Works-day

The day began suddenly and early. I woke up and couldn’t get back under so was finished my entire morning routine by half six and decided to go check if my long awaited, delayed Amazon package had shown up. I wandered casually up to the mailbox and found it there with a couple bills. I’ve been on the hunt for a backup/replacement spatula for a long time, a couple years likely. I had a hard plastic one piece with a specific lie to the handle and desired something similar. My currently blue one has some chips in it now and I’ve been worried that should it break I’ll lose my number egg flipping weapon. Now I can rest easier. Here they are side by each to show the similar lie and hard plastic construction. It was worth the $30!

I eventually started working at seven, which is wildly early, especially at this time of the year. I took a break around noon to tuck into a plate of chicken bites and some rice crispy square. Tasty but not overly nutritious. I put down the pencil at six and prepared a can of soup. After the dishes I don’t really recall what I did. I think it was mostly YouTube and podcasts for the remainder of the evening. Essentially I let Jesus take the wheel and ended up going to sleep pretty early.

The Change-over

I wanted to sleep in again but work concerns found their way into my brain and I was roused from my rest. I tossed and turned some more before clambering out of bed and starting to hustle. I booked an appointment to get the truck serviced up and my winter tires installed. The waiting room was open this round so I didn’t have to sit outside in the cold. I had to scramble to carry the tires out of the shed and get them tied down into the truck. I used a beautiful new strap to do it. Can confirm they work amazingly. I grabbed McBreakfast on the way and realized that I could show up with food so I pulled into TSC to use their parking lot for a few minutes. I dropped the truck and took a seat in the waiting room, heavily sanitizing and avoided contact with anything. I enjoyed some podcasts for a little over an hour and then was ready to go. It was quick, painless and they had excellent protocols in place. I was home by ten. So I turned on my work computer and started cleaning up emails. I jumped on a call with my Licensing colleagues and then worked away on a few time sensitive things before going to crush some lunch. I had a meatball and mozzarella Stouffer’s bistro panini, I love the convenience! After lunch I went back up and turned on my personal computer and enjoyed some MSC challenges. At three I used Teams on my phone to jump on a call just to listen in and continue my games. I transitioned to online shopping after the call and eventually I got a FaceTime from the young prince and chatted with those lads. I started dinner towards the end of that call. I had Great Value Hawaiian pizza with a bit of extra cheese on it, finished with some Cholula to clash with the sweetness of the pineapple. As it was cooking I had thoughts of revulsion from the scent. My brain was telling me not to eat these empty calories. That is incredibly rare but I’m taking it as a good sign. I celebrated by laying out several Viva Puffs to enjoy later.

After this filling dinner I descended and fired up my system. I was thinking I’d watch Money Heist some more. But right there at the front of Netflix was the new season of Archer, season 11. My evening plans were suddenly set. There were only eight 22 minutes episodes. They didn’t stand a chance. After inhaling the whole season in one quick sitting I marched straight to bed where I’d struggle for an hour to pass out. I’d say it was a partially successful day off.

Taste of Freedom

Slept in until eight. Got a McBreakfast around nine. Got a haircut. Beautiful woman (inside and out) gave me a tremendous haircut, one of the ones that keep me going back there. She didn’t put any product but something scented my hair. It smelled amazing and made me feel amazing. Off chance it was their sanitizer, or my own. I went to a store that I can’t talk about in order to preserve a Christmas surprise. Then another one that I can’t expound upon for the same reason. I did hit the LCBO in my journey and finally arrived at Canadian Tire. I wandered about aimlessly for over an hour. It was tremendous. I spent a busload of money and got almost all of the gifts I plan to buy. There are a few more I could get but I’m not sure if we’re doing that, one of those situations. I came home and sectioned out people’s stuff into piles to make sure things were even. I polished off a basket of tots before ascending to play some MSC challenges. It was a bonus day for Tri-peaks so I pumped up that number pretty hard. It’s right in the mix now.

Dinner was an absolute abomination tonight. I had some undisclosed sweets and later had the dregs of a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. Thankfully I had the good sense to guzzle a couple liters of water to accompany it. I consumed this indulgent meal whilst watching some Money Heist. I continued doing that right up to and through Bike Club. My cool down activity was another dose of Money Heist. I finished up Part 3, which means I’m halfway through season two. This took me up to a reasonable bedtime. After tossing and turning I passed out around eleven.

Security

Sister got robbed. They had a camera purchased but hadn’t installed it yet. Feeling violated and angry. Reminded me of my secondary brush with a similar experience. Reflecting on adding my own cameras. Not for the first time. No breakfast, had some raisinettes halfway to lunch. Lunch came early, had Stouffer’s meatball and mozzarella bistro panini and a handful of chicken bites. Dinner was a bowl of pepper steak soup and some Cool Ranch Doritos. Evening was spent working. Trying to get everything wrapped before the break.

