driven

After 4 days of driving into work and parking downtown, I found myself unexpectedly relieved to take the train this morning. I actually got to sit and read on the way in, listened to some music, had myself a great time. Well, a better time than I had driving, anyway. I don't believe I had occasion to say the words 'stupid bastard,' 'asshat,' or 'motherfucker' the entire way in (after I got out of the car anyway). Refreshing. The world contains approximately .000003% less ire today as a result, I'm sure.

new book

I just went to Borders to spend a gift card from father's day. I really didn't know what I wanted to get, so I headed to the beer & food section. I didn't see any food books I wanted to own, so I checked out the brewing-related titles and settled on Designing Great Beers. I think this will be a great resource for me, and I'm excited to try it out. I mean, it's all fine and well being able to throw some things together and just see what happens, but as I've just painfully learned, unless you actually control how it all goes down, you're rolling the dice. I enjoy a strong shot of chaos in the kitchen, but I've also done some studying to be able to control that chaos to my benefit (usually).

So now, when I decide I'd like to try brewing thus-and-such a style, I'll have a more thorough resource that will allow me to identify possible problems with the style and take steps to correct for them. What a concept.