Creepy

Anne sent me this kick-ass care package (thanks again Anne, you are awesome). In it was one thing for Dave, a Cook's Illustrated magazine. Roland really like this magazine but doesn't get it anymore due to the cost and not having enough time to read it (while at the firm), so he was excited about getting this free copy. Last night I was reading in bed and Roland joined me after the Colbert Report to peruse Cook's. The first article? Pan roasting a whole chicken, which he just did for dinner and still had some chicken breasts to use up. The second article? Spinach salad with dressing made from bacon drippings, which he just did for dinner. The third article? Pot roast, which he bought from the store and was planning on making later this week. Later in the magazine? The long lost recipe for creme brulee, which I adore and Roland has apparently been plotting how to make me sometime since we didn't have the Cook's Illustrated recipe (originally published years ago).

Spooky

Rainbow Connection

As a super bonus suprise my Sistrah sent me a care package! She is the nicest Sistrah a girl could ask for. It was filled with all sort of different things, from a crocheted shrug to TMBG stickers. To be honest it doesn't even matter what is in the packages (although she always sends cool stuff), the fact that she sends them is what really counts. I love getting letters and packages. It gives me warm fuzzies. Silly and juvenile? Perhaps. Cherished nonetheless.

Delicious Frustration

I'm still working on my desktop. I never did get the hard drive that I bought working, instead having to install one that my dad sent me. After finally getting that up and running (and going through what felt like 5 hours of Windows updates) my wireless won't work. I have installed, un-installed, and re-installed the blasted adapter about 8 times. I finally got the computer to recognize the thing at all but the computer isn't seeing any wireless networks. It's not the router or modem because I'm able to use the internet just fine wired. Stupid Computer. My last recourse was to email the Netgear people, but I haven't heard anything from them yet. If not, I guess I will have to go out and get a new adapter. But this time I'm thinking of getting one from Linksys that goes through USB rather than using a PCI slot. It will also allow me to move the unit around a little more to maximize my wireless range.

In much happier news, Roland Made Me Dinner. Considering the dinner I think it deserves gratuitous capitalization. It was from the AB book I'm Just Here for the Food. It was a whole chicken with shallots and garlic. From what I understand it was first pan fried and then put in the oven for some more different cooking. Notice that my understanding is rather limited and for a more complete look you will have to pester Roland to tell you about it. We also had zucchini and sausage, and a really good salad with spinach, Havarti with dill, and bacon, with a raspberry dressing. It was awesome. Apparently the whole chicken didn't fit in the pan so Roland saved the breasts for a later time and we had the thighs, wings, and legs. The meat was so tender the bones just fell out. And the flavor! The garlic and shallots were perfect, soft and tender, so tender you could spread them. In fact we did, on some bread, making it a fabulous garlic bread. I'm tellin' ya, mouth watering! Bleys agreed, right before dinner I got his dinner ready and he totally went Pavlov and started drooling. It was sort of cute and sort of scary. I'm told that there is dessert as well (once I'm hungry enough again) so perhaps, if you behave yourselves, I'll tell you about that later.

No, you ah!

How did I get so lucky? Roland is now on "spring" break. I put the quotes in there because it wasn't ever winter here so that doesn't count, and even if we were still in Michigan it's not spring there either. In any case, Roland went grocery shopping today and I think I'm in for a treat for the next week or so. I got Dave AB's first book for Valentines Day and now I get to reap the rewards. Tonight is looking like steak, but I help put away a pork loin (hee, hee, loin), turkey brats, and a whole chicken which sounds like it's destined for an AB treatment involving garlic and shallots (hear that? That's the sound of me drooling). I also saw some pineapple and cantaloupe and all sorts of veggies. I've been craving vegetables with a vengeance lately and Roland has been indulging me with dinners heavily weighted in the veggie category.

I made dinner the other night (this is quickly becoming a rarity aRoland's food is WAY better than anything I come up with). One of my favorite things to make ever is stuffed green peppers. However, Roland isn't a big fan of the green peppers so I tried it with cabbage leaves. Pretty much making galumpkis. They turned out very well except next time I think I will boil the leaves a little longer before stuffing them. We had them as leftovers as well since it made quite a bit and we also had corn bread the first night. I really enjoyed them and I think I will make them again soon. Well, I think it's time to take the poop-meister out...

I hardly know her

I'm all out of sorts this evening. I keep flitting from activity to activity without real interest. In fact I wrote those first two sentences and then starred at the page for like 10 minutes. Roland is playing poker. He has been doing pretty well at the super low stakes tables on-line. He used to play in more tournaments, but lately those haven't high on his list. Sometimes he and Jason coordinate and play at the same table. It's kind of cool that they can play poker together even from across the country. Not the same as having a nice little home game with friends and some beers, but cool nonetheless. PW is sleeping next to me on the couch and I'm just sort of hanging out. Maybe I should make a trip to the fabric store and see if any crafts catch my eye. I have had a project brewing in the back of my mind for a while, but I would need to buy some special glue somewhere. I think it is technically for shoes or something, but apparently it glues foam pretty well. The other materials can easily be found at Joann and wouldn't cost very much. Anyway, I don't think I had anything to say to begin with so farewell and good night (with a flourish).

So, he's a duck?

After a trip to the vet we have come to the conclusion that Bleys must have come into contact with some fleas. It sort of boiled down to the only logical answer despite any evidence of their presence. A little over a week ago I noticed that Bleys was getting super itchy, taking a closer look I noticed some hair loss on his noggin. Four little tiny bald spots each with a little scabby bit in it. Hmmm...interesting, they seem to be in the shape that would correspond to a hind paw being repeatedly drawn across the scalp with force. He was also nipping at his hocks and licking at his forepaws. All the things that would lead one to think fleas. Now, we have him on a monthly heartworm/flea preventative and Frontline every 21 days (rather than the usual 28 days) because he is allergic to flea bites. However, living in an apartment we can't really control what goes on in our 'yard.' Some of our fellow dwellers don't even pick up after their furballs, so chances of them having them on any sort of heartworm or flea preventative are on the low end. So every time PW demands poopsies we are probably exposing him to fleas. Anyway, as soon I noticed the signs I grabbed him and started looking. Nothing, no fleas, no flea dirt, no bites. Ok, let's try giving him a bath and see what happens. He is also allergic to certain grasses and food items so perhaps he made contact with one of them. After the bath he seemed to calm down a bit for about 24 hours. But then, more itchies. I tried to prevent him from doing more actual damage to his skull, but man was he itchified.

