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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

MMOs

found this quite interesting...

Monday, April 27, 2009

Oh Gyros

It was one of those night that we weren't sure what we were going to eat. Nothing at home sounded good, and most other places we had been before. My man and I got in the car, he drove. And just drove. He turned into a close shopping center to our home and got out of the car. I am slightly familiar with this center, but never bothered to pay attention to it. And I realized, all this time of living where I did, I had no idea that such a wonderful little jewel of a restaurant was there.


The place is Christos Pizza. Tucked away in a corner of a shopping center. It's a small local restaurant. You walk in and immediately see the kitchen. Humble tables and decor. Mostly Italian waterfront scenes. It's always busy. We have only been there together twice. During dinner time, don't expect great service. The waitress seems to forget about you. We always see the same guy cooking or tending the kitchen with a few other people helping.

Menu is basic Italian food mixed with some Greek. Pizza, pasta, soups, salads, and there is a plate called the gyro. Most of Americans know the gyro by now. The tender meat with cheese and the fancy, hard to say name, sauce. A gyro defined by wiki is: "

A Greek dish, consisting of lamb meat, tomato, onion, and tzatziki sauce, and is served with pita bread. Gyros may also refer to the sandwich, which consists of the same ingredients."


I had never had one before I met my man. Never even heard if it. One of his favorites that he gets from another little place called Gondliers. was the gyro plate. So. since we were there, I was feeling in the mood for something different, I decided to give it a try.
Its nice to not have any expectations when it comes to new food. I got my plate and it was the size of a football. Big plate. The meat they use is a mix of beef and lamb. On one side of the plate was the pita covered in the meat, a generous helping of feta cheese on top and the hard-to-say-name sauce (tzatziki sauce). On the other side is the lettuce and tomato to put on your gyro. The meat is very tender. When you walk in, you can see the meat roasting on a rotating vertical pole in the kitchen. Salty, a little gamy with the lamb, but good flavor and texture. The sauce, perfection. Smooth, salty with the freshness of the cucumber and the hits of acidity. The feta salty to go well with the meat and sauce. There is an overabundance of the cheese. But I can over look that. The pits is a wonder texture. A little chewy but strong and spongy and it had been grilled on top of a flat surface to give it a grilled flavor. Mix these wonderful ingredients and you got a culinary explosion of wonderfulness in your mouth. Everything went perfect together. The lettuce and tomato I could leave out, its just filler. They also come with fries if you want. Which are basic fried potato bits. But the gyro, fantastic. I'm addicted. Like I said, we have been there twice, and I have gotten nothing but the gyro. The price is about $8.00 per plate. Not bad for the amount that you get.



I have since then tried different gyros. Gondilers and Great Wraps have gyros as well. My conclusion, not as good as Christos. But again. I have only have a few, and not way an expert on who's is best.


So if you are in the neighborhood and know where I am talking about, definitely try a gyro from Christos. If not, at least try one from your local restaurant. Its worth a try. Who knows, you might find the most wonderful thing out there.


Saturday, April 25, 2009

Descendants of Darkness

I hate when a series is only a few episodes long. They give you enough time to get into the story line and characters, then its all over. I was watching Descendants of Darkness. Very good anime. A little old. Been around for while, but finally sat down and watched. The art is fantastic. They boys, gorgeous, and story line is interesting. A bit confusing on whats going on at first, but you get to understanding whats going on quick. I have tried to read the manga before and quit in frustration. So I suggest to watch it first, then read the manga. I warn you now, its only 13 episodes long. Get all into it, make connections with the characters, and it all ended. But still glad I watched it. Oh another warning, if you get queasy at blood, or hints of boy on boy action, this anime isn't for you.



