Sprummer (Virtual) Vacacay: New Zealand!

!Original:Albert Hastings MarkhamVector: Zscout370, Hugh Jass, s. File history / Public domain. We decided that we'd abused enough of the flags of the nations we visited.

The final stop on our virtual vacacay was New Zealand. This is a place that's been in our top three areas for a long time, and as it turns out, for very good reasons. As per our normal routine at this point, we split the time between watching stuff about the area and enjoying some representative cuisine, although as it turns out, our cuisine choice might've been... questionable. :)

Viewing

Given the challenges I'd had with the start of Japan's viewing, we decided to watch New Zealand's entries on the non-large screen. It's a good thing too, since we decided to watch New Zealand Road Trip, which was produced by the same person that produced our original choice for Japan. Luckily, the smaller screen, slightly better production quality, and a little less lightheadedness on my part made for a very enjoyable and informative session.

The road trip explored both the North and South islands, and there are some (actually, a LOT) of magnificent places on both. In the end, I think if we had to choose one, we would opt for the South island. There is SO much to see and do, and while a lot of it would be a challenge for Tanya and I right now, there are also a TON of day hikes to places that are just this side of unbelievable. All of those places in Lord of the Rings -- they're actual places, and most of them are easily visited.

The most notable exception is Mt. Doom (Mount Ngauruhoe in real life). From the documentary, it seemed like the hike was at least 19km, and that did NOT include an unassisted ascent to the peak. It's completely optional, of course, but when you see Frodo and Sam slipping and sliding and struggling up the face of the mountain, that wasn't dramatic effect. It's *just like that*, so approach with caution.

One of the most astounding things that was pointed out about New Zealand is that it's larger than the UK. In fact, the host suggests that the South island is about the size of Britain itself, but only has a population of about 1 million people. That means that not only are you surrounded by rugged and refined wilderness of all sorts, you're unlikely to run into very many people. Take that as you will, but given we don't like tons of crowds, this is even more appealing to us.

A few other things that were mentioned or seen in the documentary that piqued our interest:

• Weta Workshop: For those of you that are interested in movie making magic, and LotR in particular, you should make time to visit this place. They're a special effects and props company, and were responsible for quite a bit of the exotic panoply featured in the films.
• Black Water Rafting: I didn't have any idea of what this was until he described it. You take a boat (or tube!) ride through a cave whose ceiling is covered in glowworms. The host described it as being like floating through space. That's something I'd definitely like to do.
• Mount Cook: Mount Cook is the tallest mountain in New Zealand, and the national park around it is astounding. Everywhere you look is idyllic, and it seemed very accessible.
• Driving around: no link here, but New Zealand looks like a place where you would benefit from being shown around (via something like the Kiwi Experience). Eventually, however, you'll want to just go exploring, and you should. Be sure to get a four-wheel drive vehicle, however, as unexpected weather tends to cause unexpected road outages, and there will be places you want to visit otherwise that would benefit from a more rugged/able vehicle.

After seeing so much of the setting, I, of course, wanted to have a Lord of the Rings marathon and have that count as being representative of New Zealand. I was outvoted. In the end, even *I* voted against myself. The truth is that the scenery features immensely in the movies, but is representative of Middle Earth, not New Zealand in and of itself.

Tasting

We decided to go light on food, given how heavy we've been all week. As such, the featured delectable from New Zealand is the unusually named Afghan Biscuit.

A little bit of sugar, a little bit of... corn flakes?

Afghan biscuits are chocolate cookies with a chocolate frosting and walnut decoration. The secret ingredient is actually corn flakes. Trust me on this -- it's a genius ingredient, and whoever thought of it was a cooking savant.

Rounded scoops slightly flattened.

So, SO tasty!

I'm a person for which chocolate CAN be overused, but these came out perfectly. The corn flakes offer very satisfying crunch that you just don't expect in a cookie like this. There's not much sugar in the cookie itself, but the icing has a LOT, which balances out the sweetness pretty well. NOTE THAT the recipe called for 1.5 cups of powdered sugar. We used about a cup, and that was plenty.

We also picked up a nice bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from a New Zealand winery. If you didn't already know, New Zealand has a large wine industry. In fact, you can go on an extensive, all day wine tour on the North island at least (if that's the kind of thing you like).

Conclusion

The cookies and wine were a very nice end to our day in New Zealand. It was a lot more relaxed that the others, which was exactly what we wanted (and needed -- SO MUCH COOKING AND CLEANING involved for the other places). And the documentary was such that our desire to go to New Zealand remained the same. With luck and determination, we'll get there someday!

And this was the end of our virtual vacacay experiment. I'm very glad we did it. Despite not being able to travel, everyone needs to make sure you take time away from work to unplug/decompress. Given our experiences with this experiment, I highly recommend it. Think about places you want to go or things you want to see, and why they appeal to you. Do a little research, and bring as much of that place to you as you can. It's certainly not the same as the real experience, but it's a pretty fantastic way to spend a week not working! :-)

Sprummer (Virtual) Vacacay: Japan!

Tanya really likes fancy lettering

So. Many. Things. To. Learn. And. Sample. About. Japan.

Alright, now that that's out of the way, know that this entry will only begin to scratch the surface of all of the things into which you can delve when investigating Japan. I know this because when I was researching things for us to watch, all five of the top hits were great candidates. And that was with a simple search like "best documentary japan" or somesuch. Imagine if I'd done a targeted search of some kind.

The truth is that there are LOTS of great resources with which to learn about Japan because a) Japan is EXTREMELY interesting given practically ANY aspect of life on which you'd like to focus, and b) people are becoming more and more aware of this. In the same way that Japanese culture has been strongly influenced by outsiders since the mid-19th century, Japan has influenced those intersecting cultures in return.

Luckily for us, we learned quite a bit about Japan from both the videos we watched at the food we prepared and ate. We'll start with the videos.

Viewing

This... didn't go as planned. Our goal in these viewings is to get something informative, but also something from a layperson's perspective. I didn't mention it in the Ireland entry, but we actually watched two shows there: the one mentioned (Ireland with Simon Reeve), and another called My First Trip to Ireland, which followed a couple on their honeymoon as they traveled around southern Ireland. The second video was good; the production quality is quite high, with some really terrific shots from a fantastically-controlled drone. It was also more tourist-y, which is what you would expect given the title.

