Aquaman, Bane, and Lloyd

Finally done my audit today, after 3 days of sitting in that sweat-lodge of a meeting room.  I need to tell the building maintenance guy to improve the room's ventilation.

Useless Toy News:
Finally got my shipment of Lego Dimensions from Microsoft.com.  I now have all the current expansions and I didn't pay full price for a single one.  These 3 sets were the last ones to finish it: Aquaman, Bane, and Lloyd. 

3 Lego Dimension Sets.

I picked up a few extra sets as gifts, but I can't post those :)  I also picked up a storage box today at Micheal's to store all the open Dimension sets without mixing them up. 

Salty French Food

Day 2 of a 3 day audit today.  I got the theme song from "Passe-Partou" stuck in my head all day during the audit.  I was just humming it in my head.  I had it in my head yesterday too.  I have no idea why?  It just popped in there.

Dinner today -> Viva International Buffet
Skipped softball tonight (I wondered if they played because it was raining) and went to dinner at the new Viva International Buffet.  Julie went with me to try it.out.  Each night of the week is a theme, and Tuesday nights is French food.  I've never had French food before, but Julie has, so she helped me critic it.
There wasn't much variety for a buffet, and I wasn't sure what dishes were "French".  I got a bit of everything with meat in it.  Julie said the beef bourguignon was french but the sauce was too watery and way too salty.  A couple other dishes were French too, but weren't good either.  She said most of the dishes were too salty, and I had to agree.  I did find the roast beef very good, but a bit too fatty.

First Plate.

I also got a plate of fresh cooked mussels in a tomato and white wine broth.  The mussels were OK, but there was too much wine taste for me.

Mussels Plate.

I didn't really try the desserts, but Julie tried most of it.  She said it wasn't good and there wasn't very much "French" desserts.  Mostly standard buffet desserts + crepes.  But Julie also said everything was way too sweet.  Anyways, we were both disappointed with the place, especially for dinner pricing.  I also can't see myself coming back or recommending it.
We hit Menchie's right after for frozen yogurt and to fill up.

Cooked Duck Wing

Useless Food News:
Found some spicy cooked duck wings at T&T today.  It looked interesting and sounded like a good snack.  I might try it this week when I'm not busy.  They also had duck neck and duck leg.  The leg is probably the meatiest, but the package only felt like there were 2 legs in it.  The wings felt like there were atleast 4 wings in there.

Spicy Duck Wing Snack.

Weekend Report -> Lego Dimensions

Food this weekend -> BBQ
I BBQ both Saturday and Sunday night for dinner.  I cooked Teriyaki Pork Tenderloin and Korean Short ribs.

BBQ Pork Tenderloin and Short Ribs.

I also BBQed some marinated squid.  I should have skewered them as they started to curl while cooking, eventhough I had scored them.

BBQ Squid.

Ate the meat with rice and broccoli.  The squid was super tender and slightly sweet being marinated in the same Korean short rib sauce as the short ribs.

BBQ Dinner.

Useless Gaming News:
I sorted and built the first 16 sets of the Lego Dimensions game this weekend.  I'll need to go to Micheal's and get another storage box.  Still have a ton more sets to organize. 
Played some of the game on my PS4 too.  Standard Lego game so it's fun.  Moving the lego figs on the actual physical portal to do things in game is unique.  The problem is finding save points.  I was goofing around in the DC Universe level and couldn't find any save points.  I had to leave and jump into the main portal just to get to a save point.

Happy 38th Anniversary CMC Kanata!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES!!!

and

HAPPY 38th ANNIVERSARY CMC KANATA!!!

Lunch today -> Cake, cake, and more cake.
Today was CMC Kanata’s 38th Anniversary.
Everyone rejoiced!
The Social Committee funded me to go to Costco and picked up 5 cakes to celebrate.
Everyone rejoiced!

Downstair's Cakes.

Upstair's Cakes.

We had: NY Style Cherry Cheesecake, Tiramisu, Coconut Cream Cake, and 2 Tuxedo Cakes.
Everyone rejoiced!
All I ate for lunch today was 3 slices of cake.
and everyone rejoiced!

