Ms C's Random Food Review: Barley

What: It is called barley.

Comments: One puts it in soups, like Davy showed me that one time he made us mushroom (and more) soup. I remember the giant Ivo pot in which we made enough soup to feed us for weeks afterward, and the peppercorns that had been left in the bottom for one poor sap who had the last bowl of extra peppery flavoured soup-ness. (Lil V should have had that one, knowing how tolerant I am of spices.) But the soup was good, and much of it was because of the addition of barley. I would not have thought of adding it otherwise, nor thought of putting it in nearly all the soups I can possibly add it in.

Review: A small amount in water puffs out into a lot of barley. I learned this the hard way. (When have I not learned anything the hard way...!? #@_@) I have yet to correctly proportion the dry barley:broth volumes, as every time I put a bit less it still sops up most of the broth and expands like a marshmallow in a microwave.

Personally, I don't mind having such a bloated soup full of barley, as I can't get enough of the partly crunchy texture and the way it complements vegetables. It absorbs the beefy taste in beef broth, which adds even more depth to the soup. But alas, Jorgh doesn't think soup should look like wet foodstuff + some water so I have to experiment further.

Rating: A gajillion stars!!!/5 potatoes

Montreal Blues

I was sick all of Saturday with a flu-like headache that made my head feel like it was going to explode. On Sunday, I thought I was better, although I still had lingering cold-like sniffles. It got much worse on Monday when I arrived in Montreal, because my voice started to give way to a diseased rasp. I did attend Lil V's convocation, followed by Ivo's birthday supper at Mon Nan, followed by an evening gaterhing at Davy's apartment. By then I was already slipping downhill on the voiceability of my voice box. I wanted to stay indoors for the most part of this trip, but now I think it is too late. :(

So today (and for the next few days), I am refraining from talking at all, which sucks because I spent so much time in Quebec not having anyone to talk to anyway. Ivo, Lil V and I are planning to watch the Inu Yasha movie 4 here though (although all I could manage to scrape up wasd the dub) so less talking needed. I heavily dislike being sick. :(

Above all, I blame the elementary school kids with all those germs and things (pokemon cards) they bring to school to infect everyone else. >:(

On a related note, I am sorry to have to miss my friend's (brem's wife) birthday tomorrow and having (the ability) to call and wish her such greetings.

Congratulations, Lil V!

(She knows what this means.)

Happy Birthday Ivo-kun!

Mini Rest

I took a few days away from blogging because I realized I had nothing constructive to say, and stories don't come so easily.

Anyway, Davy and Stefan (?) are going to come to Quebec City tomorrow, and we're taking a day trip to Chicoutimi to pick blueberries. I should also prepare for the next wedding in Toronto, next Saturday the 19th, thus once again I will be heading south for a while.

Lil V is back from China and she's got stories to tell. Right? :D

I'm sorry I missed brem's birthday. I hope you had a good one!

Jorghnassen's likely to head to UWaterloo in the fall, once he's finished his Ph.D. thesis, and I think it's also likely that I will be going with him when time comes. (You know. Guys.) It's not so likely that I will have a job myself when I get there, so I'm still kind of holding out on whatever will keep me around here.

---

Now I know my mum is certifiably insane and probably has Alzheimer's, not to make light of those who have acute cases of this disease. Some years ago while I was in Montreal, she brought me a pair of shorts that are pink, red, and white checked, too small for me at the time, and absolutely hideous. She claimed that they were cheap from Simons (probably knowing her, "2 bucks!"), thus I should wear them. I was fortunately too tubby to fit into them so I hid them away (except for one day where I had a lapse of judgement and there are photographs to support this... Lil V would know).

Today, my mum washed all my wearable shorts, and thus I am stuck with... the hideous shorts that I would only consider wearing if all my other summer clothes were in the wash and I wasn't going anywhere. (Maybe I should have put on my suit.)

