Open Diary - sillama

Open Diary - sillama http://www.opendiary.com/entrylist.asp?authorcode=D770029 Mainer's Rambles Two Cats http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=D770029&entry=10022 http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=D770029&entry=10022 The two cats that I 'babysat' last spring needed a new home, so I've taken them in, on the condition that they can be 'indoor-outdoor' kitties.&nbsp;&nbsp;Bobo and Mimi&nbsp;came to live with me on the Monday night before Chusok [Korean Thanksgiving, always held on three days surrounding the full Harvest Moon].&nbsp; Due to Mimi's territorial aggressiveness, she got herself in trouble right away.&nbsp; She chased any stray cat that wandered through our yard, and there were plenty of them.&nbsp; We live behind a restaurant...'nuff said, eh?&nbsp; We also live on the side of a mountain, so the dooryards are terraces, like stair steps.&nbsp; What is a four-foot wall on our side is a ten-foot wall on the other side.&nbsp; Long story short, she jumped over the wall after midnight Thursday.&nbsp; I discovered her predicament about 2 hours later when she started wailing.&nbsp; The lady minister who lives upstairs over me heard Mimi, too.&nbsp; She came down and we conferred about how to deal with it.&nbsp; We went all around the wall surrounding the neighbors' house and found that both gates were locked.&nbsp; It seemed like Mimi could jump up on the wall on the further side, and we called to her, but she didn't want to try it. &nbsp;I tied a blanket to a stove-gas tank with the cat-leash and hung it over the wall.&nbsp; We figured that, if she didn't climb it, we would go to the next-door neighbor in the morning.&nbsp; That's what we ended up doing, with the lady minister translating what had happened.&nbsp; The homeowner wasn't too pleased, but he pulled on his outdoor clothes and came downstairs.&nbsp; After unlocking the gate, he called ['Koyangi, dideray!&quot;]&nbsp;and I called [''Mimi, Kitty, come!&quot;], but Mimi wouldn't come.&nbsp; So, I went in and down around the back corner of the house.&nbsp; Mimi was under a plastic bicycle-cover and didn't want to come out.&nbsp; I moved the bicycle, lifted the cover and picked her up, talking softly and soothingly.&nbsp; She snuggled into my arms and I could feel the tension drain out of her.&nbsp; LM and I walked back to the gate and she told the crowd of curious Koreans that the cat was scared, so please step back.&nbsp; They did and Mimi hid her head under my chin.&nbsp; As soon as we were out in the alley, Mimi popped her head up and started looking around.&nbsp; When we reached our gate and she saw the front door of my apartment, she started to struggle.&nbsp; LM gasped when I put Mimi on the ground.&nbsp; She shot through the front gate, feinted to the left, gave me a big-eyed look and dashed straight into my apartment.&nbsp; &quot;Oh, I thought she would run away and we would never see her again,&quot; said LM.&nbsp; &quot;Cat logic,&quot; I replied. &quot;Cats think differently than people.&nbsp; When she saw 'Home,'&nbsp; she wanted it 'Now!'&nbsp;&nbsp;To keep her trust, I had to trust her.&quot;&nbsp; The aftermath was really funny,&nbsp;too.&nbsp; Mimi became a minor celebrity and people brought their children and grandchildren over to visit &quot;the tame cats&quot; during the holiday.&nbsp; She's a talker, and one grammie interpreted her &quot;Ayow-ayow&quot; as the Korean greeting, &quot;Annyongsayo.&quot;&nbsp; [&quot;Koyangi Hangook-malia.&quot; &quot;The cat speaks Korean.&quot;] Mon, 2 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT 09/04/2009 http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=D770029&entry=10021 http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=D770029&entry=10021 &nbsp; <div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">Wilson Family pictures</div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">This is the picture my grandfather, Clifford Hobart Wilson, sent to my grandmother, Maggie Guptill, in 1911, when he was courting her.&nbsp;He was a cowboy, working on his father&rsquo;s ranch.&nbsp;His mother, Mary Emery, was from Berwick, Maine, and he met Maggie when he came east to visit his Emery cousins.&nbsp;They lived on Blackberry Hill, about 3 miles from the village of Beaver Dam, where the Guptills had lived since the 1650s.&nbsp;</div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">Cliff&rsquo;s grandfather was born in Sanford, Maine, probably of Welsh immigrants, as his first name was Tristram.