Mario Pocket Watch

Useless Toy News:
My co-worker Julie gave this metal Super Mario "?" block box from Japan.

"?" Block.

Inside was a really cool Super Mario pocket watch.

Super Mario Pocket Watch.

I need to get the battery replaced before I start using it.

Weekend Report: Ramen

Food this weekend ->
Made a quick dinner on Friday night.  Made pork and chives wontons with ramen.

Wonton and Ramen.

Saturday I made a seafood ramen.  I made a big batch of seafood topping using a frozen seafood mix, potatoes, carrots, sausages, eggs, and red pepper paste.  Then I cooked the ramen by pouring the broth over the dry noodles and letting it sit covered until soft.

Seafood Ramen.

Useless Gaming News:
Went to the toy sale at the old Target location at Hazeldean Mall.  Nothing much there.  Was thinking of picking up a boardgame from Kobold's Corner, but it was way cheaper on Meeplemart.

I went to Chapters afterwards and picked up some clearance games.  I got Doctor Who Yahtzee (Dalek edition) for $7.50 (from $29.99), Walking Dead Yahtzee for $7.50 (from $29.99), and Qwirkle travel edition for $19.95.  I had a $10 off coupon too.

Yahtzee Games and Qwirkle.

Gaming at Brian's on Saturday.  Only 3-players.  We started with Exploding Kittens.  I rolled to go first and actually rolled a "Table Top" (2 sixes).

Rolled Table Top.

Exploding Kittens is alright.  Short starter game.  I lost both games we played :(

Exploding Kittens.

Then we played DC Deck Builder: Teen Titans.  Pretty good game.  I barely won in the end with 45 points against Brian's 42 points and Paul's 41 points.

DC Deck Builder: Teen Titans.

We finished the night with a game of Gun Runners.  I like this game.  Simple yet strategic with some dice rolling luck element.

USA Lays Chips Flavours 2015

Useless Gaming News:
Played 5-player Eggs and Empires at lunchtime today.  Excellent fun and quick game.  Surprisingly in 1 round I won the 15 point dragon egg with only a 5, because all 4 other players played the 3 card hoping someone was going to play the 8 card (3 picks before 8 rule) :) LOL

After work we played 3-player Heroes Wanted.  Pretty fun game where players are randomly generated superheroes trying to thwart the randomly generated villain and his minions.  (You can also attack other players.)  In the end James and I tied with 34 fame. 
(I forgot to take pictures of all the gaming today.)

Useless Food News:
Susanna got some of the US Lays Chips flavours and we tried them out yesterday. 

USA Lays Chips Flavours.

The best by far is the "Southern Biscuits and Gravy".  It tastes like Alfredo sauce chips.  I totally want more of these. 
2nd would be "Greektown Gyro".  Tastes of tzatziki and pita.
3rd would be "West Coast Truffle Fries".  Tastes like very lightly coated sour cream and onion chips.
4th by far is "New York Ruben".  I think it tastes like how modelling clay smells.

Fried Pig Ear Slices

Lunch today -> Souvlaki.
Food trucks today.  Only Big D's and a Greek truck were there.  I got a pork souvlaki platter, but I later learned that Big D's won 1st place recently for their taco poutine.  Maybe I'll try that next time.

Souvlaki Platter.

Dinner today -> Rideau Restaurant.
Dinner with the family at Rideau Restaurant tonight.  It was for my dad's birthday dinner.  The food was excellent as usual.

Rideau Dinner.

Afterwards we ate cake... 2 cakes. 

Birthday Cakes.

1 angel cake from T&T and 1 fruity cheese cake from Sobey's.

Mmm.

Useless Food News:
Susanna got me some fresh pork rinds from a Ukrainian festival last weekend.

Fresh Pork Rinds.

She also got me some fried sliced pig ears.  They are different and kind of tasty, if you don't think about it being pig ears.

Fried Pig Ear Slices.

Bruised Right Hand

Lunch today -> Frank's Sandwich.
Went to Comic Book Shoppe at lunchtime today.  On the way back I went to Frank's and got my usual #1 on white bread.  The sandwich was really good and totally hit the spot.  Frank was slicing the meat today too.

Frank's #1.

Dinner today -> Meat Lasagna.
Cooked 2 lasagnas from Lasagna-thon tonight: 1 seafood and 1 meat.

Seafood and Meat Lasagnas.

I only ate the meat one tonight.

Meat Lasagna.

Useless Softball News:
CMC Strike Fighters finally finished a full softball game today, but we lost.  We lost to Beerfeasters 19-13.  It was kind of close until the 6th inning, where we couldn't hold them off. 
I bruised the back of my right hand pretty badly tonight.  It got hit on a fast strike pitch by Mark when I blinked on a huge swung and missed by the batter, and I missed making the catching.  Now I have 2 injured hands (pulled my left index finger a few weeks ago and it can't take alot of weight).
I hit 1-for-2 tonight with a single and a walk, and scoring 2 RBIs.

Useless Gaming News:
Picked a new Magic card from Comic Book Shoppe today: Perilous Vault.  It's from Core Set 2015.  Didn't know this card existed, and is a more potent Nevinyrral's Disk.

