Thursday, March 31, 2011

Survivor Journal - Chapter 3

After a long day at work, it was a pleasure not to have to cook.  Stacey invited me to her home for dinner.  I met her husband Dan and their children Allison, Ben, and Cameron.  The ribs were great and it was exciting to have some kids around.  They're 4, 4 (twins) and 1 and, like our younger children, liven up when guests arrive.  Or maybe they're always like that.  Anyway, it was a great distraction from the very quiet house I now come back to in the evening.

Tomato Soup Surprise
That's my contribution to the potluck tomorrow evening after Stations of the Cross.  I have the honor of being the only male name in the list of people signed up to bring food to the event.  The group "in charge" is Caring Kitchen, so I'm taking Judy's place, at least this one time.

I found these ingredients in the house this evening, which I think will go together well enough to be palatable.

2 containers of organic creamy tomato soup
2 cans of Campbells Tomato Soup
2 cans of Ro-Tel Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies
Basil
Chipotle Chili Pepper
Paprika

I think it'll work if I add milk instead of water to the Campbell's soup and don't overdo the chili powder.  The basil and paprika are really just for decoration.  The key is it has to be quick enough for me to put together when I get home from work as late as 5:00, so I can go back to the chapel before 6:00.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Survivor Journal - Chapter 2

* I made a point of signing up to help with the volunteer work this Saturday.
* Finished repairing the server last night.  Now to see about Outlook, Quicken, etc.
 
Tuesday Dinner
As I used to do a looooong time ago, I invented something for dinner.  My little paper says Beef/Onion/Pepper Sandwich.  Maybe BOP Sandwich would be catchier...  I stir fried some beef, onions and peppers and mixed in this sauce:

3 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp hot sauce
1 tsp lime juice
1 tbsp Worcestershire
1 tbsp vinegar & oil dressing
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp Montreal Steak Seasoning
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp Korean chili paste

It came out pretty dry, so it could definitely work on a sandwich.  I put it in some pita bread and ate it with a knife and fork (the pita is too crumbly to eat with fingers).  It was good.  I'll have to play around with the sauce a little.  It had too much Worcestershire and maybe not enough Montreal Steak Seasoning (salt!).  Oh, I should have put in some soy sauce!  That was in the fridge too...

Earthquakes
There's a lot of interesting information on the Japanese Meteorological Agency web site. For instance, in the 18 days since March 11, there have been 372 aftershocks with a magnitude of 5 or greater.  Sixty-three of those measured 6 or greater and three of them were 7 or more.  The largest aftershock (7.7) occurred a half hour after the main quake.


One of the 6's rolled through here at 8:03 this evening.  It was a 6.4 and it's center was, you guessed it, right off the coast of Fukushima.  Those poor people...  It had been a relatively quiet day until then.  I only counted 8 other tremors during the last 24 hours and they were all less than 5.

It seems like this will never end.  May God have mercy on us all!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Survivor Journal - Chapter 1

The biggest problem of being the only one here is the incredible lack of structure to my evenings and weekends. I have to work really hard to figure out what to do next. There are no little (or big) people asking me to: play a game, read a book, give a bath, brush teeth, floss teeth, comb hair, fix this, find that...you get the idea.  I'm not used to thinking about what to do next.  The activity or job just came to me.  Now I have to go find it.

To Do list
My first attempt to alleviate the "what to do next" problem was to make a list. Here it is:

Adjust water heater
Clean kitchen
Vacuum bedroom/bathroom
Recycle milk cartons
Water plants
Fix RAID array in server
Blog about day
Make grocery list
_ Fold laundry & put away
Do laundry
Grocery shopping
Confession
Pickup mail
X Work?
Glue broken pottery
_ Fix Judy's watch
_ Trim tree branch
_ Check out Steve Stone's bike
Wash diapers
_ Fix bicycle pump

means I finished it; X means I decided not to do it; and _ means I haven't done it yet.

I made the list Saturday morning.  I didn't think I'd finish it all that day and I was right.  Here it is Monday and I've completed about half of it.  Some things I didn't put on the list until Monday.

Too be fair, some of the tasks were going to take a long time.  "Fix RAID array" is one of them.  I started Saturday, but kept running into one problem after another.  Today, I finally realized one of the disks is just plain bad and I needed to swap it for a new one.  It looks like the RAID will  be rebuilt in another 15 minutes.  Then, I have to copy the data back onto it from the backup disk, which will take a few more hours.

Some of the tasks aren't that appealing or important (to me).  "Wash diapers" definitely falls in the first category.  "Fold laundry & put away" falls into the second.  What do I care if the laundry is taking up space in the living room?  I don't spend any time there anyway--it's too cold (that's probably ammunition for another chapter).

Some of the tasks require better weather, like "Trim tree branch" and "Check out Steve Stone's bike".  The eight inches of snow from Saturday is only half melted and most of the dirt roads around here are a quagmire.  So is the yard, for that matter.  I'm sure it's not yet up to the job of supporting the ladder I need to get to the tree branch.


When I'm done with this post, I can check off "Blog about day"!

Menu for the week
The only logical way to make a grocery list is to start with a menu.  Breakfast is the easiest to plan--it's always cereal and milk.  Maybe juice.  Probably coffee.  Lunch is pretty easy too.  It's either a sandwich or leftovers.  Either one might be accompanied by carrots, a fruit and yogurt.  I should also take some pumpkin bread either to have with coffee in the morning or as a snack in the afternoon.

Here's the simple dinner menu I came up with for this week trying to use up stuff that's in the refrigerator before it goes bad:


Saturday - Pizza, salad
Sunday - Grilled chicken w/gravy, brown rice, broccoli, carrots
Monday - Hot dogs, sweet potato fries, salad
Tuesday - Beef/onion/pepper sandwich, green beans, mandarins
Wednesday - Grilled fish, brown rice, broccoli, salad
Thursday - Turkey burger, sweet potato fries, green beans
Friday - Soup, bread, salad

Saturday, I was torn between Mokuteki or frozen pizza.  I didn't write pizza on the grocery list, so I ended up with neither.  I had a chef salad and whole wheat bread instead.  Sunday, I wasn't that hungry at dinner time, since brunch was so late (~3:00 pm).  I had a sandwich.  Monday was the first night I ate what was on the menu!

Other things to write about
_ Observations about life in Japan before, during and after the crisis
_ What happens as I work on the To Do list
_ Anything unusual I do or try during my time alone

This solitude is not any entirely bad thing. It's just different.


* Checked off three more To Do list items on Tuesday.
* Washed the diapers on Wednesday, checking off one more item.