National Peach Cobbler Day!

Mood:

This was actually on Monday, but it's one of my fave types of cobbler!I don't see it too often at restaurants, and only occasionally at our local markets. (Like, it's a seasonal thing...) I think cherry, blueberry, a mix of berries, apple etc. are a lot more common. I love peaches in pretty much any form, though.It was National Pecan Day on Tuesday, which is one of my fave nuts. It's a close tie with walnuts. Yesterday was Yom HaShoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day. I used to be obsessed with that when I was around 10 up to my early teens.It definitely should be remembered, but what's happening currently (with the Jewish community around the world), for better or worse, is also important. I like to think about more of the positive stuff now. Life is important too.Today's Bat Appreciation Day. Bats are awesome! Glad they have a day devoted to them.

Weather has been a bit odd lately. Monday was rainy, cold, and there was a sight fog. Dark and gloomy looking out. A few days before it was actually somewhat warm. It was cold for most of the rest of the week. Heavy downpours at times. But, at other times, it was sunny. Which was very deceptive, because it made it look warm out.

I managed to get one of my 2-mile walks in yesterday. It felt so nice!The sun was shining, but it was still cold. I went after dinner, so the sun was just starting to set. The mountains looked amazing. They were bathed in a golden foggy glow. The flowers smelled amazing, too. I didn't bump into any of my neighborhood friends, but a cat jumped out of nowhere to greet me. It certainly startled me.It really wanted to be petted. Towards the end, there were more people out. One lady managed to keep up with me when we first met, but did a weird loop-de-loop around an area I usually just walk all the way around. I actually ended up being much faster than her, and when we met up again (she's was actually walking the wrong way), she said: "You're fast! This is quite a work out!" The weird thing is I was going at a somewhat leisurely pace, taking in all the stuff around me.I get a lot of people that tell me on my walk that I'm really fast by myself. I don't know...My 'leisurely' pace when I'm by myself is what I've read to be a brisk walk. Sometimes I feel like going faster, though. It depends on how I'm feeling, and if the music I listen to during them is really energizing/fast/motivating/etc.

I'm doing 20 sit-ups twice a day this week. I feel like the sit-ups are working again. Yay!Also, trying to stick more to the way I want to eat, again. During the holiday I was a bit more lax about it. 

Managed to make every dish I had planned to during Passover. They all were pretty good. Friday night, for Shabbat, I made leek and potato patties from Rhodes. Basically, big and thick versions of leek and potato latkes. It was my first time cooking with leeks. Very interesting. The potato took a lot longer to soften enough to mash than what I expected.(Longer than what the directions mentioned, too.) Luckily, I started pretty early, so it didn't matter as much. I did it early as a precaution, too.They were finished just in time. Not too late or early. Had lots of garlic, which is always a plus to me. 

For lunch last Saturday, I made 'Mina de Espinaka' or Matzah and Spinach Pie. It also had feta. So, it was very similar to spanakopita. This is traditionally made by Greek/Turkish Jews during Passover. I had to scale the recipe down from 8 servings to 1-2 servings. Since there wasn't enough matzah to cover the edges of the pan, it made a golden egg ring around the whole thing.That in itself was interesting. The matzah ended up being kind of hard still (even though they told me to soak them in milk until they were soft beforehand), so it was easier just to hold pieces of it rather than eat it with a knife and fork. It went everywhere, but it was so good!If I were to make it again, I'd add even more feta to it. Parts of it were lacking a bit. 

The holiday ended at sundown during that day. I was starting to go through a bit of withdrawal.Legs didn't feel good, I was getting dizzy, antsy, things weren't sitting too well, and more. So, I really needed a lot of chametz at the very least when it ended. We went to Red Robin to celebrate the end, and for a 'chametz fest'.I got their fish sandwich, side salad instead of fries, and Dad and I had an onion ring tower to share. The sandwich was pretty good, but it looked like it was twice as big as usual.The fillets were huge and had lots of breading. The bun was nice and fluffy. The onion rings were just right with the breading and crispness. I asked for bleu cheese dressing for my salad. The salad itself was good, but their bleu cheese dressing's intense. Similar intense flavor as what's on their Bleu Ribbon burger. After that we went to Safeway, and grabbed cream filled chocolate covered donuts. After not having chametz for so long, they were even more 'heavenly' than usual. So good!A feel so much better now that I'm back to eating normally. 

