Happy Birthday Susanna!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSANNA!!!

Susanna went Black Friday shopping in the states, instead of celebrating her birthday in Ottawa.  I got this piggy stuff for Susanna, because she was born in the Year of the PIG.

Everywhere a Piggy!

Lots-a-Oranges

Bought a carton of navel oranges from Ed's daughter's fundraiser.  This is a ton of oranges, but I'm splitting the case with Ben.  They don't look very orange, but they are sweet and very juicy.

Juicy Navel Oranges.

Useless Idol News:
Got these AKB photos in the mail.  Mostly Kasai and Itano, but also a few Kitahara, Kojiharu, Mayuyu, and HKT's Kodama photos.

AKB Photos.

AKB48 performance of "Heavy Rotation" in Cosplay from yesterday's Best Artist Awards 2013.  Who's your favorite: Astronaut Yuko, Nurse Milky, White Mage Mayu, or someone else?

Snow Storm + Kodiak Snowblowing = Bad Service

Today was the 1st Snow Storm of the winter.  I have Kodiak Snowblowing clearing the snow from my drive way this year.  Now, I'm having 2nd thoughts about switching them.  Today they haven't had shown up when I left for work today at 8:50am, and still haven't had shown up when I got home at 4:40pm.  What were they doing all day?!?!  Today was my first day with them, and they screwed it up by leaving a bad impression on me.  I had to call them to make sure they were coming.  Also on the phone, they said they did a 1st pass at 9:50am (totally useless time, should have been earlier), which wasn't true because the morning snow was still there for me and my neighbours (who also use Kodiak).  When the tractor finally showed up, it was very poorly cleared.  I had to go shovel afterwards because the driver didn't clear near the edge of the drive way (missed it by a 1.5ft), and there was still a good 2 inches of snow left on the driveway.  Now it's going to be there all winter because the driver didn't do it right on the 1st day.

I shoveled the edge, but the snow on the driveway was already freezing.

My tractor is #39.  If they screw up again, I'm switching back next year to Capital Services (as of right now I'm already 98% sure I'm going to switch back next year unless they pull off a miracle).  I'm utterly disappointed with the snow removal company so far, especially when they looked really good last year from watching my neighbours service.  The $100 difference between Capital Services and Kodiak is not worth this poor service.
Kodiak, if you're reading this, I've already sent you a stern complaint email on your website.  You should put last year's driver back on this route (Morgan's Grant/South March) or make the service better.  As of right now, you'll be losing a customer.

Useless Idol News:
48group members performed at the Best Artist Awards 2013 (HKT48, SKE48, NMB48, Nogizaka46, AKB48).  The performance wasn't that great IMO, but I did like AKB's short performance of KFC.

I opened my AKB48 Vege Ranger Megazor.  I totally didn't know the chest opens to reveal it was limited edition #0614 of 3000, AND that there were 8 AKB Rangers inside!!!  This was so worth the $1 I spent on ebay to win this :)  Too bad one of the Rangers included wasn't Kasai.

8 AKB48 Vege Rangers Inside Megazor.

Won $1 Items.

Dinner today -> Beef Noodle Hamburger Helper
Just generic Hamburger Helper with some frozen veggies added.  The sauce is thicker with 1/2 cup less water.

Beef Noodle Hamburger Helper.

Useless Idol News:
Scored all this stuff for $1 each on eBay.

$1 Each.

2 full boxes of AKB48 gaming cards and the AKB Vege Ranger Megazor! 

Vege Ranger Megazor and AKB Cards.

The cards are normally $78 each, and I didn't know the Megazor toy existed before.

Fish 2 Ways: Fried and Steamed.

Dinner today -> Fish 2 Ways.
I got this frozen fish from T&T a couple weeks ago.  I don't know what kind it is, but it's very similar to a skate wing.  I defrosted it and cooked it 2 ways in 1 pan.  I pan fried the bottom, while steaming the top.  I only added oyster sauce, soy sauce, ginger powder, and olive oil.  I kept adding splashes of water to keep the sauce from burning and to keep the steam thick under the lid.  Cooked for 15 mins (might have been a bit too long?) and no flipping.

Fried and Steamed Fish.

Added some parisienne potatoes I got for 50% off at Loblaws.

Fish and Potatoes.

The white meat was very smooth and flaky.  This fish is probably perfect for deep frying.

Flaky Meat.

Weekend Report: 60 Wings

Dave was in MTL for work last week and went to the MIN @ MTL game.  Apparently it was team photo day.  He saved me the pic and the ticket.  Max Pacioretty was featured on the ticket, and he scored a hat trick that night too.

2014 Montreal Canadiens.

Food this weekend ->
Got a 30 pack of Smokey BBQ Wings from the SuperStore for $10 on Friday with Ed.  These were really good.  So good, that I went back on Sunday and got a 2nd pack of 30 wings :)

Smokey BBQ Wings.

Salmon was also on sale at the SuperStore.  Made that with some broccoli and a blob of sour cream mixed with dill.

