Yup, it's fall.

I had a few things to pick up at the store this morning, and Wanda wanted to borrow the car at 11, so I got moving early-ish today. I was home with time to spare, then she took off and I was stuck here.

It has been a long time since I have been car-less on a Saturday.

Luckily, the weather was beautiful. I decided I'd better take advantage of it.

The days lately have been quite warm (albeit rainy), but the snow is coming. Usually I pull the garden out on Thanksgiving weekend. This year I wasn't sure I'd be able to, since it has been so wet. When today was nice, I decided to get it done. I picked the tomatoes. I picked about 2 gallons of green tomatoes, a lot of them quite small. I picked my four carrots. They were beyond tiny, possibly because someone (I'm looking at you, rabbit trying to hide under the bush) ate the tops to almost nothing. Put together, they would not make one small carrot.

I also picked the cantaloupes. This is the first year I've grown them. They grew really quickly, then ... kind of stalled. I'm not sure whether they'll keep ripening now that they're off the vine (or how to know that they're ready). I will have to do some investigation.

Once I picked the vegetables and fruit out of the garden, I pulled out the plants and put the tomato stakes back in the shed. I also turned off the water to the tap outside.

When I got back in the house, I took a nap (yup, I'm starting to require daily naps), then worked on the quilts. I got a long way towards being finished - which is good. The pieces are on the dining room table, and I need to get it cleared off before the guests arrive tomorrow night. (I could just temporarily move the pieces of material somewhere else, but I'd much rather be done.) I've also figured out what to do with the end squares.

I'm making 16 patchwork pieces in total - one for each grandchild - and I suggested to my mom that we make polar fleece quillos. A quillo (which I'm not sure I'm spelling right) is a small quilt that folds up to make a pillow. (There is a pocket on the quilt that you turn inside out with the rest of the quilt inside.)

I suggested that we use the patchwork pieces I'm creating as the cover for the pocket, and leave the rest as simple polar fleece. That's the easiest option, and most likely to result in actually getting these done sometime this decade.

My short day

I slept in late today. Very late. It made for a short day.

I did manage to apply for a couple of jobs, so that's good. The number of jobs being advertised seems to be picking up, which is also good. According to the news, the unemployment rate is dropping. I'd love to be part of that statistic.

I dragged Wanda out grocery shopping this afternoon. We should be set for food for Thanksgiving. That's good, because I imagine the stores will be crazy tomorrow.

I'm continuing to work on the quilt. I now have a deadline - I need to get it done so that I get the table cleaned off before the guests arrive on Sunday.

Feeling foolish

Do you remember how my cordless drill didn't work? Do you also remember how everyone asked me if I had charged the battery?

Do you remember how I said that I'm not an idiot and of course I charged the battery? And how I had even tried another battery?

Funny story.

Today I decided to work on building a new composter. The old one had been moved a couple of times and was falling apart. A few weeks ago, I painted some boards that I had sitting around the house.

Then it rained for two weeks. Today, however, it was nice out.

I knew the drill wasn't working, but I decided to plug in the battery just to be sure.

I then went outside, screwed the composter together by hand, then came inside to get screening (for the parts that won't be covered by wood).

(Last year, I bought more screening for the back door because I couldn't find the stuff I originally had. Today I found the original box of screening ... underneath the second box. I'm forgetful and blind but consistent.)

Anyway, I took the partially charged battery, put it in the drill, and ... the drill works.

Oops.

I also tidied parts of the workbench in an attempt to find the staples for my staple gun.

It turns out they were on a chair. (Believe me, cleaning and organizing that room is on the list of things I need to do.)

In other news, I went to the doctor about my foot today. It's a rest/ice/anti-inflamatory thing. I'll have to skip the gym (and boxing) this week and next week, but hopefully it will recover soon.

Cleaning Up

When you enter the house through the front door, you are in a small porch area. The coat closet is on the right and there is a bench on the left.

If you go straight, the hallway is off to the right and the living room is off to the left.

If you continue going straight, you're in the kitchen.

(This sounds like a big distance, but in reality it's probably 15 feet from the front door to the kitchen.)