On Sunday, Dad went through some more of the junk we had in the garage that was on top of a coach. For years, we've piled up junk like fried electronics, dead fans, lamp shades, and other stuff on top of that coach. (It also needs to go, after everything's taken off of it.) She found one of my boxes filled with stuff from when I was in college. Some of the stuff I forgot about. So, it was kind of like a treasure chest.I thought I had lost my little James Dean poster, but it was in that box. There was a grogger or noise maker we use during Purim, only I don't remember ever getting it.It's wooden, colorful, and looks old-fashioned. I'm keeping that, too. Found a dreidel that used to light up and sing as you spun it, but the batteries are dead.It's still a nice dreidel, though. Also, found my bouncy dreidel. It has a big windy pink spring at the bottom, the body is purple, and you're supposed to wind up the top (it's pink and purple) then press the big yellow button and watch it fly. It still works. I remember that it was slightly hazardous to play with in my dorm room or in the hallway.Sometimes I'd let it go from my bed (in one of the dorms I stayed in), which was at the highest part of a bunk bed (there wasn't a bottom part, so I had to climb every time I wanted to go to bed or study up there). It was cool to see it jump up as high as I was and bump into things. Also found my toolbox. I thought I lost it a long time ago. I also didn't remember that my emergency sewing kits were in it. (I've been looking for them for a while.) The tools themselves looked like they were barely used. So, I'm definitely keeping them. There was a piece of paper filled with nice comments from people who were on my dorm (it was a different one, I think) floor that was given to me on my 21st birthday. It was really sweet.I had forgotten about it, too. Just for sentimental reasons, I'll probably keep it. Also, found an old pic of Buster and another of Shadow. Buster was our beagle, and Shadow was a snowshoe cat. Both of whom have passed away.So, I'm keeping those pics, too. They were nice pics of them, and it's good to remember them by. Although, with one of them, the corners are falling apart. 

Dad stuffed a lot of the junk we didn't want in the car, filled it as much as she could, and we took it all to the dump. It was kind of cool to watch how far things flung when you threw stuff on the 'pile' there. Broke a few things when they hit it. Felt kind of good to do.There's more stuff to go through in the garage, and we'll probably go to the dump again at some point to take care of them. We went to Starbuck's afterwards, and I had an iced chai and chocolate chip cookie. I was hungry, and it was really good. 

Later, we went to Safeway to stock up on things. Had dinner beforehand there. I got a rice bowl with sweet and sour chicken, a chicken egg roll, and a drink. The rice is kitniyot, so it was nice to get back to that, too. The sauce to my chicken was very sweet, and there wasn't much 'sour' to it.Most of it went into the rice rather than on the chicken. The person who filled up my order, really drowned the stuff with it. She's always a bit odd. She loves my hair, and usually says so. It feels like it's in a creepy way, like she wants it for herself...The egg roll was slightly burnt, but really good. A neighborhood friend showed up after we had eaten, and tried to talk with us. Neither of us were all that into talking, and she seemed to ramble on and on about things. (Some things that got on my nerves.) She eventually stopped and asked about something, I sighed, and said it's a long story. She seemed to get the picture, and left not too long after that. That's like the 2nd or 3rd time we've bumped into that person at Safeway's lounge area, and all those times it was while we were eating...

Dad spent some of her spring break at home this week. She just left for Arizona really early in the morning yesterday. She's going to have her 2nd and last phase of GRS or Gender Reassignment Surgery done on Monday. I sadly won't be going with her this time. Hopefully, everything will go well.She called me during the early afternoon yesterday saying she made it, and that nothing crazy happened on the way. Although, apparently they took her through a separate line through security. She didn't have to take her shoes and jewelry off. Didn't have to take her laptop out, either. She doesn't really know why she seemed to have special treatment...But, that still sounds cool and a nicer way to go through. She's taking a few days off after she comes back from Arizona to recover. I think it might take a while, even though it's a bit more minor. They said it's a 2-hour surgery. The 1st phase was about 5 hours. I'm still nervous about how things will turn out, but I think she's with good people. The nurses were incredibly nice to me. Hopefully, she'll also get to sightsee a bit before the surgery. 

