The mildly interesting things that you see in a day…
5 minute read
March 21, 2014, 11:34 PM
So my Friday was fun. I got together with my friend Matthew, we did some cooking, and then after Matthew and I parted company for the day, I headed over to Dulles Town Center for a bit. Over the course of the day, I spotted a few things that I found mildly interesting.
On the way in, I stopped over at Aardvark Swim in Chantilly. I usually go to the Rockville location, but since they were out of goggle straps (the bungee cord kind) in Rockville, and I knew I was going to be out this way sooner than Rockville would get more in stock, I swung by and here to get them. Those of you who follow me on Instagram may remember that I was contemplating whether or not to buy this:
Continue reading…Categories: Clothing, Fire alarms, Food and drink, Matthew, Retail
A little polish and elbow grease is a great way to move on…
5 minute read
December 2, 2013, 10:36 PM
Sometimes you never know what is going to provide a sense of closure to a chapter in one’s life. In this case, shining up my water bottles provided a sense of closure to a chapter in my life that I have been trying to move on from. Recall that I left Food & Water Watch in July as I looked to determine what the next chapter in my career would be. However, it’s hard to move on when I was staring at the branding of my former employer every time that I would take a drink of water. To put it another way, I love my stainless steel water bottles from Klean Kanteen, but what was screenprinted on the bottles reminded me of something that I would prefer to put behind me.
In other words, this:
Categories: Food and drink, Myself, Stuarts Draft
Kale pops?
3 minute read
May 8, 2013, 11:57 PM
So last week on Facebook, a friend of mine posted a status where she scoffed at a recipe for kale pops. Basically, the gist was that it seemed gross, and this was a bit over the top for getting kids to eat vegetables. I thought it was crazy enough that it just might work, and asked my friend to pass the recipe along, which she did. Basically, to make these Yogurt Kale Popsicles, you take the kale, some nonfat plain yogurt, frozen strawberries, frozen pineapple pieces, and some stevia, and then you throw it all into a blender and blend it until it’s smooth.
This evening, I went over to Giant after I went swimming and got all of the stuff to make it happen. I had the stevia, and I had previously gotten the popsicle molds on Amazon (I tried several places locally, and none had them!). Then I just had to get the kale, the yogurt, and the fruit. Giant was out of both the frozen pineapple and the frozen strawberries (hey, it was late in the evening), and so I substituted fresh. Just as well, I suppose, considering that I was blending it all until it was smooth anyway.
And then when I got home, I started throwing things into the blender. First, the kale and the fruit:
Categories: Food and drink
Food photos…
2 minute read
May 5, 2013, 6:57 PM
As evidenced in a few places on this site, most notably the Fruit Stands set in Photography, I like photographing food. I don’t quite know why, but I enjoy it. I like capturing the details on food items. I like seeing the food items up close. It’s kind of fun like that. Since, outside of the aforementioned Fruit Stands photo set, food photos are usually not planned shoots, I don’t have my real camera around. Thus these are phone photos. Still, I have fun with them. I took some this week, so I thought I would share. Enjoy…
Sandwich fixings at the cafe in the building where I work.
Categories: Food and drink, Photography
A train ride with far more excitement than you might expect…
4 minute read
September 19, 2012, 9:21 PM
This is also why, when I’m traveling on a public mode of transportation, the idea is to leave early so that I can be at the boarding location in plenty of time, just in case anything goes wrong in the process. Today was one of those days where something went wrong. I described it as a “clusterf—“, and I think that was putting it nicely.
First of all, though, to set things up: I’m in Stuarts Draft right now, and I went there on Amtrak’s westbound Cardinal. To get there, my plan was to take the 51 from my house to Glenmont, and then take the Red Line to Union Station. Initially, things went well. I caught the same 51 that I usually get to go to work, and caught my Red Line train.
And then things went downhill from there.
The Red Line was having a power problem on Track 2 at Brentwood Yard. Thus they had to single track through the yard, during morning rush hour. Whenever you hear “single tracking” and “rush hour” in the same sentence, by the way, that’s never a good sign. So at Glenmont, we sat for several minutes before we started the run – much longer than usual. Then we proceeded to Wheaton and held again. No hold at Forest Glen. Then we held for about ten minutes each at Silver Spring and Takoma.
And then things got worse. There was a second power problem on the Red Line at Van Ness-UDC, with single tracking over there, too. Lovely. By this point, Metro was telling people in the e-alerts to consider taking the Green Line. That’s when you know it’s bad. With two areas of single tracking, I bailed at Fort Totten and took the Green Line.
Fun with muffins!
2 minute read
July 13, 2012, 2:05 PM
Remember how I said that I want to go photograph food? Well, I got to do that a little bit today. I went over to Metro Cafe, a little sandwich shop in the office complex where I work, for lunch. And while I was waiting for my sandwich, I had a little fun with my cell phone camera and the muffin case. And here was the result:
Categories: Food and drink, Photography
…and later, Chuck E. Cheese!
6 minute read
May 11, 2012, 10:37 PM
After spending a few hours at Montgomery Mall where we got Adelle’s bear, among other things, Mom and I headed home, and then later, for dinner, headed over to the Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurant in Laurel, Maryland.
Now you’re probably thinking: aren’t you a little old for Chuck E. Cheese’s? Answer is, yes, probably so. But we had a good time. It had been just over 20 years since the last time that any of us went to one of these sorts of places, and so this was the time to revisit some fun childhood memories. In fact, the Laurel location was specifically chosen because it was a former Showbiz Pizza location, and had the three-stage setup just like at the Showbiz Pizza in Fayetteville, Arkansas that we used to go to when Sis and I were growing up. Recall for a moment, from 1987 in Fayetteville, on the occasion of the party for my sixth birthday:
Billy Bob’s stage, with the “Smitty’s Super Service Station” background.
