Category: Food

bits and bobbles

Jeff and I are off to Thrifty’s once he wakes up.

I have been thinking about what I like in an actor.

A good actor works consistently and takes time off only when she must.  She tries different roles and treats everything about herself as a component of performance. She can differentiate between the toxic pixie dusts of celebrity and notoriety, interviews graciously, is courteous to fans and professional with coworkers.  She is judicious in her use of alcohol and drugs.  She leaves her personal life out of her work unless it helps to bring snap to the performance, recognizes and honours excellence in others, never stops learning and protects those aspects of herself which make for great performances against all comers.  She can take direction and make suggestions. She understands as much about the business of acting as she needs to.  She takes every job seriously, even the fun ones. And the only time you hear about her when you aren’t actually watching her is when she’s promoting a role; she saves the interesting stuff for the screen and stays out of the fricking tabloids. A good actor is a working actor.  A good actor balances knowing what she does best with working in a challenging role, knowing she might fail spectacularly.  A good actor is too busy working to worry about the last blazing success or ignominious turkey.

Soup lunch today.  I may bake something if I feel energetic enough.

I have decided that I am an Assam person, not a Darjeeling person.  I may blend the two teas together; that’s pretty much how they make English breakfast tea anyway.  Proper loose leaf tea is really a thing of beauty.

Were you aware that the global price of coffee is going to triple over the next five years?  If you can bring yourself to stop drinking it except as a treat you’ll be doing the planet and your wallet a favour.

The California drought is going to end.  Whether it will be enough to save the almond plantations is an open question.

 

Shorter commute

I was only an hour door to door getting home last night so that was pleasant.  I’m going to try to work something a little different this morning going in as well.  There will be a ‘sweet spot’.

This is an entertaining comic.  Human sexuality is weird, but what the animal kingdom gets up to is amazing. Very mildly unsafe for work.

Indian food for dinner last night.  Desi Turku (2020 says THAT’S DESI TURKA AND WE ORDERED FROM THEM LAST WEEK)  is a new restaurant but I don’t think we’ll be ordering from them again, their food is all too salty for Jeff’s taste – I can tell but I don’t mind.

Sandy is calling me this morning for a tarot reading.  Wonder what’s up?

 

My day so far

Cooking supper for breakfast – pork chops, oven baked potatoes and fresh steamed green beans.

Calling Sue and begging for a lift for church as there was a foot of snow on the ground.

Going to church.  It was about Israel being mean to the Palestinians.

Hanging around after church until my ride was ready and talking to people I love.

Buying fair trade organic chocolate, because, that’s part of what we do at Beacon.

Rob W gave me a ride home, but we DIVAGATED.  First we went to Renaissance Books, where I bought a cd and some books about First Nations, including a book by an activist I follow on twitter who really kicks ass, and a Buddy Wasisname album with Peggy Gordon on it.  Then Rob threatened to take me to lunch but we played quick draw mcdebit card and I won.  I had Putin, whoops, Poutine and Montreal Smoked Meat, and Vic from the SOAP hall dropped by and we had a lovely long chat, and he told me about this.   Which is about a crazy local woodturner.  Also I saw Kat, Katie’s old roommate and tattooist.

Now I’m trying to make word count.  It’s not going well!  I did work on my Homilies book instead thanks to mOm.

 

today, church and other things

I’ve got to deal with revision 5994 of Mt. Washmore,

Yesterday I baked banana bread (with orange zest, cardamom and almond butter, lordy but it was good) and took it to the house filk at Tom and Peggy’s, which was so poorly attended nobody else was there so I called Rob (who apparently is not getting my emails, which is troubling, especially since he doesn’t have either text or voicemail enabled on his phone) and he came by with pie.  We ate Reuben sammiches, stir fried veggies and green salad (and it was om nom nom) and sang and played. I am now apparently part of a group called Harmonic Anomaly, or something like that, and we’re going to sing songs that need lots of harmony and provide same.

 

Mattress today!

As part of the I need to be sleeping better plan (4 hours with cpap last night…) I have purchased a name brand properly sprung mattress which will be delivered today between 3 and 6 pm.

I have a tremendous craving for fish for lunch.  I think I will go get some… something like haddock or cod.

Katie slept over last night.

2020 says I need to replace this freaking mattress.

 

Short fuse

Keith parked in my spot and I yelled at him, mostly because we had a frantic and disgusting drive in from the ferry and I had no spoons left.  I still think he was inconsiderate and he still thinks my response was disproportionate.

