sweasel.com

Who’s the leader of the band
that’s starving you and me?

K-I-M, J-O-N, G-I-L, ok?

Not as pissed as you are for losing those Patriot missiles ?

Yeah, that really frosts my ass, Oceania. I know I had them on me when I left the house.

I bet that smelly guy in the library pinched them.

You’ve encountered a House Centipede (Scutigera coleoptrata). They occur in damp, dark places like bathrooms and basements. House centipedes feed on insects and are harmless to people, animals and buildings.

Don’t be scared!

Whooee. I’m trying the first bottle of elderberry wine I made from our own elderberries in September of 2010.

I made some elderberry cordial by soaking berries in vodka for six months, then adding sugar and straining it through cloth. I drank a thimblefull; it was *delicious*. And then, ten minutes later, I blew like a firehose.

So I’ve been struggling with the fear I might be allergic to elderberries.

So far, so good. This is *nice*.

No doubt it was the cloth.

Ohhhhhh. You know, that hadn’t occurred to me. (I think it was cloth. Might’ve been coffee filters).

It mystified me, because…what the hell lives in vodka? (Other than me).

Hubby and I need to strain the cherries from the vodka we’ve had soaking 6 months. We’ve used pie (tart) cherries with sugar in the past. This year we’ tried bing (sweet) cherries with sugar. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

That is a pic of a woman with a possible boy-child.

Wouldn’t surprise me that the Kim Jung il was really a “Kim” (female), and not a sexually dimorphic male.

The progeny, Kim Jong un ….still a crap shoot.

This is beginning to resemble a Robert Crumb comic from the late ’60s….I am waiting for Mr. Natural to come dancin’ onto the stage, along with Alice the Goon.

Stoaty dear, as for the elderberry spew….. Ya’ might find it best to brew with yeast and take the time to make “real” wine, not some distillation which lives up to its name….it distills the essential chemical mix, good and bad.

Just a thought.

We have some cherry “bopp” that a co-worker made and gave us last year. It is deadly. And delicious. And I can’t drink more that a small shot glass of it without getting dizzy. Here’s to dizzy!!
Merry Christmas to all!!!

I was curious about the And then, ten minutes later, I blew like a firehose bit, so I did a little research. Where did you get your elderberries? Did you just see them, know they were good ol’ elderberries and proceed on the superstitious learning theory that ‘ya seen one elderberry, ya seen em all’ theory? Perhaps they’re not those elderberries like you thought but the other elderberries like you didn’t think. Recall there’s a ‘right whale’ and a ‘white whale’ and one will kill you.

Anyhow, I found this:

Avoid elderberries species with red fruit growing in rounded, instead of flat clusters. They may make you sick.

And even if you got the right elderberries, there’s THIS:

Avoid unripe, green berries as they’ll get you sick. Even raw ripe elderberries make some people nauseous. Cooking or drying dispels the offending substance, and greatly improves the flavor.

Rather than take the chance that Akismet will throw this important bit of knowledge into the abyss, to leave it sulking until Boxing Day, I’m going to post the link to this bit of trivia in the next post. If you don’t see it, you’ll know that Akismet thought it was a bit of porn for his (black fishnet) Christmas Stocking and decided to keep it for himself.

And here it is! Or ain’t till after Boxing Day – let’s find out!

http://smallfarm.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=smallfarm&cdn=homegarden&tm=38&f=00&su=p284.12.336.ip_&tt=29&bt=1&bts=0&st=10&zu=http%3A//www.wildmanstevebrill.com/Plants.Folder/Elderberry.html

I wonder if I should post the rest of that Picornaviradae code?
We’ve been working really hard on it, and feel it is time to release the entire 7884 base pairs to the World!

I could never make my own booze; I like pretty labels on my bottles, like Springbank, Bombay Sapphire, and Jack Daniels. I do mix a dandy martini though—4:1, thank you.

Merry Christmas to Badger House, and all the critters therein.

