Journal

2024 - Week 27 Cooking Results

Sausage

Back to good ole Crooked Gap delicious brats.

Sweet and Savory Corn Casserole

After making this, I realized that there is not a lot of corn meal in it. It is definitely more focused on the corn, which is perfectly fine. Not quite what I was expecting, but it worked. I added some of the Noma corn “hot” sauce, which was a nice addition of flavor.

Shrimp Piccata Pasta

I added more anchovies and made some other minor adjustments, but as it stands it was quite good. The shrimp I got this time was a lot better then what I normally get.

Chicken Salad

Started with some pulled chicken, I admit I was hoping for smoked, and went from there. Good meal good as a snack, served on a mediocre sourdough.

Orange Beef with Sugar Snap Peas

I started with two oranges, and was able to get plenty of zest, but not quite enough orange juice. I thought about running out to getting another orange, but didn’t. This came together pretty easily. and I think it had a nice orange flavor after the fact. This was the first solid beef I’ve had since the last hospital visit.

Either I, or the website to renew my drive’s license failed, so I decided I would go in, however after looking for documentation, I was only able to find not quite enough, so I filled out the online renewal form again, and this time it went through, though my new license could arrive after my existing license expires. But while doing that discovery, I noticed that our fire resistant safe had a bunch of old documents in. The first thing I noticed were the speaker manuals, for speakers I gave away and donated. On 7/4, 7/5 and a bit of 7/6, I parsed through the paper work.

Original required summary of car of my very old car? Yep. Receipt for my first MacBook? Sure why not. my 1993 W-2. Um…I guess?

Anyways, other then me missing a rabies tag and trying to shred it (didn’t go well), things went pretty smoothly, And now there is a lot of shredded stuff that will go out over the next while or so. Some of the stuff brought back memories, some made me wonder why I kept it. The rest are documents we actually need, or things that need to be scanned in, but there is less then half left of what was in there (this includes empty hanging folders). I’ll get the scanning done at some point, but it does feel a bit better to have that taken care of.

2024 - Week 26 Cooking Results

Pork burgers

Crooked Gap pork, a bit of seasoning, pan fried and delicious.

Tuna Salad

I stepped up a bit on the Tuna quality, using Ortiz instead of a normal inexpensive brand. Which added quite a bit to the flavor profile. Some celery and other normal tuna salad ingredients, a bit lighter on the mayo and good to go. Nice meal.

Sweet and Savory Corn Casserole

Delayed. Shannon had a desire for Lachelle’s so I went and brought it home.

Shrimp Piccata Pasta

Also Delayed, Last night after a nap after getting back from the Art Festival, i just couldn’t bring myself to thing about the modifications I would need to make, so I made scrambled eggs instead.

Caramelized Black Pepper Chicken

I really enjoyed this. Rich sauce a bit peppery and just simple.

Pixes, Modest Mouse, special guest Cat Power- Vibrant Music Hall, Waukee, Iowa - 6/24/2024

Nathan and Jenny drove up and we met to go out to eat at Basic Bird. Afterwards, Shannon headed home, and we headed out to Waukee. Most of the same complaints about the venue remain, however the corrected the volume of smell of the men’s bathroom has been corrected from overpowering, to something one would expect as normal.

Cat Power

Enjoyable, though I think she was struggling with her voice a bit, and perhaps leaned on auto-tune on songs where she uses both. I would expect her at a show at a more sit down type of venue, where one doesn’t expect to have to have the assist of sound dampening. I went in blind, and am curious enough to add some of her music to my “to listen”. She had a nice light display and used some of the lights like a mirror ball. towards the audience. Enjoyable, felt like I had a bit of space around me and my body was doing ok.

Modest Mouse

Clearly everyone about our age knows Modest Mouse to one extent or another. I am not super familiar with thier music outside of the most notable items. In support of the band, I suppose, was an extra percussion guy (entertaining to watch, I will admit) and person playing keyboards and various other instruments. For the percussion guy, you can see him get prepared, and then do his percussion part (sometimes a double shake of something, or hitting something else). The light show probably put the lights through the biggest paces. There was a point where they seem to have a sort of color changing very bright light just roll across the stage, and start again with a new color, just cycling through the colors. The crowd had started to close in a bit, my feet and right knee started to complain. Some of the music was enjoyable, some of it was, not my cup of tea? The lead singer was quite expressive, and clearly they are talented at what do. I spent a lot of time watching the lights and the light play on the ceiling.

Pixies

This is who I was there to see. Pixies, for me, were a bit of a high school fascination (a sister’s friend introduced me I think) and a college one, where I spent a lot of time expanding my musical horizons. And went down CD rabbit hole after CD rabbit hole. I still have most of these CDs, somewhere, packed away. I certainly connected more to the lyrics and feelings. After people had left for refills and bathroom breaks, the crowd pressed in again. My feet started to question what I was doing and my right knee was also questioning my choices. There was a nice balance what I knew and loved, knew, and also a handful of items I didn’t know as I’ve slowed down quite a bit on keeping up with bands. I’ve added some newer stuff from the Pixies since last night. For the lights, it was bigger play of the light and the dark, where one was able to step in and out of the light on the stage. My favorite light effect of the whole show was the combination of the smoke from the machine and and the faster and faster twirling of lights which seemed to spin the smoke. I truly enjoyed the show and enjoyed this better then seeing them opening for Weezer.

Afterwards, we collected things and Nathan and Jenny dropped me off and headed back home. I was up for a bit longer as my adrenaline was up a bit and eventually made it to bed just after midnight.

