Gentle Readers

The last little while has been pretty good. Last weekend was the Tournoi du Glace where I placed 3rd in the tournament. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't do better, but the 3rd place prize was more useful to me than the second place one, so that wasn't so bad. We ate off board at that event because too much of the feast was Cortejo unfriendly and I have to say our dinner was at least as good as the official feast. The company was also great.

We got to watch the UFC fights that night in good company and then got to spend the next day visiting with various friend on the way home. It was a lovely way to end/start the week.

The week following was good, but a couple of frustrating bugs at work had it going slower and more vexingly than it could have done. This was thankfully balanced by a great week at the sword hall. We usually had at least 4 students in each class and even had 8 in the Thursday evening class. I'm so thrilled that things are going well there.

This weekend was a little more relaxed. The most momentus thing was deciding that we were done with Fringe, about 5 episodes into the second season. I can put up with some plot related stupidness, but constantly forgetting major events from the last season and even from the first episode of the first season? That is just too much. It's not even like they couldn't have done almost the exact same thing without the obvious plot enforced dumbness.

Ah well, I should know better than to trust network television.

Gentle Readers,

I'm having one of those days exacerbated by lack of sleep. So, either I decided to make my self feel better with terrible food or I was too tired to fight off temptation any longer and I went and got myself a KFC Double Down.

The ordering process was quite smooth and efficient. One of the customers ahead of me had a problem with his order, but it was resolved without drama so there was no delay in my getting mine. In fact I even got my "sandwich" ahead of the couple in front of me, likely due to the less complicated order. Which is fair. They took forever to get their order completed.

Anyway, I took my little bag with it's little "sandwich" back across the street to the office. No one looked askance at me, in fact I'll have to assume that no one knew what was in the bag as there was no reaction from anyone I encountered.

Back at the office, it was a different story. Everyone had to come and take a look and the other John could not resist the sight and had to get one for himself.

I have to say, it was not what I was expecting. Based on the photos, I had expected the chicken to be fairly uniform, perhaps with a cardboard container to hold them delecatly protecting the crisp batter from steam condensation and allowing the cheese to be contained as it fused together the two pieces of chicken.

Instead what I got was a clumsily wrapped lump, carelessly placed into the paper sack. I flipped it over and quickly unwrapped it, the scent almost identical to the one that wafts from the restaurant while I wait for my bus in the evenings; a heady mix of grease, salt and hydrocarbons.

The appearance did not match that of the ads. No perfect golden brown concoction was this. Its colour had about as much in common with that perfect specimen found on the advertisements as Gollum's skin tone does with a Californian beach bum. It was a pallid gray-beige, with spots of black (sites of a deposit of the magical herbs and spices). The chicken pieces, instead of being uniform and phallic, instead had been slightly flattened into irregular lumpy triangles. Between them, was the cheese and cheese sauce slowly oozing out the side while the bacon stuck out like unruly hair.

I took my first bite.

Now, in general I like salty food. Salt is the ultimate axiom of food perfection. But the first bite of the double down was so salty I could feel it burning its way down my throat.

The only flavour more overpowering than the salty batter was the "cheese sauce" which to my tastebuds was much more like thousand island dressing.

I couldn't really taste the bacon or the actual cheese.

In the end, I do think the actual premise is good, and I'm certain that a home made one would be quite delicious. However, the "sandwich" made by KFC is not something that I will ever eat again.

Gentle Readers,

Last night I didn't want to cook, so I invited a few people over for a pot luck. This worked even better than planned as one of them (blinkus2000) decided he wanted to try his new experimental baked salmon recipe on us.

Today we are sitting around listening to the rain and the close lightning strikes and being very glad we are not in a tent. It's Cortejo's Birthday today and we are thinking about the things we could do, but don't really seem all that motivated to do any of them. I suspect that once I finish procrastinating with this, I'll go and do some cleaning/purging/tidying down stairs while C&L go out to do something fun.

Tomorrow is Lydia's birthday. She's going to be 7. She makes me feel so very very blessed.

If I can get her away from the toys that she missed, I am going to try and get her to look at some paintings with me to see if we can find a dress she likes for me to make for her and at least 1 of her dolls so that she and they can be dressed the same.

Gentle Readers,

So I'm sitting here in my uncle's house celebrating Christmas with my jewish aunt, agnostic family and pagan wife and child. Somehow that seems just about right. Last night we stuffed our selves with seafood and other delacacies and my Mom ruined Christmas by making us open all of our presents last night.

More food this morning and my aunt is telling us that we are not allowed to help with the preps for dinner but only need to make sure that we bring our appitites because she doesn't want to be left with any food.

The ride down was clear and dry and we had a lovely visit with Mister Robinson on the way through. He made something spicy that Lydia loved which was a first. For the record we loved it too.

We were talking about going into the city but today we spent just hanging out and playing video games. I should have gone for a walk. I think I still might before dinner.

I hope you and yours are enjoying a break for whatever reason, and if you are not blessed with a job that gives you some time off, I hope that it is at least being more pleasant than usual.

For those who weren't paying attention, I remind you of my belated birthday bash on the 1st. Show up any time late in the afternoon.

Gentle Readers,

Last night the lovely cortejo had slow-cooked a turkey breast for me. I took the left-overs with me for lunch today. For the record Aikido mornings, slow afternoons and L-tryptophan do not make for a productive combination.

On the plus side, I'm researching AMI and cloud computing which, I know, is so 2007, but I'm just getting back into the web. I'm a little behind the times.

In other news, tomorrow is our first Feast of the Hare. It looks like things will be slightly more scheduled than I had hoped, but what can you do. This is what we signed up for and what the populace thinks we are capable of.

I'm a little concerned that I have not had any feedback from the marshals but it's no big deal. In the end, it's not really my responsibility, just my idea.

Gentle Readers,

I made Saag with red chard. It seems to be a success.