Tag Archives: chris

8990 – Thursday

Hm, approaching 9000 entries. How many days has this thing been active? Let’s ask date and time.

From and including: Friday, May 19, 2000

To and including: Thursday, September 13, 2007

It is 2674 days from the start date to the end date, end date included

Or 7 years, 3 months, 26 days including the end date.

So, I’m still catching up to the old many quick posts a day to the newer, usually one-post per day. I still have an average of what… about three and a third posts a day if I take the whole into account?

Shopped for b’day presents tonight – we have gift cards from B&N, and we use ’em! We got our reward of a choco-chip cookie or two to take the shopping edge off, but zonked out as soon as we got home. I got to feeling a bit creaky near the end of our expedition… I really need to change out of work shoes once I’ve left work.

Ate at DuClaw and had the Brew sampler (You get a 4 oz taste of all the beers that they have on tap at that time.)- not bad! I rather liked a few of the microbrews, and getting an a lot of soft-pretzel related meal items made it quite the little pseudo-bavarian event. Twisted Kilt wasn’t my fave, though BHK liked it – I think I was more partial to the BA Blonde Ale or the Misfit Red ale. The Crab dip was a bit spicy.

Planned for Saturday – Sept. 15
Deale Bluegrass Festival & Car Show: to be held at Herrington Harbour No. Marina.

Sponsored by: Deale Merchants Assoc.

Featuring: Mountain Heart, Blue Highway, Carrie Hassler & Hard Rain, Country Gentleman, and Good Deale Bluegrass Band.

Car Show: Cars Limited to 1975 and older. Registration 7-11 am. Trophies will be awarded.

Gates Open: 10 a.m. Admission: $30. Children under 10 FREE, Parking FREE

Info. 410-867-6707.

Chris isn’t going, so it’ll just be BHK, Larry and me. It’ll be a full day and the weather looks great – low to mid-70s, low cloud cover.

1 year ago – goodies, 008 is landon, kill windows nag, mr t – be somebody, rfjason – wtf prank, kitty combo

2 years ago – Red Thread, Postcard, walking weather, work, 2nd life, battersea

3 years ago – visit meme, case against voodoo, freeflow thought, Mexico Wal-mart Protest

4 years ago – Newt-vet, shoutcast, tiny cities, Why I dislike leiberman, Frankie mooches again, Turkish Hairballs

5 years ago – Lots of robots, World Affairs, palm art

6 years ago – Shocked awake, Nostia, folks scamming relief, weather, programming, lovely chat

7 years ago – Pompano Weather, Warghetz, Suzy News, Censorship, Loved Geotarget

8983- thurs

My office furniture arrived, so I moved into my new office in the “west wing” today. The new office is a little bit smaller and more oddly-shaped than the old one, but placement is good. Two doors from the prez, one from development, and one from the small conference room.


Little Hoff Doll! How cute! How Evil! Clever… wish I’d have thought of it. I think I’m a little more partial to little mr t, however.


Speaking of goodies… One year wedding anniversary is in October… one year is paper for gifts, right? Maybe Zombie Fluxx is part of it this year? It looks like it’ll be released before our date on the 25th.


Why is it that whenever someone has a list to choose a favorite color, orange is often left off?


Yesterday, on the ride home, Chris asked if I was always such a serious person. Does she know me at all? I’m pretty confident that I’ve been a goof in her presence more than a few times… in fact, I thought that my serious discussion had pretty darn goofy undertones.


Two useful sites discovered recently on FF list –

http://www.seeqpod.com/ a quite nice playable music search, and podcrawler.

http://www.traffic.com/Washington-DC-Traffic/Washington-DC-Traffic-Map.htmlnifty traffic source.. works for other cities, too.


