Yesterday Jenn and I went to the Toys R Us in Coquitlam to start Christmas shopping. We had time to kill before the bus came, so we went to the electronics section to tease ourselves. We came out so frustrated, that we decided that it was time to give up on MDG and the BBB and just fix the Xbox 360. I spent the rest of the afternoon getting supplies, and came home ready to go.

( How to fix an Xbox 360. )

This morning I got Jenn up at 11:30 so we could finally bottle the mead we cooked up near the end of June. I had placed the carboy tilted on a counter on thursday night, so it had two days to settle. The clarity was really amazing. We sanitized our equiptment, drew a sample and set it aside, and started bottling. It didn't take long at all, mostly because there was only enough to fill six 750mL bottles! Then we took the sample's readings. Apparently, our brew is 9.8% alcohol by volume! Ah, but how does it taste? Put it this way: we are kicking ourselves very hard for only making six bottles! It's sweet and spicy, in a very Christmas like way, so I'm very glad to have it ready for December. Of course, I have no idea what mead is supposed to taste like, so I want to share some with someone who knows, but other than that, I don't think there's enough to go around. We'll have to make a quadruple batch (at least) for next year.

This morning began with me beating Jedi Knight 2, which I had actually stopped cheating to play after about the fourth level or so. Last night, I made it up to the final boss battle, and found it unbeatable. I looked for hints, and one of the ones I found was to set down a bunch of automated defense turret things, and release floating defense drone things, which distract the boss so badly you can just cut him down. I found these items nearly useless for most of the game, so I had five of each. Worked like a charm, beat the game in about 15 seconds, although it's probably not the noble jedi way to do things.

I tidied up the place with Jenn's help, and we set to work prepping food for our barbecue. I also sampled some of the beer I've been brewing, and bottled two weeks ago with my dad. It's got a nice flavour developing, almost like white wine, but I accidentally gave my dad the wrong measuring spoon to put priming sugar into the bottles with, so now the beer is severely lacking in carbonation. Hopefully it will improve after three weeks. Jenn and I cut up potatoes, onions and mushrooms, and I made buffalo burger patties using this recipe:

2 lbs ground buffalo (consistantly available in 1 lb vacuum bags at the Big Fresh Farmer's Market)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup bread crumbs
4 cloves garlic, crushed
worcestershire sauce and montreal steak spice to taste

Just mix the ingredients and shape into patties. I didn't have wax paper to stick between patties, so I used paper towels. They actually worked really well, and absorbed a lot of moisture from the burgers, which seemed to make them stick together better. I do wish I owned one of those burger pattie pressing tubes with the plastic spacers, though, that would be awesome for doing them up ahead of time. The onions and mushrooms were fried up seperately, and Jenn deep fried the potatoes. I got the charcoal going using the starter can, worked like a hot damn, I love that thing. I managed to get some traditional lump charcoal from Canadian tire, which I thought was really cool because the pieces aren't a uniform shape like brickettes. What really knocked my socks off was that once they started glowing there was no smoke at all, so I'm never using brickettes again if I can avoid them. The burgers turned out magnificent, and I had kaiser buns from the Vianna bakery around the corner, and man, those kaisers, even when they're a couple days old they're waaay softer than fresh kaisers anywhere else, it's like the difference between sponge and styrofoam. We had cheddar and swiss cheese to put on the burgers, and goat's cheese to spread on the buns if you're into the fancy stuff. Colin and eventually Derek came over to join us for burgers and fries, I kind of wish we could have had more guests, but a) our place is small and b) we didn't have tons of food to go around, although there are a few leftover burgers.

While we were doing the prep work, I popped on to MSN messenger to see if I could find Derek. I set my status to busy right away, but that didn't stop one of my "pen pals" from pinging me. You see, I have this contingent of british teenage guys who have friended me for no real reason, and this was a new one. Anyway, here's the conversation we had, which I found amusing:

hearts r the shittest scum in the world says:
mongo

Bumbot says:
mongo to you too, buddy

hearts r the shittest scum in the world says:
r u sam williams?