Harbour BnB

I’ll keep this on brief on account that nobody is going to ready it. I slept in until half seven after the later evening. I had hosted the Chef and his friend after we got back from the comedy show and I decided to make them breakfast without asking. I figured they’d live the coffee if nothing else. I whipped up the normal amount of breakfast burritos in the normal way. I wrapped up two of them for further attention in the air fryer and doled the rest into a bowl for the Chef, he’s full keto so couldn’t fathom the wrap. After cleaning up the breakfast I made a tray of rice crispies for the week and they departed. I set about laundry and tidying. I didn’t bother to clean before they came but wanted to save that effort for after. That consumed most of the morning. I spent some time catching up on Musings after what would have been the lunch hour. I skipped lunch this day.

There was some time spent on MSC challenges in later in the day and then Netflix took over. Laundry was about the only productive thing that I got done and I was pretty satisfied with that.

Low Energy Day

The day started obnoxiously early again. I was awake and active ahead of five bells. That is fine, I wanted to make use of my energy while I had it. I showered and prepared for the day. My plan was to get my McBreakfast moments before I was eligible to groce at Walmart. The timing worked out splendidly. I did opt out of the coffee with breakfast. I did a fuller shop as I had the time and the freedom to do so. I wandered the aisles with plants and pots and then the housewares department. I collected a few treasures from these places before moving on to the food component of the store. I got a few extra things for gifts. I haven’t told you previously but I’ve been keeping a few empty spice vessels around to make a little gift for the Chef. I wanted to combine it with the purchased portion of his gift to make it an appropriate size. I got home and stowed my haul and set to work on making the gift. I was anticipating seeing him that day and wanted to make sure that this offering was ready. What I did was put some candy (sweet) into hot sauce bottles (spice). I had some weird explanation I could have given about being spicy on the outside but actually sweet on the inside but I wasn’t sure if that was going to apply to me or to him so I abandoned that train of thought and just presented the gift as is. His reaction was to laugh, but more on that later.

One of the treasures I collected was a butter dish. I’ve been thinking about it for a year or two. My youngest sister requested I buy her one a few years back and I found something passable for her purposes. For me, I wanted something would encompass the entire stick of butter but also fit the traditional look that we all know and love. I searched online several times and eventually I decided that sticks were meant to be cut. If I halved a stick lengthwise then I would have something I could appropriately store. Turns out that people don’t crush butter that hard so having half available at a time is the norm. After coming to that realization while standing in the aisle I made the choice to pull the trigger on it, hence the above photo. Another decision I came to was that I was going to make a soft taco bake kit from Old El Paso. I used some ground pork that was on the verge. The inspiration was more about the ground pork than it was about any craving. It turned out amazing, as you can see and stuffed my guts from fourteen o’clock onwards.

I skipped dinner with that large meal. Instead I chewed on the anticipation of the Chef and his friend arriving. We three had tickets to go see Cheese perform his first big gig at an actual comedy club. Everything was very safe and secure. You had to call in ahead of time and arrange your table, you had to fill in a COVID screening document before entering the building and tracing was rampant. There was even a suspended plexiglass box around the comedians. Apparently it made it hard for them to see the audience with the bright lights. The opening act and host was fairly vulgar and crass, trying to focus on crowd work. It devolved quickly into sexual and toilet humour. Cheese was in the middle and had some sharp material, it was a nice cohesive act that flowed together nicely. I’ve heard most of it previously but I’ve seen him perform regularly for months. I thought the ordering, timing, and flow were fantastic. The main act followed and spent most of his time complaining about all arms of government, being mildly racist and sharing dark, shocking takes for most of his act. We found out about two thirds of the way in that he works for Rebel News. It appears that most of the crowd knew that and was there to support him in that. Learning that made things make a lot more sense in terms of the audience. Regardless of the headliner not being our style we still had an enjoyable time. I drank one cola during the several hours.

We bid Cheese and Two Glasses of Wine good night, it was their first night away from kids in fourteen months so we wanted to let them enjoy it. When we got back to the Harbour we sat down and watched some fun Try Channel YouTube videos until it was late and everyone was tired.

Completion

The tank is starting to really run low. It’s been harder to get a full night’s sleep. The stress of pending meetings is weighing on me physically and mentally. Thankfully today is the end of the line. The last one, the one I’ve been saving up for. It’s not a critical one but they are all very important. I was up between four and five and started getting ready for the day. Having consumed the final eggs yesterday I had to change the destination within my flavour nation for today. The effet is much the same but at the same time a complete departure from the norm.

I slurped back these two greasy pellets and was able to review my presentations thoroughly before hopping on a call briefly with my US team. I was sporting the moustache and the jacket and got some love for the look. I’m telling you people, the moustache has been getting positive reviews, I think I finally did it. I just had to commit to it for nine months before birthing it into the world.