There are two places that mail tends to collect - on the bench in the hallway (typically the unopened mail), and on the end table just before you get to the kitchen (the stuff that I opened and decided wasn't that interesting).

Today I cleaned off the end table. (The bench gets cleaned off whenever I pay the bills.)

I also continued work on the quilt material, but there is more work to be done there.

Whip It

Today's anti-procrastination project was a continuation of yesterday's. I cut out a couple of more colours of fabric. I'm making 16 copies of everything, so it takes a while to get it all done.

In other news, my Sparks went for a hike today. It went really well, and the girls had a great time. It had been threatening rain all day, but luckily it didn't start raining until 5 minutes after we ended our hike - then it poured.

After Sparks, I went to see "Whip It". It was really good. The downside is that now I want to hit people, possibly on roller skates.

Since my foot still hurts from boxing last week, I will try to restrain myself.

The best laid plans

I had to get up and get moving this morning. You see, it's cookie time here in Canada. That's right, Girl Guides are now selling the mint cookies, and I had volunteered to work at the pick up location handing the cookies out to the group leaders.

My shift was from 9-12, and I got there a few minutes early. There were two others working as well, which was nice. I didn't know either of them, but we had a good conversation for the three hours we were there. In fact, one of them is a next door neighbour to one of my Sparks from last year.

I had the afternoon to procrastinate job hunt, and then I went to zumba. My foot is still messed up from boxing, but I managed the zumba class without too much trouble. (I would have left if my foot were really sore, but it's mostly OK when I'm wearing shoes.)

Anyway, it was evening by the time I was ready to do something for my anti-procrastination. My project for today was going to be more shredding, and fixing a cloth grocery bag.

You see, I've been using cloth grocery bags for years. A few months ago, the handle on one of my older bags came unstitched. I didn't really need it - I have plenty of other bags - and the thread that was in the sewing machine at the time was the wrong colour, so I threw it by the sewing machine and forgot about it.

Can I see a show of hands as to who thinks I found it today so I can fix it? No one?

That is correct. It was nowhere to be found today.

However, while I was looking for it, I got distracted - which explains why I was looking on the top shelf of the closet - I know it wasn't there.

What was there was a bag of material. Specifically, it was a bag of material from my Grandma's clothes. After she died, my mom wanted to make quilts of her clothes for her grandchildren, and I volunteered to help.

She died in 1994, but I didn't get the material until well after that. (I'm pretty sure it was after I moved into the house - which admittedly was 9 years ago.)

Anyway, today I sorted through the material.

I started cutting it out, but haven't finished yet. Watch for more updates on this one.

(And if you're my sibling or cousin, try to look surprised when you see the finished product, OK?)

The weekend

You may have noticed that I didn't update yesterday. Let me tell you about my day.

Yesterday I was getting together with friends for a games day. (Basically, we spend the afternoon and evening playing games, and do a potluck meal as well.)

I got up when Wanda got home from work (a little after 7 a.m.). I mixed up dough for some garlic-cheese buns I had promised to bring, then I went back to bed.

When I eventually got up for good, I put the buns in pans and let them rise again. While they were doing that, I did an extremely small anti-procrastination project - I went through the bottom of my closet and my shoe rack in an effort to find my arch supports for my fall shoes. I was victorious - they were in the shoe rack. (They are white and the shoe rack is white, so it wasn't obvious.)

I baked the buns, and the headed off for games day.

You would think that I would have worn the shoes I just put the supports into, but I forgot and wandered out of the house in the sandals I wear in the house, so no such luck. (I did wear them today, though.)

I got home at midnight, and naturally did not fall asleep right away. At 6:05, Wanda called for a ride. (She usually takes the car when she works overnight, but, of course, I wasn't home in time last night, so I volunteered to go pick her up. It wasn't a huge sacrifice since I always wake up when she gets home anyway.)

When I got home, I went back to bed and didn't managed to do anything productive until late morning.

I had a very lazy day, but eventually managed to do more shredding. I would claim I don't know why I have so much shredding to do, but really there are two reasons: I cleaned out my income tax folder a while back, so there's that shredding, and I just generally don't like to do it, so the bills, etc. pile up. Anyway, I got more done today.

