Widber Brothers’ seasonal appropriately enough is the Okto this October 1st. Pours medium dark red brown with moderately strong head that quickly dissapates. Carbonation is not too strong. My nose is once again really plugged up so I can’t get the aromas too well, a bit of smoky and nuttyness. Medium smooth mouthfeel, a nice moderated bitter. Nicely drinkable. I’m glad autumn is here. 3 out of four Oktoberfestive monkeys.
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Hm, I’m not sure if this counts as another life down for Musubi cat, but I took her into the vets on Wednesday to have them take a look at a scratch she got on her face from some other cat. I remember how the other scratch she got became an abscess and her first -1 life. Vet prescribed some antibiotic and since it was a long time we decided to give her some vaccination shots. All seemed good and I was able to feed her the antibiotic pill hidden in a food treat packet with no problems. Then later that night she vomited, not a happy cat. She didn’t seem to be in any extreme distress though, so I waited until next morning. Wondering if the pill was reacting badly. Called the vet office next morning and made an appointment. Musubi didn’t seem to be showing a serious allergic reaction, but she wasn’t eating. That afternoon took her in and vet examined her. Her temperature was running high, high enough to be of concern. They immediately worked to cool her down by applying alcohol soaked towels & ice pack which she didn’t really take to. I think administering subcataneous saline to her is what really helped.
On life -2 Musubi had received the same antibiotic with no problems, so it was determined that she was having an adverse reaction to the vaccination. She’s doing much better now, but still hasn’t eaten all that much. Trying to restrict her to wet food as she really needs the hydration.
Oh them gremlins! They’re having a field day now! Walked to my favorite parts store, Checker/O’Reilly (not) and then to McCully Bike to meet up with Ckucky and Kev. Went to where the FX was parked and pushed it to Young Street amid crowds of flashing blue lights possibly involved with one of the myriad homeless at that baseball park. We formulated the tow plan and hooked up, and for SnG I tried starting the car. Lo and behold it cranked right up. WTF? So the plan was changed that Ckucky would just follow me home. Made it all the way with nary a stumble. This was good in that it saved the stress and trouble of flat towing the FX, but bad in that I was left guessing on what was wrong. I did not have a multi-meter with me at the time so I couldn’t test for power at the pump, which would have been pretty good evidence of a bad pump. After checking the wiring diagrams I’m still fairly confident that is the problem. If the EFI relay was bad, then the ECU wouldn’t have lit up the diagnostic light. There is a possibility the Circuit Open Relay that is a safety for the fuel pump was bad. Jumpering the fuel test connector bypasses the airflow safety that triggers that, but still relies on the relay. What I needed to know was the wires I needed to bypass the relay entirely. Oh well, I’m going to change the pump anyway, perhaps that will cure the slight rough idling I thought I still detected. I’ll get you yet, you gremlins!
A Guinness brew I hadn’t seen before? Had to try it. Pours opaque black, moderately heavy head that dissapates. Moderate carbonation that persists. A fairly light and clean mouth feel. There actually is very little bitter, just a bit of roastyness that lingers a bit through the middle and leaves a tiny bit of astringentness on the tongue. Easy drinking. Nothing horrible about this beer, it’s certainly nice enough to drink, but if I want a Guinness, I want a Guinness. Guinness is synonomous with stout. It’s like poser Guinness. All the look, none of the substance. So as a beer to drink I give it 3 monkeys, but as a Guinness I give it a 2 out of 4 monkeys. Hm, seems to pack a buzz, but it’s not teh al content, it’s Speights syndrome, it’s easy drinking so you find yourself downing them rapidly.
So since learning that pastrami is smoked corned beef, we got together for a Saturday food project that we haven’t done in a while. This process is hot smoking, which should have been easier that the cold smoking that we’ve done previously for smoked salmon and bacon. Should being the operative word. So you see here the contraption that was created out of a water heater box and other large panels of cardboard, wood dowels, cooking racks, and inside a cheap single electric element burner and wok. The pieces of pastrami and other meats we decided top try smoking were placed on the rack in the upper section. On the bottom was placed the burner with wok. The burner was turned on to high and pieces of wood chips loaded into the wok. The burner was to make the chips smolder and smoke and provide enough heat to cure the meat. Alas, the heat inside the box seemed to get too high and the burner thermostat would trip before the internal heat could rise enough. Continue reading ‘Pastramification’
Major quake off east coast of Japan. Its a bit unclear about magnitude, news media here is saying 8.8, but from other sources that may be Japan scale. From media footage, looks like bulk of damage is tsunami, which was significant size, so sounds like we do need to pay attention to the warning that was issued for Hawaii. Of course the gas stations are a mad house when I was driving home, the line from Koko Marina almost reached our street. I’m sure people are running like mad to buy cases of bottled water. I’ll just go run out and fill the jerry can. I guess I should have restocked the food in a bag stuff, all my MREs have long since expired and been thrown out. Anyway, batten down the hatches and watch the run on bottled water, Spam, and toilet paper!
Muahaha, Musubi gets her stitches out today, just dropped her off. Should have taken pics before. Her leg is slowly showing some improvement. She’s starting to use it like a normal leg, but I still dont see much response from the lowest area. It’s still early, we shall see!
Musubi’s back home already! Right now she’s in a new pen inside the house, there was a little bit of excitement when I got her home and out of her carrier. She showed some pretty unexpected spunk and wriggled away from me. Had to quickly grab her and get her into the pen. Once in, she’s quiet, and purrs away when petted. The people at the vets call her the Engine for how much she purrs! It’s pretty encouraging and the doc said this was a very gratifying case. Initial exam & x-rays indicated it was pretty severe, her pelvis was fractured in seven places at least. When I took her in, she had no nerve response in her leg. Things look much better now. The major fracture was wired back, the rest the doctor left alone. The leg has pain response and she can kind of stand on it if prompted. She’s got a ways to go, but she’s one lucky kitty! Oh, and seeing her tail in x-rays is a trip, it’s got quite the kink, perfect for holding the princesses ring. Go look that up, it’s a folk tale with Persian cats having kink in tail.
Just talked to doc, surgery sounds like it went well. The bones pretty
Messed up, but they got it to point where passages for bowel is clear now, which was most pressing concern. Next good mews was she showed signs of nerve response in her left leg so they did not amputate. Have to see how it progresses but doc was quite pleased. And lastly she’s melted the hearts of everyone there, the doc, who’s style is pretty clinical in the conversations I’ve had was positively gushing on how great she was and such an angel putting up with the procedures and still purring away.
Hopefully Musubi you pull through this and only you color will be what your name is for, not that you’re three sided.
Verdict is in, Musubi got mushed by a vehicle. Significant pelvis fracture, surgery, plates & screws will be involved. We can rebuild her, at a cost of course! Not quite six million dollars. There’s a good chance she will lose the leg. The good news is it appears her internal organs avoided trauma so the injury looks to be non life threatening if treated. Her youth and disposition is also in her favor. Everyone loves her because she such a sweetie and easy to deal with.