Nothing new here

I've now hit the point where I just want to get a job.

Of course, that's not realistic - I need to keep applying for jobs, plus I've got a bunch of doctor's appointments in September, and thus it's probably better if I start a new job after that.

I don't want to be realistic, though, I want to be employed. I'm sick of not knowing. (If I knew now that I'd have a job October 1, I'd be fine. If I knew it would be November 1, that would be fine. Sitting around is not good for me.)

A lot of former co-workers have gone the consulting route, but I'd prefer not to go that way for a few reasons. I'd miss things like health insurance and vacation. Yes, you can pay for those yourself and factor that in to your consulting rate, but that doesn't seem to be how it's working for people. Also, that seems to be putting yourself into perpetual job-hunt mode, and since I do not enjoy job hunting, that's probably not a good idea.

I'm working through my ... apathy? Boredom? Sick of job hunting-ness? I went to a salary negotiation workshop yesterday, and a behavioural interviewing workshop today. They were both very good. (My test interview told me I talk to fast and trip over my words - my observation, not anyone else's - but this is not new. Also, I say "um" a lot, and close my eyes when I'm thinking.)

I have an appointment on Thursday to talk with one of the consultants about my resume. I'm also planning to spend some time on Thursday working on the java course I started last week.

This frustration is also kind of foolish, because it's not like I've applied for hundred of jobs. Right now, the tally stands at 7. And I've only been out of work for a month, so it's not like it has been ages. I just wish something were happening.

I know that eventually things will come together. I also know that once things start happening, you can get a job very quickly. And I know that I'm good at what I do. I'm just impatient.

I am slowly going crazy....

On Tuesday, I met a friend for lunch. On the way there, the fan and air conditioner in my car stopped getting along.

Specifically, what happened was that when I had the fan on speeds 1, 2, or 3, the a/c worked but the fan didn't. When I had the fan on speed 4, the a/c turned itself off, but the fan worked. (If the a/c was off, fan speeds 1-3 still didn't work.)

Obviously, this couldn't continue - it's not so bad when it's just hot out, but it is a problem when trying to defrost the winter, and would become a major problem when it gets cold out. I called the garage I usually take my car in to and made an appointment for today.

This morning, I got up early to take the car in. I got them to drop me off at ITO, and I started a computer-based Java course. The way this place works is you do the test first (so you know where you're starting from), then do the training, then you have to get 90% on the test 3 times in a row to get a certificate. I got 52% on the test before I did any of the training.

You'd think this would make the training easier, but it actually makes it harder, because many of the concepts are familiar to me. That means I start skimming the material, and I miss the stuff I don't already know.

However, I made it through 3/4 of the first module. At that point, I stopped to go and meet one-on-on with one of the consultants to get resume feedback. By the time my meeting was over, it was 11:30, so I walked to a fast-food place for lunch.

When lunch was over, I headed back to ITO and read a bit until I thought I was ready to do more training. I then finished the first module and went through the second module.

At that point, my brain was full, and I didn't want to do any more training, but my car wasn't yet ready, so I did the test for the third module, just to see where I was. I got 74%. On some of the subsections, I got 100%, on others 0%. It's pretty obvious which ones I have encountered before.

Anyway, before I was forced to start reading the course again, I got a call that my car was ready, so I walked back to the garage to pick it up. It was less than a mile, so it was certainly walking distance.

I got the car, and then decided to stop at the tire place on the way home to get them to fix the tire that has a slow leak in it. End result? I took my car to two different garages in one day - oh, and my tire had a screw in it.

Everything was fixed, but the day was filled with far more waiting around than I can handle in a reasonable manner. I also hadn't eaten properly (or enough), and I certainly hadn't had as much water as I normally do, so I wasn't feeling all that well.

I ate as soon as I got home and took a nap to decompress, then I headed to the gym for Combat. I felt pretty bad when I got there, but (as I knew I would) I felt much better when I left.

Tomorrow will hopefully be full of a lot less sitting around and waiting.

Preservation

I think I've mentioned before that I have a vegetable garden. It usually turns out poorly - only tomatoes and cucumbers grow well. My priority is the tomatoes, so I'm not too upset by that.

This year, the only thing that grew was the tomatoes. The last 3 weeks have been hot and sunny, and the tomatoes are going crazy. In order to use some of them (and hopefully dispose of some of the fruit flies that have again invaded my kitchen), today I canned tomatoes. I sterilized 4 pint jars. After that, I boiled water and put the tomatoes in the boiling water for a minute or so, then took them out and put them into cold water. This makes them easy to skin, so I skinned them and put them in the jars, pressing down on each one to remove the air from the jar. When the jars had about 1/2 an inch of space left in them, I put in 1/2 tsp of coarse salt. Next I put the lids on the jars and put them in the canner, then processed them for 20 minutes.

