Mild Amusement

A while back, the Mild Wife and I decided to get a fancy shmancy smart scale ( something like this ). We both like to keep an eye on our health, and the scale is one of those numbers that provides some hints about general health. Sure, the actual weight number can be misleading, but that's where a smart scale fills in some of the gaps. If you measure both your overall weight and your fat percentage, you've got a decent picture of what's happening with your body. Now, we both know that the numbers aren't supposed to be completely accurate. However, so long as they're consistent, you can make deductions about how your diet and exercise are treating your body. Let's say the scale consistently says that you're five pounds heavier than you actually are. That's nice, but it's the same five pounds every single day. If my weight is lower on a Tuesday than on a Monday, that still means I lost some weight. So far, the scale has proven useful, but I get a b...

As I've noted here, there have been quite a few travels during the last few months. On the last leg of the trips, the Mild Wife and I ended up in Colorado to visit some family . During that time, we had some fun exchanges with my sister, my brother-in-law, and her kids. Not surprisingly, the ones with the kids were the most amusing. For this particular post, I'm going to describe one of the food-related ones. Specifically, I made causa with my nephew at one point. Now, if you've never had Peruvian causa, I added a link to a Wikipedia article that has a picture of it. That article is in Spanish, because the dish in question is more well-known in countries that speak Spanish. Still, if you want to get an idea of what it is, the picture there is a good way to get the gist of it. In the simplest terms, it's a potato/tuna casserole. The version I've always seen isn't as fancy as the one in the link; we usually just used a big Pyrex container and made a big sheet o...

To finish out the great world tour of 2019, the Mild Wife and I ended up in Colorado the week after the Kazakhstan trip . If you've been following along, this year has included trips to two different continents away from home. This wasn't the plan at the beginning of the year, but somehow, this is where we ended up. Still, I've been lucky to be able to go on all these trips, so I'm not complaining at all. In fact, I'm blogging about it to share some of the fun. For this particular trip, I was visiting family, so it was all play and no work. I left my work stuff at home, and the Mild Wife and I threw ourselves into spending quality time with my sister, her husband, and her kids. There were lots of fun moments, but the general memory I have was of interacting with our older nephew. His younger sibling is still a baby, so while we had some very cute moments and pictures with the baby, we spent more time talking and playing with our nephew. Since the Mild Wife and I...

As the last couple of blog posts pointed out, I was recently on a trip to Kazakhstan . So far, I've regaled you with stories about, essentially, pieces of paper. Sure, they were important pieces of paper (the postcards were important to me), but they were just that: paper. In a way, though, they highlighted just how different things were in that country compared to what I was used to. I don't normally have to track customs forms or have that much trouble finding a way to mail something, after all. Today's post, on the other hand, is the opposite of that. The more things change, the more they stay the same. As I mentioned last post, I was in town the day before a local holiday. That led to shenanigans when it came to the operating hours for the post office, but it also led to the set up for this post. Specifically, I needed to have dinner the night before this holiday, and I wasn't feeling particularly adventurous. So, I figured I'd wander down to the hotel restaur...

Continuing with the theme of travel-related humor , Kazakhstan offered up a second opportunity for hilarity. The first time around involved a customs and immigration paper that I watched like a hawk. The second time involved some postcards, so it was far less official. However, it also led to more sustained laughter. As you can probably guess, I decided to send some postcards. I can't remember if this was my idea or the Mild Wife's idea, but I want to say that something she said inspired this plan. Specifically, I wanted to send postcards to our younger nephews and nieces. It seemed like a cool little souvenir, since it'd very likely be a unique gift. Also, they're old enough now where they'd probably appreciate receiving something in the mail. Even if they didn't actually know what the postcard said, they'd understand that the item was meant for them. As the Mild Wife has mentioned in the past, a little kid knows when something is for them, and they tend ...

Continuing with the theme of  travel-related humor , I recently had to travel to  Kazakhstan  and that led to more than a few chuckles. Now, Kazakhstan is not a place where I travel very often. It's in Asia, bordering both China and Russia, so it takes at least a couple of flights in order for me to get there. Essentially, it's far from home for me. To make things a bit more complicated, I don't speak any Kazakh or Russian, so I am very much a foreigner in that country. Sure, I'm very willing to try the food , but that doesn't quite help when trying to answer questions or hold a conversation. Similarly, I don't any of the local laws, because, again, I am a foreigner in that country. Given that I don't speak the language, this basically means that it is in my best interest to not run afoul of any regulations. I mention these two specific facts because they bring me to the focal point of today's blog post: the white piece of paper. When you arrive in c...

In the latest round of stories about our recent Argentina trip , I'm going to talk about pizza. It's not the first time that pizza has been the subject of a blog post , and it probably won't be the last time, either. It's just one of those dishes that shows up a bunch in life, y'know? First of all, I should start by pointing out that Argentina has its own special brand of pizza. There may actually be several of these varieties, but the one I kept hearing about was the fugazza . The first time I heard about it, the Mild Wife had had some during the day, and mentioned to me that it was both different than the pizza we got at home and tasty. Given that she liked it, I was more than a little intrigued. As it turns out, I was not the only one intrigued by this pizza. One of my other coworkers on the trip also had his curiosity piqued by this local pizza. I don't remember how it came up in conversation, but someone must have mentioned it at some point. Well, from ...