Comments Posted By Kevin Kim
Displaying 0 To 0 Of 0 Comments
I think Swan ordered what she thought she’d ordered. I saw the medallions on that shot of the menu. In fact, I recall thinking the medallions would be too skimpy for someone my size, and I’d never order them. The pork she got looked to be almost the size of an Alice Springs Chicken from Outback Steakhouse.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 22/February/2024 @ 8:11 am
And Swan also enjoyed her pork steak medallion.
Somebody has a funny idea of what a “medallion” is when cooking. What Swan has there looks more like butterflied pork. In cooking, medallions are supposed to look like little Olympic medals.
Here’re some real medallions. Or here.
With a blog-post title like “Bloody hell,” I was expecting some scary verbiage about you spitting up copious amounts of blood or something. Not to diminish the pulse-ox issue, which is obviously scary in its own right, but this is what your punniness leads me to look for. I guess, in this case, “Bloody hell” is just a literal expression of shock at the pulse-ox of 82.
Feel better tomorrow!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 21/February/2024 @ 7:46 pm
In that case, you might enjoy Kiefer Sutherland going back to his Irish roots and cooking a traditional beef stew.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 21/February/2024 @ 10:11 am
Arriving at Johansson’s.
I forget—you may have clarified this once before, but is it pronounced “Joe Hanson’s” or “Yo Hanson’s”?
With all the dildos, sloshing toilet plungers, and leaking footwear, I found myself wondering just what was wrong with the beef “stew.” Odd taste? Bad beef leading to the wrong texture? Something else?
Personally, I’d have mashed those taters. And beets on the side?? I’d go with something more standard like peas/carrots, green beans, or asparagus.
A List of Awful Puns by G. Stillmore Gronerz.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 20/February/2024 @ 5:53 pm
I was on the fence about attending, but in the end, I decided I should show support for the local veteran’s organization.
Then they turned around and used ya’!
There was something I liked about this tree.
I’m gonna guess it’s the saucy zigzaggedness.
Green river…
Algae blooms?
Anticipation
That kid in the lower-left corner looks to be a character. I sense a future career in comedy for him.
Steve was the official photographer for the event.
He seems to prefer photographing the beach!
Lots of familiar faces in the crowd, including my ex and her new beau.
Is that your ex-chickadee (Mary?) who’s currently working in Manila? Is she back in town permanently or just visiting? Or am I mixing her up with someone else?
Judge not lest ye be judged.
Lest ye be curb-stomped by five-ton soles and stabbed by stiletto heels!
The contestants
#3 is definitely cute, but where did #8 go?
The contestants in swimwear. Number three was my favorite.
#3’s suit certainly left the least to the imagination. And poor #1—cut off or barely visible in many of these pics.
Dave conducting interviews for the “personality” contest
I think I found #8! And #9’s got a skimpy, barely-there swimsuit on.
My wife from that era was working at a local dining establishment, and I came in and sat at the bar while I waited for her shift to end.
This seems like a familiar scenario, from 1979 to now.
Happy Hashing! Hash is better than cocaine, I’m sure.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 19/February/2024 @ 5:22 pm
Sometimes, it’s good just to throttle back so you can meet the next day with renewed energy. Me, I try not to beat myself up too much about occasional lapses, but I know that, if those lapses become a habit, then something is out of whack. Just this weekend, I skipped the stairs on Friday, and when I did them on Saturday, I took a breather at the 14th floor before continuing up to 26. Tomorrow (Monday), I’ll go up without stopping, and if I have the strength, I’ll go back down to B1 and climb up to the 6th floor—what I call 1.25 staircases.
1 staircase = B1 to 26
1.25 = B1 to 26 + B1 to 6
1.5 = B1 to 26 + B1 to 14
1.75 = B1 to 26 + B1 to 22
2 = B1 to 26 twice
etc.The goal is to be able to do 3 staircases by summer. If I can do that, the big hills along the Four Rivers trail will be nothing.
I’ve thought about your “stairs are boring” comment. I find it impossible to be bored when I’m gasping for breath and wiping sweat off my brow. I also appreciate the “rigidity” of the staircase format, which makes it easier to measure my progress.
Anyway, have a good 6K.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 18/February/2024 @ 5:43 pm
Oh, that poor cake. Would’ve liked to see a pic of the re-iced masterpiece.
Food looked good. Glad it was a good time.
