The Voice Of Reason

My snack for today. Nom!

Walked down to the local grocery store and picked up "a few" groceries and spent nearly 100 dollars. I always get more than I intend and then have to carry them home! I decided to get some stuff for a few recipes to try to make some proper meals. Yeah i know. It won't last :) Lasagna, mushroom meatballs, and a cider braised pork roast/shoulder. Also got some salmon so i can have that one night and use the extra for salmon fish cakes. Also nom! And things like these cherries, while they were on sale, were still kind of expensive but ooooh worth it and better to spend the money on that than half price Christmas chocolate (since i already had some chocolate this week)

We're forecast to get a snowstorm tomorrow so that's another reason to make sure to get to the grocery store today. Yes the stores will be open on Monday, too but i was getting low on bread and milk and if i can't have tea and toast on a Sunday morning, it makes for an unhappy me! I guess it will be a magazine or movie day tomorrow if it does storm. Mom, Staci and I were supposed to take our annual trek to Chapters but we'll have to postpone that. Staci and Alex bought a house and are moving in shortly so we may have to wait until she's free and I'm back from Manchester.

That's coming up fast! Can't wait! 18 sleeps! Hmm I also ordered some clothes at boxing day prices from Evans which is a UK large size store. They ship to Canada and the cost was pretty reasonable. I also had a code for 20% off my first order which saved me even more than the shipping cost. They did say it would be delivered no later than the 15th which is the day i leave! I hope it's in before then. There's a couple of things I'd like to take with me and wear (specifically this  and maybe this or this to wear with leggings if they fit).

I will only be in Manchester 5 days so we won't be taking any road trips I don't think, unless we take a fancy to get up early and take the train somewhere. Looking forward to seeing the Corrie set again and seeing my friends, also meeting a few of the other bloggers as well :)

I went a bit mad on the Kobo site today, too. They had 80% off a lot of titles on the weekend and usually the sale books are not anything I would enjoy but this time i found a few. I bought 5! But because they were so cheap i only spent just under 20$ so really, for the price of a paperback and a half, I got 5 books. I find that even the regular price ebooks are getting more expensive these days and I just hate to pay it, so i wait for sales or discount codes or *koff* other means. I bought one from Amazon Kindle the other day too by one of my favourite authors, Debora Geary who has a new "Witch Central" book out but that was also pretty cheap. I don't have a Kindle but i have the app on my ipod and on my desktop and laptop so i can read on them as well.

In addition to it being quite cold out today, it is now raining.
Hmmm.
I was supposed to go to the grocery store for a tin of coconut milk.
For a curry.
i'm not really wanting to get off the bus if it's raining.
However
I do have a carton of whipping cream that may suffice, with a bit of diluting with milk.
My arteries will thank me if i dilute. Must look in the cupboard and see if i have any coconut extract then i'd at least get the flavour.
Had lovely mac and cheese for lunch with a side salad. (Treats, Scotia Square in case anyone local is interested)

Geek warning....

Probably a good thing the Data Base Administrator is out of town. He would have been kissed soundly (on the cheek) today because he sorted something that in turn fixed a baffling problem i'd been having for a few days. I hate it when things go wrong for no apparent reason. Sometimes it's a piece of the puzzle that goes corrupt for some unknown reason. Sometimes it's a change i've made but in this case it was neither and the error messages were confusing and misleading considering what was actually going on. See, last week a password was about to expire so he changed it to an indefinite expiry date. This was important because it was a behind the scenes password that an application used and we couldn't have it just stop working one day because the password expired. But, when you log in now, the database throws up a message to say the password will expire in (20 digit number) days. But you can still log in. Only the application, when running on my local machine out of the programming developer software, kept telling me it couldn't connect to the database, saying the character set was invalid. There was no expiry message on the software console, only if i tried to connect using something more direct (sql-plus) No problems with the application that was running independently on a server, either, only when running it on a local machine server. But I hadn't changed anything. The DBA noticed the expiry message and got rid (from his remote location) and lo and behold, we have connection! I think what happened was that the local server/connection piece didn't know what to do with the message and couldn't recognize a 20 digit number in it's native format and horked up a hairball with the closest related message it could find. Gah!

Anyway, sorted now. I can relax and enjoy the weekend.

So we're starting the countdown again. 65 sleeps!

I'm taking tomorrow off. I made a doctor's appointment, just a regular routine thing and i couldn't get it at the end of the day like i usually do. I'd have to leave at lunch and get there for 1 and by the time i'd get back to work it would be nearly 3 so that's the afternoon gone. I decided to use a vacation day so i can sleep in and not rush.