Bumbot says:
no sir.

hearts r the shittest scum in the world says:
ye u r arent u

hearts r the shittest scum in the world says:
who r u then?

Bumbot says:
Steve. In Canada. Today is Canada Day, so if I don't answer, it's because I'm working my grill.

hearts r the shittest scum in the world says:
it is u i asked jack b

hearts r the shittest scum in the world says:
nice try

hearts r the shittest scum in the world says:
canada my arse

hearts r the shittest scum in the world says:
!!!!!!!!

hearts r the shittest scum in the world says:
!

hearts r the shittest scum in the world says:
!

hearts r the shittest scum in the world says:
u r sam i know it

Bumbot says:
Sorry, bozo, I'm not sam. Observe my ancient geocities page: http://www.geocities.com/bumbot/steve.html how many bumbots do you think there are?

I kind of wish he'd continued to be dim at me after this, but he seems to have figured it out and left me alone.

After foods, we hung around and chatted, and eventually went out to the video store around the corner, where after much deliberation and some railroading, we rented Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle, which turns out to be at least partially Canadian (including a bit part played by Shaun Majumder, a favourite comedian of mine). I wasn't sure what to expect, the critics said that it was basically a standard stoner comedy, but it was written intelligently and managed to break the mold in some respects. I wound up liking it very much, and highly recommend it to just about anyone. The characterizations of the two protagonists were great, and I like the way that they weren't quite idiots or cool guys, but just a couple of normal young people with their own individual hangups and strengths, who happened to enjoy getting high on friday nights. I also liked seeing an asian and a south asian guy in the lead roles, playing these average north americans, as I see that all the time around me, but not so much in most films. Racism was relied on rather heavily to establish the antagonists as jerks, but it didn't seem entirely irrelevant. Potty humour was present, but kept to a minimal level in my opinion, and also used in what was to me a creative way. Unwanted homoerotic overtures ran rampant throughout the movie, but I am guilty of laughing at them. It was similar to Rat Race and The Stupids, in that a grand adventure is begun, goes out of control in a million different ways, and seemingly unrelated events wind up coming coming together to make things work out for the protagonists. All in all, I'd say it's an owner.

After watching some of the special features, Colin and Derek were kicked out, and as it was only 10:00 Jenn and I cleaned up for tea. This is actually the first time the barbecue has had time to cool of the same day I've used it, so all I had to do was bring it down to the landing so I could have light to scoop it out with, and the grills have a non-stick surface and are very easy to clean with the dishes. This actually made cleanup super easy, so all my grilling will be done in the early afternoon from now on, which means I should be able to get lots more grilling done this summer. Maybe after or during the next tea we host (not tomorrow, the one after) I'll set up the grill and have a little byom lunch with everyone. Anyway, between all the coffee I drank and the junk food I consumed, I'm wide awake, so I'm just going to stay up for a while, hence the blog.

This last week has been a rather full one for me. Friday, after working my usual 12 hour shifts for the previous two days, I spent nearly the entire day grocery shopping. First, I walked up to the Try 'N Save with our wireframe cart for a caselot sale, where I loaded up on juice, Eggos, tinned mushrooms and Alphaghetti. I came back home, unloaded and got a bite to eat, and hopped on transit out to Delta. I had a quick visit with my mom, and got to see my brother for a bit when she picked him up from work. I snagged a ride to Save-On-Foods and bought the rest of the groceries I needed to pick up that day, and took transit back home again. It was pretty late by the time I got in, and the rest of the evening was spent goofing around on the computer and/or TV.

