Local rant

Today on Yelp, I came across a mediocre review for Sushi Muramoto in which the author said:

If Takara was not in a strip mall next to a dollar-store it'd be my go-to. But for now Muramoto is - somewhat disappointingly - 'it'.

I just don't get this mentality. If the food is good at Takara (which it IS), freakin' EAT THERE. In any city you visit, especially larger ones, some of the best food to be had is available in tiny little hole-in-the-wall places in far worse locations than a strip mall next to a dollar store. He mentions the fact that Sushi Muramoto is in a mall as one of its negatives, but I'm guessing that since he'll deign to go there, a hoity shopping center like Hilldale is a more acceptable location than a dollar store strip mall.

Now, I've never been to Sushi Muramoto, and I don't feel like I need to with Takara and Takumi in the same city.

Oh, wait - Takumi's in a strip mall, too! Granted, there's no dollar store, but there IS a Half Price Books. Darn. Well, wait... there's a Pier 1 there, too - does that make it okay? Dammit all to hell, there's nowhere to get good sushi in this town unless I want to slum it in a mall - whatever shall I do? The sky is falling! The sky is falling!!! Jeez Louise.

It's not my wallet, nor is it my palate the reviewer is taking into consideration, but if I want good sushi (and I ALWAYS do), all I care about is that it's fresh and won't make me sick. Does the peripheral presence of Cheap Plastic Crap as opposed to Overpriced Trendy Crap seriously affect the taste?

I wonder what Bourdain would think of this tool.

She's had enough of HOOsein

It makes me want to drink too, Jon.

Happy Kat!

Pundit Kitchen makes me happy.

Yay Cah-lee-for-nee-ah

I am absolutely thrilled.

More on the trees

In her comment on my post about the trees, Dana asked about the ones outside my front door.

If one was standing at my front door, looking away from the condo, they would see the building across the way. The two buildings are separated by maybe about 40 feet and a grassy area. There are were several trees there, including one that was hit by lightning last fall. Many are gone, some remain.

It's quite sobering to realize that lightning hit a tree 20 feet outside your bedroom window.

After one recovers from the $400 purchase of a new TV and the weeklong wait for the replacement DVR, that is.

The tree that dropped a nice fat limb not 5 feet from my car one windy day last week is gone now as well.

We can now look forward to a higher electric bill come summer (if we're unable to resist the siren song of the A/C), but I'd rather have that than a tree in my living room.

A family we can *truly* look up to

Hot on the heels of the "news" that Michelle Duggar is pregnant with #18 (nope, never saw that one coming, har har har), I was pointed in the direction of a story about a family that we should all truly admire.

Meet Aad and Ron Dissel de Boo.

Simply amazing.

*sigh*

My condo complex is in the process of cutting down some trees.

I know they're only getting rid of the dead ones and those that are dangerously close to falling over, and I know it's for the best, but, but, but...

Meh.

A blessing and a curse

As I've admitted by mentioning it on the right-hand side of this blog, I have a Facebook page. I have to say that despite many derogatory comments made by many members of society, I can definitely appreciate the value of social networking sites. Because of Facebook and MySpace, I have reconnected, on levels ranging from completely superficial to superbly satisfying, with many people I would otherwise have never been able to find in a million years (such is the life of someone who lives a thousand miles away from where she spent her first twenty one years).

So, that's the blessing.

The curse? Being relatively intelligent and still getting your ass handed to you at word games.

Holy shit, do I SUCK at Scramble.

Completely random

I loathe superfluous apostrophes.

Happy Kat!

The new commercial for the Discovery Channel makes me happy.



The extended performance headed up by Mike Rowe and a bunch of schoolchildren makes me happy, too.

It's HOW expensive to have a kid?!

I'm absolutely flabbergasted by the conversation I've been having on one of my message boards. It all started when someone who has a comfortable income in an admittedly high cost of living area of the country made the comment that she felt like she was "on the losing end" of the economic stimulus package because her income rendered her family ineligible to receive a check.

While I know it's my perpetual financial problems talking, and while I know that it is possible for People With a Lot More Money Than Me to feel like they're missing out on something, it's still kind of difficult for me to feel something other than a little insulted when I hear her say that she feels like she's on the "losing end" of the stimulus package. However misguided it may be, the stimulus package simply was not designed for people in her income bracket, no matter how high the cost of living in her area.

As an aside, I know a couple of unmarried, non-parent-type people who probably have roughly the same income as she does, if not more. But once you take all of the tax credits she gets through the reproduction-rewarding nuances of the United States tax codes, the annual federal tax liability of unmarried non-parents making the same as she does is more than double her family's liability. You wanna talk about who's losing out?

