August 24, 2012

August 24th, 2012

First of all...I cannot figure out how to allow others to make comments on this blog/diary. I have wasted more time than I should trying to figure it out and there just seems to be no way. So if you have a comment/question/smart-ass remark to make, please email it to me at Imbro360@gmail.com and I promise to address it in this space. That said, a quick correction to the post about the spicy hot pot posting from last week. Cousin Sharon advised that the meat that Betty advised was pig penis was in fact, not genetalia at all. Scary thing Betty had no idea what it was and Sharone refused to tell us. Why do people find is so funny to torture us about food? Then you stumble across something like this in the store and your whole world starts to spin. No typhoon day today. Watching them develop and tracking them is a fun family activity. We use this site to track them (and also to monitor the daily swarm of earthquakes) There have been two typhoons brewing the last few days and both were headed right for us. The kids were absolutely ready for a day off from school, but they split apart, one went north and the other went south, and all we are left with is yet another stinking hot day. Here are the kids as I dropped 'em off this morning. Something that is literally bumping me are the thresholds of certain doors. Here is the one into the apartment. And this is from the bedroom to the bathroom Have always assumed that thresholds like these were designed to contain water from spreading during floods, which is useful of course, but I've been limping around for weeks as am continually smashing my toes into them. The one into the bathroom at night has got to be the worst. How many nights have I been sorta out of it from a couple whiskey's and full o' pee, and stubbing into that 2 1/2 inch rise. Something that is not bumming us/me out is Maya Pizza. I mentioned it a couple weeks back, but have fallen hard for their pies. Check out this yummy specimen from last night. That's the # 6...German sausage (the sausage still snaps when you bite into it). Has the thinnest of crusts that is crispy and not greasy (can you see the edges are ever so slightly burned to perfection), and they tape a nickle bags worth of the red pepper flakes to the box top. They are a five minute walk away and the whole pie is six bucks Perhaps I have a touch of food Stockholm syndrome, but I truly feel this is as good a pizza pie as I've ever eaten. We love you Maya Pizza. As with the picture of the kids at school above...Paul is a decent actor and will get into character, but am going to have to work on that Carolyn and her smiling in every snap where I am looking for a specific emotion. Quick consumer report warning against buying this model of Kitchen Aid coffee maker I know I am biting the hand cause they sell it at Costco, but this thing is such a frustation. When we moved, we decided to get a new one as we had our old machine (a Braun) for a good 10-15 years and the glass caraffe was starting to wear thin, but that sucker made a great pot of coffee. This Kitchen Aid's lid has this bizzare screw like feature that holds it onto the pot with a whisper thing latch that looks like it is on tight, but has fallen off on the first pour three times (for me including this morning...Betty says it's done the same to her a couple of times too). And you have to turn it just so to get the coffee to come out and even when all the stars are aligned, it still has a tendancy to squirt a stream of coffee onto the counter (parental warning, don't let the kids type "squirting" into YouTube). Oh yeah, and if you forget to put the pot under the spout before brewing, it won't automatically shut off. Our 15 year old Braun had that feature, so how come Kitchen Aid hasn't glommed onto that technology? I know, it's dumb ass move, but it's early and obviously haven't had coffee yet, so if you tell me you haven't done the same, I'd call you a liar. You are the same person that claims they don't pee in the shower. And the caraffe is virtuously impossible to clean properly as the hole is too narrow to get inside it properly and has lips so deep inside that you can't pour it out properly. I know it's a cliche, but the Germans can design a durable and ergonomically sound and simple product, while the Whirlpool corporation are so enamoured of their own engineering prowess that they don't consider simplicity as a top priority.