I flipped over to my last big deployment. It lasted over three and a half hours. It went well over time and I even had to pick up the pace at the end of it. That was the completion of the journey. Well not really, it never really ends. During all the meetings there were questions or requests for other information that I get to wrassle up now. They always want more. When it was over I immediately started processing and updating slides with the information they requested. I had a very short lunch consisting of a can of Campbell’s Chunky Butter Chicken and Vegetables soup and then we had another huge meeting scheduled with an important client. That ate up a couple of hours. After that I got a few calls and kept things moving. I still haven’t gotten to my critical items that I want to get off the list before the holiday break. I ran out of time to go get ingredients for our Family Feast night. We were supposed to make crab cakes. I lacked the crab, among other things. I told the family I’d call in but make something a little bit different on my end so I didn’t completely ruin the festivities. On my side I prepared a homemade double down. Not seen officially in this country since 2012, now was the time. I forgot the bacon, or more appropriately I ignored the bacon but otherwise created a nice representation. The sauce is a co-mingling of chipotle mayo, sriracha, Miracle Whip, salt, parmesan cheese, and dried parsley in a somewhat random ratio. I cooked the breaded breasts in the Air Fryer to keep to the theme. I ate almost two of these abominations. They were fantastic. I could barely breathe I was eating them so hard, they were that good. Next to mine on the blue plate is my youngest sister’s crab cake. My parents version is darker on a blue and brown plate and my middle sister has the artsier photo on a white plate. Once again we had a good time. Things wrapped up relatively quickly this time and I found my way into my bed not long after. I meant to catch up on the internet, specifically YouTube, but passed out pretty hard. Not before my body showed some disappointment in my culinary choices. I needed a thick sleep.

The Hunt for Pepe Silvia

The trend is now established, I’m back on the coffee. And I’m not getting the same kick off it after a few days. My brain must have quickly re-established whatever pathways were involved. I had the normal breakfast otherwise, consuming the last two eggs in the house along the way. I’ll have to wean back off the coffee again to regain the effectiveness. I had a pretty lengthy pre-work time as I was up and out of bed so early. It’s not usual that I have this much luxury time in the morning. Today involved three meetings, two in the afternoon. The morning one went ok. I didn’t feel like I gave much excitement around a couple of products but the customer was plenty excited by the end of the call so I guess I did okay. Lunch crept up quickly after that and I rushed it. I just had a can of Campbell’s Chunky Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. It was all wrapped up within fifteen minutes but I dawdled for an additonal ten minutes or so as a means of taking a break. I got myself ready for the afternoon meetings and had a relatively enjoyable time during those two. The last one ended ahead of six so I took a full hour break and made some dinner. I just made the exact same thing as the previous night. I cooked some chicken bites in the Air Fryer and downed a can of Dr Pepper alongside those. Bacon Ranch dressing was the dipping sauce again. It was just as tasty the second day in a row. If you’re keeping track, I only had 75 minutes of respite since the work day began. After my little evening break I launched into an investigation that was requested by my boss and others the previous afternoon. I can’t say what I was investigating but after an hour or so of hunting I had the answers I needed and then I spent well over an hour writing a very detailed review of my findings, then I re-wrote that into an email. I was washed out by the end of that. It took me a full hour to get settled into sleep. So if you look at the overall day, for the waking hours I had two hours before work, then a half hour at lunch and an hour at dinner of free time. Then I used an hour to fall back asleep. The work-life balance looks pretty unfavourable when you consider that I put in thirteen and a half hours of work. So of the eighteen hours I was away, seventy five percent was spent working. It’s less bad if you count sleep as personal time.

Past Halfway

Normal breakfast and coffee. Started early with early rising. Meetings went well but with some homework from each. Productive conversations. Lunch was last of soup and two sausages. Quick and easy fill. Afternoon slipped away quickly and it was after six before I knew it. Made a basket full of chicken nuggets for dinner. They were so good I was obliged to call the Chef and thank him for his efforts. I paired them with some bacon ranch salad dressing and a Dr Pepper. Maybe not my healthiest meal of the week but it was a trip to flavour country. I decided not to go back to work and took a few hours to vegetate mentally. I did nothing of consequence. It was around ten that I shut it down.

Fulfilling Tuesday

Tuesday started like Monday, with my usual breakfast, but with coffee added to the mix. I woke up extra early, likely due to the stress of the task at hand, and needed an extra kick. The coffee delivered that for sure. I got to my desk super early as well and finished my preparation for Thursday and started checking over what I was going to present today. I found a couple of small mistakes and fixed them just ahead of the meetings. The first one of the day had a potentially difficult siutation that ended up resolving itself fairly smoothly. That was a relief. I think I’d been stressing about it somewhere in the background for awhile so that made me feel much more liberated when it ended. I decided to celebrate at lunch and made some wings. I was feeling pretty adventurous I guess so I took some pretty big swings on flavouring. I doused them in a garlic dust and salt mixture I got for Chirstmas last year and some freshly cracked black pepper before cooking in the Air Fryer (AF). These were thawed wings so they cooked up perfectly and crisply just like you’d expect from the AF. When they came out I dusted them with some parmesan cheese, some of my garlic spread and sriracha. This was a different approach to the spicy gar par. They were pretty good, but a little heavy on the cheese. The smell was quite pungent and the cheese overpowered most of the other elements. The chicken itself was cooked perfectly.

