[WhiteGhost]

 

In the famous story "And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street" by Dr. Suess, the father in the story is trying to get his son to pay attention to the world around him and asks him to tell something he saw on the way home from school each day.  The boy of course thinks his surroundings too boring to talk about and imagines all kinds of fanciful situations which would make for a better story.

 

I have been thinking about my own life and I have posted very little here recently because I felt like I had nothing interesting to say.  My last challenge didn't even get to page 2,  As I thought about this, I realized that my life may seem boring to me because I am used to it, but from others' perspectives there are many interesting things happening around me, if I only stop to notice them. 

 

My objective for this challenge is to  try and find something each day that is interesting and come and talk about it here.  Some of it may actually be interesting, but some days it may just be me seeing a Chinaman who eats with sticks

 

 

Other normal challenge things like healthy eating and exercise will still be happening, but probably not with enough variety to get me interested enough to come here and tell about it.

[WhiteGhost]

Today's story is from yesterday (as will usually be the case)

 

Yesterday was D&D night DMed by the illustrious @Jarric   For this campaign I brought back a beloved character from a previous campaign, Hammarfist the magnificently stupid Goliath Barbarian.  His deal was that he would latch on to random things and build completely outrageous theories about them.  He saw an anchor stuck in the roof of a tavern and concluded that there must have been a flying ship there at one point and it must have been stolen, so he spent the better part of two sessions trying to solve the case of the missing stolen flying boat.  In another situation, they were trying to track down a murderer and although they discovered the culprit was actually a Drow (Dark Elf), he discovered a feather at the crime scene, and with the Drow attacking by dropping from a rooftop, he made the obvious conclusion that this must be some kind of unknown race called a "Crow Elf", and then spent an entire session looking for leads about this Crow Elf Murderer.    Unfortunately things turned badly when they were sent out to find what was killing local livestock and he automatically assumed it was either vampires or werewolves.  Upon inspecting the carcasses, the slash marks confirmed to him it was werewolves, despite eyewitnesses saying it was sentient scarecrows that did it.  As he wandered about the area by himself looking for werewolves, he was surprised by a sentient scarecrow that he wasn't looking for and, after a fierce battle, ultimately succumbed. 

 

RIP Hammarfist.  You have died twice now, and each time alone without your friends nearby.   You will be missed    

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Following.

[Scaly Freak]

1 hour ago, WhiteGhost said:

RIP Hammarfist.  You have died twice now, and each time alone without your friends nearby.   You will be missed    

 

Gone, but never forgotten.

[Rhovaniel]

6 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

RIP Hammarfist.  You have died twice now, and each time alone without your friends nearby.   You will be missed   

Ah, but what tales he will have to tell in the afterlife! 

[RES]

Following, I struggle with regular posting as well, looking forward to all the interesting things  

[Jarric]

9 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

RIP Hammarfist.  You have died twice now, and each time alone without your friends nearby.   You will be missed    

 

He will be missed. I felt very bad for murdering him.

[Sovalis]

Following! 

[shaar]

This is a brilliant challenge idea and I am 100% here for story time!!

[Shello]

Cool idea.  I'll just be hanging out on Mulberry St to see what there is to see..

[WhiteGhost]

On 3/20/2023 at 12:12 PM, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

Following.

Glad to have you

 

23 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

 

Gone, but never forgotten.

Never forgotten!

 

18 hours ago, Rhovaniel said:

Ah, but what tales he will have to tell in the afterlife! 

Oh yes, but he will probably never obtain his lifelong goal of being renown for his intelligence    I had his original character arc going from hating being called stupid and trying to be smart to eventually accepting that even being stupid is OK.  Alas it was not to be.

 

16 hours ago, RES said:

Following, I struggle with regular posting as well, looking forward to all the interesting things  

Yeah, it is not really motivating to come here and say the same thing day after day.  Probably not very interesting for anyone who reads it either

 

15 hours ago, Jarric said:

 

He will be missed. I felt very bad for murdering him.

It's part of the game and I don't feel too bad about it.  However, now I am going to struggle for a bit because I am not used to playing characters that are not outrageous caricatures  

 

13 hours ago, Sovalis said:

Following! 

Welcome!

 

12 hours ago, shaar said:

This is a brilliant challenge idea and I am 100% here for story time!!

