Ferocious Friday

Today was a strange one. I felt like I had one foot in my personal affairs and one foot stuck in my work world. I have a couple of floating days to take before my block of vacation that takes me through the end of the year but was only planning on running out for an hour and thought the many extra hours I’d put in these past weeks would cover things off for me. I thought I’d got to Canadian Tire and get a garbage can, cut some keys, get a tool bag and carry on to getting my mail and some breakfast. Later I’d slip out to pick up the pork patties I’d ordered and do a favour for the Chef in the same instance. But alas, I forgot that it was Black Friday and when I arrived at Canadian Tire the lot was brimming with people so I got my McBreakfast and my mail and returned to my home. I’d have to make a separate adventure out for my meat. I did manage to check the mail on the way for the first time in a couple weeks. I had a thank you card from Admiral Bonesaw and Dutchie for the gifts I brought their daughters in September. Funny part about it is that when we chatted on Wednesday they revealed that they girls were so inundated with gifts that they actually hadn’t given them the dragon and unicorn yet. So the thank you card was a bit premature, if not appreciated.

I settled in to work for a stretch before I was slated to head back out. I scheduled a call with a goverment official for the early afternoon so I had that to look forward to. I engrossed myself in pulling and organizing data, one of the tasks that brings me the most joy and that I can get lost in the easiest. I’m not saying I’m good at it, just that it brings me joy to lose myself in the process. Before I knew it, it was time to shoot out and get the meat. I arrived only to find that the will call hours were defined and only open from two until four on Monday to Friday. I was able to pick up the order I had made but couldn’t complete my favour to the Chef until later in the day. I slinked home again. Looks like my one trip out had spawned into three trips at this point. I returned and worked out some logistics for someone and then had my goverment call. I was more rambly than I wanted to be but we reached on a good compromise on their process. I think I was able to teach her a few things about how corn works, always a good thing. I had my meager lunch of a can of soup and then started into building a new presentation. It was again just a blink of an eye and I was out the door again, after the big prize. I had to do some convincing to be allowed to pay for it on site and avoid a lot of headaches for the Chef later on. I got back home with 15kg of sliced bacon and some masks. It took three tries but they say the third time is the charm.

I still had over an hour of viable workday left and in total my three trips had barely burned away an hour so I was feeling good for a normal quitting time for this Friday, which is good because it was Family Feast night. Tonight we were charged with preparing Chicken Chimichangas, Mother’s choice this time. I decided that I’d had enough work shortly after five and thought it would be fun to go and start prepping my ingredients like a cooking show. Have everything measured and weighed into little dishes and I’d just have to construct the dish and focus on that aspect. This one was a more involved recipe compared to what we’ve been making so I thought it would be fair. I must have been hungrier than normal from a smaller lunch cause I didn’t feel great for a few minutes, then remembering that I hadn’t been consuming water at the usual rate, I remedied that and all was well. I was ready to go about fifteen minutes before our agreed upon start time of six. So were the parents. The girls came online and we started the video chat a few minutes early. My STL sister was just coming out of a nap, they were off down there for the holiday and was not happy that both myself and my parents had done some preparation beforehand. My two sisters were at the same phase and I was keeping pace with my parents. It’s not a race but I was hungry. I ended up holding off so we could all eat together but she was annoyed the whole time, especially when I accidentally closed the video and had to be brought back in.

After finishing eating and cleaning up I ascended to start my MSC challenges while we continued to chat. Eventually, Big T started regaling us with his recent purchase of a Dr Ho belt for Mother. He was reciting the sales pitch from the questionable Dr and we were amazed at how they’d been sucked in to it. It does seem to help Mother so ultimately it is a good thing but concern mounted for other crazy purchases he might make if he’s watching more infomercials alone on the treadmill at 5am. Hopefully they are cheap mistakes if they happen. I got caught up on my MSC and retired to listen to my audiobook and fall asleep shortly after ten bells.