I hurt my back at the duck pond yesterday (put my feel wrong and hurt the left side L5 S1 area) although feeding the ducks was plenty fun, especially with Lois and Bob in attendance.  I told her I was pissed off that she came to Vancouver and didn’t call me, but that’s life when you’re the ex, I guess, and we did have an amazing catch up in Victoria.  Bob continues to be so calm and kind and funny and Lois is as she ever was, energetic and fierce and informative and hilarious.  She was kidnapping ducks yesterday, my how they flapped until she released them.

Katie made two cheesecakes at the grandparents…. aaaaaand, they’re GONE.

Best night ever on the cpap in Victoria.  As always, Katie is right when she opined that my problem with the cpap is no longer the programming on the machine (I adjusted it, it’s fine now) but the total lack of comfort and quality in my mattress.  So, off to spend money on the most important six hours of my day today, mattress or bust.

F***** HELL.  The light in my bedroom is possessed by Satan.

Much amusement in some quarters that Paul’s girlfriend can’t get up until noon; since I’m no picnic in the sleep department, not to mention snoring like a chainsaw in a bucket of snot, I won’t judge, and I think it has been clearly demonstrated that Paul can tolerate many behaviours in his loved ones, shy of being told what to do.   Anyway, Jeff, Paul’s girlfriend’s sleeping habits impacted certain family members, so thanks for the Netflix info, since it allowed certain people to watch tv for 4 and a half hours while the rest of the household was resting in the pale limbs of Morpheus.  At least the kids have access here so they can come and go when it gets scary or boring.

I made a list on the ferry last night to try to deconstruct the anguish I’m feeling over certain kinds of decisions.  There’s the list of items, the emotional freight each action carries, and the financial implications.  I need to go over it again, but is putting COMPLETELY different emphasis on my to do list.  I suspect I could refine it further but don’t have to… there’s only so many ways to parse first world problems balanced against, you know, existential threats.  Selling the café is obviously a huge boat anchor at this point.

Dishwasher is running.  Obviously I should have run it before I left.

I am really looking forward to physio on Tuesday.

Off to do some more research!!

 

Immersion

What between getting sleep in two hour bursts (all I can manage with the cpap, which I put on and took off three times last night), donating blood on Friday, and somewhat inadequate levels of exercising, Physio Luce is telling me that my flex is good but my strength sucks.  He totally bought that sleep deprivation has slowed me down… and loaded me up with more exercises.  Ainsi soit-il.

Today I will be adjusting the moisture content and seating of the mask on the cpap.

Dishwasher is running, sun is shining, Eddie is feeling much better.  He needs a special diet so we are attempting to feed  the cats separately and it’s kinda sorta working.  His thyroid is wonky but there are meds for that.  He is SUCH a good kitty.  He despises being pilled so much that when Jeff puts the pill in front of him, he consumes it rather than go through the gharstly struggle.  He was also a sweetheart the last time I trimmed his nails.  (Kitties shouldn’t click on floors).

I am assembling yet another project in Scrivener – Broad Hints.  It will be selected songs, poems, essays (no homilies though, that’s another project), humour, blog posts, recipes and miscellaneous writings (like band names, movie and concert reviews).  I have a ton of stuff in there already and it’s going to be book sized by the time I’m done. At the following URL (ya hafta scroll down) there’s my third fave pic of my grandpa: He’s a real cowboy with real First Nations….

Holy crap! some twin engined plane just went over the house at about 500 feet.  I hate when they do that.

Church yesterday was great, excepting that the split pea and ham soup I took for the meal afterwards overturned in the car trunk.  Fortunately I’d taped the lid on and it was still so cold that only the condensation from the defrosting came off it, plus I put the crockpot in a large garbage bag, so there was some leakage but not the HOLY FUCK disaster I thought it was when I leapt out of the car to investigate the gharstly noise.  I did the aesthetics and screwed it up, but Rob rescued me by leaping up and getting a taper for the service leader (Donna).  I don’t think aesthetically it was too bad.  We didn’t sing enough and there was a congregational discussion afterwards grump grump.  I’ve had to lower my pledge because, HEY no INCOME! which cheeses me off, but other delights await, including my return to delivering homilies!  And getting to sing the compost song first service in 2014, more or less hopefully.

I am going to go back to chores now.

We’re number one! In pipeline accidents.

 

Food and more food

Cooked up a standing rib roast for Jeff, Rob, Tom and Peggy last night; the taters were an extremely well received new red-skinned potatoes, quartered and dredged in salt, rosemary and garlic and roasted and I also made steamed carrots and the usual corn and peas.  Peggy brought HOME MADE PUNKIN PIE X 2 may she be worshipped and adored forever and ever, AND whipped cream, and whipped the cream TOO. OM NOM NOMMITY. Rob brought a blueberry pie, which I am, like an evil, evil crathur, contemplating for brekkie.