Rooftop karaoke! I bet your neighbors love you all.
Have fun at Jeff’s!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/February/2024 @ 3:50 pm
I’ll have to rewatch “The Mule.” I reviewed it a while back.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 17/February/2024 @ 8:51 am
Haunting words from Toby Keith. Did he write them? Ah—I see he did. I guess the “old man” is either his future self or the specter of death. Maybe they’re the same thing.
Burrito looks good! Lasagna looks like… something made by an Arizonan. (Frankly, it reminds me more of runny eggs and sausage for breakfast!)
Swan’s hungry face
Maybe she’s got that alien-hunger for your face. Your tasty, tasty face.
Talk about having a roof over your head!
Wow, that’s a lovely shot.
Lungs! How’s the carbocisteine working out?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 16/February/2024 @ 7:51 pm
John came out and chatted with us and the guests at another table. He’s still not doing all that well, but he was up and moving about, which is better than I’d seen in quite some time.
I’m glad John’s doing better… but he’d be doing even better if you flipped him horizontally! You still don’t flip your selfies, do you? Most of the time, if the background is jungle, I can’t tell, but if there’s writing in the photo (on a tee shirt, or on a sign), I can easily see whether the photo is backward. I’m surprised your new phone doesn’t automatically flip everything “right side up.” My new (well, three-year-old) Samsung does. I don’t think I even needed to tweak any settings.
She left the bar shortly thereafter and moved back home to the province. She wasn’t really cut out to be a bargirl.
Or: she had such a horrifically bad experience with you that she ran screaming!
Here’s hoping that your current experience with real companionship has made clear that fake companionship just isn’t worth it. This life is better than one that ends with the epitaph “Bullshit & Money Led Me Here.”
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 15/February/2024 @ 6:20 pm
The immigration office showed me some love in the form of a 60-day extension to my tourist visa.
I keep forgetting how tenuous your existence there is. Every sixty days of that bureaucratic nonsense would drive me crazy after a while. It’s bad enough that I have to renew my F4 visa every three years. Do you see the same staffers every time you go back, or do the faces change each time?
Swan had a Belgian sandwich
I had to look up what a Belgian sandwich was. In French, it’s called a “Mitraillette,” i.e., a submachine gun (a regular machine gun is a “mitrail,” roughly rhyming with “me try”). Looks delish. And according to Wikipedia, no onions!
re: “He loves me like an endless sea.”
Is that a reference to the infinitude of your love? If not, then I’m stumped because I don’t know how an endless sea loves a person.
I’m taking Swan to dinner tonight for VD at John’s place.
Thank goodness no one says “venereal disease” anymore: it’s all STDs these days. Otherwise, you might have to have a talk with John about his menu selections.
What more can be done for your lungs?
Anyway, Happy Valentine’s Day to you both.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 14/February/2024 @ 4:55 pm
I’ve never taken Vapo-Rub in pill form, but if this stuff cleans out the mucus, I’ll be happy.
You’ve had the Carbocisteine for at least a day now, and you’re still saying “if,” so… is it working at all?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 14/February/2024 @ 9:06 am
Then a stroll along the riverbank.
The width of that passage was about the width of the road shoulder in that terrifying tunnel walk I did when I walked the Korean east coast. Flashbacks.
I love how they concreted around this tree so it could continue to live and grow.
Maybe it’ll die, fall over, and become a bridge one day.
What goes up must come down.
It always looks as if you guys are in some Vietnam war movie.
A fallen tree became a bridge.
I’m a prophet!
Another fire on the mountain.
The reflection in the water is dramatic.
And another Hash came to a close.
The moon’s little emoji smile is Nature’s blessing of your day.
Why do Americans call the small room where the toilet is a ‘restroom’ (when there are no chairs or beds in there) or a ‘bathroom’ (when there is no bath in there)?
The person may be thinking more of European “water closets,” i.e., tiny, toilet-only rooms, with the bath and sink in a separate room that is literally a “bathroom.” Most American dwellings combine the WC and the room-with-baths, as do most Korean dwellings. As for public “restrooms,” are you not resting for a bit as you drop the kids off at the pool? Why do Canadians call restrooms “washrooms” when all you do is wipe your ass and not wash anything? (OK, granted, if there’s a bidet and/or sink somewhere, you do wash your bum and hands.)
