Sunday, February 16, 2020

Adventures In Asian Cuisine

Began the day with work. Started off doing the carts and outdoor trash, but I wasn't out for long. Another bagger took over the carts around 11, giving me the chance to work on shelving a full cart of candy and helping bag for long lines. The lines were so long, I ended up in the register a few times. My hands are cracking; grabbed Band-Aids off the clearance rack, along with half-price heart-shaped York Peppermint Patties. Got my annual bag of Girl Scouts Lemonade cookies just as the girls were closing up shop.

I wanted to go out for lunch, but I forgot that my first choice, Chick Fil'A, is closed on Sundays. Despite the sun and relative warmth, it remained too cold for Sonic. Arby's gives me heartburn, and I just had dinner at Tu Se Bella with Jessa a while back.

Ended up at the new Pho Asia Vietnamese restaurant in the Audubon Crossings shopping center. My experience with Vietnamese food is limited to the delicious spring rolls I once had at a fancy restaurant in Cape May on Christmas Day in 2004. I just missed the lunch crowd; a large group left as I came in. Pretty much needed spring rolls, which I've loved ever since. Opted for a simple beef-noodle soup for lunch. It came with a plate of bean sprouts with wide, flat minty leaves. I tried eating the sprouts with chopsticks, but I don't think I did very well. The Vietnamese kids working there eventually took pity on me and gave me a fork. The sprouts actually tasted quite good in the soup; it complimented the sliced beef and thin rice noodles nicely.

Went straight home and into bed. I stayed up relatively late with Lauren last night, and it was busy at work. I needed a nap rather badly. I was so worn out, I slept until nearly 5:30.

Worked on writing for a while after I rolled out of bed. Gene finally emerges, blasting the old woman into the fence. Yes, she's the evil witch Malade. Bill runs off in fear the minute he identifies her. Marcia and Richard are all for getting rid of her, but she vanishes before anyone can do anything, threatening to bring out the Sheriff and her trolls.

Had whole wheat pancakes and turkey bacon for dinner while listening to The Pirate Movie soundtrack. This is one of my best record store finds. This is the last thing I expected to fish out of the dollar bins at one of the local music stores. It doesn't have the best reputation, but some of the songs are really fun. Mom used to like the revised lyrics on "Modern Major General," and Ted Hamilton has a blast with "I am the Pirate King." I also like the ensemble version of the finale "Happy Endings," and both "We are the Pirates."

Finished the night after a shower with Buzzr. They did their own tribute to the late Orson Bean with two episodes from Match Game, one of which, Orson's first (with Marcia Wallace), I'd already seen. The episodes of Super Password were entirely new to me, though. Orson joined host Bert Convy and Mary Cadorette of the short-lived Three's Company spin-off Three's a Crowd for the final two episodes of a week in fall 1985. Orson admitted he's a "walking compendium of useless knowledge" when he explained to a miffed Mary and puzzled Bert about the Australian airline company Qandas and what the letters stand for. "Qandas" came up in the Super Password bonus round, and Mary hadn't heard of it and didn't know how to describe it. (Research reveals they're still in business today as Australia's leading airline.)

(The also ran non-Bean episodes of Body Language featuring Mindy Cohn and Jamie Farr between the shows. I guess they couldn't bring themselves to preempt that one again after they did it last week for the Valentine's Day marathon.)

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