1 year ago – Illuminati perfection, venture brothers, aerial photos Miami, voting, heifer.org charity, America’s Most (And Least) Efficient Charities, Affie Jones, stand on your own head for a change

2 years ago – stream of thought, arcade games, newt, tolerance, comics, Danny elfman, tv, newtcam pic, rome, gaming, sheep don’t you know the road, fema issues, bob denver RIP

3 years ago – hurricane home movie, happy to be home, pentagon crash snopes

4 years ago – annoying LL, death, IRC pix, gender genie, toys, sunset, rainy day

5 years ago – Crash Bonsai, sticky song poll

6 years ago – Hammer-Wheel, Beijing, Stephen Foster, Mystery men Hiring, soap hair

7 years ago – Suzy goes to the Clink Geotarget

8980 – Weds

It feels like it should be Thursday. Ah well, it will be, soon enough.

I keep getting demoted to craftsman…ah well, not a bad level to be at, yucata wise.

Went to Mexico restaurant, with BHK and Mother in-law for dinner – BHK still a bit under the weather, but I think that she liked getting out of the house. We talked for a long time with the owner after our meal… he’s a nice guy, and his family owns 10 restaurants across VA-MD. Apparently he grew up not too far from where BHK did, displaced by about 7 years or so. MIL Is surprisingly naive about some things while pretty dang about others… She’s got an odd mix of Metro awareness and old-school unawareness regarding stuff about low income regions and behaviors that make me worry a little bit that she’s working in DC.


Possible plans for Saturday (formatting direct from the email)- Maybe we can drag a few friends along, too. (Maybe right after going to GCOM Annapolis ?)

This Saturday, September 8th, Cheeky Monkey Sideshow returns to the Arlington Cinema ‘n’ Drafthouse for a night of one-of-a-kind entertainment.
~GLASS WALKING and ESCAPES brought to you by MAB!
~MAGIC and MENTALISM with MYSTERION (Mr. Eon)!
~COMEDIC SELF-ABUSE by SWAMI YOMAHMI!
~Sophisticated BURLESQUE artistry by SPECIAL GUEST, KITTY VICTORIAN!
Cheeky Monkey Sideshow is a breath-taking yet beautiful cavalcade of the bizarre, the shocking, the grotesque, and the strange. Every show is different, every act unique.
A unique form of entertainment that few will ever experience, but none will ever forget.
Tickets are only $10 at the door or online.
Arlington Cinema ‘n’ Drafthouse
2903 Columbia Pike, Arlington VA
Doors open @ 11:45, Show starts @ 11:55 pm
CHEEKY MONKEY SIDESHOW ~YOU’LL BE AMAZED. YOU’LL BE AMUSED. YOU’LL BE JUST A LITTLE GROSSED OUT.

Other thoughts for the weekend include 3:10 to Yuma and / or Shoot ’em up I suspect the former will be weighted more than the latter for us. I’m probably planning way too much for the weekend.


Per the Blue room

http://www.chick. com/reading/ tracts/1038/ 1038_01.asp

In Jack Chick’s latest, he tells us what happened to the dragons.

The resulting tale plays with the fossil record in approximately the same way an episode of Xena plays with history, but without Renee O’Connor. Alas.

It’s mesmerizing, in its way.


1 year ago – our house, tiny tent pictures, newt and Danny pix, watching WW, personality quiz thingum, interests collage

2 years ago – helping hand, on call, flickr letters, marine patrol, state of usa, iron scorch, fortune cookie, four rooms, bro, Jake Walk Blues, Brownie’s heck of a job, immersive learning theological worldview, baby jellyfish, library mofo

3 years ago – Weathering Frances, Popular interests, Medicare hike, walkies, RLP, power out, storm journals, Broward, Ivan coming

4 years ago – photo Friday, lj tweaks, FMM turnover, Dubai postcard, old palm pix, optical illusions, horror, band-aids

5 years ago – custom clix concepts, ford bails on electric cars, onelook, recycled bottle paradise, rainy day=unbreakable, poop

6 years ago – That crazy Anne Heche interview, and pygmies are real!

7 years ago – silly answering machine message, happy music, Frank Sinatra Geotarget

8971 – tues

Extra-Random very rough draft entry. Read at own risk, dear journal.


