Movie Madness July 18, 2008

So Hollywood came to Michigan.

The State where I am living, is giving a 40% tax break to Hollywood to film here. This is great for our economy. Hopefully it will drive different businesses to our state, because we really need it right now…

They are filming a Clint Eastwood movie, some TV series from the makers of “Lost”, and they are filming on our street, basically right in front of my house for some Indi production.
It was exciting at first, annoying after a while, and now I can’t wait for them to be gone tomorrow.

They started shooting last week, for this movie called “Youth in Revolt” directed by Miguel Arteta, and starring Michael Cera (Juno’s boyfriend), Steve Buscemi, Ray Liotta, Jean Smart, etc. Story is “While his trailer trash parents teeter on the edge of divorce, 14-year-old Nick (Michael Cera) sets his sights on dream girl Sheeni Saunders, hoping that she’ll be the one to take away his virginity.” It’s supposedly a comedy. I feel that they are stretching it a bit to make a 20 year old as a 14 year old character. Maybe make him at least 16 for the sake of putting too much pressure on all the 14 year olds about loosing their virginity out there. (I know, having a child as a teenager is so Hollywood right now…)
Yeah, anyway we were not happy that we were made into the trailer trash neighborhood at first, but we heard that they are shooting not the trash part here so… (We’ll see, once the movie comes out.)
Any who, we saw Fred Willard, Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, and Jean Smart, so far in person. Jean Smart seems to be a very nice lady. Tall, and very pretty. I guess she hurt her leg so she is walking with a cane right now. I feel bad… I only got to see Fred Willard from afar, and Zach Galifianakis sat in front of our house on the steps talking on his cell phone.
I tried to get my friend an autograph by Michael Cera, on the “Super Bad” DVD that we borrowed from him, and failed the first attempt.

There have been so many people, that I have never seen before, on our street ” On Their Walks”, that it started to get a bit annoying. My dog was going nuts from all the traffic we were getting in front of our house. (I seriously think he was freaking out.)
I can’t just walk up and down the street with my daughter because they are shooting. I have to go around the block to get out of my neighborhood now, not the simple drive down the street. And the waiting in my car or side walk for them to call “CUT”. 2 weeks is more than enough.
Our street has never been so lively, more so than Gay Day and the Dream Cruse. Which is a big deal around here. It’s just a little too much now though…

So today is the final day of shooting in front of my house, and I cannot be happier. I just had one mission to get done. Have Michael Cera sign the DVD.
We were across the street today at our neighbors, when we spotted him. He was coming down the side walk to come to the Craft Services truck for some snacks. We spotted that opportunity, and we took it. We had my 3 year old daughter take the “Super Bad (Unrated Extended Edition)” down the drive way to the truck where Michael Cera was standing. She looks up to hand him the DVD. My cute little daughter in her night gown, who can resist that!? It was too cute! Then it happened. Michael Cera gave us the “What the #$%& look”. I’m a little pissed. You don’t do that in front of my daughter! I don’t care who the funk you are. She is awesome and cute and is doing this for me (and a bag of chips). But seriously, who does that in front of a 3 year old!? To make her feel like she was doing something wrong for even a second. That’s upsetting. He just acted like a spoiled Hollywood kid that didn’t want anyone in his space. He didn’t even see any of the cuteness in that. And look at the body guard, looking all tough, intimidating my little princess. Michael Cera’s not that cool, kind of strange, he seems to be the same person he is in the movies. Does that mean he’s not really acting…?
Well, I am going to wait for the movie to come out on On Demand anyways.

I don’t care about him, Zu did a great job! She is awesome. Very ballsy, just like her mother. She also got some chips out of the deal. Thank you Reva from Craft Services!

Well, the mac guy is supposed to be coming to my friends block next week, so I would like to go see that from her front porch. Maybe… Maybe he’ll sign my iBook for me.

A Nice Reward July 12, 2008

It’s been a year since we signed up for having the same monthly payment on our electric bill. They base it on how much energy you spent the year before and take the guesswork out of the bill by paying the same amount every month.
So this is our 12th month and we have seen the results.

Since last year, we’ve changed most of our lights to energy efficient lights, turned up the AC of our house about 2 degrees, unplugging electronics not in use, and made sure we didn’t have any lights on rooms we weren’t using.

Here are the results. Our bill for electricity this month is at $0.00! And our next months bill will be credited about a fifth of the amount we usually pay!! This is awesome!!! This makes me very excited. To see these results make me know that I AM making a difference. Extremely rewarding.
Also if you consider the fact that we got a 5 gallon fish tank with filter, air bubbling thing, and heater for it that runs 24/7 , which I feel extremely guilty about, and is connected to a power strip. (Purchased for the 3 gold fish my daughter won at a Japanese festival, that have since all been replaced with 3 tropical fish within a year…)
We’ve done extremely well this year! Good job me.

There are small things that make a difference and I think everyone can start by turning their AC to 1 degree higher than what they usually have it set at. Trust me, your body will get used to it after a while and you’ll feel great about the difference you are making. It’s summer, it’s supposed to be hot, naturally your body is not made to go from 86 degrees outside to 75 degrees inside. I challenge you. Try 78 or 79 this year. Turn the air off at night and circulate the air in your home with a fan facing out. We have our AC set at 80 when my husbands home, and 81 when he’s not. 82 for the pets when we all leave the house.