We intended to start our Japanese excursion with something in a similarly informal vein: A Journey In Japan, which would follow a backpacking trip through four weeks between Tokyo and Kyoto, then Osaka to Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately, I'm fighting through a bout of lightheaded dizziness, the after-effects of a severe vertigo episode I "enjoyed" a month ago. The camera work in the above series was just too unsteady for me, so we punted on that one, switching to another BBC production: The Art of Japanese Life.

That... was a good move.

Once again, BBC comes through with a fantastic series. This one is done in three parts: Nature, Cities, and Home. They are all led by Dr. James Fox, and while there's a slight emphasis on art in and of itself, quite a lot of the series is designed to inform the viewer about Japan in general -- its geography, geology, flora, history, and overall way of life as it progressed from one epoch to another.

The "Nature" episode was probably the most moving for me, unsurprisingly. If you've only got an hour, I strongly suggest you watch that one. However, I don't want to sell the others short: THEY ARE ALL WORTH WATCHING AND YOU SHOULD WATCH THEM ALL. They touch on *so* many of the things that make Japan intriguing to me, but probably nothing as much as the overall attitude toward and embracing of transience. Japanese people know that nothing is permanent and build that sentiment into every part of their existence. Their uncanny ability to be in a moment, to focus on what they're doing, paying attention to each and every detail, no matter how small, is a result of their reverence for the fragility of the the state of everything around them, and their own state within those contexts. Cherry blossoms are celebrated not only for their beauty, but their blooming brevity. In fact, it is that brevity that makes them all the more beautiful and precious. This seems like a fact that we should all embrace, yet so few people realize, much less acknowledge, that we and everyone we have ever known will only be here for a relatively short time.

Whew, that was heavy. Luckily for you, we *also* watched some Miyazaki (of course). Ponyo won out over Spirited Away, although it was a close vote. In the end, we wanted something that appealed to the basic goodness in all of us, and although there is an indictment of humanity in general in Ponyo, every individual character turns out to be a good person. I needed that. :)

Tasting

So. Much. Food.

This was entirely our own fault, of course. Tanya likened it to needing to replace a single piece of flooring in one room and building an entire house around it instead. We had originally planned to do traditional ramen, and that's what we wound up doing. However, the way we eventually did it was... involved.

Chashu

I hinted in the last blog post that it took us three full days to prepare the ramen. That is true, mainly because we also prepared chashu (braised pork).

Ingredients for chashu.

Preparing chashu also required viewing videos. The one that was most beneficial, and that Tanya mostly followed, is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNX3WVTseSE

For those that would like to see it in print, a written recipe is here: https://recipes.anovaculinary.com/recipe/sous-vide-japanese-ramen-chashu-pork-belly

However, if you know Tanya, you know that the recipe had some customization and substitution. :-)

Into the sous vide!

The chashu went into the sous vide, which ran for 24 hours at ~158F. I know that's pretty short for a lot of folks that regularly sous vide, but it was a very long session for us.

Eggs

Eggs are a traditional part of ramen, and their preparation is slightly involved. The first attempt we made was using the sous vide. This turned out to be our first out-and-out failure. The eggs are supposed to be soft boiled, almost poached, but these were only slightly gelled. We reverted to a normal boiling for 7 minutes, and that worked out magnificently.

The eggs then needed to marinate in the chashu sauce for a while, so into the sauce they went, and the whole batch into the refrigerator.

Ramen

With the chashu and eggs done (and note there was a two day lag in between), it was time to actually prepare the ramen. The recipe/guideline Tanya followed is here: https://damndelicious.net/2019/01/18/mushroom-ramen/

That... is a lot of mushrooms.

As it turns out, we didn't have bowls large enough to properly hold traditional ramen. A trip to Bed Bath & Beyond fixed that, though, and now we have bowls fit for a proper serving of ice cream as well!

The ramen was finally ready. Have a look at the finished product!

So, SO TASTY! And yes, three types of sake, with a fourth not shown.

If you want a fantastic series on ramen, check this one out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nscTA7QxryM&list=PLm6gLR_sRM4xiAZXa3X71b4H4Dda1VMKg

Sake

Although you CAN eat ramen without sake, why would you? :-)

The sakes we included were:

• Sho Chiku Bai Organic Sake: we used this one mainly for cooking, although there was enough left over to sip. Pretty tasty! 
• Hakushika Junmai Daiginjo: a sweet sake, but something about it was off-putting for us. Maybe too abruptly bitter? It has a very strong flavor, in any case, which when compared to the others wasn't quite what we desired.
• Shimizu No Mai Pure Dusk: another sweet one. Very light and tasty!
• Shirakabe Gura Mio Sparkling Sake: by far, our favorite. It's pretty common as well, probably available in all of your local Japanese restaurants (not that you should be dining out yet).

Everything listed above was all consumed on the first day of our virtual Japan visit. We had so much food left over that we were able to make a proper chashu fried rice the next day, although we neglected to take a picture of it. You'll have to assume we're telling the truth here, but I can have Garrett vouch for us. He said it was probably the best fried rice he'd ever had.

Mochi

One thing we definitely did NOT neglect: the necessity of mochi for dessert.

Roasting the mochi over a campfire is NOT traditional.

Central Market actually has a pretty wide selection of good mochi. The ones pictured above are Apple Pie and Passion Fruit. Both were delicious; the Apple Pie was quite sweet, and the Passion Fruit tangy, but each was individually perfect and worked very well as counterbalances when consumed in a single sitting.

Tea!

I almost forgot to include green tea! In between sessions of The Art of Japanese Life, we took breaks to sip green tea.

Green tea, gray tea towel, green table cloth, white serving set... wait, we're not just listing the colors of everything?

Note that we did NOT conduct a formal tea ceremony. We did, however, contemplate many things as we drank the tea. I should probably make a habit of having tea and contemplating things. It's very zen, and I definitely need more of that in my life.

