Yesterday was the 9th anniversary of Sharon’s 25th birthday. It was a great day that entailed mass in the morning, a breakfast treat at Waterloo from our good friend Mark, a couple hours of fun at the Brushy Creek sprinkler park, a visit from Ms. Lindsey, and an ending with DQ Ice Cream Cake.
We love you, mom. Happy Birthday.
I received a thinksport as a gift not too long ago. It’s a good bottle because:
Generally I find any Catholic-themed desktop wallpaper to be a bit “over the top” or lacking decent design treatment. However I found a couple created by Rachel Cobb for Smashing Magazine to be quite excellent.
Right now my MacBook is sporting Our Lady of Lourdes:
For the original work, scroll down to “Our Lady of Lourdes” here.
And here’s the patron of Ireland himself:
Scroll down to “St. Patrick” here.
There are versions without the calendar for each. Enjoy.
Twelve hours fermenting and the wort (pronounced wert) is showing signs of activity. At this point the yeast has gathered enough energy to begin the reproduction and fermentation cycle which is what you see here. The yeast churns out this foamy head called kraeusen (pronounced kroy-zen). It’s a very bitter resin that contains “fusel” oils which are known to contribute to “beer headaches.” Kraeusen can either be allowed to fall back into the beer or automatically removed via a “blow-out” tube as I am doing here. Once the activity subsides the tube will be replaced with an air lock until fermentation is complete.
This memorial day weekend I’m brewing Righteous American Real Ale – a recipe from The Complete Joy of Homebrewing which describes it as:
brewed in a style of the “ordinary bitter” served in parts of London and in hop country to the south. It is created with American hops, making exquisitely flavorful ale with a beautiful American hop aroma.
This recipe is a step up from the simple beer kits in that the wort is created by boiling dried malt extract and hops.
The big lesson learned this time: wort takes a while to cool down to room temperatures in order to pitch the yeast. In the future, have an ice bath ready.
We’ve known our friend Zvezdana for a little longer than we’ve been married–some 6-7 years. However, I must admit I never knew how much she endured in the war in Sarajevo. At the urging of several friends in our young adults bible study, she started blogging some of her wartime tales. As I’ve read her stories this past month, I’m in awe of her–of her courage, her strength and her humility.
As we prepare to celebrate Memorial Day tomorrow, let us remember our soldiers and those civilians like Zvezdana, who fought the good fight everyday to merely survive.
In the last month Adam and I have been pondering the raising of boys vs. girls and how the differences between Fulton and Therese are starting to come out.
Talking to my friend Misty at one of our playdates in Brenham, she bought up the point about how when you have two kids, there’s an essential sameness for a few years. They play with the same toys and like the same colors/cups/toys, or if one does something, the other wants to do it too. When relatives come visit, they bring a gift for each kid even if it’s only one child’s birthday. If we get something for one child one day at the store, we try to get something for the others. As parents we’ve tried to treat everyone equally and fairly. Just yesterday, Adam called because he was going to by a glove and baseball for Fulton and he was wondering if he should get something for Therese. I said no. With more children in the mix, that will be impossible. I’ve tried to get some “gender neutral” toys that both the girls and Fulton could play with because seriously, can you imagine how many toys you’d have if every toy was gender specific! But in the last year or so, we’ve really been making an effort to let our boy be a boy and our girl be a girl. Although Therese still wants to play with some of his toys, he’s been a little less interestd in the dolls.
Last month I picked up the book “Bringing Up Boys,” by Dr. James Dobson. I’m a couple of chapters shy of finishing the book. Overall I enjoyed the read and was a little enlightened but not surprised with some of the statistics. I appreciated his Christian perspective on raising virtuous boys to become men (expect his misguided opinion on how boys should “relieve” their hormones during puberty).
I’m walking away with a few important things that have changed how we approach our quickly growing boy.
Men and women are equality in dignity but not the same. I pray that we have the grace and wisdom to raise our son or sons to be men of holiness and virtue.
Every Sunday Catholics profess their believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God who is “Light from Light”. What exactly does this last phrase mean? We can turn to a brief reflection given by Pope Benedict XVI on the moment in scripture where before a few witnesses going up a mountain to pray (Lk 9:28) “[Christ's] face shone like the sun, and his clothes become white as light” (Mt 17:2):
“The Transfiguration is a prayer event; it displays visibly what happens when Jesus talks with his Father: the profound interpenetration of his being with God, which then becomes pure light. In his oneness with the Father, Jesus is himself “light from light”.” -Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth
Steve Ray and his antics.
By the way, he’s coming to Austin, Thurdsay, June 18th, 7pm to our very own St. Louis Church for a Relevant Radio fundraiser. More info here [PDF].
I recently read this article from Garden & Gun while waiting at my last orthodontist appointment. (Seriously, how can you not pick up a magazine with that title?) It gives an account on how the Louisiana shrimping industry is rapidly declining and may very well disappear entirely due to a number of factors – the largest being economical:
Ninety percent of shrimp consumed in the United States is imported from Asia, where aquaculture farming is widespread. … The flood of farmed shrimp onto the market has led to a 40 percent decline in the price for caught shrimp—with adjustments made for inflation, the price of shrimp today is about the same as it was in the early 1960s. The same cannot be said for fuel, ice, and parts.
Big surprise, huh? We get everything else from China, why not shrimp?
So how does one typically survive in a failing market? You innovate. You retool. You find a niche or a new market and adapt. As the article eludes, farmers have been finding new ways to turn a profit by producing organic products using sustainable methods. However with shrimping, there is still an uphill battle:
But unlike mixed baby salad greens, or, say, grass-fed beef, the average consumer doesn’t care about the origin of his shrimp enough to pay a premium for it. This is too bad, as the flavor of a Gulf shrimp, netted at the peak of its life cycle and best enjoyed after the simplest preparation, evokes the faintest flavors of salt water and Gulf life. By comparison, a farmed shrimp feels soggy in the mouth and has a faintly sweet taste—or as one shrimper tells me, “dey taste like all the shrimp s*** dey swimmin’ around in.”
The shrimpers obviously know their product is better and yet comsumers aren’t interested in paying a premium. I would suggest perhaps shrimpers should take a page from the “marketing” chapter in the sustainable farmer’s playbook but who knows how effective it would be given that on average I am certain the U.S. population consumes more beef and greens on a regular basis and that’s where our attention lies.
However, I don’t think this is a problem that can be overcome simply with a big PR campaign. In addition, Louisiana is facing coastal erosion in vast proportions. This is simply something much out of a shrimper’s hands that he cannot control unlike a farmer with his pasture. Not to mention the ongoing recovering efforts of Hurricane Katrina and you’ll find the odds completely stacked against them.