Before the next meeting after lunch kicked off I got a few more packages from my Black Friday frenzy. I think there are a couple more coming in the next couple of days and then a couple more targeted at a very wide time frame. Those will be wild cards and I think are coming in the regular mail. The afternoon went much like the previous day, a long meeting and then a debrief. I had a few calls to return and spent most of the remainder of the day getting back to various people. It was around six when I finally powered everything down and headed to the kitchen. One of the parcels that arrived was a clothing gift for the Big T so I called him to ask what size he was wearing now. Something in my memory triggered when I’d taken it out of the box and I needed to know. Apparently he’s shrunk slightly and prefers a smaller size than I’d had in my head. So that’s unfortunate. Hopefully this brand fits more snug and this works out. I love the colour of the garment and can’t wait to see his reaction. We chatted while I ate some leftover soup. He’d had a couple drinks to help with the pain from getting a filling replaced so was more chatty than usual. When I’d finished eating, talking and cleaning I basically went to bed. I read my book and then the internet before watching some YouTube and passing out just after nine. The early mornings are making for early nights which exacerbate the early mornings. I’m sensing the beginning of a vicious cycle.

Blur

Today was the first full day of deployment meetings. I was armed with my mustache and my jacket. I decided that just because I wasn’t in the big hotel in Chicago didn’t mean I didn’t have to act like it. Although, I eat much simpler meals and drank far less. I dusted off my jacket and dressier clothes on Friday and felt I’d start the week strong. I had my normal breakfast and got to work very early. I zoomed through my notes a final time and double checked some inventory figures to give the most complete presentation possible. It’s sort of the culmination of my year. There were only two meetings on the docket for today, one for two hours and the other for three. When you’re doing the most of the presentation on these calls, time flies. I was into lunch before I knew it. I doled out some leftover soup and slurped it back quickly to give myself time to prepare for the longer meeting.

As the two companies involved were talking about their business planning and stuff the doorbell rang and I slipped down to receive my package. It was my 15 year with the company gift that I selected. A Nikon CoolPix B500 camera. I don’t know much about cameras but this option made the most sense for me. I am hoping I can film with it and enhance what I’m putting on my YouTube channel. I didn’t have time to deal with it though and just dumped it on the floor near my desk and got back to business. When the call ended I had a debrief with a couple colleagues and then worked on getting ready for other calls that week.

Dinner was later. I worked past six in preparing for the Thursday’s meetings. I had a Stouffer’s bistro panini again. I find them to be my favourite, quick meal. After cleaning up I went straight to my bed and watched the newest YouTube videos from the channels I subscribe to. Before I knew it I was drifting off. The entire day went by in a blink of an eye. Everything was incredibly quick.

Slippery Sunday

The late night made for another later morning. It was eight again when I finally surfaced. I decided to skip breakfast and bed and go straight to Netflix in bed. I fired up season four of Big Mouth and watched a few episodes. I watched the first two at some point yesterday, likely forgot to mention it so I’m nearly halfway through the season. I think the other season I watched in one sitting. This one will definitely be broken into parts for me. If that gives you an indication of where I’m at. The whole time I was thinking that I should be watching Money Heist but I’m concerned I won’t easily be able to put that one down if I get it going. Towards ten I got up and did something that Booje requested. I applied some Just for Men to my mustache. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to work out very well. I’m not seeing much of a difference.

That’s the way of things I guess, can’t win them all. The application of that substance required a shower afterward so I was forced to partake and get myself in order. I put in a load of laundry and set about breaking my fast. I warmed a rather large vessel of my leftover soup and I cooked a package of hot Italian sausages in the air fryer (ten minutes at 370F). It was a strange but delicious combination. Probably low carb too.

After lunch I went to work on the thetugboat.ca some more. I wanted to move the Tent-Venture to it’s own location to make it more accessible and also to avoid burying all the actual Archive content. I think I have it sorted. There are some other features that I discovered in the process that I will have to start looking at implementing for the health of the site. More on that another day. While I was in the process of that Cheese popped in to get his chicken. He was only here for a short visit but we got to socially distant sit and chat for a bit. It was nice to catch up a bit. He’s well and he and his family are safe. Some packages arrived with some Christmas gifts for me and some from me. And some for me, that are from me. My physical copy of Rhythm of War and my new kitchen knife were among my acquisitions.

After Cheese left I decided to tackle a couple of very small jobs. I moved on of my lavender plants into the pot that used to hold an aloe plant. I was adjusting it and it broke off so had to be destroyed. I’ve been wanting to move it for weeks, something was wrong in the other pot. Turns out the bottom of it isn’t draining right and the soil has been saturated for weeks. Next I fixed the time and the programming for my exterior lights to be coordinated with my Christmas lights. For supper I made a pepperoni Stouffer’s bistro panini and had two granola bars. It would seem I was more thirsty than hunger and took care of two things with one move. I hung a full bird feeder outside to help any non-crows left in the area. I thought about doing a couple hours of work but found way to talk myself out of it. I’m going to really enjoy some listless time doing nothing important.

