Monday, April 27, 2009

10 weeks to go



I'm sitting in Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan looking at the slammer (medal, coin, thingy) that C. Everett Koop gave me. I and some classmates had lunch (quiche) with the 92 year old former surgeon general in a little house on the college campus. Nothing too eventful to report but the event itself was pretty memorable. The gist of the experience was "I'm C. Everett Koop; I'm awesome." He didn't actually say that, but he easily could have and no one would have protested.

Nothing too exciting happening right now. I'm typing this up 1) as a way of keeping up with the past month and 2) because I feel guilt for not posting. Right now I'm visiting Nikki before she digs in for final exams. I have another set of tests myself one week from today. I view these with mixed feelings now, a lot like how I used to anticipate having to run the mile in elementary school gym class. It never became fun but it got easier and the satisfaction at having it over with made it almost, but not quite, worth doing.

In the next post-quiz lull I think I will build a smokehouse in the wood shop. In the last bit of time off I built a bookcase and a sculpture workbench. I finally got around to planting my 4 hop plants along the side of the barn. Before i forget, the order of the plots is: Spalt, Cascade, Goldings, and Sterling.

That's all for now, will probably disappear for the next week until the studying is done.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Spring (ish)


It's beautiful here in the days and hours between rainstorms and the snow is becoming mud, but spiked with green tufts and so not altogether depressing. I haven't worn a jacket in a few days, haven't built a fire in the furnace in over a month, and am beginning to consider the possibility of natural warmth once again.

And now in this new brown/green world new things are brewing, stirring, and being stirred while being brewed. I just tasted the first of my batch of Hoppy Red Ale and it is probably the best beer I've made yet. It tastes like english bitter with an inexplicable dash of lavender. I've also just ordered some Hop rhizomes on the internet and plan to have a garden dug in the next couple of weeks.

In baking news, I'm working on the Schweitzer fellowship and should be running the oven starting in late April. more details of the general program are here : http://www.schweitzerfellowship.org/

Other than that and school, and summer plans, and laundry, not much to mention at the moment.