Saturday morning I played Jedi Knight 2 on the computer for a bit. I'm finding that game really difficult, so I've taken to using cheat codes to replenish depleted health and armour. I rented that game for my Xbox back when I first had it, and I recall the controls being much easier to deal with then. Insert laments of selling my old Xbox here. Jenn got up from her nap around noon and we made up Haggis and roast potatoes for lunch. Neither of us had ever eaten Haggis before, and I had one in the freezer so it was our adventure for the day. I discovered that I don't like liver at all, and since Haggis is basically liver meatloaf served in oatmeal with the consistancy of drywall filler, we were only able to eat a third of it and tossed the rest. After we finished lunch we set to work giving our place a good tidying and cleaning. By the time we were finished, it was time to head out. We met Marcella at the River's Reach Pub for a fundraiser for the Roysl City Humane Society. It was $20 per ticket, but it was for charity, and the ticket inluded all the salad and pizza you could eat, as well as one drink. The food was nice, but the drinks turned out to be generic red or white wine, or Molson Canadian. I went with the Canadian, unde the pretext that it might be good if it ws free with admission. No such luck. I wound up winning a powder blue t-shirt that has the Royal City Humane Society logo on it, which happens to be a doggy, a kitty, and a bunny. Tres macho. Fortunately, I've been wanting a new work t-shirt, so it's perfect for that. That night I had difficulty sleeping due to evil magic in the stomach from too much pizza. I vowed then and there so stop stuffing myself so obscenely at all-you-can-eat type places, as I am obviously not the machine I was as a teenager.

Sunday morning Jenn and I got out to church again after a five week absence. We heard about the reverend's experiences at different Unitarian Universalist Conferences, and learned that the next major one will be in Vancouver. If it happens during one of my weekends off, I think I just might check it out. After the service, we bought some organic coffee and bussed home to host tea. Jenn and I bought some Quiznos subs for lunch on the way, which I'm thinking might make for an enjoyable after-church tradition in the future. Tea was good, if small, only Derek, Russel and Mimi showed up. Derek wanted to make a mask for the masquerade, and there was lots of material so I decided to make one too. Jenn and Mimi did most of the work, but I found it fun to sit there and get the plaster applied, too. After tea (and washing plaster and vaseline off my face) I took a little trip out to Army & Navy to get some insoles and a cushion for the computer chair. When I got home, Jenn and I cooked up dinner together. She made mushroom rice and deep fried boneless pork ribs, I made chow mein with shallots and green onions, and a chicken, pepper and tofu stir fry. We had Jenn's dad and step-mom over for dinner, and they supplied white wine and chocolate cake for dessert. It all went together very well.

Monday and tuesday I worked again, the only thing of interest that happened was my bus home on tuesday either went by ten minutes early or didn't come at all, so I got home half and hour later than usual. Insert rant against Translink here.

Wednsday I worked an overtime shift, which meant I was off at 3pm. I took transit straight to Coquitlam Center, and hit the Best Buy, where I picked up He-Man Season 2 Volume 1, the new Bloodhound Gang CD for Jenn, and a universal remote. I grabbed some groceries while I was by the Save-on-Foods and caught a bus home. That night I got the universal remote set up so we now only need to use the one controller instead of three to watch DVDs. We still need to use the stereo remote for listening to CDs or the radio, and we still need to use the DVD remote for dubbing or other specific tasks, but we rarely do those things so it's alright.

Thursday I spent the whole day with Jenn and Georg, which was good. In the morning they helped me dismantle some Lego sets I wanted to put away, then I played more Jedi Knight 2 to give them some girly gabbing time. After that they were nice enough to help me get a beer kit started brewing, one of those Australian Lager kits they sell in the grocery stores. The extra two pairs of hands were great for reading instructions and getting the sanitizing and mixing done lickety split. The one odd thing was that the instructions in the kit didn't mention primary and secondary fermenting, so we racked the beer into the carboy right away and stuck it in the storage room to stay warm beside the furnace ducts. We'll see how it turns out. After cleaning up, we walked out to Chopsticks, the chinese smorgasbord around the corner, where I promptly forgot and accidentally broke my vow about not stuffing myself. We came home and hung out a while longer. My upstairs neighbour brought down a package for me which had arrived upstairs, and it was the Princess Leia Unleased Statuette that I had won on eBay, which I opened right away and set up beside Aayla Secura so that I now have a girlfriend from both the classic and prequel trilogies of Star Wars. I put on some He-Man while the girls worked on makeup, and things went much later than I would have liked, but it was my fault for not setting a time limit earlier, I should know what Jenn and Georg are like together, by now. In the end it wound up not mattering how late Georg stayed, because I was destined to be very nauseous and unable to sleep that night. I really shouldn't eat at that smorgasbord, whatever I'm alergic to in asian cooking is used in abundance there, and this is the second time it's beaten back the barrier of alcohol that usually protects me.

