Since my last post was so dismal, let's avoid the tonal whiplash of bouncing back to cheerful news, and instead ease into it with a melancholy but less grim topic. A little while ago, I was standing in my backyard, when I heard someone shout "Get on the ground!" I then saw at least four police officers running down the street by the plaza near where I live. I mentioned this to my neighbour, who later learned the background of this incident and let me know.
Turns out, the man had just robbed the nearby convenience store. He entered the store, took a few items, and attempted to walk out without paying. When confronted, he pulled out a knife and threatened the owner.
This store has already been robbed at least twice. They used to be open until midnight, until they were robbed just before closing. So they started closing at eleven, until they were robbed just before closing. Now they close at ten. This time they got robbed at like, 1:00 pm.
What a lazy robber. I like to imagine that most thieves are in a state of desperation, because it makes their crime a little more understandable. But this guy didn't go for the cash register, or even steal enough to fill both his arms if he brandished a knife. Obviously I wasn't there, so it could have looked very different, but the description of the situation makes it seem like he wanted a few odds and ends, and just grabbed a kitchen knife before leaving his place, so he could wave it at whoever confronted him. He didn't even consider going at a more low-traffic time. It's so... lazy and stupid, in addition to being needlessly aggressive. The whole scenario paints a very unappealing image of him.
I feel like people think we're descending into a lawless state. This is not the case, at least at this time. We are being more closely monitored and controlled than ever before. This guy didn't even get out of the plaza before he got mobbed by four police officers. We've got security at every sizeable store, we've got bylaw officers patrolling at all times, and there is a stronger police presence. There are fewer people outside too, so everything you do catches stronger notice than it did before. It's a bad time to commit crimes.
Something else I noticed is, people are driving worse. Several times I've seen someone suddenly put the pedal to the metal on some small side street, weaving back and forth down the middle of the road. This isn't a strong enough sample size to say that it's statistically relevant, but other people have complained about seeing this as well. Lee-Anne says that the two types of crime that have seen an uptick are erratic driving and domestic violence. I was going to pose this as an open-ended question, but she explained that it's because there are fewer people on the road, which gives more freedom for folks with a need for speed. Still dangerous behaviour.
And yeah, I mentioned that domestic abuse is up. This is sad and pretty obvious when you think about it. A lot of relationships are being tested because of the forced close proximity, and people who were in abusive relationships can no longer escape by leaving the home.
On a lighter note of criminality. I would like to talk about litterers. Apparently the person whose job it was to pick up trash was considered non-essential, because I am living in a dump right now. I shouldn't be surprised, I know a guy who does maintenance work at the Boardwalk, a popular shopping area, and he was laid off. If the Boardwalk isn't being prioritized, my ghetto little townhouse complex certainly isn't going to be.
This is low-key a good thing. Maybe if people see that they have to live in the garbage they drop on the ground, they'll learn to stop doing it. One of the environmental lessons that COVID-19 is teaching us.
However, even though we have implemented a number of safety measures that have had the side effect of encouraging environmentally-friendly behaviour, people still find new ways to be gross. It's not uncommon to see people wearing a mask and those plastic disposable gloves. The image of a person wearing a mask has become a little symbolic of the pandemic in general. Anyway, people have started throwing their gloves on the ground in large quantities. This is unfortunate, because the reason they are disposing of their gloves is because they feel it might have the virus on them. But if you just throw them on the ground, they're going to float around in the wind and hypothetically spread the virus to other surfaces. To keep ourselves safe, we need to keep everyone else safe, so this is really counterproductive behaviour for people attempting the extra safety precaution of wearing gloves.
My mother, brother and aunt have all started wearing masks. I haven't taken that step yet.
Sunday, April 26, 2020
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Hard Times in Canada
Recently, I received news about someone that I used to support testing positive for COVID-19. This is the first person that I have known face-to-face to contract it. Before this, I knew people who knew people who had it, but this feels a lot closer to home.
It was pretty inevitable. She kind of hits the trifecta of vulnerability, as she's elderly, she's immunocompromised, and she lives in a long term care facility. However, so far, she has yet to develop any symptoms. We are finding that a not-insignificant percentage of people are asymptomatic, meaning that, while they carry the virus and can spread it to others, they do not suffer any symptoms themselves. Since we are largely prioritizing testing people who are at severe risk, since there aren't enough tests to go around, it is difficult to pinpoint what percentage of the population is asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic. I take it that the person I know who is testing positive but not showing symptoms was considered a priority for testing because of where she lives. Some people returning after traveling are also considered priority without demonstrating symptoms.
While being asymptomatic is nice for the people who don't suffer from the virus, it creates a risk in that, they may further the spread because they don't realize they are contagious. The fact that most people are contagious before they are symptomatic also adds to how tricky it is to contain this virus.
I would love to believe that the person I know is asymptomatic, but I'm only going to be cautiously optimistic. We will only know for sure two weeks after taking the test.
It was pretty inevitable. She kind of hits the trifecta of vulnerability, as she's elderly, she's immunocompromised, and she lives in a long term care facility. However, so far, she has yet to develop any symptoms. We are finding that a not-insignificant percentage of people are asymptomatic, meaning that, while they carry the virus and can spread it to others, they do not suffer any symptoms themselves. Since we are largely prioritizing testing people who are at severe risk, since there aren't enough tests to go around, it is difficult to pinpoint what percentage of the population is asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic. I take it that the person I know who is testing positive but not showing symptoms was considered a priority for testing because of where she lives. Some people returning after traveling are also considered priority without demonstrating symptoms.
