Beer Goggle Dreams

And this one wasn't even for work. :-(

I awoke in the middle of the night. Went to get some water and something to eat. Noticed the cheese was not as cold as it should have been in the fridge...in fact the fridge is not as cold as it should have been...

Crap. (Actually I used another word here but I shall refrain.)

So as is my wont I Googled it and found that it was most likely a defrost issue in that the condenser coils were clogged with ice.

Found this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaRyNiPn26o

That actually happens to show the exact model fridge we have.

Watched all of it and immediately set the defrost timer into defrost mode. Waited. Nada. Still frozen. So here at 3 am I am taking apart the freezer section of my fridge to find that it is a veritable cornucopia of frozen coils.

Grab the heat gun - cord's too short - down my wifi for a power strip. Thaw the coils completely. That officially buys us a week to get parts in. While I'm putting it back together it goes back into regular mode. That means the defrost timer is probably good.

So I stuff everything back in the freezer, noting that I need to put a water filter on it as the icemaker is covered with minerals, and get on E-Bay and promptly order a defrost timer and the freezer thermostat. Those are the two most likely candidates but I also put the heating element on my E-Bay watch list so I can order that when I get paid.

So I'll replace those parts, straighten the fins that are bent, and we should have a working fridge again. (How do fins even get bent behind a complete cover anyways??)

Were we in better standing I would prefer to buy a new fridge. A side-by-side with a dispenser on the front for water and ice. Black or stainless as my wife wants a cranberry colored kitchen. But...we're not...so we get to repair the ancient fridge with no Energy Star rating on it. Glad I'm already used to my electric bill being high with all the computers. ;-)

And now...it's 4 am and I have to get up for work in a half hour to an hour.

Crap. (Again...another word here.)

So many things afoot at our household. That and work is why I haven't been posting.

Work itself seems to be going well but busy. Looking forward to several things including another visit from my friend from Tokyo among other things.

Mundania abounds it seems. Had to move my boat into the driveway today as I got a letter from the city saying it had to be off the grass. Thankfully we have the space to do that. I talked to the inspector and she said that as long as it's on a hard surface that the grass can't grow through it is acceptable. So seeing as I'm going to go with raised beds anyways that means I can put down landscape fabric and patio stones behind the garage and store it back there. Will also likely winterize and store the bike back there as well once I'me finished working with it. Need to call her back and confirm my suspicions that a pole and fabric structure is not considered permanent. If that's the case then I'll put up one of those temporary tent style garages back there and that will keep the weather off the boat and bike and I won't have to get expensive covers for them.

Speaking of money have to spend more of it on the Neon as it is required to have an emissions test in January. Kind of annoyed by that as they sent out a letter a couple of years ago that they will not be testing anything older than 2000 and Dorothy is a 1998.

I should be out repairing the brake line on my truck but I'm sitting here listening to a jiggle canner. Today's canning is three quarts of chili without beans, two quarts of water, and two experimental quarts of unsweetened green tea that I cold brewed. Not sure how that last one is going to come out but if it works then I can make and store up green tea indefinitely and save myself a lot of time. (I drink a LOT of green tea daily.)

Finally got us switched over to Comcast Business Class for our Internet. All the servers and DNS are all moved over and so far things seem to be working without issue. In our area at least Business Class and Residential use two different support groups so the experience is VERY different. And I'm paying what I was paying with the other DSL service and getting 15x more speed. And for those of you techies out there that run your own equipment they will put the router in Bridge Mode if I ask. :-)

Still no word on if the office is moving or not. Hopefully we'll find that out soon. The one lady at the office said that if they sell it likely means working completely at home for up to a year. I can easily work with that. With the upgraded connectivity and a Skype phone number I can forward my work line to it seems to function quite well. Some odd issues related to Skype but nothing I can't take care of.

All that aside I'm going to focus on getting at least the basics resolved in the basement and move my computer space down there. That way I don't have to heat the workshop as much during winter. (We used 1300 therms last February) Unfortunately I don't think I'm going to be able to get the large computer rack down there without altering the door. I may have to just build one in the corner. I've got another rack that might fit but it has no sides and is about twice the weight. Time will tell. Cleaning up any moisture and electrical issues down there come first though.