&nbsp;We aren&rsquo;t sure where his father, Daniel, was born.&nbsp;We know he was not born in Wakefield, New Hampshire, which is what he claimed when he lied about his age to enlist in the Army in 1861.&nbsp;He told them he was from Wakefield because that town&rsquo;s birth records had been burned when the Town Hall caught fire.&nbsp;[smart kid!]&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">After the war was over, Daniel worked with his brother in Boston until 1870.&nbsp;Family stories indicate that they didn&rsquo;t get along too well, and Daniel migrated to Colorado where he got a job on the railroad, starting out as a stoker on a coal-burning steam engine.&nbsp;One of our family stories indicates that he thwarted a train robbery by chucking chunks of coal at the robbers&rsquo; horses, frightening them so that the robbers could not aim their guns accurately.&nbsp;By 1880, when my grandfather arrived on the scene, they were living in Hall Valley, CO.&nbsp;He retired from the railroad in 1890, after 20 years and received an engraved watch (that my brother has now).&nbsp;They were living in Fairplay at this time and Daniel Wilson ran for election as Sheriff of Park County.&nbsp;He was elected and re-elected for many years, because he was so effective at maintaining law and order.&nbsp;He was known as &ldquo;the lawman without a gun.&rdquo;&nbsp;He used his ability to reason with miscreants to talk them into surrendering without bloodshed.&nbsp;He counted on the fact that outlaws would be too ashamed to shoot an unarmed man.&nbsp;Considering that he had a wife and four living children depending on him at this time, that was a rather brave act.&nbsp;</div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">He settled on Current Creek and built a log cabin as a temporary residence while he built the large, white, New England-style house for Mary.&nbsp;I suspect that he knew she missed her family in Maine.&nbsp;At any rate, he built a house that looked an awful lot like the Emery homestead.&nbsp;This was where they lived for the rest of his life.&nbsp;When he passed away in 1928, Mary moved back into the log cabin and asked her son, Jim, to come, with his family, to live in the &ldquo;big house&rdquo; and run the ranch.</div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt">Cliff and Maggie married in 1913 and were living in North Berwick, Maine, when my father, Clifford Junior, was born in 1915.&nbsp;Shortly thereafter, they bought a Ford Model T and drove out to Colorado, camping beside the road at night.&nbsp;Maggie remembered this as a difficult trip, as there were no paved roads between cities, and they had a lot of flat tires to mend along the way.&nbsp;She said that they averaged a flat tire every 2 days, and they had to buy extra repair kits several times on the way.&nbsp;It took several hours to repair the tire every time. Had to take out the inner tube and patch it, then let the glue dry before reassembling the tire on the wheel and pumping it up.&nbsp;She also said, &ldquo;If it wasn&rsquo;t the dust in our teeth, it was the mud.&rdquo;&nbsp;</div> Fri, 4 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT May 29, 2009 Update http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=D770029&entry=10020 http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=D770029&entry=10020 I'm taking care of 2 cats&nbsp;while their &quot;daddy&quot; is in the states.&nbsp; Heck of a deal; he gave me 30 manwon up front, plus 2 bags of food, a bag of kitty-litter and a buncha tools and toys.&nbsp; I've been scouting around for new students to tutor this summer, in addition to the Moms class [3 hrs on Tuesdays]&nbsp;and the 2&nbsp;Boys&nbsp;[2 classes&nbsp;x 90 mins/wk].&nbsp; I have one college student [girl]&nbsp;&quot;for sure&quot; and one &quot;maybe,&quot; so far.&nbsp; Don't want to take too many, because the heat and humidity does a number on me.&nbsp; Carol came to visit all day Wednesday; we had a wonderful time gabbing.&nbsp; She was curious about how come I adjusted so well to Korea and why I feel so at-home here now.&nbsp; Seems like it's just a combination of former life experiences and common denominators.&nbsp; Maine culture and Korean culture have a lot of similarities, the way I see it.&nbsp; It's a small-town mentality that I'm very familiar with.&nbsp; Meeting and greeting folks on the street, nosy neighbors, that sorta stuff. Today, I went to Noh* Moo-hyun's funeral.