Home(brew) is where the heart is.

Happy Sunday, readers! I hope your weekend thus far has been as relaxing as mine has, although I must admit I'm looking forward to being a little productive tomorrow. Today, though, I lazed around the house, only did a couple of chores (which will be the topic of my post today), and had a homebrew that my friend Nathan gave me!

Presenting "Charlie Brown," an ale made at J2 Brewing. J2 is a shop in Chesterfield where those who are interested in homebrewing but perhaps lack the expertise or equipment can come brew a beer! They guide you through the process at their facility and have a wide range of recipes to try, from american wheats to oatmeal stouts. Participants brew enough beer to fill 24 bombers.
This brown is a pretty solid effort! It's malty up front and most of the nut character comes through in the aftertaste. It poured great as well, with a small amount of off-white head.

                                 

As I said, I mostly lazed around today but also got some chores done! Last night, a friend finally got me to watch the first season of American Horror Story. I was pretty hesitant to start it because I really haven't been enjoying Freakshow, but I did manage to plow through Murder House in under 16 hours. The combination of the plot, setting, and characters was a million times more appealing to me than the current season! As an architectural history fan, early-20th century homes built for wealthy families are one of my main focus areas, and I loved the backstory behind the home and all of the mysteries it's witnessed throughout the years. That is probably also the reason I enjoyed Mark Danielewski's sprawling House of Leaves, which has been described by one anonymous reviewer as "...a book about a book about a film about a house that is a labyrinth. In short, it's a book that is a labyrinth." House of Leaves is a leviathan of a novel, with unreliable narrators and an occasional tendency to be visually confusing, but it is also phenomenal and I intend to re-read it this year.

However, I wasn't a total lazy bum today. In fact, I even managed to drag my butt out of bed and went to the gym! In an effort to be a more responsible and health-conscious adult this year, I've even made an agreement with myself: For every day that I've scheduled as a gym day but don't go, I put a portion of my membership fee (which works out to $1.50 per missed workout) in a tin. At the end of my 6-month membership, I'll count up the money and send it to a charity of my choosing. I had a hard time settling on a charity! At first I was considering Planned Parenthood, but since I'm an Amazon addict, I just log in via Amazon Smile and Amazon donates a portion of my payment to Planned Parenthood! If you use Amazon as much as I do, it's an easy way to make donations to the charity of your choice while going about your weekly shopping routine.

Here's the charity tin! I made it myself on Friday while enjoying Abita's Wrought Iron IPA. I've decorated other tins just like this for storing dog treats in an airtight container; all I used was some Washi Tape and an old tin from Teavana!












I decided that my charity of choice would be the Midwest Shiba Inu Rescue! Ever since I had the opportunity to dog-sit my boss's two little Shiba rascals, I've kind of fallen for the breed. In fact, I hope to be a foster for MSIR once I move next year and get settled into a good school/work routine. The Midwest Shiba Inu Rescue helps rescue and re-home dogs in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and other Midwestern states!

Well, it's gonna be a busy week for me. School starts on Tuesday and I've got lots to do at work. The bright side to a busy week, though, is that it'll go by quickly and before I know it, it will be time for The OG's Trivia Night and then Urban Chestnut's Wolpertinger! If any of my readers are planning to attend either event, I'd love to say hi! Leave a comment below.