Flowering Mantasm

Today starts summer vacation. I shall spend the day doing utterly frivolous things.

There are times when feelings overpower words. There are times when the want for something is so great that is surpasses all reason and logic. There are times when you just want a companion on this journey. There are times when I’m too shy to say your name.

Will you be my companion?

This week I’ve been quite productive in the kitchen. Monday I made something like a gallon of chicken stock which is now in my freezer waiting to be used in oh so many declicious things. I also cut a tenderloin into filets and froze them for later consumption. Today I made a Chicago style deep dish with some dough I had frozen from a few weeks ago, and some cherry jam. My freezer and my belly are pretty full.

Thanks to the weekend at Brayton’s I think I’m gonna try and make ramen sometime soon. I need to find somewhere to get pork bones without having to buy a huge cut of meat.

Long time without any update. I’ve moved into my new apartment and its overall a huge improvement over my old place. I’m saving a ton of money on the rent and its much larger. On the down side it is overrun with stink bugs. I’ve just taped up my kitchen window so they can’t come in there anymore. I find one or two every now and then around my other windows, but the love the kitchen window for some reason. I won’t be opening it anytime soon, but then I also won’t be worrying about them flying into my soup anymore either.

Tickets for Summer Sonic go on sale in two weeks. I’m really looking forward to going again this year. Once again, there’s gonna be so many ridiculously good bands.

March 29th. That’s the day I move. Now I just need to find some poor chump to help me move in, preferably one with a truck so I don’t have to make like 10 trips back and forth. Also, I plan to have absolutely no money next month, but on the up side I have slightly more no money than I thought I was going to, as I don’t have to go to Tokyo for my visa. Turns out they call all branches with like 10000 miles of Tokyo the Tokyo Branch, and then just kind of slip in the local name after it. Unfortunately, this also means that I’ll never get to see Brayton again.

Monday I passed my driving test and entered into the hall of great American drivers in Japan, or something to that effect. Yeah, so I’m pretty happy about that. They’ve recently started putting IC chips in them so they can be read by just placing them on a card reader and entering your handy pin #, or by looking at it. No, RFID has its uses, and since they’re challenge-response its moderately safe.

In other news, I’ll probably be moving the end of next month. I went and talked to the BoE guy today and he’s gonna mail the paperwork to one of my schools. Then supposedly I just need to fill it out and send it back. I’ll also need to set up an appointment for the gas and telephone/internet to be switched on. Water and Electricity will be on when I move in, at least that’s what I got from what he said when we toured the place. It’s going to be a great savings, something like $400 a month, over where I am now. Though I will need to buy appliances, which may or may not cost a decent chunk of change. I’ll have to ask around and see if anyone knows a good recycle shop in the area, which according to Eric should cut the cost of said appliances a great deal. I’m looking at having to get at the minimum
a washing machine,
a couple gas burners,
some tables and chairs,
a microwave/oven,
and a fridge.

In other news I’m pretty much broke for the rest of February, which is a good chunk of time. Getting my license really at into my wallet and my time. I missed a day of work total, two half-days, and the school canceled all my remaining classes on those days anyways so I got to spend like 3 periods just sitting there planning lessons and materials for other schools, with a bit of fanciful doodling and meandering around thrown in.

Third semester is nearly over and soon I gotta make my way to Tokyo to renew/extend my visa. I requested the 5th, a Friday. That way I don’t spend 5 hours and $120 on a train ride for a five minute foray in town, only to end up back home at the end of the day. I haven’t heard back yet, hopefully they haven’t forgotten, or decided to do something silly. If I do go on the 5th I’ll totally get to see Brayton again, which is a mixed blessing the likes of which only those who know him can know.

Alright enough of this stuff, I’m off to bed. Good night and

Okay, so I misread/assumed too much. It turns out that when they say ‘recommended salt allowance’ they mean ’salt,’ not sodium. The daily here is 7g of salt, or its equivalent, which would be 2800mg of sodium. Coronary crisis averted.

So, I was reading over one of my school’s lunch schedules for February yesterday written at the bottom was the ‘target nutrition’ for each meal.

660 kCal – perfect
20g protein – again, spot on
18-22g fat – yup, I’m still with you
(unlisted, but implied ~100g of carbohydrates as that is the standard adult portion. Pasta, Rice, Bread and so on. 20g protein = 80kCal, 20g fat – 180kCal, leaving 400 kCal for the last of the three macronutrients, carbs, which at 4 kCals per gram makes 100g.)
<2.5g Sodium - Yeah, between 1.5 and 3.0g sodium is the daily recommended allowance depending on where you are and who you ask, so less than 2.5g per day...wait…we’re not talking about day here, we’re talking about one meal. One fucking meal.

This confused me, maybe it was a typo, you know, she meant <2.5 decigrams, right? No, the individual meals had between 2.0 and 3.1g of sodium, depending on the day. I’m gonna have to check with my other schools, because that can’t be what they’re teaching these people in nutritionist school, can it?

I made up some millet for dinner last night. It tasted pretty good, and apparently has a ton of nutrients. The only thing is that you have to soak it for a good long while before cooking it. It’s got a good amount of phytic acid which is a pretty cool phytochemical, and is linked to les osteoporosis. At the same time however, it’s also a chelator of some good things your body needs like calcium and and iron. Soaking the grain starts the sprouting process, in which the natural enzymes in the plant start to turn starches to sugar and this phytic acid into phosphorus. Anyways, its got a nice texture and flavor to it. I guess you can also put it directly into baked goods to add a nutty sweet flavor to them. There’s a little cafe in my town that makes a type of sugar cookie with millet in. Along with the millet I had a salad and a simple beef stir-fry.

Tomorrow is Natto day at one of my schools. Japanese school kids are really annoying. They let them pick what they want to have for lunch, so the kids chose to ‘challenge’ themselves and picked stuff they don’t like. I’m not sure why, but this is like, let the kids pick lunch week in my town. All four schools, with three different nutritionist are doing the same thing. Weird. So, yeah, most of the kids picked, like, hot dogs, or hamburger gratan, or other stuff kids like. Seriously, natto?! I’m kind of worried though. At most of my schools I just put back whatever I don’t want, or whatever I know I won’t physically be able to eat. The schools give me normal portions now, as opposed to when I first came and was getting the most ridiculous portions ever. Often, though, it’s still too much for lunch for me. Especially in the wee bit of time we get to eat it. This school however has a few stickler teachers who whenever I say I don’t want something or can’t eat that much just push it in front of me anyways and say ‘challenge.’ I’d like to know a polite way to say, ‘No, Thank you, I don’t feel like vomiting immediately after this.’

Oh well, we’ll see what happens…

When I heard that Calorie Mate had a new flavor from Brayton way back in The Time Before Cold, I was very excited. Then when I heard it was maple I became very unexcited. I’ve never been much a fan of maple. Maple syrup on my pancakes was about the most I could take of the stuff, and maple candy was certainly out of the question. Maple just tends to have this flavor all its own that overpowers everything else.

So, today I tried maple flavored Calorie Mate, and I must say that they are very good. The maple flavor is definitely there, but is by no means overpowering. Also, the flavor is rounded off by the occasional citrus undertone. Also, as a bonus they have chopped nuts in, giving them a slightly different yet still satisfying texture. I would say that they are definitely on par with chocolate and fruit. Potato is disgusting though, just terrible.