&nbsp; It was hot in the sun, so I didn't stay for the whole thing, but paid my respects and signed the remembrance book.&nbsp; The U.S. ambassador was there, but the stupid Embassy sent out an e-mail telling Americans not to go!&nbsp; How to reinforce the &quot;Ugly American&quot; stereotype!!!&nbsp; Jerks!&nbsp; He did an awful lot to strengthen democracy here, so what's the beef?&nbsp; I liked what one woman said, &quot;He was the first president who was really elected by the people.&quot;&nbsp; Of course, the elite crew did their damdest to scuttle the good.&nbsp; But the seed has been planted; common folks know it's possible now.&nbsp; [*Correct spelling; U. S. media&nbsp;changed his name to Roh.] Happy Trails! ~ Sil in Corea Fri, 29 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT Experimental Pot Roast Recipe http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=D770029&entry=10019 http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=D770029&entry=10019 I've been messing about with this recipe for a while now, and figured I'd better write about it before I forget how I did it. <img alt="" src="http://www.opendiary.com/images/smileys/0019.gif" />&nbsp;&nbsp; I got a good deal on a 2 1/2 pound &quot;leg roast&quot; at the local meat shop, 5 chunwon or roughly $3.50.&nbsp; Usually, I slice off bits and fry them up in a stir-fry, but there was an impulse this time to do a pot roast.&nbsp;&nbsp; I browned it in my electric skillet.&nbsp; Then, I added a couple chopped onions and apples, stirred them around a bit and added probably half a liter of water, covered it and let it simmer on very low heat, &quot;below the boil,&quot;&nbsp;for about 3 hours.&nbsp; The reason I put the apples in was that I wanted to see if the slightly acidic apples would tenderize the meat, and I think they did.&nbsp; They certainly added a nice nuance to the flavor.&nbsp; I decided to hold off on adding any seasonings until I got the meat tender.&nbsp; It was a very lean piece of meat with a big streak of gristle running down the center.&nbsp; By the time the meat was fork-tender, that streak of gristle seemed to be transforming into gelatine.&nbsp; The broth hadn't reduced much at all; the roots and fruits&nbsp;had added their liquid to it. To compliment the apples, I put a half-teaspoon each of ginger and cinnamon.&nbsp; For the salt and pepper, I used 3 Tblsp. naturally-made soy sauce and 1 rounded teaspoon of hot pepper paste**.&nbsp; To liven up the broth, I put a generous, heaping&nbsp;teaspoon of sweet basil, dried.&nbsp; Almost any entree is improved by sweet basil, in my opinion.&nbsp; I probably could have used more soy sauce and hot pepper paste, but I like to add a bit when it's &quot;on the plate.&quot;&nbsp; {**This hot pepper paste was given to me by the lady who made it; the major ingredient is dried jalapeno peppers which have been flaked in a blender.&nbsp; In addition, there are sesame oil, brown sugar, ginger powder and vinegar.&nbsp; It's possible that there are other things too, but these are the standard ingredients in Corean traditional sauces and salad-dressings.&nbsp; What makes this sauce so potent is that it has been aged for over a year.} To go along with this entree, I cooked up &quot;5-grain&quot; rice in my rice cooker.&nbsp; This is a mixture of brown rice, black rice,&nbsp;barley, red lentils and green lentils.&nbsp; I followed the regular directions for cooking rice; it takes about 20 minutes in my cooker. Just before chowing down, I stir-fried a bag of freshly washed spinach in 2 teaspoons of sesame oil for just a minute, clapped a cover on it and simmered it for another 4 minutes.&nbsp; Then I added a tablespoon of vinegar, a teaspoon of brown sugar and a dash of soy sauce.&nbsp; Turned up the heat to just boiling and stirred in the additions, and shut off the heat.&nbsp; Bon Appetite! This spinach side dish&nbsp;makes far more than I can eat in one sitting, but it keeps really well in a &quot;pahn chahn&quot; box in the fridge.&nbsp; 'Pahn chahn' means 'side dish' in Korean, and these dishes are designed to be tasty and keep well.&nbsp; In other words, Koreans have perfected the art of creating left-overs that are delightful the second and third time around!&nbsp; They even have designed special containers in which to preserve the 'pahn chahn' at its peak of flavor. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT Take The Last Bus to Cheolsan, Part Four http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=D770029&entry=10018 http://www.opendiary.com/entryview.asp?authorcode=D770029&entry=10018 Note:&nbsp; The photo to the left was taken on the Camellia ferry (the old one, not the &quot;New Camellia&quot;) in Hakata Harbor.That is a Japanese Coast Guard vessel behind me, and it looks a lot like ones you might see on the Maine coast.&nbsp; Sunday evening, January 4, 2009 I got another tiny cup (3 1/2 ounces or 100 mL) of coffee from the machine just outside the station and came back up to Welly&amp; , where it is warmer and not as drafty as the main floor of the station.&nbsp; As I came up the escalator, I noticed that, in Hangeul, Welly&amp;&nbsp; is phonetically spelled &quot;Wel-li-an.&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp; I'll nurse this coffee along until &quot;first call&quot; for my train. While checking the time on my cell phone, I notice that Oh Jina sent me a message at 16:29, which my phone picked up silently as soon as the ferry got within range of the Pusan cell transmission tower.&nbsp; I text-messaged her that we arrived in Pusan at 18:00.&nbsp; My battery is very low, so I am glad she did not call back.&nbsp; By the time I get home, it will be after midnight.&nbsp; I'm just hoping to catch that last bus to Cheolsan, as a taxi after midnight is twice as expensive.&nbsp; Normally, a taxi from the station to my home is a bit over 5,400 won ($3.60).&nbsp; The ticket says that I will arrive in the station at 23:15.&nbsp; Sometimes the &quot;late trains&quot; really are late, because they are running at night.&nbsp; It wouldn't be healthy to hit something at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour. 20:48 - on the train The latest fight in Korea's National Assembly was all over Japan's TV news this weekend.&nbsp; I shall have to read the English language papers to find out what it's all about.&nbsp; It looked like a sit-in being broken up by the police, just like in America 30 or 40 years ago.&nbsp; They featured plenty of folks being carried out, and showed a scene of 2 guys swinging at each other while about 20 men were separating them.&nbsp; That shot played 2 or 3 times in each broadcast news story.&nbsp; I wonder how many other viewers realised they were playing the same scenes over and over.&nbsp; It's true that Koreans are passionate about freedom of speech.&nbsp; They've only had it for about 18 years.&nbsp;&nbsp; These middle-aged guys duking it out in the entry way to the Assembly building grew up under a series of military dictators. All I can say is, it's a good thing that guns are kept locked up in Korea.&nbsp; There are &quot;crimes of passion&quot; but they are rarely fatal.&nbsp; There seems to be an aversion to knives,- they're so messy!&nbsp; The first move is usually punching.&nbsp; Women are as quick to punch as men are, maybe because there is a smaller difference in size between women and men here.&nbsp; Women know they had better be ready to follow through, though, because there is no taboo on hitting girls in this culture.&nbsp; Girls are as apt to be trained in martial arts as boys are, which helps to keep the &quot;playing field&quot; level.&nbsp; Somewhat over ten years ago, I remember Mrs. Kang told her daughter, &quot;Never marry a Korean man.&nbsp; They beat their wives.&quot;&nbsp; But, from what I hear nowadays, Korean women beat their husbands. <img height="15" src="http://www.xanga.com/Images/smiley5.gif" width="15" alt="" />&nbsp; Part of the humour of that comedy I watched last night, about the small-time crooks and the farming widows, was that the widows beat on the crooks to tame them and make them work.&nbsp; They also fed them; so it was a real &quot;carrot and stick&quot; training program.&nbsp; I'd love to tell more about this movie, but I'm struggling hard to avoid 'spoilers'.&nbsp; I really hope this movie makes it to America.&nbsp; You don't need to know the language to understand the plot.&nbsp; The acting is terrific.&nbsp; Some of the &quot;grande dames&quot; of Korean cinema are in it.&nbsp; There's also a hunka beefcake and his sly fox of a sidekick, a real &quot;big Boss&quot; bad guy, and a cute girl who loses a winning Lotto ticket.&nbsp; The scenery is magnificent, too. Another film I enjoyed was a Japanese one about grammar school kids.&nbsp; The heroine was an imaginative little &quot;Scout&quot; look-alike.&nbsp; She's got Shirley Temple beat on making faces for the camera!&nbsp; She has great parents and grandpa.