Today it was back to work, and that's what I'll do all weekend. Tonight Jenn is off at the masquerade I can't attend, so it's just me, Samurai Jack, He-Man, and the three pizzas I ordered. Don't worry, I won't eat them all, I intend for a bunch of it to be lunches for Jenn over the weekend.

Long time no update. Jenn's birthday went incredibly well, her blog has most of the goings-on. One thing that sticks out in my mind is that I got to use the charcoal chimney I bought for the first time, and wow, that thing works like a hot damn. It really is amazing how having the right tools for the right job makes things so much easier. No lighter fluid, no messing around, just stick paper in the bottom, charcoal in the top and let it burn. My beer was generally well-recieved, I think the general consensus was "not great, but drinkable", which was really all I was hoping for. I wish a little more of it got drunk though, I still have about 15 bottles to finish up on my own. Unless I have guests who want to share with me.

Aside from that, things are moving along. Getting used to taking transit to work, it's not too bad. Gave my statement of what happened to ICBC yesterday, just have to wait for them to attribute fault and then I can look into cancelling my insurance. I have the stuff for paying off the car (which seems to have devalued $5000 in a little over a year), so I just have to make an appointment to get that taken care of. I can't wait to have this over with.

In other news, here's something amusing and sad I read about in the newspaper. And here's something I found trying to track down the previous item.

Also, Lego has bought a license for Batman, sets to come next year. I definately won't buy this. I hope that by the time I have kids to buy toys for Lego will be making their own original stuff, expecially for their Space theme, which hasn't had anything new since Life on Mars in 2001, which wasn't very much like regular Space Lego. The last of that kind of thing was Insectoids in 1998. As much as I love Star Wars, I want to see something original happening again.

UPDATE: 2HRS LATER

ICBC called, they've attributed 25% of the fault to me because I admitted (and witnesses verified) that I entered on the yellow. This is low enough that my insurance premiums won't be affected, and I'll get 75% of my deductable refunded to me. This is good enough for me, so I'm not going to challenge it. All that remains is to cancel the insurance and pay out the car.

Beer's done. I bottled it two weeks ago, so today is the day that the instructions said to make sure it's carbonated, and boy it is carbonated. It's cask conditioned like a Unibroue beer, so it's got a bit of yeasty fruitiness like those ones do, but it's a dark lager so it's got some smokiness like Cantebury. The flavour's not too strong though, so it's kind of inoffensive like Kokanee. I like all three of those beers, especially the listed qualities, thus I judge my first brewing attempt palatable and successful. It's hard to get a final reading on the hydrometer because of the effervesence, but I place the strength around 5%, which isn't bad at all. Now all I need is help drinking it...

Jenn's-Birthday-also-Neil's-and-by-proxy-Kalev's-Late-Oktoberfest-Early-Halowe'en-He Man-DVD-Release-Housewarming-PARTY!!!(the neighbours have been warned...)

Who: Jenn, me, and anyone else who wants to come by.

What: I'll fire up the BBQ, weather permitting, so bring your own meat and snacks, and I'll even cook it up for you if it's something easy like burgers or sausage (bratwurst would be entirely appropriate, steaks and ribs are discouraged). Also, I'll have 22 750mL bottles of beer to share, bring more if you're worried about me running out.

How: Dressed oddly or in a costume for Jenn's amusement, also for Halowe'en.

When: Saturday, October 22nd, starting around 6ish.

Where: Our happy little hobbit hole, email, phone, or MSN us for directions.

Why: See party title.

Limited crashing space available, those who crash will be expected to help clean before tea.

