I love doughnuts!
There's such a variety of them. Yesterday was National Candy Day. We still have quite a bit of candy leftover from Halloween, so managed to celebrate it without thinking about it...
I think he actually lives there. At least his present self. The school is in the background. Thought it was a nice one for my birth month.
I found a vid with Hibird singing part of the song (they were having a talent show):My spice calendar features ginger this month. I like ginger in certain things. It seems to change taste to me depending on what it's in and/or how much is used. Ginger tea is nice and refreshing. It's good in stir-fries and ginger beef, as well. I don't like when there's too much ginger in something. It's too...sharp, or raw, or something.
Apparently, this spice has been used since before recorded history, so no one knows exactly where it originated. But, it most likely originated somewhere in India. It also mentions the history of it, wine pairings, and simple recipes. My Jewish calendar features a Torah shield. The maker is unknown, made out of silver-gilt, from Germany; 1912-1913. It has 2 lions holding up 2 tablets with an intricate design around them in the middle. Above them, in the design, is a curtain canopy with bells supported by pillars on the sides. Very interesting design over all for it. There are real bells hanging from the bottom of the shield. Looks like one is missing. There's also a laver. (Like, a water pitcher.) The maker is also unknown, made out of copper, from the Netherlands; 1847. It has a fancy looking handle coming off of it. And, finally there's also a kiddush cup. (A special cup used during Shabbat, and other holidays.) Made by Johann Beckert III, out of silver-gilt, from Augsburg, Germany; 1690-1694. There's an inscription around the rim, that I can't make out. Very interesting design, too. I like seeing the old stuff.
It's very interesting. The month-long holidays are: Georgia Pecan Month, National Peanut Butter Lover's Month, National Pepper Month, National Pomegranate Month, Movember, National Native American Heritage Month. Some are important causes, some are to make you appreciate things you may take for granted, and some are just for fun. I love all the food related ones! Movember is important, too. It's moustache and November put together. Or, as some call it, No Shave November. It's an event involving the growing of moustaches (or 'mustaches') to raise awareness of prostate cancer and other male cancer. They say the goal is to "change the face of men's health". Movember started in 2004, in Australia and New Zealand. It's world-wide now. In 2011, Canadians were the largest contributors to the Movember charities. A great cause. Native American heritage is important, too.
Well, my birthday's in 2 days! Can't wait!
Even if I won't really celebrate it until the weekend, it's still exciting! Not sure what I'll be doing for it, but it should be fun.
Hanukkah starts the night of the 27th. Which means the first day is on Thanksgiving. There's been a big hoopla online and even on the Colbert Report about that. I've heard it won't happen again for about 80,000 years. The funny thing is for Jews from other countries, it's not a big deal since they don't have Thanksgiving then. (Some might celebrate their own on other days. Like Canada had theirs last month. Or, they might not have a Thanksgiving.) There's even a menurkey. A menorah shaped like a turkey. We're going to a friend's house, like usual for Thanksgiving. Since they're Jewish, it might also have a Hanukkah theme. Occasionally, they have had Hanukkah parties. So, this should be interesting.
Hanukkah lasts 8 days. Halloween was interesting. I wanted to go as a character from my novel, Alliance, named Sin Petra. She's a medusa. She's also a demonology professor. Found out that I couldn't wear the long wig that was black with green highlights without a wig cap. Didn't have a cap, so I decided not to wear it. Maybe she dyed her hair my color or something...
(Although, my hair color is pretty unique.) I was able to wear my old formal long black velvet dress. Funny thing is how great it fit, and yet I didn't think I was down to that size. I had forgotten how much it hung down revealing more cleavage than I'm used to.
Even though I have a bigger chest than when I first started wearing the dress. Almost felt like I'd fall out on top, but luckily didn't. The long gloves were obviously made for people with bigger hands, and very slim arms.
But, it got better after a while. I think they just needed to be worn in. I put a couple of rings over it, and an evil eye bracelet. Had a thin silver chain belt like thing around my waist. I searched for other shoes, but felt that my black wedge shoes were still the best. Also, wore a green and silver necklace, and pumpkin earrings. Had a few kids tell me they loved my costume.
A little over an hour after the trick-or-treaters started coming by, we went out to dinner at Applebee's. Haven't been there for a while. The kids were still trick-or-treating, but at least this way we got to keep more of the candy for ourselves...