While being asymptomatic is nice for the people who don't suffer from the virus, it creates a risk in that, they may further the spread because they don't realize they are contagious. The fact that most people are contagious before they are symptomatic also adds to how tricky it is to contain this virus.
I would love to believe that the person I know is asymptomatic, but I'm only going to be cautiously optimistic. We will only know for sure two weeks after taking the test.
Since we're covering a sinister topic today, let's keep going forward with the gloom. Last Saturday, in Nova Scotia, Canada had its' worst mass shooting to date. It resulted in at least 22 dead over the course of 13 hours.
He wore clothes resembling a Canadian Royal Mounted Police uniform and drove a vehicle that looked passibly like a police car. After attacking the residence of his former romantic partner, setting fire to the house and gunning down bystanders, he managed to successfully escape. However, the next day, he continued his rampage, approaching houses and killing residents, and performing traffic stops while disguised as an officer and killing the drivers.
He survived an altercation with two police officers, killing one and injuring the other. After this, he changed into civillian clothes and stole the vehicle of one of his victims to throw police off his trail. He was finally intercepted and shot dead by officers while en route to Halifax.
I feel bad for the families of victims at this time, as they are unable to gather and mourn the deceased.
He wore clothes resembling a Canadian Royal Mounted Police uniform and drove a vehicle that looked passibly like a police car. After attacking the residence of his former romantic partner, setting fire to the house and gunning down bystanders, he managed to successfully escape. However, the next day, he continued his rampage, approaching houses and killing residents, and performing traffic stops while disguised as an officer and killing the drivers.
He survived an altercation with two police officers, killing one and injuring the other. After this, he changed into civillian clothes and stole the vehicle of one of his victims to throw police off his trail. He was finally intercepted and shot dead by officers while en route to Halifax.
I feel bad for the families of victims at this time, as they are unable to gather and mourn the deceased.
Friday, April 17, 2020
Working Remotely
I've been working remotely for the past month or so. Some aspects have been difficult to navigate, but I've been putting in enough effort that, when I was called off duty for Easter weekend, it felt like a break.
When I last connected with you all, I was sort of predicting what remote work would look like for someone in my position. Now I can say that I've been doing it long enough to offer a perspective on how it looks in practice.
We've been using Google Hangouts to host Monday group meetings, which are what we do at WALES to develop schedules for our members throughout the week. Obviously we've relaxed the sense of obligation surrounding that, but we're using it as an opportunity to share strategies to help cope with feelings of fear and isolation. We are also hosting some of our training sessions using this technology, such as 30 Ways to Shine, Creative Pathways, and Conversation Group. We are also supporting our members to connect with each other, as well as friends, family and community connections remotely on their own. A number of our resources such as community centres are offering remote alternatives, such as yoga, zumba, and meditation, and we're helping people connect with those. We're doing a weekly newsletter, we're discussing funding (we got approved for a furniture grant, even though we can't be in the building), and we're revamping our Facebook group. We are also attending agency and staff meetings to help unify our efforts going forward.
I have recently been put in charge of supporting people who don't have access to video chat technology. Just the other day, I learned how to make a conference call. Today I gathered data on interest for this group, and I will be scheduling a meeting for next week.
I just got a raise. This can't be sustainable. Prices keep dropping and my income keeps going up.
Waterloo Region has bylaw officers patrolling the streets now. We recently issued our first fine of $750. In Guelph, they can top our story, because they've made an arrest. I know this, because it was my mother's neighbour.
Apparently, he was approached by someone who questioned him on his social distancing. He told them to "F off". Turns out, he didn't realize that person was a bylaw officer and got arrested two days later.
Waterloo Region has been posting stats on COVID 19 every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Recently, we hit an all time low for for new cases. followed by an all time high, followed by a low. Since then, over about ten days, we've had four reports signifying decreasing cases of newly infected. This is the first time where I've felt like we've begun to gain control of the situation. Turns out, those guys who were playing basketball, cricket, and soccer against recomendation were actually the problem.
This doesn't speak for Canada or Ontario, and in fact, I don't encourage people to relax their cautionary measures. These positive numbers represent an opportunity, not an accomplishment. If we can maintain our efforts, these numbers will stay low. If we relax, we will be worse off than ever.
I went for take out for the first time since my agency shut down. My brother works at a hot deli counter at Zehrs, and he says they're only getting like, four customers per day, which is crazy because they used to get a pretty consistent stream of customers. My understanding is that people are less likely to buy your food, if you are seen preparing it.
I am going to make the audacious claim that my little podunct corner of ghetto Kitchener has not only the best pizza, but also the best shawarma in Waterloo Region. I know the spot that people says has the best shawarma, and that's Highland Halal, and I can attest that their shawarma is fantastic. Ours is better.
When I say our pizza is the best, please keep in mind that, my mothers' local pizza joint is Victoria Pizza, the highest rated spot in Guelph. That is what she was using as a reference when she had pizza here, and I did not ask her to make a comparison, but she voluntarily stated that our pizza was better than Victoria's.
I really don't want either of these places to go out of business.
I've been a little coy about the specifics of where I live, but there are hints if you look deep enough. I'm in Kitchener, I'm in a two bedroom townhouse, and I'm near the best shawarma and pizza joints in Waterloo Region. The pizza joint has a good enough reputation that I think it might survive this. I see well-established restaurants go out of business unexpectedly all the time, but it feels like every strip mall has a Mom and Pop shop, as well as a major brand like Gino's, Dominoe's, or Pizza Hut, and neither brand dies. Pizza is the easiest thing to move, I guess.
