overdue upgrade

so i _finally_ got around to upgrading the blog software on my website this past week. this new version has been available for over a year, but i'm lazy and the old stuff was working pretty well. the main advantages of the new software are that it supports feeds and has more options for dealing with spam. so... i've gone ahead and re-enabled comments for recent posts so you can reply to my blatherings if you feel so inclined.

work diversion

i normally don't post work related items on my blog, but since brandz (a project i've been working on for over a year and a half) finally integrated into opensolaris today, i can breath a big sigh of relief and relax a little.

brewing hiatus ends

after about 5 months of not brewing i finally cooked up a new batch of beer. this one is my attempt to make something like orval. it's the first time brewing at the new house, and since this house has a much smaller sink that my old place, it's also my first time using a immersion wort chiller. it's a good thing that the hiatus is finally over, i brewed a lot of beer in the beginning of the year, but somehow almost all of it has disapeared, and running out of beer would be bad...

hiking in desolation

me and ronda just got back from three days of hiking in desolation wilderness. this was the first time i've ever planned a multi night backpacking trip, and i may be been a little aggressive in our schedule. We hiked about 7 miles each day with just under 1000ft of elevation gain and loss per day. with 40 pound packs on or back (and not being vetran hikers) this pretty much kicked our asses. but there was plenty of gorgeous scenery all around and we even got a little bit of excitement on sat morning when we noticed a wild fire starting up just a few hundred feet from our camp. Eventually the fire fighters came in on helicopters to put it out, but by that time we had already given up our front row seats because we had to start moving to our next camp. the first day we started our hike at lower echo lake and walked to ropi lake where we camped for the night. the second day we headed out past lake of the woods, aloha lake, and heather Lake to camp at susie lake. The last day was spent walking out back to the echo lakes where we took a water taxi back across upper and lower echo lakes. in the end, an exhausting but great trip.