I need a beer journal, right?

So, I've just bottled 8 liters of beer. In a week, we will know if I screwed it up somewhere.

I will say, though, that the kits I've got are supposed to make fairly weak beer. So, perhaps, if I screwed it up, it doesn't matter so much?

It's been two weeks since I put the beer into the fermenter. According to the instructions, I should be able to bottle it now.* However, the instructions say that the beer should be clear, with a minimum of sediment, and should taste yeasty, not sweet. It tastes yeasty, but it's not clear, and the sediment doesn't settle if you let it sit. It's ( Read more... )

Today, I started my first batch of beer. In two weeks, when I get back from DC (more newspapers), I'll bottle it.

This was in the adjuncts' mailboxes this afternoon:

"Dear Liberal Arts Adjunct Faculty:
"I recently asked that you not block the door open to T-202 [our office] in the interest of compliance with building and fire codes as a matter of personal safety to you and our students. Thank you for complying with this request.
"I know that there are many times ( Read more... )

(Note to Self: Eldest Daughter is not to read this until after we break the horrible news about the truth in re: Santa.)*

So, Eldest Daughter and Eldest Daughter's friend are currently working their way through a curriculum about housing and feeding traditions. I'm not doing the curriculum myself, so I'm not entirely sure how it works, but they're ( Read more... )

Here is a 1902 New York Times on the national importance of pie. It is entirely brilliant. I stole it from Lawyers, Guns and Money:


( Read more... )

Especially given that Hallowe'en is right around the corner - http://tigerbeatdown.com/2011/10/19/you-do-not-get-any-candy-this-halloween-sorry/

Ok. Lora's building has black mold. Management has taken steps to remove the black mold, which consists of hiring some guys to paint some stuff on the mold, so that the mold dies. The stuff has filled the building with a (probably toxic) chemical smell which persists after people leave the building, has rendered at least one person sick, and makes ( Read more... )

I had weird dreams about Newfoundland last night. At one point, Lora and I were being chased through the woods by dogs, I think. 

So. My lovely Gateway tablet pc has, after 5 years, stopped working properly. It has some functionality, but I think it has something wrong with the hard drive. Or possibly the memory. Anyway, I restored factory settings, and now it won't accept windows updates. It's 5 years old, which is pretty much the lifespan of a laptop, and it's never given ( Read more... )