This a picture of five generations of my family. Back row, my father on the left, me in the middle holding my grand-daughter Amanda, and my son Brad on the right. In front is my dad's mother, Alice Jane Bailey. My dad and grandmother have gone on to the other side.

I sat there drinking the latte and chowing down on the bran muffin. I looked at my watch and saw that it was 10:05, so hurried up and made it over there & got my ink and then some paper, and then walked home.

I plan to write more things in this blog then the mundane. Life is complex and I'm a complex person. I'm a thinker, a meditator and a contimplator. But I will let things flow in a natural way. I'm not going to force write. When I write it will be from the heart. It will be something I really have to say. One of these days I will erupt and I'll puke it, spew it, and cough it up some way or another. I've always been interested in writing. I think I wrote my first poem when I was around 9 years old. I have always been interested in the English language. and I think English was one of my favorite subjects in school, although I may not have gotten good grades in it some years. I always got something out of the class. Words have always been interesting to me.

I was thinking about this lately. Van Gogh wandered around Holland and France painting and expressing himself in art. But back in the 1800's he had to buy all the equipment; the brushes, paint, canvas etc just to express what he saw. Today we have cameras and computers. As we wander around in our lives we can instantly snap a picture of something that interests us, and almost instantly put it up for the world to see, like on a blog. I can't imagine what it will be like a hundred years from now. I think it's amazing how things have advanced just since the time I was born. A little over a hundred years ago people were using horses to get around in carriages and buggys etc: Believe it or not a large percentage of the world is still using animals as their main way of transportation. The United States is the most advanced country in this world at this present time. I think it will always be that way. This country is not perfect in any way shape or form. There are many things that are wrong in this country. I believe we are on the threshold of being tested as a nation like we have never been tested before. We've got all these immigrant pouring into this country illegally. We've got radical Islamic nations wanting to destroy our country. These are interesting times and I'm glad I'm alive to witness it. I have so much to say, but I can only let it out little by little. This is all for now. Until next time....chow

They have a little coffee stand inside. I do a little shopping there. They're prices are kind of expensive. I do most of my grocery shopping at Safeway and Albertsons. They are both less then a fifteen minute drive away. But QFC is a good store. I buy bread there. They have a good selection of good quality bread.

It's Sunday and I got up at around 9am. I thought I'd walk over to Staples and get some ink, so I grabbed my camera and took off out the door. It rained yesterday, but today is a beautiful spring day. The sun is out and a few fluffy clouds are scattered around the sky. Birds were singing when I opened the door. The grass was green and flowers all over are in bloom. The air was a little crisp, which I don't mind. I is just a beautiful day to be out walking. I spotted a Japanese lantern in someone's yard, so I snapped it and kept going. I usually walk really fast, but today I just took my time and just walked along at a steady pace. I got to Staples and it was closed. I had forgotten that they open at 10am on Sundays so I went over to the QFC and got a small Latte and a bran muffin.

Ok, my apologies to Kodak. I was really mad at them. I felt that they weren't user friendly and were only trying to get everyone to use their products. Come to find out they are user friendly. This picture is the view I see every morning on my morningly walk. It was kind of hazy on the day I took this picture so you can't see the mountains very well, but I'll take more pictures as time goes by. From where I live there is no view, but it's nice to know that there is this view five minutes away. Well, life is good now. I got my camera working in harmony with my computer. I can't wait to get out and start taking more pictures and sharing them with you the viewer. Talk to you later. Kodak is really a great company.

I just wanted to see if this little lion was going to print on my site. I was just about ready to take this camera back to the store and get my money back. It appears that the Kodak Company is only interested making money, and their cameras are principly designed for customers to buy their products. They want you to buy prints. I am not one bit interest in buying their prints. If I want a copy a picture I will print it off my printer. The quality will not be the greatest, but the picture will give the idea of what you took a picture of. I bought their camera for the reason of printing pictures to this blog. Now that this has happened I feel a little more relieved. I didn't really want to make that trip all the way down town today anyway. I have to work, and I have to save my energy for that. I already took one digital camera back to wal-Mart. I didn't want to have to go through that again. Well, now I'm going to relax and fix myself a cup of coffee and watch a few cooking shows that are on tv Saturdays. This is just a little test blog. God bless America!

A couple days ago I went down town to a Bartell's store and got a digital camera. I think this one is going to work. I still don't have it mastered, especially transfering pictures so I can put them on this blog. The camera is Kodak so I have confidence in it.

