Beer Review: Boneshaker

"It was good. It had an aftertaste."

A repeat from the last beer advent, Boneshaker was previously ranked ninth, ahead of Russian Gun Imperial, but behind three different flavours of Innis & Gunn. Yesterday Kevin asked me with big hopeful eyes if there were any Innis & Gunn in this years advent.

Beer Review: Piraat

Piraat:

The build-up:
Piraat. A Belgian beer. I have a feeling this one is going to be good. Look at the percentage on this one! Ten and a half percent! Let's get her going. This is going to give the mead a run for it's money.

The review:
It was pretty good. Not as good as the mead. That one is going to be hard to beat.

Missed Beer Reviews

Rafiki and I didn't chat on the phone for the past couple days, so I missed my nightly beer review. So tonight I asked for a summary.

Shepherd Neame & Co. Christmas Ale:
Silence.
However it was the last beer advent line-up, and ranked eleventh, just ahead of Hockley's Amber Ale and just behind Russian Gun Imperial.

Downtown Brown All Natural Ale:
It was okay... Okay.

Trafalgar ESB (Extra Special Bitter):
It was bitter.

Mead Review: Trafalgar Ginger Mead

Today's beer review came as a text message: "Where did you get that beer Ginger Mead?? The one with the viking on the front. AMAZING!!! Don't tell anyone about it. It's our secret. I might clean out the shelves of this stuff! :)"

Later he added,"The look of it was great. The taste of it was great. It's the one. Better than beer. Better than wine. And the top looks like it's wine, because it has a cork in the top." and in the background Rafiki's brother shouted "It's all about the mead!" He liked it too.

Gifts from the Earth

Today my boss and I gave each other a series of gifts that we found in the gardens.

She gave me a set of practice nunchucks, white pine pinecones, and a pencil.

I gave her a spoon.

I went home with my pinecones and nunchucks tucked into a coffee holder. I really liked it.

I also visited Rambo the Carrot Rustler who is enchantingly enchanted by christmas lights. He sits in his stroller and his tiny red mittens point at them as we pass by.

Inspired I put up my own christmas lights which glint like jube-jubes in their big round bushes.

Beer Review 3: Augustijn

"Wooooahaoooa!
It's small but it's strong! 9%. That is a strong beer. I dunno what they do to make it so – put a shot of whisky in it... It's good, but it got me! Straight to my head, and I didn't even drink the whole thing; split it with my brother. Tastes good."

Beer Review 2: Boundary Ale

"It was better than the first one."

The Beer Review

My favourite part of doing a beer advent for Rafiki is getting the nightly beer review.

I don't drink beer. I have no idea what I bought. I buy it purely for the aesthetic pleasure for the labels - and after last beer advent, I now (usually) check the labels to see if the alcohol content is at least 5%. The Rafiki brothers like strong beer.

Tonight's beer review for Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale, "It was okay. :)"

...a little anti-climactic.







ps. The beer review expanded a little more that night: "It was a dark beer. 6%. It had a bit of an after taste after a while... a weird one."

18 Great Reminders When You’re Having A Bad Day

https://umano.me/c/mGn9q/18-great-reminders-when-youre-having-a-bad-day

Shared from the Umano app

One Bun of Steel

On Monday I sprained my ankle.

 Yesterday I giggled as I scooted about on my butt, crawled, hopped, or did a one footed shimmy remarkably akin to the happy butt dance around my house. I waved as I slowly travelled past occupied rooms in unusual ways. It got especially amusing if I carried something. The smallest trips turned into large accomplishments.

General Yumminess brought me grapes in the wee hours of the morning before she left for work. I woke up just enough to take the bowl, and held it on my chest and happily scarfed down grapes in the darkness, before rolling over and falling back asleep. When I woke up I could rotate my foot enough to draw a circle in the air. It is very exciting.

Mocha Monsters

Lying in bed this morning my stomach made a noise like "wheeeee!" as if it was celebrating something and it made me giggle.

We made cupcakes last night, trying out the first cupcake recipe of Ming Makes Cupcakes.