Categories: Companies, Family, Food and drink, Vintage business
Making chili!
3 minute read
April 8, 2012, 7:58 PM
I was cooking today, making a pot of vegetarian chili:
I had a blast, too. Anyone who can go on like this for just over 45 minutes had better be having a blast, I’d say. But what can I say? I love performing for the camera. I do, however, need to be mindful about how long I run the faucet. In reviewing the footage afterwards, noticed that at times I left the water running for a lot longer than I needed to (so don’t write to tell me this – I recognize that I was wasting water).
Categories: Food and drink, Friends, Homestar Runner, Kia Soul, Power Rangers, Video Journal
So what’s the other seven percent, then?
< 1 minute read
February 14, 2012, 11:46 PM
So I was perusing the Target store in Wheaton this evening, and ran across this:
So if it’s “93% organic” as the manufacturer of Justin’s Maple Almond Butter claims, what’s in the other seven percent that’s not? Remember that USDA regulates the use of the word “organic” when it comes to food. So since they’re not carrying the organic certification mark, one would presume that it’s not really “organic” food. So why even bring it up, then? That seems odd to say the least.
Categories: Food and drink, Products, Target
Now, you see, plates are something that the average person can understand.
3 minute read
June 4, 2011, 12:44 AM
It recently made its way around the news circuit that MyPlate has replaced the Food Pyramid, which itself replaced the “Basic Four“. For those not yet familiar, it looks like this:
Categories: Food and drink
So I made my first green smoothie…
3 minute read
May 26, 2011, 11:15 PM
Yes, I made my first green smoothie this evening, and it was really good. I actually would have done this a few days ago, but the bananas needed time to ripen, since I got them literally straight out of the box at the grocery store.
But regardless, I have had one, and I enjoyed it. In making this smoothie, I first added ice and some water. Then I jammed a whole bunch of spinach in, like filling half the blender jar with spinach. Then in the remaining space, I put in some grapes, and then peeled and broke up a banana. And when I was finished jamming everything in there, the blender looked like this:
Very layered. From bottom to top, you have ice and water, then the spinach, then a thin layer of grapes, and finally the banana.
Categories: Food and drink
A fitter, trimmer Schumin coming your way?
5 minute read
April 19, 2011, 9:50 PM
First of all, before we start this discussion, why didn’t anyone tell me I hadn’t written a Journal entry in three bloody weeks? I came to this realization today when I was showing somebody a photo on the site, and noticed that the last Journal entry was March 29. Yes, I can get caught up in things, and occasionally need that little reminder that I haven’t done one of these in a while. So here it is.
Yesterday, I posted this on the Twitter:
I’ve lost nine pounds since last time the doctor weighed me about a month ago. Apparently I’m doing something right?
April 18 8:51 AM
First of all, I was as surprised as anyone. I realize that I weigh a lot more than I probably ought to, but that surprised me. That’s over a span of about a month. I’ll spare you the exact numbers, citing Schumin-will-not-share-that-with-you privilege, but I’ve been really trying to clean up my act health-wise.
Categories: Food and drink, Personal health, Recreation/Exercise, Weight loss
Make a happy face out of cooking oil, and then light ‘er up!
2 minute read
November 13, 2010, 9:02 PM
Tonight’s dinner experience was certainly a bit more exciting than most when eating out. I went with my parents to Massaki, a Japanese steakhouse and sushi bar in Staunton. That was a cool experience.
See, Massaki is one of those places where they cook the food right in front of you, and put extra emphasis on showmanship. And the food was good, for that matter. But yeah, they put the whole cooking thing on display. First the server takes your drink order, and then after they bring you the drinks, they take your order. The soup comes out, the salad comes out, and then while you’re eating the salad, the chef comes out.
The chef came out with a little cart containing all the raw ingredients for the table. I had the swordfish and mahi mahi, others had a chicken dish, and someone else had steak. First thing the chef did was get started. After doing a little thing with his spatula, he made a happy face on the grill out of cooking oil, and then lit that sucker on fire. Big flame-up right there (and you can feel the heat from the individual flame-ups several tables away). Then he put the rice down, and got to work chopping up the vegetables. Then he did the side dishes. Dad and I had chicken livers, and Mom had sauteed mushrooms. The chef made a big to-do of the cooking, that’s for sure. It was quite fun to watch, as he placed this sauce on this, and this on that, and moved stuff around and flipped stuff.
Categories: Family, Food and drink, Staunton
Made with REAL sugar…
4 minute read
September 14, 2010, 10:23 PM
It’s funny how things work out sometimes. As you may know, PepsiCo did a five-week run of its limited-edition “Throwback” line of drinks, selling versions of Pepsi and Mountain Dew sweetened with sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup. They also introduced retro-style packaging to go along with this:
Categories: Food and drink, Work
No longer a Nutella virgin…
2 minute read
July 14, 2010, 9:27 PM
So on Monday, with the encouragement of Elissar (coworker of mine), I tried Nutella for the first time. I was inspired by photos that Elissar had posted on Facebook of Caitlin (another coworker) doing the same thing – trying Nutella for the first time. The idea was to get a little dollop of Nutella on your spoon, get some “before” pictures, and then taste the Nutella for the camera. So here goes:
Posing with the Nutella and the spoon.
Categories: Food and drink