flemmings | Entries tagged with food

Rained and thundered and blew in grey autumn weather, after which things dried enough that I got out to the super without gunk on my wheels but a little trepidation because 5 on a Saturday is asking for crowds and huge lineups everywhere. Only not, because first long holiday weekend in cottage weather-- until the grey blew in-- evidently has everyone out at their cottage. Place was empty, so yay. Got half a rotissorie chicken and some 'living lettuce' and that's me set for a few days. Of course what I wanted was their prepared lasagna or rotini or something, but those were gone, supposing they'd been there in the first place. One can tell how busy Fiesta has been by how much bakery bread is left ie not the sliced-in-plastic loaves, and let's say there was a lot of bread still. But as I'm low carb I didn't get bread either.

I had a long entry written about the chicken I was cooking last night- an Ina Garten recipe, the one with lemon and thyme in the chicken cavity on a bed of veggies, which does make the house smell marvellous. But then my tablet turned itself off and on again and of course DW's auto-save doesn't. So I went and compiled that 100 Influential Books meme, cudgelling brains for things from childhood and adolescence and forgetting obvious ones like Tolkien and The Three Musketeers. And then my tablet ran out of battery so I didn't post it anywhere.

As for the chook recipe, note that no, do not cut the veg large because the carrots and potatoes and even some of the parsnips will not be done, not if you have a scant four pound bird that cooks for only an hour. Maybe a larger bird would work, but Happy Hen chickens cost so I got the smallest size. (Happy Hen aka Rowe Farms also does rotisserie, somehow larger bird for less money, but home-cooked is better.) And whatever my meat thermometer said about done-ness at the thigh, the breast today looked raw, so I gave it another half hour. Also no, there is no gravy to be had either: juices all go into the veg, which I don't mind but won't work if I ever cook this for someone else.

Today did not rain, for a change, so I took a library book back just for the walk, and as well I did, because my branch will be closed Wednesday and Thursday so they can finally fix the sliding doors that stopped sliding yonks ago. Bits of greenery start to spring up in the neighbourhood yards and someone down Barton has a whole yard of snowdrops, hidden by their evergreen fence. Had vague thoughts of raking some of last year's leaves out of the median strip between me and NND so our own shy buds have room to come up, but I believe you're supposed to leave the ground cover in place for the insects-is-it? to do their thing. And anyway, they're saying snow again this week.

Peak couch potatodom achieved. Rain all day but downtown microclimate seems to have preserved us from the freezing rain. My weather app is set to Midtown and said ice, but I belatedly remembered that Midtown is probably a good deal north of me ie up the hill where the weather changes so that when I have rain, my sister at Davisville snows. Did put on boots and hooded winter jacket to check if the shiny pavement was slippery or just wet, and objective test said wet, so now I am back on the sofa with Amongst Our Weapons (and the slow-moving Mexican Gothic and the antsy for no good reason The Art of Vanishing, neither of which I much want to read.) Rain has made joints ache so I have accomplished nothing all day bar cooking up the thawed chicken breasts for salad tomorrow. And the tarragon I got from Loblaws was off, so even that was a bit of a failure.

(How can tarragon be off? No idea, but it smells moldy. Loblaws is not to be trusted but Fiesta didn't have any.)

Returning from my jaunt down to the library and then to Sushi on Bloor-- which now has drinkable wine and a very nice waitstaff who helped me out of the restaurant's double doors-- I watched a garbage truck roll up the street and stop. Oddly, because pick-up was at 9:30 this morning. But this was mattress pick-up: guy lets down the back, takes what I would call a marlinspike or possibly a billhook, not that I've ever seen either, hooks it into mattress and hooks mattress up into the back of the truck. Repeat two or three times (while the fourth car waiting behind him honks in that witless and arrogant Torontonian driver fashion: if you don't know when garbage days are, buddy, stay off the streets) then off we go. Enlightening, but I wonder at the specialisation. When do they pick up other furniture?

The quondem New Generation storefront is now a vegan sushi place that was on the other side of the street. I have absolutely no idea what a vegan sushi place can possibly serve, let alone how it stays in business, let alone how it moves into a spot that closed because the rent was too high. Can only think it's a money laundering outfit.

Otherwise have stocked up on wine to wait out the rainy next four days. Have also stocked up on masses of root veg because the ginger stew I made with same before turned out to be most tasty when it had time to age.

Leg has seemingly calmed down so this morning I went downstairs and weighed myself, to find I'm exactly the same as a week ago which was the same, to an ounce, as the week before that. This is dispiriting. So much for 'any intermittent fasting works' because I regularly don't eat from eight or nine at night to ten or eleven the next morning.

But did go to the basement and put through a dark wash, and didn't trip and didn't die, so go me.

Have been indoors all weekend for no good reason beyond having all I need here and two 'six people waiting' ebook holds come in. Polished off Salvation of a Saint yesterday, a Higashino Keigo mystery that I'd half thought of reading in Japanese. Good thing I didn't because I can't think how I'd have dealt with the hardware of plumbing which plays a part in the investigation.

Unfortunately I also had wine on hand which led to the usual tipsy thinking of let's order in, and did, resulting in a disappointing pad thai. Nice as it was to have noodles for the first time in a month or so, I could wish this rare indulgence had been tastier. And Skip evidently no longer tells you when the driver's about to arrive so 'track this order' went from 'eight minutes away' to 'delivered and here's the photo.'

The downside of losing weight is that everything goes flubby flabby. I was so nicely toned when in February I hit a high I hadn't seen in a decade.

The up side of course is fitting into the cotton trousers I bought last summer, now that temps have soared to 10C/ 50F. Of course I still look enormous in them because they're cut loose.

In other observations, bone broth is foul stuff. Terribly good for cartilage of course, but I can't stomach it even to have functional elbows again. An impoverished friend once moved next to a Chinese restaurant and used to order their chicken feet, which she chewed the llife out of, and found her arthritis vanish. I thought that was an inspiring story but in the event, no. Not for me, not chicken feet and not chicken bone broth. Did stick some of it into my 'bottom of the veg drawer' veg soup, which was supposed to be ginger soup only the ginger doesn't register at all.

My heart sank when I looked out the window this morning. The promised wintry mix of last night was mostly freezing rain, and the prophylactic sprinkling of salt I'd put on the sidewalk when taking the garbage out (first time in three weeks) was no match for it. But temps rose during the morning and it was gone by mid-afternoon when I went out to vote. There were still a few spots where garbage bins and snow berms made passage a bit difficult but I made it to Palmerston, and then back to Fiesta because I was craving sugar and Fiesta has cake slices. Only none that I wanted, so I got two chocolate chip cookies instead. And discovered that hallelujah, there are Ontario grown 'living lettuce' plants for 2.50. I'd been resigned to no leafy greens till spring and making do with Loblaws green drink which I suspect is cheating, because it has kale and celery and orange juice which I'm pretty sure comes from the US. Chuffed also to find that my favourite Cortland apples are Ontario grown, and that there are indeed Canadian walnuts available: except they're the huge bags I'd never be able to get through before they went rancid. But if I'm dying for a Waldorf salad come spring, it will be doable.

But definitely I need to get a No Canvassers sign made for the next election. Or will tell the canvasser of whatever party I'm voting for to puhleeze not come checking up on me again cause once is enough. As for the Liberal canvasser who came round this morning-- guy, where were you types when the campaign was on? Day of is a mite late, don't you think?

However, since I was already downstairs I weighed myself. Nice if I could keep dropping 3 pounds a week but probaby not healthy, so this week was a mere 1.6 pounds. Slow and steady, and (fingers crossed) I have registered a change in going up and down stairs. Fingers crossed again, because knees are just as likely to start twinging and refusing to take my weight if the weather changes, which it will.

