City Went, Stuff Get

On Thursday we made a batch of cookies at school. I was nervous to make them because working with an unknown oven is suspect. I think the ovens without heating elements (convection-esque) will bake a bit a differently. We loaded up the balls of cookie dough onto a baking sheet. At first I suggested only making 9 cookies because I knew they would spread around. However, I don't think I was clear enough on that aspect because my companions filled the tray full of dough globs. I figured the worst that could happen is it would turn into one big cookie. Well it was worse than that as the cookies didn't cook very well and came out like pancakes. I felt my reputation being rammed into a blast furnace. To salvage the failure I made two more trays of cookies which came out well. The 1st graders ate them all and it appeared everyone enjoyed them. Good for us!

I also happened to contract some sort of cold. I thought it was just allergies (which part of it is) but my nose has been dripping like crazy and I felt a bit sick on Saturday. I went down to the city anyway to see some middle school students play in a softball tournament. The team is comprised of students at the two schools I visit. One school is too small to have their own full team. I was rather excited to go and had been telling the students all week I was going. They were confused why I wanted to go. Uhh I don't even want to go there... (rolls eyes).

In the first inning they went down 0 to 4 and in the subsequent innings scored no runs while the other team hammered them into the ground like circus tent posts. One thing I found admirable about my schools' team is that they rotated players in and out so more people got turns to play. However, I was completely disgusted by some of the students/parents from my main middle school. They were laughing at one kid on the team because he missed a catch or let a ball get past him in the outfield. It was rather jarring and made me upset. They were literally jeering and cracking up at him. The kid who made the mistakes didn't deserve that. Others made mistakes but they didn't act like that toward them. But probably because they are friends with each other. The game ended at the fifth inning because the other team had scored too many points. I had wanted to see a whole game! I'll be sure to attend another soon.

As the game finished much earlier than I had planned for, I went to find a home store or some place I could buy some charcoal briquettes. I was rather agitated on Friday because I couldn't get the regular wood charcoal to ignite properly and therefore I couldn't cook my hamburgers properly. I had to resort to the stove to finish them off. I surely placed blame on the charcoal but maybe it was just my technique to get it started that failed. With charcoal and a gel lighter fluid paid for, I went over to used a bookstore next door to kill sometime before I could contact a friend. This ended up being one of the best parts of the day as I found a very recent guide to the 88 temple pilgrimage in English for half price. I debated a few moments but realized I would probably buy it later anyway. It gets me excited when I browse through it. If you are unfamiliar with what I'm talking about please look here.

The rest of the afternoon was rather nice. I took my friend to a bike shop, stopped in at Uniqlo, and visited a record shop. I enjoyed the company as most of my city excursions are alone. Plus, he was happy to be able to hit up those stores. We had talked about hanging out that evening but I was feeling sickly and wanted to get home. It was for the best. I somehow went to the grocery store and meandered around for what seemed like an eternity. Escaping before the doom of the dinner rush hour I was safely home once again. I had to force myself to bed, however, because my 2am departure for the mountains was looming closer and closer.