Messed Up In The Modern Age

I've mentioned before that sometime I make the wrong association with smells. For example, lemon verbena has a smell which I love, but it also smells like Lemonhead candy to me.

To K-poo, it smells like Pledge. It's good to know I'm not the only one with this problem.

Anyhow, in my quest to find a replacement cider, this evening I'm trying Ace Perry Hard Cider. It's not bad -- it tastes like Jolly Ranchers. I do like Jolly Ranchers, but not in my cider.

(Molly and Ginger refuse to even look at the bottle.)

Nobody seems to carry Blackthorn any more, which is a bummer. I may have to start my own import company at this rate.

In other news, as you can clearly see, I've completed the blue sky. Now I just need to do the rest of it.

Now I can lounge about three times faster!

So AT&T recently ran fiber into my neighborhood, and despite the fact that I was already paying for AT&T DSL, the AT&T salespeople kept coming to my door to offer me deals that would speed up my internet connection and lower my final bill.

I took a brief survey to figure out if I was missing something obvious, and the consensus was best declared by Jeff when he said "Stop thinking like an engineer.  Think about a bunch of divisions trying to build their own empires regardless of the greater good to the entire organization."

So I finally agreed to it, and the next day some poor guy came to my house to hook everything up. I had locked up the cats (since Guido likes to jump on people), and Ginger spent the entire time growling at him from where she was locked up in her crate.

Molly Speedbump didn't notice anyone had entered the house for two hours despite the fact that he kept stepping over her.

Anyhow, whatever he's making they aren't paying this guy enough. I say this because:

1) He was clearly allergic to either cats or dogs (although he never actually admitted it and declined my offer of Benadryl), and

2) He had to go into the crawlspace under my house.

In spite of those things he was pleasant and professional and actually knew his stuff. The only real annoyance was the multiple calls from the AT&T robo-dialer over the next two days asking me to rate his performance.

Now I can read all the celebrity gossip three times faster. How's that for progress?

Puzzling Through It

I recently bought a 2000 piece jigsaw puzzle because... well, I was at Target, and I remembered that over a decade ago I used to enjoy doing puzzles although I haven't done one since then.

Now I remember why I stopped doing jigsaw puzzles.

Here are the indignities that this particular puzzle has suffered thus far:

1) Scooter peed on one of the pieces. (I know Scooter pees on everything, so this isn't too surprising, but there actually were extenuating circumstances in this case.)

2) The cats enjoy picking out pieces from the box and carrying them around the house. I'm not sure how many of the original 2000 are still in the living room.

3) Molly Speedbump chewed up one (or possibly more, I can't tell) piece and spit it out on the floor next to me.

 

(It's like the blank Scrabble tile -- it can fit anywhere. 

One of my friends pointed out that you get no points for the blank Scrabble tile...)

To be honest this puzzle had a few problems from the start. Even though it clearly states the dimensions on the outside of the box (38.5" x 26.5"), I was convinced that it would fit on the keyboard tray of my table which turns out to be 19" deep.  Guess what? It doesn't fit. Shocking, how the laws of physics apply. I had to find something to put it on and the only thing I could find was the old interior door out in the garage. So I brought that in and stacked it on some old cubes that were also out in the garage. At some point in the last ten years, one or more of the cats (not mine) that hangs out in my garage had sprayed one of the cubes and although I washed it out pretty well, I think that was Scooter's excuse.

The other big problem is that this puzzle is just not very well-made. I thought I was just remembering things incorrectly until Jon asked me about it. I started complaining about missing the little "snick" that you get when putting pieces together, and he suggested that I go with a different manufacturer. Aside from missing the tactile reward, it also means that I can't be sure that anything is really in the correct spot because pieces seem to almost fit and sometimes it's right and sometimes it's not, and there's a lot of blue sky and green forest in this puzzle.

Also, for whatever reason this has become Scooter's favorite place to nap, which means I have to disturb him any time I want to work on it. These images were taken on different days, and it's not like I had to sit and wait for the perfect photo op...

 

(There's a fireplace screen protecting the pieces from being pilfered.)

  

(Look, he's not always sleeping.)

Anyhow, at this point I'm just trying to finish it so I can put it in the recycling bin...

I Shouldn't Be Held Responsible For This

So here's the sequence of events from tonight:

1) Go to the grocery store (my beloved Nugget Market which is one of my top three reasons for staying in Woodland)
2) Note that they still (after six weeks) don't have Blackthorn cider, the only thing I normally drink
3) Decide to buy one of the other seven brands of cider that they carry
4) Get home and decide to try the new cider brand. (It's 22 oz of 6.5% alcohol.)
5) Finish the bottle (Can't have it go bad now, can I?)
6) Remember that I'm supposed to write a blog post, it being Sunday and all.

Anyhow, that's why this blog post is brought to you by the letter B for buzzed, or possibly D for drunk. Luckily there is no heavy machinery involved.

Here's my review of Crispin cider:

 

Brought to you by Molly

The good:
- It's not really that bad. Certainly a lot better than Wyders.
- It's 6.5% alcohol and I can drink it.

The bad:
- It's too sweet.
- It's not Blackthorn.

Pretend I put a bunch of stuff about the bouquet (if a cider is supposed to have one) and ship that review.

In other news, I put in an herb spiral this week. I calculated the number of bricks that I would need, then ignored that calculation and built the thing. I have absolutely no idea if my number was even close.

 

(Pre-planting)

 (Post-planting)

 

(With extra help from Molly)

(And even more help from Ginger)

There's something else I was going to mention, but I can't remember what it was, and I have to go yell at the cat who is on the range.

Enjoy your week.