corona lockdown day 230

 Halloween today and I did not expect any kids as we normally never get any and with a pandemic I expected less to be out. However, one did come while I was making dinner. I was not prepared so we did not open the door.

Dinner was Mediterranean Feta. It was a more complicated meal that others recently. The freekeh cooked in one pot. The chickpeas were on one tray in the oven and the other tray had the feta and pita chips. The pita chips were really good. The freekeh was mixed into a salad at the end. It all turned out very well.

Stores were preparing for Christmas and I was wearing my Winter jacket. I have gotten used to the plastic cups inside my mask and don't think I could go back to the old way of wearing the mask. I thank Karrie for posting this tip on Facebook.

Kingston has moved to "green" covid status for Halloween despite there potentially being an issue in a nursing home and a school. We'll see if we keep it into next week!

corona lockdown day 229

 Today was cold so I had to crack out the winter jacket.

I worked on course enrollments today.

The amazon package has arrived in halton hills so I'm expecting it to arrive here tomorrow. I am interested in where it started from as this sort of order of supplies has been arriving in a day or so more recently.

Here are some recent chef's plate meals- black bean soup last week:

Turkey burrito bowl yesterday

Meatball soup today- very tasty!

The chef's plates always have expiry dates but normally all the bags in one box have the same date - not this time! Luckily the burrito bowl was the one I made first and it had a date of Oct 31, I think due to the pepper and the rest were Nov 3.(but won't last past Oct 31 anyway)

I went out for a walk after dinner and the moon was very bright. I tried to take a picture but this doesn't do it justice.

corona lockdown day 228

 I forgot to note yesterday that I saw a black squirrel chasing a bunny in the yard. If was pretty funny. I always thought the squirrels and bunnies ignored each other. I went out and told the squirrel off but I don't think it cared.

On Monday I placed an amazon order of supplies. On Tuesday I got an email that 1/2 of it had been dispatched and would arrive on Saturday but every time I log in it shows no updates and I can't even tell where it has been dispatched from. On Wed I got an email that the other half had been dispatched and it arrived today. It was sent from Mississauga. I wonder where the other one is coming from now? The things that I ordered from the Tuesday email also normally come from Mississauga so I am curious. I guess I'll find out on Saturday!

I didn't go anywhere today but managed to get an assignment released so that was a great accomplishment.

Made turkey burrito bowl tonight- it tasted good and was easy to make. 

James prefers steak in the instant pot to steak from the slow cooker, just so you know.

corona lockdown day 227

 Today was a lot of meetings and emails so I didn't get to the things I had planned but tomorrow is a Thursday without so many meetings due to it being reading week so I am hoping to get ahead. 

It was still ok enough to bike this morning so I went to the post office to mail the GST forms, went to the bank to drop off the deposit but ran into difficulties as NA paid in coin rolls and they wouldn't fit in the deposit slot. So instead of the deposit taking a few seconds, it took much longer as a lady had to help me even though they weren't open yet. Next time I will break the rolls open so that the coins will fit. Also made it to food basics as James needed meat for dinner. I've grown used to the mask extender and don't think that I could wear the masks without it now. It can cause condensation on my face if I talk too much though.

corona lockdown day 226

 Today I managed to get the assignments out and used some new tools in our website. In the morning I went to Giant Tiger to pick up a few groceries. Then went to Rustle to pick up the deposit by bike. It was cold but not too bad for biking so it was a good trip. But in the afternoon it snowed. I'm not sure if I'll be able to bike tomorrow. I need to go downtown to mail the GST submission.

corona lockdown day 225

 Today was like a Thursday as it was a lot of meetings and we are still working on calibrating an assignment so it was a busy work day. It was rainy and gloomy so I didn't run my errands or even leave the house at all.

I finished up the Rustle GST submission and hope to get that out tomorrow. I'm hoping the weather is better tomorrow but I'm kind of doubtful.

corona lockdown day 224

 Today ended up being a pretty long day. I woke up late and went to shoppers as we were out of eggs. Watched a variety of online church services. Made pasta with meatballs and peppers for dinner. Did a lot of work reviewing calibration of assignments, which went well but took a long time. Now it is over to my lead TAs to do the final review. Tomorrow I have to take the Rustle deposit in. Hopefully it is not too cold so I can still ride my bike and not have to wear my winter coat!

I also in all this managed to discover "inspector wexford" murder mystery. Also British but I didn't like it as much as the midsomer murders.

corona lockdown day 223

 I woke up early today to take a trip to no frills early in the morning before it got too busy. I was not impressed with it on a couple of angles. They didn't have the selection that I went for and their covid precautions seemed less than other grocery stores.