I will try to keep them interesting and maybe even through a few ALL CAPS bits just for you  

 

9 hours ago, Shello said:

Cool idea.  I'll just be hanging out on Mulberry St to see what there is to see..

There are interesting things going on here, the hard part is noticing (and remembering!) them

 

--------------------------------------------------

 

The story for yesterday is about eggs.  We have a lot of eggs in our house and we didn't buy any of them.  Some of them are government benefits for my in-laws (retired government workers) who get a package of eggs, oil, flour, rice and other staples every year for Chinese new year.  Because they spend the winters in Sanya, they are never here to collect the food so it goes to us.  in addition to this, the CEO of the construction company Ghostess uses for all of their office renovation and maintenance work has a family farm in Central China.  He regularly send us a few crates of eggs as well as the random animal he has recently harvested.  Usually chickens, ducks and geese, but sometimes a side of hog or sausage or something like that.  In any case, we now have way more eggs in our house than we would typically consume, so I am trying to arrange my meals to be very egg heavy to try and use them up. 

 

Yesterday for dinner I was planning to make huevos rancheros quesadillas for dinner but as I started getting out ingredients, I noticed that we had some chicken that the contractor brought over the other day that needed to be eaten, so I decided to add some shredded chicken.  As I was doing this I noticed we also had a half can of refried beans in the fridge that also need to be used up.  One thing led to another and I ended up making shredded chicken burritos and it wasn't until they were in the oven that I realized I completely forgot to add the eggs, which was the point of the dinner in the first place.

[Rhovaniel]

An eggs-ellent tale! Thanks for the smile to start my day! 

[Shello]

Burritos with a side of eggs?   Also cheesecake requires a number of eggs.  Just saying.

[shaar]

9 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

the random animal he has recently harvested. 

This is a nice touch, heheh…. Kind of like Iron Chef, what random animal will you receive THIS month?!!?

 

I love that after all that the eggs are still waiting for you………

[WhiteGhost]

17 hours ago, Rhovaniel said:

An eggs-ellent tale! Thanks for the smile to start my day! 

I'm glad it made you smile

 

12 hours ago, Shello said:

Burritos with a side of eggs?   Also cheesecake requires a number of eggs.  Just saying.

I certainly could have done that, but it would have ended up being way more than I could finish and not overeating is still a thing I am working on.  I do like where your mind is going with the cheesecake thing, though  

 

12 hours ago, shaar said:

This is a nice touch, heheh…. Kind of like Iron Chef, what random animal will you receive THIS month?!!?

 

I love that after all that the eggs are still waiting for you………

Oh it really can be.  I have sometimes had to get really creative   Oh and the eggs did wait, I had my huevos rancheros yesterday

 

--------------------------

 

OK. story time.   There have a been a few new folks who have started coming to the park to work out recently.  One of them, a guy I have only spoken to once before, came up to me yesterday and drew me aside.  In a low whisper ha asks me "You are an American, right?  What is the best thing to soak in alcohol?"  I immediately assumed he was asking about things like worms in tequila or habu snakes in Okinawan sake but decided to ask for clarification.    He then continues "You know, here in China we put things like wolfberries or ginger in the alcohol for, um, heath reasons.  What do Americans put in their alcohol to help men with, well... you know.,,, "   It took me a second to realize he was asking for alcoholic erectile dysfunction advice.  I am not a subject matter expert by any stretch, but I am pretty sure alcohol is not going to help with that, and probably makes it worse.  I had to politely tell him that this was outside of my area of expertise and that maybe he should consult a doctor.

 

Do any of you have advice on aphrodisiac  supplements for alcohol that I can share with him?   

[sarakingdom]

7 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

Do any of you have advice on aphrodisiac  supplements for alcohol that I can share with him?   

 

Alcohol is not gonna help with that. But he might see related benefits from the traditional American folk way of learning to tie the maraschino cherry stems into a knot with his tongue.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

21 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

 

Do any of you have advice on aphrodisiac  supplements for alcohol that I can share with him? 

It doesn't go well with alcohol, but I here the seed of the viagra flower works wonders.*

 

 

*If wonder lasts for more than four hours consult a physician, then on the way to the physician's office call your friends to brag.

