It Started with a Journal

Well, look who's behind again in updating! adelagia and I were just talking yesterday about how we should keep better records because we can't remember what happened when and why. >< WHY CAN TWO PEOPLE BE CHANGSUB? AND WHICH TWO PEOPLE WAS IT? *sob* (Apparently, last time we were in Vancouver with slitherhither, someone said "You can BOTH be Changsub," but we don't know what this was referencing or who said it. Maybe one day we'll even wonder who the hell Changsub is. Just kidding Changsubbie, we'll never forget you. <3)

I mean, my memory sucks. I made Japanese chashu for ramen the other day (using this recipe), and I CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER WHICH DAY IT WAS.

All right, so! Since my last entry, I have watched three more movies, lol. I am now two visits away from diamond status with Regal, which I think is their highest tier.

Movies I've seen:

15:17 to Paris - Unfortunately my wariness about this one proved correct. The acting was painful. They did their best, but THEY'RE NOT ACTORS. They also were not helped by a truly terrible script. I don't know if all scripts are really always pretty bad, and it's really the actors who mostly lift them up, but this was a chicken and egg situation where I didn't know what the origin of the terribleness was coming from. I've decided: Both. It was both. Also, the movie itself was pretty boring. The situation that happened on the train took like 30 seconds, and the rest of the movie was about their lives. And frankly, THEIR LIVES WEREN'T THAT INTERESTING. I totally commend them for everything they did, but no movie ever had to be made about it.

Black Panther - I enjoyed this one a lot more than I thought I would. In fact, I was on the fence about seeing it, but jade_okelani encouraged me to go and I'm glad I did. They even went to Busan! LOL. I found myself more distracted by the Korean and trying to figure out what they were saying than I was by the movie at that point. If I shipped the lead guy with anyone (I've already forgotten his name), it would be with his awesome and cute sister. I also really dug the bad guy, who looked really familiar but I couldn't place him. And it turns out that he played Wallace in The Wire!!!!!!!!! Wow that he turned out like that. Way to grow up, Michael B. Jordan. Ahem, anyway... Oh, The Wire. God that show was good. ( Spoiler. )

Early Man - Ugh, what a huge disappointment this was. I ended up sleeping through most of it. But from the very beginning it wasn't funny, or really that cute (I really could not give less of a shit about soccer; I didn't realize that was what the movie was about), so when I felt myself nodding off I didn't resist. Nick Park's other work is so great; this was a huge dud, in my book.

OK, cooking wise! What have I been up to? Well, I made the aforementioned Japanese chashu, which turned out REALLY well. It was an Instant Pot recipe, which makes it even better. I made two of them, and I froze one of them, but the other is being eaten right now. Sliced thin, it works great on top of ramen, in breakfast sandwiches, or on its own! Really tender and delicious. For my "cheat" item this month, I attempted to make a copycat version of my favorite burger in the whole world, the In N Out Double Double. Thankfully pioneers before me have attempted it before, so I was able to follow a recipe, rather than trying to figure it out on my own. The problem is, I can never get every component exactly right (the exact special sauce, their buns, the ability to make a thin patty without it falling apart...), so ultimately it didn't actually taste like In N Out. In fact, I cheated TWICE, because I still had leftover meat (I know part of the problem was that I was using lean bison, instead of fatty beef); the first time, I was unhappy with the special sauce, so the second time I tried a different recipe, and it was better. But honestly my burgers tasted more like Shake Shack burgers than In N Out. And Shake Shack is good, but not as good as In N Out. It looked pretty good though (but bigger than it should have been):



I was happy with the way the onions came out. In N Out dices them so finely, and it's always tricky to get it to caramelize without burning or being too pale. But the recipe I used has a good method for doing it right.

In a couple of weeks I'll be going to NYC on a work trip. My boss already had me make reservations at Momofuku Ssam Bar, and even though there's only 5 of us, we wanted to order two group dinners, one for the bossam and one for the duckssam. Yes, it will feed like 12 people. They don't even allow you to reserve it that way on their site. I had to leave them a message, and then this morning I got an email from them with A CONTRACT. This is a first for me, having to sign a contract for a dinner, lol. Basically it was to say that if I didn't cancel 48 hours ahead of our reservation, we would be charged for both ssams. When I told M. about it he was like, "Did you say 'I'll need to have my lawyers take a look at this'?" LOL. C. and I will also be staying an extra day. While we're there for work our hotels rooms cost $400/night, which is way too spendy for me, so we got rooms at a different hotel in Times Square for only $150/night. On the other hand, if you're looking to go to NYC right now, tickets are super cheap! Seattle to NYC was only $350! Anyway, we are very much looking forward to going back to the Korean BBQ restaurant we loved so much last time -- Jongro. We hope they sell t-shirts because WE ARE GETTING THEM. We loved everything about the experience... the food, the service, and the trick they do to flavor their soju. :D Actually last time we were there we both drank too much and had to go back to our hotel rooms and sleep it off for a few hours. >< That was... not so good. Also C. will be off of his stupid restrictive diet that he's on right now by then, so yay. Of course, I am also not supposed to be overindulging, but it's NYC!

