"What's in the Kegerator???"

This is a common question I get from time to time...

To sum up, "Yes... I have a kegerator." Now, if you're asking yourself, "What's a kegerator," it's simple: It's a refrigerator that was built to hold a keg and distribute it through a tap.

It's a little different from a regular refrigerator because it has a reinforced flat surface on the inside - so, a keg can sit in it. I purchased it from Sears and it's made by Frigidaire.

Ok... enough said. On with some other common answers to the common questions...

Normally a keg will last in my house about 6 weeks. A keg is 15.5 gallons of beer. However, a keg can have a lengthy life-span due to the CO2 gas that pressurizes the beer.

Now the last one I had was Golden Monkey. If you know anything about that beer, you know it has a high alcohol content! So that one lasted about 4 months!

With my latest purchase, I was looking for something of the "session beer" variety... you know, one that you can drink easily. As you probably read below, it was a very difficult process which culminated in my finding a different keg reseller.

I went with Kegs & Barrels, and they did a great job. Like I said below, "communication" is key to me. Susan from K&B kept me informed throughout the week. She even apologized when a "slim" keg was delivered of my request - I told her that was ok. (A slim is half the size of a regular keg).

So Friday night I brought it home. It was much easier to move since it wasn't 15.5 gallons (165 lbs!). I then set out to clean the lines, the tap, and the coupler. This is standard whenever you switch out your kegs. The process takes about an hour. No big deal...

Well, after I hooked everything up and tapped into the keg, I put a glass under the tap and... "dripping stream." It was NOTHING! Very low pressure. I was devastated. Here I had spent the entire month trying to get this keg, and barely anything was coming out. Plus, it was flat. That meant it wasn't getting the gas it needed.

Instead of re-working the entire operation, I gave up. I was tired anyway from a long week.

Saturday I thought about the problem. I knew that it had to be the line from the coupler to the tap... but where?

Sunday I decided to jump in and disassemble it again. After about 20 minutes, I had it re-worked and was ready to pour a beer.... SAME FREAKIN' RESULT!

Now I was mad. It had to be the tap. If you've never seen the inside of a tap, there are multiple pieces that work together to make it pour your sweet sweet beer. One thing I did after taking it apart was to remove one of the washers.

Well, after that... success! The beer flowed and I was a happy camper. I then left for the evening and came back to discover there was a leak between the coupler and the line. Basically, the nut wasn't holding the pressure.

My sweet sweet beer was all inside the kegerator. What a mess! It wasn't a lot, but still it wasn't a good sight! I cleaned it up, and then put another washer on that nut.

Finally... fingers crossed... it's all good. If you ever purchase one, know this: It's a lot of work, but in the end, it's worth it.

Oh, and my beer of choice this month?

Rahr Blonde

Gardening: Removing Grass from a Flower Bed

I had the unpleasant task this past weekend of removing grass from a flower bed. Uugh... does the word "Beating!" do it justice???

Last year, most of you knew I spent my weekends running... or recovering from running. I did a little gardening, but didn't apply "my full potential" to most projects. In particular, my front flower bed.

Each day I'd go get the paper or the mail and I'd see the grass was growing within the bushes, over the bushes, and covering most of the soil. I'd just let it go... but walk away irritated.

Saturday, the time had come to rid this pest from my view. Because I have a lot of bushes, I had to dig it out. Using poison wasn't an option. It was back-breaking to say the least. In fact, because one of my bushes is a Burberry (thorns!), I scratched up my arms real good.

I spent roughly 4 hours on my knees and stomach ripping out the roots of the grass. Some of the roots were pretty deep, too, so a shovel was needed. It was a huge project. But in the end, success. I was able to transplant some bushes to other parts of my yard, too.

So after hearing my tail of woe, my friend Mel asked, "You should blog about removing grass from a flower bed." Of course, there are a variety of scenarios and methods. Here are a few that I've seen, experienced, and even researched:

Grass in beds where plants/bushes currently reside...

The quick and dirty way (and painful!) of doing it is to get your trusty spade (or large shovel if you have the room) and dig dig dig! You need to reach deep down and grab those roots. They're white and thick and they usually form a "network" underground. It's very difficult, but very satisfying when they come out.

Another way is to cover grassy areas with layers of newspaper or even black plastic - trash bags are fine. You'll need to anchor them to the ground with either rocks or steaks. You can also cover it with dirt. Now, it may take some time. Some experts say to start it in the fall and remove it in the spring. When it's time to remove the coverings, your grass should be dead and easy to remove.