Snow dumps forecast for Thursday (of course: it always precipitates on garbage day) and the weekend, and Monday is a holiday, so I braved the streets to take my library books back while I could. Witch Hat Atelier, 1-3, abandoned halfway through 1. The Asian guy at the checkout desk asked me how I liked it, and I allowed as how it was a bit too shoujo for my tastes. Granted, if you're stacking it up against Delicious in Dungeon and Hirakawa Hiromu, my last manga reads, it will definitely come off as shoujo onaccounta being, like, shoujo.

Then went to my tony Korean restaurant because the GST pause on restaurant meals ends on the 15th and I don't see me going to another one before that. Had virtuous salmon and veg (ie onions and peppers and three tiny mushrooms) and brought half the salmon and rice home with me because I was beyond full. Also two glasses of wine because I only drink wine in restaurants now, alas. Wine famously does make the owies go away for a while. However this means I will have had three fish meals by week's end so my omegas are taken care of.

And walked 3500 steps which is not bad for this time of year. People have sorta cleared their sidewalks, as in, made a narrow path between snow banks that's not quite wide enough for a walker, but I pushed through. It's only the mouths of alleyways that are at all impassable because the alleyways don't get plowed (as I well remember from my bro living next door: all the garages give onto the alleyways and getting out in a snowy winter was, as they say, a trip) and cars bring the snow with them. Which either melts into great puddles or freezes into mountainous ridges.

Not looking forward to physio on Wednesday but with luck the snow won't start till evening. But must get more melter while I'm up at the end of the street because I'm running low.

Either my Good Neighbour or a bobcat shovelled the 4 in/ 10 cm of snow from my sidewalk last night. Or maybe both, because bobcats don't clear steps and someone did mine. Or maybe a Very Good Neighbour because I could see in the distance, down the block, the occasional area of white which a bobcat should have taken care of. Whatever, I didn't go out today except briefly to clear my slightly snowed over front path and to remove the snow mounds from the garbage bins against Thursday's pickup. Forecast says flurries all week, which may mean occasional flakes tumbling from the sky like today, or may mean another 4 cm.

Didn't go out yesterday either because I was listening to Der Fliegende Hollander, oddly enough since I have little use for Wagner. But wiki tells me this is an early work and hence not as discordant as the Ring. Still a bit, umm, oompapapa for my tastes, but then I have no taste. And then it was 4 o'clock and thinking about snow, so I made devilled eggs instead of going out. Note that devilled eggs made with Kewpie mayonnaise are the bomb and also extremely indigestible.

Have also been micro-cleaning, given the intransigent spasming of my hip flexors that nothing will unkink. So yesterday I vacuumed the living room and hallway, and today I mopped the accessible portion of the front hall and lick and promised the stairs. But also finally got the screws put into the dirt devil to fasten the canister holder to the stem. And if you want bad design, this was it. The socket for the screws is right beside the long stem, meaning no room for your hand to turn the screw. Thus you turn from the outside a quarter turn, then move back for another quarter turn, then move back etc etc. And it's extremely tight and not at all doable by anyone lacking the upper body strength of a young male. But it's done, only now I need some young male to loosen the filter holder for me because that one's frankly impossible.

Shall note that there's a bloody big Conservative election sign four doors up at the house that sat on the market for months and months because no one is buying. I believe someone finally did but this is the first evidence of life I've seen, from someone who has no idea what kind of neighbourhood they've moved into. The polls all say DoFo is leading. Which would be disheartening except for my belief that feds are always the opposite of Ontario so Polievre the Trump toady will stay out of power. But these are the end times and maybe that bit of common wisdom won't hold anymore.

Was going to make hamburger stroganoff but by the time I'd sweated the onions, added the ginger and mushrooms, thawed and chopped and added the frozen veg and broccoli, I wasn't up for cooking noodles. So I just had a good semi-keto bowl with a dollop of Greek yoghurt. And very good it was, though low carb always leaves me feeling hungry.

My 200 buck bribe came in the mail and my gas bill came in e-mail, and the equivalent of the former was spent on the latter. Actual bill was for less than that but one needs to have a surplus on account because next bill is an estimation month, not a meter reading one. I used twice as much heat in January '25 as in '24, but it's been twice as cold and looking to stay that way.

Some day I'll get my organics out but the green bin is frozen shut at the moment. Tomorrow is supposed to get above freezing but unless the pickup is in the afternoon it may have to wait till next week.

Books finished?

Night Watch. Popularly considered Pratchett's best, but not really a favourite of mine. Prefer Thud or Feet of Clay, or even Making Money.

A couple of Miss Silvers: The Chinese Shawl and Miss Silver Deals with Death. A Lorac: Death of an Author. A skimmed Golden Age, Charles Kingston's Murder in Piccadilly, which dragged.

Reading now?

Another Martin Edwards compiled selection of short stories, Continental Crimes, and yet another Miss Silver.

Next up?

Who knows. Probably more mindless detective novels.

This is December Dead Days weather long before the Dead Days. Because of the postal strike there are no Christmas cards to look forward to, and because my weight refuses to drop in spite of daily bike machine usage, there are no Christmas treats either. I suppose I must stop eating pasta but carbs, precious carbs, are all I crave in these grey dank days. Well, and wine, which I should stop as well until temps go below zero and the rotting leaves stop releasing their moldy spores into the air.

Reread A Christmas Carol because the library had the e-book on loan and I haven't read it in decades.

Discover via youtube that men have extra long colons, that being what ur-uteruses turn into in baby boys. Possibly that explains why they take so long over their BMs, something that always perplexed me. Makes up for their enviably instantaneous pees, I suppose.

Have invited bro and s-i-l out to Korean barbecue next week. S-i-l will probably not like it because, well, she tends to find fault with things, but at least she'll have her fill of protein.

Back to the first day of the month weight gain. Shall blame chocolate and gingerbread indulgence because if it's wine I shall be very sad. Mind, daily wine disagrees with me and I could well lay off it. But also have discovered a new to me pasta, mafalda corta- a short and crinkly noodle that goes very well with the beef stew I've been eating all week. I do not need a new pasta but it's winter and cold and I want starch.

Incandescens sent me a link to a bunch of detective stories, some pastiche and some not. A Black Friday weekend special that assured me solemnly on Black Saturday that said books were not available for download. Eventually realized that amazon is region restricted, like DVDs, and nothing on .com will register for me registered at at .ca. But if I try at .ca there they are so I've been reading Solar Pons all day, and very nice too. Well, also vacuumed and dishes and bike machine so it's not all vegging on the couch. And finally vacuumed the side room futon that turned into a dust trap, much to my surprise. My fault for not putting a fitted sheet on the thing. Have done so now.

My s-i-l is exercised about protein intake, because insufficient protein leads to muscle loss in the elderly. Past praying for, in my case, because the muscle vanished some time in 2021. I could try getting some back with weight training but weights are a bit difficult with arthritic elbows.

Someone on the FFL was reviewing The Man in the High Castle and remarked on the odd English used that was supposed to suggest either a second language Japanese speaker or a rendering in English of what people were saying in actual Japanese, neither of which sounded likely to them. I noticed none of this when I read it so many decades ago, so I got e-book from the library to check. (Because I'm not going to go squinting at the high shelves ha-ha in the bedroom where I know I still have a copy.) And yes, the English of the Japanese characters and the American people speaking to the Japanese is indeed odd, sorta kinda like a second language speaker. What I misremembered from the 80s was that the book takes place on the west coast and not in the New York that my 80s mindset automatically placed Japanese expats and tourists. Still sent it back after a few chapters because brane still will not, and got Albert Campion short stories instead.

