Baby King Oyster Mushrooms

Steve is MIA from work today. I think he's gone Chee-Seen!!! :)

Dinner today -> Spaghetti with Baby King Oyster Mushrooms and Meat Sauce.
Got some Baby King Oyster Mushrooms from T&T. These mushrooms are GOOD. If you haven't tried them, go try them. I think they will be great in hotpot too.


^ Baby Oyster Mushrooms.


^ Spaghetti with Baby King Oyster Mushrooms and Meat Sauce.

Wanted...

If anyone finds any of these elusive criminals, let me know immediately:


^ Wanted #3: Ninja Cookie Cutters.
Reward: 3 Ninja Cookies.


^ Wanted #2: Squeez Bacon.
Reward: Single Squeeze of Bacon in your Lunch.


^ Wanted #1: Contra Wall Decals.
Reward: Autograph pic of the wall decals by Fongpay.

Dim Sum Tuesday

Lunch today -> Dim Sum
Went out for lunch today with Julie. We used to meet up for lunch fairly often, but we haven't gone out for lunch in ages. We went to Chinatown for some Dim Sum.
This is probably my all-time favorite dish at dim sum: Shrimp Rice Noodle Roll. Way better than duck tongue.


^ Shrimp Rice Noodle Roll.

Useless Fashion News:
Julie was wearing these cool stockings today, that caught my eye. They were black with a column of hot pink crossbones up the back with a pink ribbon at the top. I got to say that they were pretty hot :) They're stylish enough that the fashionable girls in Shibuya would wear them; and they look like then could have been taken directly out of AKB48's "Heavy Rotation" video ~_^, but not the version below:


^ Heavy Rotation - AKB48cho Version (Puccho candy promotion).
LOL
(Ripped from YouTube.)


^ Puccho Candy: Miracle! flavour.
The best flavour (FYI: available at T&T).

Useless Idol News:
Speaking of AKB48. Below is the radio rip of "Beginner". I'm still itching to see the PV (actually 6 PVs now) and how the girls will kill each other off :)


^ Beginner.
(Ripped from YouTube.)
The other neat news about "Beginner" is that there will be 6 versions of the dance, with a different center girl in each. In charge is Takamina, who will use hand signals (like in volleyball) to signal the girls which version of the dance they will be performing.

It's only Monday

Dinner today -> sucky leftovers again... NOT!


^ Korean Short Ribs with Rice Leftovers :)

It's only Monday, and not much going on today. Just preparing for my 2 hockey pool drafts, with possibility of a 3rd to join later.

Useless Transformers News:
Masterpiece Rodimus Prime is available for pre-order from Japan (click link to see more pics). Looks pretty cool. He is able to transform from Hot Rod to Rodimus Prime too. I wonder if he comes with a Matrix?


^ Masterpiece Rodimus Prime.

Weekend Report

Friday:
Dinner today -> sucky leftovers... NOT :)


^ Rideau Leftovers.

Saturday:
Lunch today -> Potluck.
Went to Mallory's place for a potlock lunch and some gaming with some of the softball gang. My contribution was one of my favorite dishes: Korean Short Ribs with Rice.


^ Korean Short Ribs and Rice.

After lunch Stefano, Jeno, and I promptly got man-handled in "25 Words or Less".

Sunday:
Went out for lunch at Emerald Buffet with the family:
Decent lunch buffet, not the best. Dinner is better. They did have a dish I ate from alot: Salt & Pepper Crab :)


^ Plates 1 and 2.
They had this fake dim sum dish that was totally disgusting: chopped carrots, CELERY, and pork wrapped in a wonton skin. I promptly spit it out.

Afterwards we ate a Birthday Cake for my mom.


^ Birthday Cake.

Useless Hockey Pool News:
Reminder to the Robot Hockey Pool players: The auto draft is activated this Tuesday at 8pm.

FYI:
I just saw a Christmas commercial on TV!

Rideau Restaurant Extravaganza

Dinner today -> Rideau Restaurant Take-out.
Felt like Rideau today. Normally it's 1 dish a person, but today I went with 3:1 ratio.
- The savoury shrimp in lobster sauce (FYI: There is no lobster in lobster sauce).
- The spicy chewy salt & pepper squid.
- The godly schezwan beef.


