I definitely appreciate the frequent readers and the feedback that I get on my blog. I don't really write it for notoriety, but rather to entertain and not feel so distant from the Western World. An occasional headshake in disbelief or an actual laugh out loud are added bonuses. Please continue to enjoy.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

BBQ Sauce and My New Race Packet

So I was talking about BBQ sauce that I've been using as a chip dip too and decided to take a photo.


I also just got my race packet for my 10k in Iksan this Sunday.  I'm starting to think that green is the universal color for 10ks.  All my numbers seem to be green.  'm also glad that this race has the shoe timer chips.  The ones that are a box taped behind the number are annoying because they just hit you the entire time you're running.  I love though when they release books where all the non-Korean names are at the back of the list.

I think they know me too well as they only included 3 safety pins.


Friday, November 2, 2012

Mexican Catering, The Astros and Chickens


We just finished a week of testing for our students.  I was very proud at how well a lot of them did.  Running has been going well and working out in general has been going better now that my cardio work of doing sets on my punching bag before runs has started again.  I tore a nice size hole in my bag a couple of weeks ago, but with some sewing skills, some twine and enough Kelly green duct tape, it’s good as new.  I don’t know why Kelly green seems to be the only color available here, but I took advantage of it and branded my bag with a new symbol covering up the old Chinese one. 





Duct Tape and Permanent Marker have never looked luckier.

Cool chilly weather has happened here in Suncheon.  Still to quite cold enough to break out the overly puffy jacket, but a light jacket or a sweater are usually par for the course when I ride my bike home after work.  Wednesday night however I made an exception and donned a running armor shirt underneath my retro Astros tshirt to celebrate the leakage of the new logo.  I’m so happy that they’re taking a trip back to the good ole days.  I only wish I could’ve been in Texas so that Pizza, Craig and I could go to the release.  I wonder how long it will take before Korean copies are available.  I’m not overly a fan of orange typically, I’ll make exception for Poke orange unless Dad wears it 6 1/2 days in a row, but I’ve always loved the rainbow jerseys of old and so the Astros going back to the Orange and Navy color scheme makes me so happy.  My fingers are crossed and lots of hope in my heart to see a Navy uniform with Orange pinstripes as a potential alternate.  :-)  Made my day when the new logo leaked.  I’m so happy that brickyard red is hitting the bricks, pun intended.

Orbit sporting the batting practice jersey and the new unis behind him.

The new batting practice jersey.  Probably my favorite.

The alternate jersey.  My second favorite. 
The home jersey.  Very classic.  Very classy.

I've never been a fan of Houston's grey jerseys in the past.  This one isn't too bad.


In celebration of Dia de los Muertos I did Mexican day for the people at work.  I tried to do a rendition of Grandma Davis’s chicken tortilla soup.  I don’t know if it’s a perfect copy of hers, but it was yummy.  There’s not really chorizo in Korea and I wanted to add that flavor, but ground pork with fajita seasoning that cures overnight seemed to come close to remedying that problem.  Also I think this week’s batch of Mexican rice as my best batch ever.  I wish there had been leftovers.  Oddly enough chicken stock or chicken broth is not really available here in Korea.  So I was thinking of what to use and there was a big giant pot of it staring me in the face.  I used the broth from the finished soup and added it to the rice and OMG I’ll have to do that from now on.  I also threw some of the soup broth into my chicken enchilada casserole too.

The spread.

Rotisserie fajita chicken for the soup.

Chicken enchilada casserole.

Rice and beans of course.

I found this at Home Plus and was super excited.  It wasn't quite as tasty as Hatch salsa, but it was definitely better than just average stuff.

Tortilla soup.

After the staff hurricane.





Speaking of chickens, I always used to think the electric rotisseries on barbecues were a little ridiculous.  I wish I could slap my former self out of that ignorant mindset.  My poor little rotisserie got a workout in prep for the Mexican food day doing three birds in two days.  I can’t imagine the type of awesomeness I could create on a barbecue rotisserie where two, three maybe even four birds at a time is possible. 

There will be more chickens done next week for lunch meats.  Barbecue chicken sandwiches will be my lunches for a while as this delicious chipotle barbecue sauce is evidently not something Koreans like and instead of 5000won a bottle or $5, it was on clearance for 300won or $0.30 a bottle.  I lucked out indeed.  It also makes a splendid chip dip.  It’s like a blend between Smokey Moe’s and Bullseye.  It’s definitely not Rudy’s or Stubb’s, but it’ll definitely do for now.

One of the newer guys at work who hasn't been here for any of my other lunches was like “When I heard we were having Mexican food today, I expected just a mini taco bar. Dude this is like… catered.”  Well with tortilla soup, shredded rubbed chicken to top the soup, Mexican rice, refried beans and my boss and his wife’s favorite my chicken enchilada casserole, perhaps it is like catering.  Always fun trying to get into a cab on days I’m bringing food to work.

 After our fun filled Mexican day at work, the boss wanted to continue the fun at the bowling alley.  I usually am good for one game, but by the middle of the second game my arm is pretty shot bowling as Mom puts it like Pat, AKA throwing the ball down the lane as fast as possible making the pins fly everywhere.  This night I tried stepping it up in weight and slowed my stroke down significantly.  We bowled 4 games and my score was relatively consistent through all four and I didn’t have the sporadic open frame like I usually do because of the pure chaos that is me throwing it down the lane.  This time there was more control and so I think staying with this pattern I’ll start to see my score get back up to where it was when I was playing multiple times a week.  I just to put a little more power into it without losing the target control that I’ve gotten through this new method.

Kevin showed up as we were wrapping up our third game.  He noticed something that we all found truly interesting.  The teams were the under 35ers vs the over 35ers.  The first game was close, but the second and third games they truly opened up on us.  Kevin was the first to notice how drunk the under 35ers were compared to how little the over 35ers had drank.  Definitely an enlightened observation haha.

I got a backlight for my bicycle so I won’t become roadkill on my trips home now.  The best part about both my front light and my rear light is both have a cradle and are removable without removing the cradle on the actual bike.  This is nice because I know that nobody can turn them on and wear down my batteries if they’re in my key bucket at my apartment.

That’s about it for now.