We're very good at disinfecting. Which is to say, we're not very good at preventing the development of mold, so we get a lot of practice disinfecting.

What I'm trying to say is, we're out of bleach.

Partly it's the brewing: I need to sterilize the buckets and all the glassware (actually it's plastic, but the term sticks), and all of the bottles. I generally make a bleachy, soapy, TSP-y sinkful of water every time I brew or bottle.

Partly it's the composting. We got a composter late this fall -- right before the ground froze, in fact. So outside our back door is a large plastic container filled with kitchen garbage, decomposing very slowly.

And with the cold and the snow, nobody wants to step outside with the bowl of compost and add it to the composter until the bowl is full. That can take over a week. Once the bowl is emptied, we discover the mold that's started to grow at the bottom of the container.

And on the subject of our housemate, I will say only this: she treats reusable containers as if they were write-only media.

As I said, we're out of bleach. I mentioned this to my wife, and she asked, "Can we get name-brand bleach this time?"

Name brand sodium hypochlorite? What, does it come with extra neutrons?

This is my first test post with XEmacs blogger mode. With luck, I'll be able to achieve two things I wasn't able to do before:

First, I'll be able to check my spelling before I post.

Second, I'll be able to blog without my wife seeing the tell-tale Movable Type interface screens.

Oops! Gave the game away.

Let's see how this works.