Apparently, it’s easy as pie to make sauerkraut yourself, so I’m planning to start fermenting a batch myself here in the next few days. I had even considered buying a nice pickling crock. As I explained to my best & cheese-making friend, David, I know I could make the stuff in a regular 5-gallon bucket if push came to shove, but my house and kitchen being as small as it is, I’ll likely be leaving the vessel out in the open, and I’d prefer to have something at least mildly pleasing to look at. So, after searching around and finding a crock that I was willing to spend the dough on, I found this 2-gallon cookie jar at Amazon for $20. I added a copy of Watchmen and the shipping is free (if a little slow). Plus, the clear glass will make it easy to see when the bubbles stop and signal that the batch is done.

I know the lid will be useless for fermenting since the container can’t bee sealed, but the straight sided-ness of the thing make it appealing for this sort of thing. Plus, the best price I saw for 2-gallon-ish crock was up around $50 before you even shipped the thing. I’ll need to come up with a weight and pickling lid (a plate will probably do), but those are easy.

BTW, Boing Boing of all places has a pretty active post with lots of varying opinions on the process, equipment, and recipes. This came across my newsreader this morning and is what turned me on to the idea.

My niece amazes me. She’s six now, and is an incredible ball of energy. She’s constantly moving except for maybe the 10 seconds she takes to give me a hug when I see her. She talks incessantly, to the people around her or just herself… stories and voices and characters… she loves to write and draw. She’s a beautiful girl, and I can’t wait to see how she continues to grow.

We spent the better part of a couple hours playing variations of hangman. There was the traditional method, and when we began to get beyond words she could manage, I’d write words leaving out a letter or two and we’d work through them together. Her mind works in such wonderful and strange ways. She gets hung up on the interesting letters… constantly starting with Q’s, U’s, and G’s because, after all, she likes them. When I explained that there are letters used more often then others, she started to begin her solving efforts with E, A, R, and S and working from there.

After tiring of the word games, she asked if we could go take pictures. We bundled up and headed off to the park, just she and I. I think it was the first time we’d gone off by ourselves. As soon as she hit the park, she started playing the part of a fashion model, posing and smiling and throwing looks… and finally, when she relaxed a bit and quit hamming it up, I got some really wonderful pictures… and one in particular.

She’s such an amazing kid and I love her so very much.

The internet service is pretty damn fast, and if I wanted it, I could upgrade to 50Mbps down, 20Mbps up. So far, my best estimate is that my current FIOS service is a tick over three times faster than my cable line was on a good day. Sweet, sweet fiber.

The TV service is pretty slick too. The On Demand stuff is very responsive… Comcast’s On Demand was clunky and slow. All the channels are exceptionally clear (again, not the case with Comcast).

When I called to cancel my Comcast over the phone an hour or so ago, the CSR asked if there was anything she could do to change my mind… I chuckled, and said no thanks, just cancel my service.

Adios, Comcast… don’t let the door hit you in that rear end on your way out.

Since leaving kiting about five years ago, my social life such as it ever was, became the poster child for nonexistent. So, I’ve joined the Richmond Photography Meetup Group. I’ve yet to attend an event, but my hope is that my first impressions of the group via the Meetup site and the few messages I’ve seen on the mailing list prove to be accurate. They seem like a good group, and I’m looking forward to meeting new people and sharing our experiences.

I’m also starting another blog project. Year of the Aardvark will feature one photo taken each day. Most photo blogs aren’t so regular and tend to be liberal about when the photos were taken. My goal is to actually post a picture each day that was taken on that day. Yeah, that means I’ll be shooting at least one photo every… single… day. It’s going to be an exercise in discipline, and I’m not even really sure yet if I’ll be able to make it happen for an entire year, but new years being what they are, I figured now would be the time start if I was ever going to do so.

Year of the Aardvark? A few days ago I read a brief story about the Chinese Zodiac and then shortly thereafter saw a picture of a newly born aardvark. The name just sort of came together from there. It seems absurd enough to have some weird, deeper meaning that I hope will reveal itself as the year unfolds.

Plus, I like aardvarks.

Not only will my internet service be faster, it looks like my total bill for internet and tv will be about $35 less per month.

