old

I have a much loved sweater from the early 90's. The string that held part of the collar to the rest of the sweater recently gave way so it is looking more and more raggedy but it is just so comfortable!

My vacuum is probably 25 years old. I used to buy the vacuum bags at Walmart but Walmart has scaled back the number of vacuum bags they carry. I ordered 3 years worth on amazon yesterday. Hoping that it holds out that long!

Tonight I am going with Kim to her Church. Normally their new years services started at 10pm but this year it starts at 6pm. They said something about it being better for children. I'm guessing that it ends earlier than before as well.

Food Basics opens today at 7am and closes at 6pm. Loblaws also closes at 6pm. Get your shopping done early!

Instant Pot - 1st meal

After the box arrived we had classic beef bolognese. It was spicier than I thought, but very tasty

 Last night was one pot enchilada bowl.

 This was not as spicy as I thought it was going to be and felt very healthy to eat it, though I had lots of sour cream, so maybe not so healthy that way.

 Tonight I debuted the instant pot to make lemon chicken

I started with using the "saute" function as many instant pot recipes seem to start with this. This function seemed to work well. The only difficulty was flipping the chicken. They said to use tongs but that did not work as I tried my regular tongs- maybe they meant the tongs from the accessory pack. I used two wooden spoons. After the saute, I had to take the chicken out to put the water and the trivet in. Then added the chicken and potatoes. They said to cook six minutes per pound. The chicken was 3.5 pounds so I rounded up and cooked for 25 minutes. This seemed to be perfect. Both the chicken and the potatoes were beautifully done. It was a wonderful chicken though I had filled the cavity with lemon there was not that much lemon flavor to the chicken, but it may make for a very good broth that I kept from the bottom. So dish #1- a success! I still need to figure out how to use all my accessories though!

Michael Danaher - A Killer's Mistake

A murder mystery in the area of rare books

16

An update on the chef's plate- i did receive an email this morning saying the box would be arriving today. And just as I typed that, it did arrive by FedEx ground (normally it comes by UPS). So I'm not sure what happened with their processes but it all worked out and there will be a nice dinner tonight.

There was a sad obituary today of a boy the same age as James. He got a new car for Christmas (I guess a few days before the actual Christmas) and crashed it and passed away. Very tough for the family: http://yourlifemoments.ca/sitepages/obituary.asp?oId=1101150

email

Chef's plate always emails me the day before my delivery is to arrive to let me know that it was sent. Due to Christmas the delivery was due to arrive on Friday (tomorrow) instead of Tuesday (regular day)
However, the email did not come today so I wonder did they not send the email but send my box or did they not send the box at all.
We finished up all the leftovers from Christmas today, which worked out well as the box was due to arrive tomorrow. Which maybe it is.
Today I went to work and worked on email.
Next I have to work on the lecture quizzes for next term and getting the grades posted.

Instant pot

I have started watching Instant pot you tube videos to prepare for using my instant pot. Trying to get ideas! I have discovered that the paddles that came with the instant pot have holes that can be used to change the vent from pressure to vent which is safer for my fingers. Currently we are still eating left overs from the turkey dinner so not up to the instant pot yet.

Today I went to work to get a lot of marks out. Came home and made easy leftover meals. Then worked on laundry and ironing. Tomorrow heading to work to try to tackle my email.

treats

My parents came up on the 23rd and we had treats and a lovely turkey dinner. It was so nice of them to travel up. We did Christmas yesterday and they are travelling back today. Last week while I still recovering from the sickness, we still had some chef's plate. Bavarian chicken schnitzel with mashed potatoes and cooked cabbage. I thought it was a good combination.

 Chili with yummy biscuits

 Christmas presents

 Christmas

Last night there was another fire on Princess St. It was a few blocks down from where my parents were staying. I hope it didn't keep them up. Then at 2am, though James was asleep he had precariously placed a bowl on his table and it came crashing down, waking me (not him). So it was a rough night. I had been planning on going into work today to catch up on things as our Christmas was done  but with the rough night I decided to wait another day.

trees

The funeral mass was very nice. What surprised me was that the Church had so many Christmas trees. It was like a small forest.

