Old Habits Die Hard, Unless You Kill Them

I only just now realized right at this moment, 5 mos after moving in, that I have been refraining from taking a shower when the washing machine is going.   That didn't stop me from running the dishwasher concurrently but that's only so I can get both loud noises out of the way at once.  I had become so accustomed to not getting full water flow from the bathroom tap until the tank had filled up.  Or being stranded in the shower if the rinse cycle came on.  Life after Winnett is good.

Shake Shake Shake, Senora

After about 5 yrs of wanting one, I have finally bought myself a spice rack.  And I love it!  I thought 12 would be enough but sadly one of the spices has already been Plutoed.  I have an idea of who gets cut next if I happen to pick up a more enticing spice.  We shall see, we shall see.  I'm pretty stoked about my purchase.

And speaking of new things, my mom gave me a housewarming present.  It wasn't a surprise, she included me in the shopping process which I appreciated.  Because I can be persnickety, and get upset if I'm gifted something expensive that I'm not fond of.  Anyways, below is a catalogue shot of the desk.

This thing weighed 88 lbs in the box.  And if you don`t know how much 88 lbs, it`s the equivalent of a metric fuck-ton.  My mom and I had to shimmy it from my trunk to the elevator and then in an attempt to not leave marks on the carpet we did several short lifts from the elevator to my door.  It was a really quick 10 min assembly.  The package came with the alan key required.  Having a desk again is pretty sweet.  Now I just need a floor mat so I don`t roll the life out of this hardwood floor.  And if you're still reading, and I don't blame you if you're not, below is a link to my recipe website.  If I could use an FTP login properly I'd have a really sick recipe website hosted by Sim, but this will do for now.

https://www.myrecipebook.com/recipes/_JulieG

Schnoodles.

Huh?

I'm so directionally challenged that last night I was taking the Hwy 10 exit and I convinced myself I was in a lane heading in the wrong direction, so I switched lanes and drove South instead of North.  Even when I'm right I correct myself to be wrong.  When I first started driving I used to always get really flustered when I had to choose either 401E or 401W.  I eventually solved this by always asking myself if my destination was in the direction of Halifax or Vancouver, but now it just comes naturally.  Thank goodness.  Now if I could just fix the rest of me :/

I must say though, I am very good at renavigating.  If I drive somewhere once I'm really good at being able to find my way back.  Unless it involves an impromptu left/right dilemma.

It feels like forever since I've had a weekend to myself, but it's just been one long weekend for which I was a captive.  This weekend belongs to me.  And I got so excited I double booked.  But instead of cancelling I'm just going to make them both work!  And attempt to do a massive clean-up to boot.  I need to find a better solution to floor cleaning than scrubbing on my hands and knees.  But for the size of the tile space it's working alright, for now.

Second of all, whoa.

Is there a weekly quota on consumption slow cooked meatballs?  If there is, I have surpassed it, and perhaps lapped that mark.  I had plans to meet up with Adam on Friday.  The intent of the meeting was to retrieve my crazy cat lady bag filled with Christmas decorations back from him.  It has really almost been a year since his housewarming on Bloor.  Time sure does fly.  I had assumed we would meet right after I got off work on Friday, but he suggested 1:30pm instead.  I thought I could be a super woman and get all of my cooking done in time for me to leave and meet in time but I was sorely mistaken.  I thought any slow cook meal would be a bunch of chopping, a bit of finesse and voila.  Turns out the meatballs needed to be rolled and then cooked 8 mins on each side.  Then the onions in the sauce had to be sauteed and then brought to a boil with the pasta sauce.  And once all of that was done a careful layering of sauce followed by meatballs, followed by sauce until the slow cooker was full.  I actually filled it really really close to the brim, but I like cooking dangerously.

I finally finished about 75 mins later and had to wait until Adam's next free time which was at 3:30pm.  We met up at a plaza on North Queen which I didn't know existed.  There is a Marshalls and a Tim's and a bunch of other stuff.  We sat in his car as he recounted his tale of a fender bender and his trip plans for India.  I'm only jealous of one of them, and I will let you guess on that one.  I felt kind of pathetic, as my only major news was my recent completion of a new slow cooker recipe.  His bender was pretty bad.  If he goes over a gnarly speed bump the whole front just might fall off.  I had no words for him.  Only an expression of my understanding of his grief.  Owning and maintaining a vehicle can be one of the most stressful things in life, next to standard biggies (death, marriage, money, moving, health, etc.).  There aren't many other purchases that steadily lose their value while costing you hundreds of dollars a month, with the potential for additional thousands at a moment's notice.  And knowing when to let go of a car is also tough.  Calculating the exact moment when you have maximized its financial potential. Being ready to drop another set of Gs with not much warning.  I would have held onto the Civic a bit longer if it didn't have random convulsions while I was on the hwy.  I might have been able to sell it but the e-brake was disconnected, the suspension arm was shot, and apparently the gear shift cord was moments away from snapping.  I would have had to have used my spare key to manually release and shift gears every time.  And my sparks may or may not have been almost completely shot.  Hence the convulsions.  I took an educated guess that it would fail its safety, so I junked it.  I do become attached, regardless of short-comings.  I still miss the Voyager. 0-60 in just under a minute.  Gananoque to Whitby in 10 hrs.  But I'm going to stop writing about this now.  The thought of car failures makes me very upset. 

Speaking of writing, NANWRIMO is coming up again Nov 1.  Last year was an utter failure for me.  I wanted to see how much I could motivate myself.  I think I wrote about 200 words about hating the receptionist at my old job and then gave up.  They want you to go into it completely fresh but I've considered starting a hush-hush brainstorming session now.  Never having written anything in my life before starting from zero is not my ideal.  We'll see how it goes this year.  Probably just about the same as last.

But back to the beginning, the meatballs!  My first slow cooker meal was a total success.  I tried a meatball after it was cooked and before it was slow cooked and it was already the bomb.  I had a good feeling about it.  Tomorrow I'm cooking up some Jambalaya for the first time.  I got the wrong sausage but my mom assured me it won't ruin it, just change the spice level.  Maybe one of these days I will invest in a dutch oven.  I still can't say or read that word without laughing.  Thank you Ren & Stimpy.

If the jamb is any good I'll post the recipe.

JULIE OUT.

Overheard at Work #4 & #5

Back by my own popular demand, two installments of Overheard at Work:

Guy 1:  *getting angry on the phone*...I hate religion anyways.  It's not even about the church.  I'll tell you what it's all about, it's all about fucking aliens.  That's what it's all about.  Don't even get me started.  Ok mom, love you too, bye.

And then earlier today...

Guy 2: *on the phone*...uh huh.....ok.....yep.....uh huh....alright, I know exactly what you mean, thank you.  *hangs up the phone*...I have no idea what he just said to me.