In Response to Sarah, Part II

Here's an update on my citrus from this post.

This is the Lemon Drop (aka Sunquat). As you can see it's produced nicely and the fruit are slowly ripening. They should be nice and sweet come March, 2009. I guess patience is a virtue.

The is my Satsuma Mandarin Orange. You can't really tell from the photo but there are small hints of orange on the fruit.

Peggy & Glinda, the Ruby Red Grapefruits (think about it). Lookin' good ladies! I just started these two in March, 2008. So far so good.

Mike the Meyer Lemon. He's not doing so hot. The grasshoppers got the best of him in August and the spider mites got the best of him in September. If he doesn't recover I have Mike II through XII to take his place.

That's the Familia de la fruta cítrica. They're currently battling a spider mite infection but I'm positive they'll pull through.

Perry the Peace Lilly, Nancy the Norfolk Pine, Vince the Venus Fly Trap, Nathaniel and Chris the November and Christmas cacti (respectively), Sid the Sundew, and Samantha the Spider Plant are all doing well. They're not quite as cool as citrus :-P.

The Pirate Spiel

Shmest Shmuy

I was just named Lab Advocate for a company whose name rhymes with the title of this post. I'll answer their questions and submit their requests for inclusion in our product.

Not to mention the potential monetary increases come March/June 2009 due to the increased responsibility.

Wheeee!

Omnivore's 100

Here’s what I want you to do:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I'm back!

Yep. Been back for a few days now. From all the skin peeling off I look like I belong in a leper colony.

Here are the pictures from this year's trip.

Paddlin' the school canoe...

...that's a paddlin'.

I leave tonight for the midnight showing of "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" at Rosedale AMC 14 with some friends. Tomorrow we'll get up, re-pack our bags, double-check our lists, and depart Steaming St. Paul for Evangelical Ely. Saturday will be an early morning of buying fishing, picking up bait, visiting the outfitter for our items (paddles, PFDs, and permit) and to watch the kick-ass BWCAW Bear video. Then we'll drive an hour to our entry point and start our canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Seven days in the wild. I'm giddy with excitement.

Here are pictures from last year's trip.

Mmm, Brewing

So I decide to chronicle my adventures in alcohol here: http://clausbrauerei.blogspot.com/

Keep up, post comments, etc. and you may find a homebrewed gift waiting at your front door someday!

Whoops

A few weeks ago I made some RyePA (India Pale Ale made with Rye). At the time I was extremely excited about this batch and could not wait to transfer it it secondary, dry hop, and keg.

I transferred and dry hopped two weeks ago.

For those non-brewers in the crowd two weeks is a long time in the life of an ale. I was sitting at my desk this morning and remembered this fantastic brew.

Tonight: the kegging.

In response to Sarah

Yes! Citrus can survive in the upper midwest!

I picked up these two fine specimens ($29.99 each) at Lowes here in the Roch. I could have picked up a Mexican Lime (aka Key Lime) but decided to wait until one of my seeds grows up.

Mandarin (Satsuma variety). This will produce some b-e-a-utiful Mandarin oranges. They will be ready for picking this fall.

Lemon Drop (aka Sunquat). This is a cross between a kumquat and a lemon tree. You eat the whole fruit, rind and all!

A baby mandarin orange. Yum

As you can see these plants live on the rocks outside my front door. They'll live out there until about mid-September, when I start weening them to the indoors. They'll require lots of light during the winter but it's OK: I have south-facing windows. Come April-May next year I'll reacquaint them with the great outdoors in preparation for more fruit.

Hooray for citrus!

When Life Hands You Lemons....

Grow a lemon tree! (or 27)

Yes, I have 27 Meyer lemon trees available. I also have 5 Ruby Red Grapefruit trees. I'm looking for some good homes for these trees. They'll provide the sweetest lemons (or grapefruits) you'll ever taste. Leave a comment, send me an email, or give me a call and I'll get you a tree.

Did I mention they're free?

I know, I know

When I logged-in to blogger I noticed the "Last Publish Date" was "March 18, 2008."

Yeah, I'm lame.

Even though Sarah says I'm cool, I'm still lame.

Let's see...what's happened since March 18...

I sucked at curling. Which is a surprise since I'm the team's skip/captain. After two weeks of practice I've improved dramatically. Time to finish the season strong and win the next two games.

Hmm, now there's the Hydukovich clan. That was six tons of fun. Met a lot of great people, had some awesome food. Maybe drank a wee-bit much. Maybe.

That led to a work trip to Vegas. Also six tons of fun. I highly recommend the Red Square at Mandalay Bay. It's a vodka bar. Guess what they serve.

After that I made hefeweizen (mmm, wheat). Then I passed the brewing torch to Eric & Xmas. I also sparked some interest in winter curling at the Owatonna curling club. Mwahahaha.

What else...oh. I have yet to pick up Mario Kart Wii. On May 11 it will be mine.

Why the lapse? Back to Vegas for work. I leave May 3, Saturday. Back to the land of frozen margaritas and Penn & Teller.

woot.

Oh, and this. Excitement.

It's been a while

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been busy.