Going Through Changes

After months of having eggs be the limiting factor to my breakfasts, today it was the meat. I’ve ordered more pork patties from Sysco but my pickup day is tomorrow so I had to try something else. I fried a couple of eggs in a knob of butter and topped with some cheese and salsa before ensconcing them in a tortilla. The salsa was in the fridge and made the whole thing much colder than it should have. I think next time I’ll try warming it up in the air fryer before eating. I haven’t fully used that appliance because I’ve got it in my mind that I should wash it all up after every use but I’m hearing whispers now that you don’t need to do that. Let me know in the comments what you think.

I had completed the bulk of one corn brand the previous day and started into the second one today. It was very slow going and I was inundated with interuptions throughout the day. There seemed to be a multitude of little requests popping up again, mostly just questions that take me a few calls or emails to answer before I can get back to people. Kept me busy and my mind occupied. Before I knew it we’d arrived at lunch. I took down a can of soup and hustled back to my desk. Some of my colleagues were participating in a panel for our GROW|WiSE group and I wanted to support them with my viewership. They were discussing imposter syndrome and what can be done to overcome this. They shared some very vulnerable stories and their solutions. The whole panel was well done and a worthwhile use of my time. I know a couple of them quite well, for many years and we’ve covered that ground so it wasn’t completely new territory but the solutions they shared and their progress with that state of mind was interesting. I was surprised and impressed with how open they were. I think there needs to be more openess and empathy in the world, it’s been destroyed by social media, I’ve shared my thoughts on that before though and won’t get into it today. I had a call that I got duped into my someone else as revenge for throwing them to the “wolves” a few weeks ago. It was a turnaround is fair play type of scenario so I deigned to do my best. I had to evaluate and provide feedback for a new version of a website. I did just that. Some of the feedback was negative but I tried to balance it with positive feedback for the parts done well also. It was a one on one video chat so not much was hidden. I hope she took it in stride and found it useful. I had a longer chat with a colleague after that and then scrambled to finish up my presenation before the six bells chimed to mark the end of my workday. I’ve started to realize that upon that hour I grow hangry and my brain isn’t interested in working much past that on it’s own. If I’m working on something for someone or have a strict deadline maybe but I’ve drawn my line in the sand for regular things and at six I step across into my own world. I decided to treat myself with something quick, easy and filling. I dumped a bag of fries in the air fryer and made perfect, crispy french fries in under twenty minutes. I then topped them with some cheese, salsa, and some pickled jalapeno peppers. It made for a tasty treat and was easy to prepare and clean up. I sat down on the couch and listened to my audiobook in the dark and eventually without knowing what was happening I climbed into my bed and kept listening. Before I knew what happened I’d passed out. Looks like I’ll have to make up for missing bike club again.

Fifteen Years

Wednesday marked a pretty significant milestone for me professionally. You can see from the photo below that I’ve crossed the fifteen year mark with the company. I posted this award when it came in a week or two ago with no explanation but I’ll give it now because we’ve arrived at the actual day. I started off as a summer assistant while I was just a young pup doing my undergraduate degree. I started with Monsanto, a company I’d decided I wanted to work for when I was sixteen. My life plan was to go to University of Guelph, get a Masters in Science and then work for Monsanto. I’d accomplished all that before I was thirty. The Msc took the longest to achieve, I’d gotten the job and gone to Guelph by the time I was nineteen. I kept coming back for summer roles every year, working for a couple of different supervisors. Then I transitioned into an office role fulltime while I continued (started) to write my thesis. After two years I moved back to the field and managed my own research farm for seven years before moving into my current role as Licensing Product & Technology Manager for Canada. It has gone by very quickly as I mentioned Monday. I wanted to share that with my small readership before moving into the minutia of the day.

