The joy of canned meat...

(Further to my thoughts on Corned Beef Hash a short time ago.)

A week or so ago, I was walking down one of the food aisles of a local bargain price store and out of the corner of my eye (which doesn't work very well usually) noticed the words "canned corn beef", but it didn't look like the can I remembered. The one I recall had a cow or bull on it. So... I didn't think anything else of it, other than the next time I went to the grocery store, I would check to see if they had the can that I remember. Anyways, the other day, not yet having been to the grocery store, and despite the not so bargain price (to me anyways) I picked up a can. At $3.50 it seemed rather steep. As I started to write this, I went agoogling for an image, and my memory IS actually spot on... The can I remember is this:

This morning I decided it was time... I heated up the cast iron skillet (Except I used a crepe pan... yes... a crepe pan is very versatile... It can be used for heating up nachos just as well as crepes and corned beef hash.) with butter... When the butter was all bubbly and hot, I plopped about a third of the can onto it and pressed it down... The smell when the meat first hit the pan was rather intense, but it soon dissipated. All I could think of was "Will it taste like I remembered it". I wanted it to get dark and crispy, but it didn't quite make it there. However, as part of it started to stick to the pan and a crust was forming from the heat, it just looked... right. I turned the stove off and was contemplating putting it in a bowl or on a plate to eat it, but decided to go for straight from the hot pan... Excellent choice. I tentatively and gingerly took my fork to it and had a nibble... Hmm... not sure... And then... I spotted the ketchup packets I have sitting in a bowl by the stove... That had to be it... and... it was... THAT is what I remember. The unique taste.. with ketchup for some strange reason... more... comfort food. Still don't recall the can though... I think mom used to get just the canned corned beef and mix it with potatoes.

I had it with a couple slices of olive and herb bread toasted, with some cheddar, and... the last few sips of my orange juice that I had saved from McDonalds a few days ago. Sigh.

I think I may have to use what is left in the can for dinner... Mmm... Maybe with scrambled eggs...

Unhinged: Sunday silly snippets

(from actual conversations I've had)

Have I become unhinged?

I jiggle in places I never used to jiggle.

Clammy the shell. (I crack myself up sometimes.)

Seriously... I am a hard nut to crack... but you... you just might be the petrified nut.

Golly gee willickers. (No, that weren't me... A response to something I said... really.)


(These struck me as funny, but it might just be me.)

But why?

I admit, in this particular case, it is not a googleanomaly. Those words do actually exist on my blog... together. My question is ... why would someone type those two particular words in a search engine?

Ugh...

... ate too much... way too much. And... then I topped it off with a fortune cookie, just because. It reads "A newspaper item will soon happily affect you." Hmm...

So... after the sun came out for all of but an hour or two this afternoon ...  as we were finishing dinner, it started to rain... buckets... Crazy type rain that makes people run for cover. Rain that bounces off the road. Talk about unsettled weather... Almost as bad as my stomach after a milkshake. Now, as I sit here typing this and trying not to explode, all of a sudden, the sun burst forth once again. And... just as soon... is gone.

Pardon me whilst I go try to barf up my spleen.

Funked up...

I have been in a funked up funk today. It may even be the mother of all funks... not quite, but you may get the picture. I don't even feel like eating ice cream... What is up with that? I went for a walk downtown, visited a friend's shop and I just felt... heavy... there... and back. The sun had just come out even though it wasn't expected to and it had warmed up considerably, but even that didn't seem to have any brightening, warming effect on my soul. I stopped at the corner store on the way home and picked up a Reese Ice Cream bar and a new flavour of Doritos that I noticed in the rack... Jacked Smoky Chipotle BBQ. (In French, they translated it on the package to: Colosssal BBQ Chipotle Fume, which I just found funny for some reason.) Got home, put the ice cream bar in the freezer and the bag of chips on the table. And... there they wait. Sigh.

Things happen for a reason...

I just don't know why...

Struggling inside my head a little more than usual in the past few days... (moreso than in the past few weeks... months...) However, as sure as there are things that take me there, there are things that bring me back. I am thankful for those things. I found myself singing a few words to a song this morning... I suppose in a way it reminded me of that.

... which then brought this back to mind from a few years ago (seventeen or eighteen years counts as a few right?) ...

(Found a live version... but you have to ignore the stage lighting.)

How's this for that?

The This that doesn't exist

the elusive This that it is,

Is an invisible thing, an intangible thing

more confounding than the This that is.

Now confusing as that This can be

considering it can't be seen,

I have to say... it is nothing compared

to the That that is behind the This.

Now... that That I have to admit

is that that is hard to resist,

but that That wouldn't exist

without the This that is.

How's that for this? Philoseussical enough? (I did it all in one shot... nuts I say...)

I can't breathe...

heart palpitations...

YouTubeLink (Views 688,170)

Seriously? I would have hit the pole... or scraped my legs off... or ridden over the edge...

Curtsy to the Borderline Sociopathic Blog for Boys for that heart wrenching experience. I could almost feel my teeth chattering... (Almost makes me want to dust the cobwebs off the bike and go for a quick jaunt through the trails ... not really.)

This...

The This that doesn't exist...

That is all I could muster. I was thinking that perhaps I should pursue this in a philoseussical manner. In poetry rather than prose. When my brain returns... If.

The Avengers

Further to my initial thoughts on this movie, I am not going to go into details about it, even though it is fresh in my mind, having just finished seeing it in the theatre. All I shall say for now is that I enjoyed it immensely. There was a moment when I felt like a little kid with a big smile on my face seeing Iron Man and Captain America standing side by side on the big screen. It had a lot going on and great pace, and there were elements which sort of reminded me of The Chronicles of Riddick and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. This was a massive undertaking for writer/director Joss Whedon, well known for being the creator, writer and director of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, but I think he did a smashing job, and his sense of humour shines through. On a side note, I knew that he had written Toy Story, but was not aware until tonight that he had also penned Titan A.E., all these shows being personal favourites of mine.