Kind of an off day

Today was a very productive day in general, but I didn't get a lot of anti-procrastination projects done.

I did get a few small things done, but was mostly minor tidying. It is minor tidying that wasn't done yesterday, though.

Playing Games

Ever since I moved in, I have kept my board games in the basement. It wasn't a big deal to run downstairs when I needed to get one, so they stayed there.

However, the room they were in is now Wanda's bedroom. That makes getting them more inconvenient.

When my niece was here, she brought 2 games upstairs. They have been sitting on the floor ever since as a testament to my procrastination skills.

I'm sure you're all thinking that today I took them downstairs, but you would be wrong. Instead, I brought all the other games upstairs. They are all in the bottom of my dining room sideboard. (It's not like I own dishes that go there anyway.) It was a bit of a puzzle getting them all in there, but they do fit.

It's probably not a long term solution - it is possible that I might someday buy dishes - but it works for now.

Patching things up

That picture is of my "watching TV" quilt. (It's not actually crooked, I just took a poor picture of it.) I don't remember whether my grandmother made it, or whether my mom made it. Regardless, I've had it for a long time.

Most of the squares you see are made of a pretty sturdy material. However, one set of squares (the squares just inside the dark pink circle) are a thin cotton. Over time, they have ripped away from the darker pink squares, leaving small holes all around the quilt. Today I sewed them up.

While I was doing that, I noticed that there were some stains on the quilt, so I washed it as well. It's now clean and ready for me to use again.

And I haven't even invited anyone over

Today I cleaned off my coffee table. It tends to accumulate - well, stuff. Papers, magazines, wii remotes, DVD cases. I clean it off every so often - usually the day before I have people over. The "before" picture is above. The "after" picture is below. Some things are still there, but it's a lot neater than it was.

Playing with paint

I started a rant a bout politics, but let's skip that, shall we? (If we end up with another election, I'll rant then.)

Back to my anti-procrastination project.

When I moved in, the kitchen was old and poorly designed. It was impossible to have more than one person in the kitchen at a time.

I had the kitchen renovated in 2004. At that time, the counter became black with red/orange flecks, and the curtains were orange.

I have a flower pot that I keep my extra utensils in (wooden spoons, pancake flippers, whisks, etc.). It was white with blue stripes, as such:

(The orange oven mitt matches the curtains.)

Anyway, I've always had the idea that I could repaint this flower pot to fit in better with the rest of the kitchen. Today, I actually did it. I started with three coats of primer.


Next, I painted 2 coats of white paint:
I then picked the colours for the outside:
I was able to walk them into the kitchen and make sure they worked with the rest of the kitchen.

Finally, I applied these colours to the outside of the flower pot. Here is the final project:

An odd assortment of stuff

The last few days I have done relatively quick projects. Today, however, I decided to do something a bit more elaborate.

Basically, I moved all of the furniture in my bedroom and vacuumed behind it. While I was doing that, I also went through some of the papers sitting around. I found more books than strictly necessary. (When I get a job, I will have to buy a bookshelf for the bedroom.)

Other things I found while cleaning:
- the cell phone charger that goes with the cell phone I had 10 years ago
- many, many buttons that came with clothing I bought
- many boarding passes (now disposed of)
- receipts and plastic bags from clothing stores
- letters from my mom and dad in 1993 (I assume my sister's cough is better by now.)
- the index to my Rome map (which would have been useful when I was in Rome this year)
- a picture of me kissing the blarney stone
- an Egyptian newspaper
- the transfer from Heathrow to the hotel when I was in London - not my last trip enroute to Botswana, the time before that

Sadly, I didn't get the whole room done - I didn't touch the closet. That is a task for another day, since most of what is on my closet floor is clothing that needs to be given away. Cleaning the closet floors will have to wait until I get rid of it.

Tidying up

Today was relatively busy. I had a baby shower to go to this afternoon, so I had to get my errands done in the morning.