Another day later and still no improvement so I called to make an appointment with the vet. Unfortunately she is a very popular lady so the next appointment was not for a week and a few days (yesterday). I settled in to wait it out which was hard because he was clearly very itchy and uncomfortable. I got through like 3 days and couldn't take it anymore. He was still doing all the things that make a person think of fleas. I got out the flea comb. I started going over him pretty much every evening when we were all just sitting around watching TV or using the computer or whatever. Nothing. More nothing. Then about Sunday or so I did find one! Eureka. Thank goodness. What? Fleas are a good thing? At least it was something. I only found the one and I've been using the flea comb on him everyday. I though maybe after finding that one he would have his itchy reaction for a while and then it would calm down (just in time for the vet appointment), but he continued to itch.

Finally the day of our appointment arrived and we went. Doc Cindi looked him over and like me didn't find any evidence of fleas, except the symptoms that pointed unerringly toward them. She even expressed his anal glands to check for any issues there (which is awesome because then I don't have to do for a week or two). Finally we decided to give him a Capstar, switch him to Advantage for a while (possibly permanently), add a EFA supplement on top of his food, and put him on Tavist for a while. So now we are getting him on all of that and hopefully it will help.

Then I got the bad, bad, bad news. The vet remember that I have him on Eukanuba K/O and she told me that it isn't going to be available anymore. Apparently kangaroo isn't going to be allowed into the US anymore or something. Crippity Crap. I was happy with the K/O and so way Bleys' tummy. So now I'm going to try to pick up a bit of it before the supply line runs out and then think about switching to F/P maybe? I'll probably ask Doc (the original) what she recommends.

Snarf

Do you ever have one of those days/weeks where every time you eat something you don't feel well. It doesn't seem to be accompanied with any other sick-type things and I get hungry at appropriate times (lunch time, dinner time). But then after I eat I feel decidedly ookie. I tried some fairly innocuous soup for lunch and it still make me ookie. It seems like it would be more fair if I'm going to be ookie that I wouldn't get hungry. It hardly seems right for my body to demand food and then 'reward' me with ook-fest.

I have also been trying to investigate the aquatic complex that is down the street from my house. I am feeling generally unhealthy and I thought that if I did swimming that would also help with scuba. Double benefit is good. However, I can't seem to get anyone to respond to my emails. Bummer. They also have a small fitness room which would be nice. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Mean People Suck

Apparently I'm uber-sensitive today. I was reading scuba board this morning and came across a couple of threads that really bothered me. They were threads of the 'such and such happened and made me uncomfortable, what would you (more experienced peeps) have done in this situation. I was reading these because I'm pretty new to the sport and if I can learn about what can go wrong and how to fix it before it happens to me (possibly preventing it happening to me at all) then I'm all for it.

In one of them one poster had had similar problems more than once and people were totally flaming him about doing the same thing over and over again and not learning from what they told him (although as far as I can tell it was only twice and he tried to fix the problem but unfortunately a similar thing ended up happening again). Why do people have to be mean? If they think he isn't listening or whatever why don't they just keep their fingers to themselves?

Also, on a regular basis posters will ask questions that people feel has been covered ad nauseam. Instead of posting a link to a previous thread that would really help the poster they say something mean about doing a search. Now searching on scuba board isn't necessarily the easiest thing (thanks Jason, for teaching me how) so I feel bad for people who get flamed thusly. I just don't understand why people can't just be nice.

UPDATE: So in response to my post in the Whine and Cheese section of the board people were of course mean. You make me sad.

More than meets the eye

This is all I feel up to today. Some funny (some of you may have seen these all ready):

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/matrixpong.html

and because I always wanted one, but never got one:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dut6jxCiakg

and I wanna start a throwie campaign!

http://www.graffitiresearchlab.com/

1.21 gigawatts of taste

I sort of got off track for a while there, but the next thing I was going to blog about (*ahem* anonymous) was the dinner that Roland made us all this past Sunday. It was the last day of our AOW class and Jason and I had two dives starting at about 12:00 and getting done at about 4:30/5:00ish. Upon our arrival we stepped out of the car and honest-to-goodness I smelled something delicious on the air. I dismissed it as someone grilling on their balcony (no you're not supposed to do that, but yes they do anyway) even though it didn't smell like grillish. Jason and I lugged all of our stuff out of the car and up the stairs. Did you know that stuff gets heavier when it's wet? Yeah, well, I suppose I did too, but there is nothing like experience to illuminate things. When I opened the door to the apartment that self-same mouthwatering aroma nearly overwhelmed me. Turns out Roland had the door to the balcony open and it was wafting down there to taunt anyone who happened by. Jason and I ditched our stuff and started investigating. Dinner was still cooking. This was bad for a two main reasons.

1. I was pretty hungry, the smell was awesome, and now we had to wait.
2. Now we had time to start to rinse off our gear rather than procrastinating.

Jason was kind enough to rinse out our BCDs at the same time he rinsed the salt off of himself. He actually ended up rinsing off everything else as well later because he's just that kind of guy (thanks J).

Eventually everything was ready and dinner was served and this is what we saw.