^ Schezwan Beef, Shrimp in Lobster Sauce, and Salt & Pepper Squid.
United together, they form the mighty ShrimpSquidBeefatron:


^ ShrimpSquidBeefatron on Rice.
(Hey Steve. Are you drooling? :P)

Useless Idol News:
AKB48's 18th Single "Beginner" is out next month. The song is pretty good. The middle of the song has a blood curdling scream by Acchan. I was WTF when I first heard it. Apparently the video is suppose to be the girls in a video game with fatality moves.
They go from kissing each other in the last single, to maiming and killing each other in this one.
Watch the short clip below, and you will scream, "OMG! Awesome!":


^ AKB Finishing Move?
I think this video will be epic :)

Wildrider

Went to CMC MTL today. I planned for a multi-day trip, but it turned out to be only a day trip. Unbeknown to me, I was in a car with a Wildrider wannabe.
The drive there and back was done by fellow SQA Eric, who is a type of driver with questionable driving skills... :P I cannot recount how many times my driving foot would instinctively slam down to psychically try and make Eric brake or accelerate to safer speeds.
The main thing that freaked me was, when turning at the light from the inside lane onto March Rd. On the turn, Eric for some reason, cut across 3 lanes to the short outside lane (the Esso entrance lane) and back into the normal road! It was a 2 lane left turn, with another car beside us (who he cut off)!!! He must have made this turn hundreds of times, and he was like "Oops"!

Useless Idol News:
For those people not into cute, young female idols; and wanting an older generation follow, this is the idol group for you: OJS48. Created by AKB48 producer Akimoto Yasushi, it's a group of 16 men singing Enka, all aged 50+. All 16 members are retired police officers/detectives.
(They have a single coming out, but are they really a singing group? Or are they secretly bodyguards for AKB48, SKE48, NMB48, and SDN48?)
I've heard the middle guy with the hat sing solo before, and his song is actually pretty good. His video included AKB's Mariko (playing his wife) and a drunk Yuko ;P.

Update:
The above mentioned video on Youtube. The song is kind of cool.

Omelette Rice

Dinner today -> 5 Egg Omelette Rice.
I saw a new technique to make the egg part on a Japanese TV Show (Suiensa) a couple of weeks ago. I had to try it out.
Made some fried rice with veggies.
Then made the omelette using a technique used by omelette rice restaurants in Japan, for a special kind of omelette. (I can't remember what it's called.)


^ Omelette on Rice.

Then split open the top of the omelette by cutting down the middle...


^ Slice Omelette.

...and flip open both sides! POW! The middle is still runny! It's like a perfect runny scramble egg.


^ Opened Omelette.

Finish with some Cream of Mushroom Soup. Would have topped it with some chopped green onion, but I don't have any in the fridge right now.


^ Finished 5 Egg Omelette Rice.
(Some large grilled shrimps would be good to top it too)

NOTE:
Possible no entries on Wednesday and Thursday. I'll be away at CMC MTL.

Useless Idol News:
The AKB48 Jankenpon Tournament was today.
Uchida Mayumi from Team K won!
Members of note:
- Yuko got eliminated by Sasshi in the 1st round.
- Takamina got elminated on a technicality. She made her play after her opponent did. So auto out. Thats got to suck.
- Kasai made top 16 :) and will be senbatsu.

Apple Cider Spider.

The best Apple Cider is at Farmboy. It's not too tangy or too sweet. Just good. On sale this week: 2 for $5


^ Apple Cider.

Reminds me of a game called "Apple Cider Spider", I used to play on the Apple II. You play as a spider, avoiding hazards and obstacles to get out of an apple cider factory.

Dinner today -> Mussels in White Wine Sauce.
Picked up a pack of mussels from Costco.


^ Mussels pack.


^ Cooked Mussels in White Wine Sauce: Bowl 1 and Bowl 2.
Kind of disappointed with these mussels. They were really small.

Weekend Report

Friday:
Went to Phu-Yen for lunch with the Kanata SQA group. I don't think I've been back there in 2, maybe 3 years? Why? It was not that good the last time I went and... it still hasn't changed x_X.
I got the Pho soup with rare beef, well done beef, and meatballs. The rare beef in the bowl was NOT rare. Maybe it was rare when they put it in, but by the time I got it, it was cooked all the way through. Also for the same price, I would have had a bigger bowl with more ingredients any place else. The only thing I liked was the broth.
The others got "chow mein". I quote it because this is was NOT real chow mein. It looked like rock hard fried ramen, covered in bok choi, some seafood, and CELERY! (and everyone knows how much I hate celery and how it doesn't belong in Chinese food.) And the portion size was tiny! I almost laughed when I saw it.
We are going to Rideau Restaurant next time, and I will show them REAL chow mein.

