Note to Self: What to do next summer

 

A disclaimer at the beginning.  As the title reads this is a note to self, strictly for me. I am making it public because I dont care.  People can read it, but it is basically really just that, a note to me on what to do next summer and things to do during the year in preparation.  Hopefully so the summer is even better.  Maybe you will take interest and / or you can use the suggestions also.  I hope.  But first, I am writing just for me. 

To begin with, during the year I will try to lose a couple lbs, kilo.  Just a couple.  I am probably anywhere fronm 5 to 10 kilo over weight.  Losing 10 lbs would be fine and satisfying.  But it is difficult even to lose 2 lbs.  If I lost 2 lbs by Christmas, I would be satisfied.  5 by the end of the school year... pretty good.  Note, its not a new years resolution. I never make those anymore, its just something I would like to happen and I will try somewhat hard for it to happen. In general it would be healthy and good and make me all around better.  

But I have to lose some poundage in order to be in better shape.  Because next year I am planning to climb the dune with my daughter.  She really wants to do it.  But it is a little bit.. challenging and she isnt so old so she could get caught out of shape trying to make it to the top. I want to be in shape to make that climb at the sleeping bear sand dunes with her.  I did it once maybe 15 years ago or more and it was difficult.  So now it will be even more difficult.  So, I have to get in shape for it.  Start now.  

More training of another sort during the year. I want to learn some more meals to increase my supper repertoire.  In fact I can give a little update right now.  I tried making a curry dish with chicken and tofu.  It wasnt strong enough because i didnt use curry powder, I used a curry sauce which wasnt the same. I have to use a powder.  Lots of onions.  The problem is, after I made it my older daughter DID like it and said it was decent.  Not so strong, no, but decent.  But then my younger daughter said, "Dad, I dont like curry dishes."  Crap.  She doesnt eat many sauces, but I thought since she loves hot buffalo wings she would like a curry dish.  But no.  Rats, so what do I do with that?  I guess I will try it again and hopefully add it to my repertoire, but, sort of a lost cause if my younger daughter wont eat it.  Still.....

This one is kind of tough.  I wish I could feel better about driving.  I dont like to drive much.  Each time I go out driving I really have to push myself. I can handle the highway but not the city so well and a big city freaks me out.  I wish I could hurdle this fear of driving.  I think I have had it for many years though.  I really dont know where it comes from because I was only in one major crash in which I wasnt hurt or driving.  Another minor one, but personally I have never crashed.  I have been driving since I was 16 and it doesnt bother me. Just the thought of having to drive sort of turns my stomach before I actually have to drive.  

The dune climb

Because I also would like to plan a couple more outings with my kids.  The last ONE was very successful.  We should do, I wish, three.  Just go to nearby places.  Historical things or a nice town.  Sightseeing.  How can I work on this? I dont know.  

Last and definitely least, I would like to finally get all my excess stuff I have kept at people s places away from them and back to my year round home.  I am very lucky that I had very nice people who let me hold some of my stuff with them after my Mother sold the cottage AND I have been taking it back to my winter home every year.  But now is the time to finish the process.  Either throw stuff out or take it back. I better have the strength to throw some stuff out as I think I still have more than a suitcase full of stuff to take back.   

Granted I keep a big army suitcase (my fathers suitcase from when he was in the army during WWII) of blankets and plates that we keep there, but I should take the rest of the stuff back.  Finish the process.  Get it over with, move on.  Organize it once and for all.  

The thing is now they charge you for every suitcase you check in.  This last summer I got away with taking an extra carry on suitcase and taking stuff in that, but this year I will have to pay to check in a full suitcase. It is still much cheaper than shipping it.  I guess I will put one suitcase inside the other and check both going back.  I want to finish with this.  

And so.  This is my note to self.  Of things to take care of during the year in preparation for an even better next summer.  Well, taking off weight is good for any time of the year.  Also the most difficult.  Well, actually conquering your fears and re wiring your brain after you well into mid age years is also difficult.  

Lets see what I can do.  I dont expect to accomplish all of them.  That is the thing.  You should make a list of things to do and accomplish but be happy if half or even a third of them are accomplished.  Time to step up to the plate, though I already have.  

Best of luck Self.  

I got the just about newest Figurex label titles into the store in September and Figurex31 is very good.  Arthur Robert's Metamorphosis part 1.  Part 2 is also out, but I think part 1 is stronger.  

Also,  I always get the bondage label stuff. I dont think I have this one yet but I will get it on my next order.  

Marcus Homm minimal House full LP

After Dark

Or maybe it is new deep house.  

Very nice smooth grooves.  Great for listening at home, on the dance floor or dare I say it?, background music as you work.   

Summertime blues 2022 part 1 : Suppertime failures

 Yes, if you noticed I called this post summertime "blues" where as all the others have been "no blues".  To state the obvious:  all the others were mostly, nearly successes, and this one .. was not.   What was this failure of the summer?

Suppers. 

To be fair to me, first I will state things which were against me which werent my fault but helped me fail at suppers.  