In terms of said minutia, there isn’t much of note to report. I played out my morning routine like any other day, shower and usual fare to break the fast. Then I worked on a single brand’s corn presentation the entire day. I stopped for soup and a wrap at lunch and tried to have a short nap to remedy a sore neck that I work up with. The nap didn’t take but a couple of Tylenol ridded me of the pain. It was after six when I released the mouse and backed away from the computer.

The larders are growing empty these days so I felt like I needed to pull something out of the back of the fridge. I decided I’d whip up some perogies, in that I dumped them into bacon grease and slowly warmed them to an edible temperature. I spared some shredded cheese and some hot sauce to make them more delicious. That was pretty much the day. For the evening, I cleaned up my mess. I had a video chat with Admiral Bonesaw and Dutchie for an hour. It ended because I had to pee too badly and didn’t think to pause things. I wanted to chat with them about Christmas plans and gift ideas. After peeing, I watched YouTube subscription videos and then fell asleep at a decent hour.

Fast Tuesday

Usual breakfast today. Only have one day of meat left, need to reload quick. Coordinating a scheme with the Chef on it. Today was one of those days where a small task is on the agenda and the universe tries its hardest to pull you away from it. Every hour was a new fire to put out. Generally a customer looking for a piece of information from me. Luckily for all I was on fire this day. I’m not sure where the morning went but it was over before I realized. It had to peel myself away from the helm for fifteen minutes. I heated up the leftovers from the previous night and have to admit that they smelled electric. They tasted much better too. Without the crunch bombs of croutons to navigate around it was a much better experience.

I crushed off my main tasks mid afternoon and set about quelling the small requests that popped up. The culmination of that was when I anticipated the next question from an account and gathered some info and arrayed it in an organized table before the customer asked and was able to slam the answer down on the metaphorical table immediately. That one felt good. Seems I’m learning and can see their problems before they happen. It was a nice way to finish the day. I transitioned into supper, it was just two packages of Our Finest Pad Thai. I’ve talked about it before. I ate it while reviewing the chapter summaries of Oathbringer, a Brandon Sanderson novel. I wanted to get thru that review so that I can start his next book this week. I pre-ordered the Rhythm of War on Audible months ago and got it last week. I’ve been hesitant to start until I reviewed the book I finished three years back. I moved from the table to the couch to my bed reading this and somewhere around eight I passed out. I woke up to pee after midnight. Now I owe Bike Club. We’ll see where this goes.

Flavourful Monday

Up early, regular morning routine. Got going at 8am. Got a nice surprise on Monday meeting. Boss recognized my 15 year anniversary. Then most participants shared a story of how I affected their career. Pretty heart warming stuff, nice to feel appreciated by peers. It was an incredible surprise to start my week. Got into presentations after. Lunch was a mistake, two cups of rice and a can of chili. Team call then check in with account manager. Solved an awkward issue together then back into it. Loaded up some old CDs. Some really solid mixes. Stopped a little past half five and started an elaborate dinner.

Cooked some shells up and then added canned sauce with carved up chicken, rough chopped jalapeno and topped with a handful of croutons. To make matters worse I doused it in Parmesan cheese. The croutons were supposed to add a richness but instead served as crunchy landmines that hurt the palette. The cheese didn’t mesh with the intrinsic flavours at all and was mostly off putting. The seasoning on the chicken was inappropriate. The jalapeno did nothing good for the dish. It was a collection of misfit toys who didn’t play well together. Maybe I’m losing my touch? The rest of the bright was spent working on Musings and trying to fall asleep early.

Found Variety

The relatively late night caused me to sleep until nearly 8am. When I looked out the window it was snowing heavily. My guess from the end of the week seems to have been accurate. The forecast was saying that this was going to be a big dump of snow for my area. The way it was coming down I was inclinded to believe that. I decided to break my fast in a big way. I made the breakfast burritos, but with an added twist. I prepared and added a whole avocado across the wrapped contents. The smooth, butteriness made the whole works go down much smoother. I ate it too fast and there was too much. I experienced some discomfort after eating. I’m not sure what is wrong with me. I was fine to eat such meals regularly before last Friday night and now I’ve got an issue with it. Maybe my terrible body had shifted out of the comfortable stasis it was enjoying and is finally starting to rebel against the torture I’ve been relegating it to for the last decade. Either way, the meal was tasty.