My right ankle and thigh are still messed up from yesterday. I finally switched out of sandals into real shoes today, but can't find the arch supports I usually wear in my fall shoes. I wanted to use them, since I figured they would be helpful in getting my foot to recover. However, no luck so far. (I'm pretty sure I brought them to Europe with me back in June, but I have no idea where they went after that.)

Anyway, while I as looking for them, I took the opportunity to tidy up a few things that have been out of place for too long.

A few weeks ago, my regular shampoo was not playing nicely with my hair, so I took my travel kit apart to use that shampoo. It was still sitting on the floor, so I replaced the shampoo and put it away.

I tidied the shoe rack in the front hall closet.

I also tidied some of my dresser - it's usually quite neat, but still needed some clean up.

Not a fan

I've talked about boxing before (many times), but tonight I'm going to tell you about my least favourite part - skipping.

I have zero skipping ability. I'm a lot better than I used to be, but it definitely does not come easily for me.

In my current level, most of our skipping is backwards. I'm just as bad at skipping backwards as I am at skipping forwards, so that's fine.

This week, our skipping rounds consisted of the following (all backwards):
- high knees sprint (10 seconds)
- alternating kick outs* (10 seconds)
- crossed feet ** (10 seconds)
- cross overs (10 seconds)
and then repeat until the 30 second bell, at which time it was 15 seconds on one foot and 15 seconds on the other foot.

Somehow, I managed to injure (pull?) a muscle in my right thigh. That made my skipping look more like: skip on left leg, lifting right knee, skip on right leg, try not to fall over, trip, start over.

For my anti-procrastination task today, I decided to cover the fans that I use in summer with plastic bags and put them downstairs out of the way. (That way the fan blade doesn't get full of dust, so you don't have to take the fan apart and clean it before turning it on next year.)

The only down side to this plan was the part where I had to come back upstairs afterwards. It turns out that muscle that I hurt is important when climbing stairs.

However, I prevailed and the fans are safely away for the winter.

* alternating kick outs - skip on your left foot, with your right foot by your side. Skip on your left foot again, kicking your right foot out in front of you, then repeat on your right foot.

** crossed feet - skip with your feet side by side , then skip with one foot in front of the other, go back to side by side, then put the other foot in front.

Good thing it's garbage day tomorrow

Today my anti-procrastination project was to start organizing the storage room.

I broke down some boxes for recycling. (What are the chances that I will need the box for my hair dryer? Zero? So why do I still have it?)

I also got rid of some garbage (Hmm, these pieces allow me to attach my solar lights to the deck ... but I don't have a deck, and I'm never planning to build one, and if I did build one, I would probably still want the solar lights at the front of the house ... why am I keeping them again?).

It's far from completed - you will be hearing much more about this project - but it's a start.

Wait, the decade is almost over?

Sydney mentioned yesterday that today is 100 days from the end of the year (and decade). (Does that scare anyone else?)

Anyway, she has decided to do something creative every day until the end of the year.

I have decided to join in - with a twist. I am not going to do something creative. Instead, I'm going to do something I have been (or normally would) procrastinate about.

Today, I spent some time shredding some of the papers that needed to be disposed of.

This has been on my to-do list for ages, but (as I discovered today) my shredder has been unplugged for 7 weeks, so obviously it hasn't been happening.

Let's hope no more than 50% of my updates are about shredding.

Miscellaneous

Well, after several consecutive posts last week, I somehow managed to take a break for 6 days. The sad part is that I can't even tell you what I've been doing. Yes, it's that memorable.

Let's see what I remember.

• Fall has definitely arrived. The days are nice and sunny during the day but colder at night. In fact, today my feet are so cold I'm considering wearing socks. (I probably will play the wii for a while instead. That should warm my feet up.)
  
• I went to use my cordless drill on the weekend, and it doesn't work. I have no idea why it decided to break while not actually in use. (Yes, the batteries are charged.) I tried my usual battery-powered appliance fix (i.e. take the battery out for a day or so, then put it back & try again), but that did not do it. That fix is effective over 50% of the time, but sadly, this was not one of those times.
• Sparks starts tonight. You would think I have been ready last week but no, I got organized this afternoon.
  