Shawarma on the other hand, while being great street food, doesn't always see the same success, and since this establishment has not had as long as its' pizza counterpart to develop a reputation, I was sure that it would go out of business. So I decided to go to this place, understanding that the government had made it an "essential service" and using the justification of "supporting local businesses".
When I've been in the past, the fastest moving items were plates and wraps. As I've stated before, shawarma joint in my area have seemingly unanimously decided to adopt the fusion food "shawarma poutine".
I've always felt this was a stupid product, as the vibrancy of the flavours of shawarma are dulled by the gravy and potatoes. Lee-Anne feels that the shawarma takes away the purity of the poutine. However, at this specific location, we were able to agree that both the shawarma and the poutine were improved, and after over four weeks of home-cooked meals, this became my first deviation from standard survival tactics.
I have got to say that, since my shawarma spot put up signs in their window, written on carboard with sharpies, saying "WE ARE OPEN" I saw it as an act of desperation, but when I went in there were four other guests and I had to wait outside to observe social distancing. These were also not people just ordering for themselves. There was a person from Uber Eats picking up four meals, and the person in front of me ordered five shawarma poutines, For some reason, everyone in the restaurant was getting shawarma poutine. It's anecdotal, but from my experience, they appear to be thriving during this time.
When I last connected with you all, I was sort of predicting what remote work would look like for someone in my position. Now I can say that I've been doing it long enough to offer a perspective on how it looks in practice.
We've been using Google Hangouts to host Monday group meetings, which are what we do at WALES to develop schedules for our members throughout the week. Obviously we've relaxed the sense of obligation surrounding that, but we're using it as an opportunity to share strategies to help cope with feelings of fear and isolation. We are also hosting some of our training sessions using this technology, such as 30 Ways to Shine, Creative Pathways, and Conversation Group. We are also supporting our members to connect with each other, as well as friends, family and community connections remotely on their own. A number of our resources such as community centres are offering remote alternatives, such as yoga, zumba, and meditation, and we're helping people connect with those. We're doing a weekly newsletter, we're discussing funding (we got approved for a furniture grant, even though we can't be in the building), and we're revamping our Facebook group. We are also attending agency and staff meetings to help unify our efforts going forward.
I have recently been put in charge of supporting people who don't have access to video chat technology. Just the other day, I learned how to make a conference call. Today I gathered data on interest for this group, and I will be scheduling a meeting for next week.
I just got a raise. This can't be sustainable. Prices keep dropping and my income keeps going up.
Waterloo Region has bylaw officers patrolling the streets now. We recently issued our first fine of $750. In Guelph, they can top our story, because they've made an arrest. I know this, because it was my mother's neighbour.
Apparently, he was approached by someone who questioned him on his social distancing. He told them to "F off". Turns out, he didn't realize that person was a bylaw officer and got arrested two days later.
Waterloo Region has been posting stats on COVID 19 every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Recently, we hit an all time low for for new cases. followed by an all time high, followed by a low. Since then, over about ten days, we've had four reports signifying decreasing cases of newly infected. This is the first time where I've felt like we've begun to gain control of the situation. Turns out, those guys who were playing basketball, cricket, and soccer against recomendation were actually the problem.
This doesn't speak for Canada or Ontario, and in fact, I don't encourage people to relax their cautionary measures. These positive numbers represent an opportunity, not an accomplishment. If we can maintain our efforts, these numbers will stay low. If we relax, we will be worse off than ever.
I went for take out for the first time since my agency shut down. My brother works at a hot deli counter at Zehrs, and he says they're only getting like, four customers per day, which is crazy because they used to get a pretty consistent stream of customers. My understanding is that people are less likely to buy your food, if you are seen preparing it.
I am going to make the audacious claim that my little podunct corner of ghetto Kitchener has not only the best pizza, but also the best shawarma in Waterloo Region. I know the spot that people says has the best shawarma, and that's Highland Halal, and I can attest that their shawarma is fantastic. Ours is better.
When I say our pizza is the best, please keep in mind that, my mothers' local pizza joint is Victoria Pizza, the highest rated spot in Guelph. That is what she was using as a reference when she had pizza here, and I did not ask her to make a comparison, but she voluntarily stated that our pizza was better than Victoria's.
I really don't want either of these places to go out of business.
I've been a little coy about the specifics of where I live, but there are hints if you look deep enough. I'm in Kitchener, I'm in a two bedroom townhouse, and I'm near the best shawarma and pizza joints in Waterloo Region. The pizza joint has a good enough reputation that I think it might survive this. I see well-established restaurants go out of business unexpectedly all the time, but it feels like every strip mall has a Mom and Pop shop, as well as a major brand like Gino's, Dominoe's, or Pizza Hut, and neither brand dies. Pizza is the easiest thing to move, I guess.
Shawarma on the other hand, while being great street food, doesn't always see the same success, and since this establishment has not had as long as its' pizza counterpart to develop a reputation, I was sure that it would go out of business. So I decided to go to this place, understanding that the government had made it an "essential service" and using the justification of "supporting local businesses".
When I've been in the past, the fastest moving items were plates and wraps. As I've stated before, shawarma joint in my area have seemingly unanimously decided to adopt the fusion food "shawarma poutine".
