Gantz:O

I love animated movies. I have a small DVD collection of them. I have Up, Despicable Me, Croods, Rango, How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, a bunch of Ghibli movies (thanks V) . . . to name a few . . . mostly all are easy viewing and cute.

With a few exceptions, I normally don't care for intense, violent movies. Gantz:O is an intense, violent animated movie. It's on Netflix right now. I hesitated a bit before selecting it but decided to give it a try because of its 5-star rating. 

The movie was good! The plot (monsters invade Tokyo and Osaka), the characters (I'm in love with the hero - Masaru Kato), and mostly the 3D computer graphic animation (VFX-Japan Award Winner) and cinematography . . . all appealed to me. 

If you get a chance to watch the movie, let me know what you think of it. Plus I need some help in understanding the ending.

Lemon Tree Pollination

My lemon plant has a few buds right now. It has had flowers before, but has yet to produce a single fruit.  We don't have any honey bees in our yard anymore, so I wonder if that's the problem. 

It seems that I might have to try to do some pollinating myself when the buds open up. No?



I found this info:

To manually pollinate lemons, you need to have a clear idea of where the flower’s sexual parts lie. Look carefully into a lemon flower. You’ll see one long filament in the center of the flower. This is termed the pistil and contains the female parts of the flower. The stigma is on the top of the pistil. When it is receptive to pollen, the stigma is sticky. The other filaments in the center of the flower are the male parts, collectively termed the stamen. You can see the yellow pollen grains in the sacks, called anthers, at the top of the filaments. To accomplish hand pollination of your lemon tree flowers, you transfer ripe pollen to the sticky stigma. You can manually pollinate lemons in this manner with a small paint brush or a bird feather. It is difficult to determine which flowers have pollen that is ripe. To easily pollinate lemon trees by hand, simply touch each flower with the tip of the paint brush or feather to gather the pollen, then brush each stigmas with it in turn.

Unfortunately, I do not have "a clear idea of where the flower's sexual parts lie", but somehow I need to get some ripe pollen onto some sticky stigma.

If anybody has any tips for me, can you let me know?

Indian Giver

A long time ago . . . maybe around 15 or more years . . . my father-in-law gave me an Omega watch. He said that he had found it on the ground somewhere. He said that Wendell and Landon didn't want it and would I like it. I actually had no interest in the watch at all, especially since it was a man's watch, but not wanting to offend my father-in-law I said okay.  I put the watch in the top drawer of my dresser next to my Shiseido skin-care products, and there it stayed.

A couple years ago Wendell received a watch display case as a Christmas present. I dug out the Omega and put it in the case. I told Wendell that his father had given it to me, but that he could have it.



Yesterday morning, I pulled the watch out of the case. I suddenly realized just how beautiful it is. Its golden face is etched slightly, giving it a somewhat matte glow. The insignia, hands and incremental demarcations have a reflective golden shine. And the most remarkable thing of all . . .  the second hand still smoothly circles its way around the face. Yes, it still works! It's an automatic watch, and is so well made that just moving the watch slightly helps to charge it.

As I stood by the window light admiring the watch, Wendell asked what I was looking at. I said, "The Omega watch."  He said, "Omega? Whose watch is that?"

I said, "Um . . . mine." 

Wendell's Summer Rolls with Pork Meatballs

from Chowhound.com

Wendell made this for dinner last night.  He saw the recipe in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and it can be found here. It went well with my leftover Vietnamese food which I happened to have had for lunch.



We had trouble with the rolls sticking to each other and also to the plate, so we kinda ate them as soon as they were rolled. I ate mine with V's So Damn Ono Tofu Sauce. 

1/4 cup gluten-free breadcrumbs
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon each finely chopped fresh basil, mint, cilantro 1 pound ground pork
10 rice papers
3 to 4 cucumbers, julienned
Sliced jalapenos (optional)
Handful mixed herbs
Pickled vegetables:
1/3 cup distilled white vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 (3-ounce) carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks
1/2 (3-ounce) daikon radish, peeled and cut into matchsticks

Sauce
1/3 cup water
1- 1/2 teaspoons rice vinegar
1 -1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
Juice from 1/2 lime
1/2 fresh red chili, seeded and finely chopped
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 carrot, peeled and cut into small, thin matchsticks

To make sauce: In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine water, rice vinegar and sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Let cool slightly, then stir in fish sauce, lime juice, chili, garlic and carrots. Refrigerate until ready to use, at least 30 minutes, and up to 3 days.