Saturday Off

After stretching my personal time last night I needed extra sleep time to accomodate that. It was eight proper when I finally stirred. I didn’t charge right out of bed either. I lingered for at least a half hour, enjoying the change in routine. When I was good and ready I sauntered across the house to my office and fired up my computer, my personal computer. I had some Musings drafts to publish and I wanted to get back to my MSC challenges. Once I’d got a Musing up, reviewed a few more drafts and caught up in my MSC world I found my way to the kitchen and made a great breakfast. Actually, before I started that culinary project I washed and chopped a bowl of carrots and celery. I cut up two chicken breasts into same size chunks. While the chorizo sausage for my breakfast was browning I dumped two containers (910mL) of reduced sodium chicken broth and one litre of water into my soup pot and turned the heat to max. I added the eggs to the pan of chorizo and later a dash of shredded cheese. I rolled up the resultant mixture with a liberal handful of cheese and some diced jalapeno, the last of pickled jalapeno jar. At this point I dumped the veggies and a liberal amount of kosher salt into the soup pot and knocked the heat back to an aggressive simmer. Turning back to breakfast, I wrapped everything up and put them into a preheated (400F) air fryer for seven minutes, turning halfway. I was careful to put them seam side down, otherwise it turns into something weird and very messy. On the soup front, I let the veggies boil away for almost fifteen minutes (until softening) before adding a handful of rice. Five minutes later I added the chopped chicken and a healthy dose of fresh ground black pepper. I turned the heat to the absolute minimum and sat down to enjoy breakfast. A shockingly short amount of time later I removed the soup from the heat.

I had to sample the soup but forced myself to wait a bit after such an amazing breakfast. The soup was still steaming over an hour later. It was perfection. I seasoned it correctly this time and adding the rice toward the end was a key step in avoiding a starchy mess like last time. [edit: From the future I can confirm the soup stayed more normal.] I returned to my computer and progressed on publishing Musings drafts. I prefer to do this daily but with the intensity of the last week I had to improvise. For a break in the activity I walked up to get the mail. I am expecting my fifteen year prize, it was supposed to be delivered with signature on Friday but nothing happened. I had a couple of packages at the mail box and a few bills. I carted it home. Turns out Theodore Complete sent me something but it was coated in glitter. Well played. I left the package unwrapped under the tree, not sure when I’ll open it. I also got part of someone’s gift that I should wrap and a memory card for myself. Now I can leave one in the drone and one in the GoPro and not have to switch them back and forth constantly. I wasted some of my life playing MSC Tri-Peak and rocking tunes. I warmed up some chicken nuggets and pizza buns for dinner. One of those two things caused some GI distress and I paid the price in the upcoming hours. Eventually I settled into my room and watched a strange film about Ned Kelly on Netflix. It left me in a bit of a chaotic mood so I deigned to find a palatte cleanser before bed. I enjoyed a chocolate dipped granola bar while watching Aquaman. I’ve seen it, but it was on a plane so I wanted to see if a proper screen made any difference. It didn’t, the film is somewhat flat. I feel like the leading characters didn’t like each other in real life. The amount of weird yelling the men do is pretty weird also, took me out of it. I think that was the beginning of the end for superhero movies. At least maybe they’ll stop digging down into lower layers of more obscure characters because of that one. Probably some good ones down there in the basement but we may never know. Thanks Aquaman. It was midnight when I fell asleep.

The Beginning

After the frustration of the previous night I found myself in a rush to clean up my facial hair. I have some fairly critical meetings coming up and it was hinted that it wouldn’t be a bad idea for me to look more presentable for them. Another colleague had razed off his very impressive beard a week ago and I figured if he can do it then I can do it. I wasn’t willing to let it all go though. I had planned to make another video of the various looks I could attain from the canvas of a full beard. At tleast I was going to shave in a goatee with sideburns then a tighter goatee before finishing up with just a mustache. But for reasons parially out of my control last night I wasn’t able to get that opportunity. Instead I woke up tired and had to will myself out of bed to start the unpleasant task. I used my clippers with the shield I used to trim. Not sure why I didn that. I then moved down to the smallest shield before baring the clippers. They worked magnificently and soon I had things shorn down to a light fuzz. I knocked the dust off my electric razor and went about cleaning up the last of it until I was down to the bare skin. The electric razor didn’t do a great job. I guess it’s low on jam after sitting idle for nine months. I probably should get a haircut to complete the transformation but it’s not bad yet and considering the ordeal it is to get a professional haircut nowadays, I’m going to wait a bit longer to get my money’s worth. So I’ve cleaned up my face some, not done there.

