Recently in Mops, Socks, and Chardonnay Category
As part of the Round the World trip I felt it was important that I try as many regional beers as possible. It's always been a theory of mine that one can learn a lot about a culture by imbibing their indigenous brews. It's a lousy theory but the alternative explanation (and the one that Mary is most in agreement with) is that I have an abiding affection for the brew and will do most anything to acquire some. Still, I did have a great time, and I think it's safe to say that one can travel pretty much anywhere nowadays and find a great regional brew.
Tiger
Kingfisher (which is really Indian but we ate a lot of Indian food so it just seemed right) Carlsberg (which is European but it was a hot day and the beer was cold and inviting)
Singha
Asahi Super Dry
Assorted Kyoto Micro Brews (that I neglected to get the names of - my bad)
Kona Longboard Lager
Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale
Keoki Gold
Anchor Steam
San Miguel (a
Chang
Victoria Bitter
Tooheys New
Tooheys Extra Dry
Boags Premium
Crown Lager
Fuller's ESB (In my defense we weren't in
Of all the beers consumed I can safely say there is only one that I would not willingly and enthusiastically drink again and that was the Phuket Island Beer. It wasn't that this beer was bad - it was just a little strange as it was noticeably sweet. Also, the Bikini Blonde Lager in Hawaii although drinkable (and that's a pretty broad category for me) was pretty blah, fine if you like the mass market American brews like Budweiser but otherwise not able to compete at all with its tastier brethren from Kona or Keoki.
For 25 some years I forged a career making nuclear powered space cruisers and particle beam anti-missile cannons. Today I'm more or less (usually more) a house husband. How did I come to this? Read on. And as to the particle beams and space cruisers, that's just a little poetic license. I did work on a few fighters, lots and lots of commercial airliners and the occasional spacecraft such as the Space Shuttle and the X-33. I'm pretty sure I would have been a pretty fair space cruiser engineer but apparently I was a few decades too early for that career path, all the Heinlein books I read as a child to the contrary.
So a few years ago we decided to change places as it were and Mary would bring home the bacon and I would fry it up, smother it in whipped cream and serve it up on the Wedgewood china. If we had any Wedgewood china. Barring that, I'd settle for paper plates to save on the clean up. So we waved goodbye to the smog engulfed environs of
So here we are in the august mountains majesty of
Truth be told, I'm doing housework in much the same way as my mother did, though there have been a few improvements. Along the way I've tried this and that labor saving idea and housekeeping tech concept, and some have worked and others have not. So I thought I'd just dole out a few of the discoveries that I've come across and see if they help anyone. Or to give some a pathetically feeble laugh.
First, a little explanation of how we split the housekeeping duties. Since we both work from home we save all that commuting time and such, and end up with more hours per week available then the average couple. We also have no children, so massive amounts of time that most people devote to child rearing are back in our hip pockets. Childlessness is one of the disadvantages to meeting and getting married a little later in life. Or an advantage, depending on one's point of view.
So we split duties as follows: Mary cleans the kitchen after meals. And that's pretty much the extent of her household duties. Well, that and bringing home the bacon. Though since she works from home she doesn't actually go out and get that bacon. It comes to her. I do all the cleaning, vacuuming, cooking, grocery and other shopping, the majority of the yard work and house maintenance and most of the research and hiring of contractors for various tasks around the house like tree removal and window cleaning. I recently proved myself competent enough to do Mary's laundry after several intensive months of studying and testing. I celebrated with the Snoopy dance. It's my thing.
The whole house husband thing has been pretty much a gas. I'm kind of amazed how much I've gotten into it. I now insistently thrust coasters at people before they place glasses on my polished end tables and actually use napkins, even for snacks. I pretreat stains instead of taking the Darwinian approach to clean laundry (if the stains were meant to come out, then they'd come out with regular laundry soap and the perm press cycle). I have a Roomba that I anthropomorphize, though it's probably not a good idea to delve too deeply into that. And I love cooking. I always did, but never really had as much time to devote to it as I would have liked. Now I do. Of course our waistlines haven't really benefited that much from this development, but at least we eat better food. So overall, yeah, I've been pretty happy with the late life career change.
So here we are. Or there we are. Depending on whether one subscribes to the wisdom of Buckaroo Banzai or not.
Oh, and there will be a test later. Take lots of notes.
