So many miscellaneous things to write about.
I racked my Belgian-style ale into a secondary fermenter earlier this week in order to clear some of the sediment out of the bottom, and I took the opportunity to taste a little bit so that I might put my mind at ease to how it was coming along. As my first Belgian beer I’ve brewed, I was a little worried that it might be a bit funky or off, but I was relieved. One of the attorneys at my office asks me about my brewing every now and then, and when I told him this he asked how it was coming along and I could think of no better way to put it than while I don’t know how competitive I’ll be in the homebrew competition, I have no qualms about entering it now. Just the right amount of Belgian flavor with a fair amount of hoppiness that’s definitely more reminiscent of a northwest IPA. This might be the most interesting beer I’ve brewed yet, and it makes me want to branch out a bit from the hop monsters I’ve been brewing. Hanne’s requested a nice light pale ale next so that we have a stock of beers that she might have when the weather gets nice or she just wants one bottle of beer after a day of studying. I might try and whip up something new since I don’t think I’ve brewed a nice light pale yet. Or maybe I have–I just don’t remember. I’m on batch #22 or so by now, and the early batches have slipped away from my memory. I have no desire to recreate some of them because they were mostly generic and I was just getting started, but I might have to browse my booklet and see if anything gives me a flash of insight.
Hanne was out of class this week for Spring Break, so she was home every evening. It’s definitely easier to come up with dinner ideas when it’s just me (because I can do whatever I want), but I’m so used to only having four nights in any given week in which Hanne and I need to make plans (usually three, since Fridays we typically go out somewhere) that I found that my mind was coming up blank for ideas to cook. We ended up going out a few times, but that was nice, too–we don’t go out very often anymore both to save money and to cook healthier things.
Today we were supposed to go to the Portland Farmer’s Market and pick up some fresh produce or whatnot, but it’s raining pretty steadily and I tell you, I just don’t see that happening. I was looking forward to browsing what they have for sale because I find that often times the ingredients I have drive the meal and not vice versa, and we’ve already gone through most of last week’s Organics to You box.
As an aside, I’m listening to an album I just bought–”Simple Things” by Zero 7–and it’s fantastic. Amazon.com has been suggesting it as something I might like to buy given the other music I’ve bought from them over the years, but I didn’t know anything about the band. I finally just decided to spend $9 and buy a digital copy from them, and it’s right up my alley so far. It reminds me of a lot of different music I listen to, and trying to cram it into any one style would be disrespecting the music.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, cooking. So no Farmer’s Market for us today. Given the weather today it certainly seems like a day to just laze around for awhile, maybe do some cleaning this afternoon, but there’s a block get-together at 1 PM today. I can see us blowing that off. The block get-togethers on this block aren’t one where there’s someone BBQing and people hang out and drink beer, but it’s a short appetizers-and-introduce-yourself-and-update-your-neighborhood-watch sort of thing. Pretty boring. The kitchen needs a good clean, anyhow and we plan on taking everything out of the cupboards and giving them a good scrub since we’ve seen the appearance of a few ants over the last few days. It’s been a slow trickle and not the feeding trails that always get me so perturbed, but mostly I’m just thinking “Is it that time already?” I hate this time of year, with every little black speck I see forcing me to investigate to make sure that ants aren’t crawling around everywhere and getting into things. Last summer we got a lot in our kitchen, a lot in our bathroom (though not as bad as my last summer in my old apartment where all I got were the flying ones), and even by the front door. I’ve already picked up a bottle of the liquid poison you put out for them to eat and take back to the nest since I had such good luck with it last year, but I hope to be able to head them off at the pass with a thorough cleaning first.
Hanne and I have been watching the last few episodes of the final season of “Battlestar Galactica,” and I’m so confused. It’s still a show with one of the highest production values and excellent writing of any hourlong drama of the last ten years, but it’s like the writers have been watching too much “LOST” and have decided to just make shit up as they go along. Some of it’s believable, but they’ve been making a lot of references to the events of the first season lately, and all I could do was sigh and remember how incredibly good that show was when it started. Where did that show go? Between then and now they explored a lot of themes that made the show so compelling to watch, but it’s just not the same show anymore. It started off as an action sci-fi drama (yes, those three genres can successfully be combined) and it’s ended up as a quasi-mystic sci-fi drama. Not a whole lot of action anymore, but then again, I guess the war is over. Blah. Maybe it’ll peak at the end of the show, but I head that the final episode wasn’t all that great. Sigh. Maybe I’ll just have to go back and watch the first episodes again to wipe the mediocre end from my brain.
Ahhh…lazy Saturday mornings are lazy. Good times.
