NMUSpidey

Speaking of animals as a good defense against bugs, I wish there were more possums up here (America's marsupial!). They love to eat ticks, and there are WAY too many ticks up here. The appraisers in my department came back from their field work covered in them. Awful, I felt bad for them, and that was after feeling a little jealous of them getting to wander around out in the woods and get paid for it. I suppose it'll be nicer later in the year when the bugs aren't so bad. We had yakisoba tonight for dinner, and I think that's a good thing to serve as a special here, too. Fried Japanese noodles with bacon, green pepper, and onions. We can add carrots, too, if you like. How about that? Posts on two days in a row!

Those look lovely! Fresh berries are always nice, I hope you get good yields from those. I also hope the height keeps at least the rabbits away from them. We grew some vegetables and sunflowers and rabbits and other assorted vermin did their best to prevent us from enjoying any of it. They failed in the end, but they still tried! Also, up here there are lots of big patches of wild blueberries. We usually go berry picking every summer, and one of the places we camp had a lot of thimbleberry bushes. The blueberries, though, are almost everywhere, they love the sandy soil up here. Tonight we'll do some barbecuing. I want some chicken breast slathered in barbecue sauce and a potato and corn on the cob and some deep-fried zucchini. I love deep-fried zucchini.

Well, we were out all day yesterday because it's a three day weekend and I get paid for my day off because I no longer work for a totally disorganized cheapskate so I guess I missed CURRY SUNDAY. So since it's Memorial Day we'll do the whole cookout thing that's popular around these parts. Let's grill up some hot dogs and hamburgers and corn on the cob. We'll make potato salad (with mustard not mayo because mayo is revolting) and pasta salad and salad salad and plenty of beer, what would you like? We have it on tap! And thus, for us Americans anyway, summer has officially started. We're going to spend as many weekends outside as we can until Labor Day brings the season to a close. Then when the colors change we'll go on many a bug-free hike until it's too cold to go outside any longer. At least for my wife. I'm fine with the cold. For those of you in the southern hemisphere, I'll make sure to have some hot cocoa prepared for you as you begin your long winter months. We'll trade again in a few months, that seems fair.

This week kind of snuck away from me. Is it already Friday? I must have been busy at work for it to have gone this fast. How about a taco bar tonight? We'll lay out the refried beans, taco meat, shredded cheddar cheese, diced tomatoes, avocado, and lettuce, salsa in a variety of spiciness, rice in both texmex style and cilantro lime, and sour cream. Is there anything else you'd like for your tacos? Just let us know. We'll make sure you get it the way you want. Bon appetit!

All this talk of meat pies/pot pies has me hankerin' for one tonight. Of course, since tonight is also CURRY SUNDAY we'll be having a curry pot pie. We'll make it with 100% grass-fed mutton and every bite will yield tender, tasty, curried meat. Let's add in some onions and potatoes and wrap it in a homemade pie crust and that should be a delicious way to face down the oncoming week. This week I actually have a project to work on. I hope I get it all done tomorrow so I have an easy rest of the week after. Let's see how it goes!

Morrocan lamb pie sounds like what's on the menu tonight! Let's bake up a few of those.

I have been feeling a bit run-down recently. Maybe I need to get more sleep. Maybe I need to change how I exercise, or improve my diet. In an effort to improve that aspect, let's enjoy that famous French peasant dish, ratatouille. We'll go heavy on the tomato, zucchini, eggplant, and bell pepper and layer them in very colorful slices and serve them alongside garlic bread. I'll pour tall glasses for iced barley tea for anyone who wants to join me, although that Sapporo Black Label on tap is looking awfully good right about now...

Alison Krauss' duet album with Robert Plant was amazing. I don't normally listen to that style of music, but when I do it's that album. I miss snow. We barely got any of it this year. We average 10' of it annually, but we probably got 2 or 3 and that was it. It was all melted and gone by March. It felt like a Toledo winter, to be honest. Very disappointing. I guess we'll have to wait to see if next year pulls us back to the average. We face the onslaught of another week. What better way to get ready for it than with a CURRY SUNDAY? For tonight's curry, we'll do a Mother's Day special of mutton curry over basmati rice. Garlic bread will be served on the side, but only after a garden salad, because we have to keep our vegetable intake up. Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there, and fathers, don't forget they wouldn't be where they are today without you.

I've been on an Allman Brothers Band kick recently. "Whipping Post" is such a great song, and I was yesterday years old when I first heard their epic performance of it at Fillmore East. Great stuff, so bluesy, so powerful. For tonight let's have some pierogi. We'll saute up some onions and bacon to eat alongside them and why not some garlic bread, too? Garlic bread makes any meal complete.

