As you may have noticed, The Foo Logs has been pretty quiet lately. That’s because I believe after this many months of blogging (6 to be exact), I finally have blogger’s block (or writer’s block).
My mood’s down too with so many things to think about in my life at the moment (the cold weather doesn’t help too!). So I have been slowing it down a little. I am comforted in the fact that my loyal readers have come back and commented on older posts — nothing like good ole’ loyal blogging friends. Thanks y’all (in my best Southern accent)!
Hope my brain picks back up as I feel like I have hibernated for the winter.
If there ever was a perfect picture of Miles, I’ll say this would be it.
Received a small belated birthday present from the in-laws yesterday. It gives Kermie a run for his money!
Can you name the Marvel characters? Hover your mouse over the black highlight at the bottom of this post to reveal their names.
From left to right: The Thing (from Fantastic Four), Wolverine (from X-Men), Spiderman, Captain America, Hulk. At the back: The Iron Man (in red and yellow)
Remember Charlie Brown’s Pathetic Christmas tree? Well, you can own a piece of *history* by buying one from urbanoutfitters.com. The tree is a 21″ exact replica of the tree from the famous cartoon, made of wire branches and plastic needles with a criss cross wooden base. The bendable branches allow you to make it look just how you want, super pathetic or just kind of pathetic. The tree comes with one red Christmas ball ornament.
Good Grief! The Peanut fans just gotta have it!
Source [Urbanoutfitter.com via Gizmodo, United Media]
I have always been having on and off dreams of my childhood elementary/ high school schooldays and friends I used to hang out with. Although I can’t remember their names as it was years ago, my image of them as kids is just picture clear. I probably won’t be able to recognize them when I see them or pass them in the street now.
I did keep in touch with one childhood friend, strangely enough not as close as the other ones. She is now a doctor, far from the kid that I pictured her to be in elementary school. I just wonder how the others turned out. I heard a couple of years ago somehow that one my good friends I used to play tennis with from high school was killed in a car accident (I always have dreams of playing tennis with him). Made me sad and had deep thoughts of how short life can be. With bit and pieces of news of old friends throughout the years, I wish I made a more conscious effort to stay in touch.
I think dreaming of those times points towards the mind’s subconscious of going back to a time when I was happy with life. I did some research and even bought a dream book. Here are several interpretations…
Dreaming about school indicates some sort of inadequacy in life and lack self confidence, and as a school is a place to learn, it symbolizes that you feel there is still a lot to learn in life and that your life is not fulfilled yet. There is an unconscious reminder that there is a need for new learning and that you may have not learned an important lesson. From a spiritual point of view, some believe that in the dream state an individual may travel to an inner plane or the spiritual realm, where they can attend classes which assist in spiritual growth and development.
Those interpretations are true to the words. I feel lost and I need to rediscover myself. At times I look in the mirror and don’t really know who I am looking at. The very person that was calm and worry free is now lost in oblivion. The positive side of all this is that at least I know it, and that I am trying to take steps to try to be my old normal self again.
(Sources: Experience Festival, J Lewis’s Dream Encyclopedia)
Make your own mosaic picture from Mosaic Image Generator.
“If a picture is worth a thousand words an image mosaic is worth a billion words!”
(Click to zoom in on the Mona Lisa mosaic picture)
Miles seems to always be hungry. I have an automatic feeder for him (set for a 1/4 cup of dry food twice a day) and then I feed him a quarter can of wet food twice a day too. He is always meowing to want more food and I have seen him paw at the feeder to get more food out. Is he really that hungry, am I under feeding him or is he just plain greedy?
In looking at it, I may be overfeeding a little but he doesn’t look like he is overweight. I am always feeling guilty when he meows and purrs, then paws the feeder while I am in the kitchen — it’s like I am making him starve or something. He has been dewormed earlier this year so I don’t think it is any parasite related (although I may be wrong). Websites on the internet are pretty vague when it comes to this…. so I’ll be interested in hearing those out there having cats to what their normal feeding practices are and your thoughts on this.
Update: Another picture of Miles can be seen here.
The World’s Largest Rubber Stamp — Cleveland, Ohio’s pride and joy (besides the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame). It is the Symbol of Freedom and Free Speech created by Danish artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen.
If you’ve ever wondered why the dishes you get in Chinese restaurants are different from your attempts at home, the answer could well be: velveting.
Sounds odd, doesn’t it? But velveting is just a method of marinating and pre-cooking the meat to make it fluffy and tender prior to incorporating it into the dish. The wonderful thing about this, of course, is that it can be done in advance, thus reducing that frantic rushing around the kitchen that always happens when you try to cook more than one Chinese dish at a time.
Here’s what you’ll need:
1 lb boneless chicken breasts
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg white
1 tbl cornstarch
1 tbl oil
1 tbl rice wine or dry sherry
2 cups oil for frying
Remove any skin from the chicken and cut it into whatever sized pieces the recipe for your final dish calls for (shreds, slices, cubes, etc.). Put the chicken into a mixing bowl, then add the salt and rice wine and stir.
Beat the egg white - it should not be frothy (this could cause the coating to puff and disintegrate. Add the egg white to the chicken, sprinkle in the cornstarch, and mix well.
Add the tablespoon of oil and stir until smooth. Place the bowl in the fridge and leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes, so the coating has time to adhere to the meat.
Heat 2 cups of oil in a wok or heavy pan until it is warm, about 275°, or until it foams a cube of bread very slowly. Give the coated chicken a quick stir and scatter in the pieces. Quickly (but gently) stir them to separate them. You should use chopsticks or a wooden spoon for this - a fork would damage the coating. The oil should cover every piece.
If the chicken begins to sizzle, lower the heat immediately; hot oil will make velveted chicken hard and yellow.
Once all the meat has turned white, which only takes about 30 to 45 seconds, immediately strain the chicken, which is now velveted and ready to be stir fried. This can be done some time in advance, and just kept in a covered dish until you’re ready to use it. One word of warning, though: don’t put velveted chicken into the fridge! It will become hard: not the effect we are looking for!
(Source: Mediadrome)
It is cold and snowy here in Ohio. 10 inches of snow yesterday, another 4 inches overnight and more coming today. Current temperature is 27 F/ -3 C. It is the second day that J’s school district has closed due to heavy snow showers. That has never happened in all the years I have lived here. It’s an extended Thanksgiving vacation to the kids and teachers.