She claims she's not "rolling in it," but the minimum income she'd need in order to be rendered ineligible for the stimulus check, when adjusted for the geographical difference between where she lives and I live, is equivalent to roughly double what Bryan and I make. I made a comment to the effect of "if our income was suddenly doubled, you bet we'd feel like we were rolling in it," and her response was "try having three kids," which eventually turned into a discussion about how expensive kids can be.

Higher grocery bills, medical costs (ones not covered by insurance), replacing clothes and shoes that the kids have grown out of, school fees... all of that I understand. It's the other stuff that just blows my mind.

Horseback riding, figure skating, language classes, ballet/tap/jazz, gymnastics, Gymboree, parties (which of course require gifts), mall outings, movies, concerts, sports, scouts, theatre group, music lessons, private tutors, week-long clinics and camps for just about any activity imaginable... ?!?!?!

I think part of the reason I'm finding it all so hard to comprehend is that I didn't do any of that. None. Nothing. Nada. It's not that I wouldn't have wanted to do something, it's just that my parents couldn't afford it. The most money they spent on us aside from necessities, birthdays, Christmases and the occasional field trip was the $10 a week or so it cost for us to be in a bowling league. I longed to take ballet/tap/jazz like all the cool girls at school, but I know now that my parents couldn't afford it.

My life, from the day I started elementary school until the day I graduated high school consisted primarily of getting up, going to school, coming home, doing homework, watching TV and going to bed. I went to bowling on Saturday mornings, then stayed home and read books or watched TV the rest of the weekend. I never took a class outside of school hours, never played a sport, was never in Brownies or Girl Scouts. My parents didn't drive me all over creation to do this, that or the other thing. Since I was - admittedly - the fat, four-eyed nerd, I wasn't exactly popular, so there weren't many birthday parties, mall outings or movies. My parents didn't feel young teenagers had any business wearing makeup, using hair spray or wearing an article of clothing that cost over $10.00, so there were virtually no expenses there. I was in choir because - aside from singing well - it was free. I tried to be in orchestra, but the bus driver wouldn't let me on the bus with my school-issued cello and my parents couldn't afford to rent or buy me even a used one on which to practice at home. The only camp I ever went to was choir camp the summer between my junior and senior year of high school (which was paid for by my high school). I never saw NKOTB in concert (my childhood equivalent of the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus juggernaut). I had one birthday party at a mini-golf place, rather than today's annual jaunts to American Girl or Build-a-Bear or Club LibbyLu or even Chuck E. Cheese.

And you know, despite my childhood being fairly lonely and boring, despite a few lingering issues that have more to do with things other than how much money we did or didn't have, I don't think I turned out so shabby. Sure, a dance class may have turned me on to enjoying exercise, and a family outing more than once a year would have probably been good for all of us (and convinced me that my parents actually liked each other and enjoyed being parents), but I guess I do okay.

I know that there are loads of people who came from money who had absolutely miserable childhoods. But seriously. I want my child(ren) to have a better, more fulfilling, more entertaining childhood than I had. I don't want my child(ren) to be grown, lamenting on a blog (or whatever the popular form of journaling happens to be when they're grown) that mom and dad never did anything fun with them or for them. But honestly, does it have to be so expensive? Does a family have to have money in order to have any chance at giving their kids a happy childhood?

Happy Kat!

Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C# Minor makes me happy.

Along those lines...

Let me tell you a story that kind of goes along with the post immediately preceding this one.

One night, my girls and I were out at the bar, and some skeezy drunk guy who had at least 15 years on the oldest of us (and just because I know they'd want the clarification, yes, that would be me) just would not leave us alone. A few of our larger friends of the male variety - who also happen to be regulars at said bar, one of whom eventually went on to be a bouncer there - were at the bar as well, and one of them came over and asked if we wanted him to "take care of it." We politely declined, but I thought it was sweet. But when we were all talking about it later, one of my girls admitted to being insulted, thinking it was an assumption that we "needed a big, strong man to save us." I defended our big, strong man friend by trying to convince my girl that that wasn't it at all. Some men just have a protective streak, he was being chivalrous and protective and looking out for some women in his life that he cares about, but she just wasn't havin' it. He was being sexist, that was her story and she was sticking to it.

It got me thinking... even if you are an independent woman, even if you can take care of yourself, what the hell is so wrong with allowing a friend to be just that? A friend. Making sure his friends are okay. And even though I told the story in man/woman terms (because that's what it ultimately became when I was trying to defend him), why does it automatically have to be sexist? Why couldn't it just be a friend looking out for another friend?

Heck, I have a protective streak myself.

And I still think it was sweet.

Happy Kat!

Being taken care of makes me happy.

Now, before anyone gets their panties in a twist... yeah, I am woman, hear me roar, yadda yadda yadda, whatever. Yes, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. I'm sure that if I didn't have a ring on my finger, I'd be an Independent Woman, a la Beyoncé and crew. I depend on me, and all that.

