Omnivore’s Delight

I took this from Tales from the Testosterone Zone
I was worry about doing it because I admit I am fussy when it comes to food....in fact I am not really an omnivore....I eat fish and sometime poltry, but that is it when it comes to meat type things. I don't do coffee...tea is my thing....well really herbal tea...or the correct name tisane is my thing. I also rarely drink alchohol....I do drink mead, but that is about it. I am not as adventurous as a lot of people so I thought I would have a ton I wouldn't be willing to try.

The rules:

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht - Had it many times when traveling in the USSR, won’t touch it in the US
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari - love it
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi - have trouble with indian food I puff up so will not do
15. Hot dog from a street cart - there used to be a great hot dog vender in Portland, served kosher hot dogs and he would blow a Shofar...I miss him
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes - very common up here in Maine blueberry wine and dandilion wine
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes - My parents grow them
22. Fresh wild berries - I live in Maine home of the wild blueberries and wild strawberries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper - maybe not a whole one but I would think about it
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava - Love it
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas - one of my favorte snacks
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl - Hello once again I point out I live in Maine you can’t swing a dead lobster without hitting some New England Clam Clowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi - see number 14
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat - see number 14
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more - Not like I haven’t had the chance Fly Guy has had plenty of good single malt whiskies floating around the house
46. Fugu - I would be tempted, but most likely my sane mind would kick in as with the Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel - eat it and realize I don’t like it and then I try it again and don’t like it...so I won’t eat it ever again because I keep trying it to make sure I still don’t like it
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut: don’t get the big hype about it
50. Sea urchin - Fly Guy tried it a couple time and just the smell and techture turned me off
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer - see #14
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal - gross
56. Spaetzle - I have never tried it, but will be trying it in November
57. Dirty gin martin
58. Beer above 8% ABV - another thing I had in the USSR, but don’t do in the US
59. Poutine - haven’t had it but would like to
60. Carob chips - People who don’t like carob, are normally who view it as a chocolate substitue, carob is something that needs to be it’s own thing and once you get to that point carob is good.
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads - someone needs to be threating to hurt a friend or family member before I am willing to eat
63. Kaolin - no idea what this is
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis - might try if I am touring Scotland after having a bottle of Whiskey
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini: Of course....it was the first thing I had when I was in the USSR they also had caviar served on boil egg halves which I didn’t like as much
73. Louche absinthe
74.Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill - might be in the same catigory as the Sweetbreads
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong - I don’t like it I think this is the one that smels like burning tires
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict- Not Eggs Benedict with ham, but with veggies and seafood :-9
83. Pocky - love Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse- never ever ever
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam never have had it and never will
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor - rather have my lobster striaght up
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

Ok I have voted....now leave me alone

Fly Guy and I are going on vacation the week of Election Day, for the cool honeymoon we never really had. (We went camping on our first honeymoon and it rained the whole time so we went home early. At least we know now that our rainy honeymoon wasn't a sign of a bad marriage to come.) So being good little American Citizens we got our absentee ballot and I have filled it in and it is already to go to the City Clerk's Office.....I might just drop it off rather then mail it in order to make sure it gets there safely. So any way...I have no voted. I don't care to hear any more political ads or anything like that. Just leave me alone.

Happy Berth Day Once Again

Last night the Red Sox made it into the playoffs once again. I am glad for it, but I am not counting on anything. It is never good to be cocky. I swam for a swim team who had not lost a swim meet since before I had been born. When I was 17 swimming on the team we lost our first swim meet. Between that and being a Red Sox fan for a good part of my life, I know a loss could come out of anywhere so keep quiet, stay modest and keep your head down. ;-)




On a different topic, but related to the Red Sox....have I have said how much I like Jonathan Papelbon. I think the world would be a better place if people took a lesson or two from him. He takes his job very seriously. He gets upset with himself when he knows he could have done better and didn't for what ever reason. So those are two nice things. The last thing that makes me like him is when he is not working he knows how to let go and celebrate/relax. He has danced to raise money for the Mike Lowell Foundation, he has lip sinced for rain delay entertainment, he has danced for Red Sox Nation in his underwear, and he wears a kilt. What is not to like. :-)

Remembering

Today is a day of remembering. It is easier when the sky isn't the same as that bright blue sky that it was in 2001. I remember that it was History Girl's third day of Kindergarten. I remember dropping her off she loved going to school. I remember it recycling day so the bins were out front and I went out to get them after the truck came by picking up the recycling. Horse Girl who was 18 months old at the time had fallen asleep on the living room floor, so I log on the the computer and talk to a friend who at the time lived outside of NYC. She told me to turn on the TV. I am grateful that Horse Girl took a long nap that morning so I could follow the news. I started watching right after the first plane hit, and Horse Girl napped long enough that I got to see and hear about all the other planes. I remember the first tower collapsing and thinking about all the people still in the building...then thinking about how NYC skyline that I always knew has changed permanently....I didn't realize then how true that was. I remember wanting to go get History Girl from school, but didn't because that was irrational desire. I knew we were in Maine and more or less safe, so I left her in school....that was before I found out two of the terrorists stayed the night on the other side of town and they flew out of the airport that I use when fly in and out of Portland. I also remember how quiet the everything was. We live under a flight path to the Portland airport so I normally hear a plane or two every hour, but the next few days there was just disturbing quiet. I remember my father coming to visit the next couple evenings. Since he works at a newspaper those days were very stressful for him and he needed to relax.