Maybe next year we’ll be up to 82! I don’t think John can handle that, he does not like the humidity… but a little humidity is great for the skin. Less wrinkles.

So lets all try to get healthier and pretty, and save our environment all at the same time.

Good Japanese Food July 11, 2008

Food in Japan is incredible. I’m not just talking about the Japanese food, I’m talking about any kind of food.  You can get Italian food and it tastes better, Chinese food is authentic, even a hamburger tastes better.  How is that? Is it possible that they have better, more fresh, ingredients than what we have here in the U.S.?  That has to be the answer!

I come home from my long, wonderful stay in Japan, and I am not in the slightest mood of getting back in the swing of, having to cook every meal in order to have a decent one, so we get carry out.  It wasn’t bad.  We got my favorite Lebanese food, from the Lebanese (Anita’s) restaurant 2 blocks away from us.  Since you can’t find Lebanese food that easily in Japan, I was craving it!
But the next day I go to our local Japanese market, because of the empty bachelor fridge my husband left for me, it was actually depressing.  There is a limit to what you can buy, since they only import 2 options of one thing, and the look of the fish in the cases not that great.  Is this because we are in the Mid-West and have to have everything shipped frozen, or packed in ice?  Before I left for Japan, this was the most fresh place to buy fish.  Doesn’t look anything like what I had in Japan.  Now it doesn’t seem that great.  My mouth has been spoiled.

Being by the ocean, eating fresh caught fish is like eating something from heaven, compared to the once frozen, possibly was caught last week, kind of fish you can buy here…  I pretended that I didn’t know it wasn’t that fresh, and thought maybe I can trick myself into thinking the Sashimi here would be good, so I got some tuna, some salmon, and some yellow tail to take home to have sushi hand rolls that evening.
I also had to stop at the market for some veggies.  I expect Whole Foods to have the best ingredient I can find, since you dish out a bit more to shop there.  So I’m looking, looking, looking…  It’s summer, where are the fresh good lookin’ veggies?
When you shop for veggies in Japan, the super markets are loaded with great looking veggies that are in season.  When I say good looking, I really mean good looking!  The carrots are all the same size, amazingly orange, the strawberries are all the same size in each packet, and are bright red.  Nothing at all close to being wilted or even bruised!  Almost too good looking that I feel guilty cutting it up to use it.
Then back to my real world in the U.S., where the carrots are mostly crooked and for some reason split down the middle, the banana is either green or bruised, and anything with leaves, you can’t use the first 5 layers because they are crushed.
I know it just sounds like I’m just complaining, and I’m just some kind of Japan lover, WHICH I am…, but it’s true!  You really have to see it to believe it.  Even the meat is so much better!  Beautifully marbled and so fantastic that you don’t have to worry about eating Organic.  They don’t use hormones to grow the cows!!  You can also have pork & chicken rare, and not worry about getting salmonella poisoning.  Now that is amazing.  Even the cheap meat at the supermarket is GOOD!!
Anyway, back to my dinner that night.  Disappointing. My lovely sushi dinner that I expected, turned out that I couldn’t cheat myself.  What am I going to do…

I know what exactly is going to happen.  I am going to be disappointed for a little while, then the whole denial thing kicks into my brain, and things I eat here start tasting better again.  Maybe it’s the same chemical that is dispersed after you give birth, so that you forget about the pain you go through during child birth so that you would actually consider having another child.  OK, maybe I’m exaggerating but I’m still a bit disappointed in what I’m getting…

Next weekend, I am planning on going to the farmers market, hoping for something better.  Also my friend has told me of a local organic farmer that will sell a whole pig for a fantastic price!  She also has mentioned how delicious the eggs are too.  I would love to try some.

So here is my future menu for my organic pig & eggs.

Niku-jaga (Pork and Potato’s)

• Half a pound of pork belly meat cubed. (This is hard to find in regular grocery stores here so having my own pig butchered gives me this opportunity. You can also find pigs belly meat at most Korean or Japanese Markets frozen)
• 1 knob ginger sliced
• 3 Yukon Gold potato’s
• 1 or 2 carrots
• 1 large Vidal Onion sliced
• 1 block of Konnyaku (Konjac)
• 4 hard boiled eggs peeled.
• 4 Tbsp of Sake (cooking rice wine)
• 3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 2 Tbsp Mirin (or half honey, half white wine)
• 1/2 to 1 Tbsp of Sugar (depending on how sweet you like it) Start out with 1/2 and add more to taste)

Cut all ingredients into bite size pieces and soak the potatoes in water for about 10 min.  Heat up you Le Creuset pot and melt a small knob of butter. Brown the pork on both sides, add enough water to cover the pork and boil for 10 min.  When done, dump water and rinse off the pork.
Put another small knob of butter in the pot and fry up the ginger on medium low heat until fragrant, about a minute.  Put the carrots, potato’s, in the pot and add the pork, eggs, and Konnyaku on top of that and finally cover with the onions.  In a small bowl add the Sake, Soy Sauce, Mirin, & Sugar and put in microwave for 1 min and dissolve sugar.  Pour sauce over the pot with the pork, cover and simmer on medium low for 15 ~ 20 min. Stir and finish cooking with no lid until all veggies are cooked through.

Enjoy with rice & Miso soup or even Udon Noodles.