christopher575

Full list of November questions here.

11. Have you ever tried Polish food such as pierogi, pierniczki (a spiced gingerbread), or Sauerkraut (it’s Poland’s Independence Day today)?

We had pierogi just the other day, and keep sauerkraut in the fridge pretty often.

12. It’s World Quality Day. Have you ever been disappointed or surprised by the quality of something you’ve bought?

Oh, of course. Especially these days when most purchases happen online and you won't really know what the quality is like until you see it. Warranties and returns are important. Just today, my head shaver stopped working so I had to contact the company to initiate a warranty review. The process is happening slower than I'd like; maybe that means people are in charge of it instead of AI! I'm subscribed to blade refills and have a nice stash built up, so it's important to get it replaced. I don't anticipate having a new one in time for my next shave so I may have to use a razor like the last time I was voluntarily bald.

13. Do you cut your fingernails or use an emery board to shorten/shape them?

I cut them. Just this morning, in fact! I can't imagine having the patience it would take to file them down short enough to satisfy me.

14. Have you ever made a print (using a potato, linocut or other method)?

I took a whole printmaking class in college and enjoyed it a lot. I have a folder of some prints from it and recently framed one of them. I haven't figured out where I want to hang it, though.



15. Do you have a favourite childhood breakfast cereal?

I miss OJs, it was very unusual to have an orange-flavored cereal. My all-time favorite to this day is Cracklin' Oat Bran. I don't buy it very often because I don't eat cereal very often, and it's pretty expensive.

I have two sets of rechargeable earbuds in heavy rotation. One belongs in my water fitness bag and I use it when I do strength training and walk on the track before my classes in Everett on Tuesdays and Fridays. The other belongs in my hydration pack that I wear when I walk in various places around town. I recharge them after every use even though I know it's better for batteries to exercise them by using up the power. It's just not practical to do that because they'll more than likely die before or during the second walk.

I drove to the marina today and realized I hadn't put a set of earbuds in my hydration pack. I was extra bummed about it because the route I wanted to take is along a very busy street. I pictured my charging station and realized I didn't remember seeing an extra set of earbuds waiting to be charged, which was strange; if they weren't there, they should be in the bag.

Then I remembered, there's one case where there's no bag around when I take them out of my ears, making it harder to remember to get them back out of the bag and charged when I get home. Lately when it's really cold, I'll walk on the track at the Y instead of outside, and there's no need to bring a bag. When I do that, I carry them in the right front pocket of the hoodie I wear to the Y. Lo and behold, they were still in that pocket because I keep forgetting to get them out to charge.

And even though I always worry the battery won't last long enough, they lasted through my entire walk today, which was pretty long. Since I failed to take them out of the pocket to charge them, and also failed to put them in the bag, I got to listen to the latest episode of Text Me Back today. That worked out nicely.

Full list of November questions here.

1. It’s Cuckoo Dancing week (from the 1st-7th), when people worldwide celebrate the playful “Dance of the Cuckoos,” the signature theme of Laurel and Hardy films. Have you seen any of their films?

I think I saw at least some of a couple of their movies. What I know for sure that I saw was their Scooby-Doo guest appearance.

2. Did you have to do chores to ‘earn’ your allowance/pocket money? Did your family ever pay you to do extra chores at home?

I always got an allowance but our house was always pretty disorganized and not a lot got done by anyone. I'm really glad I didn't carry those bad habits into my adult life.

3. Have you ever taken part in a team quiz?

No. I'd like to but stuff like that runs too late for me.

4. How many birthdays do you buy presents for in a year? Just for family, or do you buy gifts for friends too?

Whether they all know it or not, I've called gift truce with everyone but Garrett and his mom. I don't think adults should be buying each other stuff all the time as a routine. It's fine if you see something you want to give someone, but giving gifts just to give gifts is a strange practice that I disagree with. Especially once you learn so many people suffer financially to do it.

