[denny]

A wine thief means that you got a sample from lower down where the wort settled.  That makes sense given your high reading.  If it would have been from the top you likely would have been too low.

[kgs]

One other thought: weigh your ingredients when you get them home. I started doing that after one batch seemed about a pound off. You can always adjust quantity based on what the weight of ingredients are. I think it's just a case of the LHBS being a little casual depending on who is working there, since the weight is likely to be a little off in either direction, whether it's hops, grains, or DME.

As noted in an earlier post, I also watch the LHBS folks like a hawk, but I still weigh when I get home. My hops were actually well over the 1-ounce measure per packet last time.

[classic]

So I bottled the dunkelweizen 5 days ago after 2 weeks in the primary.  Got steady FG readings at 1.020 over the course of 3 days, so I figured it wouldn't drop any more.  I took the FG readings both with a wine thief and with skimming off the top, difference was  maybe 1-2 gravity points.  I warmed it up to 70 towards the end of fermentation to try to dry it out a little more but no luck.  Oh well! It tasted really good anyway and I can't wait to drink it.  Surprisingly, it didn't have as much residual sweetness as I was expecting from the reading, not cloying in any way.  I primed it with sugar to get to about 3.5 volumes to try to reduce the perception of body a little more.  Have brewed a few other batches since then and have not run in to any problems overshooting the OG so I guess I'll just continue to brew as I have been, although I did get an aeration kit recently so maybe that will help with FG's.

[classic]

I've been drinking this beer for a while and it has tasted really good. It actually recently took second in local competition with 35 points, so I guess RDWHAHB was good advice as usual.