Last day of the year

I had a dream last night about a mass murdering bigfoot that kills you after you talk to him or something (on the phone). A girl sold DMV and I a couch and then her friend (a guy) dies from Bigfoot attack. He calls her on her cell at a party. He can't kill her until she passes the phone off to one of us (me) and when I get the phone he says on the other end "I guess it's Julie (the girl who sold us the sofa)." DMV and I flee as murder takes place. But when we return, Julie has sold our purple couch and got a new one (flowered, thin arms).

Our idea for New Year's feast was a bad one, but well executed! My parents, aunt, and significant others all converged to create appetizers to nibble on throughout the night. I chose to make sushi
and by jingies, Woodman's grocery had frozen edamame (soybean peas). I made ebi sushi, sunomono (cucumber in mirin), I was lacking in pickled garlic - we had thick slices of jarred ginger which just wasn't the same as the pink thin slices most people are use to. I also made some crab salad sushi and some California rolls. But the best was some tiny onigiri made with tuna salad and wrapped up with soy wrappers (like the ones in the pic below) - they were so yummy! I added a dash of soysauce to the tuna and it was great.

However, overall the event was sort of "fail" because some of the other treats (all EXTREMELY tasty on their own ) were Texas caviar (chunky salsa) , lil' smokies BBQ winers, and cheese and crackers -- so we all ended up with indigestion! There's fusion gone too far...









The other thing we did today was get a laptop for my parents! We went into town to Best Buy (they had visited there a few times and talked with people, along with doing a bunch of outside research so they were ready) and they got a Compaq for about $600. All together w/ virus protect, software etc. it came to about $1000. I think my Dad still thought that was too much but really, most new laptops alone are $1500+ and I pointed that out to him. One thing he figured out was that you don't need a battery back up surge protector when you get a laptop since the laptop will already have a battery in it.

He took a nice pic of me and mom before we left for town - the night before had been misty and so in the morning, every branch was covered with hoar frost. Awesome.


















We actually stayed up till past midnight and drank champagne and played Trivial Pursuits into the new year.

Milwaukee

I suppose I should have mentioned, my idea was to fly into Milwaukee not only because it was the cheapest option, but also to treat myself to a little R&R. I used the money I saved to get a night at the Hilton. It was a very nice hotel and hilariously I drove right past it when I was trying to find it – at 20+ floors it is like the most dominant thing in the skyline and says in huge red glowing letters HILTON! Here is a sideways pic of the room:

Here is the view out the window:

I actually didn’t sleep too well – there may have been too many pillows on the bed. Although I didn't have breakfast at the buffet, I did appreciate the food labeling system that was explained in an in-room pamphlet - they described how each dish was tagged "LoFat/LoCal, High Energy, High Fiber, Low Cholesterol, or Indulge" and what each label meant.

Oh, one last thing about the night before, when I went to fetch my Sully Burger, I followed the Jingle Bus – a bus filled with kids and parents that drove around to four different parks in the city that were all lit up for the holidays. The families boarded the bus at the Hilton and the line stretched down a very long hallway. There were free coloring books about Santa, cider and cookies. Looked like fun!

Saturday a.m. I got up early enough to take a quick stop at the Paradise Landing indoor waterpark, the first of its kind located in the hotel itself. Pretty much I just sat in the 31 person whirlpool (there were about 5 adults in it), but I did swim a little near the lily pads. The place was pretty busy but it was fun. One thing I remember is this very odd woman pacing back and forth on the pool deck. I could not place her age. She was about 5’6”, 120 lbs, and wearing a sweater, jeans and funky beet up, slip-on brown boots. It was probably 86 degrees so I think she must have been really hot. She was talking on a cell phone, and her ragged brown hair hung over her face and her eyes, but I could tell she had pop-bottle glasses on. She also had a cast on her wrist. I don’t know what her deal was, but it was something to muse about. Was she a mom of one of the kids in the water park? Who was she talking to?

Then I showered, checked out and drove around rather aimlessly for a while. My ultimate goal was the Zoo, but I first traveled out to the UW Milwaukee and caught a glimpse of Lake Michigan. I drove through both a neighborhood of grand old houses and down a strip of pager and loan stores. There is a lot of construction work going on in Milwaukee and on the interstate. The free Convention and Tourism book in the hotel might not be half as thick as Portland Oregon's, but it's still a big city and there is still a lot of neat stuff going on. Plus, I drove through a very German section of town and the history is palpable. And I just gotta love a town built around a brewery.