It is a splurge for me to see a movie in the theatre, so I have to feel that it is something pretty epic to do so. I do think this was worth it, but even though it was of a huge scale, I don't know if I could consider it as epic as Thor. Of course though, this may have to do with the fact that Thor involved otherworlds, not just Earth, or... that my opinion may have been slightly distorted by the latecomers who decided to sit in front of me, and who were perhaps the two tallest people in town. I definitely have to watch it on DVD.

Cost = Movie: $6 (cheap night) + Popcorn and drink: $6 = $12

Angry little boys and girls...

So... quite some time ago, I created a South Park Avatar for myself and then two other bloggers, just for fun. One of them, I didn't actually realize how close I was to the real thing until I saw a picture of his nephew this year. Of course though, the nephew was much cuter. Heh. Anyways, a couple weeks ago, at one of the blogs I regularly read, there was a post relating to the trials and tribulations of being dad to a 14 year old son who was NOT doing homework assignments and lagging behind. Sounds familiar eh? This prompted me to create an avatar for said dad... I did send it along to him before posting this... Thankfully, he liked it.

Ralphd00d

The funny thing about this? Way back when I created those first avatars, I also made one for the mother to a boy about the same age. I didn't realize until just now, but I used the same expression on both. Hmm... I call this one "Angry Little Girl".

 

Perspectives...

Dime on dandelion (2011)

Pondering personal perspective.

Poetic perspective.

Pragmatic perspective by a rather inspiring man. Go... read.

Nifty

Ingenuity...

Oh and on a similar theme:

(Kinda makes me wonder how many times he practiced doing this.)

From the Borderline Sociopathic Blog for Boys.

Garden Peace

"Snowball" Viburnum

Was out in the yard for six hours on Saturday (beautiful, hot and sunny) and four on Sunday (sunny, cloudy, cooler), primarily weeding one of the garden beds and pruning back a rather overgrown climbing rosebush. I now have two and a half extra-large clear bags full of weeds, 90% of which are ... the damned... buttercups. This is the worst I've seen it it ten years. Of course, I could have made a pre-emptive strike in the fall and then in early spring, but I was rather neglectful in that regard. I only took a hardline stance on the dandelions as they spread their seed more efficiently. However, I think that perhaps the buttercups are slightly more insidious with their sneaky tentacles weaving through the grass and moss. Oh.. and I'm not done yet... I have four other garden beds to attack, the largest being about twenty feet long... but I think that is mostly long grass and clover that crept in.

I didn't get around to cutting any Lilacs to take in the house this year and they are practically done now for the season. The photo above is some "Snowball" Viburnum that I cut from the rather overflowing bush out front. They sort of look like Hydrangeas, but the petals and heads are much smaller and "fluffier".

Oh... and last year, I tried to pull out the pink and red Lupines before they went to seed, so that I would have just white and blue... The other day I noticed the Lupines blooming... What do I have? Mostly pink and red. Only one white and one blue... Go figure.

No reason...

Just a song by a band I didn't really listen to that much, but which wandered back from the past the other day and again today.

When I found that link, I took a listen to a few more songs that I hadn't heard before, or don't recall, and came upon this one, which just seems to feel right tonight... for no reason.

Not forgotten...

Forget Me Nots

It is not rich, it is not rare,
This little flower – yet, ah, how fair.
Though it no merit else may claim
But this, “the magic of a name,”
Each tiny leaf into my ear
Is breathing names to memory dear;
The dead, the absent, the forgot,
Are whisp’ring here, “Forget-me-not.”

From "The Forget Me Not" by George Pirie
(Scottish Canadian poet, b. 1799)


To honour the fallen since last time:

U.K. (4)
U.S. (Oregon, Kansas (3), California (4),
         Illinois, Indiana (2), Virginia,
        Oklahoma, New Mexico, Missouri,
        Texas (2), Arizona, Tennessee, 
        Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio (2), 
        Arkansas, Minnesota, New York)

I just don't know...

I think I must be going nuts. I cannot find the me who I was. I do not know the me who I am, and I have no clue as to the me who I am supposed to be.

Ever had the desire to

skydive?

Pretty damn scary. However, I think that if it was something I wanted to do, this wouldn't change my mind.

There was an accident up here in B.C. recently where a young woman became detached from her harness whilst tandem hanggliding for the first time, which resulted in her falling 1000 feet to her death. It has apparently since been determined as hangglider pilot error... or perhaps more appropriately... negligence.

Wide awake...

I went to bed just before 2am...  I woke up at ... 3:20am. Wide awake. I am still wide awake. It hasn't happened quite like this since 2010. Hmm... I wonder what's going on. I am lucid, my head is "on" and eyes are clear for a change. ... Oh... and...  I am also hungry... very hungry. Maybe Fluffy had something to do with it, like Linus' binky. 

Say hello to my little friend...

No, I do not have stuffed animals on my bed. This was brought to my door tonight by my niece. A belated Easter present she said. He's pretty damn soft... and ... cuddly... So I took some pictures of him and me... just for fun. I call them Cuddly and Fluffy. Hahahahaha. Right now, as I'm typing this, he is tucked under my left arm, keeping me warm, with my chin resting on his head.

The lamb thing is sort of funny... My Zodiac sign is Aries, the Ram... and in the Chinese Zodiac, I am a Sheep. For several years at Christmas I used to give my sister an ornament of the Lion and Lamb... because her Zodiac sign is Leo, the Lion... and oddly enough, in the Chinese Zodiac, she is a Tiger. Just one of those weird things.