A small part of Where is my Mind performed by the Pixies at Vibrant Music Hall in Waukee Iowa on 6/24/2024

STOMP - Des Moines Civic Center - 6/22/2024

STOMP has been on my vague list of things to see for quite a while. I’ve seen some of the shows on line and the commercials always look cool. We traded tickets from one of the Broadway series shows to STOMP (even losing money), because I still have issues spending money on the intellectual property of that person. We ended up going the same night as Holly and the boys, but weren’t that close to each other. I kept trying to figure out where they were by counting rows back and going over, but I’d get lost and was looking back further then they actually wore, we finally saw them waving.

The set was neat with a mix of an industrial look, but clearly has a purpose.

The show was divided up into, skits or songs, where there was clearly a beginning, middle and end. Most had a humor element, where the foil was usually the instigator of “conflict” or butt of the joke.

One thing I think may have been missed by some, was the shadow play on the walls of the auditorium. Some of the dancing created interesting patterns in shadow on the walls.

We both enjoyed it having a fund time watching people play music on random pieces and the strength of the dance an performance. All without speaking. It was a fun time.

2024 - Week 25 Cooking Results

Sausage

Saw these bras at the Cheese Shop, while I was still in recovery mode. So I avoided buying them, until I thought, hey I can handle a cased sausage now. These were quite good and am happy I bought them.

Taco Salad

Extra beans, for more fiber. Good things.

Kimchi and Ham Steak Fried Rice

Part of me though, hey I should pull a ham out of the freezer, the other part thought, that is a lot of commitment to ham right now. So I picked up some ham steaks and went from there. Made it before, will make it again.

Thai-Style Chicken and Sweet Potato Curry

Vaguely followed the recipe, wanted to add more curry paste, but didn’t have it. I did add sambal olek to mine, which was a nice flavor booster.

Glazed Salmon

Put off from a bit before, defrosted the salmon, cooked it and went forward. Good meal. Served with a salad.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese with Sausage and Peppers

While we had planned to stay at the Matta’s which means we usually run behind on the weekend, and Shannon has to take off time way in advance. So I used the extra time on the Monday to take the time to make this meal, as it would normally be a weekend meal. But it came together well. I would’ve cooked the noodles a bit less, since they were a wee bit over cooked in the dish (maybe 9 minutes instead of 10). Still good and a nice mixture.

I ordered my new office chair (Steelcase Series 2) and it had been sitting in a box upstairs because I assumed it would be challenging to put together (since June 6th). This past Monday, I ended up unpacking it and we moved the pieces downstairs and put it together.

It was shockingly easy to put together. So much so that I thought I had messed it up. I’ve been using it this week and it’s been a bit of an adjustment as I’ve been sitting on my current chair for at least a 14 years or so. I’ve never been a big fan of the adjustable arms rests, I kind of like them fixed, but so far it’s working out. I’ve been sitting up a bit straighter. So far so good

I went to the Downtown Farmers Market for the first time this year. It was nice to get up early, walk around and see how things are going down there. There has been quite a bit of turnover. I did get an arepa, which I had been missing quite a bit along with some other breakfast things. I brought some veggies to bring home along with some tarts and hand pies for lunch. I showed off my scar a bit, but didn’t repeat the story.

2024 - Week 24 Cooking Results

Sausage

Last of the package we had open, have several new choices as I picked up a few along the way.

Egg and Sausage Muffins

Easy, done.

Tangy Chili Pork Noodles

I started from frozen pork, which made this take quite a bit longer, but was eventually get the appropriate effect. Good meal.

Bourbon Chicken

I made this on Friday 6/15/2024, which by some perspective would have been the end of my self enforced sobriety (59 days). The bourbon chicken itself is still quite good, I should’ve used a bit more chicken (more than one pack of CostCo chicken boneless thighs). Still good though.

Gochujang Chicken and Tortellini

An easy make, and welcoming myself back into the mostly full range of diet (still going to avoid large hunks of meat for a bit). Good like I remember, relatively easy to make, and I was using my left arm almost as normal. Still a bit careful lifting things, but certainly less than I have been. Good meal.

On Saturday we headed to our niece C’s graduation party, after a bit of debate back and forth for me. The day turned out well, got to see Wade and Hope (not long enough), The whole Matta family, Jane and a few others a long the way. After that we headed home, because I’m still not sleeping super great, so better at home than bugging others. We decided on the way to go out for dinner so we tried out Hugo’s Wood Fired Kitchen, which is fairly close to us. Quite good, attentive service, reasonable prices. I had a nice cocktail here (mint, bubbles, and St Germain, I think). And this is where I count my self imposed “help the body heal” sobriety end to be (60 days).

So since I left the hospital on 5/10/24, I have been struggling with my GI track. Treating my GI tract gently then thinking lets go back to fiber heavy, but being wrong, then gently, then introducing the mostly full diet (next is full diet w/ a bit more fiber). It has been a challenge as my GI tract adjusts from having no food, to easy to digest food, to mostly a full diet. Things feel weird, I would never know if gas was just gas, or would come with something else along the way. I’d depart meetings in the middle or near the end because I had to. This past week, I’ve kind of brought things back around to my normal behavior (3/4 tsp of the fiber supplement, every other day, and exercise 6 days a week), and it appears, for now, that things are behaving as they should. My tract aligned late Friday night and behaved Saturday morning, so I decided that we would take the risk. Extra shorts and etc in hand we made the trip and things turned out fine and even on I-80 during a race day, traffic wasn’t too bad (this has not always been the case).

The last time I drove this far, I had a cast on, and my right hand/arm got really tired cause normally I would switch off. but in this case, I was able to swap back and forth between both hands. Some of my left arm was a bit tired, as I’m still in recovery mode, but for the most part, it was nice to drive, and not worry to much about things.