I went out in costume, and saw quite a lot of other people did as well. Including the staff at the restaurant. We shared some boneless honey BBQ chicken wings, which were really good. I ordered their fettuccine Alfredo with their new fried chicken in a honey-pepper sauce on top. I had wanted their 4-cheese macaroni and cheese with the new chicken on top, but apparently they put bacon in it. They even use it in the sauce, so it'll still be there even if they leave out the pieces. That sucks.
The fettuccine was barely dressed. Usually it's drenched and has way too much at other restaurants. Odd to have the opposite problem. Just looked and tasted like they just had plain noodles and put a little butter on them. The new chicken was pretty good. At first it seemed too peppery, but eventually it grew on me.
That part had quite a bit of sauce. Seemed strange, but good in the end.On Saturday, we went to the mall to order my contacts. The person who did the eye exam the week before was kind of odd. Very nice, but I don't quite believe half of what she said.
At least I think she got my prescription correct. Apparently, my left eye has changed quite a bit compared to last year's exam. After we ordered them, we looked at the clothes that were on sale. I saw 2 sweaters that looked really nice, and tried them out. Both fit me nicely!
They were slightly big. I didn't think I would fit into them, but apparently I really have lost more weight than I realized. I got one of them, since both of them together would have been a bit more expensive than I would've liked. (Even though they were close to half off.) I got the light tan-ish colored ribbed sweater. It has gold glitter-like stuff all over it. The 'ribbed' part is kind of nice with varying width between some of the 'ribs'. I like it a lot. I'm wearing it at the moment. Feels nice and comfy.
Since I cleared out a lot of my wardrobe, I'm really low on fall-ish/wintry clothes. So, this is good. Sunday, I went with Dad to her electrolysis appointment. Got to study quite a bit of Japanese. Got to do a couple of games, talked a bit with some of the other people who were waiting, and noticed they had cats living there. One of them kept asking me to pet it. It got scared of the other people every so often, and ran through and out of some kitty doors. It seemed kind of surreal to see a cat there.
After that, we ate dinner at a new Indian/Nepali restaurant in town. The one that we liked, Himalayan Chutney, closed down. This new one moved into the same space. So, things looked a lot like before, but slightly refurnished. They are the 3rd restaurant I've known about to open at that spot. Hopefully, they'll stay for a while. This one's called Delhi Palace. It had only been open for 10 days, when we asked how long its been since they opened. They let us have some papadams on the house, since they're so new. They were pretty well done. Their chai was pretty good. We shared some vegetable samosas. Those were really good, too. I got my fave, which is also kind of what I use to gauge how good an Indian restaurant is, and that was chicken tikka masala. I love the stuff. The one from before was really good, but almost like a soup. Had a lot more sauce than chicken. Not entirely filling. But, this one on the other hand was more stew-like. Much more thick, and had a lot more chicken. It was a lot more tangy, and kind of pickly. Really good, and much more flavorful.
Also, shared some garlic naan. Since the naan was taking a while, they gave us another plate of rice on the house. They seemed a bit more with it than the other place. The naan was pretty good. Wasn't really greasy, crisp yet a little chewy, and you could really taste the garlic. I liked the other place, but I kind of feel like this place was much better...They deliver. So, we don't even have to leave the house to eat it. Wrote some more of the 2nd story of my nightmare anthology. I know this one will end soon. I think it's a bit more interesting than the first. Certainly more detailed. I've really expanded on those 3 dreams that I combined for this one. Played my clarinet yesterday. Did the rest of my advanced Mozart pieces, and some of my regular solo book. Wasn't too bad.
日本語
Studied more compounds for the kanji: 代. 上代 or じょうだい (joudai): ancient times; (nominal) retail price. 世代 or せだい (sedai): generation, the world, the age. 先代 or せんだい (sendai): family predecessor, previous age, previous generation. 総代 or そうだい (soudai): representative. 当代 or とうだい (toudai): the present age, these days, (present) head of the family. 年代 or ねんだい (nendai): age, era, period, date. 本代 or ほんだい (hondai): money for books, payment for books. Wrote out more of the You Maga article I'm translating. Read an article in Japanese on Asahi's website about how some restaurants in a mall were misleading customers, by using ingredients that were altered from what was on the menu. Like injecting their shrimp with beef tallow. Or, using totally different ingredients than what were listed. Apparently, 6 stores were involved. The main company didn't know this was going on. Interesting article.
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