Current health issues – getting corrected a little at a time

  • Allergies – need to get blood work done in top of October for shots
  • Teeth – Bridge for broken tooth, and 2 fillings. Floss, kids!
  • Back-leg ortho workup.

Monday night after our appointments, BHK, Chris, Larry and I all met at the Lebanese Taverna for Half-price Mondays… yum on the falafel!

I also got a new shirt for work at good ol’ Value City – White with blue pinstripes.

Tonight after work there was a big traffic slowdown…Suitland was a parking lot, and all of i-4 was shut by police and helicopters. A cursory search online mentioned no specifics, and the traffic radio was of little detail as well. I wonder what was up? Chris speculated terrorist stuff, but there was really no hint as to what it might be at all. I made it to Tina’s about 30 minutes later than usual. When I realized I wasn’t going to be there by 7:15, I called and they ate ahead of me.. I got there in time to watch the last half of Gilmore Girls – BHK and Tina set tentative plans for a girls trip sometime in the near future.

This weekend, BHK and I will be taking a little day trip somewhere… maybe West Virginia to see the mountains, maybe Outpost Games, possibly both on different days.

We still haven’t been back to the Compleat Strategist… I want to give ’em a second chance, but it might be a while… too many other places to go and see.


Graffiti seen when we went to the movies last weekend –

Robot of love – says hate
(he cannot be fully erased!)

0826071340.jpg - hate robot
Boy says bait?
0826071342.jpg = Bait?

That rhymes!


1 year ago – pom, apples and limeade, GP ahooga, close to the edit, burrito/screech butt, god lj, more ernesto a-comin’!

2 years ago – katrina track, toyota safe vs falling knives, brothers grimm, eco footprint, The Outbursts of Everett True , caffeinated death quiz, cat toy, superheroes and goats, office has no juice

3 years ago – on call all weekend, cej packet returned, super hero movies, charities, spectral analysis

4 years ago – begging for freebies, cases, frankie, wifi, paper toys

5 years ago – comic book ads, genetic ID card, lifegems, happy tree friends, Bheesh got a vette, free fonts, and Pynchon paper dolls

6 years ago – sci-fi dorkness (pity enterprise is so bad), red headed wildcat, bacchanalia, ultima Thule, stinky cab driver, lj “post limit hububb”

7 years ago – zoo day, de-compartmentalized some pals, Brown, turtle Geotarget

8968 – sunday funday!

Still too hot to do much of anything out and about in the Crisco soup-like atmosphere, so we opted to take in lunch at the Sbarro’s in the Annapolis Mall and then hit a movie. Who knows why we woke up at 7:30 on a Sunday, but it gave us a solid head start.

We finally caught the Simpsons Movie on the big screen… I was surprised – it was a lot better than I was expecting… pretty solid TV episode from back when it was funny. We only saw 3 bits that would make it warrant a PG-13 rating – an instance of nudity, a curse word (or two) and some drinking / drug use. I could see them showing all of it after 10pm on network tv unedited, or without those three instances any time at all.

On the way home, we noticed that ATW has changed the sign again, as the search for “the man” continues. (atw is now a tag just for my ease of searching the story thread and pictures, now.)

Click to view larger
0826071649.jpg atw tv
ATW NEWSROOM
‘THE MAN’
BOOT RECOVERED
FINGERS POINTED
Police say ‘NO Statement – NO case’
Meanwhile, Man Sightings run rampant
Psychic to be called.

It was a good thing we caught an early show as the later part of the day was comprised of –

BHK Birthday Part II: Electric boogaloo!
allisonbdaycake

Party at Tina’s place… Mexican food! Both Meat and veggie protein varieties – Tina’s not a big carnivore, either. Matt (her new boy) seems like a nice enough fellow and I hope they have maximum fun / minimum glum together. He’s certainly more social and generally conversational than DR or W. Dessert was yellow birthday cake with chocolate icing, compared favorably to yesterday’s lemon cake with lemon icing. Added bonus, BHK’s mom didn’t absent-mindedly start slurping the frosting off of the removed candles like last night, rather than giving them to the b’day girl to taste.

