Final Game

Useless Softball News:
Last game of the season tonight and we face the undefeated 1st place team.  We got beat pretty good 31-15.  My first game back after 4 weeks due to work commitments.
I only hit 1-for-3 tonight: pop out, single, strike out.  I think it was my only strike out all season and it happened at my last abat!
Playoffs start on Friday and through the weekend, and possibly into next week (if we make it that far).

Useless Food News:
The Chinese Casserole restaurant might be opening very soon.  I drove by and the "Now Open" sign that was covered up, is now partially covered due to wind.  I suspect this weekend possibly?
Also Mandarin has staff hiring next week, so Ed and I guess they will be open soon too.  Probably October.

Weekend Report -> 4 Day Weekend

Took time off Friday and Monday to make a 4-day weekend :)  I did ZERO chores :)  Just watched TV, shopped, and ate.

Food this weekend ->
Went to KNH for lunch with Ed and Steve.  I got the chicken pad thai. 

Chicken Pad Thai.

Saturday morning Ben, Susanna, and I went to Adonis in Gatineau.  The fresh store made pita was unbelievable!  It's so soft, fluffy and chewy.  I used it to dip in store made salmon mousse.  I destroyed this and don't have a pic.  I also got stuff zucchini.  Stuffed with meat and rice, but mostly meat.  Very good too.  This would have been better if I made white rice to go with it and the sauce.

Stuffed Zucchini.

We went to Les Promenade Gatineau afterwards.  I got a smoke meat plate to go from Rock'n Deli.  Pretty good.  Will definately get it again.

Smoke Meat.

I made Korean short ribs to eat over the weekend.  I didn't BBQ them, just broiled them in the oven.  May have over cooked some but I wanted the char and sauce caramelization.  Made a big batch of gai lan and some cold egg white noodles too.  Made bowls of noodles, greens and short ribs for my meals.  This pic doesn't do it justice.

Short Ribs, Greens, and Noodles.

Knock Off Silent Mary Ship

FINALLY!  After 3 weeks of overtime and weekend work, the project I was working on has finally been released for it's current milestone.  Its late, but done :)  Now I get to use some banked time to take Friday and Monday off.  I want to take more time off, but I got another deadline on another project soon.

Useless Toy News:
Ordered some knockoff blocks from Ali Express.  It shipped from China to Ottawa in 2 days!  I ordered the Silent Mary.  I only paid $72 for the knockoff!

Knockoff Silent Mary Bricks.

I'm going to build it and put it in my fish tank, so I'd rather pay for a knockoff than for real Lego for this purpose.  The bow bends and one of the masts is made to fall over.  When pushed into the gravel, it will look like a sunken ship that looks broken.  It's got alot of pieces... not sure how long it will take to build.  It's got almost the same amount of pieces as the Lego Voltron Lions, and I read that Voltron takes 6 hours to build!

Ed gave me some mini-marvel busts today.  His wife got a bag full and gave them to me.  Got alot of duplicates :(

Mini Marvel Busts at My Desk.

Long Weekend Report -> Happy Birthday Dad!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

Food this weekend ->
Dim Sum at New Beijing Legend for my dad's birthday.  We ate alot of dishes.

After 2 Carts of Food.

Mid-Meal.  More Dishes to Come.

I made a big pot of mushroom meat sauce and ate spaghetti for most of the long weekend.  Why?  I had to work most of the long weekend because we didn't finish and meet the deadline on Friday!  The spaghetti was very good.  I made a great meat sauce. 

Spaghetti.

The picture doesn't do it justice.  The big sprinkle of the Kraft cheddar cheese dust, when mixed in, made the sauce more creamy.

Useless Gaming News:
Jeff twisted my arm to play games at Anthony's on Sunday night :)  We started with a new game I got called "Valeria".  It's like Machi Koro, but much better balanced and more complex.  Great game.  I need to get the expansions.

Valeria.

Then we played Magic Maze til 2am.  We almost finished all the basic scenarios, but the last one.  We also played it on "kids mode" where we stopped the timer when we triggered the hourglass icons.  The stoppage allowed us to plan alot.  We need to redo all scenarios and play them properly.

Magic Maze.

