Weather, Phone, and BBQ Sauce

Weather's been nasty. In the past two weeks, my organization has been closed twice, due to snow storms followed by a thaw, followed by freezing rain. The townhouse complex I live in is sort of concave, so I've been living in a bowl of ice. Getting in and out has proven to be a challenge.

The other day, I was walking up to where I usually enter the complex. A rabbit was sitting at the top of an iced-over hill. When it saw me, it tried to scurry away but lost its grip and slid down the hill. Never saw such graceless behaviour from a rabbit. Felt sorry for it.

One time, when my regular way to get in proved impassable, I chose to walk through a park and over a bridge so that I could enter from the other side. When I approached the bridge, I realized it was at the base of a small hill, overseeing a river. If I slipped, I stood a good chance of falling into the freezing river. I did slip, but didn't fall and kind of "skiied" onto it.

I'm good with winter, but I really wish the weather would remain consistent. These interchanging blizzards and thaws are really hard to deal with.

I got a new case for my phone. Pretty slick, it was estimated to show up next Tuesday, but instead I got it on this past Thursday.

Some of my contacts didn't come through for some reason. For example, I recovered my brother's phone number but not my mother's, so I might not have yours.

My old phone is showing some weird signs of life. I set my new phone's alarm, and when it came on in the morning, it also came through my old phone. When I set my new phone to snooze, it also shut off my old phone. When my new phone's alarm reactivated, so did my old phone's.

It's been off for days. Its' charge wasn't that strong when I was using it. I wonder how it still has enough power to operate

Valentine's Day was a bust, of course, although I did get one Valentine. You remember in Grade School when you would set out an envelope in front of your desk, and everyone would go around giving out Valentine's cards? You had your "cool" Valentines cards, and you had your "Romantic" ones. For the most part, you could expect a "cool" one from each student, but if you got a "romantic" one, it meant something.

So I got a "cool" one from one of the members where I work. It said "From My Heart to Yours" and had a picture of Iron Man. Female facilitators generally did better, with members giving them chocolates disguised as roses and balloon bouquets and suchlike.

Oddly though, getting the "cool" Valentines is actually cool now. Bunch of adults in my complex were comparing weather or not anyone gave them one of those cheesy cards and I got to flaunt my Iron Man.

I learned something horrific recently. For a long time, I've been an avid hater of ketchup. It is the worst, most vile condiment out there. I hate the smell, it's far too sweet, it masks the taste of any food it touches... It's bad. That being said, I feel pretty positively about most barbecue sauces. I love that smokey, tangy flavour. I could acknowledge a certain similarity between the two condiments, but I was able to draw a hard line betweeen them.

Recently, on the subreddit /r/ketchuphate, of which I am subscribed to, the question was brought up "Can you hate ketchup and still like BBQ sauce?" The rationale was that most BBQ sauces have their main ingredient as ketchup.

I immediately grabbed a bottle of BBQ sauce and looked at the ingredients list. I felt a wave of relief. "Ketchup" wasn't anywhere on it. In fact, the main ingredients were tomato paste, sugar, and vinegar.

Oh no! That's ketchup!

Most of the people online didn't hate BBQ sauce, the rationale being that "Ketchup is an unfinished product. I like bread but I don't eat flour". I don't know, though, I feel like I've been outed as a hypocrite.

The next day, I was supporting someone and we went out to a restaurant. I usually order the BBQ Burger, but this time I couldn't. I think I'm obligated to hate BBQ sauce.