Crows and Chinese

Can I just tell you how much I hate crows. I didn't know it until this week, but I do - I hate them.

For the past three days I have woken up to the horrid "caw" of a crow. Every morning, it starts out with just one, but by 10:00 AM there is an entire murder of crows sitting among the branches of that blasted walnut tree across the street. You should see our street! The crows have left a mess of walnut shells all over the pavement. Actually, Val and her friends gathered them all up into a 1 foot pile yesterday - but they'll all be back by tonight.

I don't know where they came from! Crows have never visited our neck of the woods before...they're just there. They sit in the tree looming overhead - just eating and cawing and pooping all over my car. Ugh...I can't wait until the walnuts are gone.

Speaking of walnuts, my Chinese foreign exchange student friend Chinese Chris (as we call her) loves walnuts. In China, they eat the walnut right from the shell. It's a process to get those things cracked! By the time I'm though with cracking them, I have a mess of shell and spit in my hand and soggy nut - it's very appetizing I assure you. :) But Chinese Chris is like a squirrel. She can crack those babies open and have it in her mouth before I can even crack my tooth in attempt.

So yesterday, me and Chinese Chris were hanging out. As we pulled up my street we about ran over the lot of crows sitting there enjoying the bane of my existence. I told Chris how much they love walnuts and Chris let out her ear-deafening squeal, "Oh! So I mus' be a crow!"

Me and Chinese Chris made eggrolls! But in order to make eggrolls you need "spring roll pastry" to wrap the pork inside. So our mission became finding an oriental market that sold the right stuff. We drove to one on Wall Street, but Chinese Chris walked in and walked out - "Ze don't have zat kinda stuff." So we drove out to Roy, where fortunately, "Oh ma gash! Ze have eet!" Our cashier was very quiet, but Chris wasted no time in asking "Are you Japanese? You look Japanese!" But he eventually, with some coaxing, informed us he was "Tawainese." This man is your ideal Oriental. He even had the mole on his chin with three LONG hairs growing out from it! I was impressed.

Apparently, we Americans don't have such thing as "ground pork." We went to Wal-mart and to Smith's, where we found some semi-ground pork. Chris was not happy though. We went back to my house and probably broke every rule in the food-handler's guide book. We spent an hour trying to get the pork the consistency of mashed potatoes. We used a knife (but my knife is not big enough), we used the Pampered Chef chopper (but pork does not chop), and we eventually used the blender - where we finally got it to the right consitency, but not before smoke came from the motor...yes, our meat had reached room temperature for quite some time. We now refer to this experience as "Evil Pork."

I don't know if Chris understands that you should wash your hands after handling raw meat before touching the next thing, but I think she touched every bowl, spoon, knife, and handle in my kitchen with raw meat on her hands. :] No worries - I DEEP cleaned the kitchen after she was through. Lysol, Comet, and Dish Soap are my best friends!

You should have tasted those Eggrolls though! Mmm-Mmm Good! My majah and pajah loved them too! I now know how to make authentic Chinese Eggrolls, so when time is more free and easy, I'll make them for you! And I promise, I will practice sanitary procedures. :)

We ended up the day with watching Kung-Fu Panda (Chinese Chris picked it) and playing a racing video game - I haven't touched a video controller for years...but Chris wanted too, so I went with it. :) It was a fun day. In fact, I spent so much time with Chinese Chris yesterday, that I dreamed an entire dream with a Chinese accent - interesting experience!