stuff for sale at a good price, so I now have an X9303 transmitter, and a mostly fully setup H&M Performance FW-190 sitting in my hobby room. The 190 is a big, 63" wingspan, built-for-electric scale model of the German WWII fighter. It's considered one of the best large electric warbirds out there, and I'm lucky to have one, as H&M Performance folded under the pressure of massive competition. The only things I need are batteries (and hence a charger), a power analyzer, and a receiver, and that beautiful bird will take to the air. After I get some time on a cheaper, easier to fly airplane, that is, since I haven't flown in nearly 2 years. It'll all come back though; muscle memory is a wonderful thing.

A couple weekends ago, we finally prepared the pork tongues we got from the Ladds a while ago. Good, good stuff! We'd had pork tongue before, from La Tapatia Mexican grocery here in town. Pork tongue is not like beef tongue at all! It's very much like regular pork, just a lot darker in color, and has more flavor. It's not oddly-textured like liver or any other "variety meats." Very good stuff! And the Ladd-pork-tongue is the best we've ever had, hands down!

Last item: tomorrow (11/30/2010), I'll be getting my first tattoo. The design is somewhat hard to describe, so I'll leave you in suspense with a promise to post a photo tomorrow evening, or Wednesday morning. Grant at Tattooed Heart, who did my wife's first tattoo, will be doing mine. He's amazingly talented and I have no doubt he'll give me the perfect art for my arm. Picture soon. ;)