Results of the Kitchen Experiment

Well, the wine emitted a lovely smell throughout my townhouse while it cooked, but in the end the taste of the beef just wasn't as nice as the smell was. But sometimes it isn't about what you soak it in. Sometimes a bad cut of meat is just a bad cut of meat. If I get another rump roast, I will do as Paul suggested, and cook it in the slow cooker next time with different spices and stuff. I'm not disappointed, though, as it was a great learning experience and the leftover roast will make a nice stroganoff.

Kitchen Experiment

Yesterday I made it to the grocery store and decided to pick up a rump roast. That was before I realised that the rump roast is not a very good cut of meat, and requires tenderising. I'm not sure how many ways there are to tenderise a roast, but the two that I do know of are to:
1. Beat the roast with some kind of mallet.
2. Marinate in red wine.

As much as I am enjoying this new cooking habit that I have seemed to have developed, I am still rather lazy in the kitchen. Faced with the two choices, I chose option #2. I figured it would be the easier of the two, although beating the roast with a mallet would have resulted in me releasing some pent up agression. Until I had to clean the mallet, and probably the kitchen, then I would have been filled with it again. I digress.

So tonight as I made my way to Union Station through the underground, I stopped off at the LCBO in First Canadian Place to pick up a bottle of wine. Most of the visit to the store consisted of me wandering around aimlessly while chewing on my fingernail and looking at wine bottles in a way that I thought would make me look like I knew what I was doing. Apparently I was wrong, as the kind man who works at the LCBO wandered over and said "May I help you?"

I think it was a rhetorical question. Or after the whole ordeal I think he wished I had taken it as a rhetorical question. My response was, "Yes. See, I'm cooking a rump roast and I have never done it before. Apparently I am supposed to tenderise it and the best way to do so apparently is to soak it in wine. Except I know nothing about wine. Apparently I know nothing about cooking roasts either."

Luckily we were in the marinating aisle and he pointed out a bottle very quickly. Either that, or he just wanted to get rid of me. I didn't question it, as I was just as happy to get out of the LCBO as he was to get rid of me.

So I carried my bottle in the telltale LCBO bag, and spent the rest of my commute kind of embarassed that it was Monday and I was carrying a bottle of booze around. Sometimes I can be so puritanical.

I got home, changed my clothes, washed my hands, and went straight to work. I threw together a marinade of red wine, mesquite flavoured spices, chiles, and cayenne pepper. I threw it in a Ziplock back with the roast, expelled all the air from the bag, sealed it, and stored it safely in my fridge until tomorrow night. I will let you know how I did on my first attempt at doing a marinade on my own tomorrow.

These are the People in Your Neighbourhood

People are a never ending source of fascination for me and there is no better place to watch people than downtown Toronto. A random sampling of my downtown experiences have included being insulted by a prostitute, and having a homeless man kick litter at me. Just when I think I have seen it all, something new crops up.

Wednesday night when I was on my way to Paul's, I stopped off at the store in Union Station to pick up my requisite bottle of tonic water. I walked out of the store, turned the corner, and right in front of me there were three Amish people. Don't get me wrong, its not that I don't like Amish people, I actually admire their sense of resolve and commitment to their chosen lifestyle. But at the same time, I don't understand how someone could go out into the field and cut wheat by hand with a scythe when it could be done with a combine in a fraction of the time. I just find it all rather confusing.

So as I looked at the women in their bonets and simple dresses, I had no choice but to call Paul.
me: "Paul, there's Amish people in Union Station leaning against a post eating ice cream."
Paul: "So?"
me: "What are they DOING here?"
Paul: "You just said they are eating ice cream."
me: "But why are they here?"
Paul: "I don't know. Why don't you ask them. Try handing them your phone and see what they do."

At that point I realised how ridiculous I was being, and ended the conversation. As I made my way over to Paul's I passed by four or five ticket scalpers outside of the ACC, and balance was restored to my life.

Thursday afternoon I needed a cup of tea, so I made my way down to T-Ho's. Lisa spotted me from across the street and came over to say hello. We were standing in line chatting when all of a sudden Lisa exclaimed "OMG, look across the street, is that what I THINK it is?!?"

