May 2006 Archives

in an effort to save both of us money (and gastro-intestinal distress), i've been trying to cook more meals at home for christopher and i instead of our eating out or ordering in so much. it's been kind of stressful for me because i'm really not used to cooking for anyone other than myself or, historically, my mom. it's been a real stretch for me to think up meal-like things to prepare. although he's not yet complained about anything i've given him to eat, i'm sure none of the dishes has been anything he'd clamour to have me make him again. thank goodness he's a food trooper and will eat pretty much anything but liver.

yesterday, i broke new ground by leaving the slow-cooker slow-cooking a stew while i was at work. i'm a stew novice when i cook it live and in person, so this whole leaving it to its own devices while i was twenty-five kilometres away was positively nerve-racking. it turned out not-entirely-awful, but i will note for next time to add a few more veggies, lots more liquid (read: beer) and a little less worcestershire sauce before putting the lid on it for the day.

i guess what i'm looking for are quick, easy meal ideas which can be made in a relatively short amount of time, using as few pots & utensils as possible and for the smallest monetary investment. maybe even just tips on how to cook things i've never cooked before such as pot roast (or roasted anything, for that matter: pork, chicken, etc) or non-creamy casseroles. seriously, any suggestions are welcome. i just need a little culinary inspiration before i get dumped for someone who can really cook.

or maybe you could tell me to stop being so boring and post more damn pictures.

point form because bad content is better than no content:

- i make kickass spaghetti sauce, even if i do say so myself
- stop the presses: i LOVE smoked gouda
- commercial drive is fascinating; i wish i could be invisible to people-watch with impunity
- kissing is so awesome
- working on a sunday may be productive, but it still sucks
- i'm one extension cord away from hot mini-light action in my living room
- dad's taking me to ontario for the big family reunion in july: yay!
- i sent someone flowers last week; i've never done that before
- i still have three rolls of film to scan
- my apartment is in dire need of de-dust-bunnification
- where the hell has this year gone?

while having awesome people over to watch a movie, eat yummy food and play games with is good, drinking very many glasses of white sangria on a work-night is not.

oh, my head.

you'd think a four-day long weekend would have left me all relaxed and as full of lazy as i could handle. you'd also be wrong.

it was actually a pretty busy time off what with the going out friday night, the early morning cleaning before getting on the boat saturday, the company to entertain on the other side, the shopping for an awesome new jacket, the family-visiting, the early boat back on monday, the spending quality time with christopher, the flooding of the laundry room, the driving to bellis fair, the stopping in to visit jen at work, the mauling with the boy and the fantastic phone-talking until late.

surprisingly, even waking up with a horrible headache and having to come back to work hasn't ruined the fantabulous mood i'm in. i'm crazy smiley and almost giddy. i could totally see myself running around hugging people, if i weren't so busy. i totally forgot i had lunch plans with sandy today, so that's just added to the awesome (even though it delays my grocery shopping plans until after work).

yeah, i know... i'm such a dork.

it took me a good fifteen minutes to decide if i was going to come into work today. i wrenched my back on monday morning and i've been kind of gimpy ever since. it's not debilitating, but it is just ouchy enough so i'm not 100% confident i can do the more physical parts of my job without aggravating it. so, i spent the morning debating between staying home bed-resting or sitting my ass in my chair at work and getting paid. i opted for the latter, but every time it twinges i think i made the wrong decision.

christopher and jen came over last night to watch yojimbo after their afternoon wandering around in the heat and eating nachos & drinking beer. first, christopher fell asleep while jen and i were talking, then jen was doing that head-droopy thing during the movie. gee, thanks for making me feel like such a scintilating hostess, guys!

tonight, i'm going out to dinner with my papa. i think we'll be discussing going to my aunt's 70th birthday party in thunder bay, ontario (well, nearby in kakabeka falls, to be accurate) in july. i actually have that week off work for my birthday, so the only thing holding me back from going is paying for it. oh, and the idea of going away instead of relaxing at home hanging out with my friends and christopher during my time away from work.