Speaking of overindulging, progress has slowed to a crawl for me on the diet front. Yes, it doesn't help that I have had a number of not-so-awesome moments when it comes to my food choices. But. That said, I don't want this to be a thing I can't sustain. I need to be able to indulge from time to time, or this won't be sustainable. That ALSO said, I need to not feel like I can indulge so often, and to make healthy choices more frequently. That's why I'm starting this thing (the second In N Out copycat burger was my last hurrah) where I'm going to try and cook something vegetarian 3x a week. I'm primarily focusing right now on the Thug Kitchen cookbook, which is vegan. I don't really care about being vegan, so I will use the ingredients they suggest as much as I can, but if it's like "use liquid aminos" I'm going to use soy sauce. And "vegetable stock" will be whatever Better Than Bouillon flavor I have open. It's more about eating more vegetables and grains and such than it is about not eating meat. I figure if I focus on a vegetarian recipe, at least it'll get me mostly there.

On the exercise front, the good news is that I have not yet faltered in exercising daily. I don't know if I can keep that up forever, but I feel like missing even one day might cause me to fall off the bandwagon completely! My endurance is a lot better than it used to be, but the problem is twofold: 1) I can't keep getting up earlier and earlier to exercise, so even though I could go for longer, I don't; and 2) even if I did have more time, I don't know how much I'd be able to use it, because even with what I'm doing, I start to get that numbness you get when you've been in one position too long, in my lower extremities. My workout time is about an hour all told, when you include stretching and the crunches and what not I do after the cardio stuff. So I'm pretty happy with that. I'd like to get in the habit of doing it twice a day, but so far that's been a no-go. :)) One is because it's the last thing I want to do when I get home from work, and two is because I don't want to have to take another shower!

I feel like I had more to say, but it's escaped me and I've at least talked about the movies and cooking so I bid this entry adieu.

I have been watching all the things. And doing some cooking, too.

I am currently having a really brutal morning, beginning with the fact that I have a visit from Aunt Flo, and she has brought with her a lot of pain and fatigue. Like every third or fourth cycle, it is particularly fatiguing on the first day, to the point where I can nearly fall asleep at the wheel while driving to work. And today I can't even duck out early because I have a bunch of meetings. UGHGHGHGHGH. Meetings scheduled for Friday afternoon are THE WORST. All I want to do is go home and sleep forever. 나는 자고 싶어요! 너무 피곤해요!

Anyway, I'm hoping writing this entry will help me stay awake in between meetings.

On the diet and exercise front, things are going well/as expected. Though if truth be told, I was kind of hoping to make more dramatic progress during the first month, because I feel my habits are SO different from what they were before. It's, as previously mentioned, a little demoralizing to have improved my habits so drastically but not see a drastic change in results, but that said, I haven't been entirely rigid with my diet, either. I want it to be sustainable, so I don't deny myself treats here and there, and I am not nearly as restrictive with myself as I was when I first did this, many years ago. I am simply being more responsible with my choices, and at least thinking about what I decide to eat before I eat it. I have been exercising faithfully every day, including this brutal morning, so I really can't fault myself on the exercise front. However, it just adds to that sense of disappointment that I haven't seen dramatic changes, because seriously, compared to how I was before, it's like night and day! Sigh.

This weekend is the Super Bowl, and other than rooting for the Patriots to lose, I don't really care. Still, I'm using it as an excuse to make chili in the Instant Pot, which will be nice during this cold and rainy weather, and because I haven't made chili in a long time (and never in an Instant Pot). It's comfort food! I also have to put together a coffee table that I bought from someone at work. It might be a little too big for the space I have planned for it. >< I am the worst when it comes to measuring ahead of time for furniture I buy. :/ I just assume it's going to fit like how I see it in my head, and that doesn't always work out.

Okay, so on to the things I have watched recently. Due to MoviePass, I have seen a bunch of movies. :D jade_okelani and I have watched a few of the Oscar nominees, including the two which seem most likely to win, as well as some fun movies just because. Some years, I've already seen many of the Oscar-nominated films, or are at least interested in seeing most of them. This was one of those years in which I had only seen one (Dunkirk), and the others I either had never heard of or didn't have any interest in.

Maze Runner: The Death Cure - Mostly I wanted to see this in order to support Dylan O'Brien. :D I am so, so relieved that he has now recovered from his on-set injury, and the movie also seems to be doing very well at the box office, so yay. It's not the best movie in the world, nor had I expected it to be, but my bar was pretty low going in, so I was very pleasantly surprised. Maze Runner was one of those book series that I enjoyed... until it started going in a direction I did not like. And I hoped, hoped that the movie version would actually fix it, though I didn't have that much hope, because these days the movie versions of books seem to try and stay true to their source material. But happily, THEY DID FIX IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( Spoilers. )

Disaster Artist - It is a travesty that this movie was not nominated for Best Pic, because it's what deserves it the most. It was fascinating and hilariously funny. I can only assume it wasn't nominated, despite winning the Golden Globe for Best Comedy, because Hollywood cannot stand the idea of giving an Oscar to a movie about someone they deem(ed) not worthy of being in their ranks. James Franco is a weirdo, but also a genius. For every really dumb movie he makes, he also makes something equally amazing, like 187 Hours, or Disaster Artist, or even Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I loved watching him and Dave Franco act together; after the first few scenes, I totally forgot they were even brothers.

The Shape of Water - This is apparently the leading contender for Best Pic, and I cannot support this. It was beautifully shot; the look and feel was top notch. For a good half of the movie, possibly more, I really loved it. And then it went downhill. ( Spoilers. )

Jumanji - This was the perfect movie to see with MoviePass. It's the type of movie I'd never pay actual money to see, and yet it looked enjoyable enough that I would probably like it. So with MoviePass, I have the perfect freedom to see it without feeling like I'm wasting money. ( Spoilers. )

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri - Oh man, I loved this one so much. It definitely has my vote for Best Pic. Seems like it's the second-most-likely contender, but as far as I'm concerned, it's a crime if it actually loses to The Shape of Water. It's looking like Frances McDormand is going to get another Oscar, and Sam Rockwell will get his first. AND THEY ARE BOTH SO WELL DESERVED. ( Spoilers. )

Coco: I had never even heard of this movie before Jade suggested a few days ago, lol. I don't know how Pixar does it every time, where they can tell a heartwarming story about family in a mostly unique way that reduces me to a sobbing mess. LOL. I really enjoyed this one, even though going in I knew next to nothing about Los Dios de los Muertos.

