Various 1-ups

Haven't completed anything lately, but I've been working on my lists, moving them closer to finishing up.

This weekend I played a short and sweet game, Portal. I had started it a long time ago, gotten just half an hour into it, and not picked it up again. Not sure why. It wasn't like it was a hard game. I guess I just never felt like playing it. However, last time the brothers visited, B played it and reminded me just how short it was. So on Saturday, I popped the Orange Box into the 360 and picked up where I left off. I could have played a longer game for my list, but honestly, the biggest thing for me is not just completing them, but picking up where I left off. I said in a post a while ago that I have a hard time doing it. And with such a short game that I was such a short time into, it was very tempting just to start a new game. But I didn't, and I'm proud of myself for that. If I can train myself to get used to picking up where I left off, I'll be able to finish so many more games...

I also finished reading The Folklore of Discworld by Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Simpson Saturday. It was an interesting read to learn more about the folklore behind many of the things in Discworld. As an American, our folklore is much, much younger and very different from the centuries of history from the British Isles and other countries up that way, and we don't really live in an era that encourages the birth of folklore, what with all our science and technology. We don't need to create folklore to explain away phenomenons, we can just learn what causes it. As such, I didn't know just how much of the Discworld novels are inspired by European folklore, and it was fascinating to learn about the origins of many of them, including the ones I DO know (like Santa Claus and the tooth fairy). The only issue I had with the book was that it was not spoiler safe, and having not read the books in one series that featured heavily (three whole chapters) in the book, I learned a bit more about that set than I wanted to considering it's next on my Kindle purchase list. Ah well.

Aaand finally, I made dinner last night, trying out for the first time an oriental dish, Oyako Donburi, aka chicken and eggs over rice. I've made oriental food before, but I never made it myself. They were always for class projects and were done in groups. I almost didn't do it as I was so concerned about making it last night. But we've got guests all this week starting tonight, so if I didn't make it last night, the leftover chicken we had set aside for it was going to go to waste. And surprisingly, it ended up very well! We used this recipe on the recommendation of one of the girls from the Nest and cut it down to 4 servings. I've never made eggs by pouring them into a liquid before and was not sure if I was doing it right at all the whole time I was cooking. It didn't look very good either, so I was certain I'd messed up. But after I finished the rice and spooned the chicken and eggs and sauce over it, it looked quite good. The chicken was tender and saucy, and the eggs had absorbed much of the flavor of the sauce. The only problem? 4 servings is WAY too much. It looked like barely anything to me, but when we started eating, it filled us both up much faster than we expected. Next time, 2 servings only. But there will be a next time.