Perilous Vault Mythic Rare.

Sailor Moon Candy Keychain

Dinner today -> Liver
Made liver steaks with garlic chives for dinner.  Marinated the liver only in soy sauce, but I should have mixed in some cha sui sauce for more flavour.

Mmm... Liver.

Added a side of instant butter and herb mash potatoes too.

Dinner.

Useless Toys News:
I got these Sailor Moon broach keychains a little while ago and forgot to post it.  They open up and secretly conceal a candy compartment behind the jewel.  I only got 1 set from the box, as there was only 1 Luna Ball.

Sailor Moon Candy Keychains.

Weekend Report: Lasagna-thon

Food this weekend ->
Got fresh rice noodle wraps from the Chinese Grocery store in Kanata at lunchtime on Friday.  I was hoping to get the red bean seasame balls too, but they didn't have any.

Friday night Ben, Susanna, and I made 18 medium lasagnas.  I termed it "Lasagna-thon".  We first made 9 meat lasagnas.  The tomato sauce was made up of ground beef, mushrooms, onions, roasted garlic, and Oktoberfest sausages.  Topped with 3 cheese mix.

Beginning of Lasagna-thon.

The next 9 were seafood lasagnas.  The Alfredo sauce was made up of ground pork, mussels, shrimp, scallops, onions, and roasted garlic.  Topped with white cheddar.

18 Lasagnas.

Each lasagna noodle was covered in a ricotta cheese, Parmesan cheese, and egg mix, rolled, and then placed in the pan.  Each pan had 4 rolls. 
We cooked 2 of each to eat.

Fresh, Hot Meat and Seafood Lasagnas.

I was actually full after eating 2 rolls with some garlic bread.

2 Lasagna Rolls.

Useless Gaming News:
4-Player gaming on Saturday night.  We played City Hall first.  Pretty good game.  It's about buying and building property while balancing money, influence, population, and approval ratings.  Brian gave up on turn 3, because Paul and I were taking the actions he wanted.  He was also angry that I wanted to build property and gain approval...? that is the point of the game and I was playing to win.  And I did :)

City Hall.

We then played Shinobi Clans.  The game rounds start by drafting ninjas/weapons/event cards in order to either assassinate or defend the target.  Each player can select a contract to attack or defend 2 different targets with a random gold value for each target.  Then each player plays face down cards on the target in a stack.  When all players are done, the stack is revealed one card at a time to determine the target's outcome.  Really fun game and probably on "get" list.

Shinobi Clans.

Picked up the From the Vault: Angel's set on Sunday from Kobold's Corner.  They were charging a reasonable $50 for the set.  Everyone else was selling them for $100!
Also picked up the Batman Fluxx promo card: Clayface.

FTV: Angels and Clayface Promo.

PEI Scalloped Potatoes and Montreal Smoke Meat Lays

Useless Food News:
Tried out 2 more Lays Canada chip flavours.  1st was the PEI Scalloped Potatoes.  I like it, but it taste just like Sour Cream & Onion chips with cheese flavouring added.
The 2nd flavour was the Montreal Smoke Meat.  It tasted mostly like mustard with an aftertaste of pepper corn and a hint of smoke meat.  After a few mouthfuls, it's just a mustard taste.  Not that good in a big bag, but probably good in the snack size bags.  

Scalloped Potatoes and Smoke Meat Lays.

Useless Gaming News:
Thursday gaming at CMC today.  At lunchtime we played 7-player Saboteur 2.  So much more fun with lots of players.  I lost bad.  I only had 3 gold at the end of 4 rounds.
After work, we played 3-player Kingdom Builder.  Pretty good game.  Very simple to learn and involves luck and good strategy.  Object is to build settlements throughout the land and collect victory points that match the different victory condition cardss, but your play is limited by the type of land card you draw and the special ability tokens you collect.  Lots of replayability as you only use random 4 map tiles of the 8 maps and 3 random victory condition cards of the 10.  Probably on my list "to get" later, but I'll get the Big Box version (Wow Meeplemart is way cheaper than the KickStarter version especially now in Canadian dollars).
We played 3 games in about 2.5 hrs (including learning time and Evan's slow play).  I finished 2nd, 1st, and 3rd.  I made critical mistakes that cost me points in the last game.

3-Player Kingdom Builder.

Useless Idol News:
The NGT48 members will be revealed Friday.  Kashiwagi Yuki and Captain Kitahara Rie will be there at the reveal.

Stage for NGT48.

Useless M:tG News:
From the Vault: Angels is released Friday.  I'm going to try and get a set.  I'm number #17 on the reserve list, but I'm just going to drop by the store at lunchtime and grab it at #1 (like I've done in the past ;) )

Mini-Seacons

Dinner today -> Chicken Salad.
Bought myself a large family sized Caesar Salad from SuperStore.  Mixed about 1/4 of it for tonight's dinner topped with a couple leftover chicken thighs.  Filling meal.

Chicken Salad.

