MONDAY...
— Quiet day at home. It’s Easter Monday. Some TV... movies and hockey. And some exercise. Little nap too.
TUESDAY...
— Work is work. Kiyomi and I do lunch together... which is good. I go to Walmart after work for some shaving stuff... which is bad. Walmart is evil. But not the good, charming evil... EVIL evil.
— Some of the left over stir fry juice dumps out in my bag of stuff going home. The MP3 player likely doesn’t appreciate that.
WEDNESDAY...
— Awake early. I wake just before 4:00 and really don’t get back to sleep. Work is okay. Take extra time at lunch to watch the end of the Guitar Hero Tournament. And get many birthday wishes.
— When I get home, my new DVD of The Sweater is finally here. I got the VHS version of it on my birthday some six or seven years ago... and now the DVD comes on my birthday too.
THURSDAY...
— Birthday... part 2. I get a card from the team at work. We go for breakfast in the morning. And plans are made for some Friday after work drinks.
— Get home to another card... this one in the mail... good for a chuckle.
FRIDAY...
— Alright day at work. And then off to a pub with Nick, Louis, Linda, Sheila, and Dave Henderson for a few drinks and some food. And I end up paying for none of it thanks to Louis, Dave and Sheila wanting to do me some birthday favours. A fun time.
— Snooze much of the evening while sort of watching some TV.
SATURDAY...
— Quiet and lazy house day. Until supper time. Go to get Karl and get another free, birthday supper a the pub. Then we watch No Country For Old Men at the Mayfair. And I do like it as I thought I would.
Changing Seasons
Part 1
Spring is coming but it may already be too late. I feel shell shocked these days. Winter wears you down. The bundling up against the cold. The dry air in the buildings. The static shocks from touching things within your own house. It’s all too much.
The immune system takes a beating with colds and flu bugs everywhere you go.
Muscles tense and stiffen making you feel like a side of beef in a meat cutter’s freezer.
And the sanctity of ones own home becomes a lair of electrical booby traps, waiting to strike out at you when you drop your guard.
Used vacation time means you have no choice but to push through the winter. Drag yourself in to work. Fight through the snow and slush. Push past other irritable drivers until you get into the office where you’re crammed together with others again and again, day after day.
People in small spaces are a funny thing. It brings you together... or drives you crazy. There are some who do me better the more I see them. If I knew I’d be working next to them each day for months on end, work would be a better place for it. And then there are others who’s every little move drives you up the wall.
My small team at work has one of each type of person. So a conversation with one helps push me through the days... and listening to the other suck each last drop out of their juice box makes me want to get violent. There’s little middle ground... and winter is to blame.
When summer comes there is distance available. More people take time away. Breaks and lunches can be eaten inside or out. Muscles and joints are loosened with the feel of a sauna, rather than that of a meat locker. Massaged by warmth and a more comfortable dress code... and with moisture ending the torture of touching a light switch in your own home... the world becomes a better place.
But right now, it’s the ending part of that harsh time. Snow remains on the ground and in the forecast. Another cold feels like it’s coming on in my head and joints. And that co-worker still has that juice box ready to slurp on some six feet away from me.
Part 2
There are things to look forward to. Baseball is coming back with a game on TV tonight. Hockey playoffs are about to begin... when the shoot out disappears for a few months of real hockey. Snow is melting... the jail will soon be swinging the gates of freedom open and a walk will be available that goes further than the front door to the parking lot.
My birthday has come and gone. For me, my day is a sign of the end of winter. This year’s birthday has been an unusual one. My first birthday without a cake involved. I did get several meals given to me free of charge. A breakfast on my team (juice box slurper and all). Lunch by way of Melissa. And two suppers, one from Sheila and another from Karl. Four days of feasting have seemed to replace the cake.
Cards have come, in the mail and delivered by hand. Easter Creme Eggs (I spelt it wrong last week... it is in fact “creme” and not “cream”) came from Kiyomi while Scratch and Win tickets arrived from Laura.
Still more is on it’s way. Mom and dad’s card remains in the hands of the postal service. Edena’s gift is making it’s way from the States. And so the celebrations are set to go on.
It’s a time of tiredness... where every little thing begins to pick away at a piece of the brain. But a glimmer on the horizon promises better times are ahead. Can we make it?
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Making It Up As I Go Along #312
MONDAY...
— Tired at work. Didn’t sleep tonnes last night so I’m not surprised. Work is okay though. Learning some of the team leader stuff for when I become a 2nd in charge in a month or so.
TUESDAY...
— Work takes for ever. It’s a long day and I’d be better off not being around people... one of those hibernation days. But I get through and the last hour or two went okay.
WEDNESDAY...
— Work is a bit annoying. It’s largely to do with the fact that Quality Control is my least favourite place to work... and guess where I’m working this week. Too social... it’s distracting.
