Web of Spies

Useless Gaming News:
I stepped on a package on the way out the door this morning.  I didn't crush it as I caught myself before I put all my weight down.  No one rang the door bell.  The DHL delivery guy just left it by the door!  Anyways, inside was my copy of Web of Spies!  I ordered it directly from the KickStarter creator.  Took over a month to get here, but it got here.

Web of Spies & Mini-Expansion.

I got the mini-expansion too.

Happy Birthday Susanna!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSANNA!!!

Haunted Ghost Pepper Chips

Snack today -> Paqui Haunted Ghost Pepper Corn Chips
Peter brought these Paqui corn chips in today from Toronto.  The flavour is called "Haunted Ghost Pepper".  It's the 2nd hottest chip they make, and yes it is hot, but good.  Loblaws is supposed to sell them, but I didn't see any at Centrum today.  I'll need to go check another one.  OR get Loblaws to order them.

Paqui Haunted Ghost Pepper Chips.

The hottest chip is Paqui's Carolina Reaper and is sold by the single chip in a special mini-coffin.  Lots of videos of the Paqui One Chip Challenge.

Dinner today -> Steak and Zucchini.
Made more steak and zucchini for dinner today.

Steak and Zucchini.

Useless Gaming News:
Peter picked up Mansion of Madness (2nd Edition) for me when he was in Toronto this weekend.  He got it for $103.  Way better by any price I found in Ottawa by atleast $20.

Mansions of Madness.

Weekend Report -> Black Friday Weekend

Food this weekend ->
Went to Kanata Noodle House for Susanna's birthday lunch.  It was an audible call from going to buffet to KNH.  We started with some BBQ pork rice wraps.  Very good with a spice peanut sauce.

BBQ Pork Rice Wraps.

Susanna, my dad, and I all got the Pho #15 medium.  It's the perfect size to eat there and you get a bit of everything.

KNH Pho #15 Med.

FYI: KNH2 opens in the building beside Hockey Sushi on the Grand Opening Dec 7!  Close to CMC and my house!

Made steak Sunday night.  Also made zucchini in the drippings.  Added a blob of Kraft Garlic Aioli (from the US).

Steak and Zucchini.

Useless Shopping News:
Went shopping on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for Black Friday sales.  I couldn't believe I went to Carlingwood mall all 3 days.  Went myself on Friday.  Went back on Saturday with Julie.  Then went again with Ben and Susanna on Sunday.
I picked up some Christmas gifts for people, and some stuff for myself.  I got a new duvet cover.  I like the pattern and it has a metallic purple tint to it.

Duvet Cover.

I also picked up some new 1000 piece puzzles from Calendar Club.  Apparently each store get's different puzzles!  I hit 3 different Calendar Clubs this weekend and only found 3 of these "Wasgij?" puzzles where the box doesn't match the puzzle you make.

Wasgij Puzzles.

#11 is the basic "What happens next?" puzzle,
#15 is "What happens when the little girl grows up and shops in the shop?",
#23 is the best one where "What does the baking judge (and the others) looking ahead see?"


Useless Gaming News:
4-Player gaming at Brian's on Friday night.  We played Stop Thief!, Dicey Peaks, and Beeeees!  The new game was Dicey Peaks is a pretty fun push-your-luck dice rolling game where players compete to clime the mountain and find the flag first.  It's a quick starter game.  Good to play now and then, but not going to pick it up.

Dicey Peaks.

Cookies for Lunch

Lunch today -> Sea Salted Caramel Cookies.
Went out a lunch time to Toys R Us and Walmart.  I was going to pick up McDonalds on the way out of Walmart, but the line was super long, so I didn't get it.  I was also in the mood for cookies, because I was emailing with Suzanne about Loblaw's gourmet cookies today.  She got some of the oatmeal lemon cranberry cookies and the triple chocolate.  I had to eat what I had at my desk, which were the sea salted caramel cookies.  They were good too.

Cookies for Lunch.

Dinner today -> Schwartz on Toast.

Stayed at CMC til almost 8pm tonight.  I was hungry so went looking for discount food at Loblaws.  They didn't have anything tonight!!!  Got home even later, so I made something quick.  Made toast and topped it with yellow mustard, garlic aolie, and microwaved Schwartz Montreal smoke meat.

