Category: Life in General

No Auto Bathroom Fan

Posted on by chappyshi

For four years since I moved into my current apartment, I have had to listen to the horribly loud ventilation fans in my bathrooms whenever I turned the lights on.  I have no windows in the bathrooms so the fans are definitely needed and I appreciate them when I take a shower.  However, there was only one switch and it turned both the light and the fan on as one.

Most of the time I really did not want or need to have the fan on.  I was so happy that my maintenance guys were willing and able to separate out the connections and put a controller in that had separate switches for the lights and fans.  Sometimes the simplest things make me so happy!

Bibimbap..What Is It…Really?

Posted on by chappyshi

In the Washington Post article, “Eating Well on Singapore’s Seedy Side,” dated 09/27/2009, a particular Chinese dish, no name, is said to be tossed “bibimbap style.”  There is absolutely no indication of what “bibimbap” is in the article.  I know, only after having spent the greater part of ten years learning Korean and living in Korea for seven of those years, what bibimbap is…a Korean rice dish.

Certainly, 98% of the Washington Posts readers won’t have a clue though.  The only similarity to bibimbap that the Chinese dish has is that they are both served in hot clay pots filled with rice.  In Korea, vegetables, sometimes fresh, sometimes slightly marinated, including seaweed, kimchi (do I need to clarify that one?), bean sprouts, shredded Korean radish,  perhaps some meat, etc, are placed on top of the rice.  Oft times, a fried egg will top the whole concoction and always a side  of kochujang, red pepper paste, will be included.

One then adds the desired amount of kochujang and mixes up the whole deal and noshes away.  It is more of a summertime dish but really can be served year round.  My well thumbed Korean to English dictionary defines bibimbap as a “rice hash, boiled rice mixed with subsidiary articles of diet.  Bibim means “hash” or mixture.  Bap refers to a dish based on rice.  Bibim Naeng Myun, for example, is a cold noodle dished with assorted mixed vegetables.

It’s a shame that the Washington Post could put such an obscure reference in an article and then never elaborate on it.  I assume that the writer felt confident that the reference was common knowledge and that the editor didn’t have a clue otherwise.

Rise and Fall of Saturn

Posted on by chappyshi

According to the Washington Post article, “GM to Shut Down Saturn After Penske Walks Away,” dated September 30, 2009, GM  is dumping Saturn after Penske decided not to buy the division.

What about that?  Saturn was, and I thought would continue to be, a major success story.  Penske really wanted to buy Saturn when the option came up as we (as in, we the citizens) bought GM a few months ago.  Does not bode well for the economy in my estimation.  I wonder what queered the deal.

Bear Facts

Posted on by chappyshi

My uncle who has lived in Alaska since 1972 or so sent me this story of a rogue black bear’s recent activity in their area.

“What isn’t normal is having a problem black bear in the neighborhood.  One night it pushed open a front door a half mile away and stuck it’s head inside before a very startled guest of the owners yelled and scared it away.  It got into an outbuilding a mile or so away and ripped up a bunch of bulk food stuffs (flour, coconut, all sorts of stuff).  At the cabin downstream from us (only occupied about a week a year these days) the bear went through a window and made a huge mess of their kitchen area.  At our place, one night it opened the freezer in our entryway and pulled out a bag of ice cubes, ignoring salmon, halibut, moose, caribou, etc.  Then the next night it pulled up our locked shop/garage door, pulled out a closed plastic garbage can, carted it 50 feet away, and opened the unopened bag of dog food inside and gorged itself.  The next night it was back to the shop again, but didn’t appear to go inside, perhaps because all possible goodies were now inside the house.  A neighbor apparently wounded it soon after, but didn’t kill it.  But we haven’t heard of any sign of it since.”

Barely knew him….

Northern Virginia Craft Beer News

Posted on by chappyshi

I am pleased to note that we have two new eating/drinking establishments in my area:  Vintage 51 South Riding and Dogfish Head Ale House.

Vintage 51, hereafter known as V51SR, is an extension of Vintage 50, hereafter known as V50, in Leesburg.  V51SR’s website is supposed to be www.vintage51sr.com but is still not up and running, which is stupid in my estimation.  The restaurant  has been open for at least three weeks now but in truth it is still not up and running.  The menu is still not complete, prices are up in the air (a bit too high), but the beer selection is awesome.