I looked over, and a woman was walking North up the street. Normally that wouldn't be much cause for concern, except that she had no shirt on, and had a belt strapped across her chest to hide her nipples. I blinked a few times, looked at Lisa and said "OMG" followed by a joking "Lisa, why do you always do this to me?"

A guy was in line behind us and joined the conversation.
man: "What are you looking at?"
Lisa: "There was a semi-naked woman walking up the street with a belt strapped across her chest"
man: "She must not have been very good looking or I would have noticed."
Lisa: "No she was not"
man: "I'm sorry I missed it though."
me: "Well, let me put it to you this way. I actually wish I could take the memory of it out of my head and give it to you to keep there instead."
man: "In that case, I guess I am not sorry I missed it."
me: "Yeah, don't be."

As I continued to wait in line, I remembered the Amish people from Union Station. As much as they confuse me, I really did wish that it was them walking up the street instead.

Autumn has Fallen Upon Us

Last night Jennifer, Laura, Michelle, Karen, and I all gathered at Paul's place for a fun night of chatting. A great time was had by all. I was going to be sensible and go home around 11:00 but was having too much fun. Some of us went to a piano bar in the village and much to Paul's dismay, I requested Sweet Caroline. Sorry dude, but piano bar is latin for Neil Diamond music must be played here. We stayed there for a while until the pianist played Don't Let the Sun go Down on Me. He did such an amazing job of the song that we left right after to go dancing in the back room.

Today I spent the day loafing on my couch. I was supposed to go to a party tonight, but slept so much that I was going to be scorchingly late. I figured that given how tired I was today, perhaps staying in this evening and spending a relaxing night at home would be a better choice of activities.

I looked out my living room window this afternoon, and one of the trees has changed colour. The leaves are a gorgeous bright yellow and I must take a picture before they all fall off. Usually I am not a huge fan of the autumn season since it means that winter is just around the corner. But this year is different - maybe it is that I am eating better so that my mood is much better and I am able to handle the changing season. And maybe it is that the weather this summer was crap, so I am not going to miss what I did not have in the first place. I'm certainly not going to question it, since it is the best I have felt in ages.

Who Was I?

Its a rare Thursday night that I am at home. Usually Thursdays are Ugly Betty Night at Paul's, dart night at the Maddy, or some other randomly organised event at some fine downtown establishment. I did try to scare up Kim, Trish, Doreen, and maybe another friend or two to go out for a quick Thursday night bevvy, but to no avail. Its probably for the best since I have a great big meeting tomorrow that I have to be sharp for.

Faced with the opportunity of a rare Thursday night by myself, I was at a loss what to do. Ugly Betty is not the same on my TV. You really need to see Betty's braces in HD to get the full effect of the show. So I decided to catch up on some of my favourite blog sites to see what other members of the virtual world were up to.

I got as far as Yaksman's blog and he had a very interesting post from yesterday encouraging his friends to take the Who Would You Be In 1400 AD Test. I barely know who I am in the year 2008, so in an effort to find a clue, I decided to take the test. Here are my results:

The Monk
You scored 34% Cardinal, 51% Monk, 41% Lady, and 46% Knight!
You live a peaceful, quiet life. Very little danger comes your way and you live a long time. You are wise and modest, but also stagnant. You have little comfort, little food and have taken a vow of silence. But who needs chatter when just sitting in the cloister of your abbey with The Good Book makes you perfectly content.

Based on the even scattering of results, it looks like I barely know who I am in 1400 AD either.

I know the quiz is for fun, and it has no basis for reality, but I really must dispute some of the findings.
1. Peaceful quiet life.
2. Vow of silence.
3. Sitting with the Good Book makes me perfectly content.
4. Stagnant.
5. Modest.

Words cannot begin to describe how much I agree with the part about being wise. Of course, that is the reason why I am disputing Modest!

I'm Used to You, You're a Freak

Spending another fun filled night hanging at Paul's place. After a feeble attempt at tormenting him all he could respond was "I'm used to you, you're a freak." I decided to keep to myself for a while and pulled out his laptop and blog.

