Falling for soup.

It was super crazy windy last night, and raining off and on. For some reason, I enjoyed the sound of the wind and rain so much. We had a low-key day yesterday and mostly stayed in. I was still sick, and letting the antibiotics work their magic. So, being curled up on the couch in a blanket with the wind roaring outside felt cozy and good. We had waffles for breakfast (and made a bunch to freeze for breakfasts) and then I spent the rest of the day getting a good deal of work done.

Today we went grocery shopping after Church and made the foray out to Superstore. I loaded up on some fall Joe attire (well not really "loaded up," - got a few items), and we also got a new soup pot (in addition to groceries). I have to say I'm in love with this soup pot. I don't think I've had a real, big, soup pot since we've been married, so this was very exciting. This particular one has a kind of cartoony shape -it's wider at the bottom and narrows in at the top just a bit. It's HUGE, which is great. I think it has "character" though maybe I'm just overexcited by the pot.

So, I decided, since my SPUD order included a big bag of carrots, and I had most of the fixings at home already to make Chili. I made a low-fat black been and beef chili. I made a few modifications to the recipe: I doubled it, added three cloves of garlic, salt, and used fresh corn instead of frozen, because I happened to get 4 ears of corn from SPUD this week, and really am not in the mood for eating it on the cob. I also cut the cumin back by about 1/2 as I'm not a fan of a really strong cumin taste. The chili turned out really well, and due to my wonderful giant pot, there was lots to spare. So we'll have several lunches and at least two dinners worth frozen for later! On a side note, the pot was ridiculously easy to clean! I don't know what it's made out of, but it's excellent (just no-name superstore cheap-o pot, but apparently good like Joe).

The chili, the rain, the wind, and the new warm-weather clothes all make me thankful it is fall. I love sweaters and soup, and curling up inside on a cold day. I'm not a fan of the rain, but I think this year it won't be as bad as I'm not travelling by transit as much.

I am feeling quite a bit better today - still very stuffy and all that grossness, but the crazy sinus part is gone, and I have a bit more energy, which is really good.

Now to finally finally score that video for my research, and write an article review for school for tomorrow. Then maybe try to finish catching up on work? Or maybe go to bed. We'll see how the first two tasks go.

Healthy soon, please!

Well, after a mighty full work week of being sick, and total exhaustion and sick-of-being-sickness kicked in today, I went to the doctor after work. Thank goodness for walk in clinics! As seems to be the norm for me now, my cold turned into a sinus infection. The good part is that that means I'll get better now, because I have antibiotics :-).

I asked the doctor, "Okay, so I always get sinus infections whenever I get sick. Is there anything I can do to prevent colds from turning into them?? He looks at me and says "Well, there is a concoction that works for some people who have recurring sinusitis, let me get you the recipe." Hmmm..."concoction" and "recipe." Those two words are a bit concerning.

So, he comes back with a paper with the following written on it:

"NASAL SOLUTION FOR CHRONIC SINUSITIS
3 tsp salt (canning salt - non-iodized)
1 tsp Baking soda
in 250 cc of water.

Bulb syringe 3 times per day."

So I looked at this, and looked at him and said "Bulb syringe?" He smiled. I frowned and said "So that's like a ...." and he said "Turkey Baster." "Oh" He then informed me that I should "shoot as much of it up there as you can, and breath in through your nose." Great. Nice. Lovely. I commented on the exciting Friday night I had ahead of me, and he commented on how he felt it was better than the movies any day!

So, I filled my prescription and went to the "kitchen gadgets" isle of the grocery store. I looked and thought at first they didn't carry turkey basters (PHEW!). Then I spotted one. Okay - so, turkey basters are much larger than I remember. So, the baster and the recipe are sitting on the kitchen table. I don't know if I can do it. OOK.

Maybe a bit TMI for you all, but the recipe, concoction and turkey baster were too amusing to me to keep to myself.

So, here's to hoping the antibiotics kick in before I can bring myself to baste.

I think I'm turning into a perpetual whiner

Well...as everyone seems to be right now I'm totally sick! Lame! I started to get a sore throat Saturday during the day, and by Sat night was totally stuffed up with the cold/flu everyone has had lately. It's this darn September time period. Everyone is run down, getting back to school, back into work after holidays, trying to catch up with everything. So, the last couple of days I've a)Watched way too much TV, b) Bombed at least one, probably 2 tests, c) Gotten more behind of school and work and research than I was before, d) eaten a lot of soup e) possibly my favorite -eaten a lot of fudgsicles and creamsicles f)been a little loopy due to all the cold medicine, which I think is partly responsible for (b) above.