To Sum Up:

I don't think I can sum up Japan, honestly. Given the little bit of exposure we've had, our best estimate is that you'd need at least a month to get a good trip through the country. And even though quite a lot of the country is urban, you should try to get out into the country itself, as some of the most beautiful experiences are there. We spent two virtual days traveling through Japan, and, like with Ireland, are left wanted much, much more. It is definitely in our top three list of places to travel in real life when we can do so again.

Tomorrow's excursion will be our final one for this expedition, and we expect it will also be quite a bit more laid back. I'm struggling to give a hint as to the destination that wouldn't immediately give it away to my fantasy nerd friends. In fact, maybe that's all I need to say: fantasy nerd friends, prepare yourself for tomorrow. :)

Sprummer (Virtual) Vacacay: Ireland!

Asymmetric flag by me, fancy letters by Tanya

If you read "coddle" yesterday and immediately thought "They must be going to Ireland next!", then you must be Irish. I had no idea what coddle was until Tanya started researching Irish foods. When we read about coddle, we realized this would a) be doable by us, and b) be something we would almost certainly have to try if we ever actually went to Ireland.

Tasting

In case you were wondering what coddle actually is... imagine you've been preparing meals all week, but you haven't eaten all of the leftovers, or you haven't quite used up all of your ingredients. What if you were to, say, put all of the leftovers and extra ingredients into a stew pot and cook it for three or four hours? Conceptually, that's what coddle is.

Time to make the coddle!

In actuality, it turned out to be a really tasty, slow-cooked stew based on potatoes, onions, and pork. The coddle recipe we (mostly) followed was: http://europeancuisines.com/Irish-Dublin-Coddle-March-6-2007. This page also describes a bit of the origin and history of coddle, so it's worth reading even if you decide not to make it.

Preparation was pretty simple: brown the bacon and sausages a bit, cut up the vegetables, dump it all in a pot with the water and stock, and stick it in the oven for four hours. Most of the liquid was absorbed or cooked off, and the potatoes and sausage held their shape and texture without being tough or mushy. The bacon flavor was the most prominent for me, but every now and then I got a large enough bite of mushrooms to say "Hey! This tastes like Trout Al Asador!" Tanya really did put the leftover mushroom cream sauce from the Patagonia production into the coddle, and it was ABSOLUTELY MARVELOUS!

Coddle for DAYZ!

We paired the coddle with Smithwick's Irish Ale. I can hear you silently screaming "WHY NO GUINNESS?! WHY NO WHISKEY?!" There are at least a couple of reasons:

1. Tanya doesn't like stout beer. And of the stouts I've tried, Guinness is the OKest. I suspect there are better Irish stouts to be had, but not very many popular enough to make it to the US common market.
2. Neither of us like whiskey very much, nor is whiskey something I would consider drinking with a stew.
3. The stew is quite heavy. A nice ale was the perfect compliment to it.

We'd also considered Killian's Irish Red, but decided on Smithwick's, mainly because we'd had Killian's before but couldn't remember having Smithwick's. I like Killian's, and am happy to discover the same with Smithwick's. Now I know that when we finally make it to Ireland, I'll be OK on beer. :-)

You should try this. All of it. Even the drawing.

Viewing

There are lots and lots of options to choose from when trying to virtually explore Ireland. After researching several of them, it became apparent that none were better than Ireland with Simon Reeve, a BBC travel documentary made in 2015.

I'm still processing quite a bit of what we watched and learned, actually. I'm almost certainly going to do it a disservice here, so I strongly recommend you watch the documentary yourself if you have any interest in Ireland at all.

The documentary is broken into two parts, where Simon Reeve starts at the southern end of the Republic of Ireland, drives up the west coast, crosses into Northern Ireland, and then drives down the east coast back to where he started. The entire coastline is spectacular, some parts of it breathtakingly so. The history of the Irish people and their relationship with Britain specifically, is interesting in some of the most complicated ways. Here are a few things that were surprising/news to me:

• The current population of Ireland is still less than its population before the Irish Potato Famine (1845). About one million people died during the famine, which probably represented between 20 and 25 percent of the entire population.
• Lots of Irish folks are still suffering from the effects of the Great Recession.
• A highway was diverted in order to preserve a large bush that an expert in such matters declared as sacred to the fairy folk and dire consequences would be suffered if it were disturbed. Nothing bad has happened since they dodged it, so he must've been right!
• There are some good places to surf in Ireland! Also, Ireland has had professional surfers, at least one of which has returned to Ireland to run a surf school.
• The people are still pretty deeply spiritual, but they aren't actively attending church. At the turn of the century, about 4 in 5 Irishfolk professed to attend church regularly. Now, that number is more like 1 in 5.
• Despite the above fact, deep division still exists between members of Catholicism and Protestantism. Schools, for example, are segregated along those lines, as they are primarily run via the church, not the state.
• Also despite the above, LOTS of people climb St. Patrick's sacred mountain, especially on special days. One guy was doing it barefoot despite the rainy weather and slippery slope.
• The Troubles might have officially ended, but the fundamental issues still haven't been dealt with, especially in Belfast. Loyalists (people that embrace the United Kingdom and its heritage) and Nationalists (people that think there should be a unified Ireland) are still building large physical walls between their communities, and feel threatened by each other.
• There is an animal sanctuary hidden in Ireland, and as of 2015 they were in care of at least 25 former test subject monkeys.

These are the things that I remember off the top of my head. The documentary is actually worth watching again, and has actually increased my desire to visit Ireland in real life. If you ever have a chance to go, I suggest you take it! Travel in general is a great way to grow as a person, and Ireland specifically has lots of compelling things to entice you!

Tomorrow is a travel break, so no new stuff until the following day. Any guesses as to where we'll end up next? Two hints:

1. Food preparation for this stop is, by far, the most involved. By the end, we will have been preparing for *3* days, with ingredients that include pork, soy sauce, eggs, ginger, and many other things!
2. We'll be the first people to see the sun rise that day. :-D

Sprummer (Virtual) Vacacay: Patagonia!

Art courtesy of the ninjinsky!