ZOO ENTRY -

I went to the Zoo, which is always a challenging experience in winter in the North. Yes, the gates are open, but not a lot of animals are out. Most of the indoor viewing is open, which is nice and warm but usually much more cramped (for the animals, not the people). It is nice to see people not afraid to take their kids out on a day like today – the main parking lot was partially full. I walked a long way through the barnyard exhibit before I found any animals - all cows (it is Wisconsin!). The zoo milks a herd of about 6 cows, all different breeds, and the milk is shipped to a local dairy. 72 hours after the cows are milked (at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. each day), their milk is on the shelf.

I saw the indoor elephant, giraffe and big cat exhibits. They all looked small (African animals are BIG!), but the giraffes didn’t seam to mind (they're like tall cows, and as long as they have browse, cud and other members of their herd nearby, they don’t seem to need a lot of stimulation). The cats were asleep – fairly normal for them to sleep 18 hours a day, and since they don’t need to hunt like they would in the wild, they seem okay with smaller spaces. The elephants on the other hand, were in a space like most indoor cold-weather elephant exhibits: concrete and pretty sparse. There was a keeper spitzing them with water and putting them through their paces for treats, but since leaving my position at a zoo, I have really begun to look at both sides of the captive elephant program. As giraffes are to cows, elephants to me are more like whales – they are pretty darn complex and I think that when you see rocking, head bobbing and other types of stereotypical behavior, it shows that they are not very accepting of their small indoor spaces.

I enjoyed walking under the snow-covered branches of the trees, gazing out at the wide expanses of white. It feels good on the eyes. Like winter should.

I left the Milwaukee Zoo at 2 p.m. Stopped at Quizno’s for a bite to tide me over until 6 when I’ll have dinner at my sister’s house. I got one of their new $2 “sammies” and the things are hilariously small. Like the size of your four fingertips. But it was really all I needed.

Driving the 3 hours or so to my sister’s I listened to Wisconsin Public Radio’s University of the Air. A professor was telling the story of Black Hawk, the Sauk leader who, along with his people, was removed from land in Illinois and relocated to Iowa. He ended up getting advice from the Winnebago wise man (there is now a town called Wiseman there) who told him to go into Wisconsin and try to reclaim territory that the white man was taking over. He failed and that was what really opened Wisconsin up for settlements.

The bluffs appear a black snake on the horizon. My mind starts to wander...

There is a restaurant that is offering a $1000 sundae (topped with edible gold that honestly I don’t think I’d really want to ingest). I saw it on the news and the reporter was talking to someone who was saying “I wish we could come up with a way of making the news about how many children in the United States are malnourished and hungry as interesting as a $1000 sundae.” I came up with an idea – offer a $1000 sundae but have all the proceeds go to a charity (like Second Harvest). It doesn’t even have to be that special a sundae – just the fact that it’s so expensive would get it in the news. I’ll bet they’d sell more than the one covered in gold leaf.

Got to my sister’s, opened presents, watched “A Christmas Story” and ate really good chili!

Travel Day

Donnie and I got up at 4 a.m. so that I could shower, dress, gather my things and we were out the door towards the airport at 4:35. We got there, he threw me out of the car, and I began my journey.

Saturday, December 29, 2007 –Flight – Portland to Minneapolis to Milwaukee
Pick up rental car
Drive to Hilton hotel

I feel really good.

The ever-so-slight headache that I had (probably just from waking too damn early) has gone. I took some Zicam to stave off any sickness on the start of my adventure and drank some water to which I had added some generic Airborne – fizzy citrus supplement – to (wow, is that the most split infinitive you have ever seen?).

Ok – now I’ll say a little bit about crazy people. There seems to have been a lot of crazy people going on rampages and killing people lately. The school shooting, mall shooting, Amish milkman massacre, the guy with the fake bomb who walked into Hillary Clinton’s campaign headquarters, the family feud that ended with 6 dead in Washington state. I think we don’t necessarily have to worry about our kids playing video games with hidden sex scenes, or allowing the general public access to violent films, we have to worry about the growing number of mental illnesses in that general populace. My mom pointed out that teenagers go through a sort of madness of hormone poisoning that really does make them unable to control their thoughts and actions. And it’s these people, who have determined that violence is the best option for dealing with problems of this world and this live that are really messing it up for the rest of us. I don’t know if this is due to the affluence of our society, the division between rich and poor, the availability of guns or what (all things noted above except for guy with fake bomb involved guns). And I don’t know what to do about it.

Speaking of fake incendiary devices, I can’t believe my soap was not confiscated by security. It looks like plastic explosives wrapped in duct tape (I was pretty proud of my packing. Below is a pic of the only two bags I had to live out of the entire 10 days.)


