Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO1600 “Salt Collection” Cedar Park, 2018
こんばんは。So, Mariko returned from Europe on Monday, Koa is back from band/orchestra camp, so now there are three at home! It’s nice to have a fuller house, and yay that yummy home-cooking has returned as well. This evening we had a spicy dry curry and it was soooo delicious!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO2000 “Dry Curry” Cedar Park, 2018
Mariko brought back a lot of culinary goodies from Europe, and she now has a pretty sizeable collection of salt. Yes, salt! I don’t know if we have any of the plain iodized salt in our house, but we have plenty of exotics all the way down to simple sea salt and kosher salt. Today’s photo shows several kinds, although that’s not all of them. 😀
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO320 “New Water Fountain” Cedar Park, 2018
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Another nice Sunday! The big thing Koa and I got accomplished was replacing our old kitchen faucet with a brand new one. The old one, an eBay purchase from a few years ago, was leaking a little bit and also the aerator nozzle was broken so the stream didn’t come out straight. I think it was pretty good, but the replacement faucet (a Kohler from Costco.com) is so much nicer! Of course, being brand new, the stream is nice, smooth, and well-aerated. But what’s really cool is that the pull-out nozzle has a magnet in it, so it snaps back into place when you are done using it as a hose. Really neat! And as you can see from the photo above, the kitties approve as well.
After that, I went grocery shopping and then prepared carnitas burritos for dinner. I used the Instant Pot again, and the meat turned out great – I cooked it for 35 minutes, but it wasn’t as tender as we’d like it, so I cooked it for 20 more minutes, and it was perfect! The meat shredded easily, and then I put some under the broiler to crisp up.
Instead of the usual tacos, we made burritos using extra-large flour tortillas, with beans, rice, avocado, lettuce, onion, jalapeño, salsa, crema Mexicana, and cheese. They were really good!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO800 “Burrito Time” Cedar park, 2018
After dinner, Koa and I watched Paddington 2, which I had seen before and absolutely loved. Koa enjoyed it as well, and it was a perfect way to end a very nice Sunday.
Today Koa’s week-long band and orchestra camp concluded with performances at the concert hall at Baylor University. Koa was part of the percussion section for the Wind Ensemble, but also played percussion with the Symphonic Orchestra, which was pretty cool. If you don’t know, the band does not have string instruments, while orchestra does. So it was a treat to hear him play with the orchestra today! It sounded fantastic! In the piece below, Koa plays the cymbals.
He enjoyed the camp so much and said he learned a lot – not only about how to play, but also about different ways to learn and I think it really broadened his musical horizons, and he also grew as a person. The band directors are a much higher level than he is used to, and everyone at the camp was serious about their music and were great musicians. I think Koa was both humbled and inspired by his peers. You can tell he is even more enthusiastic about his musical career. It’s really great.
After returning home, we decided to celebrate with some sushi at Kula kaiten sushi. It was pretty fun, although I’d give the sushi a 6 out of 10. The tempura earns a 3 though… But kaiten sushi is was fun and we had a nice time!
