Brewing Beer

I have brewing beer down. Granted, I still use kits, but it makes it easy and somewhat quick. Right now we have over 100 bottles waiting the requisite 6 weeks from brew date. We've found that's how long you need to let the beer age so the funky yeasty taste is gone.

In the mean time, I just bottled 49 bottles today of an American Bock. It's REALLY dark. I get nervous when the beer is that dark.

I moved a Continental Light from the primary fermentor to a secondary and brewed a new batch of Amber.

I like making home brew beer. It does spoil me when I drink the mainstream stuff. Two home brews is enough to get a quick buzz. They definitely have a little more of a kick.

I have been somewhat lucky. We've only had one batch that didn't work out and that was because I forgot to add a packet to one of the batches - I think it was to lower the pH of the wort. We've been adding them to chili and various other things that taste nice with beer. As soon as my oven is fixed, I'll have to whip up some beer bread.

Oh yeah. My oven burn element arced on Friday night and burned all the way through. We took the screws off, and found that one of the electrical leads burned up all the way into the oven - which means that we can't fix it ourselves. At least the stove top still works.

I also made a Grumpasaurus this weekend. J was impressed. I made it for him since it's the second thing he has asked me to knit. M immediately confiscated it for herself. It was a lot smaller than I thought it was.

I also cast on for a super-sized Captain Underpants. I sold the State Fair one in a church auction. In order to do that, I promised M I'd make her a large one. This is my attempt to make one a little more detailed. I'd like to make a Krupp outfit for this one.

I also have been working on a crochet mermaid. I just needed some peach Comfort in order to finish her. I got some on Saturday when I went to Yarns Ewenique - everything is 40% off as they're going out of business. Too bad. It was a cute shop and I could tell the ladies there were really nice.

The reason why I'm doing the crochet mermaid is because they have a great tutorial on how to do doll hair. I've been wanting to make a Franny K. Stein but couldn't figure out how to do the hair. Perhaps doing this pattern will help me figure it out.

I hate Twilight

I really do. I read the book sometime last year - and hated it.

I just bought into the hype of the movie and finally watched it.

I hated it. I reminded me of why I hated the book so much.

I like to read vampire novels. This vampire novel, however, was deadly dull and *filled* with sexual frustration.

The movie just kept going on. . . and on. . . and on. J reminded me of when the boys of MST3K watched the movie The Killer Shrews. The boys were playing "The Killer Shrews" game. All the pieces were glued down because NOTHING HAPPENS while playing the game - just like the movie.

Twilight is the modern day Killer Shrews.

Don't waste your time. Really.

Post #700

J was sweet today and made a new banner for this blog.

Since this is post #700, I thought it was time to overhaul CivilBitch's look to match.

For the record, I wouldn't be caught knitting any of those tacky sweaters.

J canz writez - Part 2

J got two more books.

He edited two of them (one is the orange one above) and wrote chapters for the other two (the black and blue ones above). He's only received three out of four.

I'm terribly proud of him.

M is 7!

I'm so glad M's birthday is over.

That may sound terrible, but it seems that the ramp up to the birthday started a month ago.

My folks gave her a Wii and we got it two weeks early. We set that up early. Partly because I wanted to play with it, too.

Then we got stuff from J's parents on the Thursday before her party. She's wearing her party dress she got from Grandma to her birthday party - M LOVES party dresses.

We had a Mad Science party with 15 kids. Here are the pics (Thank you so much COH!) We forgot our camera at home and we had someone with a camera phone take pics - at least we have something.


Love this photo - My kid - the know-it-all.






Then on Monday - she celebrated at school.





As she was going to bed on her birthday, she mentioned that she hated that it was over so soon.

Ugh!

Pilates Hell

I have a good friend who has been kicking me into activity for the past three years. (Thanks, M).

We even now have J working out!

Yesterday, we all took our first Pilates class.

It. Kicked. My. Ass.

I'm not as sore today as I thought I would be, but I ended up falling asleep in front of the tube last night and ended up not going to a game night because I was just incredibly exhausted.

I am just amazed laying down on the ground and lifting legs and butts, etc. can be so taxing.

I plan on going next week, too.

We're okay

Each day, J will occasionally look over to me and say, "It's okay. We're going to make it."

Currently, my business is just so slow. The clients can't borrow money in order to get stuff done. Cities are scaling back because the bond markets are just so bad.

I know we're not past the worst, but I do feel that we have hope.

We're going to be okay. Tight, but okay.

Weird KIP moment

I've found that knitter's who knit in public (KIP) are generally very friendly people and more than happy to talk to you about your shared love of this hobby.

I went yesterday to get allergy shots - we have to stick around for 30 minutes after getting shots. There was a woman there knitting - which isn't something that happens a lot. So, I told her that I was a knitter, too and asked about her project.

Man.

She didn't want to talk to me AT ALL. Every question was answered with a monosyllabic response. At first I thought it was because she was counting and trying to keep the pattern - which I was very nice about and backed off, but when she put the knitting down, I tried talking to her again only to have the same response.

Bitch.

More Socks!

I'm getting back into the groove with my CSM. Here are a pair of socks for a friend of mine's mother.