The first stop on our virtual vacation was Patagonia! Patagonia is a large, rugged, wild region of South America, split between Chile and Argentina. We're particularly fond of such places, full of mountains and rivers and lakes and forests. It's unlikely that we'll get down there anytime soon, so this was an easy selection for our first destination.

Viewing

We watched several things to get some exposure to Patagonia. All of them were available in a streaming format, either Amazon, Youtube, or Netflix. I encourage you to check a few of them out if you're interested in the area.

Planet Patagonia - Beauty of Nature with Relaxing Music (Time Lapse): Available on Amazon Prime Video, this is a 10-minute video that is, as it states in the title, a series of time lapse photography of various scenes around Patagonia. If you are only in it for the majesty and don't have a lot of time, this is the video for you. We used it to prime our nature-loving senses in case the next video turned out to be a failure.

Unbounded: Also available on Amazon Prime Video, this documentary only has 23 reviews and a 3.5 star rating. It also rates 6.9 on IMDB. As such, I was skeptical as to the quality, but on watching it, found that I could overlook the sins of the filmmakers in favor of admiring their adventurous (although naive, to say the least) spirit. The film was made by a group of four 20-somethings (actually, they were 22, 22, 23, and 23, I think). Almost completely lacking in experience and woefully unprepared, they recklessly embark on a four-month-long trek down the Greater Patagonian Trail. If you're an experienced outdoors-y type, you might find yourself cringing quite a bit. I don't claim to be very experienced, and even *I* knew they were being needlessly foolish at times. Still, they wanted to do something, and they figured out how to do it. They managed to get some pretty interesting stories about people that they met along the way, and the footage was worth looking at. So... I enjoyed this documentary and recommend watching it, but admit that not everyone will like it.

On Route 7 Into the Heart of Patagonia: Available on Youtube, this documentary takes a road trip down the Carretera Austral. There's still plenty of scenery in this one, but it's not the main focus. With several stops along the way to visit with people involved in the original construction of the road to people whose lives are changing because of it, the documentary is very well done and extremely informative. Check this one out if you're interested in taking a journey through Chilean Patagonia via the only thoroughfare available. This one also has some spectacular footage of a glacier and an erupting volcano!

Chef's Table: Francis Mallmann: After dinner, we decided to end the day by re-watching Episode 3 from the first season of Chef's Table, on Netflix. Francis Mallmann is a wonderfully talented chef living on a tiny island in the middle of a lake in Argentinian Patagonia. He cooks outside quite a lot, using open flames, spits, and traditional pits to prepare his cuisine, despite being classically trained by some of the finest chefs in Europe. This episode, and the entirety of season one at least, are well worth watching.

At one point, I paused and backed the video up a moment so that I could point out the obvious. It is DARK and QUIET in Patagonia -- noise and light pollution around his house/island are nonexistent, leaving you in the glorious peace and quiet of a lake surrounded by mountains just after sunset, the only light coming from the small open fire being built at the edge of the screen. It wasn't the point of the episode by any means, but it certainly spoke to me about a person that purposefully lives his life in his own way, not asking for or caring about anyone's approval. Passionate and principled in his way. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing honestly.

Aside from all of the nature and food, he also reads poetry. Two snippets came up: one from The Call of the Wild by Robert Service, and I Have Dreamed of You So Much by Robert Desnos. I'll leave this section with a short quote from the former:

"There's a whisper on the night-wind, there's a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling, calling... let us go."

Tasting

Tanya selected Trout al Asador with Vistamar Sepia Reserva Sauvignon Blanc, a very fresh, citrusy and slightly spicy Chilean wine for our tasting adventure into Patagonia. Trout was actually mentioned as one of the best fish you can get in Chile, and particularly in Patagonia. Quite a lot of salmon farming has moved in relatively recently, so trout is a much better choice if you want a "good" fish.

Leeks are SUPER SMELLY!

Preparation was somewhat involved, but completely approachable as well. Tanya's pretty handy with a knife which made the dicing of all of the vegetables and bacon a snap. Slicing into the skin of the fish is a necessity as well. I think the only ingredients not pictured here are salt and pepper for the fish seasoning, butter that went into the sauce with the other diced ingredients, and lemon for finishing.

Normally, the dish is prepared with a butterflied filet, but the ones available at Central Market on shopping day weren't quite the size we wanted. We went for the larger fillets instead, which means we'll probably have leftovers. YAY!

And the result!

ZOMG, ALL THE TASTES!

Seriously y'all -- Tanya's a genius. I fully expected the dish and wine pairing to be tasty, but I was genuinely unprepared for the wave after wave of zesty goodness that accompanied every bite and sip. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND you give this dish a try.

The added benefit of a dish like this is, as was mentioned previously, leftovers. However, in her genius, Tanya had already planned a use for those leftovers, which leads us to the hint of our next destination. The leftovers will be used to make coddle. Guess where we're going next?

Sprummer (Virtual) Vacacay: Preamble

It's just like being there, except the only senses you're fooling are sight and balance!

Yes everyone, you heard that right -- BLOG POSTS ARE HERE AGAIN! Given everything that's been going on in the world since my last one, I'm actually pretty nervous about posting this. However, if I *don't* post it, then how will you, the reader, live vicariously through our virtual and vicarious vacacay? Also, I'm pretty sure most of the national- and planetary-level issues we're currently enduring are *not* a result of my silly short story from January. If you feel differently, let me know in the comments.

What is a virtual vacacay, anyway? As alluded to above, the world is quite a mess right now. Given the pandemic, our normal Spring Vacacay plans got cancelled before they were even finalized. However, it's important to take some time off, even when you're working from home but can't safely travel anywhere. So, we came up with the idea of taking a virtual vacation.

There's already a bit of an industry around this, and has been for a while. With the pandemic, even more entries into the field have emerged. There are a couple of issues for me, specifically and unfortunately.

1. I don't own and VR headset.
2. I don't want to rent anyone else's VR rig (pandemic, remember?)
3. I get motion sick pretty easily with those kinds of things.

So we decided to do the next best thing. We chose a handful of destinations we're interested in, planned to learn about them (mainly via documentaries), and researched a menu that would allow us to sample some of their cuisine (eating and/or drinking).