WHEW! That is a lot of movies. :D Because of MoviePass I'm also now Ruby status with Regal Rewards, and all the points I'm racking up will go toward movie treats I'm not allowed to eat and tickets I no longer need to buy! LOL. Maybe for a treat one day I will have a popcorn. I don't know why movie popcorn with that fake butter is so delicious, but it is. :/


Now, when it comes to drama watching, mostly I have finished things that I was already watching, only one thing here is new.

- Strongest Deliveryman: I love Go Kyung Po, and I like a nice-guy hero, and I generally liked the story, but it was simply ridiculous that he would have been responsible for everything that they gave him responsibility for. ( Spoilers. )

- I'm Not a Robot: I don't know why Korean dramas find it so hard to end things in a super satisfying way, when they know from the start how many episodes they have to work with and in theory have a story arc in mind. But once again, a K-drama goes out with a whimper rather than a bang. It wasn't bad; it just wasn't as good as it could have or should have been. The show peaked at ep 28, I think. ( Spoilers. )

- Shopping King Louis: Still in the middle of this one. I'm enjoying it a lot, though I keep picturing Sungjae in SIG's role. :/ DAMN IT, 성재. ( Spoilers. )

- Descendants of the Sun: I've decided to quit this drama. I've given it a fair chance; I finished ep 12. I cannot watch 6 more episodes of it. IT GOES NOWHERE. The plot and the relationships never seem to actually go anywhere. It's the same push-and-pull cycle in every. single. freaking. ep. I'm not particularly fond of the main heroine, and even though I love Song Joong-ki, even he cannot keep me interested. Maybe it's all of the overly drawn-out speeches in English that his character is forced to have, maybe it's the fact that he keeps having to save her stupid, headstrong, reckless ass (she reminds me of Bella from the Twilight series), whatever it is, I'm not into their relationship and I'm not into the story. I like the secondary pairing a lot more; I love the actress, and the actor is okay. But they, too, suffer from the same boring cycle of we will-we won't that is plain TIRESOME. Both of these couples are constantly sort-of getting together and then breaking up again, and all the manufactured angst is not believable nor compelling. I mean, clearly I'm an outlier here, because many people loved this show (as they did Goblin, the other universally loved show that I did not enjoy). But whatever. I'm DONE with it.

- Travelers: God, this show. It makes me so insane, and yet the story/plotline is compelling enough that I can't make myself stop watching. I just finished S2. ( Spoilers. )

- The Great British Baking Show: I finished S1 and have just started S2. I liked the S1 bakers a LOT more. The S2 bakers are constantly injuring themselves, making stupid mistakes, and also don't seem to be as nice and supportive toward one another as the S1 bakers were. My only issue with S1 was that the person I wanted to win, didn't. In fact, I thought the person who won should have finished 3rd overall, but whatever. ( Spoilers. )

- Rebel, Thief of the People: I've only finished the pilot of this sageuk, but I like it so far. I've only actually seen the adult main characters for a few brief moments; I wasn't into the male lead, and the female lead is, once again, Chae Soo-bin. She's apparently in everything these days. This is another one where I'm going off the rec of Drama Beans.


As for food, I have made:

- Croissants: I tried the shortcut version shown on Food Wishes. It actually turned out fairly well! They didn't look perfect, but they tasted great. I made both plain croissants and ham/cheese croissants. The only problem was that even though I only baked a half batch, it still made 8 croissants, and we could not finish them in a day. Yet after the first day, they lose their crunch and basically turn into highly caloric dinner rolls.

- Parmesan cheese crisps: I had a huge tub of Parm in the fridge because Costco. I can't even remember what I purchased it for, and wasn't sure what to do with them. And then I thought -- of course! Delicious cheese crisps! They were super easy to make and are extremely delicious. Not so great for the diet, though.

- Murgh makhani (Indian butter chicken): Made this in the Instant Pot using chicken drumsticks, and it turned out really well. However, I think it was definitely excessive with the butter. I'm going to try a different recipe at some point that will hopefully be more aromatic and less buttery.

- Chana masala: Also made in the Instant Pot! I even made my own chana masala powder, which required roasting a bunch of different spices. However, the end result was AWESOME. I've always said that if I had to become a vegetarian, I could maybe do it with Indian food.

Subject line: From The Disaster Artist, but first from The Room.

Exciting news: I finally won one of my fantasy football leagues! I was in three of them this season, one of which I ended up placing nearly last, the other which I ended up somewhere in the middle, and of course, the one where I placed first. Woohoo! The winnings from that league was $400, so not too shabby.

I've started a new drama. It's call Stranger/Secret Forest/Forest of Secrets. It's another suspense/cop/prosecutor drama, and the premise itself, of an emotionless prosecutor (literally; he had a partial lobotomy as a kid and now can't feel emotions) teaming up with a spunky cop to catch a killer, would probably not have caught my interest. The reason I'm watching it is because it was selected by Drama Beans' editors as their best drama of the year, and for that reason I'm willing to give it a shot. The other drama all the DB editors seem to be watching and enjoying is I'm Not a Robot, so I feel vindicated in my enjoyment of that one, lol.