i'm starting to become really resentful of all the going away on long weekends i do. i love my mom, i really do, but now that i have things to do and people to spend time with, i would like to enjoy my long weekends doing that, or even just bumming around doing nothing if i so chose. instead, i sit on mom's green couch and think about all the stuff i could be doing if i were at home. then i feel guilty for rather being somewhere else when mom's so happy to have me there for a couple days every month or so. it all serves to have me come home more stressed than when i left, which is no good at all.

i need to start buying more lottery tickets so i can win my way to enough financial freedom so i have more time for all the things i want to do which, hopefully, should make the things i need to do feel less onerous and soul-sucking.

tonight's tasks:

- fill up car -- check
- wash car -- check
- pick up four rolls of film -- check
- scan four three rolls of film
- do laundry -- check
- eat dinner -- check
- wash dishes -- check
- watch the west wing series finale -- check
- watch prison break season finale -- check
- pay bills
- work out budget for film purchases
- enroll in EA (ebay anonymous)

before i even opened my eyes yesterday morning, i knew i shouldn't have gotten out of bed.

i was dropping things, i was late to work, i walked into a door jam, there was no coffee in the pot, my supervisor stormed into my office and started to freak out on me about tools because he just got freaked out on about tools by someone else. i can't really blame him for how the rest of my day went, he's a great guy, but having him burst in when nothing had gone well for me, on top of being tired from not sleeping enough and not having any coffee really fucked me up for the rest of the day.

around noon, i was hip-deep in a mood most foul, plugging away at something in order to ensure that there was nothing else anyone could freak out on me about, he came into my office and told me to go to lunch. i said no, i was in the middle of something. so, he came around my desk and unplugged my monitor then stood there saying "go for lunch. go for lunch. go for lunch." until i picked up my bag, walked down the hall and out the door.

the morning had me so riled up i could actually feel my nerves twitching and my heart pounding. as i sat in the car trying to decide where to get lunch from (or if i should've just kept driving all the way home), i phoned christopher and asked if i could come over because i needed a hug. thank goodness he lives close to work. after visiting with him, getting my hugs and being completely inarticulate about the what and how of my frazzled mood, i got back to work and, although it wasn't great, the afternoon was definitely better than the morning.

just before i left for the day, i went into my supervisor's office and apologized for being such a cranky bitch all day. i felt bad he got the brunt of my bad day, but i ensured him it wasn't personal and that even if the shit-fan incident hadn't happened it still would have been a bad day for me. he understood, but i know it's not easy to be in his position and i totally didn't make it any easier. we're all way too stressed in this department.

thankfully, i had vandigicam plans to look forward to last night. i swung by christopher's house to pick him up and was happy to learn he'd invited his niece, leah, along. we stopped for some food and then met up with everyone for the walking portion of the evening. the weather was iffy and the light was dodgy, but i did manage to shoot a roll in the meikai chris gave me and half a roll in the holga, but i have no idea if anything's going to turn out. i also got two huge and painful blisters on my foot which are making me into limpygirl today. the group thing ended with drinks and my indoctrinating leah into the sumptuous delights of crème brulee at bridges. afterwards, there was me playing taxi and subsequently falling into bed just before midnight.

can i just say how much better the second eight-hour portion of my day was than the first? it almost made going through the first part all right. no, who am i kidding? it was awful and yucky. i'm very glad that today has started much less icky and there's a whole weekend to look forward to. yay!

wednesday? are you sure it's wednesday? i got a pretty decent amount of sleep last night, but i'm still weary. it's probably just a manifestation of my desire to not be at work, but be outside shooting with my new camera.

yes, i know. i mocked jamie when he started collecting cameras. i was agog when christopher told me he had 107 cameras. i was sure i'd never be so crazy myself. uh-huh, famous last words, it seems. my only defense is that all my cameras are really cool and unique unto themselves. i don't have several of the same camera or type. one digital, one rangefinder, one vintage, one half-frame, one crap, one holga, one diana. yes! i got a diana (well, okay, a banner) in the mail yesterday. i'm so excited. it was pretty obviously never used, still in the box, with the original spool still inside. it's fantastic!