5. Tonight is Bonfire Night in the UK! The failed plot to overthrow the King by Guy Fawkes has been celebrated since 1605 (nowadays with fireworks and parties). Do you enjoy fireworks, or would you prefer to see a drone show?

Fireworks are cool but now that they are available, I'd rather see a drone show. I especially like seeing time lapses of drone shows after the fact.

Full list of October questions here.

26. Do you regularly watch sport? What sport is your favourite?

I don't like watching sports. At all. In fact, one of the worst experiences for me is to be in a crowded bar full of people yelling while a sport is on the TVs. If I'm in Canada and there's curling on the hotel TV while I wait for the other person to shower, that's fine.

27. When you buy something which has a high cost, do you check reviews and prices in different places before you buy?

I do that even for cheap stuff. For example, the Cutwater canned lemon drop cocktails my mother-in-law likes. Google can show you current prices around town, and it can vary by $5 for a 4-pack! It's important to try to get good deals on liquor in Washington because there are a lot of taxes added. This is because liquor only used to come from state-run stores, but once voters got the law changed and liquor began to be sold in regular stores, the state responded by adding taxes to make up for the lost revenue.

28. In the US, it’s National Pretzel Month. Do you have a favourite type of pretzel?

Big soft ones! This question is timely because I recently made my own pretzel bites from canned biscuits.



29. In the UK, Australia and Canada, it’s RSPB Feed the Birds Day. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was formed by three women who wanted to stop the fashion exploitation of birds for their feathers in 1891. Have you ever put food out for your local birds?

We had a bird feeder in the downstairs window for a while but the squirrels treated it as their personal buffet. And too much bird food mess from birds and squirrels can lead to rats.

Oh, and Garrett got me a bird feeder with a camera in it that I used for a season a couple of years ago. It definitely got a lot of squirrel footage.

30. It’s National Candy Corn Day in North America – are you a fan?

Candy corn is fantastic. A true classic candy treat. I have a candy corn tattoo!

31. In 1962, the horror film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, based on the novel by Henry Farrell, directed by Robert Aldrich, and starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, was released. Do you like horror films?

Horror is my favorite genre and I mostly watch older horror and sci-fi on Tubi, all the time. Just yesterday, I was getting a tattoo and learned about a great Nightmare on Elm Street flash design the artist has. As if I needed another wanna-do design in my life.

Full list of October questions here.

16. Do you remember any characters from comics or comic strips when you were young that people today might not be familiar with?

Beetle Bailey, Andy Capp, B.C., Prince Valiant, Dagwood, Opus the penguin and Bill the cat. I'll admit, I might not actually remember Andy Capp comics, I may have just seen the snacks.

17. It’s International Repair Day – have you ever tried to repair things yourself?

Repair or even modify. A recent example is my car's fob. I've never used its panic button on purpose, and it's pretty annoying when it happens accidentally. I took it apart hoping to find a way to disable the panic button, but I couldn't pry the piece of metal on the circuit board off.

The repair I'm most proud of is when I fixed our last dishwasher's door. The rope on the pulley system that stops the door from falling open with a thud had snapped, so it fell open with a thud. It wasn't under warranty, and a visit from a technician alone would have been $200. I'm guessing the repair would have been another $200-300, and parts would have been $50 or more. That's about as much as a new dishwasher, so I guess what I'd say about all that is the only repairs that are worth it these days are warranty repairs.

18. From October 17th to November 8th, in Croatia, the Truffle Festival is celebrated. Do you like the flavour (e.g. truffle oil, truffle-infused pasta, or cheese with truffles or something else)?

I'm not sure I've had a great example of truffle before because I think it's just ok. I bet the good stuff is amazing.

19. On International Gin and Tonic Day – will you be raising a glass?

I'll talk about this in a friends-only post soon.