Lots of Work with Splashes of Food

Food this week ->
Been uber busy with work the past couple weeks and weekends.  I was working til 12:30am Wednesday night!  Hopefully I won't need to work over the long weekend.

On Tuesday Ed, Steve and I went out for to use up some of Ed's Tim Horton's gift card.  We got a coffee and a couple donuts each.  This became my lunch.  Thanks Ed.

Free Snacks... Lunch.

Tuesday night, I made a quick dinner with canned beans, insta-pot steamed gai lan, and microwaved thick cut bacon. 

Overcooked Gai Lan.

Cooking the gai lan in the insta-pot was not good.  Way too over cooked.  Won't be doing that again.

For a late lunch on Wednesday, Julie and I went to Dumpling? Dumpling!  We got some bubble teas, pan fried beef & onion curry dumplings, and steamed egg, chives & shrimp dumplings.

Mmm... Dumplings.

The beef & onion curry dumplings were really good as usual.  The egg, chives & shrimp were not that good.  It tastes only of chives.  A couple small shrimp pieces mixed with the egg didn't give it any more flavour.

Today, Ed, Steve and I went to Ox Head 2.  We all got the Ox Head vermicelli. 

Smaller Portion Than Before...

I was still very good with lots of good meat, but we noticed it was definitely a noticeable smaller portion size than before.  The place was empty with just us, while the parking lot was full.  KNH has definitely hitting this place hard.  Too bad as their vermicelli is better than KNH, but KNH is better at everything else.

Useless Food News:
Drove by the new Chinese Restaurant on March Rd (where Urban Turban used to be located).  It's not open yet (same for the new bubble tea place beside it), but it's got a new fancy gold sign and name, "Harbin Chinese Casserole Restaurant".  Waiting for it to open to try it out.

Will This Place Be Good?

King Oyster Mushroom Fries.

Food ->
Been super busy with work and doing alot of overtime the past week and weekend.  Because of that, I've been eat out alot.  So much that I've been craving vegetables, especially gai lan.  To get my fix, I ordered beef chow mein from Rideau Restaurant.  This totally hit the spot.

Needed Greens.

Made a 5 egg scramble egg on Sunday.  I mixed the eggs with some milk and a big dash of Kraft orange cheese powder.  Made a side of zucchini and a side of king oyster mushroom fries. 

Scramble Eggs with Zucchini and Mushroom Fries.

The king oyster mushroom fries are made by french fry slicing king oyster mushrooms and then pan frying them in oil until they are crispy (like french fry bits).  They are crispy on the outside but soft and chewy in the middle with alot of mushroom taste.  If king oyster mushrooms were cheaper I'd make this alot.  Good thing Loblaws sometimes has packs for 50% off.

2 Boxes by the Front Door

Dinner today -> Sushi.
Another late night at CMC.  Left at 8pm to go to Bayshore to get some sushi dinner.  I waited til 8:30pm for the sushi be Buy1, Get 1 Free.  Picked up 4 packs. 

BOGO Sushi Dinner.

The Crab Dynamite roll is really good.  Will definitely try to get that one again.  The Love roll is always good, but I told Ed he could have it the next time I found one.

Useless Transformers News:
Went home at lunchtime and found a couple boxes at the front door.  The first box had my Hasbro San Diego Comic-Con exclusives.  I got exclusive Optimal Optimus (Throne of the Primes) and 2 SDCC exclusive packs of the soon-to-be-released Transformers TCG.  The booster packs are huge because of the oversized character cards in it.

SDCC Optimus and TCG Exclusive Packs

Useless M:tG News:
Also from Hasbro, SDCC exclusive Magic's Timeless Legends set.

A Box Inside A Box.  Magical!

Inside the box are 5 Planeswalkers cards.

Ooooh... Shiny!

Useless Gaming News:
In the other box I got, were some boardgames I ordered last week from Meeplemart.

New Boardgames.

I initially ordered Smash Up: the Bigger Geekier Box, Smash Up: 70's expansion, and BarBearIan Battlegrounds.  But then I kept adding and removing games until I got the free shipping.  I ended up also getting Space Base. Shooting' Ladders, and Great Western Trail.
Might need to drop by Miraj and get a few hundred sleeves for these games.