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taz_39FRIDAY
Breakfast and coffee, working on Hartford Foodie Finds. It should be done by now but my heart is not in it, and I know that Boston Foodie Finds is immediately after and I'm daunted by THAT task.
As I was preparing overnight oats for myself for tomorrow, I reached into the spice cabinet to grab the cinnamon and saw The Dust coating every single jar of spices (I have already wiped down the spice RACK, but this is the spice CABINET, you see.) Cue a big heavy sigh and taking every single jar of spices out....wiping them down....wiping the cabinet, wet and dry....putting everything back....
...and there were three shelves, only the BOTTOM one was spices and the next one up is MEDICINES....and the one above that is bandages and first aid stuff.....
It took, I don't know, 20-30 minutes. And this is going to continue happening.
But whatever. Aside from that sneak attack, I would like a break from Dust Battle today. I've pushed really hard to do a lot in this first week, and feel that means it's OK to take a break from it for a day?
While Jameson worked on Disney stuff in his studio, I cooked some chicken breast because I'm making enchiladas for us tonight. We ate lunch together while the chicken cooled. I shredded the chicken and stored it for later, and practiced trombone for just 30 minutes or so. Took the small trombone (my Williams 6) out to give it a whirl and it feels so tiny. I have definitely adjusted "down" since starting Beauty and the Beast, such that the small horn I used to be very comfortable with now feels like a stranger. Starting tomorrow I'll be playing through some Main Street Phil stuff and the Easter gig stuff on the Williams, to get ready for those upcoming gigs.
Next, Jameson had a massage at 2pm and I had a tax appointment. UGH.
Thankfully I use a company that is familiar with musician-taxes. I thought for sure that the untaxed 1099 income from Epic Universe work would be financially devastating this year...but it turns out the withholdings from the tour pretty much covered that. Phew!! I ended up owing about the same amount that I do every year. That was a huge relief.
I cooked the enchiladas for dinner and they tasted delicious but turned out strangely mushy. Jameson thinks it's because I lined the bottom of the pan with foil, and that prevented crisping. I think he may be right.
To my surprise, Jameson suggested going to the new H-Mart tomorrow!!
It's the biggest H-Mart in the US, and just opened in Orlando last year. I've been DYING to go but it's been a madhouse. I expect it to be pretty crazy on a Saturday afternoon too, but we both really want to check it out just once. I have a short list of snacks that I want (Tokyo Banana, chocolate churro turtle chips, Chuhai if they sell it, white peach ice cream) and we're gonna have lunch in the food court. Yeeeek, can't wait!
A video because I plan to be in the moment tomorrow with Jameson, not looking at everything through my phone.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SATURDAY
I was up early due to H-Mart excitement :)
Breakfast and finishing Hartford Foodie Finds (finally), digging a styrofoam cooler out of the garage in case we find cold things to bring home, and doing a little tour planning...the company has booked us some rather late or tight-connection flights coming up, so I've taken more buyouts than usual and need to notate those so I don't forget them.
When Jameson was up and around he did some grading and I got dressed, and off we went. I was relieved to see there was no line to get IN...that has been the case since it opened during peak hours. We were there on a Saturday at lunch time so we were risking it.
When you enter the food court is to the left and the outer shops/vendors are to the right. We ordered lunch first. The food court was packed and noisy and felt a lot like being at one of the theme parks!
Jameson had chicken katsu with udon noodle soup. It was a lot more food than we expected! The soup even came with tempura veggies.
I got two sides as a meal: takoyaki and a pork katsu gimbap. The gimbap was very good, and the takoyaki was AMAZING. You could tell by the creamy texture of the inside that it had been freshly made. It's been years and years since I had real, fresh takoyaki.
After our meal we walked briefly through the outer vendors, which included bubble tea, gelato, coffee, Paris Baguette, a Korean makeup shop, and even a hair salon! There were gachapon machines lining the wall and Jameson tried his hand at a Stranger Things claw game, but didn't win anything.
We entered near the housewares and marveled at all of the lovely rice cookers and appliances and adorable/functional dishware, then moved into the grocery store proper. We saw the roasted yam snack oven, but it was sold out. The produce was all beautiful and we enjoyed looking...the Asian pears were GIGANTIC, the size of small pumpkins!!
