All That I Am Thankful For

Today is Thanksgiving so it only seems fitting that I take a moment to look back and reflect on things and thank the universe for the plethora of things that I have to be thankful for. 

I spent Thanksgiving on my own this year, completely by choice. I had several invitations to dine with others or head home but I opted to decline them all. I know what some people might think. Why would I willing opt to spend Thanksgiving alone when some people out there would give anything to not be alone today. Well that's one of the things I'm thankful for - that I have the choice.

Given the stress, anxiety and emotional roller coaster that the past month has been, I needed time to myself to decompress, relax and re-focus. I also wanted to save my remaining holiday days for Christmas. Yes I miss my family terribly and would have loved to have spent the weekend with them, but I fear that I wouldn't have been much fun to be around as I'm kind of stuck inside my own head at the moment. And my decision to stay here saved me from what has been described at "horrible" gravy.

Anyhow, I cleaned and did laundry today and I cooked and baked. I made cookies this morning (thank god I only made 1 dozen because I nearly ate them all) and then I made an apple pie and cooked a Prime Rib roast to perfection. So there are two more things I'm thankful for - that I can afford groceries (granted prime rib is a rarity and only when on sale) and that I know how to cook and bake for myself and that I like to do so. I guess that's 3 things to be thankful for.

I spent some time sitting on my balcony this afternoon (thankful for a warm fall) and watched the chickadees eat sun flower seeds and watched some orange ladybug fly around and climb on the balcony (and me for a bit too). It was very nice to just spend a few moments doing something so simple yet something that made me smile. So I am thankful for the simple pleasures in life.

I texted with a very great friend who lives very far from me for a while this afternoon and heard about the adventures of her day and what the week holds in store for her family. So that made me thankful for the technology to so seamlessly communicate with someone 2 provinces away. And it made me thankful to have someone as wonderful as her in my life. I am thankful that I have a set of friends that let me be myself. Even when I'm at my worst, I know I have a few strong souls to depend upon. And for that I am thankful.

A 3 year, 8 month and 1 day voyage will be coming to an end this week. For all that it's taught me and for all the great people I've met along the way, I am thankful and I am most certainly thankful for the new adventure that lies ahead. I'm hopeful for that one too.

And most importantly of all, I am thankful for my cheering section back in Southern Ontario. My family, especially my parents. It's funny. Some days I think that they don't get me or understand me at all, yet that never seems to stop them from giving me their 100% support and having my back no matter what I decide to do. Not only am I thankful for them, but I'm blessed to have them too. 

Now it's time for me to head to bed. I have a very long short week ahead of me. I need to figure out how to impart 3 years, 8 months and 1 day's worth of knowledge and wisdom onto someone else. And clean off my desk........

Good Night and Happy Thanksgiving!

Sarah

My Mom's fall mums from 2011

So Sleepy.

My eyes are betraying me. They keep trying to close all by themselves. I had plans on surfing Pinterest and watching episode 3 of "Under the Dome" and maybe doing a little reading. As it stands, the words I'm typing are looking a little blurry and yes, I'm wearing my reading glasses and no, there's nothing wrong with them. The dude upstairs sounds like he's rollerskating across his living room right now. WTF??

I slept like crap last night. For starters, I wasn't tired so it took a while to fall asleep. Then I got all itchy and that didn't help with the falling to sleep bit. I think I passed out somewhere between 11:30 and midnight. Woke up a little after 1. Fell back to sleep. Work up around 3:15 and decided to get up and pee. Fell back to sleep. Woke up at 4:55am and had to pee again, and then couldn't fall back to sleep. I was wide awake. Dammit. Finally fell back to sleep around 5:30am and then my alarm went off at 6. It made for a very long day and it the reason why I'm so sleepy now. Despite my fatigue, I still managed to water the plants on my balcony, make my lunch and made a big bowl of fruit salad.

Work was good but long. I put on my iPod and focused on getting some finance stuff out of the way this morning. I managed to get almost all of it done. I have some more paper work to deal with tomorrow too and hopefully that will get the bulk of it out of the way for the week.

Nothing overly philosophical on my mind tonight. I think brain may had nodded off already. No sign of the moth either.

Keep cool.

Good Night!

Sarah

Anyone wanna go for a swim?

The Moth Saga Continues

I found my missing house guest (aka, the moth) around 11 this morning. It was hanging out on my window sill, behind the curtain. Being the kind hearted person I am, I decide to try to pick it up and toss it outside. I gabbed a kleenex and tried to pick it up. I failed and it flew into the curtain. So I tried again and it once more escaped and dropped like a rock...into my baseboard heater. Sigh. I have previously dropped a spider into it and the spider came out the bottom and tried to run away before I squished it, so I was hoping the moth would go right through too. No such luck. I haven't seen it since. Sigh.

I did, however, get a pesky fly out of my apartment this evening. It was flying around before bed and I got it out of my bedroom by turning on the hall light and once it was attracted to that, I shut off the light and ran to my room and closed the door before the fly could follow. I woke up to pee around 3am and the stupid fly was attacking the night light in the bathroom. This morning, it was on my balcony door, so I just opened it and shooed him out. Problem solved. Too bad the moth wasn't that easy to deal with.

It was very hot here today, so you know what I did? I turned on the oven, twice. The first time was to bake a loaf of Avocado Banana Bread (with dark chocolate chips) and the second time was to roast the chicken breast that I bought at the butcher's yesterday. Both turned out incredibly well. I made a nice salad for lunch tomorrow, using the veggies I got yesterday, and I topped it with some feta cheese and some leftover chicken from tonight. The only problem with baking today was that my apartment got warm, even with the AC and fans running. It's cooling off now, which is nice, since it's almost bed time.