Broccoli and Salmon.

Useless Cards Info:
Cracked my 3 boxes of Women of Marvel Series 2 and pulled these 3 sketches.  No multi-card sketch but the ones I got are pretty good ones.  2 Storms and Wasp.

WOM2 Sketches.

Useless Gaming News:
Played some 6 player Zombicide Season 2.  We were learning the game on map M00.  I found the car over-powered and one of us kept exploiting it.  Overall it's a really good game.  We had no trouble beating this map twice.

Zombicide Season 2 M00.

3 Women of Marvel Series 2 Boxes.

Dinner today -> Fried Rice with Cream of Chicken Soup.
Quickly threw together some fried rice with egg and mixed veggies.  Then I made a pool of cream of chicken soup in the middle.

Dinner.

Useless Cards News:
Went to Miraj Trading today.  Picked up the Theros Holiday Gift Box on a whim.  I was going to pick up an empty card storage box, but decided to get this instead since it came with 4 booster packs too.

Theros Holiday Gift Box.

I also got 1 box of Rittenhouse's Women of Marvel Series 2 from Miraj.  I asked them to get me 6, but they only secured me 1 :(  So I hustled to Game Breakers and picked up 2 more boxes.  I wanted to get all the boxes from 1 case, so I could increase my odds of getting a multicard sketch.  I'm hoping to get a nice Rogue sketch.

3 Women of Marvel Series 2 Boxes.

Useless Idol News:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SASSHI!!!
HKT48's Sashihara Rino has a photobook coming out on Dec 25.

Sasshi.

Gingerbread Oreos

Nothing going on today.  Spent the day in Day 1 of a 3 day course on DO-178C training.  I'm actually liking the course.  I thought it was going to be dry, but the instructor is really knowledgeable and making the course interesting.

Useless Food News:
I bought a pack of Gingerbread Oreos from Target the other day.  These cookies are really good, especially when you eat the cookie and cream filling separately.  Go try it.

Gingerbread Oreo Cookies.

Slow Order of Steamed Pork Dumplings

Lunch today -> Hockey Sushi
An impromptu lunch at Hockey Sushi today.  Mainly because Ed saw an ad that said they have new items on the All-you-can-Eat menu.  Most of them were red dinner only items, except for the dim sum.  The steamed shrimp dumpling and pork dumplings tasted just like Chinatown, but the pork was really slow to get served.

Shrimp Dumpling.

We ordered a 2nd order of pork dumplings because we thought they forgot to bring it.  We got them showing very quickly.  BUT when we ordered our ice cream to finish the meal, another 4 pork dumplings showed up with the ice cream!  It took almost 1hr to get 2 orders of pork dumplings.

Pork Dumplings.

We also got tried the new hockey roll (the big ones in the pic below).  It's deep fried salmon avocado roll.

Dynamite Roll and Hockey Roll.

Dinner today -> Braised Ox Tail.
I got another clay pot from T&T on the weekend.  This time it was braised ox tail.  This one is really good.  It was full of meaty (and some fatty) ox tails.  No filler except for a few small chunks of green and yellow peppers, onions, and ginger.  I might get this one again.

Clay Pot filled with Ox Tail.

Useless Cards News:
Got my latest Transformers Optimum sketch in the mail today.  It's a Sharkticon sketch by Chris Meeks.  It's really well done.

Sharkticon.

PS4 is Region Encoded.

Lunch Today -> Frank's Catering.
I picked up some sandwiches on Sunday for lunch on Monday.  I got a new one to try: #8 Lance Romance with hot eggplant and hot meats.  I find that it tastes very similar to the #1 Frank's Special.  Still good.

#8 Lance Romance.

Dinner today -> Wonton with Ramen.
Susanna made some pork and shrimp wontons and gave me some.  I cooked them today with ramen, nappa, and a raw egg.

Wonton with Ramen.

Useless Gaming News:
Confirmed that my PS4 does not play PS3 games.  That totally sucks.  I wanted to play PS3 Transformers: Fall of Cyberton and PS3 AKB 1/149 on it. 
It also doesn't play Region 2 DVDs from Japan.  I wonder if there is a way to make it regionless?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF!!!

Anthony these tasty DQ Ice Cream Cup Cakes for Jeff.  Ben and I got him a gift card and some neat Terminator (Knockoff) Lego.

DQ Ice Cream Cup Cakes.

Weekend Report: PS4 Obtained.

Useless Gaming News:
The hunt was over before it started.  I got my Playstation 4 with no problems :)

Playstation 4.

I went to Centrum Walmart at 6:50am, and saw that the line was tiny.  But when I got in line, they told me the 25 tickets were already handed out.  The people lined up at 3am and there were about 120 people there until the tickets were handed out.
So I went to Toys R Us.  No one was there at 7am.  I left and picked up some McDonalds and went back and waited in the car until some else showed up to line up at 8am.  I was 3rd in line, but I knew there would be enough and that my TRU girl held me one.  At 9am there were only 6 people in line and there were 8 PS4 available.  I wonder why other people didn't go there?

