1,2,3,4,5...

Today I counted my steps. Not all the steps I took all day, but the number of steps on common routes I take.

From my desk to the kitchen/bathroom area: 35 steps
From my desk to the water cooler: 51 steps
From my desk to the front door of the building: 61 steps
From the front door to my car: 45 steps (approximately, I was talking to a colleague so I may have lost count)
From my car to the front door of the house: 33 steps
From the kitchen to the computer: 41 steps

Something isn`t working properly here

I have a bread machine. I go through times where I use it often, and then times where I don`t use it for months.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to make bread and it didn`t rise properly.

I had two containers of yeast in the cupboard - one that I suspected was too old to use, and another that I thought was OK. When the bread didn`t rise properly, I assumed I had grabbed to wrong one.

Today I did an experiment to determine which container of yeast was still usable. The results: both are too old. I need to buy more yeast.

Is it just me, or is it dark in here

Today I participated in earth hour. I`ve got to say that I`m not sure I get the point. Yes, turning out your lights will reduce your electricity use - but then you`re sitting in the dark. Is that really a viable solution? I think I`m missing something.

Why won`t that bird fly more slowly

Today I started an online photo scavenger hunt as started by Krstlchik.

I joined the group & stopped on the way home from work to take pictures. I have some good ideas for some of the items. Hopefully they will work out.

It definitely made my drive more interesting. (Hey, that tree kind of looks like a triangle!)

Apricot

It`s Thursday - boxing day - which is always busy. However, I did find time to take a shower using bubble bath as body wash. Apricot ginger bubble bath, to be specific. (My face is red because of boxing, not the bubble bath. )

WikiHow to the rescue

I`m very uninspired - and sleepy - today. However, Wikihow came to the rescue and I made an origami jumping frog from a rectangular piece of paper. I`m pretty sure this is the first time I have successfully made something by following printed origami instructions. Usually I hit one instruction I can`t understand (as I did when attempting my paper airplane experiment a while ago).

Happy

Inspired by Golf Widow and Things I`m grateful for, today I made a list of things that make me happy.

Here it is.

1. The birds singing outside. It gives me hope that spring might someday arrive.
2. Sunshine - let's call this the silver lining to our drawn-out winter - the days are sunny and there's no rain.
3. Boxing. There is nothing like the feeling that I get after a killer hour long boxing session.
4. Jelly beans - which admittedly I should stop eating before I make myself sick.
5. The internet.
6. Dixie Chicks concerts
7. The fact that I don't have to worry about clean water or sufficient nutritious food.
8. Song: Terri Clark, Damn Right
9. Movie theatres. I never rent movies - I am too easily distracted and will wander off before I figure out who is who in the movie - but I like going to theatres to watch movies (even if it's only once or twice a year).
10. TV on DVD. With TV on DVD I only have to learn who the characters are once, and thus I don't wander off as often. I have no idea why it works that way, but it does.
11. Camping. Sitting around a campfire with nothing in particular to do and all day to do it in.
12. Frequent flier lounges at the airport.
13. My friends.
14. Those chocolate truffle things from Costco. I don`t know what they`re actually called, but they are very, very good.
15. Album: Brad Paisley, 5th Gear
16. Living in a place with 4 distinct seasons (even though winter is attempting a hostile takeover of spring).
17. My family. As George Burns said, "Happiness is having a large, loving, close-knit family in another city."
18. Saskatoon berries
19. The writers strike is over & TV is coming back.
20. The sound of rain on the roof while I’m dry & warm inside.
21. Karaoke machines. (Note: This may not make people trapped in a room with me & a karaoke machine happy, but this list isn’t about them. )
22. My job.
23. The people at Visa who watch out for credit card fraud.
24. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - a trilogy in 5 parts.
25. Garlic. Especially that garlic dip from Farm Boy.
26. My new computer reboots much, much faster than my old one.
27. My niece. She had her 4th birthday party at the museum (because she loves dinosaurs). Here’s our conversation about it:
    Me: How was your birthday party? Did you have fun at the museum?
    Her: Yes.
    Me: Did you see dinosaurs?
    Her: No (in a mocking, you must be kidding tone).
    Me: No?
    Her: No, dinosaurs are extinct. That means they are all dead.
    Me: Oh. Did you see dinosaur bones?
    Her: Yes.
28. Arrogant Worms concerts.
29. Flowers in the spring.
30. Driving down the highway in the spring with the windows open.