I used my spare time to read and catch up on a summer tv show. I really should have cleaned or done the dishes but my body seemed to want the rest so I did what it asked. This just means that I have to pick up some groceries after work tomorrow and do up the dishes too. Laundry might be a good idea for a night this week too. LOL. I need to find a man who likes to clean.Seriously. I will happily cook every night so long as someone else cleans up the mess I make. I'll even do the laundry too if someone else dusts and mops. I think it's a great trade off!!

Anyhow, it's time to grab my book and read for a bit before turning in. Back to work tomorrow.

Good Night!

Sarah

Not the one in my bedroom but you get the idea. LOL.

Canada Day, Goodbyes and Mac & Cheese

Guess who's hand is feeling better? It's not 100% but I can type, write and use a can opener again without it resulting in searing pain. So that's a very good thing.

Happy Canada Day! Being that I live in Ottawa and that we host the world's largest Canada Day party, today means that the downtown core is packed. I went downtown last year but opted to skip the festivities this year. I wasn't really in a "get up close and personal with 200,000 + strangers" kind of mood. I did watch the noon show on tv though. I think last year's was better. I heard the fighter jets fly by and I can currently hear some fireworks in the distance. I'm not sure if they're the ones form downtown or the ones from the park down Carling but I can hear a low, rumble and boom.

Today I spent my day being very domestic. I did up the dishes and made a half-assed attempt to get my kitchen in order. That kind of stopped after I found the item that I'd misplaced in the kitchen. I then spent time on my balcony, planting the last of the plants that I picked up in the market yesterday. I added lavender, garlic chives, chocolate mint and a yellow gerber daisy to the mix. My balcony looks quite nice now. Very green and cheerful. For dinner I made macaroni and cheese from scratch and I have to admit, it blew my mind. It was so friggin' good!! I had some fresh green beans with it. I picked those up in the market yesterday. I love being able to go out and get fresh, local produce. It makes everything taste better.

I felt a little home sick today too. My home town has quite the parade every Canada Day and I can't actually recall the last time I was there to see it. It must have been a good 15 years ago. I remember that we used to take my grandmother and her friend and then we'd go back to my parent's house or over to gram's house for pizza afterwards. Later in the day, my brother and I would go to the park as they always had a carnival with rides that weekend. In the evening, there would be fireworks at the park. My parents live a block and a half from the parade route and only 5 blocks from the park so it made getting around quite easy. Definitely less than 200,000 + people to deal with.

Wow, 4 paragraphs and only a tiny bit of numbness. This is great progress.

Work is going to be brutal this week. We have several new people starting tomorrow and we have a farewell party for my boss later this week. Where I work, people come and go frequently, so I'm kind of used to seeing people leave. But my boss had been there since I started working there. She helped to build the unit I work in. She gave me my job. I really don't know how to say goodbye to her. I'm an emotional person to begin with and this week is a PMS week so I'm going to be extra emotional. Not sure how I'm going to get through it in one piece. Perhaps I should just skip wearing mascara this week and put up a sign, letting my co-workers know that if they find me crying in the bathroom, I'm perfectly fine. LOL.

Speaking of work, I should sign off and get to bed so that I can at least pretend to be alert at work to welcome the new people tomorrow. On the upside, I have leftover mac and cheese for lunch :)

Good Night!

Sarah

Laundry and an Overwhelmed Bladder

After a pretty stellar week weather wise, Mother Nature returned spring to us today. It was cool and rainy. But I'm not complaining. We really needed the rain (ok, maybe not the areas that are flooded but the tulips needed rain) and it was the perfect day for doing house work.

I managed to get 5 loads of laundry done. Yes, I said 5. And those loads didn't include any bedding or towels. They can wait until next laundry day. You see, I cleaned my bedroom about 2 weeks ago. This entailed discovering all kinds of odds and ends of clothing, creatively hidden. Some were on the floor of my closet or stuffed under the bed etc... Still didn't find mates for all my un-matched socks though. Anyhow, my apartment is now littered with clothing. I did two loads of "delicates" which simply means "can not go in dryer". I bunch are hanging in the bathroom, the "lay flat to dry and reshape while wet" are in the living room and I have several tank tops hanging off door knobs. You know, I never really understood the "reshape while wet" thing. It's a t-shirt. It came out of the washer looking like a t-shirt. How do you reshape it? Am I supposed to make it looking like a nightie or something? Weird.

I also did up all the rogue dishes. I have a terrible habit of only doing dishes every 2-3 days. I really need to learn to do them every day. But then I feel silly using the same plate/bowl over and over again since it's being washed and put back in the cupboard every day. I'm afraid that the other dishes will get jealous and revolt if I don't use them. Don't think dishes can come to life? Well then you've never seen Disney's Beauty and the Beast. I just wish mine would make the food themselves and then wash themselves afterwards like they do in the movie. That would be pretty sweet.

While on my cleaning spree today, I decided to spice up my water a bit. I bought some strawberries yesterday so I sliced up a couple of them and put them in my water glass. I've done this with lemons before too. It makes a very nice glass of lightly flavoured water (natural too). Well I liked it a lot, so I drank a lot of water today, which is very good. Just try telling that to my bladder. I think I've had to pee every 20-30 minutes for the last 8 hours. It's highly annoying. My bladder's like "WTF Lady? You trying to drowned me??" Maybe I am. I have a "sensitive" bladder to start with so I guess it didn't appreciate all the extra water. I've been told that it's possible to train your bladder to hold more liquid without feeling the need to pee but I kind of think it's just bs. Maybe I'll try it again tomorrow and see what happens.