I've always felt this was a stupid product, as the vibrancy of the flavours of shawarma are dulled by the gravy and potatoes. Lee-Anne feels that the shawarma takes away the purity of the poutine. However, at this specific location, we were able to agree that both the shawarma and the poutine were improved, and after over four weeks of home-cooked meals, this became my first deviation from standard survival tactics.
I have got to say that, since my shawarma spot put up signs in their window, written on carboard with sharpies, saying "WE ARE OPEN" I saw it as an act of desperation, but when I went in there were four other guests and I had to wait outside to observe social distancing. These were also not people just ordering for themselves. There was a person from Uber Eats picking up four meals, and the person in front of me ordered five shawarma poutines, For some reason, everyone in the restaurant was getting shawarma poutine. It's anecdotal, but from my experience, they appear to be thriving during this time.
Thursday, April 9, 2020
Apocalypse Dining 2
The original Apocalypse Dining post was more like a grocery list. Well, it's now week four, I've had the opportunity to do a little eating, and I can realistically say what is on the menu in the apocalypse.
Fried rice is one of the main dinner options. Not long before everything blew up, I made this meal for Lee-Anne and told her it was my "poverty dish". Everything in it is fairly cheap, nutritious, and has a good shelf life.
Its' original inspiration is just a reflection on the staple foods of the world: rice and beans. My roommate has a friend who made us rice and beans in the past, which was delicious and she boasted that those two ingredients were all you need.
So I attempted to emulate that, but the result was lacking. You can think of this recipe less as something originally intended to be "fried rice" and more as "rice and beans" souped up.
So obviously, you need rice and beans, which together make a complete protein. I don't have a rice cooker right now, so I cook one part rice to two parts water in a pot on the stove top. When the rice looks like it has mostly absorbed the water, I add an egg. The egg is what makes it "fried rice" instead of a stirfry.
Back in college, we had a stirfry station. You could request rice or noodles, then there was a selection of vegetables, proteins, and sauces. I learned some rudimentary culinary skills by reverse-engineering their techniques. When I tried to recreate it at home, I called the result "stirfry"
But one day, when I was using rice instead of noodles, a roommate asked me if I was making fried rice. I told him that I was making stirfry, because that was what I was tring to replicate. He told me all I had to do was add an egg.
And I never looked back. Apparently some people scramble the egg and then add it, but I add it to the rice as it's cooking. My way makes it an "integration" rather than a "topping"
I use a can of beans. I haven't used all of the types we have in our unit yet, but so far, kidney beans do pretty well. You can get dry beans and soak them, but honestly, I tried that once and it didn't work so good. Still have half a bag of dried beans, so I can still get good during the pandemic.
In the image above, we used tofu, cabbage, snap peas, broccoli, mushrooms, cellery, and onion if I recall, I was just trying to use up the stuff that would expire. Going forward, I will be using those frozen vegetable mixes.
My chosen sauces are Honey Garlic and Sriracha. I can get a large bottle of honey garlic at the local Food Basics, and I can get a large bottle of Sriracha at Dollarama.
Every ingredient in this recipe is pennies per meal.
By the way, I mentioned in my post, Panic Buying, that every brand of rice except one had been bought out, but I couldn't remember the specific brand that failed to sell during a pandemic. Turns out, it is Y & Y Ultra Premium Jasmine.
And I think I mentioned that it's always been a dream of mine to purchase one of those giant sacks of rice, but I could never justify it. Well...
What better excuse than a pandemic? I decided not to go as low as generic "long grain white", but not so high-end as "ultra-premium Jasmine" and just went with "Mili Premium Jasmine".
As far as dinner options go, I've been alternating between fried rice and pasta. In this image we're using rotini, which is a noodle shape mostly seen in North America. It's like fusili, but with wider ridges. It is my preferred pasta, because those ridges are fantastic sauce catchers.
Last I went to the grocery, I could only get capellini, because everything else was bought out. I have since discovered a pre-made penne dish in my freezer. It was a bit boring, but I dressed it up with some ground turkey and sauteed onion. Just finished it, somnext up is the capellini.
I love the names of noodles. Spaghetti, macaroni, fusilli, penne. Just so fun to pronounce.
Oatmeal is my standard breakfast nowadays. It has similar virtues to rice, those being that it is one part oats to two parts water. In this image, I am using brown sugar and a splash of milk, because at this time, those are things I have access to. Honestly, if I'm relying on my roommate for anything, it's a consistent flow of brown sugar and eggs.
This is a throwback to Katimavik, where in the last rotation we were all nominated for specific duties based on the talents we had demonstrated, instead of assigning a "House Manager". One of the leading duties I was requested for was to be the group baker. Since then, I have frequently gifted family, friends and neighbours loaves of fresh-baked bread. I have always said that, it's something you can make in a large batch and when you give someone a loaf, they never forget you.
I have gotten a bit lazy due to professional obligations, but during quarantine, I have maintained a steady supply of bread.
They have put item restrictions on wheat, so you can get it, but not in the mega packs. They forgot to include yeast though, so I can't find that anywhere. I'm using old yeast for these loaves, which may have impacted rising.
I can't publish my recipe, because it's a Katimavik thing
Here we have pumpkin bread and pumpkin tarts. I had a can of pumpkin puree and I needed something to do with it. To my surprise, I had all the spices necessary! My pumpkin bread is the thing my roommate has enjoyed the most out of all my creartions.
I discovered lemon filling and cherry filling in my cupboard, so I will have to make more tarts or pies in the future.