Another food semi-disaster.
Thought i could make a chicken casserole without a recipe. Seemed easy enough. Chicken, onion, celery, two tins of cream soups (chicken, mushroom), two tins and a bit of milk, use up the orzo. That's like rice only it's pasta. I cooked way too much of it. Completely filled the dish so i scooped some out to two smaller dishes. Then since it was very very milky, well here's where it all falls apart. I added a bit of rice to it thinking it would cook when i baked the dish in the oven. Only it's brown rice which takes longer. It wasn't cooked very well and was still crunchy. Bleurgh. Now, i can add some some milk, cook in microwave for a bit. Slightly less crunchy but still noticeable. I hate to throw it all out as it's mostly edible and it's a waste otherwise. I probably will eat another bit of it and then chuck the rest. At least i'll have had a few meals and won't feel quite as guilty.

There was a bake sale in one of the boardrooms today. The usual suspects, cookies, chocolate cake, slices of loaf etc. But they also had a pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing and walnuts on top. Nom nom!!! I bought a piece to have after lunch with my tea. :) 

Three weeks from today i'll be on UK-terra firma!!! W00t! I'm determined not to overdo it when we go to Amsterdam and Belgium like i did with Paris. I don't want to suffer with blisters and sore feet like i did there. Poor gramie_dee said he though he was going to have to prop me up in the Louvre and leave me there as one of the exhibitions. I pretty much hit the meltdown point that evening and in retrospect we did do too much that day. Walking all over Montmartre, Dali museum, walking some more, and then the Louvre. We didn't see a lot of that! I did find the energy to go on the night Seine cruise because we only had to sit down so it was restful. Looking back we should have not bothered with the Louvre and just did the cruise. So this time around, i'm going to be less ambitious and if we only see a couple of sights, that's fine. We can always go back. We do have a few priorities - we want to do a canal cruise and we want to see the Masters in the Rijkesmuseum. Those are definites. I'd like to see the floating flower market too. Everything else we fit in as we can. Really looking forward to the Henry VIII exhibit in the British Library too and seeing some of you at the tentative picnic in the park (

I have recently discovered pomegranates. I seem to recall buying one years ago and cutting it open... it's all full of seeds!! I was astonished. Turns out, that's exactly what you eat! The seeds are about the size and shape of corn kernals and are deep red. When you bite into one, it sort of crispy and you get a little shot of juice. mmmMMMMMMMmmmmmm yummy, tart, but not as tart as cranberries. Usually they're quite expensive but they've been on sale, at Sobeys at least, here, for a few weeks. I bought a couple for 2 dollars each the other day and i'd seen them for a dollar each a month or so ago but i didn't know i'd like them then. Someone at work had one and gave me a bit. You cut into it and break it apart and pull the seeds away from the pale yellow flesh. It takes awhile, and is a bit fussy to do but totally worth it. I didn't do it in the kitchen like i should have and i've got red and purple drips all over various pieces of paper on my desk, a few sticky spots too! nom nom nom! And pomegranates are very good for you as well, anti-oxidants. The same sort of thing that's in blueberries.

I did Christmassy things today. I dragged my tree out of storage and propped the pieces in the corner and dragged the box of ornaments and related stuff out. I needed my cards and i went through my list, removed a few names and ended up adding new ones, which is what usually happens. Printed off the labels, stamped the envelopes with my return address and signed the cards and sealed them. I have a few more cards for special people that i have to get. I also wrapped a few presents, the stuff that has to be mailed this week. Looks like i'm going to have to use a similar sized box for Graham and his dad's gifts so i guess i really will have to spend the money to send it air mail much as it pains me. I want to make sure it gets there for christmas. I know it seems disgustingly early but when you're a slave to the post office, it's a necessary thing. I'll have a look at the largest size padded envelopes but it probably won't make any difference, cost wise. Not much anyway and the box will be sturdier anyway.

I was looking around for something to watch on telly. I've been making my way through the seasons of the UK series Shameless but i'm a bit tired of it so it needs to rest for a week or so. What else can i watch? Check the On Demand menus and i see Dexter season 3. Now i've never watched it before but i do hear it's very very good, if also disturbing at times. Oh what the heck. I've dived into season three and yes, most definitely an excellent series. I've seen four so far and i'll make my way through season 3 eventually. The main character is a blood splatter expert for the police but he's also a serial killer in his spare time. The actor played in HBO's Six Feet Under and was completely believable in that and Dexter is a completely different sort of character and he's utterly believable in this too.

Mom and i had a nice day on another road trip. This time, down to the Annapolis Valley a little ways, to just before the town of Wolfville. We wanted to try the pie as recommended by blueberrymoon at the Evangeline Inn and Cafe which was very good indeed! We drove down to Evangeline beach for a look and stopped for a photo op at a tiny community church that overlooks the marshes and then stopped into the Grand Pre National Historic site for an hour walking around the grounds. Mom hasn't been there since she was in school though Laurie and i were there a couple of summers ago. The apples were ripening on the old trees and there was a bit of a crispness in the air but the sky was blue with wonderful cloud formations and it was a good day for walking around, unlike the stinking hot day it was when i was here last. We also stopped into The Tangled Garden to have a quick look (Mom bought some lemon thyme jelly) and a walk through the lovely gardens out back where my camera battery promptly gave up the ghost a few photos into the walkways. Naturally. There are a few of my photos here.

