Category: Uncategorized

Just got an email asking me to apply for a job.

Damnedest thing – I applied for one job and this software company warmly encouraged me to apply for another.  I also could have had an ongoing permanent part time job, but I levelled with the temp agency gal and said, er, um.  No, because I’ll just quit.

Today I:

Made quinoa tabbouleh.  I was expecting to like it.  I didn’t expect to eat all of it.  I did.  I sat down and ate the whole salad in three installments.

Ingredients

  • One cup quinoa (prepare with salted water or chicken bouillon)
  • One bunch parsley chopped fine
  • Two shallots chopped fine
  • Lemon juice or white vinegar (two tablespoons)
  • Garlic to taste

Add the parsley to the cooked quinoa, toss with rest of ingredients and devour warm or cold.

Cheap and nourishing – quinoa is a complete protein and 12-16 % protein by volume.  Even better, it is covered with saponin so birds don’t eat it.  Better still, I just ordered some – I am going to grow it as part of my “The shit is going to hit the fan re food production within the next couple of years” plan.  So the recipe will still work after the collapse of civilization, if I learn how to make vinegar too.

Did some ironing and clothing repair which restored one of my best dresses to usefulness, always a good thing during a job hunt.  Ironing takes too bloody long, it really does.

Followed up on the job hunt with a number of phone calls and emails.

Put away all of my clothes

Cleaned the bathroom

Fed Gizmo a special treat of tuna, with broth. (He’s lost 1/3rd of his body weight since the kitten arrived, so we’re probably going to have to rearrange his eating area so he’s not harassed as he eats.)  We’ll be doing everything we can to fatten him up.

Updated the master shopping list because I don’t buy Marmite any more, among other reasons.

Ordered seeds for the spring, including Marquis, a kind of wheat that has been grown in Canada for 100 years, and is probably among the cultivars my ancestors grew.

Cleaned the washer and the dryer.

Played with Margot for half an hour. At one point Eddie joined her, which was very amusing; they were chasing a bell on a string which I dragged under a rug and which Eddie found irresistable.

Waiting is….

I’m waiting for a call back regarding a job, and that’s always good for an adrenaline spike.   Now I am going to put down the laptop, finish my coffee, and grind through an AWFUL lot of boring housework.

I made a double batch of bagels yesterday.  Between the four of us (Paul and Keith were here yesterday, Paul just for supper and Keith for an evening of gaming, Brutal Legend mostly) we demolished them and I had the second last one this morning.  This time I put the sesame seeds in and under the bagels, and properly proofed the dough, and left them in to bake for a long time.  They looked so amazing I asked Jeff to take a picture.  (My camera is screwy right now and I can’t afford another one).  And the house smelled heavenly.

Watched Beautiful Girls yesterday. Natalie Portman as a precocious young teen is brilliant.  One of my fave scenes in the movie turns out to have been unrehearsed, which is cool.  I remember being 13 and having crushes on older men, and her performance rang crystal-true.  I have much more to say on the subject, but backspaced over all of it.  I like watching the ill tempered and stupid and crazy and boundaryless words get sucked up into the neverwas.

Miss Margot jumped for a table with a table cloth yesterday and if I hadn’t been in the room she would have pulled the whole damned thing down on herself, possibly being injured, although with all that fur it’s hard to tell.

Jeff is planning on having a friend come and stay during the Olympics, now that he knows that he’s ‘on vacation’ for the Olympics.  It’s a good thing; if I’m still off work we may get to some projects, who knows.

Katie got more sleep last night, and so did Granny.  I am so relieved she’s able to step up like this (not just because I originally volunteered and then it turned out to make more sense for Katie to do it).

Stephen Harper’s government has dropped 15 points in the polls in 15 days.  Sort of reminds me of an uncontrolled descent from the Andes, eckshully.

I have to rehearse for Conflikt III.  I already talked to Peggy; we’re going down a day earlier than usual to avoid the worst of the border insanity, which adds to the cost but we also get more filking in.

No, the Americans are NOT blocking aid coming into Haiti. If it wasn’t for their logistical abilities, there’d be zip all coming into Haiti except through the DR.

Katie has safely arrived in Sammitch, I mean Saanich.

Girl howdoo, but there are a lot of goofy loan names from First Nations languages.  They started out as whatever they were, poetic or prosaic or the sound of the sea slapping fish-weirs, but the transition to English was painful and lingering.

Anyway, I conferred briefly with my mother and raised a hosannah that a) Katie’s helping look after her great granny b) she’s going to get paid to do it and c) she’s going to be a busy lassie and in no good position to repine on any other matters and d) sober second consideration yielded the nugget that what I had slotted in here was ill-tempered and prurient, always a lovely, somehow quite regressive, almost, you know, Republican combination, so I’m passing on this next line.  TLDR = Me happy.

I made stir fried noodles with thinly sliced very well aged steak, quartered mushroms, two onions, bean sprouts, the leftover sausage patties from brekky, celery, fresh green beans, soy sauce, peanut oil and the merest hint of Madras style curry powder.  Jeff devoured it/them with what appeared to be intense happiness, and his happiness was improved upon learning that there were turnovers in the house.  Store bought, it’s true. We watched Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.  I really liked it, but honestly, Joe (Jude Law) should have punched Polly (Gwyneth Paltrow) MUCH earlier in the proceedings.  Gal’s a safety hazard, and no Einstein neither…

Paul and I conferred briefly today about vegetables.  He has a darling, nicely cultivated plot in the back yard at his rental which he apparently will be allowed to plant this year.  We shall see.  I am thinking pole beans and raspberry canes here.  Rather than plant a lot of stuff, a lot of one or two stuffs instead.

All done!

My temp assignment, being, uh, temporary…. is over.  Free lunch, pleasant work, really great supervisor (she faxed my pay sheet in for me), really smart fellow temps.  A magnificent reboot of paid employment.

I will be cooking hockey pucks for dinner (note, this means filet mignon) and the rest of the meal will be leftovers.

Honestly, I’m so happy right now I can’t stop smiling (and singing Shuffle off to Buffalo, which is weird).

Disorienting day

The transit trip out to Richmond left me in broadloom biting mode, with extra rantiness, so the less vented the better.  Harley the Akita Lab cross still loves me, which was nice.  There was much conversation and a bite or two of yummy Japanese food.  I was home by 7 o’clock, my new beau gave me a lift back.  I have discovered in my little heart a great fondness for Foghat, that old Canadian band.  I know it’s insane, but when I hear that music I feel happy.

Jeff and I then watched Wolverine.  I’ll watch Hugh Jackman sleepwalk his way through a v.crappy script anytime.  He was so buff he didn’t look real.

I accidentally locked Eddie in my room all day.  I am officially a bad housemate.