Monday, April 20, 2009

To my love

I know sometimes I mess up. Our lines of communication get tangled. I realize that sometimes that I don't say the things I should say or not say. It's not that I don't care, just sometimes it takes me awhile to get the idea there and make the words right. I want to be the one you know you can go to in need of support and love. I love you with all my heart. I love you more than I thought I could love anyone. And with you realized what love was supposed to be. I love you!!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Strange feeling

I'm a little dejected this morning. Woke up with a headache for the 3rd morning. Neck and back hurt, which sadly I think is from the new pillow I bought. I did my usual thing, got up made breakfast for my man. Put some snacks in a bag for him for work. Said "I love you" and "have a good day" and walk him to the door. I go straighten my hair a bit, and go back to bed. The office opens later today and Mondays, so I have time to go back to bed for hour and half. Ususally this is nice. I get a little more sleep, but the past few days, its hasn't been so nice.


Took me forever to fall back asleep. Moved from my pillow to his pillow, and back to mine. Got cold, so I put a blanket on, got hot so took it off. Just having the hardest time trying to get comfortable. Finally about 8:15, I fall asleep. I dream. Strange dreams. I won't go into all the detail cause its not important. But in the dream, I had gotten a book from my grandmother (mamaw) who passed away this past October. I usually dream about her. I was very close to her. This dream, I was reading a book she had left for me. It was a fantasy book about this princess and this boy escaping from some bad guy, had some rats that could talk in it. Anywho, in the back of the book, she had written on some of the blank pages. There were a lot of pages she had written on, like a diary of the last days of her life and things she wanted to tell me. I remember where I saw that some of the days she said she was having a hard time concentrating and remembering things and would write that down. Unfortunatley, thoes are the only pages I got to see. I wish I could have seen others where she wanted to tell me something. In the dream I was going thru this book and reading the passages and crying. I woke up and was crying in real life, crying in my sleep. I must have been crying hard, cause thats what woke me up.


That was a strange experience. To wake up and be crying in real life from the dream. I was in a fog when I got up, where I was, what was I doing home, what time is it. Just confused. Took a few minutes to realize what day it was and what was going on. I am still alittle out of it. Sad a bit. When I think of the dream I still get teary eyed. I still have a headache, which dosen't help the day at all. But I will get over it. The day has to go on, no matter if I want it to stop and go home and hide under the covers.


I'm not one for looking into my dreams. I don't try to find meaning and analyse if someone is trying to reach me and protray a message. But this once, I would like to know what it meant. What I needed to know or if she was trying to tell me something. Maybe I won't ever know. Maybe it was just a dream. But I do know that it just made me sad. Wherever you are Mamaw, I love you and miss you.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Different Seasons and Rumors

The story of community in the Deep South that is forced to deal with the struggles of ignorance, hypocrisy and oppression, Malcolm Ingram's "Small Town Gay Bar" visits two Mississippi communities and bases those visits around two small gay bars, Rumors in Shannon, Mississippi, and Different Seasons/Crossroads in Meridian, Mississippi. Additionally the film visits Bay Minette, Alabama, to look at the brutal hate crime murder of Scotty Joe Weaver. The film focuses on a group of folks who are less concerned with the national debate over gay marriage than they are with the life risks they take being openly gay in small Southern towns.


Saw this documentary the other night. It was good. A look into well, like it says the gay community of a small town. Their struggles and daily lives. Informative and entertaining. If you like documentaries, try looking for this one. If you are offended easily, not the one for you.

Link:
Small Town Gay Bar

Spirit Gun!!

I have concluded that some thing I can be passionate about. I get emotional about characters in movie, books, and anime. So on and so forth. I make connections easily with characters. On many occasions, the creator tends to kill off my favorite character. Does that mean something? So I tend to be stuck in the middle of a series with my favorite character dead. Happens a lot. One of the recent animes that I got into, well it goes back a long time, is Yu-Yu Hakusho. It used to play on Cartoon Network during the Toonami slot. Never got too far, maybe into 25 episodes they showed, but it kept my attention.If you get a chance, check it out.

Human teen boy, dies, comes back to live and gets "spirit powers" and becomes a detective for the "spirit world" in the process. That's just in the first few episodes. This anime, and manga if you prefer, follows the main character Yusuke Urameshi thru 112 episodes of saving the earth, managing the "spirit" "human" and "demon" worlds. This is a good anime. Lots of fighting, that's all Yusuke knows how to do, talk and fight. With his human friends and demon compainions, managers to save the world and learn about life and each other. I recomend this to anyone who likes anime, looking for something to watch, or just getting into anime. I will warn you, the first 4 eposodes are a little slow. Here is the wikipedia definition if you want it.