1.  The stove was not working properly for several days when I needed it.  First it wasnt on at all and I didnt know how to turn on the gas for it.  So, i had to postpone a supper I was going to cook in the oven.  THEN when we did get it going, it went off again and it STILL was not working.  This caused me to cook on the top of the stove and not in the oven.  The meal came out ok, but it was a bit troubling and I had to make changes and adjustments.  Not my fault.  By the day after I think we got the oven working, but I was worried whether it was leaking while it was on.  I could smell stuff in the kitchen, gas, during the day and or night.  

2. We werent there during corn season.  Last year we had corn about half or more

Michigan bi color sweet corn

than half the suppers.  We love Michigan corn, and the local stuff is the best.  But it comes in at the beginning of August.  So we could only have a couple suppers of out of area corn which wasnt as great, but still good, but not LOCAL. And when the local stuff finally did come onto the market, our vacation was just about up. I think it became available in the last couple days we were there.   

3. Ugh, the spaghetti and or spaghetti sauce was a total failure.  That wasnt my fault.  Something was wrong with the sauce and or noodles.  I may have bought too thick noodles and they were too watery?  Maybe.  The sauce was terrible.  Too soupy and the taste was bad. And I bought a well known brand, what I thought was a good brand.  Failure.  Not my fault.  Might not even make spaghetti next year.  

4.  My daughters WOULD not let me make my best signature meal, lasagne.  They said, I can only make that during the year, not in the summer. It is not a summer dish and I am not allowed to make it here on vacation.  They are kind of tied up in traditions.  I understand their reasoning and why, but, it further tied my hands on supper. 

Ok,  but the basic problem which made it a failure was, I just didnt have a big enough repertoire this year.  My big signature meals were seriously diminished.  Lasagne was a no no,  the spaghetti was terrible so I only made it once.  The pork chops were compromised when I made them on the top of the stove.  The hot Buffalo wings also, but I salvaged that operation and cooked half in oven and half on stove top.  But not the usual good ones.  Lost cause.   I cant even remember well what I cooked for dinner.  Corn a couple, three times, maybe 4.  Peegeos pizza 3 times.  Sometimes we had lunch at dinner because we had a big lunch.   A subs one night during the dusk movie.  This and that, but I cant see that it added up to 21 days of vacation.  But it did.  I dont think ANY of my regular meals were a success.   Man oh man.  

The easy thing to do is to fix it in one manner:                                                     Increase my repertoire!!!!

This I have to do during the year.  Even though I will be able to fall back on corn next year more often, I need to develop more recipes for dinner.  And I would rather they not be meals that my wife has already developed, granted though I stole the lasagne recipe from her and the chicken kebabs.  But I have to find my own successful path to dinner.  Should I look for some educational course to learn some more? 

I have to get cracking on this and find some meals to try.  But as of yet the only one I can think of, and wait a sec, hear me out on this one, the only meal I can think of so far to try is macaroni and cheese.  Oh Louise, is that a loss or what? 

But wait, see, my older daughter really likes mac and cheese and I think I could make a good homemade one. She was all psyched about this store bought one, but if I try a homemade one during the year, maybe it could be a success for her. But admittedly it is not the most original, healthy, or wise choice to add to my repertoire.  

Stay tuned during the year as hopefully I can give more reports on my "struggle". To add to my list of dinners.  I better get started on this.  Summer will come quickly and I dont want another summer of failed dinners.      

Dads, if you are going away with your kids and you are responsible for suppers, let me pass on this rule of thumb of how many recipes you might need.  Ie, if you are responsible for a week, it is best that you know 3-4 recipes.  And no, hot dogs and potato chips does not count, even though I have fallen back on that one.  Best to have 4. Then one, maybe two nights you can go out or order in like a pizza or something good.  Get stuff from a real good local restaurant.  Something special to that area you are in.  Space the restaurants.  Ie Monday and Friday or Tuesday and Saturday.  And yes, ok one night hot dogs and chips.  So that is three nights and 4 left for cooking yourself

Two weeks and you are going to need 7 -10 meals in your knowledge cap.  See, nights out is getting tight. You dont want to have 4 restaurant nights.  That is a bit much and the kids will stop liking it really.  You might get away with 4 order food or restaurant nights, but .... maybe, maybe not.  So better to have at least 7 meals you can make and a hot dog and chips meal is 8 and 4 night out and you still have to make up 2 dinners.  Tough call.  

And three weeks, like I had.. well then you can start repeating your meals so you dont need 16 say, you can get away with like 10 to 14.  To tell you the truth, I dont think I have a repertoire of 10 to 14.  For the likes of my memory what did I do? How did I get by?  See, by my standards I am giving to you, I am not there yet.  

2022-2023   RECIPE building is in order and necessary.  Stay tuned.   I ll let you know.   No more supper failures.   

I listened to the new Sarathy Korwar album "Kalak" while I was putting in pictures in this post.  Pretty good synthesis of Indian tabla and rhythms and jazz.  New jazz.   I wouldnt really call this an "Indian album",  it crosses many boundaries and synthesizes a lot of styles. I might not even call this "a Brit thing" though his last album was very British.  This is good stuff with a twist on the new jazz sound circulating as a sub sub trend.  (ie porto quartet, zabelov group). Nice, Very nice.