Loblaws tempts me with its premade beef stroganoff meals. Bought one and ate half (880 calories for one meal being excessive). Woe is me. I like pepper on my pasta and suffered in Japan because the Italian restaurants never had pepper on the tables. Hot sauce, yes. But the pepper on this is laid on with a heavy hand and I have no sour cream to ease its bite. Do not, do not, understand people who like their food to hurt. Doubtless all to the good, since I don't need pasta, but am sad still.

Entering the supermarket today, I was greeted by the inimitable strains of Love Hurts. Am happy that Fiesta isn't playing Christmas music, unlike Loblaws (they will, Oscar, they will), even happier that the first two people I passed were singing along sotto voce. As was I, of course. Always impressed by the staying power of my generation's music, because both those people were in their 20s or maaaybe early 30s. Fiesta is a death trap these days, because not only does it have cake slices and chocolate chip cookies from my youth, it has tempting displays of chocolates and candies that, if bought, I end up eating in a sitting, like those dark chocolate and praline medallions the other week. I have to tell myself sternly that it's no sugar, period full stop, no discussion no argument, and hope that I listen to me.

Also got towels and such to the laundromat in between showers. Rain is forecast for the next week and of course that means leaves catching in the walker's wheels and slowing my progress, as well as the anonymous brown slick which might be leaf mulch but equally might not, dog owners in this town being as they are.

This was all the more virtuous because my joints are reacting badly to the cold and damp. At least I hope that's the reason and not that my right knee has run its course and now requires a replacement. Sunday's masseuse found any number of huge muscle knots in that leg which might account for some of the stiffness, because my left leg is also limpy today and that knee should be perfectly fine.

Project Tiddly continues apace, thanks to which I was able to do a tofu stir-fry today, with bok choy getting past its expiry date and healthy-looking mushrooms from the Used Vegetable department (the remainder of which I will roast soon, this time preheating the pan in the oven so it doesn't warp suddenly on me like last time.) Also tinned bamboo shoots and water chestnuts in (what once was) easy open peel off cans, which now require sturdy knives and pliers to open. NB stick with can opener types. Should do me for most of the week: is the downside of cooking for one.

Occurs to me that half the TFL/ hip flexor/ piriformis tsuris might be down to not having bicycled on a real bicycle for 30 months. Can't see a way around that but would explain much.

Having exhausted the library's supply of E C R Lorac's (Carol spelled backwards) MacDonald mysteries, discover that the mighty river has them for US .99 apiece, or rather more with a low loonie. But not to be sneezed at, so I have more Golden Age mysteries to read. Also pseudo-Golden Age because vols 1-3 of Freddy Pilkington-Soames were on sale for less than vols 2 and 3 separately would come to. Thus I have enough to get me to Wednesday morning.

Also have Sheine Lende, the prequel to Elatsoe, the sorta A/U book about an Apache girl which, mirabile dictu, didn't have the usual YA romance plot thank ghu thank ghu, and which I read flow-wise just after Winter's Gifts. Must also finish up Delicious in Dungeon to date because vol 10 is due back at the library on Thursday.

This living in the future is not all it's cracked up to be. So I fill the online customs form, get a barcode on my phone, and trot off to the Shoppers PO. Yes, the Ossington real PO is closer but the reviews of it are damning and anyway I need to buy a sheet pan and some smoke alarms on the way. So. Arriving mid-afternoon there's none of those endless lineups that outlet is so prone to. One clerk is helping a little old lady (which, come to that, I suppose I am too, though I'm not little and hardly a lady of that ilk-- no dress or heels or make-up, and why would one want to wear any of those into one's 80s I wonder) (except my great-aunt, born in the 1890s, absolutely had to wear a girdle or else she didn't feel dressed, so custom doth make somethings of us all.) Other clerk attends to me. I proffer my phone. 'You've prepaid?' Uhh no, it's the customs declaration wot I have to have because you don't have forms anymore. So she gets her little scanner and-- it won't read the barcode. She tries about five times, asks can I turn up the brightness level, but it's already at 100%, holds her hand over the top of the screen, tries to enlarge it and can't, on and on as a line forms behind me and then finally on the 20th try it clicks. Next time I do this, if I do this, I shall use the tablet. Which might work and might not.

But anyway, that's done.

Had been reading about wines and saw an article praising Lambrusco. A fizzy red wine? I might actually be able to drink that. So yesterday went over to the LCBO and looked for same, with no luck. Asked a clerk who took me to the fortified wines, apologizing that they only had the very sweet and the sweet but not very types in. I should have realised that fortified means even the regular will have sugar in it. Got the not very sweet, and it's pretty close to soda pop. In my youth, when Canadians were not sophisticated enough to drink good wine, the local vinyards made a wide variety of cheap sweet fizzy wines to rope people in. Lord knows why: beer drinkers, which is what most Canucks are, will not be going after sugary tastes. But Lambrusco is very reminiscent of Baby Bear and Baby Duck et al. (Baby Duck was the best selling wine vintage in the 70s, which tells you all you need to know. They still make it. Baby Bear seems to have ceased, but there's now something called Pursued By Bear, which pleases me, though I don't know if it's any relation.)

Mh well, got my covid booster. Moderna this time, and I took Benadryl beforehand and iced the spot after, so we'll see how that works.

Read an article that said you can roast frozen veg but you have to start them from frozen. Did, and it works fairly well. Plus point is they don't require oil, since the oil needed for most roast veggies always gives me indigestion. Or mostly always. The mezze platter I had at the AGO the other day had peppers and tomatoes swimming in olive oil with only mild fallout. But at those prices I'd expect the AGO to use only the top quality echt extra-virgin. I use light oil anyway because super-smeller me can always detect the heavy olive taste in anything else: always supposing the olive oil you buy at Loblaws is in fact olive oil.

Dream of being in a library looking for books to fulfill a project for a class that was happening in the library, on Victorian literature I believe, and not finding them because the shelves were all in different places and I wanted Kipling but the alphabet went from H-I-J to Dj and variants thereof and no Ks at all.

Yesterday's turkey dinner at Pauper's was really very good. The most indifferent part was the turkey itself but that's par for the course. Would be tempted to do it again except today system is taking exception to the onion bhajis I had for dinner last night, tomorrow is going to rain, and I weighed myself this morning to discover my attempts to lose weight has gained me almost a kilo. I know some of it is water weight but the rest is-- I don't know. Starch of any kind, no matter the calorie count? So, protein and veg it must be from now on.

Went looking for turkey rolls to supply the protein but no one has them this year. Got turkey burgers from Farm Boy, that most useless of supermarkets. Useless because all it has is food. You want toilet paper or cleaning supplies, you must go to one of the other area supermarkets, and if you do that, might as well buy your food there as well. Shrug: people.

Got a wash on the line in today's brief warmth (22C) and wind. Oliver the Dog hangs out in SND's yard and barks at sight of anyone and everyone, so I hide behind the lattice to pin my clothes out, and watch Oliver on the porch try to figure out where the noise is coming from. The clothesline wheel squeals and nothing stops it, though I've tried WD-40 and all.

Broke down and ordered Indian delivery. Once again Skip or the restaurant got the wrong address-- 554 instead of 543-- so I called the guy over and tried to show him the tracking order I'd been following on my phone which of course (the malice of inanimate objects) wouldn't display. But did convince him in the end. The onion bhajis were indeed not all that, and the chickpea curry I'd asked to be mild wasn't. Or their idea of mild and mine are distinctly out of sync. I could actually have gone down to the restaurant myself, it being in the neighbourhood, but they're cash only and I need my cash for taxis. Not surprising that the place is always empty when i pass it, in spite of glowing reviews.

