bierkergaard

So, it has been a slow news week here at the domicile. I can check out and chill out with the best of them. Slacker Mode. Actually, I have been working out a lot, meeting with some peeps, and got in a side trip for some Russian River beer tasting and Berwyn Pizza Stromboli. I also finished the novella "Heart of Darkness" which was the favorite of Anthony Bourdain. Not getting the affection. It was interesting. Not great. More like a comic book with exotic characters in far away places. Ivory will make you do weird things... Chances are I will finish Les Mis soon. 86% done. Reminds me of one of those Window Updates...86% finished. Don't turn your computer off. I don't even remember when I started reading it. It has been that long. The barricade was just bum rushed. The end is near. Obviously, a great book. Today Hugo was expounding on Paris sewage for several pages. I won't tell you why. Since it isn't taking a lot to wow me these days, last night I ...

"Coast to Coast, L.A. to Chicago."   Smooth Operator is playing in the background. Wait a minute. Never really thought about this...Chicago is not the coast. Unless you count Lake Michigan. It is amazing to fly over Lake Michigan to grasp how massive it is. Just like driving through Los Angeles.    I have been drinking fruit smoothies here in the early summer. Precipitated by my quarterly visit to Costco, where I purchased several bags of frozen organic fruit combos--and all the fruit is cut and packaged into single servings--I have been enjoying the drinks. All pulp included. The sugars have to be contextualized in the midst of the fiber. Otherwise, fruit drinks are not a whole lot healthier than soda. I put the fruit in my Cuisinart Single-Serve blender. And voila, a delicious icy drink of goodness. Candy is just the evil bastard twin of fruit. Mimics fruit with none of the health benefits. Wolves in Sheep's clothing to make a spiritual application. Ah, the cor...

Yesterday morning, I received a text from one of my best friends. He let me know that Anthony Bourdain had killed himself. My buddy was incredulous, I was incredulous. Both of us love travel, ethnic food, and adventure. I think it fair to say that Anthony Bourdain was an inspiration to us. We both knew that his life was one in a billion but we could all aspire to be more daring like him. To see and taste the world in all of its resplendent and jagged beauty. A lovely bowl of Vietnamese goodness.   Around this time every year, I binge on the most recent episodes of Bourdain's gastronomic and increasingly politically-angled travels. This year I will do so with tears in my eyes. If at all. Not sure I can watch it with the shadows of suicide.  In every scene, every word, every gesture.   It was not pure voyeurism. Both of us travel a lot. My buddy for business and pleasure, me just for pleasure (and occasional displeasure when things don't go my way).  T...

Yesterday, I went to my best friend's Mom's funeral. She was 88 so she lived a goodly number of years. I am also good friends with his brothers and went to college with all three of them. So, altogether fitting to be there in their time of sorrow.  Being from a Band of Brothers myself, I connect with he and his siblings. I consider them almost like a family. We still suffer from the loss of those close to us even though we know that she and all of us are destined to die. As I was preparing to head to where the funeral was being held, a church about 30 minutes away, I checked the satellite weather map. It has been raining ferociously all week here in Central Pennsylvania. A lot of flooding. I wanted to dodge being on the road during one of the downpours. It appeared like if I hustled back to my home after the service, I would have time to wait out the storm from the safety of the house and then head back out later to hang out with some friends. So, water has been a theme ...

I planted some Rye crop out back last September. I had some idea that I would harvest the grain and make a Rye Beer out of the yield. That turned out to be a bit fanciful. A whole lot of work. I might get a loaf of bread or a six pack out of it if I follow the harvesting plan from reaping, to threshing, to malting.  A century ago, about half of Americans worked in agriculture. Now it is about two percent.  The good old days were full of back-breaking labor where calories out and calories in were close to even. Our obesity crisis in America is partially because we eat as if we are still working the fields rather than watching TV or playing video games.       Rye doesn't die in the Pennsylvania Winter. It may not grow at certain times but it survives under most cases. So, it was fun to watch it stay green when it was in the single digits temperature-wise. I admired its tenacity. However, it was coming time for me the clear the plots of the Rye out bac...

One of the best things I ever learned from someone was the technique of cutting a thread rather than pulling it. Rather elementary advice of course, something that I should have been able to find out on my own. Don't live in a town where scholars rule... Cutting a thread has a much wider and wiser application to life in general. The general set-up for the application of this principle goes like this: Is there something you can't change? An issue that is dangling and if you pull it, all that is going to happen is further problems, a constriction of the problem and an unraveling of the fabric? Well, time to pull out the scissors and cut the thread. That can be a toxic relationship that shows zero promise of improvement, a church where chronic problems are not dealt with, a dead-end job that de-animates the soul, a car that is hemorrhaging cash due to its poor quality and or age, etc. Cut the thread and move on. I know that in a consumer society it is often too easy to ...

Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Last Sunday, I cooked up some pancakes. I do that fairly often on Sundays. One issue that bothers me though is having an odd number of eggs left in the carton being that I use one egg, one cup of flour, and one cup of water. I know the Japanese like odd numbers. The Trinity of course in "Three Persons." There are seven days in a week. So, I get that odd numbers connote completeness.     But, having an odd number of eggs left, being that I eat my eggs generally two at a time each day for breakfast, creates a sense of unevenness. I can be selectively OCD about certain things. So I decided to make a batter using two eggs, etc. And then, I would either make more pancakes or something else. I decided to bake some bread. I added some additional flour and a packet of yeast and then let the dough rise in the fridge. I baked it ...