I think the universe hates me right now.

First my job just handed me two more little balls of shit today. First they are "giving" everyone an extra day off a month unpaid and compulsory. This amounts to another 5% salary cut for the next 5 months, on top of the 10% they gave me last year. Yeah that one was temporary too, until they made it permanent in June. As if I am not having a hard enough time making ends meet on 10% less, now we add a new twist, right in time for the holidays. Then they changed my job title, I went from Business Analyst to Revenue Coordinator II. WHAT THE SHIT IS THAT! I sound like a file clerk, rather than the analyst that I am. It is bad enough that I am a shadow IT resource for them, now I have a shitty job title too?

This crap feeds into the next bit of love from the Universe. Not only am I now making less than I was when I started with the company, I also need a new set of tires, which will be $600. I also have to renew my plates by the end of the year, and pay the property tax on my car. So here I am, two Master's degrees, working as a fucking bill collector (at least by my job title) and falling off of the financial cliff.

Oh and I am facing all of this alone in the world. Not that having to provide for a wife under these circumstance would be any easier, but at least there would be someone who would care enough to at least fake listening when I got home from work.

Some of you may be thinking, "He has a case of the birthday blues." Well I don't the fact that the Universe has chosen the time near my 40^th birthday as a time to ass-fuck me is incidental.

What I really want is just to have everything go well for a couple of years. Each time I dig myself out of a hole, I get knocked back in and dirt thrown on top of me. It is sad to think that my lottery dreams are down to $5,000 that I don't have to pay back, that is it, just $5,000 free and clear.

Here is a link to an article in a weekly free paper on homebrewing. I am actually quoted and (for some unknown reason) pictured in the article. There is also a shot of a line of my bottled beer.

Beer Science Home Brew Trend.

Yesterday was my homebrew club's Oktoberfest and I went and had a pretty good time. While talking to one of the older guys in club I mentioned that one of the limiting factors to my brewing these days is a lack of caboys. He perked up and said that he was looking to get rid of some of his carboys and asked if I be interested in them for $5 each. So today I went and picked up 6 carboys, three five gallon, 2 six gallon, and a 6½ for $30!

He also has corny kegs he is looking to sell for $10 each, he will put some back for me to trade for mead. He even has at least one 2½ gallon corney, which I am VERY interested in.

Now all I have to do is clean them.

Over the weekend I finally got around to starting my first batch of lager in my temperature controlled chest freezer. I had wanted to do it earlier, but did not have the carboy space until now. I am making Charlie's Honey Lager from Complete Joy of Homebrewing. I am changing it up a bit, for one thing I used Hallertau Mittelfruh hops, rather than the Cascades he calls for. I am also using Wyeast 2206 (Bavarian Lager) yeast. I figure the Hallertau M. will complement the honey in the recipe better than the American hops would.

Only problem is it will not be ready to bottle until October 25^th. I will have to to take to Deer Camp with me though. Next up Schwartzbier...

I have been pretty busy over the last two days and I am not even sure how it happened.

Friday night after work I went and saw Chicago at Starlight. Boy did they work that number! It was so sexy; I could feel the heat halfway up the last section of the theater. You can tell by the costumes and moves that it was the 70's!

On Saturday I got up and ran out for a haircut and to buy some more chinos to wear to work while they were on sale. While I was out I decided to pick up some brewing supplies so I could brew on Sunday. While at the LHBS, one of the owners grabbed me and asked "Have you talked to Jim today?" No, why. Well it seems that the LHBS had procured a table at the Zona Rosa Microbrew Festival and they were giving space to the Kansas City Bier Meisters to pitch the club along with the shop, and my name came up as someone to go. I was already going to go, and the free ticket was a better deal than the $25 cover charge. I went home and made a starter for the beer I was going to brew on Sunday, grabbed my day pack, filled the Nalgenes and grabbed my folding chair.

Once I got there I set up the chair and almost immediately went to work selling the club and the shop to anyone that made eye contact. I don't know why I brought a chair because I never did sit down. It rained a few times but I scammed everyone who hid under our tent for shelter. I only got shot down once by a brunette in a short skirt, well twice by the same girl. She reacted to my rope-in as if I had copped a feel and asked for her phone number. I also sampled about everything that was worth trying. By the end of it my feet were killing me from standing on the asphalt all afternoon and evening.

