CatStop

http://www.leevalley.com/US/garden/page.aspx?p=59764&cat=2,51555&ap=1



Hello again! First day I've had off since returning from the trip up North for Christmas with the family. A great time had by all, and it always feels too short.

This here, this is something that I absolutely had to have for my garden this year. We just moved into our house not that long ago so there's still a few kinks to work out. One of these is that the backyard (especially the part I want to put my garden in) has quite a few cats wandering around through it. I don't want to grow my food in cat poop, there's very good hygienic reasons for it. I'm sure a good chunk of them are neighbours' "outdoors cats" so live traps or anything that would hurt them is out of the question. I have thought of trapping them and relocating them to Scarborough but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be legal. Regardless I spent a bit of time doing research and settled on this option and laid it pretty thick on to my wife - so guess what showed up for Christmas!

It's close to $60 so it had better work. Essentially it has a heat sensor, an ultrasonic emitter and a 9 volt battery. If a critter comes too close it sends a sound out that's supposed to scare them off. Haven't tried it yet due to the snow and work... but when I saw this online I just had visions of me standing by the window drinking coffee cackling madly while watching these cats approach and then run in terror.

Will post on how it works later on!

Merry Christmas!!!

Holidays

Hello everyone! I'm partway through a visit to my parents' home for Christmas. The entire family is here, even my brother the doctor who is very very busy practicing in NY. I think it has been maybe a year and a half since I've seen him last... It is always a smidge awkward with him here since it starts off being pleasant usually and after a few days he starts getting restless and being harder to be around. I think it had something to do with wanting his space, but I'd never ask him since questions like that would start a fight.

Anyways it is a good happy time with everyone here. I'm just thankful everyone is doing well.

Happy holidays!

Atomic Creep Spawner

Here's another interesting one. Heroes invade your dungeon, you spawn enemies to combat the hero. Your points to spawn enemies goes up as the hero causes damage to the dungeon. More of an arcadey clicker than anything strategic.
Also not anything that's going to keep you involved for more than half an hour, but it is a neat diversion while it lasts.

http://deepnight.net/games/ld25-atomiccreepspawner/

(Tie One Woman to a Train Track and Suddenly) I'm the Badguy

I saw this one posted on a few games blogs that I follow and thought it looked promising. It plays exactly like it looks: You're the Snidely Whiplash looking green follow with a top hat who captures and ties up women to train tracks. Trains come regularly and squish the ladies. Occasionally heroes come and try to stop you and free the ladies. The game as a whole works very well in an old-school way and I really like the package. Recommended to try (especially since it's free!)!

http://www.sharkarmstudios.com/2012/12/tie-one-woman-to-train-track-and.html

A Large Day

I haven't had much to say over the past couple days partly due to my being stressed out beyond belief regarding the upcoming PEBC results being posted - then they went up and I passed! I feel a lot of relief, and even though I knew I probably passed (since I barely didn't last time and did better preparation this time around) there's so much riding on this it couldn't help but weigh heavily on me. What a relief! I was so stressed out that even now that I know there's nothing to stress about I still feel it.

My first action after making all the calls to family/friends and going for a jog? Replacing my windshield. I was driving on the 401 on my way to work two days ago and a fist sized stone got kicked up by a transport in front of me. It started off small but has since gotten to be about 5 inches long, if I'm going to be using this car again to get to work this needs to get fixed.

The de-stressing continues... I really need to get jogging

Penumbra Overture

After finishing Super Meat Boy (finally - well, finished relatively speaking... just the light world) I've been on the fence as to what to play next. I've had this one on my steam account for years now after finding the shareware release interesting back in the day and am just now getting to it. It's held up surprisingly well in my view. The graphics are good, but a bit dated now. I don`t mind so much but some would. The sound is really what draws me into it... especially since there are many audio cues you need to listen for regarding potential predators and threats. The level design is pretty good too, along with related puzzles. I`ve been challenged but not held back at all. Of note is that there aren`t a ton of enemies to fight so you do get lulled into a sense of safety. Your combat skills are limited, and the interface for that part of it could use some work. I can`t count the times so far where I`ve wanted to swing a hammer when a dog`s attacking me and the game just won`t let me. Meanwhile my character gets killed and I get to look at the game over screen listening to that dog munch on my corpse. Thankfully the combat isn`t a large part of the game but it is there for better or worse. The writing for the text given on certain loading screens is well done as well, and is reminiscent of Lovecraft`s writing.

I`m not finished it yet (please no spoilers) - just chipping away at it and hoping that the rest of the game holds up to the first portions of it that I`ve played through.

