Hi there Gardy!
Before I say another word I have to say Happy Birthday to you! I know that today is a special day, and brought cakes for our favorite birthday aroma lady.
I hope you have a beautiful day my friend. I am long overdue to drop you a message. How's the shiny hunting going? Have you had time to play much these days? If I get a BDSP game then it would be shining Pearl too, everyone loves Dialga, but Palkia could use some love too. I have kept a copy of he original Pearl as well. My hope is that the remakes will contain elements of Platinum too like HGSS did with Crystal, namely the distortion world, the battle frontier, more fire types and Cynthia's increased role. I like the regions that come before and after Sinnoh more (Hoenn and Unova) but Sinnoh is still an interesting region, it's neither my favorite not my least favorite. It's got a lot of Pokemon I like Roserade, Togekiss, Munchlax, Torterra, Gastrodon, Staraptor, Luxray, Spiritomb, Lucario, but Team Galactic could use a little more development, and it's not the fastest pace game in the series, the mythology in-game was pretty cool though and has a good champion fight--but Steven is still my boy.
Is work and your adjustment to vegetarianism going well? I know that you were interested in healthful dietary options, so may good health and karma come your way on your journey.
I remember you saying that chicken is something you miss. That is a particularly hard texture to replace, tis true. I do eat chickpea patties in sandwiches sometimes and grind them up in salads, but you can tell it's not chicken. I can enjoy it for what it is though, another food that when flavored well can taste fine in it's own right, but pork and beef are much easier to reproduce in a plant-based versions of, and I think some deli slice turkey too work. I'm glad to hear you like black bean burgers. Black beans are quite a versatile food to cook with, a very easy to make vegetarian dish I recommend are black bean and cheese quesadillas if you haven't already tried them. All you need is a can of beans, tortilla bread and some shredded cheese. It's a simple, economical and filling way to go. Though I hear tale of a white bean and kale quesadilla that is also good.
I looked into the theory about Erika originally being a ghost trainer, and an positively intrigued! It was fascinating to see an earlier design has her yukata worn right over left, and that this is a traditional way of dressing corpses. Wow. Something I noticed about the beta as well as the updated sprite is how her pokeball appears to be floating in the air, it does look supernatural indeed. I like it! Thank you for teaching me something cool sensei <3
Again have a splendid birthday with all sorts of fun headed your way.