Good walk! I hope the Carbocisteine works. Sounds like a stronger version of Vick’s Vapo-Rub. Meanwhile, I look forward to your “Shameless” review, and I hope you enjoy “Blue Eye Samurai.”
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 13/February/2024 @ 5:47 pm
That road from the highway to Alta Vista I still don’t know the name of (there’s no signage).
I don’t know whether this might work, but when you reach the nameless street, look at Google Maps on your phone and see if it provides a name. Take a screen shot of that and keep it for future reference in a special folder titled “Mystery Streets.”
Rizal Extension
I finally got curious about who this “Rizal” was. Wikipedia to the rescue:
José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda (Spanish: [xoˈse riˈsal, -ˈθal], Tagalog: [hoˈse ɾiˈsal]; June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896) was a Filipino nationalist, writer and polymath active at the end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is considered a national hero (pambansang bayani) of the Philippines. An ophthalmologist by profession, Rizal became a writer and a key member of the Filipino Propaganda Movement, which advocated political reforms for the colony under Spain.
He was executed by the Spanish colonial government for the crime of rebellion after the Philippine Revolution broke out; it was inspired by his writings. Though he was not actively involved in its planning or conduct, he ultimately approved of its goals which eventually resulted in Philippine independence.
Rizal is widely considered one of the greatest heroes of the Philippines and has been recommended to be so honored by an officially empaneled National Heroes Committee. However, no law, executive order or proclamation has been enacted or issued officially proclaiming any Filipino historical figure as a national hero. He wrote the novels Noli Me Tángere (1887) and El filibusterismo (1891), which together are taken as a national epic, in addition to numerous poems and essays.
So there you have it: inspirer of a rebellion and unofficial national hero.
Then Gomez Extension
Another name! So who is this Gomez? I see a martyred priest named Mariano Gomez, and there’s an actor-turned-politician named Richard Gomez. I’m betting on the priest, but I’ll leave that for you to confirm.
Me and the boys on the morning dog walk
Shirt looks vaguely familiar. And you’re out with both dogs! So for Lucky, all is forgiven, I guess. Okay, then!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 12/February/2024 @ 5:27 pm
Amazing how easy the errors are to see the moment someone points out there are errors.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 12/February/2024 @ 9:34 am
Swan-ta Claus! Spreading joy wherever she goes!
Chicken feet at the Santo Tomas marketplace. I’ll stick with wings.
I accidentally ordered boneless chicken feet once at a Korean resto years ago. The texture was like trying to eat rubber gloves. I value the feet for their collagen, which renders out nicely when you boil them for chicken stock. Aside from that, though… ick.
Swan had a friend coming over to visit in the evening…
Then later:
When I arrived home, Swan was still on the roof with her friends…
So: a “friend” became “friends.” The magical power of multiplication.
I got a message that my pal Erik was on his way, and he arrived just in time to rescue me from a very aggressive gal who was trying to touch me in ways that even I find inappropriate.
You can always get up and move, or you can say something if the lady’s making you uncomfortable.
I love Asia and should I decide on a change of scenery I’d seriously consider Cambodia or Vietnam.
Spot the errors!
re: Buddhist-monk joke
Third time I’ve seen/heard that joke since last week. It’s experiencing a revival. That’s only half of the joke, though—the original joke goes like this:
A Buddhist comes up to a hot-dog vendor and says, “Make me one with everything.” After receiving the hot dog, he asks how much it costs. The vendor says, “Three bucks,” and the Buddhist gives him a ten. The vendor pockets the money and does nothing further. “Hey—where’s my change?” asks the Buddhist. The vendor says, “Change comes from within.”
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 11/February/2024 @ 7:46 pm
We can be our own worst critics. You followed your intuition and are probably safer for it, but I do understand the feelings of guilt. Maybe a compromise might be to just sit and rest longer than usual before continuing on, but do keep following your instincts: they’re what keep you safe.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 10/February/2024 @ 5:12 pm
I’ll be looking forward to a series review. You’re watching the US version, right? Have you seen any of the original UK version, just for comparison’s sake?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 10/February/2024 @ 9:25 am
Have some lovely, gigantic seafood salads with some sort of mayo-based, creamy dressing (pref. homemade so as to be able to exclude sugar: the bottled stuff is sugary unless it’s oil and vinegar). Very low carb. Feels sinful, but dietary fat doesn’t translate to body fat. Use Old Bay seasoning to accent the seafood. Delicious.
Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis (Riker and Troi in “The Next Generation”) are a hilarious couple. If you watch them in interviews, you’d think they were married to each other, but they each have their own spouses who condone their on-set behavior. They are, per the slang, “work husband” and “work wife.” In interviews, they lovingly interrupt each other (with Marina doing the majority of the interrupting), and they finish each other’s sentences. You almost have to wonder whether anything more happened behind the scenes (nudge-nudge). Whatever the dynamic, the two have always had great chemistry, and it showed in “Picard” Season 3.
Enjoy the final season of “Shameless.” Watch them lungs!
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 09/February/2024 @ 5:50 pm
Apparently, the Lotte World Tower has 123 floors.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 09/February/2024 @ 10:18 am
Nice photos, and a very different view of Easter Mountain!
The Army hospital on Yongsan Garrison made the diagnosis that my Korean doctor had missed for several months, giving me worthless antibiotics for an “infection.”
So you have your doubts about Korean health care, too, I see. Would you say your health care in the PI has overall been better?
They’re about to build a 100-story building on Yongsan’s property.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 08/February/2024 @ 6:31 pm
Here’s Dr. Sten Ekberg talking about alcohol, for what it’s worth. The whole video is worth a watch.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 08/February/2024 @ 1:23 pm
My fasting blood sugar is high. Up from 6.35 to 6.49 (high normal is 5.49)
Fasting blood sugar changes hourly, and the corresponding number can vary from, say, 80-something (good) to 300-something (horrifically bad), with many people averaging about 100-something. That number there, 6.49, is more likely your A1c, a 3-month average and therefore a more reliable number. A reading of 6.49 is pre-diabetic, so you’re becoming insulin-resistant, which isn’t a good thing. We’re all ideally supposed to be insulin-sensitive, i.e., our bodies ought to react quickly to the presence of insulin. Insulin resistance comes from having so much insulin running around your body that your body has gotten used to it. The insulin is there because you’re ingesting too many carbs, and your body is trying to keep your blood sugar down. But after too much time spent this way, your body just kind of gives up and stops responding to insulin. That’s insulin resistance, and the royal road to diabetes. I know this path well.
I also know you’re a stubborn old fart who’s not about to cut out the alcohol (the cutting-out of which would really reduce your numbers), so you’re going to have to cut other carbs and do intensive exercise to lower blood sugar. I’m on such a program myself now: strength training in various forms over the next several months, plus the return of distance walking, along with staircase work.
As you develop muscle strength and tone, your basal metabolic rate will go up (muscles need a lot of energy), and this will create a virtuous cycle that lowers your blood sugar. Walking alone won’t be enough: intensive training that gets your heart rate up and gets you breathing hard will be key. Sorry to say it, but walking, with no other exercise, is not a cure for weight loss. If it were, I’d have been skinny long ago.
I’d suggest HIIT training, but I confess I’m kind of afraid of HIIT myself: such training requires insane bursts of activity to bring you to the brink of exhaustion in under a minute or two. The closest I get to HIIT is my staircase work, which is like walking up one big hill, and my training doesn’t follow the HIIT pattern. (HIIT pattern: 20-30 seconds maximum effort, 10 seconds rest; do this for up to 20 or so minutes. Stair work is a continuous grind, unbroken for 10-15 minutes, with 1-minute breaks when I take the elevator back down to B1. So what I do isn’t really HIIT training at all, but it does get the heart and lungs going.)
Anyway, good luck with whatever program you end up following.
Ferme la bouche
Technically, that’s “Shut your mouth,” but if you’re looking for ways to say “Shut up” more naturally, try these:
Tais-toi!
Ta gueule! (gueule = an animals’ mouth)
La ferme!
Ferme-la! (“Shut it!”)
Écrase! (literally, “Break!”—but it means “Shaddap!”)Have fun at the b-day party.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 07/February/2024 @ 6:26 pm
I’m not that big of an Elvis fan, but that song’s a fairly famous one. It might get canceled, these days, for demanding that the lady put out.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 07/February/2024 @ 2:07 pm
re: satisficing
A portmanteau of “satisfy” and “suffice.” Fancy way of saying “good enough.” But it’s not Elvis’s verb “to satisfaction”:
A little less conversation, a little more action, please
All this aggravation ain’t satisfactioning meSo, that’s what I did after stopping in at Sit-n-Bull for some pecan pie (Swan’s favorite) to take with me.
Using your lady as cover for your own vices, I see!