Today I got up and started my process to make a batch of Flanders Red, which I am calling Cow Town Commie. It took me most of the day and the bitch of it is that I seem not have any functional thermometers around. My electronic one was reading way to high, so I made due with a candy thermometer. Now I need to figure out why my burner is throwing soot and burning yellow no matter what I do. It may be time for a new one. Again I was on my feet all day and it is fucking HUMID here right now and I sweated like a fat kid dancing in a polyester suit.

Somewhere in all of this I sliced the palm of my hand too. Not enough to bleed, but enough to sting from time to time as I flex my hands. A good weekend all in all though.

Creamed Eggs in Bologna Cups

• 4 Tbs margarine


• 4 Tbs flour


• 2 cups Brand X Milk


• Salt and Pepper


• 8 hard cooked eggs


• 6 slices bologna, skin left on

Melt margarine in heavy saucepan. Add flour; mix well. Pour in milk all at once and immediately stir vigorously over moderate heat until thickened. Season with salt and pepper. Add quartered or sliced eggs; reheat, stirring very lightly.

Heat bologna slices slowly in frying pan in small amount of margarine or other fat until the form cup shapes. Fill with creamed eggs. Sprinkle with paprika, if desired.

6 servings

This Saturday, August 15^th is Julia Child's birthday, I think it would have been the Grand Lady's 97^th. In honor of this, I am going to be posting actual recipes from a cookbook from a dairy company that was published B.J. (before Julia) in 1954.

Today's Entry:

Surprise Tomato Soup

• 1 can condensed tomato soup


• 1 1/3 cups Brand X milk


• ½ tsp celery salt


• 1 ½ cups Brand X Cottage Cheese, warmed to room temperature


• Dash of Salt

Pour tomato soup into heavy saucepan. Stir in milk, salt, and celery salt until blended. Heath thoroughly, but do not boil; stir constantly.

Just before serving add cottage cheese, and bead with rotary beater just enough to break up the curds. Heat a minute longer (no more) stirring constantly. The soft tender cheese curds give an interesting new additions to soups, in a class with egg balls, custard cubes, etc. Overcooking toughens them.

Remove soup from heat; serve immediately in hot dishes. If desired, garnish with a slices of hard-cooked egg and chopped parsley.

4 servings

After I filled in my journal last night, clouds started to roll in and spoil my plans for a night under the stars. By 10:00 PM I could see lightning in the distance that was embedded in rain, so I decided to sleep in the cab of the truck. Not the most comfortable place to sleep, but when the heavy rain started at around 2:30 AM, I just rolled up the windows and rolled over.

The rest of the drive into Philmont was uneventful, just long ribbons of asphalt and cranking tunes. I got to Cimmaron around noon, and since I could not check in until 1:00, I decided to get some lunch. But most of the restaurants were closed. I checked the time on my cell phone and realized I had passed into Mountain Time, and it was only 11:00 AM. I have to make a note of that for my trip back. I found a restaurant that was open and got chorizo and potatoes with refried beans and tortillas, it was pretty good, but I had a feeling it was planning on a short stay in my system. (note: I paid for this lunch for two days)

When I got to the Philmont Training Center check-in, I was still a bit early. I could see rain on the other side of Tooth Ridge and could hear the thunder. The rain held off long enough for me to get checked in and my gear into the tent. It did open up once I was in line for the health screening and seminar check in.

It rained twice more in the afternoon, once right before dinner was a real gully washer. I did find a nice little knoll out behind the Small Fry building that has a nice panoramic vista of the area and decent views of the Tooth of Time to boot. I shot a quick roll of 120 black and white with my Red 25 on. Hopefully the clouds will be very dramatic in the prints.

The Opening Program has concluded and I still don't have a bunkmate. Either he did not show, or I am on my own. Either way works out the same for me.

