October 2004

It’s definitely official now, I’m going to Italy to visit my sister during Thanksgiving. I was in Italy nearly 10 years ago, and remember it pretty well. It will definitely be nice to go back and get the insider’s tour with my sister! Apparently things have only gotten better in Italy since I was last there, and with the introduction of the Euro I will no longer suffer from sticker shock as I did years ago upon seeing a price tag of ₤1.000.000,00 on a nice dinner! Now it’ll just be something like €10,00. I can deal with that!

I found a really good deal on plane fare with Alitalia. It seems that international fares are pretty cheap during Thanksgiving, and interestingly enough, the fare from here to JFK and back (which is where I will catch the Alitalia flight to/from Rome) is about the same price as the US-Italy leg of the journey. I’ve heard (from ) that late-November is an excellent time to visit Italy thanks to the lack of mainstream tourists.

I definitely plan on doing more international travel in my life, and I’m really proud of myself for jumping on this opportunity. One of my largest fears in my young adult life has been that I will be stuck in the US forever. At the very least, this offers a little taste of something different, which is good enough for me right now (having only recently moved to Washington DC and started my career). I was also inspired by hearing about ’s journey through Europe. I definitely plan on doing that someday.

For now, I have applied for my passport renewal (with expedited two-week service), and the paper tickets arrived via UPS from Alitalia. I haven’t had a paper airline ticket since I came back from Egypt in January, 2003. E-tickets are nice (and do offer some measure of convenience), but there is nothing like the confusing, tree-killing nature of a paper ticket!

My first experiment in brewing is moving along nicely. The primary fermenter has been bubbling like crazy, meaning that the yeast is slowing breaking down the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. I still have to wait until Wednesday to transfer it into the secondary fermenter. That will be the first opportunity I’ll have to actually look at the product of my efforts. It should be ready to keg by November 3, just in time for sampling while and DP are here!

I also joined the community , where members post their new and favorite recipes. I’m intrigued by the number of cider-related recipes posted recently. If I ever find the patience to press enough apples, I might experiment with making my own cider. The drawback is that it takes several months for the fermentation process to complete. Perhaps I’ll start by making something more like Woodchuck, which is brewed just like beer and only takes a few weeks to ferment. Mmmm, a homemade stout and homemade woodchuck snakebite could be a very tempting motivator!

Anyone have any other ideas for the next beer, possibly to be brewed starting next week?

Yesterday morning on the Metro commute to work I had just arrived at Ballston Station when I noticed that all of the electronic boards were displaying MAJOR DELAYS, with no further details. Used to frequent delays on both the orange and red lines during morning rush hour, I really didn’t think much of it. That changed when I arrived at Metro Center downtown, and was quickly herded into a large group of people gathered on one platform on the upper level (where the red line comes through). The announcements indicated that there was a piece of track that had been removed in the downtown area, and that all trains were running on one track between several stations. The picture at the right is a very blurry, dark look at the platform where thousands of passengers were waiting for the next train for both directions.

Luckily the next red line train that came through was headed in the direction of work, so I got on (along with what seemed like a thousand other people), and we rode slowly toward Union Station packed in light sardines. I was giving a training seminar at 9:30, and many people didn’t show up thanks to the extensive delay. There was an article on the front page of this morning’s Washington Post about how a section of the track completely broke off and rammed into the electrified third rail. In the afternoon yesterday, Metro offered reduced fairs to help compensate for the major delays occurring all day.

I think there might be a tendency for the Metro board to use this to demonstrate how underfunded they are, however I’m convinced that would demonstrate poor judgment at best. It is true that Metro is the only major US-based public transit organization without a dedicated revenue stream (they have to beg for money each year from local governments), but by blaming lack of funding for safety concerns they might be opening themselves up to many more problems, including the increased scrutiny of local governments and the effectiveness of Metro’s board. It’s more likely an issue with the actual manufacturing process of the rail than an issue of funding (in other words, having more money to spend probably wouldn’t have prevented this type of problem). It seems that Metro has used the budget argument far too often to help explain massive daily delays, overcrowding and what has been termed “The Orange Crush” (increased crowding on the orange line). It’s almost looking like one of those situations where the boy cried “wolf” too often.

As a commuter and local area resident, I just hope they can figure things out before they lose too much more ridership. It doesn’t take too many incidents like the one yesterday, and too many weeks of daily delays, to dissuade riders and force them to consider other forms of transportation. I know I’ll be riding the Metro until the end, but I can’t be certain about others.

I’ve been talking about getting into homebrewing for a while now (remember that it was one of the motivations behind buying a kegerator and CO₂ setup). I recently purchased a really good book on the subject, and found limitless numbers of resources online. Earlier this week, I decided to take the plunge and brew my first batch!

I purchased all of my equipment through a local supplier Jay’s Brewing, who runs his business out of his basement and has a very nice store there in his Fairfax home. He was very encouraging, and recommended that my first beer be a Heffeweizen. Jay also offered that if I were to bring along a sample of the finished product he would either enjoy it with me, or diagnose it and let me know where I went wrong. When I told him that I would see him in a few weeks, he suggested that I might want to come back in a week and start a second batch. Under that plan, I would have a new beer getting tapped each week. I think I could behind that!

One of the other benefits of homebrewing is that it is fairly cost-effective. The finished beer works out to cost about $0.75/pint, compared with commercial beers that can cost well over a dollar per pint. You also brew it in smaller quantities (5 gallons compared to 15.5 gallons commercial) so it can be changed up more often. I love my Guinness, but after a month or so it can get a bit tiresome drinking it all the time.

Last night became brewing night, the first step in a two week process of making beer. It was actually quite fun and challenging at the same time. The one thing I love about it the most is the science that goes into it, so much that the entire time you’re brewing you are focused on imagining the complex molecules break down into sugars, and the yeast breaking that down to form the alcohol. Very neat stuff! It definitely took a few minutes to remember all of my high school chemistry, and I can’t help but wonder what Mr. Gillet (high school chem teacher) would think of how I have put my chemistry to work for me.

So right now the Heffe is in the primary fermentation tank until next Wednesday or Thursday when it gets transferred to the secondary fermenter. Then the week after that I’ll keg it, carbonate, chill and enjoy! Actually it should be ready in time for and DP’s visit in early November. If they’re good and help finish off the keg of Guinness that is currently gracing my kegerator, I will tap it and let them sample the fruits of the labor

I think I’ve mentioned before that my sister is studying in Rome right now. She wasn’t sure for how long, but has decided to leave at the end of the current semester. I had planned a visit for sometime in the Spring, but that may have to get bumped up to sometime in the next two months if I want to go at all! I found a plane fare on Alitalia for $390 round trip for the end of November. Now all I need is to get my passport renewed (which consequently will end up costing about $150, almost half the price of the plane ticket!). At least this time the passport will be good for 10 years.

So yay, I’m probably going to Italy in a month