I sat next to the sensitive man from Family Guy on the plane ride from Portland to Minneapolis. “Yay! Mayor Bee! Mayor Bee!”

I flew from 6 a.m. – 8 a.m., a four hour flight with a two hour time difference. From the sky, the streetlights form constellations of their own. While flying over Montana, I saw a tiny little spot in the foothills with a square of cleared space around it. I sent that person, out there in that empty wild land my love from above. I wonder if one of the planes I waved at as a kid ever had someone aboard who ever sent their love to me?

I will never take flying for granted.
I am always humble.
I am always amazed.

Later - - Now I am right next to the jet engine on the flight to MKE (Milwaukee). I smells like hot sandwiches on board. The flight attendant has a great voice. Accent Midwestern cool.

8:22 P.M CST. Car gotten (Blue Chevy Cobalt)
Hotel checked into
Dinner time

I just ate about 1/3 of a Solly’s Grill Cheesehead special (hold the onions.) It was frightening. I heard about it from this website: http://tasteofthetown.blogs.com/ . 4 meat patties - and they weren’t even that tasty. What was tasty (and composed most of what I ate) was the can of warm mushrooms covered in two types of cheese that topped it, and part of the lower bun which was completely saturate in butter. The fries, crinkle cut and very potato-y, were crisp, hot and unsalted. Thy also almost soaked their way out of their paper bag with grease. Below is the half eaten burger and what my hand looked like after picking it up *yes. that's grease.





























The chocolate shake was exactly the right consistency.

Note: They serve you beer in bottles w/o a glass at the bar at the Hilton here with out even asking! I'm home!

Waiting for Delay

I am glad that I enjoy planning, and I’m glad I got an early start planning for this trip, and I’m glad I’ve put myself in the right frame of mind to fly through 8 states, landing in 5 of them over a 10 day period.

At least, I think I’m in the right frame of mind.

Packing is like a game to me – especially when I am trying to stuff 10 days and two visits worth of clothing and presents (and an anime-convention's worth of costumes) into two carry-on bags. Planning it all out helps me start enjoying my trip before I even take it. It also makes it easier not to over-pack. That, and remembering advice given to me by my traveling-musician Grandma (who, along with her sisters, was in an all-girl band in the 40s) of rolling all clothing into little sweetroll-sized packets. You can pack more and the clothes don’t get as wrinkled.

As I’m doing all this thinking about what boots to wear on the plane, how many pairs of pants to pack, and whether I need to put my contact lenses into the baggie with all my travel-sized toiletries, a tiger escapes from the San Francisco Zoo and kills a teenager. As I’m looking at the weather forecast (it just finished snowing in Chicago and so hopefully all flights will be back on schedule before I get into the area tomorrow), my brain is tossing the endless coin back and forth regarding fault and blame, wild versus captive, endangered and extinct, over and over in my mind. As I check in online for my first flight (Portland to Minneapolis to Milwaukee), I am trying to reconcile my love of zoos and the people that work there and the animals that live there, with their purpose, their duty and their downfalls.

Something makes me really get a lump in my throat when I hear that there are estimated to be only 40 surviving wild Persian leopards in Russia. Something makes me watch those animal cop shows, where people go in and rescue animals being horded or abused or neglected. And even when the animals don’t survive, I feel pride towards people that work in such heart-wrenching occupations. I wonder if I could. I wonder if I should.

There is still a 120 minute delay in Chicago. I’m not there, but I dream about the delay. Enough time to work on my story, scribbling out new thoughts in my steno pad. Since I’m traveling with just carry-on, I don’t have to worry about my luggage getting lost. I’ll be wearing my big black Druid coat which easily doubles as a woolen blanket. I could find a corner in the airport restaurant to catch a meal and a drink, and plan out the hors d’ouvers I want to make for our little New Years Eve get-together when I reach home. Or I could set up a nest on a little section of concourse floor and read my new manga (Loveless 7), or play Crystalis on my Gameboy. CNN reports that a dead Bengal tiger has been found shot 5 times by the side of the road in Texas. It was probably someone’s pet. Or I could keep thinking about tigers.

OMINOUS OR #7

Garbagefall

OMINOUS OR #6

Green Tarantula

Sushi!