V50 Leesburg brews some awesome beers in my estimation and I can get growlers there which is a major bonus.  However the drive to V50, 30 to 40 minutes, diminishes the value of the brew.   V51SR, less than 15 minutes away, has a nice selection of craft beers on tap from Ales, Pale Ales, IPA’s, Kolsches, Hefe-Weisens, Stouts, Lagers, etc, well as quite a selection of bottled beers.  Don’t expect to get a Coors, Bud, or Miller Lite there though.

They are supposed to be pouring growlers.  My initial impression is that they won’t be able to do so profitably, since they would be pouring growlers of beers purchased from distributors rather than those produced in house.  That impression has nearly been confirmed by at least one of their bartenders.  The initial pricing projections are way beyond what even the most devoted micro brew aficionado would spring for.

V51SR is in a weird spot.  First of all  let me say that the Virginia booze laws are wacked.  V50 in Leesburg brews their own beer on site.  They can’t sell their  own beer at another one of their own restaurants without selling it to a distributor and then buying their beer back from the distributor.  So V51SR would have to sell beer produced by the the same company that runs V50 and V51SR at a higher price than V50 sells it for.  WTF?

If you are half-way serious about craft beers, you will be familiar with Dogfish Head.  Their 60 Minute IPA is fairly widely distributed.  The 60 Minute IPA is a a great beer…it is the anchor of their product line for those of us who like ales.  Unfortunately, for one,  they don’t sell growlers.  I think if  they brewed the beer  on site they could sell growlers.  Secondly, the beer selection is good but also a bit exotic, particularly on the flavoring side.

Most people will like their Lawnmower Light and then have to do some tasting of the other beers to find what they might like.  The Aprihop is a good beer but I am not likely to have more than one at a time.  I recently had the “Festina Peche,” which I now remember, after finding reference to it on the web, was sour tasting, not as in bad but as in citrusy sour.  Like the Aprihop, I am not likely to have more than one at a time which could be a good thing.

Please don’t ask me about the food at either Dogfish Head or V51SR.  I eat at home.  I visit these places only to check out the beers and the talent.  I do know that both of the “Vintage” restaurants get many of their fresh ingredients from the Fields of Athenry Farm in Purcellville, VA, where, as I understand, everything is grown/raised, organically.  Fields of Athenry, is on Snickersville Pike, which is a great motorcycle ride from Rt. 50 west of Aldie to Bluemont on Rt. 7 west of Leesburg.

Enjoy your beers but not before you ride!

I Must Be a Loser

Posted on by chappyshi

I must be a real loser because I don’t have a a cell phone permanently attached to my ear nor do I use a Bluetooth headset for my cell phone.  I do have only a cell phone…no landline…so maybe I  not such a loser but…

I really don’t get it.  I am having a busy day if I talk on my personal phone once a day.  Yet all around me people are walking in and out of their houses talking on cell phones, they are getting in and out of their cars talking on cell phones, they are pulling into and out of parking spaces talking on cell phones, and they are walking and crossing streets…talking on their cell phones.

I watched a young girl walk across a major intersection today talking on her cell phone totally oblivious to her surroundings.  Yesterday, I saw a woman in her late fifties/early sixties run into a hip-high flower pot on a strip mall promenade while talking on the phone.  She thought no one saw her but I gave her a little nod to let her know that her mishap had not gone undetected.  Not too long ago when I was walking on a neighborhood trail, I frightened a young woman who was on her cell phone walking her dog.  I was not 10 feet from her before the dog called attention to me.  I am not sure that she would have ever seen me…

I don’t really understand why people  have to be so connected.  It is amazing that people even have time to take a crap without getting a call or a text message.   For all I know, they don’t!  I should create a web site called “Shitter,” based on Twitter, from which you can alert all your friends to the fact that you are on the crapper.

Life Is Tough

Posted on by chappyshi

What a rough day!  Beautiful weather.  Reading the Washington Post on the balcony loving life.  Headed off at about 3:30 PM for a friend’s house a few blocks over for a pool/birthday/football party.  Tons of food there all designed to set my cholesterol level even higher than it needs to be before I get blood work done tomorrow morning.  My back is bothering me from an incident 10 days ago so I couldn’t get involved in the Cornhole competition which was looking quite intense.