We each had a Cornish hen, which had been brined and then stuffed with garlic, rosemary, and lemon. Seriously people, the.juiciest.thing.ever! And the juice is bursting with flavor too. I can not even describe the deliciousness that is this Cornish hen. It has easily met and surpassed lamb as my favorite meal that Roland makes for me. The breast is fairly well dripping with lemony rosemary goodness and I pulled the leg bone out of the meat whole. Talk about tender. This time there was a honey glaze that made the skin all crispy and slightly sweet. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

There was also an artichoke and sausage dish with a white wine reduction that I really like. Artichokes are hard to deal with though so I'm lobbying for a zucchini version so that we can have it more often. We also had a cornbread square with some of the honey glaze drizzled on top which I thought was a very nice compliment to the Cornish hens. Lastly there was a salad that Roland makes a lot of variations on, but I really like so that it fine by me. Spinach with some sort of moldy cheese (blue, gorgonzola, etc), red onions, and walnuts, with a vinaigrette dressing. Very tasty. It is absolutely incredible to me that Roland can make this kind of stuff right here in our apartment. It tastes like some famous chef made it for a restaurant. Did I luck out or what?

Rage on

A while ago we were introducted to Lazy Sunday, one of the funniest things to come out of SNL in quite some time. Red Vines, baby! Now the funny continues as more mock-angry-white-rappers up the ante by calling out Samberg and Parnell. They attempt to start an all out mock East/West rap battle ala the 90's with Lazy Monday.

Creaking

I took a bit of a break from blogging and now I sort of lost track where I was. Today was Valentine's Day and it was a up and down kind of day. It started out kind of crappy because Jason had to leave first thing. That was sad and I sort of wished he could stay mostly permanently. I miss having friends to hang out with, but I'm sure he missed his bed more (sofa beds being what they are). We had an absolutely great time while he was here though and I hope he will think about coming back soon. There's a lot more ocean out there! After Roland left with Jason to take him to the airport I cleaned up the apartment a bit. Mostly my scuba gear that I was waiting until it was well and truly dry to put away. Now it's pretty much all tucked away and awaiting my next excursion. Then I decided that I wanted to make Roland dinner for Valentine's Day. I prefer baking to cooking and he prefers cooking to baking so he makes me dinner way more than I make him dinner. Now if it's dessert you want, I'm your gal. Anyway, I picked stuffed potatoes which he says is one of his favorites. I think I like the stuffed green peppers better, but he's not a huge fan of green peppers so that probably explains things.

I made my way to the grocery store and got the stuff we didn't have around the house. It was a frustrating trip as everyone seemed intent on parking their carts so that the aisles were completely blocked and then ignoring me as I tried to wait patiently for them to move on. After getting home I couldn't get started right away because it was too early in the day. I just sort of bummed around the house until about 4:00 when I got serious about the cookery. Roland got home around 7:00, with some flowers (awww) and we get got serious about some eating. Dinner was good, but then Roland surprised me with a champagne flute full of pink Jelly Bellies! He knows I love pretty much all the pink flavors so it was perfect. Now he's working on some work and I've been surfing the interwebs and checking out ScubaBoard (with the PW cuddled up next to me). So while the morning was a little on the sad side, the evening turned out to be a nice and relaxing.

I miss Jason all ready.

What's the difference?

Yesterday, Jason and I didn’t have to be back to the dive shop until noon, which was good because we needed the time to sleep in a bit. I woke up not feeling very well and I was worried that it could get very bad once I got on the rocking boat. Turns out after I got back on the boat I actually felt better rather than worse. Roland says I was landsick and must be part fish. Sunday’s dives included the deep dive and the peak performance buoyancy dive. The weather had turned over night and it was actually quite chilly once we got away from land and started putting on our wetsuits. Luckily the water was still 72 degrees so we looked forward to getting in as soon as possible. Also, the three foot waves of the day before had calmed down quite a bit, so there was less of the nausea going around the boat. We started with the deep dive of a wreck called the Mercedes. It is about 97 feet down and gorgeous. The middle of the boat has pretty much collapsed and the bow and stern have been twisted in opposite directions from each other by hurricanes, but it’s still a beautiful wreck. During our briefing for the dive we had to complete a task on land so we could complete the same task at depth to see the effects of nitrogen narcosis. The task we were assigned was to take in about the last three feet of line on a dive reel, and secure the loop on the end under the twist lock. It was a fairly simple task and it took me about 21 seconds to do it on land. At 97 feet it still only took me about 23 seconds and the extra time was mostly due to the gloves I had not been wearing on the boat. I was kind of interested to see what getting narced felt like, but I’m sure I’ll feel it sooner or later. After we each did our task to check reaction times we took a tour around the boat, following Rich. It was so cool to look at and there was a ton of marine life. It is definitely a dive I would do again, even if you only get a half and hour on a tank. When we returned to the line to ascend Jason suddenly grabbed my arm and began pointing. There was a huge fish. We learned later that it was a Greater Amberjack, Rich was guessing around 50-60 pounds of it. It was incredible and it swam very close to the ascent line so we were able to get a really good look at it. I was totally geeked.