Pumpkin bread recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/6820/downeast-maine-pumpkin-bread/
Pumpkin tarts recipe: https://www.myorganizedchaos.net/2014/09/mini-pumpkin-pies
Blueberry tarts recipe (just because it's a favourite): http://www.dinnerwithjulie.com/2015/07/27/super-simple-blueberry-tarts/
This is a blueberry smoothie. At one point, I got really into the idea of smoothies, but I gave up on it when my blender broke. So I had a bunch of frozen fruit in my freezer, and I'm just beginning to experiment with that. My roommate has a real nice blender, and after making blueberry and raspberry smoothies, I still have mangos and strawberries, as well as a crap-ton more blueberries.
I don't know about claiming a recipe, but equal parts milk and the fruit of your preference?
And we end with dessert. This is caramel swirl ice cream with praline nut mix. My favourite icecream is pralines and cream, and this is kind of functionally that. When I got the praline nuts, I had forgotten I had icecream. I wouldn't indulge in this during the current crisis, but hey, I got a lot of ice cream, and a lot of nuts, and I gotta use them. What can I say
Fried rice is one of the main dinner options. Not long before everything blew up, I made this meal for Lee-Anne and told her it was my "poverty dish". Everything in it is fairly cheap, nutritious, and has a good shelf life.
Its' original inspiration is just a reflection on the staple foods of the world: rice and beans. My roommate has a friend who made us rice and beans in the past, which was delicious and she boasted that those two ingredients were all you need.
So I attempted to emulate that, but the result was lacking. You can think of this recipe less as something originally intended to be "fried rice" and more as "rice and beans" souped up.
So obviously, you need rice and beans, which together make a complete protein. I don't have a rice cooker right now, so I cook one part rice to two parts water in a pot on the stove top. When the rice looks like it has mostly absorbed the water, I add an egg. The egg is what makes it "fried rice" instead of a stirfry.
Back in college, we had a stirfry station. You could request rice or noodles, then there was a selection of vegetables, proteins, and sauces. I learned some rudimentary culinary skills by reverse-engineering their techniques. When I tried to recreate it at home, I called the result "stirfry"
But one day, when I was using rice instead of noodles, a roommate asked me if I was making fried rice. I told him that I was making stirfry, because that was what I was tring to replicate. He told me all I had to do was add an egg.
And I never looked back. Apparently some people scramble the egg and then add it, but I add it to the rice as it's cooking. My way makes it an "integration" rather than a "topping"
I use a can of beans. I haven't used all of the types we have in our unit yet, but so far, kidney beans do pretty well. You can get dry beans and soak them, but honestly, I tried that once and it didn't work so good. Still have half a bag of dried beans, so I can still get good during the pandemic.
In the image above, we used tofu, cabbage, snap peas, broccoli, mushrooms, cellery, and onion if I recall, I was just trying to use up the stuff that would expire. Going forward, I will be using those frozen vegetable mixes.
My chosen sauces are Honey Garlic and Sriracha. I can get a large bottle of honey garlic at the local Food Basics, and I can get a large bottle of Sriracha at Dollarama.
Every ingredient in this recipe is pennies per meal.
By the way, I mentioned in my post, Panic Buying, that every brand of rice except one had been bought out, but I couldn't remember the specific brand that failed to sell during a pandemic. Turns out, it is Y & Y Ultra Premium Jasmine.
And I think I mentioned that it's always been a dream of mine to purchase one of those giant sacks of rice, but I could never justify it. Well...
What better excuse than a pandemic? I decided not to go as low as generic "long grain white", but not so high-end as "ultra-premium Jasmine" and just went with "Mili Premium Jasmine".
As far as dinner options go, I've been alternating between fried rice and pasta. In this image we're using rotini, which is a noodle shape mostly seen in North America. It's like fusili, but with wider ridges. It is my preferred pasta, because those ridges are fantastic sauce catchers.
Last I went to the grocery, I could only get capellini, because everything else was bought out. I have since discovered a pre-made penne dish in my freezer. It was a bit boring, but I dressed it up with some ground turkey and sauteed onion. Just finished it, somnext up is the capellini.
I love the names of noodles. Spaghetti, macaroni, fusilli, penne. Just so fun to pronounce.
Oatmeal is my standard breakfast nowadays. It has similar virtues to rice, those being that it is one part oats to two parts water. In this image, I am using brown sugar and a splash of milk, because at this time, those are things I have access to. Honestly, if I'm relying on my roommate for anything, it's a consistent flow of brown sugar and eggs.
This is a throwback to Katimavik, where in the last rotation we were all nominated for specific duties based on the talents we had demonstrated, instead of assigning a "House Manager". One of the leading duties I was requested for was to be the group baker. Since then, I have frequently gifted family, friends and neighbours loaves of fresh-baked bread. I have always said that, it's something you can make in a large batch and when you give someone a loaf, they never forget you.
I have gotten a bit lazy due to professional obligations, but during quarantine, I have maintained a steady supply of bread.
They have put item restrictions on wheat, so you can get it, but not in the mega packs. They forgot to include yeast though, so I can't find that anywhere. I'm using old yeast for these loaves, which may have impacted rising.
I can't publish my recipe, because it's a Katimavik thing
Here we have pumpkin bread and pumpkin tarts. I had a can of pumpkin puree and I needed something to do with it. To my surprise, I had all the spices necessary! My pumpkin bread is the thing my roommate has enjoyed the most out of all my creartions.
I discovered lemon filling and cherry filling in my cupboard, so I will have to make more tarts or pies in the future.