&nbsp; The only weak actor was the grandma, who seemed too young and overly made-up.&nbsp;&nbsp; A Japanese TV show with good photography but a plot as dense as a soap opera is called &quot;Team Medical Dragon.&quot;&nbsp; It looks interesting and appears to owe some debts to &quot;ER&quot; and &quot;House.&quot; For real slam-bang sword and samuri action, try the blandly-named &quot;Land of Wind.&quot;&nbsp; Charging cavalry with stirring musical background, warriors jumping out of the bushes every time you turn around,... you get the idea! Heheh!&nbsp; Back on the&nbsp; Korean TV, here on the train, they are showing a trailer for &quot;Bolt&quot; right now.&nbsp; Cute dog believes he's a super-hero, but in the real world he needs friends to get by.&nbsp; Next, we get a trailer for a film about the greatest of the Shilla Kings, &quot;Ssang ____.&quot;&nbsp; Dang, I wish I could read Hangeul faster! We are running a little over 300 km/hr on the elevated section of track.&nbsp; Now, in a tunnel...Whoom!...another bullet train going in the opposite direction passes us.&nbsp; Sixteen cars and two locomotives fly by in 3 seconds.&nbsp; Now we're slowing for the stop at Daejeon (pronounced TaeJohn) at 10:30 p.m.&nbsp; We're just about 45 minutes from my destination, so they are right on schedule.&nbsp; We didn't stop as many times on this trip as we did going down.&nbsp; Korea Railroad is aiming to make Gwangmyeong Station the new Yongdeungpo.&nbsp; In 2001, Yongdeungpo was considered to be the 'hub' of all Korean passenger transport.&nbsp; Now, it's more like the 'bottleneck.'&nbsp; The inter-city bus traffic now goes to East Seoul and Express Bus Terminals (the latter in Gangnam, south of the Han River) 10:53-10:55 p.m. Cheonan/Asan Station.&nbsp; Korea Railroad is pitching a high-speed rail connection to Europe.&nbsp; I wonder if they are trying to appeal to Kim Jong il?&nbsp; They are talking about Seoul to Paris trains on the in-train TV.&nbsp; It's an interesting idea but I doubt I will live to see it carried out.&nbsp; You can't do high-speed on regular tracks and Russian tracks have a different width between the rails than do Korean and European tracks.&nbsp; It means building a completely new system, well over 7,000 miles long.&nbsp; [San Francisco is closer to Seoul than Paris is.] ----end of on-train ruminations---- When I got off the train, it was 11:15 p.m.&nbsp; I hurried out to the bus stop.&nbsp; At one point, there was a choice.&nbsp; There are bus stops on both sides of the mammoth building.&nbsp; I went right when I should have gone left.&nbsp; Outside, I ran for and missed two busses, before catching a #22.&nbsp; When it turned at the intersection, I knew I had gone to the wrong side of the train station.&nbsp; Sinking feeling, big time!&nbsp; I realized I had to jump off at the next stop if I had any hope at all of catching that last bus to Cheolsan. I hit the 'stop' button, jumped off and scuttled across the street.&nbsp; I couldn't see evidence of a bus stop over there, but there was a woman standing at the next corner.&nbsp; So I jogged to where she was, puffing like a grampus.&nbsp; She gave me a startled look, but I saw the inconspicuous little &quot;Bus&quot; sign, so I knew I guessed right.&nbsp; Within 3 minutes, I spotted the approach of a large green-and-white Gwangmyeong City bus.&nbsp; (We were in the outskirts of Anyang City at this point,)&nbsp; It was a #12 bus!&nbsp; Yay!&nbsp; The &quot;Shipee Busuh&quot; or &quot;twelve bus&quot; goes right by the end of my street!&nbsp; And, as it turned out, it actually was The Last Bus To Cheolsan.&nbsp; Time: 11:30.&nbsp; We swung around the Gwangmyeong Station and headed on up toward Soha, the southern end of Gwangmyeong city.&nbsp; The driver was pushing it, just slowing down and not stopping at every location unless a person stuck out an arm or made strong eye-contact with him.&nbsp; Past the stop,&nbsp; he would put the pedal to the metal until the next bus stop.&nbsp; They are supposed to punch their time cards at the garage before 12:30.&nbsp;&nbsp; He had a good 20+ minutes more on his route after he dropped me off, which he did at 12:03 a.m.&nbsp; I could see the gratitude on the faces of the people he did pick up between Soha and Cheolsan.&nbsp; After midnight, no bus picks up riders. I trudged up the hill toward home, feeling so glad and relieved to be back. And so,...to bed. <img src="http://s.xanga.com/images/winky.gif" alt="" /> ~ Sil Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT