A 'lil HooHaa

Messing with the blogging world since 2005

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30 Minus 2 Days of Writing: Home at last (18/28)

Traveling is great, but it’s always nice to head home!

I love traveling.

It’s truly refreshing to see other places in the world, whether near or far from your home base. To see how people live, interact and do the same sort of things you might do is a fun way to almost escape reality.

Traveling is tiring though!

I’ve heard people speak about this in the past and I always wondered what they were talking about. When I traveled years ago, I’d go full-force for several days, sleep in, have full days and nights and come back raring to go. But as I’ve aged ever-so-slightly, I see what people are talking about.

It can wear you out.

With traveling around wherever you are, packing in things to do, places to eat and, sometimes, a few cordials, some people “work” harder when on vacation than in the real world.

Personally, I don’t usually skip a beat once a vacation ends. I can kick back into gear doing what I need to do and usually have no “lag” in regard to energy and such. Even after flying somewhere. I don’t know why that is, but it seems to work well enough for me. It could be that I usually try and plan a day or two off after a vacation.

But I have realized something — when ending a vacation, it does always feel good to be home at last.

No matter where I’ve been, it’s nice to get back to normal. And I can say, even if I ever won some massive lottery and got to travel at will, going home is always mice. Friends, family and everything else — it’s nice to be back to normal.

I’ve been lucky to travel to some pretty cool places in my life, whether work-related or personal. From Ireland to Montreal to Austin to Florida — I’ve had some fun times.

But it’s always nice to come home.

The best part of it is it makes you yearn to keep traveling. To see more places and things. To get a feel of a culture you aren’t used to as much as normal. But that’s why it’s a vacation and not home, right?

Put yourself into these situations. How many times have you come back from a great vacation and said something along the lines of “That was a great vacation, but it’s great to be home at last.”

My feeling is many of you have said it. I know I have.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

30-2 Days of Writing/Life with Earl: Whatever, dude (17/28)

Life With Earl is a semi-regular feature on A ‘lil HooHaa. For the back story, click “Earl” at the top of the page to see past stories. This is a shorter version of Earl than I’d normally do… but Earl was in a bit of a rush today.

Oh, Earl.

For those who don’t know Earl, allow me to tell you something about him — he loves donuts. When I say love, I mean full-out, unadulterated, unhealthy love.

There are often times we meet Earl at the local Dunkin’ Donuts to chat about what’s going on in the world.

Sometimes, though, it can be hard to absorb Earl’s obsession with donuts.

See, whenever Earl finds out about something — like when it’s time to make the donuts — he’ll go off into an excited tangent. That usually means one of us — me, Jay or the Big Easy — will be getting a call exclaiming pure excitement about the donut and Earl’s love of said donut.

That’s why the early morning wakeup call both surprised me and didn’t surprise me.

“WOOOOOO WEEEEE P.J.!! THERE”S A NEW DONUT!”

“Hi, Earl. Thanks for waking me up for that news report.”

“THERE’S RED VELVET DONUTS AT THE DUNK! RED VELVET! DID YOU HEAR ME? RED VELVET!!”

“I heard you, Earl. No need to shout. It’s six a.m. on a Sunday for goodness sake.”

“THIS IS AWESOME THOUGH!”

“Earl, calm down. It’s red velvet. You realize it’s a cake with some food coloring, right? And I think that donut has been out for a few months. I thought it left with the holidays?”

“NO WAY DUDE! I JUST SAW THE SIGN IN THE WINDOW! WE NEED TO GO!”

Usually, I’m all about meeting up with Earl. See, Earl is a constant source of entertainment for those who know him. And, well, even for some who don’t know him. And, often when he calls, we’ll all get together and go see Earl because we never know what’s on his mind.

This time wasn’t one of them.

Especially at 6 a.m.

Over a donut that may or may not still be in production. But the sign says different.

I just couldn’t handle Earl at this moment. And I needed to get rid of him and turn the phone on silent. So I did it quick.

“Whatever, dude.”