Aside from Tina and Matt, Adam, Jimmy, Louise, Chris and Larry all made it to celebrate. We fit pretty comfortably at Tina’s townhouse… I wasn’t sure if we’d all be able to manage, but it worked out quite well.

BHK’s Loot received:

from Louise : Necklace and bracelet of multi-colored pearls.
from Tina : A pair of Peridot Earrings / Hello Kitty purse (which looks like ms. kitty is making a gesture I’m sure wasn’t intentional)
from Larry & Chris – Red Coral necklace and Earrings / and some lovely crockery
from Danny – A swell looking green-stoned ring in gold. (and he got Tina some yellow-stoned earrings, too!)
from my Mom and Wilt – Turquoise and silver necklace, Halloween Snow globe, a little cornucopia and a really lovely card.
from me – a lot of knickknacks – Grease & Grease 2, a pair of pink pseudo-crocks, some stripy socks that mismatch/match, a pink headband with little jolly rogers, bath scrubbie, black cat bowl, a green wire basket, some fuzzy slippers and a gift cert to scalped.

I’m the only person that didn’t get her any jewelry… she told me specifically *not* to get her any. Now, I understand why.

May’ve recruited Adam and Jimmy into a parlor game night. Who knows, maybe they’ll lure Kendall and Amanda into it, too, and we’ll have a big night of it sometime!

I don’t know if Matt is into parlor games… I do know he digs the Redskins and is willing to put up with chick flicks. come to think of it, I don’t know for sure if Tina is interested in boardgames or not… I suspect that she, like the in-laws aren’t really into abstract games. Louise is a good candidate, but is harder to reel in to a date or time than the teens. The last time we saw her was her birthday, about 6 weeks ago.

Poor Danny has students in his classes now – he’s back to running the Sci-fi club, and is incorporating Pirates into the after school program. I should send him a bucket of heroclix or mage knight commons/doubles as a donation. He really liked the Superhero stamps and Lord of the Rings Risk game we shot off to him a little while back.

1 year ago – back from an all too brief visit, nose buttering, bunny suicides, events of the day, liberty city psp homebrew hack, jojo the cannibal kid, maple cookies, folks, met Adam / Future In-laws

2 years ago – power out phone post, hurricane katrina aftermath pictures (and Newt), Bro out, Techs unavailable

3 years ago – BK heads north, random visit to a 2001 entry, behavior variances, quiet-please

4 years ago – sleep schedule, zombie game (poor thing aborted), monkey helpers, first lost child.

5 years ago – Deer Hunter, Apache, Equality/freedom Poll, Emerson, flying saucer, heroclix 200 point armies, McD hot dogs, wpoison

6 years ago – that piercing woman , lj vibe change, many links (not all work anymore)

7 years ago – Godzilla, quizzes, leftyrok added me, IMT threatens to move all operations north to Tampa, dean martin Geotarget

8954 – fri

Got looked over by the doc, following yesterday’s health issue – Nothing so severe as strep or a heart attack, but a really bad allergy fit. Swollen throat, trouble breathing, tightness in the chest…I was told that my heart is more than fine… it’s strong as can be.

Blood pressure – 121 / 71, pulse 74

Got a ‘scrip for zyrtec for the allergies, and a topical for the ongoing eczema on my neck. Thank goodness for insurance!

Thank you to everyone who gave well-wishes… they were greatly appreciated!

Bad news – my camera died.. the motor that spits out and retrieves the lens is out of whack, and I fear it’s probably kaput. I’ll get another eventually, but I fear that any photos will be taken with the cell phone for the immediate future – kills the resolution and spontaneity of image-taking.