I went to the Vietnamese grocery store, Viet Wah a few days ago and bought three cases of soft drinks to have around since summer will be here soon. I bought a case of peach drink. I have found this in most Oriental grocery stores that I have gone to. I got a case of milk tea. This reminds me of the time I went to Mongolia and was served hot milk tea by a nomad family way in the interior of that country. Next I got a case of what I thought was some kind of thai tea, but when I got home I looked at the box. It said Pennywort drink. I had never heard of it so I looked it up on the internet to see what it was. Come to find out it is a pretty healthy drink. It tastes like sweetened grass, which is not my favorite taste. Here is what I found out about it on the web;

Asiastic Pennywort. The Thai name is Baai Bua Bok. The medicinal uses are: healing wounds, circulation, memory enhancement, cancer, vitality, general tonic, respatory ailments, detoxification of the body, treatment of skin disorders, revitalizing of conective tissues, burns and scar treatment, clearing up of skin infections, slimming and edema, arthritis, rheumatism, treatment of liver and kidneys, strengthening of veins, blood purifier, high blood pressure, sedative, anti stress, anti anxiety, an aphrodisiac, immune booster, anabolic and adaptogen etc;

Wow! I'll keep this stuff around and drink one once in awhile. Maybe in time I will aquire a taste for it.

A few days ago I made a dish that I really love and would like to share it here. It was...

SWEET & SOUR PORK

Ingredients;

Some cubed pork

chopped onions

1/2 green bell pepper chopped

small can of pineapple chopped

1 jar or can of sweet & sour sauce

*************************************************************************************

Marinade for the pork (optional) This is a basic teriyaki sauce

1 cup of soy sauce

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 T powdered garlic, or fresh if you have it

2 T powdered ginger, or fresh if available

water tt (tt=to taste)

Method for marinade

blend all ingredients in a bowl with a wire whisk, except the water

Once this is all blended up taste it. It may taste too strong.

Add a little water and taste again.

Keep adding water and tasting until the teriyaki sauce suits your palate

Put the cubes of pork in the sauce, put plastic wrap on it and put in the refrigerator for a few hours, or over night

*************************************************************************************

When you are ready to cook the sweet & sour pork add a little oil to a frying pan on medium to high heat, stirring constantly.

add the onions, bell pepper & cook a little

add the pineapple. drink the juice or add it if desired, cook a little

separate the pork from the teriyaki sauce

add the pork and cook til it is done to your satisfaction

Add the sweet & sour sauce, cook until heated through

serve over rice


With the left over teriyaki sauce I put it in a pot and brought it to a boil on the stove and added a bunch of red chili pepper seeds, then dropped in some small chicken legs and let it cook for a few minutes & then turned the heat off. When it cooled I drained the chicken legs and put them in a covered bowl and then into the refrigerator. I'll bake them off in a few days, so I'll get 2 meals out of that teriyaki sauce. Then I dumped the rest of the teriyaki sauce down the drain.

I went out today to get a digital camera so I could start going out and taking pictures to post on my site, but the camera that I bought would not transfer the pictures to my computer. I will take it back tomorrow and get my money back.

HOW TO ADD LINKS TO YOUR BLOG SITE

This is how I put some links to my site. I don't know if this way is the way you are supposed to put links. If it is wrong I hope someone will tell me the correct way.

1. First of all I typed some web page addresses from my favorites file (as you can see below)

2. Go to EDIT POSTS and scroll down to the desired internet address that you have
typed onto your site.

3. Highlight internet address by left clicking mouse and swiping across the address from right
to left.

4 Click the LINK icon on the POSTING page.

5. Hit PUBLISH POST. It should now be a link.

This is another picture I took at the Japanese Garden.

I didn't think I would be getting comments so soon after I started this blog. What I don't know about computers can fill three librarys, so I'm still learning my way around. I copied off alot of the information provided by Google, and go over it to learn new things about setting this up. I haven't learned how to process the comments so I will take this opportunity to thank all the people who sent in comments so far. I really appreciate it and I hope you come back to this site to see how it developes.