Reviewed the birds’ eye maple which will be used in Tom’s custom guitar (it’s a good thing, and will be a pretty thing). Once the guitar is made he will be playing a lot more.

Job interview went well.  I am now hoping my former boss will get back to me via LinkedIn with his phone number so I can get a proper reference.

Life proceeds!

Hot sauce

There has been some of this stuff in my fridge pretty much continuously since I met Paul.

We finished Long Way Round.  I loved it.  If you love motorcycles, OR love travelogues OR are a fan of Ewan McGregor it’s worth seeing the whole thing.

May I just state for the record that Archie Panjabi is amazing in her role as Kalinda in The Good Wife.  She could play Kiaya Khatun or Roxelana Sultan if Lymond ever came to the screen…. that would be so awesome.

Breaking Bad is coming to an end within a few weeks. Here are a couple of articles I enjoyed.  Albuquerque.

and also A Pictorial History.

Keith dropped by yesterday.  Paul and he have a new tortoiseshell barn cat  they imported from the US.  Her name is Ayesha, and she does not want to be a housecat. She is, however, quite mellow.  I haven’t met her yet and look forward to making her acquaintance when she is better settled in.

Eddie let me clip his nails the other day with only one low wail to indicate his opinion of the indignity.

It’s been rainy and blecchy.

Cpap machine for a couple of hours last night.  I took it off when I couldn’t actually sleep with it on.  This is turning into a sore trial…

 

 

 

Yesterday….

I got up late … for me … roasted a chicken and made new potato salad.  Then I showed the shop.  Then I went to a church potluck followed by a workshop about leadership, about which I will say no more, except that it kind of brought home to me that I’ve known more about religion since my early twenties than a lot of people, the major takeaway being that the only thing all religions have in common as a precept is ‘don’t gossip’, and then I came home and watched some TV and then Katie came over and removed some more of her stuff to her place and then I went to her place and met her relationship partner SG (who does not own a vehicle or he would have dealt with it) and his two cats Ara and Stig (two mostly black females who are very entertaining and energetic).  He seems a pleasant enough individual, with a lustrous beard.  I was supposed to go to Newton Wave pool with Peggy but the prospect of meeting SG was too much to resist.

So I guess my Labour Day had, you know, labour in it, of diverse kinds.

Today will also be busy, but in different ways.

Keith and Paul dropped over and it was lovely to see them, however briefly, this morning.

Two of the people I’ve known the longest since I got here (a couple in WA state, former coworkers both) have announced wedding plans after 14 years together.  I am so happy.  I’ve been following her posts about him for years now on FB and she has said many times how amazing he is, especially since she has been quite hampered by health issues subsequent to a car accident in which she should have, by the physics, died.  And she’s had a lousy couple of years, what with her brother dying in a car accident leaving young children, and there’s been other stuff.  So I told her “I couldn’t be more pleased about this if it was happening to me!” and I meant it.

I think I need to get another foam mattress; this one is four years old and starting to feel rather lumpish and flat.

Miss Margot had an enormous eye booger the other day, and she started purring when I pulled it out.

I have ONCE AGAIN had to encourage Eddie to stop teasing the dog next door.  I politely asked him to return inside.  Otherwise he sits on the concrete pad when Creamy is on the back balcony and the poor dog barks himself to distraction.

Saw Plunkett & Macleane, and loved it.  I can understand why it got lukewarm reviews, but believe me it has improved since it was released.

 

LOL JK

So the folks came by to see the shop yesterday and asked me if I’d finance.  I was very polite, but you can just imagine what I was saying on the inside. What I did say:  “Gosh,” I said, “If you can’t come up with 20K you’re going to have cash flow problems right out of the gate.  “And, seeing as how I don’t really know if I’m ever going to be able to hold down a job ever again seeing as how I may have surgery and rehab and who the hell knows, I was kinda hoping to cash out.” The hell of it is they told me their business model and it would be perfect for that location… but I think they’ll buy in North Burnaby.  Oh well.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND the documentary The Flat.  If you are into family history, it’s a must.  Seriously.  It has so many twists and turns it’s like a particularly unbelievable novel.  mOm you’ve been warned, and it comes with subtitles.

I am so lucky to have family that loves me.  I am crabby, in pain, worried out of my mind because I’m not healing well, and Jeff just banged on the door and offered to take me to breakfast.  Coffee and cream here I come! Also, the cats are adorable; Margot has been particularly cute of late, and she’s being very biddable when I have to decruft her.  Hard to believe she’s five, watching her skitter all over the kitchen to chase a kitty treat.

Assange...etc. I love the spit that Sterling gets on things once he starts ranting….