Tonight we celebrated Larry’s b’day by gifting him with, and then watching Wild Hogs. It was a lot better than I’d expected, though it petered out with typical Deux Ex Machina at the end. He also got the new Vine gill 4-cd set, and banana puddin’, as is his fondness. Tina and Chris stuck around through our tasty veggie-dogs/veggie chili cookout – I was still feeling pretty woozy throughout, but I think I’m getting better now.


1 year ago – hacking xp, gaming due to love of school supplies, airplay map, weird Maryland,

2 years ago – New Orleans Lisas, moon base mars, flash earth, ed wood directs, devo,blue beetle & lithium, bush 5 years and no “nos”, spidey-enema,SCOAI, word colors

3 years ago – missed oneeyed, bro scams mom, no donkey basketball, t-mobile good gesture, scale model of city, lenny kravitz warning, cemetery stroll urge, Bermuda Triangle, Saturn’s 33 moons, flash game tutorial

4 years ago – Newt vs measuring cup, astronaut jones, free router stuff

5 years ago – Saturday mornings, heroclix, band names, toad turmoil, recorder, fun gab

6 years ago – page pondering

7 years ago – bakery-dog, factoids-lieoidsGeotargetVisitor Map

8948 – Saturday

Yesterday, I forgot to mention that I received Martian coasters, filler colors of icehouse stashes, and other ordered loot. I’m looking forward to playing them with BHK at our earliest convenience.

Awoke early – about 6:45 on a Saturday. EM was up at about 6:30, I think.

Read in bed:

  • Oliviaclassic. Olivia would be Eloise, if Eloise were a pig. She is good at singing 40 very loud songs and is very good at wearing people out. And scaring the living daylights out of her little brother, Ian, particularly when he copies her every move. She is also quite skilled at reproducing Jackson Pollock’s “Autumn Rhythm #30” on the walls at home. When her mother tucks her in at night and says, “You know, you really wear me out. But I love you anyway,” Olivia precociously pronounces, “I love you anyway too.”
  • Ain’t gonna Paint No more – pretty spiffy, good rhythm, color and song.
  • 93 in my family Now *that*’s a fun kids book. Reads well, stuff to look at on every page, terribly cute, and gives a message that’s neat, too. Plus, a carsick hamster named Ed. We need more like this one.
  • Where Have The Unicorns Gone? – Lovely Art, poorly written – it just doesn’t flow.

BHK was tuckered out, and fell back asleep about midway through Olivia, so Em and I got up after reading and made necklaces with wooden beads and string from Em’s kit – very pretty stuff.

Played some simple stacking and lining up games with dominoes and red & blue icehouse pyramids with Em while BHK slept – may have developed the seed of a new game! Stacking Pyramids on top of a domino board to collect points. Needs a little work, but if I can teach the basics to a 4-year-old and it’s challenging to me, there could be a fun concept waiting to burst out.

Once BHK woke up, we all got cleaned up and headed out to take care of TM’s kitties (see picture in yesterday’s post ).

After many kitty snuggles, we all went to the marine museum to see the otters and the stingrays – it was also a Cradle of the Invasion day – folks dressed in garb of 1812, WWII, and modern style, showing how Marines in wartime lived and worked in the area. pretty neat. Apparently, in the 30s-40s, Tropical chocolate was mixed with paraffin wax so it wouldn’t melt… the K rations had basically a chocolate candle to eat along with government supplied cigarettes. Lots of items about amphibious warfare that didn’t interest Em too much, but I’d like to go back next time and spend a little while talking to the folks and getting some perspectives on things. My Grandfather on my mom’s side was a Marine during WWII, and he never really talked too much about it, short of taking me to the VFW and hanging out with other vets. (That’s where I got my first Shirley Temple.)

[edit – I forgot that we went to the amish market, and saw ducks and geese and chickens and goats and puppies and horses, and amish folks, and bought gingerbread and blueberry jam, and lemon meringue pie for Larry, and shoo-fly pie for us, and peppers to stuff with yum! – Sakes, we were busy]

Getting close to Lunch, so we headed off to Burt’s [Edit – dang, why do I always call it Fred’s?] for veggie burgers (em got popcorn shrimp) – good stuff, but I suspect the kids meal had more food than our veggie burger platter! We got puzzle place mats and crayons so we could color while we waited for our food.

