Overflow: Easter, IPA, and Dusting Off that Old Guitar

Happy Easter!

I’d like to wish our reader’s a very Happy Easter. During difficult times, faith can bring us together, even if we must be socially distant. I’m fortunate to serve as an officer of the St. Gerald Holy Name Society, a non-profit group serving our community. You can learn more about us on our website and how we are responding and helping others during the COVID-19 pandemic – https://www.StGeraldHNS.com.

If Mass has been a part of your family’s Easter tradition, this year may be different, but Easter is not cancelled. I’d like to invite you to join our live stream of Easter Mass on Sunday 4/12/20 at 7:30 AM CT. You can tune in live and find recordings of the services that have been broadcast recently on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/StGeraldHNS/

MUSIC

Now that many of us have extra time on our hands, it’s a great time to dust off that old guitar and make some music. With four kids that are eager to learn to play an instrument, I figure we could put together a pretty solid band. While I know how to play, I’ve probably forgotten more than I can teach, so we needed a little help. We’re trying out Fender Play online guitar lessons. So far, so good. It’s a web app that works best on a computer or tablet but you can easily stream the instructional videos from your phone to your TV though Apple Airplay or similar method.

It’s normally $9.95 per month (which is a good deal to begin with), but you can get 3 months of lessons for FREE during their promotion.

Fender is offering 3 months of free online guitar, bass and ukulele lessons with Fender Play to the first 1 million new subscribers. Here’s the link to get started: https://try.fender.com/play/playthrough/

CRAFT BEER

It seems that when most people think of craft beer, IPA immediately comes to mind. IPA stands for India Pale Ale and are often quite hoppy and relatively high in alcohol content. There are hundreds to choose from – just about every brewery makes at least one because they are so popular.

I’ve said many times that I wanted to take a break from IPAs in favor of other styles but I keep going back because, while many are average at best, the good ones are really good. Here are my five favorite IPAs.