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To read other stories about Earl, click here.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

30 Minus 2 Days of Writing: Music (16/28)

A trio performing some traditional Irish songs. This was at a pub in Ireland in 2010.

I’ve found as I’ve aged, my musical tastes have changed. Though I still like a lot of what I once did, I’ve really started to like other things.

There are certain types of music I don’t get into — hardcore rap, heavy metal, blues and a few others. Otherwise, I’m pretty diverse with my tastes. I like anything from classical, to pop 40, to country to 80s rock and more.

But in the past several years, I’ve gotten into folk music, and more specifically Irish folk and drinking music.

It truly is awesome stuff.

When I took a trip to Dublin in 2010, I had the chance to watch many bands play in pubs. I loved the sounds, the emotion and the way the bar patrons really got into it.

There’s actually some pretty solid Irish-style bands in the upstate New York area. One of them is the Dady Brothers, who I love to see any chance I get. They’ve performed in our area a few times and I’ve really gotten into them. I last saw them on New Year’s Eve and their website shows they’ll be in the area March 2 for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration (yes, a bit before the big day… but it’s all good!), so I hope to see them then as well.

Pretty much, though, if there’s a good Irish folk band, I’m into going. Even more modern ones, I’m all in for it.

There’s something about the music. Even the sad songs seem like they can make you happy. Or at least want to drink a few more cordials! There’s truly nothing like sitting in an Irish pub with a pint of Guinness and singing along — with the rest of the bar patrons — and just having a good time.

It’s really a nice way to go about life.

I’ll leave you with a video of the band from Ireland — the ones pictured at the top of this post. The video quality is tough (it was dark), but I think it sounds OK.

If not, have a couple pints of the black stuff. It’ll sound just fine then.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog@gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

30-2 Days of Writing: Where can I get a good blintz? (14/28)

It may not look the greatest, but it was worth making. And don’t lie — you want one.

I have to be honest — when this theme was first posted, my mind wandered trying to figure out what the heck a blintz was.

Knowing I had heard of it before, I had to head off to Google to figure out what in the name of holy heck a blintz was. I then realized I had eaten them before — they were called crepes filled with stuff.

Still, how to blog about it?

I have no idea where I’d find a blintz around here. There might be a place somewhere, but who knows?

Back to the Google drawing board. How does one go about making one of these things? Is it hard? Easy? Maybe I’ll make my own blintz.

My Google search brought me to The Shiksa in the Kitchen, where I found this seemingly easy recipe for a cheese blintz. I say easy, because I can cook decently well. But things like this usually throw me for a loop. That being said, this recipe was easy to follow and made me interested in trying it out.

Mmmm… frying a blintz.

OK, one thing I must note — making these things requires some patience, which I don’t always have. Shockingly, I didn’t have any issues. I made the batter, then made the filling. Then I started cooking up the blintzes.

They say to cook ’em all first. Well, part of the way. Then fill ’em. Then fry ’em. Then eat ’em.

So, after all were cooked for the first part, I went to filling.

I didn’t take photos of this process as it’s hard to actually take photos when you are using both hands to fill these things. The recipe shows you need to put some of the filling on the crepe and then fold it up, like an envelope.

Easier said than done.

I had a few profanities leave my mouth at times when the rolled up blintz popped out the edges. Then I had to try it all over. Or, when I moved it to the plate, it didn’t seem like it was solid enough.

But, I eventually got it right and then I focused on the frying, where I had to dodge a few splattering shots of oil.

They didn’t look too bad, though.

Frying the first couple o’ blintzes. Not too bad. A little splattering of the oil, but overall decent.

I won’t lie — I did fully cook one of the crepes and ate it, just to see if it was any good. And, despite it not looking pretty, it tasted pretty solid. I’m not on a cooking show or working in a professional kitchen, though. So plating isn’t something I’m worried about.

I’m going for taste. And I think I achieved it with the crepe.

The jury was still out for the blintz, though.

I did have a few issues with the blintzes. A couple of them I went a little longer than I should have, so they didn’t look so perfect. A couple of them opened during the frying aspect.