The seafood section was equally marvelous, with lots of live seafood and many rare things including, flatfish, shark, conch, geoduck clams, and even a live eel. In particular, there was one huge King Crab eyeing everyone and waving his feelers energetically. He was $60 per pound (and was definitely at least 3 pounds.) CLICK HERE to see this Expensive Boi.
Some crab legs and salmon filets.
There was an absolutely mouth-watering selection of mixed sushi and sashimi. Jameson picked one up for dinner.
Monkfish liver sashimi (I wasn't brave or hungry enough to get it)
We went up and down each aisle. There were so many people that sometimes it felt like being in a queue, or we'd have to wait for the people in front of us to move on before we could see some products. I had my short list, and was able to find almost everything except Chuhai, which is pretty much not available in the US but it didn't hurt to look. Although it was noisy, crowded, and overstimulating with row after row of exciting and colorful foods, Jameson seemed to enjoy himself and we'd often both be exclaiming and picking things out side by side. I'm glad we have nerd stuff that we can do together like this :D
By the time we got to the ice cream and banchan area we were both ready to call it quits. I was worried that I wouldn't find Tokyo Banana, which had been my top must-find, but right in the final ice cream cooler, there it was! It doesn't need to be frozen per se but these are imported from Tokyo and contain no preservatives, so.
The big deal with these is that up until the pandemic, the ONLY way to get Tokyo Banana was by physically going to Tokyo and buying a box. You could not order them, and they were not sold anywhere else even within Japan. And now you can get them exclusively at H-Mart in the US. So, even if they're not good...I'm living at a special junction in time where it's possible to try these. Kinda have to, you know?
Our last grab before heading out the door was the viral White Peach ice cream. My sister Kayle has had it before and says it's amazing, but the things are like $4 a pop so it's a special treat for her and her kids. I mean, for us too.
Back home, our haul (or part of it):
Pictured:
Anyway I'm so glad that we got to experience H-Mart together! We were in there for two hours, but if you consider that part of that was sitting to eat lunch and a lot of it was having to move slowly due to crowding, we still got to see the entire store and it was still a lot of fun. I'd love to go back on some random Tuesday between like 2-3pm and see if it's not so crowded.
We chilled out for the rest of the afternoon and ate a late dinner, being full from lunch. I ate random things to fit my macros (an apple, canned pumpkin, tuna) and Jameson had his sushi.
Later on we enjoyed the white peach ice cream. WOW is it good. Often if a food is "pretty," it looks better than it tastes. That is not the case here. I know these are expensive, but I think that if you're able to try them, go for it just once! The peach flavor was exceptional, the ice cream was incredibly smooth and rich, the white chocolate shell painted to look like a peach was a perfect accent and texture. We want to go back for the lemon-flavored version.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUNDAY
I was awake at 8am and could have slept for another two hours easily, but I almost never let myself. There is always too much to do, and I feel guilty about lazing in bed (though I probably do need the sleep.)
Breakfast and starting on Boston Foodie Finds. When Jameson got up I went outside to tackle the pool deck. Sweeping the deck is something I do every few months anyway, but it's part of Dust Battle now because the contractors thought it would be smart to shove tile out the bathroom entrance door.
Before sweeping. It's hard to tell but there's a layer of grey-white dust, some small tile particles and pieces, and in the right corner there are chunks of broken tile that I guess they just shoved out the door while they were renovating the bathroom.
After sweeping.
And yes, we have a door from our bathroom to the pool deck. A lot of FL homes have this so you can go straight from the pool to the shower/toilet without tracking water all through the house.
The rest of the deck was pretty normal although there was a lot of debris because it's been too long since I did it last.
A big red millipede. These are very common, if you live here and have a pool or water nearby you will see them pretty much daily.
