A Shade Shy Of True Wickedness

I think I can judge how much of a life I've had each month on my internet usage meter.  Ever since TekSavvy started metering usage I check on a regular basis.  If I have a netflix heavy month it could take me over my limit.  I could pay $5 a month and probably not have to worry about it ever, but I'll use a bit of restraint and keep that $60 a year. But time to get to le boeuf of the matter.  Much has been happening in the past little while.  I probably saw Adam more in the past two weeks than I have over the past year.  Which is amazing but may also make this new distance harder to transition into.  Of course as I write this he sits less than 5km away, yet to depart.  But his departure is imminent.  I met up with him one day after work to pick out some new glasses.  I laughed as he tried to text photos to his lady in Montreal.  The lack of detail in the photos on the iPhone rendered all the photos practically identical.  The last four contenders were all great, but I think he made the right choice in the end.  I don't think the salespeople were on commission, but the customer service at the Sq1 LensC is ridiculous, and not in a good way.  When I walked in there were 3 people surrounding Adam trying to offer advise and suggestions.  It was overwhelming.  I turned my back to them and said "Lets try on some glasses."  They hovered for a few more minutes before finally dispersing.  They didn't stay away long, but at least going fwd from there it was one at a time.  I think we had 5 different people tending to Adam, be it bringing over new choices or clearing away the rejects.  An old coworker from the 'Ridge came in to get some sunglasses.  I went over for a very awkward hello.  It was a lose-lose scenario for me.  I would have regretted had I not said anything, but I knew it wouldn't go over very well.  It started with me walking up to him exactly as he was entering his pin number and it went downhill from there lol.  At any rate.  As we waited for the lenses to be created I got a few text messages from Dean:

● I'm trying to vote but Rob Ford isn't on the ballot

● Do I just write his name in "other"

● Ok I'll just put his name down and check the box, thanks

I was a bit late responding but got back to him with, Lol I kill you tomorrow.  I went home and quickly voted as the polls were wrapping up within the hour.  I'm not committed to a certain party, at least not fully committed.  And if I ever feel there is a second adequate candidate I will have some pondering to do.  I may also next time delve a little bit further into the actual platforms.  Might still end up casting the same vote, but it will be a slightly more educated vote.

So what else.  I saw Sim and Spence for one night.  I was really bushwhacked though, as I am most nights.  Hosted a bowling night for Adam for the 'Sauga crew.  Bowling for Adambine....too soon?  Sushi with an old coworker.  A weekend up North, which was relatively uneventful but very peaceful.  I'm scheduled to go back up this weekend, but I will let the weather make that decision for me.  I'm also going away next weekend and have to watch my gas usage.  I have to watch my spending in general this month.

 I did splurge slightly on myself this weekend.  I've been wanting to have some more greenery in my life for a while so I told Nikki I wanted to go to Sheridan Nurseries at some point if she would be kind enough to accompany me.  She gave me the nod for last Sunday morning.  She also wanted to pick up some flowers to plant at her dad's grave.  I wish I'd had a chance to really meet her dad before he got sick.  We don't talk about it much.  She does let small tidbits slip from time to time.  Last time we took a trip out Hamilton way we ended up listening to Patricia the Stripper two or three times in a row.  She said she used to dance around her living room with her dad and sisters as that played in the background.  It's a nice memory.  Well at any rate, I picked out a fern and threw it into a planter that someone who shall not be named bought me.  She thought buying me a planter and a nice new shower mat from Winners would make my 400sqf crack-den in Calgary all better.  Have you guessed yet?  And 10 years later, I'm finally using it for its true purpose instead of storing random bits.  It does look pretty badass if I do say so myself.  Once I got it into my place it suddenly felt a whole lot bigger than it did at the store, but I'll find a way to make it blend in.

On the way home today, I was half-witness to a hit-and-run.  All I could think was thank goodness it wasn't me.  I was at a red light across the street from my condo and I heard a loud screech and the unmistakeable sound of car hitting car.  I looked back and all I could see was the 2nd guy back was kind of close to the guy behind me.  The passenger looked to be opening their door so I thought maybe it was just a loud car door slam.  As I'm trying to not miss my green and get honked at, I see the driver of that car get out, and the car behind him do the fastest 3-point turn I've seen in a long time.  Unfortunately there was enough room behind him for him to back up, flip it around, and peace out.  He squealed his wheels as he sped away in the opposite direction, and left the driver standing outside of his car dumbfounded.  The light turned green so I drove through and parked outside the condo on the street, just in case the driver saw me and wanted to stop to see if I could corroborate his story.  I had seen what looked like a platinum VW performing a highly illegal U-turn just before the green light made me drive off.  That's not much I know.  The hit car drove past me and I could see what appeared to be major bumper damage.  I don't know if it was fully cracked or just dented.  Probably a combination of both.  And bumpers aint cheap.  Just the thought of that happening to me is enough to incite desires to commit hari kari.

That's all.  I leave you with this thought provoking haiku:


Haikus are easy
But sometimes they don't make sense
Refrigerator

Awaiting Your News, I Remain

I'm only going to briefly mention how heartbroken I am right now.  I gave 100% to my job while we were experiencing an unusual number of special projects, and an unpredictable period of being short-staffed.  And instead of being thanked I was lambasted during a company meeting.  A meeting that left me in tears in my office wondering what the fuck all of my efforts were for.  There were undeniable truths in what I was being told, but I was treated like less than shit, and over a week later I'm still reeling inside.

MOVING ON.

I went out last Saturday for a fantastic pub crawl.  Stan at my last job set up a crawl and I transited downtown to join in.  Stan started at 2pm, but I didn't make it down until about 4:30pm.  We met at the Beverly Hotel rooftop pub.  I never would have found it, ever ever ever.  You have to walk up 4 flights in an unmarked stairwell and emerge at the top to a patio that limits at about 30 people tops.  We all had a drink, and then it was on to the Black Bull, The Horseshoe, Tortilla Flats, Cameron House, and finally Tequila Bookworm.  That was at least two new pubs for me, and a few new brews.  It was at about T-Flats that it was becoming apparent it was a boy's night.  The server was this cute girl with an Italian accent and they all became slobbering fools.  I mean it was like hanging out with a bunch of teenagers.  And then in the C-House we managed to get six seats right up front by the stage.  Three guys got up to get the drinks, and a group of again good looking girls walks in.  And what happened next just shocked me.  One girl asked, "Are these seats taken?"  And I looked at Stan as he gazed seemingly dumbstruck back at this stranger, "No."  No?  No?  You mean the three guys at the bar aren't worth saving seats for?  What....what.....I can't even put into words.  The live music did make up for it.  I was very interested in seeing the headliners but more than that I just wanted to get out and move on to the next place which we did.  At 11:30 I hopped back on the streetcar and transited home.  Overall, it was really great to get out and explore and have fun.  But maybe next time I'll let boys be boys, without me.

Adam's leaving in the next few weeks.  I'm going to miss my coffee buddy. Mon irremplaçable amuse-bouche.  I will miss him severely.  The times have been very very good.  And I'm hoping to get a few more times before he vacates TO and the 'Saug.  I went downtown last week for a going away party.  Met some interesting new people, and had a really interesting chat with an older friend of his I hadn't seen in a long time.

If anyone is interested in my herb garden, the killing process has begun.  I'm hoping I can turn it around.  It was so lively and beautiful when it arrived onto my balcony but now not so much.

That's about all.  I'm rather emotionally drained.  I'm hoping that things can turn around this summer.  And then I can fire the missiles.

Not Like This...Not Like This

This is the first long weekend Saturday I have spent at home, not away, not half in the bag, alone.  Although I booked our time up at the cottage long in advance, a situation with the septic tank has kept us away.  And although we could have roughed it, it's not a great weekend for doing that.

I took my car into the shop after work on Friday.  I had a terribly experience driving into work that morning.  My car was revving upwards of 3000rpm and would only settle down at 2000rpm after switching.  I wasn't prepared to be dealing with transmission problems.  Boo-urns.  The mechanic looked at me and said, "Were you in the wrong gear?" to which I replied, "But it's an automatic."  To which he said, "Yeah, D2."  To which I said...."Fuck me."  I really do need to watch my tongue in public.  There's that problem fixed.  I had been given a recommendation to get the trans fluid swapped so I asked them to check that.  With my engine light scare I asked for a tune-up, and I said if the oil looks like it needs it go ahead and changed it.  Oh, and my brakes are doing this awful kicking like ABS at every stop.  He said to give him some time and come back.  I sat around for a good 3 hours and then I got a call, "Everything is just fine but you need new brake pads."  And that is why I love having a mechanic that I know and trust.  I can give him free reign and get an honest review. Though it's often years in between visits, the owner often asks after my parents each time.  Well, I can brake properly again, and have peace of mind over my spark plugs and transmission.  I'm feeling pretty good about that.