I now seem to be more used to the mask extenders as I didn't notice it today. There was so many other things to freak out about instead. Overall it was a disappointing trip.

I stopped by to see Sarah on the way home and it was nice to catch up.

Tomorrow I need to work on reviewing the assignments to get them posted after Rustle.

corona lockdown day 222

 Today was a beautiful day out so I took advantage my taking a few walks, one to a neighbourhood I had never walked before.

I made chipotle black bean soup for dinner- another good selection.

This headline bothered me today from the grammar side:

corona lockdown day 221

 Thursday is always my day of meetings so are a long day.

James has lost most of his masks. They are like gloves!

Made Japanese pork rice bowl for dinner, very good.

corona lockdown day 220

 Today was a long day but things are on track with the marking so far. Tomorrow is a day of meetings. Today I made turkey paprikash- it was very good.

corona lockdown day 219

 I took a walk today and noticed how quickly houses sell in my area.

I also found midsomer murders on amazon prime video. May just be worth signing up for!

James is off to a billet house for a few days to finish out his Trenton skate.

corona lockdown day 218

 Today was 4 years from when Brooke passed away. I made brownies in remembrance.

I took a vacation day but still had some email to attend to.

I went to Loblaws in the morning and it was actually quite busy, which I found surprising.

I managed to clean the bathroom which has been a long time coming. And did a lot of dishes and laundry. It was good to catch up.

corona lockdown day 217

 In the wee hours, the smoke detector battery died. They always die in the wee hours don't they? So I slept in again in the morning. James had a bad night as well.

I caught Rustle online. A good thing as the in person was pretty much at capacity.

Made peameal bacon with rice and veggies today. Am liking it as it is not greasy like other bacon.

I made it out for a walk today and had to do some work relating to academic integrity issues.

corona lockdown day 216

 Today I slept in until 9am! I worked on washing dishes and laundry as well as cleaning up some things from the garage. I also ran the copycheck for the course.

I found another channel for midsomer murders and this time I went back to the very earliest episodes. While I had been working through season 7 on the other channel, The new channel had the first 2 episodes and they tackled much more difficult topics for the murder scenarios than season 7. They looked at incest and transvestites. Interesting to see how it has changed.

corona lockdown day 215

It was a long day today.  I went to Food Basics before my first meeting. We were working on course progression and I also needed to get some marks out. In the evening I was working on the groups for the second half of the term. I had to bike to Shoppers twice today as the prescription they said would be ready at 9 was not ready. This meant biking through the student village. I have never seen the student village so quiet on the Friday of homecoming. Homestaying it is.

Also the Midsomer murder channel that I was watching got shut down. Maybe a copyright issue. But it is likely another one will pop up sometime.

corona lockdown day 214

 It turned out to be a very nice day today despite the forecast for all rain. Very enjoyable to be outside. I made it to Giant Tiger and then biked down to drop off the Rustle deposit. Make a pasta bolognese for dinner and worked a lot in the evening doing some timetabling and review of course material.

corona lockdown day 213

 Today I went to Loblaws first thing. I used my new mask extender (a piece of plastic under the mask to keep the fabric away from your mouth) Karrie posted about it on Facebook and I ordered it from amazon. When I purchased them they were $9 but now the price is $13. Watching amazon prices is always interesting. The extender only works in one of my masks as the others are too small. It took a bit of time to get used to but seemed to make it a bit better. I picked up some autumn cupcakes.

We had a faculty meeting in the morning where I worked on our notes from the training session yesterday.

Made spicy sriracha meatballs for dinner.

James has a billet home for next week with some other Trenton players but he'll be sleeping on the couch. Just for one week.

corona lockdown day 212

 I spent the day catching up on email, preparing for a training session and preparing for new courses that start soon. The training session ended at 7pm and I made tacos. Then did some laundry and watched the Bachelorette. James does not have another billet and he is not sure how many more days he will be skating out there for. We'll know more in a week.

corona lockdown day 211

 I biked to Metro first thing today. As it was pretty much the only thing open in Kingston I thought it would be busy, but it was not. We were out of bananas but I picked up some juice and cheese that was on sale as well. I caught up on Rustles finances, washed dishes and did laundry. I planned to do more things but I guess was not efficient enough. Also was distracted by a Midsomer murder:

corona lockdown day 210

 Today was probably the most exciting in the pandemic. I hosted at Rustle. I went to see Christine after as she had asked me to do her taxes. Then we did a family zoom. I still had to do some work, not a huge amount.

corona lockdown day 209

 It was very nice out this morning, a nice warm morning. I biked to Metro for 8am and it was super quiet and very efficient, not what I expected. They are open on Monday though many other grocery stores will be closed.

