gone fishing

Yesterday I went ice fishing for the first time in my life. And I even caught a fish. My dad often goes fishing with his cousin and her husband and yesterday when they went I got to go too. Between the 4 of us we caught 28 fish. Not great numbers but it was fun none the less. And we got to have a nice fish dinner for supper.

Living on coffee and carbs

Since I've moved I've not been eating healthy at all. Part of this is that I'm lazy and I don't want to pack a proper lunch for myself in the morning and part of it is that I'm not living in my own place so I don't feel comfortable making a mess of the kitchen. I'm not one for particularly healthy eating to begin with. I LOVE fast food. These factors taken together present a bit of a challenge for my overall nutritional health.

Lets start with lunch. I like to sleep for as long as I can in the mornings. Particularly when I've stayed up late making phone calls to people 2 times zones away (you know who you are!).Not that I'm complaining about the phone schedule. I manage to survive that but it does mean that I don't want to have to deal with making something for lunch everyday. So usually I just grab something out of the cupboard, which usually means I'm eating a cup of noodles for lunch. Today I went with Uncle Ben's Bistro Express rice.

And supper is usually a matter of trying to eat something quickly so that the lady I'm living with doesn't try to tell me her life story. She's about 75 so she's had a long time to come up with these stories. So usually that doesn't leave a lot of time for proper balanced meal making. Usually it's whatever I pull out of the freezer and heat up.

And then there's the coffee.  My work place offers free coffee, so I've gone from my usual pre-work double tall caramel machiatto to about 4 cups of regular joe throughout the day. Some days I feel like it's the only things that gets me through the day.

My First Ball Game

Okay so maybe I don't hate baseball quite so much. Or maybe it was the company.

Today was my first live-action baseball game. And while it wasn't the major leagues at least it was entertaining. We did a little pregame dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory since it was my birthday and the game started at 7 and my friends got off work at 5. Then we walked over to the ballpark just as the first inning was starting.

The home team lost 3-0 but you can't win 'em all I guess. But we did win free pancakes because the Goldeyes' pitcher struck out the "original pancake house's pancake batter". So now I'm going to have to go collect on those some day. Tons of foul balls though.

All in all I'd say it was a pretty good birthday outing.

Karma

Sometimes being nice just has it's own rewards.

So my brother and I have been going to Folklorama shows for the past two weeks. We whipped through our first family pack by Thursday of last week and thought we could easily get through another by the end of this week. However circumstances were not in our favor. He was tired, then I was sick, then he had stuff to do, and when we did go to a show on Tuesday I forgot to take the tickets. So we had a lot of tickets left when my older brother and I finally did get to a show tonight.

I looked at the family pack which had 10 tickets left and thought there's no way I'm going to use all of these in the next 3 days (Folklorama ends on Sunday) so I turned to the group behind us and asked if they already had tickets. They didn't so I offered to use some of my prepaid tickets to pay for their admission. We all missed the first show cut off by about 10 people so the organizers of the pavilion shuffled us upstairs to see the cultural displays and get some food before the show. Although some of the food was downstairs but they took us to get it and we were allowed to bring it up. Once my brother and I had gotten our downstairs food and found our way upstairs again we were sitting at the same table as the group of young girls (and a mother) that I had paid for. So we chatted a bit. Then we went down to watch the second show. Just before the show started the mom comes up to me with a plastic bag and says "the girls just wanted to say thanks". The bag was filled with all sorts of Scandinavian (that's the pavilion we went to tonight) goodies, Daim chocolates, some sort of Swedish strawberry cream cookies, Danish baking.

So it just goes to show that sometimes doing something out of the goodness of your heart has rewards. I didn't expect anything in return for admission I just thought I'd do a good deed for today. But I thought it would be rude to refuse the gift. So now I'm just going to have to eat sweets for the next week. THANKS GIRLS!

Vacay time

Everyone needs a little summer vacation. So my brother and I are taking ours this weekend in Fargo/Minneapolis. We're mostly going to shop but also there will be food and resting. And a whole whack of driving. Follow along here if you'd like.

On the Show Road

I know it's been a week since the last time I've done a post and I apologize. It's been a really weird week, full of ups and downs. Capped by today's trip to yet another cattle show.

I got up shortly after 5 this morning to get the animals all packed in the trailer and get out on the road for the 2.5 hour trip. We had to make 2 pit stops along the way. The second where I bought my breakfast of beef jerky and cheddar chips. We got to the show and as always Dad had a bunch of little errands to run and people he needed to talk to, which lead to me washing every animal and fitting most of them for the show. Luckily Dad's not too picky about fitting so really it involves blowing them (with what is essentially an industrial strength blow drier) and spraying them with finishing spray (kind of like shine serum).

The show itself was kind of disappointing but there were some good cattle there. So what can you do? But this is probably the end of the summer show circuit for us (which really just consisted of the two shows). There is one more in Saskatchewan at the end of August that we might go to, but somehow I doubt it. So our next thing with be Agribition in November.

