Sunday, November 2, 2008

It's Time to Get Your November On!

I've come to the conclusion that Halloween serves more of a purpose than most people think. Think about it: Bears load up on nuts, berries, roots, and tasty rabbits before entering their winter hibernation, right? Well, Hallows Eve serves the same purpose for kids! It's name actually derives from it being the last day children are "Hollow", or without fat. They roam the streets in search of their final meal to fatten up for the winter! Once the pagan holiday has passed, children sit merrily in their dens as they gorge themselves on any number of sugar-filled, fat-brimmed goodies.

When winter comes, and that snow starts falling, they're prepared! They've maximized their height/mass ratio so that, when sledding, they hurdle down the mountain at optimum speed. Rolling in the snow becomes much more effortless as their bodies take on a uniquely round shape when squeezed into their favorite winter clothes. And parents are forced into the menial task of removing snow when they realize that their children are unable to make any headway on the driveway as snow piles up faster behind them than they are able to remove it! The children, of course, have planned for this all along.

You just watch, people. You'll see them all rounding up nicely and soon they'll be beating you down the mountain!

On another note, I made a new header for November. You've probably already noticed it. Lemme know if you like it.

Oh, and I made some home made grape juice this weekend! Our neighbors out back grow grapes on the fence, but never harvest them. I usually wouldn't harvest them either; but since we, as a nation, are in a bit of an economic pickle right now I'd feel guilty watching them rot on the vine. If the "Grapes of Wrath" are here, we might as well eat em!


Making the juice consisted of four easy steps:
1) Wash the grapes. See thousands of little spiders flee from their tiny webs as you do so. Second guess the juice idea.
2) Mash the grapes into a slimy, unappetizing mass of goo. Second guess the juice idea.
3) Add water to the goop and boil. Ignore the thoughts of boiling spiders in your grape juice.
4) Strain the result. Notice how juice-like the final product really is. Nod in approval at your creation.

And this is how it turned out:


More like Kearn's nectar than grape juice. But it tastes really good, has a "healthy" kick to it, and thus far has caused no internal distress.

In fact, there are purple grapes back there as well. I'm tempted to make another batch.

-Barry

6 comments:

  1. that's one reason i hate utah... my body goes into survival mode and i end up as the "thicker" version of myself. no good.

    also... do you want to get creative and make me a banner? i know you'd have loads of fun with it!

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  2. have you ever froze grapes? We picked a ton of them, and then washed/took off all the stems and junk and put them in freezer bags. They are an awesome snack, and that way they won't go all nasty and bad so quick...

    If you haven't tried it - you should... YUM!

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  3. Love the new header! You're so talented! My parents have a grape vine that grows along the back fence and every fall my mother used to make homemade concord grape juice and jelly. It's better than anything you could ever get at the store! She hasn't made any for several years, and I really miss it.

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  4. Your new banner is awesome. :) And haha the spiders definitely would have made me second guess the grape juice idea, but I'm impressed you made grape juice!

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  5. I only wish we would have known a pig to give the resultant left-over mass of skin, seeds and pulp to. You are a renaissance man! (yes, I had to go to google to spell that correctly)
    when I used to make grape juice with the steam juicer, it always ended up a wierd peachy color because I would invariably get a few red grapes in with the white. I used white because I was always a little late in visiting the grape grower and he would only have white left, with only a few red. But it tasted great

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