Dinner today -> Potato and Leek Soup.
Made soup for a late dinner.  I pressure cooked some red potatoes, 2 leeks, and a sweet onion in chicken broth and dashi.  Then I added a can of coconut cream, half can of red curry, and a full pack of pre-cooked bacon.  Blended it up with my immersion blender until it was smooth.  It was good.  I think it will be good cold tomorrow too.

Potato and Leek Soup.

Useless Toy News:
Went to Walmart to price match the Slimer Lego Dimensions pack and some Zootopia Disney Infinity figures to match the Microsoft.com sale.  I had no problems with the price match at Walmart, while Kanata Toys R Us wouldn't match it (they did it before, but won't any more).

Latest Goods.

Forgot the Bag

Useless Food News:
I make a mug of green tea every morning and drink it throughout the day.  Today, as I was sipping it, it tasted off and weak.  I didn't find out why until the end of the day, when I went to clean my mug.  There was no tea bag inside!  I forgot to put one in, so I was just drinking hot water all day!  LOL  Might explain why I was feeling bored and lazy all day.

Dinner today -> Shrimp in Lobster Sauce.
Made some homemade "shrimp in lobster" sauce for dinner today.  I used ground pork, shrimp with the shell on, king oyster mushrooms, roasted garlic, red onion, egg, and black bean sauce.  It turned out pretty good.  Maybe abit watery (I didn't add any potato starch to thicken it).

Shrimp with Lobster Sauce.

I served it with white rice.  I should have de-shelled the shrimps.  The shells slowed me down while eating, so I ate a couple with the shells because I was too hungry to peel it.

Dinner.

Curse is Broken

Useless Food News:
Ottawa Ribfest Starts on Wednesday and goes to Sunday.  I want some Camp31 ribs!  Susanna, Ben, and I agreed it was the best a couple years ago and the 2 years before that, but last year it wasn't that good.
Looks like there is a standard price now, but it doesn't beat Big Bone BBQ's Monday deal.

Useless Softball News:
CMC Strike Fighters played The Free Agents tonight.  They are another B- Division team.  This makes 5 games in a row we are playing teams in a higher tier than us.  We lost 16-8.  It was close in the beginning, but we gave up key home runs and made errors at the wrong time.  Their pitcher was fast and accurate.  I like hitting off him.
I hit 2-for-4, with a single, a double, and 2 pop flys in deep center field.
Steve finally broke his awful hitting all season with a 3-run homerun.
MVP: Maureen.  She was playing first base tonight and made some key grabs where she had to stretch out to catch because of some over throws.  She also made a hard and fast throw to me at the plate to almost get the runner at home out.

Burger Cake

Lunch today -> Mini Beef Samosas.
Pan cooked some mini beef samosas for lunch today.  It was quick and good.  I ate them with a side of sour cream and grape tomatoes.

Mini Beef Samosas.

Snack today -> Cake.
Went to Loblaws at lunch and picked up some discount king oyster mushrooms.  I also got a discount Father's Day cake.  It was a white cake made to look like a giant hamburger.  It was totally worth the $4 and I shared it at work.

Discount Loblaws Food.

Dinner today -> Mushroom and Pork Congee.
I used 1 pack of the king oyster mushrooms to make congee.  I also added shitake mushrooms, ground pork, and preserved egg.  It was probably too hot to be eating this, but I felt like eating congee today.

Mushroom and Pork Congee.

Weekend Report -> Lots of Food and AKB48 Election

Useless Idol News:
Slept only two 2hr spans of sleep on Friday night because of the AKB48 Elections.  I think it started around 12:30am Friday night and ended at 8:30am.  The live concert with a final vote appeal was first, followed by a 2hr break, and then the live election results.
HKT48's Sashihara Rino won this year with 243,044 votes.  It wasn't even.

#1 Sasshi.

Gavin's favorite AKB48's Watanabe Mayu got 2nd with 175,613.  It wasn't even close.

#2 Mayuyu

For the ones I keep track of:
Kashiwagi Yuki got 5th

#5 Kashiwagi

And Kitahara Rie got 12th.