Pumpkin bread recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/6820/downeast-maine-pumpkin-bread/
Pumpkin tarts recipe: https://www.myorganizedchaos.net/2014/09/mini-pumpkin-pies
Blueberry tarts recipe (just because it's a favourite): http://www.dinnerwithjulie.com/2015/07/27/super-simple-blueberry-tarts/
This is a blueberry smoothie. At one point, I got really into the idea of smoothies, but I gave up on it when my blender broke. So I had a bunch of frozen fruit in my freezer, and I'm just beginning to experiment with that. My roommate has a real nice blender, and after making blueberry and raspberry smoothies, I still have mangos and strawberries, as well as a crap-ton more blueberries.
I don't know about claiming a recipe, but equal parts milk and the fruit of your preference?
And we end with dessert. This is caramel swirl ice cream with praline nut mix. My favourite icecream is pralines and cream, and this is kind of functionally that. When I got the praline nuts, I had forgotten I had icecream. I wouldn't indulge in this during the current crisis, but hey, I got a lot of ice cream, and a lot of nuts, and I gotta use them. What can I say
Saturday, April 4, 2020
Not Coronavirus
Okay, so there continues to be a flow of new information on the virus. However, before everything blew up, I already intended to talk about a number of events that I had failed to blog about, so I'd just like to talk about those things before they get even more out of date.
Firstly, Valentine's Day. This was the first Valentine's Day in... I dunno, seven years? that I had someone to spend it with, which was very nice. I won't go into full detail, but I wil mention that the morning after, we went to St Jacob's farmer's market, which I'm sure is closed at this time. I was under the impression that I'd never been, but once I got there I was hit with a wave of nostalgia. I was brought all the way back to my childhood, when I went to the marketplace with my Big Brother from the Big Brothers association. It's so weird how you can completely and suddenly remember a place that you haven't thought of in years, and which you've only been to once... But my memory must be faulty, because apparently the original market burned down, and the one we were at was a recreation. Let's just say they did a really good job at recreating it.
On another day, me and Lee-Anne met up with one of my aunts in Toronto. This means that she's been able to meet my mother, brother, cousin, and both Toronto aunts. We were kind of doing our rounds meeting the people in my family. My Toronto grandparents were next on the list, but that won't be doable for awhile.
We went to a French bakery. I had a croque madame, which is like a fancy ham and cheese sandwich. If it has an egg on it, it's a croque madame, because the egg is supposed to look like a lady's hat, and if it doesn't, it's a croque monsieur, because I guess men don't wear hats. They actually didn't have the monsieur option, probably due to low demand because eggs are awesome. It wasn't presented like a typical sandwich either, it was spread across the plate and there were three pieces of bread. We all got macarons, too, which were better than I thought they'd be. I sure do hope some restaurants survive all this.
This was a leap year, which means we got February 29th. This is the original Rare Disease Day, which is funny because it's a rare day. However, while this used to be the only day it was celebrated, people with a passion for rare conditions got it expanded to "the last day of February", so you can celebrate it on February 28th when it's not a leap year. This spreads four times as much awareness, but ruins the joke. It's kind of interesting that we got this virus on a year with a proper February 29th Rare Disease Day, and February 29th occured during the spread, although it's not the day it originated and not when it's been at it's worst.
Other notes I took were about being at the gateway to being a coffee snob. I'd been going to Starbucks instead of Tim Horton's because Starbucks makes sure there are outlets available to charge your phone, while Tim Horton's hides them, and I was spending so much time in the community that I would frequently run down my phone. I know Starbucks isn't "fancy" but to give American readers a frame of reference, Tim Horton's is largely considered to be the Canadian equivalent of Dunkin' Donuts. Also, Burger King owns it.
I'd developed a taste for lighter roasts, and at home I was grinding my own beans. Even at work, I'd upgraded from instant coffee to using a pourover.
This isn't true anymore though. Now I just have a giant club pack of Folger's and never leave the house.
As far as classing up my living style, I had gone from using manual toothbrushes to electric. Apparently dentists recommend electric over manual. Lee-Anne found a pretty decent electric toothbrush in my bathroom cabinet and asked me why I had it if I didn't use it. It was a concept that I'd played with at one point, but never saw through. With her encouragement, I started to engage in my previous investment.
But I've since downgraded back to manual since my electric ran out of batteries...
As far as quality of life improvement purchases go, I also got a WiFi booster for my room. Our router is in the living room, and the signal is pretty weak in my bedroom. The WiFi booster creates an extension that offers a strong signal, but still occasionally clips out. Still better than what I had, and having a strong Internet connection is especially nice now that I'm inside all the time.
I wanted to talk about the new Conestoga Campus, which is at the Market Square. I think I've mentioned it before, but Market Square is an old shopping centre which has slowly lost most of its businesses, and the only thing to try and establish itself there since its' decline is a cafe called Elevensies. Anyway, it was to be converted into a Conestoga campus in January. Curious, I decided to visit it. I was surprised to see everything the way it used to be. Same deserted gym, same two final surviving restaurants in the otherwise barren food court. The nail salon and electronics store were still open. Trios college and Service Canada were still open. The only thing that had changed was, the fake plants on the bottom floor were gone.
I checked a map, and it turns out that only the basement, which I didn't know existed, had been converted to a Conestoga campus. According to the map, you could only get to it through the parking garage. I tried to get in, but couldn't find the entrance and eventually gave up because security was giving me weird looks.
I really wanted the two remaining food court restaurants, a pita place called Grill Inn and a Chinese spot called Mr. Wu's to be reinvigorated by the new Conestoga students as a reward for their tenacity, but this virus is probably the last nail in their coffin.