20. Today is International Chef’s Day (created in 2004 by esteemed chef Dr Bill Gallagher) and is focused on educating children around the world about the importance of eating healthy, promoting the career of chefs and helping change local communities. What was the last thing you made from scratch to eat?



This! Something I haven't talked about yet is that my appetite changed after I was sick with diverticulitis. I'm just not as hungry as I used to be, so I don't keep many snacks around now and meals are a little different sometimes. A few weeks ago when we had Vietnamese for dinner, I ordered banh hoi (vermicelli noodle salad) with no noodles. And that's when I realized the sauce, nuoc cham, is a top tier salad dressing.

I've made my own before, but it's fresh and doesn't keep very long, so I decided to try making some and freezing it in an ice cube tray. It worked, though it's not as nice as the fresh version because I strained out all the garlic and chilis after the flavors married overnight. The ice cubes are a bit slushy, but tasted great when they thawed.

The photo above is from my taste test, and I was hungry enough that day to want some noodles, but we didn't have any rice vermicelli like I thought. So I used rotini, and it was great. The version from a restaurant is a lot bigger, so it makes more sense to skip the noodles entirely when they're making it. At home you can do a more reasonable portion.

My annual exam is in a few weeks and I'll talk to my doctor about my appetite. I'm sure he'll say my appetite is more "normal" now and will call it good news. Or, if he has a concern, we'll look into it.

Full list of October questions here.

6. What’s the first recipe you ever learned to cook? Were you taught at school, by a family member, or did you try it yourself?

Probably cinnamon toast with an almost-glassy layer of melted sugar on top, my brother taught me how to make it.

7. We are in the 10th month of the year – looking back, what has been the highlight so far?

It really hasn't been a great year but it was pretty cool when I realized I'd been teaching deep water classes for a year. There was also a short solo trip I enjoyed a lot.

8. Have you (a family member or a friend) ever thrown anything out and then found out it was worth a lot of money?

Not that I know of.

9. It’s International Beer and Pizza Day! What are your favourite toppings on a pizza? Supplemental question – do you have a favourite type of beer?

We used to hang out in the bar at a pizza place near our place in Seattle and would share a "small" salad and each get a personal pizza. Those came with three toppings and I liked doing double smoked oysters plus onions. I've never seen smoked oysters on the toppings menu anywhere else.

IPAs are good. I think the combination of high ABV and strong flavor make for a smooth experience.

10. On Universal Music Day, what is the most annoying musical instrument in your opinion?

I suppose cymbals when they're played too clashy.

Full list of September questions here.

26. It’s International Lace Day! Lace was first developed in Europe in the 1600s and was handmade until it was industrialised at the end of the 18th century. Have you ever owned anything made or trimmed with lace?

I'm sure there are family items around that have a lace trim but that's really not my style at all.

27. It’s World Tourism Day – are there any places you have visited as a tourist that you remember fondly?

Quite a few! The one I've been thinking about a lot this week is Iceland because I had to speak with someone there for work and will be again this coming week. Such an amazing place.

28. What is your favourite writing instrument (pencil, rollerball, fountain pen or something else)?

A laptop. If I have to write by hand, a simple ballpoint pen is what I'd reach for. But I really don't like writing by hand. I'm out of practice but don't really have a reason to practice more.

29. Are you a fan of opera?

It's not for me but I acknowledge that it's amazing.

30. Do you often listen to podcasts? Do you have a favourite?

Currently I listen to three. Text Me Back, which I've been listening to for a long time, plus Attitudes and Linoleum Knife, which I came back to after a long time. That happened because Melrose Place Cast stopped releasing new episodes. I've been on that one a few times, and really thought they'd make it all the way to the end of the series, which I wasn't able to with my own Melrose Place podcast due to my cohost's waning interest.

Full list of September questions here.

16. Peter Falk was born on this day in 1927. Most famous for his role as the detective, Columbo – have you ever seen him play the character?