We made only minor alterations to the recipe - coconut oil instead of butter, strong coffee instead of espresso powder, a dash of strong coffee in the icing and slightly less sugar. They were so divinely delicious we nicknamed them Mocha Monsters because we couldn't help but growl in pleasure as we ate them.
I dipped General Yumminess' extremely healthy cranberry loaf into the left over icing for breakfast and thought, life is good.

yellow light

I love the sunlight that comes in through my yellow curtains. It is so warm. Every morning seems full of sunshine.

In a theme of gold, birch leaves made a beautifully patterened carpet where they scattered the ground in round perfection.

The katsura trees shine gold as well and all the light that falls through them holds summer in the middle of autumn.

secret superhero outfit

Get up this morning and my underwear matches my outfit. Booyah!

Today is going to be a good day.

If you want some...

I have a four step program to deal with my university's administration.

Step 1: Consult admin about the possibilities of a course of action I would like to take, and how to approach it.
Step 2: Do what they suggest.
Step 3: Find out it didn't work.
Step 4: Argue.

I get stuck on step four a lot. So today I went down to campus and spent a merry hour looping between steps two to four. On the way home I stopped to write an irritated email to one of the departments asking them to sort out the department I was irritated at, and I sat down on a flight of stairs and found fifty cents!

If the forces that be are going to pay me when I have to write these emails, it's not so bad.
So I continued on my journey, and turned on the music on my phone. With the volume down low I held it up to my ear boom-box style and rocked out to my own personal soundtrack all the way home.

Wise fence

I came across the advice I needed on an anxious day.

sweet sunshine

My smarties fell into my hand in a soft sunshiney rainbow of colours.

Me and my new nailbrush are having a whale of a time!

Creature Comforts

The sweet taste of chocolate chips melting in my mouth, the warmth of apple mint tea heating my tounge, the soft fur of Princess Dragon as she purrs and wheezes on my lap, and the soreness of shoulders nicely worked, all these things I am grateful for.

Good memories

I wrote these posts but never published them. This dark and rainy day they make me smile.

"Hortus Palatinus, the landscape architecture history project I am working on was a garden commissioned by a man who was made King of Bohemia. There was a King of Bohemia :)"

"I found a loonie hidden in the corner by my seat on the bus today."

"Basmati licked my eye and my cheek (twice!) in the morning.
  Some guy at the bar made a Harry Potter/quiddich reference.
  Listening to Just the Two of Us by Bill Withers.
  The pleasant glow of being sore.
  Jacki and Ryuu sharing and sleeping in a chair together."

"i'm at a bar where i know the majority of songs. i may never leave."

If thoughts cost a penny I could buy twenty

I forgot how much fun it is to run in running shoes; instead of the loud flat slap of flip flops, there's the silent spring that lends tiggerish bounce that inspires me to run forever (or at least as far as the bus).

I found two dimes gleaming on the concrete. That must be a good omen for something.

Herbs!

Tipalo Honey

Playing soul music in my kitchen while cooking, cleaning, and doing minor repairs is lovely place to add on to a classic pattern that people have walked for many generations. It makes me feel like "god's in his heaven, all's right with the world."

wildly beautiful

I heard a loon call early this morning. It's the sound of cottages and campfires and mist on small silent lakes. I snapped my eyes up and saw two of them flying overhead.

I looked at the subway tracks with fresh eyes today. How many trees lying in the gravel, each cut to the same length, each stained the same colour, with a line of shining steel stretching into the distance. So precise. So much work so little noticed and often used.

Foxy snuggles

http://blog.petflow.com/fox-shows-incredible-gratitude-for-being-rescued-i-love-this-so-much/?utm_source=ilmdrescuesitefox&utm_medium=Facebook&utm_campaign=fbsprescuefox

23 Signs That Aren’t Doing Their Jobs Right

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alannaokun/signs-that-arent-doing-their-jobs-right

Get the BuzzFeed App: http://bzfd.it/bfmobileapps

You better bring my pony or there will be consecanses

http://newslinq.com/39-hilariously-honest-notes-kids-wont-stop-laughing/

Thinkspiration?

We probably all should have this

http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/travis-price-architects-wade-davis-writing-studio

Plant babies!

See, I made babies too.

I love my new spoon!

Celebrities Read Out Mean Tweets About Themselves

Article: http://huff.to/1g0S0qe

To do list

Cuteness!

http://www.boredpanda.com/toddler-napping-with-puppy-theo-and-beau/