I had a rather funny exchange at the grocery store this morning.  When soda goes on sale I tend to stock up.  Stoooock up.  There I am pushing a cart with 3x 24 of Pepsi when this gentlemen pushing a flat bed comments to me, "You have the wrong drinks."  Not quite understanding I must have given him the look of a question mark.  So he repeated, "You have the wrong drinks."  Still puzzled he pushed the side of vest aside to reveal the Coca Cola logo.  We both laughed, but I didn't know what to say!  "You both own each other, it's all the same."  Different entities, different entities.  I found myself sporting a grin for the rest of my shopping.  A nice way to start the day.

Maybe I can get out tomorrow and do something interesting.  I have been thinking about getting a fern for my home.  Spruce it up, add a touch of green, inject a certain amount of oxygen into the place.  I'm so tight with my budgeting sometimes I think I'm sucking all the life out of....life.

Oh and lastly, I have a lovely addition to my balcony.  My mom bought me a mini herb planter, and a lovely little stand for it to go on.  I'm actually going to go check on it right now.  I've been told they need to be harvested regularly to allow for continued growth.  I'm excited for this.

Insomniacs Of The World Good Morning

I woke up at 3:30am this morning.  I was kind of thirsty so I had a bit of grapefruit juice.  I think in the future I should refrain from any activity outside of shuffling to the washroom and back again.  I can't risk being woken up just enough so that I can't get back to sleep.  No I'm just waiting for 6am and I'll have a shower and head into work early.

Work remains tense.  Last week we were finally back to full employment and then over the weekend one of the guys blew his knee out and was off Mon-Tues.  He'll be back in today but restricted to a scooter.  And he might need surgery??  The original owner of the company was scooter bound so we've brought that down out of storage and charged it up.  The guys used to have their desks in a T formation, but with the recent acquisition of new U-desks they are in a big square with an entrance at the front.  Good luck scooting in and out of that one with grace.

My mom is coming to visit this afternoon.  I have to make her dinner, so I need to think what to do.  I'll need to pick something up after work.  At some point I need to try to replicate the most awesome soup a neighbour fed me over the weekend.  Mauritian Fishball soup.  She left out the chilis.  I think I'm so pale looking people mistake that for an aversion to spice.  Last time I went out for Roti the guy looked at me and goes "No spice, right?"  There is a slight bit of truth, I'm not a chili-chaser.  Tabasco is not a word I often use.  I also ordered Jerk Chicken for the first time.  I tucked it away for dinner the next night.  And the guy goes, "This one is always spicy....ok?"  Of course it was ok, but I did learn the next day that I should have rationed the coleslaw.  I think if the mood is just right I might be able to convince Dean to have a Roti day tomorrow.  And by tomorrow, I mean today.  Anyways, the fish soup was awesome, and although I'm not a 100% fan of all traditional fish, I did enjoy the fishballs.  I'll have to stop into T&T at some point and get some.

I almost had a fit shopping last weekend.  SuperStore is my normal shop.  Metro is across the street but they're just too bloody expensive.  Technically I shop the flyers and choose between SS and No Frills.  And if I just need one lemon, or on the off-chance Metro's sale price beats others' standard price I will give them a shot.  I'm also on PC Plus which gives me a bit of a thrill.  When something is on sale and there's a bonus PC Plus points I lose my shit.  This week chicken is on sale, and every $20 gets you 5,000 pts.  Which becomes equivalent to $5.  I decide that I'm going to stock up and put down $40 and get my 25% back.  I like to use the self check-out, especially if the lines are busy.  It didn't ask me to swipe my PC card to start which I found unusual but I continued anyways figuring they have changed the process.  Then at the end it didn't ask me.  I asked the clerk that manages the check-outs and she says the system is down and sorry.  I was like, what about my points??  She says you'll get points on your next purchase.  I was like, "I JUST BOUGHT $40 WORTH OF CHICKEN JUST TO GET POINTS."  I also bought it so I could eat it, but that seemed irrelevant to my situation.  I also didn't scream, but imagine the caps representing my frustration level.  As I'm walking away she calls me over and takes my receipt and circles a little number of Financial Points I could have won which is 1190.  And instructed me to go to Customer Service next time and they would fix it.  First of all that number is wrong, and second of all GAAAAHHH.  Unnecessarily long story short, I emailed PC Plus and they said if I could provide the receipt number they would rectify.    And once these numbers come through I'll be above 20,000 and ready to redeeeeeem.

Well, it's hammer time, so I should probably stop.  And I may or may not need to break it down.

Julie Vs. The Machine

What an exhausting month.  It has all been compounded by the fact that I have not been sleeping well.  There have been a few nights this week alone I've gotten as little as 3hrs of sleep, including last night.  One night I went to bed at 9pm, woke up at midnight, and couldn't sleep again until 5am.  Ridiculous.  Of course I then slept until 715 which created a whole other nightmare of getting to work on time.  Our big tri-annual (read: once every three years) training event came to a close last Friday.  I still have some minor work to do to ensure we have a final count on who wrote completed the training, etc.  I think I need to go into work early tomorrow to try to knock that out.  There aren't enough hours anymore.

So last night I go to bed a bit later than usual.  I go to set my alarm and notice the clock is dead.  Wtf.  I turn on the lamp from the same socket, dead.....wtf?  I take the alarm to another socket across the room....dead.  Out to the kitchen, alive!  Ok, so my room breaker must be switched.  I open the panel and low and behold there is a breaker in limbo.  I reset it back to off and on again but it's soft, it won't reset.  What could I possibly be doing wrong??  I lost my patience and went to bed.  Tossing for about 2hrs I finally reemerged into my living room to google my problem, and I did eventually come across a relevant posting.  "Are you sure every object on the breaker is unplugged or switched off??"  Then the lightbulb hit me, my bedroom overhead light was on while I was messing with the panel.  How the light could be still functional while the breaker was switched, I don't know, won't ask, moving on.  I turned the light off, and presto the switch reset.  I moved my alarm back into my bedroom, reset it again and off I went into a perpetual state of tossing and turning.  I finally woke up and turned on some Netflix, in hopes that I would fall asleep with the tv.  NOPE.  Finally went back to bed around 330am and managed to sleep.  My phone alarm went off at 630 as usual.  And my body so craving any last moment of REM it could inflict upon me, I told myself I'll snooze and let my bedside alarm awake me at 645, which is the last ditch you're not going to have time for a shower if you don't get out of bed now alarm.  In a moment of fleeting consciousness I noticed that the alarm clock was....once again dead.  Now what exactly does this mean.  For my entire bedroom breaker I have one overhead light, a bedside lamp, and an alarm clock.  Hardly enough voltage/amperage/plug-in stuff to short the fuse.  This time when I opened the panel the switch was on.....WHAAAAAAT.  I flipped it off and on again, nothing.  Then I turned to use the bathroom, lights won't turn on.  I felt like Cleveland in a falling bathtub, "No no no no no no no no no...."  I tried to reset the bathroom breaker from on to off and back on again, nothing.  Then I popped my head into the living room.  A room that in the dark is normally filled with a dozen little red lights, empty.  Now I'm really started to get upset.  What the heck did I do?  First of all, my place is so messy I cannot invite and expose a tradesman to this terror zone.  Second of all, I don't know any electricians!  Third of all, omg I don't want to spend any money.  Fourth, maybe I can scam a day off work for this, hmmmm.  Fifth, how much money exactly is this going to cost me?  Sixth, what did I do!   I used my free toilet flush, got dressed and peaced out.  I ran into a neighbour at the elevator.  Last time the power went out the elevators were out too, so I thought perhaps that was a bad sign.  The good news was, my neighbour lost her power too.  I didn't break my panel.  No electrician need be consulted.  And our building's elevators run on back-up power when they're not being destroyed by flash floods.  Dead street lights at Ten and Burny confirmed it was a more widespread problem.  Which was fine by me because it would warrant a faster reaction time.

I think my lack of sleep has finally caught up with me.  My processing time today was violently slow.  I would forget what I was saying mid-sentence.  At one point I opened a browser to search for something.  But I got side tracked and when I looked back at the empty google search page on my screen I couldn't for the life of me remember what for.  If this keeps going, in less than 3 weeks I'm going to start waking up with bruises and missing teeth.  And the first rule is, I'm not allowed to talk about it.

But back to our work event.  We had a big reception on the third day of training.  I was invited to go to the hotel where we were hosting and meet a handful of our distributors.  When I first arrived no one from our office was there and I stood like a lost little lamb until I finally locked eyes with a local customer and I went to talk with him and another for a while.  The team showed up shortly after and the kid in the back hung around with me and the two locals.  It was painful listening to the way he was talking with those customers.  At one point he brought up something I consider to be a big-time no no.  I almost choked it was so embarrassing.  We work in a no holds barred office, and today after work I unheld that barred, or unbarred that hold and let one of the guys know what had been said.  I hope there are consequences for his actions.  That's all I'm going to say about that.

I just got the bat signal for coffee.  Ie) a text from Adam.  And since I don't get to see him much anymore, it's on.  Decaf, and then sleep.  Maybe a biscuit on the side as well.  Mmmm biscuit......mmmmmmm sleep.

Anal-fa-what?