31. The amazing people I’ve worked with, especially the guys.




32. Pens that write well.
33. Fresh tomatoes from the garden in the summer.
34. Committing to doing a new thing every day is giving me the push I needed to do things that I’ve been thinking about for ages.
35. French fries with that mystery spice on it. I have no idea what it is, but it’s on the fries at Baton Rouge, and it was on the fries at the place across from my high school.
36. Facebook has allowed me to get back in touch with friends I had lost touch with.
37. Alabama’s The Cheap Seats, which somehow captures the feeling of sitting outside watching a ball game.
38. Income tax software.
39. Mahna Mahna
40. Harvest sunsets on the prairies.
41. Hanging clothes out on the clothesline in the summer.
42. Ice cold water on a hot day.
43. The first snowfall of the year.
44. Anne of Green Gables. I read it as a child, and then bought it before a plane ride as an adult. It’s embarrassing to giggle out loud on a plane while reading silently to yourself. Especially at a children’s book.
45. West Jet
46. My dishwasher, also known as the only reason I ever put dishes away.
47. Wiki How
48. Sting Rays.
49. Sequoias
50. Blogger makes doing things like uploading photos easy.

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Business

Although I read news online pretty much every weekday, I actually get more out of a paper newspaper. I find that when I read a paper copy, I notice stories that otherwise probably would not catch my eye.

Today I read a paper copy of the Ottawa Business Journal. I have read the online version, but the paper copy (although not as up to the minute) was definitely worth the time.

Grenades

Today I made a vinegar grenade. Basically, you fill a film canister half full with vinegar. (I also added a drop of food colouring). Then you take a plastic lid (from a water bottle) and fill it with baking soda. You then float the water bottle lid on the vinegar, and put the lid on the film canister.

Then you throw the film canister. The vinegar mixes with the baking soda, and the expanding gas blows the lid off the canister.

You can see where the food colouring hit the snow.

Library

Today I went to the main branch of the Ottawa public library . Oddly enough, I`ve lived here for 13 years and never made it there.

It`s quite nice - some stained glass windows, reading areas, and, of course, a lot of books.

Gregorian chants

Today I attended a performance of Gregorian Chants.

It was interesting. First of all, the choir was mostly women, which I was not what I expected.

The overall verdict - it was interesting and well done, but like yoga for me in that I can see how people could find it relaxing, but after about 10 minutes it makes it impossible for me to sit still.

A new thing on the internet? Must be Thursday.

Today I tried Apple Safari.  I tried to give you a link to it, but it went very, very crazy.  (It's easy to do in internet explorer, but safari has a mind of it's own.)

It's less intuitive than I expected.  Adding a new tab is possible, but there's no button for it on the page (that I found).  It does have pre-loaded links to things like Google Maps, Yahoo,  Wikipedia, and YouTube.  And, for some reason, when I type this in Safari (although I can't add a link), it tells me when I spell something wrong instead of me having to remember to check.  (I usually only remember when I use the word "broccoli" in a post, because I know I can't spell it.  In fact, I spelled it wrong explaining that - but it was easy to fix.)

I admit this is geeky

Today I used CVS to store code. Admittedly, this is something I could/should have done a while ago, but today I finally got around to it.

It seemed like a good idea at the time

Today I watched a TV show upside down. I did not turn the TV upside down, I sat with my legs against the back of the loveseat, my back on the seat, and my head hanging down off the edge. I remember doing this as a kid. It wasn`t nearly as comfortable as I remember. I also found that the character`s mouths seemed to get ... almost detached from the rest of their face. (Obviously, the problem was with my perception from being upside down, I`m sure the show was fine.)

It's not easy being green

Today I ate three green meals. Admittedly, not every individual compoment was green, but over all they were green.

First breakfast - oatmeal (with green food colouring), Havarti with dill cheese, and kiwi fruit.

Lunch was green pasta with basil pesto and broccoli.

Supper was garlic pesto wraps with roast beef, guacamole, and spinach. (There would have been dill pickles as well, but I couldn't get the jar open). Dessert was lemon pie coloured green.

Palm Sunday

Today I went to a church service at a church that just opened this weekend. It was interesting because at the beginning of mass the priest explained how everything was going to work, since it was new to everyone. Since it was Palm Sunday, the place was packed and people were standing along the walls. Hopefully it won't be that full every week.

Cleaning up

Today I shovelled off part of the street. My street is normally quite wide, but with the recent snow, it's down to one lane, and there are big ruts from traffic. I went out and spent a few minutes shovelling snow from between the ruts. It was totally selfish - I'm hoping this will minimize the scraping sounds from below my car as I drive down the street.

I also created an area for things that need to be given away.

Apparently my brain is forgetting things

Today I did a test to see if I could pass 8th grade science.