I did manage to clean both bathrooms today as well as the stairwell, so that was good accomplishments.

I also won a few things in Al's maxsold to raise funds for Next. After Rustle on Sunday I will pick up.

mass

Today was my first day of holidays (though still a lot of things to do for work I have put them on pause for a few days).
My plan for today was to clean bathrooms and wash floors but that didn't end up panning out though I am not sure why. Maybe too many dishes.
Tomorrow is Catherine's dads funeral and it will be a Catholic mass. Christine gave me the run down of how it should go and I am looking forward to experiencing it.

#down

In the words of the school swatter- I was #down with a bug for the week. It was just nasty. A lot of people have had it here and I can confirm that it is not a pleasant experience.

Also Kassie took a bad fall yesterday (considering she had given up on even trying to fly, she would just drop off things without even a flap!) and she passed away in the night. This is the last photo of her alive:

I'll miss her and her funny ways.
Since I downloaded my camera, I found some more chef's plate dishes.
Fully loaded beef tostadas- this was when the romaine crisis was going on and I had to purchase green leaf lettuce to replace the potentially contaminated romaine.

Asian popcorn chicken- James did not feel this was popcorn chicken. I made this meal as I was starting to recover from the bug. 3 popcorn pieces of chicken felt like a large number to me.

 Sausage carbonara-good recipe but i still couldn't eat very much due to the bug. The bug also has made everything taste different so it is a very weird place to be in.

Silence

Today there were no bomb threats, a good day!
While I didn't get my main planned project for today done, I did get a lot of things done.
We had an IT failure. I called the IT support center and it took some time to figure out how to talk to a human but when I did, they seemed to understand the problem but they had to contact the vendor (Microsoft) It took a few hours but it was resolved.

siege

The person who shut down schools yesterday continued again today with more schools. Once included James' school, though he has already left as he had a spare in the last period. He got the updates from his friends still at school.

The police have deemed the caller as not a viable threat but have to check out each call to make sure.

He clearly is thriving on the attention. The police have asked everyone not to engage him on social media but people are drawn like a moth to the flame and his social media is very active. Yesterday global news had him on the national feed but now there seems to be nothing. I think the police have asked the media not to draw attention to him. Or they feel he is not a real threat and does not deserve the airtime.

I am not sure what his purpose or plan is. Is it just for attention or a foil for something else. He is clearly enjoying everything. He went silent around 4pm yesterday so I thought that he might have been caught but he spring to life around 9am today again. This evening he has still been quite active. I wonder what his plan for tomorrow is as he has taken down all the highschools in kingston, where does he go from this?

lockdown

Today someone (likely a teenage boy not wanting to go to school and wanting some infamy) made threats against Kingston schools. He says he wont be caught. But if indeed he is a teenage boy, he won't have thought of everything, even if he thinks he has. He may have a burner phone. He may be changing his IP address but all the police force is likely working on this to make sure that schools aren't locked down tomorrow. James' school was not on lockdown but was on "hold and secure", which was not very secure as people could still get in the building as others were coming out.

Today for me was not as exciting as I worked on the exam and my email. Tomorrow need to work on the Winter term module. Lots of people and rooms to line up.

in which all the plumbing decided to quit

A few days ago we had to change the showerhead as it was just not producing a strong spray. It is much better now. I just went into the kitchen and there was a puddle on the floor. I investigated and found that there was water under the kitchen sink. So the plumbing was colluding with each other. The kitchen faucet issue seems more complicated so Les sent me the number of his plumber and I will call tomorrow.

Today was very stressful as we had to get our exam in today. It took about 3 hours to edit and format it.

mound

I took today off and tried not to think about work. Their project was due last night so that somewhat lessens the email. I have a lot to prepare for Monday as we have a lot of meetings so I will likely work tomorrow.

