Happy Lunar New Year: Year of the Pig!

It was a fairly uneventful week until the weekend hit. Then I feel like I unintentionally tried to saturate as much activity into my hours awake as I possibly could. I guess I did the same thing earlier in the week because….KINGDOM HEARTS 3 DROPPED!~

More on that in another post maybe, suffice to say that I took a vacation day so that I could meld with my couch and get through as much of the story as I could. Despite all the negative criticism about it being too easy, I really enjoyed it and had a lot of fun. I didn’t play the game for a challenge, I played it to find out what happened to the characters I’ve created an emotional bond with over the last 16 years.

After claiming independence from my PS4 controller and couch, I had to prepare for a weekend in Indiana. I think over the past 5 or 6 years I always try to make an excursion to see Jimmy on his birthday. This year the weather was much more accommodating than in recent history.

It was nice to just hang out and unwind with Jimmy and Zack. As is tradition, I thought of something to cook for a meal. I’ve been really into fried bologna sandwiches lately. I know it’s a little hard to believe, but I had my first one in October 2018! I found a “fancy recipe” online that basically added lettuce and a mayo/pickle/mustard mixture. Was delicious, would recommend.

I brought Root down to play since I haven’t had a chance to play with more than 1 other person and I knew Zack and Jimmy would not hesitate to be an asshole in order to win. In a game like Root it should be cutthroat with the understanding that it’s just a board game and that afterwards we’re all friends again. Too often I’ve played games where people are being too nice when they could have taken a better move at the cost of being perceived as “being mean”. No. Do your move to win and know that none of us are sore losers.

The dude continues to always be ridiculously photogenic sometimes.

I left Sunday so that I could make my way back to Ben’s for his Chinese New Year celebration dinner. I brought Jill and Hannah with me to celebrate. They had never made dumplings before! So I taught them how to wrap dumplings so that they wouldn’t be “sleeping”. I have memories as a child of my relatives teasing me because my dumplings didn’t stand up on their own. I didn’t want Jill or Hannah to inadvertently suffer this embarrassment in the future.

As usual, Ben made too much delicious food. Thanks to Ben and his sous-chefs for doing such a great job.

Now you might think this is the end of the story. But no! Like a crazy person, I wanted to celebrate on the actual night of the new moon signifying the new year. So on Tuesday night, I gathered friends to Hong Hua to have delicious Chinese cuisine. One of my all-time favorite dishes is Peking Duck; Hong Hua always has it. It is the best.