The Eighth Mission - #39: Grow

"the other hand"

This week's mission proved to be a bit more challenging.

You never realize how much you rely on your dominant hand for mundane, everyday tasks. I figured it wouldn't be so bad when brushing my hair, but then quickly spiraled downward when trying to brush my teeth and finding the micro movements of my dominant hand could not be replicated by my off hand.

WOW! This is going to be a long day.

Most of my other chores for the day were relatively easy, using both hands simultaneously, until I began cooking...

...how easily these blogs turn into something food related...

...cutting an onion for chili was very difficult, well at least for the speed and accuracy that I have practiced so well with my dominant hand. I kept having to put the knife in my right hand to get the feel for how I usually hold it, and again I couldn't replicate it with my left.  ANNNNDDDD you can't believe how much my hand would cramp up...so not used to working those muscles like that. I am quite impressed with myself for not cutting any of my digits off, but still it was quite a feat.

Later that evening, my weekly D&D group got together and I was supposed to continue the drawing our map, but quickly handed it off to one of my fellow adventurers because there was no way I would be able to properly sketch any form of detail. I even tried taking player notes...NOPE! Totally illegible.  I'm going to have to rewrite those later this week.

The first person I saw happened to be one of the gals at the front desk of my dog's daycare, Tonya. We'll see how her trials with her non-dominant hand go, and where the card ends up!

Until next week Travelers!

The Seventh Mission - #27:Surprise

"words, words, words"

- Hamlet

For this week's mission, I got to infiltrate a library.

I also needed to come up with my favorite book, so I had to think back and remember what my absolute favorite book was. Thankfully my parents instilled in all of me and my siblings a fondness for reading. We had such a library growing up.

One of the biggest reasons our library was so large was the Book It program. We would spend hours at the bookstore finding our treasures, the next adventure we would set our young eyes upon. I always loved the smell of a bookstore!

The Book It program happened to begin in my second grade year, with one of my most influential teachers, Mrs. Whittier of Maple Wood Elementary. More than just my teacher, she was also a family friend. She had such a love of teaching and helped inspire a love of creativity and bolstered my parents' desire to make us all fervent readers.

That same year, we were introduced to several authors that I would admire throughout my life. So when I thought about this mission, I thought back to that year and what books I was really getting into.

My first thought was Marvel Books graphic novelization of The Return of the Jedi. I read that thing so many times front to back, inside out, until it literally fell apart in my hands.

...I never replaced that book...

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a copy of that book in the Fairfax County Library System, so I started thinking of other books.  I included more recent titles that I have read and thoroughly enjoyed:

• Name of the Wind (of the Kingkiller Chronicles) by Patrick Rothfuss
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
• Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
• The First Heretic (of the Horus Heresy Series) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

But then I was reminded oddly enough during a session with my D&D group about a poem.

Just a quick aside, my character's hands slipped into a magic fount and lost all but his thumb and middle finger on his right hand and ended up with a dagger for a left hand.

So I was reminded of a poem by one of those authors I was introduced to during that influential year.

Captain Hook by Shel Silverstein:

Captain Hook must remember Not to scratch his toes.
Captain Hook must watch out
And never pick his nose.
Captain Hook must be gentle
When he shakes your hand.
Captain Hook must be careful
Openin' sardine cans
And playing tag and pouring tea
And turnin' pages of his book.
Lots of folks I'm glad I ain't--
But mostly Captain Hook!

I decided that the book with this poem in it, Where the Sidewalk Ends would be my target. As I was sitting in the Mary Riley Styles Public Library thumbing through the 40th anniversary of his collection, I ran across another poem that I have often found myself repeating.

Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too
Went for a ride in a flying shoe.
"Hooray!"
"What fun!"
"It's time we flew!"
Said Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too.

Ickle was captain, and Pickle was crewAnd Tickle served coffee and mulligan stewAs higherAnd higherAnd higher they flew,Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too.
Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too,

Over the sun and beyond the blue."Hold on!""Stay in!""I hope we do!"Cried Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too.


Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle too
Never returned to the world they knew,
And nobody
Knows what's
Happened to
Dear Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me too.

For those who haven't experienced Shel Silverstein, I highly recommend.  His poems have stuck with me for a long LONG time: Sick, Sister for Sale, It's Dark in Here, Invitation, Hug-o-War, and so many more.

Until next week Travellers!