When they were done, I took them out, set them on the counter, and waited for them to seal. When they did, I tightened the lids and they were done.

I've made tomato juice before, and that is much better when it's homemade. Hopefully the canned tomatoes will be as good.

Stop me if I'm babbling

You would think that since I'm unemployed, I'd be updating more. You would be wrong.

I started the week by attending a Business and Technology trends workshop at ITO. It is a three-day course - well, actually 2.5 days - that talks about different areas of high tech work in Ottawa, as well as different strategies for finding a job. One of the interesting things about the course was deconstructing company web sites to find out more about the company. For example, reading the news page might tell you more about their specific products (and thus the skills used to make their products, which might tell you whether you should apply or not). They also talked about reading all of the job postings, not just those you are qualified for. The purpose of this is, for example, if they are hiring an architect for a C++ product and you aren't qualified to be the architect (but an be a C++ developer), you can send in a resume and essentially beat the rush. Since companies often hire without posting jobs, your resume will be on file in case they decide to find a C++ developer without posting the job.

I'm not sure I'm explaining this well, but it was an interesting approach that complemented the approach that the last outplacement place I dealt with suggested (which was much heavier on face-to-face networking).

One of the other people in the workshop and I have been reviewing each other's resumes, and I think both of our resumes are much stronger as a result.

On Monday, I am signed up for the resume course, so hopefully that will be helpful as well.

This has also been a good week for talking with friends. Two of the people I worked with in my last job e-mailed or called me this week, I had lunch with a friend yesterday, and today I went in to my previous employer (i.e. the one I got laid off from 2 years ago) to have coffee with some friends there. The place is like a ghost town now. It's really sad (but coffee was fun). I brought in a plain cheesecake with brownie bits baked in to it. I called it an experimental cheesecake, but really all of them are experimental. I rarely make the same thing twice. It was good, though, and the guys appreciated it.

On a completely different topic, I'm glad today is my last day for the eyedrops for my eye infection, because for the last day I have gotten progressively worse at remembering to use them.

Changing topics yet again, Blogger has been acting weirdly for me lately. When I cut and paste web links, it treats them as text. Also, I am completely incapable of commenting on Sydney's blog. (I can comment on other blogs, and other people can comment on her blog, so I don't know what is going on.)

My doctor gets lonely if I'm not there every week

When my mom was here, I started having problems with my right eye. It would feel like there was something in my eye except, of course, there wasn't. The feeling would last from 30 minutes to 2 hours, then it would go away.

Last Thursday, I went to the doctor and found out I had an eye infection. I got antibiotic drops to put in the eye. It started feeling better immediately.

I had to apply the drops for a week, so this Thursday morning was my last application.

Friday afternoon I got the same feeling in my left eye. My doctor's office was closed for the day, so I went to the after-hours clinic associated with my doctor. I could have gone to a walk-in clinic, but this way my doctor automatically gets the information about my visit.

The verdict? More eye drops, 4 times a day, for another week. The problem now is that I have to do both eyes, which means I have to spend a minute 4 times a day with both eyes closed. So far I haven't walked in to anything, but I suspect it's coming. (Sure, I could just sit still, but that's not usually how it works.)

What to do?

(Edited to update the list)

I've been unemployed for a week now. It's interesting.

I was unemployed for 7 months 2 years ago. I don't recall really being bored for months. I suspect that was because I had been laid off from a company that had been going through layoffs every few months for 6 or 8 years (depending on how you count). By the time I was laid off, I was very burnt out. It took me several months before I was emotionally ready to look for a job. I was trying earlier, but I just couldn't get it together.

While I'm pretty optimistic that I will find a job more quickly this time, I also am getting bored far more quickly, so I've made a to-do list for non-job-hunting-related things.

Here it is:
Shred old papers
Clean out filing cabinet
Clean out furnace room
Clean off old computer
Dispose of old computer
Trim hedges by front walkway
Trim (other) hedges (OK, my sister did the trimming, but I nagged her. Still counts.)
Build a new composter
Wash windows (inside)
Wash windows (outside)
Make baby quilts
Get rid of old video tapes
Get rid of old cell phones
Patch hole by thermostat (which has been there for 2 years, since the thermostat was changed)

I'm trying to work towards one of these things most days, and so far it's going well. Today I dragged Wanda outside, and we started trimming the hedges by the front walkway. The hedge trimmer battery died, so we didn't finish, but we did make a good start at it.