Analphabetic.  The dirtiest word that has the least dirty meaning.  I mean seriously, it sounds like someone who is afraid of getting diabetes in their rear area.  Not even close.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/analphabetic

To Tell Or Not To Tell

I had a dilemma at work last week.  When left alone with a coworker I was witness to one of the most extreme rage-outs I have ever seen in my life.  A coworker was full on screaming over the phone to his family over an issue that was not life-threatening, and hardly deserving of such a lashing.  It's irrelevant but the issue was that the guy's kid wore himself out with after school activities the same night he had two hockey games to participate in.  The kid is like 11 and he was being torn multiple new ones.  This yelling fit went on for a good 5-10 minutes.  It happened in the front office, and migrated to the back where I could still hear the yelling up in my office.  It might have even been 15 mins.  I wasn't scared but it was rather upsetting, and I don't think I should have had to witness such behaviour.  My first instinct was to tell Dean.  In fact, to text him right after work.  He's kind of the boss when the owners are away, and I really thought he should be aware of what happened.  But I also didn't want Ross to think I ran crying over nothing.  I asked two friends and 2-for-2 got a "drop it" response.

I decided to heed that advice.  I usually sit down with and talk with Dean about everything so it was difficult to not walk in and start with "You would not believe what happened last night..."  Ross was even on the road that next morning and it was just the two of us up front, I had the perfect opportunity to spill.  But, I refrained.  At some point Dean migrated to the warehouse to take care of some business.  A phone call came in for him, so I threw them on hold and paged him - "Dean, line 1".  The radio that normally plays through the phone stays silent while the call remains on hold and eventually after 30 seconds it beeps as a reminder.  I page him again - "Dean, seriously, line 1."   Dean ran up front and took the call and then came into my office and dropped the phone from the kitchen on my desk.  "Ummmm, this phone was working yesterday and now it's broken."  And at that point the need to share became overwhelming and I blurted it all out.  "I wasn't going to say anything, but Ross lost his shit last night...lost...his....shit."  I told him why, and what happened, and that was that.  He told me he immediately knew there was only one person in the office that would have done that sort of property damage and that he has witnessed Ross' rage on several other occasions.  Maybe a minute passed and then Dean piped up.

"Where did it happen?"
"Here, out back, kitchen."
*Then maybe another 10 seconds later*
"What did you do while it was happening?
"Sat in my office and shut up."

When Ross got in he actually fibbed and said he didn't know what happened to the phone.  I was shocked.  He later admitted he was probably responsible but didn't really elaborate on the level of rage required during a hang-up to break the screen and bust the hook.  I admit I feel better having said something rather than not.  I plan on working with these two guys for several more years, and it was really an unacceptable event.  And when it happens again Dean will know, and he'll know it wasn't the first time.  If I think about it and place myself in any of my other work environments if the same thing happened I would have spoken up then too.

Last week was another brutal week too.  Dean took ill and was off for two days.  I was up at 5:30 Tues-Thurs to get into work for 6:25.  On Tues Dean wasn't in until 6:45.  On Wed Ross wasn't in until 6:45 and then the network was down and we had to reboot the system.  Well, the network seemed okay, but internet was down and wtf do I know about fixing that.  There I am sitting in the network room waiting for the server to reboot, waiting waiting waiting like a total asshole.  I finally freaked out and started pressing the power button on the tower, but to no avail.  I went to my office to get my boss' cell phone number only to realize I had to log into windows to open outlook contacts, and I couldn't do that without the server being up.  And then I walked out to find out Ross' computer still logged in.  I guess "Please log completely out of Windows" somehow translated into "Don't log out at all, no worries."  When I logged him out the reboot unstalled, and my attempt to manually shut down worked.  I booted it back up and then a call from the back came in;

"Computer back here isn't working."
"What do you mean it's not working, was it logged in?"...
"Yes."
 
OMG PEOPLE....omg.  I went into the warehouse in a huff and rebooted that station (yes, all I know how to do is reboot).  It worked, but as that was happening the warehouse guy asked how I was doing. "I'm pissed, I'm f######g pissed.  I came in early and I don't have time to deal with this stupid shit."  And then he comes over to me and says "It's my job to turn the terminal off, but sometimes the guys tell me to leave it on so they can use it after I leave."  I couldn't believe it, I'm having a melt down because I just lost 45 minutes of my life and he's trying to justify why he's not wrong (he's never wrong by the way).   He actually told Ross he booted up first thing when he got in.  And he subsequently told me it was left on by someone else.  So he lied to both of us.  Useless.

Tomorrow is dinner out for an old coworker, Friday is dinner in Cobourg and I'm probably going to stay over.  My mom is still using the first blackberry ever made which was is only slightly less archaic than my old motorola.  All she needs is a new SIM to use my dad's old Torch, which I unlocked for her six months ago.  And she has to decide if she wants a new local # or if she's going to keep her old number.  For someone who doesn't much use her phone she's rather connected to the number.  But I cringe every time I think of her going to send a text message and having to select "Create SMS."  It's time for an upgrade.  She's always been on my dad's work plan, since cell phones went mainstream.  Now she has to decide to stay with her provider or switch it up, and she has become totally overwhelmed and wants me with her in the store in Cobourg. I think I have written her 5 completely in-depth emails describing how she should go about reviewing her options.  And she still looks at me like a beauty pageant contestant answering a question about physics when I ask her what she wants.  So we need to get that taken care of.

I've committed myself to a new biking regiment, to celebrate the success of my replacement adapter.  20 mins a day.  If I'm feeling ambitious I may eventually try to wake up early and bike each day.  But evenings are working fine for now.   I'm on day THREE.  Which is nothing to write home about, but it's better than the big old goose egg I was sitting on three days ago.

That's about all.  Thaaaat's about all.

You're Not Asking Me The Right Question

I am very much in love with this video.  I'm tempted to move to Toronto for a month just to vote against Ford.

Julonius, Julainous...Julanous

I was up bright and early this morning.  6:30 or so, and I couldn't be bothered to go back to bed.  That's a bit of a lie.  I washed my sheets last night but forgot to dry them until it was too late.  So last night I slept on a blanket, using another blanket for a cover.  I find the thought of sleeping on an bed without sheets to be repulsive.  I guess I repulsed myself into an early rise.  That was two hours ago and so far all I have accomplished is a whole lot of nothing, and taking the recycling downstairs.  And now this.

I went to Princess Auto yesterday and FINALLY picked up an ac adapter I felt very confident would charge and not destroy my recumbent bike.  Success!  It's a multi-purpose adapter, which is nice.  And it provides what I discovered to be the ideal setting for an exercise bike.  6V 2Amp.    And to top it all off, of all the items I looked into buying this was by far and wide the cheapest.  Win-win-win.  I will tell you one thing though, Princess Auto is just about the scariest place I've ever had to drive and park and visit in my life.  The parking lot is ram-jammed full of people and it's very small and not well kept.  Some a-hole did a pull-through exit as I was setting up to back into a spot.  Absolute loserdom.  And then I got into the store and it was like completely overwhelming.  The place is huge and it's all just parts & tools.   I did end up finding the right section, and two nice guys helped me track down the actual piece.  I really do hope I never in my life have to return to that store.  Yet I signed up for their e-flyer at the check-out, so who knows.

I still need to do a major spring cleaning all up in here.  Big time.  Bonus important.  I'll just throw some House up on Netflix and get down to business.

Overheard At Work #6 - After hours edition

I just found out that I did my taxes wrong (pre-filed).  My dad reviewed my work and informed me that I missed the Ontario Tax schedule.  And what was supposed to be a massive refund became an amount OWING.  I knew my boss would never do that to me though.  She would pad the deductions enough to ensure a refund.  At the least there should be nothing owing.  Turns out when she signed me up for payroll she put me in as having a spouse.  And since I don't have a spouse and cannot claim spousal deductions, I now owe the gov't (I realize I'm not out any money, taxes be taxes). And since I had been bragging at work about my refund I texted my coworker.  He's off Mon-Wed and I wanted to let him know of my failure.

Dean: ....She must feel bad....

Me: I know she is kicking herself.  Don't mention to her I told you!!!  I only meant to let you know my refund was a pipe dream as a result of my own error.  Good thing pops is checking it for me.

Dean: Too late I just texted her and said what the fuck happened with Julie's T4?

Me: You're going to have a special present somewhere in or around your desk on Thursday.

Dean: Ross left a few of those this week.

Don't Do What Donny Don't Does

I witnessed another fender bender last weekend.  It all happened in slow motion.  Thinking back on it I wish I had done something.  Yelled, waved my hands, anything.  Two cars were backing out from parking spots across the lane from each other.  They were both going so slow I actually thought to myself, "There's no way...there's just no way."  They both stopped on several occasions, and then continued to slowly roll back.  I think about how much cranking and neck turning and triple-quadruple checking I do when I'm backing up and it seemed impossible to see a car in your vision and not stop what you're doing.  And for what seemed like a good 10-15 seconds these two cars inched closer and closer to each other.  At one point one of the cars stopped and the other proceeded to pull out.  The bumper of moron #1 connected with the back driver's side panel of moron #2.  And he didn't even stop on impact, the scrape looked to be at least 15 inches long.  I considered stopping to offer myself as a witness but I thought to myself that there was no one moron more culpable than the other so I kept on walking.  Both men got out of their cars, looked, exchanged some words without yelling and then both drove off.  My only curiousity is what the resolution they settled on.  Today Dean told me another Walmart story.  That was at Walmart by the way.  So Dean's brother is leaving Walmart pushing a cart filled to the brim.  Not his usual modus operandi.  He usually has enough to take in a bag or two carried by hand.  He pushes the cart and it hits a pot hole and the cart tumbles over, his groceries go flying EVERYWHERE.  His OJ explodes on the ground, water bottles are all over the place, and then he proceeds to trip over the stopped cart.  Traffic stops as he rushes to pick up all of his groceries.  And the sad sack didn't even go back into the store and demand some sort of compensation.  He just packed up and hurried off home as quickly as possible.  Probably limping as he apparently hurt his ankle in the process.  I dread to think I may have done the same.  Rather than endure the refund limp of shame.