Oh, and I also watched the pilot of East of Eden, which came out in 2008 and man, really feels its age. K-drama has come a LONG way in a decade. Anyway, I started it because Song Seung-heon (from Black) is the star in it, he won the Daesang for his work, and the show itself is quite famous. But it's suuuuuuuuper soapy, lol, and as I said, feels its age. So I'm not sure if I'll be able to go on, or if I do, how far I'll be able to go (I might be able to get through at least Kim Bum's scenes... he plays the younger version of Song Seung-heon's character.)

Before Christmas, I noticed that one of my front headlights was out, after receiving a notice from Lexus saying that it was a known issue with my particular model of car, so would be eligible for an extended warranty. I also got a notice about some other important service they needed to perform, but the dealership said that they needed to get parts to perform the service and would call me when they came in. I didn't want to have to take my car in twice, so I was going to have them perform both services at the same time. Welp, that plan was shot to hell last night. When coming home from noraebang, my OTHER headlight went out! Argh. It was quite scary to have the road be completely dark when in areas without streetlights. I turned on my high beams, annoying the cars on the other side of the road, and when turning them off in order not to blind them, would get flashed at to tell me my lights weren't on, annoying ME. Hello, you JUST saw my high beams on; maybe put together that I'm trying not to blind you, idiot. In any case, I have an appointment scheduled for tomorrow at the dealership to get this taken care of; I hope it's quick and easy. :/

In cooking news, I have now made triangle kimbap (삼각김밥), and it is DELICIOUS! I'm not the biggest fan of rice, though I've grown to like it more as I've aged (I really disliked it as a kid). It's still not my favorite, but somehow when you add seaweed to the equation, it all combines into something super yummy. So far I've made two types: tuna mayo and spam and egg; my favorite is definitely the former. Since making real triangle kimbap involves using seaweed covered in plastic (to keep the seaweed crunchy), I've started making it with normal square seaweed that's slightly too big for triangle kimbap. It doesn't have a negative affect on the flavor, but it's a little messy. However, Japanese onigirazu is apparently the same thing, only made into a square shape (more reminiscent of a sandwich), so maybe that's what I'll be making from now on.

I've also made miyeokguk (미역국), Korean seaweed soup. Koreans typically eat this on their birthdays or after giving birth, but it's a healthy and delicious soup so it can be eaten all the time! And it's so easy to make!

Today I also made hot and sour soup for the first time. It was super easy, but it didn't taste like I was expecting. I'm not sure what it is -- it's still good, so I'm not disappointed with the result; I just don't get what it's missing. I've reviewed several hot and sour soup recipes, and they all generally use the same ingredients, so nothing obvious seems to be missing. Granted, my mom doesn't like bamboo shoots so I didn't use those; it's possible whatever flavor component it brings is what's making me feel like the soup doesn't taste "right." But I also don't feel like that's the answer. Oh well.

I am on a kitchen goddess ROLL. I've gotten pretty good at making jajangmyeon, if I say so myself (and I DO, okay). I've made it four or five times now, and I've got it down to a science. So delicious! The only negative is that I can't seem to find the right noodles to use. I'm using fresh Korean noodles, but I've tried various kinds and they're all a little too thick. Besides, jajangmyeon is a Korean take on a Chinese dish, so the noodles should actually be more Chinese-style. There's apparently "jajangmyeon noodles" labeled as such out there, but I've never been able to find them. :( (In related news, jade_okelani ate jajangmyeon for the first time and now understands what all the hype is about.) The other day I also made chicken tamale pie, and that was reallllllllly good also.

Never let it be said that I neglect dessert! I've also made two kinds of ice cream: vanilla with chocolate stracciatella (basically, chocolate chip ice cream) and chocolate almond walnut. Sooooooooo good. I recently had a disappointing experience with a store-bought ice cream, and decided to make my own. There was one summer when I was making ice cream constantly, but it's been awhile, so I was a little rusty. The custard for the vanilla one seemed a little dicey initially, but after straining it, it turned out great. Next up: I'm going to try and make my favorite sea salt with caramel ribbons ice cream from Salt & Straw. ( My experimentation so far. )

jade_okelani and I are sooooooooo **HEARTEYES** over Park Hyungsik it's not even funny. We just LOVE HIM in Strong Woman Do Bong Soon, and love the show, period. Yes, it has its flaws. But they're easy to overlook when there's so much else we enjoy! I'm both happy and sad that we started watching while it's airing. It's such a great show to look forward to, but it's sooooooooo disappointing when there's no new episode for another week. The problem is, when we decided to watch SWDBS in real time, we had expected to like Goblin a lot more (or I did, at least), and not expected to like SWDBS quite so much. Sigh.

Isn't this an awesome shot of Park Bo-young and Park Hyung-sik? She looks so much better with her normal dark hair like she has it in everything else I've ever seen her in. I'm not sure why Bong-soon has to have the light brown/orange hair, even though PBY is so attractive she can pull it off anyway.



( SWDBS spoilers through ep 8. )

The main theme song from SWDBS is sung by Jung Eun-ji! <3!! I love her voice.

