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Sunday, November 29, 2015

Long time coming

I'm going to leave this right here. Notice it's from the Guardian, a British news agency. This is from it's online US edition. I have been trying to put into words about what has happened in Colorado Springs. I couldn't have put it better myself.
Here is the article. Of course the comments beneath are quickly full of Trolls because this is the land of big mouths and bigots.

Saturday, November 14, 2015

The week off. Time to go to work

This is a situation that solves itself... Almost. I had to use my remaining vacation time before the end of the year. As it so happens, we are going to visit family the weekend before Thanksgiving. The conversation went something like this:
"So, who's going to be there?" I asked.
"My brother's family and some cousins," my wife replied. "I'm not sure who's all coming."
The number wasn't all that important. All I wanted to know was if I needed to make two or four pies. I can't do an odd number of pies.
"Just be sure to take the weekend before Thanksgiving off," she said.
What I heard was "Take the week before Thanksgiving off."
Oops.
It still works out. We'll be seeing family and having a good time. I simply get a few days off before the whole shebang starts. We also may be driving back on the day I have to go back to work. We'll see. The time off will be put to good use. I've been putting off a trip downtown and getting Centaur Meadery up and running. I'm pretty much at the point where I have to drum up the money for this venture. I have a few people that I've been introduced to and I know a few organizations that could help. It's time to go pay these people a call. One thing I know for sure, I do not want family to invest in this business venture. Mixing money and family is typically a recipe for disaster. I don't want to risk what I value (family) over a what I consider the root of all evil, money. Granted, it's a necessary evil, but I don't want relations strained over this, no matter how good a deal I think it is. A lot of this relies on me. I'm doing the work, I'm the one man production team. Win or lose, it's on me.
So I got the days off I needed plus a few more. I'll put them to good use and I had the vacation hours to spend anyway. I was going to end my year with a few hours of vacation time left over, but this way I get to use them all. It works out very nearly by itself. Now if I can get this business started so I didn't have to go back to Lowe's...
This seems to have become a mantra with me: 'My job is getting in the way of my life.'
That said, I'm going to keep on plugging along. This road has to lead somewhere. This isn't an exact science and my method of production is changing in small ways as I refine what I'm doing. Perhaps that analogy doesn't work. 
I have a wide assortment of tools at my disposal to make a great mead. I never use all of them. Each situation is different. One mead is refusing to clear. Batches that were started after the pear mead are clearing nicely. This one is cloudy and stuck, for lack of a better term. There is a learning curve. At times it's pretty straight forward. Other times, pretty steep. Hey, this is what I signed on for. The batch that's clearing up is throwing off Sulfur dioxide. (Don't worry, it's supposed to do that.) It's a little disconcerting when the airlock pops off from pressure buildup, but I've installed a pressure release airlock. Sulfur dioxide goes bye-bye, no fresh air gets in. For a while I was worried about bacterial growth, but all that gas being released is a good sign. It means it's working. Bacteria needs oxygen to survive, and the bacteria isn't getting any. Oh, cry me a river! All that means is I'm going to have a kick ass pumpkin spice mead next year.
A forum that I frequent suggested I switch containers every time the sediment on the bottom reaches 1/4 of an inch. I understand the reasoning behind such a move and I still might do it, but we're not there yet. Patience, young Jedi. 

Speaking of which, the new Star Wars movie is set to come out in a few weeks. Friends of mine have already bought their tickets online. What am I the last hold out in the city? The state? Perhaps I should turn in my geek card. I'm going to lose all nerd credential the more I delay seeing it. I plan on taking the family sometime in the first week it's open. I'm actually discussing holding a movie marathon with my daughters. We'll see all six in order before we see the seventh installment in theaters.

Yesterday several suicide bombers attacked places and events in Paris. One hundred and twenty or thirty seven, are dead, depending on who you're watching. Thousands are injured. Reports are still coming in. My guess is we won't know an exact figure for a few days. I'll tell you one thing: I'm not getting my information from any American news desk. When I want facts without commentary, I go to the BBC for factual and truthful reporting. That says a lot in how bad it's gotten over here. I can't trust CNN, the New York Times and certainly not Fox.
With the BBC I get stories and world events that matter. I don't give a shit about Trump or the Kardashians. Who cares?
It only took a matter of hours before an ammosexual nutjob put his spin on it. 'That wouldn't of happened if there were a couple of concealed carry good guys with guns in that crowded theater.'

Ah, no.
Several things wrong with that line of thinking. First off: they were suicide bombers. The took pains to look like everybody else. They are not going to announce themselves. That good guy with a gun is going to have one warning: when the person next to him explodes in a blinding flash of C-4 and nitroglycerin, so no warning whatsoever.
Fort Hood is a military base full of soldiers. Both times! A shooting occurred in 2014 as well as the one in 2009.
Virginia tech has a police force with trained officers.
In fact, the shooting at Roseburg in the Umpqua Community college had a good guy with a gun. A person with a concealed carry license, and he didn't fire.
Why didn't he shoot? He didn't know where the shots came from. He knew the police were on their way and didn't want them to think he was the bad guy. Instead, he got the people he was with to safety. 
That is my definition of a responsible gun owner. Knowing when NOT to shoot your weapon.
I've already shared my opinion on gun control and responsible gun ownership. If a person dares to come into my house uninvited, breathing privileges will be revoked.
Norwegians use the word 'Texas' as slang to mean 'crazy'.  I'm just going to leave that there. I tried to work myself up to being insulted, but it's true. I'm a bit embarrassed actually. Every time I see some 40 year old virgin compensating for his small penis by carrying an SMG into a restaurant, I'm ashamed and embarrassed for all Texans. I expected better from Governor Abbott, he really let all Texans down.

