Beerfest? In the middle of a pandemic? That’s right! Xopher and I printed out the full beer inventory of the Waterbury Craft Beer Cellar and pretended we were looking over the list for an official beerfest. We headed over there yesterday, pretending we were going to Boston, and braved a public indoor venue to quickly load up on 15 exciting-sounding brews. Then we quickly braved a public supermarket to buy beerfest grub: frozen pretzels, frozen waffles, frozen potstickers, momo’s.

We decided to attend the 6 PM session, and when time rolled around, we rejoiced in not having to stand in line outside in single digit weather, but instead just headed right on into our kitchen, and started opening beer and heating up pretzels.

The most hands-down delicious beer I had was Blueberry, Coffee, Chocolate & Vanilla Sour from Collective Arts. Every single one of those flavors managed to come through. The coffee was particularly forward – coffee in a bitter beer is kind of gross to me, but coffee in a sour is a horse of a different color altogether. It reminds me of Dannon coffee yogurt, which I used to chomp down all the time in days gone by. Several years ago at a ‘real’ extreme beerfest, I rated as my favorite another coffee sour – it was some tiny brewery in the Hudson valley as I recall, and I never found their beer again. This one alas is naturally a limited edition, so while I’ll enjoy it while it lasts, it’ll probably be a long time again until I light upon a coffee sour…

And by far the most disgusting beer that came anywhere near my nose or mouth, not just last night but ever, had to be the Hof Ten Dormaal Sloe. Just no!

This morning we rejoiced anew that we had no need to wander around the Boston Seaport neighborhood in -2 degrees looking for brunch.

Damn that was a good time!

First real snowfall of the season happened night before last. The above was taken yesterday morning. It’s so beautiful! I love what it does to the light coming in. (Me, having something good to say about snow? Pandemic life is getting to me.)

And today sees me doing my first attempt at cotton dyeing. My first fail was turning the stove on. I didn’t recall where in the directions they said to turn on the heat, but figured it must have been SOMEWHERE… no, apparently not, according to iLiveToDye. I am not sure if that ruined anything chemically. But this spaghetti has been sitting in the dyepot for hours now and is still white. (Not actually spaghetti.)

I’m reading a book, which I look forward to finishing & blogging soon, called Little Book of Life Skills, which inspired me in a kind of gratitude challenge that is actually (gasp) helpful to my day-to-day mood and not just a laundry list of things I really know I should feel grateful about so I can stop bitching already; nor is it just a Facebook parade of “look how great my life is!” and “I’m HAPPY, DAMMIT” not-so-cleverly disguised as a gratitude exercise.

They said to start each day thinking of 3 very specific things you’re grateful for, and one great thing that happened in the last 24 hours. They said this will be a lot better for your daily frame of mind then thinking about what you USUALLY do when you get up in the morning, which is all the crap you should really try to get done or have to get done that day. And it really is better. I’m not saying it makes me gay all day, but I’m saying it makes a good kickoff.

So they way I’ve used it, is I’ve actually tried to think of three unique things to look forward to that day. Which may not exactly be ‘gratitude,’ but what is ‘gratitude’? Are you grateful for your house, your health, etc.? Of course! So what? They said to get specific. That had me morphing the daily exercise into things to look forward to, which of course I’m grateful for.

A Map that Reflects the Territory

Does this count as a “book”? It doesn’t have an ISBN number. It’s a set of five little physical books collecting essays written by a group of bloggers called Less Wrong. You could read them all online. I prefer reading books, so I paid money for the books.

I didn’t finish every essay. Some weren’t interesting, some required too much work.

Best quotes:

“We’re looking at a collapse of reference to expertise because deferring to expertise costs a couple of hedons compared to being told that all of your intuitions are perfectly right.”

And I didn’t tag it so I won’t put quotation marks, in case I got a word or two wrong, but: We are each of us basically 3.5 billion years of hacks in a fragile trench coat.

V-Day – date on which they tell me that my vaccine has reached its complete intended efficacy.