To combat the discomfort I decided the best course of action would be to crawl back into bed and recover. I listened to some podcasts and tried my best to fall into a nap. The nap didn’t take so I watched some YouTube videos from some of the accounts I subscribe to. Towards noon I decided enough was enough and it was time to work. I fired up my helm and got after it. I went wild on some spreadsheets and when the dust settled over five hours later I was at the point I’d anticipated being at for the end of the weekend. I did that faster that I expected so I’ve got that to feel good about. I’m considering these presentations to be drafts and will spend some time this week spiffing them up some. I’ve made a very strong start on that project.

Around six I chortled down a bag of popcorn. I felt like this was a fairly neutral food choice and indeed it didn’t harm me. I took it down to the basement and fired up some more Money Heist. I’m onto season 2, also known as part three. The gang is embarking on a new chapter now. After watching the first one I decided that I would start bike club early and get it out of the way. I’m sorry, the first rule about bike club is that we don’t talk about bike club. At least I don’t, because of this self imposed, punny rule I am needlessly sticking to. The ride went well though and I got through another episode.

Feeling better about my ability to eat without an uncomfortable feeling, I made a couple of very simple wraps. They consisted of smoked turkey slices, a Kraft single, mustard and Cholula sauce. They were consumed quickly with lots of water. The snow had been falling the entire day but finally checked out at eight bells. I snapped a picture of the yard, more specifically the fences. I showed someone previously in the day what it looked like out the back of my home and they were disgusted by the fences, calling them eyesores. They definitely look nicer with snow. I continued one with Money Heist until 9pm, at which point I prepared myself for an early bedtime.

A Great Escape

I rose from my slumber not feeling rested. My insides were still angry at me. I’m not sure what happened anymore. I lounged in bed for a bit catching up on the internet that was and then decided to take advantage of the TV in the bedroom concept. I started watching Money Heist around half past eight. At noon I ordered some chicken bites and wedges, that caused a momentary pause in my viewing. The next move I made was at half seven when I went and got a bowl of cereal and returned hastily back upstairs to continue my binge. I consumed the remainder of first season, both parts of it, in this day. It was around quarter to high noon when it ended and I finally powered things off. The TV in the bedroom continues to have been a terrible choice. I had planned to put in at least a half day of work to try and get things moving along but instead nothing got done, well nothing productive anyways.

Refreshing Friday

A day that started like most others; shower, breakfast, work. But there were some unique elements to it. First, it was the last real day of fall as near as I can figure. I’m thinking that it’s going to be really chilly the rest of the way and the snow is going to be coming in. As such, I’ve been meaning to finish off my yard work before it happens. I want to clean out the flower beds, dispose of my fern and get the table and chairs stowed for winter. The BBQ has been cleaned and secured in place, the lawn has been cut and fertilized for winter, what’s left of it anyways. I took a before shot for you of what I’m talking about.

The problem of it all is that it’s a work day and I’m into my more intense period of the year at this point. I’ve got templates prepared and data pulled and tools lined up to hammer out my deployment powerpoints and that’s just what I got up to. I had a call ahead of that actually to introduce myself to a new team member. The Western Canada account manager that I work with moved on to another opportunity and has since been replaced by someone I’m not familiar with. I decided to have a chat with him and introduce him to myself and to my role. Everything is going to be brand new for him so I thought it would be helpful, and I was right. Then I got about it. I worked until half noon and sauntered down to the fridge to come up with something to make. I had some ground beef and pork that were left over from the low carb sliders and decided that since Booj went to Taco Bell for lunch I’d have tacos also.