Of course, there's the general gardening and house maintenance as well, but hopefully I will be able to make a good dent in this list before I go back to work - although I'd be OK with going back to work quickly, even if it meant I didn't finish the list.

Piecing it together

I know a couple of people who are pregnant, so this weekend I made two baby quilts.

I've done this before, but it has been a few years. It didn't take as long as I remember (possibly because I was motivated to get it done this weekend).

I'm not a perfectionist, so the resulting quilts are not perfect, but that's fine - they're intended to be used on a daily basis - to set on the floor for the baby to lie on, to cover up when reading a story, or whatever.

The unusual part of this project was that I didn't buy anything - not even thread. Everything I used was something I already had.

I'm happy with how they turned out. I would have liked to put a border of blue around the second quilt (to match the inner blue between the squares) but I didn't have enough blue, so that didn't happen.

My niece's visit went well. I've already talked about our trip on the steam train. We also went swimming, blew bubbles in the back yard, and went downtown to see the Parliament buildings and the Busker Festival.

She left (early) yesterday morning. Luckily, I was able to go back to sleep, since I didn't have to go to work.

When I got up, I started my day by applying for Employment Insurance. I was able to complete the application on-line, but still had to drop off my Record of Employment. I decided to put that off until today.

I also sent an e-mail letting people know that I'd been laid off, and canceled my RRSP contributions for now. Another logistical issue - I had to find new classes at the gym. There's no point in driving out to where I used to work to go to the gym. Instead, I'll be going to one of the two locations close to the house.

After that, I went back to updating my resume. I had started doing that at the beginning of July, so it wasn't as onerous a task as it might have been otherwise. I'm letting it sit for a while, then I'll go back and revisit it.

Today I got up and went to Service Canada to drop off my Record of Employment. While I was there, I went down the hall to Northern Lights, and talked with someone there. Northern Lights is a service that helps Canadians looking for work. One of the questions was "what factors have kept you from finding a job". "I've only been unemployed for a day" wasn't an answer.

They recommended that I do a course on the job market for high tech, so I will hopefully be able to do that next week or the week after.

I was laid off in 2007. In that case, I had 2 months as a full-salaried employee, followed by a generous severance package and outplacement help.

This time I don't have any of that. However, I do have more marketable skills and more recent job hunting experience. I'm also not nearly as burnt out as I was the last time.

Right now, I'm busy. I'm setting up networking appointments, scheduling courses, and dealing with the logistics of not having a job.

I know that, as time goes on, a lot of the stuff I'm still busy with will be gone.

Last time I was laid off, I found I had to take an afternoon nap every day. I have been too busy to need that yet, but I know that job hunting forces me to organize my day differently. Time gets split between attending networking meetings, setting up networking meetings, reading job postings, and applying for jobs - but it's not a typical 9-5 day.

It will be interesting to see what happens.

All aboard!

Last year when my niece came to visit, she wanted to go on a train. We rode on the O-train, which is part of Ottawa's transit system. She was thrilled.

When I found out she was coming to visit again this year, I asked Wanda to make reservations on the Hull-Chelsea-Wakefield steam train. This consists of a 1.5 hour trip from Hull to Wakefield, 2 hours in Wakefield, and 1.5 hours back.

Bella loved it. It was really well done - they brought around colouring papers & crayons for the kids, a face painter made the rounds, and musicians travelled through the cars. When we got there, we got to see the engine turning around, then there was a tour of the engine. After that, we had time to wander through the shops before returning.

There was a tour guide (in striped overalls) in each car. Everyone was very friendly, and Bella had a great time.

My day

I went to work this morning just in time to be laid off.

When I started this job two years ago, it was great. I learned a lot and really enjoyed it.

Over the last few months that has changed, to the point where I was already considering job hunting. (I was too lazy to do much job hunting, but the thought was there.)

This will give me the chance (& motivation) to focus on finding a job I can be enthusiastic about.

The added bonus? My niece is here, and I got to spend the afternoon swimming in the kid's pool at the sportsplex with her. It was fun - and now I am really, really tired.

My new hobby

Back in April, I made an appointment with my doctor for a checkup. She doesn't schedule that many per day, so my appointment was actually two days before I left for the cruise.

After I made the appointment (but before the actual appointment), my left eye started twitching. That was - odd. I resolved to mention it at the appointment.