I made my favourite pasta and lentil soup for dinner tonight (a very domestic day for me!). It was my best batch yet. I added in some marinaded tofu that I browned up first and it went really well with the soup. I also added in some smoked paprika and some Old Bay seasoning this time. It really made the broth yummy. I also cut back on the amount of lentils and pasta that went into it, so I had a more broth like soup. I find that it tends to thicken up quite a bit when you use the full amount that the recipe calls for. I have leftover soup for lunch tomorrow as well as some to go into the freezer for dinner another night. I think I might make muffins or something tomorrow. We'll see.

But now I think it's time to go and crawl into bed with my book...after I clear what's left of the clean laundry off my bed! I was good and put most of the dry stuff away already. I guess the rest are on my "to do" list for tomorrow.

Good Night!

Sarah

More tulips which were probably very happy about today's rain!

Sunny Saturday and Sleep

Since I haven't blogged for the last couple of nights, I thought I should probably do so. Frankly, I've been too damn tired to Blog. After the no sleep Wednesday, Thursday night wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be. Despite being crazy tired, it still took a long time to fall asleep. Thankfully, last night was a bit better. I'm still waking up a lot in the night but I got to sleep in this morning, so that was very nice. I also had a nice can of Pear Cider this evening so I'm hoping that helps with the sleep too.

It was a beautifully sunny day here today. Too bad it was breezy and that breeze was stupid cold. Stupid weather. We're in for flurries this evening and freezing rain early in the morning then it's going to warm up and the freezing rain will change to normal rain. Looking at the week's forecast, it appears that spring might just be here. Heck, it's supposed to be 20C with rain on Wednesday. Go figure. Weather people are predicting that we'll have a long, hot and humid summer. I'm ok with the long and hot part. The humid part I could do without.

My day was pretty good. I went downtown and cashed in my coupon for a free bottle of perfume that I got for Christmas. The lady said I could have the small bottle for free, or pay $11 and get the big bottle. So, 35ml for free or 60ml for $11. Big bottle it was. I ventured into the market and went to my favourite butcher shop. They had some lamb souvlaki skewers, so I decided to have a Greek night. I bought them and I made some Greek rice and made a Greek Vinaigrette for the Greek salad I made. It was all very good. I also picked up a bottle of my new favourite wine and a couple cans of the Pear Cider I discovered last month. I ran a couple more errands and hit up the grocery store before returning home to bask in the sun coming in my windows.

I started to watch Madagascar 3 this evening. It made me laugh so that's good. I'll watch the other half in the morning.

Since tomorrow is looking like it's going to be a dreary day, I'm going to use it to clean my kitchen. I'm going to make a pasta dish for dinner. It's on the cover of the April issue of Food Network magazine. Looks easy enough. They have a truly kick-ass cake in this issue. It looks just like a flower pot with flowers in it! So cool.

My friend Michelle and I head to Montreal in 13 short days. I'm excited and not excited all at the same time. I have a lot of house work to do before she gets here and work is crazy busy right now so I have to make sure everything's all organized before I leave. That being said, I'm only actually missing 3 days of work and the break will be really good for me and I really am looking forward to seeing Michelle again. It's been a very, very, very long time since I've spent this much time with her, so I'm slightly apprehensive about it too. I'm sure everything will be great. I just hope that Mother Nature co-operates too and gives us some nice weather while we're there. The long range forecast isn't looking very good. But it's still a good ways out.

WTF?? It's 11:30pm and it sounds like someone is walking around upstairs with a peg leg. I swear, I have some of the most disrespectful and inconsiderate neighbours ever. Earlier, I got to listen to the couple down the hall yelling at one and other, again. It's pretty much a weekly event. It's one of the things I miss about my apartment in Calgary. Other than the dude that used to watch porn with the volume up and the naked people who lived in the building beside me, the neighbours were pretty awesome and very quiet.

Anyhow, I can hear my bed calling, so I think it's time to hit the hay and see if I can not only fall asleep quickly, but stay asleep until morning.

Good Night!

Sarah

Growth

One thing that most of us have in common is the need, desire and drive for personal growth. Some people seem to be able to accomplish this better than others. And after something I discovered today, I think I'm doing a pretty good job at it too.

To gauge our growth, we have to look to the past and evaluate the people we were then and then people we are now. I'm not a big fan of doing that. I try hard not to live in the past. And I try very hard to not let bad memories/experiences from the past have a negative influence on things I do now. For someone who hates change, I'm doing a fairly decent job at embracing it.

Since I have a 4 day long weekend and have a friend coming to visit in 3 weeks, I decided that this weekend would be a good time to start my spring cleaning. I made some really good headway on Friday and threw out a lot of stuff that wasn't useful anymore and was just taking up space. Yesterday I decided that I needed to find a new way to store my shoes/boots/sandals. There's not enough room in the hall closet for them and their current location of being in a pile by the door doesn't work well, especially since I keep tripping over them and then when I go hunting for a pair, I can only find one half since I've punted the other one halfway across the kitchen. Anyhow, I remembered that I have two large plastic bins in my closet (currently being used as a shelf for my TP and Kleenex). I thought that one of them might be a good container for my shoes. So this evening, I decide to grab one and clean it out.