Mill Street Cobblestone Stout - Nitro-Can

This is a surprisingly pleasant beer to have in a can at home. The beer comes out being completely black, with a nice thick head. A bit of carbonation is present but not enough to disrupt the experience. Pleasantly smooth, nice thick and creamy... you can taste a touch of roasted coffee and malt, a little bit of smokiness. Just enough to make you stop and think a bit about what you`re tasting. What sells this for me is the thick robust feel it has in the mouth, and it`ll likely be in my fridge for a while.

drywalling

Things are settling down a bit at home here. The plumber's gone through and given the thumbs up to a few areas of concern. The electrical in the house has been completely redone. There are a few things left to do before the unpacking and painting can begin in earnest. One of them is to get a drywall guy in to seal up all the holes left by everyone else that came in before him. The contractor we're in touch with is quite nice and walked through the house with us yesterday and quoted us a price in the $3-4k range for the job. To my eyes this doesn't seem unreasonable given the scope of and number of holes that needs to be sealed up. That being said, I`m also not a drywall expert. There's long trenches of drywall holes along where the baseboards should go where a lot of the wiring was run. Just covering those ones up with the baseboards isn't really an option since some of the holes go larger than what the baseboards would cover.

While we're getting the drywall work done, we're also looking at a few smaller (hopefully) jobs in the house. After the electrical was done some larger holes were left upstairs, one of which revealed a section of dead (unused) space enclosed by drywall that we're hoping to turn into a linen closet for some much needed storage. We also need to get our master bedroom's closet revisited since the way it is now is mostly unworkable. One rod and a shelf for two people just isn`t going to do it. The contractor was nice enough to run a few ideas by me and once we get the closet opened up a bit (there is much more space available vertically than the doors would allow access to) we`ll be able to get a more complete shelving closet solution in there. Two rods hopefully, along with some drawers.

Another question has come up in the meantime that we`re hoping to get some answers to. The master bedroom is cold... the new furnace is nice and all but for whatever reason when night hits the bedroom is still cold. I think it has to do with the face that the walls aren`t insulated as well as they should be and that we have 3 exterior walls on that room. Redoing the insulation on the upper level is out of the question ($$$$) but I don`t think doing just that room is. It wouldn`t be for resale value, it would be for us. Besides, the other bedrooms on the upper level seem to be doing fine heat-wise.

Howe Sound Brewing - Pothole Filler Imperial Stout

The Howe Sound Pothole Filler. The name's pretty good, since it describes what the beer is going to be like when it's poured out - thick and black. Like the Pumpkin Eater, it is respectable for what it is - in this case an imperial stout. The smells are of roasted malt and chocolate... the taste has a bit of smokiness to it but also has some molasses and coffee to it. It's not as refined as something along the lines of the Peche Mortel where you would have it and not really notice the alcohol in it. That's something that both this one and the Pumpkin Eater share - you know you're drinking a 9% beer and can taste the alcohol as a sort of booziness. Not at all unexpected.

Don't get me wrong, it's good stuff, just not going to blow your doors off. It should be given the commitment one makes to a 1L bottle. I'm just feeling that it would have been better around 7 or 8% rather than 9. The Wellington Russian Imperial Stout is a good example of what I'm thinking of. Since I like the 1L swingtop bottles for homebrewing so I may pick another one up just to give it a second try... but for the time being I feel there's better options out there like the Welly I mentioned before.

one week without internet

Hello again. We've just moved into the house and passed the electrical inspection (thank goodness). My folks came down to help us move along with my uncle from just a bit out of town, all of which were a godsend. We couldn't have done it without them. Everything was within 10 minutes of being late, getting out of the elevator we booked, returning the truck, ... it was tight and we pushed and we did it. I should have bought a lottery ticket.

A good chunk of our lives are still in boxes which is ok for the time being. The important things are out like clothes and food. There's still a ton of drywall to be patched post-electrical, and there's no point in doing that until we get a plumber in to take a look at the pipe leading to the washing machine (never mind a few other things). Hopefully it won't be that bad but if we need to get someone in to patch things up there's no point until this guy's finished.

We use Teksavvy for our internet and phone needs. Works great when it's going but this time around, despite booking things ahead of time to get the switch over to the new place done we were still without internet for over a week. Apparently Bell (they use Bell's lines) requires the phone to be up for a certain number of days before DSL activation. Stupid if you ask me, but then I'm not Bell. Anyways, things are cooking on the internet front so I can put down my flamethrower for now.

electrical work proceeding

My wife and I stopped by the house two nights ago to check on the progress of the electrical work. We knew based off a prior inspection that the old house we purchased needed some work since there was old knob and tube wiring in there. There's only so much an inspector's going to be able to tell you about this kind of thing without tearing holes into the walls... Anyways, so we stopped by to talk to the people doing the work. Holy cow, they have to redo the wiring for the entire house. The lead claimed that it was the worst he's seen in 30+ years. There were junction boxes with 9 or more wires coming out of it where there were only supposed to be 4. Frayed wires screwed onto beams that were fire hazards... His suspicion was that the prior owners did their own electrical work, to be honest I wouldn't be surprised. He also showed us a few examples just for the sake of showing us.