Well, did two things from the foot-dragging list. Easiest was defrosting the bedroom fridge, once I was certain I was turning it off and not onto its highest setting. All those face cloths I bought a while back definitely came in handy for that.

Then I made one of the Horrible Phonecalls, to the guy that Highway Robbery North says fixes rollators. He doesn't fix rollators: call this number instead. This gets me a pleasant and informative woman from an outfit up in Here Men Say Be Dragons territory (Dufferin and Steeles, I believe) who gave me the low-down on the gov't's assistance to assistant devices program. Get assessed by a certified assessment physio *and pay for same out of pocket*. Physio will then contact certified provider and in the course of God's own time you will have your walker. You may not buy your own device and get reimbursed, no. But the Dragons people will do house calls to assemble a walker, and charge for them of course, but that I can live with.

OK. I have the list of physios which the guvvmint sent me in the summer and I call the ones closest to me, at the old age home down the street. The number is for the main switchboard who has never heard of this person. Get transferred to Rehab, Rehab has never heard of them either. What about the other one? Oh, he only comes here Wednesday mornings and only for the residents. But here's his email instead. Yes, fine. I may think about it but frankly it sounds like an awful lot if faff for no guaranteed return. And frankly, I suspect the program is backed up with people who really need the subsidy, which I really don't. So I may have another go with Highway Rob.North and see if they'll order it for me, even if Ms.Snippy said they wouldn't, and if not, buy myself.

After all this I was jonesing for Indian food. But the online delivery services were still being useless: Skip wants you to use its app and then crashes, Banjara doesn't like Uber, and then it closes from 2:30 to 5, maybe try Namaste though i recall their onion bhajis being not all that, and then it starts to rain. And continues to rain, just on and off enough that I don't want to chance it. Remind myself that bhajis may just be onion and chickpeas but it's deep fried onions and chickpeas, and of course I'll get bread with that, and I've already put on half a kilo in a week. So make a Spanish frittata instead, and that was dinner.

Nothing day because it was supposed to rain, and did rain, and was dark by the time it stopped raining. I would have ordered in but the website kept playing silly buggers. Skip the Dishes regularly does this, and Uber, aside from everything else hinky about Uber, piles on the surcharges, so can't use them either. Thus I didn't get Indian food or pad thai or a hamburger, but ate veggie pakoras from the freezer and got my calories from nuts and vodka. Finished a rather good Ferrars and shall continue on with Delicious in Dungeon, even if the idea of eating parasitic worms is revolting.

At least yesterday I got out to the library and the Manning Pour House for rice vermicelli and chicken, quite as good as the lamented Ginger's. Have not done any of my deskly to do things, like registering my new Visa card or applying for the government's dental plan or calling the rollator fixit guy or the physio who's registered with the province to approve grants to seniors who need things like upright walkers. I hate making phone calls and am glad to have lived long enough that texting has become a thing, but people still expect you to call them in person and wait for them to call you back. Which means staying in unless you use the cell phone which nobody else ie taxi drivers and the like, knows how to talk into comprehensibly.

Well, today I did All The Things what I have been putting off forever. Put through a laundry and got it on the line, not that it dried completely because humid cloudy Septembers don't do that, even with intermittent sunshine and a breeze. But mostly, and the trousers can go over the upstairs railing until the elastic dries. Cooked up a bunch of root veg and a pork tenderloin in cider (alcoholic) and cider (non) in the crockpot. Did not include onions because those are iffy when added raw. Intended to sauté them and add later, but TFL was cramping all morning for reasons best known to itself and I had a hard enough time prepping the veg. Finally finally got to the laundromat for sheets and pillowcases and microfiber robe, which washed in spite of the coin machine being out of change. Got change from Starbucks and put stuff in dryer. Also alas bought more cider (alcoholic) and have been sipping it all evening, even though I suspect cider gives me headaches. Did not clear any of the overgrown garden because back cramp, also TFL.

And shall sleep in for the next three rainy days in lovely AC coolth, like I wanted to do this morning.

Following various internet rabbits down internet rabbit holes, discover that Stoppard's Chinaman (sic) of the Tang dynasty and by that definition a philosopher, lived during the Warring States period and is the other main Daoist. Had never even heard of Zhuangzi, but now have a translation of his on hold at the library. He sounds like much more fun than the Dao De Jing.

I will learn eventually that if I'm going to vacuum and dust anywhere, especially an anywhere that hasn't been vacuumed and dusted in several months, that I must must must wear a mask. But at least the front bedroom is devoid of the worst of the dust bunnies. Given that yesterday I washed the kitchen floor and degreased half the stovetop, I can let my virtue console me for the present swollen sinuses.

I will also learn some day that even if I'm parsimonious with the olive oil, roasted veg will always disagree with me. A pity, because roasted is pretty much the only way I care to eat most of the vegetables going. This won't be a problem shortly, because the present brief autumn temps will be bouncing up to the mid 20sC/ 70sF in a day or two.

Loblaws had salmon cakes for not too much, so bought same as a way of getting my omega-3s and all that stuff. They want you to barbecue them, which can't do sorry, so I panfried instead. 'Cook from frozen', they said. Yes well. When frozen, the stacked patties won't separate. I might have tried a flat-head screwdriver and hammer, because inserted knives were not haha cutting it, but instead I cooked them enough that eventually the two halves separated. So tonight I'm having salmon burger again, if my tum settles down.

Thursday morning after my shower I noticed my scratchy Japanese cloths were getting a bit whiffy. I shake them dry after each use and they don't hold water, but in wet summers even they start to mold. So I hung them on the line to bleach in the sun and went about my errands. Only of course I totally forgot about them and when I went to shower yesterday, they were still outside getting washed in the rain. Have brought them in today and they smell marvellous now.

Other thing I did was plug in my old air purifier that I haven't used since the spring, because it had taken to shrieking. It no longer shrieks but equally, no longer has filters because I threw the old ones away. Meant to get out to Home Hardware today but didn't, between aching sinuses and aching joints. Am still not convinced the thing has returned from its howling fit, and those filters cost a lot.

It may have cooled off. No storms or great deluges or wind, just a cloudy day that never got much above 20. Weather probs simultaneously called for scattered thunderstorms and a POP of 5%, and it looked like rain all the humid day, so I stayed in and read.

Finished The Djinn Waits A Hundred Years, which kind of sank into the backrooms of the brain. Abandoned What The River Knows because slow so slow so YA feisty heroine and annoying but oddly attractive male and anyway is first book of a duology. Premise of magic being real and imbuing objects was promising but not much utilised as far as I got. Also, if you're pretending to be a widow and wearing the golden ring your father sent you before he died, when a too inquisitive stranger manifests an interest, why the hell wouldn't you say, 'Sir, that's my wedding ring!' and pull your hand back in outrage? Not 'oh it's just a trinket I bought from a stall' so of course he slips it off your finger and refuses to give it back because he can see, close to, that it's nothing of the sort.

Also finished a Ferrars, Witness Before the Fact, which may have taken me two hours max. Must get to the RefLibrary some day soon. But haven't felt like moving much in the heat, which actually was hot yesterday- 32C by day's end, 90F nearasdammit. So got to the LCBO y'day morning and stayed tiddly through the rest of the day, and today as well. Nice that they're going to sell coolers in the convenis but really, all the coolers I've tried taste vile. Only theTwsted Tea is remotely passable, witha vodka top up.

NNDs are back from Oz. Returned yesterday, I think: certainly the porch light that was left on was still on Tuesday night and the house was dark. Which makes it all the more admirable that this morning one of them mowed the weedpatch their back yard had turned into. I assume it was this a.m. because it was all done by the time of my own leisurely awaking and I could still smell the cut grass. Though if Oz works the same as Japan, return from same leads to very early mornings, like 6.