Food this weekend ->
Roasted some potatoes, onions, and garlic on top of bacon in the oven.

Roasted Potatoes, Onions, Garlic, and Bacon.

Then I made some eggs and toast to go with it too.

Filling Breakfast.

Got a couple of dishes at T&T: Spicy Crispy Chicken (aka karaage) and Lotus Root with Beef.  The lotus root is so good.

Karaage and Lotus Root.

Ben and I went to the Poutine Fest downtown.  Some of the places looked good, but the biggest line was for Routine Poutine from Gatineau.  We should have gotten our poutine from there, but we got it from Smoke's Poutinerie instead. 

Van.

Big mistake.  I thought they were good because I saw them featured on TV, but their serving was tiny.  I got the pulled pork for $6.  Some fries, a bit of cheese, and a bit of pulled pork.  Totally not worth it.  Ben got the Bacon Cheeseburger Poutine and it looked nothing like the pic on the van.  He could have gotten a really cheeseburger with fries for less than the $7.

Pitiful Poutine.

Useless Gaming News:
Gaming Friday with Ben, Jeff and Anthony.  We only played King of Tokyo with the expansions.  Jeff got a power-up that allowed him to get 4 stars and a free turn if he rolled 1 of each icon of the dice.  He pulled it off 4 or 5 times and easily won.  Really fun game.

Monsters Attack Tokyo.

Saturday, 5 player gaming with Gordon, Brian, Ben, and Paul.  We played Suburbia before Paul showed up.  I like this city building game.

City Building Game.

Then we played Police Precinct.  Not bad game.  Similar gaming style as to Pandemic where you have to work as a team and reduce crime before it gets out of hand.

Brian Surrounded by Crime.

Useless Idol News:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KASAI!!!
Also revealed on graduated AKB48 member, Kasai Tomomi's birthday, she will be releasing her third single on January 15, 2014.

Kasai.

The Hunt Begins.

Getting up early on Friday to hunt for a PS4.  My manager friend at Walmart told me some guys called asking if they could start lining up at 3am.  He said sure.  3am!!!  That's too early.  I won't be hitting that Walmart in the morning (plus, my friend said they have atleast 15 systems).

Lunch today -> KNH
Steve, Ed, and I went to KNH for lunch today.
Steve go the Vermicelli.  He destroyed it.  It's not enough for him.  He should ask for an off the menu larger size.

Vermicelli.

Ed got the Chicken and Shrimp Pad Thai.  You can't see it in the pic, but they change the shrimp they add to this dish.  It used to be 6 tiny shrimps, now they add 3 large jumbo shrimps.  A much better improvement.

Chicken & Shrimp Pad Thai.

Since it was cold today, I got a large Pho.  The usual #15.  Pho is so good on a cold day.

#15 Large.

Useless Food News:
I got a pack of "Coffee Cake Tea" from DavidsTea at Bayshore Wednesday night.  It smells amazing.  I brewed some today at work and shared it.  It smells better than it tastes.  It might need milk and sugar to make it taste good, like they way I drink Orange Pekoe tea?  I'll have to try it that way next time.

Coffee Cake Tea.

iPhone Underwear

Useless Gaming News:
Eventhough I'm hoping to pick up a PS4 on Friday (and my inside girl, at a certain toy store, told she might have one for me :) ), I decided to pick up "Lego Marvel Super Heroes" last week to tide me over til I get a PS4.  This game is really fun.  I didn't know it was an open world inwhich you traverse anywhere you want and do missions.  The world is huge and there are lots of Marvel characters to play with.  Everyone should try playing it.

Lego Marvel Super Heroes.

Useless Toy News:
My iPhone is no longer in it's "birthday suit" each day like everybody else.  I picked up a random gashapon capsule of some iPhone underwear for my phone from Japan.  I only got a regular white underwear.  I was hoping for one of the more wild ones like leapord T-back or striped anime-style pantsu.

iPhone Tighty Whities.

Claypot

Lunch today -> Salt & Vinegar Fries.
Had to run a few errands to Target, Kobold's Korner, and Canadian Tire at lunch time today.  Picked up some fries from the fry truck outside Canadian Tire for lunch.  They were securely seatbelted in my car for travel.  Surprisingly in the cold weather, the fries stayed hot the whole way from Canadian Tire to my desk.

Fries.

Dinner today -> Deer and Beef Tendon Claypot.
I picked up a Deer and Beef Tendon Claypot from T&T on Sunday.

Claypot.

I baked it in the oven until it was boiling.  It looks good.

Deer and Beef Tendons.

Scooped it on some rice.  There were also carrots, bamboo shoots, cabbage, and garlic in it.

Dinner.

Useless Food News:
Picked up a huge jar of Cheese Balls from Target.  Almost the same as those on Honey Boo Boo's show.  The jar was full at 1pm where I left it.  By 4 it was almost empty.

Cheese Balls.

Useless Transformers News:
Masterpiece Bluestreak arrived today :)

MP Bluestreak.