Agribition is a bitch (10 days, most of which are spent sitting around doing nothing) but if you want to be a big player on the cattle scene it's the place to be. At least in Canada. With that said I think it's sleeping time.

Poor, Poor Independant Ice Cream Sellers

I don't know if this is a whole new franchising option or what but the Tim Horton's by our place hooked up with Cold Stone Creamery. Sadly it is right beside one ice cream place and just a block from another.

As much as I like our independant ice cream stores (the one is so punny it hurts, because I'm always laughing you see) I have to say after trying out the Cold Stone ice cream these places are screwed.

Feasting With My Parents

For the last couple of weekends, and the next couple of weekends I've been out at the farm helping my parents prepare for the local fair. There is a lot of work to do but at least I know that they're going to keep me well fed.

On Friday night we had fried chicken which is one of my favorite meals. Saturday was spaghetti and Ribs, Sunday we had Lasagna and Steaks. Yup even if it was a terrible weekend the food would have saved it.

For the record it wasn't a terrible weekend but the weather sucked and it's awfully wet outside.

Nothing to Report

I know it's been several days since I posted anything but I just haven't had anything to say really. Here's a quick rundown of my weekend.

My older brother came over to do his taxes on Friday, which of course was the last day to file. I had the tax software for the whole family so everyone came here to do it. Everyone else just did it before the deadline.

Then he and I proceeded to play Big League Manager which he bought me for Christmas but I hadn't played yet. Essentially you run an NHL team so you draft player and make trades and sign free agents and of course play matches. It's actually a lot of fun.

On Saturday night my parents came in and took the whole family (me, my brothers and my brother's girlfriend) out to Tony Roma's for supper. It was super good. I haven't been to Tony Roma's in a while and who doesn't like ribs? Then Mom and Dad came over to our place so that Dad could replace the battery in my car. Technically I could have done this myself or paid someone to do this but I just never got it done. I think maybe my parents are lonely and want me to come home more often which requires a working vehicle. I also sent my cat home with them for a while. It's kind of a long story but I'm thinking about giving him up for adoption.

Sunday was a pretty slack day, I watched 2 hockey games and well that was about it. And so there you have my weekend update. Exciting stuff, eh?

Now if only my pizza delivery guy looked like this

I found this picture of Marc-Andre Fleury (MAF or Mr.Smiley to me) the other day and couldn't help thinking that I wouldn't mind if that showed up to my door everytime I got too lazy to cook.

Slight Delay on the Dream Train

Alright so now that I've decided that I'm going to apply for my Master's degree I'm starting to get into a little bit of research. If I intend to apply for next fall I need to be able to pay for it. As of right now the only place I will be able to afford is right here at home. In order to afford anywhere else a year from now I'm going to have to live off Kraft Dinner for a year.

So now I'm thinking I should be looking forward to the fall of 2011 so that I don't have to be completely miserable for a year in order to afford the next two years. That takes a lot of the pressure off since now I'm giving myself another year the prepare for the GRE. It also means I'll be 29 before I'm finished grad school.

Our vacation Act II

8:31 London Time

For those of you who have been trying to follow my trip each day I do apologize for the sparseness of my blogging. I have only had free WiFi at one hotel that we've stayed at and well frankly I don't want to spend the money for the ridiculous internet rate over here. So that's what's been happening. That's also why you'll see some backdated entries.

Okay now on with the vacation update. Today we drove from Edinburgh to Inverness. The day started off kind of disastrous. We didn't get as big of a vehicle as we thought we would and we weren't sure if we could fit all the people and luggage into the van (there are 6 of us traveling in a 7 passenger van). But we packed it in there pretty tight and just barely made it.

The people we're traveling with are kind of difficult. Although this trip has been pretty difficult for me since I was the only person under 50 on the first part of the tour. One of the people that we're traveling with makes me particularly uneasy. And given such close quarters it's difficult to avoid him.

Tonight we actually went for supper at a restaurant owned by the cousins of one of the farmers we went to see on the earlier portion of our trip. It was very good. Funny story we ran into a tour guide outside the visitor's centre and told him where we wanted to eat and he laughed. He said he'd never been asked where that particular restaurant was and asked who recommended it. Then we had a nice little chat and we might go on one of his tours tomorrow. We'll see how we feel.

Tomorrow we're going to try to get on a boar cruise of Loch Ness. Of course I'll be keeping an eye out for Nessie. I'm almost done all of my shopping for this trip, at least the souvenirs for other people part. The rest of it I haven't quite decided.

Welcome to Scotland

8:47 PM London Time

I think I'm going to like it here the first thing I saw once we had gotten through the baggage claim here in Glasgow was Starbucks. It's reassuring that even so far from home I can find something that's just like home. That's the joy of the franchise industry. It's built for people exactly like me. Here's a picture we took of the special Scottish Edition Starbucks mug.