Schwartz MTL Smoke Meat on Toast.

Useless Toy News:
Toys R Us had a BOGO Free on all board games today.  I picked up a bunch of board games and also found the missing Amiibo I was looking for.

TRU Gets.

I can only show these 2 games I got for myself.  Can't show the rest as they are gifts.

DanAldo's Moved.

Dinner today -> Perogies.
Bought the same kind of Perogies that Mark made and brought to the softball party a few weeks ago.  I got the 3 cheese version.  Pan fried 2/3 of the box in some oil.

Pan Fried 3 Cheese Perogies.

I think I made these before, but I boiled them.  No where near as good when it is boiled.  These must be pan fried.

Useless News:
Got my hair cut at DanAldo's today.  They moved to a new location in the Kanata Town Center last week.  It's now in front near the bus stop.  The new place is pretty nice.  Apparently the gymnastics school is expanding over the part of the mall beside Food Basics.
BTW: the new Mandarin Buffet Building is pretty close to done :)

Scratch Chicken Soup.

Dinner today -> Chicken Soup.
Got a pack of chicken bones from Farm Boy.  6 chicken ribs/backs for about $2.  I boiled them with some onions, carrots, and abit of oyster sauce.  Reduced the liquid to concentrate the flavour and to get the meat to fall off the bones.  Boom, chicken soup from scratch.

Chicken Soup.

Weekend Report -> Birthday Party

All day 40th birthday event for Jeff this weekend! :) 
We met up at Ben's house early afternoon, had some pizza, and then walked to the Canadian Tire Centre to watch Ottawa play Arizona.  We had excellent 200 level center ice seats.  It was pretty good game, but the Sens lost in overtime 3-2.  It was because of a couple bad goals let in by Condon.

Coyotes @ Senators.

Afterwards we went to Zolas Restaurant for dinner.  There was live Jazz and the food was very good.  I got the night's special of Cod and Tiger Shrimp with Vegetables. 
The cod was amazing, but the portion was small.  I would say very small too.  The shrimp were OK and only 3... Good thing there was fresh bread at the table.

Cod and Shrimp Special.

Back to Jeff's place for dessert and boardgames.  Ben brought a Limoncello Fruiti Di Bosco cake from Montreal.  Linda got cookies & cupcakes from Nestle Toll House, and a fruit tray.

Birthday Dessert.

For games we played Roll For It, Tsuro, Sushi Go, Guillotine, and finished the night with a few hilarious rounds of Telestrations.

Happy Birthday Jeff!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF!!!

Stranger Things Season 1

Dinner today -> Steak with Rice and Eggplant.
Got some 50% off steak from Loblaws.  Pan cooked it and then cooked some slice Chinese eggplant in the drippings.  I'm really into eating eggplant that past couple weeks.  Not sure why?  Microwaved some mushroom wild rice as another side.

Steak Dinner.

Useless TV News:
Finished watching all of Stranger Things: Season 1 in two nights.  Pretty good show.  The show had a good story and kept me interested.  I did find some scenes were slow because of an extra 3 or 4 seconds of the camera panning or silence between the people on screen.  Not sure why the director did this, but the few extra seconds felt like an eternity.  (After 2 episodes I learned to fast forward through the silence.)  The hysterical mom was also abit annoying because she did so many things stupidly wrong and was screaming all the time.  It felt like the actress over acted her hysteria. 
Definitely will need to watch Season 2.

Oatmeal Cranberry Lemon Cookies

Snack Tuesday -> Oatmeal Cranberry Lemon Cookies.
Got an 8 pack for 50% off at Loblaws.  This oatmeal cranberry lemon cookie is really, really good.  I think I like it more than the triple chocolate cookie, but it's very hard to decide which is better.  I don't think it's worth the regular price of 8 cookies for $6, but worth it for $3.

Oatmeal Cranberry Lemon Cookies.

Dinner Tuesday night -> Monk Fish.
Made some monk fish for dinner on Tuesday.  It's suppose to be the "poor man's lobster".  I don't know who said that, but it totally not like lobster at all.  Maybe I made it wrong, but I just pan fried/steamed it with simple salt and black pepper.

