I posted two pictures below of recent highlights. The first is caramel apples I made for Halloween. I didn't have real caramel so I used condensed milk with the bomb method. Those not in the know: Take a can of sweetened condensed milk, as it is (don't open it) drop it into a big pot and cover it with about 2" of water over the top of the can. Boil it for 3-4 hours (depending on your mood). Let it cool and you'll have caramelized milk/sugar. It's good. The problem is if you let the water boil away (which happened to a friend) the can then is getting heat directly from the pan instead of the water. If you remember chemistry 101 boiling a closed container causes preasure to build, eventually the can will break explosively showering the area with boiling caramel.
DANGEROUS!DANGEROUS!DANGEROUS!DANGEROUS!DANGEROUS!DANGEROUS!DANGEROUS!DANGEROUS!DANGEROUS!DANGEROUS!DANGEROUS!
It turned out for the best, the apples were enjoyed as gifts to the school and to a few good Japanese people that are good to me.
The 2nd picture is my living room. It was a nice day and I wanted a decent picture for memories' sake. It is also the busiest room in the house. My bedroom has a dresser in it (my bed is a futon so I put it away every day.) and I have an ods and ends room that isn't pretty and just full of swords, sticks, armor and other implements of bodily mayhem.
Thanks for stopping by. If I was someone else I would have taken a picture of myself, but since I can't stand being anywhere but behind the lens proper then none of you get to enjoy the extreme majesty of my yearly november plumage (beard). Three weeks and I look like a viking, I even heard one of my kids gasp in class, "GOD, IS DEREK SENSEI MANLY!" (in Japanese of course) A complement I doubt I would get back home.
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