These bins have been in the closet since I moved back from Calgary...4 years ago. I have no idea what's in them really. I think I've only opened them once or twice since I moved back. The bin I grabbed contained a whole mess of misc. items: Birthday cards from family and friends, note cards, a couple Christmas cards, souvenirs from various trips, post cards from friends and family, a couple of neat things from my past that I decided somewhere along the way that I wanted to keep (like the interview I did with Sean M. from Great Big Sea...which my buddy Kevin got the band to sign for me when he met them!). A lot of it brought back a whole bunch of memories. I ended up throwing out 2/3s of the box.

The me from 4+ years ago found some need to keep a lot of this stuff, but the me today didn't. Somewhere in the last 4 years, I've grown and emotionally developed enough to put away those parts of my past. Sure, I did keep a few sentimental things. I kept a few cards from my parents that had supportive and motivations messages from them inside. Who doesn't need a little pick me up every now and again eh? And I did keep the last birthday card that my Gram sent me before she passed away. Seeing her hand writing on the page made me smile and miss her tremendously. I also found the copy of the Tennyson Guyer poem "The World Is Mine" that my Gram gave me when I was a little girl. I kept that too.

I also found something that I really no flipping idea what I was thinking when I decided to keep it. It's my journal from mid 2000 off and on until mid-2002. I could feel the negativity coming off it in waves without evening opening the book. Those were some of the darkest times of my life. I was so un-sure of myself. So depressed and frustrated yet there were pockets of hope. Why the hell did I keep it?? I only read a few random pages in it but it was enough to remind myself that I never want to go back to that place again. Keeping it the last time I came across it was a mistake. I believe that you can only make any one mistake once because the next time you make it, it's not a mistake, it's a choice. So this time, I'm choosing to get rid of it. Burning it seems like a fantastic idea. LOL. I'm more likely going to tear it to shreds and just toss it out however. I don't want to risk anyone thinking that I'm attempting to burn my apartment down. The memories of those years are in my brain. I've learnt from my mistakes, have grown and moved on. I don't need the visual reminder.

Four years ago, when faced with the same task as today, I couldn't bring myself to throw a lot of that box away. But today, I did. That is growth. That is emotional development. That is making peace with the past and moving on. And all of that makes me very happy and quite proud of myself.

Speaking of being proud of ones self, I pulled off a couple of culinary firsts for myself this evening. I cooked a prime rib roast for the first time (just a little, one rib one) and it turned out perfectly! My mom would have loved it since it was nice and juicy. Dad would have hated it. He's a well done kind of guy. LOL. I also make Yorkshire Pudding for the first time ever. They were actually really easy and turned out quite well. I really enjoyed my dinner and I have a lot left over. It's dinners like these that make me wish I had someone to share them with. I really do enjoy cooking for others, especially if they're willing to do the dishes up in return.

I think I'm going to try to get more cleaning and some laundry done tomorrow and I might just venture out to see if I can find some reduced to clear Easter chocolate.

Good Night!

Sarah

My little Yorkshire Puddings

First Days and Kale

Today was a long day. And a very busy one. Every time I sat down at my desk to do something, a new thing popped up and a half an hour later, I'd be back at my desk trying to remember what it was I was going to do before I got interrupted. I was able to escape for 10 minutes in the afternoon and went for a nice, but chilly walk around the block. The sun was out so that was nice to see, especially since it clouded over and started to snow again about an hour later.

It would appear that my friend JD survived his first day at work and got to work with LOTS of time to spare. The first day at work can be a nerve racking one. I hope my friend K has a good first day tomorrow. It's great to see so many people finding jobs. Having been unemployed a couple of times in my life, I know how much it sucks and how hard it can be to make ends meet, especially if you don't have a 2nd income provider to rely on. I hope the jobs work out for everyone and I'll keep my fingers crossed for them all.

So, for dinner tonight, I decided to try something new. I had bought a big bunch of Kale on the weekend and I decided to make Kale Chips (thank you Pinterest!). I was skeptical. How would cooking a leafy green vegetable in the oven make it taste good? I still have no flipping idea but my god, it was FANTASTIC! I tore up the leaves and tossed them with a little olive oil. Once on the cookie sheet, I sprinkled them with sea salt, pepper and garlic powder and then baked them at 300F for 20 minutes. They crisped up and were so good. They almost tasted like they were bad for you. LOL. They crumble very easily though so I did have some Kale crumbs on my and the table while eating them. But they were yummy so I really didn't care. I'm definitely going to add this to my list of fun and delicious side dishes to make.

I'm getting used to my dark hair too. In the sunlight and florescent lights at work it doesn't look quite as dark as it does at home.

I must log off and finish getting tomorrow's lunch ready and then get into bed. I need to be alert at work or I'll never be productive!

Good Night!

Sarah

Not my first day at work, but my first day at school :)

Sleepy Thursday

After all of my excitement yesterday, you think I would have passed right out. But no. Firstly, my hot, soothing bath backfired. I was too hot afterwards and couldn't get comfortable in bed. Then I tossed and turned for what felt like hours. I kept waking up too. I think the sound of the plows going down the road might have been the culprit there.

This is what I woke up to this morning:

I am truly not impressed. Even more so since it's STILL FUCKING SNOWING!!!!!! We're supposed to get another 2 cm tonight and 2cm tomorrow and 2cm Friday night and then a 60% chance of flurries on Saturday and a 40% chance on Sunday. Give me a break! We're already pushing 30cms over the last 24 hours. The damn snowbanks are as tall as I am. Crossing the street has become an extreme sport because you either have to climb over said banks or risk traffic going around them. Stupid weather. This is the most snow Ottawa has seen in 4 years. I guess we were due. Thankfully, the buses were running better this morning and this evening. Hopefully they keep it up for tomorrow. I hope the snow crews come by soon and remove our snowbanks too. I'll have to take a photo of the ones out front tomorrow. It looks like the front of the building is being eaten by giant snow monsters.

