Long Time, No Post

Dudes, sorry for my recent hiatus from the posting, it's been a bit hectic with the honeymoon and house-buying (closing tomorrow). As for the brewing, I recently started my last batch before the move. It's a clone of Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout. It was a bit more involved than my previous brews, I had to toast 1/2 lb. of oatmeal beforehand and put it in the mash. I feel like I was a bit rushed in my sparging, so I hope I got all of the surags and flavors out of it. I feel like I need a better method for straining and sparging, it just seems like I either am not getting enough of the sugar out, or I let too much of the ground up husks in...
I'll be apprenticing at an 11 gal. all grain mash in a couple of weeks, so that should be fun, maybe I'll pick up some tips there. As for you question Paul about SG readings, I've been thinking of building a new apparatus that will essentially be a metal cage in which the hydrometer will rest. The cage will have some sort of wire handle attached so that it can be lowered directly into the carboy until the hydrometer floats. This way, syphoning and the accompanying waste of good beer/wort will not be necessary (patent pending...). I haven't gotten around to making it yet, but it seems like it could work well.
Anyway, the stout is looking good, I'll probably rack it into the secondary fermenter in the next couple of days.
Later hoseheads.