She looked at them and said, "What the hell are those?"
"You bought them."
"No way! YOU must have bought them because they were on sale!"
"Nooooooo way in hell would I have bought these on sale."
"Yes, you said they were '5 dollars!'"
"Goddammit! I would have never bought anything this ugly!!!"
"See? They're ugly."

This is me.

---

Salon has a literary guide on Montreal. Personally, I don't feel as I know Montreal as well as some of you out there, because I've lived outside of Montreal about 80% of my life. Alas, as one of the comments put it, "Quebec is more than Montreal." And Montreal's not quite Quebec.

Less Posting, More News

I'm on my two week long wedding attending blitz. I'm currently posting from Chicoutimi, for those of you in the know, my birthplace and origin of all those tasty blueberries I take home. I just attended one on the 24th in La Baie with Jorghnassen, the non-religious notary kind. Then I must schlep myself to Toronto tomorrow with my mum to attend another wedding that I have yet to figure out who is getting married to whom.

Meanwhile, the principal from the learning center has a possible job opening for September that I have a pretty good feeling he wants me to fill, but I'll have to wait for further response. I haven't mentioned it before because I don't want to cause bad karma. Kaaarrrrmaaaaa...

Lil V is in China right now and the Chinese government has been censoring her BLOGGER viewing so I'll try to post less for her to have less to catch up to. :p

I'm still trying to train for the 5 km Run for the Cure, although it's hard to do so when I've left my running shoes behind and I haven't been moving around a lot. I spent yesterday jogging in the pool (aquajog?), and I'll probably stairclimb in Toronto, although I don't think I want to do it if it gets really muggy down there.

I Spent the Day... Awake!?

I'm surprised. I thought I was going to sleep in until noon again. But I was awoken at 8 am by a phone call from the teacher I was replacing at the school last Friday, asking me where the supply teacher folder went. Well, I think I was awake when I told her that it should be at school because it sure as hell wasn't in my backpack. Unless someone stole that too. >:(

I couldn't get back to sleep. I was still trying to drift off to lala land but it made my eyes itch so I thought of other things. Like travelling.

Lil V wants to travel somewhere, but she wants a travel buddy so I told her I'd go. On the other hand, I still don't have a passport so I can't go anywhere in particular outside the country, as it stands. But I don't mind. I would be glad to rent a car, road trip it into the country and take off into the sunse- oh no, I remember what happened last summer. Namely, the drive back DUE WEST AT SUNSET from Medicine Hat to Cowtown was a NIGHTMARE.

Anyway, I was thinking that a road trip wouldn't be a bad idea, and it would give lots of time to drop into small cuddly towns and lots of time to kill. (The only drawback is that Lil V doesn't have her license.) Then I was thinking of Ian, simply making his way place to place without a second thought...

Then somehow after a train of thought, I came up with a song that fits our purpose, but I have yet to put the fiddle music to it:

The Travelling Busker Song

We're travellin' 'cross the country
Gonna go from coast to coast
We're travellin' 'cross the country
But it's nothin' much to boast
Gonna eat and drink this country of mine
From fish to steak to mighty fine wine
We're travellin' 'cross the country
And we're passin' through like ghosts.

We're travellin' 'cross the country
Lots of walking left to go
We're travellin' 'cross the country
Though the moving's pretty slow
Gotta take some pictures of every little thing
From deer to bears to anything with wings
We're travellin' 'cross the country
To enjoy the nature show

We're travellin' 'cross the country
Tryin' to make a little money
We're travellin' 'cross the country
To places warm and sunny
Well if you ain't gonna pay to listen to this song
Then you might as well get goin' right along
'Cuz we're travellin' 'cross the country
And we ain't a pair o' dummies.

We're travellin' 'cross the country
da da da da da da da
We're travellin' 'cross the country
la la la la la la la
Well our heads and tummies ain't feelin' alright
Cuz we're college kids who partied all night
We're travellin' 'cross the country
[ad lib something to end]

That's half my day there. The other half was recording the Altered Beast theme song (from the SEGA Master System), but I didn't upload it yet. That was an awesome game. My brother and I used to play at the demo Genesis console in Sears for hours, until the clerks forcefully cut the current on the game and we'd run away dejected. Then our parents bought us the SMS version which was 20% less fun because it didn't have the level with the awesome bear. I mean, why bother producing the game for SMS if there wasn't going to be a bear that shot breath so putrid with rotting food matter that it would literally cause your enemies to turn to stone?