Eik graced us Minnesotans with her countenance last weekend. We went to the Barnes & Noble in the old Chateau Theatre, ate some good food, went to Wisconsin (and bought clocks! and beer).

Oh, and played Rock Band. A lot. Like it played the same two songs every set list alot ("Roxanne" followed by "Buddy Holly"). Like 4am a lot.

Good times.

Then curling started at Dakota County Curling Club on Sunday. I was very nervous. I haven't curled since last July when the instructional league ended. Practice was rough. I couldn't find my balance, my throws were all over the place, I couldn't hit the broom. Yuck. Then we decided who played what position and I was nomitated skip (the captain). The skip directs the other members of the team and throws last to (hopefully) score more points or prevent the other team from scoring. Anxiety abounded.

Then the game started. Let's just say I found my groove. We scored a five point end(!!) and after seven ends we won 11-4. I think it was 11-4, I only remember our eleven points. :-).

Unfortunately I'm sore as hell from using those forgotten muscles. I forgot how much hard work sweeping is. But it's worth it. Thirteen days until our next match!

League Standings

It was a rock lobster!

Tomorrow is the true due date for the lab. Last week was a warm up. I have the lab done and am currently proofreading it. I will not have gone through the lab per-se, but I've done all the steps I've written down at some point in time. Let's up they like it.

Also, this.

Yeah, that's going to kick some serious ass.

Back to proofreading. Oh, and writing a set of PowerPoint slides (they're "due" in the same way the lab was "due" last week).

I live a pretty avant-gard life.

I hate Microsoft Office

and it hates me. Labs are due in two days and fsckin' Word freezes every time I open it.

Green Thumb

Yet another hobby: Gardening.

That's right. As if home brewing, steeping, infusing, curling, mixology, photography, etc. weren't enough.

What plants do I have so far?

• Areca palm (small)
• Areca palm (medium)
  
• Peace Lily
• Norfolk Pine
• English Ivy
• Rosemary
• Christmas cactus (it's just a little baby)
  

What's on tap?

• Pineapple
• Meyer Lemon (germinating as I type)
  
• Cinnamon basil
• Lime Basil
• Peppers
• Meyer Lemons
• Ruby Red Grapefruit
• Mexican (key) lime

I'm waiting for about 20 Meyer Lemon seeds to germinate. After germinating I'll place them in water bottles filled with soil. Eventually they'll make their way into a large pot as "dwarf" Meyer Lemons live inside during late fall and winter and outside during late spring and summer. In three to five years I'll have the sweetest lemons ever (no really! Meyers are a cross between lemons and oranges).

I'll post progress as appropriate.

I expect I'll have extra lemon/lime/grapefruit trees so if you want your very own citrus tree drop me a commnet or email.

Sign me up!

At the caucus, someone thought we need a new state flag and thought the party should support this resolution. There was very little discussion and went to vote. I was the only dissenting vote. Idiotic. There's nothing wrong with the state flag. Personally, I think it's way better than South Dakota's.

Discuss in the comments.

Today's been a career day...

...futures made and fortunes lost.

One of the joys about working at the biggest of ceruleans is that first quarter is re-org time. The first week back from Christmas break was filled with news of new directors, moved VP's, resignations, promotions, etc. The team I work with moved down the totem when a new VP inserted herself between the directors and the "main" VP (that's what she said). No big deal. Things like that don't matter in the grand scheme of things. Less than a thousand people were affected.

Luckily no re-org for my department.

Maybe.

I found out yesterday that the team I work with is "moving." They're not physically going anywhere but they/we are moving to a new reporting structure with a new mission. What's this new mission? What was the old mission? What the hell does Zeke actually do? I don't know where I am. There's blood on my knife. I think I killed someone. :-) very inside joke of me.

Our team focused on getting things to work for the first time. We create intellectual capital (a fancy way of saying documents) that fellow works and/or customers use to get their own setup running.

This new org focuses on a word that isn't even a word: consumability. <-- Not a real word! HA!

Instead of focusing on depth we're moving to breadth. Cross-product interaction. Integration. e-buisness. SOA. SaS.

This may or may not affect me. The VP who's leading this charge and taking the team under his wing will visit the lab tomorrow (Jan. 31). I don't know how or if this will affect me but I'll know more tomorrow morning. Maybe I'm leaving my lofty position in the department of product architects. My manager kept me in the dark so far so who knows.

More at 11 (and after some Office Space).

German Alt

That is all.

Nothing's Going to Touch You in This Golden Year

Sorry Bowie, I couldn't resist.

This year I celebrate my golden birthday. It begins in precisely T-15 days.

What's my plan for the year ahead?

• A trip, in April, to Las Vegas for work.
• A second trip, in May, to Vegas for work.
• Another trip to the BWCA this summer
• A trip to Germany sometime this coming fall/winter. Either Oktoberfest in September or the Christkindlesmarkt in November/December.
• More Camping!
• Exercising more
• Getting Outside
• Watch less TV (the WGA strike makes this easy)
  
• Not working so much
• Reading more
• De-clutter
• Play with Tyson more than I have over the past year
• Not worry
• Save $$
• Enjoy life!