On top of that, the people we bought it from who flipped it did piss-poor work as well! The kitchen appliances weren't being supplied with proper power, some of the boxes for their plugs were hiding under the cabinets next to them. I was never much impressed with the flip, and I`m even less impressed now.

We were expecting that the electrical was going to be a big job. The master electrician said it would be ballpark $6000 and done this weekend. Given the scope of what`s going on I can only hope it`s all going to be sewed up by the time we move in mid next week (or we`ll be living in a pile of dust)!

laptop hunting

Amidst all the packing (we have less than a week until we move into the house), I've been trying to search for something called an ultrabook for my wife. I've got an old Dell Inspiron dual core which was state of the art maybe 6 or 7 years ago. Apparently it's too big, too heavy and additionally the battery doesn't work anymore (when it did it only lasted an hour or two, far from what Dell claimed at the time). What a time sink this is... when you think you've found the model you're interested in based off of top 10 lists and a private checklist (14", SSD drive only, reliable wifi) there always seemed to be a problem with it.

First I thought I was getting the Lenovo U410, which on the surface looked like a good computer... however there were issues with the wifi antenna that were bad enough that it wouldn't pick up a signal past 10 feet from the transmitter! The company claims they've fixed it, the forums I've been reading say otherwise - certainly doesn't lend confidence to a purchase and as such they've lost me as a customer.

Then I thought I was getting the Asus Zenbook Prime UX32VD-DB71. I didn't see any of these available in Canada, but I did find the ASUS Zenbook UX32A-DB31 for about $750 which was in my range. I'd be conceding on the solid state drive only requirement but that's ok. More digging reveals that it was a totally different beast than the UX32VD and had last generation parts... Maybe it would have still been an ok purchase but it was enough of a turn-off that I wanted to move on.

I considered the Sony Vaio T13, but I couldn't get it for a decent price in Canada. There was apparently a great sale online with Amazon yesterday that would have dropped it into my $600-800 range but I found out about it too late.

At this point I was getting frustrated and was starting to lose it. I wound up packing, having a Kwak or two and watching Futurama until the wife got home. Somewhat recharged this morning I took a look around online and came up with two possibilities. One was the Dell Inspiron 14z, a reasonable ultrabook for a reasonable price that happens to be $200 off today AND ships from Canada (would have been $599 before taxes). Wonderful - I don't have to go empty handed! The other option that I'm trying to sort out is a better option - the Toshiba Portege Z935. It has much better reviews and I can get it for a similar price, PLUS I don't have to concede on the solid state drive. Downside? The Toshiba Canada and the US stores are not set up in a robust way like the Dell stores are. This means the stock isn't the same, the model numbers aren't the same, and the sales aren't the same - the US store has a $150 off sale on the model I'm interested in. I could get something similar to what I wanted from the Canadian store but I would be paying about $150 more for a slightly worse computer. Even if I have to pay taxes/duty to get it shipped up from the states it'll still be worth it to go to the US version of their store in my view. Anyways, barring unforseen circumstances (and problems getting my US connection to bring it back across the border) that's the option I'll be going with. It will be so nice to get that headache off my mind since it's been driving me nuts.

furnace venting

Yesterday the HVAC company we've been dealing with sent some people over to clean the vents. While I was there I spoke with them, one of them suggested that I needed more cold air return vents for our house (we have 1 now) or we'd void the warrantee.

Later on, I called the heating representative from the HVAC company we've been dealing with just to see what was going on and he said that they didn't know what they were talking about. Essentially he said our furnace was multi stage and would shut off before anything bad would happen to it. Also that it was extremely unlikely in his long professional experience that we'd need another vent.

If it's the case that we can't really harm the furnace we'll take his advice and just let it go and see how well it heats the house

Dark Knight Rises

I went into the Dark Knight Rises with huge expectations and was let down. Let me set where I`m coming from... I'm a big comic book fan and love Chris Nolan's work. I'm going on 38 and have been reading since I was maybe 5 or 6. It's been hard to avoid spoilers and as such I already knew more or less what would be going on in it and who everyone was.

