Talk About Tuesday

 

So Uh... It's been a while...

Not gonna spin you the whole nine yards about the last week or so. I'll just come right out and say it.

I have felt incredibly bleh for the last week or so. Haven't had any motivation, haven't been able to sleep well, haven't been myself.

It's not COVID, I'm pretty sure. I think I'm just hitting a Seasonal Transition Depression. Happens between every single season - the weather shifts and I feel like... poo.

It's usually worse right before winter and right before summer, too, so this makes sense.

And for those who insist that Summer starts halfway through June, reality begs to disagree. The seasons are shifting. summer starts in the last half of May, Spring starts on Apr 1, Fall starts on Sept 30, and Winter starts November 27. They're jagged, uneven things, and none of them are as enjoyable in my 30s as they were in my childhood.

The nicest things I did since last Tuesday were writing 250 words in one of my books, hanging out with my guy, and watching a lot of wombat videos.

I also made some really nice yakisoba for him & me. Complete with ramen eggs that were pretty tasty!

Probably the worst things that happened this week were: 

Mice made their home in the mower's engine and we found out the hard way. No survivors. Mass nausea.

My cat stepped in another cat's poop outside and I had to help my mom wash her paws. The cat was unamused and hooked her poopy claws into the inside of my arm. There's bruising. FYI, rubbing alcohol and antibiotic ointment don't feel great.

I haven't slept more than 5 hours a night for the last 7 days. It's... bad.

I wanted those ramen eggs to be soft boiled but I still don't know at what point a 6 minute egg is actually a 6 minute egg (do you measure from boil or from the moment the egg is introduced to the stovetop?!) and also we don't have any ice to make ice water with. I also left them in the marinade for about 3 hours too long. Still good, but not exactly what I wanted.

Hopefully, though, I'll be able to get my silly butt to sleep for a full 8 hours and actually do the things I want to do!

This week's tentative plans:

Thursday: Art! Hopefully I can get my act together and actually draw something!

Monday: Figure out what I'm going to do with that Mushroom... can't quite figure it out yet.

Tuesday: Show up with hopefully less excuses and more excitement!

I am really sorry that I didn't have any good progress or fun stories for you this week. I've been bleh, and I'm looking forward to not being bleh!

Go Enjoy Something!

FC

Survival Sunday 247: More Noodz

In Which I Try More Umai Crate Noodles

So, you know how adding stuff to noodles usually means good things? Uh.... unfortunately that didn't work out very well this time :(

Left to right: Healthy ramen, Tanuki Soba, and Canadian Bacon

We've never had too much luck with the health food ramen with the guy on the package - it's usually pretty bland. Tanuki soba, on the other hand, is usually really good! I mean, it's soba, so what's not to love?

And this kind had both crunchy puffs and fried seaweed! Score!

It was easy enough to prepare the soba, since that's just an "add hot water and let sit" kind of cup. I was a little annoyed that you can't see the fill line on this one, so I probably added a tiny bit too much water. Also this is maybe the second or third time we've received this kind of Tanuki Soba alone, so... not the most adventurous of Umai adventures...

I set about 2.5 cups of water to boil in a pan on the stove, ladling out enough to cook the Tanuki once it was hot enough. Then I set to work with prepping the healthy ramen so that it absolutely wasn't. My partner tore up the Canadian bacon and set it marinating in spicy sesame oil and the last of our soy sauce.

A simple marinade but one that smelled incredible!

Then I cracked some eggs into the water with the noodles and let those cook before dumping in the Canadian bacon. I should've added in the marinade, but hindsight is 2020...

The noodles cooked up fine, and I added in the flavor packet, but... it didn't really smell like much of anything.

This should have alerted me to the coming meal.

The flavor packet in any ramen should smell like something, but this one was just... vaguely sweet/salty smelling. It should have been strong enough to smell without stuffing my nose into the foil packet.

Sadly, even spicy curry, ramen pepper, and garlic powder could not save this ramen :(

The healthy ramen was, without a doubt, the most disappointing ramen I've had that didn't come from Wal-Mart.

It had absolutely no flavor, the noodles were limp (despite cooking for less time then they should have!), and the broth was basically taupe-colored water. We had to add salt.

At least the eggs were fantastic, though! Possibly the best eggs I've ever scrambled into ramen!

As for the Tanuki Soba? It was fine.

The Tanuki soba still had that nice buckwheat flavor with a dashi that, while not the strongest, was still flavorful and pretty decent. And the veggies were really pleasant, too!

So basically that was a bit of a flop of a meal :( That's too bad, since I was looking forward to the flavors.

As a consolation for the middling-to-disappointing fare from this blog, here's a picture of my cat in full snuggle-drunk blep mode:

yeaaaaaaaah, them's good tummy rubs....

Go Enjoy Something!
FC