I was tasked with the documentary research, and Tanya headed up the menu research. Together, we formed TEAM VIRTUAL VACACAY! We researched and listed and shopped and bookmarked, and began our trek today. Tune in tomorrow(?) for the highlights from the first stop on our list:

Patagonia!

Notes:

• I'm releasing the copyright to "Sprummer." Feel free to use it as often as you like, royalty and permission free!
• As it turns out, I never owned the copyright. The word "sprummer" has been in the Urban Dictionary since 2009, and is actually pretty well known and enjoyed(?) in Australia.

Creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak...

It only took six months to get this way!

I'm back.

Or at least, I'm back for this one post at least.

What in the world happened to me for the last half of last year? I wish I could point to monumental happenstances which prevented me from making entries here. Sadly, that is simply not the case. I've been at my computer almost daily, as is my wont, yet none of those days led me to this corner of the Internet. Part of me feels guilty about this, but a larger part of me refuses to beat myself up about it. Let's face it: most of what's put out here is just me screaming or whispering into the void in any case, so the person I first aim to please is, quite selfishly, me. And "me" has had other, mostly mundane, things going on.

So, let's spend a moment catching up with where I left off since my last entry in June of 2019, shall we?

Summer breaking

This summer saw Number Two Son moving in with us in order to begin his journey through college. It also saw us procuring a car for him, that car being involved in a wreck, and procuring ANOTHER, VIRTUALLY IDENTICAL car for him. If he hadn't actually been there when the wreck occurred, I'm not sure he would have believed the cars were different.

Number One Son was also involved in that wreck as well as an accident with HIS car that required repair. Thankfully, neither of the sons was hurt at all during any of the above. We're sincerely hoping that this has gotten both of them past the statistical portion of accidents while driving.

Fall beginnings/ends

Fall had Number Two Son enjoying his first semester of college. He says he enjoys it more than high school. I think it has to do with him being able to set his own schedule a little better as well as not having to get up early any day except Monday. He even went to a couple of social things, although I don't think he's actually hanging out with anyone regularly. I remember having similar experiences my first couple of years of college. Then again, I always had a girlfriend back home, so I didn't spend much time actually *living* while I was there.

Meanwhile, Number One Son finished his final semester, graduating with an Associates of Applied Science in Web Design and Development. Garrett was really worried that he wasn't going to be able to find a job, given the ratio of applications he was making to responses he was getting. Then, over the course of about a week, he set up an interview, had it conducted, and accepted a job with a company called Revature. He's now preparing to head off for their three-month-long coding boot camp in West Virginia, after which he'll be placed with a client to begin a two-year contract (with Revature, not the specific client). I'm all emotions wrapped together for him -- excited, proud, anxious, happy, sad, freaked are the most dominant currently. 

Mostly, I'm coming to grips with the fact that Garrett is, in fact, all grown up, and about to be off on his own. Gabriel is right behind, living mostly independently from Tanya and I even though he's right upstairs. It really does seem like the virtual blink of an eye since they were toddling around. I'm reminded of that daily by some picture or memory of them from the past, primarily via their Contact pictures on my phone (which are, of course, from when they were little bitty) juxtaposed with two men, both at least as tall as me, and sporting beards I could never grow.

I'll stop here, but encourage all of you to cherish EVERY moment of your life, especially those shared with people you love. Each moment is completely unique and will never occur again in all of existence. Ultimately, they are the sum total of who we are.

Autumn Vacacay

We took an Autumn trip to Minsk and Spain and have a zillion pictures. I REALLY considered blogging about those as they happened, but was very focused on other things at those times, like being *IN* those places instead of looking at them in third person. I'm glad I resisted the urge and remained (mostly) disconnected from reality for those days.

Suffice to say that I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Minsk in the fall, and was finally graced with some proper weather (gray, slightly rainy, and chilly). Leaving Minsk and arriving at Tenerife in the Canary Islands was a culture shock of another kind, and was breathtakingly gorgeous, marred only by the fact that driving (and parking) there is painful. A day in Barcelona wasn't enough, but we saw enough of the city to say that we've been there. It was a trip worth taking.

NaNoWriMo

I wrote another book. It was a return to the world of Aether, and I actually finished it, all the way through. Most of it is, as usual, crap, but there were at least a few scenes in there that make it worth editing. The next step will be to go back through it and start writing the first draft of a REAL book. I might not dump too much, as Tanya will be better than I am about identifying what things are interesting versus boring.

This makes for a total of four books I've written: one that went through a couple of rounds of revision, two that weren't worth finishing, and another that is to-be-edited. Add to that a handful of short stories and a ridiculous haiku collection, and I suppose I have to consider myself to have an actual hobby.

And before you ask -- no, I never picked up the other hobby (drawing/playing an instrument). I didn't have that much extra energy.

What's next?

• The year-end reading challenge review is in flight. I'm hoping to add a couple of interesting statistics to it this year, but we'll see how that pans out.
• I've already mentioned the first real draft/edit of the NaNoWriMo2019 book, so that'll happen.
• Supporting Number One and Number Two sons.
• Trying to maintain good habits in health, fitness, work, and play.

I make no promises, but as of now intend to create more content here as well. I'd tell you to stay tuned, but that seems self-serving as well as disingenuous. Tell you what -- check back every now and then, checking the monthly post totals. If any of them have gone up since your last visit, have at them!

And I sincerely wish all of you all the best for this year!

Spring Vacacay v2019, Days 4 and 5

[DISCLAIMER: I honestly thought I’d published this a while back. I obviously hadn’t, so my sincere apologies. Especially since it ruined my streak of at least one post a month this year. Then again, I managed to miss July as well, so... meh]

You, the discerning reader, will have noticed that today’s entry is actually Days 4 and 5. I warned you that Day 3 was exactly like Day 2. Well, that’s not quite true. We *did* sit in exactly the same spot, but our server was Costas, not Eliza, and we had all the frozen drinks on the menu instead of the mixed cocktails. The routine was exactly the same — we slept late, didn’t work out, had breakfast, sat beside the pool, read, drank, had dinner, and strolled around a little. After all, our first day of doing it went so well, it couldn’t hurt to do it again.

And again.

