Mild Amusement

Whenever holidays roll around, the Mild Wife and I try to do something to celebrate. We don't necessarily go all out, but we do like to participate in the festivities. We put up Halloween decorations to let the kids know that they're welcome to trick-or-treat at our house, and there was a whole series of posts this last Christmas ( culminating with this one ) about the festivities. Basically, we like to partake in the holidays. Lunar New Year is no exception to this rule, so we usually end up having some form of a celebratory meal and handing out red envelopes to our nieces and nephews. Again, it's just one of those things that we like to do, to honor our heritages and get in on the celebration just a bit. It just makes things a tiny bit more cheerful. This year, we couldn't do some of the usuals. A family gathering seemed unwise given that the pandemic is still a thing, and we didn't want to go to a restaurant, either. So, that basically left us with having a mea...

Recently, the Mild Wife and I were catching up with my sister and our nephews/nieces over a video conference call. I've mentioned this set of calls once before, when the Mild Wife and I inadvertently ended up playing virtual hide-and-seek for two hours . It had been a while since we'd chatted, so we were mostly just catching up and letting each other know how we were doing. As it happens, these calls tend to occur around breakfast time, so it's not uncommon for us to either point to breakfast items or prepare breakfast as it happens. We don't exactly point a webcam at the stove while it's on, but you can definitely point out what's happening. Say we are brewing coffee; that usually means there is a receptacle holding coffee in it nearby. If we happen to be using one that is made of glass, that means that we can point to the coffee inside and describe how it is turning from grounds and water into coffee. It's also easy to serve pancakes or eggs onto a plate a...

As is the case with many of these posts, I don't really remember what started the conversation. I remember the punchline and I remember the laughs along the way, but I cannot pinpoint the exact details that led to that turn in conversation. Still, bear with me, because the punchline is worth it. So, at some point, the Mild Wife and I were commenting that in many Filipino households that have a cat, there are decent odds that the cat is named " Muning ." Obviously this rule is not without exceptions, but let's just say that the Mild Wife has seen a lot of "Muning's." As best as I can tell, it's sort of a term of endearment that means "cat," but it frequently becomes the cat's actual name. I suppose the closest translation I can think of would be something like "kitty" in English, where some people just name up naming their cat "Kitty." In fact, the Mild Wife has even shown me social media posts bemoaning the fact tha...

It's a bit of a running theme in the blog posts around here, but the Mild Wife is a better cook than I am, so it's not uncommon for me to pitch in by doing a lot of the prep work . I can actually make a pretty decent meal from scratch these days, but since the Mild Wife tends to have more of an interest in the process, she often finds the recipes. That usually means that she will take the lead at the stove, whereas I will man the cutting board and the surrounding areas. All in all, it generally works out for us. However, this has had an interesting side effect: I generally know what I'm talking about when it comes to chopping and mincing. I've had to do it a few times, after all. So, when the Mild Wife showed me a video of some celebrity cooking show, I immediately noticed the technique. In this case, it was actually the celebrity's friend at fault, but the lady stood a bell pepper up, with only the tip touching the cutting board. She then proceeded to slice it vert...