After returning to the boat I tried to ignore how cold I was getting and switched out my tank. A few minutes later we arrived at our final destination, a shallower portion of the reef for our peak performance buoyancy dive. I was beginning to shiver at this point so it felt pretty good to get back in the water which was way warmer than the air at that point. I can understand why people bring hot water with them on the boat and then pour it into their wetsuits. That would have felt pretty good. We descended and gathered in a group in the sand to practice our buoyancy. Again I struggled through the whole thing and was glad when it was over. I really think I need to take the peak performance buoyancy specialty and hopefully get some more personalized attention from someone who can explain to me what it is that I’m doing wrong. Rich was too busy with the eight of us to give much one on one stuff. Plus, his advice was more along the lines of the more you dive the better it will get. Which is fine, but I really would like something more specific to work on. That would make me feel better about the possibility of improving my skills, because right now I feel they aren’t acceptable. After our skill tests were completed, we were allowed to go off in pairs for some pleasure diving. Jason and I took some time and looked at some of the reef, but I was getting colder by the second and finally had to thumb the dive. Jason told me the he was about to do the same thing, but I think he might have been trying to make me feel better. Back on the boat we scrambled to get out of our gear and warm up. One of the dive masters almost made me cry by bringing a thermos of hot water from home and some packets of hot chocolate, which he made up and gave out to us free. It tasted fine, but it felt great. I was thoroughly chilled and it was such a nice thing to do. We made it back to the dock, put our things in the car, and went up to fill out the last of the paperwork for the class. The classroom was nice and steamy, which would have been uncomfortable if we hadn’t have just been cold and wet. As it was, I could have sat there for as long as he needed. After all the paperwork was taken care of we said our farewells, and started for home. On the way we took Jason’s genius idea of stopping at a McDonalds for some more hot cocoa (sorry hot chocolate). And then he helped me pick out a new hard drive at Best Buy. Back at home we had dinner waiting for us, but that is a whole ‘nother story.

Teddy Bears with big-pointy-teeth

On Saturday Jason and I started our AOW certification class. There was an optional pool session (for those who hadn’t been diving in a while) at 7:00 in the morning. Luckily neither Jason nor I needed to opt for it. We would have had get up like 5:15 am to get there for that. No thank you. Instead we needed to be there for the regular starting time at 10:00 (much better). We arrived with enough extra time to take care of last minute details and for Jason to meet Rich, our instructor. I have met most everyone down at Pro Dive now as I spent so much time there agonizing over my gear decisions. Rich in particular was unlucky enough to have to deal with me on at least two separate occasions. I will say this for the folks down there, pretty much all of them were making a concerted effort to remember my name. That’s very nice. After that we stood around and waited for the rest of the class to show up and take care of their own last minute details. Then when we were all there, Rich led us around and up to the classroom portion of the Pro Dive building. I’m still not sure I would be able to find it on my own, so I’m glad he was leading. We all found seats and Rich had us all introduce ourselves in the typical way.

Hi, I’m Susan Cleveland. I’ve been diving for a couple of years and really just wanted to improve my skills in the AOW class.

And so forth. There were eight people including Jason and me in the class, half of whom are planning on going forward through the career training classes that Pro Dive offers. There were two fellows who had just completed their open water certification the day before (holy cow, going into AOW with a total of 4 dives under your belt – they are certainly braver than I) and then Jason and I who were just there for the ride. Everyone else in the class looked very young to me although I would imagine that they were mostly between 20 and 25 or so. Then came the paperwork; signing the waiver, the I’m healthy paper (luckily Jason remembered to bring the note from his doctor saying that he’s okay to dive), filling out your address, and your emergency contact information. Then Rich gave us a brief description of what dives we would be doing and then we went down to practice with our compasses on land. We walked to a small park that was across the street and got to work. We practiced using the bezel and taking a reciprocal heading and navigating a square. It was good to do on land since everything is easier there, but we did get a number of strange looks. A few looks when we were walking around in one long line and then turning around en masse and walking straight back the other way. Even more looks when we started breaking off into twos and walking around in seemingly random directions with one person starting intently at their compass and the other fervently counting kick cycles in their head and squeezing the arm of the compass person after ten of them, at which time the compass person would make a 90 degree turn and start walking again. I’m sure it was quite amusing to watch from a distance.

After navigation practice it was time for lunch and then off to dive. My mom and I discovered a restaurant right near there on the beach when we came down to look for apartments and Roland, Jason, and I had decided to meet there for lunch. We had a nice little lunch and bid Roland farewell. But not before he bestowed upon us a cooler full of dinner. We weren’t going to have much time between our two sets of dives so Roland was kind enough to provide us with food to eat at the picnic tables on the dock. He put the cooler in my car and Jason and I headed for the boat.

Our first dive was the wreak dive, it was a boat called the Tracy. It was a very nice dive. The water was clear and once we got below the waves it was calm and beautiful. The wreck itself was full of coral and I’m pretty sure I saw a nudibranch so that was very cool. Parts of the boat were cut away so you could see into the innards and that made things more interesting. Overall it was a great dive and I had a great time.

Then back on the boat for the surface interval a couple of our classmates started getting a little seasick, one a lot sea sick. I don’t normally get terribly affected, but when other people get sick and start talking about getting sick it makes it like a million times worse. I was just as happy to get back in the water for the next dive. The second dive was the navigation dive which was more of a struggle for me. Not the actual navigating which went pretty well, but the fact that I was struggling with my buoyancy so much I couldn’t concentrate on the navigating. At first I felt overweighted and then when I tried to settle on the bottom for the class I couldn’t stay down. It was very frustrating and I ended up taking a minute to just compose myself before completing my square. After we did all of our navigation stuff we were allowed do some pleasure diving until our air ran out so we did.

Then we all headed back the dock and they were nice enough to let us keep out stuff on the boat while be disembarked to get some food. Jason and I grabbed the cooler from the car and brought it to one of the tables. We opened it and were surprised to discover the huge spread that Roland had put together. We each had a wonderful dinner with a bagel sandwich, a pickle, cheese and crackers, fruit, and a cream soda. And in the bottom we each found an after dinner mint. It was very refreshing and not at all heavy. All in all the perfect meal (thanks Roland). Then we spent a little time in the car warming up so we would be ready to go back out for the rest of the evening.

