The Cookie Guy cookies, ice cream, and Avalon chocolate milk

 My wife, during her staycation, received from her work two boxes of cookies from the local phenomenon The Cookie Guy, a liter of Avalon chocolate milk, and a small tub of Cookie Guy vanilla ice cream. Needles to say, I was asked to do a noble sacrifice and assist her in eating these items before their quality diminished. They were extremely tasty and a nice treat.

Cyborg TV Shows - Six Million Dollar Man and Now and Again

So I have recently finished two cyborg related shows, The Six Million Dollar Man and Now and Again. 

The Six Million Dollar Man was great to rewatch as my very young self only dimly remembered most things but some episodes were quite familiar. The three original TV movies, that started the series, were all surprising to me. In particular the first two were very serious spy style plotlines while the third had a wonderfully cheesy theme song by Dusty Springfield. It was interesting to see the tropes become solidified as the series progressed. For instance the trope of the bionic sound effects were not in the first several TV movies nor episodes so it took me off guard. By the end of the first season it was firmly episodic and slightly wacky. It was great to revisit but I am ok with not watching more.

Now and Again was a refreshing take on the everyman "recruited" by the government trope. This is because the everyman's brain is put in the biologically created body and his family is not only still alive and unaware of his recruitment but featured in every episode (although not always interacting with the male cyborg lead. In fact the family storylines are sometimes more interesting than the cyborg ones, because of the concepts of loss and despondency. This series I would have liked to have seen more of, but it ended after one season.

Very Good Butchers

We have tried several products from Very Good Butchers, made locally but available in many grocery stores on the West coast. It is one of the best for taste and consistency for vegetarian meat-like products. The British Banger is our breakfast favorite. Highly recommended for those that want to try the vegan side once in a while or all the time.

10 Acres in Sydney and Bike Ride

On Thursday my wife and I biked out to Sydney and back. Took a little over three hours of wheel turning, was over 55 km, and and burnt approximately 622 calories. It was a good journey.

While in Sydney we had lunch at 10 Acres on the Pier. All the food was fantastic.

It had a lovely view of the waterfront and was nicely in the shade, courtesy of the umbrella.

We each had a beer and shared the ceviche, made with manila clams, shrimp, squid, leche de tigre, cucumber, red onions, corn nuts, nacho chips. 

I then had the pork tacos, which was a special. There was three but I just dived right in before I remembered to take a picture.

My wife had the Haida Gwaii fish and chips with fries and coleslaw.

Here is a sample of the bike and walking trail that goes from Victoria to Sydney. 

Art of Thinking Clearly

 "The Art of Thinking Clearly" by Rolf Dobelli is an exceptional book. In three page chapters it discusses a particular bias, assumption, or topic and why we should either think about it differently to no longer be affected by the bias or change/ignore that which does not work and expect better.

As with other books that I have read which have caused me to review my present habits and viewpoint, it was sobering and instructive. I read several chapters a night, before going to bed, which allowed me to better digest and reflect what was written. I recommend it to anyone whom also wish to better reflect on bad biases and habits, in order to change them for the better.

Garden Progress from July to early August

Its been about a month since my last posts on our vegetable growing. Things are going great, as you can see below!

The Vegepods are doing their job.

The two zucchini plants are getting ridiculously big in the back.

Bean production is chugging along.

The old garden bed in the frount, is looking poor by comparison. It will be replaced next year with more Vegepods.

It is producing a modest amount of pole peas though.

Here is the amount of bush beans we pick from the Vegepods every 2-3 days. Conveniently enough for 2-3 days worth of bean eating!

The back is doing well, making tomatoes and the garlic has been a  success this year.

Alter Eco Chocolate

Another cholate bar experiment. This time with Alter Eco. It was a decade or so ago when I tried my first bar of theirs, brown butter. It sounded intriguing and it was divine! I have no idea how they got that taste in there but its one of my go to ones when on sale. The burnt caramel has small pieces of the namesake item for nice crunch and slight saltiness. The sea salt also has bits of salt crunch that add flavour to the sweet chocolate. In all of these the chocolate bars the consistency of the chocolate is smooth and even. Their chocolate is also fair trade so you are getting more money to the farmers who grow and harvest the cocoa.