I went to chef school back in the early 80's because I found myself at the library all the time looking in cook books and copying recipes down in a little ledger at the time. I thought, "why not got go to chef school". So that is exactly what I did. So at the first opportunity I enrolled in a school that was in the town I lived in at that time. I didn't really want to cook for a living. I had been recently divorced and I wanted to learn how to cook. I wanted to learn because I like to eat good food. That's a good reason. Going to resturants all the time gets pretty expensive, and sometimes food in resturants is not all that good, especially if the cook is burnt out and so turns out a product that is under par. Another reason I wanted to know how to cook for myself was because I didn't want to have to depend on anyone else to cook for me. If I felt like having some certain dish, I wanted to be able to go in the kitchen and whip it out myself.

When I was little I would get in trouble sometimes. My mother would make me sit on a stool in the kitchen and wait for my father to get home. Usually this was around the time when my mother was cooking the evening meal. I would sit there and watch her cooking dinner. She would be adding something here and there to whatever she was cooking at the time. She did it with great skill. She knew what she was doing. I thought she was a great cook, and over the years she expanded her repitoire, and we rarely had the same thing twice in a two week period. she was always experimenting in the kitchen. I think we ate pretty good the whole time we were growing up. I do remember one time when there wasn't much food in the house. She had cheese and bread, so she made Welsh Rare Bit. I still love that dish to this day. Any way, back to the story. I used to watch her cook and it was amazing to me how she would come up with such fantastic meals. She never tried to teach me anything about cooking. I had 2 sisters and they didn't think a boy should need to learn how to cook. Actually back then I really had no desire to cook. I was more interested in eating back then.

So any way, after I was all grown up I remembered all the good things my mother used to cook, and I remembered her attitude toward cooking. I came to a point that I would love to learn how to cook those recipes that I loved so I went to chef school. The course was one year. I learned all I could and paid very close attention to what my instructors taught, and in the end I recieved a certificate for my efforts. I worked professionally as a cook three times. I enjoyed it each job very much, but it came to a point that this was not a job that I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It was just more work then what I wanted to do. Now I am just content cooking for myself since I am a bachelor, and for friends and family when the occasion arises.

When I was married I used to fool around in the kitchen and try different recipes. I came up with a recipe for Corn Chowder. This is my version of that dish.

CORN CHOWDER

1/4 lb bacon

1 medium onion chopped

1 can of creamed corn

1 creamed corn can of milk

1 large tblsp of flour

4 or 5 boiled potatoes cooked in a separate pot, peeled & chopped

salt & pepper to taste

Method:

Fry the bacon in a frying pan until crispy and set aside

Pour most of the bacon grease out of the pan and reserve in the refrigerator

add chopped onions to the frying pan and cook til translucent

add the flour and stir around to make a roux

add the creamed corn & stir around

add the milk and blend with the corn

add the boiled potatoes

add salt & pepper to taste

crumble in the bacon and serve while still hot



I know there are many ways to make this dish, but this is the recipe that I developed when I was first learning to cook. I think the last time I made corn chowder I used chicken stock.

If anyone wants to share any of their favorite recipes with me. I would be glad to hear from you. This is about all for now..............so-long.

Below are some links. My thanks to my co-worker Robert Mcdonald who figured out how to get them to my site and then showed me how to do it. Much appreciated Robert!

http://ORANGECAB.COM

http://members.aol.com/writejapan

http://japanese.about.com/bl50kanji.htm

http://zhongwen.com/

www.mtv.com/index.jhtm/?rd=home

www.msnbc.msn.com

www.mkolar.org/travel/sibir/ulanude

www.buryatmongol.com

www.waytorussia.net/features/

www.urantia.org

www.bobdylan.com

www.msn.com

www.whatrain.com
www.whatrain.com/bailey

www.eminem.com

Does this look like someone who wants to go to war? This is me at age 19. I had just finished all my Marine Corps training and I was waiting to be shipped out to Vietnam. It is an experience I will never forget. I haven't regretted going there, yet I would never advise anyone to go to war. It would have to be their own descision. I never advised my sons to go into the military, and they never did and I was glad. My father spent 20 years in the Navy. My grandfather spent 30 years in the Army. I broke the tradition. My father wanted for me so bad to make the military my career. I was not one bit interested in it. I spent 18 months in the Marine Corps and saw all the action I cared to see and got out & never looked back. My father apologized profusely on his death bed for doing all he could to try to get me to get into the military when I wasn't really interested in it. I did not think I would come out alive and I'm sure other didn't think I would either. I was always a peaceful person. I never liked to fight, but here I was at age 19 in the middle of a war. Somehow God spared me and I lived to tell about it. Please go to www.therealmikebailey.blogspot.com and read about my Vietnam experience along with other writings.

www.therealmikebailey.blogspot.com

I took this picture in a Japanese garden in the Arboredium. I used to go there alot to take pictures. When ever I get my digital camera fixed, or get a new one I will go there again and start taking more pictures. There is also a Chinese garden not far from where I live. It is still under construction. The last time I went there I took some pictures of a pagota they have there. When it is finished it will be a large place. I'll have to go there soon to see what progress they are making.

