In which I observe...

...that there is a whole list of things that your apartment could smell like that are worse than the scent of jerk seasoning. Mmmmm...jerk chicken :D

Ahhhh....

This has been a long time coming, and had several roadbumps/construction sites/unbuilt bridges and various other challenges along the way, but I did indeed graduate. I now am the proud owner of two very fancy pieces of paper (one undergrad, one grad) written in Latin (I told you they were fancy!) about two and a half by two feet in size to hang on my wall, about $55k in debt, and more knowledge on various subjects of interest to about ten people in the world than I probably care to admit.

Mom and Dad came down for the ceremony, which I made very little noise about for several reasons: First, I actually wasn't sure it was truly going to happen until about a week and a half ago, second, my wedding is fast approaching and I thought it was a bit much to make a big deal about both, and third, MAN, am I just happy to be FINISHED.

So, Super Thin Man sat with the Parents and got to be all happy and proud (which was fun...I was actually much happier about the whole thing than I thought I'd be) and then we went to Le Mistral for dinner. Wow. Super Thin Man gets big time credit with the Parents for that particular find. Mom officially put him in charge of finding nice restaurants when they are in town. Tee hee. It was a very nice dinner all around, good food, good wine, good company. In short, it was the kind of meal that in reality you only get once in a great while, but that you'd like to have much more often.

Ha hahaaaaaaaa.....

Do you remember this post? And the one preceding it?

Well, this evening Super Thin Man and I bottled our very first ever home vintage. It's actually not bad, either! (Of course we had to taste it. How else can you tell whether it's ready to bottle?)

We racked it twice over the course of the past 5 weeks, used a potassium metabisulfate solution to stabilize and sterilize it, clarified it last weekend using SuperKleer, and today as a study break we bottled it.

As we were tasting over the last couple of weeks, we discovered that the merlot from the kit we bought was, like, really high in alcohol, to the point where it was more like weak, young brandy. The fruit wine on the other hand (equal parts organic '365' brand concord grape, cherry, and blueberry fruit juice) was very weak in strength and was overwhelmingly fruity. We tried 75/25, 60/30, and 50/50 blends of the two wines, and discovered that providentially a 50/50 blend of the two balanced the fruit and alcohol very nicely. Odd, but a pleasant surprise. The original merlot kit was meant to make four bottles. With the blend it came out to seven bottles plus one glass (I'm sipping it now-ahhhh! Young, but with potential! :D ).

All in all, including equipment, chemicals, and juice, we ended up with seven plus bottles of eminently drinkable wine for about...$50? And several of the pieces of equipment (wine thief, brix/alcohol meter, racking pump, corker) are reusable.

Nice.

So you all...well, all of you over 21...now know what you'll be receiving for Christmas and birthdays for the rest of your lives.

Cheers!



P.S. We may get into beer and mead at some point, given the opportunity. And don't worry, we'll get you to taste it before we start giving it as gifts :D

P.P.S. The picture is from the tour we took at Ingleside Winery not far from Westmoreland State Park, where I spent Spring Break.

Update: On the Job

Remember when I bitched mildly about the gummint?

Yeah. It looks like they are eyeballing me to TAKE OVER THAT WHOLE SECTION.

The Department for Redundant Redundancy Department is something of an understatement compared to what I will be dealing with in the near future.

On the up side, this is actually a position of some responsibility. I hadn't considered that they were planning to give me a REAL job.

Neat.

Office Orchid Update!

So, in a move akin to my sister's updates on her varied and sundry knitting projects, an update to the office orchid situation I mentioned last month.

The two orchids I rescued from possible death have both survived, and are actually well on the road to recovery. One of them has several visible, healthy new roots. The other, the one whose root decay was much worse, has become visibly healthier. This points to root growth in the medium where I can't see it.

My third office orchid, the Kalapana, has new growth but is kind of in a stall. I don't think the office has the right sort of atmosphere for them to truly thrive. My orchids at home get a similar amount of attention and care--in fact I spend more time with my office orchids--but the office ones don't grow as quickly and haven't shown any indications of future infloresence.

I have experienced dramatic improvement in health and happiness of other plants when I have taken them out of my office and into my apartment in the past, that may be the solution here, too.

In short, my office has too many stressed out people for plants to be happy. Poor vibrations and bad karma, apparently.

Oh, that's what we're missing.

A leader, even a figurehead one, who actually doesn't have their head up their butt.

Queen Elizabeth II put Bush squarely in his place as only a long-time monarch can do to an idiot.