The movie suffers from a few points (according to my amateur viewpoint):
- One is Bane, I liked him as a character in the comics but he just doesn't translate as well to the screen partly due to his iconic mask. Not being able to see a character's facial features reduces your ability to identify and relate to that character. Also the mask made it more difficult to understand him as it muffles the voice. I didn't have a problem with it but the person I saw the movie with did. Bane's motivations didn't exactly come through very well either, I knew who and what he was working on behalf of but it wasn't because of the movie that I did.
- Two was that there was too many characters and it felt to me like the movie was racing around trying to keep up with everyone. As a result it felt like scenes were cut short and the movie was cramped as a result. I think that some judicious editing for pacing would have benefited it so that it could breathe and not be as confused. It all makes sense if you stop to think about it ... but you're watching a superhero movie - you shouldn't have to stop to think about who's doing what to who and why to make sense of what's going on in a film like this.

Pluses were Anne Hathaway as Catwoman and Michael Caine as Alfred - I thought they both did well.


I'll be giving it another shot just to confirm how I feel about it but for the moment I can't help but feel disappointed that it wasn't tighter and cleaner. I feel that with time I will like it, but for the moment I can't say that I do.

I'm Scared - A Pixelated Nightmare

Holy crap. I don't know who has played this. The less you know going in the better I think... it's very low budget and also very effective in its minimalism. I don't know the last time a game has freaked me out like that. Seriously, give it a go and play it more than once since it changes.

http://gamejolt.com/games/imscared-a-pixelated-nightmare/files/10058/

Great Lakes Brewery - 25th anniversary black IPA

I'm a bit late on the 25th anniversary train for Great Lakes, but that could be blamed on the exams I've been studying for (blissfully over, although the house has consumed all the free time since). The bottle advertises it as being 100IBUs, which is an impressive number. I've heard that you can't really tell the difference past 60 or so. Anyways, on to the beer. Pours jet black, lovely hoppy aroma with great head retention. I'm not the kind of person who pays attention to head unless it's completely absent, so for this to stand out for me was something. The smell one gets matches the taste. I didn't get much malt at all... mainly a bit of roasty flavour in the distance, but oh the glorious hops! What really stood out for me was the resinous hoppy flavour of it... very piny, very citrusy... I wouldn't say piney as in it smells and tastes like a tree, but that's partly what comes to mind. The resiny oily nature of the hops in it were wonderful. I think it may be primarily cascade hops but I could be mistaken. A lovely, big, hoppy beer that does not come out so aggressively that it wants to destroy its drinker. Well done!

House update

Hello again! Today the ducts got cleaned by the same nice people at A1 that sold my wife a new furnace. No complaints so far, and the duct cleaning came with some additional advice. It seems that furnaces need multiple cold air returns to function properly and only having one on the main floor (as we do) leads to an inefficient furnace and probably voiding our warrantee. Obviously this isn't what we want so we spent some time discussing "do it yourself" options to add a return on the basement level right beside the unfinished furnace room. That would be the easy option. The best choice option would involve getting some sort of a cold air return on the upper floor (where the bedrooms are) above the main floor. That's going to be a bit more involved and definitely beyond my modest do-it-yourself skills. Just calling for an estimate now, hopefully it won't be too bad. The alternative would be installing some big ceiling fans to push some air downstairs for circulation purposes... I may do that anyways, I like ceiling fans!

Bellwoods

Just thought I'd toss this out there for Toronto beer people. The barrel aged Grandma's Boy at Bellwoods is really really good.  It's not going to last much longer. It is really quite soft so far as the sour stuff is concerned, and has a lot of what makes a triple good with some very nice fruity sour notes. Overall it is quite a nice package and should be savoured while it is still around. Might last a week or so more according to estimates. I'll be back to send if off in a few days, I'd recommend you do so too if you have any inkling towards this sort of thing.

Freedom... Horrible Freedom

Two events that I can update on:
1. We're now the proud owners of some sort of new furnace. While I was studying for the exams that I just finished writing today, the wife went and dropped $5000 on a new furnace. I'm not disputing that we needed it, I'm just hoping we didn't get taken for a ride while I wasn't looking.

2. The aforementioned exams being done! I've spent almost the entirety of my spare time with a few precious exceptions for the past two months on studying for this exam. It's the pharmacy qualifying exam for Canada, meaning if I pass it, along with the rest of what I've done to date, I can finally be a practicing pharmacist. There are two parts to it: One is a live action portion where you interact with actors and pharmacists watch and assess how you react to various situations. These different scenarios are broken up with what is the absolute worst buzzer in the entire world. I literally jumped and screamed when it went off more than once. Picture it: You're stressed out standing in a number of different hallways trying to gear your mind up to whatever might be behind that door then a loud noise reminiscent of a fire alarm goes off right over your head. Repeatedly. I do not recommend the experience for people with heart problems. The other part is a written exam. We're essentially sworn to secrecy as to the contents of both exams.

