Month: November 2011

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So Much For My Weekend!

I got up very late this morning (9:30!!!) and had no sooner sat down to coffee (which I sip while doing my fun morning online stuff) that an email landed in my inbox asking if I’d be available to do a job this weekend. As anyone who works for themselves will attest, you don’t turn down work when it comes in. But it looked to be a fairly short and easy job, so I decided to start on it mid-afternoon today, do a bit in the early evening, and then work steadily through tomorrow.

Of course, that plan changed in the early afternoon when I got an email from Jody with my favourite subject line: Gary’s cooking. I got in a couple hours of work, put on 50 billion layers, and headed across town around four. Dinner was crock pot taco soup, a new recipe for Gary. It turned out to be a winner and absolutely the perfect thing to eat on a frigid fall night!

I’m not upset at all that my weekend went kind of topsy turvy. I’ve had the most relaxed Saturday in recent memory, a belly full of homemade soup, and plenty of Jody’s delicious muffins to get me through tomorrow. As Croft would say, life is good!

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A Frigid Weekend Ahead

Brr! We just got our first cold snap of the winter. It’s not brutal, but I am so glad to not be in the rig. I have to admit that knowing that this weekend I will be warm with indoor plumbing with no effort on my part is making me much less homesick. 🙂

I strung out 150′ of extension cord yesterday and finally plugged in Miranda. After being parked for a month and a half, the battery was still fully charged. It’s not like I had anything running, of course, but it was nice to see that ‘battery fully charged’ notification beeping steadily all that time.

There’s one heater running full blast in the rig now. I just went in and poked my nose it. The rig was chilly, but not cold. I’ve made a note to go pick up a thermometer so I can take proper readings and determine if I need to get a second heater.

I had really hoped to spend time in the rig this weekend and start repainting the study and putting another couple of layers in the kitchen, but that’s not going to happen at 20 below! After working three weekends straight in a row, I think I might have earned a weekend of lazing about and the weather is forcing me to take it. 🙂

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Looking Back Fifteen Years

As 2011 slowly winds down, I can’t help but marvel that it has been 15 years since 1996, which was one of the most important years of my life.

It was in 1996 that I graduated from high school, took my first solo trip (to Quebec City), started college, represented Canada at an environmental youth summit in Colorado after being invited by Dr. Jane Goodall, and traveled to New York City (with my awesomely named history professor Dr. Jones!).

Seventeen was a great year for me!

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What Is She Doing?!

I was sitting here a moment ago trying to get some work done when I heard the unmistakable sound of a cat rummaging around. I turned and found Tabitha digging through my purse:

She actually pulled out a few receipts and other sundries. It took me a moment to grab the camera and that flailing around distracted her, but she soon went back to her treasure hunt.

It didn’t take me long to figure out what she was after. I’d just come back from head office and had wrapped some paperwork in a rubber band that ended up coming back with me. Ms. Bitha loves to play tug the elastic. So, work, shmork, I dropped everything, fished the elastic out of the purse, and played a round of TtE with my girl. She just flopped down, exhausted and purring. I might be able to get some work done now!

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Dono Sushi, Lethbridge

This has been my second weekend in a row glued to the computer for a big transcription job. Saturday wasn’t too bad because I had a ton of chores to do, so I had ample reasons to get off the computer chair and move around. The downside was that I had about eight hours of work to do today. I decided to just plow through to be done by dinner. By mid-afternoon, I was soooooooore. I knew I needed to go for a long walk, but it was cold (sub-zero!) and dark out there. There was only one option: go out for dinner so I would have motivation to face this bitter fall night.

I went out for sushi on the 31st, so I wasn’t craving it, plus it’s not the first thing I want when I come in frozen from a long walk, but miso soup, teriyaki, and tempura sounded like just the ticket. So I schlepped the 2.5km (1.5 miles) to Dono Sushi  (link is to their menu). Jody’s daughter had told me that Dono was worth going to, but the sushi isn’t as good as that at O-Sho.

Dono is located in a strip mall. I was surprised by the cozy wood paneling decor. The menu is huge, but easily narrowed down if you’re not really in the mood for sushi. I zeroed in on the $13.95 teriyaki and sushi combo–teriyaki chicken, a ball of rice, two pieces nigiri (which turned out to be yellowtail and shrimp), and California rolls. I decided to splurge and ordered a side of veggie tempura ($7.95) and a Sapporo beer (a surprisingly reasonable $5.50). Total with tip was just under $33. It’s a good thing I’m usually  more reasonable when I eat out. 🙂

The food was delicious!

First up was a miso soup. It was heavy on the soy sauce, so not quite to my liking because you lose that unique miso flavour, but the broth was rich and had plenty of spring onions and tofu in it. So, not my favourite miso soup in the universe, but not one at which I’d turn up my nose!

I did find the nigiri to not be quite as nice as those at O-Sho; it was just a subtle flavor difference that could simply be due to the fish coming from a different supplier. I wasn’t crazy about the California rolls because their version has mayo. I couldn’t believe the meal came with eight pieces! That would have nearly been a meal on its own!

The chicken was very tasty and the sauce just sweet enough. I like that the chicken had a strong grilled taste coming through the sauce. It was served on a bed of cabbage and sprouts, which I like for the crunch.

As for the tempura, oh my! Whenever I’ve had tempura in the past, it’s been the same thing–yam, broccoli, and zucchini (which I firmly believe only belongs grated in chocolate cake, but I digress). Dono added three things to their tempura. The first was red pepper. I can’t even begin to describe how tasty the red pepper was wrapped in the tempura batter. It was crunchy but still melted in my mouth. Yum! The second thing was an asparagus spear as long as my forearm (yes, I compared the two). This confirmed to me that the reason I don’t like asparagus is that the people who serve it to me overcook it. This asparagus was firm and crunchy, the second time I’ve had it like this, and it was delicious! Finally, the last thing was acorn squash! Now that was practically a dessert! I sampled all the tempura but left the zucchini. 🙂

The next time I’m in the mood for walking to teriyaki, I will order the teriyaki and tempura combo and add some nigiri. No sense wasting calories on something containing mayo. 🙂

It was a great meal and the walk home wasn’t nearly as bad as the walk there!