勝美2

Another The Friday Five and Friday5 doubleheader!

1. Whatcha been up to?

Nothing much.

Burger King Family Bundle. Three Whoppers, three cheeseburgers, three small fries. Only $12.99! Delish! My compliments to the chef!

And chicken nuggets with sweet 'n' sour sauce and zesty sauce with horseradish but they forgot the zesty. Very unfortunate because there was some Arby's Horsey Sauce packets in the condiment drawer at work and I really liked that on my Whopper With Cheese when I ran out of Kewpie mayonnaise. Unless whoever is in charge of putting the mayonnaise on the Whoppers at Burger King overdoes it. Would have been nice to compare the zesty sauce and Horsey Sauce.

There used to be Arby's Horsey Sauce in an 11.5 ounce squeezy bottle. Discontinued.

Speed Queen Barbeque discontinued their steak sauce, too. Just like A1 except with Speed Queen you got twice as much for half the price. I suppose it's just as well as that neighborhood has gone from bad to worse. I don't want to have to shoot through the windshield of the roadster just to survive the drive-through line. 'Cause you don't put the top down in the ghetto.

And don't even get me started on Hi-C Ecto Cooler. I mix Cuties tangerine juice with Minute Maid lemonade and orange juices. And sometimes gin.

I suppose I could add green food color if I wanted to get fancy...

2. What up?

Yuka livestreamed with guest stars Mel and Lon, her cats;

Raina competed in a fifty McDonald's Chicken McNuggets virtual mukbang (elapsed time 3:41) and went to Cold Beer And Cheeseburgers restaurant to eat a fourteen patty cheeseburger (27:00 — while wearing a Christmas-themed Hello Kitty sweatshirt)...

...and Xiaoge dressed Dawang in Where's Waldo? clothes.

It is extremely hot in her province. Dawang is an Alaskan breed with a double coat. So. Xiaoge shaved his fur off. Like a poodle. During the day Dawang still needs UV protection.

Very stylish. Straight off the runways in Tokyo. Bravo, Dawang.

3. What's new?

Finally received the scrubs I ordered three weeks ago. Very basic one pocket shirt and one rear pocket pants. Only eleven bucks a pair. The scrubs in the stores had multiple pockets and were like the scrubs the nurses in the hospital wore when I was there in early June. I wanted old school in solid colors.

The store clerks explained only the expensive, high end scrubs were in stock. Even hospital administrators are expected to wear scrubs instead of jackets and ties during coronavirus for the washability. And that created a retail shortage.

Now I can finally make doctor and dental appointments and do some gardening and maybe take the roadster out for a midnight spin.

FUN FACT: I haven't put the top down since last September.

Dark grey, light grey and denim. The denim is not at all as pictured. This is a very dark indigo; the online catalogue depicted a hospitalesque seafoam blue. If you were fortunate to have the big box of Crayolas.

4. What's the latest from the front?

Still under shoot to kill.

Gabrielle Kokesh, a nineteen year old little blonde girl from Waunakee, got caught out on camera smashing windows and looting — despite fellow protesters telling her to stop because it was a peaceful demonstration — and is in custody waiting to be arraigned.

So. Gabby sits in jail over a long holiday weekend.

5. What's on the agenda?

Trying to decide between Roku gin from Osaka or my usual Beefeater from London. With pink lemonade, tonic or vermouth? I'm really not supposed to be drinking because of the prescriptions I'm on but I haven't had a drink since Ash Wednesday (February 26) and promise not to operate heavy machinery.

Friday5 questions courtesy of Scrivener. Thank you!

Friday 5 for July 3: She’s going the distance; she’s going for speed.

1. What’s your favorite cake?

Along with Summerfest, The World's Largest Music Festival, all of the summer-long ethnic festivals and the state fair have been cancelled.

Including Festa Italiana. My friend Spewgie is Italian so she is in her element and we just sort of follow her around the fairgrounds.

Sfogliatella? Sure, why not.

Cannoli? Mmm hmm.

Limoncello torte? You betcha.

Wedding cake?

If I ever get married, it's gonna be an Italian wedding with a great big cake with tons of frosting. And I will wear my grandmother's and mother's shiromuku (Shinto wedding kimono).

And my grandmother's and mother's wedding dagger. Yes, you read that right. Dagger. Every bride carries one. Can't fight two thousand years of tradition.

Best fireworks of all the ethnic festivals. And a religious procession and special Tridentine Mass in Latin on Sunday morning.

2. When did you last have pancakes?

Someone on YouTube recently made Japanese soufflé pancakes. That inspired me to make the "Hawaiian breakfast kit" my aunt sent me for Christmas. I'd been saving it for a slumber party with my friend Spewgie's daughter, Spewgie Jr, and my nieces; with coronavirus, heaven knows when that'll be. And I'm sure Aunt Jemima will be making more pancake mix.