Long story short, I had to do the written exam again as the first time I wrote it I had quite a bit of things going on personally that took away from the time that I needed to prepare. This time I made sure I had adequate time and space to get things ready so that I could give the exam the respect it deserved. Both my employment and my wife were accommodating for my study requirements and hopefully if this all works out well I'll be able to pay both back for their kindness. I've spent so long studying for this thing though, that now that I'm done with it I really don't know what to do with myself. Getting on top of the house situation is going to take some time, and I do a really good job of second guessing how I've done. I just hope that I don't have to do this again; I won't know the answer to that question though for another month and a bit yet. Argh

The drama continues....

Ok. Just had the HVAC guy over to the house to have a look. Looks like the furnace needs to be replaced, which in my opinion isn't necessarily a bad investment. The wife does not like being cold one bit and replacing it will help with the circulation of air in the house as well. Not an expense we were looking for but one that we kind of knew we'd have to do based on the inspection. It was clearly showing rust and some parts didn't fit together properly, also it was leaking from areas it wasn't supposed to be leaking from.

Now the roof... we'll have to get a second opinion on getting the bathroom vents done. It won't do to have them going just into the attic. To go through the roof however is a bit troublesome since there's 3 layers of shingles there. The roofer that my wife had take a look at it previously said that we'd need to replace the works, however we know a few people that had the same situation we did and just did it. They're fine, so I expect that we were just being upsold. Maybe if the 2nd/3rd opinions come back the same way we'll consider it more seriously but this is a major expense that we weren't planning on so if it can be dodged then good on us.

Roof ventilation

It seems we need to make a decision. Right now our bathroom fans are ventilating into the attic which is a big no-no. Seems the people who flipped the house prior to our buying it didn't choose to finish the job on this end as well. There are a number of options available, but because the roof is lacking soffit features the easy one is not available (not that it would really be an option - I've read quite a few negative comments about that choice). The other options are: going out through the side of the house which can't really be done given that it's venting into the attic and the wall doesn't go that high; going out through the roof - there's already 3 layers of shingles there which complicates putting vent hoods while still retaining proper drainage; the third option is the $20k replace everything job. The gable wall option isn't really an option, it's too far from anything to give good ventilation to the bathrooms.

While my wife seems to be favouring the replace everything and have it done properly option, I'm still feeling that even if it's not ideal putting the vent hoods on the presently done roof may put off purchasing a new roof for a while. Yes, it's not ideal but at least it takes away the immediate problem of my shower moisture condensing in the attic and freezing, also causing mold/fungus to show up which may spread.

House

Today's something of a landmark day for us, as we get the keys to our new home. If everything goes down according to plan we'll be meeting up with our lawyer around 4 today, then later on going to meet our realtor by the house to tour and make sure everything is in place. There's a bit of concern on our part due to all the weather that's been going on lately as part of multi-storm-Sandy... mostly we're just hoping that the drainage around the house is keeping the water away and drained nicely.

Also, I found something new today: HVAC people apparently don't do roof ventilation! When we bought the place, the bathrooms on the upper floor were vented into the attic (which in turn has an opening to the great out of doors via the chimney which needs to be capped). This isn't what should be happening here, and shame on the flipper we bought this from for not doing this correctly. It's kind of similar to a few other things in the house that we've seen where it's just, well, sloppy. Thankfully the place is still good value even with the work we'll have to put into it to make it what it needs to be so it's not the end of the world.

I'm really looking forward to setting up the garden in the backyard :) That and giving my artichoke plant a more permanent home. All in due time...

Birrificio Del Ducato - New Morning

I've just gone and renewed my appreciation for this lovely Italian saison. I first tried it this summer as one of the LCBO seasonals, and have kept finding it since then... hopefully they're trying to keep it in stock regularly. It appears a nice light yellow/orange on pouring, and smells a bit floral. The flavor of it is really quite intriguing as in addition to a flavor that I would describe as being like a light hefeweissen, or like a wit... it also carries herbal scents and flavors that one wouldn't expect from that kind of beer. The one that stands out for me is the pepper flavor that I'm able to pick out every so often.... it's not strong and is somewhat faint, but this oh-so-slight spiciness is definitely there and I love it. Similarly with the ginger and coriander. If you've had beers featuring coriander or ginger, you'll be able to find those here as well, but nicely blended in so that if you're not looking for it you may not find it. Really a remarkable beer.