I got a 76%.

Apparently I've forgotten things since 8th grade.

Sandwiches

Today I made sandwiches for a downtown soup kitchen. I made roast beef on 7 grain bread. They look good, even though I cannot cut bread without veering off into a diagonal direction.

Too sleepy to think of a meaningful title

Today I instant messaged my sister in a browser, instead of using the yahoo IM application.

I also went to a movie and parked in the back of the theatre, instead of at the side. This meant we had to walk around the theatre to get in, but when we got out we were right by the car. Not a bad plan.

Warning: More snow whining

Today I shovelled out my furnace vent. I'm kind of partial to the heat staying on, and it's supposed to snow again this week.



I also considered trying to get some of the snow off the roof, since a house in Ottawa actually had it's roof split in two due to snow, but I'm too short. I'm also too lazy to carry a ladder through 3 feet of snow, so I'm settling for keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for spring.

Seriously, can the snow stop?

Back in December, I signed up (and installed) for skype. Today I worked from home this morning (because my car had sunk into the snow of the driveway & I was too lazy to shovel it out), so I used skype to instant message a co-worker.

Note: a lot of new thing a day-ers have had new things involving snow lately.

Here's what it looked like here yesterday:

Left: My sister shovelling from the house to the driveway

Centre: From the driveway back towards the house

Right: The back yard

My street is down to one lane. (In the summer, you can have cars parked on both sides & still have room to pass a car driving in the opposite direction).

Rumour has it we get more snow this week.

Food & Computers

Today I made vegetable hash . This included ingredients I have never used before, such as acorn squash. It was quite good.

I also played Sims2 Castaway on the DS for the first time.

And, since I recently got a new computer (and I had to answer some work questions this morning) I used 3 computers almost simultaneously.

How to kill time

It keeps snowing here. (I realize I say that a lot, but it's well into March and rumour has it we will get a total of around 45 centimeters of snow this weekend. I am very, very sick of snow.)

Anyway, today I bought a Nintendo DS. This will come in handy if it keeps snowing, as sooner or later I will give up and just stop shovelling. If that happens, I will need to have something to do in the house.

As well, I had pop from The Pop Shoppe. It was enjoyable.

Borrowing ideas again

Today's idea is another one inspired by a fellow new-thing-a-day blogger - in this case Krstlchik. I uploaded a picture to photo2text.

Give me a tea

I normally drink water at work. However, today I made tea using our crazy coffee maker.

Really, really sick of the snow

I would love to stop shovelling snow any time now, but unfortunately we're still getting snow in amounts big enough that I have to shovel. In particular, today was one of the worst days we've had. There was a lot of snow, and it also rained overnight, so the snow was really packed. It took about a half an hour for me to shovel the front walk, clean off the car, dig through the mound of snow left by the plow, and get the car unstuck from the driveway (since it got stuck while I shovelled through the snow plow mound).

As a result, by the time I got to work my socks were soaked. So today I took of my socks to dry them, and wore shoes without socks all day. I've obviously worn sandals without socks before, but I think this is the first time for regular shoes.

And when I got home, the trouble light was still flashing on the alarm panel (as it had been when I left this morning), so I called my alarm company for service.

(Really, the rest of the day was fine.)

Squeakly clean

I'm not used to working somewhere with a dishwasher, but since this building doesn't have a cafeteria, there are dishes available in the common area. Last week a dishwasher was installed to cut down on the dishes lying dirty in the sink. Today I unloaded the dishwasher at work.

Do not adjust your computers

Teehr is a tohrey taht the haumn biran rades wrods as a wohle, and taht if the frsit and lsat ltetres are in the rghit palce, we can udstnaerd it. Tdoay I ppsuorley wotre a pgarpraah wtih the lteters mxied up. It was vrey hrad to do. It mdae me wnat to use ltos of srhot wrdos. Lnog wdros are hrad. So did it wrok? Can you raed tihs?

Broccoli

Today I blanched broccoli. I should have blanched something I can spell.

Anyway, blanching is a process that involves boiling the vegetable in salted water for a short period of time. (For broccoli, I boiled it for 2 minutes.) After that, you either immerse it in ice water or run it under cold tap water.

Basically, it cooks the vegetable a bit, while still leaving it crunchy.

Before:

During:

After:

I'm not sure how visible it is, but the blanching process - besides cooking the broccoli - made it much more colourful.

Cutting glass can be fun - if it doesn't cut you back

Today I made a mosaic bowl. Basically, it involved cutting pieces of coloured glass, glueing them to the bamboo bowl, and then grouting it. It was fun, and I'm happy about the way it turned out.