— Get an exercise ball and door bar for working out some at home. Do this after work and take a few hours between blowing up the ball and setting up the bar. But I’ll be ready to work it tomorrow.
THURSDAY...
— Work’s okay. I do a few different things and we do a good lasagna lunch at the caf (Melissa, Megan, Carole, Jonathan and myself).
— I leave an hour early... just to start the long weekend off well.
— Supper and a DVD with Melissa and Nick. Pulp Fiction is a classic.
— Watch Survivor on the internet since it came on yesterday due to basketball.
FRIDAY...
— Quiet day around the house for the holiday Friday.
— Get Janice for supper at Grace O’Malley’s (a restaurant, not someone I know). We meet Laura, Atlas, Sheila and Karen there for some drinks and some catch up with Laura. It’s the first time I actually see her since November, and it’s great to catch up.
SATURDAY...
— Lazy house day. Some hockey, some movies, some exercising... and a nap.
Where Have All the Eggs Gone?
Easter is a special time of year. There’s that whole religious type thing with the crucifixion being followed by the resurrection. And, of course, that means that news reporters feel like they’re on the cutting edge by interviewing an actor who happens to play Jesus around this time of year. The actor I saw today gets whipped. I mean he really gets it. He wants to be beat and whipped so he can show the people what it was Christ went through. I forgot to mention that this whole play is acted out while walking down the street in Toronto. It’s a crucifixion parade if you will. And the audience are mostly elderly people who’ve come out to huddle in parkas along the sidewalks while fake Jesus hobbles by, occasionally dropping to his knees... right on top of the street car tracks. I hope God is protecting him, otherwise post Easter will likely bring a bit of workman’s comp. Fake Jesus, is also bald. But he throws on a hippy wig over top of a bandana just before hitting the streets. Good ol’ fake Jesus.
Seriously, even though this is an important holiday for billions across the world, I’m not writing today in order to have any real thought on the religious aspect of Easter. Today I write wondering where another important aspect of the holiday has gone. I saw it once, a month ago... and partook in it’s righteous goodness at that time. But there has been no sign since.
Indeed, I speak today of... the Cadbury Easter Cream Eggs.
Growing up I had much Easter chocolate to ravage. Giant hollow bunnies with crunchy candy eyes that you’d save til last to eat. And other giant bunnies, these not being hollow... that would last a child for months. It would often be the first bite that told you which bunny you had. Would teeth mash through causing a cascade of chocolate bits to drop into the rug (for as a child, I always took my first bite of chocolate on the bedroom floor). Or would the bite take extra effort to snap off a solid piece of chocolate gold?
Over the years, the bunnies, both solid and hollow, were joined by other chocolate creations. Chicks, chickens, and... today... you can chow down on a chocolate Homer Simpson. Mmmm, Homer... arrrrgghhhhh (it’s rather hard to write Homer’s gargling sound).
But in our household, the predominant treasure was the chocolate eggs. Some would be caramel filled, others with peanut butter. And still another group may be just hollow. But the best of the lot and the one that outnumbered the others... was the Cadbury Easter Cream Egg. Probably half of my entire stash would be the cream eggs. So my desert for a week or so after Easter would be one of the other eggs (one day a caramel one, the next a hollow) followed by the cream yolk goodness.
Each year at work, the cream eggs would appear. One day you’d walk into the kitchen to check for a snack of some sort, and you’d look up to see a pile of the red and blue foiled eggs. Greedily would you snatch them... and you’d scurry back to AFIS like a dog running off with a treasured bone... wanting to get to safety before a bigger co-worker steals your chocolately goodness.
There are several ways to eat an Easter Cream Egg. Some put them in the freezer, to harden the sweet nectar inside. Some chop off half the egg so that they can lick and suck out the goo before finishing the other half of chocolate egg.
My style has not changed for many years. The freezer is left out of the equation. I want liquidy ‘yolk’. And I’ll start at the pointy end of the egg, taking a bite of the upper third of the egg. I’ll then examine the candy yolk inside as I chew that first morsel. Some eggs harden on the shelf, and the yolk is beyond the liquid state. These eggs are a disappointment.
But it’s when you look down into that lower two thirds of egg and see a fine blending of white syrup, with that yellow yolk inside, that you know it’ll be an extra enjoyable cream egg experience.
I’ll then take a single lick of the syrupy section. Just to get a taste without the chocolate shell. And then, due to a fear of an overly messy second bite, I deposit the remaining two thirds (minus a lick) into my mouth... all at once.
Yellow candy yolk, creamy white candy yolk, and chocolate shell... all mashed together with each bite. It’s a most gratifying thirty seconds of one’s life.
So this year, about a month ago, I saw the eggs. I had one then and there in the office... and even bought one for a friend. And I looked forward to the remaining weeks of egg eating.