Apparently I never spoke about Emotional Intelligence training. This concerns that MESH Diversity testing I did a while ago, the one where I answered a bunch of questions, and other people answered a bunch of questions, and I got to see how I perceive myself, and how other people perceive me. At this training, we got to see everyone in the agency's results merged into one, and see Extend-a-Family's results as a whole.
One of my weakest areas was Meta-Perception, which is the ability to see myself through the lense of someone else. Well, Extend-a-Family received the same score as me. Apparently that's one that most people are lacking. Extend-a-Family also received low scores for drawing boundaries, which I was also low in. Not surprising, honestly, since we're so community-oriented.
I was surprised at how similar my results were to the general agency's. Both mine and EaF's overall strongest category was Leadership, and we both ranked 10/10 on Principle (we all prioritize doing what's morally correct). I did have a higher score than the agency for Civility (my ability to talk, knowing how to disagree without being disagreeable).
The bulk of the session was examining the concept of Meta Perception. We broke into groups, and had to decide as individuals, and then as a team, what our favourite to least favourit characters were in a story. Despite it seeming obvious to me what order we should put the characters in, I was surprised that everyone had different answers. I told the story to Lee-Anne later, and our decisions actually matched, which means we have the same moral perception.
As far as agency things go, we did something during the holiday season called Secret Friends, where you get the name of someone else in the organization, and someone else gets yours, but you don't know who has your name. Then you do nice things the person you drew secretly throughout the week. It's kind of like a Secret Santa.
I was surprised on the Monday when I got a custom tarot card, called The Fox and Ivy which freaked me out, because it meant that this person knows I read tarot cards, that my spirit name in Chisasibi was Fox Man, and that I'm into plants. The day after, I got a tube of shea butter hand cream, meaning they knew about my fixation with the iconic Malian miracle nut, and the day after, I got a Boston cream donut. Not even the WALES staff knew about my donut preference... How was this person's research so good?!
I was also freaked out because it was supposed to be an activity done on a volunteer basis, and I hadn't thought I'd signed up. Turns out, somebody asked me if I was participating before I knew what it was, and I said something vague and non-commited, but someone in charge of running it overheard, took it as an affirmation, and signed me up without my knowing. So when I got my first gift, I was a day behind and didn't know who I was supposed to be being kind to. When I found out, it was someone that I didn't even know existed, and I thought I knew everyone in the agency. Wound up doing some last minute research.
First person I talked to said she liked white wine and cinnamon hearts, which when put together seemed a little creepy and romantic. I didn't want to become secret friends with benefits! I eventually wound up getting her a bottle of wine, a bag of popcorn (her favourite snack) and some toys for her dog. I wasn't going to reveal myself but she figured it out and sent me a thank you email.
I also found out who was giving me stuff, and it turns out about half of what she got was researched and half was just pure intuition. Pretty good intuition.
And finally, I wanted to talk a bit about transit. The month after the bus strike, they made passes half off, which is nice but doesn't really make up for the inconvenience of that ordeal. I also wanted to talk about the impracticle nature of fare payment for the Ion train, since literally most of the podiums that you're supposed to pay at are broken, making it impossibe to pay, even if you wanted to. That doesn't matter anymore though, now that all transit is free.
And there you have it. I know it was a lot, but I'm glad to have covered the non-pandemic related content I was hoping to speak on.
Firstly, Valentine's Day. This was the first Valentine's Day in... I dunno, seven years? that I had someone to spend it with, which was very nice. I won't go into full detail, but I wil mention that the morning after, we went to St Jacob's farmer's market, which I'm sure is closed at this time. I was under the impression that I'd never been, but once I got there I was hit with a wave of nostalgia. I was brought all the way back to my childhood, when I went to the marketplace with my Big Brother from the Big Brothers association. It's so weird how you can completely and suddenly remember a place that you haven't thought of in years, and which you've only been to once... But my memory must be faulty, because apparently the original market burned down, and the one we were at was a recreation. Let's just say they did a really good job at recreating it.
On another day, me and Lee-Anne met up with one of my aunts in Toronto. This means that she's been able to meet my mother, brother, cousin, and both Toronto aunts. We were kind of doing our rounds meeting the people in my family. My Toronto grandparents were next on the list, but that won't be doable for awhile.
We went to a French bakery. I had a croque madame, which is like a fancy ham and cheese sandwich. If it has an egg on it, it's a croque madame, because the egg is supposed to look like a lady's hat, and if it doesn't, it's a croque monsieur, because I guess men don't wear hats. They actually didn't have the monsieur option, probably due to low demand because eggs are awesome. It wasn't presented like a typical sandwich either, it was spread across the plate and there were three pieces of bread. We all got macarons, too, which were better than I thought they'd be. I sure do hope some restaurants survive all this.
This was a leap year, which means we got February 29th. This is the original Rare Disease Day, which is funny because it's a rare day. However, while this used to be the only day it was celebrated, people with a passion for rare conditions got it expanded to "the last day of February", so you can celebrate it on February 28th when it's not a leap year. This spreads four times as much awareness, but ruins the joke. It's kind of interesting that we got this virus on a year with a proper February 29th Rare Disease Day, and February 29th occured during the spread, although it's not the day it originated and not when it's been at it's worst.
Other notes I took were about being at the gateway to being a coffee snob. I'd been going to Starbucks instead of Tim Horton's because Starbucks makes sure there are outlets available to charge your phone, while Tim Horton's hides them, and I was spending so much time in the community that I would frequently run down my phone. I know Starbucks isn't "fancy" but to give American readers a frame of reference, Tim Horton's is largely considered to be the Canadian equivalent of Dunkin' Donuts. Also, Burger King owns it.