There are many Japanese foods that can be made at home that are just as fun and as tasty as can be found at your local sushi bar. It feels even more authentic if you refer to them with their Japanese names. ^_^

Pantry:

Nori -- You will need these sheets of toasted seaweed for a lot of things. I have not found a lot of noticeable difference between the cheep $1.99 packs and the more expensive ones (more expensive = $3.99). Sometimes there is a stronger flavor, and it should be noted that nori is probably the fishyest tasting thing you're going to find at a sushi bar. I would suggest snacking on a little bit, realizing that this is as bad as it gets. It will make you appreciate the amazing wonderfulness of the raw fish! Anyway, I have read in some cookbooks that you can actually re-toast nori, and I have tried it in a dry fry pan over high heat. Works pretty well. Nori wrapped around sushi rice tends to be crispy and even a little hard to bite / cut through right after you make it, and toasting makes it more brittle. I have made sushi the night before and eaten it for lunch the next day and I actually enjoy the texture of the nori better then (much more tender.) But it's up to you.

*note- You can also use soy wrappers as a stand in for nori if it is really too fishy for you. Or for a change - they come in many pretty party colors.

Sushi Rice - Okay -- I am going to admit to something totally horrible. I don't rinse my rice. Not very much at the best of times, and not at all most of the time. I also don't have a rice cooker (can't bring myself to pay $35-55 for one) so I cook my rice in an old broken pressure cooker on the stovetop. Still, I do use sushi rice, usually a California variety w. a rose on the bag. There are many different kinds, and many sizes of bags. This one seems to fit my budget.

Mirin -- I buy premade mirin, but you can make your own with rice vinegar, salt and sugar. The one in my pantry right now is called red mirin but it looks and tastes just like normal. Once you make your rice, you douse it with mirin to taste.

Ginger- Pickled ginger is nibbled between different pieces of sushi to cleanse the pallet. Being that I'm a total sushi-heathen, I like to eat it throughout the meal; it tastes good! I just read about a chef who uses the leftover ginger-pickle juice as a flavoring for soups.

Wasabi -- if you like horseradish, buy a tube of this green stuff.

Soy sauce - There are many many different kinds. My pallet is not advanced enough to know the difference. But it is very necessary to have on hand!

Toasted sesame seeds (or furikake, which is a mixture of dried veggies, seaweed, sometimes fish, and sesame seeds) - Another tasty addition - if you make California maki (rolls with the rice on the outside instead of the nori) you can roll the outer rice in one of these.

Stuff to try:

Tobiko (Flying Fish Roe) or Masago (Smelt roe) Roe= fish eggs -- This is pretty easy to find frozen in Asian grocery stores. Make a little ball of rice, wrap a sheet of nori around it so that it extends over the top to make a little cup. Fill the cup with defrosted roe. You could also try any kind of caviar.

Ebi (Shrimp) - What could be easier than a split cocktail shrimp over a nicely formed piece of rice (you could also stick it there with a little bit of Wasabi)? Pick this little appetizer up with your fingers and dip the shrimp in soy sauce.

Smoked Salmon

The things to go out for....

Inari - Thin fried tofu pouches are stuffed with rice. A way to convey rice to you - no raw fish included. I'm not a big fan, but I've probably just never had good inari. Sometimes slightly sweet: I choose to allocate my calories elsewhere. Not sure how to make at home.

Uzura - Quail eggs. Not something I usually have lying about, so I suggest you go out for them. I look forward to having my first ones at Saburo's sometime to see how they are served...(note - they came fried up like tamago! see below for instructions.)

Saba (Mackerel) - A white fish with blue and silver skin (which is usually left on when served)

Ika (squid) - I have had good and bad Ika. Bad is fishy and too chewy. Or it can be white, tender and tasteless.

Suzuki (stripped sea bass) - I think I have had this before and it was really good, but I didn't know what it was called. Very white going to pinky fish.

Hokki-gai (surf clam) - Clam is usually chewy. I don't think I've had this, but I'm not sure where you'd find it / keep it for home use so I put it here.

Bonito -- Okay -- Bonito a skipjack tuna which is lower in mercury than other tunas... needless to say, tuna is my new best friend. I love it. Sushi bonito is seared, so good for those that want to ween on to sushi by having it slightly cooked. Maguro is red tuna, probably high in mercury due to its place on the food chain.

Hamachi - yellowtail (not to be confused with yellowfin) - it is close to tuna, but is a lighter white-pink color.

*note - Bonito is also dried and made into a powder which is used to make dashi, miso soup base (along w/ kelp).

And something to try --

If you have soy sauce, mirin, and eggs, you mine as well try your hand at making your own Japanese breakfast, lunch or dinner treat:

Tamago -- scrambled egg fluffy and multilayered, experiment and see what you think. If you can't stomach your creation, then add to the "things to go out for" line.

OMINOUS OR #5

Taylor Electric Fire