Ladies and Gentlemen, you are entering the Twilight Zone

Cue scary music...do do do do do do do do...You have entered the Twilight Zone. You may have noticed I was on a bit of a roll there for a couple days, blogging daily even! Woot! I unfortunately missed yesterday, for which I will explain, but feel it is necessary to share the strangeness that has befallen our humble apartment. BJ...is...sick. Some of you may not understand the enormity of such a statement. My fiance', with the immune system of steel, is sick. Coughing, sneezing, runny nose, fever; and I....*knock on wood* feel fine. Normally BJ's immune system mocks the presence of germs, while mine shuts down the store at the drop of a hat. And, I feel fine. This is SO weird! In our almost 3 years together, he has barely had more than the sniffles twice. And now my poor baby is sick. : (
So, yesterday I sat on the couch and played Okami on the Wii for several hours. I am a total of 15 hours of gameplay into it, and I still have yet to learn all the different brushstrokes. It's such an awesome game. In other exciting news I went grocery shopping at Super Target, yes, we are so cool we have Super Target. I found a two tier bamboo steamer, on clearance, 10" diameter, for $9.98. WOOHOO! I've got some sticky rice soaking as I blog. We shall see how this turns out. Onigiri photos to come!!!! *Hopefully.

Chkersht

Chkersht...nothing sounds quite as refreshing as that sound when you crack open a can of coca-cola. Some may prefer the hiss of a soda bottle, but I know, the taste from an aluminum can cannot be rivaled by any, except maybe a glass bottle. Ahh...I deserve it too. BJ and I have been pulling up rotten planks from his Grandma's porch and replacing them with new ones. I didn't even work this hard at Busch Gardens, so this is very tiring work. Don't believe me? You try pulling 15 plus year old wood with rusty nails out. By the way, it's rotten wood because it never got sealed after it was pressure washed a few years ago, and because of the position of the shade trees, if it rains, the water just sits there. Icky. Why would I divert myself in the summer sun you may ask? Well, she is being very kind and paying not only for materials, but also paying us for work. Now I think she might want us to re-roof her shed. We'll see how that goes.
Last night brought about the fun and exciting experiment with the sweet / sticky rice. Ta dah!!! I made an onigiri! It stuck together really really well, but there was a whole lot of pasty starch type stuff, so I think maybe I should soak the rice before I cook it. Plus I think the customary cooking method for sticky rice may be to steam it, but I am not terribly sure. I didn't get brave enough to add some seaweed to it though. I was to make sure I am cooking the rice correctly before I up and change things around. It was fun! But it didn't really taste all that great, another reason I don't think I cooked it right. By the way, they don't call it sticky rice for nothing! Now I have to figure out if I am willing to buy one of those awesome rice cookers by Zojurishi
that has a built in timer and clock setting. So instead of waking up to the smell of coffee, I could wake up to a fresh breakfast of rice, or porridge. I wonder what porridge tastes like anyway. I've never had it...This may call for another food experiment. Watch out world I'm feeling adventurous! Maybe I should get some sort of costume for my alter ego, adventurous food lady!