• If I have 100 things to do, I will get 99 done. If I have 1 thing to do, it's going to be a while (and, in fact, it may never get done). This is not a good trait when job hunting.
• Remember how last November I had a headlight continually go out? It turned out the socket had melted, and had to be replaced. Today I discovered that the other headlight had the same problem. I got that fixed this morning. Could these random electrical problems be in some way related to the fact that my radio/CD player won't play CDs if it's too wet outside?
• I dragged Wanda out apple picking last Wednesday. On Friday, I made an apple/peach pie to use up some peaches that were getting old. It turned out well. On the weekend Wanda and I made 4 apple pies to freeze. I still have a lot of apples left.
  
• I'm having lunch tomorrow with a former co-worker who was laid off a few weeks after me. I'm hoping I will be motivated to go work on my Java course in the morning before I meet her.
  

En Garde!

One of the new things I wanted to do last year was to try fencing. Actually, I've wanted to try it for a long time.

One of the local clubs opens up the first class of the session to anyone who is interested. I had intended to try it last year, but it didn't work out for a bunch of reasons. Today, I finally tried a fencing class.

I'm glad I tried it, but I don't think I'll be signing up for the full class.

We started by running around the room ... a lot. We probably ran around the room 10 or 15 times.

Unfortunately, I'm not a runner. In fact, running a lot makes me cough. Repeatedly. For hours.

That means that I was coughing through the whole class.

After we finished running, we started learning the footwork. The first step (feet in an extended L-shape, stepping forward and back) was similar to boxing footwork, so I didn't find that too hard. (This would have been easier on Monday, when my foot was naturally turned out.) After that, we learned the lunge - extend your arm, then step into a lunge position with your forward foot.

We repeated both of those steps a lot of times, then it was time to put on the fencing jacket, glove, and mask and grab our foils.

There were two styles of fencing jackets - some zipped in the back, some zipped on the side of the front. The one I grabbed zipped in the back. I put the jacket on, then found a helmet that fit. After that, I got a glove and tucked the sleeve of the jacket into the glove. The last step was to get a fencing foil.

We split into pairs, and practiced hitting each other with the foils (so that we'd know it doesn't hurt). Next we practiced stepping forward and hitting our partner. The last step was to lunge forward and hit our partner. We repeated each of these many times. (Too many in a row, in my opinion - I would have preferred we do 10 of 1, then 10 of another. It was very repetitive.)

After we were done with that, we learned a couple of blocks and practiced them with our partner.

The last part of the class involved sparring with our partners. That was definitely the best part of the class.

Another "what's wrong with me" update

Today I had my appointment with the neuro-opthamologist about my eye twitch.

I wasn't super impressed with him. He seemed to have come up with two theories before I got there.

The first theory was that my glasses were the wrong prescription. He checked, and that wasn't the case.

His second theory was basically that I was just tired ... for 3 months, including 2 weeks of vacation, and with my eye twitching up to 40 times a day.

That's the one he ended up going with.

They also tried twice to check me for glaucoma. I find that test almost impossible at the best of time, and they seemed like they were in a hurry, and thus they were unsuccessful.

Like I said, I wasn't super impressed - he seemed to have his options figured out before he talked with me, and he wasn't too interested in hearing what I had to say.

However, my eye stopped twitching a week after I got laid off, so I wasn't too inclined to make a big deal about it.

I have a few theories as to what it could have been:
- something physical in my work environment - a chemical, or something related to the fact that the roof leaked, and the water would drip down through the insulation in the ceiling and land near my desk (and at a bunch of other places)
- something related to the vitamin levels that were low at my checkup in May (which perhaps took a while to build back up to the correct levels)
- I got my new (small) laptop in April. Maybe it took a while for my eyes to adjust.

I hope the doctor is wrong, since I don't recall being particularly tired between April and July.

I guess we'll see if it comes back. If it does, I'm going to a different doctor.

At least I hurt myself in interesting ways

I didn't go to the gym today.

When I got up on Saturday, my foot was a little ... off. It didn't really hurt, but it just seemed like something wasn't exactly the way it was supposed to be.

