Hieroglyphic Graffiti

My mother asked me what I wanted for my birthday. (My birthday is July, you haven't missed anything, my mom started shopping early.)
I told her I wanted a custom hoodie. Based of this image of a white mage in pants and a hoodie by Big Big Truck. So I told my mom about it. (What I actually said was it was a toss up between that hoodie and a Legend of Zelda hoodie.) She liked the White Mage idea and told me if I found someone to make it I could have it.
I found someone to make it.
It arrived a bit early. I am a happy turtle.
( I'm a White Mage )

I while ago I posted about a really cool video of the Final Fantasy girls vs the DOA girls?
There's a sequel.
( Video )

The first flowers have finally bloomed in my yard. We've had green popping up for almost a half a month now but the first daffodil finally bloomed the other day. It's nice to see the bulbs I plant bloom. I was told for years I was terrible with plants and I may not be good with plants but I have a garden damnit and it's pretty!

I went and bought my bridemaid's dress this past weekend. I'm very happy with what size I turned out to be. That was a nice surprise. (Despite my tough exterior I really am a pretty princess at heart.)

And this week I have friends coming down to stay for a few days. That's bound to be fun. It's going to be a busy two weeks but that's ok. It's good to be busy in spring.

I found some boiled egg molds. Cut for those who don't care.
( I'm a dork )

Ugh.
That whole hour earlier thing may be good for using more of the sunlight in a day but my internal clock doesn't like it at all.

But hey it's Monday. Hello Monday! I have nothing else of interest to add except that I have Melon flavored black tea. Mmmm tea.

This is a very simple bento cut as usual.
( Yes, another one )

The Teriyaki Chicken freezes pretty well. It seems to have gotten a tiny bit dry but still very tasty. I don't think I'd risk freezing it for a long time but not so bad for the short term.

Oh and some more shingles flew off the roof. My roof is having a midlife crisis and wants to be a stripper or something. It's very annoying.

So I found a simple, easy recipe for making Chicken Teriyaki that I'd like to share. I found it on the internet on one of the many bento blogs out there but when I tried to retrace my steps so I could credit the blog I couldn't find it again. If you recognize it, let me know.

You need about 270 grams or 9 1/2 oz of chicken. The original recipe called for thighs, I used 3 breasts and it was tasty. I'm pretty sure you could use any part of the chicken as long as you de-boned and cut it into small pieces.
3Tbs Sake,
3Tbs Mirin (Rice Cooking Wine, I'm sure any cooking wine would do.)
3Tbs Raw Cane Sugar or Honey (I used Honey)
3Tbs Soy Sauce.

Mix all that stuff (except the chicken) together in a bowl. Now take your chicken and cut it up nice and small and then poke it all over with a fork. Dump into into the marinade and stick it in the fridge overnight.

Heat up your frying pan (a medium heat works great), put a little oil in so nothing sticks, and throw on some chicken. Put a lid over it and cook for 4 minutes.
Take the lid off, turn the chicken over, spoon some of the marinade on and cook another 2 to 3 minutes. How long it takes of course depends on how thick your chicken is.

Take them out, drain off the excess oil and there you have it!
I made plenty extra so I froze it. I'll let you know how well it freezes. The three good sized breasts I used made enough for about 6 bentos.
( Onto the Bento )
Now as for the hard boiled egg. I took an egg, washed it well and put it into the rice cooker with the rice. When the rice was done, so was the egg. I'm looking into getting a boiled egg mold so I can have cute shapes.

So the guy came and fixed our roof. Yay! $300, just like he said it was going to be. Great guy.
That's the good news, and it is indeed good news! No more worries about water damage.

The bad news is I need a new roof.
This guy wasn't telling me this to get new business. He doesn't do whole roofs, just patches. He's just telling me because he thought I should know that the wind and weather is taking it's toll.
A new roof is a couple of thousand.

It's good to know that's what we're saving up for next. I thought it was a Wii. Nope, it's a roof. Home ownership is fun!

It is more good than bad. It's just hard to remember that when you need a new roof.

So yeah, we had some shingles blow off our roof in that bad windstorm that came through our area. I finally got a nice estimate on fixing it, about $300. Not so bad. Won't get anywhere near our deducible but compared to the other estimates I was getting ($1000+) this looks pretty good. I know this guy's mother-in-law, she's our next door neighbor.

Why is this one so low? Well some of the other folks wanted to take apart the whole roof on that side and that is totally unnecessary since the largest gap in any one area is about three shingles. (We lost about 20 or so total.) This fellow is actually only going to patch it. I don't really care if the new shingles don't match exactly. (A few of the folks were telling me it was going to be hard to match the color. I don't care if the new shingles are purple! I just don't want the roof to leak.)

He did a few other roofs on our street and did a good job so I feel pretty confident. This is also a small town and me knowing his mother-in-law works in my favor. If I complain to her about something he would hear about it, probably for weeks. She's a lovely lady but she believes in a job well done.

He's very nice. He told me he'd start today, he only called last night. He said that if he'd finished before I got home he'd catch up with me later. It just feels nice that he trusts me to get his money to him. I will too. After all, his mother-in-law lives next door. ;p

So that's one more burden off my mind. It's more money going out but we'll be ok. In a few months all we be well.

It's the moment you've all been waiting for. Yellow Blankie showed up in the mail. The two have been reunited. Cut because some folks may not want to view the dorkness.
( Mr. Foxie & Yellow Blanket )
I was so happy I cried.

Those of you who have known me since I was small might know about Yellow Blankie. Yellow Blankie was my baby blanket. It was a companion to Mr. Foxie (my teddy bear).

I was pretty attached to the thing as a kid (I was Linus) and when told to give it up I was reluctant but I put it away into a drawer. Fearing my parents would throw it out (it was pretty threadbare) I brought it over to my grandmother's house and put it away there. It was in a drawer in the back bedroom where we kids would sleep when we stayed over.

One day I came home from school and it was gone. My grandmother told me she'd thrown it away. I was very upset. I cried for hours and made my parents promise never to touch Mr. Foxie. My parents were also upset that my grandmother had thrown it away. Sure I was still attached to it but I had put it away just like they had asked.

Fast forward. My dad called me last night to tell me my grandmother had something for me.
Me: What? The rocking chair? I'll get it when I come up to visit you.
Dad: No, not the chair. We have the chair. It's yellow. And threadbare.
Cue silence from me and then in utter disbelief: Blankie?

My grandmother found my blanket up in the attic. She hadn't thrown it away after all. Dad is going to mail it to me. They're damn happy she found it. It seems they had felt guilty about it for all these years.

Yes I am a complete and utter dork but I am just so happy that it wasn't thrown away after all. YAY!!!
So Blankie is now with me, safe and sound. Mr. Foxie is pleased. I was so happy I cried. Yes, that's right, I'm that much of a dork. A happy dork.

Also for just under $400 Gillware got all my data. There was some corruption but all of the important files (i.e. my thesis) work. The disks are on their way to me right now.

I'm so happy.

Back to baking apple pie.

I'll probably post the same entries here that I post over on my lj. Just so you know. I'm boring like that. Also this is the third blog/journal I have. I can't be buggered to write something different for all three.
I'm a lazy turtle.

Hello there.
This is me and here I am on Insane Journal.
Now to find everyone else.