10:50 AM, Tuesday March 25, 2014, Central Indiana. It is snowing.
I shouldn’t complain. This is only flurries and not expected to amount to much. 366 days ago, we got 9” of snow. Could be much worse. And it might even warm up to above normal temps in a few days. I think we’re owed a nice, long, pleasant spring.
A few items from the notebook.
Today is the 84th day of 2014. The snow pile out in our front yard, where all the snow from the street got pushed in January and February, is almost gone. There’s still a two-foot long lump of nasty ice. I imagine that will be gone by Friday, making it our first day without any snow in the yard since New Year’s Day. It’s been awhile.
A pediatrician I know mentioned the other day that they are expecting a Polar Vortex Baby Boomlet later this year. Of course. People were stuck inside for weeks, missing work and social events. What else was there to do?
Didn’t we just have a bump in the birth rate a few years ago and economists attributed it to the financial crisis? Again, people couldn’t spend money to go out, were stuck at home, one thing led to another…
I think there’s a pretty obvious message in there. Doesn’t matter if the economy is good or bad, the weather hot or cold, or some national tragedy. Biological urges will always win.
With a long car trip planned for later this week, I went ahead and got the girls Frozen on DVD the day it came out. You would have thought I got the girls bars of gold or something the way they freaked out when I showed it to them. There was screaming and yelling and celebrating. And it’s not like it was some big surprise we were getting it. I had already told them we would likely get it before our Kansas City trip.
Between Frozen and “Let It Go” and Despicable Me 2 and “Happy,” it’s been a big year for our girls being swayed by the movie marketers.
Somewhere, somehow, L. has picked up a couple funny verbal ticks. She uses the words “yo” and “dog” to finish sentences all the time.
The other night, at bath time, she told me, “I have to go get my pajamas, yo!”
When she got home from school yesterday, I asked what she wanted to do.
“I want to play on the computer, but I need to eat a snack first, dog.”
Love it.
S. bought a new curling iron last week. C. found it while it was still in its packaging, which was purple and shiny. She came walking out with it.
“Ooooh, Mom! What is this?!”
That’s a classic, and predictable, C. reaction.
M. started kickball practice last week. She just got her team assignment last night, and will be playing with some classmates and some fourth graders who played in the fall. I watched her first practice and she did well at the plate, reaching safely a couple times. In the field, she is similar to in soccer: not super excited to get in the way of the ball. I kind of don’t blame her. This isn’t kickball with a red, bouncy, playground ball. They use a heavy, hard ball that feels more like a cross between a basketball and medicine ball.
A week ago I spent an afternoon brewing beer with some neighbors. We each had a batch going in their cool garage setup, and the extra hands and equipment made it a much more fun process.
My Belgian Pale Ale was fermenting away last Sunday night as I was sitting in the basement watching TV, about to go to bed. I heard a sharp BOOM and then a rattle, like a small explosion. At first, I thought something had fallen in the kitchen above me, or even that someone had busted open a window. I ran upstairs and began turning on lights, finding nothing. I also noticed, despite being nearly 11:00, there was no crying or yelling from the girls’ rooms, as would happen during a storm. S., who was already in bed, didn’t react either. If they didn’t hear anything, I bet the noise came from the basement.
My beer!
I ran back down to the bathroom, opened the shower where I store it, and sure enough there was fermenting yeast all over the wall and ceiling, the airlock was on the floor, and the lid slightly raised. I quickly cleaned up, re-sanitized the lid and airlock, and put it back together.
It appears the airlock got clogged by the rather vigorous fermentation Belgians are known for, trapping the gasses inside. Thus the explosion.
I had to clean the airlock three times in the next day to prevent more blowouts.
Hoping the beer wasn’t harmed too much by the exposure to open air. From what I’ve read, this isn’t uncommon and if you get it closed up again quickly, the beer should be OK.