Saturday was the annual community corn roast, and I had volunteered to help out. I showed up at 11 to help set up. I helped out for about 1.5 hours, then headed off to the grocery store.

Once I got the groceries home, I had a couple of hours to kill, then I headed off to work in the kitchen at the corn roast at 4. The concession area stayed open until 10, which meant I was on my feet pretty much constantly for the 6 hours I was there.

My feet (and legs) were sore when I left, but in a tired way, not in an injured way.

When I got up Sunday morning, I was fine, except that my right foot wasn't going in the same direction as the rest of me. As I walked, it was turned out at about 45 degrees.

Again, it didn't hurt, it was just ... really odd.

When I wear proper shoes, my foot is aligned properly and all is well, so I suspect it will fix itself in a few days. I probably did something to it at boxing, and compounded it by standing on it for 8 hours the next day.

Still, it seemed best to skip the gym.

So ... apparently summer is over?

Somehow fall always manages to surprise me.

I'm not really sure why. I suspect the non-summery weather we've had the last two years has something to do with it - this year summer didn't think about starting until August, and last year it didn't arrive at all - but it happened even before that, so that's not the whole story.

I tend to be pretty busy during the school year, and much less busy during the summer. I like the activities I do, but I also apparently really enjoy having more flexibility during the summer. (I could do less during the year, but if I don't have a good reason to leave the house in February, I won't.)

And let's face it, there are really two things I do during the rest of the year that I don't do in the summer - Sparks and boxing. That's, at most, 4 hours out of my week.

That doesn't mean that I didn't regret a bit that boxing started last week or that Sparks registration was tonight.

I enjoy them both, and I know that in a couple of weeks I'll be back into my regular schedule. Right now, though, I wish it were still summer.

Remember this?

Well, I never did go to the doctor about my toe. I kept it taped for 4 weeks, then took the tape off. It still hurt, so the tape went back on for another week. It's fine now.

I had my consultation today for the mass on my thyroid. This involved going to the Riverside Hospital. I've been here for almost 15 years, and I've only been inside one of the hospital locations (and that was probably 1996).

Anyway, my appointment was a 3. I got there about 30 minutes early, since I wasn't sure how long it would take to get there and find the right place. I settled in for a long wait, but it actually was only a couple of minutes before the nurse called me in to get blood pressure, height, etc. After that, it was back to the waiting room for another couple of minutes before the doctor called me in.

The mass is partially fluid, so the biopsy will be in the radiology department so that they can do an ultrasound to make sure they're hitting the solid part. He's cautiously optimistic that it's nothing to worry about (but, of course, it will take the biopsy to really determine what's going on).

Get in the ring

I've talked about Choosy Beggars before. The thing about that site is that it's entertaining, but it also makes me believe that I can make whatever they are talking about. That happened this week. As a result, I was inspired to make onion rings.

They turned out well. Admittedly, I got distracted eating the rings off the first pan, so the second pan got a bit - well, let's say extra crispy. I also substituted various ingredients, but that's typical for me - I rarely make a recipe exactly as written - possibly because I never look at the recipe before going grocery shpping. Still, they were a success.

From Raphael to Carracci

Back in June, Wanda and I went to see Chicago at the NAC. On the back of the program was an add for a special exhibition at the National Gallery - From Raphael to Carracci, The Art of Papal Rome. The first time I went to the Vatican Museums, I was walking through the Raphael rooms, and I had to walk across the room to figure out whether the thing I was looking at was a painting or a sculpture. It's amazing to me how some of Raphael's work looks three-dimensional. Anyway, I decided I wanted to go to the exhibition.

It closes on Monday. Keep in mind that I've been unemployed for the last month, and thus have had lots of time to go. However, today I went to see a special exhibiton at the National Gallery.

I enjoyed it. There were more preliminary sketches than I would have liked, but generally it was quite enjoyable. We got the audio guides, which were useful, but (as is typical in audio guides) had more standing-around-and-waiting-for-the-commentary-to-start music than I would have liked.

In other news, apparetnly the National Gallery charges $6 to see the permanetnt collection now. It used to be free - but it's been at least 5 years since I've been there.