Register that they've been next door for four years now. Dear god, where does the time go?

The library's system is down again, though the librarian assured me it wasn't the same as last October. I couldn't use self-checkout but she was able to use her terminal for it: no writing down by hand like in the fall. Was going to say, but now I can't print out my doctor's blood request, but I can't anyway. It was in the vanished inbox of my email.

Holds keep trotting in so I have a pair of Golden Age mysteries and What the River Knows in dead tree, and The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years in ebook, and we shall see how I get on with them. There's far too much couch potatoing lately, and will be more when temps go back to hot'n'humid starting tomorrow. Must get back to the bike machine and don't want to. Surely 7000 steps is enough?

Did get out to New Gen for bento. Not as much veg as Arisu because no side dishes, but small portion of beef, ditto of rice, salmon roll, and tempura veg. That was lunch, at 3, and dinner was a banana and some peanuts, so I will call this virtue.

Yesterday was jacket weather, first since early June. Today is a tad warmer because sun, but I stayed in anyway because I was doing a laundry in the late morning (having woken finally at 11), reading a mystery in the afternoon (A Case of Blackmail in Belgravia), and cooking up chicken breasts and veg in the evening. Cool enough to have the oven on = make the most of it. Hope to roast the remaining carrots, sweet potato, and second hand mushrooms tomorrow before we return to late August temps by week's end. Had a lemon in the fridge that I thought to use with the chicken but it was petrified when I went to slice it. Chucked it in the roasting pan anyway for whatever good it would do, but an hour later when I checked on the chicken (my oven is very slow) it had cooked enough that I was able to stab it with a knife and release the warm juice within. So yay for that.

That trick about separating bananas to keep them from ripening too fast works very well, but not when you buy green bananas. Which will stay green and hard as a rock for a week if separated. Wait till there's at least a little yellow there.

Nothing much happening. Weather has gone mug again so good-bye window fans for the duration. Just as well: woke up around dawn this morning to an incredibly awful smell, limped out of bed and turned fan off, and went back to sleep for several hours. No reports of industrial fires or high pollution levels, but that's certainly what it smelled like.

Am missing the Perseids again, but you can't have a city house and a Perseid view. Ditto the Northern Lights.

Should bag leaves in the back against Thursday's garden waste pickup, but mug and muscle spasms say no.

Indulged in a bag of rotini. Lovely with chicken bacon. I have butter in the freezer but use olive oil instead, and no cheese because I can never use up the Parmesan before it goes bad. Though that's because I haven't been eating pasta.

I aten't dead, not yet at any rate. But it's back to warm and muggy and if I've done anything lately I forget what it was. Did get a bag of garden waste filled and brought it in last night because today was supposed to rain. And then it wasn't and then it was and I ended up ordering in Indian food as the clouds came in and then they went away. Am not supposed to eat Indian because carb-heavy but every so often I miss it: though what I miss most are onion bhajis.

Hayfever season begins, cough sneeze strangle. Stray cicadas sing. July ends tomorrow thank goodness. I may eventually get my brain back and/ or get out to the laundromat for those sheets 'n' towels one must wash every week now.

Brief respite from the heat and possibly longer respite from the rain saw me sleeping with the window fan last night and hanging a laundry on the line this morning. Turns out I didn't have that much line laundry, having forgotten the two shirts I wear over my tank tops that get drenched with sweat. Shall do them in hot at the laundrette. But I was running low on socks and underwear, having also forgotten the socks I'd left on the furnace room lines. Anyway, hung my underwear on my new clip dryer, which has many many clips. Which means they can all go on the one but also that they don't dry as easily as on the round hangers. The Korean super didn't have them any more, and amazon didn't have them at all, and I can no longer bike down to Chinatown where I'm perfectly certain the stores do have them. So the square hanger it is. Am tempted, in NND's absence, to hang the thing on the line and let the sun and wind do its worst, or best.

The articles that my browser suggests for me suggested a drink, purportedly Brazilian, and I wish it hadn't. It's one part cold coffee, one part chocolate milk, and two parts cola. Not excessively high in calories if you use diet pepsi, but I can't have it after about 6 p.m. if I intend to sleep before 4 a.m., and I want it.

An oddity in Elizabeth Ferrars' mysteries is how many people have grey eyes. I thought grey was even rarer than blue. The other oddity, though it wasn't at the time, is how much people in the earlier mysteries smoke. Tired? Light a cigarette. Upset? Light a cigarette. Thinking? Light a cigarette. Oh, and everyone also drinks a lot. This gets lampshaded in the Virginia and Felix books from the 80s, where Virginia thinks Felix smokes too much and Felix thinks Virginia drinks too much but neither does as much as the protagonists from the 40s.

Bardcore has a medieval & renaissance take on We Did Not Light the Fire. It bothered me that it wasn't even remotely chronological until a commentator pointed out that it duplicates the rhyming scheme of the original. Also mentions a whole buncha people I never heard of, some of whom are apoarently known through a video game series Civilization.

https://youtu.be/drDs-Y5DNH8?si=SSzTtRgfP0sdrYNn

The answer to cab tsuris is evidently to order it the night before and hope the forecasted train of thunderstorms will have passed by the time of arrival. Being me, I took myself out on the porch fifteen minutes early to gently spitting rain, and wondered if the badly parked grey car that was sticking out into the street just down from me would hinder my cab driver in any way. (There's a fire hydrant right across from me which stops cabbies and delivery people from pulling up onto the sidewalk.) The hedge blocked my view of the car's roof or I'd have seen the diamond sign on it. My cab, a quarter of an hour early, so great. We chatted as he threaded his way downtown, taking the side streets to avoid both construction and everyone else coming out post-storm. Apparently various hill streets like Mt Pleasant have flooded in their dip parts. Which is no wonder, since we got more than a month's worth of rain in the three thunderstorms between 9 and 12.

But since I'd ordered the cab for an hour and fifteen minutes before my appointment, to allow for non-appearances, mistaken addresses, and people stealing my ride, I had over an hour's wait. Which I spent in College Park, looking at shirts to see if anyone had something long sleeved long-line in cotton. They didn't so I had an iced coffee at Tim Horton's and read The Brides of High Hill on my phone.

I am sound in tooth and jaw, hurrah, and a good thing too because just a cleaning cost me almost $300. They asked about insurance and I don't know if they meant private or Seniors' Dental, but since I have neither I said no. The sun was out and I went to Fran's and had meatloaf, which comes with mashed potatoes and a generous helping of green beans and carrots, and if they're frozen veg I'd like to know the brand because they crunch like the real thing.

Then it was debate: try to get a cab or use transit. Trains were bypassing Union Stn- how, I wonder?- because of flooding which you'd think would short the lines. But that meant everyone would be trying for a taxi, and westbound College wasn't moving much faster than eastbound that was totally backed up. Thus I walked over to University where the elevators are and got on the Spadina line. But of course two streetcars' worth of passengers flooded the platform while I was waiting so yeah, crowded car. And young dork with his ebike was taking up most of the space opposite the door where I wanted to park my rollator. Did anyway and held on to the bar. There was in fact a priority seat free right next to me, but it was one of the jump seats that are a bitch to get up from-- too low and nothing to hold on to and no space for the walker, so I politely refused any offers to let me sit in it. But a thoughtful young person behind me put a watchful hand on my back whenever we rounded a curve or stopped too suddenly just in case I was going to fall over.

What I really need to do is get the brakes on the walker fixed so *it* doesn't slide around on corners and at sudden stops.