Normally the meeings we’re about to partake of are held in Chicago, IL at a fancy hotel. We generally meet with all of our customers over the course of three days. It is quite enjoyable, if not very intense. I’m the focal point of these meetings and end up presenting for most of the time. The dress code is not formal but we get dressed up a bit for it. So in keeping with tradition I went and found my favourite dress shirt and the expensive jacket I’d purchased last summer and got them going. With the mustache and the hair helmet it makes for a funny look. I thought real estate agent but I was told I look more like a cop. I was also told repeatedly that the mustache suits me. I guess I’ve officially entered middle age. My father had one for many years so I guess I’ll go with it. I fully expect to resurrect the beard at some point in the near future but I’m satisfied with this look. I snapped some pics and shared my experience fairly widely within my social circles. My friend She had the strongest reaction, I think positively. Never really sure there.

The meeting itself went well, no major errors. Not everythign was perfect but I think the customer walked away happy and my colleagues were congratulatory. I had a longer than normal lunch as I was feeling a bit burned out and had a headache sprouting up. Not sure where these are coming from this week, maybe I need more fresh air or something. I cooked up a basket of chicken bites in the air fryer and repeated the dipping experience of yesterday. This brand of bites were no where near as good. They actually sucked. Maybe it was because they weren’t frozen but simply put in the fridge. I took thirty minutes extra to lay in my bed and struggle to breathe after eating a big wad of them. Then I got back to work, reviewing slides for next week and preparing my speaking points for each product. I got through another couple of brands and addressed some feedback from others reviewing slides for me. It was half five when I shutdown. I switched computers and did some MSC challenges for the first time all week. I cleared all the podcasts in the queue while playing and switched back to Rhythm of War and chewed off a couple hours. For supper I had the leftover tots with some cheese melted over top and some chicken bites, cause why not. I took a can of Dr Pepper into the basement at played some NHL20 while listening to the audiobook. Around eight I watched a film called the Holiday. I’m sure I’ve seen it before but it put me in a nice warm place emotionally before I marked back upstairs. It was already after my bedtime so I cleared the small stack of YouTube videos waiting for me and ended up falling asleep shortly after midnight.

Open Thursday

No meetings, no problem! The day started with the usual breakfast and was working by eight again. The day in, day out routine of it is finally starting to wear on me, after nine months. I think it’s that combined with the stress of the pending meetings. Anyways, it’s something. I settled in doggedly and worked through some presentations. Making specific notes for the customer to help them position stuff. It also forces me to review the slides in greater detail. I should be getting a file from a colleague soon with a list of all my mistakes and suggestions for improvements. The good news is that this task makes time absolutely fly. It seemed the blink of an eye and it was lunch. I grabbed one of the big containers of chicken bites I’d cooked during the chicken-acalypse of the previous night and warmed it up in the microwave rather than the air fryer. Could have done that better. Either way, I grabbed three flavours to dip into and set about my grim task. I didnt’ eat the whole container, that would be lunacy. But I ate more than I planned and ended up transferring the riddens to another, much smaller dish. I should mix a darker or sweeter sauce into the rotation. These are predominantly savoury. The experience was very nice nonetheless.

The afternoon consisted of more of the same. Pouring over material, slide by slide, looking for mistakes that I may have made in my haste. There was a call to discuss corn checks for future testing and then I hung on with the corn breeder to discuss something before the meeting started. When that wrapped it was back on task, I got done a fair swath and was planning to hang them up for the day around six. The soybean breeder reached out and said he wanted to chat around half eight once his kids were down. Ok…. Then the list of improvements from my colleagues came in. I was already cooking up some tots in the air fryer at this point so I decided I would knock those back and return to the office. Since I couldn’t get real life loaded, I decided to get my tots loaded instead. I used some of my pickled jalapenos, some salsa and shredded cheese to do the trick. It’s not much but it seriously changes the dish otherwise. Eating a giant bowl of plain tots might be in my rearview.

I did go back to work for about an hour, making some changes to one specific customer and having a conversation with the breeder about some soybean related things. I powered down a bit after nine and went straight to bed to listen to some audiobook and watched a couple YouTube videos. Eating spicy tots after half seven proved a poor idea as sleep didn’t come easy or quickly. Eventually I got down. That extra work robbed me of Bike Club and of another task I wanted to partake of. Something much more facial.