#12 Rie.

After placing 16th Nyan Nyan Kamen revealed her secret identity is Kojima Haruna.  She also finally announced her intent of graduating from AKB48 too.

#16 Kojiharu.

Food this weekend ->
Relatives were gathering in Ottawa on Saturday.  Met at my parent's house for lunch.  My aunt made meat appetizers.

Appetizers.

The lunch spread came mostly from Rideau Restaurant.

Lunch...

... Lunch Continued.

Susanna made the deconstucted Vietnamese shrimp wrap (right side of last pic) and then mixed it together, like a cold noodle salad.
Lunch dessert was fruit,

Fruit

And a Frutti Bosco cake from Montreal.

Frutti Bosco Cake.

After a shopping trip to Tanger, we went to Joe's for a late dinner.  Lots of meat here.  He also made his own BBQ duck

Meaty Dinner.

Dessert was a Tiramisu cake from Montreal.

Tiramisu Cake.

Useless Gaming News:
Game 7 of the NBA finals, and another round of Broom Service (BTW: Cavs won).  Introduced the Mountain Tiles for tonight's game.  Soon we'll be playing Advance with all the components.  Anthony ran away with this game when he got to the big points corner and Ben didn't follow to stop him.  Atleast Ben didn't finish last again.

Broom Service.

More Broom Service

Dinner today -> T&T Food.
Susanna and I went to T&T after work today.  I picked up a pile of discount food.  I got 4 containers of pork congee, 1 fried tilapia, Portuguese tarts, popcorn pork, sushi (ones with salmon roe too!), snails, and scallop dresses.  I didn't have time to eat any of this except for the popcorn pork and Portuguese tarts as I had to get to Jeff's for some board gaming.

T&T Discount Food.

Useless Gaming News:
Another NBA game night means another round of 5-player gaming at Jeff's.  We started with Broom Service, as usual.  A very close match for all of us, except for Ben.  Anthony only won by 2 points too.

Broom Service.

We played a couple round of Walk the Plank afterwards.  We use modified rules of 5 pirates each and laying out 5 cards.

Walk the Plank.

Birthday Cake

(No post yesterday because I was up til 4am watching Sailormoon, then I was up til 5am because AKB48 Show was on at 4:30am)
Went shopping and bought some new clothes on my birthday.  Got a couple of casual shirts that came with matching t-shirts.  Julie went shopping with me and helped pick them out.  In the end she bought more clothes than I did.  I was also looking for the "Power Air Fryer XL", but we didn't see it in the Showcase store or the Bed, Bath, and Beyond store yet.

New Clothes.

Jeff and Linda got me a cooler.  Jeff suggested I could use it for softball, but I think I'll use it as a big lunch box.

New Cooler.

Dinner Tuesday-> BBQ.
Roger and Julie came over for BBQ dinner and to watch movies/Sailormoon.  We had marinated short ribs, Teriyaki pork, and a pasta salad from Costco with some veggies I had in the fridge.  The pork was really good.  Usually I don't get pork because it's usually too dry, but these Costco ones were really moist and tasty.

BBQ Dinner.

Julie made me a birthday cake.  She said it was similar to a Dutch black cherry cake (I think?).  It was a big and heavy cake. 

Homemade Cake.

She made it with 3 layers.  The top and bottom layers were chocolate.  The middle layer was a maraschino cherry cake.  Each layer was separated by a cherry sugar sauce, but one of these sauces hardened too much and became a candy layer.  lol.

Homemade Cake Cross-Section.

The cake was very good, just a bit difficult to cut :)  I really liked the cherry layer.  Thanks Julie for making me this cake.  I'll probably be snacking on this for a few days :)

My Slice was Too Big!

Happy Birthday!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ME!!!!

If you're looking for me, I'm taking Tuesday and Wednesday off from work. 

What a Hit!

Lunch today -> Ox Head 2
Steve, Ed, and I went to Ox-Head 2 Restaurant for my pre-birthday lunch.  We shared a plate of Beef Fried Noodles.  It was OK, but wasn't worth $15.  The shitake mushrooms in it had no flavour, which I found unusual.  Usually there is alot of flavour.  Probably won't order this again.