We just got back from supper in the restaurant in our hotel. Now I don't know if this is just a kind of high class establishment or if there really isn't anything like a hamburger in Scotland. Here's what we hate from supper.

Salad with Goat Cheese, Lamb Chops and Stuffed Chicken Breast

What I've been up to

I'm going to have to apologize for not writing more frequently. Things have just been a mess lately. I also don't really have anything interesting to say. I've been watching a lot of hockey lately, which isn't all that surprising given that it's playoff time. I've also been catching up on the new episodes of Greek, which is good times.

Oh and I found an ice cream place I really like.

The Story of Cheap Chinese food

I don't even like Chinese food but I do sometimes feel compelled to eat it. I actually do like fried rice and chow mien but most of the meat is off limits. But today in the interest of being social and lazy I decided to partake in cheap, food court Chinese food with a friend. What a stupid idea.

First of all I only ate about half of it at lunch and saved the rest for later. Of course I had the brilliant idea to stick it in my purse. Lucky for me it didn't spill or anything but my purse does smell like cheap Chinese food.

I ate the rest of it at my desk later this afternoon. Which also seemed like a good idea at the time. But now my stomach is punishing me. So I'm probably off Chinese, even good Chinese for at least 6 months.

At least things can't get any better...

Oh what a week, and it's only Tuesday. It all started on Saturday when my laptop decided to go on the fritz. It would insist that it wasn't plugged in even when it was. If you wiggled the cord a little the light would come on and all would be well, until you bumped it again. So I decided to take it in to have it looked at.

The computer place informed me that the company that makes my laptop is no longer in business and that they didn't have the part and weren't sure if they could get it. I only bought my laptop about 8 months ago so it's still technically under warranty but if the company doesn't exist well who knows.

Then today I left home with my purse but apparently no wallet. Thankfully I played good Samaritan yesterday and lent a co-worker some money which he paid back today so at least I can eat.

I'm Done

Who knew that those two words (well one is a contraction) could cover so many different situations.

First of all the feeling that you can't do anything. We went out for lunch today and I'm absolutely stuffed. To use the words of one of the guys I went with I feel a little like a zombie now. Which of course makes the afternoon drag on and on. Remind me not to do that next time. So as far as eating anything more today, I'm done.

The second current situation is a friendship. Oddly enough I read an article not too long ago (in fact it may have been Monday) about when it's time to let a friendship go. I'm not sure if it's just because I recently read this article or it just gave me the confirmation that I needed that I'm in an unhealthy friendship but either way there it is. It's not that I have a whole lot of close friends but at the same time being treated badly does not a friend make. So again, I'm done.

Things I thought today

There is no way to coherently write a post about the things that I'm going to say here and probably at this point I should just pack it in for the night but it seems way to early to go to bed. So I'm going to try to write this anyway.

Today was a ridiculous day at work. Why does everyone wait until the last minute to do everything? It's just weird timing for me I guess because I'm kind of between jobs at the moment. So there is lots of work to wrap up what I have been doing and lots of work to get caught up to where I need to be when I go back to my old job. a

I was thinking about something that H-Dot said to me last year when I was going through first office crush. She asked me what color his eyes were and at the time I couldn't tell her. I know now but I was applying that question to my current crush and again found that I couldn't answer. What does that say about me? Am I just not observant so I somehow missed it? Is it that I'm so into him that I have trouble looking him in the eye? Could you actually have a relationship with someone who I can't look at? Do I just not care about people's eyes? I'm thinking it's probably this last one.

The last thought I had was that I'm possibly the best sister ever. Tonight I had OB2 over for dinner and I made pie for desert. I made lasagna (though with ready to cook noodles and canned sauce). All after I got home from my rotten day at work. So I sent a bunch of food home with him.

In the Name of Diversification

Right now I'm having a hard time keeping myself upright. I just ate about half a bag of Tostitos and 2 cups of my fabulous Buffalo Chicken Dip. Okay so it's not really my Buffalo Chicken Dip. I found it last year while trying to kill a little time at work. A certain work mate of mine has a bad habit of sneaking up behind me when I'm looking for recipes and scaring the crap out of me.

Anyway here's a link to the recipe. For those of you who are slightly less domestic than myself don't worry it's really not that hard and this particular site has pictures to show you exactly what each step should look like.

My recommendations:
1. Go with the blue cheese dressing. Even if blue cheese isn't your thing, and it costs way more than Ranch because you can only get it in small sizes it's totally worth it. Seriously the first several times I made it with ranch dressing (because if I don't have ranch dressing in my house I probably just moved in) and it was totally awesome but tonight I splurged on the Blue Cheese and it was incredible.

2. Uses Tostitos or some comparable chip. While the site recommends celery, vegetables are just wrong on principle.

3. Go and buy yourself one of those Safeway pre-cooked chickens. It makes the whole shredded chicken process so much easier.

4. Use Jalapeno Havarti on top. Again it costs a little more but it's kind of worth it. Although to be perfectly honest you probably can't taste the difference due to the Frank's Red Hot sauce.