Black Creek Pumpkin Ale

Overall a bit of a disappointment. Came out of the bottle flat, little to no body. Tasted a little bit caramel to me, but not much. You get a bit of pumpkin out of it too, which isn't too good for a beer where the pumpkin is supposed to be the main event. Really most of what I was tasting was the spices and in particular the cloves. I'm not much for cloves so that's not a plus. There just wasn't much to say about it past that it left me feeling let down by the whole experience... I would have rather had a Rifleman's Ration.

Black Creek Rifleman's Ration

I'm just going to come out and say it: This is my go-to beer at the moment. It's a lovely brown ale created using only local products. It has this lovely molassess-y taste sort of a bit like you'd find in a spruce beer but without all the tree stuff. The malt it the focus here, and the hops stay firmly in the background. Not too strong easy drinking stuff. Did I say this is tasty?

Cannery Brewing Squire Scotch Ale

The Cannery Brewing company's Squire Scotch Ale. I just had my second bottle of it last night, and I liked it just as much as the first. Not everyone likes the strong smoky malt taste of a scotch ale, but I do ... and I feel that this is very much what I go looking for when I'm looking for one of these. Nice rounded flavor that doesn't overstay its welcome and mild hopping round this offer out nicely. Well done! I'm definitely going to revisit this one later.

Crabbie's Alcoholic Ginger Beer

Ever since I've been making my own ginger beer, I've been consistently disappointed by the ginger ales and ginger beers that I've found in stores. I want it to taste like ginger, be bubbly and not be too sweet. The Canada Drys and Schweppes are ok for a road trip here and there but the flavour just isn't right. Crabbies comes awfully close... I just find the sugar content to be a bit syrupy to be really enjoyable. If they were able to take the sweetness down just a notch it would be fantastic. As it is, it's still miles above anything that I've found to be purchaseable, just not *perfect*. Lots of ginger flavour though, so if you're looking for that in your alcoholic beverage, step right in.

Beau's Weiss O'Lantern

Both the wife and I were quite excited to try this one. We love Beau's products in general, we love Hefeweizens, and we love pumpkin beer. The combination seemed made in heaven. Unfortunately the best thing about this one is the label (as Beau's branding is excellent as usual). The sweet dessert like flavours of the hefe are present throughout, followed by the savoury and spicy notes of the pumpkin and spices. Not entirely unpleasant, but it just didn't work for me. Kind of like drinking a banana milkshake and then going into a chunk of roasted pumpkin afterwards. It might be for some people but not really for us.

Definitely worth trying, definitely more hefe than pumpkin so don't let it scare you off. Just don't expect to have your doors blown off.

Howe Sound Pumpkineater

Next one we tried last night was this one. Loved the bottle, I'm going to be reusing it for homebrewing later on. The beer itself was quite pleasant, with the expected tastes that one expects from a pumpkin beer, the coriander, the pumpkin ... and over all the beer itself. Quite lovely, only downside is that the alcohol content is tasteable and wasn't masked as well as it should have been. That being said this is an imperial beer and this type of thing should be expected occasionally from an imperial. I would try this again.

Southern Tier Pumpking

We went through a number of pumpkin beers last night, mainly for sampling. I'll start with this one:

Very different than many of the pumpkin beers out there, and has a very pronounced pumpkin taste. I know some people compare it to whipped pumpkin pie, but you know what? I like pumpkin beer in general but I hate pumpkin pie, so maybe that's why I don't like it that much. The main thing that I'm not fond of is probably what attracts so many people to it on Beer Advocate. It just has a very strange taste throughout, perhaps if it was toned down a bit it would make for a more pleasant drinking experience

Hops Nouveau 2012

Came back from a shift at the pharmacy last night. Most people I run into there are genuinely appreciative of the service I provide but occasionally you run into one or two that insist on trying to prove to you how horrible people can be. Thankfully it was only one yesterday, the rest of the day was pleasant.

When I got home and was relaxing with the wife, I cracked open a bottle of the Trafalgar Brewing Hops Nouveau 2012. Not impressed. No body, very strong taste of something off/wrong. It just didn't taste right. Like something was wrong with it, like a funk or bacterial infection is the closest I can put it. If it was because of the wet hopping I can see why it's not done more often, but I really don't think it was. Hopefully this isn't representative of the batch since it wasn't good at all.

onwards and upwards

Things have been pretty busy over here. The condo is now officially conditionally sold (which means no popping of bottles just yet), and there is a month overlap where we have to hold up both the condo's and the house's mortgages. I think it works out fairly well given circumstances. We may not have gotten what we were initially looking for the condo but at least it sold in time for everything to roll forwards as planned.

I still have one exam left to write in November before licensing. Preparing for it is sucking up all of my spare time, and the motivation to study 24-7 is vanishing awfully quickly. Going to have to mix it up to keep everything on track fast!

