Amanda Takes Off...

I handed Good Man a bag of shredded cheese. "Do you see any mold?"

"I only see beautiful footsteps."

"I don't know what that means."

He shrugged before putting some cheese in his mouth. "I don't either."

When I can't find anything in the house, I call for Good Man. "Honey! I can't find..."

A few days ago, I couldn't find my watch anywhere in the house. I searched near the computer, in the bathroom, on my nightstand. He was out of town. Finally, I emailed him. "Did you take my watch with you by accident?"

He wrote back, "I think that it will be on right side of sink in toilet inside orange bag that you put your cosmetic stuff."

It was there!

My husband has maaaaaaagical skills.

Yesterday Good Man, Mark, and his Lover headed off to Seneca Creek State Park for a hike. The weather was beautiful and as you can see from the photos, it wasn't really much of a January hike.

Seneca Creek

Blue Skies

Chopped Wood

Glowing Red

Wrong Side of the Creek
(But We Didn't Know it Yet)

Good Man

Marsh

Dam

Ripples

Yesterday Master posted told me this on Facebook.

아만다 잘 자내죠? 한국은 오늘이 설날이에요. 떡국먹는날. 아만다[가] 떡국 맛있게 만들어줘요~

Amanda are you well? Today it's Korean New Year. It's the day we eat rice cake soup. Amanda make some delicious rice cake soup.

Of course, Korea's a half a day ahead, so today it's Lunar New Year Eve. But I didn't need Master to tell me what day it was! I had already bought some (brown!) rice cake disks for soup.

We were originally going to have some for lunch, but long story short, it ended up becoming an early dinner. Diana, Min Gi, and the baby came over. Mark was picking up his lover at the airport, and couldn't come over for lunch, but when the schedule got messed up, they were able to come over for dinner.

The Spread

We had rice cake soup, mushroom bibimbap, spicy tofu, king oyster mushrooms, cucumbers, Asian pears, and dried seaweed. In this picture the table was set for four, but when we added two place settings and some wine, it was a true Korean spread, with dishes completely covering the table.

Good Man and Mark

Good Man found an interesting article with historical information about the military/dictatorship government, US puppet government, and Japanese colonizers government trying to get rid of Seollal.

The cartoon below (from 1980) shows most people walking toward "modernization" and "solar new year" and only a few people walking toward "lunar new year."

As a piece of trivia, 2012 is the Year of the Dragon (specifically the water element), although in Kazakhstan it's the Year of the...Snail.

Happy new year!

When I can't find something in the kitchen, I call for Good Man, who's usually in the office. Then, just as he sets foot in the kitchen, I find whatever I need.

"I need to make a thirty second rule," he said, "to wait."

"여보! Where's my menu planner for the week? I can't find it!" I called from the living room.

Good Man dutifully came out and as soon as he appeared, I found it. I held it up triumphantly. "Dammit!" he said, "I need to do the Thirty Second Rule!"

"Come on, just a few more," I said to Good Man while he was doing sit ups after we went for a walk.

"No, I don't want to do more."

"Come on, you were in the military. Surely you did more than this," I replied.

Good Man scoffed. "We had a partner count for us, and I gave him food to get my way."