Trying to wrap my head around some travel plans for mid to late spring. I'm going to Montreal in April, I just need to pick a weekend and then I'm thinking of going home in May for my bday and my Great Aunt's bday. Mine is a semi-milestone and hers is a major milestone. I haven't seen the family since Christmas (and still haven't forgiven my rat fink brother for giving me the stomach flu at Christmas) so it would be very awesome to see everyone again.

Today is my mom's birthday :) By the sounds of it, she had a pretty decent day, except for the part where my brother broke in and ate all the chips - LOL. Thankfully mom came home and stopped him before he moved onto the cabbage rolls and chocolate cake. This is mom celebrating her bday last year:

It's safer for everyone if you don't ask me to explain that photo. All I'm going to say is that it was my Uncle David's fault. End of story.

I'm very excited by the fact that tomorrow is Friday. I've only worked 2.5 days this week (had French this afternoon) but it still seems like an insanely long week. I did a lot of cooking this week, so maybe that's why it seems longer. I dunno. I made some very amazing Monte Cristo Chicken Cutlets for dinner and a pineapple angel food cake for dessert (1 box angel food cake mix, 1 20oz can of crushed pineapple: just mix the 2 and nothing else. Bake for 25-30 mins and enjoy. So flippin' good!). Guess I was feeling domestic this evening :)

I really need to get some shit together this weekend. I need to mail away 2 bday cards and I have to mail home bday gifts for my mom, brother, nephew and niece. And I might get around to mailing a crazy belated bday and Christmas gift to someone else I know too. Canada Post is going to love me.

Ok. It's sleep time. I keep pausing to think of what to write next and I almost nod off. Oops.

Good Night!

Sarah

More snow from this morning.

Monday *sigh*

I cooked a kick ass dinner tonight. I had a little tenderloin steak in the freezer so I had that (just salt and pepper on it) with a salad and some peas (frozen, not canned) and it was great. A fast, simple dinner. Doesn't really lend to leftovers for lunch tomorrow but that's ok. I've still got soup from last night that I can take for lunch. 

My work day was a little on the busy side, which is never nice on a Monday. The afternoon proved to be very busy for a couple of my managers and lead to some confusion. That was fun to watch. You need to find amusement where you can. I have Wednesday off this week so it's a short week, which means I need to get more done in less time...but I get a day off, so it's worth it. Unfortunately, Mother Nature appears to be trying to rain (or snow) on my parade. Not nice.

Not much else to say tonight. I'm pretty sure my brain has already headed to bed. I really should do the same.

Good Night!

Sarah

I would so love to go back to Vegas!!

Ho-Hum

I had just decided to head to bed with my book and read for a bit when I realized that I hadn't blogged yet. So then I got up to go and find where I'd left my reading glasses. After doing that, I realized that I hadn't put away all the leftovers from dinner yet, so I did that. Now I'm back at the computer and am pretty sure I'm ok to blog now. LOL.

I had an interesting dinner tonight. I had a roast cornish hen and as a side, I had roasted brussel sprouts and jerusalem artichokes (aka sun chokes). Everything was pretty good. The hen was bigger than the ones you usually see in the grocery store but smaller than a chicken. Enough for 2 people/2 meals but that's it. The sunchokes didn't really taste like anything at all, so they picked up the flavour of the brussel sprouts that I cooked them with, which made them quite yummy.

I slept in and then spent most of my day cleaning. However, I did manage to lose a good chunk of time on Pinterest. That site is dangerous!!!!!!! I talked to my parents tonight and they told me funny stories of their afternoon as my nephew was over. He and my dad were trying to build Legos. My dad is really out of practice :)

I also sat in the sun for a bit this afternoon, in hope of re-charging my emotional batteries. It helped a bit but over all, it was still a ho-hum kind of day. I only left my apartment to take the recycling out. It was damn cold out there today so I'm not too upset about that fact. It's going down to -29 tonight. I hope those damn ground hogs were right and that we'll get an early spring.

Being a ho-hum kind of day, I got to do a lot of thinking, which was nice. Because it was mostly background thinking. Stuff I've been mulling over for a while. While doing a mundane task like the dishes, my mind was able to ponder things without me focusing 100% on them and I only really became aware of what I was thinking about when a revelation or solution popped up. I needed that. Granted, a lot of it just generated more things to think about, but that's ok. I'm feeling positive about my thoughts at the moment. I might just have a plan forming. And yes, me actually knowing what I'm doing for a change is a very scary notion. Most of the time I just make it up as I go along and pretend I know what the hell I'm doing.

But right now, all my mind is telling me to do is finish reading the chapter I'm on in my book and then go to bed. I don't have tomorrow off so getting up is going to be a bit of a pain in the ass. I need to check the bus schedule too... Sigh.

Good Night!

Sarah

One of my most favourite photos that I've ever taken

The World Is Nuts

Well I've certainly had a long and busy day, which is slightly surprising since it's Saturday :)

I got to sleep in, which was awesome. I had breakfast and then got my butt in gear and was off and running. I'm kind of impressed with myself. I managed to get 3 loads of laundry done. Pretty much all of the dishes done. I keep finding stray spoons in odd places. And then I stand there and think "How the hell did that get there?". I dunno. I cleaned the shower (after a run to Walmart because I was out of my Scrubbing Bubbles), did a little online shopping (bras for $10!!) and then made dinner. Actually, I think the shopping was before the shower but whatever.