I used some lovely iceberg lettuce that I washed, shook, and sliced into ribbons. I used some taco seasoning with the meat and browned it off. I had some shredded Tex-Mex cheese and some medium salsa. All that got wrapped up for a couple of tasty taco treats. There was some excess meat remaining so in honour of the Chef, I made a keto taco in a mug. It was weird and I’ll never do it again. Mugs are for coffee or hot cocoa, not meat.

The rest of the workday wasn’t very exciting. I just worked and jammed out to the sweet tunes I’ve referenced before. The two discs from that set are super short and are getting a bit old. I’ll have to look into an alternative at some point. After normal people stop work but before the sun set I decided to take a break. I went out and did the outside work I’d been thinking about for weeks. I got the dead plants cleared out and stored the chairs in the pictured shed. The table will have to suffer this winter outside unfortunately. With the boat taking up most of the real estate in the garage I’m forced to make some sacrifices. Well not me so much as the table. After a meager dinner of a chicken breast and a Stouffers ham and cheese bistro panini I settled in for the night.

Something wasn’t right though. My insides weren’t happy. My initial diagnosis was that the molten cheese from the panini had burned my esophagus all the way down. I wasn’t short of breath or feeling the usual taunt paunch of over eating, this was something different. I descended to my lair and put on the show Money Heist on Netflix and tried to wait it out. It didn’t get better. Although it didn’t really get worse either. I shifted position occasionally but nothing provided sufficient relief. Towards bedtime I popped a couple of Tums (which weren’t expired as I’d previously surmised) and turned in. I was able to get to sleep in a somewhat normal fashion and stay that way for most of the night. I was up a few times but could have been worse I guess.

New Breakfast Normal

Three day run on this version of breakfast. It’s primarily the beverages that are different. By the definition provided in the Major League films this is a winning streak. Won one on Tuesday, won again on Wednesday and that is two in a row. Today marks a winning street. Energizes the body and mind to tackle an important day. I guess every day is an important day, try missing one.

Hump Day Surprise

I tried to recreate the previous day’s start today but not sure I actually pulled it off. Shower and breakfast happened the same including the coffee and juice. I got it all done and cleaned up before eight and started work. I ended up doing sixty minute hours today. I answered all the emails that came through in the night and put what are hopefully the final touches on my corn puzzle. A few calls happened and suddenly the morning was gone. I had leftovers for lunch and was able to heat and overturn the bottom layers of this delicious pile in an orderly fashion. Same peas, chicken sidekick and breast as the previous evening.

I kept lunch pretty short and got right back to work. I had some good progress and conversations and provided some insights for a few colleagues. It wasn’t as intense as the last three weeks have been and I’m getting caught up for the moment. I managed to close the day off at a decent hour, finishing at half five. For dinner I went simple and had a chicken parm Stouffer’s bistro panini and some Scorching Hot Cheese Crunches from Great Value. They were pretty terrible but I filled myself on that meal. I also had a Dr Pepper for good measure. I kicked back after the dishes and explored YouTube and then read my book for a spell.

Tasty Tuesday

The day started normal. Shower followed by breakfast then straight into work. The big difference was that I had a coffee. I’ll let you judge if it made a difference to my routine or not. Actually, I didn’t just have a coffee but also a pint of water and some blueberry lemonade to “chase the dragon.”

