Forty-Seven Bottles of Beer on the Wall, Grits, and Gravity

Sunday started out with the best grits I have ever had.  And I have had a LOT of grits.

It was beer-bottling day in Frederick (at last!), so Kev and I went early for Sunday brunch at Family Meal.  Family Meal is a Bryan Voltaggio restaurant.  Bryan Voltaggio was on Top Chef, where he was beaten in the finale by his brother Michael.  He has three restaurants in Frederick, and the two I have been to are awesome.  I am telling you, these grits were amazing.  And they didn't even need cheese!

After breakfast, we walked around town and got a little bit of Christmas shopping done!  Then, we headed to the Flying Barrel to bottle our beer.

Kev's job was to fill the bottles:

And my job was to put the caps on with the fun gadget:

And now, we have 47 bottles of beer in the basement, getting all carbonated and ready to drink.

We sneaked a few sips, and the flavor is really nice.  It's going to be a good batch of beer.  This was really a fun activity, and I recommend it if you have a beer fan in your family and you live near Frederick.

I also recommend going to Family Meal for brunch grits.  I am going to write to Bryan Voltagglio and try to get his secret.

The rest of the weekend was good. On Friday night, we went to the annual Work Festival at the Orbital complex.  Daphne got to climb a rock wall, build a toy car, win a stuffed dog, eat free ice cream, and hold a baby duck.  Not a bad Friday night.

Saturday, we had band practice, which was fun because we played some new songs.  Daphne went to spend the night in Manassas, and Kev and I went to the Alamo to see Gravity-3D.  This movie is amazing.  I have no idea how such a thing could be filmed.  I am usually against 3D, but the technology has come a long way, and it wasn't annoying or distracting.  Seriously good movie, even though I was prepared to hate it. 

I now have a head cold, which is annoying.  I'm glad to have it now, though, to get it over with during an easy week.  It would be bad to be sick for dogsledding (DOGSLEDDING!!!) on Saturday, or the Sheep and Wool Festival the next weekend. 

Lots of house stuff to take care of, and then maybe a nap.  Head colds make me sleepy.