Month: July 2011

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A Final Bit of Storage Space

The more I live in my ‘new’ rig, the more I find that the library is missing some storage. It’s just too open and stuff gets piled up in it. I’ve been keeping my eye out for a low lying piece of furniture to put right by the front door. I thought of a credenza, dresser, or storage bench, but also liked the idea of two end tables to keep the storage configuration flexible.

Earlier this week, I spotted two free ‘oak’ end tables on Kijijiji and quickly offered the owner $10 if she’d keep them for me till today. She did and I drove east to Coaldale (10 minutes from the north end of Lethbridge or 20 minutes from home) to pick them up.

The reason she was giving them away is that one of them was the victim of a candle fire and the top is ruined.

I had second thoughts about bringing these home when I saw that they were being stored in a basement. They are made of particle board and definitely have the ‘old basement’ smell. But they have so many nice features that I decided to take a chance:

extra surface (I have some lovely contact paper to cover it!)

cavernous storage with a handy door caddy

I am going to leave them out in the sun for a few days (after having cleaned them).

If they still smell after, I’ll give them a couple of coats of verathane.

I have some ideas for how I’m going to make up for the burned top, but I think the easiest thing would be to make a padded cover for it. The top has a lip that could hold an elasticized cover. Part of the point of getting the storage unit is to get a place for the kitties to lounge in the sun, so I would have added a cushion regardless.

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My Week, So Far

Monday: Up at 7 to get to my job for 8:30. Ran around like the proverbial chicken until quarter to six, forty-five minutes past quitting time.  I knew it was going to be a busy week so I took the evening off.

Tuesday: Up at 7 to get some work in before my mother and her partner arrived. They were delayed, so I had time to go do a flier route before they got in around 11:45. Spent the day with them. Went out at 9PM to do another flier route, finishing at 10PM.

Wednesday: Up at 7 to get some work in and then meet my mother and her partner at their hotel for breakfast. Hung out with them for a couple of hours then went home to do an hour of work. Left home at 11:30 to do my final flier route then headed to work for 1PM. Worked till 5PM and headed out of Lethbridge to meet Donna and Ken for pizza, beer, and a movie (*hugs you guys*) since they were a tad closer than Mossleigh for a few days this week. Got in at nearly 11 to find a job waiting in my inbox. Transcribed until midnight when I started to nod off between words.

Thursday (today): My eyes popped open at 7 (yet again, I must be getting into a routine!) and I was in the study working by 7:05. Transcribed until 8 then flew off to work. Finished at 5 and came home to finish the transcription, which took me to 8PM. I then went out to do a flier route, leaving me with two for tomorrow.

I haven’t had a schedule like this since I left Dawson last September and my body is a bit shocked. 🙂 Add to that the blistering heat the last few days and I think I can be excused for deciding to take the rest of tonight off to have a beer, a cool shower, and a good read!

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O-Sho Sushi and Abyssinian Ethiopian Restaurants, Lethbridge

My mother and her partner were in Lethbridge today. Getting here was quite the adventure. They flew from Montreal to Vancouver, drove from Vancouver to Seattle and back in a rental car, and then got on a bus to get to Calgary by way of Sicamous, BC. Entering Yoho National Park, there was a terrible accident involving an RV that had them stuck there for over three hours! They finally made it to Calgary at 11PM when they were supposed to arrive at 7. This morning, they got a rental car first thing and headed to Lethbridge, arriving for lunch!

I’d been told to make a list of restaurants, so I suggested sushi for lunch. Jody’s daughter recommended O-Sho and online reviews were good, so we headed there. The food was great! One of the things we ordered was the ‘special assortment’ of nigiri, one of which was especially pretty:

It was octopus, which I have never had! I was told to go ahead with it so I eagerly tried it out. It delicious, with a very mild taste and a ‘meaty’ texture. It was nothing like squid (which I love).

I thought I got a good shot of part our spread, but it’s blurry. 🙁

We also had hot sake. Can you believe that I’d never had sake before?!

Our delicious lunched ended with a hazelnut-chocolate ice cream shaped like a pear, a lovely palate cleanser.

The restaurant itself is very nice. It has western-style tables at the front and traditional tables at the back where you take off your shoes and sit on the floor with your legs in a hole. Service was great. I hope to get a chance to go back to O-sho!

We went to their hotel to gab for a bit and this came out of their luggage:

That brick (because it weighs as much) is one of their fruit cakes. I brought one back from Montreal last November and it barely lasted a week. I laughed and laughed at the thought of how far this fruit cake traveled and am very grateful for the thought!

For dinner, I decided to introduce them to a cuisine that I adore but haven’t had in my three years on the road: Ethiopian. They bravely went along with the idea when I assured them that while the food is spiced, there are many non-spicy options. Lethbridge has a good population of folks from that part of Africa and I found great reviews for Abyssian Ethiopian restaurant, which has a comprehensive menu of common Ethiopian dishes. We ended up sharing two dishes, doro watt, which is a chicken stew, and some puréed lentils mixed with the berber spices. I’ve only ever had vegetarian Ethiopian food so the doro watt was new to me and something I’d been wanting to try for a while. It was sooooo good. I will admit that Ethiopian food doesn’t look as tasty as it is:

The food is served on a giant ‘pancake’ which is called injera. We each had our own basket of the bread. You take a piece of it and use it to scoop or pinch food. Your fingers should be clean at the end of the meal! I’m happy to report that my dinner choice got rave reviews.

With dinner, I tried a Tusker, which is a savory Kenyan beer brewed in Nairobi. It is crisp, thirst-quenching, and has a spicy finish:

The owner of Abyssinian really impressed us. She came over from Sudan three years ago. In three years she learned English, dropped an abusive husband, bought a thriving restaurant whose reputation she has maintained, and remarried. And she’s just 24 years old.

I am most impressed that Lethbridge has both a good sushi and a good Ethiopian restaurant!

Tomorrow, I’m heading downtown to meet them for breakfast at their hotel and then they’re heading back to Calgary and flying home. What a quick visit!

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Quite the First Day

Today was my first day alone at the office. It wasn’t hectic per se, but it was busy and I got out a full 45 minutes later than I was supposed to! The most brutal part of the day was having to knock on strangers’ doors and say, “Hi, I’m Rae the interim manager and I have to serve you with an eviction notice”!!!

What I liked was that I’m not sitting in the office all day. I went out in the morning and in the afternoon to the head office to bring some things, went out for lunch, and ran errands in our buildings. So the time went by quickly.

I’m off tomorrow and part of Wednesday since my mother is coming to visit (!). It will be interesting to see how the rest of the week goes.