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Despite the fact that I don’t particularly LOVE to run, I’ve been doing quite a bit of it lately. I know it’s not the best exercise for the body, with all the strain it puts on the knees, hips, feet and spine — especially if you’re not doing it properly — but it’s a great way to get some good cardio in every once in a while. And it’s one of those activities that Gerry and I can be cute and do together outdoors. We both run in our VFFs, which we find to be a heck of a lot more comfortable than running sneakers.

So that being said, both of us, as well as Jessie and Heather and a whole lot of other people we don’t know, are running in a 5K race this Saturday, June 19th. It’s the 7th annual Sharon Timlin Memorial 5K Race in Hopkinton, MA, which is an event to raise money towards a cure for ALS (aka Lou Gehrig’s disease). The four of us are running as part of Team Vorlauf and we have sponsor pages setup for anyone who may wish to donate some cash toward the cause. Check it out if you’d like to sponsor me!

There are a couple beer dinners coming up that I think are worth mentioning. One of them is a Sixpoint dinner at Sierra Grille on Sunday, February 21st at 6pm. I don’t have a complete menu for this yet, but the food at Sierra is always good and the guys from Sixpoint brewery will be there to chat with. This dinner is $65/person, including tax and tip. Gerry and I have already got a table booked, so if you’d like to join us just let me know and I’ll call to add you.

Edit: I talked to O’Brian at Sierra Grille and found out that the menu will be spice trade themed, since Sixpoint uses a version of the nautical star as their logo. Here is what I got…

Soup Course
Butternut Bisque served w/ Dunkelweiss

Appetizer Course
Braised rib done in Otis Oatmeal Stout w/ a mole sauce

Intermezzo
3 different types of gravlax served w/ the Righteous Rye

Entree
Different meats, shrimp, veggie options all done Indian style and served w/ Bengali Tiger

Dessert
Flan w/ a mocha cookie and Double Sweet Action

The other is an Avery dinner at Bottega Cucina on Sunday, February 28th. 2 seatings, one at 4.30 and one at 7.30. This dinner is $55/person NOT including tax or tip. Unfortunately Gerry and I can’t make it to this one, but if you can, be sure to tell me how awesome it is and make me jealous. ;)

The menu is:
1st course
Old Jubilation Ale paired with
Ale infused carbonara with roasted veal tortellacci

2nd course
Karma "Golden Belgian" Ale paired with
Honey roasted beet tartar with grilled crostini

3rd course
Maharaja IPA paired with
NY Strip steak with beer poached egg and toast points

4th course
Mephistopheles Imperial Stout paired with
Bacon wrapped dates with a Roquefort blue cheese sauce

this is what we’ve got planned so far for the thanksgiving menu this year. we’ve got a LOT of people coming over throughout the day and it’s sure to be a great time!

apps
spinach and artichoke hummus & pita chips (sarah)
cheese & crackers (jess and sarah)
-gruyere
-havarti w/ dill
-smoked gouda
-shires of england cheddar
-dairy crest w/ blueberries
-goat gouda
-jarlsberg
garlic and lemon green olives, black olives & assorted pickles (jess and sarah)
collard green galette w/ shallots, pine nuts, pancetta, gorgonzola and lemon (sarah)
chips & dip (sarah)
pumpkin bread & cream cheese (jess)
deviled eggs (sarah)
shrimp cocktail (sarah)

butternut soup and beer bread (ed)

dinner
turkey (30lbs)
gravy
mashed taters
turnip
bread stuffing (mom)
french meat stuffing (mom)
butternut/chard/leek gratin (sarah)
roasted gruyere onions (mom)
greenbean casserole (heather)
sweet potatoes and carrots roasted w/ the turkey
sauteed brussel sprouts w/ pecans (sarah)
homemade cranberry sauce (heather)
plain and cranberry pecan flax rolls (heather)

dessert
apple pie (jess)
pecan pie? (possibly christina)
pumpkin cheesecake (jess)
macaroons dipped in dark chocolate (sarah)
brownies (gram)
cookie platter (jess)
pepper cookies (heather)

for anyone that might be interested and does not already know, i am hosting a pampered chef party this friday evening. i’m not usually a huge fan of these types of parties, but there are some pampered chef products that i’ve purchased in the past and absolutely love. they make some products that are definitely worth the money. if you’re interested in attending the party, please let me know and i’ll send you more info. otherwise if you’d like to purchase anything online and have it shipped directly to you, you can do so here and just enter my name as the host.