One down...

I handed in the 33 1/2 page behemoth today. That may be officially the longest paper I have ever written-I kinda hope that if I write like that again it won't be for a crunch-deadline. Two more, gotta get 'em done!

Edited to add:

This is not the result of dieting for a role. She looks like I do right now, other than that whole fact that I weigh at least twice as mu....wait, Super Thin Man weighs twice as much as this, what was I thinking???!!

I think she is secretly in her last semester of grad school.

In which....

I think it's finished. But it's 4:32 am EST, and I may be hallucinating.

There's still two papers to go: Why Everybody Hated Poland in the 17th Cantury, and How Jewish Family Life Changed in the 19th Century. These aren't really related in any way....though if you went all Six Degrees on them they could be.

But the How Wine Culture In Russia is even More Backward Now than it Was in the 17th Century and Gee Isn't it Interesting How the Russian Oligarchs get Treated Just Like the Nobles Used To paper is finished. I think. I'm still somewhat doubtful.

Make that 4:35 am EST

Capstone

Just for the record, when I finish this damn paper, I'm going to find a way to post it on this website--all 35 damn pages of it--so all of you can see why I've suddenly turned into something approaching a cross between Bridezilla and the most passive-aggressive person you've ever met. It's not you, it's not wedding planning, I don't have cold feet, and I am actually really unhappy to have to keep telling you all to leave me alone at such a crucial period in the planning process.

I'm Sorry.

But it's not going to get a great deal better until this weekend.

Tuesday Night BBQ

This Tuesday our department had the first of its end-of-year events. Unfortunately these are always on weeknights. This event is the annual end-of-year barbeque. Last year it was held at Old Glory, but since the Alumni House at 35th and O St. is finally reopened they decided to hold it in the new courtyard. I must admit-they did a good job with that place. It had been condemned in my sophomore year of college and sat there for several years before it was gutted and rebuilt.

In any case, they had the event catered and hired a bartender. This guy was crazy-he kept mixing up this rum punch that took the whole 'punch' idea a little too literally (as in 'punch in the jaw'), but you couldn't tell when you were drinking it. Over the course of the five hours we spent at the Alumni House I consumed three glasses of this and ate a fair amount of BBQ. We went to someone's house to continue the party-and I zonked out on the sofa within half an hour. Super Thin Man, deciding to take advantage of the situation, let me sleep for two more hours before he took me home. I think the stuff must have been about 50% rum. I had work the next day. Let's put it this way: although I had theoretically not imbibed a huge number of drinks, I was still rather less productive than usual yesterday morning at work.

The thing that I'm wondering is how other people did the next day. There were several people drinking that stuff like water.

Gaw. Note to self: if you meet a bartender who is making his own mixture of rum punch, and if he spends a significant amount of his time in Jamaica, and if you have work the next day, be warned.

And now I've said way too much.

Air and Space

This past weekend, my sister came down to DC. She had this amazing deal by which for $15 she got a chartered bus round trip and a ticket to the Spy Museum (I'm jealous. I've never been, at least not yet, and the tix cost $16 if you just walk in. I don't know how her school found that deal, but they deserve some props for that). Since she was going to have the afternoon free, we decided to get together. Super Thin Man, my sister and I went to the Hard Rock Cafe, DC for lunch. My sister had never been to any Hard Rock (oh, the Horror!), and I'd never been to the DC one, so it was a good time for all (Super Thin Man has been there, he was amused by the two of us giggling like silly people :D).

Then we went to the Air and Space Museum. We had though to take sis to the Udvar-Hazy Air & Space in Northern VA, but we realized how much time that would eat up, so we went to the one on the Mall. Udvar-Hazy. Udvar-Hazy. Teehee, I love saying that :D

Super Thin Man forgot his professional ID (again) which meant he didn't get the free ticket for the IMAX (again), but we went anyway-those 3D effects were really cool.

Then we decided to go check out the simulators. Well, sis wanted to go with me. I was pilot and she was gunner-we hit all of one target. This was mainly due to my inability to get the plane to go where I wanted it to go. Super Thin Man was by himself and therefore gunner/pilot-he hit six. Gee, I wonder who spent their youth playing flight simulator video games :D Next time I vow to:
A) Practice first so I have a better idea of how to use the controls and
B) Mention that if she ACTUALLY wants to hit something, she might consider going with STM.

All in all, it was a very nice afternoon and an ideal study break. I hope she gets the chance to come down like that again!

Um...God?

We're getting a little impatient down here!!!!!