Day 3 was so relaxing that we realized we’d stumbled onto our ideal vacation — do as little as possible, maximize the relaxation. Who knew?!

Day 4 brought a couple of slight changes, including where we sat. It was still near the pool, but on the far side with a view of the gulf. You’ll notice that we aren’t DIRECTLY on the front line. No, those chairs were already taken by the time we got to the pool at 08:00. The people at this resort apparently go to the pool as soon as they wake up, claim chairs by putting crap on them, and then go back to sleep for a couple of hours. Case in point: the five chairs in front of us were claimed by a family of two parents and three children. After they’d secured their spot, they hung around for a few minutes to make sure it was cool, then all left to go get breakfast or watch a movie or some such. Seriously, they were gone for more than two hours, despite the rule that you’re not supposed to leave your chair unoccupied for more than an hour. I was mildly annoyed, but given that they frequently weren’t there, we got a great view of the gulf for quite a while.

So... we did that. All day. It was just fantastic. I really can’t adequately describe the feeling of just laying there, reading a book, drinking a drink, staring at the ocean, and not worrying about a thing in the world. Those that know me will understand that this isn’t really my normal mode of operation. It actually takes quite a bit for me to fully unwind, as I habitually check work email and Slack even while I’m out of the office. This time, I managed to let it all go, forget about all responsibility, and just... *be*... in that place. And what a great place to be in, especially with Tanya! She is, by far, the best travel buddy I could hope for. I mean, LOOK AT HOW CUTE SHE IS?!

The entirety of Day 4 was spent there in those chairs a row back from the railing. Eliza had returned, and even though we weren’t technically in her section, she paid particular attention to us all day long. She deserves a raise — I’m looking at *you*, Opal Sands! Tanya and I strolled around the strip/boardwalk a little, but not enough to actually be worth any more mention than I’ve already made. The area in general is fantastic, and you should visit it if you get the chance.

Day 5 dawned with us mostly ready to return to reality. We felt rested, rejuvenated, but still slightly reluctant. I think we left the long weekend with a good idea of what we’d like to be able to do in retirement: whatever we like given our mood on waking up. Not be beholden to a specific schedule. Able to work on whatever interested us that day.

The only thing we really haven’t quite figured out is: how do you do that on a fixed income into perpetuity? The obvious answer is to have recurring revenue as a source of income (ergo: not fixed), but that requires a bit of creativity on our part that we haven’t quite figured out yet. If any of you have ideas, we’re open to suggestions... ;)

Spring Vacacay, v2019, Day 2

Dawn broke clear and warm on our second day of Spring Vacacay, or at least I assume it did, since the blackout curtains completely prevented me from witnessing it in any form or fashion. In fact, given that the previous day had been full of travel, exploring, and eating and drinking, combined with the moving-the-clock-forward timezone adjustment, we wound up sleeping until just after 09:00. I was quite surprised when I looked at the time, feeling certain that I must be inverting a "6" digit in a sleepiness-induced fit of dyslexia. I rubbed my eyes for a bit, looked again, and confirmed that I had officially achieved the longest sleep-in time of the year. Honestly, as I type this, I can't remember the last time I slept until after 09:00, since most of our travel takes us west, where we gain hours instead of losing them.

I had packed workout clothes, since the resort had a workout facility and I was intent on maintaining my fitness regimen. However, given the relative lateness of the hour, we realized that a morning workout was not in the plans today. Instead, we decided to head out for breakfast.

The breakfast venue was Speggtacular  which was about a half mile’s walk from the hotel. The place was hopping when we got there, but there was a booth in the corner that we were ushered to without hesitation. Speggtacular’s menu was vast, and upon perusing it, I felt my carefully cultivated dietary discipline quickly evaporate. Heck, it's vacation after all, right? Vacation calories don't count, RIGHT?!

What you see pictured here is actually someone else’s photo of my ALMOST breakfast (pancakes with strawberries, bananas, cream, and chocolate/hazelnut drizzle), but I managed to reign it in a little. Instead, I ordered a more traditional breakfast with eggs, bacon, toast, and a single strawberry and banana pancake with a dusting of powdered sugar. Tanya got a similar ensemble, except that she got a fruity crepe instead of the pancake. It was more food than we should have eaten, but by gannies it was good!

And a special shout-out to our server that day, whose name completely escapes me at this point. They had four servers on a six-server day, and she was running around all over the restaurant, but kept a smile on her face the entire time. It was far more than I could have done, and I was thoroughly impressed by her attitude.

Speggtacular summary: well worth the walk. Would definitely eat there again!

After breakfast, it was finally time to be completely lazy. The beach was crowded and hot already, so we decided to have a look at the hotel pool. The pool might not look it, but given the potential occupancy, it’s actually quite small. Chairs, especially those that are well-shaded, are at a premium. We got immensely lucky to find two open chairs beneath an effective shade on the edge of the pool. 

Poolside relaxation should be taken seriously. As you can see, I set about it with an uncommon vigor, immediately digging into an ACTUAL, PHYSICAL BOOK. The book was Slade House by David Mitchell (perhaps best know for Cloud Atlas). It’s a short companion novel to The Bone Clocks, which you should definitely read.

But reading was not the only relaxation of which we partook. You see, the pool was patrolled by helpful serving personnel, including Eliza, the kind lady covering our section. After she handed us a poolside menu, she gave us a minute to look over it, offering recommendations based our our tastes. Given that our tastes were “it should be pleasant and/or refreshing,” there weren’t many limitations. We decided to begin with a couple of selections from the non-frozen cocktails. 

By the end of the afternoon, we’d made our way through all but the Bloody Mary variants (which we don’t care for) and the Cuban Punch. We enjoyed all of them, but my favorite was the Opal Rita, because it mixed both rum and tequila. And every drink was served with some fruit decoration. Combine those morsels with the overly large breakfast, and we were set until dinner.

We had to walk a few of those extra calories off, at least. In the later afternoon, we decided to have a stroll down to the beach to see if we’d missed anything significant. The beach’s sand was fine, white, and hot. It was also blessedly free of shells and other debris, so it could be trod upon barefooted without serious risk of injury (besides blistering from the heat).