I went over and edited the first 2 short stories of my nightmare anthology on Monday. They're better than I remembered them to be. Now even more so. I think they were written in 2 very different styles compared to the rest of the stories. Which might make it interesting.

日本語

I studied the kanji: 漁, 共. When 漁 is pronounced as 漁る or あさ.る (asa.ru): to fish; to look for, search for, hunt for, scavenge, scrounge, look through, rummage through. As りょう (ryou): fishing, gathering seafood (e.g. clams, seaweed). ぎょ (gyo) is only used in compounds, not by itself. 共 pronounced as とも (tomo): (pref) together with; same; (suf) (uk- usually in kana not kanji) both, all, neither, none; (uk) including... As ども (domo): (suf) (humble) first- person plural (or singular); (derogatory) 2nd and 3rd-person plural (implies speaker is of higher status than those referred to). きょう (kyou) is only used in composed, not by itself. As 共に or とも.に (tomo.ni): (uk) together, jointly; (uk) (often as ...とともに [totomoni]) at the same time, with, as..., including, along with; (uk) both. Next time I'll go over its list of common compounds. There's a lot. I might be on this one for a bit. But, it's especially important to go over the really common ones, too. 

I went on JapaneseClass' site a few times already this week. Mostly went over the practice stuff. Had a lot of long 'combos' during it, and made it into the top 20 for the day every time. Not bad. Next time I want to spend more time on chapter tests. I'm trying to go back over old ones to get perfect scores. Also, to understand the ones I missed a bit better. Also, looking more at their entries for every kanji, vocab, compound I don't know. They give definitions, pronunciations, how to draw them, what searches look like on Google for that term (that's always interesting to see), practice sentences, news related to it, and other things. It's pretty extensive, and has recently helped in my understanding of them more. 

It's not where I go to when I study normally for each kanji. That's over a few sites. The main list comes from a wikipedia article that has all the jouyou kanji. They're basically the most common. They are a baseline that the Japanese Ministry of Education compiled to be taught for students in primary through secondary school, and list of characters that are permitted on official documents. People who are learning the language focus on it for studying kanji, too. There are 2,136 kanji on the list. (There are a lot more kanji characters out there.) About half of them are taught in primary school, and the other half are taught in secondary school. I've made it to about halfway through what they study in 4th grade. They learn a lot of them by this grade...For every entry, there's usually a bit of history. Plus, how the Chinese use/pronounce it (with different ways in different dialects), as well as the Koreans (they have how they convert it into their alphabet), Vietnamese, Japanese, and a few others. They list their common compounds, occasionally the expressions, and more. It's a pretty good base for it. For every entry they also have a link to more compounds. 

Translated more of a You Maga article I've been going through. I think I have 2 more long sentences to this paragraph. I try to translate it as close to the original meaning as I can. It's very interesting. Read some more articles in Japanese on RocketNews24's original site. I've been reading their English articles for a while, and thought it'd be interesting to see their view on things. The English version focuses on a 'foreigner' perspective, while the original Japanese site is more 'local' centered. It's a slightly different feel. 

Went back to the 2nd season of Hamatora on Tuesday. I'm apparently coming back to a really intense part in the series.It's been a while since I've last watched it. They may have killed off Murasaki, but we're not sure. You're never really sure with any death in that series...Art seems to be becoming indestructible, and has turned a bit crazy to say the least. His number one goal is to kill Nice, although we don't really know why. They used to be really close. People seem to get a bit of a complex around Nice, because he seems to be the best out of all the Minimum holders. Many have tried to become better than him, but have never truly beat him. Art's come close several times during this second season. 