Went to Aardvarks to pick up Early American Chrononauts (and ice cream – Play-doh is still my favorite… vanilla ice cream dyed bright yellow with red and blue chunks of sugar cookie dough mixed in. ) I suspect that I like Early American more than standard Chrononauts.

Chris and Larry’s for Dinner – Hot Dogs on the Grill, beans, slaw, and all sorts of yum. BHK had to duck out and tend to Tina’s Kitties again while Chris, Larry, Em and I hung out and chitty-chatted. Emily was very well behaved, and barely persnickety or bossy at all. She played very nicely with Tigger for hours.

Quote of the night was by Em – “I would never hurt beautiful Uncle Scott!”

Full and happy we all came home and crashed out.


Before I bail: a meme from Tarpo –

THE RULES:

1. Leave me a comment saying anything random, like your favorite lyric to your current favorite song. Or your favorite kind of sandwich. Something random.
Whatever you like.

2. I respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.

3. Update your LJ with the answers to the questions.

4. Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in the post.

5. When others comment asking to be asked, you will ask them five questions.

Mine were –

1) Where did you meet your girl? Livejournal, actually – Sixish years ago, at least, when I was dating someone else. I think that I traded up nicely.

2) Is Newt still a vicious man-eater? He can be pretty aggressive to some folks, and a love to others. He hasn’t seen any Newfs lately, but he still attacks most smokers with great vigor.

3) Recommend 3 fairly cheap 2 player, easy to learn, fun games that are outside the normal Milton Bradley/Hasbro line. Well, you already know about Fluxx and Carcassone, so I’ll toss out Treehouse at about $10, you can’t go too far wrong (see links above) (which is a gateway drug to other fun games, too) and Chrononauts, also linked above, a little bit more pricey at $20, (with both games the more the merrier, but two can play handily.)

4) Without sounding offensive and I hope you don’t take this in the wrong way at all.. Has anyone ever mentioned that there is more than a slight resemblance between my Ex Wife and your Current Wife? Short of this question, nobody has… From what I can recall of her face, I don’t really see the resemblance! Eyes, nose, facial shape, hair and skin all seem pretty different to me!

5) Suggest something for a future DoWhatIDo
How about a picture of a favorite item, like a toy or book?


1 year ago – thread tracking, mallah/brain, sistine ceiling full view, 330 mpg car under $20k, hardest geometry problem in the world,

2 years ago – Delirium box, laundry good deed, matches, chain reaction game, Friday 5, autostitch pic, 200 e Broward pic

3 years ago – hr tag abandonment,Doug / tony memory trick, factoids about me, elevator breaks

4 years ago – Neverwhere, childhood memories circa ’74-75ish – lunch and Tonka toys,linked to hulk’s blog, bro stuff, Elvis & his prosthetic limb factory

5 years ago – Spanish TV, broken links, new he-man cartoon, mark quits FMM before he’s caught stealing, puppy pictures and palm doodles.

6 years ago – Soylent Green Tea Ice Cream at the Frieze in Miami, after seeing Kiss of the Dragon with my bro, cavort, first exp w/ Samurai Jack, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

7 years ago – saw the hollow man, and played Everway, day before sleep study Geotarget

8938 – Sunday

Crashed hard last night once we got back – comfy weekend, sort of like this found shot of Newt from Friday.

newtcamroller

This morning BHK and I lazed in bed for a good chunk, spending a little time reading or fooling on the laptop, before getting up and heading off to points non-bedlike. We played a bit here and there in yucata, superdupergames, tribal wars, and bella sara – I’ve discovered that I do better sitting cross-legged over laying back with the lappie.

