The Lutheran church has a strong German heritage. So when October rolls around, it’s time for Oktoberfest! Our church puts on a pretty good party with everyone bringing homemade German dishes to share. We also had a pie baking contest, a beer judging event and hammerschalgen. Any day when I get to eat a bunch of sausage and taste 11 different beers is a good one in my book.
Fantasy Football – Week 6
The Seahawks are 4-1 after and ugly win against Atlanta. The normally rock solid kicking game had a missed field goal and blocked extra point that nearly cost them the game. The big play of the game unfortunately came from the referees with a blown pass interference call at the end of the game that would have put the Falcons in field goal position. I love the Seahawks but that as a terrible no-call. Nevertheless, it’s a W in the books and that means that “Russell Wilson is 1 win away from his 50th career victory. With a win over the Falcons in his 69th career start, he would tie for the 3rd-fastest starting QB since 1970 to reach 50 career wins, behind only Ken Stabler (62 starts) and Tom Brady (65 starts).” (source)
Two of the highest scores in our league came from the 7th and 8th place teams (Dad and Jim) in their head to head battle. Luke’s team blew everyone away though with three players over 30 points! Logan looks dominant as he extended his winning streak to 4 games. And I don’t want to pick on Tim too much, but have we ever had a team that was in first place get the lowest score in the league two weeks in a row? If he keeps this up for a few more weeks, he’ll be down in the standings by me. Here’s what the Power Rankings have to say:
1. Logan
2. Andy
3. Austin
4. Dad (+2)
| This Week | Season | All-Time | |
| Highest Team Score | Luke had 131.52 | Logan had 170.69 (Week 5) | Tim 200.51 (2015) |
| Lowest Team Score | Tim had 77.09 | Was: Jim had 77.82 (Week 2) | Andy had 41.29 (2015) |
| Biggest Blowout | Luke beat Tim by 54.43 | Logan beat Tim by 79.46 (Week 5) | Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010) |
| Closest Win | Dad beat Jim by 7.77 | Tim beat Dad by 0.45 (Week 4) | Jim beat Ben by 0.12 (2012) |
| Highest Scoring Player | Drew Brees had 40.60 on Austin’s bench | Ben Roethlisberger had 43.90 for Andy (Week 4) | Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015) |
| Longest Active Winning Streak | Logan has a 4 game winning streak | Tim had a 4 game winning streak (Week 4) | Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had an 8 game winning streak |
| Longest Active Losing Streak | Jim has a 3 game losing streak. | Dad had a 4 game losing streak (Week 5) | Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011) |
Best of YouTube
Destin gets some very cool opportunities as part of his job and the Smarter Every Day channel. Thankfully he shares them with us! I’ve always wondered what it would feel like to pull a loop in a jet but I never thought about the feeling of making the inputs into the plane to get that loop to happen.
It’s hard to not use the Modern Rogue channel as all three of my videos this week, but here’s one of their best videos. Don’t try these at home. Especially if I’m around.
Bob Hoover is one of the greatest pilots the world has ever known. Check out this old video of him pouring an ice tea while performing an aileron roll… and oh yeah, the back of the plane was full of Generals.
Pumpkin Patch
The pumpkin patch is an annual tradition in our house. We’ve visited quite a few different ones but Bob’s Corn is our favorite. They have lots of activities, good food and, oh yeah, pumpkins. Ever wanted to shoot an apple out of a big air cannon? Bob’s Corn has you covered.
This year we snuck in on a day that looked a bit rainy so the crowds weren’t too big. We made the rounds and spent plenty of time watching Elijah ride a bike with training wheels. He’s really eager to get a “pedal bike” but we’re trying to get him comfortable on the Strider and skip training wheels. One of the tricycles was big enough to squeeze onto so I rode next to Elijah for a while and he got a huge kick out of that.
They also have a giant pile of pumpkins next to their barn which makes a great spot for photos…
Top Beers
I was recently asked what my favorite beers are. To the data we go! I have tried over 400 different beers and they’re all rated in Untappd. Here are the only beers that have received a perfect score from me.
| Brewery | Beer |
| Aslan Brewing Company | Batch 15 IPA |
| Northwest Brewing Company | Hoppy Bitch IPA |
| Fish Brewing Company | Fish Tale Full Blast |
| Wingman Brewers | Ace IPA |
| Worthy Brewing | Worthy IPA |
| Sumerian Brewing Co. | Narcissism IPA |
| Laughing Dog Brewing | India Pale Ale (IPA) |
| No-Li Brewhouse | Born & Raised |
| Worthy Brewing | Worthy IPA |
| Firestone Walker Brewing Company | Luponic Distortion: Revolution No. 001 |
| 10 Barrel Brewing Company | Joe |
| Cascade Lakes Brewing Company | Hop Smack |
| Sumerian Brewing Co. | Pale Ale |
| GoodLife Brewing Company | Descender IPA |
| Redhook Brewery | Big Ballard |
| Hale’s Ales Brewery | Supergoose IPA |
| Oskar Blues Brewery | IPA |
| Mac & Jack’s Brewing Company | African Amber |
| Deschutes Brewery | Red Chair NWPA |
| Gallaghers’ Where-U-Brew | Galley Mac Amber |
If you don’t like IPAs, then you might not be thrilled with this list, but right now I would rank Oskar Blues IPA and Deschutes Red Chair as the best of the best. You can only find Red Chair from about January to May so it’s a special treat each year.
And while we’re on the topic of alcohol, how about a refresher on my list of top rums?