V-Day + 1:

• Make appointment for haircut & eyebrow wax
• Make reservation for Trattoria d’Elia
• Make reservation for Single Pebble
• Plan date for North Carolina (dependency: Xopher)
• Plan date for southwestern road trip (dependency: Maggie)

V-Day + first 6 available weekends:

• Go to Montreal. (dependency: border is open)
• Go to VPB
• Go to Pizzeria Verita
• Go to Doc Ponds

V-Day + first available birthday:

• Go to Cirque du Soleil

V-Day + first available September:

• Go to Acadia/Bar Harbor

V-Day + first available March:

• Go to Virgin Islands

I realize that the day I get my vaccine is a long, long way off. I get that.

I realize that just because one gets a vaccine doesn’t mean that a damn thing is going to change, because apparently, you still aren’t allowed to do a damn thing that you couldn’t do before, so just stop before you even start with the doomphasis (my own coinage).

But because I am basically at the bottom of the list – I mean literally, I am probably the absolutely positively last person on the list – let’s see, Tytania Incognito (flips to the very very last page, drags finger down to the very very bottom) – oh yes. (Rummages at the bottom of the bin, looking for that very, very last syringe.) I know it’s here somewhere – ah!

As I was saying, because I am literally going to be last in line, that means that by the time they get to me, herd immunity will either be achieved; or they will have a much better idea of how contagious vaccinated people are or aren’t. I will know what I am “allowed” to do, and I’ll be allowed to do something. For pete’s sake, I’m going to at least get a haircut & an eyebrow wax (hallelujah).

And so hey, because it is such a long, long way off, it is a perfect vehicle for dreaming. More to come.

I have to get to this museum.

So amazing to think of how people wove these beautiful patterns by hand; and the dresses & waistcoats they must have been made into. (  )

I love Tree.

Meanwhile, in Burlington yesterday…

We went to Burlington on a small errand which turned out to be a bit of a fail. We walked up & down Church. We only went into Homeport, for my errand, and Kiss the Cook, because they were keeping the door open & that made me feel good about their ventilation. At KtC, X saw a pie plate for cheaper than what he had just recently paid online for the same. Although it was in the 30s, there was a cold breeze and no sun, so we felt colder than I’d hoped we would. Altogether, a lot of things to feel down about. On the upside, we stopped for refreshment at an outdoor kiosk specializing in Frenchy baked goods and drinks. X got a ham sandwich and I got a Belgian hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was the greatest. There’s nothing better than real hot chocolate made out of chocolate and not from a mix. Like drinking a hot candy bar.

I didn’t feel great but I didn’t feel awful, seeing all the places of business that were verboten for us to go into. I felt like that world was not gone forever, but rather just waiting to burst into life again. It’s not just that I want to go to a restaurant per se. We like to go to different places. Walk into a store with some odd thingamabobs in it. X is drawn into little details most people don’t see. He will see something odd in a store that catches his fancy and he just lights up, gets lost exploring it. It’s like the world is our museum. That’s what I miss.

So, mission accomplished for first Day Off of the week: I didn’t get depressed. I set myself various goals and hit them. The trick was that I would only have to spend 1 hour total on any one task. If I didn’t feel like doing something, I could goad myself by remembering it was only one hour.

So belatedly, here’s a photo of Xmas schloot.

Clockwise from top left:

• a coconut scented candle
• an out-of-print book showing weavings from the Victoria & Albert Textile Museum
• a book spelling-bee puzzles (these are fun)
• a wine stopper – but why stop?
• a tea holder – made in Japan of cherry bark
• a vanilla scented candle (there are 2 vanilla and 1 coconut)

I’m surprised X bought scented candles. He’s normally quite opposed. He must have liked these (he smelled ’em before he bought ’em).

The tea holder is funny because three people gave me tea this season.

Did you stay home today?  100%

What local business or charity did you support?   None, will double down a different day

What’s for dinner? Mushroom barley soup. Along with black bean soup, my main Instapot Knockoff Use Case.