Went to T&T at 9:30pm with Susanna. Not much left in the cooked food section, but I scored some discounted Egg Tarts and Portuguese Tarts in the bakery. They must have changed the recipe to the egg tart, because it tastes better than before (but still nowhere near as good as the ones from Montreal Chinatown).


^ T&T Egg Tarts and Portuguese Tarts.

Saturday:
Picked up some new Power-Core Transformers at Walmart. The race car one is called "Leadfoot", but his ability is to turn invisible. To be consistant, they should have just painted it blue instead of orange, and called him "Mirage".


^ New Transformers.
Still missing Animated Ironhide and Hotrod.

Lunch today -> Beef and Chinese Greens on Rice.
I made enough of the beef and greens for dinner today and lunch on Sunday.


^ Beef and Chinese Greens on Rice.

I almost drowned Saturday night. I was sipping hot green tea, when some of it went down the wrong way! I was coughing and hacking really hard for probably 5 minutes straight! It was really loud coughing and my window was open too. I'm sure my neighbours must have thought someone was dying! lol.

Sunday:
Wasted my Sunday. I planned to do abunch of things, but I downloaded a new free RPG on my iPhone and it ate up all my time. The only productive thing I got done was mowing the lawn. I didn't even go out to the grocery store to make that dish I wanted to make.

Useless Idol News:
Tuesday is the big JanKenPon Tournament for AKB48. All members will participate and only the top 16 winners will be in the 19th Single as Senbatsu (main singers). The #1 overall winner will be the center of the song. I think this is a neat idea for AKB48.

Moldy Blueberries

Dinner today -> Steak, Mixed Veggies, and Rice


^ Steak, Mixed Veggies, and Rice.
Been making steak alot, since it seems to be on sale all the time, but I need to make something different soon. Getting tired of it. Maybe I'll make that "food thing" I talked to Steve about on Wednesday... :)

I bought a pack of Blueberries a couple days ago at Farmboy. I opened the pack today and there was furry white mold growing on some of them. I picked the "furry" ones out and washed the rest. I ate afew, but some of them tasted moldy.


^ Remaining Moldy Blueberries?
I probably shouldn't have, but I proceeded to eat 1/2 the bowl before chucking the remaining blueberries (above). I hope I don't get sick...

Correction for yesterday's Chinese Word of the Month:

"Steve is planning to drive to Toronto at 5am in the morning." Moot point, he's still chee-seen :p

Useless Idol News:

Lately, I've been reading the translated blog entries of Sashihara Rino (AKB48 member, aka "Sasshi"). Her entries are really interesting and hilarious. I usually find them more entertaining than Yuko's blog entries (except when Yuko argues with her stomach about what food to eat... and loses, lol. ). Sasshi's personality is "quirky" and she is a total wota/otaku/gamer. This helps make her entries funny.

If you have free time to read it, I recommend checking it out.
I check out Kasai's blog sometimes too, but she is always "chiyuu" this and "chiyuu" that. It's her thing.
(Sasshi translation credit to Blesseddisgrace.)
(Yuko translation credit to Gideon.)

Chee-Seen!

Dinner today -> Steak, Peas, and Rice.


^ Steak, Peas, and Rice.

Chinese Word of the Month:
Everyone, try and use this Chinese word as much as you can this month. The word is "Chee-Seen". It means "crazy"!

Let's use it in a sentence:
"Steve is planning to drive to Toronto at 4am in the morning. He's chee-seen!"
or
"How do Care Bears walk on clouds? They should fall right through them. That's chee-seen!"

So, for the rest of this month try and use this word as much as you can. You'd be chee-seen not too :)

Useless Idol News:
Official Homepage of the AKB1/48 game here.


^ Short News Clip of AKB1/48 Game.
(Ripped from Youtube)

The "First Print Edition" ordered :)
Question is... what am I going to do with 48 pink PSP battery covers??? @_@??

Cheese! It's Tuesday.

Dinner today -> Kraft Dinner.
Basic KD modified with a blob of Garlic Butter and a blob of Onion & Herb Cream Cheese. Got to eat it right out of the pot too.


