A significantly diminished view

It's really pretty barren here without that tree.

Progress?

See that ugly patch of dirt and pine straw? There used to be a big,
beautiful tree there, and the picnic table off to the left used to be
beneath it. I wonder what happened? I hope the tree was removed
because it was dying and not simply out of some misguided sense of
aesthetics.

I'll miss it.

Finally fall

I stepped out into a cool, lightly dewy morning with a bright yet unwarm sun and felt refreshed. N, I noticed, was wearing a zippered sweatshirt. I was in my usual stretchy pants and t-shirt, my bare arms already tingling.

It wasn't long into this finally fall morning workout that N was tying her sweatshirt around her waist. Our bodies provided all the heat we needed as we walked, squatted, and kicked our way around the track. 50 leaning pushups and a quick jog later, we held plank on the ground, shifting our weight back and up through the core, breathing in the scents of water and soil. The damp grass left my hands raw.

I drove home with the window all the way down, my arm hanging out into long sought autumn air, and when I arrived I simply sat, watching the shadow patterns the gentle breeze spun through waving leaves on the wall.

Consider me tantalized, McDonald's

My first ever bubble tea!

Mango.

Food

Pork fried rice, sweet and sour pork, and chicken chow mein.

Dinner at Ming Wah

Breakfast for lunch: Prep

Food!

Lunch with Reid at Boll Weevil!

Construction

Because this area has a SEVERE lack of patio homes...;)

Bird

He must be used to the noise here...a loud group of kids ran by and he
didn't care. I actually took this picture about 15 feet from the bird,
but it's hard to tell...

Brick Pond Park

It's gorgeous out!

Wasting time at Starbucks

My food

Breakfast :)

Translation Exercise: "Analog Blog"

I was catching up on a few RSS feeds, and I happened to read an interesting entry on Digital Camera Sketch (デジカメスケッチ), "a report on the ordinary using a digital camera". Normally I use the Rikaichan Firefox plugin to get the gist of these posts and then move on, but today I felt like trying to write up a translation of this post, titled "Analog Blog".

Here's my translation:

Awhile back, this project was going on in the Nipponbashi area of Osaka. Pictures were taken with digital cameras, brought here, printed on the spot and pasted up together with comments. Incidentally, mine is the one on the right, the photo of the streetcar in the Nipponbashi shopping district.

Click here to see the original post and a photo. The "analog blog" in question has the title "Den-Den Town Bit by Bit Blog". The post refers to a place in Osaka called Nipponbashi; click here for more information on that area.

Please note: I am not a professional translator, nor am I fluent in Japanese! This was just for practice. If you see any problems, let me know. I was unclear, for example, if he meant he took two photos or just one. Also, it seems like he used the wrong kanji in 商店会; I assumed he meant 商店街.

Lunch at T-Boy's

Clockwise from top: Fried catfish, Cajun fries, and gator stew :D

ARBY'S!!!

North Augusta is excited.

Chicken-Veggie Soft Tacos

olive oil
2 chicken breasts, thawed
1 onion
1 yellow squash
1 zucchini squash
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp red pepper
salt and pepper to taste
1 small can mushroom pieces, drained
1 tomato
8 small flour tortillas
8 large romaine lettuce leaves
shredded cheddar cheese

Cube chicken into centimeter-long pieces. Dice tomato, onion, and squash.

Brown onion in a large skillet or wok. Add squash, cumin, and red pepper; cook until soft and well-seasoned.

In separate skillet, shake salt and pepper over chicken. Cook until chicken is no longer pink, about three minutes.

Add chicken to vegetable mixture. Pour in mushrooms and tomato. Stir, cover, and heat through.

Place one tortilla on a plate; cover with lettuce leaf. Spoon two heaping tablespoons of the chicken-veggie filling onto the lettuce. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Fold the tortilla in half. Repeat until you have 8 soft tacos.

---

I invented this recipe tonight from ingredients I had on hand. Turned out pretty good! Unfortunately I did not take any pictures.

Sean and I each ate four soft tacos. I ended up having a little filling left over, which probably could have been doled out among the eight tacos.

Lazy lunch

I have no shame :>

In the words of Cookie Monster, OM NOM NOM

Sushi!!!

Cool Hand Luke

At--where else?--Boll Weevil.

Nikuman

It kind of, er, resembles something else. But it's really a steamed
meat and vegetable bun.

A late lunch

Chick-fil-A Chargrilled and Fruit Salad

Tonight's thrown-together dinner

Sean didn't want a sandwich or a frozen dinner, so I cooked some
chicken with cream of chicken soup, some butter noodles from a bag,
and some steamed veggies.

Tonight's ingredients

This beef looks AMAZING. I feel unworthy of cooking it.