Saturday, November 7, 2015

The season upon us

A friend at my wife's work asked if we could make her one of my pecan pies for Thanksgiving. 'Those are so good, I'll pay you.' Seeing as we will be out of town visiting family, it would be prudent to make four pies. Three to take with us and one for our friend. 
Technically all my meads are on the secondary stage of brewing. I had to start one over after it got stuck. But all the fruit has been strained out and what remains is clearing up. I'll be watching them through the holidays. I still haven't gotten around to the phone store, so no pictures, sorry.
Instead I'll share the secret to my culinary success: Alton Brown. One of my favorite celebrity chefs. He has taught the humble geeks of the world to cook, or as I like to call it; better eating through science!
Without further ado, I bring you the spicy pecan bourbon pie. Read the whole page please. You can't simply start at the beginning and follow the recipe blindly. First, you have to make the spicy pecans, which involves toasting them and coating them with a sugary spicy glaze. When you're done with making them, start on the crust while the pecans cool down. Now the dough for the crust has to cool as well. You would know that if you read the whole recipe. Then you have to make the filling. Once that is done, set it aside and return to the crust. You'll be combining the pecans and filling afterwards too.
It's a little like playing with Legos. You have to build one thing up to a point, start on another thing up to a certain level, then combine it all to make your masterpiece.
Even then you have to tweak it. For instance, my oven doesn't deliver the same performance as Mr. Brown's. I leave the pie in the oven longer than the 20 minutes he specifies at the end. Making sure my pie is fully set, I then remove it. The results are immediately apparent. It behaves like a pie, and not eggs over easy. The wife and I have an agreement: I grill the turkey out on the smoker while she prepares the sides and trimmings. We go all out and brine the turkey the night before. I feed the smoker chips and charcoal as if it were candy. There is really a challenge in keeping the whole setup a certain temperature for the duration of cooking the bird.

Sunday, November 1, 2015

And we're off

Last night we went to a friend's house for a Halloween party. A few trick or treaters came by, but mostly it was a teenager costume party and the adults hanging around the kitchen. We got to socialize and gossip. All things considered, it was a decent gathering and it was mainly for the kids.
My Iphone is having a hard time recharging. that means I can't upload pictures of the party to this computer. I'm going to have to drop by the Sprint store later to see if they can fix it. Allegedly I'm good with words so I'll describe what went down last night.
Our hosts greeted us dressed as Wonder Woman and the Lone Ranger. That was cute and knowing our friends as we do, the choice of costumes were appropriate. Inside, the kids were dressed as ninjas, pirates, vampires and there was a Superman/Lois Lane duo. There was also a girl dressed in a leopard spotted dress, but I couldn't figure out if she was a cave girl or jungle girl. Flintstones or Sheena of the jungle? Didn't ask/ wasn't important. Oh yeah, and the young girl in a Spiderman dress. I called her Spider Gwen and she laughed, but I'm not sure she got the reference. My oldest saw a You Tube video of a model using fake nails as teeth, liquid latex and makeup to give herself a toothy maw that spread almost to her ears. It looked cool and a few people flinched with a gross out factor of 'Eww!' I think that was her intent and my eldest child succeeded in that respect. Reminded me of a lamprey... Just a little bit. 
"Dad, do you want horns?" my child asked while waving a small package of devil horns. It only took me a second to consider.
"Why not?" I said.
 A quick dab of makeup and I was ready to start quoting lines from Damn Yankees. I put a picture up on Facebook along with the obligatory Rolling Stones quote. A few of my friends responded with other lines from the same song. Ha! I'm getting old, but it's so much fun.
Middle child spent the previous night over at a friends house. She came home, turned off the lights and crashed on the couch. She didn't even open an eye when we came home and crashed about the house. Poor kid was totally conked out.
The wife donned her medieval dress for the occasion. I would of helped her put on the corset if she asked, but I couldn't decide if she thought it was worth the trouble or not. It was one of those no-win questions, so I stayed silent.

The majority of the day was spent getting the mead racked to new containers. Again, no pictures. Figured out what was wrong with the blueberry and it is now bubbling happily in the corner. The blueberry/pear combo is sort of bubbling along slowly and I'm content to just let it go until things stop or the fruit drops to the bottom of the jar. The batch of pear got transferred a week ago. Now we wait for it to clear up. That can take anywhere between two and six months. The big job was the pumpkin spice mead. From the outside it looks nearly the same color as the pear sitting next to it. Good thing I take notes on which is which. It's the recurring theme in my life: hurry up and wait. A lot of work scrubbing and washing. The wife was a big help filtering as I siphoned. The next investment we need to purchase is a pump/filter combo. It took several hours and I couldn't of done it without her. It was one of those 'Work harder or work smarter' things. Until that piece of equipment comes around we're doing it the hard way: by hand.
Another big chunk of time consumed goes to research. As I type this I'm looking at a recipe I printed up for a winter mead that caught my eye. It's not too complicated and I see where I can make a few changes to bump it up to a big batch. Apples, cranberries, cloves and cinnamon. Right now there are three flavors in the queue for me to make. We need more traditional... We need to make a lot more Serrano... Don't forget the orange! 
"Oh, make some more of that." is what I hear most often. I like and appreciate those comments, I really do, but I've been putting most of my energy into making this a legit business, not just a hobby.
Several of the recipes call for the honey to be boiled. I have no problem with that. Other methods don't involve heating the honey up, but there is an extra step later on down the line when refining the mead comes into play. There is no one set path to making this drink. Most of my stock of meads have their honey boiled in the prep stages, but that's just my preference. I suppose my next batch wouldn't have to be boiled or skimmed. It wouldn't effect the taste and ultimately that's what I'm after: taste.