Summer Fun

This past Sunday, H and I ventured into North Kansas City to sample some grub off of a group of food trucks. For a $15 ticket you could try three things from any of the seven trucks that were on site.

H's first taste from KC Pinoy. Chicken adobo (thighs marinated in vinegar, garlic, soy sauce),
flower-cut carrots, and rice. The chicken was melt-in-your-mouth good, and it came with this sauce
on top that added just a bit of tang. It set the bar pretty high for the rest of the trucks.  

My first taste  from Plantain District. Cubano sandwich (pork, ham, swiss cheese, thin-sliced
pickles, secret green sauce) with plantain chips. The sandwich was absolutely divine, and
the plantain chips were perfectly fried. Would order again and again. 

After our first two samplings (lunch portions, really, but I'm not complaining), we took a walk around the park where the food trucks were located. The walking trail around Macken Park takes you just over a mile to complete, and it's made out of some bouncy material that must be heaven for runners. We made one lap and headed back to the trucks for round two.

H's next order from Helen's on Wheels. H is always on the lookout for a good Cuban sandwich.
He said this one was okay, but it doesn't compete with Velvet Taco's Cuban taco.
Proving that the best foods are taco-based. 

My second sample was from Booyah. Grilled chicken with a curry sauce, coleslaw, and rice.
The chicken was good, but didn't beat out the competition that day.
The coleslaw was nice and fresh. 

H and I used our last ticket punch on the same truck, CoffeCakeKC. We were both stuffed,
so we didn't mind that the portion size was pretty small compared to the other trucks 
(strawberry smoothie and a tiny cupcake). H had the red velvet cupcake (divine!) 
while I had the pink champagne cupcake (average). 

There was also a food truck with burgers, but if I'm going to get something from a food truck, it's not going to be a burger. And there was an ice cream truck, which I suppose technically counts as a food truck, but it didn't hold much interest for me.

H and I will sit outside on the weekends and play card games, enjoying the beautiful weather Kansas City tends to have. We'll play cribbage, gin, ... okay, just those two games. But it's nice to just play a card game and be outside.

This weekend we came up with what we're calling Texas Cribbage. It's the two-player version of the game, except you're dealt twelve cards and have to discard four into the crib.  The card playing portion is the same (points for 15, 31, pairs, runs, etc.), and counting your hands and the crib are the same, although you do run into extravagant runs and multiple fifteen-two scenarios.

The one other mechanic we changed was how to determine the winner. I suppose you could up the final win total from 120 points to 240, but it's easy to reach that within two hands.  Instead, whoever is ahead by 50 points when it's not their crib is declared the winner (since the crib is an obvious points advantage).  I just won a game with a 9, 10, two Jacks, three Queens, and two Kings. Counting up the points on that hand was a doozy.

Hope all of you are having a restful Memorial Day weekend. I can't wait for these next four work days to go flying by so we can get to another two days off.

Winter Chill.

We've been having wonderfully chilly weather as of late, but today was the first snowfall that I've witnessed since we moved. It was just a light dusting, the snowflakes were more like airy pebbles than actual flakes, but it warranted an early morning walk outside. Why the sound of snow crunching underneath your feet puts me in such a happy mood, I can't say. H was trying to discuss the news about Finland attempting to start using basic income, and how it would be an ideal trial nation since the European Union could bail out the country if their finances went sideways, but all I kept thinking about was that crunch crunch crunch (and I suppose I thought it would be interesting to see what mechanics of society basic income affected - rent, groceries, drive for employment?).

We were the first ones to venture out in the cold. 

We were in the homestretch when we turned a corner and the cold north wind nearly iced our faces off. I started walking backwards and told H to do the same, but he said one of us had to see where we were going, which I suppose is true. Wouldn't want to accidentally run back-first into any abominable snowmen.

My baby tulip tree has the fuzziest buds right now. 

Covert ops shot of the neighbors snow-stricken houses. 

When we got back to the house I opted to do some backyard investigating (snow angel making and knocking snow off of still objects) while H amused himself by watching my investigations. I was able to lose his interest when I jumped the fence and made my way to the front of house.

You never realize how pointy your shoes are until you see the tracks in the snow. 

It was here at this spot I reached down with my bare fingers,
picked up a small mound of snow, and tossed it into my mouth.
Tasted just like I remembered.  

I've started walking around the duck pond during lunch again. I had stopped for a while, thinking it would be more like a rest to sit for a while. Turns out it's quite nice to breathe intensely cold air while walking at a brisk pace. Let's you think through a number of things without other people unintentionally interrupting your train of thought. And you get to work on your Making A Murderer theories.

That would be our resident gaggle of geese. They're cute until they crap all over the
parking lot and you literally have to walk through crap to get to work. It's a minefield. 

On Friday's walk around the pond there weren't any geese, just the small team of ducks that live like trolls under the bridge. I stopped to take a picture of them paddling away from me when the whole lot of them careened portside and made a beeline for me. I wasn't so pretentious to think that they were actually aiming their bills at me until they began climbing up the steep embankment and honking their displeasure at my lack of bread. I believe I said, "I'm sorry, I don't have anything for you," and walked away down the path. After a few minutes, I saw they had gotten back in the water and were paddling towards my general direction.

Well, I obviously out-locomotioned them as I made my way around the wide oval path, but when I peeked around the next turn there they were at the water's edge. They ended up following me en-water the whole fifteen minutes it took me to make a loop around the path. I felt both special and sad, for I had nothing to give them for all their effort. As I exited the walkway, another bipedal took up the gauntlet and away they went. What single-minded ducks.

Looks like we might get another snow dusting on Tuesday. Stay tuned for evidence of snowman sightings.

Post snow romp.