National Hamburger Day!

Mood:

This is actually tomorrow, but I made hamburgers tonight.So, why not celebrate early? I actually had a hankering for one a few days ago. Probably because of Memorial Day. Dad and I were thinking of having either hot dogs or hamburgers for it. We got all the fixings for both. Ended up having hot dogs that night. Hamburgers are awesome!They can be made out of beef (like most are), vegetarian ones, turkey, salmon (really tasty, and I don't have it often...), chicken, etc. It's rather versatile. (Plus, some have more flavors inside the patty.) I love cheeseburgers, which aren't very kosher.If I do end up eating a 'true' kosher diet in the future, I might use the salmon or vegetarian ones with cheese instead. I got a mix of bleu and Colby Jack cheese, and they said it'd go great on burgers. So, I tried it on mine. It was really good. It's something a little different. Had it in a sandwich earlier, and it tasted pretty good too. Pickle chips are pretty good on them, too. I don't think I truly have a preference as for which kind.Sweet, dill, etc. doesn't really matter. They're all good to me. Having burgers you make at home tastes better than at a fast food place. To me, at least.Can't really use our grill, so I used their frying pan instructions. I could have broiled them, but I wanted to try out this method. I had some BBQ beans with it. It was the Bourbon and Brown Sugar ones. They're really good, and don't have pork in them.Also, I had a salad with it as some sort of green for it. 

Went to the Northwest Folklife Festival. It was fun.Went to a klezmer jam session. We thought the title Klezmer Jam meant a band's name...It was interesting, but they had long rests between songs. For a snack after that we both had a piroshky. Dad had the vegetable one, and I had the beef and cheese one. I haven't had one in a very long time, but the last time was probably also at Folklife from the same people.I think I had the vegetable one back then. This was good, too. It had a little too much pepper, and was messy halfway through, though. 

After that, we went to the Hungarian Dance Showcase. There was a segment on Romanian dance, and since I'm part Romanian and don't know much about it, I thought it'd be cool to see. Most of the Hungarian dance part was just so-so. Their last dance I think was interesting. The Romanian and Bulgarian segments were cool. A lot more energetic, fun looking, and everyone had a role in it. 

Went to the Thai dance show after that. We got to the room they were at a little early and watched some of the Irish dancing in the meantime. I'm also part Irish, but know more about them than some of the other places my family came from.I could have sworn they had little lights lit up and blinking on their costumes.I thought they were sequins at first, but when they were standing absolutely still the 'light' was still moving. Interesting. The Thai one was kind of unimpressive.Sad, because I remember the videos we watched in my World Music and Anth 101 classes featuring their dances. They looked cool on there. 

We went to dinner after that. Had a beef gyro. The food stand itself was poorly designed/managed. They didn't have any lids for small drinks, water was everywhere, napkins were like tissue paper, and the guy I was supposed to tell my order to ignored me.I ended up yelling at him. Besides that, it was really good.Not much meat, sauce collected at the very bottom, and the feta went everywhere. In my hair, all over my face, the ground, etc. Good food tends to be messy at times, though. Got a strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was more like a strawberry parfait or drink...I think of strawberry shortcake normally as having a scone or sponge cake bottom, then the strawberries with the sauce, and finally topped off with whipped cream. This was in a large cup with a couple of layers of cake, but lots of strawberries and sauce with whipped cream on top. I probably could have drank it...It was good, though.

Finally, we went to the best part last.This was a showcase on China. It featured dances, opera, calligraphy/painting, and a choir. The music was interesting throughout. I really liked everything except the part where the artist actually painted in front of the audience.It took a while. They should have just shown his previous works or something. The calligraphy part he did was cool. Mainly because he could do it much quicker, and it did look nice. The dancers' costumes were colorful and flowy.The concepts to the dances were really interesting. They taught us a few of the moves. Although, it was hard to do considering everyone was crammed in around the stadium seating. Hard not to hit anyone.For parts of the opera, the volume was way too loud. I could feel my ears popping.The choir was very good. So good, I felt like I was being lulled to sleep half the time. I think I've always thought Chinese was a beautiful language, so it was cool to hear them sing in it like that. We ended up getting home late, but it was worth it. 

