The Results Are In

As it says in the description up above, I'm not much for posting personal stuff here, but I'm really happy about this, so here goes.

Back in April I went to the doctor and got a not so great report. Nothing horrible, but not so good. Low HDL (good cholesterol) high Triglycerides, and I put on 15 pounds last year. My diet wasn't that horrible, so it basically meant get my ass off the barstool and into a gym. Three months later after joining the gym and a few diet changes I'm happy to report.

I lost 12 pounds
Triglycerides are down to 150 from 236. <200 is desirable
HDL is up to 32 from 26, still a little low, but the doc is sure it will continue to improve as I continue to exercise.

Overall heart rate, BMI, flexibility and other stuff greatly improved as well, but I won't bore you with all that.

The real story here is, the little changes it took to get here don't feel like a sacrifice, and my overall energy is much better!

More Brewing with Zenpunk - Bottling Day

Now that's a beer - the finished wort

The Brewmaster - adding the malt

and of course a taste.
At this point it's flat, carbonation will happen in the bottle, but I'd say it is on it's way to being a tasty beer.

Whoops forgot to take a picture of the actual bottling.

The Jump

I'm horrible with dates, and the years when I did stuff, it annoys me. I jumped out of a friggin' plane and I can't tell you what year it was, I'd have to guess 1998.
Anyway, I was working with Zenpunk at the time, we had some big advertising client meeting, and the theme was Unforgettable. Each participant had to tell a story about an unforgettable experience in their life. I let this video tell the story. Zenpunk did this cut down, with the personalized soundtrack, unlike the original produced by Skydive the Ranch, which had Ozzy. Thanks for digging it out ZP.

Brewing Beer with Zenpunk

I took the trip out to Queens today, to lend a hand, mostly watch Zenpunk start a new batch of beer. This to be a Blueberry Oak German Alt

First he lays out the ingredients, obviously I can't tell you the top secret recipe.

Derek lends a hand

The Brewmaster shows off the wort.

The Wort with grains.

Sparging (rinsing) the grains.

More Sparging

The Boil

The final Wort with hops. Now cool, transfer to fermenting bucket and wait.

And I head out into the snow, back to Brooklyn.