I'd developed a taste for lighter roasts, and at home I was grinding my own beans. Even at work, I'd upgraded from instant coffee to using a pourover.
This isn't true anymore though. Now I just have a giant club pack of Folger's and never leave the house.
As far as classing up my living style, I had gone from using manual toothbrushes to electric. Apparently dentists recommend electric over manual. Lee-Anne found a pretty decent electric toothbrush in my bathroom cabinet and asked me why I had it if I didn't use it. It was a concept that I'd played with at one point, but never saw through. With her encouragement, I started to engage in my previous investment.
But I've since downgraded back to manual since my electric ran out of batteries...
As far as quality of life improvement purchases go, I also got a WiFi booster for my room. Our router is in the living room, and the signal is pretty weak in my bedroom. The WiFi booster creates an extension that offers a strong signal, but still occasionally clips out. Still better than what I had, and having a strong Internet connection is especially nice now that I'm inside all the time.
I wanted to talk about the new Conestoga Campus, which is at the Market Square. I think I've mentioned it before, but Market Square is an old shopping centre which has slowly lost most of its businesses, and the only thing to try and establish itself there since its' decline is a cafe called Elevensies. Anyway, it was to be converted into a Conestoga campus in January. Curious, I decided to visit it. I was surprised to see everything the way it used to be. Same deserted gym, same two final surviving restaurants in the otherwise barren food court. The nail salon and electronics store were still open. Trios college and Service Canada were still open. The only thing that had changed was, the fake plants on the bottom floor were gone.
I checked a map, and it turns out that only the basement, which I didn't know existed, had been converted to a Conestoga campus. According to the map, you could only get to it through the parking garage. I tried to get in, but couldn't find the entrance and eventually gave up because security was giving me weird looks.
I really wanted the two remaining food court restaurants, a pita place called Grill Inn and a Chinese spot called Mr. Wu's to be reinvigorated by the new Conestoga students as a reward for their tenacity, but this virus is probably the last nail in their coffin.
Apparently I never spoke about Emotional Intelligence training. This concerns that MESH Diversity testing I did a while ago, the one where I answered a bunch of questions, and other people answered a bunch of questions, and I got to see how I perceive myself, and how other people perceive me. At this training, we got to see everyone in the agency's results merged into one, and see Extend-a-Family's results as a whole.
One of my weakest areas was Meta-Perception, which is the ability to see myself through the lense of someone else. Well, Extend-a-Family received the same score as me. Apparently that's one that most people are lacking. Extend-a-Family also received low scores for drawing boundaries, which I was also low in. Not surprising, honestly, since we're so community-oriented.
I was surprised at how similar my results were to the general agency's. Both mine and EaF's overall strongest category was Leadership, and we both ranked 10/10 on Principle (we all prioritize doing what's morally correct). I did have a higher score than the agency for Civility (my ability to talk, knowing how to disagree without being disagreeable).
The bulk of the session was examining the concept of Meta Perception. We broke into groups, and had to decide as individuals, and then as a team, what our favourite to least favourit characters were in a story. Despite it seeming obvious to me what order we should put the characters in, I was surprised that everyone had different answers. I told the story to Lee-Anne later, and our decisions actually matched, which means we have the same moral perception.
As far as agency things go, we did something during the holiday season called Secret Friends, where you get the name of someone else in the organization, and someone else gets yours, but you don't know who has your name. Then you do nice things the person you drew secretly throughout the week. It's kind of like a Secret Santa.
I was surprised on the Monday when I got a custom tarot card, called The Fox and Ivy which freaked me out, because it meant that this person knows I read tarot cards, that my spirit name in Chisasibi was Fox Man, and that I'm into plants. The day after, I got a tube of shea butter hand cream, meaning they knew about my fixation with the iconic Malian miracle nut, and the day after, I got a Boston cream donut. Not even the WALES staff knew about my donut preference... How was this person's research so good?!
I was also freaked out because it was supposed to be an activity done on a volunteer basis, and I hadn't thought I'd signed up. Turns out, somebody asked me if I was participating before I knew what it was, and I said something vague and non-commited, but someone in charge of running it overheard, took it as an affirmation, and signed me up without my knowing. So when I got my first gift, I was a day behind and didn't know who I was supposed to be being kind to. When I found out, it was someone that I didn't even know existed, and I thought I knew everyone in the agency. Wound up doing some last minute research.
First person I talked to said she liked white wine and cinnamon hearts, which when put together seemed a little creepy and romantic. I didn't want to become secret friends with benefits! I eventually wound up getting her a bottle of wine, a bag of popcorn (her favourite snack) and some toys for her dog. I wasn't going to reveal myself but she figured it out and sent me a thank you email.
I also found out who was giving me stuff, and it turns out about half of what she got was researched and half was just pure intuition. Pretty good intuition.
And finally, I wanted to talk a bit about transit. The month after the bus strike, they made passes half off, which is nice but doesn't really make up for the inconvenience of that ordeal. I also wanted to talk about the impracticle nature of fare payment for the Ion train, since literally most of the podiums that you're supposed to pay at are broken, making it impossibe to pay, even if you wanted to. That doesn't matter anymore though, now that all transit is free.
And there you have it. I know it was a lot, but I'm glad to have covered the non-pandemic related content I was hoping to speak on.
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