Some of the blintzes opened during frying… but they still tasted good!

Now, I needed to get these ready to eat. No more messing around.

But a plain blintz?

As if!

So what to put on them? I saw a couple of blintz recipes with a blueberry sauce. How good does that sound? Exactly. And being I wasn’t up for whipped cream (for the record, I make kick-ass whipped cream), so I went for a blueberry sauce.

Yummy!

Back to Google…

I found a recipe, which, again, seemed easy enough. This truly was easy. For the record, I substituted Equal for sugar and it tasted awesome. I have to watch my sugar intake, so any time I can do that, I’m happy.

The sauce was excellent and went very well with the blintzes. Yummy, indeed.

I don’t think I have a calling as a professional cook, but I was quite pleased with this attempt at making blintzes. I have a few things I can do to maybe change the process if I do it again and hopefully they will come out a bit prettier next time!

I also need to improve my food photography!

But, in the end, I call it a success. After all, the idea is to get something that tastes good, right? If it’s done at home, who cares what it looks like?

Although it does look pretty good here, no?

Tasty!

Turns out I didn’t have to go far for a good blintz.

Who knew?

I don’t think I’ll be looking to change careers to a chef anytime soon, but it’s nice to know I can make a decent crepe or a blintz!

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!

30 Minus 2 Days of Writing: Unintended (13/28)

For those of you who are photographers, you might be able to relate with this post.

Photography is a hobby (job/career, whatever you call it) where one reacts to situations, or sets something up and gets some amazing pictures. Alas, sometimes you miss that shot that really screams at you. And, other times, you get shots you never intended on getting, whether it’s something you didn’t realize you shot or something you did that made for a cool image, many “great” shots are full unintended.

Other times, those unintended images are something you were hoping to get — but didn’t think you really captured it. Then, when checking things out, you realize you did get it, which makes the photo day even more successful.

So, below, I’m going to share five of the more recent unintended shots I’ve taken. I’ll explain each below, but it’s a mixture of shots I was hoping to get and ones I didn’t realize I got. That’s the beauty of photography — you can snap and snap away and get some awesome stuff.

1 – Disc crashing the chains

I took so many shots this day. Several hundred to be exact. My goal was to get the disc seemingly in mid-air, but deep into the chains. I had been laying on the ground aiming up, because of the blue sky, and thought I had taken a few neat shots, but when I saw this one I knew I had captured something beyond what I had planned to do. It was definitely an unintended result.

Crashing the chains.

2. Sap house

I’ve posted this photo before, but I truly love it. My goal was a long-exposure shot to show a friend’s sap house. In fact, I was irritated with myself for leaving the door open. I actually have several others with the door closed as it was what I originally wanted. Then I got home and saw this shot and couldn’t believe how cool it was. The sky, the door open and Gid working on some sap. Talk about an unintended, but awesome result.

 

Gid working in the sap house.

3. Oh no!

This shot will forever be one of my all-time favorites. I was taking photos of my friends’ kid playing on a tractor. Something happened and he did the “oh no” sort of thing. I was snapping away and this is one of the shots that I got. Unintended, but one I’m glad happened!

Oh no!

4. Blurry flag

Boy did I mess this shot up. I was setting up for something totally different. It was at a 2CW wrestling show and it was during the Sgt. Slaughter match. I messed up on focus. I never really delete photos on the fly, so I didn’t realize how much I liked the shot until I got it on my computer. Something about it really makes it one I like. And highly unintended!

 

USA! USA!

5. Faster than a …

I shot a couple of days of target practice with some friends and wanted to see about getting a bullet coming out of the gun. But for those who have ever shot, you know how fast a bullet comes out. So getting this image would prove to be hard. I took many shots in rapid fire and was pretty sure I didn’t get anything. Thankfully, I was wrong.

Speedy little thing…

I really do love the unintended images one gets when shooting photos. It really proves the point that you can’t always take the time to look at the back of the camera and the screen. Just keep shooting and you’ll get some amazing results.

Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!