We are still smiling in this picture because it wasn't quite the 8th inning when it was taken. Then the Mariners fell apart, of course. How dare they give us seven innings of hope, though. Would have been easier if they just blew the game right from the start like they did during the rest of this series. Bah.
...they come alive!!!!!
I put Spammy in the clothes basket today and put the lid on top. He had so much fun!
It's a lovely weekend so yesterday Kenji and I drove up to Mahwah to do some letterboxing. We found one at the duck pond at Continental Soldiers Park. The name of that box was Duck Pond. Interestingly though we didn't see any ducks there. Instead, we saw and heard a whole flock of noisy Canada geese. We also saw two giant swans, one of which sitting in its nest. I never saw a swan's nest before, so that was pretty cool.
The next two boxes we found were hidden at Ramapo Reservation. The two boxes were called Hawk Rock and Scarlet Oak Pond. Both had been waterlogged, so we were unable to leave impressions of our stamps in their logbooks, but we were able to take away their stamp impressions.
It was such a beautiful day that lots and lots of people were out -- walking their dogs, going fishing, hiking, riding horseback. Oh, and letterboxing. :)
This view is from an outcropping of rocks along the way to the Hawk Rock letterbox:
I got this picture from another letterboxer who found my Bright Idea letterbox on Friday. While they were stamping in, these two little guys came to check out what the letterboxing stuff was all about. :)
For some reason I came across a recipe last week for Chili-Mojito Quinoa Salad on the Boston Globe's web site. I don't often visit that site so who knows how I ended up there but anyway I decided that I would try it sans the onions.
The first cute thing about this was when I went the store today, I almost couldn't find any quinoa. But then I happened to spot the very last bag of it. Just as I was about to wheel my cart away, another lady came down the aisle, scanning all the different grains. Before I took half a step, she asked me if I knew what quinoa was. I told her yes, and that she was out of luck as I had the last bag in the store. I guess her daughter recently gave her some recipe for a quinoa salad... looks like she'll have to wait a little longer before trying it.
The second cute thing was that Kenji didn't know what quinoa was. So he was eating it very gingerly. As soon as I told him that quinoa is a grain that dates back to the Inca civilization he decided that he liked the salad a lot. Prior to that he wasn't sure he liked it because he thought it was some kind of vegetable or something. Maybe next time I make something new for him I'll just say it's a kind of meat. :)
This is also the first thing I've made with the spanky new Cuisinart food processor that Kenji's folks sent us for our anniversary. Not only is it our Tupperware anniversary, but we leanred from Mom and Dad that it's also our appliance anniversary. It made quick and easy work of the mint and hot peppers. Thanks! :)
It seems like every day I am picking up rubber bands and putting them in our miscellaneous junk drawer. I don't know where they keep coming from, because I've been making a concentrated effort NOT to leave rubber bands lying around for the kitties to play with.
So why do I keep finding rubber bands on the stairs, or next to the kitties' food bowls in the cellar, or in the hallway upstairs, or in the dining room next to the scratching post, or wherevers?
I suppose it could maybe be that Kenji is forgetting to put rubber bands in their place. But he's pretty good about putting stuff away, so I'm beginning to think it might be that rubber bands are actually produced by cats. I don't know if they poop rubber bands or what; I just know we never had rubber bands randomly and repeatedly appearing all over the house until we got Spam and Musubi.
I bet the rubber band factory is just a big room filled with cats making rubber bands all day. And when the cats go home at night, a giant Roomba goes around the factory floor collecting the day's rubber band production. I bet that's what you're going to see when Discovery Channel has the How It's Made episode about rubber bands.
We decided this year is our Tupperware Anniversary, because a couple weeks ago we decided we needed some more tupperware-like containers. Since this year we have better things to spend our money on, we decided to go have a modest dinner at Houlihan's and then visit Target to pick up some Snapware or Lock-n-Lock.
On our way home from Target we stopped for dessert at a place called Gimmee Jimmy's Cookie Bar. They have a lot more there than cookies - really tall cakes, cupcakes, cheesecakes, bread pudding, tarts. Kenji had a red velvet cupcake and I had a slice of Heath Bar milkshake cheesecake. They were ok, but nothing to write home about. But still, I think I might like to go back and try one of their cookies or tarts sometime. :)
Four years ago today Kenji and I were in Hawaii, and it was raining really, REALLY hard! Probably at about this time (HST) we were checking into the Hale Koa, wondering what the heck we were going to do the next day if the deluge kept up. All of the Hale Koa's indoor ballrooms were booked for other weddings, and the pavillion where our wedding reception was to take place probably wouldn't offer enough protection from the rain, especially if there was any wind.
Turns out the rain all disappeared for our wedding day and the sun came out and the sky was blue and the humidity just right. And all was good for shoving cake in each other's faces! =)
Last night I went to go dance to the Blue Vipers of Brooklyn in Whippany, and then went to the diner with a bunch of people for a chocolate peanut butter milkshake and some fries.