Yusuke Urameshi is a street-brawling delinquent with a tough guy approach to everything (with gorgeous hair). Yusuke's mother Atsuko, an alcoholic, had him at the age of 14 and took a backseat in raising her son. He has a reserved seat in the guidance counselor's office, and numerous other delinquents in the city are constantly trying to take him on. Yusuke is pretty fed up with his life. However, no one expects a sudden act of heroism on his part: he dies trying to save a little boy from a speeding car.

When he arrives in the afterlife, he is informed that the child would have miraculously survived, and had it not been for him the child would have one less scratch on his right arm. His act of heroism, therefore, was "completely pointless". Yusuke's premature death was unexpected and unnecessary, and the afterlife was not prepared for his arrival.

After numerous tests to gauge his worth, Yusuke is eventually revived, and is assigned to work for the Spirit World as a detective investigating demon cases in the human world. He comes into spiritual abilities of his own, and enlists the help of numerous friends from Reikai (spirit world), Makai (demon world, translated in the English manga as the Demon Plane) and Ningenkai (Human World) to aid him in his cases as they fight off demons and humans seeking to rule over all three worlds.






Sweet Treat

I have mentioned before that I enjoy cooking. I was planning to make a tiramisu for Valentine's Day. Homemade. The idea terrified me. I assumed that this Italian dessert was complicated to make. Plans changed and I wasn't able to get to the store in enough time and blame it on me being lazy, it didn't get made for VD. My mans birthday caused me to re think the idea of making it. So I was determined to make it for him. Instead of a cake or fancy party, tiramisu. There are tons of recipes for this dessert. Seems like everyone had their own twist and their own idea about what it should be made with, how much, and what flavoring. Which isn't a bad thing, I mean variety is the spice of life, right? So I looked for a simple, easy to do, recipe. One that won't cause me to be in the kitchen for hours on end making sure everything turned out ok.


I found one on Foodnetwork: Giada De Laurentiis. She is host of the show Everyday Italian. Looks easy, simple ingredients. Bingo! I get all the stuff together thru the week before the birthday. Have a difficult time finding the mascarpone cheese, and more of a difficult time pronouncing it. I finally go to the super cool local farmers market around our area. We love that place. So many new and exotic things. Anywho, find the cheese and get everything together. Make it the night before. I follow directions close to the point. I might have messed up on an egg or two. It calls for egg yolks, which i have a hard time separating the yolks and whites. Don't have a fancy separator at home so used hands. Lost a yolk or two. Mixed, added stuff other than the liquor that she called for, in fact I used Mudslide mix that was in the fridge. It's way to strong so I don't drink it. Get everything worked on, add the cheese, dip the ladyfinger. Every went smooth as it could for the first time making it. Put in the fridge over night.


It turned out great. Well, a few things could have been changed. I ran out of ladyfingers so it wasn't as solid as it should have been. I did not add the coco on top as you usually see it done. I had even bought chocolate to put shavings on top, but did not do that either. But, the flavor was fantastic!! Such a good coffee flavor, texture was ok. Cheese turned out better than I thought it would. So all around I am happy with this experience. My man was too and that was the point. A nice birthday tiramisu for him. I do have a few suggestions if you plan to make this, have plenty of ladyfingers, and use a deep dish that is about 8x8inches. Enjoy!


