My salad days

Today is the tomorrow I worried about yesterday. And looking back, I have no complaints. Here’s how it all went down:

We walked the dogs, then walked ourselves to the Subic marketplace to stock up on sweets for the Sunday Candy Walk.

Candy or dog food, Swan always has something to hand out on our walks. Just so there is no confusion, in this case it was candy.
Girl on a mission
A bay view along the way
Calapandayan street scene
A backstreet Swan showed me for the first time. She said she’d walk home from high school this way.
Almost 7K to get there.

With the buying spree completed, we loaded up two big bags of candy on a trike and headed for home. A small teriyaki chicken breast with broccoli for lunch, a nap, and a blog post. Then, it was time to get ready for the rest of the day. Swan wanted something to beach about so I gave her three options. She chose Baloy, and at the appointed hour, we commenced our walk. [Ha! I’m sure most readers got the “something to beach about” allusion, but Grammarly suggested I change “beach” to “talk.” Get your mind out of the gutter, Gram. I’m talking about the sandy places Swan loves.]

The view that greeted us when we arrived on Baloy Beach
Toes in the sand
I hope the beach is happy now. I know I am!
I made it a wine night. Four glasses in two hours. I’m getting better at pacing myself.
Swan enjoying her beach view time at Kokomo’s.

Kokomo owner Steve says the floating bar will be anchored on Sunday, undergo some maintenance, and open for business on Friday. Whoopee!

After my first two wines, we headed up the beach to Treasure Island Resort for some live music and food.

I enjoyed the hell out of this chef salad with Italian dressing.

Two glasses of Treasure Island wine, and we departed for home. It was only 7:30, but I’d had enough. I would have drank more beers during the amount of time we spent at the beach, but Zero is 3% alcohol, and wine is 14%. I wasn’t drunk or anything, but why press your luck? Once home, I whipped up a batch of sugar-free vanilla pudding, and that more than satisfied my sweet tooth’s cravings. It was a relatively short but nice evening out.

1590 calories in…(the wine is included in the dinner total)
…and 3,659 calories burned

And that is how day two in my new lifestyle went down.

Those pictures from the Halloween SOB I promised:

Queen Victoria: 4th Place
Green Room: 3rd Place
Alaska Club: 2nd Place
First Place: Wet Spot

And my favorite costume of the night:

One of the Wet Spot gals

In other news, we met a Hasher from Vietnam named Zach at the Subic anniversary Hash, and he told us about a special group of Hashers from around the world who are doing something called the 7-Eleven Hash. It’s basically an urban Hash where the group hikes through town, stopping at every 7-Eleven convenience store along the chosen route. Zach said no Hash from the Philippines had done this event. Well, the Subic Hash took that as a challenge to be the first; this coming Thursday (11/7), we shall march!

Something different for a change.

Speaking of something different, that trip to Cambodia two years ago was also a nice change of pace.

So much natural beauty in that country.

Today’s YouTube video is something different. Short and sweet (well, maybe sweet is the wrong word) sharing eight facts about farting you might not have known. And now you do. You are welcome!

Smile time:

Strangers call me Santa Claus
Don’t stick it in the wrong hole!
I need to steal me a copy of that book!

Back to the usual Sunday routines starting with the Hideaway feeding. I’ll be doing gin and soda there. Then dinner at John’s place. I reckon I’ll wash down whatever I eat with some wine. Got some SOB coupons to burn as well, so we’ll see what we’re in the mood for come time for the nightcap. Exciting shit, eh?

4 thoughts on “My salad days

  1. Grammarly suggested I change “beach”

    Get off Grammarly. That way lies only sadness.

    Well, the Subic Hash took that as a challenge to be the first; this coming Thursday (11/7), we shall march!

    I don’t know whether to be excited or to dread the idea of what sounds like a mostly urban walk. Then again, if you have to go over mountains to the next village to connect the dots, I guess that could be fun. Are 7-Elevens in the PI any good? They vary in quality in Korea.

  2. Kev, oh, I don’t know. Sometimes it’s fun to tell Grammarly to fuck off. I’m getting better at that. Besides, I already paid for a year’s subscription.

    The 7-Eleven Hash is a twice-a-year thing–on July 11 and November 7. I don’t know how the others do it, but our first walk will be on the highway, walking from Subic back to Barretto and visiting the 7/11 stores we encounter along the way for a refreshing beverage.

    There aren’t many convenience store chains in these parts, so 7/11 is the only option for the most part. Fortunately, their stores are well-stocked, clean, and, yes, convenient.

  3. Kev, oh, I don’t know. Sometimes it’s fun to tell Grammarly to fuck off. I’m getting better at that. Besides, I already paid for a year’s subscription.

    I love the rationalization. As much as I rationalize, you’ve got my ass beat by a mile.

    Well, we’ve talked about dependence on the machine and on faux “authorities.” And you’d written that “Thanks, yeah, thinking for myself sounds like a better option,” which I took to mean you’d actually be thinking for yourself from now on. Was I wrong? Or are you saying you will now consult Grammarly just to tell it to fuck off? To me, it seems you plan to keep relying on it instead of doing the work you should’ve done years ago in learning the rules of language. I’m certainly not looking for error-free prose, especially since I’m not perfect myself, but a diminution of the same errors, over and over and over, might be nice. Are we too deep into the “old dog/new tricks” phase of life?

    Grammarly, being stupid AI, isn’t going to catch every sin—maybe not even half. I can’t stop you from using it, but I’d really recommend taking the arduous, hilly walk of the good writer—a non-physical version of your My Bitch trail. Make the language your bitch and wield it like a weapon.

  4. Kev, I haven’t thought about Grammarly nearly as much as you do. Once you pointed out that its suggestions are not to be trusted, I began taking them with a grain of salt. The app no longer automatically corrects my writing here, so that feature has been turned off. I will occasionally cut and paste as a proofreading tool. It does catch some things I’d missed, but I also reject its suggestions 50% of the time. It’s a tool I sometimes use, but it doesn’t use me. So, the mistakes I make in my posts are all on me.

    As for doing better at learning and applying the rules, I’ve failed at that (or, at best, a “D”) since high school. These days, it is a struggle to remember what I know. It’s a chore to recall what I wanted to write, even more so than how I write it. That saying “words escape me” has become hauntingly true.

    As always, I appreciate the feedback. I hate to be a disappointment, but I will continue to try and do better as best as I am able.

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