Around 2:00 a.m. I was just about home when I pulled up to the intersection at the end of our block and saw a white SUV all cock-eyed in the road, with its front end up on the sidewalk.
At first it just looked like the vehicle had just pulled up onto the corner of the sidewalk, and I wondered if they were going to try to rob the little deli that's there - though I can't imagine a little deli would have something worth stealing during off-hours. But as I pulled past the SUV I could see that the building had a big fat dent in it! It looked like the SUV had its reverse lights on and then off. I wasn't sure whether the driver was just going to try to pull away, so I called the police. They came within 30 seconds and so I thought that was a pretty good response time.
I feel bad for the people who own the deli since they are going to have a hard time doing business with the corner of the building all broken the way it is. I don't feel bad for the driver of the SUV... was probably a drunken schmuck.
This is my favorite pizza I made so far. Even Kenji really likes it even though it doesn't have any meat on it.
It's got garlic, olive oil, tomatoes, carrots, raisins, snap peas, almonds, hot peppers, pears and mozzarella cheese.
Sorry, been lazy about posting lately. Last weekend we went to two Mariner games at Yankee Stadium. Now we have been to four freezing cold games so far this season. Mariners lost both games, so they don't deserve to have any pictures taken at their games and posted here.
On Sunday morning I went to church with Tiffknee because afterwards we planned to drive out to our friend Mickey's house to watch Raiders of the Lost Ark in Mickey's little home theater. After the movie we each got to go for a short ride on the Mickey's motorcycle.
After that we came home to Kenji grilling chicken in the back yard. And since it was such a warm beautiful day, we decided to pull out the folding table and have supper outside. Kenji was in charge of the grilling, Tiffknee was in charge of the chicken-cutting, and I was in charge of iced tea and taking pictures. :)
Yesterday I spent the afternoon at Lex's parents' house helping her stuff wedding invitations and for some lunch. By the time I got home, Kenji had already left for work since he had to do an evening shift. So I was in the middle of taking a nap when our friend Gretchen called and said let's go meet our friend Andy for Ethiopian food. The last time I had Ethiopian was five years ago in Boston, so I was in.
We went to a place called Makedas in New Brunswick. The three of us shared a shrimp dish for an appetizer (I don't see it in their online menu and I can't remember the name of it) and the meat sampler for our entrée, which consisted of chicken goo, beef goo, I think some lamb goo, and also veggie goo, corn goo and Gomen Wat (collard green goo). With the exception of the Gomen Wat, I don't remember the names of the other selections because I just sat back and let Gretchen do the ordering, trusting that it would all be good, and it was. The thing I love about Ethiopian food is eating the flavorfully seasoned food with Injera (the spongy flat bread) instead of utensils.
After our delicious dinner, Gretchen, Andy and I tried going to Cydz for martinis. They had some yummy-looking martinis, but we didn't end up trying any. Just before our waitress was about to come take our order we decided that really we were more in the mood for coffee, so we left and went to Starbucks instead. Starbucks had an old Cranium game hanging out. The game was missing its pen and paper, and the play-dough was dried up solid. Still we had fun acting out words and phrases and songs for each other to guess. :)
Today we have to go home -- boo. But at least we'll get to see Spammy,
Musubi, and Tiffknee. Yay!
Update 4/12/8 East Coast time: Now we are home. Since we had problems with getting a stable internet connection for my computer at Rebecca's house, I didn't post as many pictures as I would have liked while we were away. So now I'm going to add them in to the posts I made from my phone.
The monkey pod tree that Kenji is hanging from is at Moanalua Gardens, a privately run park near where Rebecca lives. Moanalua Gardens is home to the famous corporate icon, the Hitachi Tree. Our visit was an unsuccessful attempt to find letterboxes, but we had fun nonetheless.
I couldn't resist taking a photo of Japanese tourists taking photos of the Hitachi Tree. :)
Thursday morning we enjoyed brunch with Rebecca at Duke's in Waikiki.
I noticed this little girl watching Rebecca, and I made the mistake of telling Rebecca she had an audience. Rebecca then launched into a ten minute one-sided conversation with the little girl telling her she should always listen to her parents and that she should not steal $5,000 from them and then run away when she is 15. I think the little girl's parents were feeling frightened yet entertained all at the same time. ;)
Wednesday was a pretty rainy day so we spent most of our time shopping at Hilo Hattie and visiting Ala Moana. We think it's cool that you can now drive through the mall (between the old part of the mall and the new Nordstrom's wing), but the new stuff really isn't all that exciting. However, Shirokiya is still fun. :) I like their pretty new mochi ice cream display.
Before we found the new mochi ice cream display, we had a little bit of eats from the Shirokiya cafeteria upstairs. Kenji was feeling a bit under the weather and got a little boost of energy from a chicken teriyaki musubi. I of course had some peanut butter-filled mochi.
I found a cute egg with chicken legs-shape masher. Of course I had to get it because it says "Mashy" on the package. Plus the package says it's perfect for mashing eggs and potatoes too (little do they know I will also use it for mashing apple and pear sauce).