I'm giving Reply 1994 another shot. jade_okelani and I started Reply 1988, but we got to talking, and it seemed to make sense for her to see at least the pilot of Reply 1994. If she could take it, then I could probably get through it with someone else to watch with me, and then we'd be watching things in chronological order. The interesting thing is, on rewatch, I actually do like 1994 better than I did before! Maybe it's watching with Jade, or maybe it's just having the distance from 1997, which I loved sooooooooooooooooo much. I'm not as bothered about the parents being the same actors, and even Go Ara doesn't annoy me as much. I'm still not a fan, but I don't dislike her as much as I did the first time around. This also bodes well for my plan to watch Hwarang (for Park Hyungsik). ( Spoilery comment. )

One of the shows that's on our watchlist, that must now be bumped up, is She Was Pretty. Why? Because in episode 9, there are cameos from Seo In-guk AND Park Hyungsik!!!!!!!!! If they are on screen at the same time, I might actually not survive.

I was forced to buy a new iPod because my old iPod, the discontinued 120GB one that I got yeeeeeaaars ago, stopped working after the latest iTunes update. It was super annoying, but I've had issues with it over the years, I don't actually need 120GB of space on my portable music player, and I figured this might be Apple's way of stopping support for it once and for all. And by "stopped working" I don't mean that it literally stopped working. I can plug it into my car or any speakers, and it will play fine. However, iTunes and my PC can't read it, so I can't update it. In fact, I thought I might have to wipe the whole thing and re-input all my music, which I've had to do several times before, but I can't even do that. It's basically a time capsule at this point, with only the music I've put into it before March 2017. :P Part of me wondered if I should just be patient, and with the next update of iTunes, it'll fix itself. But like I said, I just figured it was time to get a new iPod, so I did. Only days after I got it, however, I learned from adelagia that she only got her new iPod last year, and the same thing happened to her! So... WTF!

Anyway, what's done is done, and I don't really regret it. I liked that I was able to personalize it with an inscription on the back (I used a song lyric, since it's an iPod!). I like that it uses a touch screen. And I LOVE that I can connect to it via Bluetooth from my car and wireless headphones. So, all in all, despite being resentful of Apple for breaking their own shit so that I can't use it, I'm not sorry I upgraded.

Subject line: Bong-soon's Mom to Min-hyuk, in order to manipulate him into joining them for breakfast.

The budae jjigae was an unqualified success! adelagia and I both, surprisingly, enjoyed it. She felt that the American cheese was an unnecessary component, while I felt the same way about the baked beans. I like hot dogs, but wasn't too impressed with what they brought to the stew. You know what was surprisingly good, though? The Spam. :/ It turns out Spam is DELICIOUS. Dang it. It's really salty and full of umami... it's no wonder so many people like it. I've always thought of it as being this disgusting thing, because, well, canned meat -- it was clearly something only desperate people would eat during times of war. WWII was, after all, when it became popular. And it's the name of allllllll our unwanted email! Buuuut I kept hearing about various peoples who enjoyed it. The Hawaiians, for example. And while watching K-dramas, I'd see it here and there (pan-fried slices of Spam were Min-seok's favorite dish in High School King of Savvy). And now I know why! It's got to be horribly bad for you, but it's delicious, that can no longer be denied. Here's a gif of it bubbling merrily away. :D



I was also really happy with the mung bean sprouts. There were SO MANY, OMG. I waited an extra half day to harvest them so that adelagia and I could cook them fresh, but they grow very quickly the last couple of days, so they were SO TALL by then. I'd been keeping them in the oven, then the microwave (you're supposed to keep them out of light) with a wet paper towel over the top, but by Day 6 I just had to keep them out in a dark corner because they were too tall. You're supposed to water them every 3 hours, but I wasn't extremely religious about it; I tried to keep to that schedule (easier to do when on vacation), but just did it when I remembered and always kept the paper towel covering them wet so that they would keep moist that way too. Since they were all packed into the tub I couldn't really tell how tall they really were, or what color they were, etc. They weren't as plump as I might've liked, but I was really pleased by their length. It's weird though that homegrown bean sprouts have their "bean" parts still attached, but when you get them in the grocery store, they're not (whereas soybeans always have the crunchy bean parts intact; that's why my mom prefers those and I prefer mung bean sprouts). Anyway, also because they were so packed in, I couldn't tell how many of them there really were. And OMG there were a LOT. About 4lbs worth. Washing them (so that the green skins would wash away) was the most onerous part of growing my own, honestly! I hadn't expected that!

( Pictures! )

All in all, a very cool experiment. It took constant care, but it was extremely simple and easy, no soil or anything required. adelagia and I each made sukjunamul-muchim from a pound of bean sprouts, and put a bunch of them into the budae jjigae, too.

I also made a sandwich that is supposed to be Korean street food; it actually turned out really well. >< It's basically eggs fried with various veggies, then put between two buttered pieces of toast along with sugar, ketchup, and mayo. O.o Sounds disgusting, right? I fully expected it to be, but it was actually really tasty. I didn't use as much sugar as called for, though, and instead of a slice of ham I just cut up some Spam (since I had some) and put it in with the veggie mixture. I tried it with and without American cheese; it tastes good either way. Oh and -- it appears that she uses Kewpie mayo, though she doesn't actually specify. Since it's a dish originating in Asia, given Asia's obsession with Kewpie mayo (and it's not just Asia, but legit chefs everywhere), I can only assume that's the type of mayo used on the streets of Seoul. Since I only had regular mayo on hand, I made my own version of Kewpie mayo by diluting regular mayo with rice vinegar, sugar and MSG. (No, MSG is not evil. And though that fact has been "thoroughly debunked," the conspiracy against it has been too vast to overcome. Same goes for egg yolks and Spam. :P)

( I've also been watching more K-dramas... )

I also finished S2 of The Man in the High Castle. I enjoyed the season, particularly as it seems they haven't really given up on the Joe-Julianna thing. Either they want to keep it at a slow burn, which I'm fine with, or maybe they won't end up together at all, which I could also see happening. ( One quickie spoilery comment. )