When I got upstairs, I decided that I would try something a little different on this day. I wanted to attempt fifty minute hours. Fifty minutes of work and ten minutes of domestic tasks. I need to find a way to get my house in better shape for my own well being and I’ve struggled to do it outside of work hours. I generally run out of steam by the time the day ends. The first round I tore my bed apart and jammed part of it into the washer and refreshed the clothes that have been sitting in the dryer for a few days. The next hour I changed loads, ramming the rest of my bedding in and put toilet bowl cleaner in the basement toilet and let it sit. I brought the clothes up and folded them up and stowed them, this cost me my ten minutes of the next hour also. On the work side of it I was getting a lot of small odds and ends done and making big progress on the corn puzzle. The end is in site now. Ahead of lunch I changed loads again and cleaned the main floor toilet and the basement toilet. Lunch was a can of butter chicken soup and crackers, very simple. Since lunch was so quick I decided to sweep all the floors up. While I was doing that, I cooked a package of chicken in the air fryer with some poultry seasoning for later use. And mostly to get the stink out of the fridge. The afternoon went by fast, got the last load of clothes going. The mattress got vacuumed, the cover is falling apart. It was a weird thing to do for sure, I felt like a lunatic doing it. Work ended closer to six than five. Since I was off the clock I decided to vacuum all the carpet in the house since I had the vacuum out. I continued the momentum and cleaned both the upstairs toilets thoroughly. While I was doing that I started to get an idea of what dinner could look like. I settled on making some chicken flavoured Knorr sidekick with a can of peas and one of the chicken breasts I cooked earlier. I had a little fun with the plating.

After leisurely eating such a wonderful treat I cleaned it up and bustled to reconstruct my bed, with a rotation of mattress and boxsprings. At this point I felt it was fair to take a few minutes to relax before doing another hour of work. When I had enough of that, I finished the MSC daily challenge quickly while streaming on Twitch and then hustled down to ride my bike. Cheese invited me to participate in something he’s trying to do. I only attempted a fifteen minute ride and succeeded. Afterward I weirdly wiped the bike down and started to settle down for the night.

Stereotypic Monday

Monday was a very mundane experience. Things started with a solid breakfast as usual, well maybe just the same level of solidness I usually get when I eat breakfast. I was still feeling a bit of funk but got things rolling at a decent hour. The week started with a frustrating and disappointing email that would make my corn puzzle a bit more complicated. It took some dedicated rationalizing to quell my frustrations. I had a meeting with my boss after the usual weekly meeting and then set about my task. I started to get things organized and setup to work quickly through the next phases of the puzzle. That consumed the rest of my morning and led me into lunch. I had a chicken and rice soup and a mozzarella and meatball Stouffer’s bistro panini. It was very tasty and quite filling. To be terrible I scarfed down a caramel drumstick. That was fantastic. The rest of the afternoon slid by fairly quickly as I engrossed myself in my task. At one point, a young guy popped by and asked if I wanted my roof checked out. I said sure a while later he came back and told me I had no damage, mine was one of a couple homes that didn’t get damaged in yesterday’s storm. After that happened I had a team meeting until later in the day and then worked a bit more, until six. Running out of gas I was looking for something quick and easy foe dinner. I dumped some tots in the air fryer and that was that. It was filling and tasty. The sauce pictured is sriracha ranch dipping sauce I slathered over the top. I should have added some shredded cheese maybe. YouTube and reading consumed the most of the remainder of the shortened evening.

Mother Nature is back!

The day started off pretty innocently. Woke up and got ready to go out and do the proper shop. Had a McBreakfast before starting to make sure I wasn’t making hunger buys. Then I got to it, had a nice walk around in the store. It was starting to get busy as I was finishing, so much so that I didn’t bother to go back and get the cookies I missed. Sorry sweet tooth, find another solution. I had everything stowed and cleaned by half nine and decided I would do a deeper clean of the kitchen. Feeling good about things I went to work on catching up on a missed week of MSC daily challenges. I only streamed one day’s worth and did most of the rest. I switched over and started catching up on Musings. I had a long, sad string in draft form that I wanted to give you. Make sure you check back a few days for the ones added in. I also was able to get everything posted for the Tent-Venture. The first twelve episodes are live now. It’s getting exciting, uncharted waters for sure. Next up was lunch. I went for two boxes of pad thai. I got them cooked up nice in the microwave and got my glass of blueberry lemonade and sat down just as it all began. I knew we’d be getting some high winds and storm action today but didn’t realize it would be so spectacular. It started at 1:55pm or so and lasted for about seven minutes. The rain was completely sideways. I got up to get a better view and as I did debris started flying off the construction site down the way and something big hit the hydro pole. It exploded in a massive shower of white light and blue sparks. And the power went off immediately. It was hard to see through the rain but I make out a lot of shingles flapping and lots of big things flying through the air. When it started to dissipate, I could see the carnage. Many houses were missing shingles. A couple fences were damaged and some sheds were damaged. It even blew over a pile of wood for the neighbour’s new fence.