[shaar]

OH MY GOD this is the best story ever ahahahahahahahaha

 

I would have been MORTIFIED 

 

I love that because you’re American you clearly have some ShamWow infomercial folk remedy or something 🤣🤣

[TimovieMan]

Just yell "Nutmeg!" and then walk away. 😅

[Scaly Freak]

20 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Do any of you have advice on aphrodisiac  supplements for alcohol that I can share with him?   

 

Technically beer goggles are caused by the alcohol, rather than added to it. 

 

 

[WhiteGhost]

22 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

 

Alcohol is not gonna help with that. But he might see related benefits from the traditional American folk way of learning to tie the maraschino cherry stems into a knot with his tongue.

That is a skill everyone should master

 

22 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

It doesn't go well with alcohol, but I here the seed of the viagra flower works wonders.*

 

 

*If wonder lasts for more than four hours consult a physician, then on the way to the physician's office call your friends to brag.

I suspect this is probably the avenue he should be exploring  

 

12 hours ago, shaar said:

OH MY GOD this is the best story ever ahahahahahahahaha

 

I would have been MORTIFIED 

 

I love that because you’re American you clearly have some ShamWow infomercial folk remedy or something 🤣🤣

As a fellow American, I am sure you also know the secrets ED folk remedies too  

 

4 hours ago, TimovieMan said:

Just yell "Nutmeg!" and then walk away. 😅

That would have been awesome, especially because it would then cause everyone around us to wonder what the conversation was that led to such an outburst

 

1 hour ago, Scaly Freak said:

 

Technically beer goggles are caused by the alcohol, rather than added to it. 

 

 

Yeah, I suspect beer goggles are not going to solve his problem, and in fact may exacerbate it...

 

 

[Scaly Freak]

4 minutes ago, WhiteGhost said:

Yeah, I suspect beer goggles are not going to solve his problem, and in fact may exacerbate it...

 

Another very good reason not to recommend them.

[WhiteGhost]

So a couple of stories from yesterday

 

First up is connected to the farmer friend I mentioned earlier.  When he came over last week to drop off the eggs and chickens, he also brought over a couple bags of vegetables.  Now, I am pretty good on the proteins and know how to cook them , but veggies are a bit harder for me.  So I looked at what I had

(Some kind of leafy veggie, some green onions and a bunch of garlic stalks, and a couple of goose eggs from the giant bag of them)

 

I decided to fry them up into a stir fry which looked pretty good

 

Guys, let me tell you, that was probably one the worst meals I have ever had.  I have no idea what that leafy veggie was but it was super bitter.  I assumed it could be treated like most veggies but nope, not this one.  If I decided to make anything else out of it it will need to be treated like a bitter melon.

 

 

 

The second story for the day was from Ghostlet.  He has been going to his current school for 2 and a half years now and for the first time yesterday discovered that there is another kid in his class with mixed racial ancestry.  The other kid is Chinese/Austrian and in class 11 so they never met (Ghostlet is in class 3).  They currently have evening classes which are distributed by test scores rather than by class and he happened to be put into this class with the other kid.  It was a neat surprise because Ghostlet always thought he was the only one in his school.

 

The final story is about Wraith.  She has never gotten along with Phantom well, and after she somehow got her tooth knocked out, she couldn't be allowed in the same room with him or the gloves would come off.  Recently things have been better and Phantom knows to keep clear of her.  However, Lich (Wraith & Phantom's son) has started to become a lot more rambunctious and will play aggressively with both of his parents.  The problem is that both Phantom and Lich look very similar.  For reference, here they are sitting in a random box from yesterday

 

They look so similar we all have a hard time telling them apart and this is also true for Wraith.  Yesterday Lich decided to sneak attack Wraith who, mistakenly thinking it was Phantom, fiercely counter-attacked.  Lich of course bolted and ducked behind a corner where Phantom just happened to be sitting.  Wraith comes around the corner after lich and plows into Phantom to continue the fight.  After a few seconds she realized something was not right and that this was a different cat and so she let him go, and then back both of them into a corner and stared them down until they signaled submission.  I haven't laughed so hard in a long time  

 

[Ranger Hal]

Hahaha! Poor Phantom!

 

I'm totally here for the cat stories!

[darkfoxx]

Ooooh. Totally the same and disappeared for a year because of it. Back and following, though!