Just sitting down to a stir fry in my effort to eat a vegetable once in awhile lol Quite nice, actually. I used some Memories of Bankok sauce from the Superstore as the stir fry sauce and it's nice and kicky.

Got my film back, the one i took over Christmas. Some good shots but i didn't get that many because, being ill, i didn't get around to the other family do's that we were going to. (i know there probably shouldn't be an apostrophe in that, but "dos" looks silly and too much like an operating system!) anyway. I've put the photos in an album for now though they may or may not stay there in the long run.

Another warm-ish day in Halifax but with monsoon like rain whipping about with all the wind we're having. Let it be known that I. Am. Not. Complaining. It could be a lot colder in which case it would be an ice storm or a blizzard. It's not so bad, either, when you're heading home after work. You can get into dry jammies and make a hot cuppa and relax.

Aren't Fridays lovely? Even horribly rainy ones like this one is turning out to be. Tail end of a tropical storm. Raining sideways. I got home ok though, it was pouring when i left the office but when i got to the bus it wasn't too bad. One of my workmates lent me a hat which was better than nothing. When i got off the bus at home, it had almost stopped but it's howling outo there again now. The amount of rain coming down doesn't seem to be huge other than in fits and starts, but the winds are gusty and it's whirling around out there. Umbrellas are neither use nor ornament in this weather.

I seem to have a cloud of fruit flies in my kitchen. Tossers! I think i had something in the garbage can that i forgot was a breeding ground for the little bastards. I now have two traps out and they're accumulating little bodies rapidly. I use cider vinegar with plastic wrap tightly over the top of the dish and poked with a few fork holes. You can use wine vinegar and a guy at work actually uses white wine (but he has it to spare as he makes wine). Works a treat but it takes a few days to get them all.

Can i just say that Farmers ice cream in the flavour of Banana Splitz is really good! Banana ice cream with strawberry and chocolate in it and these little white chocolate bits with i think some sort of jam inside.

KitKat actually has a Wikipedia entry. Is there anything that doesn't exist on Wiki? lol! Apparently the peanutbutter flavour is only out in Australia and Canada. Woo! The way the chocolate bars are made in the US makes them taste different from Canadian versions for some reason. I had a friend send me a KitKat from Florida. They use the term "candy bar" and that's what it tastes like whereas our "chocolate bars" seem to be richer tasting. UK chocolate bars are better again, different creamier chocolate but ours aren't too shabby.

Last chance at a computer before i get home on Saturday so.. quick update.

Where was i?
Did i tell you about cooking a veggie lasagna for Graham and his good mate Malc on Saturday?

How about meeting up with a couple of my friends for Sunday lunch and going to the museum called Urbis...

yes ok, i did tell you all that... sorry...

Well Sunday night we had dinner next door with his Dad who put on a lovely spread, big plate of dinner at 7:30 and then brought out a bite to eat about 11.

Monday we took the bus to Newton Heath where his good mate Dale and his family including their German Shepphard Saxon. Quite the hugest GS i've ever seen and he's like a big puppy! We had a lovely visit and a meal and we lucked out and got the bus back that takes us right here instead of having to take one into the city center and back over to Salford. Good timing there.

I've developed a cold but it doesn't seem to be getting any worse than a bunged up head at the moment. I imagine i will run it's course. It's definitely *not* like what i had the last time so though i may be a bit 'poorly', i'm not going to be seriously ill.


Today we went back into the city center (they don't call it 'downtown' like we do). I wanted to go on the observation wheel and the weather, though it rained this morning, cleared up so there were good views. We had lunch and then did some shopping. I got some digital prints done and a roll of film developed though i wanted the digital files onto a cd, they got it mixed up and put the roll of film on the cd instead. I'll just wait until i get home now and put it all on cd for graham. I brought the memory card reader but his computer doesn't recognize all the 'drives' or memory slots and the one mine is in, isn't the one it does 'know'.

I got some more Lush stuff.. face cream...and i got new dress boots (not winter type boots really ). We sat in a very noisy Starbucks for an hour killing time and then took the bus out to Chorlton for a pub quiz, meeting my friends John, Nikki and Annie. But the quiz wasn't on because there was a football game on (soccer that is). We had a good visit anyway though and are just back here, having a late snack. I am pretty much all packed up again and we're off to London tomorrow morning. I'll see some of you tomorrow night and the rest of you Saturday when i get home :)))