We all trouped back on the boat and headed out again this time to our night dive. For me, there was a little apprehension about this dive because now there is another piece of equipment to deal with. But it turned out all right and it was a beautiful dive. We all turned out our lights at one point and watched the bioluminescence of some passing microorganisms. The moon was actually so bright you didn’t need much light anyway. Rich also pointed out a four foot nurse shark napping under a small reef ledge and he also gave us permission to totally embellish the story if we wanted to (no, no it was an 8 foot shark and it was chasing us!). Nah, it was pretty cool just to see the thing at all. I also saw a couple of puffer fish (I think it was a spiny puffer), but I’m not sure anyone else did. We all enjoyed the dive and when we got back on the boat we were given the option of doing a second night dive and I think all of us took him up on that. Again it was very cool, but I was getting very cold and tired by that point, so I thumbed the dive a bit early and we headed back to the boat with quite a bit of air left. We dressed and packed while riding back to the dock during which I was very cold and Jason didn’t feel very well. I think he was affected the same way I was (when people talk about getting sick, it makes you get sick). At one point he left mid-sentence to find some fresh air and a direct path over the side of the boat if he should need it. I don’t think he did need it, but he looked a little green for a while. Back on land we went straight home. In fact, when we were getting off the boat one of the dive maters made a joke about going straight home and not out drinking. It sounded like he was kidding and he expected us to go out anyway. No way dude! Jason and I were beat. We drove home and pretty much collapsed on the floor. Unfortunately we still had to rinse our gear. Once that was accomplished we pretty much both just passed out. It was an interesting day, but I think I’ll hold off on any more 4 tank days for a little while yet. I was completely wiped!

Ahoy, matey

After our diving adventure Roland, Jason, and I were getting pretty hungry. We packed all of our stuff in the car and headed for home. On the way we stopped to pick up some stuff from the groceria and at that point Jason broke down (his wetsuit was in the trunk now so he couldn't try to gnaw on it) and bought a Snickers bar. Luckily I looked pitiful enough to get a bite while we were walking back to the car. Then we drove home and changed out of our slightly damp clothes to get ready for dinner. Then, the unfortunate part of diving comes in, you have to rinse your gear in fresh water to prevent degradation of the materials. So Jason and I started rinsing and putting stuff out on the balcony to dry.

When we finally finished we were ready to think about some dinner. Ok, way past ready. Roland and I had pretty much all ready decided on where we wanted to go and gave Jason pretty much the one option. Since it was a place where sushi was an option we didn't have to do too much arm twisting (good man, Jason). Roland and I found this restaurant, again thanks to the new Zagat's guide, when my parents were visiting. It is called Jasmine Thai and it is tasty. When we went with my parents we got Thai food, so this time we were keen to try the sushi, plus I'd never had sushi before so I wanted to investigate a new culinary experience. After being seated we perused our menus and chose an appetizer off the Thai menu (it had a lot of my favorite foods, crab rangoons, spring rolls, shrimp rolls, and fried wontons) before losing ourselves in the sushi menu. We were relying on Jason a lot since he was the sushi expert among us and the waitress must of noticed my slightly bemused expression because she came over to ask us if we wanted some assistance. We did, and she suggested the "Boat for Three." This was quite a collection of different sushi items and we could stipulate that we didn't want any salmon sushi, which was good, because neither Jason nor I care much for salmon. Sounds like a good option, lots of choice, designed for three. Sounds great, we'll take it!

Now would be a good time to point out that, like the others (Jason and Roland) I assumed that the "boat" portion of the Boat for Three was like the "happy family" at many Chinese restaurants. A metaphor, not for seriously a boat, more like the conceptualization of a boat, a plate (perhaps roughly ovoid or boat shaped) with sushi on it. But no, it was, a-freakin'-huge-boat-which-looked-like-it-might-actually-float-boat. So this little tiny waitress carries out this three foot long boat filled with ice and covered with sushi. Then another waiter asks if we would like any sauces. We ask what our options are and as he starts to list them our waitress walks past on her way to another table and says, just get them all of them. Sweet, we got all of them. The sushi was good, I especially like the tempura battered ones (slightly sweet). All of them were very large though. One piece of sushi was about the size of four of my version of a bite. I ended up bring dishonor on my family and my families family, and probably all my friends too, because I about half way through I seriously had to but those bad boys up. What made that a little disappointing was that due to the huge bite taking I filled up quite quickly. But that left more for Roland and Jason so they didn't mind.

I was so enamored with the food and the boat that I didn't notice the people who were eyeing our vessel until near the end of the meal when a lady actually came over to the table to ask about it and how it was. I think a lot of people see the price (which looks high because you have to divide that between three people) and *ahem* miss the boat. Although they probably end up spending just as much to get the stuff separately. Overall the meal was very satisfying, but I think I would have liked it more if there were more, smaller pieces.

Dive! Dive! Dive!

Because Jason and I were going to take Advanced Open Water on Saturday and Sunday and I hadn't used my new scuba gear, or been diving in the ocean, or boat diving at all for that matter, I decided that I would schedule a pre-class dive day for at least Jason and I, and Roland if he wanted to (he did). So I called up the place and booked us on a guided 1/2 day, 2 tank dive. Sweet.

The morning of, we got up and had some delicious bagels and cream cheese. Roland has taken to making flavored cream cheese by buying cream cheese and mixing in the yummies. I personally love the scallion one, especially after it's been mixed together for a day or so, because the flavors all blend together. He also bought some nice bagels from a local bagelry and it was a lovely breakfast. They must have tasted all right to Jason as he had two! Which, as he mentions in his blog, was a good thing because we sort of ended up skipping lunch accidentally. With all the getting ready and getting to the dive shop it got to be too late to do anything about it. Plus I wasn't really hungry again until we were done diving and back and the dock getting ready to drive home so I worked out fine, for me at least. I think Jason was about to try eating his wetsuit by that point though.

Anyway, we drove to the dive site and I was all worried about being there by 12:00 like the dude told me. We got there with a few minutes to spare (through sheer force of worry) and then when we went in he told us that we had about a half an hour to wait on the dock. Creepers, if I had known I wouldn't have worried quite so much. I still would have come at 12:00 like you told me, but I wouldn't have been all "we're going to miss the boat" and all that. Sheesh. Then, after waiting our half hour on the dock (they do have a nice area with picnic tables) we got all of our stuff loaded on the boat, Roland went off to get his rental gear, and I started trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing. I did a lot of watching the other seemingly more experienced people, but still felt very unsure. Roland came back and we started setting up our stuff and generally getting ready to leave. I asked Jason to come over and check over my gear to make sure I hadn't made any mistakes and he told me I was about to put my octopus on backwards. I looked again and couldn't figure out what he was talking about. So our conversation when something like this:

Susan: No I'm not.

