A Fat Kid on a Bowl of Jelly Beans

I had a grapefruit for breakfast today. What's that you say? Not an important piece of information to blog about? Well, that's where you're wrong.

When I lived in the great United States of America, I had a grapefruit for breakfast every day. It's pretty much the best way there is to start your day.

Since moving to less green pastures, fruit has become much harder to come by. Citrus fruits most of all. However, Stace spotted two grapefruits at the store the other day and snapped them up like a fat kid on a bowl of jelly beans, and we each enjoyed one. Wait, I didn't mean to imply that Stacy was like a fat kid...

Anyway, this grapefruit is the first one I've had in about 2 and a half years. So, I savored it. And then blogged about it.

N Not Included

Recently, the new mall in town (which has been under construction for a year or more) finally opened, so Stacy and I went to check it out.

N not included

After poking around, we found a Thai restaurant (the only one in town, that we know of). The menu, though, had some strange fare. See for yourself.

And for dessert:

We opted to skip Thai food and hit up the new Mexican restaurant instead - also the only one in town. (I'm sure Stace will post pictures soon)

There's Many Reasons Why I Love Her...

And this is one of them - Stacy just made the most excellent dinner of all time. Well, since she does it on the regular, it wasn't technically the most excellent, it was just equally as excellent as all the others. Which is pretty dang excellent.

What?! Mashed potatoes, sautéd zucchini, pork roast, and biscuits... from scratch. Yep.

This is what a plate of seconds looks like. Best believe I had seconds!

Happiness is an empty plate of whatever Stacy made for dinner.

Hiking Chongmu

This past Saturday, I went hiking with two friends - Justin (a familiar face on my hiking posts) and Geoff, an Aussie. We drove about 3 hours out of town, to a village in a valley that is pretty much the definition of "middle of nowhere."

Fresh snow made the drive up pretty incredible, with yaks and the occasional nomad tent dotting the landscape as we went.

From time to time, we would get out and talk with the nomads, which was fun, as well.

A nomad camp surrounded by their herd of yak

Dad and mom....

... and the kids.

Continuing on...

Almost there...

The village is at about 16,000 feet elevation, making it one of the highest permanent settlements in the world, not that the inhabitants care - the "village" is just 6 families trying to scratch out an existence in very hard conditions. What makes the village exceptional is that it sits at the base of a mountain that shoots up to ~23,000 feet (which, unfortunately, stayed shrouded in clouds the whole time we were there).

Finally, we arrived at the village. And The Middle of Nowhere.

Skepticism.

Curiosity.

Swagger.

We spent some time in the village and then hiked up the valley a ways (about 3 hours) to about 17,300 feet.

Starting out on the hike.

Taking a break with "Swagger."

View from the top: mountains, snow, and right in the middle at the bottom - a glacier.

I love to hike, but I have to admit that this one really destroyed me for some reason. The last hour of the hike down, I was feeling nauseous and my legs were smoked.

Me and Justin - back down and more than ready to head home.

A Piece(s) of Me Died Today

That piece, of course, was the piece that has been hoarding my lone bag of York Pieces for 6, nay 8, months.

I finished the bag today. It was a solemn, minty-delicious occasion.

"Parting is such sweet sorrow" - William Shakespeare, [Romeo & Juliet, Scene II: Capulet's Orchard]

Lean On Me

I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time - leaning a metal ladder against the power lines you are planning on repairing.

What could possibly go wrong?

Stereotypes

No one (with an education) likes to admit their stereotypes, but let's be honest  - we pretty much all have them. I was unaware of one of mine until I was confronted with it.

I shot this video on a street in Tokyo. In the very center of the shot is an advertisement for an arcade. For adults. In the middle of the day.

As I giggled to myself while filming, I realized that a cartoon ad for an arcade for adults pretty much confirmed a number of stereotypes I have of Japan.

I'm sorry, Japan.

The End of the Roll

It always makes me super curious, and this time I decided to take a picture.

Toilet paper looks like toilet paper pretty much all over the world (at least as far as I've seen), but for some reason, when you get to the end of a Chinese roll of toilet paper - which has up to this point looked completely normal - suddenly things get weird.

It looks like they hired a blind kid to cut the last 4 ply with a straight razor while riding a Tilt-a-Whirl.

How the roll can start so normal and end so strange, I'll never know.

Go Big or Go Home

I like to go big. Sometimes it pays off (asking Stacy to date me) and sometimes it doesn't (I'm thinking of a number of surgeries that have resulted from going too big). Either way, it's still how I roll.

And so, when it comes time to sunburn, I like to go a little bigger than the next guy.

During Whitewater Raft Guide School - Summer 2010

Go Big, (Get Hurt), Go Home.

When Stacy Makes BEC...

(Bacon, Egg, & Cheese Biscuits) like she did today...

I'm pretty much the happiest person on the block. (And yes, I realize that my last 3 posts have been about food)

Oh, did I mention that she makes her biscuits from scratch? So, you know, you've got something to aspire to.