Spectre’s Sayings

Last Saturday, we finished putting on the mud sills, and installed one of the beams (the one under the front bedroom). On Monday, the concrete crew installed the drainage tile, poured and trowled the concrete floor of the basement and of the garage, and backfilled around most of the foundation. They cut the garage floor and installed the basement window wells on Tuesday. My father framed up the landing for the stairway and the support wall in the basement on Wednesday. Yesterday and today, he got that wall up and put in the other beams. Tomorrow, me and a bunch of relatives are putting in the floor joists.

Below are pictures of the progress up through Monday.

Samuel Adams Black Lager is a pretty interesting beer. It’s made from roasted malts and it is lightly hopped. It poured a nice dark color with a decent head. The aroma was somewhat sweet. I was able to detect a taste of chocolate, which was overlaid by a subtle smokey flavor. It kind of reminded me of a porter, but there were differences.

When you held the glass up to the light, you could see tell by the quality of the copper glow that it was a filtered beer.

It’s a good beer, especially for wintertime. The chocolate taste does it credit. It’s not my favorite Sam Adams beer, but it’s not bad. I would drink it again.

This would be a cool gift for a 5-year-old.

Today is the Feast day of St. Andrew the Apostle, brother to St. Peter, and the first to tell his brother about the Lord.

Happy Feast Day!

The text of the Pope’s new Encyclical Letter “Spe salvi”.

Catholic News Agency is reporting that the pope takes major step to open dialogue with Muslims. From the article:

Dialogue between Muslims and Catholics entered a new phase today as Pope Benedict replied to the October 13 letter from the 138 Muslims leaders and proposed that the dialogue be centered on human dignity and religious freedom.

The Pope’s reply to the Muslim initiative, “A Common Word between Us and You”, was sent to Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal, president of the Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought and one of the signatories of the original letter. According to the Holy See Press Office, the letter was written by Benedict XVI and signed by the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

The interesting twist in the Pope’s proposal for dialogue is that he has insisted on changing the context of the talks. While the Muslim leaders’ letter framed future dialogue around the twofold commandment to love God and one’s neighbor, Benedict XVI’s reply suggests a change in the terms of discussion.

Alan from A Good Beer Blog reviewed Weihenstephaner’s hefeweisse and dunkel in a post entitled, Two From Weihenstephan And Four Of Us.

Isn’t this a beautiful picture?

I can’t take credit for this. It came to me in an email, and I have no idea who the original author is. But it was funny, so I’m reposting it here.

You know you grew up in the 80’s if…

1. You’ve ever ended a sentence with the word SIKE.
2. You can sing the rap to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and can do the Carlton
3. You know that ‘WOAH’ comes from Joey on Blossom
4. If you ever watched ‘Fraggle Rock’
5. It was actually worth getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons.
6. You wore a ponytail on the side of your head.
7. You got super-excited when it was Oregon Trail day in computer class at school.
8. You made your mom buy one of those clips that would hold your shirt in a knot on the side.
9. You played the game ‘MASH’ (Mansion, Apartment, Shelter, House).
10. You wore stonewashed Jordache jean jackets and were proud of it.
11. You know the profound meaning of ‘ WAX ON, WAX OFF.’
12. You wanted to be a Goonie.
13. You ever wore fluorescent clothing. (some of us…head-to-toe)
14. You can remember what Michael Jackson looked like before his nose fell off and his cheeks shifted.
15. You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the only female smurf.
16. You took lunch boxes to school…and traded Garbage Pailkids in the schoolyard.
17. You remember the CRAZE, then the BANNING of slap bracelets.
18. You still get the urge to say ‘NOT’ after every sentence.
19. You thought your childhood friends would never leave because you exchanged handmade friendship bracelets.
20. You ever owned a pair of Jelly-Shoes.
21. After you saw Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure you kept saying ‘I know you are, but what am I?’
22. You remember ‘I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!’
23. You remember going to the skating rink before there were inline skates.
24. You have ever played with a Skip-It.
25. You remember boom boxes and walking around with one on your shoulder like you were all that.
26. You remember watching both Gremlins movies.
27. You thought Doogie Howser/Samantha Micelli was hot.
28. You remember Alf, the lil furry brown alien from Melmac.
29. You remember New Kids on the Block when they were cool…and don’t even flinch when people refer to them as ‘NKOTB.’
30. You knew all the characters names and their life stories on ‘Saved By The Bell,’ The ORIGINAL class.
31. You know all the words to Bon Jovi’s SHOT THROUGH THE HEART.
32. You just sang those words to yourself.
33. You still sing ‘We are the World.’
34. You tight rolled your jeans.
35. You owned a bannana clip.
36. You remember ‘Where’s the Beef?’
37. You used to (and probably still do) say ‘What you talkin’ ’bout Willis?’
38. You’re still singing shot through the heart in your head, aren’t you!

For numbers 5, 11, 15, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28, 31, 32, 36, 37, and 38 - I have to plead guilty.

I happened across this picture of this beautiful clockwork mechanism, and just wanted to post it for purely aesthetic reasons. For more information about the actual device, see this page.

The European Space Agency has a cool page about Earth’s twin, based on what the instruments on the Venus Express spacecraft are discovering. Check out some of the animations.

Sighted: License plate that reads “CANUK EH”

Heard on radio: “Boob Job For Christmas.”

Today is the birthday of the late Oxford don, writer, and Christian apologist, C.S. Lewis.

If he were still alive, Jimi Hendrix would be 65. His birthday was yesterday.

Although long suspected, scientists have only just now confirmed that lightning strikes do happen in the atmosphere of the planet Venus, as they do on Earth and the gas giants. The story from CNN is here.