While I was there, I also mentioned that one of my sisters had thyroid cancer, and thus my doctor spent a lot of time checking my thyroid.

I left with a requisition for a blood test and a thyroid ultrasound. I had the blood test done the day before I left on the cruise.

I went on the cruise, and came back to find out my doctor had called while I was away.

This, by the way, is never good news.

My bloodwork was low in a couple of things, but nothing that would explain the twitching. I started taking additional vitamins, recording all twitches, and went for the thyroid ultrasound.

Three days later, another call from my doctor. I have a 3 c.m. growth on my thyroid - they're scheduling a biopsy.

I went back for the followup last week. The eye twitches are happening on average 29 times a day. This is well outside the realm of normal - more specialists are in my future.

Keep in mind that except for the the twitching and an occasional ache in my neck, I feel perfectly fine - and the twitching is far less annoying now that I'm not recording all of them.

This week, I have no medical appointments. Yay!

So, to celebrate, I stubbed my toe this afternoon. I'm pretty sure it's broken.

Guess what I'm doing tomorrow? (I refuse to go to Emergency - I can't begin to imagine what the wait time would be for a critical issue like "I stubbed my toe".)

A bear magnet? You mean something that attracts bears?

Do I start every post with "I didn't mean to disappear"? It feels like I do.

I actually had thought about posting something on Friday, but I was too lazy.

Anyway, Friday at around 4:30 I was at work, and it started raining pretty hard. I didn't want to get soaked, but by 5:15 getting soaked was preferable to staying at work any longer, so I ran for the car. I was wearing capris, but the 4 inches of standing water between me & the car (along with the continued downpour) meant that I got soaked to the knees anyway.

Of course, by the time I was three blocks away, the sky was clear.

After I got home, I went to work on a project my niece volunteered me for.

You see, I made her a polar fleece bathrobe for her birthday in February. A couple of months later I was talking with her on the phone, and she said "Big A [my cousin's daughter] wants a bathrobe just like the one you made me."

Long story short, I volunteered to make bathrobes for my cousin's 2 kids so that Bella can give them as birthday gifts.

Bella is coming for a visit on Wednesday, so the bathrobes needed to get done.
I had finished one the week before, but I cut out most of the second one and sewed it on Friday. It only took 1.5 hours, which wasn't bad at all. Hopefully the girls will enjoy them.

In completely unrelated new, I went out to the car this morning, and I found 2 AAA batteries and a bear magnet on the front seats.

I have no idea where they are from. I asked Wanda about them (since she was the last one to drive the car) but she claims she has no idea. It is very odd.

Miscellaneous

Thanks to my friend Jennifer, I bought some amazing fruit fly traps. They don't get rid of 100% of them, but I don't get swarmed while going in to the bathroom anymore. (I really don't understand why fruit flies are so fond of my bathroom mirror.)

Anyway, for anyone who is interested, the trap consists of a small plastic jar with a screw-on top, and a horizontal tube that the fruit flies use to enter the trap. When you get the trap, you need to soak the lure in water for 15 seconds, then put it in the bottom of the jar. There is a sticky card as well - you remove the backing, fold it so that the sticky side faces the horizontal tube, and put it in the jar. Screw the lid back on, wait 12 hours or so, then laugh manically at the trapped fruit flies. (I checked it earlier than that, but, just as a watched pot never boils, a watched fruit fly trap never attracts fruit flies.)

They are made by Contech (http://www.contech-inc.com) , and sold at Canadian tire.

This really wasn't intended to be a commercial, but I do like the fruit fly traps.

In other news, remember how I was supposed to start boxing again this week? The summer session got cancelled. No boxing until fall.

That gives me the following choices:
- pick up a class at the gym on Tuesdays
- remember that, while in theory I go to the gym on Thursdays, in practice I really don't, and just accept 3 days a week for the summer.

I think we all know which way I'm going to go.

In other news, I finally changed the second light bulb in my fridge.

While I was on my cruise, both light bulbs burnt out. Well, actually, the second light bulb burnt out. I didn't realize there were two until I went to change it, so the first one could have been burnt out for ages.

Anyway, the way my fridge is designed, there is a light bulb on each side. They are covered with a plastic cage - presumably to prevent you from breaking the bulb while putting something into or out of the fridge.

The cage on the right side fell out about 8 years ago. I wasn't able to figure out how to put it back in. It stayed on the top shelf of the fridge for a while. People would come over, mock me for not being able to put it back in, try to put it back, fail, and then stop mocking. Finally I gave up.