I went out for an amaaazing brunch with Sarah on Saturday.  We got up bright and early to beat the infamous Toronto brunchers crowd.  We settled on a neighbourhood, and when Sarah's top choice had sadly shut down (Dr. Generosity) we settled on second choice, The Good Fork.  But their food was second to none.  I had the pulled pork egg benny with crispy onions on top.  Sarah had smoked salmon benny.  DE-LISH.  Getting there early was a good choice.  As we were finishing up, I could hear the host taking down names.  With limited waiting space, they take your phone number and text you when your spot is ready.  In terms of trying a new place it was a complete success.  Afterwards we took a stroll down Bloor towards a Source store.  They actually had the AC adapter I've been hunting for, but the employee there warned me against trying an adapter without absolute certainty of the output voltage.  I of course had only gathered the input voltage to which he replied, "All adapters are 120V, because that's the voltage that comes out of the wall."  A-duhhhh.  He then said "It's not a matter of maybe blowing a circuit you will start a fire."  I think he said fire.  That or something equivalently scary.  So it looks like I have some more recon to do before I resolve this matter with the recumbent bike.

I took Monday off this week.  First day off since September.  Weekends are nice, but when you wake up on Monday and you know every other foolish 9-5er is at work and you're still in bed, it's heavenly.  I was still up at 7:30.  I think I've finally adjusted to the daylight switch.  By the way, I'm not sure why I always do simple math backwards.  I have been enjoying a few extended weeks of dark morning drives.  Though I fret they won't last for much longer.  I really do wish I had 3 weeks off.  2 is a total downer.  I think it's fair enough to want two full weeks, and then a week for fillers.  One full week a year is a drag.

I had to get a second copy of my T4.  I lost it.  Which doesn't completely surprise me, but still aggravates me to no end.  I told my dad I want to be a normal human adult person and do my own taxes this year.  I think I yelled at him that it's ridiculous I'm this old and have never done my taxes.  He didn't even react he just said, "That's fine."  Of course the next night I have an email from him saying he just filed his and my mom's taxes and if I want him to do mine just send him my forms.  I've decided to compromise.  I'm going to do my own taxes by hand, and then he can do them for real, and see if I was right.  That way he can continue to be a complete control freak, and I can become more independent while secretly keeping my training wheels attached.

Seeing that we're now almost three months into the year, I feel as if there is a lot more I want to accomplish this year.  One step at a time I suppose.  One step which also included a new recipe over the weekend.  Red Velvet Pancakes.  They were on the menu at the Good Fork, and I just haaad to try them.  I cut down the sugar portions, and used one stick of butter in the icing instead of two.  Even one was a bit gross for me.  Ya-uuuummmm-y.

Like A Boss

I'm starting to feel guilty about lagging on my personal resolutions.  Whether or not they started at a time when one might feel pressured or even obligated to make them, they came from the heart and I'm letting them rot away in the corner.  Tomorrow I'm going to go out and finally get the 120AC adapter so I can use my stationary bike.  And I'm pretty much going to get around to the rest of it too.

I cleaned up for some company last night.  I had kind of let things get out of hand.  The fact that I still have junk leaned up against the kitchen counter and I'm coming up on a year of being here, that's a problem.  It's a bit of an ish.  I only ever seem to be motivated to really really clean when someone is coming over.  And as that doesn't happen often, it can get messy around here.  My old coworker is a bit of a neat freak too.  Even though it was acceptably clean there may or may not have been some private judgments happening.

February was a slightly horrendous month at work.  There was really a lot going on.  It was pretty much a perfect storm of chaos and shit.  Stress and overtime.  I'd go into work on Monday and halfway through it would feel like it was a Thursday.  I needed the weekends so badly.  Luckily everything is pretty much back to normal.  This past week we were down a man again, but we managed to get through alright.  I also took the reigns for an afternoon.  Dean came in and managed all of the shipping for the morning, and after he left the trucks came and did their pick-ups, and I answered the phones and emails.  The shipping guy was still out back running the warehouse.  I faltered at one moment when a question about a kitchen system came in.  But overall covered the rest of the requests like a boss.  This coming week again we will be short, as both guys are going to take time off to be with their kids over March break.  Can't fault them for that.  I think the week after that I'm taking at least one day off for myself.

After this weekend passes gone are the days of driving to work in the dark.  These days if I go in a bit early I can almost still make it in before sunrise. It's almost nice to drive in the morning dark.  And once we spring fwd it's almost impossible.  It's ironic that one of the biggest farming province in Canada doesn't abide by daylight savings.  If the farmers aren't using it then why are we??  I of course am willing to put up with it to get that once a year sweet sweet sweeeeet hour sleep in.

I really don't have much of anything to really write about. During the stressful days I almost wanted to pull the plug on this thing, but I knew it was the stress talking.  Sta-resssss.

Toodles.

Last Day on Earth

When I was in high school this kid told me a story about this time him and some friends were skateboarding around the GO station.  One of the friends ended up in the middle of the road with a car fast approaching.  Just before he was pulled to safety, as he stood staring at a car barreling towards him, he said, "....dry."  My friend joked that that's what he would have put on his tombstone had he not been lucky enough to be saved.  It's always been a favourite one-liner of mine.......dry.

Work is crazy.  It's just me and Ross holding down the front office.  I try to help him with the little things to make his life easier, but I probably end up wasting more of his time trying to help.  I stayed until 6pm tonight and he was going to be there at least an hour longer than me.  With my stop at the bank after work that was pretty much an 11hr day, woof.  Our other coworker has taken leave to take care of his family.  Diagnosis is really really not good.  Prognosis, tbd.  We all have our fingers and toes crossed.

In other news, I've been on a hard-boiled egg kick.  Always keep a half dozen or full dozen in stock in the fridge.  It's an easy snack.  I only eat the whites, I find the yolks to be rather gross.  They're alright in sunny side up or in scrambled, or even deviled, but solo is a no-go.  Especially when you get down to the science of what the yolk really represents.  I've had a few eggs come out of the shell looking rather weird.  These are pre-bite.  Obviously the result of some weird air pockets, but all the same eerie looking.

EGG OUT.

C'Etait Pour La Passion

Another droopy dopey Saturday around the house.  I kinda like it though.  I went all Cinderella on my kitchen today.  It was getting a bit obnoxiously dirty.  I think even Minnie and Keedo hesitated to eat off of it last weekend.  Not that I eat off of it....but I meant....*sigh*.  I quickly googled a floor cleaning recipe, and with a scrub brush I picked up a few weeks ago I got to work.  Hands and knees and a make-shift water bucket After that was done I scrubbed the en suite bathroom floor.  The end result was satisfying but disturbing.  I also learned that I don't know where my vinegar is, so time to stock up on that.  Here's the recipe:  http://www.food.com/recipe/floor-grease-cutter-cleaner-393210  Because of the size of my kitchen I scaled it down to two cups of water, 1tsp of washing soda, and 1/2tsp of liquid soap.  That's a bit more soap than necessary but I like to live dangerously?

I took a trip with Nik last night.  After which we stopped off at the Ancaster Costco to do some shopping.  I needed to get some work sugar, and also inquire into getting my boss a member's card.  Unfortunately, only the primary member of a business account can add someone.  It doesn't really make sense, since the cost of a personal membership is the same amount.  And the only benefit as far as I can tell is that the primary card holder gets points for all purchases.  I'm just trying to take care of my boss and they're making it really difficult (read: impossible) for me to do this.  Nikki was shopping for some stewing beef for a slow cooker recipe.  She got a cooker for Xmas, and she's been taking good advantage of it.  She still won't set it and forget it.  She'll leave the kitchen, but not her house.  I don't always leave, but I don't let it stop me.  Anyways, the package of stewing beef was really expensive.  We kind of pecked around the meat department but ended up leaving without anything.  Then we hit up the Sobey's right next door so she could pick up the rest of the fixins.  The stewing beef there was just as expensive for half the amount.  It's hard to spend more than $10 on meat, but I guess you have to think about it in terms of number of meals as well as quality of meat.  And I guess beef is the most expensive meat?  I need to have some sort of portable-battery-operated-price-keeping-device.  Then I could have told Nikki the Costco deal was a winner!  I absolutely hate running into something at Costco that is grossly overpriced.  It makes the whole shopping experience feel so hit and miss.  Although I'm not smart enough to program a Blackberry app, I am going to start tracking prices.  I actually used to track food prices after every shop, but that dropped off after a few months.  I just want to be able to look at a price board and say "That's a sick price for apples."  Don't we all?

