Trip to Science World

My in-laws got us a family membership at Science World for Xmas last year. Yesterday I got to take my 4 year-old (how should that be hyphenated?) son for the morning. It was his third trip and my second.

We headed right for the Eureka room, which is aimed at the young 'uns, and he ran around showing me everything. "Daddy, here's a big tube where you can shoot out parachutes! And this air gun shoots balls up into the water!" We found out that you could stuff three plastic balls into the air gun at once (poom poom poom!).

Oh, and when we got home he wanted to do an experiment. He got some pennies and put them in a jar with water, to leave them for a few days and see if they would dissolve. I had a maple syrup candy in my pocket (no idea where I got it), so I threw that in too. The candy has dissolved and made the water brown, so I'm curious to see what he makes of that.

Science World is just incredible. I long to go see the grownup stuff, but even the kid stuff is enormously fun and moderately educational (though that's not my son's priority right now) (dang kids). I grew up in small towns as a kid, so trips to museums like this were rare, enormous fun. (And I never did get to go to Science North...) It's amazing to me that this stuff is right here, only a half hour away by transit. I'm still a little shocked we don't go, like, every weekend.

In other news, I've got a starter going for a batch of beer next weekend. It's a Belgian yeast, harvested from my January batch. The yeast was washed following these instructions, and the starter took off in about 18 hours. It seems to be doing quite nicely; I'll probably stick it in the fridge on Wednesday or so and cold-crash it.

The ingredients are pretty much whatever I have around the house: the last of my Gambrinus ESB, some biscuit and wheat malt, a bit of roasted barley, and the hops are Centennial, Goldings and Mt Hood. My father-in-law would call this a "ministrone" -- Italian not just for that kind of soup, but for "dog's breakfast" or "big ol' mixup". (I kind of like the idea of an Italian sounding like he's from Missouri.)

Still looking for a name; suggestions on a postcard, please. Sponsorship options are available. :-)

After that's in the bag, it's time to head back to Dan's for a shopping trip. This time, I think it'll be a 50-lb bag of plain ol' pale malt, and I'll see what difference that makes.