This was the first 9-11 that I didn't have flashbacks of the events of that day. I think it is because school started early this year. For the past 7 years I have tied the start of school with the events of 9-11-2001. The year Horse Girl started Kindergarten was really bad because there was a lot of thing that were just like when History Girl started Kindergarten that brought back memories.

This evening I read "The Man Who Walked Between The Towers" to Horse Girl. I like the book because it is a nice tribute to the twin towers that is overwhelmingly sad. Horse Girl asked me why the towers weren't there any more and I told her and we talked for quite awhile. She really has an amazing amount of empathy for people and she really showed it when we talked.

Tales from the Testosterone Zone, asks "Where were you on September 11, 2001? How has it affected your life?" Well I answered where was I. How it has affected me....well I am not sure. It has affected how I view back to school. It has made air travel much more of a pain then it ever was before. It helped me discover how much I like train travel....so much more civilized. I used to watch the news, now I read about it because it is easier to walk away if it gets too overwhelming, though it is a lot harder to read the news for me because of my LDs, but it is just better for me now....so I feel like I am not as well informed about things as I once was, but now with RSS feeds I feel like that is changing quickly.

So that is my where and how.

Finally the cliff hanger is over

I have posted about the Red Panda before. The last episode on May 17, 2008, left a huge cliff hanger....well today was the first episode of the season. My whole family was up and listening to it by 8am. :-) I could said it was worth the wait. ;-) Just in case someone else cares here is the link to the episode and here is the link to Decoder Ring Theatre. Their shows are well worth it.

First week of school done

Well Horse Girl and History Girl completed their first week of 3rd and 7th grades.

History Girl got placed into advanced math, which is awesome because to me it is a sign that other people besides me have seen the change in her attitude with regards to school. What she loves about her schedule this year is that even though PE is more or less required every other day of school, her schedule was so they couldn't fit it in the first semester so she got a waiver out of it. Maybe some parents would be upset about that, but I find school PE to be a waste of time if you have an active kid. Both of my girls are active kids. History Girl does the swim team. She walks miles to see historical buildings. PE or at least the PE at History Girl's school doesn't teach her athletics that she can use her whole life. It is stupid games that force the kids to compete against each other. History Girl is like me...she is fairly good at swimming...a sport she can do until she is 127 years old. She won't be playing mush ball or flag football when she is that age. So I think it is great that they couldn't fit PE into her schedule....I wish that I could figure out how she could make it not work for the rest of her schooling.

Horse Girl has this great teacher. I have worked with her for the last two years. Since I work to cover recesses and the lunch room and do paperwork for teachers so they don't have to and she was working as an Ed Tech, we got to know each other well. She has two kids....her oldest is in 5th grade. She taught for 10 years and then became a stay at home mom for 8-9 years and came back to work as an Ed Tech, then this 3rd grade teaching spot opened up and she got it. So this is the first time having her own classroom in 11 or 12 years. She is so excited. I love her attitude it is just wonderful. She and I have talked about Horse Girl's needs and we have been exchanging email daily.

Horse Girl's teacher told me about how Horse Girl advocated for herself, which lets me take a deep breath and relax. I think the fear of all parents of kids with LDs is that they will never learn how to advocate for themselves. It is something they need to learn to do and earlier the better. I didn't get the hang of it until I was in 8th grade and one of my teachers kept refusing to let me have the support that I was suppose to have. This was long before ADA so things were different, but I had an awesome Special Ed teacher who helped me advocate for myself. I have been trying to teach Horse Girl how to do it herself, so I was just so happy when she was able to.

Horse Girl's teacher requires the kids to record all reading that the kids do at home. I explained to her that Horse Girl does three different types of reading at home and what ones qualified as recordable reading. Horse Girl reads stuff at her reading level to work on her reading skills. We read to her and have her help us read and that reading is between her reading level and her comprehension level. The last type of reading Horse Girl does is at her comprehension level and we do that by buying books from Audible. The books from Audible are audiobooks that we download and put it on her iPod so she can "read" them. The benefit of the audiobooks is several she is able to improve her comprehension level, which for kids with reading LDs can be nearly impossible and can cause a kid to permanently get stuck at a level much lower then they should be at. Also the audiobooks help improve her vocabulary, there gets to be a point that a kid slows down their increasing vocabulary though what they hear around them and they increase their vocabulary through the written word and for a kid who has trouble reading means a small vocabulary. Lastly it lets Horse Girl know and be able to talk to her friends about the books that are popular in her peer group. Last year it was the Magic Tree House series, which are too hard for Horse Girl to read herself, but on audiobooks she "read" nearly all of them. This let her be able to talk to her peers about the books....sort of what people do at boring cocktail parties. :-) So audiobooks helps Horse Girl with those things. I was so pleased that Horse Girl's teacher agreed that Horse Girl can count all three type of reading on her reading record.

So I have been pleased with how well this first week has gone. My fingers and toes are crossed that things continue to go well.