^ Modified KD.

Useless Idol News:
To be released on Dec 23, 2010; an official AKB48 PSP Game called "AKB1/48 Idol to Koishitara..." (aka "AKB1/48 If I was in love with an idol...").
It's a "Dating Sim" game featuring ALL 48 AKB48 girls, with fully voiced dialogue, videos, and over 10,000 pics.
The game concept is that all the AKB girls are in love with the player, and the player needs to reject 47 of the girls and pick only 1 to romance.


^ Yuko is promoting the game in her Blog entry, and she doesn't want to get rejected...
(There's an english article about the game here with additional details.)

If I'm not able to pre-order this game from my sources for a reasonable price, maybe some people going to Japan this Christmas season will get me a copy *cough*Gavin*cough*Emi*cough*. Sorry... I had an itch in my throat just then ;)
Also, maybe these nice people will be able to get me the "Premier Special Pack Single Print Run Version" with all the bonus stuff minus the PSP *cough*Gavin*cough*Emi*cough*. I should go take some cough medicine now :)

Update:
Available at HMV Japan, here.

Duck! It's Monday.

Lunch today -> BBQ Duck on Rice.
Went home for lunch today, as I had 1/2 a BBQ Duck leftover from T&T. I put 1/4 of the duck on rice and stuck it in the microwave. Mmmm... Nuked food.


^ 1/4 BBQ Duck on Rice.

Dinner today -> BBQ Duck on Rice Part II.
Put this together with the remaining 1/4 BBQ Duck and Rice. Since I had more time, I made some Chinese Greens to go with it.


^ 1/4 BBQ Duck on Rice with Chinese Greens.

Useless Idol News:
Got a package in the mail today. A box full of AKB48 stuff from HMV Japan :)
Box included:
Oshima Yuko Photobook, Switch Mook, AKB48 Jan-ken-pon Guide, and French Kiss CDs with bonus photos (but no random autograph ones).
I was disappointed the Yuko photobook wasn't hard cover.


^ AKB48 Stuff.

FYI:
101 version of Rock-Paper-Scissors. Kind of neat.

Weekend Report

Friday:
Been feeding Marc and Jes's cats after work, while they were away. The wet food they are eating smells good, and makes me want to rush home to make dinner. The cat food sort of smells like Spam mixed with tuna fish.

Dinner today -> Steak and Egg Noodles.


^ Salt & Pepper Steak with Cold Egg Noodles.

Saturday:
Got some Subway for lunch, and I noticed they have a new automatic change machine. It is really cool. It automatically dispenses the correct change without the cashier needing to count. The last time I saw this change machine was in Japan! If your in Kanata and plan on going to the Subway near Alcatel, check out the machine at the cash.

CMC Strike Fighters lost our 2nd playoff game, 11-12. We were easily handling this team, winning 11-5, until the last inning and we fell apart. I can't believe we blew our lead! A great regular season, ended in a quick exit in the playoffs :(
FYI: When I was catching, the ball was fouled straight back over my glove and shoulder, and right into the umpire's upper groin area. LOL

Sunday:
Went to the Flea Market in Stitsville. Gordon reminded me there was $1 Magic Rares from a shop there. I was there last year and there wasn't really anything good. But this time they had abunch of good rares. I bought "48" rares (it was pure chance I ended up with 48 ^_^) Too bad some kids showed up and proceeded to go through the cards I haven't gone through yet, and took all the Clones!
I still scored some good rares: Mirror Entity, Seedborn Muse, Sunscour, Earthquake, Starstorm, Jester's Scepter, and a single Clone.


^ 48 $1 Rares.

Dinner today -> Liver and Onions on Rice.
Saw some fresh chicken liver at Farmboy. Had to get it. Liver is so tasty :)
FYI: Must never be over-cooked, and should be a little rare in the middle.


^ Chicken Liver on Sweet Onions. (Rice not pictured.)

CMC Strike Fighters 0-1 in Playoffs

With Transformers and GI Joe episodes on every night (Ch284) at 12:30am through 1:30am, and me not being able to fall asleep til 2am (partly because I'm watching Fantastic Four after those 2 shows), I'm starting to feel tired in the mornings. Even though I've seen the episodes before, I'm compelled by some mysterious urge to watch it :)

CMC Strike Fighter's 1st playoff game was a late game tonight, out in a wet and cold night. We weren't able to field a full team and had alot of errors. We lost 27-10 :(
We should have been able to beat this team! They are not that good.
I was 4 for 4, but without some of our missing sluggers hitting behind me, I was only able to score once.
Our next playoff game is on Saturday. We must win to move on.

