11/22/07

Right now I pretty much have four hobbies to keep me out of trouble: cooking, a computer game called Diablo 2, my Prius, solar panels, and mountain biking.  I also like river fly fishing but do not find much time to do this.  Below are the links of the forum that I regularly visit to feed my addiction.  The links to the left are the pages where I go more into detail about what I am doing in each particular area.

As with everything I do, once I pick a path I dive headlong into it.  Much to the dismay of Vern.  She has taken it all in stride and manages my compulsive disorder.

I am also an avid tea drinker.  I prefer bulk teas to the processed and bagged teas.  I get most of my teas at Teavana.com.  My favorites are Genmaicha (a Japanese green tea with roaster popped rice- mild flavor) and Thai Tea Blend (red and black teas with coconut, almonds, and vanilla bean).  The white teas are suppose to be more healthy but I think they tend to be more bitter tasting.  I got their tea infuser for Christmas a couple years ago and love it.  They have just made a Tea Brewing Pot like a coffee maker.  I got it and shipped it to Iraq to enjoy me tea more.

In preparation for deploying over to the "Sandbox" I have started to learn Arabic.  The Army offers free online courses by Rosetta Stone.  They are available for anyone affiliate with the Army (and have an AKO account). - I have since stopped learning Arabic.  Partly due to time and partly due to the difficulty on learning it on my own.  I did start my Japanese back up and actually finished course 1 (of 22).  It took me 80 hours (even though they say it should only take 40).  Probably because I have to do it in 30-60 min sessions and have to relook the old material.  If I do not play WoW in Iraq I will definitely be working on this over there.