Jason: Yes you are, it's backwards, you don't want that hitting you in the head.

Susan: No I'm not, look the round circle parts line up and the pointy screw part goes in the pointy screw part shaped depression.

Jason: .....Huh....I'll be right back

At which point he went over to his rig and flipped his over. For a minute I thought I was going insane, but it turns out I wasn't.

As we headed out to sea, the first leg of the ride was very nice, smooth, and slow as we were in a no wake zone. Then the dive master dude called us all over for a briefing and went over the features of the boat, and the dive, and all that good stuff. He told us that our first dive was going to be a quick drop, with us going in negatively buoyant (just jump in and sink right away, none of this floating at the surface stuff) and the boat couldn't stick around because of the danger to other divers. So it was super important for everyone to have enough weight and be ready to go. So now I'm getting a little worried, having never done a dive in the ocean I don't know for sure how much weight I need (and neither does Roland or Jason for the matter). I really didn't worry too much about Roland at that point because normally I float with a vengeance and he sinks like a rock. Before going to get weights I chat with the dive master dude and say that we are all pretty new and any help/suggestions he has are more than welcome. I'm trying to tell the guy we might need a little extra help, but as it will become clear later that wasn't enough I should have grabbed the loud speaker and blared to everyone on the boat that we didn't know what we were doing and needed some extra assistance. We walked back and got weights from a different dive master dude. Roland tells the guy what he used to wear in fresh water with a 7mm wetsuit and they guy decides he needs about 5 pounds less than that. What? So going into salt water (more floaty) you are taking weight away from Roland? Plus I mentioned we were new right? New diver=more weight. But he's the expert right, so Roland takes his weights and a belt back to our tanks and I tell the guy I used to wear 16 pound in fresh water with a 7mm suit. Just seconds after taking Dave down in weight he gives me 16 pounds of weight, exactly what I had used in fresh. Ok, you're the expert dude. So we finish setting up while the boat exits the no wake zone and picks up speed. The guys says once Cap'n Stu gives a shout out we will have about 10 minutes 'til we need to be ready to jump in the water. I'm getting a little nervous now, this is my first boat and ocean dive and it's going to be all military style? Seriously, in the briefing the guy said once we got there someone was going to be yelling "Dive, Dive, Dive" and we all had to get in and down ASAP. This isn't turning out too well.

So Cap'n Stu gives the 10 minute warning and we start seriously kitting up and trying to be ready on time. Maybe it was 10 minutes, maybe because of all the stuff going on it felt shorter, but what felt like 3 minutes later good old Cap'n Stu is telling us we were at our destination. Crap, Crap, Crap. I'm barely ready and Roland is still struggling with his rental wetsuit (even if he doesn't buy anything else I think I'm going to insist him getting his own wetsuit). It was very stressful. Finally, we all make it in our stuff and off the boat. I do a lame little giant stride and start to descend, while rotating around so I can watch Roland and Jason. Jason gets down about 10 feet (I'm going a little slower to accommodate my ears and whatnot) and there is Roland floating away on the surface. Still floating, still floating, not sinking, he is still up there. Crap, what is wrong. I bob back up to the surface and ask. He can't sink. He has taken all the air out of his BC (actually he didn't have any in there to begin with) and still can't get his head under. Making us feel a little better is another dude who is also underweighted. The boat (even though I think it wasn't supposed to) came back around for another pass and Roland was able to swim back for some more weights. I didn't know it at the time, but the guy on the boat just pulled open his wetsuit front and dumped weight down into it, so Roland spent the entire dive with a 4 pound hard weight clunking around in his wetsuit. Yikes!

After that we were able to get down for a while and look at some coral and some fishes, but it wasn't really relaxing and I didn't really have a lot of attention to spare for the beautiful ocean. Roland used up a lot of air getting his weights squared away and with that extra surface swim was hoovering pretty bad. He ended up running out of air first (duh) and we thumbed the dive after about 17 minutes. Overall a very stressful and very unsatisfying dive. We climbed back in the boat, no mean feat in itself (I think I'm going to have to start lifting weights in my arms for that. You pretty much end up pulling yourself up by your arms-define 'yourself' as you in a wetsuit with a metal tank strapped to your back and all of it is dripping wet. I'm clearly a bit of a pansy there), and pretty much collapsed on the benches. The dude told us we had about 10 minutes to switch out our tanks and get ready for the next dive. I start switching out my tank and look over at Roland. He looks at me and suggests that he sits the second dive out. I feel really bad because this was supposed to be fun and clearly it is anything but. I tell him he should do what ever he feels like, that first dive was a bitch. So he decides to stay on the boat and Jason and I buddy up for the second dive. We are moving to a slightly different portion of the reef for this one.

Again after what feels like 3 minutes we're there and while I'm a little more ready than last time I'm still pretty frazzled. So the dive master says something like, don't worry about it, the boat can stick around for this one so we don't have to worry about going so fast or doing a negatively buoyant entrance. WHAT? and I say WHAT? again! You mean you could have taken us somewhere like this and we would have been able to fix the whole weight debacle with little to no stress. For crying out loud what are you trying to do to us?

Well, Roland stayed on the boat and had a lie-down and Jason and I heaved ourselves back into the ocean. This dive was about as different from the first one and could be. It was slow and relaxing with tons of fish and cool coral. Jason and I had a great time, and I know Roland would have too. Fie on the people who have forgotten what it is like to be a newbie. Fie on you. I just hope that Roland will be willing to go back sometime even though his first boat/ocean diving experience, well...sucked.