But sometimes a little TLC is just so nice.

Happy Kat!

¡Olé! by Bouncing Souls makes me happy.

For quite a while, a bunch of us got together every year and went camping at Rock Island State Park. ¡Olé! started out as the camping anthem, then eventually turned into something more.

When Bryan and I met with the douchebag guy who was to be our wedding DJ, he asked what song we wanted for the Grand March. Neither of us had any clue at all, so we said we'd come back to it. About halfway through the meeting, I gasped - I'd had my lightbulb moment. I pointed at Bryan and said "¡Olé!" His face lit up, and he said "¡Olé!"

It was settled.

One of Bryan's groomsmen (and very good friend of ours), Matty, didn't know it was going to be our Grand March song until he heard the first strains as we lined up. I'll never forget the way he turned to us with a big goofy smile on his face and chuckled, "you sick fucks!" Much amusement ensued.

Much amusement... and a tradition. Since then, I can't remember a wedding in our social circle where ¡Olé! hasn't been the Grand March song.

Addendum to previous post

Tornado watches do NOT make me happy.

Happy Kat!

Rain Not snow makes me happy.

Obesity and Poverty

As happens occasionally, I'm having a hard time expressing myself on this one.

Inspired by our friend Dana, my better half has challenged himself to eat on $2.00 a day for 5 days. Dana, going more for the "see how the rest of the world lives" angle, has so far eaten eggs, cream of wheat, rice and beans. Bryan, on the other hand, went the "let's just see what I can do on two bucks a day" route and got a little more variety. The results are courtesy of Aldi. Just about anyone I know who is following a tight (and low) grocery budget has shopped there, or at Save-a-Lot, or at (heaven forbid!) Walmart from time to time... or all the time.

He was successfully able to get enough food to make sure he'd have enough calories for the day. In fact, he's said that it might be just a tad too much food. But it's what he bought to ensure that he had enough food for five days that got my mind working.

Peanut Butter. Jelly. Eggs. Cheap wheat bread (no doubt laden with HFCS, as is the jelly, I'm sure). Cheap lips-and-assholes hot dogs and white hot dog buns. Ramen noodles. Oatmeal. Evaporated milk. Three cans of vegetables. Five apples.

The only fresh ANYTHING on that list is the apples. There's no lean protein at all (eggs and cheap peanut butter are both pretty fatty). Each can of veggies is 3.5 servings, so between the veggies and apples, there's a total of 15.5 servings of fruits and veggies, which works out to 3.1 servings a day, far short of the recommended 8-10 servings. The only dairy on that list is a 12oz can of evaporated milk - regular milk is too expensive, forget cheese or yogurt.

There is some fiber in the oatmeal (very little in the cheap wheat bread), and the eggs are fairly good for you (this week, at least). But otherwise, we have a bunch of saturated fat, carbohydrates, HFCS, extremely limited dairy, and the only significant nutrients are coming from less than half the recommended allowance of fruit and vegetables.

It didn't really start to affect me until I hit my mid-to-late 20s, but I now feel like crap when I eat fast food and other things that are highly processed (deli meats, lips-and-assholes, etc.). Lean meats, fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy are just flat out better for you. But it's all so much more expensive. I was having this discussion with a coworker the other day, and she was relaying her frustration at the fact that feeding her family a meal from the dollar menu is cheaper than buying all of the ingredients for a nice salad. She opts to spend the extra money for the health of her family, but there are many people who don't have that option.

$2.00 a day. $60.00 a month. Per person. And that's just for food. In our leaner days, we used to scrape by on a grocery budget of $50.00 a week, and that had to include cleaning products and toiletries as well. And believe me, we didn't eat much better than what you see here. This is very real. There are people for whom this is not an experiment - we'd all do well to remember that the next time we want to judge.

There are kids growing up like this - dinner from the dollar menu because it's cheap. Or four-for-a-buck off-brand macaroni and cheese. Or whatever else is cheap and filling, of which each choice is more processed, fatty and chemical-laden than the last. And more often than not, they live in areas where mom and dad don't want to let them spend too much time outside, so they don't get exercise. TV and computer time takes away from the exercise as well. And when people grow up like this, it's all they know. I'm not saying that it's an excuse for them to remain ignorant as they get older, and not work to change their habits. But if anyone can tell you, I can: changing habits formed over the course of a lifetime, from behavior modeled by your parents and so many people around you? It's a LOT of hard work to break those habits. Sometimes I'm successful, sometimes I'm not. And there are a LOT of kids who grew up - and are currently growing up - in much more unhealthy homes than I did.

I don't have a solution. I wouldn't even begin to know where to start. It's all well and good to bring people into our schools and teach kids about good nutrition, but talk is cheap. Last time I checked, broccoli wasn't.