Saturday: I should remember not to go to Wegman's on Saturday.

It's super crazy busy.  I suspect the super bowl tomorrow is part of the issue, but it was just impossible today.  The fact that people just abandon carts to wander around doesn't help, either.

But I will be able to make a photo like this tomorrow, because tomorrow is a chili day.

• This is an old story, but he's still an ass.
• Great to hear that that law that people who knew said was going to do more harm than good did more harm than good.

Saturday: I had a plan for today.

Get ramen.

I went with katsudon instead.

Get pork belly so I can cook dinner tomorrow.

Build the bookshelf I bought last week.

Tomorrow, I want to move the bookshelf to where it needs to go, and then unpack more books.  Also: cook pork belly.

I guess this is a piggy weekend.

Wednesday: Meal prep.

taco bird

taco deli tacos.

iced mojo

EX raid.

Deoxys.

Captured.

Murder apples.

Blood red murder apples.

Four ars.

Carrot king.

Electric tank.

Tuesday: this is why I never have recipes or documentation

Because I put together vacation blog posts via phone.  It's hard to type a lot on the phones.

 BBQ.

 Burnt ends.

 Lockhart

 More BBQ.

 Planning.

 Bikini war.

 Cheating at gambling.

Cranberries. A

Monday: "Damn horse is fireproof!"

Legends of Tomorrow is back, and it started off this season at basically the same level of crazy it left off last season.  The team had to go back to Woodstock to prevent a monster from killing everyone, and the monster turned out to be a murderous unicorn that eats hearts and sprays hallucinogenic goo.

This morning I discovered that the sun shines perfectly through my peep hole at this time of year.

I bought steak at the Korean grocery this weekend.  It was good, and I made too much delicious baked potato to go with it.

I also discovered this morning that I'm now within in delivery radius for the new Amazon/WF thing.  $5 for delivery plus ~$5 for driver tip is totally within my "I'm lazy, but want a specific food" price point.  I understand that this is a super lazy thing to do, but since there is no regular grocery near my apartment, this gives me a reason to not spend an hour getting groceries.  Plus: it probably cuts down on my impulse shopping.

In any case, I actually planned out meals for this week.  Steak tonight (and leftover for lunch tomorrow).  Gochujang pork belly tomorrow (with leftovers for lunch Wednesday and Thursday).  Stuffing muffins Thursday (mushroom, shiitake + miso, apple, plain?).

And I know I'm falling behind on Drawlloween.

• Squirrel Girl.
• Jesse!
• Orbit calculator.

Thursday: I don't have a title.

I hope my neighbor's dog doesn't bark all night like it did last night.

I also need to start thinking about Thxgvg soon.  I should buy flights this weekend, and I think it'd be a good idea to revisit my stuffin muffins, since I last did that a decade ago.  In addition to a "regular," I think adding miso to one batch would be good.  I don't think it'll add much flavor, but will add a bunch of umami that will make the stuffing better by itself.  I want to try mushrooms again, maybe starting with dried mushrooms, and letting them reconstitute in the broth.  This should do the same umami thing.

Now I've made myself hungry.

A combination today.

• Jobs.
• I don't understand why these people always seem to think they won't end up murdered.

Sunday: mostly food?

Starting with delicious brunch, in harsh sunlight.

 Then a chunk of the day planning out what to do for Thanksgiving.  We have a plan, and the beginnings of a list, and a goal for tomorrow.

And KoJa is now so close that it's good I don't actually live here. The umami fries tasted a bit different, but that may have just been a combination of not having them for so long and some soggy fries.

I had been planning to evolve this one, but it was in a raid.

A scary monster face that my phone's face detection software found.

"Sleep time is now. Forever."

Toys should be less creepy.

Friday: Chili dogs, then.

So that's a plan, at least.  I also need to spend some time this weekend cleaning up my car.  I'm use to having a bunch of crap in it, since it usually only needs to move me around.

And I guess "daily Pokemon" is the thing to do when I don't take any pictures.

• And I have a bug in my install of Pokemon Go which means I can't click on my trainer anymore without the game crashing.  It's annoying.
• The problem is that when I looked them up, they average like ~$6 a block.  So fine, you can build temporary things, but it's going to be expensive.
• Amazon.
• I should go see this.
• Dog decisions require friction.
• The old fashioned way.
• Truth Coming Out of Her Well to Shame Mankind.  Again.
• I have the thought that the written test at the DMV either needs to get rid of clearly wrong answers, or should be used to identify psychopaths.