I keep an adventure log when I travel so I figured I might as well post it up. I would have done it sooner, but I just found where I tucked it "where I would not lose it".

I decided that if I were going to drive to New Mexico that I should stay off the interstates as much as possible. As a result I spent a good portion of today driving U.S. 56 across Kansas.

You might think that the drive would be boring, but with some good tunes cranking on the iPod, most of the drive was nice and relaxing. I also had very little trouble with slow drivers impeding my progress, despite the fact that I was on two lane most of the way. Also it was interesting to see all of the little towns desperately clinging to life as the farm economy slowly dies.

Two things I did notice is that just about every town town has a Latino grocery and restaurant, and secondly there were a bunch of empty cattle trucks heading the other direction. I should have remembered the reason for this, but it became clear when I got to Dodge City and drove past National Beef Company. National Beef is a huge meat packing plant and most Americans do not want to work in those places. So the immigrants come, work in soul crushing butcher lines, and when they get money the disperse into the surrounding area.

When I did get to Dodge City the landscape did become a bit...vertically challenged. I could just imaging how it must have seemed before fences, utility lines, and roads provided a frame of reference. You could have gone mad looking for any sign to tell you where you were or where you were going.

I did arrive at my destination for the day, Meade State Park. A hidden gem out on the prairie, with a small lake and and impressive stands of cotton wood trees. I set up by the lake, well set up is a bit strong. I paid for a campsite and and rolled out my sleeping bag in the bed of the truck. The evening promised to be clear so I wanted to sleep where I could see the stars and be ready to move first thing in the morning.

I am gearing up for a trip I am going to make to the Philmont Training Center in Cimmaron New Mexico in the near future. I have been trying to get into a class at PTC for a while now and this year it worked out. I am even taking a class that will help my long term goals for my Scouting Career. But that is not what I want to talk about...

What I want to talk about is the trip itself. See I really like long road trips, so long as the traffic is not a major problem, I find the long spans of time to just be alone with my thoughts, rolling across the country to be quite relaxing. My plan is to make the run out a leisurely 2 day drive of it and take back roads as much as I can. That should provide plenty of time to get to see the country side.

I will then have a week in New Mexico for the seminar before I have to head back the following Saturday. The trip back will be slightly more harried as I plan to run up to Denver to check out a meadery and maybe a brewery or two, then on Sunday I have to drive like hell back home to make it to the theater in time for my tickets to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

I also intend on indulging one of my other passions on the trip, photography. I love to take photographs and try to capture that one perfect shot. I don't shoot much film around here as there is not much that inspires me. I like landscapes and dramatic vistas, and there is not much of that around here. I would shoot buildings and such, but I am always too busy to really get out and shoot. I have already scored a couple of rolls of Kodachrome 64, it is out of date, but any that you may find will be. I really, REALLY, REALLY love Kodachrome film and am sad to see it discontinued. I think I will be able to score a few more rolls by the time I go see hollyking and hollyqueen this fall.

Heck at the rate slide film is disappearing, I may have to take the money I was going to go to Germany on and buy a high end digital camera just to stay in the game.

Today I started another batch of my Saison's in the Sun Ale, I won a gold medal with the last batch back at the KCBM competition, which qualified me for the Master's Championship of Amateur Brewing this spring.

I did have to change the recipe a bit. Classically this beer has a bit of wheat in it, so I changed 2 pounds of the dry extra light malt extract to be dried wheat malt extract. Then when I got to the LHBS, they only had dried wheat malt in 3 pound packages, so I instead opted for two 1.4 pound liquid wheat malt kickers. This is a bit more than an exact swap, but close enough. The other thing was the LHBS was out of the Saison yeast I used last year. They were going to order some so I put my name down for the standard Wyeast Saison. But the LHBS only ordered the special edition Fresh Saison yeast, so I used that instead.

There were a few other changes too. First I have a larger brew kettle so I did a full size boil, second I now have an oxygenation system so I used that too. I am also treating my water with sulphites to clear the chloroamines now, so that should take care of the vague hints of band-aid phenols I picked up from time to time. The last change is that now I am making starters instead of just dumping the smack-pack of yeast in. All of these changes should improve the beer, it is only the top two that may change the character of the beer more than I would want from what I had before.

oh la de dah, nothing to say just wondering where these go on FB....