Chicken Hump

The day started like many others, with a normal breakfast. I then dove into my work at eight and continued to make my in the world today until 11:30am when I had a bi-weekly meeting. Moments before that meeting I finished the first pass of the last presentation. So I’ve got something to show to customers at this point. That is a big milestone crossed. Now the bulk of the effort goes into the refinement and review of the materials I’m planning to present next week. Not too shabby to be done ahead of schedule. Let’s ignore the fact that it worked out that I had an extra week in between. I received some recognition for recent fifteen year work anniversary again on that team call. This time it was from my licensing team, no speeches this time but it was really nice of my boss to share that with the group, I sure wasn’t planning to. That call was followed by someone immediately catching me before I could slink away for lunch, they wanted to check my progress and see if they could help with reviewing material. We really do have a strong team. Eventually I got down to the kitchen and today I made a couple packages of Mr Noodles, one chicken and one spicy chicken. And it’s not fooling. I found the mixture to be quite spicy. The meal overall was rich in space and less in nutrients but I found myself greatly enjoying the experience. Work took up the entire afternoon as you would expect. I reviewed files and shared them with others to preview. I had to stop ahead of six though. There was something afoot this evening that I needed to prepare for. The Chef was bringing a horde of chicken. He had unused samples accumulating at his work and it was causing issues for him. The plan for for him, Ronny Ronks, and Cheese to congregate at or near the Harbour and I’d trade them bacon for chicken. Ron was the first to arrive, he wore his mask in like a responsible adult. The Chef was next and the three of us spaced apart to bring the chicken from the back of his compact car into the kitchen. Cheese bailed. You can’t really see the hockey bag style cooler on the kitchen floor and there were a few large boxes behind the couch on the tile. This was a massive amount of chicken, mostly in the form of boneless bites.

We started breaking down the boxes and sorting it into groupings. Ron had a pile, I had a pile, we made a box for Cheese and one of Chef’s pals got a pile. In the end, the Chef took almost half of it back with him. With my freezer full (see below) we had to resort to using the cold weather for Cheese’s chicken. He says he’s not coming until the weekend so I’m hoping it stays frozen, or at lease cold enough. There is a styrofoam layer within that box and I taped it up nice to keep that aspect closed. I don’t have the time to deliver it and he apparently doesn’t have the time to pick it up. Not an ideal situation. I can’t fret over it, I have too many other things to fret about. There were a couple of opened bags that I cooked up immediately to ensure they didn’t turn. I sampled a bit but mostly cooked them and fridged them for tomorrow. There was a small amount that will be tossed out, which would have been the fate for the whole lot if we hadn’t stepped in. I still feel guilty though.

Home Stretch

Today starts a new month but it’s much the same story for me. I awoke at a decent hour and raced through my morning ablusions and enjoyed a full breakfast. You’ll know in the photo below that I partook of coffee today. I needed a bit of jet fuel to lay the hammer down. I didn’t have any critical meetings to attend and wanted to reach maximum efficiency to get my presentations completed and the plan was a good one. The biggest chunks are handled now and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Only a handful of brands to do now. This is how I spent my morning, with a few phone calls interspersed. For Lunch I prepared a can of Campbell’s Chunky Butter Chicken and Vegetables soup and a box of Stouffer’s Mozzarella and Meatball Bistro Paninis. It was a very filling combination.

The afternoon was very much like the morning. I did pause to have a call with my boss to inquire about a compensation email I got from HR the previous night. Only good news there. I kept going as long as the snow kept falling. It had started before I’d begun my work day and I decided I’d follow it’s lead. I took a break for dinner. I cooked up the few wings left in the fridge and supplemented it with some chicken flavour Mr Noodles. The ability to have such perfect wings at home is amazing. That air fryer was a great addition to my kitchen. I noticed when I stopped to eat that the snow was really starting to pile up. That was going to have to be a problem for the next day, the driveway would need to be sorted.

I went back to work after this short interlude and it was half eight when I finally hung it up. I went from there straight to Bike Club. As I was recovering from that I watched some wild trailers for new movies coming to Apple Movies. That was short lived and I climbed the steps to get into my bed.

Extra Mundane Monday

As the title suggests, today was very mundane. Very little of value happened, other than work. I work up at a decent hour and conducted my regular morning routine, with the same breakfast as normal. I worked all morning. For lunch I crushed a can of soup (chicken and sausage gumbo by Campbell’s Chunky) and some nearly expired pizza buns. I worked all afternoon. Then I started working into the evening also. I had a can of Doctor Pepper and a full bag of all dressed Great Value brand chips for dinner, at my work computer. The work I was doing was somewhat unique I suppose. I was moving a decade worth of emails out of my inbox and into OneNote so that when my company enacts their “new” policy for people like me, I don’t lose years of reference material. I started this process on the last day available despite having known it was coming for months. I went from 7:45am to 11:30pm with just the two breaks for meals, not even for supper. It wasn’t all emails though, I had a few meetings and other calls to break up the day but even during those I kept moving emails on the side. I did finish my audiobook, Rhythm of War though. Then I immediately restarted it. I think I consumed it so hard that I didn’t get the full experience. I can say that I am very much enjoying my Audible subscription this month.

Hands-free Reading

After taking a full day to let my brain recuperate I had some work miles to walk but still wasn’t feeling like I was in a desperate struggle to get to it. I decided to take some time after a slow start to prepare a nice, leisurely breakfast. As I’ve mentioned previously, I find the ritual soothing. After seeing what the air fryer did to the tortilla wraps when we made the chimichangas I was keen to try an added layer of complexity to this dish in my pursuit of perfection. I finished them in the air fryer rather than simple putting the wrapped bundles into the warm pan with a plate on top. The crispy exterior added a texture element that it was apparently lacking. The biggest difference was the gooey insides, the cheese was all fully melted in this version, another element that I was unaware that I was missing. A simple step has transformed one of my favourite dishes to a different level. I will be doing this again.