It wasn’t as bad for me, that I know of, and yet. At the time of writing, I’m expecting future bouts of wind but I didn’t lose any shingles in this round. It did clear my chairs off the deck, some fairly violently. One was somehow about five feet down the small passage between fence and house. I surveyed my property for damage and didn’t find much. While I was stacking the chairs and flipping the table over, the lady next door came out and let me know she’d called around or something and nothing was missing off either of our roofs. She is planning to have a roofer come by and check for loose shingles and offered to request he check mine too. She did this a couple years ago and they found none and charged her nothing. Let’s hope it’s the same story. A secure roof heading into winter is optimal for this climate. The cost is between $100 and $140 cash is preferred. Some neighbours took action immediately and started tacking their own shingles back on in the gusty, wet conditions. Not a great plan. I spent some time cleaning up and then watching the storm. I only got a couple hours of work done as a result. Late in the day I started back into the Office and ended up finishing the series. It was good, nice finale. I finished it around ten. Overall, a pretty decent day.

Poorly Executed Saturday

After such a foolish night, it made sense that I would have a stupid day as well. I did not sleep in like I expected I would. I was awake and functional at half past nine. By ten the TV was back on and the crusade continued. No food, no drink, just Office. That was how things went into the afternoon. I did manage to do all my daily routine things on my phone, like my French lesson, etc. but otherwise I didn’t do anything of consequence. It was around two in the afternoon by the time I got up and showered and dressed. I packed up all my stuff to go out, I needed to get groceries and at this point was not excited at the prospect of doing my full shop at this hour, with all the hordes of people. I made up the list and went out. I was feeling fairly weak from not eating or drinking anything in around 24 hours at this point but soldiered onwards. Once I got in the store and saw that I’d underestimated the absolute chaos and madness I quickly changed course to get only the items that I absolutely needed for the night’s Family Feast call. It was the Big T’s choice and he had selected the low carb sliders recipe. I had some ground pork but should use beef. I needed lettuce, dill pickle chips, tomato, red onion, onion powder, garlic powder, and the beef. I walked out with lettuce, beef and a bag of chips. The chips of course were supposed to be slices of actual pickles, I chose to interpret that differently and elected for dill pickle flavoured potato chips. I bailed on the onion and garlic seasoning, formulating a different plan, and on the red onion and tomato. I don’t usually put those on burgers anyways. I got home with enough time to take down three more episodes before I had to do dinner since I had severely truncated my shopping plans.

Again the meal turned out phenomenal. For formatting reasons I included a photo of the parties involved over mine, which was properly done in the landscape style while the others choose portrait like fools. The blue and brown stone plate is what my parents made. They also had small buns because they didn’t understand the low carb concept the recipe was aiming at. The plate with five was what my younger sister prepared, she was having some family over for a game night and had these as appetizers. My sister in America had access to proper pickle chips and you can see that in her photo with her “ruffle cut” pickle. Mine was the one with three, I wrapped them up before biting in. I made a few changes. I used the potato chips, I added mustard in the meat and over the top. I used a mixture of half pork and half beef. I put cheese within and underneath the meat. The special sauce I made wasn’t the one in the book but instead I mixed up some of the Heinz garlic aioli, some parmesan cheese and some Cholula and put a dollop under the meat. It was really good, will do again. Air fryer burgers are very good. My younger sister’s phone died at one point and she was off to host her few guests. The rest of us chatted for a bit longer and then I jumped off to get back to the binge. It went on until just before eleven at such time I had to summon way more willpower than should have been required to turn it off and get to bed. The groce would need to happen in the morning and I wanted to get it done before the ridiculous crowds accumulated.