EDIT: Finally, a Tindeck account! Here's the Altered Beast cover. It needs a bit of work, but whateva.

I'm finally home

I called up my sister on Wednesday, and the following conversation ensued:

E: Hi, it's me.
M: Oh. Hi.
E: What are you doing on Friday?
M: Why?
E: Well, I was wondering if you had already planned something, or whatever... So...
M: Why? What's happening on Friday?
E: Um... cuz it's your birthday?
M: ... Oh yeah... I forgot.

It's not typical that she would forget such things, unless there is something even more pressing on her mind that she deems more important. Like furniture shopping in Toronto this weekend. But she claims such days are nonsense or useless, in the sense that gift giving and celebration shouldn't have an artificial reason. (Like turning a year older, or because a certain religious icon was born on some random day in winter, for instance.) Nevertheless, I had a quick supper of Indian take-out at her house that evening, just before she took off with her boyfriend to Toronto.

Other events this March Break included making sushi for Lil V, Stephen, Jorghnassen and his brother. For this purpose, I had the distinct pleasure of walking to Parc and Mont-Royal with Jorgh, finding no fish store, hunting for the fish store up to St-Joseph and Parc, then walking back home, in the rain. Who would believe that just a week before, there was a pile of snow that fell on QC, when at that moment inches of rain ran wildly through the streets of Montreal? The raw tuna in the maki rolls made it all better.

Norm had recommended the fish store on Parc, although in his defence he didn't remember which intersection it was on. I would usually double check such things in the Yellow Pages (or the Telus Pages, their machiavellian rivals), but in our drooling haste we neglected to do so. Just the description of his fish excursion that he gave us earlier this week was enough to entice us in our own journey. It may have been part of his evil plans. Curses, you fiendish rapscallion!

On the subject of my odd writing styles of late, it is a plan to craft a fantasy novel with Jorgh. I have attempted to commence (read: slept and ate and avoided) personal projects that I have listed often. Draw, record, work on... Well, with Jorghnassen's collaboration, I think co-writing a novel would probably be the only one I could complete properly. If only it were that easy to start...

We thought that this week we could take some time to look for fantasy novels to inspire and guide us on our own attempts. Jorghnassen and I spent a day wafting through book stores and their sections of fantasy novels and titles only to come up with rather mediocre or stupid collections. Then he got tired of searching and asked me to order stuff online.

One of my career aspirations, forgotten long ago for more concrete goals, once had been to become a writer (of short stories, actually). It is exceedingly difficult, though, to believe that this person, having not cracked open a non-comical book in years, could become such a writer. I used to write in high school, but that sappy and nonsensical trite that I spewed could not have held much water in the cutthroat writers' world. In CEGEP, I was introduced to the deeper and more satisfying aspects of reading and writing, much different from the high school book report or recitations of Animal Farm.

But I had forgone the path of languages, due to the overwhelming pressure from without and within to pursue the sciences. Then I had no idea what to do with it (as such things happen often to us science students), so I became a teacher. On the other hand, I do appreciate being a teacher and spreading the merits of being scientifically literate. (So, why fantasy novels? I'm not sure... but I'm certain it's more fun to write.)

Another career aspiration was to become a math teacher. Indeed, I am.

And yet another career aspiration was to become a musician. My brother is now fulfilling this in my stead, so I don't feel so bad. On the other hand, he was rather upset that my mother is upset that he would prefer this than to return to regular studies, I imagine. And he called me while I was at Jorgh's place to loudly make his point.

But such are the pressures of a life where East meets West. Is it too much to make a career change when everything is uncertain?