The Sixth Mission - #52: Creative

Food! Glorious food!

Yet again, I am beset by another food challenge...

Who shuffled this deck!?

This one should prove to be interesting, especially with my allergies, it has been the crux of what my wife and I have had to deal with the past 4 years.

The second week of February has proven to be a very VERY long week. Regardless of my intention for 2017 to "do less", it seems I have ended up with the same breakneck pace as previous years. So the last couple days of this week left me with a sense of inability to get this task done.

Thankfully there is my weekly D&D group. One of the ways I have lured them into playing at our place is the offer of food. One of the things I love to do is host (I believe I mentioned that before). In this group, we have several different food preferences, whether they be medical, religious, or moral, so trying to find something that fits can be challenging.  This week I settled on BREAKFAST! But to make it portable to the gaming table, I made them all in muffin form.

One of my fellow gamers was so enamored with tonight's offering, he became the recipient of the card.  Thanks Steve!

1 loaf Against the Grain Baguette

     (a regular french bread baguette will suffice, if you don't feel like avoiding wheat)

1 - 8 oz package three cheese cheddar cheese blend

9 large eggs

3 tblsp half & half

salt & pepper to taste

Optional:

   1 - 12 oz package Smithfield All Natural Uncured Bacon

       0r

   1 - 12 oz tube Country Style Pork Sausage

for bacon muffins:

Line a baking tray with parchment paper, lay bacon on tray and place in 375 degree oven for 12-15 minutes or until cooked to desired doneness (I prefer mine just a little under done so it has some room to cook in the muffins). Set aside and let cool.

Dice Bacon.

for sausage muffins:

Brown sausage in skillet. Set aside and let cool.

Spray 12-count muffin pan with cooking spray.

Defrost baguette according to directions, dice baguette in 1/2 inch cubes.  Place 3-4 baguette cubes in each muffin tin.

Optional: Sprinkle bacon or sausage in each muffin tin, cover each with cheese.

Crack all eggs in bowl, add half & half, salt and pepper. Scramble eggs thoroughly. Pour enough egg mixture into each muffin tin to about the 2/3 mark.

Place in 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes (or until toothpick comes out clean).

Let cool and serve.

Feel free to make modifications, use ham instead or add sautéd vegetables till your heart's content.  make sure not to overload any of the muffin tins.

Card Updates:

No movement yet Travelers! Stay tuned though, hopefully soon we see new and exciting locations!

The Fifth Mission - #1: Engagement

apologies travelers...apparently I did not publish this one when I finished it on Monday...ack!  

Make it so number one!

Sorry...when I read ENGAGE it was in Patrick Stuart's voice...hmmm...nerd...meh!?

Anyway, yes, this week is about engaging the public!

Actually, one of the things I do the least...selfies...for some reason I cringe slightly when I heard that word, let alone for me to do it.

I am more comfortable being the person behind the camera, not in front of it...ACK!

Then again, that's what this game and this year is all about, stretching myself to new experiences and see what happens.

All that being said, I can actually say that I'm really excited about this card.  Now I can put a card in someone's hand and say "YOUR TURN" and hopefully they venture beyond their comfort zone (unless they already do copious amounts of selfies and then this is a walk in the park).


This weekend was also:

The City of Fairfax 25th Annual Chocolate Lovers Festival

There's a Chocolate Chip Pancake Breakfast, a Chocolate Challenge where professionals and amateurs compete for the best cake, cupcake, or sculpture, there's the Taste of Chocolate where you can purchase all kinds of chocolate confections, and new this year was a Liquid Chocolate Tent with all kinds of delights like chocolate beers, martinis, milkshakes, chocolate sodas. For a brand new event, it was quite packed actually. We have even had guest judges who have been featured on Food Network and demonstrations by these individuals as well. So, if anyone is around the City of Fairfax the first weekend in February, I definitely recommend. Especially for those who love chocolate!

My participation in the festival is I spend somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-12 hours running around the City with a large camera on my shoulder following my boss around as we cover this tasty celebration with events all over Fairfax. So, I was around all kinds of strangers and had plenty of people to chose from, but sadly no time. 

Until I realized I had to go back and get some pickup shots on the second day of the festival. Wearing my Patriots hat, a gentleman by the name of Tim who was donning his Cowboys jacket wished my team luck in Superbowl LI later that night and bemoaned his team not being in the big show this year...maybe next year Tim, maybe next year!  But in that moment, I asked if I could take a selfie with him, handed him the card, and tried to quickly explain the game to him before the light turned green and we got our walk signal.