Yesterday I told you about the new chat toy that is installed on my computer at work. Today I was sitting and working very very hard, and the following message from Paul popped up on my screen:

I was in the bathroom playing with my phone. All of a sudden the radio on my phone started playing music really really loudly. I could not shut it off! Thank goodness I was in a stall so that no one knew who it was. I was so embarrassed.

To which I responded: BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

All I could picture was someone walking down a silent hall, getting close to the bathroom, and hearing music starting to blare from within. I further pictured the person stop, give the door a rumple faced look, and then walk away in mass confusion.

I furthered the conversation by responding: What song was playing?

Paul responded with: I don't know.

We then made up the following list of the funniest songs that could have played:

1. Please Release me let me go.

2. One More Try.

3. I'll be Watching You.

4. Bridge Over Troubled Waters.

5. Plop Plop Fizz Fizz Oh What a Relief it is!

After that song was listed, we just couldn't think of one to top it.

Technology

Today I logged into my computer at work, and somehow the administrators in the background had decided to push a special chat program to everyone's workstation in the area. Robert and I decided it would be a fun little toy to see if we could get working. After about 1 minute of superficial chatting I said to him "you sit right next to me. So how is this better than me yelling over the cubicle wall at you?"

As much as I embrace technology, sometimes I can't figure out how certain things are supposed to enhance my life. Tomorrow I plan on yelling over the wall at him again. In light of the fact that I am always yelling over the wall at him, perhaps the technology is there to enhance his life, not mine.

If I Were a Cartoon Character....

... I would be the female cat from Loony Tunes Pepe le Pew! There is a crazy adventurous story out there that I promise to tell soon.

Back in the day a long long time ago, I owned a similarly named blogsite on a different domain. Here are my old comments on my childhood TV.

Tonight I am hanging out at Paul's watching the retro cartoon channel, and "License to Grill". I love License to Grill, not because I own a barbeque, can grill, or have any desire to grill, but because the host is hot hot hot!! Here are things I never though I would hear on a TV show that I would watch:

"rub it like yuh were rubbin yuh saddle!"

"Mr. Pork."

"Mm!"

"I spent half of the day on my back!"

"Burn my pork"

"make sure you oil it down"

"this is going to be a love oven for this pork"

"Allow this pork to rest up. Give it 10 minutes. Time to get my grits on."

"This is great cowboy cookin'!"

Sheep in the City

If you ever thought about going to the Royal Winter Fair, but have needed a reason to go, here it is. My niece has raised a sheep and is showing it at the fair on Saturday, November 15. I don't have the time yet, but will update you as soon as she gives me the details. Come out and cheer her on! 

(After party may or may not include roasted lamb and wool sweaters.)

Reflections

I finally dropped by Paul's place this week to pick up the photos from the trip. I will be posting them soon, except that there are about 2000 pics and it is a daunting task to organise them all. I'm thinking it is a task that is best left for a rainy day. Today is not that day - it is absolutely fantabulous outside and I fully plan on taking advantage of the gorgeous weather.

Last Sunday I discovered a magical almost mythical place. In an effort to eat better I located a grocery store and bought food. I further followed up with actually cooking the food and on more than one occasion! I have spent most of my life avoiding my kitchen, but this week I found some sort of joy out of food preparation. I'm sure the joy will go away soon when the novelty wears off. Or when I burn something.

Work has been crazy busy this week, but I managed to unload my Blackberry onto someone else for the weekend. As I handed the pager over to him I said "Oh, yeah, if a guy named Steve calls, just tell him I am not interested." I got a rumple faced look in return, until he realised it was a joke.

This week marks two milestones in my life. This past Thursday would have been my 9th wedding anniversary. Part of me wanted to stay home and spend some quiet time by myself, but social invitations were aplenty! Immediately after work I hooked up with Lisa and a bunch of her friends at Charlotte's Room, played a quick game of pool, and ran off to meet my old co-workers.

Tomorrow is another milestone in my life, it is the anniversary of me resigning from my old job. I remember that day well. It was bright and sunny and I spent the whole morning frantically trying to hand in my acceptance of the job offer to my new boss so that I could follow up with handing in my resignation letter to my old boss. Around 11:45 I walked across the street to my new office, handed in my acceptance, and walked back to my old office. On the way into the building I had the widest smile on my face you can imagine. I ran into my friends who already new that I had something in the works and it was only a matter of time before it was official. They didn't even have to ask what the smile was all about, the only thing they said was "CONGRATULATIONS!"