I bought some bottles and caps and a cap press on saturday, my intention to bottle the beer. Unfortunately, one of the boxes of bottles were for wine, and there was no lip to hold the cap on. I phoned the U-brew that sold them to me and they said to just come in to exchange them. When I did they gave me a second box of bottles gratis, and asked me to in the future go to the other U-brew that just bought them out, seeing as they were supposed to send their customers over as part of the contract. Easy enough. So I was delayed for a few days by the mix-up, but I think it's ok. So today I bottled the beer. I took the specific gravity again, and it hadn't changed, so the beer is still around 4.5%, but that means that the secondary fermentation is done according to the directions. I had to prime it with some dissolved dextrose, the idea being that the yeast will eat the sugar while it's in an airtight container and the carbon dioxide will stay trapped and carbonate the beer. So anyway, thirty 750mL bottles (some of which will be put aside for my two dads, unless it's insultingly awful), plus a half bottle for me to sample in two weeks and see if it carbonated properly. I'm a little dubious about whether or not this beer will be palatable, so when I try the sample bottle I'll see if I can give an indication here about whether or not those coming to the party on the 22 will need to kill their taste buds before drinking it.

Racked the beer today, which is to say that I siphoned it off from the primary fermenter into the secondary fermenter. It was supposed to take three to five days for the layer of foam on the top to come down, and while today is day three the foam was mostly fallen last night. Jenn has noticed that when she made welsh cakes here that they rose more than they ever did at the old apartment, so I'm wondering if our basement suite is a favourable environment for leavening and fermentation, just in terms of temperature and humidity. Anyway, the specific gravity (which is tested with a little floating scale thingy called a hydrometer) was supposed to start at 1.05 max, and I had it at 1.051, and it was supposed to fall below 1.02 when the primary fermentation was over, and before I started siphoning I measured it at 1.017. So what does that mean? The hydrometer measures potential alcohol, and as the yeast eats the sugar and metabolizes it into alcohol, the brew becomes less dense because alcohol is less dense than sugar, making the hydrometer float a little lower. So you subract the second reading from the first and multiply the result by 131, and that is it's alcoholic content by volume, thus my brew is about 4.5% so far. We'll see what happens in about another two weeks or so.

Jenn and I have discussed the party and here is what we have so far: It will be on Saturday, October 22, and it will be a fancy dress party, more because it's Jenn's birthday than because of Halowe'en. Also there will be a little over 20L of beer to share, so limited alcohol will be supplied, and bring your own after that.

What has yet to be confirmed is whether it will start before or after dinner, whether dinner will be some kind of delivery thing or if I'll be working the grill, and if I am grilling will it be bring your own whatever or will it be everyone pitches in a few dollars and we'll have lots of bratwurst on buns as well as pretzels for Oktoberfest. Also, we have yet to determine how much crashing space is available (both of our futons fold down into twin beds) and if we'll be hosting after-party tea the next day.

So how about we be a little democratic and everyone who cares can pitch in their two cents (as a posted reply rather than an email please) and Jenn and I will make a decision based on that?

I looked at the calendar, and Oct. 22nd is about 7 weeks away. According to my beer kit, it should take about 35 days to brew. So Colin came over and helped me to sanitize my equipment and get the kit going. There's no cooking required, the wort is already brewed, just had to mix it with 8L of water (I bought two 4L jugs of western family demineralized water in an attempt to reduce the bacteria in the mixture), a bag of stuff meant to balance the pH, the wort syrup (mmm... wort syrup...) and sprinkly the dry yeast on top. Not much to it, but the proof is in the pudding. Which is to say, by the time Oct. 22 comes around, I ought to have 23L of beer to share with my friends. And if it turns out to be not so good, I'm hoping my friends will still help me drink it, because free beer almost always tastes good. Now I just have to get my wife's approval to throw a party on her birthday.

Week in summary.

Tuesday: Went out with Jenn for breakfast at the Jiffy Wiffy and went to Zellers to look a spring coats. None worth buying in my size, although I did buy a CD and CD player cleaning kit for my Xbox, as well as "Taz: Wanted" for the Xbox. I cut the greens, and then took off with Jenn to see Kalev before he left the country. I'm happy that he found his dream job, but I'm sad to see him go to the UK to get it. Partly because I need to find a replacement groomsman. I wanted to take Kalev and Consuelo to Won Moore for dinner, but it was randomly shut for the day, so we walked down Denman looking for something to pop out at us. That's how we wound up at a little Quebecois type rotisserie place, whose name I wish I could remember. The chicken and poutine are good, but the ribs were the star of the meal for me. All tender and smoked, but there was no vinegar or garlic in the sauce. I though I tasted nutmeg, although it wasn't particularly sweet. Very flavourful, but absolutely no zing or kick, which I thought made for a great break from standard barbecue sauce. While it's not like I could get sick of the Memphis, this place is definately an excellent alternative.