By the time I’d finished preparing, cooking, consuming and cleaning this culinary masterpiece it was well into mid-morning. I hauled my very full guts up the stairs and took on some MSC challenges until I was fully caught up. I then posted some Musings and got myself up to speed on both fronts, which was nice. Around eleven I switched computers and fired up my work machine. I whisked through the tasks I’d set for myself and got things wrapped up by half three. I am either more efficient this year or I’ve planned things better but I’m in a good spot to have this major effort completed and ready to present ahead of schedule. Which is good because it will give others time to review my work before I bring it to the customer. I stopped working on the grounds of making a meal. I didn’t do that though, instead I ate some crap I didn’t have to put any effort into and continued to listen to my audiobook. I’d cleared all the podcasts in the queue while working and settled in for my reward. For awhile I sat and admired my tree while listening but tiring of that I descended and fired up some NHL20, an activity that I can continue the book while doing. Tiring of that I marched back upstairs and worked on some MSC. I’ve found a way to make appreciable advances on my Tri-Peak level. If I play on Hard difficulty and do three boards to get any XP then it’s more worthwhile. I wish I’d figured it out sooner. This, of course was another activity I could do while listening to the book, in which I was now completely enthralled. There were points where tears were shed. I had to stop playing and simply go to lay in my bed and listen because the plotlines were getting so intense. More tears were shed. Eventually I passed out but that was close to eleven. I logged many, many hours of Rhythm of War today, still more to go.

Work Break

I took the entire day off work today. But that just meant that I was available to tackle all the other aspects of my life that I’ve been neglecting. Well, maybe not all of them, that’s a lot for one day. Normally when presented with a day off I’d descend and waste one but not this round. I started things off strong with a McBreakfast and then got my fortnightly groce on. I should have been buying the supplies for the next Family feast but it’s two weeks out so that won’t work for fresh items. I got home and rammed my freezer full of food, I did not adjust my purchases to account for the bacon supply. The stowing process was quickly followed by getting some laundry going. While I waited for my clothes to clean I settled into some MSC challenges and worked out some Musings drafts to post. It felt good to get caught up on both those things. I’d been lagging behind a bit in both.

The day was so beautiful that I decided to spin a bit of fertilizer on the grass with my terrible hand-held spreader. Some of the pearls weasled underneath the spinner and made it an unpleasant experience so I gave it up after doing the beleaguered backyard. Since it was nice and I was already outdoors I ventured to string out my Christmas lights. Years ago I purchased two strands of white lights with quick clips by NOMA. I hang them across the front and around the porch, all facing downward, exactly the same. I’m fairly particular about it. I ran a short cord down from the end of the second strand to the NOMA timer. I spooled up the excess extension cord neatly and zip tied it to the porch railing in a very orderly fashion. I’ve got the regular house lights timed to come on after the Christmas lights go off. The NOMA light timer turns them on after fifteen minutes of low light and they stay lit for 4-5 hours before snapping off and then the house lamps come on. It’s a lovely system I’ve developed over time. All that effort and ladder work gave me a fierce hunger to quell. I warmed up my leftovers from the previous evening in the air fryer and had a tasty recreation of the Family Feast meal.

Being that I was getting festive, I figured I could put up the tree and trim it. I fired up my audiobook, which I’m greatly enjoying, and had an adventure in the boat while securing the tree. I very slowly erected the tree in the living room. I started with the bottom section, taking my time to slowly adjust and spread the branches back to a more natural position than how they’d been stored. It took forever and I stopped to rest after each section. Eventually I got it to a point where I felt like it looked like a tree more than an abomination and started the trimming. I bought this set of ornaments for six dollars at Canadian Tire one year with the Chef. We got the tree for thirty bucks and I think the star was a few bucks. It was all done for under twenty five dollars each. I kept the ornaments and the star and still use them. They are relatively terrible but I sort of like them.

I had planned to get a tree with all white lights and have a night blue and white tree (Go Leafs!) but when I got home I discovered that the tree I’d purchased (in 2013) was multicolour. I bought it on sale, no returns, so I’m stuck with this oddity. You’ll note the older school timer. It took some fiddling but I rigged it so that the lights come on around six in the evening and shut off somewhere between eleven and twelve.

After finishing up with the tree, I played some NHL20 so I could enjoy my audiobook further. For supper I had chips and a drumstick much like a child would. By the time I’d had my fill of games and books it was dark so I ventured out to check on my lighting job. It looks okay but you can see where the two strands join. I usually account for that but I’ll live with it this year. I went back in and watched some YouTube, enjoyed my story and played some more MSC until the evening was used up.