What is in your cup?

[pdurrant]

Coke Zero #3

[dreams]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
Guess I'll go eat worms,
Long, thin, slimy ones; Short, fat, juicy ones,
Itsy, bitsy, fuzzy wuzzy worms.

Down goes the first one, down goes the second one,
Oh how they wiggle and squirm.
Up comes the first one, up comes the second one,
Oh how they wiggle and squirm.

that reminds me of:

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't very fuzzy was he?

Originally Posted by Quake1028

Then: Large Iced Coffee
Now: Water

Stll a bit sick.

I hope you feel better soon.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Coke Zero #3

Have you bought stock in that yet???

Morning coffee is gone, finishing off a bottled water, and thinking of treating myself to a mocha when I go out to run errands and fill up the gas tank.

[pdurrant]

An empty cup.

My favourite bear poem is actually about cormorants.

The common cormorant, or shag,
Lays eggs inside a paper bag
The reason you will see, no doubt,
It is to keep the lightning out.
But what these unobservant birds
Have never noticed is that herds
Of wandering bears come by, with buns
And steal the bags to keep their crumbs.

(from memory, so may not exactly match the original, by Christopher Isherwood.)

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Wow. I knew it had got better, but until I looked up these figures I didn't realise how much better it had become.

Those are astonishing figures. I knew it had to be better, but had really no idea the scale of the change.

Last logon for me for a few days. I'm taking a 4 day weekend since it's Labour Day, and my birthday the day after.

Phoenix Mountain Oolong.

[ProfCrash]

Have a great vacation and a happy birthday!

[dreams]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Those are astonishing figures. I knew it had to be better, but had really no idea the scale of the change.

Last logon for me for a few days. I'm taking a 4 day weekend since it's Labour Day, and my birthday the day after.

Phoenix Mountain Oolong.

Enjoy your days off and Have a Happy Birthday!

[CRussel]

Thanks. Still trying to get out of the office -- haven't made it yet. But there's hope, this copy says it has only another couple of minutes to go, and that's very nearly the last thing on my list.

[Stitchawl]

Every morning at seven o'clock
There were twenty tarriers a workin' at the rock
The boss comes along and he says, "Keep still
And bear down heavy on the cast iron drill."

And drill, ye tarriers, drill
Drill, ye tarriers, drill
For it's work all day for the sugar in your tay (tea)
Down beyond the railway
And drill, ye tarriers, drill
And blast and fire!

( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmQtqW4G28g )

Originally Posted by CRussel

Last logon for me for a few days. I'm taking a 4 day weekend since it's Labour Day, and my birthday the day after.

Don't forget to turn in your pick and shovel before you leave... and have a good holiday and a better birthday!

Good morning, everyone. Hot "Assam" tea from the East India Company and a fried egg for breakfast. I may just shrink away to nothingness! Today I have to dig into the back of the closet and find smaller sized pants. Good thing I didn't throw them out! The ones I wore yesterday actually fell off when I opened my belt! Yippee!! Maybe this afternoon I'll celebrate with an ice cream cone! I deserve it... I been good.


Stitchawl

[ProfCrash]

Way to go! Ice cream is a great reward.

[pholy]

It actually isn't hard to learn to use them if you remember just three things:
1. Only the top stick moves. The bottom one NEVER moves (or shouldn't...) The bottom one is wedged into the webbing of your thumb and against the end of your ring finger, and it just sits there doing nothing. I prefer it to contact the tip of my ring finger while my wife contacts hers on the side near the tip.
2. The upper stick is held sort of like a pencil, using your first two fingers and thumb. That's the stick that moves, and holds the food against the bottom stick. (Do you know the Italian version of 'giving the bird?' Three fingers instead of just the middle finger? THAT is how the upper stick is held!
3. The tips must be even. After you've placed them correctly in your hand, tap the tips against the bottom of the dish to even them up.

Watch this video and you'll see exactly what I mean. Or this one. I keep 'my' thumb a little further back than in this video. I get more control. Hold the sticks closer to the end rather than to the food for better control. If you keep in mind threes three 'bold' ideas, it shouldn't take you more than 2-3 minutes to learn to use chopsticks to pick up larger solid things like a piece of chicken or a chunk of bamboo shoot. After 10 minutes you'll be able to pick up a grain of rice. Do NOT try to pick up soup.

Very good instructions, Stitchawl.