Today I did a lot of laundry and shopping and I tried to cleanse the front yard of leaves. I move them to a giant pile in the backyard. The bunny was near the pile when I started. He moved across the yard and watched me. Eventually he decided I was not a threat with all my leaf gathering and he started to nibble on brush nearby. I like the bunny, just worried about him when the weather gets cold!

scan

James had his ultrasound and it showed the tear and that the only thing that would fix it was time. He's definitely off the ice for at least another week.

I read this article and I guess it starts to explain one reason why Christine (and others) are having such a hard time finding a place.
https://www.kingstonist.com/kingston-vacancy-rate-reaches-new-record-low/

Tomorrow is the last day of class and our project is due so I spent most of the day replying to email with questions.

invalid

James had a knee injury in his game on Friday night. He spend the weekend on crutches. The rest was good for his leg. School has so many stairs so his leg was hurting again on Monday. He is wanting to power through. He has an ultrasound today to see how much of the muscle is torn. He starts physio tomorrow.

At work I am trying to start up the Winter term course while finishing up the Fall term course, so I am at another peak (Though most of my job is at some peak or another!)

romaine

After the massive romaine recall, I went into metro yesterday and there was a very large area that was empty as they has pulled everything. I picked up some green leaf lettuce because the chef's plate had sent romaine and I could replace it that way. (The Chef's plate mailed before the recall)

In reading about the issue, the outbreak seems to have been going on since early october and they only pulled the romaine now? They seem to have figured out that it potentially comes from California, so I assume they could have left the other romaine. And I assume there probably is only one location of the contamination in California, I am wondering how they are trying to find that and how well they track the shipments of romaine. So many questions. I wish I could be an outbreak detective!

unlocked

We had been having some trouble with our filing cabinet key at Rustle and I had been back and forth to Ed the locksmith (http://www.brightman.ca/) trying to resolve it but it was not working. So he suggested coming by Rustle to make figure it out. So we met this morning and figure it out he did. And made us 3 copies of keys. When I asked him what we owed him, he said it was a gift. So wonderfully kind. If you have any locksmithing needs, I highly recommend him!

I wanted to order a package from the States but with the Canada Post issues I was worried about its arrival. Brandon suggested Kinek https://www.kinek.com/how/ which allows you to ship it to a location in the States near you and then pick up across the border. I don't have a passport though- it looks like a good idea if you do some travel to the States!

Also, an update on the story I posted yesterday. Apparently the problem with the inmate happened after they had unlocked him to go to the backroom. https://www.kingstonist.com/inmate-facing-attempted-murder-weapons-charges-after-code-silver-incident-at-kingston-general-hospital/

broken down

Last night James' bus broke down in Markham. Kim happened to be in Ajax so offered to get him, but the bus company sent another bus from Toronto. So it was a bit of a later evening than what was planned.

Today as I was walking home I saw a police car heading south on university. There are a lot of emergencies and so I didn't think much of it but it turns out there had been a shooting at the hospital. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/kingston-hospital-shooting-1.4912403. It likely could have been a lot worse. I guess they will have new procedures for escorting prisoners in the future!

parade

Some more birthday pictures. Flowers from Deborah

 Christine made me this card

 She's pretty funny

 Appliques from Sarah. Science but of course.

 Beautiful pop up card from Deborah

Five spice chicken fingers

 The one day of the year when people want to park on our street- parade day

My phone is warning me of congestion in my area

return

The week was busy with the return of assignments so I was working quite late. I downloaded the pictures from my camera after long last so this is about 2 months of photos. This sign shows why it is still important to teach spelling in schools:

 This was a sunset from my window at work

 This is me on a hyperloop car

 Beef Pad Gra Prow

Turkey sausage pasta

 The new high school being built

 Pork meatball hot pot

 Rice noodles

 Samosa bowl- this is the first 15 minute meal that I tried, normally they are 30 minute meals. For the 15 minute ones, they have everything cut up for you. It was good. The wonton wrappers are always my favorite.

 Chocolate blizzard cake for my birthday

 Linguine florentine, another 15 minute meal