Dinner today -> Pork Belly on Ramen.
Last of the left over pork belly I got from T&T on the weekend. Made some instant ramen to go with it.


^ Pork Belly and Ramen.

Useless Japan News:
This is a cool little article about a shooting prize game. Next time Gavin and I are in Japan, we'll know what to do, but I'm already a marksman at the BB Gun Game at Sega's Joypolis Amusement Centre in Odaiba :). I shot down alot of Tofu Plushies. Gavin's got the skillz in the UFO games.


^ Tofu Plush Prizes and Sonic.
Not sure why we shot so many down? Must be that need to have a full set each and, you know, boys and guns... :)

Useless Transformers News:
The new Drift figure is pretty neat. He's got 2 short swords (hidden in the doors) and a 2-handed sword. Very poseable too.


^ Drift.
Still looking for TF: Animated Ironhide and Hot Rod.

Chilly

It was abit chilly inside CMC today. I wore my lab coat at my desk most of the day. It's made of this really thin, plasticy material; but stays warm because it doesn't breathe. No one else seemed to notice that it was abit cool at work, so I better not be getting sick!

Dinner today -> Steak and Veggies.
Angus Steak is on sale at Metro.


^ Steak and Veggies.

Useless Idol News:
There's an AKB48 Board Game coming out this December. A limited release by Bandai. Here's the pre-order page.
It looks like a mahjong type game, with the girl's faces on the tiles. Don't think I will be getting this.

NES Display

Some cool displays are set up in a supermarket somewhere:


^ Mario and Donkey Kong.
I got to give a hand to those employees. They are true NES Fans.

Long Weekend Report

Friday:
Got some "Large" Naval Oranges from the SuperStore. Then I got some "Large" Grapefruits from FarmBoy. Only when I got home, that I realized SuperStore's "Large" is "Small" compared to Farmboy's "Large". The grapefruits I got were huge!


^ "Large" Orange and Large Grapefruit.

Saturday:
Lunch today -> ChowMein and Beef Brisket from T&T.
Bought separately, but combined together; it makes for a good meal or two.



Sunday:
Got some pastries from Montreal.


^ BBQ Pork Buns and Egg Tarts from MTL

Monday:
Today is Labour Day. Suppose to be a holiday from work, but I spent 1/2 the day at CMC working... :(
BUT I spent the other 1/2 of the day playing "Batman: Arkham Asylum". I started Friday night and I'm about 37% complete. It's one of the best games I've ever played.


^ Batman for 360.

Dinner today -> Black Pepper Spaghetti.
Made some Black Pepper Spaghetti. Added some nappa, beef, and shrimps. I think I added too much black pepper, because the nappa itself is naturally peppery. Still pretty good.


^ Black Pepper Spaghetti.

Useless Transformers News:
FYI: The G1 Transformers cartoon is now on every night at 12:30am on Teletoon Retro (Rogers Ch 284 in Ott). Note that on Saturday, Transformers is on twice: midnight and 12:30am (different episodes.)

Comic Book Shoppe got some 2010 San Diego Comic Con Exclusive Blasters. He comes with Steeljaw, Ramhorm and Eject. I didn't pick it up. It had nothing extra that I didn't have already for the Japanese re-issues, other than the nice collector's box.

Moon Cake

The Moon Cake Festival is this month (I think?), and T&T has alot of different moon cakes for sale. I picked up this really fancy wooden 3-tier Moon Cake display. I got it mainly for the display piece than for the moon cakes, even though my mom said it's a really well known brand of moon cake.


^ 3-tier Display.
The display is pretty good quality. It's got black felt on the inside of each container and a large felt piece on the bottoms.


^ Moon Cake insides.
The inside of the moon cakes that come with this has a single yoke in the center. I believe it's surrounded by "golden" lotus paste too. Really tasty :)

The T&T flyer also says that they carry a 5-yoke moon cake. I think I will try to get one, this weekend to try out. I was also looking for 16 different Japanese mini-moon cakes box, but I didn't see it there.