Studies have shown that the biggest fantasy people have is the day they walk into their bosses office and hand in their letter - it actually outranks sex fantasies. In the weeks leading up to my resignation date I was no different. But when the moment came that I called my supervisor into a boardroom in downtown Toronto and gave him my letter I felt much different than what I had imagined. I walked over to my supervisor's desk and asked him if I could speak with him privately in the boardroom on our floor. We sat across from each other at the table, I took a deep breath and I said "I have accepted an offer of employment at another firm and am officially resigning. October 4 will be my last day, here is my official letter of resignation." My supervisor gave me a look of shock, and a tear welled up in my eye.

Part of me was surprised that submitting my resignation was not the orgasmic moment I thought it would be. But in retrospect it was hard to leave. I had spent 8 years at my old firm and had a hand in helping it grow. I worked on a team with three other guys, and I could not have asked for a better bunch of people to share a cubicle pod with. I was going to miss them dearly, but my time had come and I felt that I must move forward. I knew from that day forward things were never going to be the same.

I left the boardroom, went back to the pod, and told the guys that my resignation was now official. The news of my resignation spread through the company like wildfire. For the two weeks that followed, every conversation I had went like this:
them: "Hey Lori, I heard you resigned. Congratulations!"
me: "Thanks!"
them: "Where are you going?"
me: "I'm going to **company name withheld**"
them: "There's a big shocker. Are you going to be working with Paul?"
me: "No, I am going to be working downtown."
them: "When's the going away bash?"
me: "October 3."
them: "At the Purple Pig I assume?"
me: "Of course!"
them: "Cool. See you then."

We had my farewell party and I was flabbergasted by the number of people who showed up. Because there was a revolving door of people coming and going throughout the night it was hard to get an official count, but a few of us estimated that between 40 and 50 people had come to pay their respects. I was humbled - I had no idea I had impacted that many people over the years. I was just doing my job. I guess I did it well.

My last day was spent recovering from my going away party and packing up my desk. Because I was going to be working right across the street, I had made arrangements with my new supervisor to be able to drop my things off there instead of carrying them home and back downtown again. I said my goodbyes, handed in my security pass, picked up my box of stuff, and walked across the street to the new office. I didn't look back. There was too much to look forward too.

The first couple of months were tough. I went from being the girl with all the answers to the girl with all the questions. I was used to knowing everyone I worked with, and I now knew only my supervisor, since I had worked with her before. Over time I have amassed a vast amount of knowledge and work on a team with an equally great bunch of people. I finally feel like I have established my place, and I don't have a single regret about changing companies.

Since I left the company, one of my old co-workers has also resigned, one of them changed departments, and one of them moved to Europe. Another is currently in negotiations for a job in Vancouver. We all share a common past, but we all are moving forward.

On Thursday night we got together for a family reunion. As I sat with them, I thought about my two milestones, how far I have come, and how much we had all been through together. We watched people get hired, and watched people get fired. We celebrated births and mourned the death of one of our friends. We attended weddings together and helped each other through divorces together. Birthdays and resignations were key.

As we enjoyed one of the last beautiful evenings on the patio at the Maddy, I noticed how much has changed over the past year. I mentioned my two milestones to them, and we ordered a shot of tequila to toast the moment. It was then that I realised that no matter how much we change, no matter how far we travel, we all share a common bond, and some things will always stay the same.

Finding Balance in an Imbalanced World

At the beginning of the year I attended a staff meeting where we were asked to put down our New Year's resolution on a piece of paper and pass it to the front of the room. I hate New Year's Eve and everything to do with it, so I was at a loss for what to write since I never make resolutions. I mulled it over for a while and wrote down the same resolution I have been using for about 20 years which is "I'm going to wing it and see what happens." It is my basic philosophy of life.

As they read out the various resolutions, one resolution that came up a few times was "Find work-life balance". I had never encountered such a term before. At first I saw it as just some slogan that someone has thrown out there. But the term stuck with me and ever since I heard it I have been thinking more and more about it.