Stupid Cold.

A night off.

I had an unplanned night off today. After my 12 hour day out of the house, I simply couldn't face more work and video-scoring and studying, no matter how far behind I was. So, I stopped on my way home and got a bottle of wine and take-home pizza. We had pizza and wine and D. and I sat and talked for a good 2 hours.

I packed it in for the night, and decided to forget everything and just spend the evening with my husband. It was a good decision :-). I feel better already.

Unfortunately, I realized, after business hours were over today (Friday), that I had accidentally booked myself for both a meeting and work at the same time as I am supposed to be writing two exams on Monday. Crap. The problem is, I had requested the exam times, but becuase they hadn't been confirmed, I had only noted them on the "notes" page in my dayplanner, and not entered them into my actual daily schedule. Now that they have been confirmed, I realize I have booked in other things at the same time. And have only done about half the reading and none of the studying for them. UG. The moral is, always at least "pencil in" essential items if you are as ridiculously dependent on your dayplanner as I am. Nothing I can do about it till Monday morning though, aside from figure out what exactly I'll beg the testing centre for when I call Monday morning, or who I'll have to try to reschedule with on no notice. Ah!

But, again, very little I can do until the testing centre opens on Monday morning, so, I'll put it aside for now, and finish taking the night off, and go to my Church event tomorrow, and then deal with the stress and anxiety later. I figure I'm stressed and anxious most of the time anyways, so if not attending to this particular anxiety-producing event right now means I'll be anxious later, it really doesn't make any difference...good thinking??? No??? Sigh (as D. would say).

I've also decided not to check my school email until Sunday night when I'm planning to have scored the video for my research. If I don't check my email, then the emails from my prof asking where my data is won't stress me out....right? Ummm...maybe? Even as I type that though, I am seriously driven to open another tab and just quickly check my email. Ah!

Can I have another 10 hours in the day?

This has been and will continue to be a crazy busy week...I'm out of the house for work from 8:30 am to 7pm today, and then have to try to make it to curves before they close, then re-score a video-tape of my research when I get home, write about 15 programs, and read ummm.....5 chapters and 4 articles for school??? AH! LAME. Thank goodness for Rockstar Cola. Have a Church event all day tomorrow, so the only weekend time available to get caught up is Sunday afternoon or tonight or tomorrow night. I can anticipate next week will be madd as well, so I need to try to get at least caught up this weekend.

I need some SOCIAL time!!! At least I will, at the very least be going to the Church event and get to spend time with our community there tomorrow.

Freezing nut

I have turned into a freezing nut. Everytime I make something (like soup, sauce, chicken etc), I make extra and freeze a bunch of it for later. My freezer has gone from 1/4 full a couple of weeks ago to almost full now! I'm sure it will benefit us later on though :-). So far there is frozen tomato soup, beet soup, cooked chicken breast, peaches, peach crisp and hot peppers.

Tonight will be a left overs night. I think I"ll make a salad, and we'll have some tuna a friend cooked, and maybe have a bit of soup left over from last night.

I have to get through the day first though. Lots of work ahead of me, and studying when I get home, before I can make dinner.

Produce fun

One of the great things about the trip to Osoyoos is that we returned with loads of produce. I'm loving it.

I made a peach/apple crisp the other night, and yummy yummy roasted tomatoes to go with a pesto pasta. The tomatoes were fresh romas from the produce stand, cut in half drizzled with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper and herbs and roasted under the broiler. SOooo yummy.

I just finished skinning and cutting up peaches to freeze (peach bonanza this winter!), and started putting together three peach crisps to bake and freeze for later. I'm now roasting red peppers and more tomatoes to make a ridiculous quantity of roasted red pepper and tomato soup. I think I'll be freezing lots of that too. I think it could double as tomato sauce later on too.

I love preparing large quantities of food with the knowlege that three months from now when peaches are 3.00 each I'll be able to have yummy peach smoothies and crisp.

Looking through all my soup recipes makes me excited for (dare I say it) fall and winter...so I can make yummy hearty soups and comfort foods. Mmm..but I'll keep enjoying the fresh produce while it lasts, don't get me wrong!

What about my school and work I had planned to get ahead on this weekend....ahem...ask me tomorrow at 11pm.

Anyone up for a trip to Lithuania?

I would like to go here.

Busy times ...