Here is the recipe of you would like to give it a try:

Tiramisu


Tuesday, April 14, 2009

They took away my victory

I have a Nintendo DS. Got it in July of 2008. One of the first games I purchased for the ds is Animal Crossing. A cute little casual role playing game, where you go around as the only human in the town and make friends, collect items, win tournaments, and basically live in the world and work to pay off the house. This game is fun. You can be really serious and into it like I am, or you can casually play from time to time just to have something fun to do. You start in the town with one kind of native fruit, I had apples, and go on to make friends and connect thru the wi-fi with "ds to ds" and get new fruit and grow those kind of trees. I have all the fruit that is possible to collect. I am on my last house payment, I have a mansion. I have made friends, lost friends, collected every kind of fossil there is to get. Collected many fish and bugs. I have won fishing tournaments and bug-offs. I have gotten some of the special items that takes many tries and many days to collect. I would think by now my game would know I am supposed to win everything. Well, it doesn't. Every April there is "flower fest". You plant as many flowers around your house as you can, keep them watered for a week and the person with the best garden wins a nice little trophy. I started two days before the fest to make sure I had a lot of flowers, nice colors, and in good shape. I arranged them in rows and put like colors of each flower corresponding to with what row, so all reds were on the left then white, and yellow. Aligned them so they made a perfect little square. Made it beautiful, watered everyday. So sure that I was going to win. Week was up and I logged in to get my trophy out of the mail. Walked out of my house to the mail, and no blinking light for the mailbox. No indication that I had gotten anything in the mail. I ran to the bulletin board and read that Peewee won! That I did not win, but someone else did. That all my prep was wasted on some gorilla that had only been in my town for a few days won, the same guy that had one flower in his front yard. In the game you can run all over the other neighbors flowers and destroy them, so I made sure I did that everyday to secure my victory. ONE FLOWER. I soon turned the game off and told my man what happened. He told me to google it and see if there is a reason. I looked for a few minutes thru cheats and tricks to see what I had done wrong. Of course many people before me had the same problem. (which made me feel better) I didn't plant my flowers close enough to my house. There was about one flower width size around my bricks on the ground where I had not placed my flower bed. I really wish I would have known about that earlier. If I am the only one playing this game, and Nintendo set it up so as long as I try to participate in everything, I win. So how could the game not see that I had planted all those flowers? So as you imagine, I was sad, defeated, and furious at Peewee. I'll have to wait till next April to try again. I have yet to play and this happened yesterday. I will of course turn the game back on soon, probably later this afternoon. I have other things I need to get done and things to collect and letting Tom Nook take my money from me. This game has not heard the last of me yet. And I have to go back to make Peewee's life hell as well. Good gaming to all!!

Monday, April 13, 2009

whats in your mouth?

I love food. I like eating, looking, making, and discussing food. Some of this blog will be about food, the rest, like the title, random things from my head that I am inclined to share with you. I recently had a few days off from work and being such a nice girlfriend that I am, offered to bring my man lunch, while he was working. After we discussed what to bring, we figured Sonic. It close, its easy, its good. I get basic hamburger, which to me has way to much onions on there, and get his order in. Get the drinks, cause we all know that Sonic is best known for their drinks and desserts. I stop and think what I want to drink. I usually get the strawberry limeade. I don't particular like cherry, so I get strawberry. Usually that's my poison from Sonic. I was in a different mood, a inkling for something different. Coffee. I like coffee. When I was younger, I would drink hot coffee, two sugars, and lots of creamer (vanilla caramel) in the mornings. Past years I have stopped getting up and making it and adding to the fact that I am highly sensitive to caffeine, I had stopped all together brewing and drinking the stuff. I decide to get the Java Chiller, mocha flavored from Sonic. I pulled thru, waited for 10 minutes, it always is slow when I go and happily pay. The Java Chiller was coffee flavor smoothie texture, creamy, had some whipped cream and chocolate drizzles on it. Looks pleasing. Took a sip. It was the best coffee flavor and ice cream texture I have ever had. The creamy-ness of it was perfect. Easy to drink (with straw). Flavor was 50x better than a jomocha shake from Arbys. The little bit of whipped cream and chocolate was a nice touch to give it some extra flavor and make you think you are really getting a treat. That was about 2 weeks ago, I have been back just for the drink about 8 times. I really enjoy this drink. So if you happen to come across a Sonic and feel like a frosty cup of goodness, take my advice, try the Java Chiller. Way to go Sonic.