My new Apple Watch arrived last night! It's sooooo pretty. I got the one with the rose gold plating and pink/blue band. I'm still figuring it out, but so far I've been happy being able to check my email, and I can tell that having Wunderlist on it is going to be awesome. I chose one of the Minnie Mouse variations as my watchface. :D (Min-seok has a Mickey Mouse watch, so I told jade_okelani that I was just like him now! LOL.) Her hands point to the time, but since it's digital, she's even dancing a bit and her foot taps out the seconds! So cool. However... I was in my open space office this morning, and I touched the watch somehow -- I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT I DID, there was nothing about this in the instructions and despite all my playing around last night, this NEVER HAPPENED -- and suddenly Minnie Mouse said in her squeaky little voice, "It's 10:30! Good morning!" and everyone stopped typing. So then I was like, "Haha, oops" and could feel myself turning red. :))))) HOW/WHY DID THAT HAPPEN!!! Why you do me like that, Minnie?!

This weekend, adelagia and I made kimchi! :D We are totes ready for when we're dating and/or married to Onew and Seo In-guk, respectively. LOL. (Links go to pics of said celebs, in case you're curious.)

Here's adelagia mixing up our batch. I had a HUGE tub, so there's more kimchi there than it might seem. More than six pounds worth!



I also made buchu (Asian chive) kimchi and dwaejigogi-bokkeum (spicy stir-fried pork), both of which were AMAZING. Soooooooo delicious. I only have a pic of the pork pre-cooking because I was too hungry to remember to take a picture of it after it was cooked. >< Also, I didn't have a pound's worth of pork belly, so subbed some shrimp instead. ALSO DELICIOUS. I think you could easily substitute with firm tofu for a more healthy version... which I may try in the near future. The buchu kimchi is a little too salty, which may or may not be because I didn't have enough chives... I halved the recipe, but I was using older chives, so I had to weed out a lot not-so-good ones. Anyway, I will probably use less fish sauce next time.



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One of my Christmas gifts to myself arrived today, and I'm soooooooooo happy. I love American Giant's stuff, especially their Essential Full-Zip Hoodie. I have several of the Classic, as well, but I like the lighter weight and softer feel of the Essential.

ANYWAY... Recently, they came out with a new product, a stadium blanket. I saw the email about it, but wasn't able to actually take a look until two hours later... and they were all sold out already! GRRRRR. A few days later, they said they'd made a limited quantity available again, and I was able to nab two in the only color that remained at that point, a heather navy. I would link it, but it looks like they're totally sold out now, and have even deleted those webpages. Sheesh. Like all their stuff, the blanket is really well made, heavy with quality material, and very warm. <333333

(I was going to link a promo code for 15% off, but it looks like it can only be sent through email. So let me know if you want it! And of course, I get something out of it as well, natch.)

I'm a big blanket person, kind of like Linus. Even when I'm not cold, I like having a blanket on me. It just feels so much cozier! Anyway, I have a lot of blankets.

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Watched another episode of Descendants of the Sun. I'm actually still OK with the show, despite the fact that, as expected, the two leads are already "broken up." It helps that I like the male lead, and the female lead isn't super annoying.

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I wasn't going to take any time off during the holidays -- other than the days off that everyone gets -- because it's a super quiet time anyway, and I was thinking I'd save my vacation days. Only... it turns out that I have so much vacation saved up (I can only carry over a year's worth, which for me at this point is 200 hours/5 weeks) that I would be forfeiting over 43 hours if I didn't take it! Which would be intolerable. So now I'm going to take Wed/Thu off, as well as all of next week. I still might be sacrificing a few hours, but that's better than 43. I don't work for free, yo.

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Speaking of work, we did a white elephant gift exchange... only I had my annual physical during that time so I couldn't actually participate. I contributed a set of R2D2/R2Q5 salt and pepper shakers and an R2D2 measuring cup set. (I may have little use for Star Wars, but I know other people love it, so that stuff makes for good anonymous gifts.) My manager played for me, and he had told me ahead of time what he'd gotten for the exchange (a cast-iron fondue set). Since they were going to allow "me" to go last, thus being able to nab whatever I wanted, I told him that that's what I wanted. I figured it was a safe bet -- I didn't know what random crap other people were going to bring, and I don't really trust my manager to know what I'd really want, so it seemed the most prudent course of action. I still need to get it from him, though.

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My December beauty boxes have arrived! I know, it's once a month but seems so much more frequent, doesn't it?

( What this month brought! )

Wow. Words can't express how sad I am. Earl Thomas, my fave Seahawk, had to leave tonight's game early due to a broken tibia, and he tweeted that he's considering retirement. Honestly, he should do whatever's right for him... I love watching him play and there are certainly more important things in life than football. However, I also know how much he loves the game, and for him to say that, it probably hurts him more than it hurts me, which is what makes me sad. He's so passionate and crazy and I love that about him. I also think that whatever chances the Seahawks had in the playoffs just went down dramatically. They just aren't the same team without him; that's the plain, unvarnished truth. Look how horrific they were last week without him. And now the most important part of the Legion of Boom might not be back (certainly not for this season). :( Get well soon, Earl!!

I had a pretty productive day. It really helps when the Seahawks game is in the evening, because then I have all day to do what I need to do, and then watching the game is like a reward. When it's in the morning or middle of the day, it not only takes out that chunk of daylight, it also can affect my mood for the rest of the day, depending on how they do! Sometimes I'm too depressed to do anything than sit around like a slug!