Of course I'd intended to get on the e-w line at St George but considering the time- summer rush hour- thought better of it and went up to Dupont. Where traffic was also backed up in both directions so hell, I can walk from Spadina to home. Because I'd taken a purse instead of my backpack (purses fit better under rain capes) I didn't have my pharmacopoeia with me and between that and the mug and the involuntary tensing in the dentist's chair, my everything was very unhappy by the time I got in. Have been sitting on the couch ever since, wishing vodka was purchasable, but it's not. This is going to be a long dry summer.

Fruit flies like a banana. Only what they like much much more are tomatoes. Leave not a seed uncovered or they'll rise in droves.

Was too hot to go out yesterday, then it rained and possibly thundered-- or possibly some driver just had the bass up high: with the fan I couldn't tell-- so I was indoors all day. Today is cooler but muggy so I went out and cleared four or five of the back yard path's paving stones of creepers and cherry pits. If it cools off at all this evening I might do a couple more. Back was very unhappy as ever. I wonder when or if core strengthening will stop the lower back pain, or is it just something that will be with me to the grave.

Should stop eating bread, or at least switch to rye. But heat leads to touchy tums and what I want is starch to cushion the tomatoes and ham and turkey bacon that my system craves. Had a BLT for lunch and it was yum.

We may be facing an LCBO strike and it's hot again and I hurt all over, so I threw prudence to the winds and stocked up on wine and coolers and a small bottle of vodka. The coolers were probably what put the weight on before so I only got two of them and that must hold me through the mug of July.

What I also got yesterday was a very large container of chicken salad, which I eat with greens, so no starch there. Rinsed off a third of it and put it in the freezer, because it's just large chunks of chicken that I could use for something else, like Waldorf salad. Have been eating fruit instead of sweets, because it's fruit season, so I'm hoping not to gain any weight from food. I know I've gained from heat bloat because my ankles tell me so, but there's nothing to be done about that until the fall.

Today being my glass of wine/ maybe rice? indulgence day, I went to my tony Korean restaurant and decided to try the bibimbap for a change. Extra veg, all to the good, yes? Comes with hot sauce on the side and I said no hot sauce thanks so they brought me soy sauce instead. And from this I conclude that the main flavour of bibimbap is hot sauce, because otherwise it had no flavour at all. Or allergies have snuffed my taste buds, but I could taste the wine just fine, thanks. Should have had the bulgogi, which has far more of the beef I was craving and a definite flavour.

Environs Canada is being all Chicken Little about the heat, while the more local forecast is saying 2-3C less for our neck of the woods. Not that we're close to the lake here but it's a damn sight closer than the airport. Went shopping today because the temps were under 30C and the wind that blew the heat in also made it feel cooler. But for the duration I'm calling a moratorium on the low starch thing, so I bought (sugar reduced) whte bread and tomatoes. Tomato sandwiches are exactly what I want just now.

Took advantage of yesterday's coolth to vacuum and swifter the downstairs and kitchen, so the heat-induced wanhope isn't augmented by dirt and umm peanut shells. I have a habit of many years (like 40) of saving housework for the hottest days of the year and now I've successfully broken it. Shall probably turn the windw AC on tonight, but for now fans are quite sufficient.

Second last of the reasonable days before the heat dome arrives. Didn't get around to sweeping up cherries and cutting down vines in the backyard. Maybe tomorrow, maybe never. Left back and leg have been spasming and nothing seems to stretch them out. Got to the library for stealth! holds. Had mashed potato thingy at Mary Brown's (Canuck fried chicken). Hung pride flag from porch hooks because my philodendra were pining in the lack of light. I still can't stand steadily on the little step stool and the three tier one is down in the basement. But used my litte plastic rake to lift the end up over the hook, so anyway, there it is.

Then made a Spanish frittata with the potatoes I cooked the other day and two onions that were getting past their prime. It should provide at least two meals-- four if I'm abstemious, but I have no resistance when it comes to potatoes and caramelised onions. No idea what I'm going to eat this coming week but with any luck I may not want to eat anything.

Weighed myself Thursday morning and sighed at the toll taken by, presumably, vodka and coolers. Well, so, shall try for a dry June and see what happens. Of course it might have been the peanuts I've been eating, in the shell but still. Best stick to pistachios or walnuts, which are expensive and thus conduce to economy.

And I *was* half a pound less than two weeks earlier, but I really thought those two mile walks might have burned a few more calories.

Am not walking anywhere today because of course it rained. Put up my Pride flag in the front window where it won't get wet because, yes, rain forecast all week. Of course it also blocks whatever light comes through the trees which today is none at all. As it's also the last of the coolish days I also roasted two sizable chicken breasts and a load of veg, which filled me nicely.

The online prescription service at the pharmacy has been giving me error messages-- can't connect to server-- for a few weeks now. Asked about it yesterday and the guy said no one else has mentioned it but I should use the report function on the app. Only I can't, because it won't connect to the server. This is only mild arghities, but is argh nonetheless.

I've been freezing in my house the last few days so I thought Fine, will turn on the furnace and do a white wash and hang it in the furnace room to dry. Have done wash. Am no longer freezing in my house, even though the temps are still in the low teens. May turn on furnace anyway and just block the upstairs vents. The furnace room smells suspiciously rank, as does the back bunker, and I suspect something is nesting somewhere. Suspicion heightened by seeing a small dark something zip up next door's path and dart under their porch. Too small for a squirrel, too big for a mouse. Oh dear. But since a rainy May has succeeded a rainy April, am not going to get wash on the line anytime soon, besides not wanting to hang my smalls out for the neighbourhood to see. Nor do I like entrusting my underwear to the elastic-eating dryers of the laundromat. Shall end up hanging them from the chandelier, as I always do from June through October.

Went to the far coffee shop because they have a new kind of cookie, and thus missed a visit from bro and s-i-l come to get something from my basement.

I ordered two pairs of summer trousers from a FB place that google said was reliable. The cotton linen blend fit perfectly but the gauze ones were a size S rather than the 4X I prudently ordered from the Chinese makers. Or thought I did: none of the (many many) confirmation emails I got told me what size I'd ordered. They weren't cheap, but I feel disinclined to try sending them back, especially as they weren't as gauzy as I'd hoped. And who knows, maybe I'll get back to my 2021 weight and be able to wear the pants I bought then.

This won't happen if I keep eating cookies, of course, or halloumi. I love halloumi, which makes a lovely filling meal when grilled, but in the end it's still cheese and cheese is still saturated fat.

Achievement for the day, and trust me it was an achievement, was calling Bell and dickering them down from the $170-plus they now want to charge me to something more rational. The creeping costs are of course them raising internet $5 here and phone lines $5 there, but that still doesn't account for the extra $20 a month over last year. Which was probably their 'promotion' ending and prices rising without notice. So now every year I must call them to negotiate another promotion. Do wish the gov't would break the Big 3 monopoly, or at least do something to rein in corporate greed.

However, set for one more year: bar the increase slated for July. And Bell dogsbody was comprehensible, yay, and also I think working from home, because there was a kid's voice and at least one dog in the background. Very domestic.

Otherwise went to my old sushi place from the extremely before times-- like maybe 2007? Sushi on Bloor, that was always iffy to get into, especially after they moved from their old two storey place. But 3:30 even on a Sunday got me a table. The portions are as huge as I remember but the wine is rather worse so I was content with a single glass. I really have to stop eating sushi, which runs to more rice than I should ever have if I want to keep my blood sugar on an even keel and my weight down. Sad.

This morning's lie in dream was an almost coherent From Eroica one where Dorian was throwing a birthday party for Klaus with a fancy cake, which Klaus didn't want to eat of course, and an incursion by spies of some sort, as well as a gaggle of teenage boys who were there for some other reason, and distracted Dorian was trying to keep all these things together.

