Outages, cat chases and moo dang

[howeird]

Up before the alarm this morning, Spot was playing with one of his tiny mice toys, making a racket. Breakfast was the usual, the PC was on all night, backup just under 4TB was apparently done around midnight. 

One recruiter started calling me at 7:15, and kept calling after I declined his calls several times. He emailed me a vaguely worded job description which told me they wanted someone with in-depth cisco networking experience, which I do not have or want. It took three email messages to get him off my back. I hate it when the stupid ones are so desperate.

Long story short, three recruiters called, no job prospects for me. Nothing on the job boards either.

10 am I started making 5-spice powder for the moo dang recipe, but found I did not have star anise or fennel seeds. I thought I had them from the khao mook gai project, but no. So I hopped in the car (after bringing the garbage bin in) and went to the Taj Mahal grocery store, which has All The Spices. Found fennel seeds and powder right away. Only took seeds. There were packets of anise seeds and anise powder in 4 different places in the store, but star anise took three passes down the spice aisle to find. Not hidden, just the packaging hid the distinctive star shapes.

Somehow I managed not to buy any of the 500 halvah offerings. But they had frozen falafel in stock, and canned hummus and tahini all of which they were out of last time. Last time was soon after the Indians bought out the Arabs, and a lot of Middle Eastern food was replaced by Indian stuff. Also got sesame oil and hoisin sauce.

Home, spent Quality Time with my spice blender. 5-spice is black peppercorns, cinnamon, star anise, fennel and cloves.

That done, it was time to make the moo dang marinade.
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon dry sherry
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root
1 teaspoon five-spice powder
1 tablespoon sesame oil

This was for 2 lbs of pork loin.

Took the pork loin out of the fridge and it was 4 lbs. So I doubled the recipe.

Put the pork into a gallon zip-lock bag, and poured in a lot of red food coloring, which the recipe called for. I think that's cheating, but cheating in recipes is very Thai, so it worked for me. with the food coloring soaking in I added all the marinade and it will set in the meat drawer in the fridge overnight.

Around 11:30 my Comcast connection went down, I was playing something recorded on Tivo when my home hub texted me that it was down and my phone messaged that my wi-fi had no internet connection. Cable modem was off-line. After playing the recording I saw my TV signal was gone too. Called Comcast, recorded message said they knew there was an issue, expect it back up in 4 hours. Meanwhile no TV no internet.

Message from Anna that she wasn't able to arrange with Petco to let us get together there for her to meet Spot, so I suggested the mobile home park community center, which worked for her. 3 pm meet-up planned.

Comcast came back up around 12:45

Anna called at 2:45 that they were at the community center. Mad rush to get Spot into a carrier, but he is too big for the one he came home in, so I got the big one out of the shed and carried him from the bedroom where he tried to hide, and managed to get him inside after much chasing, kicking and resisting. And he's heavy.

Drove to the center, and we were able to commandeer the crafts room which has a table and comfy chairs and a door which closes. Spot took his time coming out of the carrier, and curled up in a corner of the room at first, but soon came out and explored. He was fascinated with the glass doors to the outside, behind some blinds. He had no problem with Anna petting him.

It was a friendly visit. Anna's husband Marvin was with her, but this is her project. She was impressed with how calm Spot is, and how pretty. But where we left it was they would go home and think about it. I didn't get the excited vibe I'd hoped for. We'll see, but I'm not too optimistic.

Home, looked for Spook, found her in the bedroom closet. She eventually came out and curled up under the linen rack, and then to the livingroom behind the TV. I didn't want her back there so I used canned air to get her into the kitchen. Spot continues being a brat.

Watched Graham Norton, it was the Xmas show, with four of the Mary Poppins cast and musical guest Boy George. Somewhere Boy George has learned to sing. He has quite a nice voice. Still uses the stupid eye makeup, though.

Channel surfed to I think it was Animal Planet, Northwest Law, just as they were showing a rescue by the Omak Stampede grounds, which was just a bare area with bleachers when I worked in Omak in the 70s. Recognized a couple of businesses they passed on the main road.

Dinner was falafel and hummus, chocolate cake for dessert.

Played marbles online, and watched a bounty hunter for a while. Watched a guy on vacation in Bangkok on a night-time party street, Khaosan Road. I've never been there, so I looked it up on Google maps. Their images are daytime, it looks like a normal street but late nights it's closed to traffic and is a giant booze party. Probably 75% tourists.

Did not go to BASFA, rain & why bother.

Delivered was a new carpet steamer.

Plans for tomorrow:
10 am phone interview with Arsenal hiring manager
Assemble the carpet steamer and run it on Spook's favorite target area
Job hunt
Slice & bake the moo dang
Cook some rice, I'm almost out of frozen packets
Watch the rain