I'm readin' this yo!

Idyllic, sylvan mountainscapes abound, built high and lush and then slashed, slashed like a sword-wielding calligrapher as he might say, down to the pavement. Metal veins and aluminum wires sully and mar the riverbeds the peaks the forests. Then, meditation, oneness peaceful acceptance of the journey forever hijacking through existence.

Shiz I like.

Shit I'm listenin' to and what it means to me, ok:


The Sounds of Siam: Jazz & Malam in Thailand 1964-1975 -- OK AWESOME. Definitely poppy, definitely Americanized, definitely baby voices from the lady vocals but I defy you not to dance around all foreign-like while listening to this album, neat.


Earth: Hibernaculum -- I'm in tattered, sand-covered clothing. Wandering through desert. Did I just past that dark, wavy looking mass a moment ago? It seems different. Time's dripping by slowly like molasses. Lurve.

Schtuff I read recently and enjoyed OK it's just one thing for now, OK HERE GOES:


Listening Through the Noise, Joanna Demers -- Relief. Had this book been written before I aborted a paper about Joanna Newsom's Ys in an American poetry class in college I'd have made a better A. Maybe an A and not an A-. Maybe. Anyway, if you're into folks like Adorno and enjoy excruciatingly un-musical "music" then this book's for you. Elite, intellectual snobbery abounds...AND I LIKE THAT.

Cat's in the Cradle...

Beer. It's been transferred into a carboy. This needs little explanation and will be shown to you now:



And no, you do NOT have to start that siphon with your mouth (that's what she said somehow?). So after this happened, or maybe it was the next day, I was running a fever so this is a bit hazy (much like the color of our beer at present...), we set out to build a cat condo. Feline fort. Err, tree. After about an hour at Lowe's and a small fortune later, we end up with these supplies:





This may not appear to be much but I can assure you that it's worth it. Cats ALWAYS, I mean ALWAYS, use every single toy you ever buy or construct for them. It's like, in their nature. Humans' attempts to entertain and please a cat are never for naught. Never ever ever ever futile. Nope. Never. Anyway, back to the grand cat condo adventure. After obtaining a prime piece of real estate near the balcony door and signing all the papers, cutting through red tape to attain all the correct permits and any other bureaucratic what-have-yous I may have forgotten, we were on our way. (He saws real good he does).










After what seemed like eight beers (or maybe six hours), we'd finally managed to put this together -- well not together with nails or supports or anything, but together like it was all balancing on a piece of plywood somehow:

Uh, so parts of that are nailed in now, and it's awaiting some final carpet and spray paint, however here's how excited our Kippy looked all day:

I swear I'll post a final pic soon, if Kip's condo is ever finished...












For dinner that night (because this is related somehow and damn it I KNOW you wanted to know) we had some sort of couscous concoction that I threw together, a little something with mint leaves and parsley. And cinnamon and coriander. Let me show you, I uh, I have a picture. Surprising, I know.











To finish off the evening, errr, weekend, because really this took place over a couple days, we watched this occur:

Bubbles

Oh little homebrew, as you ferment and stew, we wake every day hoping to see bubbles from you.

Saturday, the mister and I took to brewing a long-overdue batch of beer. We ordered all the grain and hopstuffs from High Gravity (a FSM-send in our hometown)and laid it out on the counter. Snodgrass-in-charge reviewed Charlie Papazian's bible...no looks of confusion yet...

Our grains are a-steepin'...



I have no clue how long this steeping went on as I was too busy weighing the cat on Wii Fit, a fruitful endeavor I assure you. However at some point, malt extract was added, as were some yummy hops. (Cascade and something else...you can tell how involved I am...)




Eventually, after an hour or so of boiling and stirring and stirring and boiling the aromatic brew was poured into the good ol' Ale Pale.






Here we are waiting ever-so-patiently to cool the stuff. Note the bottom left corner. Those my friends, are dinosaur valentines with "3D" stickers (read: holographic)...all of which were hidden about the abode for the man to find. Exciting? Yes. Cheap? Yes. Childish? Absolutely.