I think it’s time to reclaim my blog from twitter.  I find that I use twitter a heck of a lot more than I ever thought I would, especially since I’ve got tweetdeck installed on both my iPhone and my computer (so happy they have a decent linux client!) and I’ve got it plugged into facebook as well. So with the new design change for codebitch I think I’ll go with a format change and move to a twitter feed in the sidebar and save my main blog for actual entries.. as in, I may actually post those every once in a while. I love that twitter is super short and fast.. it’s definitely got that instant gratification aspect going for it, but I miss spending time writing things out in detail.  So yeah, let’s see how long this lasts for.  ;)

i took this super cute shot of tim @ his pub w/ his hop/grain assortment basket when he and amy had us up to the inn for a memorial day bbq. 

our good friend greg moved out to utah and found himself a beautiful wife!!  they got married last december (you can read all about it here) and they came home to western ma this week to visit with family and friends and to celebrate their nuptials with all of us.  we spent several hours today down the street at the fish & game club where greg’s family put together a big pig roast reception.  the happy couple is heading to ireland for the honeymoon on monday!

it was awesome to see greg and meet esther, and it was especially good to see lots of old friends.  i managed to snag just a few photos this afternoon…

greg and esther

kyle and chloe

the manzi fam

sal and lucia

andy and mia

hotray and rob

happy mother’s day to all of you wonderful mommies out there! special love goes out to my mamocita…

photo taken yesterday @ gram’s for mother’s day tea.

for those of you not privy to these things already (non-facebook users?) i wanted to write an actual post!  strange huh?  facebook/twitter seem to have taken over the communication market for most of my friends these days (and i’ve been a guilty participant of that for a while now) so i’ve obviously been slacking w/ my attention to codebitch.  maybe i’ll attempt to change that.. we’ll see.  but for now i wanted to mention something about the fantastic event we put on last saturday for national big brew day!

saturday may 2nd was big brew — national homebrew day as sponsored by the american homebrewers association.  dick and jill were kind enough to host the event at their place in feeding hills, ma.. which was awesomely close to home for us (only a 5 minute drive).  there were 7 batches of beer brewed: 2 saisons, 2 milds, a blood orange hefeweizen, a dunkel and a chocolate stout, and we had about 40 people over to watch/help/drink/eat/celebrate.  we mixed the event w/ a sort of cinco de mayo celebration since the date was so close.  with that in mind we had 2 homebrewed vienna lagers on tap and a lot of mexican style food, including enchiladas, smoked pork shoulder, taco dip, guacamole, spicy pepper soup, chicken on a stick, and lots lots more.  also for homebrew on tap we had a hop rod rye clone, 2 racer 5 clones, a two hearted clone and a coffee stout.. all wicked delicious!

we also were graced with the presence of tim from hereforthebeer.com and his friend timberly.  they came down and spent the day with us, enjoyed lots of beer and food, and took great video coverage of the whole event.  since the aha has a youtube video contest for the event, tim was kind enough to post the video up on youtube in addition to his site.  we had over 7400 hits!!  woohoo!  well, for whatever lame reason the video was deemed inappropriate and removed from youtube yesterday!  seriously, wtf?!  tim still has the video on his site through bliptv, which is awesome, but the youtube thing definitely ruffled everyone’s feathers.  despite that though, nothing can take away the fact that it was a super fun day!  this was the first big brew day for us masholes and it was a great success!  i’m looking forward to next year!  who knows, maybe gerry and i will even be able to host next year if we’ve got a house!

oh yeah, ps, we’re looking at houses right now.  it’s been 5 years in the condo and we’re ready for a big yard (more room to homebrew hehe), room for a puppy, and no neighbors within earshot.  if you see anything for sale in the area that you think we might be interested in.. let me know.  thanks!

I’ve posted a bunch of pics from the event here and also on facebook.

now i’ve got to get my butt in gear.. i’ve got to be at my gram’s in an hour for mother’s day tea party and then i’ve got to get some cleaning done in preparation for tonight’s dinner party that we’re hosting.  looks like the menu will be:

-kabobs on the grill (made w/ a combo of onions, red, yellow and orange peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, garlic, sirloin steak in a soy/scallion/peanut/sesame marinade, and chicken breast in coconut milk, curry, ginger, garlic marinade).
-white bean and veggie cakes
-parmesan pea risotto
-sauteed green beans w/ garlic and ginger
-homemade bread
-veggies, nuts, cheese and crackers to munch on
-strawberry rhubarb pie for dessert
-an assortment of tasty beverages