Saturday: The confluence of various things

It's not nearly at "James Burke's Connections" level, but it's kind of a similar concept.  First, last week Julie mentioned Chili's, so I decided I might as well try them again.  However, I also ran out of shampoo, so I had to go buy a big bottle of that.  The place that sells that in the mall is next to the preztel place, so when I got to Chili's, I kind of wanted pretzels.

It turns out that they sell those there.  Because...honestly, I assume for people like me who want pretzels, but decided they should get a proper meal instead.  Not bad pretzels, although they really should use better cheese.  Or at least fucking put it under the broiler to melt a bit.  Stabbing a pretzel into nearly solid cheese is kind of pointless.  Also, balancing the cup of cheese between two pretzels is stupid presentation.

Anyway, I had a taco craving, so I went with fajitas.

Also: watermelon lemonade is pretty tasty.

This had a tower of sides, but no spoon or anything, which seems hard to use.  This was part of the reason I went there, since I could get some sort of taco-alike, to replace my original plan to make my own tacos tomorrow for this week.  That choice I postponed until next week, since I guess it's cinco de mayo next week.  So tacos.

Then I went and got groceries so I can make my own tikka masala this week.  That decision was based on the fact that I still have pita bread in my fridge, due to the lamb I was going to eat them with failing last week.  So TM will eat up those pitas.

• Cartoons.
• This was the best Steven Universe episode ever.  Here, just look at the gallery.  Connie is Steven's friend, and Lion is also Steven's friend, even if he (Lion) is kind of a jerk sometimes.
• I hope this series of taunts will eventually lead to more Baman Piderman.
• Food.
• Wait, you can make sandwiches using cinnamon rolls as bread?  That looks delicious.
• Japanese style Mr Crunch sandwiches are a bit weird.  The cheese sauce inside the sandwich?  Won't that be too soggy?
• Other stuff.
• Marcus Aurelius's birthday was today.
• That is a deal.

Thursday: Effective Friday

Crap.  Easter's this weekend.  Ok, let's make the plan this year be to copy two years ago, but do it lazier.  Do the lamb the same way, let the mezgaldi roast in a slow roast manner as well but slice them thinner, then make pita sandwiches from them.  Or maybe just slider style pulled lamb.  And let's say mac & cheese.  I kind of want mac and cheese.  Plus a salad to make the claim of "healthy."

• So this is wikileaks flushing the last remnants of sanity down the drain.
• I also hate the phone.
• More Adventure Time in grown up magazines.
• Nacho truck.
• Huh.  Maybe these should be my strategy for future computers.  Basically a rasberry-pi, but full power.
• These two links are kind of nsfw due to text, but I thought they were funny.
• I'm pretty sure that's not an accurate quote.
• I was basically just scrolling past this one in the rss feeds, until I got to number 3.

Friday: The best fridays are the fridays without work

And today was one of them.  First up, tasty burger from the Counter.  I've been there before, but I've been doing sushi on my trips to Kahala recently, so since today wasn't a saturday, I figured I'd change things up a bit.  Plus, I wanted something spicy, but like chicken wing type spicy, and they have that as an optional sauce for the burgers:

Mixed greens, sauteed onions and mushrooms, bacon, cheddar, on a whole wheat bun. With hot sauce.

I also discovered that they do sell a small size cheese fries, which is good, because I can never finish the big size.

Also, my burger was made of bison.

I then came home, burned through more DVR stuff, and discovered this episode of pokemon where the gang has to all dress up like girls to get into a gym run by other girls, but who only let girls into the gym.  Plus, those girls were jerks earlier, so Team Twerp had to go beat them up and push them into the mud.  Not kidding.  That's what they did.  Don't fuck with Team Twerp.  However, since everyone had to be a girl, they did this:

Yes, they added a cutout to Pikachu's tail so he'd look like a girl Pikachu.  Pansage got a ribbon (because boys can't wear ribbons, duh), and Snivy got nothing, because Ash's Snivy is already a girl.

So, an exciting day for me.  I also went all over town trying to find ground lamb, only to find it at WF.  Unfortunately, they only had a single half pound package.  That's all they had.  Given that I'd already checked three other grocery stores, I resigned myself to having to mix meats, and bought an accompanying half pound of ground beef.

