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So, as is my usual habit, I started the dishwasher just before heading to bed. Hubs and I were laying in bed, reading our books (him- Birnbaum’s Guide to Walt Disney World, me- a chick lit by Kristin Billerbeck), and just drowsing to the point we were about to switch off the lights.

All of a sudden, hubs starts sniffing the air (sounded more like snorting, but, whatever) and then says “do you smell something?”. I do. “Smells like steak” I said. “Smells like steak on the grill” he said. I shrugged and went back to reading my book. After all, if we’re weird enough to be up at 3:30 am, why wouldn’t someone else be weird enough to grill a steak at 3:30 am? I would, if I had a grill.

But this is not enough for hubs, he heads downstairs. I head to the upstairs window to see if I can find said griller so I can invite myself over for a late night snack. I can’t see them, so I assume they must be on our side of the building, and therefore hidden from my view.

But hubs is still downstairs.

So I head on down, and as I hit the ground floor, the smell of steak just slaps me in the face. Weirdly- the smell of steak grilling in the rain (our family did this often). I walk towards hubs, who’s standing in the middle of the kitchen, sniffing in circles and we converge right next to the dishwasher, which is halfway through the cycle.

“Did you forget to wash off the plates before you loaded the dishwasher?” he demands asks. “No” say I. “Well it’s coming from the dishwasher” says he. He then promptly opens the dishwasher, mid-cycle.

Out wooshes the smell of steak on the grill, and what we took to be smoke at first, but surely was just steam?

Well, after several opening and shuttings and hearing the hiss of water dripping on the heating elements, and finally noticing that the white mineral build up on same elements had turned brown… we shut it down for the night. Also, apparently, I’ve kept the washing cyle on high heat for the past four years. Who knew that would be an issue?

In either case, we don’t seem to be having a problem with the dishwasher as long as I turn off the high heat setting, and with every load  the steak smell fades away.

To be honest, I kinda miss it.

I remember the first time I went to a rodeo. It was at the Pennsylvania Farm Show, and I believe all the riders were teens and maybe early 20’s. I was in love. After all, what girl doesn’t love horses and what girl doesn’t harbor romantic fantasies about cowboys?

It does seem to be genetic, though. My mother is from Oklahoma, and her father was a professional rodeo rider nick-named Slim. I’ve actually seen a newspaper clipping of him (he died when mom was pretty young, so I’ve obviously never met him) and he was a hottie! Lethal combination that- a hottie on a horse.

On top of that, whenever we’d go out to visit Grandma and Paw-paw (mom’s step-dad), they’d always have the rodeo playing on the TV, even if they weren’t watching it!

Ever since seeing that rodeo at the Pa State Fair, I’ve wanted to attend a real rodeo, and what’s coming up now is the National Finals Rodeo. Now THAT I’d like to see! Sadly, the finals is in Nevada, and of course I’m not flying out just to see the rodeo. But for those who can go, I’d love it if you’d tell me about it afterwards! The NFR Ticketsare pretty pricey, though, starting at about $98, but you can at least check the standings, results, and schedules on their official website.

Well, St Patrick’s day is about to leave on the east coast, but as there are a few hours left for the rest of the country, I figure it’s safe for me to post up my ever-so-appropriate-to-this-holiday review of The Search For God and Guinness by Stephen Mansfield.

Now, I’m not used to reviewing non-fiction books, and so this might be a little shorter, or scattered than usual (and that’s saying something), but when I was offered the chance to review The Search For God and Guinness by BookSneeze, ThomasNelson’s book review blogger program, I jumped at it. Despite the fact that I don’t like most beers, I’ve always been fascinated by them. In fact, when I get a house of my own, I intend to learn how to brew.

I’m also extremely touchy on the subject of Christianity and booze. Look people, drinking is not a sin. It never has been, it never will be. Getting drunk may be a different matter, but yes, you can be a Christian and drink. All the apostles did, most of the church fathers did, Jesus not only did, but said that he would again when we’re all reunited. Ok, I digress.

I’m not a fan of non-fiction in general, but surprisingly, this book is changing that. I enjoyed The Search For God and Guinness: A Biography of the Beer That Changed the World so much that I’ve purchased 5 or 6 non-fiction titles since receiving it. The author, Stephen Mansfield, is the man that wrote The Faith of Barack Obama which was such a hot seller during the election. He’s written several other biographies, and if they’re as good as this one, I may pick up one or two later on.

Despite the title suggesting that the book is solely about the beer, it’s mostly about the Guinness family and how the beer company funded and their faith fueled their philanthropy. Much focus is put on Arthur Guinness (often referred to as “the first Arthur” throughout the book) and then subsequently the line of Guinnesses that ran the company after him. Mansfield does follow several of the Guinnesses who chose not to follow in their fathers’ footsteps, but these excursions are brief though interesting.

Towards the end is an entire section devoted to the Guinnesses For God- the many missionaries and preachers to come from the Guinness line. I found this section, and the section on Arthur Guinness (the first) to be the most interesting to me, possibly because they were the longest sections to have a single focus. Sadly, there was little discussion of the actual beer, but the author did include enough information that a reader who is totally unfamiliar with the process of brewing beer should be able to follow along without difficulty. These snippets were my favorite part, and I wish there had been more of the actual beer in the book.

In all honesty, I felt that there was not enough focus to be a biography of the Guinnesses, nor enough focus to be a biography of the beer. Not that the author wandered from his intent, but that the intent isn’t as clear to me as a reader as I would have liked. I found the story of the Guinnesses to be very interesting to read, but I chose the book because I thought the focus would be on the beer. Nonetheless, I found myself itching to pick it up, and missing it when I’d finished reading.