I had to move all of the deck furniture around and shake out the rug and wipe down the chairs and such. By the time I was done I'd burned 200 calories. Which is good because I want to eat my Asian snacks :p
Speaking of, I tried the "Pine bud drink." Doesn't it LOOK like Pine Sol? And so, it tastes EXACTLY as you are imagining right now, LOLOL
I left it out for Jameson to try (he choked and was very dramatic which made me laugh) then poured it down the drain. Kind of knew that might be the outcome but as a person who enjoys pine cone jam, you never know what might surprise you and it's good to try new things. We had lunch together, I placed a grocery delivery order for Whole Paycheck and also ordered some small replacement items from Amazon. Hate to say it but without a car, services like Amazon and Instacart are going to be necessities for me regardless of which of their business practices or politics we're boo-hooing this week.
While I waited for the groceries I practiced trombone and Jameson worked on a birthday composition for a friend. I did a little more Dust Battle by climbing up above the kitchen counters to wipe the top of the fridge and cabinets...and was shocked to find not only the expected grey dust, but also HUGE chunks of tile!!! They HAD to have used a circular saw or a REAL jackhammer, to fling huge tile pieces up this close to the ceiling!! I guess I should be grateful that they cleaned up as much as they did. Christ. I wiped the fridge and edges of cabinets but left the area with tile chunks alone and will photograph it another time. Not sure how I will approach that. Then I did the mug cabinet, removing everything, rinsing all cups, wiping the inside of the cabinets, and putting everything back.
The groceries should have been here by 3pm at the latest, but by 2:45pm the driver looked to be sitting still and far away from my address. It took a while but I was able to get a refund. I guess tomorrow I'll either try again, or Uber somewhere.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday: Making Oreo truffles for the Main Street guys. More Dust Battle; probably wiping the front door, wiping the ceiling fan blades in every room, the tops of more doors and picture frames. Practicing trombone and packing for Main Street Philharmonic day.
Tuesday: All day with the Main Street Philharmonic! Hopefully they truly are OK with me just having a rehearsal day/not performing in the park, because it's been nearly a year since I've done any playing with them!!!
Breakfast and coffee, working on Hartford Foodie Finds. It should be done by now but my heart is not in it, and I know that Boston Foodie Finds is immediately after and I'm daunted by THAT task.
As I was preparing overnight oats for myself for tomorrow, I reached into the spice cabinet to grab the cinnamon and saw The Dust coating every single jar of spices (I have already wiped down the spice RACK, but this is the spice CABINET, you see.) Cue a big heavy sigh and taking every single jar of spices out....wiping them down....wiping the cabinet, wet and dry....putting everything back....
...and there were three shelves, only the BOTTOM one was spices and the next one up is MEDICINES....and the one above that is bandages and first aid stuff.....
It took, I don't know, 20-30 minutes. And this is going to continue happening.
But whatever. Aside from that sneak attack, I would like a break from Dust Battle today. I've pushed really hard to do a lot in this first week, and feel that means it's OK to take a break from it for a day?
While Jameson worked on Disney stuff in his studio, I cooked some chicken breast because I'm making enchiladas for us tonight. We ate lunch together while the chicken cooled. I shredded the chicken and stored it for later, and practiced trombone for just 30 minutes or so. Took the small trombone (my Williams 6) out to give it a whirl and it feels so tiny. I have definitely adjusted "down" since starting Beauty and the Beast, such that the small horn I used to be very comfortable with now feels like a stranger. Starting tomorrow I'll be playing through some Main Street Phil stuff and the Easter gig stuff on the Williams, to get ready for those upcoming gigs.
Next, Jameson had a massage at 2pm and I had a tax appointment. UGH.
Thankfully I use a company that is familiar with musician-taxes. I thought for sure that the untaxed 1099 income from Epic Universe work would be financially devastating this year...but it turns out the withholdings from the tour pretty much covered that. Phew!! I ended up owing about the same amount that I do every year. That was a huge relief.
I cooked the enchiladas for dinner and they tasted delicious but turned out strangely mushy. Jameson thinks it's because I lined the bottom of the pan with foil, and that prevented crisping. I think he may be right.
To my surprise, Jameson suggested going to the new H-Mart tomorrow!!
It's the biggest H-Mart in the US, and just opened in Orlando last year. I've been DYING to go but it's been a madhouse. I expect it to be pretty crazy on a Saturday afternoon too, but we both really want to check it out just once. I have a short list of snacks that I want (Tokyo Banana, chocolate churro turtle chips, Chuhai if they sell it, white peach ice cream) and we're gonna have lunch in the food court. Yeeeek, can't wait!