Useless Gaming News:
Was at Chapters at lunchtime today.  They had a sale on some board games.  I picked up Star Trek Catan for $30 ($10 less than MeepleMart) and Lord of the Rings Deluxe Ed for $15 ($7 less than non-Deluxe at MeepleMart).

Star Trek Catan and LOTR Board Game.

Useless Transformers News:
Got a package from HLJ in the mail today.  It was the Mini-Seacons.  I got a full set plus and extra #5 and #6.  Each Seacon is built from multiple sprues, include stickers to apply, have simple transformations, and comes with a piece of banana gum.  All 6 can be combined to form the gestalt Piranhacon.

Mini-Seacons.

No Lights at Diamond

Lunch today -> Scrambled Eggs with Pork and Toast.
Went home for lunch today.  Scrambled 4 eggs with some milk and added some leftover ground pork.  Ate that with buttered toast while watching some old Running Man episodes.

Lunch.

Dinner today -> Chicken.
Pressure cooked some chicken thighs in BBQ sauce while I was away at tonight's softball game.

Pressure Cooked Chicken.

Only the bottom pieces bot browned, and the meat was just flaking off.  Probably over cooked it as the meat's flakiness was more meant for a soup or mixed with fried rice.  It was kind of like boiled chicken.

Boiled Chicken?

Microwaved some instant rice to eat with the chicken.

Dinner.

Useless Softball News:
CMC Strike Fighters were supposed to play a double-header tonight, but the light at the diamond wouldn't turn on.  We only played 2 innings before it got too dark.  We hung around til almost 9pm trying/waiting for the lights to turn on.  I think we were up 5-1 before we stopped.
Anyways, I hit 1-for-1 with a double and scored 2 RBI.

Useless Gaming News:
Got my KickStarter Heroes Wanted: Stuff of Legend expansion in the mail.  Still haven't played the base game yet.

Heroes Wanted Expansion.

Trufflelata

Useless Food News:
Susanna and I went to the Tanger Outlet tonight to get shirt at Hot Topic because I thought all shirts were 30% off as per website, but apparently it is US only.  The Tanger location didn't have a sale, so I didn't buy anything there (they also didn't have the shirt). 
On the way out I got a Trufflelata from the Godiva Chocolate store.  Ben recommended the Hazelnut Crunch Trufflelata, so I got that.  It was very good at first and it tasted just like a Ferraro Roche, but after a few sips, I found it way too sweet.  Susanna agreed too.  When I got home, I poured it into a glass and added about 2/3 cup of milk to dilute it.

Hazelnut Crunch Trufflelata.

Useless Toy News:
Sheridan dropped off a couple items at my desk this morning.  A Willow movie print with a real autograph from Val Kilmer.  I also got a Boba Fett Car decal sheet.

Autograph Willow Print and Boba Fett Car Decal.

Weekend Report: Oat & Mill Ice Cream

Food this weekend ->
Lunch of Friday was stuffed peppers from Farmboy.  They are pretty good.  I also got a box of fresh mini oatmeal raisin cookies.  I usually don't like raisins in cookies, but these cookies were still warm the raisins were still soft.

Cookies and Stuffed Peppers.

Made lamb chops on Saturday.  They were on sale on Basics. 

Lamb Chops.

I also steamed some corn from Walmart in my pressure cooker.  The corn was OK.  Not very sweet.

Steamed Corn.

Made a big pot of red congee on Sunday.  I made it the ground pork, shitake mushrooms, preserved duck eggs, green onions, some eggs, and Korean red pepper paste.  Hot congee on a hot day!  I was dripping sweat when I was done eating a couple bowls.

Red Congee.

Useless Food News:
Mark and Jes picked me up a new ice cream made out of oats.  There is no milk in it, but it is very smooth and creamy.  I had the chocolate peanut butter flavour and it is awesome!  I had to force myself to stop, as it is so good.  It's made by a local Ottawa company called Oat & Mill and they sell the ice cream online and at the Carp Farmer's Market.  BUT it's expensive.  Even at $10 a pint, I'm still tempted to order some other flavours.

Oat & Mill Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream.

Useless Gaming News:
Got Let Them Eat Shrimp in the mail on Friday.

Let Them Eat Shrimp.

4-Player gaming Friday night at Brian's.  We started with King Down.  It's a prequel to chess and up to 4 players.  Neat game, but some pieces/cards are broken.  Needs more rules clarification.  We played a bunch of variations of Pairs afterwards.

King Down.

Useless Transformers News:
Found Transformers: Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus on Friday at Walmart.  I had just ordered the Japanese version Thursday night because I wasn't sure if I would have found it in stores.  The Japanese version comes with Alpha Trion too.

Ultra Magnus.

Ben and I got an Optimus Prime onesie for Nathan.

Optimus Prime Onesie.

Useless M:tG News:
Got my SDCC exclusive Magic Planeswalker set.  I comes in a nice cardboard box with a briefcase like handle.

SDCC Planeswalkers Box.

Opening it up, it included a hardcover book and a foldout card display of the 5 planeswalkers.  Very nice set.

SDCC Planeswalkers Cards and Book.