Go Pack Go

The Capitol in Madison, WI
Lit up green and gold for the Packers!

Mug Design

This is a mug template I designed for a co-workers wedding that is taking place in Mexico. He had a brilliant idea to add the cloud in the middle with not text to allow his guests to add their names to the mug.

FMI - Downtown Properties

A quick overview of the properties that we manage Downtown Madison, WI. Feel free to contact us at info@rentfmi.com.
Visit us on the web: rentfmi.com

Website Update

The first change you will notice when you hit the landing page is the new logo. A yellow crescent was added to the logo to resemble the yellow oval real estate signs. Also the slogan was added "Your Home, Our Passion" - courtesy of Matt Meske.

The second thing to notice is the new Find a Property feature. This boasts a much more simplistic way to find your next home. Start by selecting the cities that work for you, then unit style you are looking for, and we'll take care of the rest.

What is the most annoying thing you run across on a website? Have you ever wanted to contact someone, clicked the link of their email address to have Mail, Entourage, or Outlook open? Well you do not have to worry about this happening on rentfmi.com, our web refresh boasts online web inquiry submission. Wondering how it works? Feel free to give it a try. 

The Forward Management, Inc creative staff is continually looking for ways to make the website better, keep checking back to see the latest ideas in action. We have a couple other ideas in the works for later this fall... Thanks to Drew with LiteWired Solutions for making our ideas reality - once again.

Halloween - Photoshop

I took one of the photos and cropped out the background, including my mothers arm hold up Tigger.

I used gradients for the background. I am not overly impressed with the background.

Hopefully over time I will improve on my background creation skills. 

Halloween

My two nephews all dressed up for Halloween!

Capitol - Photoshop

I used this photo I took back in early September for multi-raw processing in Photoshop. By using multi-raw processing I was able to make everything but the capitol brighter. This photo did not turn out too well, as you can see the graininess in the photo where I really increased the brightness. One thing I really like about this photo is that you can clearly see the light beams of the spot lights that are lighting up the capitol. Below is the photo with unmodified exposure. 

Wine Racks

For a little Sunday project, I installed four wine racks. This will come in handy when my wine is done fermenting and is bottled. 

Before racks are mounted

Mounted. I took me a lot more time planning the install to make sure
all of the spacing was correct than it actually took to put the racks on the wall.

The rack looks a little empty right now, but will be bottling 30 bottles in the next couple weeks.
And then bottling 30 more bottles in five to six weeks.

A close-up of the wine rack, one side has larger swoops to hold the base of the bottle.
The other has smaller swoops to hold the neck.

A view looking down the wine racks.

My Condo

All of the below photos were taken with my new wide angle lens.

My Kitchen

Kitchen again, showing my wine fermentation jug

My Bedroom

New Camera Lens

A picture of my camera with the new lens mounted, had to take it with my web cam. Looking forward to using it tomorrow photographing the inside of a couple apartments.

Secondary Fermenter

The wine has been racked, or transferred, into my secondary fermenter, a six gallon glass carboy. Here there is still a little space in the top of the container to allow for a some more aerobic respiration prior to switching it over to anaerobic respiration. You will notice that the wine is very murky, not allowing any light to pass through it. As the wine sits, some of the sediment will start to fall out of solution. After seven to ten days, I will stir up all the settlement and add a clearing agent. It will start to clear rapidly as we head to the final phase of wine making. 

Graiden's 2nd Birthday!

Uncle Ryan and Graiden start opening presents.

Little brother Sullivan helps Graiden get his presents open.

Sullivan crawling around while Graiden tries on his new Aaron Rogers.

Graiden is very excited about his new kitchen all all of the accessories.

Graiden's party theme was Elmo

Yum, it was delicious cake!

Wine Making - Primary Fermentation

Right now my wine is in the primary fermentation stage. Here the yeast are undergoing aerobic respiration [bringing me back to my days of Medical Microbiology & Immunology]. Aerobic respiration is the phase where the yeast are utilizing oxygen and the sugars to rapidly reproduce. At the top of my primary fermentation container is an air gap. That serves two purposes, 1) to prevent unwanted things, especially bacteria and other fungi, from entering the container while 2) allowing gas to escape from the container without allowing more oxygen in. Slowly the oxygen will be depleted forcing the yeast to undergo anaerobic respiration - the secondary fermentation stage - which utilizes a different fermenting container.

Obama Visit

I debated whether or not to go see President Obamaa today or not. Instead of going I decided to go shopping for my nephew's birthday this weekend. Below is a photo I took from my condo of one of the helicopters swirling above head.

Wine Making

As the fall season begins to set in, I decided to start brewing my first batch of wine for the year. Wine making is a rather simplistic process where cleanliness and timing are two of the most important factors. Over the past few years, I have brewed over 120 bottles of wine. Ranging from White Zinfandel, Piesporter, Pino Blanc, and Gewurztraminer. I have enjoyed all of those wines except for the Pino Blanc, which is a little too dry for my liking.

I chose to make a White Zinfandel. It will take me anywhere from 29 to 38 days from start to bottle. The time variation depends on how fast the yeast is fermenting the sugar and how quickly the wine clears towards the end of the brewing process. Then after bottling, the wine will sit another month before drinking.

Getting started it not that expensive. Check out Wine and Hop Shop to see various starter kits. I use a 6 gallon set up, which ranges from about $130 - $155 depending on the quality of the supplies you buy / extra accessories that are not absolutely required, but help make the process easier. On top of that it costs anywhere from $65 - $155 for a kit that contains all the additives and juices to make the wine. Then all you need are 30 bottles and corks. Cheaper bottles tend to run around $1 and corks are much cheaper. Some people use old used wine bottles which is perfectly acceptable. However, I prefer to buy a set of bottles for a couple of reasons. 1) It only costs $30 2) You have a consistent looking end product 3) The bottles are reusable, so next time you can reuse all the bottle [of the ones that do get returned]