Friday the 13th 2020

Last time we had a Friday the 13th the pandemic officially started with a lockdown. There was no poetic justice, the lockdowns didn’t end on the next one. The day was all business, well mostly business. Missed breakfast and got to work. At half two I ordered a bunch of stuff from Pizza Pizza. There was a Hawaiian panzerotti, chicken bites and jalapeño poppers. I stopped work at 3:30pm when it arrived and once I gorged myself I couldn’t fathom working any longer. Instead I watched the Office in my bed again. And I kept watching it. No dinner happened, just more Office. By the time I went to sleep it was nearly 4am! Mistakes were made, thanks pandemic!

Virtual STL Wean

Shower and McBreakfast to start. On calls most of the morning. Worked on my corn puzzle after. Lunch was a can of soup well into the afternoon, close to 2. Shutdown at 5:30pm after long week. Made wings, BBQ and tried a spicy gar par. Setup the TV again upstairs in my room. The Chef swung by to get his old snowboard helmet from the GoPro stuff. We had a distanced chat, nice to catchup. Watched the Office in bed until sleep came around eleven.

Virtually STL - Day 3

I went out for McBreakfast and it was a beautiful day for windows down driving. I also got a package meant for earlier in the week. A gift from corporate of snacks to enjoy during the meetings this week. Almost too late. I thought about saving it for a gift for the Big T since it’s mostly nuts but decided it might not keep that long and I might not even being allowed to go see my family this year. Cases blowing up locally so will move back to full lockdown personally to limit risk. Need groceries soon then good for a couple weeks. Not involved in discussions but had to be on calls to receive direction for my next few weeks. I celebrated the end of the huge meetings with some whimsical bowtie pasta that I bought on a whim. To me it reminds me of toasted ravioli, a STL specialty. I don’t know how.

Virtually STL - Day 2

Missing my Kolaches. Had a coffee for breakfast. Meeting went all day. Was deliberate for lunch and made a big meal. Late lunch. Ordered chicken bites late for supper. Had to scramble to send a list in. Used to be a week to work on it. Last year was a few days, now it is same day. Was done work around half seven. Chatted with Chef, watched YouTube until ten and passed out.

Virtually STL - Day 1

Cereal to start, one egg left. Steak and potato soup at lunch. Supper was chicken fingers wrapped up. The rest of the day was all work. Just two 1h breaks and a shower.

Hung-out with Sun Out

The morning was not kind. There was some uneasiness of the tummy and overall fatigue. I don’t think the hours spent in bed were entirely restful. I woke at five for a time but was able to get back down until eight. There was some Tylenol involved and a crazy amount of water was consumed during that brief time awake. For obviously reasons there wasn’t much appetite happening but towards eleven, after watching the Office for a few hours on the main floor couch, some perogies were prepared and consumed. That went very well so more Office was consumed and some random snacking undertaken for most of the afternoon. The main target was granola bars and water. That was it, that was the entirety of the day. Recovering from self inflicted wounds all day. Later into the evening, closer to seven there was a Pizza Pollo by Dr Oetker that joined the fray. With some Cholula additive of course. The water intake didn’t wane over the course of the twelve hours spent in the living room. It was only after eight, when moving back upstairs, that I curbed it, so I would be able to sleep better through the night. It’s too bad that I squandered the entire day like that, the weather was amazing outside. I probably should have finished cleaning up my property and put my chairs away for the winter. I am still concocting a plan for my patio table but thinking more and more that it might have to stay out.