A video because I plan to be in the moment tomorrow with Jameson, not looking at everything through my phone.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SATURDAY
I was up early due to H-Mart excitement :)
Breakfast and finishing Hartford Foodie Finds (finally), digging a styrofoam cooler out of the garage in case we find cold things to bring home, and doing a little tour planning...the company has booked us some rather late or tight-connection flights coming up, so I've taken more buyouts than usual and need to notate those so I don't forget them.
When Jameson was up and around he did some grading and I got dressed, and off we went. I was relieved to see there was no line to get IN...that has been the case since it opened during peak hours. We were there on a Saturday at lunch time so we were risking it.
When you enter the food court is to the left and the outer shops/vendors are to the right. We ordered lunch first. The food court was packed and noisy and felt a lot like being at one of the theme parks!
Jameson had chicken katsu with udon noodle soup. It was a lot more food than we expected! The soup even came with tempura veggies.
I got two sides as a meal: takoyaki and a pork katsu gimbap. The gimbap was very good, and the takoyaki was AMAZING. You could tell by the creamy texture of the inside that it had been freshly made. It's been years and years since I had real, fresh takoyaki.
After our meal we walked briefly through the outer vendors, which included bubble tea, gelato, coffee, Paris Baguette, a Korean makeup shop, and even a hair salon! There were gachapon machines lining the wall and Jameson tried his hand at a Stranger Things claw game, but didn't win anything.
We entered near the housewares and marveled at all of the lovely rice cookers and appliances and adorable/functional dishware, then moved into the grocery store proper. We saw the roasted yam snack oven, but it was sold out. The produce was all beautiful and we enjoyed looking...the Asian pears were GIGANTIC, the size of small pumpkins!!
The seafood section was equally marvelous, with lots of live seafood and many rare things including, flatfish, shark, conch, geoduck clams, and even a live eel. In particular, there was one huge King Crab eyeing everyone and waving his feelers energetically. He was $60 per pound (and was definitely at least 3 pounds.) CLICK HERE to see this Expensive Boi.
Some crab legs and salmon filets.
There was an absolutely mouth-watering selection of mixed sushi and sashimi. Jameson picked one up for dinner.
Monkfish liver sashimi (I wasn't brave or hungry enough to get it)
We went up and down each aisle. There were so many people that sometimes it felt like being in a queue, or we'd have to wait for the people in front of us to move on before we could see some products. I had my short list, and was able to find almost everything except Chuhai, which is pretty much not available in the US but it didn't hurt to look. Although it was noisy, crowded, and overstimulating with row after row of exciting and colorful foods, Jameson seemed to enjoy himself and we'd often both be exclaiming and picking things out side by side. I'm glad we have nerd stuff that we can do together like this :D
By the time we got to the ice cream and banchan area we were both ready to call it quits. I was worried that I wouldn't find Tokyo Banana, which had been my top must-find, but right in the final ice cream cooler, there it was! It doesn't need to be frozen per se but these are imported from Tokyo and contain no preservatives, so.
The big deal with these is that up until the pandemic, the ONLY way to get Tokyo Banana was by physically going to Tokyo and buying a box. You could not order them, and they were not sold anywhere else even within Japan. And now you can get them exclusively at H-Mart in the US. So, even if they're not good...I'm living at a special junction in time where it's possible to try these. Kinda have to, you know?
Our last grab before heading out the door was the viral White Peach ice cream. My sister Kayle has had it before and says it's amazing, but the things are like $4 a pop so it's a special treat for her and her kids. I mean, for us too.
Back home, our haul (or part of it):
Pictured:
- Chocolate Churro Turtle Chips (viral)
- Mystery fruit AND veggie electrolyte drink(?)