My intention was to cut out of there after two beers which I did…with some difficulty.  I went to the Giant to get some beers to have at the house should I desire them.  On the way home, I stopped by Julie and Ed’s to check the house and found a crab and clam feast going on at the neighbor’s house.  Chris and Courtney invited me over.  Kathy Slover, who I always enjoy seeing, was there.

Chris had three bushels of live female crabs and just keep cooking away.  I had to get home at about 7:30 PM but before I left three or four more people showed up and the feast just kept going on.  I really did not want to leave but my cat needed to be fed and I needed to find some sanity.

Trip to Vermont, Early August

Posted on by chappyshi

In early August I went up to Vermont to attend the Vergennes Union High School 30-year class reunion.  I actually left there after my 10th grade year but have had the privilege of attending the 20 and 30-year reunions as a guest.  Other than the reunion, the trip was for kayaking, birding, picture taking, hiking, camping and visiting with friends.  It was well worth it!

You can read more about the trip by clicking here or browsing under my “Currant News” section.  You can view photos by clicking here or following the “My Photo Album” link on my home page.

The links in the PDF format “trip read” don’t open in new windows as I had hoped they would.  If you follow a link in the PDF document, it will take you forever to reload the PDF file.  Ergo…

All the imbedded  links are replicated below.  Please use them rather than the links in the PDF document if you wish to find out more.  I will have to come up with another presentation format but bear with me in the meantime.

I Watched “Dances with Wolves”

Posted on by chappyshi

I thought “Dances with Wolves” was an excellent movie.  Who can find fault in the scenery, the cultural assimilation, the poignant love story, and the painful killing fields?  I feel bad for the Indians and their homeland and lifestyle.  It is a travesty what the white man did.  Unfortunately we keep doing it, at least to the homeland…

Memories and Melancholy

Posted on by chappyshi

I got a bit melancholy the other day as I was reading the travel section in the Washington Post.  For some reason, the article I was reading made me think about Canada and places I had been to there repeatedly due to work.  One place is St. Georges de Beauce in Quebec, another is old Quebec City, and the other is Toronto in Ontario.  St. Georges and Quebec City were places I went to for business and pleasure when I worked for Canam Steel and Toronto I went to for business while I was working for DDi…that was a pleasure also.

St. Georges is a fairly small town where Canam’s IT department was headquartered.  I remember fondly (not fondling) being entertained on the town by my Canadian coworkers.  At the end of  trip up there I would usually take a couple of personal days at my expense in old Quebec City.  It is probably not much harder to find an old world, read “European,” environment than Quebec City in North America expect perhaps for Montreal.

My favorite place to stay in old Quebec City is the Hotel Le Clos Saint Louis which is comprised of two old merged townhouses with a variety of accommodations that were always reasonably priced, especially, considering the location and included a free breakfast in the basement of the place, which kind of put me on edge, being in the basement that is.

I have a vague recollection of departing the place very early in the morning one time, waiting for my cab to the airport, and realizing I had left one of my bags in the foyer and already dropped off my key.  There was no one on the front desk that early and repeated attempts to roust someone via the door buzzer were futile.  I had no cell phone at the time but when the cabbie showed up we used his phone to call the hotel to no avail.  Meanwhile, I needed to get to the airport!  Finally, as desperation was peaking, some folks came walking out the door, I ran in, grabbed my bag, jumped in the cab, and made it to the airport on time.

Toronto has supposedly the largest immigrant population of any city in the world…over 50%.  That in and of itself meant good things to me.  I met people from all over the world and ate their food.  The remarkable friendliness and kindness of the immigrants made me question why there was so much strife and hatred in our world.  Toronto’s location on Lake Ontario, thankfully, makes up for it’s unbelievable flatness.  Best of all though were the friends I made at DDi Toronto.  We worked hard together, we had some good times, they had a birthday cake for me in the office one day, and I went out with a few folks who treated me to dinner that night.

So I am a bit sad thinking back.  I have been out of work for so long that I reflect back on the work relationships that so define our day to day existence.  They really did and continue to mean a lot to me.