We are the purple

It looks like we are in for a lot of rain. How special we are! I will expect to be drenched in my walks.

James is still recovering from his sickness. His voice has gone. "My voice is raspy" he said. James didn't like his school photo this year so we aren't doing school photos this year, only hockey photos!

on the go

Met up with Clara today and hung out for a bit while her daughter and friend toured Queen's. I think they liked the tour.
We went by the library to see the Harry Potter room.
Then we went to Booster Juice for the girls where it took them about 20 minutes to make their drinks.
Clara dropped me out Division St and I brought in my renewal for health card. I thought their queuing system was very interesting but also efficient as it took less time than at Booster juice to get everything done.

Then I went to Tina's but the CAS worker wasn't coming as Tina was sick. But we talked for a while.

Then I went by No Frills and picked up some groceries. At the checkout someone screamed (maybe they dropped something?) and the whole store went very quiet. It was all fine though. I think.

Then I went by Rustle to wait for Christine to see the Fraser apartments. They weren't really suitable apartments for her as they had clearly been drug apartments. Charles was showing us the place and when he said that the previous tenants had been hard on the place, I guessed and indeed they were in pretty rough shape but Charles was working hard to renovate them. Christine will need to keep looking.

Then after I left Christine I ran into Gloria who was going to Rhea's and we had a good chat about God and dog. She is sometimes difficult to understand but always positive.

fever

James had a fever on Tuesday. The fever was gone on Wednesday but he still didn't feel well so he had 2 days off school. He felt better by Wed evening and went to school today but he was still very pale. I called him Ghostie.

Today I had a very long day at work but accomplished a lot. I have Friday off from work, though a packed day planned. James' team was in Lindsay tonight and will be back late. Luckily tomorrow is a PA day so hopefully will get some sleep. Around lunchtime I'm going to see Clara as her daughter is up in Kingston to tour Queen's with some friends. They leave around 2pm and at 3pm I'm going to visit another friend who had CAS called on her (rather unfairly) so I am going to support her. Then at 6pm I am meeting another friend to support her as she looks at another apartment.

James has an OHL recruitment day tomorrow. They have some ice time to show off for the OHL viewers, then have a workshop and then are going to a game. So hopefully he has his strength back!

moil

Today was a packed day. I did some work around the house and laundry and then left around 9:25 to help  Al with his maxsold pickup. Then scooted home via Loblaws (no canada geese to be seen today- have they flown?). Had a quick lunch and then headed to work.
For dinner made turkey scallopini with rice and a very nice green pepper. I always appreciate a good green pepper- it is so hard to tell from the outside.
I didn't actually get to do the work that I went in to do as I had a lot of other things to get ready for the upcoming week so I will have to go in again tomorrow.

Arepas

 Oct 14- the Canada geese are still here

 Italian sausage Pasta bake- cooked most ingredients then put in a casserole to do the "bake"

 With ricotta cheese and breadcrumbs

 Their pasta dishes are always wonderful (if you like pasta)

 Columbian Arepas con Queso- this turned out to be an amazing meal. The Arepas were amazing. A vegetarian meal. The Arepas were made with arepas flour and water and fried up- very tasty. There is cheese on them as well (one side). Beans, pepper and onion in the other pan.

 Arepas on the bottom (forgot to take a picture before I put the bean mixture on)

 With cheese and avocado sauce

 With fresh veggies

A very good meal.

Last night James' team was in Oshawa and didn't get back until late. It was a challenge to get him up in the morning and right after school he came home and had a long nap! Now playing Oshawa again (but in Kingston)

homecoming

This weekend is homecoming weekend at Queen's. Lots of parties = not much email for me! On Friday a friend was evicted, so no homecoming for her. Trying to help her get new housing. On Friday another friend who is raising her grandchildren has CAS called on her and is very stressed out. On Friday for my other course their first assignment was due. Friday the 13th, I guess. Saturday I just did things around the hause- laundry, dishes. Still lots more to do!

thrown -in a good way

Monday I spent making groups for next term and working on details of a hand in as we had something due on Monday and there are always issues. Today I had a bunch of meetings and was thrown into one that the Dean couldn't go to. We had a few hours of TA meetings and so I had to leave the other meeting early to get to the TA meetings. I explained to my TAs (who were all waiting in the room when I arrived) that I had just been thrown into the meeting and one of them said. "Isn't that how they solve all problems- throw Aphra at it?". He has a point!

300 calories

I was looking for a recipe to use some leftover Oreos and frozen raspberries that I had bought. I found a recipe but it measured the Oreos in calories. I need 300 calories worth of Oreos. Is this a new measurement unit for baking? I found it odd. Why not say the number of Oreos needed? That might be more helpful.

James' phone is having some technical issues- it can no longer text or phone (which is typically what you need a phone for) so it needs to go into the shop. It is only 9 months old.

Swings

This week has been a week of ups and downs. Brandon said according to his facebook feed everyone had a bad week. Today was better as I managed to catch up on some things. James was back very late last night from Lindsey (they lost). He said French class was difficult because they watched a movie and he was very tired. Sleep now!

taken down by turn it in

I experienced a setback today as we were trying to integrate turn it in into our course and we found it doesn't really work with group work. We were not trying to use the copying feature but it has a really good feedback feature. However, the functionality doesn't work with group projects so we won't be able to use it. It looks like a good feature for individual reports that don't require a rubric to be synced with your course website.

Yesterday made progress but today I am one day behind.

Alpha was good though- a good group of people.

Progress

At work I made a lot of progress today and things are looking better. I caught up on my email that had been badly backlogged and got a few things completed.

I woke up with a poem about Brook that I wrote down. While I watched her grow up, I only knew the real Brook through her facebook and blog- she wasn't around much as she was living her adventures, but I feel the pain that her family is going through. So I cried while I wrote for the first 30 minutes of the day.

James was pleased to read an online scouts report that said their team's defence was good.

Week 4- it shouldn't be this bad

In week 4 things should calm down but Mondays are always the worst. This Monday did not disappoint. Arrived to a variety of TAs needing something. Then an emergency planning meeting regarding a midterm. Meeting with student to make sure he was back on track. Meeting about Mod 3, which I am behind on. Considering critical points, what must be done? Getting materials ready for TA meeting and then running meeting. Not much left. Email building. Will I catch up tomorrow?

Written like a poem. lol.

looking ahead

The event for the Dosegers was good and hard and beautiful. Overall good.

People seemed to like my talk at Rustle.

After I had to head into work as there were still things to prepare for tomorrow.

Very tired now!