Happy Christmas to Weasel and Badger!

Yes, the festive season is getting underway here.
It is stinking bloody hot, the nights are White, the crazies are out en force … murders, muggings and mayhem!

It is starting to look like the US was 30 years ago …
I shall have to Migrate further South.

http://www.antarcticanz.govt.nz/scott-base/webcams

24 hour Sun Sun Sun, ideal temperatures, local wild-life is savoury however the only humans are the Yanks over the hill.

I don’t think I could’ve made a mistake, Some Veg. These were from two trees that grow in our drive. Well, one in our drive, one right by the front door. I’d made elderflower cordial and champagne from them in Spring, then gathered the elderberries in Fall. So the cordial and the wine were made from the same stuff.

Not this year. Damn fool kid who used to do some gardening for us chopped the front door tree to the ground. And he didn’t even ask permission (from us or the elder mother).

Luckily, elders tolerate being cut right back and it’s already towering over the front door again. So, more next year.

And I didn’t seem to have any problems at all from the wine.

Ya know, this is why they have liquor stores.

Stoaty: Maybe, you just got sick. I have on alcohol before. I hadn’t drunk to excess but for no apparent reason, it didn’t agree with me. Has anyone else drank the wine? I’m not sure an allergic reaction to elderberries (if you were serious) would cause “[blowing] like a firehose.”

Whoops! The above was me. 🙂

The last time I made jungle juice from canned peaches and fruit cocktail, something malevolent took up residence inside the jug and turned the stuff as black as elderberry wi–

Ummm. *Bad* simile.

No cookie.

I agree with you on the Tiny Tim guy, Weez. He totally did not deserve Miss Vicki.

Deborah:

My wife mixes the best (for me) martini 7:0.75–that is, 7 jiggers of Blue Sapphire, 3/4 jigger of vermouth. Oh, and four olives. ‘Cause I like a snack when I drink.

Last time I hurled, it was from some hot dogs I ate. Yet my wife ate hotdogs from the same package and did not get sick. Weird. I’m the guy who always drinks the water, whatever country I’m in. I also buy and eat that anonymous-meat-on-a-stick sold by street-venders everywhere. I’m pretty sure eating stuff is my super-power.

It looks like they just got back from Tokyo Disneyrand. That’s one strange experience. I dated this woman in Tokyo who loved the place, she took me there twice. Yes, I also realize how strange that sounds, but this was the 80’s. She made a whole pile of money over there in the modeling business. You had to be there.

Anywho, until you’ve heard Mickey speaking Japanese you haven’t quite had the whole culture shock thing.

Allen, you think the Japanese would let the head NORK into their country to take his tot to DL?

@jwpaine: Agreed on the olive snack. When I mix my own drink, I usually put in the three: One for starters, second olive mid-way through the drink, and the last one chased by the last swallow of martini.

The beauty of the 4:1 martini is that I can hold up 4 fingers on one hand and 1 finger on the other hand, and wave to the bartender and he knows what I mean. It’s gonna be hard to wave 3/4 of an ounce 🙂

Didn’t Kim3’s older brother get busted for trying to sneak over to the Disneyland in Hong Kong? My lord! Could you imagine if they built a “happiest place on earth” in NorKo?

😮

I think the Happiest Place On Earth in Norko would be a place with a functional and well-stocked refrigerator. Or indoor plumbing.

Deborah: Yeah, unless you’re a high school shop teacher, that 3/4 finger’d be a bitch to do in BarSlan (bartender sign language).

You have to remove or [snip – ed.] President Obama urgently to avoid a nuclear war. Remove him under section 4 of the 25th Amendment of your Constitution and get him out of office ASAP. Dead or alive.

Your survival depends on this.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all Weaselfans, everywhere!

Kim Jong Il was in terrible shape physically and about 5 feet tall. And he was the best-fed man in North Korea. What does that say about what a hell hole it must be for everyone else?

Took you a while to snip that one 🙂