Post-laziness, we headed out for a random road trip, and ended up going to Dream Wizards which was exactly like what we were hoping for (but didn’t get) when we hit the Strategist a couple of weekends back. A large gaming area, very well-stocked collection of games of every stripe, and attentive personnel. Of course there was the standard “teen-boy scent” – BHK noticed the was one half of the female population (the male population was maybe 25 or so) – the other a young kid, probably 12-13, playing Pokemon happily amongst the sea of boys. BHK also got to see a low-grade temper tantrum from one of the other players in a tournament… complaining that his purchased booster pack was useless… stomped and slapped the pack down amongst the poor counter-folk. I suspect that he was maybe about a half-hour to an hour to being ejected from the premesis.

I couldn’t resist picking up a copy of Polarity (thanks again for the hint, Keethrax!) and Cosmic Wimpout … a Yahtzee-like dice game I used to enjoy back in high school. I think the last time I played it was about 20 years ago in Mr. Eck’s Marine biology class, fourth period. Not sure of the exact day, but it was near the end of the school year in 1987.

Still no leads on the Pirates “Glittery” boosters, like Amy’s. BHK must have a giant crab covered in glitter to destroy ships with!

After that, we hit the Home goods store, shopped the Halloween goodies and got a few little household treats.. Some green cups, sugar free blueberry syrup, and Halloween sprinkles for cupcakes later in the season.

We consulted our good friend Zagat, and found an entry marked Lighthouse Tofu – a total wildcard as there weren’t enough reviews to give it any scores for service, menu or whatnot. (The link goes to the yelp page, which would’ve been more helpful, had we thought to look it up first). I think we stumbled upon a local Korean fave… The place was packed and we were the only non-asian couple in sight.

We ordered more than we thought, as everything was served home-style – even though we didn’t ask for it, we got an appetiser of Miso soup, followed by a broad assortment of dishes with a little sampling of this and that – Bok Choy in some Oyster sauce that was tasty but quite spicy, some minced garlic in clam sauce, some manner of peppers in a cool/spicy soup, cucumbers (my fave of that lot… sweet and spicy), and some sprouts in sesame oil. – all came before what we had ordered. BHK had the tofu vegetable soup that came to the table still at a rolling boil and served with a raw egg on the side – to be added to the soup manually. I got an assortment of sushi, of which I think the Tofu sushi was the winner. The “prima vera” one of mixed veggies was tasty, but the weakest of the lot – Tofu, tempura lobster, and cucumber all were just amazing.

They serve water with a little green tea added, which is disconcerting at first, because it has an off-yellow/green color that I have seen come out of the pipes in some well water communities – suffice to say that it was clean and delicious. No worries there.

As a palate cleanser, they also serve a little rice cooked in green tea at the end of the meal – I liked it!

Our host was friendly, and I think that he assumed we had never been out to eat at a place like theirs. He was kind enough to move us to another table when we realised our little 2-up location wasn’t going to hold all the food we had coming. – and then explained the difference between light and regular soy sauce.. also warned us against wasabe (he seemed pleased when I was enjoying a healthy dollop dipped from same mixed with the soy on my cucumber roll)

Oddly, he didn’t give any food consumption tips regarding the egg in the soup, which I think was the most culturally mysterious of the lot.

On the way out, he took me aside, and passed me a pair of strange little bottles covered in text that I couldn’t read, and a small oval with larger text inside (picture to follow – maybe I can get talonvaki or pilarcruz to translate it for me)…. said it was dessert, and to enjoy.

It looked like milk, and smelled faintly of vanilla, so I shrugged and took a swig. I was not expecting the lemon flavor at all, but it was pretty dang tasty. I don’t think BHK was as impressed, but she liked it fine.

Also on the way up and back, we got to see the Mormon Temple which is amazing to watch rise up over the horizon as you approach. The place is huge and beautiful – while lovely, the pictures don’t do it justice at all.

We had one last stop before heading home… the in-laws. Chris and Larry did a great job of pickling our cucumbers – about 30 mason jars worth. We won’t be needing any store-bought pickle-type product anytime soon. BHK is planning on using the remaining 3 or 4 jars to do some pickled peppers ala Peter Piper, although we don’t quite have a peck.

