After a few trips to the orthodontist, Jake had his top braces installed this week. I can’t remember why, but they are not doing the bottom braces for a quite a bit. He doesn’t go back until May and, at that point, they’re going to tell us when he should have his one baby tooth extracted. The poor kid has only been able to eat soft foods because his teeth and inner lips are sore. Once this subsides, I think he’s going to eat all of the food in the house.
snow snow go away
As Chandler Bing might say, could the groundhog have been any more wrong? I don’t think it has stopped snowing since he declared that winter is over. I have wonderful memories of last March where it was 70 degrees for a couple of weeks and I started gardening a month early. I guess that isn’t going to happen this year.
I haven’t been blogging much lately. Half of my posts are about movies or books and I have been watching a bunch of tv series on dvd so I haven’t had any movies to blog about. Also, due to all of the tv watching, I haven’t been reading as much.
And, on top of that, things are crazy busy at work, so we (Brian in particular) haven’t had any time for recreational activities. We are short staffed and have been trying to hire a graphic designer. We have enough work that we could actually hire two designers, but we’ll have to see if that continues before we commit to anything. So, if anyone out there is qualified*, please apply. We have a marketing opening as well, but we’re not filling that position until the graphic designer role is filled. This is our second round of advertising for the position. I hope we can find someone soon.
*And when I say qualified, I mean the following:
- meet most, if not all, of the job requirements
- don’t have a bunch of typos on your resume (there’s this thing called spellcheck–run it)
- don’t apply through every means available–one is sufficient (rest assured, we will receive your application)
- don’t call us, we’ll call you
the cheese chronicles
I’ve made two batches of cheese so far this winter–Cheddar and Monterey Jack. I thought I’d try aging them in vacuum bags this time (versus in wax) because it seemed like the easier thing to do. However, the Cheddar developed some mold after a month and the Jack developed mold after just a few weeks. The mold isn’t anything to be concerned with, but it does need to be addressed (i.e. it must be wiped off with a vinegar and salt solution).
But, it got me thinking back to my first batch of cheese, which was waxed and had no mold issues. So, I got out the waxing pot tonight, wiped down the cheeses and waxed them. The Jack cheese will be eaten at the beginning of April, but the Cheddar won’t be ready until next January. I’ll have to keep an eye on them to make sure no mold develops beneath the wax, but I’m hopeful this will do the trick.
I ordered some more cheesemaking supplies last week for my upcoming batches of stirred curd Cheddar (which is a slightly less labor-intensive version of Cheddar) and Parmesan (which, incidentally, does not get waxed). That will be it for my cheese-making adventures until next winter as gardening season is about to kick into gear.
brian’s bd part 3
The third and final birthday celebration for Brian took place last night at his parent’s house. They did a “summer in February” theme with picnic food. Bonus: leftover ribs for today’s lunch. Yum!
brian’s bd part 2
Brian, Jacob and I celebrated Brian’s birthday last night. He wanted soup (homemade clam chowder) and sandwiches, so I got off easy. One to go…