For real, I had a very nice weekend. To backtrack, go to Friday’s post where I was in a pretty bad mood. Feeling rather low. Nothing like having to stay late on a Friday evening and having a grumpy husband. BUT, he and I met at Bumpa’s for dinner – just us – and that was really nice. He wasn’t even mad when I showed up so that’s good. We had a very nice meal (I got their cobb salad, which is a dream) and then went home and watched the 2nd episode of the Mandalorian. Man they’ve gotten lazy with their writing.

Anyway, not much else to report there; I was happy to temporarily forget about my job (I do like it but it’s hard right now). The next morning, he got out early to mountain bike with a friend and I worked around the house and went to the store. Timing all worked out really well; he got back with time to shower then the four of us went to Isaac’s soccer game (Elliot was off at a friend’s house, as per usual). Isaac’s team won 2-1, though it should have been more of a blow out. He did score so, yay! Went home and started on making burgers and prepping to brew. We ate then I took Isaac to his friend’s house so they could leave for a week-long beach trip! Ash and I then proceeded to brew an imperial stout. Brew process went really well and by about 6:15 we were done and then prepping a fire out back. Invited the neighbors so that was nice. Mary had moved to the neighborhood maybe 2 years ago but her husband was still down South working and selling the old place so he’s only been here a little while and we didn’t know him as well. He’s the quiet stoic type but we had a great time; he opened up. Good times.

Sunday morning, Ash and I had planned to brew again, but this time, with 3 vessels, since I got a mash tun at Christmas. Well, it didn’t go exactly as planned because our all in one 10 gallon system’s pump decided not to work, which doesn’t help pump the wort out into a cube for cooling, since it had to be the one on the ground (half this stuff relies on gravity). We ended up using two containers only and it took a little while longer than anticipated but we did it. I also made steak, baked potatoes, and green beans. We went to Costco and then I took Koda to Target and THEN I could sit (ok fine I was also doing laundry). But we drank some beer (oh, it was like, 4:30 by this time because of dumb daylight savings) but all in all, a really nice weekend. We watched Aliens and then the Oscars, even though I dislike award shows. I watched almost all the major nominees this year. Was sad RRR didn’t get more noms but glad the song won; it’s really good.

I really needed that nice weekend; spent good time with each person (minus my oldest but he made up for it by sending me a 2 am text saying he was ok last night – he’d gone out with friends in the DARK in the RAIN – and I appreciate that he’s thinking about his poor old mom, worrying in the night.

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So above, I was talking about brewing and I said “vessel”, which, coincidentally, is the name of the singer in the group I am sharing today. This band is in some ways like Ghost in that people don’t know who they are (well, Ghost is unmasked now but for a long time, they were a mystery.) So, people surmise that Vessel is this scrawny guy named Leo Faulkner from some other British band but I don’t even care; he’s got this voice that I hated at first but then grew to love. I am dumping a bunch of songs on you because their sound varies so much you have to hear it to understand.

The Summoning is the song that people have been cited as the one that got them into the group. Granite, to me, has pop undertones, and Blood Sport breaks my heart each and every time I listen to it. And I have listened to it A LOT.