Feastly Finish — The Tugboat

There was an Amber Alert in the night that roused me from my slumber at 4:11am. The neighbour loudly watching something with the sound up kept me from gracefully dipping back into it. I was able to find my way to the silent halls of sleep again but it wasn’t without difficulty and trial. When my eyes regained conscious sight it was exactly two hours after the initial interruption. That was all well and good because I needed to be up early on this day, there was errands to complete. I had four goals for leaving my home on this day. One was to collect a week’s worth of mail and pay any bills contained therein. Second was to fill the tank of my truck with fuel to replace that which was expended earlier in the week. Third was a McBreakfast to treat myself. And the most critical of the tasks was to revitalize my stocks by getting groceries. I had some specific items to purchase to enable myself for the pending family feast scheduled for later in the day. I had pushed this trip to the eleventh hour because with a new company edict of “meeting free Fridays” the obligations I normally would have had Friday morning were torn asunder. I did forgo the second objective due to a heavy amount of construction around the gas station I frequent and being unwilling to seek an alternative I took the cowards way out and ran from that responsbility. The rest was a success, as evidenced by my pictured bounty below.

The morning errands resulted in a later start to the day but that would end up being inconsequential in the end. I was at work for nine and started working on my on-going project immediately. It is the kind of thing where you make changes in one screen but are unable to see the final product until you save it and open the new file. So each time you find a mistake you have to go make the change, pull it again and check. This makes for a fairly time consuming and dull process. Needless to say, I was thrilled to be working on such a mindless task. With my audiobook accompanying me, it was the kind of morning I very much enjoy. I completely lost myself in the task, working to perfect the output. Only later in the night did I dream that I could be really customizing the report with more logos and colours. Maybe for next year. Just before lunch I had a call (not a meeting) with a colleague to try and force some action on an invoicing question that had come up. She knows the right people to kick to get stuff moving. By the end of the day the act of her setting up a meeting for next week had got someone out of their stupour and incited some action. It’s fun to learn what buttons to push to make the system work. When lunch rolled around I remembered this time what I wanted to have and enjoyed some Our Finest Chicken Pad Thai. It was hot and delicious. It was one by the time I started into this treat though and technically I was supposed to be on summer hours for the afternoon, especially since I’d piled up more than the requiste number of hours to enjoy that. But with a full belly I climbed back into the saddle.

I wanted to keep working on my project with the aim of getting one crop mostly done to the point that I could submit it for review and proofing to a collegue who traditionally serves that purpose in the project. The time was flying by and before I realized, it was half three. I shared what I had for both crops and then kept working. It was nearly five by the time I decided that my day was at an end. I powered down and snuck to the kitchen for a quick snack of some chips and a maple creme cookie. I also started to review the recipe for the evening’s meal and lay out some of the necessary ingredients. I sat on the couch and listened to my audiobook with my eyes closed for a spell. At half five the family was getting restless to start but my youngest sister in Sudbury was nowhere to be found and we couldn’t reach her. Mother decided that we’d start and she could catch up, a bold move. Tonight’s meal was Turkey Kofta Kebab Lettuce Wraps from the Skinnytaste One and Done book. It featured ground turkey with an array of spices and fresh herbs combined into a patty. The idea is to form them around a skewer and grill them in some fashion to cook them. I was without skewers due to a moral dilemma. I could reach a few feet into a closed aisle in the store and grab them but feared rejection, reprisal, or dismissal at the cash for doing so. But they were so close to the edge, taunting me. Turns out Mother didn’t want to skewer hers either so we ended up comprising half the group who eschewed the grill in favour of the air fryer versus the other half who followed the recipe. That decision had mixed results. We all skipped the step of letting the meat rest for thirty minutes in its new shaped form. Here are the results

Parents effort. They used ground chicken and the air fryer.

Sudbury sister grilled her’s. She had the best looking kofta balls.

STL sister had some issues with her pre-soaked skewers and the new BBQ.

STL sister’s finished product. They were very excited about using their grill.

We chatted, laughed, and did virtual tours until half seven and then we parted ways. I was full and didn’t want to start anything new. There were Musings that needs my attention and the boat is in perpetual need of my efforts. Instead I decided to watch some YouTube and get to bed early. I did end up working on some website based things but had a very quiet evening and an early bedtime. Hoping to finally get a big sleep in. The day as a whole was a nice finish to the week.