My Asian Market Adventure

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of international chocolate...my heart weeps for you. Yesterday I found some addresses for Asian markets in our little area of Georgia. We couldn't find the first store, it was a sushi bar instead, so maybe that address was not so current. We then went to the international farmers' market, which looked kind of abandoned. A lot of the shelves were empty, even in the cooler section. But, as we got toward the back, there were some more products. A lot of them were random, and there were lots of preserved duck eggs in the Japanese section. I, unfortunately, was looking for quail eggs in a can. So, we left empty-handed. Then we went to the Atlanta Chinatown mall; surely I would find a bento there. Nope. We did find a neat grocery store though. I got some chocolate pocky, and BJ got some strawberry pocky. Hence the fun pictures. I also bought a sheet of seaweed to try. See, bento makes me want to try new things! The grocery store was really packed full, but I didn't like the vibe; I felt kind of like an invader. So we went to our fourth and final Asian market, Super H Mart. It was really cool in there. Everything was nicely laid out, I could find things because they had both English and Japanese on the signs. This was where I found quail eggs in a can and some bento sets, but I didn't really like the selection. At last, success! It was a nice store and also the people working there were friendly. I even saw some more white invaders like myself buying some stuff. It was both fun and exciting. And the candy selection...! It was really cool. There were so many different things to choose from. BJ picked up a baby ruth, but I had to be adventurous, so I got some new Japanese chocolaty stuff. See, I took a picture for you.
They are really shaped like fun little mushrooms, and it's the same kind of thing as the pocky. The stem is that semisweet cracker biscuit type thing, but the top is like a mixture between chocolate with just a little bit of caramel. It's lovely. You can see the little color division on the box and on the candy to let you know there is a little something extra in there. One of the things I like about the Japanese chocolate I have had is that the taste is always very subtle, not very "in your face with chocolaty goodness!" And of course, I imagine all of you are just waiting with baited breath to see just what quail eggs in a can actually look like. Ta dah! That is a nickel on the right next to
one of the quail eggs. I opened up the container and dumped it into a glad container that I could keep in the fridge. I read on a website even though they are already hardboiled, you can chuck them back in boiling water for five minutes to enhance the flavor. I tried one cold last night and it was pretty good. It was actually a lot like a boiled egg; the taste was just slightly different. So I can't wait to see what these suckers taste like actually cooked. I know many of you are checking to see if you have a fever as my willingness to try new things must be a delusion brought on by serious illness. Another thing that I was looking for was something called sticky rice. Apparently it's the best kind of rice to use to make onigiri, aka rice balls, and I couldn't find anything that said sticky rice. BJ and I decided to try it with something called sweet rice, and after a happy internet search I found an alternate name for sticky rice is...SWEET RICE! I am thrilled. The basmati rice I tried it with the other day was a total bust, so now I just need to try the sweet and see how it goes. We also saw this awesome BLACK rice at the supermarket. It's also referred to as forbidden rice *convenient ominous laugh.* It has a black-brown color uncooked and darkens to a purple black when cooked and can be use to make...ONIGIRI! Stay posted. On our next episode of Scatterbrained daydreams, I just might have some onigiri photos. Or maybe the post after that...I might get busy... Later!

Bento vs. Bridezilla...Tokyo Smash!!

I've been watching this super cute, warm fuzzy anime lately. Aishteruze Baby! http://www.animecrazy.net/category/completed-anime-shows/aishiteruze-baby/ You can watch it for free at anime crazy, just follow the link. It's a story about this lady with this super cute 5 year old daughter. After her husband dies (unexpectedly) she finds she just doesn't have the courage to grieve for her husband and still be able to raise her daughter, Yuzuyu. So she leaves her, and another family member takes Yuzu over to the Katakura house, the mother's side of that family. Kippei, the high schooler, is charged with taking care of Yuzu, which means packing her a lunch, or Bento, everyday for Kindergarten. You can blame this show for getting me so interested in Bento, or the Japanese Packed Lunch. It would show the whole room of Kindergartners' with all their different bentos, and most of them were beautifully packed with kid friendly foods in very fun shapes. The brilliance struck me instantly. I was an incredibly picky eater, and sometimes revert to that obstinate side of myself, and it was almost impossible for my parents to get me to eat anything except peanut butter and jelly without a lot of fussing and tears. The bento shapes all the different foods into fun faces or shapes like stars, and I am now fascinated with the idea of making onigiri and attaching uemboshi. There are some foods that I don't particularly like, but because of the presentation, I am interested enough to try them again. I want to make bento for myself, and BJ if he would be willing to eat it (might think the whole thing is just silly), and I want to practice making lunch cute! Why would I want to practice, you might ask? Well, with BJ and I getting married, we're having random discussions like, how do you want our future children to be raised? BJ and I both agree we do not want them to have picky eating habits like I did. So the idea of arranging bento for our future children is really a fun idea. So, I've got to practice. I'd rather experiment on myself than my future hapless child. And BJ will make an excellent vict...guinea pig. I've been doing a lot of research and hopefully today BJ and I are going to go to some of the Asian markets so I can pick up some sticky rice, quail eggs, and hopefully some bento stuff.
I like this one...

