batch[26] "Hop and Change"

I planned to brew this batch on election day (took the day off), but the yeast was not ready.

The beer is a clone of Young's Double Chocolate stout, with cocoa powder in the boil and chocolate extract in the secondary.

No, it's not a chocolate stout because of Sen. Obama's election. I wanted to brew this for a long time and picked election day as a nice day off to do it on. The name, however, is a reference to David Allen Grier's "Hope and Change" mantra.

Passed the TeXes, Thanksgiving

I took the Texas exam for Social Studies 8-12 proficiency (American History, World History, Geography, Social Studies proper, economics, etc) on Nov 8 and got my test back yesterday.

I passed.

This was not a foregone conclusion; it requires an 80% score and many of the questions were of the "which of the following correct answers is the best answer" variety. Being a Philosophy minor, I get in trouble with such situations because I want to argue for several different points of view.

Anyhow, I am grateful for having past. On this Thanksgiving I am aware of the small victories.

fatigue

We have been on extended hours at my Day Job for solid year. This entails coming in early, truncated or no lunch, and leaving late. The company claims we are Overtime Exempt, but this has no basis in reality and will likely eventually get their publically-traded asses in a crack at some point like happened with EA, IBM, etc. Working overtime when needed isn't a big deal. Working unpaid overtime constantly starts to affect your quality of life. In a way, I am grateful for the unpleasantness because it continually reminds me to do what I need to do in order to transition to teaching.

Sot at night I am going to night school for Texas teaching certification, and after that I do the online homework.

Not complaining so much as trying to explain my general grumpiness and the dark circles under my eyes.

rain

There was 4" of water in the rain gauge last night.

Election tomorrow

I have two main thoughts about the election tomorrow:

* I think this is the most important election since I started voting in 1984 as a young soldier in the US Army. I did the Early Voting thing last week and I got a little choked up doing it; I've never had that reaction to a vote before.

* I believe the US will thrive with either Obama or McCain at the helm; I don't think we've ever been in a position where we have two excellent candidates to choose from. I think Obama will win and I think he will be an inspiration to us and to the world. I believe that if McCain pulls off a win from behind he will govern with the judgement, integrity and tolerance that comes natural to him. We just can't lose either way.

I look forward to the election results with a sense of hope for my family, my community, and my country. I look forward to the cessation of foreign entanglements and a return of American soldiers to our own soil, out of harm's way. I look forward to citizens of all beliefs and political parties working together to rebuild our reputation and standing in the world.

bread machine

Whenever I am in a thrift store I see an entire junkyard of automatic bread machines (ABM hereafter). I've always wondered why they are so bad that people give them to Goodwill or whatever.

So I threatened that I would eventually buy one from the thrift store, max $10. No more. I read a few wikis and faqs and found some basic info. Came home with a Welbuilt ABM4110T .

Downside:
It's big: 9"x13"x14" and does 1#-2# loaves.
Had to find a manual online.

Upside:
Dead simple. Dump the ingredients: wet first, dry second, yeast on top
This thing makes great bread from scratch ingredients
Timers, different modes.
Fantastic crunchy crust.

I think the reason people don't use them is that it is easier to buy Wonder bread than to measure and dump ingredients. Plus there's that pesky actual crust... Also, it takes up a lot of counter space. I put it away after each loaf.

I have a gram scale for my homebrewing hobby, so this makes it trivial to weigh out small amounts of stuff. Here is my go-to ABM loaf recipe:

5.5 liquid oz water
1.25 teaspoon butter
2c flour
6.7g sugar
5.8g salt
6.8g yeast

Dump and press the button.

Zenna: dinner review

Dear Wife and I went to Zenna Thai/Vietnamese in Plano, just off 75. Actually, we went there twice.

The first was last Saturday evening. The interior is interesting and calming, service was gracious and the food was good.

The 20-something idiot kids at the next table were not good. I suppose they were UTD students on a binge (beer tower at the table) and their behaviour was abhorrent and very, very loud. They were screaming, shouting and (NOT making this up) spitting on the floor of the restaurant. WTF?

We knew not to confuse the place with the morons in it, so we went back with DW's sister. A wonderful experience all around.

Bottom line: go there, but not on a weekend night.







Zenna
2500 N Central Expy
Plano Tx 75074
214 473 9797