Well, this is a greatly delayed post...the last two weeks have been busy, but filled with friends and food and wine.

Last weekend we were treated to a wonderful few days in Osoyoos. M. and family had us up to their condo there. We had some beach time (it wasn't TOO sunny), a wonderful day visiting 7 different wineries, and had many fabulous meals together. The best thing about this weekend was that we had time to visit and relax and enjoy each other's company (including playing a few games of Catan!), and that the weekend was very inexpensive for us. We had one meal out, and ate in the rest of the time. Most of what we spent was on gas, produce to bring home, and wine. There is no way we'd be able to have a holiday that felt that luxurious any other way, so we are VERY thankful to M. and J. for inviting us there!!

When we got back, another friend, who had been out visiting from Ottowa came to visit us for a few days. I got to cook and entertain, which I love to do, and we had lots of quality visiting time. I was very sad to see him go!

All this wonderful visiting and what not though, has meant that I am gravely behind now in school, and on preparation of a number of time-sensitive projects!! I'm not entirely sure how I'll get caught up, but I'm sure I'll find a way :-).

Lemony goodness.

I went to get my non-SPUD groceries at a local grocery store, and there it was...sitting right in the dairy section with a florescent orange "NEW ITEM" sign on it. Liberte lemon yogurt. M. has raved to me about this, and then when I stopped for house-sitting there she spoiled me with this devine yogurt and fresh berries and I was hooked. I had determined I would go hunting for it, but no hunting was required!

It is so wonderfully luscious, lemony and laden with fat. It is definitely (as M. told me) NOT a low fat yogurt - it is a dessert, or a decadent breakfast, and ohhh is it good! Try it if your grocery store carries it! Be warned that the Liberte yogurt they carry at Starbucks is NOT the same thing.

Taking a breath and finding some balance

School is done, the marks are in, and I did okay. I'm still doing some additional work on the research I did for my practicum though, because my prof things we may be able to publish it!

Trying to retrieve balance in my life is my goal for the next couple of weeks. We cleaned and did grocery shopping yesterday, and combined with the SPUD delivery we're set. I've pulled out fish to defrost for dinner for tonight, and will make a roast for dinner tomorrow night when we have a friend visiting. The rest of the week will be hectic, so hopefully left-overs from tomorrow will help us get through the week. Does anyone have a good recipe for doing a roast in a crock-pot? I'd rather avoid the stove if possible.

We've planned a number of social events this week, which is good. That is one area that balance has been lacking - we just haven't been socializing at all lately. I'll find a way to fit it all in!

I'm hoping that tonight we can get a dresser moved into our bedroom (it's waiting outside in storage to be moved in) and get our clothes situation figured out, and set up our Icon corner set up and various pictures hung. That's pretty close to all we have left to set up, besides finishing unpacking and setting up the office.

The last 24 hours

I've had a super crazy 24 hours! I'm very impressed that I'm still standing (well...sitting). I feel a need to share it.

Sunday daytime, continuing until 5:30 am this morning - writing the majority of my final report for my practicum.
8:30am this morning - wake up (ug). Email and coffee...and more email and coffee.
9:30 this morning -decide to have a "break" and talk on phone with mom.
10:30am, after showering, madly work on work-stuff required by 1pm
12pm finish work stuff, have related phone call.
Realize the iron is still on waiting to iron my clothes.

Finish paper, edit, and print paper. Shake in my boots regarding mark I will get on said paper.

Following work call -decide (for some bizarre reason) to double-check my exam time for an exam I'm writing tomorrow. Realize exam end date is today. Ah! Phone testing centre and squirrel my way in for a 7:00pm testing time today.

Prepare for work (print out materials etc etc etc).

Leave for work, mail paper I now no longer care about and just want out of my hands. Study for exam that I now have today on 11 articles three of which I haven't even read.

Run 2hr training session in new protocol at work.
Buzz up to UVic
Study for the last 45 mintues before my exam.
Beg exam proctor for another 30 minutes to study, he complies. THANK you!
Start exam at 7:30. Read questions. Almost start crying. Take deep breath, realize it's only because I'm tired. Write exam.
Finally come home, eat the first full meal of the day at 9:45pm and spend evening time with husband. Love husband.

Now...to bed. Sweet glorious bed!! Not before a few more emails...but.

Positives: The paper is done, which means that course is almost completely done. The exam is done, which means only one more to go. The training session went well. I will go camping for at least a night or two next weekend with D. and that will be wonderful. Only a couple more weeks to a more substantial vacation with friends that will be REALLY a break!