Monk Fish.

Dinner Wednesday night -> Pho #15 XL.
Got some KNH for dinner.  My usual Pho #15 XL.  I didn't eat much all day today, so I destroyed this when I got it home.  Lots of meat!

Kanata Noodle House Pho #15 XL.

Useless Gaming News:
Got 3 out of 4 of the new Zelda Amiibos from Walmart.  I didn't think they were out already.

Zelda Amiibos.

Fancy Egg Tarts and Shrimp

Lunch today -> Ramen and Peanut Butter Toast.
Went home for lunch today.  Made Korean ramen with a couple mini potatoes and a soft boiled egg.  Didn't think that was enough so I made some toast with peanut butter too.

Lunch.

Useless Food News:
Susanna and I went to T&T tonight.  They have a Fancy Egg Tart event going on.

Fancy Egg Tarts.

We got a 6 pack egg tarts: black sesame, salted egg yolk, Japanese Chawan Mushi, and Korean Style.  They didn't have any Durian ones left. 

Yummm Egg Tarts.

The black sesame one was good as was the salted egg yolk.  Not very good was the Japanese Chawan Mushi one.  The Korean Style one was savoury like a quiche.

T&T also had this new Crispy Shrimp snack.  It's OK.  It's just dried shrimp but bigger.  Tasty but not worth $5.

Crispy Shrimp.

Useless Aquarium News:
Speaking of shrimp, my ghost shrimp like to hang upside down on my feeding ring and wait for me to feed them.  Here is a pick with 4 of them!

4 Ghost Shrimp Feeding.

Weekend Report -> Diamond Hunt

Jeff, Anthony, Ben, and I did Escape Manor's Mystery Motel's Diamond Hunt on Saturday.  We spent about 4 hours running around the Market, Parliament, and Downtown area.  It was a cold day, but we kept pretty warm with all that walking. 

Diamond Hunt Page 1.

It was alot of fun and we able to figure out all the clues.  Now our names are in the January draw for a real diamond!

Food this weekend ->
After the Diamond Hunt, we went to Ahora for Mexican Food.  I got the steak Plato Ahora with rice and black beans. It was very good.  Lots of steak in the burrito.

Plato Ahora.

Boiled chicken in Teriyaki marinade for my parent's on Saturday night.  The were coming back from a trip in China and they probably wanted some food after flying all day.  I boiled it in 1 bottle of teriyaki marinade and 1 bottle of water.  I wanted to add some maple syrup but they didn't have any.

Boiling Chicken.

It was really good chicken.  As you can see on the chicken skin below, the skin was sweating the marinade.  I use it as a sign that the marinade has seeped into the meat enough.

Chicken Thigh.

Had a good sleep Saturday night with all the walking from the Diamond Hunt.  Got up at 11am and made some eggs and toast for lunch.

Eggs and Toast.

Made steak Sunday night with eggplant.  It was a huge blade steak I got for $4 from Loblaws (50% off).

Steak and Eggplant.

Useless Gaming News:
Did some gaming at Anthony's Friday night.  We played Overcooked on the Nintendo Switch and RoboRally.  Overcooked was alot of fun with 4 players, but Anthony seems to think that getting 1 Star out of 3 was good enough.  He was aiming for baby-mode scoring.  Atleast Jeff thought 2 Stars was normal.  While Ben and I aimed for 3 Stars.

RoboRally.

I won RoboRally on a purely fluke play :) LOL  Just beating out Jeff in capturing the last flag.  My last 3 cards were locked and I thought it didn't matter what I played, but apparently it did, and I won :)

New Black and White Shoes

Got some new shoes from the Tanger Outlet the other day.  I got Nikes this time.  Not sure why, but I notice there are not alot of white running shoes in the stores.  Most are black or neon.  Anyways, I got these.

New Shoes.

I got shoes that look white from one direction, but are black from the opposite direction.  I think that was a cool little design trick.

Black One Way and White The Other.

Triple Chocolate Cookies

Snack today -> Triple Chocolate Cookies
Got a couple boxes of gourmet triple chocolate cookies from Loblaws Monday night.  They were 50% off ($3 for 8 cookies).  They are very, VERY good.  There were some other kinds, but they weren't 50% off. 