That bulb was easy to change, and I replaced that one as soon as I bought the bulbs.

The second bulb, however, was still covered by the cage, and I'm here to tell you that, if putting the cage back on is hard, removing it is equally hard. I tried to turn the bulb with the cage still in place, with limited success.

This morning I decided enough was enough - either I'd get the bulb changed, or I'd give up & put the new bulb away.

After a little maneuvering, I managed to remove the bulb with the cage intact. Yay!

I then grabbed the new bulb, went to put it in, and ... dropped it on the floor, where it shattered.

Luckily, this was before I bought groceries, so "light bulb" went on to the grocery list. (I lost the list before I got to the grocery store, but I remembered the bulb, so all was well.)

This time, I was more careful, and I finally succeeded. I hope these replacement bulbs last another 9 years so I don't have to do this anytime soon.

Saskatoon season

I think I've mentioned before that I grew up in Saskatchewan. My grandparents lived on a farm, and we'd spend summers out there.

They had a big garden with a variety of vegetables, as well as strawberries and raspberries.

However, around this time of year, we'd go and pick one of the native fruits from that area - Saskatoon berries.

My grandmother wore a dress every day. Saskatoon picking day was pretty much the only day when she'd wear pants. We'd all put on old clothes, and pack ourselves into the van. We'd get to wherever the saskatoons were good that year. When we got there, we'd all pile out of the van. Everyone would tie a pail around her waist with an old tie, and we'd start picking.

We picked chokecherries on occasion as well - they are easy to pick because of how they grow on the branch. Saskatoons are not easy to pick - you have to pick each berry individually. Needless to say, we'd get bored quickly.

When we finished, we'd head home. At that point, the pails were half-filled with berries, and then filled with water. (This made it easier to pick out bad berries, as well as twigs and leaves). Once they were drained, my grandmother would put the berries on a tablecloth, and then "sort" them into containers. The sorting basically consisted of taking out all of the bad/unripe berries.

Saskatoons are small, purple berries. They look like small blueberries, but have a stronger taste.

Anyway, a few years ago I discovered a farm outside of Ottawa that sells saskatoons. It has become a part of my summer routine to make one or two trips out there.

Today I went out there after work and picked up some saskatoons.

There's really no point, this is just a rambling story.

This is really sad

So Iwent to the gym today. I didn't have a lot of time before class, so I changed, locked my locker, and headed off to get set up. I was doing a weight lifting class, and I ended up being a bit of a distance from anyone else.

In this class, everyone gets a step, which is used as a bench for chest presses and triceps. You also need a mat, a bar, and various weights for the bar. Since everyone has a step, the area behind the step becomes your own personal area for the class.

Half way through the warm-up track, a woman came in. She set her gym bag just to my right, and proceeded to get her weights. She then set up her bench about a foot to the right of my bench. There was about a foot to the right of her bench before another bench, as well (we'll call the person at that bench C). After all of this, she took off her flip flops and started to put on her shoes and socks.

There was a large space to my left, but I had no intention of moving over because 1) I was there first, and 2) if I moved over, the pole about 5 feet in front of me would block my view of the instructor. I hate to admit it, but #1 had more to do with it than #2. (She didn't ask me to move over, but I'm guessing she thought I would if she squeezed herself in.)

Anyway, the warm-up track finished and the next track (squats) started. This woman then picked up her bar, walked behind C, and stood in an empty space there for the squat track.

The next track was the chest track (on the bench), so she spent that track at her bench. After that was back/hamstrings - and she was back in the spot she'd used for squats. Triceps? Back at the bench. Biceps? Over in the other spot. By the lunge track, she had picked up her bench and moved over to the other spot (but left her mat behind).

I do not get it. Was she just unusually restless? Did she want to carry her weights an extra 20 feet every track so that she got that extra workout? Was she upset that I didn't move over for her?

Anyway, after class I went back to my locker.

As you may recall from yesterday, I was using my boxing lock. I bought it and my other (lost) lock at the same time, and they are identical except for the combination. In fact, the combinations are pretty close as well. After I packed up my bag, I went to put my lock in my bag ... and my lock is black.

I was looking at the right style of lock yesterday, but the wrong colour. I tried the plain, silver locks, not the black ones.

Unfortunately, I was at a different gym today, so I couldn't check the lost & found again, but guess what I'm doing on Monday?

If my ears weren't attached to my head ...

I went to the gym on Monday. After the gym, I bought groceries. Since my gym is in a grocery store, this was not difficult (except for the fact that I was really hungry).