Work has been tense, work has been really tense.  These past two weeks I've gone in at 6:30am at least six times.  And sometimes staying until 5pm (once).  My project wasn't fully completely done last time I celebrated.  That had to be finished, and then whacks and doodles of admin work was piling up on my desk.  And Friday was month end.  And on top of everything, a coworker is having some family health problems and it's very concerning for everyone at the office.  He lost his dad to cancer when he was my age.  Last year his wife's cousin died of cancer.  On the eve of that funeral his brother was diagnosed with cancer, and just a few months after the brother went into remission they have once again been struck.  There is hope for a less threatening final diagnosis.  It has brought the whole office down, but also his absence is felt very strongly.  He came in on Friday, only because he would have felt stir crazy at home.  He told me that his brother told the doctors to cut out his voice box if they had to, if it meant he would live.  That he would write notes to tell his kids he loved them as long as he could still be around.  His wife said with no hesitation if she had breast cancer she would slice off either or both breasts if it meant she would survive.  I've always thought these decisions would require much more consideration.  But I guess I've been lucky enough to not be in the position to choose.  It's all very heavy.

Now, if my neighbours upstairs would stop bowling maybe I could enjoy myself on this slow and lazy Saturday.  You know what I'm sayin Minnie.  Rrrrrruff.

Snow Alert, in Alabama

This is an actual email we rec'd at our office from someone in Alabama a few days ago:

There’s almost 1 ½” of snow here. I don’t know how anyone can survive in this. Everyone is panicked except the “survivalists” who have gone into their bunkers. Schools closed at 11:30 but they emailed parents that the school buses would not run so they had to come & pick up their kids = county wide traffic jam. I’ll try to get you the cut sheets. Meanwhile do you have a flame thrower that we can borrow?

Sweet home.

The Pulled Pork & And The Missing Family Tree

My title is clearly a failed Hardy Boys novel.  I think it could have sold millions, but moving on.

Just got in from a family dinner.  My dad was in town and he invited his sister and cousin out for dinner.  His cousin is huuuge into tracing family history.  Her Grandad and Uncle (my Great Granddad and Great Great Uncle came to Canada when they were teenagers.  A year later my Great Great Uncle died.  My Granddad was left all alone in a new country with no one.  But he threw down some routes, and had some kids, and here we all are.  Or here I am, rather.  She was a fountain of information, but it was slightly tough to keep up.  Our family obviously isn't very close if after 30 years of life this is the first time I'm meeting my dad's cousin.  At any rate.  It was a nice lovely dinner.

When I got home, I finished up the last final step of my pulled pork which was the actual pulling part.  My brother asked me at dinner how long it would take.  "I don't know, 15 minutes?"  It was fully pulled in less than one.  Like off the bone ribs.  I mushed in some of the pre-made sauce and it's ready to go.  I must take some for lunch tomorrow or Tuesday night will be my first chance to have some.  Yerrrrm.  I think it looks mighty delish.

Sim & Spence and the munchkins came over on Friday night.  I actually picked Sim up at Longbranch and we hung out for a while before Spence joined us in the evening.  I whipped together some Pad Thai which was well received, thankfully.  We saved the world a few times from viral death.  Other times, the world was not so lucky.  I cuddled with Minnie for a long time.  Last time I was Sim's Minnie amused me by settling down on my chest with her fluff in my face.  But now it's her go-to spot when I pick her up.  It's pretty cute.  It did make me want a dog more than I ever have before but I'm still a bit too selfish.  I make impromptu plans that involve not coming straight home after work.   I can take vacations at will and not worry about having to make alternative arrangements.  And right now, I can't fathom the thought of having a new monthly expense.  Sim tells me my mortgage-mania will calm down.  I do hope so.

I'm going to a meeting downtown tomorrow for the charity I work with.  I fear I might need to make a decision soon about moving on.  I know it will create a void, but I'm just having mixed feelings about staying.  We'll see.  The meeting is going to be followed by dinner and drinks with the girls.

That's all she wrote.  But also, the resolution to the mystery was that the pulled pork was delicious, and the family tree was there all along.

This Is The End, Beautiful Friend

Finally I can sit back and breathe a sigh of relief.  I have been working hard to finish a project at work, that has been very mentally draining.  Not difficult, but with high pressure to get everything absolutely perfect.  I don't think my bosses were putting as much pressure as I was putting on myself.  At the 11th hour my coworker and I fixed up the last few errors and now I'm DONE.  I've been going into work for three days straight at 6:30.  Unfortunately on Monday I got there only to realize the guy who gets in at 6:30 was having a family emergency so I had to sit in my cold car until almost 7:15 for the second guy to show up.  And since I have started a trend this season to run my tank almost dry timed perfectly with the onset of a Polar Vortex, even if I wasn't environmentally opposed to idling, I couldn't risk it.  Yesterday I got into work by 6:30am and was working full throttle until 3:30pm when it was quitting time.  Again this morning I got up at 5:40 and made my way into work for 6:30.  But this time to clean up a desk that had become unacceptably messy.  My boss was also coming into work to have a meeting so I had some major TCB to do before she got in.  TBTCBI.  Total Bonus Taking Care of Business Important.  I still have a lot of administrative catch-up to do, but it can wait until tomorrow, at my regular starting time.

My condo is a mess and I'm losing control with my resolutions.  Though I am pushing fwd with new recipes.  I'm going to attempt slow cooked pulled pork.  I cruised the bbq sauce aisle at the grocery last week in anticipation of this upcoming cook.  There were just so many I didn't know which one to choose.  I am quite partial to Diana's BBQ sauce, and Jackie had mentioned something once about a PC chipotle one?  My eyes stopped on the PC Pulled Pork and it seemed too fateful to pass up.  Obviously there won't be much to this recipe.  A loin and a pre-bottled sauce.  Maybe some sauteed onions.  But it still counts, oh it counts.

In a very unusual turn of events, Sim unknowingly helped me track down a long lost internet comic.  I used to follow him over 10 years ago, but lost track.  But never forgot.  In her super amazing Cards Against Humanity xmas package it came with a customized comic strip with their favourite comics.  And who is on the list but frickin http://www.explodingdog.com !!  I searched his site for the image I had used as an old avatar but I was having trouble finding it.  Finally as my search was winding down there it was.   In all of its simplistic glory:

Where Am I?

Just another day and a half and I can melt into my couch for good.  Maybe actually read my Jan book, in one weekend?  Then I can at least pretend I'm doing something with my life.  My boss said something today that made me think.  She was talking to the other guy at work about a customer and she said, "He's really a great guy.  He's got his whole life together.  He loves his wife, has a great kid.  It's all good stuff.  I feel sorry for people that just exist."  And although she wasn't talking to me and probably not about me I kind of snickered and then paused.  Like, "Heh.....oh wait."  Bottom line, I think I really do need to do something awesome this year, and kind of reclaim my life.  Probably a load of hype that will lead nowhere, but if there is no dream then I am just existing.  You could argue most of us are just existing but the fact that it still comes to mind hours later, something resonated within.  Maybe step one is to figure out where I am and what I want and then go from there.  Or is step one to admit I have a problem?

Uh Huh, I See

I learned a few things today at work about Fight Club:

1) One of my coworkers did not like it, and went as far to say that it was dumb.  I guess I can understand someone not liking it, but dumb????  And...

2) Jared Leto played the blonde fighter.  Yes he did, look it up.

Dean and I had a very heated argument about the the HPV vaccine today.  Apparently one of the original doctors that worked on the vaccine has come out and made some controversial comments about its efficacy.  Which I find to be very shocking because a vaccine like that could be a large part of your life's work.  While looking into this situation Dean was feeding me information he found online which I was flat out refuting (without actually having evidence myself to back up mind you).  He would read "quotes" and I would say "I don't believe it, she didn't say that."  Finally he found an article written by CBS which although might have its own slants, included parts of an interview with the Dr in question.  And finally as the words turned into direct quotes instead of paraphrased BS it all started to make a bit more sense.  She had indeed raised concerns about the impact of mass vaccinations, especially of young children.  And the rate of serious side effects on par with the rate of serious side effects of unchecked HPV.  Arguing that the drug is only effective on 5% of the strands of HPV isn't a real argument if they cover 75% of all cases.  It's blatant manipulation of statistics.  I contested that a drug cannot make it to market without stringent tests being done.  Years and years and years of R&D are required.  Maybe it does come down to Fight Club economics.  If the profit from producing the drug minus the estimated costs of lawsuits is a positive they will move ahead.  But that's what the FDA and other regulating bodies are there for right?  And not to rely too heavily on board game mythology, but if the CDC backs a drug I think I will tend to agree that they've done their homework.  This altercation that lasted for almost an hour.  I'm actually quite tired.