Then as I was sitting on the couch there was a tremendous banging at the door, which left me uncertain if it was my door or NND's. But then Guy (it's always guys who bang on the screen door; women ring) found the doorbell and pressed that, so yes, my house, and what does he want so insistently? He wants me to sign for my 100 Demons, is what, so how lucky I answered the door.

Meanwhile the next installment of Murderbot arrives at the library so off I trot to get it. Then drop by Ninetails coffee shop for a cold brew and look, today they have the smoked salmon and yuzu mayo croissant, so I get one of those. Barista says 'you can sit down, I'll bring you your coffee' and I say I'm outside, where I've parked the rollator, and he says he'll bring me my coffee anyway. This is pleasant.

White haired woman in sunglasses stops as she's leaving the café to ask what I'm eating, so I tell her, and consequently get a slice of her life story about how her teenage rebellion against her fisherman father took the form of refusing to eat fish and she still doesn't but now takes omega-3 capsules even though she doesn't trust most supplements but needs to keep her brain in good order because she lives alone and now she challenges herself mentally by for instance setting up her new modem and router herself which she didn't want to but two years ago she'd just have hired someone to do it and this year she managed it alone. I do miss conversations, which this wasn't, it was someone talking at me. Yes, old women living alone are starved for human interaction: but I'm an old woman living alone and you don't see me buttonholing strangers to talk about my cinnamon tablets and turmeric. Which said, just about the only people in TO who will talk to strangers are indeed old women.

The croissant btw is nice enough but the yuzu mayo is loaded with wasabi so shall not repeat.

Roused myself this evening to make the chickpea, spinach, and coconut curry I've been intending to for the past few days. Is very good but if I ever do this again shall use light coconut milk because regular makes things very greasy.

It's supposed to rain heavily all week, is one reason why I cancelled physio for tomorrow. The other was because it was an 11:15 time slot and after ferocious insomnia Sunday night I decided not to fight the 'I *must* be able to sleep to noon!' reflex. But I went out today and only got midly wet onaccounta having bought what I thought were mini-bananas yesterday as a change frm the usual. But they weren't. They were manzano bananas which have a quote astringent taste unquote unless they're blackly ripe. And yes, they do. Thus I needed proper bananas and anything else I could pick up.

One of Mary Beard's histories has come in at the library but I'm reluctant to dare the temps to go pick it up. Two more books are in transit and may show up by Thursday. Also must take tax stuff to the courier this week, though would send by mail if the weather would allow me to get to the PO. Not being able to bike is a real pain, though after three years of same you'd think I'd be used to it.

Civil March is cosplaying civil November, all clean sunlight and placid cumulus clouds. Since I spent four days straight indoors last week and weekend, I've been tromping about this week. Alas that means going to restaurants but no matter. Month's end is when money comes in. I had five days straight of cooking at home and grew weary of washing dishes and pots and pans. Also was underwhelmed by the Ina Garten chicken I cooked Tuesday or Wednesday: have frozen most of it to make soup with some time in the future.

Also also discover that a meal out mid-afternoon fills me enough that I don't want dinner. My evening banana and a glass of wine is quite enough. Went to my regular Japanese place today, had one of their set lunches‐- avocado roll and a green dragon-- which in the before times would have had me ordering an extra california roll or some shrimp sushi to fill in the cracks, but which today tempted me to ask for a doggie bag halfway through. Didn't, because it feels rude. Also in the before times, would have stopped by the patisserie on the corner and had a latte and a couple of macaroons (double checks, no that isn't the French president) but today just ordered a cold brew from Ninetails. This isn't going to lose me any weight because rice, but is at least a step in the right direction.

Allergies start again, ha-choo ha-choo. One reason I never got into Howard's End, falling bookcases aside, is because it starts with someone suffering from hayfever back before antihistamines had been invented, and the thought of such misery put me off it for good.

Was going to go pick up a library hold on Saturday but I wanted to finish the current Flavia Albia first and by the time I'd done that it was doing the March version of snow, which is more like hail, bouncing off the study roof, so fine, will get it Monday. Was going to go out for coffee Sunday but bouncing white pellets again and didn't want to wear boots and anyway St Patrick's day is not a time to be out and about. So I spent the day indoors and ordered Chinese delivery. The dumplings were lovely but my 'shrimp and cashews in bird's nest' was 'some shrimp and a lot of broccoli' with the bird nest in a separate bag. I mean, healthy yes, but they don't have a shrimp and broccoli dish on the menu. Must assume they ran out of cashews.

Anyway, got out today after the bouncing white pellets stopped and returned book and got book and determined that the outage had somehow rendered all the copy machines unusable. Not merely can't print from the wrb but can't copy at all. Which probably has to do with paying from your library card and not in cash because the outage targeted users and staff info, but is still a pain. (You can give them cash to put on your library card so I can't see why you can't just give them cash for the copier: but maybe the copier is also on the library's network which is only about 90% restored.)

Up and moving at a decent hour so down the street I went for my blood draw. Swear that last November there was something about they only held faxed requests for six months. Appears they don't hold them at all because there's no record of me in the system. In the lab I've been going to for decades. Ah well. Call doctor, secretary says she'll fax the request again instanter. Reader, she did not. Waited ten minutes, nothing came through, waiting room is backed up with posted wait times of 40 minutes for the people who did have draw requests. Said I'd come back next week. Receptionist takes my number and says she'll call me when the fax comes in. Unlike my doctor's office they work till 5 on Fridays. Reader, she did not, so I assume the fax never arrived.

Went to the library to pick up a hold. Meant to ask the librarian if they could now print from emails, a service that was disrupted during the cyber attack, but there was only one librarian and he was shelving holds so I didn't get a chance. If they do, I can get my doctor to email the form to me and print it there and not have to trust the dodgy lab.

Saving grace was that I actually had two holds at the library so I am well-supplied with Flavia Albia's to get me through a rainy tomorrow and a snowy Sunday.

Then, in spite of resolutions to save money by eating at home, went to my old Japanese restaurant where they bring me my wine automatically, and had a bento. It's half the cost of same at the tony Korean place, so I allow me the indulgence. And I got something close to 6000 steps in from all the gadding about, so go me.

Otherwise my supermarket has started stocking frozen dumplings from Mother's Dumplings, famous Toronto restaurant as it says on the package. But only one kind, the pork and cabbage, and not the delicious pork and chive ones I got from Skip the Dishes earlier this week. My Skip credit got me mountains of food though as ever the chive pancakes were a disappointment. I should just stop ordering those because no one makes them the way I like. But my order arrived with blinding speed because, a first, my Dasher was on a bike. The food delivery guys all have fat wheeled electric bikes and congregate on Bloor these days-- well, everywhere, I suppose-- though Concerned Voices have been heard about them bringing the bikes on the transit. Because for sure these guys don't live downtown: almost certainly they come from Markham and Brampton and other northerly Here men say bee dragonnes outposts where, alas, all the best Asian restaurants are but that need a car to either get to or get around.

Insides took exception to something I ate yesterday-- no idea what because it's all stuff I've had before-- but fine, an excuse to buy a baguette because body can always handle white bread. Camembert, bread, and bananas : I am happy. (This program doesn't recognize camembert. Stupid program.)

Ran into SND after many many months and finally got to thank her for the pie last Christmas. She's getting a new pupper, a rescue chihuahua mix. 'So you'll be seeing more of me around' as she joins the many many dogwalkers on the street. 'Kind of going to the opposite extreme here,' indeed, because Sadie was a lab IIRC. But small dogs are perhaps better suited to our small downtown houses. You can open concept as much as you like but these places will not take the ten foot couches and sectionals that stores like to sell.