I didn't go to the gym on Tuesday. No real reason, it just hasn't been a part of my routine since I had Sparks on Tuesdays, and I start boxing on Tuesdays next week, so I just didn't make the effort to go.

Yesterday I went back to the gym. I got changed, tied my hair back, reached in my bag for my lock ... stopped, opened the zipper further and searched for my lock, took everything out of the bag, and finally reached the conclusion that my lock was gone. The most likely scenario is that I left it at the gym on Monday.

I was at the same gym location, so I asked at the front desk if anyone had turned in a lock. No luck.

I left my locker unlocked, since I had nothing much in it, and went to my class.

After the class, I sat down on the floor and went through the entire lost and found box. There were probably 20 locks there, but none was mine.

I have temporarily solved the problem by moving my boxing lock into my gym bag. This will work well all the way through next Monday. Tuesday, however, it will fall apart.

Looks like I need to buy a new lock.

Random stuff

1. Quebec City is always enjoyable. I probably would have enjoyed the historical aspect more if I hadn't just gotten back from overseas. Still a good time, though.
2. On my way home from work, I was stopped at a stop sign waiting to turn left at a T intersection (i.e from the vertical part of the T on to the horizontal part). A car (who did not have a stop sign) stopped to let me in. This happened twice (at two different intersections). In what alternate reality does this make sense? Don't make up your own traffic rules, people.
   
3. I have a food intolerance to peppers. I don't go into anaphylactic shock or anything, but I do get sick. Anyway, on the way home from Quebec City, we stopped at a restaurant and I ordered a sandwich without peppers. Naturally, it came with peppers, so I sent it back. They then removed the peppers and sent it out to the table. Yes, I got mildly sick. If I were truly allergic, I don't think I'd ever eat in a restaurant. I should know by now not to order things that require changes to the "usual" ingredients.
4. If your job involves taking pictures through a car window of a crying child whose father just died, you need to re-evaluate your life.
   
5. While I was in Europe, my sister e-mailed me a link to this:

I think that's all for today.

So, 400 years is old here?

This weekend I'm in Quebec City. We left on Thursday night, and stopped for the night once we got past Montreal. The hotel we stayed at was quite nice.

Friday morning we got up, went for breakfast, then resumed our trek.

We got to the hotel in Quebec City around 1:30. (It's not that it's that far, we just didn't finish breakfast until 11).

We checked in, then headed out to Old Quebec. It's about a 15 minute walk from our hotel.

If you haven't been to Quebec City before, here's a primer - it's all uphill. Anyway, we walked to Old Quebec, then started wandering around. We did some shopping/browsing, and had a small lunch. We wandered through the alley of artists.

Eventually, we ended up at the Chateau Frontenac (as you do).

By this point, we were tired, so we headed back to the hotel (via the scenic route). We grabbed some food, then relaxed for the evening.

This morning, we got up, ate our breakfast (which was included in our room rate), then headed back to Old Quebec. We split up for a few hours. I went down to lowertown and wandered through the shops (buying nothing except a beverage). After that, I climbed back up the stairs and went for lunch. Eventually, it was time for all of us to meet up again.

Just as we met, it started raining. We went in to the Chateau Frontenac, and made a reservation for a tour. Our tour time was about an hour away, so we stopped for some food. The tour was interesting, but not as good as it could have been. For one thing, our tour guide was in character as someone who was there when the hotel opened, and she spent a lot of time tittering.
It was still raining after the tour, but we went back to Lowertown. We grabbed a snack, went to Place Royal, and then got a cab back to the hotel.

And ... that's the trip. Tomorrow is just the drive home.

Burger & fries

Last week, I somehow ended up at the Bakerella website. I don't remember how, exactly, but I loved the burger and fries made out of cupcakes, sugar cookies, and brownies. When I made plans to get together with friends on the weekend, I knew I had to try them.

They turned out better than I expected. They are very sweet, so if I make them again, I'll just put the "lettuce" icing on the burger, and skip the ketchup and mustard.

Thinking inside the box

Yesterday Wanda and I went to see Chicago at the NAC. We bought our tickets on the weekend, and ended up sitting in one of the boxes. The biggest disadvantage of the seats was that they were balcony box seats, and one of us (me) has a bit of trouble with heights. It was OK when the show was on, but not so enjoyable when there was nothing to concentrate on.

Generally, though, I liked the seats - there were only 6 seats in the box (and 4 were empty), so we didn't have people walking over us. We also were some of the first people out of the theatre, and thus out of the parking garage.