Years ago I worked for Bell Canada in a group that was all Chinese except for myself and our boss. And we worked fairly close to the downtown Chinatown, so erverybody went out to Chinese restaurants fairly frequently. Every one of those guys held their chopsticks differently! Finally I asked one of them why that was. He said they started using chopsticks before they were two, and by the time they were three or four, they'd figured out some way to get food into their month, and forever after they do it that way. I suppose there is a proper way in polite settings, but we were just having lunch...

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by pholy

Every one of those guys held their chopsticks differently! Finally I asked one of them why that was. He said they started using chopsticks before they were two, and by the time they were three or four, they'd figured out some way to get food into their month, and forever after they do it that way. I suppose there is a proper way in polite settings, but we were just having lunch...

And THAT'S the truth! Just like using knives, forks, and spoons, there is a 'proper polite way' and a way 'to get the grub down yer neck!' We've all see folks hold spoons with a 'tennis grip' with the thumb closest to the bowl as well as those that use the reverse with their little pinkie extended. Then there are the cultural differences... do you use the fork with the food on TOP of the downward-facing tines or balance the food in the upward curve? Do you switch hands when you use a knife and fork while eating, shifting the fork from one side to the other?

Every day I see dozens of local folks eating in restaurants. (I eat out for my lunch every day.) I see some of the most bizarre methods of using chopsticks, but I guess it's the results that really count; how do you get the food into your mouth. I see people 'cutting' food with one stick while pinning it down with another. I see people 'spearing' certain foods (I do this one myself with larger chunks of fried chicken to keep them from rotating if I have to bite off a section.) I see people holding both sticks side-by-side and using them as a shovel to push food directly from bowl to mouth (VERY common, especially with rice! And in Japan and China it is polite to lift the bowl to your mouth. Leaning down over your bowl to get your mouth closer is called 'Dog Eating.' ) And of course, I see plenty of people using them in the 'polite' manner shown in the video, which was what I was taught as a child by the Chinese waiter in the restaurant my family ate in every Sunday night since my earliest memories.

Last night I used waribashi to spread glue over the plastic case of an electric fan. If I were in the US I probably would have used a Popsicle stick.


Stitchawl

[amward]

I think one of the tricks of using chopsticks is to hold the bowl up near your mouth, not leave it down on the table. This is especially true for noodles and rice. I can use chopsticks reasonably well, but prefer western cutlery, but best of all if I am home I can use my fingers!

[orlok]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Last logon for me for a few days. I'm taking a 4 day weekend since it's Labour Day, and my birthday the day after.

Have a good break and don't think too hard about birthdays. After about 50 they don't count .

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Today I have to dig into the back of the closet and find smaller sized pants. Good thing I didn't throw them out! The ones I wore yesterday actually fell off when I opened my belt!

Congrats on persevering. My diet took a back seat while we were away last week, but it's back to it again now. Still got about 12 pounds to go... To push me along I looked at some photos of me taken last birthday. That helped.

Rooibos in my cup and nothing on my plate.

[pdurrant]

Coke Zero #2

My diet has stalled for a couple of months. (Not that I've gained weight, I just havem't lost any.) Time to stop snacking and get down to my target weight at last.

[Stitchawl]

I spent this rainy afternoon filling teabags. I filled six different tea caddies, and all I'm missing from my usual supply is my unbranded Keemun. If it's raining next week I'll take the train to Kobe's Chinatown and see if I can find the same stuff. I searched the net and found Fortnum & Mason's Keemun, which is 'almost' as good (and I do love their 'Royal Blend') and is no longer sold in Japan. For about £16 I can get 250g of Keemun and 250g of Royal Blend... and it will only cost me £40 more to ship it... Think I'll take the train to Kobe for £6...

Originally Posted by orlok

Have a good break and don't think too hard about birthdays. After about 50 they don't count .

Au contrair! Everything UP to 50 is just rehearsal!

Still got about 12 pounds to go... To push me along I looked at some photos of me taken last birthday. That helped.

Would that it was only 12 more for me... I've decided I want to drop at least another 25. I only need 10 to reach the goal that I set for my October trip, and I'm not worried about reaching that. But the final 15 are going to be rough...

I've attached a photo from age 33... in shape, when I was teaching fencing and Kung Fu, Skiing, rock climbing, etc, and at then at 40 starting to lose it right after Grad school... It's now 25 years after that and it's really, really gone...

Maybe liposuction will work... What do they do with all the extra skin?


Stitchawl