I worked my first day on swing shift yeasterday. It went ok. I heard they fired some guy who was causing alot of trouble. That was a relief to me because some people were trying to make out that I was the problem. Well, I'm still there so I must not be the problem. They also changed alot of other employees around to different shifts, so it wasn't just me who was moved. I've made a promise to myself; in my next life I will pay attention in school and go to college so I will get a good job so I don't have to go through all this again. Lord, I've learned my lesson.

A month or so ago I decided I had better do a little more excersize since I my work involves absolutely no physical labor whatsoever. I started walking to the store once a week. Now, a few weeks later I'm going out everyday walking. First I found out there was a park near where I live. It's called Fauntleroy Park. It's only two or three blockes away from where I live. I saw it on a map I found on the internet of my area. So the next day I went there. It is a very nice place, and very peaceful. I only went on a short walk there because I felt that I'll have plenty of time to explore the place in time. I didn't want to exhaust the place the first time there. It is quite a few acres and has lots of trails. You can't hear any traffic there either, so that is a plus. Yesterday and today I went up the street and walked around the block. Some days when I don't feel like walking much, I'll just go a short distance. Other days when I feel like walking farther, Then I'll go farther.

I've started writing my Vietnam story at www.therealmikebailey.blogspot.com . I got quite a bit of it written a couple days ago. On my next days off I will write some more. I will also put some of my other writings there. I've got some family history, and a trip to China, Mongolia and Russia. A cook book and many other things that I can put there. I'm very excited about that. I have something useful to do in my old age. Thank God for computers and the internet. I've got to go now. I have to be to work in an hour so I have to get ready.

I lived in the University District for 12 years and paid $20 a year for a community garden plot. I grew all kinds of thing. These are some daffadels I grew one year.

I just put on a CD called Zen Reveries and then started some water for a pot of tea. I need some peace and quite. I drove to work last night and as I was walking to the back steps of the building, one of my fellow workers who was out there smoking a cigerette informed me that they had changed the schedual, and I am on swing shift now. They had tried to call me but my cell phone was turned off. He gave me John's phone number so I went home and called him. I will have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off now. It's totally fine with me. I don't think I will mind that shift at all. My pay check will be short this week, but I think I can manage.

I went over to a park called Lincoln Park down by the Puget Sound a little earlier today. Entering the park and into the woods there were birds singing. The sun was out but still a little brisk. Just the way I like spring to be. I took a path that led down to the water. I went passed a mud slide. There were city workers around doing something. I don't know what. The salty smell of the water was the way I always remembered it. A short distance away a ferry pulled into the Fauntleroy dock bringing in passengers from Vashon Island. I found a path that led back to the top of the bluff. It was a picnic area. I sat down in one of the little open building and rested a bit before I continued back to the parking lot where my car was parked.

We've been having some great spring days lately. For the last few weeks early in the morning I could hear birds singing. It reminded me of my childhood. On rainy days the birds didn't sing. They were probably huddled in trees trying to stay dry.

I went down to Wal-Mart yesterday to get some new glasses. I had my eyes tested and picked out the kind of frames I want and everything. They talked me into getting some kind of lens that ultra violet rays can't penetrate. The Vietnamese woman who did the examination wanted to diolate my eyes. I really didn't want that since I had to drive home and didn't want to to have to wait around there for a couple hour waiting for my eyes to get back to normal. Then I asked when my glasses would be ready. I was told in about 2 or 3 weeks. I was given a phone number to call after 2 weeks if I hadn't heard from them. They also charged me 2 times more then I have ever paid for glasses in the past, and I always got same day service. I have always walked out with my new glasses. I think this is a third world business because I only saw Oriental people and other foreigners working there. They may have soaked me this time, but I will never go back there again. I will go back to the place where I usually get glasses, up in the University District. Also I didn't see people flocking in there to get glasses, so it must be well known that they are a rip off.

Tonight for dinner I'll have...

