If I had one billion dollars I would buy a small city and turn it into Hound Town. Shelter dogs only. There would be a dog bank, dog salon, dog In-N-Out Burger and a Redbox.
There would also be a shelter cat city (CAT TOWN USA) a few miles away. City wide free Wi-Fi.
Maybe I should start a Kickstarer…
I thought I was sick of “Call Me Maybe” cards until I saw this.
Meteorological Triptych - the only 2 photos (to date) of a tornado, rainbow and lightning bolt together.
Thor is back in town, I see.
I know I do not have many followers on here, but some of these blogs have inspired me to get my stories out in the world. I hope some of you read them and I will try to regularly post.
Footsteps echoed in my mind, or were they part of this reality if it could even still be called that. I could feel my grip slipping on this world for so long now losing my sanity piece by piece with each rising of the…two suns? No it was only one it had always been just one sun, but there it was a second smaller but equally as bright glowing disc hanging in the sky. Things were constantly it made it hard to keep up with anything nowadays. It started out small like an extra bar on the window or a different texture to the four walls, yet as time passed in hours or years, I couldn’t even tell the difference anymore, bigger things started taking shape. I woke one morning and the entire cell had changed shape. I could distinctly being brought to a simple four wall room, but here it was 6 walls all equal in length. The more impossible I considered things to be, the farther it drove me into madness. Recently, I’ve learned to accept things to hold onto what I can though it’s not proving easy. At first, I considered it was someone manipulating the room, but now the exterior environment was changing. How much longer could I hold up? One thing bothers me more than all the other things though. I can distinctly remember being dragged to thus place but before that is nothing. Nothing exists before this room this chamber. Which leads me to consider amnesia, but I have no fuzzy recollections there’s just nothing like everything didn’t cone into existence until someone ordered it to.
“…it’s…pointless…why does…he continue…”
The voices they were back. It had been sometime since they had come back. They were my only alleviation from isolation. The true words of a madman.
Footsteps again echoing off my memories…no real this time walking down the hallway quickly with determination. This felt different from the daily drop off if food which managed to keep his body going. These footsteps though are odd. I believe I have a visitor. A sudden silence, some shuffling of feet, and a slight click inside the door as it slowly creeps open. A bright light shined through the door, blinding my eyes and obscuring my vision. I held my hand over my eyes trying to hide from it, but then there was another click and it was gone and the room had gone back to it’s dim lit self. “Haven’t completely gone mad have we?”. The voice was chilling and sinister and I knew it. I didn’t know that face or name, but the voice, the very voice, struck fear into my heart spreading ice through my veins. I couldn’t look at the figure that I could feel standing very close to the bed. I buried my head in my knees and tried to just forget it all. Easier said than done.
I peaked out and regretted it. It’s eyes glowed yellow like some malevolent presence and it’s body had an odd shimmer around it as if it was only partially in this realm of thought. There was no definite shape just a mere outline of what should have been a man.
“I know you’re quite confused about everything and I do apologize for that. I mean if it were my choice you iwould have been dead a long time ago, but you my friend hold a great key and the higher ups just can’t let that go. It’s a shame really I hate playing with my food but orders are orders.” stated the entity so coolly,”Well we shouldn’t waste anytime should we?”. I sat there in amazement as he lunged for me clawing at my arms. What the hell was up with this thing? Before I could even think about it, the thing got something in my neck and…nothing…
This is probably my most used home brewing recipe, and the simplest. It’s an easy soda, refreshing on it’s own or tasty mixed with gin or vodka. I love to make a large batch before parties, everyone loves it and it costs less than even the cheapest generic sodas. The major plus here is once you have the basic recipe down it’s not too hard to make tweaks and changes to suite your personal preferences. This ginger ale is entirely different from most American brands (i.e. Vernors, Canada Dry), in that it’s flavor comes directly from fresh ginger root which is spicy and refreshing. The carbonation comes from a minor act of fermentation by bakers yeast as it ‘eats’ the sugar in the drink, creating carbon dioxide (fizz!). This is the same reaction used to make alcoholic drinks, just on a shorter and smaller scale (in this case the amount of alcoholic content is negligible, around half a percent).
To make a 2 liter bottle of Ginger Ale you will need:
- A cleaned out 2 liter plastic soda bottle with screw-on cap.
- A fine grater or zester.
- A funnel.
- A 1 cup measuring cup.
- A 1/4 cup measuring cup.
- A 1 tbsp. measuring spoon.
- A 1/4 tsp. measuring spoon.
- 1 cup sugar (raw or cane is fine)
- A chunk of fresh ginger root.
- Bottled lemon juice or 1 medium lemon.
- Active baker’s yeast.
- Water.
To make the ale first combine the dry ingredients inside the 2 liter using the funnel; 1 cup sugar and 1/4 tsp. yeast. Next grate the ginger until you have at least 2 tbsp., depending on how flavorful and spicy you want your drink to be, you could use up to 4 tbsp. Pour the ginger and then the lemon juice (1/4 cup of the bottle stuff or the juice of 1 fresh lemon) into the bottle as well. Then fill the bottle the rest of the way up with lukewarm water within one inch of the top, using the water to rinse any remaining ingredients from the sides of the funnel into the bottle. Cap and shake gently until all of the sugar is dissolved. Find a warm place to stash the bottle, I think the top of kitchen cabinet is a good place and let the bottle sit for 1-2 full days checking periodically to see how firm the bottle feels. Once the bottle no longer gives at all when you squeeze it’s ready! Move the bottle to the fridge (this will stop the fermentation process) and wait until the ale is chilled to serve. If you don’t like chunks of ginger in your drink wrap a piece of cheesecloth over the neck of your bottle when you pour. The chunks will mostly settle to the bottom of the drink anyways.
Further options:I love adding extra flavoring to my ginger ale by making my soda with an herbal tea instead of water. My favorite flavors are hibiscus, lavender, or peppermint but there are many other options as well (pretty much any edible herb you’d like!) I make the tea ahead of time, using boiling water and dried herbs to taste making sure it’s cool to touch before add it to my other soda ingredients (if it’s too hot it will kill the yeast!) The hibiscus is especially nice because it gives the soda a striking magenta color. Consider making a number of smaller bottles of ginger ales with different flavorings, experiment with different colorful and medicinal herbs.