but I would rather buy one from a store than wait for international shipping from ebay. Thus we must investigate the asian markets here in Atlanta and see how it goes.
Another part of life that demands a great deal of my attention involves *insert fanfare* the wedding. BJ and I are chasing down the various folks who didn't remember to RSVP. About half our guest list is unable to attend. Which, I totally understand, gas prices are terrible and plane tickets are expensive and some people can't get away from work. So BJ and I will probably end up with about 45-ish people there, and we're still happy with the size so it works well for us. And then I'm realizing that people need to me to make hotel reservations, or find them somewhere to squeeze in at the hiker hostel, which is also fine, but there is a limited amount of space, so it's hard to decide who gets to be there and who has to stay elsewhere and figuring out how to say that without hurting anyone's feelings, hence STRESS. But, BJ keeps me calm, and Mary is a big help too. Our Maids of Honor and Best Men are really being supportive and offering to help out, which I love. #1 tip for brides, take deep breaths often, and watch some cartoons, or anime. And please, don't go smashing Tokyo.

Dinosaurs are living above me

I believe that dinosaurs are alive and well in Norcross, Georgia, and I think they live upstairs. I know it may seem a little whiny of me, but I spent almost a year in a single story apartment. Being back in a 2 floor building requires adjustment, and I am not liking the change. I do not understand why they feel the need to stop repeatedly on the floor. Either they are doing very sporadic step aerobics, or the people who live above me are the t-rex family from Jurassic park.
No news on the job front, still sending out applications, but it seems more difficult to find a job after you have a four year degree than before. No one minds hiring a college student, but no one wants a college graduate. Who thought going to college gave you a leg up in the career field? I had this problem after I first graduated too. I couldn't find a professional career in the area for a couple months, nor could I get just a plain old job, at blockbuster. Blech
Excuse me please, I'm going to go get another coke out of the fridge and go have a pity party.

Hold your breath folks, it's time for an update

First of all...Sorry!! BJ and I finally settled into our nice little apartment almost two weeks ago, and we only just got the internet...yesterday. After much time spent on the phone pleading, and complaining, we finally got the internet installed. I find it interesting that there is legislature in place to prevent businesses from obtaining a monopoly, yet service oriented businesses, like say, the internet, are able to monopolize all they want! Comcast is the only cable internet provider that offers service for our apartment. After several company failures to install our service, we fired them and tried to get DSL through AT&T. Despite what the website and our initial service consultant told us though, it seems that AT&T does not send DSL signal to our apartment complex, and neither does Verizon FIOS. So yes, we had to go crawling back to comcast. I understand why that 75-year old woman busted up her local comcast office. In any event, we talked to a manager, who miraculously understood that we did not want to wait until August 21st to get our internet installed, and got someone to us, the next day. Whoever said the squeaky wheel gets the grease wasn't lying. As someone who has worked in the customer service industry, I cannot comprehend the kind of people they have there who when you say, cancel my account, do nothing to try and convince you otherwise. And if it takes almost a month to get service installed, imagine how long it would take to get a repair person to come out. This is me crossing my fingers in hopes that it will never come to that, e v e r. So hopefully, now that I have somewhat regular internet, I will be able to blog regularly again. And as I no longer play World of Warcraft, I imagine a great deal more free time will be coming my way. Maybe I'll do something cool, like learn German...yeah, that's be very cool.
Auf wiedersehen! (means Goodbye)