Well Tim, it is your turn to pass along your new found Sneaky Card!  I can't wait to see where it travels.

Card Updates:

Mission #40 has moved from the original target (still waiting on confirmation on SneakyCards.com), but has been handed off to another friend, who by the way has tried two new foods since they received their card, but upon doing so forgot to have it on them. Maybe third times the charm?

I have also received word from the recipient of Mission #47 that they will be moving the card this week.

WOOT!

Stay tuned adventurers!

The Fourth Mission - #19:Surprise

In Plain Sight

This one should be pretty easy to accomplish.  Not needing to select a target at random, or a target at all I just needed to come up with a place that had high enough traffic where someone is BOUND to find it.

For this mission, I did think about these potential hiding spots:

The community bulletin board at my office.
(however, reading ahead when I first received my deck, there is one coming up that covers this...so that idea was out)

My usual Dunkin Donuts haunt...I wasn't sure if I should put it in with the sugar packets or tucked into the napkin dispenser.

I also thought about putting it on someone's desk at the office. There was a slight fear of it getting lost in some shuffle to never be seen or heard from again...meh...that is the risk with this game...right?

But it dawned on me as I was sitting down for lunch at Cava. They have these tri-fold standup cards that could work nicely. Hopefully someone bored of people watching, or trying to avoid eye contact altogether, or whatever reason they would look down into said advertisement (for the Cava app), would find this treasure and take off with it...

...no movement yet on this little gem, but still hoping for something.

I am really looking forward to see any of these little nuggets move beyond the boundaries of my home base here!

Keep watching everyone!  Something is bound to happen...and soon!

The Third Mission - Mission Objective #40: Growth

FOOOOOOD!

Of all the cards, I was rather apprehensive about this one...

Trying a new food!

For those of you who know me and my issues with food understand how tough this one could have been for me.

For the rest of you, suffice it to say I have a myriad of food allergies that trigger a condition I was diagnosed with a few years back.

NOOOOOO!!!

I used to like food...no...love food! A fervent Food Network fan and a love of cooking and entertaining, I had often thought of hanging up my camera and picking up my knives and starting a new career in the food industry.

But alas, my allergies have made it...interesting...

...maybe one day...

Onto the MISSION!

My boss, Rachael has on many occasions talked about one of her favorite new beverage finds: Bubble Tea!  After a long day fighting technical demons with the knights who say I.T. we took a break to Kim's Pho in Fairfax for refreshments!

BTW...the place is wicked cool, very nice decor, smelled delicious (unfortunately smell is as far as I can get as all asian food is pretty much off the menu - thank you allergy Gods!). But for those of you who can and are in the area...I recommend at least taking it in!

She ordered a Black Tea Bubble Tea and I myself went whole hog on the 'new food' mission and ordered a Lychee Bubble Tea (never having tried either)....

DAMN WAS THAT LYCHEE SWEET!

They weren't kidding everytime it comes up on one of my Food Network cooking shows.

Anyway, back to the office we went but not before handing the card off to Rachael for the next leg of this journey!

Card Updates

So far, these cards haven't moved yet...well...it's not even been a month, so we'll still give them some time!

Keep watching!

The Second Mission - Mission Objective #47: Creative

Now for more CREATIVITY!

So this week's mission: Create a collaborative doodle!

Man! another Create card.  I know it's not all about creating something (as I read through most of the cards in the deck), but I'd hate to blow through all of these before getting something else.

This not being a mandatory 'give this card to a stranger' I decided to give this to one of my artsy-friends.  

Before handing it off, I needed to come up with something that would give a fair amount of freedom to carry the doodle forward.  I had thought of a circle (you know...for kids), or the silhouette of a bird (I did just get back from Puerto Rico),  at one point I did have the idea of a palm tree, but that seemed too limiting (again, Puerto Rico).

So I decided on something that could be part of an island theme, or a dungeon theme, or a medieval theme, pretty much just about anything...well...maybe a little limiting!?


We will see what they come up with to go with my treasure chest:

Card Updates:

Unfortunately fellow tourists, neither this card, nor the previous week's mission card have exchanged hands (at least not that it's been tracked online).

Stay tuned for next week's mission, and see where these cards have travelled!