I'm not sure I've ever watched an episode, but Peter Falk's Columbo is definitely meme fodder so I see him online a lot. Turns out Kate Mulgrew had a spinoff, Mrs. Columbo. I tried to watch that but only got through one episode.

17. RCA Victor released the first 33 1/3 rpm recording (Beethoven's Fifth Symphony performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra) in 1934. Do you own a record player and vinyl albums?

It's been a very long time since I had a record player, and in that time got cassettes, then CDs, and finally built an MP3 library. Funny story about the MP3s. I used to have an amazing playlist in .m3u format for whichever player I used in the early 2000s. Oh yeah, WinAmp. Those were the days. I miss the skins and the tiny people I had dancing on top of the window.

Anyway, I went to electronic music events with friends who came to town each time and stayed with me. Quite a few over the course of a few years. My playlist was legendary among the three of us, and for the last few years, I've really wanted to recover and rebuild it. I probably have all the MP3s, but the idea of sorting through the files to isolate just the stuff we used to listen to was intimidating. My playlist had everything, but it was in zones.

I have lots of old files on my computer but the playlist never made it there or onto any of our cloud storage. I have an old external hard drive, but the last couple of times I tried to use it, nothing happened. Thankfully, it whirred to life a couple of days ago and I snatched the gigantic text file. I started editing it down in Notepad, not so I could use it with my local mp3s; I wanted to create a huge YouTube playlist I could share with those two friends.

It didn't take long to realize Notepad wasn't the way to go and I made much quicker work of it with Excel. Unfortunately, that required alphabetical sorting, so the original order was lost and lots of songs by the same artist appear together. But that's kind of cool, too.

If you're curious what I might have played during wild weekends back in the day, here's a playlist that's 306 songs to start. Excel really saved the day, it was pretty easy to copy the titles from the cells and paste them into the search bar in YouTube. There were about 30 titles I couldn't find; at some point when I'm feeling industrious, I'll see if I can find the mp3 files in the library, play them so I can Shazam them, and then try to find them on YouTube with more information. Sometimes those old filenames were incorrect or overly short, you see.

You would think the best way to enjoy this playlist would be on shuffle, but I swear YouTube's shuffle isn't very good. At least not if today was typical. I plan to listen to it a lot, though. Even hearing the first few seconds of each song when I was building the playlist was so much fun. And since I'm a paid user of the YouTube music app, I already have downloaded versions I can play any time in the phone app.

The last time I bought records was to try to build myself a privacy screen for my apartment that would have used double albums as the hinges. I spent way too much money on additional hardware and never completed the project.

18. Have you ever won a prize for something?

Not as many as I'd like to have, but one example that came up in memories yesterday was a RuPaul's Drag U prize pack I won in 2011.



19. It’s International Red Panda Day! Red pandas spend up to 55% of their day sleeping – how long (on average) do you sleep each night?

7-8 hours pretty consistently. Back when I had to commute by bus, it was never more than 7 on weeknights.

20. Have you, or someone close to you, ever suffered a concussion?

The example I thought of first was in high school when one of the school's many twins (I knew three sets!) had a pretty bad pole vault accident that included a concussion. I wouldn't have considered him all that close, but he and his brother were part of the one-month student exchange I did to Germany. Ironically, one of them stayed with (fraternal) twins, and the German twin many of the guys had a crush on ended up having a little fling with his brother, who wasn't staying with her. He was bummed because he liked her too, but he had a fling of his own.

But I think I'm better. Everything seems pretty normal and I think I'm even done withdrawing from caffeine. The jinx part is that it's 2:42pm as I type this sentence and I haven't had a headache yet today or really even a hint that one might be coming.

For now I'm drinking triple mint tea from Traditional Medicinals in place of my coffees. The practitioner who saw me at the walk-in clinic recommended mint tea and sure enough, the package says it's a probiotic and aids digestion.