The pot, cooktop, and surrounding area will be hot.

Flashback to one of Susan's most treasured childhood memories.

The Heidemann family gathered around the table for their (at least, my) favorite meal. Table center: a yellow fondue pot filled with hot oil and a Sterno flame underneath, four place settings, each with a plate, sliverware, a beverage, and a little bowl full of raw meat (yeah, baby). Ok, so after Anne became a vegetarian there wasn't a bowl of meat at her place but we're going back further than that. Scattered around the table are little dishes with sauces in them. A horseradish sauce, a barbecue concoction, a sort of A-1/ketchup thing (K1 if you will), ranch dressing, a mustard sauce, and maybe others I'm forgetting. There was also usually a salad and some rolls as well, but they were by far afterthoughts. When we had fondue dinner it was An Event. It only happened once in a while, lasted at least twice as long as regular dinner, and there was fire at the table. The extra long time for dinner meant extra talking and being together. We each got two fodue forks for to cook our steak cubes to perfection. We talked and cooked, and ate, and cooked, and because you had to cook each cube one at a time it was a long and relaxing meal. I also had the pleasure of having this dish in Austria when on vacation with my Mom, bringing it even closer to my heart. They sat us in the window of the restaurant where all the passersby could watch us eat. Fodue (the cook your own meat in oil kind) came, for me, to mean family and togetherness and all that special mushy stuff that people make fun of.

Then as I grew up and went to college the frequency of fondue took a sharp decline. Even later still when fondue showed up again people mostly did the cheese kind (which is admittedly very good) and didn't really know what I was talking about when I mentioned that 'other' kind of fondue. But then, low and behold Roland got a Zagats guide for his birthday (thanks Anne and Karl) and there was this restaurant: The Melting Pot. Enter here the sound of angels signing joyful hymns with silly words (tee tee Anne).

Flash forward to this past Thursday. Jason arrived after a very long travel filled day, I think he left at like 6:00 am or something insane like that. Roland picked him up at the airport and drove him home through the usual mortal peril. After giving Jason the tour of our apartment (it's pretty short) and settling him in a bit we sprang our dinner idea on him. This restaurant called the Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant. Jason was game (good man, Jason) and we departed. After arriving at the restaurant we were promptly seated in a nice booth with a high back giving us a good feeling of privacy. The table had a heating element in the center (although for all of our safety it was turned off when we arrived) flush with the table. Our waiter arrived and graciously explained the menu to us, gave us a little time, and took our drink orders. I had a margarita and Roland and Jason had shared a bottle of wine. At The Melting Pot you can choose stuff sort of ala carte, or you can have the 'Big Night Out' which we opted for. As you have probably read elsewhere this includes a cheese fondue course, a salad course, a main meat fondue course, and a dessert fondue course. Everyone at the table has to agree on the same courses as there is only room for one pot at a time on the table (so choose your dining companions wisely, young Jedi).

We opted for a Wisconsin cheese trio which the waiter put together tableside - very cool. He had the pot warming for a while and added white wine, sauteed shallots, cheese, more cheese, and some more cheese, and some sliced scallions on top. We got to dip, bread, apples, carrots, and whatnot in it and we cleaned that bad boy out. It was very good and we could have eaten a lot more. Luckily though there wasn't more because the rest of the meal was on it's way. The next thing out of the kitchen was a salad which closely resembled one of my favorites that Roland makes. Greens with walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, and an awesome raspberry vinaigrette. The dressing was incredibly good, but I was all excited for the next course and sort of rushed through it. Then the main course (again the vast choruses should start singing here). It was just like the fondue I remember, but with fancier options that just aren't feasibly at home. A wide variety of meat and veggies; steak, chicken, shrimp, tuna, mushrooms, zucchini, and broccoli. There were additions we didn't have as a child, like breading sauces to dip your item in before cooking. And about a bajillion sauces to dip your cooked items in. They of course tell you to pretty much burn your food so that there won't be any foodborne diseases, but we generally cooked things to the degree we wanted anyway. Jason's 14 second tuna was pretty spot on. The veggies were fresh and large enough not to become overcooked too quickly. Overall it was completely awesome. When we had eaten our fill (ok, when the food on the table ran out - they offered to refill the veggies, but sheesh enough is enough) it was time for dessert. The boys let me pick which style of chocolate fondue to get and of course I went with the kind with milk chocolate with a dollop of marshmallow creame in it. Mmmm...s'mores. To dip in this sweet ambrosia were graham crackers (just dip those, trying to skewer it on the fondue fork is pretty hard), cheesecake (again just spoon some over it, skewer it only ensures you are going to have to kiss someone), fruit, marshmallows, and oreo covered marshmallows. Damn, that was some fine food. In fact if you have read the other two blogs you will have noted that yes, Jason did have a straw, and yes, he did put it in the left over melted chocolate and drink it, and yes someone who works there did see him and told everyone else in the kitchen. I'm telling you it may well have been the best meal I've ever had in a restaurant. I had fantastic food and fantastic company and it lasted about three hours I also ended up with a second margarita about half way through the meal somehow (Roland) so that may have increased my fun 2d20. Even though it was a long dinner no one looked sideways at us or encouraged us to leave and when we did leave the manager lookin' dude gave us a business card with a discount for 20% off a bottle of wine on our next visit. What a fantastic evening. If you are still reading and haven't fallen asleep you've done well and I'm about done. I just have a very special place in my heart for the fondue (especially the cook your own meat in oil kind) so I wanted to express how much it means to me and how incredibly good it tastes.

The adventure begins

I haven't even tried to keep up with the flurry of blogging that some other people are engaged in (I'm not going to name names *ahem* "First Post" indeed). I've been having too much fun with Roland and Jason. Seriously check out their blogs, they are much better written than mine and probably funnier. However, if you insist on continuing to read my humble bliggity blog, for a change I have a lot to say. I'll probably be breaking it into manageable chunks for your pleasure and my sanity so here we go....