I just got home from taking the BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) Exam, and boy do I feel wiped out. It sounds so easy...10 Essay questions, and judge four beers. Ah but the questions are things like: Name and describe a classic beer from Berlin, Dublin and the Senne Valley. or Describe the aroma, appearance, flavor and mouthfeel of Bohemian Pilsner, German Pilner, and Premium American Pilsner, note any historical facts, and list differences and similarities, give one classic example of each. It all has to be hand written and legible and finished in under three hours.

Probably one of the hardest exams I have ever taken, including defending my Master's thesis.

Oh and the really fun bit is that it will be around 10 weeks before I get the score back.

When hollyking was here, he brought me some music to add to my collection. Some of which I was familiar with and some not. One of the interesting little gems was Rebuild The Wall by Luther Wright and the Wrongs which is a bluegrass cover of The Wall by Pink Floyd. I have been listening to it and something was tickling the edge of my awareness during some of the songs, and I just figured out what it was. The original version has some racist lyrics - go figure with the central story involving fascism. However LWatW have changed these references to be more acceptable.

One example is there is a line in Waiting For The Worms that goes ...Should we send our colored cousins back home?, in this version its ...Should we send our COUNTRY cousins back home?. I know the original version is not nice, but the song was performed by a character that was racist and in context it is clear this is not acceptable thinking.

PC has gone to far.

I just saw in the news how Sarah Palin is resigning from office at the end of the month. Something smells fishy here. The psycho bitch is way to vain and manipulative to just go away because she is bored. She is either getting a gig with Satan News (or is it Fox News, does it matter?), or there is something horrific that is about to be revealed. It could be Letterman was right after all...

This morning some friends and I got up and went to pick blueberries at a U-Pik place. Since it was going to be very hot and humid today we decided to get an early start. So I met them at 7:00 AM, which required me to get up at 6:00 AM, which is something I normally only do if there is hunting or fishing involved. If I am up before first light on a Saturday, something must pay for it in blood. Anyway we got to the place and went to a patch that everyone else was not. We had some pretty decent picking and I ended up with 5¼ pounds of really primo berries for around $14. But when I went in the store to pay, I noticed they had honey by the gallon. Being a mead maker I could not resist picking one up. Now I know what I am going to use as the base for my blueberry melomel. Well half of it will be for the blueberry, I don't know what I will do with the rest of the mead.

After words we ran on down to the Louisberg Cider Mill, normally I don't bother with the place this time of year, but they now have peaches as well as apples. When I got there they had half a box of canners for $10, which yielded me about 17 pounds of peaches. Went home and it was around 12:00. I knew I had to do something with the peaches so I checked my supplies. I have plenty of honey (after what I bought I had around 4½ gallons of honey), and I had an empty 6 gallon carboy. The problem is that I have a chest freezer for a fermentation chamber and the carboy did not have a brew hauler.

So off to the LHBS to buy stuff to make it easy to move around the carboy. But before I did I put the probe for the pH meter I have never used into storage solution to equilibrate. I also decided that I should pick up some ice for blanching the peaches.

Get home and decide the next step is to clean the peaches for freezing. Since I always put fruit in the secondary I will have to freeze it so I have enough time to primary the mead. I did have one bright idea. That was to use my propane burner for brewing to boil the blanching water outside to save heating up my kitchen. Once the peaches were all blanched I stood over the sink and cleaned them, putting the pulp into a couple of freezer bags.

Now is time to make the mead. So I drag out all of the that stuff. Normally I can whip this out in an hour or so, but I am adding new tools to the arsenal and that takes time to set up and figure out. Get the mead made, the °Plato (22.1 °P) and pH (4.3) read and then oxygenate the must. Pitch the yeast and go have a sit down.

Finally take a shower to cool off and clean up after a sweaty, busy day. It was a satisfying amount of work to do, but my feets hurt now.