To make pickled vegetables: In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring vinegar, sugar and salt to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Stir in carrot and daikon; let cook 1 minute. Let cool, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Refrigerate until ready to serve; will keep up to 3 days.

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Coat a rimmed baking sheet with canola oil.

Make meatballs by stirring together breadcrumbs, egg yolk and herbs, then adding pork. Form into balls of 1 heaping teaspoon each. Bake on baking sheet until cooked through, about 10 minutes. (Meatballs may also be pan-fried in oil.)

To assemble: Fill a round cake pan with warm water. Place 1 rice paper round into the water, turning it gently until softened. Remove sheet from the water and lay it on a plate. Arrange a few of the meatballs in a horizontal line on the wrapper, about 1 inch from the edge nearest you and 1/2 inch from each side.

Top with drained pickled veggies, cucumber and jalapenos (if using), and a sprinkle of herb leaves. Lift edge of rice paper nearest you and fold over filling, then roll over once. Fold in sides and continue to roll into a tight cylinder. Repeat with remaining rice paper and filling. Cut each roll in half at a diagonal and serve with dipping sauce. Makes 10 rolls. 

Fried Rice from Bogart's Cafe

I never heard of Bogart's Cafe on Monsarrat Avenue, but apparently they're very popular. Landon said that it's usually crowded. He had a softball game this past Saturday, and on his way home he picked up some fried rice from there. Score! I liked all three varieties that he got. 

Mama's ($8.70)


Garlic Fried Shrimp ($12.00)


Pork Adobo ($9.50)

Toothpaste Squeezer Thing

My cousin V bought this in Japan . . . maybe from a 100-yen store. I love it! Thanks V!!

My Chopard Geneve Watch

Earlier this past week I put all of my swap meet watches into a ziplock bag and took them to work. I left the bag in our break room with a note saying that if anybody wanted a watch to let me know and I'd install a battery and they could have it. The giveaway was pretty successful . . . eleven watches found homes . . . or should I say found wrists.

After retrieving the bag, I pulled one of the watches out. I could see the words "Chopard Geneve" on it so I thought I'd look it up. 

I checked eBay here and my jaw dropped. It looked like the watch could be worth $$thousands$$. Whaaaaat??!! Really??!! Holy crap.

I kept looking online for the exact model, but I just couldn't find it. 

I inspected the watch more carefully, and I began noticing things that made me wonder if it was authentic. The first thing I noticed was that the roman numerals XII and III had come unglued, and the number VI was upside down. The band too seemed suspect. Even though it might've been a replacement for the original band it seemed to be a pretty mediocre replacement for such a supposedly high-end watch. 

I began researching on how to authenticate a Chopard watch. One of the clues was that there should be a serial number marked on the back of the watch case. Not only was there no serial number on the case, the Chopard signature was upside down.



And so it was without much hesitation that I pried the watch case open to see what the inside looked like.  Any worries about possibly scratching or damaging the case were tossed aside. 

Sure enough, the insides were mostly encased in plastic. The word "Singapore" was embossed on one of the metal pieces. An authentic Chopard watch has Swiss movements, not Chinese.



So, no SCORE this time, but if I ever come across another "Chopard" watch . . .  I'll know what to be looking for!

If you have 9 more minutes to spare, here's a video for you to watch.

Hit and Run

Here is another old photo that I found on my Google Drive. 

The most luxurious car that I ever owned was a 1997 Acura TL.  I bought it used in 2000.  Somebody smashed into it in the parking lot at work and left without leaving a note. I think the car was already about 10 years old by then so I never got it fixed.

Baby K

I discovered some old photos stored on my Google Drive. I don't even know how they got there. I'm not even sure what a Google Drive is.

Thought I'd share this one 'cause it always makes me laugh when I look at it. It's from about 10 years ago. Do you see baby K? 

Watches

Please don't scold me. I know I'm supposed to be decluttering. But a guy at the swap meet was selling a bag of 30 watches for only $10.  So I bought the bag. 



And look. See. Had three Hello Kitty watches in the bag. I cut off the band from the one on the right. It was all beat up and getting crumbs all over the place. I need to find another band for it. Maybe I'll take it off from one of the other watches.


Look how cute the pink one is. It just needed a new battery and it works fine.


This one too. Works great with a new battery.


Only thing got couple pukas on the end of the strap. 


I'm going to have a drawing to give the two watches away. Winner takes both the pink and the red ones. Just leave a comment here or email me at JalnaA@aol.com. I'll announce the winner this Sunday, February 26.