This discussion branched off of a talk we had with a customer that came in and told us he was cancelling his Crohn's treatment schedule with a private clinic and instead is opting for a 2hr treatment with a frequency adjusting machine, from which a non-doctor claimed a 98% chance of a full recovery.  As far as I'm concerned he might as well hedge his bets on a Q-Ray bracelet.  The Western medicine alternative would cost him over $800 every two months for the rest of his life.  So I guess a $150 shot in the dark is worth every penny.

Shizzle my Frizzle

Not much new and exciting going on.  I'm on the hunt to find the most perfect grapefruits.  I got a few from SuperStore a week or to ago and they were so juicy and so perfect.  I have yet to be able to find the same level of the juiciness and deliciousness.  It's disappointing.  I have a rather odd way of eating grapefruits.  I'm coming to find that almost everyone does.  My brother has a way he likes to cut them to get to the middle bits.  My parents used to always cut them in half and use the prickly spoons.  That's back when I thought they tasted like acid death.  But now, nom nom nom.  Anyways, I take about 5 minutes to skin every single slice down to the meat and then clean up the mess and eat the goods.  I developed an aversion to citrus skin at some point in my life.  Sometimes I can manage tangerines but usually it all makes me gag.  Sad, but at least there's a work around.

I did a new recipe tonight, and hot damn it's good.  Bok Choy Chicken Stir Fry!!  I added green onions cause I had some to use.  And I subbed minced ginger for powdered.  But only because my ginger was ready the for the garbagio.  I just took my first bite right now, majorly delicious.  I followed my usual pattern of picking a few key ingredients and then finding a recipe that required the least amount of pick-ups from the store.  We definitely have a winner.

http://www.marthastewart.com/897967/stir-fried-chicken-bok-choy

I'm also making nice progress on my scarf.  Almost done the first skein of each colour.  I also still need to track down a third for each, but I have a hot lead.  I also need to get working on those other darn resolutions.

A-Presto-A-Pesto

I repeated a little adventure in home cooking last night and whipped up a batch of pesto.  Last time I tried making it in a blender which was a challenge.  This time I had the magic bullet which wasn't perfect but much easier.  Last week I was in Cousin's Market and was taken aback by this beautiful large bag of fresh basil.  Normally any fresh basil I've purchased has been in a small plastic air tight container.  This was so appealing, and only $1.99!!  I picked it up with no idea what would become of it.  At any rate, I decided last night to chop it all up and make some pesto.  I threw it on top of some spaghetti last night, and tonight I'm going to do some pesto and goat cheese stuffed chicken.  That was the plan last night, but dang that chicken was frozen solid.  So that should be nice.  Of all of my resolutions, trying new recipes seems to be the only one I'm successfully accomplishing.  I need to get into my January book.  And work out.  And hang my wall art.  I got the Magritte up but have a few more to go.  I think I've decided on where I want a few other pieces.  We'll see, we'll see.  I'm also flirting with the idea of tacking up the subway buttons.  If I can make it look classy and it doesn't remind me of an undergrad residence room.

I had another no cavity dentist visit yesterday.  I'm getting better at this dental hygiene business.

It's been a fairly successful 2014 so far.  Pretty good.  A solid mediocre.  It's all kind of status quo.  And then out of nowhere someone asks you if you believe in Mermaids.  But then it's back to the quo again.

Bon Nuit!

**EDIT**
This meal looked yummy before and after baking.  I sharpened my knife right before I butterflied the breast.  Perfection.

Oops Out Of Time

Sim texted me this photo today. It's us in 1999.  And then there's the realization that I have known her longer than I haven't known her.  Life sure does creep up on you.

20,000 Blogs Under The Sea

I have very much enjoyed my time off this past week.  Like a complete weight was lifted off my shoulders.  I did go into work today and busted my booty for 5 hrs straight.  Luckily Dec 31 is not our year end, but month end is always busy.  And on top of that I had an email distribution to do.  The database is not completely up to date, so sifting through hundreds of clients and removing ones which are inappropriate took a bit of time.  And of course I left this task until the very end as I was very much dreading it.  We were waiting on boss approval for the final letter going out but it looked like he was in transit and wouldn't be able to respond.  Wanting to get out of the office asap, Dean gave me approval.  And just as I was about to send, an email came in from the boss with the stamp to go ahead.  It felt good having the real final nod, and it also felt good to have waited for his approval and not to have sent it seconds before he said yes.  Then I would have looked like a total dingus.  I also got to reveal to my boss a banking error I had made earlier in Dec.  She does the bank rec so I can't get away with any foolish mistakes.  I was waiting for the bank to correct my mistake, which they normally do, but it seems to have fallen into the too-bad-so-sad category, and we'll have to see what our bank rep says in the new year.  She said it was no biggie but it had been eating at my soul for almost two weeks and I'm happy to emotionally move on.

I ran a bunch of errands with Nikki after work.  After the bank deposit I swung by her place to pick her up.  Shoppers, LCBO, Home Depot, T&T, Food Basics, and Dollarama.  I didn't get home until about 7pm which was a full 12hrs since I had left for work.  Woofty.  Nik helped me pick out some caulking because YAAAAAY I need to recaulk my bathtub.  I am massively not looking forward to this.  I've heard it's easy, but I tend to take extremely simple tasks and turn them into total disaster shows.  Example, at T&T it took me a good 15 seconds of staring at the cart trying to figure out where the loonie went until Nik grabbed it from my hand and shoved it into the obvious (yet somehow hidden) slot.  How?  Why?  And how???  Also at the LCBO I almost cried foul when my gift card didn't work.  I went to Customer Service and said WTF-mate.  They said it was zero balance.  I asked if they could tell if it had ever had a balance and they said no.  Well first of all they're lying, if you look online you can see when and how much you have redeemed.  But secondly, when I did that I could see a full redemption from May 15, 2013.  There are two occasions for which I tend to buy alcohol.  NYE, and May 2-4.  So mystery solved, with minimal embarrassment.  I don't think they heard me yell, "Enjoy my $50 you thieving bastards."  All's well that ends well??  I'm going to go with yes.

Christmas was nice.  For once I wasn't the one causing problems and throwing tantrums, so that felt nice.  I could write an essay about the foibles of my family (myself included) but I shall refrain.  My mom and I rocked the G&M giant crossword.  It seemed to us to be a lot easier than years prior.  Not as many random proper name references.  One year we went over and over the clues and felt like we were making zero progress.  And this year it was like butter.  The answers just poured out of us.  I feel a great deal of satisfaction working on crosswords and figuring out the answers.  I think it started at U of T, when I would pick up the Star and do their crossword, 2-3 times a week.  If I got stumped I would text Ausma, "Coup D'____", and she'd write back, "ETAT".  And that fondness for crosswords carries on to this day.  Except for dumb ones that I can't figure out lol.

I have tomorrow and Wednesday off.  It's like a mid-week weekend.  This xmas season has been so amazing for days off.  But I guess the reason I started this post was to share two photos.  First, my mom framed a poster I bought from the AGO.   Perhaps I was fooled into believing the rights to reproduce prints was being taken back by the family descendants.  Either way I'm glad I got a copy.  And since it's no longer rolled up in a cardboard tube, Sim we are officially wall art twins.

And also a few weeks ago I brought my varsity arena bench inside, as it was starting to age rapidly.  It has found a new home in my front lobby.

Right now it's sitting on a layer of drawer insert from IKEA.  I will at some point give the edges a trim so it looks less tacky.  And yes, I do need to physically move the bench to use the front closet, but I actually don't use it that often.

I have a short to-do list for my two day break.  Continue cleaning this place up.  Use my brown bananas to make something delicious.  Finish the book I'm into so I can start fresh Jan 1.  I need to make some more laundry detergent.  I'm hoping use of a nice mandarin fragrant soap will add a much needed pleasant scent.  The previous bar of soap I used was rather bitter smelling.  But it was called laundry soap so I had to try it.  Clean out my car?  Not likely tomorrow but maybe on Wednesday.  My parents actually got me a little car garbage bin that attaches to the head rest.  I desperately need somewhere to throw my garbage because I currently just give things a blind heave over the shoulder.  More than ever I feel that it's time to make a new year count.  This just might be my year.

So happy new year loyal readers, all three of you.

2013, out.

Dance I Like The Way You Move

I think Simona is right when she says there's something about winter that makes the soul want soup.  Nice, fresh, homemade soup.  I still have about 8 lbs of carrots to go through and another soup wasn't going to hurt anyone.

When my parents moved and gifted me their smaller slow cooker I looked up about 8 recipes I wanted to try out.  I had some chicken thawed out, and all the right stock veggies leftover.  So I pulled up the slow cooked Chicken Stew recipe on my desktop and it was go time:

http://www.yummymummyclub.ca/food/recipes/slow-cooker-chicken-stew-recipe

It was tasty but not my favourite.  I don't think it helped that I used chicken breasts instead of thighs.  They just don't hold up the same to the slow cooking.  Or maybe I was supposed to put it on 6 hours on low?  Everything was kinda mushy and I even finished it 30 mins early.  Oh well right, that's how we learn how to do things properly.

Adam's on board for the January long read.  He's yet to pick a book, but there is still time.  I tend to just take a look at my massive stacks of unread books and try to pick a relatively big one, that would otherwise intimidate me.  I actually haven't read much of anything in the past six months so this reboot is sorely needed.