Triple Chocolate Cookies.

Might go check Wednesday night for more cookies when I also hope to find some discount roasts too.

Dinner today -> Steak with Eggplant and Cherry Tomatoes.
Also on Monday, I got a 3 pack of 50% off steak for $15.  Cooked all 3 up tonight because they expire today and had 1 for dinner. 

Steak and Eggplant Dinner.

Made a couple Chinese eggplant in the steak drippings and olive oil for a side.  Added a few cherry tomatoes from the garden too.  Had to pick most of the cherry tomatoes on the weekend, but there are still alot of green ones on the vines.

New Chips

Useless Food News:
Susanna and I went to Food Basics tonight.  We found some new chips!

New Chips!

Lays Swiss Chalet Sauce, Lays BLT, and Snowflake Cheetos.  Will try them out soon.

Useless TV News:
My projector has less than 200 hrs of life left.  I'm leaning towards replacing it with the Epson Home Cinema 2150.  Anyone have any opinions on it?  Other recommendations within the price range?  My co-worker has the Epson Home Cinema 2040, and it has excellent reviews.  The 2150 is the latest version of it.

Weekend Report -> Softball Party

Went to the Christmas Craft show on Friday with Julie.  The show is pretty good this year.  Some returning vendors and some new ones.  For some reason there seemed to be alot of food ones, with lots of free samples.  There was also one vendor that had amazing hand painted ornaments, but his prices were abit high.  I would have gotten one, but I think I might do some myself this year.
Went back to Julie's place afterwards to play with her 2 new 4-month old kittens (brothers Lux and Castiel) and new 2 year old dog (Sherlock).  The dog accepted me after abit of barking, but the kittens took to me really quickly.  The kittens were uber cute and like to play alot.  So much that they tired me out, but they still wanted to play more.  Sherlock likes when his hip or neck is rubbed.  His tail then curls up like a pig's.  When you stop, his tail flops back down.  LOL

Food this weekend ->
Got some discount cookies and double smoked bacon last Thursday night.  The bacon was in the cold cut section and they tasted fine when I ate them, but Ed and Peter said they were raw...?  I wasn't sure.  Smoking food usually cooks it?  Anyways, I microwaved what was left and it was better hot.

Cookies and (Raw?) Bacon.

CMC Strike Fighter's softball party was this weekend at Gary's.  Lots of fun and lots of food!  I tried abit of everything, except Dave's pasta dish.  He showed up late and I was full by then.
Hot meats: pulled pork, meatballs, short ribs.

Meat!

I made cold egg white noodles with BBQ pork and baby Bai Choi.  Mark's 3 cheese perogies were good (Chimo brand).  Stefano's pea salad was good too.  

Sides.

More Sides.

Jes's chocolate brownies.

Dessert Brownies.

Not sure who made these cheesecake cups.  They were good except for the salty-caramel one pictured.  The caramel was rock hard!  Had to eat that part separately.  It was very chewy too.

Mini Cheese Cakes.

Crab Yellow Curry

Lunch today -> Indian Buffet.
A bunch of us went to the East India Company Restaurant for lunch.  Amazing selection of good indian food.  The first plate, I got fish red curry, crab yellow curry, and 2 kinds of lamb dishes.  I had it all over white rice so it soaks up the sauce.  There was no butter chicken today.  Too bad.  Katie wanted it because it's a non-spicy dish she could eat.

Plate #1.

The crab yellow curry was incredible.  By far my favorite dish.  Half my second plate was crab curry.  I had some more lamb too.  Everyone liked the potato dish, but I found it abit salty.  I'm in the mood for more crab curry as I'm writing this right now :)

Plate #2.

3000 Piece Puzzle

Food today -> Farmboy Breakfast Bar
Went to Walmart this morning and got $20 worth of 50% off Halloween candy.  Then I hit Farmboy's Breakfast bar for eggs, sausages, and bacon; and a pack of pita.  I made breakfast wraps with them and ate that all day.

Farmboy Food.

Useless Puzzle News:
The 3000 piece puzzle was finally finished at work.  I think it took about 4 weeks.  Too bad there was 1 piece missing, otherwise the puzzle looks very good.

3000 Piece Puzzle Completed.