Wednsday: Dragged my butt through work as I had stayed up too late to see Kalev and Consuelo one last time.

Thursday: Slightly less posterior friction. Got home and showered and ran out the door as quick as I could. I made it to Jenn's place before everyone else got back from OMLOTR, and started to play Taz. Very fun and simple, but incredibly annoying for automatically saving (even if you've screwed up and would rather lose your progress than save) and a RIGHT BEHIND the character 3rd person view which can make it tricky to accomplish some things. All in all, worth buying, but also worth selling to EB when I'm done with it. Went to Derek's, met Ethan and Ian (seemed like decent folks to me) and stayed up too late yet again.

Friday: Bought myself a spring coat and three work shirts from Army and Navy. It was so cheap that I treated Jenn to lunch at the Paddlewheeler Pub underneath New West Quay. The Beer Buddies were really good, as was the rest of the food, but it was definately the variety of pub food intended to go with beer, so I want to go back again some time when I'm drinking. Jenn went to work and I played Taz untill she got back, and wound up chatting with Derek about stuff while Jenn watched her movie. Again, stayed up way too late.

Saturday: Slept in late. Played more Taz. Cut the greens. Ate the new flamethrower burger from DQ, which was good, although their chipotle mayo tasted more like mayonaise with buffalo sauce in it. Went to bed on time.

Sunday: Woke up after much sleep and played more Taz. Discovered glitch in game, sent off complaint to programmers and grabbed the receipt to keep in the case with the game. Tea was enjoyable, although prolonged. Highlights for me included discussing the merits of beer helmets with mercenary Jeff (If you put a Guinness in one side and a Harp in the other, you get a mix-in-your-mouth black and tan! How classy is that?) and Rick saying that he wouldn't actually pull out a lightsaber during my wedding, he just jokes about it to make Jenn twitch. (I suspected as much, since Rick is a good guy, but I'm glad it was verbalized.) Now I am at home, about to eat some tortierre, on time for getting to bed at a decent hour. We'll see what happens.

Saturday morning I got some groceries for my birthday dinner on the tenth. Sirloin burgers with tilsit and goat cheese, bacon, onions, pepper rings, hummus and hot mustard! I also got me some beers, including some discounted Unibrouque stuff. (Discounted Unibrouque? How much of a score is that!) Then I cut the greens at the New West lawnbowling club, and afterwards I got to see Jenn! Yay! We had some McDick's for dinner, and borrowed a DVD from Derek, and dragged Derek along to her place to watch it with us. Jenn and I drank creme de cacao with black cherry pop, and the result tastes like the chocolate covered maraschino cherries in a box of Pot of Gold, one of my personal favourites. The movie we watched was Rob Roy, which I thought was a little more earthy than it needed to be. Overall it was like Braveheart, only less american in the "all english people are heartless, snotty bastards" sense, much slower, and it had a happy ending. Not my thing, but I have seen worse.

This morning I beat evil dead! Plotwise it was a little predictable, but still funny and entertaining. There's only three boss battles, and the first and last have to be beaten in specific ways that aren't exactly obvious. The first I had to look at a walkthrough to figure out, and Jenn was watching and suggested stuff for the last one. There were a few things that were hard to figure out, and some bits were really hard (no difficulty level selector), but the game is actually kind of short. Now that I know how to beat it I could probably play the whole way through in one afternoon. It's also kind of annoying that there are only five save slots, and there don't appear to be any cheats for me to play through kicking ass. That being said, it was worth the $25 I paid to buy it used. Not much more, but then again it is my personal belief that paying more than $30 for a video game is ridiculous in the first place.