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I’ll just get this out of the way at the start; to the people asking “what the hell is wrong with the world” after yesterday’s school shooting… A lot. There is a lot wrong with the world. Whether or not you choose to accept and realize this on a daily basis is your own choice. That being said, I’ll not comment further aside from saying, I’ve made my position on firearms ownership and use clear many times in the past, and ultimately it will be up to the American population to force any changes in their own society.

Moving right along…

I made apple cider. Why? why not. Actually, it started out because of the whole half asleep on the couch episode last weekend where I was watching Gordon Ramsay’s christmas special and he was making mulled wine. I decided I wanted to make mulled wine. but I had no muslin. and then somehow it turned into a frantic search for muslin and then it turned from mulled wine to apple cider because we had apples in the fridge.

Here are some things I learned while making apple cider:

1. It makes everything smell fucking fantastic.

2. Don’t pulp it before you strain it.

3. When the recipe says double up your muslin, double it, then do it again,

4. Always remember to have string on hand to tie the muslin shut. Otherwise, you’ll end up standing by the counter with everything ready and then realizing you might have overlooked this.

5. Avoid powdered spices, they WILL get through the cloth.

6. Making this with powdered spices WILL spark your immediate desire to buy new, whole fresh spices.

7. Silk Road Spice Merchants are your friend for when that desire strikes.

I’m not entirely satisfied with the outcome. It’s tasty, but I definitely didn’t put the amount of spice in I should have. Essentially, I have a very, very light cider, or a slightly spiced apple juice.

Then at work the other day I started wondering if you could make cider out of oranges. Given that Google couldn’t say for sure, I’m going with no. That being said, I’ll probably throw an orange or two in the next batch to see what happens.

We’re hosting this year, so it’ll be busy and hectic but there’ll be lots of good food because I’m fucking dead set on mimicking what those things looked like on TV. I may even resort to a British accent while making them.

Last night, the Count and I hit up a Red Deer Rebels game. I’m fortunate in that his employers have seen fit to give him good seats, left of the goal. in the corner. where lots of pucks and players smash into the boards. which was made all the more entertaining last night because of the three little kids  who were standing right by the boards and seemed fairly obliviously the fact that they could probably be knocked over if a couple of guys decided to make the best use of inertia and pile into the glass there. I also brought my cowbell and giant foam puck hat. This puck hat:

This puck hat was widely derided when I bought it. To the naysayers I say, “were YOU on TV last night with your cowbell and giant foam puck hat? No? Well then, who failed to recognize the media potential of it then, hmm? HMM?”

Well, we assume we were on TV. We couldn’t see the game feed (obviously), but a dude with a TV camera wandered over to us, looked at us, said “you guys look like you’re having fun”, and gave us the thumbs up as he pointed the camera at us. this resulted in cowbell ringing and a CLOSE UP of the Giant Foam Puck Hat. not just a shot of it being worn, a CLOSE UP shot.

It was like Wayne’s World, only a giant foam puck hat and not a cable access show.

boo fucking ya.

there are currently two cardboard tubes next to me that once held wrapping paper. you know what this means. Cardboard tube lightsaber fights.