So how does one spill beer on the ceiling, anyway?

Floridacracker's recent post about painting the textured ceiling had me thinking about the inconveniences of what seemed like a good idea in the '90s. You know, that textured popcorn like bumpy ceiling stuff. It's difficult to paint, and melts away if you try to clean something off it. Like beer stains.

It all started when we were newlyweds, a year or two, and decided to get into making beer. We were living in this split level, semi rural development house that was very cookie-cutter like. And, it was too close to the freeway. Way too close. But it was on a pond with a wonderful view, and there were loons nesting outside my dining room window...So.

Anyway, we had recently discovered beer beyond Busch, and discovered that we could even make it at home! We invested in a "starter" beer kit, and followed the instructions to brew our first attempt, a stout. I proudly poured it into the primary fermenter, basically a six gallon bucket with an airlock on top. The day I first brewed, The Hermit had to head out for a business meeting, so I spent the first night as an anxious first time brew mistress alone.

At approximately 5 AM, I heard a loud BANG from the kitchen. I dragged myself out of bed to investigate. In the kitchen I found the fermenter, sans lid, and the lid several feet from the fermenter. Somehow the airlock had plugged up, pressure had built, and...BAM. There was a prominent dark brown stain on the kitchen ceiling, and dark beer splattered all over the kitchen.

The beer turned out okay. Very good, in fact, for a first time effort! The ceiling, well, I tried spraying bleach on it, with some success, but there was always a little spot there.

more owww

A day or two after the serrated knife incident, I burned my index finger on the same hand so subtly I didn't even know it for a while. Okay, I might have known that I was using a pot holder mitt that had a thin spot in it, and that pot holder mitt ended up in the trash, but I was surprised to wake up with a huge blister on that finger, two days later. Of course the blister broke off, then the raw sore rubbed against something, and well you know. Never use a worn oven mitt.

The thumb, miraculously, is almost healed.

Owww...

So, the lesson to be learned is this: Serrated knives and somewhat dry,tough bread are not a good combination.

I was trying to cut a loaf of good, organic, but day old bread, with a serrated knife.

Need I say more, except I didn't cut the entire tip of my right thumb off (I'm left handed), it just hurts.