Anyway, so I:

1) Made Pad Thai! I used Pailin's recipe from Hot Thai Kitchen (watch the video). She's like the Maangchi of Thai food. Other than fish sauce and peanuts, sooooooooo many of the ingredients were not a part of my pantry. It was worth it though; home run on the Pad Thai! I was eager to try her recipe, because a number of years ago, I had authentic Pad Thai -- which wasn't red, from ketchup or tomato paste or paprika or whatever it is that American Thai restaurants put in it to make it that color -- and it was so amazing that I'd always wanted to have it again. Making it seemed super arduous, and yet it's been surprisingly/depressingly difficult to find a Thai restaurant that actually makes authentic Thai food that doesn't cater to American tastes. The best place I've found in Seattle (actually, recommended to me by a Thai coworker) is Thaiku. But it's alllll the way in Phinney Ridge, so I can't get there regularly. Most Thai restaurant food is way too sweet for me. I mean, Thai food should be a little sweet. It's got a very well-rounded flavor profile, where everything is supposed to have elements of salty, sweet, sour, spicy, etc. But sweetness seems to be the predominant flavor of most Thai food in restaurants. :/ ANYWAY, after getting Pailin's recipe book and watching her video, I realized that Pad Thai wasn't hard at all; it was just a matter of getting the right ingredients. It was simple after that!

2) Made Vietnamese spring rolls! Okay, so this I've done before. It's also really easy and a matter of having the rice paper and all that. What I hadn't done before was make the peanut sauce that usually comes with them, from scratch. I made both nước chấm (a fish sauce-based sauce) and the peanut sauce... surprisingly -- though really, it shouldn't have been -- the peanut sauce was far more savory than I'm used to from restaurants, and it was delicious. I was a little meh on the homemade nước chấm; the recipe I used didn't call for any lemon or lime juice and I think it needed that element.

3) Built a cat washroom! :)) WTF? you might be thinking. Well, this was one of those things I ran across during Black Friday, and I was like, omg, this is brilliant! Must have! It hides the litter box, and I also bought a really good litter mat to put in it to help with not having bits of litter scattered all over the laundry room. At the same time, I also got a Litter Genie, which I wish I'd known about before. I always have issues with litter bags, and this thing supposedly even masks the smell of the litter, so bonus if that's true. The only problem is... it's wider than I expected. (This is what comes of not measuring before you buy something.) I was originally going to put it in front of the washer/dryer, with the Litter Genie and box of litter in the "hidden corner" next to the dryer. It would have been a nice setup, because from the doorway you wouldn't have been able to see any cat litter paraphernalia at all! But it juts out further than expected, so there's danger of hitting your hand on a sharp corner when loading the dryer, which means now I've put the washroom in the corner (with just enough room for Jaime to get in and out), with the other stuff exposed like they were before. :/ And now it's going to be (even more of) a pain clean the litter box, because I'll have to pull out the bench in order to open the door to pull out the litter box. >< Me and my great ideas...

I also woke with a sore-ish throat. It's not like my typical sore throats, it just... feels funny. Don't know what that's about, but I hope it clears up by tomorrow. :/

Good news, the lemon meringue pie was a success taste wise, as well! Woohoo! Of course, it's best on the day it's baked... after that the crust starts to get soggy. Le sigh.

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You know what's not a success? The Seahawks. Especially versus the Rams. Gawd they were awful. Other than Rawls and the D, I sat every Seahawk I had in my FF lineups. I know all too well how much they suck against the Rams. I don't know what it is, why the Rams can be so terrible with every other team in the league (getting shut out by the depleted 9ers? Seriously?!), and yet always have the Seahawks' number. Always. This is like the fourth time in a row they've beaten Seattle while somehow losing to worse teams. Rams, you do you. As for the Hawks, well -- I wouldn't have felt good about this game regardless, given the history, but with Russell hobbled, there was just no way.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU HAVE NO REAL BACKUP QUARTERBACK AND YOU INSIST ON NOT PROTECTING THE QB YOU DO HAVE WITH A HORRIFIC OFFENSIVE LINE.

Deep breaths. Deep breaths.

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Okay, but you know what has been surprisingly successful so far? My fantasy football teams! BOTH of them have been doing really well. I'm sure that's all about to change, but for now I'm enjoying WINNING, for once. Last season, inevitably if I won with one team, I lost with the other. Or just lost both. ><

This season, I've won all my matchups thus far (so, 4), particularly surprising because in my ESPN league I'm usually projected as the underdog. But last week I got the highest score among all teams, and this week I got the 3rd highest. I'm really meh about my upcoming matchup, though. It's against the person I'm tied with in the division, so one of us is going to come out being the division leader and the other will... not. Unfortunately for me, they have a really strong team, including Antonio Brown. I hate going up against people who have Antonio Brown. -.- It's like you just sort of have to pray that they don't cream you too badly (or that he has an uncharacteristically bad game, like he did last week, but will that happen twice in a row?!). Also, he has Greg Olsen, who I have on my Yahoo team, so it's like, do I root for Olsen to do well or not?! Urg.

On my Yahoo team, I'm in first place in the standings so far, due to how well my team did this week. Totaled 151.96 points. My matchup was the "biggest blowout" of the week, lol. Second-highest score this week was 127.86, so I was comfortably ahead of everyone else. I DON'T KNOW HOW THIS IS HAPPENING. But I like it. Anyway, the only players on my team to score single digits was my D (Pats -- but they were close, with 9) and Allen Robinson, who laid an egg yet again. Like, you're supposed to be elite dude, stop sucking. I'm going to sit him this week in favor of Stefon Diggs, who has had two strong games (he was the highest scorer on my team this week, not that it counted)... and done me no good at all, since I had him benched both weeks. You know, of course, that this means Robinson is finally going to breakout and Diggs is going to whimper out of relevance. SIGH. FF is so maddening. (Also, I dropped Travis Benjamin to waivers last week because he had a bad first week outing and I needed the space for a backup QB. Someone else picked him up, and OF COURSE he immediately posts a great game. GRRR.)