This morning around 9:30 or so I get a call from my boss. I need to go to his office right away. When I get there, I don't see any HR people so that is good. What he needs is that one of our largest customers sent spreadsheets of all of the open bills they think we are due. If we can validated them in 24 hours they will pay all of the bills we agree on the balance of. Oh, one more thing, they sent the stuff yesterday at 4:00.

So I scurry back to my cube and start working the files. First problem is the files are in the new Excel format, which my software can not read. So now I have to convert them all into the older format. Then I have to check them against the system to see if the balances line up. Which leads me to the second problem. They have split all of the bills, so they show two entries for each one of mine. I figure out that the total of their two normally agrees with the total of my one. Write code to export the master sheet showing the Pros that I find and the balance differences. Send draft off to the guy with the impossible request.

He calls, he needs the bills consolidated and he needs (despite the fact that I have provided a match flag and drop filters) the bills I can not match in a different sheet, and could I just provide a list of all of this customers bills that do not appear on the original sheet?

A bit of coding and that is sent back. Guy calls, "this looks good, but why did you not do the other sheet?" "What other sheet?" "The one I failed to mention to you or your boss." Fine, it is mostly the same format as the first one, rejigger the code and boom, done.

Guy calls "Can you consolidate the missing bills, it looks like each of the sheets have bills as missing that are on the other spreadsheets?" Not if you want the deadline met... "I suppose we can do without it for now."

Now 1:30, start on the other eight spreadsheets that I have to crunch through. More data format and naming inconsistencies (no predictable pattern, or decent reason for the garbage either).

3:20 Call Guy and tell him "Well it is going to be close, I have the stuff &frac23 done and here is where to find them, I should be done by 3:45." "Oh we changed what we are doing and we don't need that any more. The customer changed the requirements a while ago and we are going in a whole new direction now, thanks."

What really frosts me about this is this particular group has a history of expecting miracles from me at the last minute and then not being able to figure out exactly what they want, causing a massive amount of rework, mid-miracle, or in the end not needing the work at all. I have my weekly one on one with the boss on Friday and I have half a mind to make the point that we spend an awful lot of time trying to help this group and they would not be able to correctly identify a clue if it fell out of the sky, landed on their face and started to wiggle.

There I said it, now I feel better.

I have had an urge to purge that has been building for a couple of days, tonight the damn broke and I am getting rid of crap as fast as I can skim through the stacks. What I am trying to figure out is where the stuff comes from in the first place? I know I have the pack-rat gene that infests the family, but really. Tonight I found character sheets for a game that has not been played in at least 4 years, and NEVER at my house! They weren't even my characters.

I just hope the dumpster capacity can keep up with the determination to throw shit out.

I was at my LHBS today to pick-up and oxygenation system and they had a couple of used carboys for sale. One was a six gallon one, I have enough of those for now, but the other was a 2½ gallon one. I have one of these little guys now, so I went ahead and picked up a friend for it. I think I am going to make a 5 gallon batch and then split it into a couple of metheglyns to age in the little ones. Problem is I have too many ideas of what to make. I about have it down to a chai spice (which one of the guys did for mead day and is quite good), saffron, vanilla, lemon, or ginger. I think I am going to have to just work my way through the list until I am out of ideas.

The other big thing I did today was finally buy my chest freezer to use as a fermentation chamber. Now I can control the temperature and will actually be able to lager beer now. Now if I can just clear some space to put the freezer where it needs to go...

Tonight I finally got the Raspberry Melomel I started last August bottled. It had been "done" for several months now, but I have been waiting forever for the stuff to clear. I ended up putting a bentonite slurry in, that only did about 50% of what was needed. So then I did a two stage clarifier, that took about a month, but the mead is nice and clear and a beautiful red color. The flavor is outstanding as well, just a bit sweet, but still tart like a fresh raspberry.

Too bad I have to give 75% of it away. But then that is the deal with Mead Day, you participate and give up part your batch, but then you get a bit of everyone else's batch from that day too.

Hopefully everyone else has theirs bottle too and we can make the distribution this week at the meeting.

With any luck the new batch of raspberry I recently started will blow this one away. I am using more fruit for half the mead.