Tonight I relaxed and watched a movie while surfing Pinterest and getting opinions on beer from my Facebook friends (for a recipe I'm making tomorrow. Stay tuned!). It was a good day all around.

Then I turned on the news. I'm more or less convinced that the whole world is going nuts. We've got Charlie Sheen posting a video asking a fugitive former police officer to call him, Egypt banning YouTube for a month thanks to a video that caused rioting a few months back and protesters in Montreal (again) lighting off a flare gun inside a building. Those crack pot survivalist groups that want to wander off and live theirs lives off the grid in the middle of a forest might actually have the right idea. Maybe not the armed to the teeth part but the running away from the world part. It's nutty out there.

Something a little "odd" happened to me today, twice. You know when you're in a room or your office or something and someone walks in? You didn't necessarily see or hear them come in but you know that they're there? You can sense them? Well that happened to me twice today. Except no one was there. I was in the kitchen both times it happened too. Perhaps one of my loved ones wanted to have dinner with me? Maybe I was just hearing the neighbours next door and reacting to them without being conscious of it. Who knows. Either way, it didn't creep me out and it was kind of nice thinking that I had company.

And now I'm thinking that it's a good idea to go to bed. Which is currently covered with a large assortment of laundry and I'm going to have to clean that off before I can get into bed. I probably should have done that sooner. Oh well :)

Good Night!

Sarah

Snow on my balcony this morning.

Hockey and Tofu

Man, I've missed hockey. I've been watching the Ottawa-Florida game on commercial breaks during my other shows. LOL. Ottawa is winning with 10 minutes left to go. Let's go Ottawa!!

Work was good today. Steady but not crazy, which was nice. It was nice to just keep moving from one task to the other and actually be able to finish something. I have a seminar tomorrow morning which sounds interesting. It's about mental health and stress in the workplace. I love that my employer holds seminars like this. I think it's very important.

I made a kick ass soup for dinner. It had tofu in it :) I marinaded some extra firm tofu in some toasted sesame oil, soya sauce and minced garlic and then I fried it up until it was a little crispy and tossed it on top of my soup. It was sooo good! I could have eaten to tofu as is. The soup was just mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, chicken broth, onion power, garlic and Udon noodles. Oh and and come chili pepper flakes. I've got some left for lunch tomorrow. I'm quite happy as to how my first attempt at using tofu turned out.

My lower back is quite sore tonight. Not sure what I did to it. Maybe I slid on some ice this morning and twisted and didn't notice. I dunno. I'll try walking around a bit more tomorrow and see if that helps. An ibuprofen gel cap before bed is a good plan too.

It's friggin' cold here. And we're in for it all week. It's weeks like this that makes me think that global warming just might be a myth. But then when I realize that 100 years ago, they had several weeks a winter that was this cold, I think that maybe it isn't such a myth.

6 minutes left in the hockey game (and I've been writing this blog for more than 4 minutes, got to love "sports time".) and I think it's time to head to bed. Maybe I'll leave the game on while I wash up and brush my teeth. Then I can just listen to the game.

Good Night!

Sarah

Ottawa scoring on NJ a couple years ago :)

Sunday, Lovely Sunday

It was a wonderful Sunday here today. I slept in and then had lots of energy when I woke up, which resulted in me getting my butt in gear and getting into the laundry room before everyone else. I got my 2 loads of laundry done and then made brunch.

I sat and watched some tv while having my brunch and then got off my butt and started the dishes. Watched 2 episodes of the Simpsons between rounds of dishes (they'd kind of piled up. Funny how that happens). Somewhere in the middle I tossed some frozen Ikea meatballs and a couple packs of sauce mix into the slowcooker and got it going. Once my kitchen was re-organized, I baked a loaf of banana bread, which turned out really well.

While the banana bread was baking, I cleaned up the living room (still need to sweep/swiffer) and finished emptying my carry on bag from my trip back at Christmas. Then it was time to tend to dinner. I stuck the potato Rosti in the oven and got the broccoli in a pot and set to boil. Sat and watched some more tv while everything was cook and surfed Pinterest for a bit.

It was crazy windy here today. This morning we kept getting snow squalls and then it would clear for a bit and then another squall would come through. Here's a video I shot late this morning:




My dinner was awesome and I have so many meatballs left! LOL. I'm taking some to work tomorrow for my co-worker Mandy and possibly a couple others. Free food tends to go fast in our office. A slice or two of banana bread might go along with it too. We'll see how I feel about sharing that.

After dinner I did up the dishes and then gave myself a facial and has a nice, long, hot soak in the tub. Sheer bliss. I made my lunch, watched The Simpsons and then played on Facebook until it was time to phone home at 9pm. Talked about food and work (my job) with my mom and hockey and work (his job) with my dad. LOL. Dad had to stop to update me on something major that had happened during the football game that he was currently watching. It made me smile. It reminds me of the Sundays I used to sit with him and watch football, or Saturday Night's watching hockey. I'm glad that hockey is back. Neither of our football teams made the playoffs so now I have something to be interested in again :)

I read another chapter in my book somewhere during the day too. It was just nice all around. Very relaxing and productive at the same time. My mind was quiet and I wasn't stressing about anything, which is a wonderful change of pace for me. Maybe something from yesterday stuck and my subconscious responded by relaxing and opted to keep quiet. I don't know. But whatever the reason, I appreciated the quiet today.

