Three Beautiful Things 10/21/15: Target Trip, Battling the Smells of Dogs, Stoop Sitter at Old Line Bistro

1.  When I need miscellany, Target is the place to go and I took a leisurely stroll around the store, picking up manilla folders, toilet paper, a travel mug for the Deke, some pens, and other things. Our apartment home can get doggie smelling and we burn scented candles from time to time and so I just slowed down everything and spent about twenty minutes or so smelling candles: Ocean Linen, Grey Flannel, Pumpkin Spice, Blood Orange, etc. I am a lousy candle shopper. Finally, I bought a pack of many votive candles featuring Noble Spruce, Honey Bourbon, and Harvest Cider.  I think having such a variety pack around makes good sense.

2. To eliminate dog smells requires more than candles. Last week I shampooed carpeting again and today I cleaned the kitchen:  floor, woodwork, under the sink, refrigerator. Not only does the kitchen look better, the dog smells are gone, too, for the time being until it's time to clean again. By the way, if you were wondering, this is what retirement looks like: shop at Target and battle dog odors. I don't know why those retirement ads in AARP's magazine and on television don't have images of silver-haired men smelling candles and scrubbing and rinsing kitchen floors. It's so romantic.

3. While I cleaned the kitchen, I also cooked a whole chicken with plans to take the meat off the bones and fix a masaman curry.  Well, I ran out of time and so the Deke and I went up to Old Line Bistro where the burgers are too huge for us to each eat one, so we split a peppered burger with bleu cheese and each enjoyed a beer.  I drank a much less hoppy beer than I've been enjoying lately.  It's a Baltimore beer called Stoop Sitter, a collaboration between Maryland Brewers who call themselves the "Legion of Foam" -- right now, the Legion of Foam includes Heavy Seas, DuClaw, Red Brick Station, Key Brewing, Pratt Street Ale House, The Brewer's Art, Gordon Biersch Baltimore, Jailbreak Brewing, and Union Craft Brewing.  To me, the Stoop Sitter had some of the clean feel of a lager, the subtle sweetness of more malty beers, and more of a spicy hop presence, with very little bitterness. The IBU is only 28. Very enjoyable.