I cleaned up a bunch of cardboard boxes that needed to be broken down and recycled.  My den has turned into a dumping ground of sorts.  Only having one closet leaves the possibility for a lot of crap to be left out in the open.  I took a lamp from my parents because they were going to get rid of it.  I think it's a nice lamp, just need to find a spot for it.  And when mom showed up at my office to drop it off it came with a side lamp.  But she stole the lampshade to reuse at her place, and passed along a rather unflattering one.  It's not ugly, but it's a bit deco.  And when I say deco I mean it looks like it belonged to Ron Burgandy.  Maybe I can thing of a way to make lemonade.  Make-work project?  I know I mentioned my recent furniture hand-me-downs before, but I forget how much was said.  I also took two bedside tables, that actually fit perfectly (with an inch to spare) underneath my desk.  And now I don't have to buy a drawer unit.  My mom wanted to get me the drawer unit that comes with the desk but a) it was more expensive than the desk (thank you Crate & Barrel for being completely absurd) and b) I just didn't like it.  It was one big drawer which would have had very little purpose or use for me.  My mom was getting rather pushy about it but I shut it down.   I told her under no circumstance did I want a stupid drawer unit with only one drawer.  3 drawers was my minimum.  Well, these bed side units have one drawer each.  But I guess that's the sacrifice one must make for shit being free.

I finished up the Cuban Rum.  It did the trick, but it wasn't the best tasting.  I'm not a huge rum fan to start with.  And even though it's less than the standard 40%, somehow it tasted like a much higher proof.  Like that time Nikki snuck a shot of 151 into my beer and I sadly had to dump it proclaiming it had gone bad while she and her friend snickered.  Well it took me three Fridays but it's finally done.  Normally liquor casts a spell on me, and makes me want more and stronger drinks each time.  This was weirdly a challenge.  But I finished, what's my prize??  We'll have to see what happens next Friday, if I'm suddenly struck with the unexplained desire to drink.  Maybe that's my prize, the gift of drinking alone.

I've been telling myself for the past week that I need to clean up around here.  I do bits and pieces but it seems to be a losing battle.  Maybe tomorrow will be my day.  And I will do ALL THE THINGS.

Soup, And Other Important Topics

Last night was a soup success!!  I've gotten an early start on my recipe resolution, and last night made a nice cabbage soup.  I saw cabbage on sale, and then thought about what would make a nice cabbage soup, so I picked up some potatoes and bacon.  When I got home I got to searchin.  There were a few contenders, but to be honest most of them were just about the same.  I didn't want a thick soup because the extra step of blending would have made the task seem insurmountable.  At any rate, I settled with this one:

http://www.rachaelraymag.com/recipes/rachael-ray-magazine-recipe-search/soup-recipes/cabbage-and-bacon-soup-with-garlic-bread

I skipped the bread and just ate a crusty bun to the side.  And I added carrot and celery.  Celery because it makes for a great tasting stock.  Carrots for the same reason but also because I recently purchased a 10lbs bag of carrots (for less than $2) and I need to start using them in my meals, post haste.  I must say, I do love me some cabbage soup.  There's just something about the consistency of boiled cabbage.  That sounds wrong, but it's so right.  YERM.  I did make one colossal mistake, but that being said it was still a fairly large success.  The instructions said to add the bacon at the end but I thought I would be smart, or my own personal interpretation of smart, and add the bacon at the beginning of the boil.  I thought it would add some level of bacon infusion that would be insanely brilliant.  Instead the boiling process ruined the consistency of the bacon and left very little to be desired in terms of baconinity.

I've been rewatching IT Crowd on Netflix.  I usually get around to it every year or so.  Never lets me down.  In fact I would go one step further and say that it's one of my favourite shows.  I was actually inspired to start my rewatch in a less than flattering way.  I was facebook creepy one of our customers and they had posted this photo:

 

I wish I could draw like that, I really do.  Maybe next year I'll leave some room in the resolutions for artistic improvement.

I saw Adam on Monday.  He found himself at Sherway after work so rang me up for some company.  His lady friend is returning from India tomorrow so I'm getting some Adam-time in now before he's fully occupado.  I made my way over, and we did some light shopping and got a coffee.  Not actually in Sherway but out-and-around, in the general vicinity.  Knowm' sayin.  So he calls me and for whatever reason my phone rings once and is done.  I love the feature on my phone that texts me my voice messages so in seconds I see his message is to call him, which I do, and he responded with something ridiculous like, "Go for Adam."  Reminded me of the calls I would take when I worked operations in Calgary.  If the right person was calling I'd just pick up and with a somewhat Chicagoan accent say, "Talk to me."

I'm looking into taking ASL classes.  I've always wanted to learn how to sign.  The extent of my current knowledge is an extremely rudimentary alphabet.  Last year during the Toque campaign we sold a toque to a deaf lady.  I would have loved to have been able to have properly communicated.  Though I did manage to sign a thank you at the last minute. I also remember the man Jackie and I met at the Arms.  I think  I managed to get our names out and that was about it, then we switched to pen and paper.  I've kicked it all off with an inquiring email about dates and times and cost.  We'll see what they come back with, and maybe this is something I'll be moving fwd with.

I desperately need time off of work.  We close up on Tuesday at noon and don't have to come back until the following Monday.  Then we're closed on Tues-Wed.  It's going to be awesome.  Technically it's only been 4 mos since I took my last day off, and maybe it's just because this 5 day break is so close that  I'm getting the itch.

I've picked my Jan long read novel.  TBA when I'm done, as if it's exciting to anyone but myself.  I picked up the last of my xmas gifts.  I didn't really go all out at all this year.  Not at all.  I might top off each gift with a $30 gift cert for Canada Helps.  Let the fam make a little donation to their charity of choice. 

I've really been having a great time with my managing my finances with the program I picked up.  Everything is pre-budgeted and this holiday season was a breeze.  I'm building up my reserves dedicated across the board.  I had a few hundred for presents, a few hundy put aside for random car shit.  Which lets face is, is never much less than $400-$500 unless it's routine maintenance.  Once my reserves are built up then the savings really begins.  And by savings I mean passing almost every penny onto my mortgage. (Da-da dah dah)(Da-da dah dah).

I have a new home project.  I need to re-caulk the tub in the en suite.  Rosco has offered to come over if I feel I'm in a jam.  But his second recommendation is to study google videos and get er done.  I think I'm going to go with the latter, and then when I have sufficiently ruined my tub I'll call him.

That's all.  Done.  Done like dinner.  Aint no thing but a chicken wing.
JULIE OUT.

Are You There Internet? It's Me Julie

I don't have much to report, but I'm in a rather good mood today so thought I would type it out.  As always it feels amazing to finish on Fridays at noon.  I went to Canadian Tire and picked up some new wipers.  I feel intimidated doing things for the first time.  I'm not going to be completely anti-feminist and call them guy tasks, but if I had someone around they are tasks I would gladly share/avoid/delegate/not do.  I've never changed a wiper before in my life.  Perhaps once during a car check-up I okayed new ones to go on.  But never by my own hand.  So I've never had to pick out wipers before.  It's rather intimidating.  I wasn't sure if the ones I was getting would fit on properly, or if I could even manage it myself.  After failing to find any useful information in my car's manual I texted Nikki for support.  She's taken on a lot of car duties herself over the years and we've actually talked about her obsession with wipers before.  I've been driving around with the tip of my passenger wiper peeling back, so it just dangles from the rest of it, and leaves a nice thick unsqueegeed patch when I turn them on.....for over a year.  It can sometimes be bothersome, but it's liveable.  But now that snow is coming, and it's borderline unsafe when it rains, I took the plunge.  An almost $50 plunge might I add.  Shameless at work I asked Dean,  "How do I buy windshield wipers?  Is there a brand that's good, or are they all about the same anyways?"  He gave some half-assed advice and now I've got a pair of mid-ranged wipers waiting for me to give them a go tomorrow morning.  I also picked up a new air filter.  And I was going to get some stocking stuffers for my parents - a specialty key for them to cut their new house key on - but I didn't know you needed the key in hand for them to properly size the specialty key.  I've since called my mom and tasked her to go to CT in Cobourg and buy her own stocking stuffer and I'll pay her back.  Wish I could have kept it a surprise, but alas.

I'm going to a party tomorrow, but am going to wait until the weather settles to decide how to get there.  To drive or not to drive.  The good news is, it's less than a 15 minute walk from the GO station, so I can always bus it if need be.  19 would take me right there.  I'm excited to see Dom, but I'm still shocked that he's engaged.  Not that I am particularly involved in Dom's life these days but, it's still a shocker.

I had a fairly amusing text with Adam a while back.  He got a new car.  A cute little bright blue Nissan.  It smells amazing inside.  It syncs with his phone.  It...is...awesome.  When I pulled up next to him I unrolled my window and just blurted excited words towards him.  I found out later he wasn't ignoring me, but the tint required to be not rolled down for 3 days after being installed.  Adam recalled a funny story about getting out of his car to order at a drive thru.  In his defense it was in the wee hours of the morning so going in on foot wasn't an option.  I sent him an admittedly dumb text a few days later, and was quite amused with his response:

Julie: You would not believe who just bought the sickest car.....YOU DID lol
*3 days later*
Adam: Woooo!! Lol delay expert
Julie: Lol who is this?
Adam: Uncle Leo
Adam: ?