New beds where grass is currently growing...

Let's say you have an area where you have a lot of grass, but you want to create a flower bed (or vegetable garden). One method that I've used before is to dig out all of the grass with a shovel, then transplant the "cuts" of grass to another spot. Basically, mark out your bed. Then dig about 6 inches deep into manageable squares that you can cut out. You'll pull the roots with the grass. If you can transplant it, great! If not, just dump it into your trash bin.

When you're finished, you'll have an area that is lower compared to the rest of the yard. Try and dig out any remnants of grass. I've then taken newspaper and covered the entire area. After that, I covered the newspaper with my new soil. You can cut tiny holes through the newspaper as you add your plants. The newspaper will act as a barrier for at least a season, and then decompose.

However, if you have a large area, I would suggest renting a tiller from Home Depot or Lowes for half a day and tilling up that section. Then you can scrape off the tilled up grass and dirt. You can still do the newspaper thing above if needed.

What about using poison to kill the grass?

Well, I've got a good friend who I helped plant a beautiful Chinese Pistache tree in her backyard. I gave her specific instructions on how to care for it (future blog). The one thing I didn't tell her: Don't use Round-Up around it! Yep, she had grass or weeds growing within the bed around it and she sprayed the poison all over that area. Since the tree was about a year from planting, the roots were still confined to that area... Yep, she killed it.

I have another friend who decided to Round-Up his entire yard because it was all weeds. He then tilled out all of the dead grass (a few weeks later) and re-sodded his entire yard. I believe that was a successful venture.

My point is this: Use caution when using poison. Personally, I would love to use it because it makes things easier. However, I'm a minor "tree hugger" when it comes to it because I know it gets into our ground water and can impact our pets and plants/vegetables that we grow. Just use common sense.

Hope this was helpful... and thanks Mel for submitting this idea to me.

Good "Customer Service..."

I've been meaning to write about this topic for a while now. I guess it just takes something to push me over the edge to do it...

Have you ever thought about Customer Service? We deal with it everyday. Each place we shop delivers some sort of customer service. Whether you're ordering coffee at Dunkin' Donuts (for Chandra), picking up your dry cleaning, shopping at the grocery store, or filling up your vehicle with gas... you're receiving some sort of "customer service."


Now, my friends will tell you, once I receive poor service someplace (restaurant, store, service company, etc.), I usually invoke my customer rights immediately: cease and desist from being their customer!

Why not? I mean, in this economy, companies should be bending over backward to reach out to their ultimate buyor: the consumer. Those that do, get my business. Those that don't, too bad so sad!

Here's an example: For years, I was one of the "Cable TV drones" that accepted my fate: I was at their mercy. Even though there were shadows/ghosts on the screen, or it would go out for no reason whatsoever, I just had to deal with it. I even had the cable modem for my pc. THAT in itself was a nightmare. It would go out constantly. When I called, it was the same old story - they'd put me on hold forever and a day, and then attempt for over an hour to diagnose the problem... which would lead to an appointment of one of their "technicians" to come out to the house... which caused me (Mr. Singleton) to arrange for a time when I would be there (usually during the middle of the week) for hours upon hours.

I finally fired them!

I ordered Verizon FIOS for my internet (blazing speed and it's always up!) and DirecTV for my tv service. Man, what a difference! Now both companies were great installers at the time, and I'm still with them... so as you can see, no complaints. But recently I upgraded my service to HD for DirecTV, and the process was flawless. Reason? Communication!

I was floored by the amount of communication DirecTV had with me. After setting up the appointment, they called me within 15 minutes to confirm the appointment and if everything went ok with the person who I previously spoke with. When the installer was on his way, he called me to let me know. He showed up on time and did a bang-up job. After that, he showed me everything he did and gave me his cell phone number in case I have any questions over the next few days. Overall, excellent customer service.

Want to know why I'm writing this article? Because I recently received very POOR customer service...

Over the past year, I've been picking up my kegs from Mr. G's in Plano. Typically the process is this: Keg runs out, I call them up and give them 3-4 options on beers I'm interested in, they call me up when it's in the store, and I go and pick it up. Easy, right?

Well, as the year has gone on, I've noticed they wouldn't always order the keg when I called. Or they'd call me back a week later and say they couldn't get one. Or they simply wouldn't call me back.

