Vegetarian Haggis

A while ago we spotted this English import store on El Camino Real. We went in to see if they had fruit thingies. On the shelf we saw an $8 can of Veggie Haggis. I know, I know. Why the hell would we want to try Haggis and Veggie Haggis for that matter?!?! Well, we figured there was no way in hell we were ever going to eat REAL haggis, so we ought to try this since it had presented itself so extraordinarily.

We waited for turnips to be in season and show up at the farmer's market. Last week they had 'em so we put them and haggis on the menu plan. When the day came we were kind of excited... but a little disturbed at how much the stuff in the can looked like dogfood. Michael Thomas was very curious, so we held it down for him to inspect. (Sometimes they like to inspect our food, but unless it's dairy related, they simply walk away snootily.) Mike was instantly entranced by the haggis and started licking away. Well that was a surprise and kind of a bad sign...

We cooked it up and prepared some potatoes and turnips on the side. In the end it was pretty good. Nobody ever told me that haggis is just a dumb name for meatloaf. Maybe the fact that it was vegetarian coupled with being jammed in a can and shipped around the globe made it that way...

I don't think we'll be having haggis again - vegetarian or not.

Sally the Praying Mantis

Last year there was a praying mantis who hung around our yard a lot. I didn't see her during the winter but one (the same one?) showed up over the weekend. I put her in the hedge, but Michael Thomas saw her. He has a habit of finding the little lizards and killing them, so I put her up high to keep her safe, but she fell. She landed on the cactus/aloe hybrid and impaled her abdomen. I pulled her off and put her back in the bushes. I haven't seen her this week. I hope she didn't die - it looked like a minor flesh wound...

Jess & the Twinkie-Bus-Neatloaf Friday

Friday we went up to the city for a surprise birthday gathering for Jess. It was a pretty cool dive bar and we got to meet up with a few people we haven't seen in a while. We also freaked Jess out cuz she was actually surprised.

First we picked up the bus from Tassi. I gotta say that Tassi's RULES. Bruce is a really awesome guy - I needed to have the rear bearings replaced and they also replaced the drum brakes and all that jazz back there. That's kind of internal serious work that I don't have the tools to do. They only charged me labor for one job. Usually mechanics try to make money by charging for all jobs separately even if they are doing them concurrently. There is a price guide in a little book and they are legally allowed to charge what the book says. That let's them make more money as they get faster as a task. Crazy, huh? Well, Tassi doesn't go for that and even said - get this - when I need to do the front end, HE'LL SHOW ME HOW TO DO IT MYSELF. You gotta love a good mechanic.

Then we headed up to SF and went to a new vegetarian restaurant near the bar Craig planned the shindig at. Well, it was new to us. It's called Ananda Fuara. It was pretty nice but everything on the menu was stuff that Alicia could and does make for us. Actually I had a Neatloaf Sandwich. We had never heard of it and I don't know if "neatloaf" is a trademarked thing, but it was really interesting. The sauce they put on it was good too!

Then we walked over to Butter. It's kind of a dive bar on 11th & Harrison. They have a bunch of weird Smirnoff drinks (some with rootbeer!) and a bunch of food from childhood - like Tater-tots. They also have a deep fried Twinkie... which we tried. Now I know I never have to try one of those again. EVER. Craig had a bunch of us meet there to surprise Jess. He bought us all a beer and then we had cake. He got the cake from Citizen Cake. IT WAS AWESOME! It was fun to see people again and we met some new people too.

Albany, NY

I went to Albany last week for work. A few of the VV employees were asked to attend some training sessions at the East coast office. Vicarious Visions has, since I left last year, moved into a new building.

The new office is pretty swank. It was good to meet up with old friends and meet new people. There were TONS of new people.
I got to see the leaves before they changed completely. It was cold - around 40 degrees - and there was no snow. My lips and face chapped up and I tried not to catch a cold. It was cloudy most of the time, but when the clouds cleared up on Friday it was really cold.

I took a tour of the Price Chopper with Jon, Cyn and Murph to pick up a couple things on Thursday night. Price Chopper doesn't seem to have changed much... it's a lot like Safeway. In fact it looks like every other jinormous grocery store doesn't it. Safeway is our last resort for foodstuffs...

Overall the trip went well - I learned some stuff that will hopefully help me at work.

Trunk Monkey

Maybe I find this too funny.
TRUNK MONKEY!
People make monkeys do funny things.

*thanks, Thomas!

Dreary Day

Oddly it's cloudy here. That doesn't happen much. So infrequently in fact that it's quite noticeable. Usually it's a bit foggy in the morning BTU it burns off by 10am.

Anyways - today we'll just take it easy. I need to dig up more yard for planting vegetables for the second season - they SAY things will grow again... and we're going to look at neighboring towns away from the "sprawl" for houses we might be able to afford. It's almost a joke how much houses cost out here. They aren't built any better, there are just too many people who want a home. Seems it's a buyer's market now because people aren't trying to out-bid each other. Meaning houses are starting to go for less than $1 million. No joke - two blocks down a house went for $950k. Three blocks down one went for $1.25 million. The reason the median is as low as it is in that chart is because of tea "sketchy" areas where houses go for $400k-$500k. "Get out of town!" takes on new meaning...

Mii JASE

Someone at work found this site where you can make an avatar of yourself. It's based on what the Nintendo Wii will have for players. You can create this avatar for yourself and a 3D model of it will play certain games for you online and stuff. Pretty neat. Check it out and make your own!

Mii generator - HERE. Select the trait you want to change at the top and then select the options underneath. You can make features larger or smaller, farther apart or closer and sometimes rotate them.

FUN FUN.