now you can see why i'd much rather be outside shooting with it, right?

p.s. did you know it's lilac season out there? if you, or anyone you know, has access to lilacs please steal some for me! many thanks.

i just went for a walk at lunch. the weather is fabulous for it. there's a stiff breeze but it's brilliantly sunny. i really needed that little bit of outside to help blow the cobwebs out.

i didn't get to bed until after one a.m. this morning. it doesn't sound that late until you remember that my alarm goes off at five-thirty. ugh.

my extreme tiredness is a product of a fantabulous evening out with jen and christopher, so it's all worth it. of course, my co-workers might not agree since they have to deal with me all day; but, too bad for them, i say. they're just jealous they can't go wandering around downtown until late at night and sit on the art gallery lion like a crazy person!

it was a perfect night to stay out late. the sky was clear, the air was warm, there weren't crazy party people everywhere because it was a work-night. fantastic! when i win the $35 million super-7 jackpot tonight, i'm totally going to make it a habit.

the weekend and next week are filling up fast. it's funny, i few days back i was looking at the month of may on 30boxes (have you seen that site yet? it's fantastic!) and desparing that it was so devoid of engagements. i really should be careful what i wish for! anyway, even my sleepiness isn't dampening my joy at good weather, friday, payday and plans with people i like to play with.

have yourselves a great weekend, peeps!

firstly, i must tell the internet that it is my friend jeremy's 30th birthday today. it's nice to have him in the same age-decade as me now. although, as he said to me the other day, he's always been older than his DOB would have you think. i was planning on posting a slightly embarrassing photo i have of him from our first and only visit a couple of summers ago (crap, has it already been two years?), but then i remembered how much he'd kick my ass if i did. see, jer? this is my gift to you! ;)

yesterday afternoon (that's the bit between noon and five o'clock, right?), christopher and i went to view an art installation by the local artists' collective Futura Bold -- which includes author douglas coupland as a member -- called The Vancouver School. from coupland.com:

i quite enjoyed it and would actually like to go back again before it closes next weekend -- but this time i'm going to avoid the very nice, but distractingly chatty, older ladies monitoring the space -- just to have a little bit more time to absorb the memories. i was very surprised and delighted to find artifacts from my highschool in the installations. it just added that little bit more of a connection to the recollections it was meant to evoke.

if you're in the vancouver area, i highly recommend you attend. it's a little out of the way for transit users, but if you ever went to a public school you'll find something there to give you pause for thought. plus, there's one absolutely brilliant video installation i think everyone should see.

i realized the other day that of the six people who work on my john malkovich-like half-floor, i'm the only person who hasn't had some sort of vehicular incident in the past year. my manager & both our buyers got rear-ended and my supervisor & officemate both got smucked in intersections. i think with numbers like that i'm pretty safe, but whenever i think about it i do make sure to find a piece of wood to knock.

p.s. not to be too whorey or anything, but if you keep track of such things you might want to know that today it is precisely two months until my birthday.

three rolls of 120 at the lab up the street from my apartment and the lady behind the counter already recognizes me. sweet.

the day after i got back from the island, i received a message from work giving me a "head's up" that the woman who was supposed to be filling in for me hadn't and wouldn't be in due to a death in the family. while i could have totally let that ruin the last four days of my vacation by worrying about what kind of mess would be left for me when i returned, i decided to put it out of my head and just enjoy what was left of my freedom.

so, last week, on top of having to catch up on work, my boss decided i should have the other in-house temp come down for the week and a day to train and help with any backlogs. hence, last week was even more intense than the first week after vacation would normally be. luckily for me, this temp is so much more on the ball than the last one they tried to send me. by the end of last week i had complete confidence in her ability to cover for me in my absence. yesterday turned out fantastic. i gave her a whack of stuff to do while i went downstairs and played with dirty tools all day long, catching up on a lot and getting my "pending" shelves almost entirely cleaned off. ahh... the sense of accomplishment was awesome.

sometimes, working isn't so very bad at all. i just wish it didn't interfere with getting outside when the weather is as nice as it's been the last few days.