I very much hope I'm not starting to have pressure headaches, like the two weeks last month's over the eye thing. But apparently half of TO was headachey today as we went to April temps and a storm system sat on top of the city and thundered and deluged for six hours. Thus today was a loss, spent on the sofa sipping Pepsi and playing Yukon solitaire.

Being too headachey to cook the curry I'd planned for today, I was half-tempted to order in, seeing as I have a $50 credit with Skip the Dishes. (When you click on an order by mistake and immediately cancel, Skip doesn't credit it back to your card, the cows. You gave them money, they're gonna hold on to it.) But I couldn't see bringing a Dasher out in this kind of weather, which yes I know is illogical because Dashers exist for this kind of weather. Still. So I had a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner and was content, because two slices of bread, even pumpernickel, is a carb feast these days.

Mh well, seems I do have holds, for a book I read yonks ago (memory says summer but maybe early fall) and had an ehold on, with 12 weeks wait, in order to reread. But though the sidewalks are clear and the sun shone, there was a wind chill of -12C so no, didn't go out to get it. Also I have either a cold or allergies or maybe a sinus infection and I cough from the post-nasal drip and my head aches. So a good day to stay in. Monday is a holiday, so Tuesday is early enough to pick it up. There are rumours Wednesday will be 6C, which I don't quite believe, but whatever, any snow that falls in the meantime will be gone by midweek.

Because I take water pills I also take potassium, but my potassium levels were not to my doctor's liking last time, so she instructed me to have a banana a day. Now my old doctor said Why add calories when you can just take a pill, which I agree with. But a banana a day doesn't stop the leg cramps so now I take potassium pills and bananas. For years I avoided bananas because I saw so many of them so often in so many states at work, but four years later I find them quite bearable, and also they make an acceptable evening snack. Better than crackers and butter, certainly.

It was 15C earlier this week, which the trees took as a cue to start budding, hence me with a runny nose and chesty cough. (Apparently the wildlife took this, along with the mild winter, as a sign to start breeding. Mama skunk and babies hanging out in Christie Pits: avoid.) Rotator cuff began acting up last week so I went to see my man today, and because of sentence no.1, took a swig of my hydrocodone cough syrup as a preventative. Cough syrup did what it often does, made me feel simultaneously very happy and totally punk. At least being very happy let me stand in the ridiculous line ups at Loblaws without repining. Time was, Loblaws prided itself on having all cash registers open, no waiting, but not anymore. Only two registers open and the rest self-serve, so the line up for the fifteen or so machines kept interweaving with the line up for the cash registers. Sundays are usually bad but-- as people kept saying-- not as bad as this. And the only reason I was there was because their pharmacy is open Sundays and nobody else's is except Shoppers.

Well, also because they have pie quarters and Fiesta doesn't and I was jonesing for pie crust. That too.

OK. After several months of Shan't, I did 25 minutes on the bike machine. Was trying for 30, but... it's been more months than I can recall since I last used it. Progress, anyway.

Did not buy more Bailey's knockoff or profiteroles. Did buy chocolate covered almonds. Then remembered that I broke a filling last time I had this brand. (Does not happen with the infinitely superior Meiji almonds from the Korean super, but then I eat a whole pack at once and have to skip dinner.) Then remembered that I'd put the almonds in the freezer that time, and I could still eat unfrozen almonds safely. Didn't want to; they really are second rate.

While I was at Loblaws' Starbucks with my pistachio cold brew and virtuous egg white muffin, ran into M, the partner of one of my s-i-l's grandsons, who live up the street. I pass her on the street periodically and met her at Loblaws once with her mother; this time she was with her father. I never recognize her when I see her, being particularly faceblind where young(er) women are concerned, and she always recognizes me, from one or two Christmas dinners years ago. But of course I do have a walker that identifies me. Anyway she said if I ever needed anything, please let them know. Only of course her partner never answers texts. But it occurred to me, if I see her again, that I might get him to come flip my futon for me since I still lack the arm strength to do it.

We've got another storm! warning for the weekend, but I shall see what happens. Streets were bone dry today and I could have worn shoes. So maybe 2-4 inches will fall Friday or Saturday, but Sunday will be rain and 5C, like yesterday afternoon, so maybe it won't last.

Oh dear, oh dear. Pretty sure Lindsey Davis is going to do a Cadfael with her first Flavia Albia book. The prepossessing young man Albia is taken with will be the baddie and the loutish runner first seen shoving her out of his way will be the intelligent life mate. I hope she reverses this but I have little hope.

Grey and dank but I went to my tony Korean restaurant for an early birthday lunch because tomorrow is supposed to be non-stop rain with a side serving of snow. Then went to the super and bought a slice of Gâteau St-Honoré. Tomorrow is the fifteenth day of Christmas (one counts from the 26th, of course) on which we cease to be tiddly on crême liqueurs and start rationing the starch. I will say that I had difficulty finishing my bento box, which is not usual, and was quite satisfied with one glass of wine, ditto, so my stomach may be shrinking after all. Also Blawblaws sells a juice concoction of apples, oranges, spinach, kale, and celery, which I can just about stand, so I have a way of getting my greens: though Korean bento contains quite a lot of veg as well, much more than Japanese ones. Not to mention the complimentary side dishes of bean sprouts, cucumber, peanuts and fish paste? loaf? whatever.

The trouble with sleeping past 11 is that I can't roll over and go back to sleep as I can do if I wake at 9. Yes, well. Life is rough.

Of course I also woke out of a frustration dream of trying to get three babies back to daycare, at night, in a triple stroller, through the University College (UofT version) campus, gone suddenly baroque with steps that aren't there and narrow gas lit passages, also with steps, that lyingly promised to take me up to Hoskins and Trinity College (again, UofT version: universities in the Brit-sphere have no innovation with respect to either names or architecture.) Could gave done without that, especially as my Christmas Eve dream was a charming cosy murder mystery. I believe the white-haired Miss Marple-ish sleuth was in fact the murderer.

Weather is mild but grey and dank, and is supposed to rain all week, which is par for the Dead Days but also dispiriting. We may see some sun on Saturday. I went out today since the PoP was only 56% and got misted on. Tony Korean restaurant was fairly full, even at 3 in the afternoon, but the Koreans make the most of their holidays. When they get them, because the big supermarket and greengrocers were open. Bought celery for future turkey salads but was so full from egg and beef donburi that I skipped dinner.

To get xmas music out of my head I went looking for that Kenyan song from many years back Mama nipeleke kwa baba (Mama, take me to my father.) Then started googling around to find what the swahili means and discovered that nipeleke is a very useful phrase for things like 'take me to a hospital' (hospitalini)- I mean, should you find yourself sick in east Africa some time. They also tell you how to say please, which I can't remember because there's no catchy tune to teach me tafadhali. So then I had to look at Duolingo for swahili which starts you with pronouns: mimi (I), yeye (he, she), sisi (we), wao (they), and wewe (you, sing). Oh. Years ago a roommate told me how to say The elephant is about to step on you in Swahili. Tembo is elephant and wewe is you but my memory of the verb, after 40 years, must have become corrupted, because I remember it as 'na piga' but you can't prove it by any Swahili verb chart. And after googling a bit about verbs in Swahili, I once again resigned myself never to learn that language. Verb prefixes for both subject and tense? No way. Might as well learn Basque if you're going that route.

Honestly, why do people think Japanese is a hard language? Yeah, there's causatives and passives and passive causatives, but they're quite regular. Presumably if you hear the Swahili version of I am going, you are going, he is going often enough, the sound sticks in your head as easily as, well, 'I am going' etc. (or wasuresaseru). But life is too short at this point.

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