Invitation

As an extension of my feeling of belonging being part of a blog-tet I encourage people who visit my blog to feel free to comment on it. I appreciate hearing from you - even if I don't know you.

Say cheese

For Christmas one of the gifts that my Dad got me was a pretty sweet webcam. I think the idea was that they (the 'rents) and I could chat for free with the bonus of being able to see each other. So we set it up and my Dad and I tried it out today. It was pretty cool, but we couldn't get the voice to work continuously. So we used the video clip feature, it may have been that there is a firewall at Ferris I'm not sure. We are going to try it when he is a home and see how it goes there. I'm hoping that we can get my Mom in on the whole thing so I can chitchat with her too. I'm also thinking my Sistrah probably has a webcam running around somewhere in that great big house of technology of hers, so maybe we could get that going too. It being free is a big plus so maybe other people I know will want to participate (Jason hmm? hmm?).

I spent most of the rest of today catching up on some housework. With Jason coming tomorrow I felt the need to tidy up a bit, although not nearly the whirlwind that happened before my parents came (sorry J). Mostly the kitchen, bathrooms, and whatnot. I like the look of the white tile in the entryway, kitchen, and bathrooms, but it does show the hair and dirt something wicked after just a few days. Since both the puppy (the entryway) and I (the master bathroom) shed quite a bit I end up vacuuming every other day or so. Kind of a pain, but it's doable, except every time I vacuum I have to sit down with the stupid thing and cut my stupid hair off of the rotary part thingy on the bottom. If I don't I start smelling the wonderful smell of burning hair and eventually it will bollix up the whole thing. Super, another reason not to have long hair.

The man in black fled across the desert...

Over yonder, people are getting excited about getting cool avatars like the one on my blog and in the comments Henry Bierman called us a blog-tet. This pleased me all out of proportion. I thought about it for while and then realized that since I first read King's Dark Tower* books I was quite taken with the idea of a ka-tet. Jumping from job to job (with little success) and now state to state has left me wishing there was some force out there bringing purpose to my life, that there was something that I am supposed to do, something important. It's not much, but being a part of a blog-tet gives me at least a little of that feeling of belonging.


*I've been totally corrupted by my husband, I had to think hard when typing Dark Tower so that I wouldn't instead type Dork Tower, a very funny RPG comic that he reads.

Well I never

I finally made my choices and bought some scuba gear. It was a very difficult decision, but I’m hopeful that I will be happy with what I’ve picked. The only thing I’m leery about is the compass, well, not the compass itself, but the housing. I went with the SK7 on a retractor, but I may end up with it on my wrist sooner or later. I like it on the retractor and all, however I think it will end up being too dangly for my comfort. I was able to clip off the computer pretty well with a double bolt snap. My hope is that I won’t have to remove the computer while diving, just be able to look at it. I may end up with a quick release clip on that, but it seems longer (and hence more dangly) to me. The only thing I could think of for my compass was to somehow attach a snap to the back of the compass and the BC for extra attachment, but I’m really not sure how I could do that (glue? no-sew snaps?). Hopefully Roland, Jason, and I will be going for a dive on Friday so I will have a chance to try it out before taking the class on Saturday and Sunday. I’m still a bit nervous about the class and having all new gear isn’t helping. Anyway, that’s the news from here.

Irony?

This morning I thought to myself, hey Jason is coming in a few days maybe I will ask him to help me figure out the best way to back up my stuff on the desktop computer. Flash forward 9 hours and my hard drive begins to sound like a scratchy record. How is it that for unfortunate? Based on what I remember about the computer there are two hard drives and the one that went isn't the one with the data on it, so hopefully Jason will be able to help me figure out if that is true and get a replacement hard drive. If not, I hope he can help me get two folders off the one that is crapping out and be done with it. I was having a pretty good day until then, now I'm just trying to not think about it until Jason gets here. Bummer.

Tinkerbell was here

With my sistrah's last comment on my blog I got to thinking about taking someone around Disney for their first visit. Roland did this for me for our honeymoon and I had an incredible time and he says that watching me discover Disney was very special and entertaining for him too. I felt like I was eight years old the whole time we were there, it was indeed magical for me.

So what do you take people to? I have many favorite things that I would want to share. I think my top favorite thing there is probably the Fantasmic show at MGM. I like going to the Brown Derby and then over to the show. It's a really nice evening. Plus they have the Star Wars ride and the new Lights, Motors, Action show - how DO they drive like that?

My favorite park in all though would have to be EPCOT. I love the edutainment portions in Future World (the Living Seas, the Land, and all that) and the World Showcase is awesome to walk through and watch in performers and eat some great food. Although I've always wondered what people from each country think when they come through their fake country in EPCOT. Plus now they have Soarin' in the Land which is a freakin' sweet ride and I there is this tour you can do through the World Showcase on Segways which sounds like fun to me!

I also enjoy the Animal Kingdom but it's not my favorite (sort of surprising,) but EPCOT has more learny bits and the only time you can see animals out in the open is on the safari, which is short and on a time table so they can't slow down and let you see anything for any amount of time. I wish they had some sort of backstage tour that involved getting to see that for longer, but the only one they have is more the mechanics of how they feed and house the animals. Plus to see a lot of the animals you really need to get there early and go on the safari first thing because they go to sleep for the day when it gets too hot.

The Magic Kingdom is cool and has a lot of the must see old standbys of Disney, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, the Dole Whip stand, the Mountain Trifecta (Space, Splash, and Thunder), along with some new rides like Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. Plus dinner at Cinderella's Castle is pretty cool if you eat late and get to see the fireworks from inside. They also have that noodle stand I like for lunch...mmmm..pot stickers. Anyway, with the prospects of at sometime in the next couple of years showing my parents and my sister around Disney (albeit probably separately) is pretty exciting.