Here's hoping that today's stress-free, worry-free trend continues for the week. It's going to be damn cold all week and I need to focus on keeping warm :)

Good Night!

Sarah

My new Ikea pillow that I mentioned yesterday.

More Adventure Shopping and Why My Parents Aren't Allowed To Pick Movies Anymore

I've had a very harrowing day.

This morning, my mother, who hates to shop and hates crowds says to me "I guess we'd better go to Costco". What? Are you serious? It's the Sunday before New Year's and it's almost noon. And you voluntarily want to go to Costco? Turns out my dad needed his pills, which happen to be at the Costco pharmacy. I get it.

Since I'm almost always up for an adventure, off we go. The parking lot was a zoo. Several people took it upon themselves to "invent" parking spots, despite the fact that there were lots of available parking spaces at the far end of the lot. I guess lazy wins out over legal and safe. Inside the store wasn't much better. People were going every which way and there were little mobs of people all over the store wherever there was a free sample stand. But we were on a mission. I was looking for a very specific desk calendar and we needed dad's pills. And we pulled it off. Not only did we manage to get out alive and without any issues of cart rage, I also passed up a poutine and hot dog and we were home in an hour. We also got my calendar, dad's pills, some sinus medication for me, a case of Bush's beans for my parents and a bag of Cashew Clusters. After our adventure, I made lunch for my parents and myself. My dad took two bites of his egg, ran upstairs and threw up again. He then thanked me for the egg, because he felt monumentally better. Wish I could say the same thing for the bath mats. They got washed this afternoon :) You know the saying "It's not over until the fat lady sings"? In this house it's "The flu's not over until the bath mats get puked on". Good going dad.

Mom and I baked a ham for dinner and I made cheesy crescent rolls to go along with it. My dad managed to eat something that resembled dinner and kept it down, so that's a good sign.

My parents then decided to torture me as only they can. It started out innocently enough. Mom said "Let's watch a movie". Dad said "sure". So mom starts reading off the movie titles that they own (which is about 15 movies in total). I keep saying "no". I passed on one called "Superhero Movie". You guesses it. It's a spoof on Super Hero movies. Next thing I know, my dad's asking to read the back of it. Crap. Mom decided it would be good because it has Leslie Neilson and Pamela Anderson in it. I tried to explain to her that that wasn't a good sign but she didn't listen. So they decide to watch it. Those are 75 minutes that I'm never getting back. It spoofed Spiderman, Batman, X-Men, Fantastic Four....etc. It was brutal. Which means that my parents loved it. During one scene, which involved the two main characters, trying to have a romantic love scene, during which a lot of farting is coming from the main character's aunt, I thought my mom was literally going to fall out of her chair, she was laughing that hard. I think I had more fun watching my parents than I did watching the movie. I think I'm going to have to walk my ass to the store tomorrow and pick out some movies for the evening. If I leave it up to the other two, more brains cells might be killed needlessly. I'm also pretty sure that the end of the movie stole a scene from the movie Airplane too. Anything that references Airplane isn't good. And it had horrible, horrible sexual references through out the entire thing as well. And seeing as I was watching it with my parents, it was just that much worse. I think I'm scarred for life.

On that note, it's time to pop some sinus medication and head to bed. The damn snow plow woke me up at 2 something this morning after it decided to go down our street 5 times. Seriously! It's a small street. WTF??

Good Night!

Sarah

My mom took this very pretty photo today - it's her Christmas cactus and icicles in our front window.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Since I celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, today was my own day. I had big plans for it. I was going to get the laundry done, do up all the dishes, clean the bathroom and living room and bake a pie.
I got 3 loads of laundry done, most of the dishes done and I made the pie. LOL. I did get caught up on a good amount of TV watching and internet browsing though. I need another day off work in order to get caught up on the house work I should have done today.

I really hate doing house work. I like to cook, but don't like doing the clean up. I need to find a man who likes to clean. I'll cook for him, so long as he cleans for me. Except laundry. I don't actually mind doing the laundry. And I don't mind vacuuming either, but since I don't have carpets in my apartment, I don't do much of that. I miss having a dishwasher. My apartment in Calgary was awesome. It was big, bright and it had a built in, apartment sized dishwasher. Ottawa needs more apartments like that.

And God help me, I've discovered Pinterest. I could lose hours a day on that site. In fact, I'm pretty sure I lost several hours on there today. I did find some very cool recipes I now what to try and a couple very cool craft ideas. There's just a world of endless opportunities on there. It's crazy and wonderful all at the same time.

The pie I made today was a pumpkin pie and I made it from scratch. As in I cup up and scooped out and cooked the pumpkin myself. I cheated on the crust and used a pre-made one but it was a fresh, not frozen one so I looked home made. Not that it mattered what it looks like as I'm the only one eating it (for now). I may end up taking some leftovers into work. It's a very good pie. I'm quite impressed with myself. I had roast chicken, turnip and stuffing for dinner tonight. It was very lovely. I think I'm going to try a recipe I found on Pinterest for dinner tomorrow night, which will use up some of the leftover chicken and cheese I have in the fridge. I just remember to stop at the grocery store and pick up the few items that need to go with it.

It's back to work tomorrow. I think it's harder to go back to work after a long weekend than it is after a normal weekend. You get used to have the time off and it seems to fly by to quickly too. Oh well. Thankfully it's a short week.