- Sipping rums. Mt. Gay Extra Old is my go-to standard, but there’s a new entry on this list from a distillery in Woodinville: Puget Sound Rum Company C&C Honey Rum.
- Mixing rums. If you’re mixing with Coke (or Coke Zero as I prefer), look no further than Kraken. If you’re mixing with fruit juice then grab some Mt. Gay Eclipse.
Monorail
Since we only lasted about an hour at the Lego festival and we were already down by the Space Needle, I thought we should fulfill one of Elijah’s long-time wishes and ride the monorail. I’ve never been on it before. Now I have. It’s not that impressive. Elijah thought it was cool for a little while but I think he was underwhelmed. It’s only a 2 minute ride that covers about a mile. So as a sight seeing adventure, it’s not really worth it. But if you’re walking around Seattle and you want to quickly transport between Pike Place and the Space Needle, it’s a good option.
Fantasy Football – Week 5
The Seahawks had a bye this week, but I read a couple fun statistics that make me excited about the possibilities for this season:
- The Seahawks now have played 77 straight games without losing by more than 10 points. That is now the longest streak in pro football history, as they passed the Decatur Staleys-turned-Chicago Staleys-turned Chicago Bears streak of 74 straight set from 1920 to 1925, per Pro-Football-Reference.com.
- Since 2012, the Seahawks have allowed 106 touchdowns. The next closest team is the Bengals, who have allowed 143 during that stretch.
Tim’s undefeated streak was ended in our league in grand fashion. It was kind of reminiscent of the Hindenberg as Logan beat him by so mucch that we wondered about the toppling of the all-time record. Elsewhere in the league, Luke, Jim and Dad are still looking for win number two before their season is flushed like number two. Jim and Dad each other next week so one of them will find the endzone. Kudos to Jim though for starting the perfect roster this week!
With his big game, Logan jumps up to the top of the power rankings this week:
1. Logan (+2)
2. Andy (-1)
3. Austin (-1)
4. Ben
| This Week | Season | All-Time | |
| Highest Team Score | Logan had 170.69 | Was Andy had 154.21 (Week 4) | Tim 200.51 (2015) |
| Lowest Team Score | Tim had 92.19 | Jim had 77.82 (Week 2) | Andy had 41.29 (2015) |
| Biggest Blowout | Logan beat Tim by 79.46 | Was Austin beat Jim by 41.90 (Week 4) | Luke beat Andy by 113.02 (2010) |
| Closest Win | Austin beat Dad by 8.19 | Tim beat Dad by 0.45 (Week 4) | Jim beat Ben by 0.12 (2012) |
| Highest Scoring Player | Ben Roethlisberger had 37.20 for Andy | Ben Roethlisberger had 43.90 for Andy (Week 4) | Drew Brees had 60.54 on Tim’s bench (2015) |
| Longest Active Winning Streak | Logan has a 3 game winning streak | Tim had a 4 game winning streak (Week 4) | Micah (2011) and Ben (2015) had an 8 game winning streak |
| Longest Active Losing Streak | Dad has a 4 game losing streak | Weekly streak is season record | Kyle had a 14 game losing streak (2011) |
BrickCon 2016
BrickCon is a big Lego convention held in Seattle every year. Tyla and I attended in 2009, but I haven’t been back since. This year I thought that Elijah was old enough to get a kick out of it and Logan was interested too so we headed into Seattle to check it out.
It was busy in 2009 but wow it was PACKED this year. It was pretty difficult to keep Elijah interested when we were two or three people deep just to see the displays. I had to keep him on my shoulders for most of it.
We only lasted an hour before he was done, but we were able to quickly scan most of the displays. It is incredible how much time and detail people can cram into these creations. You have to look so closely to see it all.
I imagine this won’t be the last time we go, but next time I think I might try to go a little later in the event to see if the crowds are a little slower towards the end.
Best of YouTube
In this first video, Jimmy Diresta makes a custom key for a very old lock. It’s a pretty cool way to resurrect something that would otherwise be garbage or decoration.
Matthias Wandel is not your typical woodworker. He uses wood to build precision tools and instruments. If you have an engineering mind, you’ll probably enjoy his channel. Here’s a recent example where he builds a small engine out of a solenoid.
I’ve followed Brian Brushwood for a long time but I’m a little late to the party on his Modern Rogue YouTube channel. It’s full of great videos and here’s one great example. I really want to try out this method for making a hologram out of some old CD cases and a phone.
Church Speakers
Finally, it was time to upgrade. The only catch was that I had no idea how big of a system we really needed. I didn’t even know how to find speakers that would work with an amplifier. I spent some time learning about resistance, RMS, amplifier wattage, and how to pair an amp with speakers and made a wild guess.
We ended up with a QSC GX3 300 watt amplifier and two Mackie C200 speakers. The speakers are rated for 200 watts RMS and the amp can drive 300 with one of these speakers on each channel. The speakers are mounted to the wall with some simple, custom speaker boxes that I made with plywood, pocket hole screws and black paint.
Our church is roughly 75 feet long, 40 feet wide and 30 feet high at the peak. My hope was to get a system that would be at about 30% total power to get the right volume under normal conditions. I failed that, but the system is still a success. This setup is loud. When the church was empty, I got it turned up about 1/3 of the way and it felt like a rock concert. I seriously wonder if more power could blow out some windows.
So yeah, overkill. But you know what? It feels AWESOME to have a system that really works and isn’t straining to sort of meet our needs. We have had a lot of births in the last five years so church is a lot noisier than it used to be and it’s nice to have the ability to drown out the kiddie buzz if we need to.