A fast-paced summer

Is anyone else appalled that it is already a week into August and the summer will be over soon?!?

I have a holiday planned for a few days at the end of August, but haven't done anything summerlike yet!! No lake time, no camping, no road trip! Yikes! It's been so easy to get so caught up in work and school and be so tired on the weekends that the prospect of planning a weekend or day trip seems daunting.

That's it. We're going away for our anniversary weekend. Camping. Or something.

Home and thoughtful.

I was on the mainand for work the last two days. It was a mad weekend of driving all over the mainland! Highlights:
- Got to the ferry at 6:30 pm on Thursday night. I got on the 9PM ferry (and there WAS an 8pm). I had forgotten it was a long weekend (of course, because I was working).
-Had planned to stay at friends house because had fogotten till the night before that I hadn't planned where to stay, and friend needed a house-sitter (very convienient) for a day or two.
- Rolled in to dear friends home at 12am. ya. Thought I "should" go to bed. Thought I NEED some quality time with said friend. Now...it was 12-3am..but it was us, so it was still quality ;-).
- Ate Liberte lemon yogurt. To die for.
- Went to sleep around 3:30 am
- woke up at 6:30 am
- Drank strong and satisfying espresso. Ate more yogurt with fruit. Felt like I was in a bed and breakfast ;-). Visited over breakfast with a)google maps (to figure out how to get to work), b)friend I was staying with and c) friends children who I miss so much, and are so old now! It was good.
-Remembered what driving around the lower mainland is like (ick!)
- Had a great day at work.
- made bbq chicken pizza with wonderful chipolte tasting sauce and roast chicken I found in friends house
- worked for a few hours in the evening
- flopped and watched sitcoms for an hour or two
- hung out with the cats ( enormous cats)
- crashed
- worked another good day
- drove to ferries, had a wonderful evening ferry ride spent reading Harry Potter till the cars behind me were honking for me to get off the ferry.
-made it in time for the final blessing at vespers at Church, ate cake, visited, and came home.
- had wine on patio with husband who i missed (I decided to take tonight off)
- now sitting on patio at 11:30pm blogging having promised husband I'll be to bed in 10 minutes

Pretty good couple of days. Busy, crazy, glad to be home.

We're hoping to get some serious house-setting-up done tommorrow, and then I need to read 7 articles and post intelligent comments on them to my discussion group. No Problem!! Lol. Glad I took tonight off! Life is crazy, often stressful...but I am blessed, and happy with where I'm at. That's it (you know...after a two page post!).

Slowly getting set up.

Well, we're slowly but surely plugging along. I caved and threw in the towel on work and studying when I got home from work yesterday, and spent a couple of hours setting up the kitchen. That and the deck are now fully usable and set up.

Last night we had an easy salad with roast chicken, and a little brie and bread, and wine for dinner. We sat on the deck - it was sooo nice! Then we got down to setting things up. We got the futon together, then a friend stopped by and we paused for a "break" (break=another glass of wine on the deck). She consulted with me about the placement of bookshelves, and after she left we moved the bookshelves to their new homes (i.e. out of the bedroom so we had room to set up the bed), and set up the bed. So, we were, luckily, able to crash once again in out own bed last night.

Lots of work, practicum and school stuff today...so likely no time for setting things up :-( . But, at least I have a kitchen, if not an office.

Room to breathe.

We did it! We are here, in our new place. I'm sitting on the futon on the floor in the livingroom (where we slept last night) and thinking that despite the boxes and clutter of moving, I am already completely in love with our new home. It FEELS like home. I feel like I can breathe again, like now I want to have a summer, and want to get up in the morning (though I was NOT pleased when I woke up at 5:15 am after only an hour or two of sleep).

My favorite things about our new home:
1) It is so BRIGHT. So much LIGHT!!
2) It is private - it is a two-floor semi-detached suite, very private, and no worries about being too loud, or people walking by your windows all the time.
3) There are nice little details like nice (compared to typical apartments ) light fixtures, stained glass (but tasteful, not the tacky kind) windows.
4) We will have room for a regular sized table in the kitchen again!! Yay! Who's coming for dinner first :-)
5) The fridge is ENORMOUS.
6) We have a full size stove, and lots of cupboard space.
7) We have in suite laundry.
8) It's two floors, so it feels more like a house.
9) It is only 2 blocks from a neat little village, and only a couple more blocks to a beautiful beach and the OCEAN!!!

