Jan 1, 2017

Time Traveling Again

Tim, Saori, and I went out to watch the new Star Wars movie and I really enjoyed it, in some ways, more so than The Force Awakens. Nice theater, massive seats. We shared some cokes and a bucket of popcorn. We came home late, and then played a round of Munchkin, a sincere parody of D&D style fantasy games. It takes about two hours to explain the rules, but once that's established, it's a pretty fun game.

Today, Tim and I grabbed some coffees and took Joshua to the park to play while Ayumi and Saori started doing the prep work for cooking new years dinner. For lunch, Tim took us out to the "6-7-8" Korean BBQ where we grilled over charcoal various cuts of pork: spicy pork belly, regular pork belly, neck, short rib, skin. Good stuff. Penney hoovered it all down, kimchee included. This kid loves food.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out at the house, watching football bowl games and short Japanese children's tv shows. Saori and Ayumi came back after picking up a replacement ladle and some thai iced teas. Saori cooked some really nice soba noodles in a light fish broth with a fish cake and some grated ginger, and really, that was all we needed after our heavy lunchtime feast.

None of us are the stay up and party hard crowd. In fact, we decided to toast the new year in with white wine schorle which is wine cut with sparkling water. A little bubbly without so much booze. We also celebrated it ten minutes after midnight in central European time, which worked to be about 7pm here in Atlanta. I did go back and fix myself some white wine schorle without the sparkling water, because I'm just that kind of hard drinker.

After dinner, we played more Munchkin (Saori won, although it was a close thing), and then we all adjourned to bed before midnight. At midnight, we were transported from 2016 into 2017 in a time machine. This apparatus was formed from a frame of metal rods supporting a large cushioned platform used for inducing the unconsciousness required for mental readjustment and biochemical repairs to the time-traveled brain. There was a slight hiccup in time- the clocks of the world paused for an extra second between 23:59:59 and 24:00:00 and we found ourselves in the future.

Fireworks are entirely legal here, so the entire region was deafened by a cacophony of people setting off fireworks leading up to and following The Peach Drop in downtown Atlanta.

In the morning, we greeted one another and ate miso soup and Japanese rice cooked with mushrooms. Miso soup is pretty meager- tofu and water and soybean paste and some dried seaweed. In principle, it could stand in for the black eyed peas. I joined the family at church and then when we came back, we ate a bunch of traditional little dishes Japanese make for New Years. 

Year of Earthquakes

It's 2017: the year of earthquakes. If 2016 was a year of picking paths (for us and the world), 2017 will be a year of walking them.

What were the highlights of 2016?

  1. Celebrating the start of 2016 with Tay and Saori shooting pool at trendy tequila bar in Houston
  2. The bizarre and short burst of baking french macarons, and later, springerle.
  3. We took a night train to Copenhagen and saw the sublime Louisiana museum 
  4. Getting married to Saori and cementing our commitment and love for one another, and experiencing the staggering outpouring of love and support from family and friends.
  5. An afternoon hiking with Saori to the village where my office is, and then being treated to dinner at the restaurant as part of our wedding present
  6. Meeting mom, Larry, and Tay in Rome and exploring and eating our way across the city.
  7. Taking a long and wonderful weekend in Barcelona at the end of the summer.
  8. Seeing the partial completion of my first project in the Jeggle office- the renovation of an old restaurant.
  9. Celebrating Christmas in Stuttgart with the Christmas markets, turkey, hot mulled wine, mountaintop castles, reindeer furs, and hikes in the woods where we didn't die.
  10. Spending a week at my sister-in-laws with her two young children in Atlanta. 

Medium is the message

I moved the blog again. I deleted the Tumblr account and moved everything to Medium.com, a more writing-centric website. medium.com/@wende