We finished the day with another dinner at Sea-guini. The food was good enough the first night to draw us back again the second. That, and overindulgence during the day helped us realize that a walk to somewhere else on the main drag probably wasn’t going to be worth the effort. And they had a fresh fruit drink that wasn’t on the poolside menu! The quest was obviously not yet complete!

Strangely enough, doing not very much at all besides eating, drinking, and lazing about in the sun and shade can really take it out of you. We walked a little after dinner, but decided to call it a night and watch the sun set from the room. Phone cameras being what they are, there isn’t really a photo to do it justice. Here’s another bad photo of a great view.

Thus ended day 2 of Spring Vacacay v2019. I’ll warn you that day 3 looked suspiciously like day 2, but that’s a story for another blog entry...

Spring Vacacay, v2019, Day 1

Image courtesy Opal Sands Resort, Clearwater Beach, Florida

You might recall last year’s opportunistic Spring Vacacay to Wine Country, California. That marked the only vacation I had last year. We had tentatively planned a September trip to Belarus, but it didn’t happen for various reasons. So, I had two work days off in May, a couple over the summer, two more in November (Thanksgiving), and two more in December (Christmas). Astonishingly, I’ve not had more than two work days off in a row since September, 2017.

Luckily, Tanya decided to remedy this situation. Looking around for something that would meet our immediate requirements, we planned a get-away in Clearwater Beach, Florida. It was a five-day trip, including a grand total of... (insert drum roll here):

*TWO WORK DAYS OFF!*

Wait, really? I though for sure I’d be out longer. Oh well, Monday was Memorial Day, so it still made for a really nice five-day weekend. Certainly long enough to take in the sites and sounds of Clearwater Beach, Florida!

The flight was really short: 2.5 hours max. This was good, as it was the first test of Tanya’s back on an airplane ride. It went fine, as it turns out, and the ride to the Opal Sands Resort was also easy and uneventful. Check-in was a breeze, as we arrived after the normal check-in time, and we immediately set to relaxing (after some nominal unpacking).

Made it! And what a view!

The room was fantastic. It faced west, overlooking the pool and the gulf. The waters at Clearwater Beach are clear(ish) and blue(ish), and generally quite pleasing, especially considering that this is still a part of the Gulf of Mexico. Heck, anywhere in Texas, and you’d be pretty happy with “not-quite-brown-and-completely-silt-laden” water.

The best part of the room was, by far, the balcony. As already mentioned, it overlooked the gulf and the pool. The second best part of the room was the Shrine to Sardines. Honestly, they made me want to redecorate our house.

Bad picture of GREAT picture!

The early evening after arrival was spent eating and investigating. Eating was done at Sea-guini, the restaurant built into the hotel. They make an alluring mojito as well as a mean Moscow mule variant, both of which were worth having. A walk around the grounds introduced us to the pool, finally seen from ground level instead of nine stories up. To the north was the white sand beach, now clear of almost all beach goers and related debris. It looked like a pretty fantastic place to spend the pre-dinner hours of the day, but we would have to wait until later to determine that for certain.

The poolside bar was our final stop for the night. It was vacation — nightcaps were a necessity. Tanya tried the poolside mojito, having enjoyed the dinner one so much, and I opted for a locally produced tangerine beer. My beer was excellent. Tanya’s mojito was not. Tanya enjoyed my beer. I drank the mojito.

The first day of spring vacacay was off to a smashing start! Stay tuned for the adventures from the second, and far lazier, day of Spring Vacacay!

Spring Vacacay!

Followers of this blog might have noticed a trend forming over the past several years: spring expeditions to fun/interesting/outdoors-y locations. In 2014, we went hiking in Utah. 2015 took us to southern California for work, but we got out a little bit. 2016 was a Seattle adventure, and 2017 was the huge London blowout. This year, we really didn't think we were going to go anywhere. Work schedules were such that it didn't appear to be in the cards. Then, Tanya's company unexpectedly scheduled an offsite in northern California (south of San Francisco), which was going to wrap up on a Thursday. We realized we could make a long weekend of it, and our Spring Vacacay tradition was saved!

Arrival

After spending several days writing Wifeless Husband Haikus, I joined Tanya in sunny San Francisco. We drove north to San Rafael, where we had booked a VRBO with a Prince theme. You think I'm kidding, but I'm not -- Prince stuff was everywhere. I wish I'd taken a picture of the gate, because it had the Prince symbol on it. As it is, I'll leave you with this photo, from the living room looking into the bedroom.

Pringles are ours, not Prince's. Also not shown: all of the purple LED lighting.

First days for us typically entail getting to the lodgings, finding a place to eat, and getting to the grocery and sundries store. The rental was amazing well-provisioned, meaning we didn't have any essential sundries to pick up -- only breakfast foods and snacks.

We headed out for dinner. The evening meal was provided by Chalet Basque, which was a lucky find in that it was only a mile or two from the rental. Tummies full, we procured groceries for breakfast and some other things we'd be taking on our hike(s), and a bottle of wine, because how can you not have a bottle of wine at all times this close to wine country?

Breakfast

A quick note on breakfast: we typically take breakfasts at the rental. This one had a very pleasing view, so on the first morning we were there, we decided to have breakfast on the patio. Some folks might not find it to be worth the effort; those folks would be wrong.

Eggs, bacon, tea, and english muffins with butter and jam. EVERY MORNING PLEASE!!

Wine Country

The first real day of Spring Vacacay was centered around a sojourn into wine country. 

Napa or Sonoma? Why not both! :-D

We had scheduled a wine and food pairing for early lunch at St. Francis Winery in Sonoma Valley and arrived in time to take a short stroll around the grounds.

I was told there would be food here...?

Someone is pretty clever with reflections!

Lunch was five wines, each paired with a thoughtfully, elegantly, and excellently prepared food course. I could have had more of each (yes, food AND wine). If you're the kind of person that likes the idea of going to wine country but doesn't particularly want to drive (or get driven) to a bunch of separate tasting rooms, I strongly suggest something like this. Over the course of a couple of hours, we got to have good conversation, learn about the wine and the chef's processes, and enjoy foods and wines in ways we wouldn't have otherwise. Two sloshy thumbs up, would consume again!