It was maddness yesterday...we had planned to pack up the moving van Sat night (the first load) then go to Church in the morning on Sunday, then after Church pack up the pathfinder and move it all over, then come back for a second load. I had a panic attack Sunday morning, saying we'd be moving it 1am if we didn't start right away. So, we decided to get going on the packing and moving immediately. The end result being, we still weren't returning the truck till 9:30 pm!! We had completely not thought about getting anyone to help us at all...and didn't realize how much longer it takes when there's just two of you! So, we fit it all into two vanloads and two pathfinder loads.

After the moving, we went to some friends for late night decaf coffee. It was just what we needed at the end of the day. We sat and had coffee and chatted till 11:30 or so, then came home and got the essentials set up, and tried to crash ( but neither of us slept).

We have NOTHING set up. Which of course is driving me crazy, because now it's Monday and we have to work! I would soooo love 3-4 days at home right now, because I have a) unpacking and setting up to do and b) Harry potter to read (thanks to Arwen)!

Bastet is having way too much fun with the new place. She was being a brat all night, getting into boxes, scaling bookshelves, tearing up and down the stairs and doing acrobats on them trying to scratch them. Getting into EVERYTHING.

So...we are happily back in the fold of lovely Oak Bay, and I feel like I once again have some room to breathe.

A low key day.

Today was a nice low-key day. Still busy, I had lots today, but it was one of those increasingly rare work-at-home days. I spent most of the morning working on my practicum, went for a run, had lunch, and then went out to catch up on the increasing pile of reading for my other classes. I started at a cafe (for a much-needed pick me up), then moved to the park to sit in the sun and read. I figure between running in the sun and doing my reading in the sun, maybe I can get some kind of a tan. Lol!

Tonight I'll make fish tacos for dinner, then get back to studying and try to get some work done. This is kind of a boring post...but I'm trying to keep up the blogging, since everyone (myself included) aside from Magnificent M seems to have been side-tracked by Facebook and neglecting their blogging duties. Tsk Tsk.

Snakes and bunnies and rain and dog poop

I'm trying to get back on the running band wagon, and yesterday was my second day out. It was pouring rain when I wanted to go, but warm, and I had planned to shower afterwards anyways, so I decided to still go.

There were bunnies everywhere on the trail, and on my way back home I just about stepped on two snakes!! The first one was literally practically under foot and when I saw it I leaped about 2 feet in the air and screamed.

The rain was actually nice, I didn't mind it. My body is quite sore after two days...even at a very slow pace, but it's just my muscles getting back into it.

One thing that DID bother me on my jog, as it always does, was the following phenomenon:

There, sitting on the side of the trail, is a little pink, green, blue or clear bag. It has a knot tied at the top. It is dog poop. Here is what bothers me - if you're going to let your dog poop on the trail, ok - as long as it's off to the side it doesn't bother me that much (PLEASE get them to go off to the side), if you're going to package up and dispose of your dog's poop, even better - thank you!! But, why on earth would you package it up and leave it there. It's in a plastic bag - it cannot decompose. So, by leaving it there, packaged up in a plastic bag, you are assuming that someone else will pick it up and dispose of it. That's a little presumptuous. Besides, isn't the grossest part the actual bagging of the poop? Once that's done, isn't it easy to put it in a garbage can? If you don't want to pick it up, then make sure they poop on the side of the trail and leave it so it can decompose (this is a bit gross though), or just pick it up. Don't package it up in PLASTIC, then leave it there. This makes no sense.

Okay, that's it :-)

Beautiful

I keep stealing from Victoria. This song is beautiful. From here.

Thai Coffee

I had this amazing Thai iced coffee at a restaurant once. It was so creamy and sweat, but still had a good strong coffee flavor, with interesting spices. I saw a recipe for this in my Cooking Light cookbook, and made a modified version of it. It is seriously HEAVENLY, even though I didn't have the true cardamon to put in, and I made it hot instead of cold.

Here's the Cooking Light Recipe:

1/4 Cup hot espresso or very strong brewed coffee
5 teaspoons fat-free sweetened condensed milk,
2 tablespoons hot water
dash of cardamon

Combine all ingredients, stir well. Cool completely; chilll in refrigerator. Serve over ice. Yeild 1 serving.

I made it warm, used a little more espresso, a little less SCM, and I used a combination of nutmeg and cinnamon instead of cardamon. It was SOOooooo tasty. A wonderful mid-afternoon pick-me-up treat.