Frank’s Hilo smoked Portuguese sausage and Zippy's Chili Without Beans (of which I took the precaution of eating right away), a jar of North Shore peanut butter, a jar of Hawaiian Sun lilikoi jelly, Hawaiian Sun pancake mix and syrups and one hundred percent Hawaiian coffee (which I put in the coffeemaker at work and no one seemed to notice. It even smelled different, for pity). And macadamia nuts for it is a well known fact after breakfast Hawaiians sit around on their big lanais scarfing down macadamia nuts like there's no tomorrow. Then they go surfing without waiting the recommended one hour after eating so you don't get cramps and eaten by a shark, attend a luau and dance the hula.

It's a fact. I have been to Hawaii three times. I have worn a cocoanut bra and grass skirt and haku and lei and paddled an outrigger which is like a big canoe with training wheels and hulaed to Tiny Bubbles...

♫ ♪ Tiny bubbles
In the wine ♫ 
♪  Make me happy
Make me feel fine ♪ ♫ 

♫  Tiny bubbles
Make me warm all over ♪ 
♫ With a feeling that I'm gonna
Love you till the end of time ♫ ♪ 

♪ So here's to the golden moon
And here's to the silver sea ♫
♪ And mostly here's a toast
To you and me ♫

♫ ♪ Tiny bubbles
In the wine ♫ 
♪  Make me happy
Make me feel fine ♪ ♫ 

♪ ♫ Tiny bubbles
Make me warm all over ♪ 
♫ With a feeling that I'm gonna
Love you till the end of time ♫ ♪

♪ So here's to the ginger lei
I give to you today ♫
♪ And here's a kiss
That will not fade away ♫

♫ ♪ Tiny bubbles
In the wine ♫ 
♪  Make me happy
Make me feel fine ♪ ♫ 

♪ ♫ Tiny bubbles
Make me warm all over ♪ 
♫ With a feeling that I'm gonna
Love you till the end of time ♫ ♪
♫ With a feeling that I'm gonna
Love you till the end of time ♫ ♪

...which is like the Hawaiian anthem. Even their marching bands play it at halftime at football games. Goooooooo Rainbow Warriors! Y'know how when you hold up a seashell to your ear you can hear the sea? Uh uh. Tiny Bubbles. It's like Bluetooth or something. Trust me.

And it might be a good idea to wear a hard hat if you're going anywhere near a volcano or on a beach with palm trees.

FUN FACT: Falling cocoanuts kill approximately two thousand people annually. Which is more people than are killed by not waiting to go swimming after eating and getting cramps and eaten by  sharks.

People in Wisconsin get killed by falling cocoanuts all the time. Yes. Very surprising. Didn't know we have palm trees?

Can you see the palm trees silhouetted against the morning sky? If you ever go to the tropical dome at the horticultural conservatory, wear a hardhat. And a mandatory facemask. No close proximitizationing! Please maintain social distancing. Thank you for your cooperation.

Anyhoooo... I made the pancakes and was instantly transported back to those hallowed isles. Mainly because of the cocoanut, lilikoi and guava syrups.

3. When did you last bake a cake or a cake-like thing?

Christmas. Two traditional Japanese bûche de Noël, one for my family and one for my friend Spewgie.

Urm. Made a Swiss matcha roll for New Year's Eve. Or Super Bowl.

4. What part of your job is a piece of cake?

The nuns in grade school were right. I excel at lunch. And recess.

5. Where have you had a really good cupcake?

About eight years ago at a friend's wedding. Big reception downtown. Instead of a wedding cake, there were metal standards, "trees", with cupcakes.

Y'know how when you're eating a store-bought sheet cake and the pink roses taste exactly the same as the green leaves and rest of the frosting? There were six of us bridesmaids — well, five bridesmaids and I think Betsy or Effie was maid of honor for that wedding or maybe the bride but you'd have to check with Spewgie to make sure — and six different kinds of cupcakes. So. We agreed beforehand to share. Didn't want to cause a shortage among the guests.

Sharing cupcakes. Sounds kind of gross. Well after being together since kindergarten and countless slumber parties, Girl Scout campouts and being sorority sisters, sharing cupcakes is a cakewalk, believe you me.

My favorites were a pink cupcake with frosting that was scented with pink rosewater and cherry to simulate Hello Kitty momoberry or possibly sakura blossoms with matcha cake and a purple one with violet frosting on a poppy seed cake. The frostings tasted like they looked. I was in heaven.

Bonus question: What are you thoughts on icing?

We prefer the term "frosting". Icing is a thin drizzle of glaze on a Bundt cake or doughnut. Frosting encompasses the piped decorative elements on a cake as well as the filling of a Swiss roll or Twinkie. A delicious sponge cake with a vanilla frosting filling not to be confused with Twinky starring Charles Bronson as the super creepy thirty-eight year old porno writer / boyfriend and Susan George as the daisy-fresh sixteen year old schoolgirl / girlfriend.

Significant moments: 2:15 — 5:06.

That's what my friends and I looked like on our way to school. Except our uniforms were different. Plaid skirts, no berets, no scarves. We rarely rode our bicycles; usually took the bus. And I'm not a blonde white girl. And twenty years before I was born

Bow ties (not bowties) more often than neckties. Depending on if it was a cardigan day or a blazer day.

Other than that, we were the spittin' image. Regular doppelgängers.

Spooky.