Happy birthday to me!

Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday to me!
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday,
Happy birthday to MEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


(it's tomorrow)

Happy end of the weekend to you

Well, its the end of another weekend. This one was a little hurried because I had to go up to my Mom's and do the "great puppy swap of 2009". I take care of my Mom's dog while she is in Florida. I got to drive up there Friday night, which, as most people know, was one of the coldest nights on record for many, many years. I am so glad my truck heater works (my last truck didn't have heat). However, the cruise control decided to die about half way through the trip. It has an off-n-on short in it. Its been working pretty consistently for about 2 years now, so I guess I can't complain to much. It went off this afternoon, but luckily, only for about 1/4 of the trip.

Since my birthday is Tues (nice that Obama is throwing me such a big party!), we had my birthday Breakfast this morning. We would have had a regular birthday dinner on Saturday, but my brother and his wife already had plans for another birthday party that night. Instead of a birthday cake, we had birthday cupcakes. Itried to go for muffins, but Mom wanted something more cake-y.

Oh, By the way, I set up a Facebook account last Thursday. Y'all can now find me there also (as well as some of my crazy family).

New Beer

Well, its been a little over a week since the Marquise and I bottled the latest batch of beer and it is time for the first tasting. Just to bring everyone up to speed, the last batch of beer was a Munich Bock by Munton's. It is another dark beer. I think it turned out a lot sweeter than it is supposed to. It may not have completely fermented. We had some concern because it stopped bubbling about a day and a half earlier than expected. It is very smooth, however, and only marginally hoppy (however, that may be because it is a pre-mix). It is really not what I expected. It is actually very similar to the Irish Stout we made last time. It is pretty good so far. we'll have to see what the next couple of weeks brings.

On another slightly different topic, I have to tell y'all what happened Tuesday night! One of my roomate's Aunts spent a night here on her way somewhere else (farther east, I think). While she was here, she gave Ralph a slightly late Christmas present. She gave him a Mr Beer brewing kit! It is so cute! It is a 2 gallon container whith a spigot, some plastic bottles and a wee little can of beer mix! I advised her that while I knew she gave it to Ralph, it was actually mine. It'll be interesting to see what I can use it for. I'm thinking cider and maybe some strawberry wine.

Happy Thursday

Happy Thursday to everyone! One more day til the weekend. We have almost made it through another week. Yippee! Just a quick reminder for all of you that are in the RDU area. Hercules Mulligan will be playing tomorrow night at Tir Na Nog. Come on over for a pint and enjoy the music. It is a great way to start the weekend!

I'm Back.

Sorry for the delay in posting, folks, but with my back being out and the holidays, I just let it slip.
Here is a quick update on what has been going on around here. Below is the scarf that I made for the Marquise. It is crocheted from a metallic-looking yarn called Chiara. While the scarf turned out wonderful, I really do not like crocheting this particular pattern. I made a baby blanket with the same pattern and should have learned my lesson then.

Below is my Christmas present from my Mom. It is a new book out by Drew Emborsky and has some really wonderful patterns in it.


Here is a sweater I made from one of the patterns. The yarn is 75% acrylic and 25% alpaca. Really soft and really comfy.

This is my next project. It is a sweater for one of my roommates. No fancy yarn here, just the good old stand-by, Simply Soft from Caron.


I am heading over to the Marquise's today to bottle the first batch of beer this year. It is a Munich Bock. It looked and smelled wonderful going into the fermenter, we'll have to see how it comes out! It's been waaaaay to long since we brewed out last batch (September, I believe.).

Bad Weekend!

It is really quite astonishing how quickly a weekend can go from great to crappy. This past Saturday, I decided to move the Chimena (an outdoor fireplace thingy) up onto the patio. We hadn't used it so far this year and I decided that since it was one of those coolish days temperature-wise it would be nice to sit out back with a little fire going. Wrong! I moved the thing close to the patio, so I wouldn't have to carry it that far (It is relatively heavy) and then got myself into as perfect a lifting position as I could -back straight, knees bent, feet apart. (all the stuff you are supposed to do when you pick up heavy objects) The next thing I knew my lower back went BWOING! and I knew I was screwed. Yep, you guessed it, I pulled my back all outta whack. It took me about 15 minutes to get INTO bed on Saturday. Don't ask how long it took me to get out to use the facilities! I ended up spending the rest of Saturday, all day Sunday and most of the day on Monday in bed (yes, I called in sick - there was no way I could sit all day day on Monday). I went into work today and managed to make it through. The worst part was getting up out of my chair. After about an hour sitting, my back did not want to change positions. It is a good thing I sit right across from the restrooms - I didn't have far to stumble - er walk, ya, that's it walk.

The one bright spot is that since one of my roomies is home most of the time (he has a seriously bad back), I had gotten him a subscription to Netflix. I figured he had pretty much watched about everything on regular TV. With Netflix, you can watch movies immediately on your computer. So, I spent most of Sunday and Monday watching movies in my room from my computer. Which is way out of character for me. (you can stop laughing now). I am not really a movie person, but there is only so much you can do all by yourself laying flat on your back. (I still hear giggling in the back row) I watched 3 or 4 movies from their Gay and Lesbian selection, most of which were OK. Attempted a couple of Anime movies, which I didn't get at all. I even looked through their Sci-Fi section and didn't see anything that particularly interested me. There are a lot of not-so-good movies out there, many of which are now available from Netflix immediately on your computer! I guess these are the ones that get paid 1/2 a penny in royalties per viewing. It seems like all the good movies are still only available as DVDs. We did get the first DVD today, which is quite amazing since I set up everything on Sunday. I just have to see if my roomie actually uses it or not. At least Netflix is a present you can cancel if it is not liked or used.

Its Official

Yes folks, it is official... I suck at making cider. 2 batches, 2 failures. The first was not a total failure, it was at least drinkable. The second however, is a complete, total, horrid failure. I doubt I could even use it to make apple cider vinegar. Yes, folks, it really is that bad. To say that it is bitter is like saying Freddy Kruger just had long fingernails. I will put my apple cider attempts on hold until next year and go back to beer making. I have, so far, had much better success with beer. I may, however, try some strawberry wine this spring.