Women's Size 9
Paton's Stretch Sock Yarn
Leg: 50 rows 1x1 rib
PH: 10
Foot: 54 rows
Gage: 9 rows/inch

Interesting: Toe measuring 1.5"

FO - Felted Daypack

I knitted this out of stash yarn for a church auction. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

CSM Socks!

Made the socks with one of the hand-dyed yarns last night.

I'm dyeing

yarn.

My neighbor is a true fiber artist and knows everything there is to know about them - at least that what it seems like. And she's also really humble about it, too.

Her kiddo's were off one weekend and she invited me over to show me how to dye yarn.

This is what the results were.

It's a lot more darker than what the photo shows - oh and that's the new floor laminate we have in our living room now - isn't it beautiful?

I also did the yarn dying class at the fiber retreat. Here it is drying:
Can't wait till I can knit this up into a pair of socks!!

Catching up

Okay, I have been knitting/crocheting (!) and just not keeping up with my blog posts.

I just finished a heart for M. (Pop Heart by Diana Prince) It's made with kitchen cotton yarn.

She loves it.

I also just finished knitting a felted back pack that will be donated to a church auction (I belong to a local UU church now - I like it).

It's being felted right now. I'll post a photo when it's done. Made with some stash yarn (Reynolds Lite Lopi and Cascade 220).

I also finished up a square that will go into a guild afghan - we're going to enter into the State Fair.

It's the first time I was able to knit straight from a chart. Yay!

Fiber Retreat

I spent Saturday and Sunday at a fiber retreat located just north of where I live.

It was a lot of fun as I schlepped my CSM. We had about 5 other CSM'ers there and I had a great time. The first day was terrible - I made three socks only to have to rip them out due to dropped stitches or screwing up some other way.

My CSM does not like to travel.

I had wanted to take my new LeGare 400, but it's so gunked up that it needed to soak some more in the MMO. I was finally able to take the v-cam off. I'm glad I did because the previous owner never did clean it up and the gunk build up has actually made the metal wear so much that I'm a little concerned about how it's going to work after it's been cleaned - i.e., there will be too much play in the v-cam. Time will tell.

The second day proved to be a little more productive - I got a pair of socks done - for me. I have a number of socks I have to make (Mom, I have my machine up and running - I'll start getting some whipped out for you.)

This pair was done with Lion Brand Sock Ease.

Leg: 60 rows 1x1 rib
10 row pre-heel
Foot: 44 rows (7.5 rows/inch gage)

Size 10.5 Women's

Happy Birthday Abe & Charlie

Today is Abe Lincoln ("Abraham Lincoln is the sixteenth pres-i-dent") and Charles Darwin's 200th birthday.

Two extraordinary men.

Ugh-part 2

So, I was told by the Editor of Craft magazine that they wanted to do an article on me for Craft:11.

Alas, there will not be a Craft:11. :(

I'm not all that upset about the article - I kept telling them to interview other CSM'ers 'cause I'm just a newbie struggling to figure out my machine.

I am upset there won't be a Craft: anymore.

RIP, Craft:.

RIP.

Ugh

I just got a call from a client - he's in Florida trying to scare up some business.

It's been like this with all my clients - they just don't have money because they're investors disappeared almost literally overnight.

I have been watching a lot of debate of the the latest stimulus package. I am on the fence.

J said, "If we're in debt, do we go out and spend our way out or do we cinch up our belt and slowly pay off the debt."

Well, we don't borrow more money - that's for sure.

I absolutely hate how the TARP has been handled to date. The bankers really stuck their middle fingers up to the American people.

I'm just really frustrated right now.

The Repub's are pounding the tax relief drum, but since I'm doing my taxes right now, when would I get tax relief? Next year?

Proud Mama

M was given an option, since she's in first grade, to participate in this year's science fair.

She loves anything dealing with science. I give the credit completely to Mad Science - we've been sending her to the after school program for about two years now and she LOVES it.

She decided to do something with Diet Coke and Mentos since she saw the Eepy Birds perform live at Maker Faire last year.

Her hypothesis: the fountains of cold and warm diet coke will be the same height when you add mentos to them.

We bought 7 liters of diet coke and a number of mentos (of course you have to have extra for sampling!)

I took three of them and put them in the oven at a very low heat. Another three were put in the fridge, and the last was kept at room temperature.

We took the temperature of the coke, added 4 mentos to it, and measured the fountain height.

Here's her science fair display.
She was so proud when she took to to school today. I was proud if her, too.

FWIW, the warm coke fountains were really higher than cold coke.

The Time - It Is Crawling. . .

I got a package in the mail today - and it's from Canada.

Must. Resist. Opening. It.

Oh, and gotta go run by an auto parts store for Marvel Mystery Oil

Economic Stimulus Idea

Okay. I'm a small business person. My husband is also self employed. We meet up with a lot of people who would like to be self employed, but are held hostage to health care coverage. I mean that literally.

I pay $550 a month in health care premiums and that's for a crappy HSA. We were paying $1000 a month.

Why don't we get universal health care for every one - then people who have been wanting to start a business can do it without fear of bankrupting their family if anyone falls seriously ill.

I think that is a fine idea indeed. It will also put us on equal footing with the Canadians, the French and the Brits. You guys are so smart.