Not sure if I'll resume my tomatoes at breakfast and lunch right away, though. And it's not because tomatoes are full of seeds, the advice about avoiding nuts and seeds with diverticulitis is now considered outdated. Something about daily tomatoes just seems a little acidic at the moment.

Another new beverage in my life is blue Gatorade mixed with Sprite. Or rather, with lemon-lime soda because I don't see why I'd pay more than a dollar for a 2-liter of the stuff when the store brand tastes just fine. It'd be nice to be able to do the sugar-free version of the soda, but you might remember I learned earlier this year that artificial sweeteners don't agree with me. If the diverticulitis had happened sooner I might even think the two were related.

That's the update. Every little tightness in my neck makes me wonder if a headache's coming but I think today's the day where it doesn't come to that. I'm teaching tomorrow morning, too. I wish I wasn't going back on a Tuesday because deep water is the tougher one, but at least today being a holiday means I get to return with one day instead of two in a row.

Full list of September questions here.

1. The first US bank robbery took place on this day in 1798. The Bank of Pennsylvania at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was robbed of $162,821. Have you ever had anything stolen?

Friends here may remember a while back I got into time lapse photography. It was a great addition to my morning walks because I could set up a camera, do my walk, grab the camera, and see what it caught when I got back home. I gave it up because people kept stealing the cameras.

The other most recent theft that comes to mind was also during a walk. I left my car at the bottom of Japanese Gulch and did a big loop walk, and found the driver's side window smashed when I got back. One thing I remember that they took was my jumpstart kit. Not cables for jumping with another car, but a batter that lets you do it on your own. I got it because that car specifically would sometimes forget to beep when the lights were still on when you got out, and I'd forget to turn them off occasionally because of that. One time I waited three hours for AAA to come for a jump and he just used one of those kits, so I decided I should own one.

I gotta say, the thieves could have been slightly more considerate and smarter, too. Why smash the driver's side door when smashing the passenger side would be less obvious to passersby during the crime? The added bonus would be that I wouldn't have to deal with glass in my seat.

2. When you were a teenager, what new technology were you most impressed with? Looking back, has that item been updated or become obsolete?

One of the coolest toys I ever had was the PXL 2000 video camera and TV. It recorded black-and-white pixelated video onto audio cassettes, and was a less expensive way than a standard video camera to let kids experiment with moviemaking. Now we all carry phones that make high-quality video and have free websites we can publish to.

3. Are there any athletic sports (javelin, discus, hurdles, high jump, etc) that you have tried in the past (or still take part in today)?

No. The only sport I ever devoted much time to was bowling, and that's hardly athletic. It's nice to finally see a backlash brewing against luxury bowling companies that are buying up bowling alleys and making the pastime too expensive.

4. A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used primarily to flavour, colour, or preserve food. Distinct from herbs (which are the leaves or stems of plants), spices are celebrated for their pungent, aromatic, and sometimes fiery qualities. Do you have a favourite?

I couldn't choose a favorite because they're all so different. Instead, I'll share a dish I like and what spices go into it. A great way to use up leftover rice is to make a sweet breakfast dish from it. You heat rice and butter, and when was a kid then ingredient list would have stopped after that with cinnamon and sugar. Nowadays I'll keep going from there with salt, Chinese five spice, garam masala, and red chili powder, plus whatever add-ins like raisins, craisins, and seeds sound good at the moment. Maybe even some chicken if there's some handy.

You also can't go wrong with some lovely paprika-dusted deviled eggs.

5. It’s International Bacon Day! What’s your favourite bacon dish (pork, turkey or veggie)?

Going by frequency, it's a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich. But if we're talking about what I wish I was having next, I'd say bacon-wrapped prawns or scallops. And I would love to say bacon-wrapped dates but they're always just a little too sweet; I definitely want them stuffed with something mild like Manchego and I don't want a whole serving to myself.

I've recently come to the conclusion that there's no good imitation bacon flavor. Even Pringles couldn't make a good bacon-flavored chip. It's just too hard to reproduce.