To all the Canadians out there: Happy Thanksgiving and I hope everyone found at least 1 thing to be thankful for.

Good Night!

Sarah

A slice of my home made pumpkin pie!

My Eyes Are On Fire!

My eyes feel like they're on fire at the moment. God damned onions!!!! Even the most mild onion makes me cry when I cut it. It's brutal. It's like my eyes are uber sensitive or something. It totally sucks. I was cutting onions tonight as I'm making Cauliflower and Cheddar soup for dinner tomorrow night. I was cutting up all the veggies for it tonight, so that I just have to toss everything into the crock pot in the morning and turn it on before I leave for work. It will be mostly done by the time I'm home. I just have to puree it, add the cheese and couple remaining ingredients and then it will be done!

I made it through my french class today, just barely. It seemed very long today and my brain would not focus. That and the teacher disappeared for half hour at one point. He gave us a second 15 minute break and a half hour later, he still wasn't back yet. Just as we were all trying to decide what to do, he came back. Very odd. Work was then very busy as I played catch up. I wanted to be gone early as I had work related errands to run but alas, I was still out more than an hour late. At least I got everything I need to pick up for our pancake breakfast on Friday. With how busy things have been at work lately, I'm feeling like I've been rather anti-social. I haven't been eating lunch with the other lately and I actually miss it. Today I didn't eat lunch until 3pm and then I just wolfed it down at my desk before running off to hand out pay cheques. I think I'm sticking around to do overtimes tomorrow evening (on purpose) but I'm going to do the "other" job I've been trained on. It will be a fun break from my regular stuff.

Believe it or not, I think my little crystal meditation worked last night. By the time I got into bed, the pain in my shoulder was gone and I feel asleep quickly and didn't wake up until 3:15am and then I didn't really wake up again until my alarm went off at 6am. Usually I have to pee around 1am and then I wake up again between 5-5:30am, which really pisses me off since I get up at 6. I'm hoping for another restful night tonight.

My blog continues to grow. I have over 2000 page views now and this will be my 71st post. And for the first time ever, I had someone from Peru check out my blog. Very cool! I really wish I could connect with the people over seas who read this. If you don't know me (aka, aren't a Facebook friend), please email me or leave me a comment. I'd really love to say hi!

I think it's time to give my fire eyes a break and hit the sack.

Good Night!

Sarah

Elvis, Roy Orbison and A Flock of Seagulls

It's currently 12:34am. I am awake, thanks in part to the bottle of diet Pepsi and bag of M&Ms that I've been nursing for the last 2 hours. A co-worker lent me "Snow White and the Huntsman". Horrible movie. I very much disliked it. It is cool to see Charlize Theron as the evil queen. She did a good job. And Chris Hemsworth is easy on the eyes. But the rest of it...so not worth the 2+ hours. I ended up past forwarding through a lot of the final battle scenes because I just wanted it to end. "Mirror, Mirror" with Julia Roberts definitely gets my vote for the Snow White movie of 2012.

Anyhow, it was an interesting day. I braved the shitty weather (which actually cleared up a bit) to venture downtown to the market. With today (ok, yesterday at this point) being the first day of autumn, I was inspire to cook and if you're going to do it right, you need the best ingredients available. So a trip to the market to get fresh and local food stuffs was the order of the day.

I got celery for $1. A mixed bag of onions, potatoes and carrots for $5 (about a half quart of each), a turnip for $1, a head of broccoli for $1 and 2 heads of cauliflower for $1.50. I think I did well. I also hit up the Italian store for some hard to find pasta and special canned tomatoes and lucked out. The cheese I needed was on sale there so I grabbed it too. I got some freshly made turkey and apple sausages from the butcher and a trip to the Sushi place for lunch rounded out my market experience.

On the way back, that's when things got entertaining. While waiting for the bus, I noticed a man in an electric wheelchair. The thing was, he kept getting up out of the chair, would talk to his buddy, walk around and then sit back down. He did this about 3 times. He eventually turned towards where I was and that's when I saw his shirt. It said "Elvis Presley Roy Orbison Impersonator". And wouldn't you know it, the dude did look a little like Elvis (over weight, old Elvis). Sideburns and all. Some ladies stopped to ask him if a certain bus had passed and they thanked him by saying "Thank you. Thank you very much" and then laughed hysterically. They then took a photo with said Elvis/Roy impersonator, who once again got out of his wheelchair for the photo op. Odd indeed.

After I got home and had lunch, I had to run to the grocery store to pick up the few things that I didn't get in the market. On the way home, I could hear some seagulls making quite the fuss. I live close enough to the river that the seagulls are around. The fact that there's a Wendy's across the street and the woman 2 houses down feeds the damn things, keeps them around. Anyhow, I had just made it across the street when 4 seagulls came flying out from the front lawn of my apartment building and swooped over me, low enough that I had to duck. The lead seagull had half a bagel in its beak. That explains all the fussing. The 4 stupid gulls then proceeded to circle around and chase one and other at a rather low altitude. I guess the bagel was heavy. Stupid birds. Thankfully I managed to get inside my apartment building before I got shit on, so that was good.

For dinner I made a lovely soup. You can read all about it and get the recipe in my new blog: Cooking Shenanigans This blog is strictly for my kitchen adventures (or misadventures, of which, there are many). You know, one blog wasn't keeping me busy enough. LOL.

Thankfully I get to sleep in tomorrow. With my luck, I'll wake up at 6 or 7 and not be able to fall back to sleep.

I think it's bed time. Good Night!

Sarah

Taken in St. Stephen, NB in 2006