Holy Crap

Well now, we just bought a house this weekend. Lots of time being spent right now putting our life in boxes so that we can stage our condo so that we can stage open houses and start the move after this part sells. I'm still stunned that we pulled the trigger on it, I can only hope that the home inspection works out favourably...

Other than that work's going well. The internship still has a few activities to wrap up but nothing unmanageable...

Did I mention we bought a house? Not just a house, but one with 4, possibly 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, fully detached and in reasonably good shape within reasonable reach of downtown without breaking the bank. That's an accomplishment my friend!

Groundhog update: Now that he's no longer drowning, the groundhog I saved is out savaging everyone's gardens and has done damage even to potato planters. Strangely my plot is untouched. Fencing win or groundhog karma?

Bellwoods

Went to the Bellwoods brewery yesterday on Ossington. Beer was pretty well bulletproof, between my group we thoroughly made the rounds of the offerings. The "White Picket Fence" shows far more skill than its light taste would let on, with something that gentle any mistakes/impurities become immediately obvious. My favourite of the night was the Bier de Garde that they have on now, very nicely well rounded with some flavours that you don't taste very often in beer... I'm hesitant to call it winey but that's about the only descriptor that comes to mind. Really nice.

Negatives for the visit: The food. I see what they're trying to do but it's misguided. What would have changed my perception of it would have been a good meat, cheese and bread plate like what you see in the Netherlands. It doesn't have to be fancy, there's a bakery on the other side of the corner and a good helping of local cheese and dried sausage would have done wonders. They do have a bread and cheese plate but I have to be honest, it looked chintzy. There were maybe 5 small slices of bread and 4 smallish pieces of cheese. One of the cheese selections tasted fishy (the brie), probably a more extreme example of the style but misguided given the target audience. Good cheese? Yes, but still small and in no way worth the $18 or so that they were charging for it... Not when you can go someplace else and get a whole meal for that much. Also, I ordered a vegetable dish and found some pulled pork in it. I'm not vegetarian but I was eating with someone that was, she laid it on pretty thick that if I was vegetarian (and there was no indication that there would be pork along with these fava beans) I should be really really offended.

All I'm saying is that they need to pay more attention to it. There's still space for the duck hearts etc, but there needs to be a reliable something else there for more conventional tastes. Seriously, go out and get a few packs of Jarlsberg Swiss cheese, some dried salami and some Portuguese buns from down the road. Charge $10 for it and be generous.

Sam Adams Summer Ale. Just picked some up from the LCBO on the way home from hoping for something similar to their Alpine Spring beer. We enjoyed that one quite a bit! Lovely kellerbier that one. Anyways, the summer ale is disappointing... unremarkable. It has some a bit of flat lemony taste to it, but otherwise doesn't deliver anything claimed on the label. Crisp, spicy... definitely not words I'd use to describe it. More standard and unremarkable, which so far as beer is concerned is definitely not what one should be aiming for.

Was a snotty sneezy mess at work today. You know you're sniffling a lot when you're counseling patients on their medication, wishing them well and that they will get better... when they wish you to get better too. Could be a cold, could be allergies. Either way the result is the same :(

Yesterday we went to the Black Oak Brewery for an OCB event called (I think) "Ken's Still Bitter" in honor of them brewing more "10 bitter years". In case you're not aware, this is quite a good double IPA that has gained a reputation in the area. Last time it was made it sold out before many people even knew it existed. This time they threw a bit of a party for it!

There was the 10 bitter years on tap of course, as well as a number of other beers. There was "How do you say monkey in Latin?", a collaboration brew between brasserie Charlevoix, Black Oak and someone else if my memory serves. This one had some good hoppiness to it, but was short lived and left me with a feeling of it only being ok. There was also a black Belgian IPA called "Black Abbey" which tasted exactly as it was described. Again nothing that really flew out at me. The ones that did stand out in my opinion were being served in the non-air conditioned brewing area. The Daily Bread collaboration Belgian table beer was much needed given the number of "large" beers being served, and had a very pleasant taste to it. I could have had that one all night and been quite pleased with it. The 1812 collaboration brew "Stitchback" was another large beer and clocked in at 9%. It didn't taste like 9% though, it tasted more deceptively sweet than anything malty or hoppy. It takes a special kind of strong beer to keep both of us happy and this walked that very thin line. There was also a marmalade cask saison, a variation on Black Oak's Summer Saison that added more pleasant flavours to an already quite likable beer. The lightness of it was really appreciated given the heaviness of the other ones being served.