I’m just wondering where we’re going to store 30-odd jars of preserved veggie. I guess the garage is a reasonably cool, dry, dark place for ’em. They have to steep in the brine for a brief period before eating. I wonder how long they’ll stay good? If you don’t break the vacuum seal, I imagine we can store them fairly indefinitely – not sure how long they stay good once that seal is broken, though. I imagine that won’t be an issue, as this family loves ’em.


1 year ago
– bow beats atlatl, newt trip out, 11:11, California pizza kitchen, interview meme, cpap ick, electroe pic

2 years ago – bro picked up, last Danny day, blue-ringed octopus, konfabulator, tags, high speed cat photos, bus-sleeper, taser vs rennies

3 years ago – malam bails, lyric, BttF / Mr Fusion, busy, dream, neti pot, bro’s court visit, avocado memories

4 years ago – isketch, dan’s last summer day, ebay phishing, earth as art, kitty swf games, vampire game, dirty bathroom poll

5 years ago – pleasant dreams, headache passes, Bailey the puppy, puppet play!

6 years ago – code, up late, F/X porn, coloring book, jack-in-the-box

7 years ago – house to myself, foodies Geotarget

8850 – backdated and posted

BHK and I went down to Solomon’s Island to take a little break. We were going to cruise on the Wm. Smith, but it was already chartered for the day. Instead of lamenting our situation, we opted to do a little river-otter watching and some light nature walk behind the marine museum. The otters were extra-bonus cute and playful today; I suspect that they were really digging the warm weather, and that our arrival right at feeding time had something to do with it. They had a tasty meal of fish, carrot and boiled egg, which sounded pretty darn good, actually, so we toddled off to the Captain’s Table for a little nosh, ourselves. Later we hit Target for a few sundry supplies – another deck chair, some bug spray, etc… and then continued to Game Stop to gather up 2 new (used, $12 each) games – Taiko drumming for the PS2, and Lumines for the PSP – Almost got marvel heroes, too, but they were out of stock on the used ones. (Bhk pointed out that they should give a new one, since it was being portrayed as available on the shelf, but I didn’t want to push – I still have Katamari and Lumines to work my way through)

Far too many pictures of otters, and other stuff will be coming in the days a head, I imagine.

Once we got home, we got a pleasant surprise in a new cover for our grill, along with a nice full tank of propane. I expect to be doing some outdoor cookery in the very near future. Veggie Burgers, Kabob, and whatever meat-stuff the rest of the family might like.

Once the sun came down, we went inside and watched Trekkies – I think it was a little enlightening for BHK about fandom, and why I feel about it the way I do, for both good and ill. I think the highlight of the night was the season finale of ugly betty – lots of cliffhangers in true soap style.

Sneakily added by BHK

– Secret confession time:
My favorite thing to do by SCottO B. Ear: I love love love to watch a double feature of Joy Luck Club and Steel Magnolias (Although sometimes I swap Steel Magnolias for Fried Green tomatoes). I always need at least 2 boxes of tissues and a whole can of general foods coffee when I do my double feature. I just snuggle under my comforter wearing my comfiest jammies and my furry pink slippers and cry myself a good one. Then I feel much better.

Oh and another confession this morning I compared my wife to a chimp. I reality I’m the one that tends to fling poo—so i retract any comparison I may have made. I’m a naughty bad husband–but a pretty good simian!

Here are some pictures from today’s sunny morning –

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I love the boys… They both have come a long way in making the transition to a family.

A new bionic woman, eh? I have my doubts. Rebuilt both legs, one arm, an ear, and an eye this time around. Plus a deaf daughter and Rudy-type doc as a love interest.

Random Ray Bradbury factoid: Bradbury, despite writing about spaceships and interplanetary travel and having lived in Los Angeles for most of his life, has never driven a car. He attributes this to having seen a gruesome car accident when he was young.

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