Our next destination was Castello di Amorosa in Napa Valley. Yes, it's a real, Tuscan-style castle, and was very crowded when we arrived. Apparently a lot of other people had the same idea we did -- go to wine country on a Friday afternoon and tootle around a castle.

Roses and dragons and castles! Oh my!

Thanks to my impeccable timing, we got there 45 minutes before our guided tour and tasting was supposed to begin. But, as luck would have it, when we checked in the greeter asked us if we wanted to upgrade to the cheese and wine pairing tour for a few extra bucks. They had an opening for two people on the tour that was supposed to start five minutes later, so I think we got a slight discount. We, of course, said yes. As I've already stated: wine and food are vastly superior to just wine.

Our guide had been at the winery almost since the beginning, so she knew everything about everything there. The castle was constructed from stones imported from Italy (not entirely, but in lots of places), all of the metalwork was done by an actual Italian blacksmith, all of the artwork was done by Italian artists, etc.

Hand-painted walls, hand-forged fixtures... 

Our fearless guide, and knower of all the things!

The owner loves dragons!

The castle had four levels above ground and four below. All of the barrels, as you may have guessed, were below ground. It's a veritable maze down there! If you got lost, at least you'd not get thirsty!

Barrels for days!

As the tour ended, we were led to a private tasting room where we partook of particularly fine wine and cheese. The pairings were supposed to be either "compare" or "contrast." Instead, we all tried all of them -- all the wines, all the cheeses, and adored them all.

From the inner courtyard. The private tasting room is in the lower right.

Maybe the most surprising thing we learned is that we actually like some rosés, and for me, the darker, the better!

Upon finishing with this winery, we realized there was a mountain drive near where we were, and we love those kinds of views. Unfortunately for us, there were no scenic overlooks. If you wanted to get that view, you had to earn it by parking and hiking. Given that we were already planning to hike the next day, we decided to call it a day.

As an aside: we originally had dinner reservations in Sonoma, but by the time we'd finished eating a large lunch and just south of a ton of crackers and cheese along with an un-disclosable amount of wine, we realized that we weren't going to be hungry for dinner. Rather than force another fine meal on ourselves, we went back to the rental and snacked a little later in the evening. Lesson learned -- late dinner reservations are a necessity when lunching in wine country.

Next up: Hiking!

Cabin In The Woods, Pt 4

I woke up early the next day in order to call the kayaking company. You see, the quality of the kayaking is heavily dependent on the river authority and how much water they release from the nearby reservoir. Strangely, the recent rains hadn't raised the river level very much, and I was worried that the river wouldn't be high enough to boat on. Luckily for us, they had released a little water, and the river was good enough (according to the proprietor).

As such, we were off for our kayaking adventure!

Day 5: Kayaking

There are *lots* of kayaking companies in the Broken Bow area. After researching, we decided to go with Yippie Kayo Kayaks. We had a good experience with them. If you're ever in the area and want to get out on the river a bit, you should definitely look them up.

There was another family in our launch, so the van was quite full on the way to the river. You might say we were crammed in there like sardines, but I'm pretty sure sardines are saltwater fish. Is there a tiny, tight-schooled freshwater fish?

Sorry, back to the actual story. We had high hopes of high adventure as we entered the river.

...except Gabriel, full of trepidation.

What a great day to kayak that was. The temperature remained in the 80s or below and the sun was occasionally obscured by clouds. The river itself wasn't very high, which was good and bad. In the area we kayaked, if the river gets too high, the rapids become... more challenging. As it was, we only had a single waterfall to go over.

Tanya was our official photographer, by the way. The following picture was taken after we all successfully made through the rapids (most of which I had to walk through, since my boat dragged the bottom) and then over the falls.

Those are the falls, under the arrow.

I had water cooler duty.

Water cooler duty

You see the cooler? It's full of bottled water. It also happens to have a small bottle of bug spray in it. It's lashed to my kayak by a single, small bungee cord. Given how I've described the river, you'd think that would be good enough to keep the cooler securely fastened. Not so much, as it turns out. There were a couple of spots where the kayak went up on its side or completely turned over (hey, it happens even on simple little turns or rocks -- for the record, I had to get out and right the kayak or move it past rocks several times).

The reason I bring this up is that even though the cooler's lid was super-tight, the cooler still got river water in it. In addition, the bug spray bottle must've leaked a little, because at the end of the trip there was a very delicious lemony smell expelled from the cooler as we opened the lid. Needless to say, no bugs wound up drinking from those water bottles...

At one point, a bald eagle put on a display for us... a display of confusion. We were paddling along when this majestic creature swooped out of a tree, diving straight towards the far bank of the river. It grabbed what looked like a rock, started ascending back towards its tree, but dropped the rock about halfway over the stream. The rock landed with a less than thrilling splash as the eagle resumed its perch.

I have no idea what I'm doing.

Our best guess is that the eagle had grabbed one of the turtles from the water near the far bank, and then either instinctively dropped it in order to crack its shell or was getting snapped severely enough by the turtle itself that the eagle decided it wasn't worth the effort. In either case, we couldn't figure out why the silly bird didn't make a grab at the fish that we could clearly see splashing around all over the river. Maybe it's a turtle-tarian?

I was surprised to learn that everyone actually enjoyed the kayaking. I had doubts about whether or not the boys would think it was fun. Photographic proof follows.

Gabriel approves of not getting sunburnt

Garrett and I try a tandem experiment. It failed.

Tanya makes me take a picture without goofy sunglasses. I smiled despite myself.

Victory! Raise your paddles for a job well done!

I've got to let you guys in on a secret. I've saved the best part of the experience for last. Are you ready?

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SPACE PANTS!

Space Pants!

And if you're wondering, these are *not* mine, they're Tanya's, but yes, I absolutely want a pair.

This was the last of our adventures on the surprise summer vacacay. It was unexpectedly enjoyable. If you ever have a hankering to rent a Cabin In The Woods, indulge that hankering. And get out on some zip lines, and onto the river in some kayaks. If you can avoid or embrace the thunderstorms, you're bound to have a grand ol' time!