Dumpster Diving

I haven't done it before, but I am certain there is a definite possibility near where I live. Some of you know that I live near the mall, in the area where they are very quickly building new places to waste your money at. Within the last couple of years, they have built:

• A Wal-Mart


• Krispy Kreme


• Future Shop


• Archambault


• Pier 1


• Deco Decouvertes


• ??? I forgot the name of that electronics store


• Omer Deserres


• And many more!

I find it a complete waste of space. The size of the buildings are massive, and the parking lots and traffic ensure that if you walk between these buildings, you are guaranteed to get run over by some irate gas pedal-crazy SUV driving suburban mum.

Anyway the point is that I want to try the scavenger hunting of these outlet boxes. I was inspired by this SA forum thread (which will not be accessible forever, due to the constant archiving and the paying-money-to-look-at-its-archives thing). In the thread, the divers surface booty of food, random crap that you wouldn't want even as hobos, and questionable clothing. On the other hand, when they dumpster dive, the choice of dumpster will definitely determine the quality of the haul. I would *LOVE* to find a vacuum cleaner to replace this piece of crap that my mum still insists on me hauling around.

(When I get a good picture, I'll post it here eventually. Then you'll know what I'm talking about.)

So who would like to go with me? Lil V? No, nevermind; you wouldn't be able to carry as much in your small arms, as we run away from livid hobos. Well, whoever wants to give it a shot, I'll throw in a free meal. (One that doesn't come from the dumpster.)

Random Stuff Day

Since I was asked to supply for a school downtown starting next Monday, I will celebrate by posting a number of odds and ends that I wanted to share with you. And by "you," I mean Little V. And everyone else. But especially Little V. :D

• Cheer up, right away! If you don't, then just keep clicking. If you don't like it then you're a heartless bastard.



• A blog I randomly stumbled upon, while searching for the elusive mp3 albums of Sesame Street Fever and the even more difficult to pin down Mickey Mouse Disco. There are a lot of other weird albums and music/tv related things downloadable on the site.



• A hard as $%@! intelligence test that claims every question is "common sense;" but like all "intelligence tests," there are a fair number of "WTF-how-the-crap-am-I-supposed-to-know-that-you-stupid-freaks." By the way, you have to make sure you type the answer exactly the way the test wants to receive it (barring capitalization), so you need to pluralize things or spell things correctly.



• Souhaku Scans, which distributes some scanlated manga titles. In particular, Yakitate!! Japan. Most recently, I read Angel Densetsu, which turns out to be so fricking hilarious that my neighbours think I escaped from the mental hospital.



• When is Yakitate!! Japan updated??? (and "Where's Naruto!?") They'll post the titles of the newest scanlated manga releases of the day, although regardless you'll have to hunt for some of them through IRC.

I'm so, sooo sorry that the picture came out so badly. :(
From left to right, front row: Stefan, Lisa, Donnah, Cheryl, me, Hana; middle row: Ivo, Derrick, PJ, Felix, Lil V; back row: Jesse, Stephen, Norm, Ivan. Josh was taking the picture. 

(Very Local) Breast Cancer Fundraising Central

Dear form letter recipients,

(If you haven't received the form letter yet, it's because I was tired of copy-pasting individually... How lazy is that, really?)

Yesterday, while waiting tediously at the CIBC for my mum, I picked up a form for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation's annual Run for the Cure brochure. The very first thing it asks is, "Pour qui courez-vous?"
I run for nobody in particular. I just want to do it because it seems like something I should be doing. (And I don't mean the societal-guilt-consciousness "should," but the self-aware-motivation "should.") I will run*** your 5 km!

***subjet to long instances of walking and longer instances of semi-jogging.

So discussing with lil V, I was given my initial push to go for it. I have 19 days to reach my goal of 150$ of donations. (Well, 17 before pre-registration actually.) Donations can be made online with the credit card, or you can pay me in person with cash or cheque. You can also request a tax receipt for donations less than 20$.

I like how they have prizes for different levels of funds. For 3500$ you get an iPod Shuffle... (wishful thinking, I suppose)