Creating a Masterpiece

There are two major updates for this post:

1. I signed a lease on a new apartment, move in date is Tuesday, September 27th.  Visitors welcome!
2. I painted a masterpiece for the new apartment

The detailed up date on the apartment will come after I move in (yay!), so today I'm focusing on numero dos...the creation of priceless art. 

Our friend, Kasey, is a professional artist (and masseuse) and works at this fantastic place called Painting With A Twist (http://www.paintingwithatwist.com/).  Kasey's forte is animal portraits, check out her art here: http://www.artbykaseymurray.blogspot.com/.  Both of The Kids and the Stra-ugh's have an original painting - they're awesome!  

Rather than commissioning Kasey to paint a picture of my crazy cat, Autumn, I decided to take her painting class and do it myself.  Here is the progression and the final product.  Feast your eyes...

The sketch - done by Kasey.

Filling in the basic colors.

Ta da!

Update: Punkin Ale

Here's a quick update with photos on the beer making:

After letting the beer ferment in the dark hallows of the basement for about a week, we decided to bottle it up.  Chris and I had made about 5 gallons of the punkin ale, so Chris thought we should put some in a keg (which means we can drink it sooner!) and the rest was bottled up.  The next step is to let the bottles sit for another three weeks or so.  Just in time for Halloween! 

It's Punkin, Bitches!  You can see the beer has been busy fermenting.

 

 

 

Sanitizing bottles

I even capped them myself!

It's Punkin, Bitches

I'm not claiming this to be strictly a Southern Lesson since I first saw it happen while living in Maine, but this week I began my first lesson in making beer.  Pumpkin Ale, to be exact.  Although I'm new to the beer-drinking scene about two years ago I had my first Pumpkin Ale and have since been hooked.  Knowing that I'd have some extra time on my hands upon first arriving here, I asked Chris if we could make some ourselves - so we did!

On Sunday afternoon we cultivated the yeast which we went put into an old wine bottle and let it sit overnight. 

The real fun began Monday morning.  First we sanitized all of the bottles and necessary utensils and cooked the pumpkin (actual pumpkin puree, it's the real thing, baby!).  

Heating up the pumpkin and enzyme mixture.  It's very scientific.

Chris is sanitizing the bottle.

The ingredients.

Then we boiled some enzymes along with about 4 more gallons of water, added the bittering stuff, the hops, and boiled some more.  Boil, add pumpkin, boil add spices...

Adding the pumpkin mixture

Boil, boil, toil and trouble.

The next step is to cool it all down quickly, so Chris created a immersion chiller which flows cold water through copper piping to help cool down the beer faster. 

  

This process took about an hour and a half, then we could pour it into the large jar, add the yeast mixture, and hide it in a closet in the basement for fermenting.  We should see the fermenting in about 18 hours, but it won't be drinkable for a few weeks.

After a short poll (including just Kelly & myself) we chose the name: It's Punkin, Bitches.

So far everything "looks good" according to Chris, but the real test will be when it's time to taste, so...to be continued...

Day 8: "It's Roots, Not Poop!"

Things in the Queen's City took off without a hitch!  For two days, at least...as I mentioned earlier, The Kids were out of town when I moved in, so I was to call with any questions/concerns. 


Thursday: the internet was down
Friday: the A/C wasn't working
Saturday: I started a load of laundry and the toilet overflowed...not because I flushed it, just that once the washer started filling up, so did the toilet and it spilled over the bowl, onto the floor, into the hallway.  We're talking a HUGE mess.

But I didn't fret, I just started cleaning up the mess, informed The Kids, and headed up to Lake Norman for the weekend.

Lake Norman is a man-made lake north of Charlotte which is a popular spot for many North Carolina folk to head to for a weekend of fun & relaxation.  Here we swam, rode jet skis, cruised on the speed boat, played board games, ate many delicious meals, and were "well served", as the Halford's say!

I'm on a BOAT! (pictured with Angie and Kevin)

We spent two nights here, which was good for quality bonding time with the Charlotte folk, and also because there were no working facilities at the Hough residence.  We had planned for the plumber to come 8am on Monday morning, so that morning I anxiously awaited his arrival....for three hours.  And he spent another three hours here working his way through the pipes into the main sewer line to try to figure out what and where the blockage was.  

At the same time the The Kids were headed home, about 20 minutes away, Hurricane Lee was draining it's remnants on the city (heavy rain and strong winds) and I decided to head up to the local Starbucks for a quick use of the facilities.  Things were finally getting back to normal: the internet was working, we'd figured out how to get the A/C back on, and I was excited to finally see my cousins!  I ran through the downpour back to my car and...it wouldn't start.  

This was my limit; I broke down and cried.  

After a frantic call to The Kids and to AAA, the car started up (once the rain died down) and I headed back home.  Good news!  The plumber had identified the blockage as roots (not poop!) so I had been vindicated.  I wasn't actually destroying The Kids' house, it was just happening to break apart while I was there!

This was all the silver lining I needed!  I took it and ran.  Things were tough for a bit, but overall I've had more great experiences here in that time period that outweigh the bad for sure.  And I feel confident that it will stay this way for a long time.