My grandmother came down from Pittsburgh, which is always a treat. My old roommates joined us for Christmas eve at Mom & Dad’s. Meridian, their beautiful daughter was much more outgoing than I’ve ever seen her. Christmas morning was the usual measure of chaos followed by napping before an early dinner with the entire Virginia contingent of Hartman’s present and accounted for.

I’ve been bugging my brother, Bryan, to replace the clutch in my truck for a while now. A few weeks ago we finally set the day after Christmas to be the day since I’d already be in town. What he originally estimated to take about four or five hours turned into an eleven hour marathon that began at 8 AM in the morning. Bryan went beyond the call of duty by helping me out, so it was the least I could do to help him get his new rolling toolboxes. I had hoped to be home no later than three or four in the afternoon, but didn’t make to the house until a few minutes after nine.

It’s always good to get home.

Today has been a very, very lazy day. I’ve napped a bit, processed a few pictures (here’s one) from the holiday, and just finished up a movie (a review will follow). Tomorrow, I’ll do a little housecleaning, some laundry, and then try to knock out a video for BHP.

I’m looking forward to New Year’s… with the exception of some tentative plans for New Year’s Eve, I’ll have four whole days of nothing to worry about.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. I’m off to see the parents and other family tomorrow. See you whenever I get back.

Ellen Page, Michael Cerra. Let me quickly get this out of the way: I was really turned off by the marketing of this film. I understand it, I guess, but based on the marketing alone and all the hubbub around the screenwriter, I never really felt like this was a movie I really cared to see, which I guess is why I waited until now to finally see it. I expected a hyper-cool-indie grrrl-power story, but ended up getting an incredibly tender, well written, and remarkably acted film about a teenage kid who begins to figure out what really matters in life long before most of us do. Juno is a wonderful film. I didn’t care for most of the original music for the soundtrack… just not my cup of tea. It wasn’t so obnoxious as to take too much from the film. The casting worked exceedingly well and made up for any and all other shortcomings. The supporting cast was stellar and included Jason Bateman, Allison Janney, JK Simmons, and Jennifer Garner. The scenes between Ellen Page and Jason Bateman really grabbed me the most.

Jack Black, Mos Def, Melonie Diaz, Danny Glover. Seems I’ve been seeing a lot of near misses lately. Be Kind Rewind is another. It’s close… so, so close to being one of those timeless, weird, awesome movies that you could watch over over and over ad nauseam. But, it’s not. It loses it’s way and seems too much like the movies in the movie itself (believe me, that last sentence will make sense if you ever take time to see this film). I enjoy watching Mos Def act… he’s been in a handful of films, and overall he’s impressed. Jack Black’s shtick, however, is getting old fast. He wasn’t horrible in this one, but there were moments I was ready for a scene to end thanks to him. Melonie Diaz was cute and did a good job with her role. All in all, a quirky indy psuedo-comedy that tries to be a tear-jerker in the end.

I got the bar at 9 PM and my brother showed up a bit later. Dave and Dawn got there about 9:30 just as the band was tuning up to go on stage. I snapped a few shots, and Connor and the boys ripped into a song that made me think the world was going to explode. They were loud… so very, very loud. The rocked, and I wished we could have handled the volume, but after two songs, Dave, Dawn and I decided to leave. It was just much too much for our ears. I got some nice photos before we left, but we had to get out of there before sustaining any permanent damage.

So the three of us went to Friday’s and killed a couple of plates of nachos and a round of drinks while catching up. We left Friday’s at almost 12:30 and the three of us went to their house for a couple more hours of talking while Dawn finished wrapping some presents for Christmas. Dave and Dawn finally went to bed at 2:30 AM, and snoozed on the couch for an hour or so before deciding to get up and head home at 4 AM. I took my time and even stopped in Wakefield for a thirty minute power nap. I made it home just before 7 AM. I went upstairs and got a few more hours of sleep. And here I am.

It was really great night. We hadn’t spent that much together in a long time. My throat is sore this morning from all the conversation.

Hopefully I’ll get to see Connor again in a better venue… the bar was nice, and what we heard was great, but again, the volume was just too much for an old fart like me.