Happy Saturday! Welcome to the first weekend and first #weekendcoffeeshare of 2025! As always, thank you for joining me and the lovely Natalie the Explorer for hosting.
Happy New Year!
How’s 2025 treating you so far?
It’s only 4 days into the new year and already, I’m feeling like 2025 is flying by. I think it’s because it’s January and I have not started any seeds. Last year, I started seeds in the last days of December. This year, I’m choosing to delay seed starting.
I don’t know why.
I should be starting my brassicas like my purple sprouting broccoli, red cabbages, and Portuguese kale, those take a while, oh, and let’s not forget peppers and herbs like lavender. I don’t know why I’m telling myself to wait until the middle of the month. So it makes me feel like each second I don’t sow those seeds is another second I let time fly past.
Maybe I should go for it.
I was back to work on Thursday. There were over 50 emails waiting for me in my work email box and combined with the other emails, which I manage, there were over 100 emails that waited for me to clean up. Thankfully, half of those were ads so into the trash they went. It was 2 days of hectic work as I had to complete my month-end and year-end tasks in this 16 hours work week. Alas, I got it done and can start on the January stuff on Monday.
By the way, remember in last week’s post when I said I wanted to do one more harvest of my veggies before the new year? That did not happen, but I did have 2 harvests since the new year. I pulled all the side shoots of my curly kale and picked the outer leaves of the tatsoi. I finally understood when people say veggies are especially sweet when it’s been kissed by the frost. The kale was like candy and I could definitely taste the difference between my vegetables and the store-bought veggies.
I almost forgot the most fun part of the week. It was Tuesday – New Year Eve. Even though my mom wasn’t in a particular joyous mood (is she ever?), I refused to let her spoil my drive to the salt flats. It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Bonneville salt flats. The last time was during the pandemic, 2020 or 2021, can’t recall.
The rest area beside the salt flats had changed little, except the giant cinder barricade preventing people from bypassing the pedestrian area and driving directly onto the salt flats. I got a few shots with the camera on my phone. It was white and blue as far as I could see, so there weren’t many photo compositions I could find in the short time I had.
Afterwards, I drove the remaining 10 miles, crossing the state line in Nevada where gambling is legal. I exited and headed for the nearest casino. The casinos were strangely empty and quiet on New Year Eve. Even the parking lots were sparse with cars. Was everyone being good and staying at home to ring in the new year?
Even though I did have a hankering to go a few more rounds on the slot machines, my mom was complaining of hunger while my aunt was feigning ignorance. I was the one who just drove 140 miles to this town and all I wanted was to test my luck. Even though I did win a little bit, I was disappointed with the amount of time I had with the slot machine. I did not just drive this far to sit in a casino for 10 minutes.
Being a small town on the border of Nevada and Utah with 4 or 5 casinos, there wasn’t much options for food. Upon showing her the dining options in Google Maps, my mom immediately reject all the restaurants with the word, “cafe” in front. She was not in the mood for burgers and fries, unless it was Burger King but I wasn’t about to dine in a Burger King either, not if I can help it. Thankfully, I found a Ramen joint that was open down the road toward the border and it was one we all agreed. Hallejulah!
Overall, I did enjoy the drive. Well, I hope to return next weekend. Until then…
This is Another Story 
Happy New Year
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Thank you. You too!
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What is ramen?
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It’s Japanese noodle soup. I’m sure you’ve heard of it, at least seen it in a bag.
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Happy New Year to you! I’m so happy you had two harvests already in 2025. I’m also glad your New Year’s Eve was fun in spite of your Mom’s bad mood. Congrats on the win at the casino!
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Happy New Year to you, too!
It seems like my mom is constantly in a bad mood, no matter the occasion. Some days I can deal with it while other days, it can be hard. I was glad that wasn’t one of those hard days. 🙂
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Yinglan, I’m glad you wisely avoided Burger King. Ramen sounds like a good choice for everyone to agree on. Have a happy New Year!
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I was glad I avoided Burger King. As much as I wanted to gorge myself with a burger and fries, I didn’t felt like suffering the consequences on New Year. My body doesn’t react well to fast food.
She still complained afterwards but the delicious ramen kept me at ease.
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Happy New Year!
I have only tried slot machines once in the casino at esotril near Lisbon. The one thing I didn’t like was people queuing behind you waiting for you to move on. I have a theory that once you have pumped a certain amount of money in and you haven’t won a dime, it will pay out to keep you hooked. Maybe that’s what these guys were waiting for.
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I second that! I usually will stop and give my resting bitch face until they move on. I call it “counting the revolutions”, like they’reattemptingto figureout when it will pay out. But they’re not going to be playingon the machine until I get up from it so back up off me!
Happy New Year, Yinglan and everyone!
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Happy New Year to you, too!
I have never encountered a queue in a casino. Maybe there’s enough of it here that there’s enough machines to go around.
I have the same theory – once the machine is well-fed, then we’ll start winning. 🙂
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There usually are enough machines to go around. They just happen to want the one that you’re on. 😉
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Ten minutes at the slots is definitely not enough! I used to love slots but it has been a couple of decades since I’ve been. Happy 2025!
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No, it’s not even close to enough! Not especially when I just drove 140 miles to get there. I live in Utah, where gambling is illegal. So I have to cross state line into Nevada to get my fill now and then.
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I have seen people mention it in posts, but had no idea what it was. Is it dried and you just add water? We have something like that, but we don’t call it ramen. My grandchildren get instant noodles which looks like a bowl of worms to me, but they seem to like it as a snack between meals. It’s not soup though, just dried noodles with chicken spices in a small bag that one adds or not.
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Instant noodles are a form of ramen. The term Ramen basically means “hand-pulled noodle”. It’s usually served in a rich broth and it’s meant to be a meal, not a snack.
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Ah, hand pulled noodle. Right. Yes. Many eat the instant noodles as a meal. My daughter splits the contents between two kids so for them it’s a snack. 😊.
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