I am a Recovering Sushi-ist

When did they begin making lunches?  Economic reasons?

It is only 11:15 and I am very well-rested for a change. Last night we had our training at 19:30. The training was over at about 20:15. The regular shift doesn't really start until 22:00 so we were told that two people could stay and take off at 03:30. The rub was that if you stayed you got off early but, if you chose to leave and come back at 22:00, you got paid for the time off (roughly one hour and fifteen minutes after our short meeting after the training) and also for the time of the training as overtime/comp time. So, basically two-and-a-half hours of overtime. I thought that it would be nice to get off early for a change. I have quite a bit of comp time and vacation time in "the bank." Not to mention I have about 22 DAYS worth of sick-time built up; I hope I get really sick or injured soon so I can use some of those days. Another great thing about staying was that I got to be on foot patrol all night meaning, I walked for about six hours straight making me even more tired so I could sleep like a log (whatever the Hell that means) when I got home. Deciding to go home early was the best two+ hours worth of overtime pay I have ever spent. I got home at 03:37 and set my alarms for 06:00. I woke up when the alarms screamed at me and told Fabio to get out of bed, came down to make his lunch just to see Cha Cha already awake and Fabio's lunch made. It was the weirdest thing - she had not made it but it was already made. Had I made it in a tired stupor? Had he not eaten yesterday's lunch and this was left-over from yesterday? I am going with the shoemaker and the elves scenario. It was all sort of foggy. I will ask him if it was from the previous day just out of curiosity. On second thought, maybe I will just choose to believe the elves deal. Now, I get to sleep a few hours this afternoon (probably 18:00-21:00) and then go in and work my Friday (the real Wednesday).

Thursday night (the real one) Cha Cha and I are headed to Chi-town. For the night I will call it Cha-town. Some people say it like "Chacaaago" so it is not that much of a stretch. We would normally record Dirty Laundry Podcast Thursday night but the recording can wait until Friday morningish. We will have more to talk about that way anyway. She now knows that we are going to see a taping of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. In case you are unfamiliar it is National Public Radio's ("NPR's News Quiz Show"). She is extremely excited. Tickets are actually difficult to get because they go so quickly when they become available. We have the "premium" seats so we don't have to worry about the general admission stuff. There are only 30 premium seats and I am not really sure if they are assigned seats or there is a smaller general admission fight for those 30 seats but, I bet most of the people who go to this are old (present company????) and I could take out a hip or two to get the Bob Uecker seats. The Ueker seats wouldn't be premium though would they? Unless you consider the ones he has at Miller Park - he has pretty great seats there.

Pam Dawber and Robin Williams together again? Until I read that I had forgotten that Mork had a new television show on CBS. I have liked him in several things but, I don't intend to watch "The Crazy Ones" just to see him making out with Mindy on an elevator. I just saw the entire scene on a clip on MSN Entertainment. I am guessing that is probably enough. He can be good and he can be bad. I would say mostly good though now that I think about it. I still will not watch this show.

I just took a break to go get some sushi. This is the third time I have had sushi since Saturday night. I never really liked sushi until I had it in Hawaii. They had one of those places where you sit at a "bar" (sushi bar I suppose) and there is a conveyor belt that goes around the big bar and you grab the plates you want as they go by and you get charged for the empty plates you have. Different colored plates were different prices. Sad that there is class distinction even in plates. It is technically called an "assembly line sushi bar." That may have been the first time I actually had sushi because it always sounded gross; eating raw fish... I was a sushi-ist. Now I LOVE SUSHI. I also really like soy sauce and wasabi and ginger. We were headed over to Hy-Vee (a grocery store believe it or not) to have sushi (I have not had theirs yet) but, as we were driving through town, we saw that Tapa La Luna was open with a parking spot right in front so we went there instead. I did not know they were open for lunch on Wednesdays. They even had live music while we ate. We have had their sushi before, as well as other things, and have always loved it. There and Fushi Yami here in town and Wok N Fire in St. Charles were the three I had this week. Of the three I would say Wok N Fire was the best. That also could have been the atmosphere and the people we were there with for dinner. The owner at Fushi Yami seems to be kind of a jerk but that could just be the language barrier. He is very stingy with the wasabi though. Is wasabi expensive? Ginger flows everywhere - I think that is just a root and they just peel it off like a potato. Is that what you do with all roots? Ginger, carrots, potatoes... Even the mini-series Roots peeled back the layers of my heart and mind. Sorry, just an ill attempt at just working Roots into the discussion.

Wasabi - like tiny green pineapples. YUM!

This morning when I got home I ate about two pounds of cole slaw. That was a great move because it cleaned me out nicely for sushi. They should use that before certain medical procedures. That was the only thing I had to eat for about 16 hours so maybe that had something to do with it.

I have to wrap-up because I see I have gotten carried away with my bloggering. I should get a few things done (laundry, painting...) because tomorrow will be cut short with going to Chacaaaago. I still have two of the regular seats if you want to go see Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Have a great rest of your day. If you are in my neck of the MIDDLEwest enjoy the weather we are having right now because it may snow any day the way it has been going so far. Thank you for reading me blog-on. I am not sure if I will blog tomorrow; I will let you know the ways I do. Make sure to "like" the Matt In The Middle Facebook page too. TTTT or F...MITM (out) TA!