I recognized the reference, but must admit I had to google it to appreciate its hilarity in full.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSrVhfNK2So

That's all for me.  It might be another dirty Cuban rum night.  I really just need to get rid of this stuff, and a waster of alcohol I am not.  My liver needs something to do other than sit there and look pretty.

Byeee.

Bei'rslved

I've been thinking already about my resolutions for next year. And I think I need to start them a little bit early. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Run of the mill resolutions. But good to say them out loud, increase accountability and such (minimally).

1) Start working out, and stick to it this time.
2) Play more guitar. Lots more.
3) Keep up with new recipes, maybe two a month?
4) Reading. I want to try to read a book a week this coming year. Excluding January which will be dedicated to my one long book of choice. I'm flirting with Catch-22. I don't know if it's long enough to qualify but I think the judges will bend the rules just this once.
5) Keep it clean. Car, apartment, life in general.
6) Hang all of my wall art. Post haste. Have no fears about making holes because for once I own the walls.
7) Plan something awesome. TBD

But that's all for now.  Tonight - I drink. Something I haven't done in a very very long time. Rosco brought me some Rum back from Cuba that has been sitting in my trunk for 6 months. And soon it will be in my belly.

Little Red Hot Tamales

There are some things in life that amuse me to no end, and this odd clip from the Jimmy Fallon show is just one of those things.  Aside from the singing, my favourite moment is at 2:15 when Mandy Patinkin just barely musters the ability to say "I'm proud of you."  And every other moment they break character to laugh.  It just kills me.  This has unfortunately just added to my strange obsession with Patinkin.

Too Far

I got an email from Chapters the other day, and I had some time at work so I was doing some browsing.  Thinking about some books I might be interested in reading.  And just yesterday I get an email from Chapters recommending some books to me, and it was the 4-5 books I was browsing at work.  I don't even know how they did that, I guess since I linked to their page through my email it kept a cookie of that?

I find that to be utterly despicable.  A disgusting business practice I want nothing to do with.  It would be like if you went into the store and someone followed you around and took Polaroids of every book you picked up and then mailed the photos to you and said, "Thought you might be interested in some of these books."  F*****g creepsters.  I'm a big fan of Chapters.  I should correct that say I was a big fan.  But after this display they can stuff it.

My House My Rules

I found myself rather annoyed today at work with this kid.  We were somehow talking about Banff National Park and I mentioned how expensive it was, unless you were just driving through, then it's free.  Obviously, it's a park fee not a road toll.  And transport trucks and passing cars need not pay.  He goes, "Yes you do have to pay, unless the toll guy was just ripping us off."  To which I replied, "No you don't, only if you're stopping in the park."  To which he replied, "Yes you do."  So he left, I googled and confirmed what I already knew.  Next time hew as up front I said "Buddy, you don't have to pay, only if you plan on stopping your car in the park.  Because if you stop and leave your car and they find your car without a pass you are EFFED."  To which he replied, "So we're both right."  And I said, "No, I'm right."  And he got all offended.  Then one of the other guys talked about his experience driving up through to Jasper and the question came up which park is larger, so I walked over to our giant Canadian wall map to look.  I assumed Jasper since I think it stretches up the Icefields Highway, but I saw no clear defining borders between the four main parks.  And he walks passed me in a completely passive-aggressive asshole tone says "Oh we need to look at the map."  Or some pissy thing like that.

I usually don't take a hard stance on something unless I feel very confident in what I'm saying.  Which is almost never.  Then the other guys told me to chill out.  Can't win!!

800 envelopes stuffed, 1000 to go.  Probably won't get done in time but for the amount I took I'm sure one day late won't be the end of the world.

I have an embarrassing admission.  I think listening to top 40 at work all day has affected me, and not in a good way.  Now I'm going to preface my next statement by saying I think she's a dirty disgusting human and we'd all be better off if she disappeared into oblivion.  But I love the Miley Cyrus & Jimmy Fallon & The Roots acapella version of her song Can't Stop.  She actually has a pretty amazing voice, which is too bad that she has wasted her talent by being an intolerable wretch.  The guy in the bottom right frame is actually quite amusing to watch.  I know the lyrics are garbage, but I just...can't stop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mjvfnUAfyo

That feels good to say out loud, and now if you'll excuse me I think I shall go spiral into a pit of shame.

I'm A Lady You See, Pay Me No Heed

Don't do a double take, this is actually a new post.  For reals.  I'm ashamed of my absence, but I'm back for hopefully a more permanent stay.  Sim and I were email chatting about our blogs today.  It may seem weird but mine means a lot to me.  I've actually been blogging for over 10 years but never stayed in the same spot for quite this long.  3 1/2 yrs so far.  And what started as a successful way to track my trip out East has turned into something thumbs-up for me.

I just got home from shopping at Costco with Nikki.  Her membership ran out last month, and since I got my own membership as an amazing work-perk, I now hold the key to entering.  A new one just opened today up at Dixie and Dundas.  That intersection officially has everything.  And little known fact (read: I didn't know it), it also used to be home to the first Toronto IKEA location.  My mom told me about how she used to drive in from Leaside to shop there, back in the 80s.  I got a notice in the mail about it opening, and what the first week deals were going to be. 40 double rolls of toilet paper for $11.99.  No your eyes do not deceive you.  Reg price: $18.99.  I usually sit around and wait for them to go their regular sale of $14.99, but since I have the space now I bought THREE.  I think my toilet paper situation is covered for a good while.  I also have a toilet paper brand preference - don't judge - and this was that brand so win-win-win.  We walked the cart back to our cars and unloaded.  And I took the cart back to the outdoor cart thing (unlike our lazy neighbour who left his in between two parking spots - jerk).  And as I'm pushing the cart in I feel as if I have stepped on something.  I look down and it's a gooey squeeze pack of apple sauce.  I don't have any on me so it's no big deal.  And then I looked at Nikki who was standing three feet behind me and she has apple sauce ALL over her shoes and up one of her pant legs.  It had squeezed out and flown three feet to the exact spot she was standing.  Total OMG/I'm so sorry moment.   But fairly hilarious, from where I was standing.

What else is new, right.  I'm currently working on a mailing project for Raising the Roof.  They have two main mail outs a year.  Last season I took a bunch home and stuffed them at home.  This year I got a little ambitious and told them to give me as many as they wanted.  Because the information pamphlet boxes come in 900s I got two of those and 2000 of the the rest of the materials to match.  So far I have stickered, stuffed, sealed and stamped 600.  The mail out goal is Friday so we'll see how much I can get done before then.  I actually don't mind it so much.  It takes just over an hour to do 100.  I have to refocus myself, I have lost my focus.  I find myself mildly unfocused and unwilling to refocus on the focusing issue at hand.  The only solution is to focus harder on focusing.  Step 1: Focus.  Step 2: Repeat Step 1.  I think I can do it.

For anyone that knows Sonia, she's married now.  She actually had her first ceremony at Lake Louise with just the families.  The photos are so gorgeous.  She's wearing this hot gold sequin dress.  They both looked smokin.  And it's probably one of the most, if not the most, beautiful sites in Canada so well done Son.  Her second ceremony was downtown at a fancy building beside St Lawrence Market.  It was fun seeing some of the girls from high school.  And then I totally wiped out on a flower petal on the ground and threw my gingerale all over the floor.  It was definitely an all-time top ten classy moment.

Adam just got back from a 2 1/2 week trip to India.  I like to travel vicariously through him, but I think that is just one you have to do on your own.  He said the cities were a shit-show but the rural parts of India were amazing.  I saw some photos and he wasn't lying.  It makes sense if you think about it, geographically.  The Eastern coast looks just like what I would imagine Thailand to be like.  I probably wouldn't have the cash flow to do that for a long time.  I'm still mildly obsessed with making mortgage pre-payments.  Any time I have some available cash it all goes on to that.  Though my budgeting software helps me set aside money for other long term ventures like xmas gifts and car repairs.  The amount of interest that you can save by cutting off the top early is phenomenal, but I need to find a balance between saving on interest and enjoying life.

One last thing - I totally went to the Leafs-Islanders game last week.  A vendor came by and dropped off some ticks, and it went down the totem pole until me and they were still available.  HURRAY.  Centre ice, 16th row, no big deal. I've never been centre before.  The only irritating part is that they pass these GIGANTIC flags over those sections during the national anthem.  And I pretty much missed out on seeing the guy sing O Canada, though I could still hear him.  He was a tenor or something operatic.  The guy beside us was about 6'4, so as the flag passed over head Nikki and I jokingly flapped our hands like infants trying to get at something kept out of reach by the adults.  We won 5-2 by the way, it was awesomeness.

And that's all.  Not much exciting going on.  Though I have been reminded that maybe I don't need anything exciting to flip on over to the bloggie and let my consciousness spew out through my fingers.  That's a nice visual.

And on that note.

Fare thee well.

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.