Dumplings

I started today with a runny nose and cough. This isn't unusual for me in the mornings, but it was more severe than usual. I was having trouble lying down (when I did, I started coughing like crazy), so I sat up in bed to read.

For the record, this was around 6:15. Around 6:45, there was a "pop" and the bedside lamp went out. Replacing bulbs didn't improve anything, so I guess I need a new lamp. I can't complain - I've probably had this one for 12 years or so - but that meant I got out of bed before 7, which hadn't really been part of my plan for the day.

I had breakfast, then updated my resume for my meeting tomorrow. After that, I headed to the gym. When I got back, I had lunch, then spent a lazy afternoon reading a book. (Devil Bones by Kathy Reichs, if anyone is curious.)

Eventually, I decided it was time to work on the to-do list, so I washed the windows. (Well, technically I skipped the outside of one window - it's behind bushes and it's hard to get a ladder in there.

After that, it was time for something I had been procrastinating on - I started making Plum Knaddle (i.e. plum dumplings). This was a traditional food in my mom's family. The origins of the food are hazy (as are the origins of my mom's ancestors - they come from "the old country"). However, years ago I brought this to work and one of my co-workers who was raised in Eastern Europe recognized it.

Ingredients:
6 potatoes
1 egg
flour
1/4 pound butter
pinch of salt
plums (12 - 20)
sugar
butter

Peel the potatoes, then boil. When they are soft, mash them and measure how much you have. Add an equal amount of flour, the egg, and the salt. Knead well. Roll out dough on a floured board to a thickness of 1/4 inch. Cut into 4 inch squares and place a plum in the centre of each. Bring the corners together and press until you have a watertight dumpling.

To cook:
Drop a few at a time into boiling, salted water and cook 15 minutes. Make sure they don't sink to the bottom.

Drain the dumplings as they are done.

To eat, cut open and sprinkle with sugar and melted butter

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.

This place has gone to the birds

You may recall that last year a robin built her nest above my back porch light. There were baby birds there when my niece came to visit (which was very exciting). However, a couple of weeks later there was a tragedy, which I discovered when I went outside and found dead baby birds on my back step. I dealt with it as I normally do these things - I ignored it and an hour later the dead birds were gone.

This spring, I paid close attention to make sure that there was no nest in the same place (so as to avoid last year's tragedy).

Then I went on vacation.

I thought I'd checked when I got back and there was no nest there. However, that was a week ago, and yesterday I went outside and heard an odd noise from above my head. That's right, there's a nest, with two baby birds who apparently think the door opening means they're going to get some food.

There was also a mama robin glaring at me from across the yard.

I just hope we can avoid the dead birds on the back step this year.

The last post about my vacation

I survived four days at work this week. On Wednesday, I came home, fell asleep for a couple of hours, got up, ate, and then went back to sleep until 6 a.m. The worst of the jet lag is over now, and I actually woke up at a normal time today. I'm still tired, but that's not unusual.

I've gone back and added a few pictures to my previous posts (and replied to comments - I read the comments when I was on the trip, but I didn't reply).

Here are a few pictures from our day in Rome at the end of the trip.

Wrap up

I got home around 8 last night. Of course, I’m awake ridiculously early today. Luckily I’m off work until tomorrow, so I can spend today doing such things as grocery shopping and laundry.

But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.

My sister and I were on the same flight from Rome to Toronto, then different flights to our respective cities. Back when we booked the tickets, we made sure that we were sitting beside each other.

Naturally, Air Canada moved her. My seat was unchanged, but I was sitting in an aisle seat beside a stranger.

When we dropped off our bags, I asked if they had seats beside each other. They didn’t, but I managed to change so that I was in a window seat. We were in the same aisle, but on opposite sides of the plane. The woman at the counter suggested that we check at the gate to see if they could seat us together.

We went to the lounge in Rome (which was pretty pathetic), then went to the gate and asked if they could seat us together. They didn’t have any seats, so my plan was to ask the person beside me if they’d switch seats with Camille. Worst case, they’d say no.