ONLY 30 million? Is that all that are left? And they're tasty? Why don't we have some invasive-species possum curry for dinner tonight? I think I may eschew that and just eat the vegetable version myself (mushrooms, onions, potatoes, deep fried tofu cubes). Oh hey, it's a surprise CURRY SUNDAY! I'm still not feeling 100% since my shot (was much better when I woke up Thursday morning, but just feeling like I'm dragging compared to usual) but this will be sure to get me ready for whatever the next week will throw at me. Let's eat!

In certain areas of Japan the power companies have big problems with raven nests shorting out the power lines. They started sending out crews to take down the nests so the ravens started building decoy nests to fake the power company workers out. Ravens are scary smart. Much respect. I got hit by the truck of my second vaccination shot. I feel slightly better than I did this morning, and I hope to feel better still by tomorrow so I can go back to work. If I can't, at least I have sick days so I won't miss out on any pay. Public sector work is great if you can get it. So for tonight let's do chicken noodle soup to ease our weary bones and achy muscles and chilling fevers. Or at least mine.

My wife makes these things called porcupine meatballs where you mix rice in with the meatballs and bake them and the rice at the top sticks out and becomes crispy and, indeed, they resemble porcupines. They are delicious, and I think they will make a great dinner to share with everyone tonight. I hope your winter goes well. Do you suffer many power outages? We haven't had one since we've been back up north, the last one we had was in Cleveland and lasted for part of a single (snowy April) day. I don't remember many power failures when we lived in Japan, either. There were a handful before that, though, there was one towards the end of winter where power for the whole city was out for nearly a whole day. Our apartment was frigid by the time the day was over, but thankfully everything kicked back on just when we were ready to sit down for dinner. I remember another big, multi-day power outage that affected almost all the Midwest and New England and the Mid-Atlantic states, but for some reason up here in the UP we were spared. My dad used the occasion to buy a generator for the house. When we finally are able to build our A-frame in the woods, we're probably going to invest in one of those, because winter storms up here can be truly wicked, especially for those living outside the little cities we have.

I think it's been a while since we've had a CURRY SUNDAY, so why don't we have one now, for old time's sake? For tonight's curry we'll go with the tried-and-true (and my favorite) S&B Golden Curry with pork, mushrooms, potatoes, and onions. We'll serve it over basmati rice and I'm going to have a nice, tall glass of iced mugi-cha to go along with it. I should be ready to face the new week after this!

Welcome.

There's nothing quite like relaxing in front of a fire. I'd trade places with that cat in an instant! I'd just need a pillow or three hahahaha. We're getting our second spring today and tomorrow and then we're back in rain/slow mix on Saturday. Eventually it'll warm up to the point where it's comfortable for me to walk to work without a coat. For tonight we'll make some okonomiyaki, known in English as the Japanese pizza or the Japanese pancake or the Japanese omelet. made with dedicated okonomiyaki flour, cabbage, bonita flakes so thin they dance when put on anything hot, and special okonomiyaki sauce, they are a well-loved treat, and since "okonomi de" (the root word of the food) means "however you like it" you can add any extra ingredients you want. I like to add mushrooms and bacon to mine. We'll set out the teppan and grill it up for you right before your eyes.

That looks pretty neat. We only have a fire when we go camping in the summer time, and yes, we have to mess around with wood and stuff and I don't really enjoy that part, or the smoke, either. After a few pretty nice days we're back to winter weather, with snow flurries and icy north winds screaming at us from across Lake Superior. I love it, but a lot of people are unhappy about it, especially after the brief taste of spring we had. Tonight we will serve a lasagna with garlic bread fresh from the oven. It's hard to believe I wasn't here last week. I've been working too much on my other projects I suppose. Oh well, enjoy the lasagna!

I can understand people wanting to know what's in their food and where it comes from. Perhaps if we all knew a little more about it we would make better decisions (I'm not so sure I would eat fewer Reese's or Cadbury Creme Eggs, but whatever, let's not make this about me) and eat less processed food which I suppose is the real target of this sort of regulation. Still, the illegalization of hand-made sandwiches makes me sad. SO we'll have sandwiches tonight. I love sandwiches, and I love subs even more. Give me a loaf of French bread (a small one, let's not get too crazy) and pile it with salami, turkey breast, Swiss cheese, colbyjack cheese, tomato slices, purple onions, and banana peppers and we're looking at a fantastic main dish. I'll also take a side of low-salt tortilla chips and medium spicy picante sauce. Hm. Now I'm hungry again.

That will be lovely when it's finished! Since I'm now a semi-essential worker I was directed by the county to get a shot last week. My arm hurt for a few days. We all go back to the university at the end of April for our second shot. I'm looking forward to maskless life, but there are a lot of people who want to wear them, and want to make everyone else wear them. Forever. So whatever. I'm glad I don't have to make the decision about it. Whatever they tell me to do I'll do, regardless of my feelings on the subject. I'm in no position to judge anything about this subject. We had our first 70F day today. It was very warm and I went down the street to get a disappointing taco for lunch. I should have gotten a sandwich instead. Oh well. For tonight, let's do pizza and cheesy bread. My favorite pizza toppings are bacon, onions, green peppers, and mushrooms, so those are what will end up on mine. How will you take yours?

