August 2008 Archives

I know nothing of beer, that should be stated.  I suppose that's not entirely true, I know that Guinness has a widget in it that dispense nitrogen?  oxygen?  xenon gas?  something like that - and that Rainier beer apparently gets better the more you've had to drink before consuming it.  But beyond that, nothing.  Still, I was bound and determined to cook me some beer brats.

A few Redhook ESBs grace my fridge for some unknown reason - into the crock pot they go.  Some brats and onions of course.  Why not try potatoes and carrots too, they went in the crock pot when I was a kid and mom was making chicken, surely they can't hurt.  Paprika!  Everything tastes better with paprika.  Better add some salt and pepper too.  Let it slow simmer for 10 hours and we've got beer brats!

Actually what we have are exceptionally bland sausages.  It turns out the vital ingredient I forgot, the one no self respecting pseudo-german should ever forget, was saurkraut.  A little bit of mustard gives the sausages some kick so they're not a complete lost cause.

The potatos on the other hand, yeah, those are interesting.  I don't think they're ever supposed to be that sort of sickly "dirty cream-cicle" orangish color, no matter how hungry you are.  And the carrots, oh god the carrots.  I probably should have just spit them out, we'll see how time treats me.

So lesson learned, brats and beer are good, don't forget the kraut, still experiment with spices, NEVER ADD ANY OTHER INGREDIENTS.  Or at least don't eat them afterwards.

I need a drink.

My pop taught me that phrase a long while back.  Martin and I had left our third and often less fastidious (I recognize the hypocrisy) roommate at the apartment for a week over christmas vacation and came back fully expecting it to be a sty and to thusly unload on him.  Dad, ever perceptive, picked up on this and warned me not to go into the situation "loaded for bear" since it would quickly escalate beyond any reasonable bounds.  The background is important so that I can explain that I think I need a sign or badge or something that says "loaded for bear".

Every now and then my chi's don't line up or the chakras don't do whatever chakras are supposed to do and I almost get to a mood where I'm spoiling for a rumble.  I suppose it's good on some level - feeling a bit of rage every now and then is like feeling heartache or wild exuberance, required to really know you're a live, but still probably not the most socially acceptable form of knowing you're alive.  Today, for instance, I was walking addie and she was, as is her nature, interested in a cat.  We know this cat, we've met it several times before and they always get along.  Today she was wagging and whining as per usual and let out a bark (not quite as usual) which caused a neighbor to yell from the darkness of their doorway to "control that dog!".  Being loaded for bear I desperately wanted to counter with "Today, fucking today, after 2 and a half years of taking this route TODAY you pipe up from your anonymous little hole."  And continue ranting along those lines for a while.

Like I said, loaded for bear.  The drive in was nice though that basically just didn't add to the loadedness, now it's only a matter of moving through the day.  Since I started imagining the joy of unloading on a hapless co-worker I don't think I'm quite back to center yet.

Maybe I just need to finally find a good boxing gym (I got a good recomendation from Chavie for one run by a bunch of lesibans which aught to be fun).  That and wearing a shirt or badge proclaiming my ready state for "Bears" isn't necessarily the best idea in the queer friendly city of seattle.

Stage one is now under way.  I went to Fred Meyer to pick up cheese (one can never have enough pepper jack) and noticed that they had some of those "throw away tupperware" containers in the clearance aisle.  Sauntering over to take a look they turned out to be pretty much exactly the right size to hold a disposable camera, an envelope and a brief introduction - disposable cameras were even near by for me to verify the fit.  So I bought them all