Beef Fried Noodles.

All 3 of us ordered the V17 Ox-Head Vermicelli as our main meal.  As usual it was really good and filling.  Can't go wrong with this dish.

Ox Head Vermicelli.

Useless Gaming News:
5-Player gaming tonight at Jeff & Linda's place.  We started with Broom Service.  We added the advance clouds this time.  Anthony ran away with the game when he got to the corner locations first and collected all the big points.

Broom Service.

We finished the night with a couple round of Walk the Plank.  Ben somehow won both games.

Walk the Plank.

Useless Cards News:
I opened my box of Game of Thrones: Season 5 cards last night.  I pulled a Peter Dinklage autograph!  His autograph is "very limited" according to the checklist.  Awesome hit, although I was still hoping for the dragonglass relic card.

GoT:Season 5 Inserts.

Weekend Report -> Softball Tournament

Useless Softball News:
The softball tournament was this weekend.  It started Friday night for the Strike Fighters.  We played a B- division team (but I forgot who we played) for the 1st game.  We are a C+ division team.  This game decided if we move up to the C bracket or down to the D bracket.  I didn't think we would win, but we pulled off a decisive victory.
The 2nd game was Saturday morning after a 2hr rain delay.  We played Masterbatters.  They are a good B+ division team.  We beat them a semi-close game.  Our bats were hitting well.

Steve Hitting a Grounder Single.

The 3rd game was against A-Team for the semi-finals match.  They are a B- division team.  We got slaughtered.  They got to Gary early and often.  The whole team was made of homerun hitters.  Even their girls could hit them deep.  We also had alot of errors in the outfield.  And with that loss we were out of the tournament.  No 3-peat this year :(

Useless Cards News:
Picked up a box of Eternal Masters on Friday.  It was expensive.  Haven't decided if I'll open it yet.  I need to read what cards are in this set.

M:TG Eternal Masters Box.

Also picked up a box of Game of Thrones Season 5 cards.  I'm tempted to get a 2nd box.  The "Dragon Glass" relic card is what I want to pull.

GOT Season 5 Box.

Useless Aquarium News:
Took a short video of the new black and silver guppies.

Zootopia DVD

Dinner today -> BBQ Steak.
Julie was in the neighbourhood today and I met up with her for dinner and to watch DVDs.  We picked up some rib steaks at Costco and I BBQed them at my house.  I also had mini-tomatoes, broiled mini-potatoes with cheese, and microwaved sugar snaps for sides.

Steak Dinner with Sides.

Useless Pet News:
Before going back to my house from Costco, Julie and I went to Pet Smart.  I wanted more plants for my aquarium, but the ones they had there were not that good.  I did pick up a couple black and silver guppies.  They match-up well with the orange and yellow guppies I have now.  I'll get a picture another time.
On the way out we noticed a papa and mama dog waiting to get some supplies ;)

Did These Dogs Drive?!?

Useless DVD News:
Picked up the new Zootopia DVD at Costco.  Still a great movie second time round and totally worth buying.  We watched it while eating dinner.  We also watch "Bill".  I didn't get half the jokes as they were related to Shakespeare, other writers, and their works.  We finished the night by watching the last Season 1 DVD disc of Sailormoon.  The audio in the last episode was messed up.  The background music was way too loud and drowned out most of what they were saying.  I'm thinking the US version when it was on TV years ago was better...

Zootopia Movie.

Vote Kitahara Rie

Useless Idol News:
It's been awhile but I got a package from Japan.  I got my latest AKB48 stuff.  In the package was the lastest single "Tsubasa wa iranai" CDs.  The CDs include the election voting tickets for the 45th Single.  Also in the package was some magazines, mooks, photos, and a Kashiwagi clear file.

Latest AKB48 Stuff.

Going to use my 3 AKB48 election tickets to vote for Kitahara Rie.  Hopefully she'll get into Senbatsu.  She only ranked 50th after the 1st day (but 1st day doesn't mean anything).  Final Election results will be June 18, and hopefully streamed live.  Election Site here.

Vote Kitahara Rie.