Hunan Chicken for Lunch

 

This year, I have a new favorite Chinese food restaurant for lunch. Momoko found it one day when driving around with Kit Kat. It is up near the town house we used to live in. A friend of the family bought a house up there. She sometimes hosts parties where she serves Chinese food. This restaurant is also her go to place.

I waited until 11:00 am this morning until their lunch special take effect. My favorite is the Hunan Chicken special. It comes with a tiny bit of soup. But for an extra 50 cents, you can upgrade to an egg roll. Their egg roll is huge. So, I opted for one. Their hot mustard is mid. I just make sure to pick up a ton of it.

I called in my order. Before leaving for the restaurant, I had to reattach the plastic tarp that had blown off our firewood stack in the back yard. I only did a haphazard repair as it was cold and raining. I decided I did not have time to buy a lottery ticket due to this delay.

At the restaurant, I opened my bag to dump in the hot mustard. There was no egg roll. I told the employee who handed me the bag. He seemed confused. My bag did not have my Hunan chicken order. It was chicken with broccoli. I worried it would take a long time for them to cook my correct order.

I think they just tossed the chicken broccoli in the pot, added green peppers plus Hunan sauce, then repackaged the result. I was okay as this got me on my way quickly.

Dust Under the Bed

 

I spotted a lot of dust under our bedroom bed. I had thought I cleaned it somewhat recently. Oh well. I grabbed the vacuum cleaning from the main level closet. At first I could not find the necessary attachments. Then I found then in a gym bag hanging from the wall in the closet.

I lay the vacuum on its side. Then I attached a small plastic brush. I kept pushing the brush under the bed. It seemed to clean okay. I moved all around my side. By the time I crossed over to Momoko's side, the vacuum did not seem to pick up as much.

I tested the attachment. There was suction. I did the best I could. There were more things in the way on Momoko's side as well. When I was done, I pulled off the attachment. That's when I found the thing jammed with mostly hair. I pulled the junk out and tossed it in the trash. Might have to clean again later.

The vacuum collection area was full. I went outside to empty it. It was snowing. So, I just did the work in the carport. Got two large sections of newspaper. Wet both of them to adhere to the dust. Then wrapped everything up in a grocery bag.

Fireplace Check

Today I wanted to test out our fireplace. Last time in the fire pit, the logs did not fully burn. I took a fat log from our carport shed. Used the chainsaw to cut it up into three small pieces. I also picked up a bunch of pieces of a tree branch I chopped up this weekend. The wood had softened up. I think the termites got to it.

I opened the flue in the fireplace. It was kind of weird. Felt like I just pushed it up. I know it must of worked. Because cold air came down on me. I put a lot of crumpled newspaper on the metal grill. Then I tossed some kindling. Some pieces were kinda thick. The I put the chopped logs on top. I lit the thing with matches and it started to burn.

I have maybe 10 full newspapers on the side. I kept crumpling the pages up and pushing them under the grill. It got so hot my legs felt singed. Even when I had a long pair of sweatpants on. I wanted to give the logs the best chance to fully catch fire and burn. The heat lasted about 6 hours. I closed the flue before bed.

Lighting the Fire Pit

I was trying to convince the family to light up the fire pit for the season. This is actually a new one we got from Momoko's sister. Nobody ever seemed remotely interested. So, today I lit the thing up myself.

Made sure to put a ton of newspaper balled up at the bottom. Then I grabbed some kindling from the trash can we filled in the car port in case of power outage. Finally, I grabbed a couple small logs from the car port shed. Again, we placed them there in case of power outage.

At first, the flames roared high. Only one of the log seemed to be marginally lit. I got a lot more newspaper that kept lighting and burning out. In the end, the logs seemed singed at best. Got to figure out what is wrong. Maybe need some lighter fluid?

Using Tech to Figure out Songs

Momoko and I went out to a steakhouse for lunch on the holiday. A sign out front confirmed they still offered $10 steaks to go with your meal. They suspiciously removed the signs for this from all the tables.

While eating lunch, I heard a song. I could not identify the artist. My iPhone informed me it was Castle on the Hill by Ed Sheeran. I was surprised. The chorus did not sound like him.

At home, I tried to find the song on YouTube. Had to google songs by Ed Sheeran where he talks about friends. Here is the chorus:

I'm on my way
Driving at 90 down those country lanes
Singing to "Tiny Dancer"
And I miss the way you make me feel, and it's real
And we watched the sunset over the castle on the hill

Taking out the Big Trash

Today is a holiday. But it is not affecting trash pickup tomorrow. I planned to put out Little Kat's old Casper mattress on the curb. He checked with our county's trash rules. They should pick it up it we have the mattress covered. Little Kat purchased a cheap $5 kind/queen mattress cover from Amazon.

We had stored the mattress in our carport. Today I took out the trash cans by myself to prop up the mattress on the curb. Oops. There was still snow piled there from the street plowing. Luckily, it was somewhat warm. And it had rained. So, I just had to shovel a lot of ice/snow.

I called up Little Kat and my brother. We dragged the mattress to the curb. Made sure the plastic cover had the whole mattress protected. I later put some tape to keep the cover on. I also put 2 signs on the mattress with TRASH labels. I had to adjust a light trash can on one side, so the mattress did not topple the can.

Finally I bent the large new Casper mattress box and stuffed it half way into the recyclables container. Let's hope the collection people come and take everything away tomorrow. Sure beats hauling everything to the dump, which is in our county, but very far away.

Credit Confusion

At work, somebody scheduled a meeting during lunch time. I went to McDonald's in the late morning to ensure I would not go hungry. Got a $6 meal deal. When I drove up to pay, my card was declined. Luckily, I had cash to cover it.

I went home. Called my credit card company. The first person I talked to said somebody else would know what to do. I spoke with another guy. He could not figure out why the charge did not go through. He said everything was okay with my account.

That night, I picked up dinner for the family at Popeye's. Again, my card declined. I paid with cash. This time, I called up my credit card company and said the card keeps declining. I gave them the info from my card. They said another card was sent and activated. My card was now defunct.

There were no fraudulent transactions on my card. I have been using this card for around a month since I got it. I think something was screwed up at the credit card company. Their only idea was to send me another card. I scrambled to change my recurring payments to use another credit card I have.