We had some music playing, and Swan was rocking the rocker (which is why the photo is blurry).
She looks as if she’s being launched off the roof by a Swan-a-pult.
re: that Kirk/David Marcus meme
Poor Merritt Butrick, who played David Marcus in Star Treks II and III. Died of AIDS and toxoplasmosis at age 30, says Wikipedia. Leonard Nimoy wrote about him in one of his autobiographies (I Am Spock, I think).
I’m surprised you didn’t end the post with Elvis.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 06/February/2024 @ 6:10 pm
It was too early in the day to enjoy a sunset, so I arranged a fire for my guest’s entertainment. (joke lang)
guest’s = one guest
guests’ = more than one guestIs “joke lang” some sort of PI slang for “JK”?
Dr. Jo and hubby Chris joined in the fun.
Didn’t realize how utterly tiny Jo was.
Wine, meat on a stick, and cheesecake is how they roll.
A French person would’ve been like, “What have you done to my civilization?”
The testosterone table.
Who’s the imposing-looking tattooed guy at the far right, with what is either the thickest neck I’ve ever seen or a neck-covering double chin?
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Looks as though the Rite Spot needs a tarp. With the ability to tie it at the bottom so as to avoid flapping in the wind.
I’m going to buy some roll-up bamboo blinds to install before the next gathering.
Ah, okay. Good luck with that as they will probably flap around at least a bit.
All in all, it looks to have been a great party. I’ll never get over that whole sex-segregating thing, but to be fair, I suppose something like it can happen at Western parties, too. The kids certainly get their own table in the West.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 05/February/2024 @ 3:53 pm
You mentioned getting your blood-work results, but you didn’t share the results! That bad, eh? No worries: mine’ll be worse.
Food looks good. I hope the party went well.
Swan made this cherry cheesecake.
Nice cheesecake, but rotate the image 90 degrees left! You can do that on your phone before uploading to your blog.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 04/February/2024 @ 2:27 pm
Sorry about the scheduled brownout. You guys and California, man.
Sorry, too, for no comments until now. I was away all day, tripping down to Daegu just to have an awesome meal.
How many of these outages happen per year?
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 04/February/2024 @ 2:27 am
Six more chairs for the Rite Spot On The Roof
Aha! Those are the chairs that feature in all those YouTube videos of people falling over as their deck chairs collapse! Have fun! (True, in most cases, the chairs don’t collapse on their own. As you see in this video, they usually have a little percussive help,)
Inday joined us on the rooftop with her mother and daughter.
Geraldine, Inday… she’s like a spy with aliases.
Ya done good, Mr. Sun.
That’d look good on a gravestone.
re: hors d’oeuvre
Known as “whoreses doovers” in my childhood household or “horse’s ovaries” to the unwashed masses.
Hors = outside (of)
d’oeuvre = of a work (of art, etc.)An hors d’oeuvre is a smaller dish that is “outside of the main work,” i.e., “le plat principal,” or the main course. In the States, we use it to mean “appetizer,” but the French often say “amuse-bouche” (“amuse-the-mouth,” something to titillate) when they mean an appetizer. And what we call an “entrée” (main course) the French, as said above, call “le plat principal,” i.e., literally “the main dish.” The French, when eating traditionally, use “entrée” to refer to the dish before the main course (but after the appetizer? unsure). One site labels the phases of a French meal thus:
1. Un apéritif
2. Un hors d’oeuvre ou une entrée
3. Un plat principal (avec de la viande, du poisson et des légumes)
4. Une salade
5. Du fromage
6. (peut-être) un dessert
7. Un café (un express)1. an aperitif (pre-meal drink)
2. hors d’oeuvre (so maybe the same as “entrée” and “amuse-bouche”)
3. main course (with meat, fish, and vegetables)
4. salad
5. cheese
6. (maybe) dessert
7. coffee (espresso)re: “I know my way around a dildo.”
And the guy said that, eh? Fascinating, Captain.
I’m not sure when or how I’ll blog, but I’ll do my best to post some form of update.
Good time to learn how to blog from your phooooonnnnnnne…
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/February/2024 @ 6:17 pm
«« Back To Stats Pagere: your helper “Geraldine”
Didn’t she go by a different name in an earlier post? How many names does she have?
“Geraldine” makes me think of Flip Wilson.
» Posted By Kevin Kim On 02/February/2024 @ 11:09 am