- Wasabi Shiitake Chips
- Pumpkin flavored yakgwa (we didn't know what this was but it looked nice, I looked it up later)
- "Pine bud" soda
- Muscat Grape Dessert Jelly (this is Jameson's but imma try it)
- Pineapple Citrus Soda
- Tokyo Banana
- White Peach Ice Cream
- Cheeseburger flavored popcorn
- Misc grape or peach-flavored sodas and beverages
- Watermelon seltzer
- Sushi assortment
Anyway I'm so glad that we got to experience H-Mart together! We were in there for two hours, but if you consider that part of that was sitting to eat lunch and a lot of it was having to move slowly due to crowding, we still got to see the entire store and it was still a lot of fun. I'd love to go back on some random Tuesday between like 2-3pm and see if it's not so crowded.
We chilled out for the rest of the afternoon and ate a late dinner, being full from lunch. I ate random things to fit my macros (an apple, canned pumpkin, tuna) and Jameson had his sushi.
Later on we enjoyed the white peach ice cream. WOW is it good. Often if a food is "pretty," it looks better than it tastes. That is not the case here. I know these are expensive, but I think that if you're able to try them, go for it just once! The peach flavor was exceptional, the ice cream was incredibly smooth and rich, the white chocolate shell painted to look like a peach was a perfect accent and texture. We want to go back for the lemon-flavored version.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUNDAY
I was awake at 8am and could have slept for another two hours easily, but I almost never let myself. There is always too much to do, and I feel guilty about lazing in bed (though I probably do need the sleep.)
Breakfast and starting on Boston Foodie Finds. When Jameson got up I went outside to tackle the pool deck. Sweeping the deck is something I do every few months anyway, but it's part of Dust Battle now because the contractors thought it would be smart to shove tile out the bathroom entrance door.
Before sweeping. It's hard to tell but there's a layer of grey-white dust, some small tile particles and pieces, and in the right corner there are chunks of broken tile that I guess they just shoved out the door while they were renovating the bathroom.
After sweeping.
And yes, we have a door from our bathroom to the pool deck. A lot of FL homes have this so you can go straight from the pool to the shower/toilet without tracking water all through the house.
The rest of the deck was pretty normal although there was a lot of debris because it's been too long since I did it last.
A big red millipede. These are very common, if you live here and have a pool or water nearby you will see them pretty much daily.
I had to move all of the deck furniture around and shake out the rug and wipe down the chairs and such. By the time I was done I'd burned 200 calories. Which is good because I want to eat my Asian snacks :p
Speaking of, I tried the "Pine bud drink." Doesn't it LOOK like Pine Sol? And so, it tastes EXACTLY as you are imagining right now, LOLOL
I left it out for Jameson to try (he choked and was very dramatic which made me laugh) then poured it down the drain. Kind of knew that might be the outcome but as a person who enjoys pine cone jam, you never know what might surprise you and it's good to try new things. We had lunch together, I placed a grocery delivery order for Whole Paycheck and also ordered some small replacement items from Amazon. Hate to say it but without a car, services like Amazon and Instacart are going to be necessities for me regardless of which of their business practices or politics we're boo-hooing this week.
While I waited for the groceries I practiced trombone and Jameson worked on a birthday composition for a friend. I did a little more Dust Battle by climbing up above the kitchen counters to wipe the top of the fridge and cabinets...and was shocked to find not only the expected grey dust, but also HUGE chunks of tile!!! They HAD to have used a circular saw or a REAL jackhammer, to fling huge tile pieces up this close to the ceiling!! I guess I should be grateful that they cleaned up as much as they did. Christ. I wiped the fridge and edges of cabinets but left the area with tile chunks alone and will photograph it another time. Not sure how I will approach that. Then I did the mug cabinet, removing everything, rinsing all cups, wiping the inside of the cabinets, and putting everything back.
The groceries should have been here by 3pm at the latest, but by 2:45pm the driver looked to be sitting still and far away from my address. It took a while but I was able to get a refund. I guess tomorrow I'll either try again, or Uber somewhere.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday: Making Oreo truffles for the Main Street guys. More Dust Battle; probably wiping the front door, wiping the ceiling fan blades in every room, the tops of more doors and picture frames. Practicing trombone and packing for Main Street Philharmonic day.
Tuesday: All day with the Main Street Philharmonic! Hopefully they truly are OK with me just having a rehearsal day/not performing in the park, because it's been nearly a year since I've done any playing with them!!!