• My understanding is that zerohedge is kind of on the borderline of "fucking loons."  As an example, this post.  If I'm running a business, and need to have more than 15% of my money totally liquid, I'm probably very bad at running my business.  Why have that much cash on hand?  Do you not have income that covers your standard expenses?  Why do you not have that money invested in something more robust than a bank in Cyprus?  You understand how bank deposit insurance works, right?  Can't you distribute your cash into more than one account?  Oh, wait, you're going to switch everything over to bitcoins.  Yes, you are bad at running your business, and are a moron.
• Now I want a corn dog.
• Number 25.
• Jiggly-PUFF!

Sunday: I can see the rain in you, sky. Stop messing around and just do it.

That was one of today's annoyances.  The other was the jackass (or set of jackasses) who have anti-mufflers on their cars, making excessive "ZOOM ZOOM" sounds as they drive up the street outside.  If you can only feel something when you're zooming from 5 to 27 mph in first gear, and then require three seconds to shift into second, you need to find a better hobby.  I suggest "actually learning to drive a damn car."

I didn't know what I wanted for lunch until it wasn't lunch anymore, nor was it even late lunch.  It was just standard dinner at that point.  I didn't want to cook, and nothing really sounded good.  I went to honolulu burger again, and decided against getting a burger in favor of the Philly Dip.  Kind of a geographical mix going on, with the Philadelphia cheesesteak blending with the French Dip, but it was pretty good.  Some complaints (as always).  The steak should have been cooked a bit differently to ensure the connective tissue had properly broken down.  More cheese, fewer onions.  The "basically 1000 island" secret sauce is kind of out of place and just makes it sloppier.  However, since HBC uses local beef, the sandwich works fine with these issues because the beef simply tastes beefier.  Garlic fries on the side, but I should just stop ordering fries here.  I can barely finish the sandwich, and I feel bad throwing away 50-70% of my fry basket.  They really need like a "tiny" size.  Like a McDonald's mini fry bag size as an option with a burger.

Significantly later dessert was some of this delicious black raspberry with chocolate chip gelato.  I added a chocohigo, because I impulse bought them yesterday.  They're more expensive this year, making this dessert about $3 in components.  Still, super tasty.

Lions and tigers and bears! "Dude, I know one of you two decorated our house with these pumpkins.  I'm not even angry anymore, I just want you to be honest with me and stop blaming it on 'some guy in a tan suit.'  I'm not buying that."

Snow fox is bad with cocaine.

• Class warfare in airline classes.
• I hate John Boehner for being an idiot and a coward.
• Cats are jerks.

I also was informed that I answered the questions "wrong" yesterday, because I "didn't actually come up with a full menu plan for new years."  Fine.  New Year's, Appetizer Style:

• Mini crab cakes
• Baked colcannon balls with drawn butter
• Quick fried scallops with a lemon/herb aioli
• Assorted sausages and cheeses.
• Mini stromboli segments.
• Spinach parmesan wontons
• Kabucha tempura
• Fried asparagus, to share the aioli
• Mixed green salad, apple cider/sriracha dressing
• Shortbread, strawberries, and pepper balsamic whipped cream
• Chocolate shells with assorted ices and sorbets.

Seven questions?

1) What Adventure Time character is your favorite and why? 

Ice King. Because he has Wizard Eyes. He also has the best backstory of anyone on the show.  

2) What's the perfect New Year's Eve dinner menu? 

Stromboli?  That's a bit silly, but it sounds good.  Plus it can be sliced up into appetizer size bits (or just made that way to start).  Crab cakes are also a good idea.  Basically, a lot of tiny small bites, instead of a proper meal.

3) If you could go back in time and change your major, what would you change it to? 

I don't know. Archaeology/Classics? That's kind of even less useful than astronomy. Even though I do a bunch of amateur economics, I'm not really sure I'd enjoy doing it full time (and hated the class in college).  However, I really enjoyed the classics classes I took.  It's a shame that MSU doesn't offer most of those anymore, but again, "even less useful than astronomy."

4) Who makes the best chili-cheese fries? 

These were pretty good.  I guess I don't usually get chili cheese fries that often.  

5) What's been your favorite book you've read this year? 

Bayesian Reasoning and Machine Learning.  Kind of a let down, I know, but there's a lot of really useful math in this book that I've been trying to get coded up.

6) What vacation spot would you want to visit in the U.S. in 2013? 

Kauai, probably. It's next on the list of Hawaiian islands that I haven't been to.  I think it's kind of a long weekend thing, whereas the other islands (Molokai, Lanai) seem like they're just day trip things.

7) cake or pie? recipe for your favorite.

Does cheesecake count?  I'm not totally sure this is my absolute favorite, but I have a picture of the recipe ready to go.  It's really super rich, so you have to cut the slices fairly small.