Anyway, I'm also going up against a strong opponent in the Yahoo league. He has Cam Newton, Matt Forte, and Seattle D. -.- He also has Theo Riddick, who is on my ESPN team. The ideal scenario for me is if Seattle and Riddick do well, while everyone else on his team sucks. At least with Cam, I have the hope of countering his points with Greg Olsen. If Olsen is Cam's target for many passes and especially TDs, I can partly neutralize Cam's outrageous number of points. They're playing against a pretty great D, though, so we'll see.

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Instead of torturing myself by watching the Seahawks vs Rams game, I instead went apple picking!

( So many freaking apples. )

Got an email from Birchbox today to ask me what my September box preferences are; I now have a lot more clarity on how the customization works. On a monthly basis, you get one of three choices:

1) Total surprise box - You don't know what any of the 5 samples are going to be, but they will tailor it based on your beauty profile.
2) Surprise + 1 box - You get to choose one sample from a selection they give you, and the other 4 will be based on your profile.
3) Know all 5 samples - They tell you what the 5 samples are.

I'm not too crazy about this month's "known" samples, so I'm going to go for the full-surprise box.

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I've done something probably crazy, considering how my first experience turned out, but I have 3 more paintings from Afremov coming. I don't know what they look like; it'll be of their choosing. All I know is that they are original paintings.

Here's my thought process: I clearly like his original work more than the recreations, and these were reasonably priced. I specified that I preferred landscapes and flowers over people and music. If I don't like them, I can return them at their cost. So I feel like there's very little risk involved; they clearly pride themselves on their customer service. The worst thing that would happen would be that I would have to get some unwieldy paintings mailed back; since FedEx should be able to pick up, I'm willing to see what comes of this venture.

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Football season is around the corner, and that means fantasy football is starting up again, too. I can't even remember how I did last season. I seem to recall that while I didn't win any of my leagues, I also wasn't too terrible. That could alllllll change this season.

Edit: Apparently I actually placed 3rd in one of my leagues! Well, that's exciting.

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OH LARDY, LARDY.

I have a lard issue. This weekend adelagia went with me to Chef Shop, a local artisan food shop, so that I could pick up some rendered Mangalitsa leaf lard. I'm subscribed to their newsletter, and the latest issue was all about pie baking (mmm). I've actually rendered my own leaf lard before, but it was a long process and it made my house smell like pork for days, everything I used to make it was greasy for a long time, etc. This lard was reasonably priced and high quality, so score!

There was some confusion with the front counter people about the lard -- which one it was, the size, etc. They asked if I was planning to bake that day, and I said no (the lard was frozen solid, so how could I?!), I paid, and we went on our merry way.

Well just now I got a call from the shop, very apologetic, saying that they had given me the wrong lard. They had given me just regular lard, not the Mangalitsa leaf lard, and hoped I hadn't baked my pies yet. I said that I hadn't (thank goodness). The plan now is for me to go pick up the right lard sometime this week, and they said I could keep the lard I had. (On the one hand, I was glad they said this, because for sanitary reasons alone, that should be the case. They would have no way of knowing if I'd kept it at the right temperature, etc., so if they'd taken it back to sell to someone else, I would feel really skeptical of them as a food store operator. On the other hand, I have zero use for regular lard, especially four pounds of it, so I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with it. I feel bad just throwing it out, though.) Also, apparently, they have new pricing on the leaf lard, so I'm actually going to get a credit on my credit card for the difference in price. So, other than the pain of having to go to Seattle twice, it's worked out OK.

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I forgot to mention in my LA post that I tried Lyft for the first time! I've added those details now, in case anyone's interested.

Normally I look forward to Fridays, but this week I was looking forward to Thursday, because today is the pre-screening of The Martian! Wheeeee! Should be fun. We've been told that there will be no snacks provided. Boooo, what sort of ghetto screening is this, amirite? What they should do is give us cold, raw potatoes to eat, just to keep it real (on Mars). ;)

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Speaking of eating, my mom and I have been trying to eat at home more often. She really dislikes cooking, and I don't have time to cook, so we end up eating out a LOT, which is both expensive and unhealthy. Anyway, there are some dishes she makes that I always liked as a kid (she does traditional Chinese cooking, usually), and since I'm a more adventurous cook than she is, there are some dishes I've made that she's never attempted. I really liked what we had last night! ( More deets. )

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My piano finally arrived! Can't remember if I said that already. ( Anyway, here's a picture of it sitting in the basement: )

I hope it's going to be okay there once winter hits... so cold and damp. :/ In a couple of weeks, after it's had time to acclimate, a piano technician is coming out to tune it. It probably also needs a good cleaning, which I'm hoping he'll be able to do at the same time. I thought about putting it off until I moved to a new house, but who knows when that'll be. And I'd like to tinker around on it, but am a little afraid of playing it right now given all the delicate parts and knowing there's prob a ton of dust and crap on the inside. So might as well just get it tuned/cleaned and do it again later when/if I move.

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I have run into another snag with the story I'm working on. It's not necessarily a bad snag, but... ( Let me explain. )

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Subject line: Jake Peralta to Amy Santiago in Brooklyn Nine-Nine 3x01