CABBAGE SOUP

1 small or medium head of cabbage chopped up

1 or 2 lbs of Kelbasa chopped into bite sized pieces

2 cans of chicken stock

1 medium onion chopped

1 small containier of cream, milk, creamer or dried milk. Enough to make the soup creamy.

1 or 2 dried red peppers ripped up & tossed in

1 or 2 large potatoes chopped up

1 can of kernal corn, or a small package of frozen

Cornstarch stirred into cold broth to thicken if needed

METHOD:

Boil all the vegatables and kelbasa in the chicken broth in a large pot on the top of your stove. Add another can of broth if needed. After the vegatables and meat are cooked, add the cream, or other milk product. (Before you start the cooking reserve a little of the broth while it is still cold and stir in about a tsp of cornstarch to make a slurry and add it in the soup when the vegatables are cooked, and stir it around. It will give the soup some body.)

Serve this with some kind of crusty French bread.

Most likely I won't have any crusty French bread, but I'll probable have this with crakers or some other bread that I have in my freezer.

I guess today the Chinese president will be coming to our country. He will be stopping over in Redmond and Everett before seeing the president in Washington DC. this is all for now.

Here is a picture of some foxgloves I took in Sultan a few years ago where I lived briefly. I'm putting them in this blog as a test. I hope you like them.

Today is Easter 2006. The day we remember the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. I didn't go to church. I haven't been to church in years. I went over to Rainier Valley and picked up a few things at a large Vietnamese grocery store called VietWah. It's a very good store and I go there once in awhile. The prices are pretty decent there too. I'm printing some stuff off the internet at the moment and watching a documentary about aviation on the television. It's the week end, and I'm enjoying the day. Just resting up. I will be calling my son up later this evening.

It will take me a little while to find my writing voice again since I haven't been writing much for the last couple of years. I stopped writing temporarily to avoid writing about the same old things which at the time I felt is what I was doing. I thought I would stop for a couple of years and then start up again. It shouldn't be much of a problem. I like writing and processing my thoughts.

Yesterday I went over to the University District and got my hair cut. while there I thought I'd check out the used book stores to see if I could find any books by Emanuel Swedenborg. I didn't find anything. I bought everything they had a few months ago. They haven't got anything new since then. While I was there I stopped at a Napalese/Indian resturant to have some lunch. After I got in there and got a table the waiter informed me it was buffet day. In other words, clean out the refrigerator day. I got some rice and some kind of beef with gravy and some kind of green beans with garlic (I think) and some other stuff. I wasn't that great, but it was ok. I'll have to go sometime when they are not having a buffet day. On the way home I stopped in at Staples to pick up ink, then went home.

After I watched a bunch of cooking shows I walked over to Borders Books and got 4 CDs and 1 DVD to add to my collections. There is a shopping center about 3/4 of a mile from where I live and I try to walk there once or twice a week to get some excersise. About a month ago I had a little scare when I woke up in the middle of the night with chest pains. The pain just lingered for the longest time, but I was not alarmed enough to go to the emergency room. I took 2 asprin and then after that fell back to sleep. Later in the day I proceeded in getting ready for work, and then went to work. Since there is no physical labor at all in my work I thought I might as well go to work, which I did. There was still a pain in my heart. It felt like it was damaged. I felt that I would call up the nurse service through my insurance when I got home, and then make an appointment with my doctor on Monday. It was friday. When I got home I called the nurse and described to her my symptoms. She told me to call an ambulance immediately and get to an emergency room. I told her I could drive myself. She insisted I call 911 & get an ambulance. I told her I would drive. She thought I would black out on the way. I told her my mind was clear & I had just driven home from work. I drove to the emergency room and told them of my pains in my chest. I was processed and was sent into a clinic and onto a gerny where attendants proceeded in wireing up up with all kinds of wires. During this time there was a shift change in the emergency room and all new people came in and continued thier examination on me. I was ex-rayed and given other tests. During all this time, the pain in my chest just started going away. They had given me nothing. Pretty soon the pain was gone. The doctor explained to me that I had probably had a cold in the wall of my chest and the rubbing of it with my heart muscles had caused the pain. I was told that I could leave, so I got up and walked back to my car in the parking garage which all the way on the other side of the hospital. I had the feeling that these people thought that I was faking this whole thing. Well, after all this I decided that I should exersize more. For me, that means walking. Since then my heart has felt fine especially after a brisk walk where my heart rate increases alittle. I should be doing this more as spring and summer progress. This must be all for now. Mike Bailey