However, just before boarding, the guy at the desk waved us over. He had two seats together in the middle part of the plane – did we want them? We took them, and then boarded in the priority boarding lane.

I was sitting in the middle of three seats. We were in the row just in front of the bathrooms, so no one was directly behind us. Once everyone was on the plane, it was apparent that no one would be sitting in the third seat. I decided to move over to the aisle seat after take-off. However, just before take-off, the flight attendant found a suitcase that the man on the other side of the aisle had placed behind the seat. She put it in the space under the seat in front of the empty seat. Now I wasn’t so sure I wanted to move over, as leg room was pretty scarce with the bag under the seat.

Anyway, after about ½ an hour, the man whose bag was under the seat asked if he could move over there, as there was air hitting him in his other seat. He lasted about ½ an hour, then moved back to his seat.

Five minutes later another woman asked if she could sit there. She lasted about an hour.

As soon as she left, I moved over there, just to stop the musical chairs game. It was a little ridiculous – it’s not like it was next to an empty seat.

The flight was 9.5 hours. Somehow I had it in my mind that it was an 8 hour flight, so I found it long. Luckily, I’d bought a book in Rome that lasted 3 or 4 hours, so I wasn’t too crazy bored for the first little while.

Once we landed in Toronto, we cleared customs and then went to clear security at the connections gate. I walked to the normal security line, showed them my boarding pass, and immediately got redirected to the “priority” security line – which was a little silly, since the regular line was hardly packed.

It’s kind of funny how being considered a frequent flier affects the behaviour of people in the airports.

We went to the lounge and grabbed some food before my flight. Finally, it was time for the short 1-hour flight to Ottawa & home.

Overall, it was a good vacation.

I’m glad we had a cabin with a window. It was a bit odd being on an American cruise ship – the pros were that the currency on board was US dollars (not Euros) and everyone spoke English. The downside was that the food wasn’t as interesting or good as on Costa, and it felt less foreign overall.

I took around 700 pictures. I have uploaded 20 or so to facebook, but haven’t done so here yet (basically due to laziness). If I know you (either in person or via the internet) & you’re on facebook, send me an e-mail or friend request & you can see them there. I will probably upload them here as well eventually, but I’m still pretty jet-lagged and I go back to work tomorrow, so I’m not sure when.

Catching up

(Edited to correct the location. Why do I confuse Rhodes and Corfu? They are nothing alike. Also, to add the tendering info.)

Two days ago we were in Corfu. We tendered in Corfu, which means the ship was at anchor in the sea, and we took small boats in to the pier. We took the shuttle in to town, then walked back. It was very, very hot. Corfu seemed less unique than the other Greek towns we were in, but luckily it was our last stop and we were pretty much toured out by then.

It was really hot. (Did I mention that already?) Anyway, when I got back to the ship, I went swimming. Well, not so much swimming as walking in the pool. It was very nice and refreshing.

Yesterday was our last day on the ship. We spent the day at sea, and didn't do much.

Today we had to get up early, as we left the ship at 7:15. We took an excursion to Rome, and toured the Vatican museums and St. Peter's. We spend most of our time in the museums in (or talking about) the Sistine Chapel, which I found disappointing because there are many other parts of the museums I find more impressive.

After our excursion, we got our bags from the bus (instead of taking the bus to the main train station) and walked to our hotel. It isn't far, but it was more than far enough. We spent a few minutes in the room, than walked back to St. Peter's to take a city tour.

There was some kind of demonstration going on in the middle of the city, so one tour was ending early. Another wasn't going to many stops. The third one was skipping only one stop, so we got on and rode the whole tour, then stayed on the bus until we got back to the Trevi fountain stop. We saw the fountain, then stopped and had pizza. After that, we walked to the Spanish steps, then took the subway back to the hotel.

We're now in the hotel, and have no plans to leave tonight. Tomorrow morning my sister & I have to get on the shuttle (at 9 a.m.) to go to the airport. I arrive home around 7:30 tomorrow night, so it will be another long day.

I'm definitely ready to go home, though.


(The pictures are from Corfu, Athens, Egypt, Ephasus, and Mykanos.)