They do seem to cater to a more mature crowd, eh? The southern island one looks more interesting to me, is the southern island more wild? Er, that is, wilder? Less inhabited? I like wide open nothingness (part of why we live in Upper Michigan, there are miles of nothing up here). There is some truly beautiful scenery down there. Tonight we're going to make some Chinese food: sweet and sour pork, egg rolls, fried rice, egg drop soup, wantan soup, potstickers (if that's what gyoza are in English). Xie xie! (my knowledge of the Chinese language is seriously limited)

Today is Tuesday. That means it's time for TACOS! What would you like on your tacos? We have taco meat, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, several types of salsa, shredded cheese, avocado, green onions, sour cream, and sauteed onions and green and red peppers. Choose your shell and load it up! I'm going with a soft corn tortilla and putting everything except lettuce on it. It's a Taco Tuesday Fiesta!

Huh. I thought I was here on Thursday or Friday. Weird. But at least I'm here for CURRY SUNDAY! For tonight's curry, we'll go with an Indian biryani served over basmati rice with tea of your choice to wash it down. We had a nice, if windy, spring weekend, something that's actually a little unusual this far north in Michigan for March. I don't expect it to hit the 60s on a regular basis until May, and there is still a serious risk of heavy snow through April, and sure enough we're forecasted to get some flurries this Friday. That's great for me, I love cold weather, but at the same time it will be nice to walk to work when it's a little warmer.

Huh. I could have sworn I had posted something here for CURRY SUNDAY, but it appears not. I wonder what happened. Weird. I like the idea of train travel more than I like train travel itself. It was fine for my wife and I to travel around Tokyo by train when we lived there, but our lives improved dramatically when we moved to the countryside and went mobile in our own car. Maybe it's the American in me. Being born here and living with my own car on my own schedule has made me (especially in my increasingly old age) intolerant towards sharing my mobility with every single one of my neighbors while all being tied to a schedule set by someone who does not know or care about when I want to go somewhere. Funny enough, I love putting train lines in my cities, and I think if you're going to live in a city you should definitely forego a car and use the mass transit system if able. And if I ever had to live in Tokyo or Osaka again I'd probably let myself be bound to a train line. But I wouldn't do it by choice. It's good that your government at least has put plans in motion to enhance your rail lines. I hope they are able to do it within their budget, but there are always unforeseen difficulties in any project... For tonight, let's go with some barbecue chicken. We'll grill it up and slather it with tangy/spicy/sweet barbecue sauce as well as the usual corn on the cob and green salad. We'll make some rice pilaf to go with it, and a fine selection of pies to wash it all down. I'll go with pecan pie, my current favorite.

That's neat to use a tin that way (although we'd call it a cookie tin hahahahahaha). I hesitate to offer much of a comment on another country's laws. I don't know the reality of living there (unlike Japan where I lived for nearly 8 years) so I'm not sure what it will all mean for your country. I certainly hope for the best! The weather here is really trying to turn into spring. Why don't we fire up the grill to enjoy sunny 10C days? Steaks, corn on the cob and potatoes, a healthy green salad. Hm, and ice cream for dessert. Of course, it's only March here, so there's still a pretty good chance for a snow storm for another month or so, and I'm not prepared to fully welcome this little warm up as being permanent. Oh well, it will be nice while it lasts.

Back injuries are tough, I hope you recover quickly and without physical therapy or strong painkillers! It must be nice to be outside enjoying some late summer weather. Or is it early fall now? I'm not sure how it works down there. We're having a surprise spring day today (it reached almost 10C!) but tomorrow it will rain and we'll be closer to 0C again by the weekend. There is sitll a very real possibility up here for snowstorms through April, so who knows how our winter will end? I hope you have a lot of nice days ahead of you before your winter sets in again! For tonight we'll have some Greek food. Greek salad with plenty of feta cheese and olives (pitted, of course, I hate biting into pits!) and stuffed grape leaves and since I love them so much mutton-filled gyros. There's a place near where I live that serves GREAT gyros (their pizza is amazing, too) and whenever I want to treat myself I go there, like I did when I finished my tour of duty in the granite industry. Anyways, pour yourself some ouzo and help yourself to some Greek cuisine!

It's another CURRY SUNDAY! For tonight's curry, we'll go with a Thai green curry with its soapy, spicy.... uh... goodness? Anyways, we'll serve it over rice and we'll make three pots: pork, chicken, and tofu so you can have the protein of your choice, and before it comes out we'll have coconut shrimp and a peanut sauce that I'll probably fill up on. Good stuff, overall.