Things I've been reading....some of it is fanfic from MLP:FIM circles but two books I read and loved were the Order of the Air books by Melissa Scott. Well worth reading. Also just bought and started War Maid's Own by David Weber. We'll see how that one pans out. I'd like to read more Seanan McGuire stuff but I'm so far behind it isn't funny. The last book I read by her was A Local Habitation. I just can't afford to pick them up right now. Hopefully I'll be able to pick a couple of her books up by Yule.

Money seems to be getting a little better but I'm not going to focus on that. I'll just keep holding back on most of the spending and keep moving forward. Patio stones and exhaust parts for Dorothy are high on the list of next things to buy. Just keep plugging away at it...

Anyways I'm going to go back to listening to the canner jiggle and I promise I will try and post more often. :-)

So as of this morning I've decided I will never again buy store bought marshmallows. My wife and I made a double batch of one of the millions of simple recipes found on the Internets. I powdered them this morning and tasted one and OMG! Awesome! Going to attempt to cover the one batch with chocolate. (If I can properly temper a bunch of semisweet chips today that is.)

My neighbor was kind enough to give me a spare regulator for my grill and I replaced the burners on it so now able to grill stuff again after years of nor having one. YAY! Grilled some corn on the cob yesterday that was WONDERFUL! Also some baked potatoes that my wife didn't get any of.

Going to start using that grill like there's no tomorrow as long as I can afford vegetables. I love grilled vegetables.
( Speaking of vegetables... )

10:33 AM 10/14/2012

So last night I was out of beer. The horrors!

I ran to the local mega-mart and was trying to decide on something nice to drink and was about to settle for an import when I spotted three different types of brews from a place called Metropolitan Brewing. ( http://www.metrobrewing.com/main/index.html ) Brewed right here in Illinois. They had three different types:

Krankshaft - http://www.metrobrewing.com/beers/index.html

Dynamo - http://www.metrobrewing.com/beers/dynamo.html

Flywheel - http://www.metrobrewing.com/beers/flywheel.html

I chose the six pack of Dynamo and took it home. And...it was awesome. I like craft beers and this one was definitely excellent! It was smooth with just a hint of bite to it. Nice flavor though my descriptive ability for tastes is lacking so I can't compare it to anything. I finished three of them over microwaved meals while I was working out the the workshop last night. Here are some more reviews of it: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/19127/47292

( Speaking of working out in the workshop... )

23:51 PM 07/23/2011

Today I spent a fair amount of time customizing the accidentally wiped machine I mentioned yesterday to get all my stuff back. This of course led me to discover several nice surprises.
( Several nice surprises and more rambling... )

08:37 AM 03/18/2011

So they finally secured the wifi at the restaurant like I've been telling them to do for quite some time now. Good. I'd hate to see my credit card data taken by someone with a wifi pineapple. (Look that one up on your own - it's interesting.)

Somewhere in the evening the ponies took over my brain and I wrote what I posted. That was interesting because I like it and it feels right for where we _should_ be headed as people in general. Unfortunately we're not there yet.
( Pinching Pennies... )

09:55 AM 03/04/2011

All hail the passing of the plague. The first day I just didn't feel like getting out of bed and indeed slept an extra 4 hours at least that morning. The next day after taking cold medcine I slept well enough except that I slept in the wrong position and kinked my neck badly and have been sore the next day or two after.

All that seems to have finally gone away and I'm feeling well today.
( Manic Monies... )

March 12, 2009 11:07 AM 3/12/09

So I pick up the referral for the oral surgeon today so I can schedule it for next week. And none too soon either as my mouth is definitely not a fun place to be right now.

Spent money today to get myself a video card from CDW for my desktop out in the garage. Some of it I already had allocated and the rest I can make up from other sources so it’s not too bad.

Did I mention that painful teeth are seriously distracting?

( Galactus went CHOMP! )