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Sunday, October 21, 2007

A Weekend Roundup

Earlier in the week, The Register coughed up a rather interesting article. I had a good laugh, then was inspired (if that’s the word) to write a poem on the subject. I decided that Asimov’s might print it, so I let it sit for a few days, made a few tweaks, and got it in the mail (before I lost my nerve). On the way back from the post office, it occurred to me that I ought to revamp the Crash and Burn story for a wider audience, and send that in too. I’ll tackle that this week. If nothing else, I’ll have a rejection letter or two I can tack to the wall in Studio FAR and give the finger to each time I go in there to write.

The septic tank is starting to get full again. At least it went almost a year this time. Mrs. Fetched is going to call the kaka-pumper tomorrow. I’m thinking of re-routing all the non-toilet drains to a garden area… we can use the water twice and that should take the load off the septic tank. Seeing how much cut basil and other herbs cost in the supermarket, a small herb farm might be a pretty decent way to put some of our acreage to use.

With more rain coming in tomorrow, and possibly staying on through most of the week (hooraayyyyyy!!!) I figured I’d better put new wiper blades on the Civic. Then I got tired of looking at the dangling windshield washers, which broke off when The Boy put it in a ditch last year, and got some new ones. Of course, I snapped off a stem when bolting it down, so I took them off and exchanged them this afternoon. Actually, I like the new ones better anyway. Finally, I got the idle adjusted (it was way too low). So now I’m ready to drive in the rain.

The homebrew is starting to mature. Maybe another week. But I need alcohol now

UPDATES: I can’t believe I forgot these.

This video (“Slam” by Pendulum) was one of the funniest things I saw all week. The music is wicked good too, if you like drum&bass. The album is on iTunes, so if I can’t find it at the store I’ll be grabbing this one for sure.

The in-laws have a muscadine vine that climbs really high. Like 12 feet. I grabbed their big stepladder & got a gallon or so. They have red & white ones growing together; the white ones are little sweeter but the reds are more numerous and have a bit more complex flavor. Muscadines are like the sunflower seeds of fruit: you do a lot of spitting (skins are tough and bitter, and they have seeds) so it’s definitely an outdoor snack. I spent a little quality time out front distributing seeds and skins around the edge of the dropoff to the road.

14 comments:

  1. Oh, FAR - I'm sorry. I keep forgetting about that aspect of getting out of the suburbs.

    Did it really cost $3000 to fix everything last year?

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  2. We never went into the field lines, so the $3000 never got spent. Like we had it in the first place. :-)

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  3. Hi FAR.

    Sorry to hear the tank is at its peak again. That sounds like a good idea on re-routing all the non-toilet drains. Sounds like a lot of work though.

    Glad you're getting rain. We're supposed to get a couple of day, but I'll wait and see.

    I say you should be testing the homebrew a week ahead of time. At least one or a dozen. :)

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  4. I agree with FamilyMan. The beer HAS to be tested soon.

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  5. Kaka-pumper - I like that term! So much more descriptive than - well, than whatever they call themselves. Life in the country has its ups and downs...gray water rerouting might help, indeed.

    At least you know where your tank is...I lived in a lake cottage my boyfriend's parents owned, and someone had built an addition onto the house...right over the tank. I'm glad it wasn't MY house!

    I agree on checking out the brew early...

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  6. A new chapter below, yay! I apologize for not being over here much lately, but there was a video post that STILL brings up two pop-ups that I have to get rid of every time. Oh, princess and the pea, that's me.

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  7. Morning everyone!

    FM, KB, Beth, I did check it last night. The taste is improving, but the fizz is still a bit sleepy. I turned the bottles and will let them sit for a few more days.

    Nancy, the popups are probably asking about Quicktime? Anyway, I can change it into a link so it stops doing that. To tell the truth, I've been thinking about making that change anyway since on my computer it fires up the video every time I hit the top page. (I could probably add an "autoplay=0" attribute but that might not stop the popups.)

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  8. I just added a couple of things I forgot about for some reason....

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  9. LOL FAR, the video was funny. I would have loved to see the look on all the people who just walked up on that.

    The uncle I was named after had numerous muscadine vines, and I remember he made wine and a jam from them. Never got to taste the wine since I was too young, but the jam was good. BTW thanks, this brought back some good memories of eating muscadines from those vines.

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  10. Hey FM, glad you enjoyed that video too!

    Those muscadines are really sweet this year, in spite of the drought. The in-laws told me to just take a cutting and plant it where I want it, so I'll have to do that. I think I'll get a proper arbor set up, though, so I don't need a ladder to get them.

    (Oh my... The Boy just walked in as I was typing, after being gone alllll weekend.)

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  11. The Boy just walked in? Didn't know he has been gone a week. I guess the show continues. ;)

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  12. Sorry you've got so much poop there at Far Manor, something you have in common with 1600 Pennsylvania Ave I guess. ;-)

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  13. Hey guys.

    FM, it was all weekend, not the whole week. Fortunately. I assume he got a ride home, because it's been pouring rain here this evening & he's not trailing a puddle behind him....

    B2, a year ago we had a bunch of extra people living here & I think it overloaded the system. Mrs. Fetched says the guy who built this place was notorious for cutting corners, so he probably put in as minimal a system as he could. (Which begs the question: if she knew that, why was she so hot to buy this freeking place?)

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  14. Thank you, far!!!

    And yay for the rain!

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