I started watching the new anime called Kekkai Sensen or Bloodline Battlefront last week, and was a bit unsure of it. I really ended up liking it during the 2nd episode this week. It's very interesting, and there's still a lot of unanswered questions.Even about their world as it is and how it came to be. It takes place in New York City. One day it vanished overnight into a mysterious fog. It's now known as Hellsalem's Lot. A breach between Earth and other 'worlds' has opened up over it, trapping New Yorkers and creatures from other dimensions in an impenetrable bubble. They've lived together for years in a world full of crime. A secret society called Libra was formed to keep the 'balance' in town. They all have some sort of special power. Leo, who's a journalist and photographer, is mistakenly recruited into the group. Eventually, they realize his potential, and keep him as a member. He traded his eyes with one of those 'creatures', in exchange (I think) for his sister's life. He can see things no one else can, confuse the enemy by sending out light-based illusions, and other things. He's not the best at fighting, though. He normally has his eyes closed, too. I was wondering why until they talked about him exchanging eyes. His current eyes look really alien-like. I think most of the time he tries to protect them by squinting and sometimes wearing goggles. He has a special monkey, too. They're apparently known for stealing and are extremely fast. (They first met when the monkey stole Leo's wallet.) No human eye can see him when he's running, but Leo can. Many characters are voiced by seiyuu or voice actors who voiced characters from Gintama. So, it's really funny to hear familiar voices coming out of new characters.Plus, this is going on at the same time Gintama came back. And, I think the actress who does both Kagura from Gintama and Happy from Fairy Tail, voices a character in this one. That's 3 happening at the same time. She sounds super busy. But, good for her, if she can do it. This show has a certain jazz-like feel, and I think they also captured a bit of NYC's atmosphere. The animation is really great, and the fight scenes seem to be unique and interesting. Still feels like I've barely scratched the surface with this one, but it's good. 

I'm still unsure about Arslan. I'm not sure why I can't fully get into it.The animation's really top-notch, the story's interesting, and so far I like Arslan himself. I think some of the other characters rub me the wrong way. Some of the characters are drawn a bit oddly, and don't really seem to fit with the other characters' style. It's of course pretty dark. That's to be expected, since it's not the happiest story. I think it may be darker than Fullmetal Alchemist, as far as the story goes. Although, FA was pretty heavy and dark. Feels more 'real', too. The humor seems to be lacking, as well. At least with FA, there was quite a bit of that.I'm only comparing them this way, because they both were created by the same mangaka or manga creator/artist. And, I'm not comparing them based on their specific story lines, because they're quite different. I might drop this one and go back to another anime I've put on hold. 

Went back to watching Haikyuu yesterday. I'm close to finishing the 1st season. Apparently, the 2nd season starts in September. Kind of interesting considering I'm about a year late to it. It'll be interesting to see how the season I'm watching finishes. It's not as great as Kuroko no Basket, but it's good. Both are sports anime. Kuroko no Basket is based on basketball, and Haikyuu is on volleyball. 

I finished reading Pandora Hearts' manga. It was very long, trippy, amazing artwork, kept you guessing the entire time, so many twists and turns, you really start to feel for every character (no matter how twisted they are...And, trust me there are a lot of demented characters in it), some Alice and Wonderland elements, and more. It was a lot better than the anime ended up being. The anime started off just like the manga, but seemed to rush it, and made their own story halfway through. In the manga, they essentially saved the world at the end. There was a point where they made you think that Oz and Alice would never return from the Abyss. Gil managed to outlive most of the other characters since he's a Baskerville, and waited for 100 years for Oz and Alice to come back. They did at the very end. Gil didn't seem to actually age, even though I think the other Baskervilles did. It was a good ending. They got rid of Jack in kind of a gentle way, too. He admitted that he was wrong about Lacie wanting to bring both worlds together. She just loved both worlds as they were, and didn't want to change that. He thought that she was waiting for him, and he'd do anything to fulfill what he thought was her wishes. It was kind of sad in a way. Jack's spirit left his body, and Oz seemed to be able to keep Jack's body. That body will never die out, but is continuously being 'reborn' every time Jack would reach the age he was supposed to die at. His soul would be eaten away a little bit each time. Oz was originally just a plush rabbit, but the Abyss gave him life, and his soul was put into Jack's body when Jack was about to be reborn for the last time. Before he occupied the same body, he was Jack's Chain. Basically a creature from the Abyss that would be like a familiar to its owner. It fights for them, and is forced to obey them through a contract. 

Since I'm going to be alone for Shabbat dinner, I decided to get something only I would love.Dad hates cheese, but I love it. She's not allergic/lactose intolerant, just doesn't like it. I think that's starting to slowly change, though. Anyways, I got a frozen 3-cheese tortellini with pesto bowl. It sounds so amazing!I love tortellini! Shabbat dinner is a little more 'special' compared to the rest of the week. Although, we do have some great dinners normally. I decided to get some blueberry scones for dessert tonight, and for the next few days after. They smelled so good, and I don't think I've seen them too often at Safeway. That'll be awesome, too! They're huge!