The food was a pleasant turn to these Black Oak parties as well. Instead of having a lineup for catered food, this time there were a number of pop-up and drive up tents and trucks out back. While the Caplansky's truck was much appreciated since I haven't gotten my smoked meat on in quite some time, it was the folks from Rock Lobster that got my attention and held it. I haven't had lobster like that since a trip my wife and I took to Boston not that long ago. Down there, fresh lobster rolls are served from trucks and it's part of the culture to have this kind of amazing seafood available like this fresh... if it's done well it doesn't resemble Red Lobster at all. This was done well and you can tell extraordinary measures were taken to ensure good fresh lobster. Kudos!

People that know me well know I have a soft spot for critters. Here's a cute link I saw earlier today and felt I'd share:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-jDjKFhKNI&feature=relmfu

Just thought I'd share this before heading out to work. What an amazing resource of old photos of Antarctic expeditions, nature and wildlife. There's a lot made available by the State Library of Victoria from these old expeditions that is just amazing to look at. I'll be spending some time going through them later tonight after work

http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&frbg=&tab=default_tab&dstmp=1340033094247&srt=rank&ct=search&mode=Basic&dum=true&indx=1&vl%28freeText0%29=Antarctic+landscapes%2C+fauna+and+activities+relating+to+various+Antarctic+expeditions&fn=search&vid=MAIN

A friend of mine is having trouble with small bugs in her garden eating everything. I have tried a few things in the past... What type of bugs you have going on affects what you want to use if you have similar problems.

If you have a spray bottle you may want to try using diluted dish soap and/or hot sauce in water and see if it helps. I found that it helped keep the patio aphids in control even if it didn`t get rid of them completely.

Another something that I found useful was leaving out a small container of cider vinegar, they seemed to be attracted to that. Cover it with saran wrap securely taped down and sealed and poke a few holes in it. They`ll find their way in and not out. It was useful inside the apartment with fruit flies, not sure how useful it`ll be outside.

I`ve also seen in the Galapagos, buckets left out with dish soap in it. They used it to help control the insect population on some islands. You may want to give that a go as well since it doesn`t cost anything, really.

My garden`s doing pretty good at the moment. Potatoes are just starting to sprout and the newly placed fence is keeping my furry nemesis out of reach. I may even try planting lettuce outside again (patio lettuce is doing spectacular)

Interesting... the dispensing kiosks were a fear amongst a number of people that I was talking to while working. Others felt that it would have a much smaller impact than expected, like mail order pharmacy. I wasn't expecting the company it to go the way of bankruptcy but the explanation given in the article makes sense.

http://www.canadianhealthcarenetwork.ca/pharmacists/news/professional/remote-dispensing-firm-bankrupt-16303?utm_source=EmailMarketing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Pharmacy_Newsflash

What the heck? The frozen planet penguin cam is off the air now. Major lost marketing opportunity in my opinion, this thing was hella entertaining. I'd leave it on in the background just to hear my penguin buddies while I'm doing other things.

 http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/frozen-planet/penguin-cam/

Game of the moment: Super Busker

http://www.kongregate.com/games/jotapeh/super-busker

In this game you're a busker playing the crowd in a rhythm based music game format, trying to make money. You can upgrade your voice, clothing, hygiene and even your pet. A neat idea, unfortunately it didn't have the staying power I was hoping for

Planted heirloom fingerling seed potatoes today. Did 9 in large containers, 6 on the ground around them. Will be mounding straw around them as they grow. Did you know that potatoes show up above where the seed potato is planted, and below is only roots? I didn't.

Also, I found my 3rd large container for potatoes. Seems someone stole it earlier this year and broke it while hauling manure. Thankfully it's still usable for my purposes

I'll be following the example outlined here for planting this year:  http://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/how-to-plant-potatoes-in-straw/

Spruce Beer

It's time to do another blog post. What's it been, a year? I'll get to the trip details later on but I felt I had to leave a note somewhere about this. The Garrison Spruce Beer arrived at the LCBO as part of the Garrison feature during the winter, and what a special beer it is.

It's brewed with molasses and spruce tips. You'd think it wouldn't taste like a beer, yet it does. It has this taste of a good dark beer though a bit different. You don't really get the spruce part of it until the end which is really where it comes out. That and the nose of it. You start off smelling it and you get a hint of it. Just a hint. That it didn't dominate the beer really says something about the craft of the whole production. Honestly I just love it. I've thought a good "tree" beer would be a great idea and this just proves that it's possible.

This is another good one from Garrison out in Halifax. I didn't like it as much as the Spruce Beer, but it is still a very good reliable IPA. I was expecting from the color of it to have a bit more of a malty aspect to it but the hops dominate as the name of it would suggest. Overall a very good beer, but at it's heart it's an IPA so don't go into it expecting anything different.

So there. Let's see if I can be a bit more consistent this time around.