Then for 9am I made it to Shoppers. They already did not have many sale products despite only being open for an hour. Maybe they didn't have them to begin with.

Then I did some work in the garden to try to cut back a bush 

There had now been a case at KCVI. As James was not at the school he is not at risk. He also changed his courses before this announcement so that he has octomester 2 off as well. We'll see what the next weeks bring.

corona lockdown day 208

 Today I was trying to wrap up everything from the week and was not fully successful but am hoping to take most of the weekend off. Today I walked by Loblaws in the evening. Remembering the lineups at Easter I was wondering how things looked for Thanksgiving. While the parking lot seemed busy there was no lineup. Maybe things will get busier as we head toward Monday. I am almost out of juice so I will need to go out tomorrow. Not looking forward to that!

corona lockdown day 206 and 207

 On Wed I went to Rustle for some filming and then worked on launching the course for the week. Thursday is always my day of many meetings. I caught this rainbow over rustle:

corona lockdown day 205

 Today started with a trip to the dentist. Their waiting room had been completely stripped and there were just some plain easy to clean chairs well spaced apart. Normally I have to wait some time but not this time. I was whisked into some plastic tent that they had set up around the dentist chair. My hygienist is very good and I got to catch up on what her family is doing in the pandemic so that was nice. She is pretty worried about the pandemic and was glad to hear that I was working from home instead of on campus.

I scooted over to Shoppers after to pick up some buns for dinner and it was pretty empty. Very different than a sale day!

I made nitrite free bacon for dinner with the buns.

Our streaming server went down meaning no course videos would play, which was frustrating for students.

James told me he likes something called "crispy chicken" which I will now have to buy when he sends me a picture of the package. He's branching out in his tastes! The ice was ruined today as the zamboni broke down and poured hot water on it so they couldn't skate. 

corona lockdown day 204

 Today was a long day with lots of meetings. I hopped out to Rustle to pick up the bills. I biked through the Oak st path to get there that always makes for a nice bike ride. It was much busier than normal.

I have a dentist appointment tomorrow, the most dangerous thing so far in the pandemic!

Today there were no cases reported.

RMC is sending all their students home, despite having successfully formed a covid bubble for all these weeks (I think they arrived in August and all quarantined for 2 weeks before they started activities)

sticker

 Because of the corona I guess they aren't mailing license sticker renewal packages and it seems it is not a requirement to renew, but this seems strange to me. I feel like I should still renew?

I watched a few more episodes of the midsomer murders as I really quite like them but as they are on youtube I am watching them out of order (in whatever order youtube deems to give me) and the actors from season to season seem to change which startled me a bit. They all seem good but Season 11 is so far my favorite.

corona lockdown day 203

 I did some shopping this morning, things were pretty light so I was pretty efficient. The three locations I went all had toilet paper. And 2 of them had it on sale and still had the sale ones, so it currently is not as bad as the last shortage. Some places are also starting to have hand sanitizer, so improvements there. I picked up a bunch of cozy socks in anticipation of the cold weather.

One school in the Kingston area has reported a case that is likely not related to Queen's.

Now that covid testing is appointment only that should reduce the number of tests to allow the labs to "catch up", will this mean that the case numbers will go down?

corona lockdown day 202

 I ventured out to Shoppers as normally they have sales on Saturday. Only to find that the sales start on Sunday this week. It was pretty busy and they did have toilet paper. I'll need to read the flyer more carefully to avoid wasting a trip. I biked down in the Queen's area and there were lots of people out and about I guess enjoying the nice weather. I have laundry hanging out, it is nice to still be able to do that.

Last night I had difficulty falling asleep so I watched an episode of "Midsomer murders" that I quite enjoyed.

corona lockdown day 201

 Today I did a lot of content work and we had some training sessions. I am behind on my email though so will need to do a lot of work in the weekend.

Today I got out for a walk after a week of rain and being inside.

The numbers this week have been high. Most of the numbers in Kingston have come from our students, which isn't good but our numbers are still pretty low here. However, the panic buying happened again. We'll just have to wait a few weeks until it normalizes again. I guess. We never balanced out for cleaning products or hand sanitizer so we are more in the hole there.

The rules have changed for households meaning that James is no longer in our household as he is living with the billets and the rules are no more social circles. So his hockey camp rules mean now that if he leaves he will need another covid test to go back. So he is staying in the bubble. Likely a learning experience all around.

corona lockdown day 199 and 200

 Yesterday I worked until 2am trying to get things set up for today as we release our new course materials on Thursdays. On Thursdays we also have our training sessions and today I had a board meeting in the evening so it was a long day.

James had a difficult day as the son of his former coach passed away suddenly and it affected him quite a bit.