Finished watching the second season of Hamatora. (I don't think there will be another season.) I liked most of the ending. I didn't particularly like how quickly everyone forgave Art.He had good intentions with his end goal, but ended up killing and hurting others along the way. He may not have done most of that himself, but he had other people do it for him. Somehow that seems worse.Heck, he killed his own partner (he was a detective), made a room full of children go crazy, formed a Minimum organization that followed him like a cult, he stole people's Minimums, he tried to kill Nice on numerous occasions, etc. And, that's just what comes immediately to mind. His end goal was to destroy all the Minimums' powers, thinking the world was unequal and that he needed to get rid of peoples' egos. All because he misunderstood a promise he made to his brother before he killed him.His brother begged him to do it. If his brother hadn't died, Nice wouldn't have survived. They saved him by transplanting his heart into Nice. With that, Nice also gained the other's abilities. Those abilities awoke towards the end of the episode, and he essentially saved everyone, gave back their abilities, and gave normal people their egos back. After realizing how wrong he was, Art had jumped off a building shortly after. But, miraculously survived. Not sure how, they conveniently left that out.He did spend 6 months in the hospital. Everyone seemed so happy and back to normal after that. I almost thought they forgot all the horrible stuff Art had a hand in, until Nice punched him hard in the gut while standing over his brother's grave. To me, that's not nearly enough.At least a little jail time or something. Yes, he realized what he did was wrong, but he needs some sort of punishment. More than a hard punch to the gut. 

I tried going to a pharmacy a little further away from our local one to fix the issue with my meds last Saturday. The other one isn't open during the weekends. They told me they couldn't do much and to contact the main pharmacy over the phone. They said if I get the run around to come back to them. Basically all communication with the health insurance I'm on was down throughout Memorial Day weekend. The only things that were working in certain locations were the pharmacy and Urgent Care. I think those were actually closed on Monday. They were going to revamp the computer system during that weekend, too. So, they said you wouldn't be able to do anything online or over the phone. Great...Couldn't do anything until yesterday. I called the pharmacy then. The person that answered the phone said it sounded too confusing. How confusing is it to fix getting more than I ordered?!It shouldn't be so hard. She tried transferring me to actually talking to a pharmacist, but I waited 10 more minutes and gave up. They must have had a lot of people call about issues, since no one could do anything for so long...(I totally understand taking off for Memorial Day. But, the whole weekend? With even the online stuff down?) 

So, I decided to email my new doctor. I got a reply back from one of her nurses, and he wasn't sure what to do, so he sent it to another pharmacist. Then, he gave me that pharmacist's response. It was incredibly rude.I kind of get that they can't give refunds. They said that meds don't degrade or become less potent, and that it must be what I 'perceived' (that's how they wrote it out). Also, that I must not be storing it correctly. First of all, meds do degrade. I found that out through various pharmacists in person. I did not 'perceive' or make it up. Before we (my doc, at the time, and I) found out about the 2-month cutoff, I didn't think meds could either. In fact, it wasn't an inkling in my mind. It was only through trial and error, and talking to pharmacists that I found out. It was completely demeaning of this pharmacist. If I stored it improperly, wouldn't other meds do the same thing? And, why would it be only at the 2-month mark that way? I store other meds the same way. I've also heard some people metabolize certain drugs differently depending on how 'fresh' it is. So don't give me that.They also said if she (referring to me) made an error she can call a certain number. It wasn't my error! The doctor did it. Also, that I could put a cap on all my future meds putting it at a 2 month's supply. I don't know if future meds will be like this, so why? I just want to know if after 2 months I can order another batch of meds. It shouldn't be this difficult. When I replied back with all this, another nurse emailed me back and just replied with: your doctor will be back tomorrow. Like, I'm too much to handle for them. I haven't checked my email yet. Feeling like I won't like the answer...

Finished editing and reading all the short stories from my nightmare anthology. Crazy! I think the longest story ended up being about 18 pages long. The last one was about 16. The rest are quite a bit shorter. I think that's still under the short story category. Next, I'll put them all together, reformat it, come up with an actual title for the whole thing, add all the 'extra' stuff (contents list, about the author, etc.), and do the cover art. Already have ideas of what to do for the cover. Not entirely sure about the title, though. 

Rurouni Kenshin has been really brutal during the arc I'm on. Definitely not for kids...The antagonist, Shishio, is apparently a cannibal. After he kills his victims, he saves their fat and puts the oil from it on grooves that hold it in his sword. With the right friction it catches fire, burning his opponent. He ate a chunk of Kenshin shoulder, saying it tasted good. There are hints that he ate several of his victims. He occasionally says that being burned so badly all over his body, changed the way he thinks in general. Even said that it probably caused damage to his brain. That way of thinking includes how he views people. They're essentially just toys that need to be eliminated when they become 'useless' to him. Apparently, the mangaka based him off of a real person from that era. Creepy.Kenshin and Sanosuke defeated all of the strongest members of Shishio's group already. The other members were wiped out by people who support Kenshin back at their home base. So, there's no one left to fight other than Shishio. It'll be interesting to watch how Kenshin gets out of this one. He's already badly wounded from previous battles, and getting a chunk of flesh ripped out of his shoulder. Maybe he'll revert back to his 'manslayer' days. Should be interesting to see what happens after their battle, too.