This latest attempt was the last straw. Almost one month ago, I called an placed an order. After several days of not hearing from them, I called and discovered, "Oh... those kegs are hard to find. I'm having problems with my distributor." However, they said they'd keep trying. Another week went by and I called and was told my keg was in the store and I could pick it up. Great!

When I arrived, I was told they were mistaken. My St. Arnold's Spring Bock wasn't in. In fact, St. Arnold's was out. When I asked why they said it was there, the guy just rolled his eyes and said he was sorry (someone else's fault). He then said he would call and it should be in the store on Tuesday and he would definitely call me. He even shook my hand.

No dice... several days and no calls later, I called back. I found out that the keg was still hard to find. I said, "Can you get me anything else? What are my options?" He said he wasn't sure at this point what he could get, but he had a few other places to call. My next call came from him on a Friday where he said that the Rahr Bucking Bock was in: "They're driving the keg over tomorrow. I'll call you tomorrow afternoon." No phone calls on Saturday... grrr

Finally, last Tuesday, it hit the fan. I called and asked what was going on. He just said, "I'm sorry... maybe it'll come in tomorrow." I lost it: "Look, I'm just wanting some decent 'Customer Service.' Would you just call me tomorrow and give me some options on what I can get before this weekend?" He said he'd call... guess what? No call!

Saturday I switched to a new company: Kegs & Barrels. I went into their Plano store, spoke with the owner Susan, and explained my situation. She seemed to understand (I don't think I'm the first ex-Mr. G's customer she's had) and said she'd call me today with the order.

Let's see if they provide excellent customer service... will keep you posted!

Update on my Aunt...

Here is the latest as of last night...

My Aunt Loretta is on the Physical Therapy floor and working with speech and physical therapists. Two days ago she started therapy on walking. They worked with her using a walker. One person has to walk on her right because that is her weak side.

In fact, I heard from my cousin Lori that she currently does not have feeling in her right arm. We know that is disheartening to her. Before the day began (therapy), she wanted to know if they thought she would regain use in her arm.

The prognosis is this: For some reason, the arm is usually the last to regain functionality when a stroke impacts the entire side of a person's body. She currently has use of her right leg and can feel the touch in her face. However, nothing in the right arm. The nurse said that it may or may not come back. We'll just have to wait and see.

Yesterday they worked with her on her speech. She had a difficult time reciting the alphabet. Another thing they are working on is to ask "what this is" and "what does it do" in regards to objects. So, they are quizzing her (family members) during her off-times. This was something the staff requested.

Her speech is getting clearer, although it is still "broken." The family is doing shift work right now with her - breaking it up so that someone is always with her during the times she is out of therapy. And I'm told that she is working VERY hard in her therapy sessions...

It's amazing to think that a week ago tonight she was walking out of her job at Wal-Mart and collapsed. That on Saturday we were told she had had multiple strokes and was still bleeding in her brain and there was nothing the doctors could do. That was probably our darkest day.

But on Sunday the bleeding had stopped and she had moved to the Triage floor. And then now she is in Physical Therapy. We believe God spared her for something, and we can't wait to see what that is!

It's definitely going to be a long road. Prayers are being answered and will still be needed. Thank you again for your thoughts and prayers...

Baylor: 1 Hour to Tip...!!!!

Thought just to pump everyone up I'd show how Baylor reacted when we were the FINAL team of 65 to make it into the Tourney! GO BEARS! SIC EM!

Baylor: Scott Drew on ESPN

"We're in Physical Therapy!"

I received an update tonight from my cousin Lori. My aunt Loretta is continuing to make progress. Today she is speaking a little clearer compared to yesterday (when she uttered her first words), and she's moving a lot more.

She started eating food, albeit broken up/ground up. She moved a lot more, but her right side is still not moving as much as her left.

Here's a funny moment: Today the therapist asked her to count to 5. She started... "1...2...3...4...5" but continued on all the way to 13! It cracked everyone up. The thought is she wants to get better so bad that she could still be counting right now if asked: "40,150... 40,151..."

So because of her progress, they decided to move her to the 5th floor and out of the Triage Unit. She now will be on a regimented schedule working with therapists everyday. We're thrilled... I mean, to think how far she has come. Given the fact that Saturday things were so desperate, and now she's finding her words and moving more and more... wow!

God is GREAT!

Please continue to pray for my aunt Loretta. Each day is a gift, and we believe she is going to continue to improve!

Thanks again!