Turns out I didn’t have to buy a whole pump. AutoZone sells a package of plastic “Y”s in different sizes. I was able to buy that cheaply and use the correct sized Y and easily fixed my windshield washers.

I have to buy a new pump for my windshield wipers. Not that there’s anything wrong my old pump. What’s wrong is that a small plastic “Y” that split the washer fluid hose into two streams disintegrated and needs replaced. But they don’t sell that part independantly, only as part of a whole pump replacement kit. *grumble*

A summary of my brews thus far:

• Cherry Melomel – Gone!
• Brown Ale – 1 bottle left
• English Bitter – ruined and discarded
• Spiced Christmas Ale – serving
• Lemon/Orange Melomel – serving
• Scottish 60 – in Secondary
• Cherry Melomel – in Primary
• Pomegranate Melomel – in Primary
• Pale Ale – in Primary
• Brown Ale – on deck

Beers I’d like to brew include:

• a Patersbier
• a Belgian Dubbel
• a Brown Porter
• a Dunkelweisse

And possibly others.

Here’s the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain performing the theme from The Good The Bad and The Ugly:

And here they are performing the Black Crows’ Hard to Handle:

A very blessed and Merry Christmas to all!!

Last night I had a Shiner Hefeweizen. It was a thoroughly unremarkable beer.

When I drink a hefe, I want to experience some serious yeast esters. Some aromas and flavors of bananas and cloves, perhaps, like in German Hefes. I didn’t notice anything like that.

It didn’t really seem too much like an American Wheat, either.

It was just… there. No stand out flavors or aromas. It was sort of in the background and didn’t draw any attention to itself.

It’s definitely not a bad beer, in fact, it was very well-crafted. And, I’ll bet, a good introduction to wheat beers for someone who is accustomed to American mega-brews.

But, for me, it was basically no big deal.

Read this news article.

While I’m disappointed, I can’t say I’m surprised.

I see things differently than that report does. Russia was instrumental in provoking ethnic Russians located in South Ossetia to rebel against the legitimate (Georgian) government. When Georgia attempted to put down the rebellion, Russia used that as a pretext to invade. Russia was clearly the aggressor, and was at fault. George W. Bush was correct in saying so, and in providing medical aid to the Georgian victims of the Russian invasion.

So, why, when it’s obvious that Russia was at fault, does this EU report blame the Georgians? Simple. The EU is scared of Russia. They don’t want to provoke the angry Russian bear on their doorstep. The U.S., under Barack Hussein Obama is weak. Obama has shown no inclination to stand up to foreign strongmen, and has made it abundantly clear to our allies that his administration will do nothing to support them. Remember, it was just in the past week that Obama decided to throw Eastern Europe under the bus by axing the ballistic missile shield that was to be based there – another sign of weakness. The EU needs Russian oil, and remembers the Soviet invasions of Hungary in 1956 and of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Without U.S. military might acting as a deterrent to Russian invasion, the Europeans opt for flattery, historical revision, and soon, appeasement.

The Feast of St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael (the Holy Archangels) has always been one of my favorite days from the Sanctoral calendar. Happy Feast Day!

OK, I’ve reactivated some of the plugins, and have made another little edit on the sidebar. Hopefully, I’ll have the repairs to my blog completed sometime soon. Stay tuned.

Springfield is under a tornado warning at the moment. Be safe, everyone!

Repairs are underway on this blog. I’m not sure what caused the problem. There was definitely some sort of server error, considering some of the symptoms that I had to correct.

In any event, the fix, while not difficult, is time-consuming. I’ve got the posts visible again, and restored the blog theme. I still have work to do on some of the theme’s details, and I have yet to reactivate any of the plugins. I’m going to do that last bit very slowly and carefully, since it appears there’s some sort of conflict with one of them.

But it’s late, and I’m quitting for the night. I’ll finish up later.