I am a woman of extremes. When I am at work I work hard. When I am at play I play hard. I live life to the fullest because I have watched too many people die. I learned at a very young age that we don't have much time here, so you better make every second count.

Lately, though, I have finally started to feel my age. This week my doctor told me I should slow down. I should eat right, sleep well, and take care of myself. That's a lot to ask of someone like me.

As I sit and ponder what I must do, I keep thinking back to the night at Houhai Lake. If there was one thing I wanted to bring back with me to Canada it was the spirit for living that the people there had. The way they joined without asking or being asked. The amount of fun they had without being crazy. The fact that the entire night seemed to be an impromptu unfolding of events.

So I must find balance. Can life still be an adventure without being crazy? And how do I find balance in my imbalanced world?

I flew half way around the world....

...and all I got was this:

Bodum Chambord Coffee PressPerfecting the ideal blend.
There’s nothing quite like the sensation of being awakened in the morning by the pungent aroma of roasted coffee beans percolating in a Bodum Chambord coffee press. Since 1982, Bodum Chambord’s sleek coffee press has been redefining how people make and savour their coffee. Coincidentally, the coffee maker’s design wouldn’t be out of place being displayed in the Louvre. The coffee press brews 32 ounces of coffee and is simple to operate. All parts are dishwasher friendly. If you like this reward, you need to know:
This reward includes:• One Bodum Chambord Coffee Press

I now have enough Aeroplan Miles to get a coffee press, 12 Big Bertha Golf Balls, or a 3 piece tool set!!!

I am also now suddenly obsessed with air plane catalogues. Please help. Or send me your Aeroplan miles.

Paul, this post is for you...

....memories of the flight to Beijing:



http://www.skymall.com/shopping/detail.htm?pid=102700431&c=10200



http://www.skymall.com/shopping/detail.htm?pid=102674371&c=10710

Don't ask me how or why I found it. I will only blame it on the jetlag. For the rest of you reading this post, there are a couple of really good stories here. One centred around my strange but true phobia, and Lord only knows what the other one was centred around.

Jet Lag

Today's activities consisted of arriving at the office, hoping I remembered my network login id, rejoicing that I remembered it and feeling happy that I didn't have to call anyone for a password reset. Happiness was soon replaced with a not-so-good feeling when I saw how high my unread e-mail count is. It was right about that time when I looked up at the ceiling, imagined my mouth opening very wide, and letting out the dreaded proverbial return to work cubicle scream. It was a very busy day, so for every e-mail I read, I believe I received 3 new replacement e-mails. I stopped counting after a while.

Well, I have jet lag pretty bad, so tonight's blog will be very short. I have been awake for 28 hours straight with the exception of the 15 minutes of sleep I got on the GO Train ride home.

Paul has been suffering from jet lag as well. I got in my door, and noticed a missed call on my cell. There was a voicemail from him stating that he woke up and could not tell if it was morning or night outside.

I called him back and he said he was in a panick and he called 4 or 5 different people to find out if it was morning or night. I explained to him that I learned a very important lesson this evening - when I listen to techno on my IPod, I cannot hear the techno ring tone on my new phone that I picked up in Xidan. I will either have to stop listening to techno (which really isn't a bad idea - I swear I was just listening to it on the way home to annoy myself awake!) or change my ring tone.

I'm not sure what I am going to do about the ring tone, but I am sure that I must go to bed. Good night!

Home again.

We made it back safe and sound yesterday, although one of Paul's suitcases seems to have taken a detour. There were a couple of scary moments like when the taxi driver accidentally went into the wrong lane of traffic and we were driving into three lanes of oncoming traffic. Luckily we managed to escape that situation in one piece. In order to keep myself from panicking, I looked up the Chinese word for CRAZY, and that kept me preoccupied for a while.

By the time I got on the plane to come home, I was nursing a very painful sinus headache. The plane took off, and not long into the flight we hit some pretty bad turbulence. Once things settled down, my headache had started to subside and I spent the remainder of the flight sleeping.

This is by no means the end of the stories of the vacation though. We saw and did so many things, and there were times where I did not have the energy or the time to post some stories. The extra stories will have to wait until I get my photos from Paul's computer.