An Adventure

Saturday I took the kids on an adventure. We went and harvested some fresh mistletoe to decorate the house.

There's quite a bit of the stuff growing around here, but most of it is pretty high up in the trees. A few years back I noticed a spot with some growing a little lower in the trees, and I've been going there to harvest Christmas mistletoe ever since. Anyway, I bundled up the kids and we got out of Katy's hair and into the fresh air for a good hour or so.

We had a good time and I took advantage of the opportunity to explain parasites - "Kids, mistletoe is a parasite - just like tapeworms, ticks, and your Uncle Doug."

This year we managed to get some with berries, which was a bonus as far as I was concerned. I tied up a nice big cluster for the doorway between our family room and living room, and each of the kids has a smaller cluster hanging in their rooms. Even with that, I still have most of a garbage bag full of the stuff, so if any of my four L.A. area readers would like some, let me know.

In other news, Friday night I bottled my recent batch of beer - it seems to be turning out okay. In keeping with the spirit of this batch, I was up until about one in the morning dealing with it. The beer isn't as dark as my last batch of stout - likely due to my sparging problems - but it was smooth and tasty. In a couple weeks it should be carbonated and good to go. We'll see.