But a funny thing happened. After that first day... the Easter Cream Eggs... were gone.
Even while getting groceries, I’d glance through the Easter section (where chocolate Homer sits)... but no eggs. At the checkout, among the tabloids and chocolate bars... no eggs there either. I once saw a bag of the minis. They’re just like the Easter Cream Egg only... well... as given away by the name... they’re mini.
The minis are not as good as the original however. You get more of these that have the dreaded hardened syrup inside. And the smallness of the eggs makes the one third bite... like... two third chop technic almost an impossibility.
So on this Easter of 2008. I’m left like some of those chocolate bunnies of years gone by... hollow. What happened to my Easter Cream Eggs? Will Easter ever be the same again?
— Tired at work. Didn’t sleep tonnes last night so I’m not surprised. Work is okay though. Learning some of the team leader stuff for when I become a 2nd in charge in a month or so.
TUESDAY...
— Work takes for ever. It’s a long day and I’d be better off not being around people... one of those hibernation days. But I get through and the last hour or two went okay.
WEDNESDAY...
— Work is a bit annoying. It’s largely to do with the fact that Quality Control is my least favourite place to work... and guess where I’m working this week. Too social... it’s distracting.
— Get an exercise ball and door bar for working out some at home. Do this after work and take a few hours between blowing up the ball and setting up the bar. But I’ll be ready to work it tomorrow.
THURSDAY...
— Work’s okay. I do a few different things and we do a good lasagna lunch at the caf (Melissa, Megan, Carole, Jonathan and myself).
— I leave an hour early... just to start the long weekend off well.
— Supper and a DVD with Melissa and Nick. Pulp Fiction is a classic.
— Watch Survivor on the internet since it came on yesterday due to basketball.
FRIDAY...
— Quiet day around the house for the holiday Friday.
— Get Janice for supper at Grace O’Malley’s (a restaurant, not someone I know). We meet Laura, Atlas, Sheila and Karen there for some drinks and some catch up with Laura. It’s the first time I actually see her since November, and it’s great to catch up.
SATURDAY...
— Lazy house day. Some hockey, some movies, some exercising... and a nap.
Where Have All the Eggs Gone?
Easter is a special time of year. There’s that whole religious type thing with the crucifixion being followed by the resurrection. And, of course, that means that news reporters feel like they’re on the cutting edge by interviewing an actor who happens to play Jesus around this time of year. The actor I saw today gets whipped. I mean he really gets it. He wants to be beat and whipped so he can show the people what it was Christ went through. I forgot to mention that this whole play is acted out while walking down the street in Toronto. It’s a crucifixion parade if you will. And the audience are mostly elderly people who’ve come out to huddle in parkas along the sidewalks while fake Jesus hobbles by, occasionally dropping to his knees... right on top of the street car tracks. I hope God is protecting him, otherwise post Easter will likely bring a bit of workman’s comp. Fake Jesus, is also bald. But he throws on a hippy wig over top of a bandana just before hitting the streets. Good ol’ fake Jesus.
Seriously, even though this is an important holiday for billions across the world, I’m not writing today in order to have any real thought on the religious aspect of Easter. Today I write wondering where another important aspect of the holiday has gone. I saw it once, a month ago... and partook in it’s righteous goodness at that time. But there has been no sign since.
Indeed, I speak today of... the Cadbury Easter Cream Eggs.
Growing up I had much Easter chocolate to ravage. Giant hollow bunnies with crunchy candy eyes that you’d save til last to eat. And other giant bunnies, these not being hollow... that would last a child for months. It would often be the first bite that told you which bunny you had. Would teeth mash through causing a cascade of chocolate bits to drop into the rug (for as a child, I always took my first bite of chocolate on the bedroom floor). Or would the bite take extra effort to snap off a solid piece of chocolate gold?
Over the years, the bunnies, both solid and hollow, were joined by other chocolate creations. Chicks, chickens, and... today... you can chow down on a chocolate Homer Simpson. Mmmm, Homer... arrrrgghhhhh (it’s rather hard to write Homer’s gargling sound).
But in our household, the predominant treasure was the chocolate eggs. Some would be caramel filled, others with peanut butter. And still another group may be just hollow. But the best of the lot and the one that outnumbered the others... was the Cadbury Easter Cream Egg. Probably half of my entire stash would be the cream eggs. So my desert for a week or so after Easter would be one of the other eggs (one day a caramel one, the next a hollow) followed by the cream yolk goodness.
Each year at work, the cream eggs would appear. One day you’d walk into the kitchen to check for a snack of some sort, and you’d look up to see a pile of the red and blue foiled eggs. Greedily would you snatch them... and you’d scurry back to AFIS like a dog running off with a treasured bone... wanting to get to safety before a bigger co-worker steals your chocolately goodness.
There are several ways to eat an Easter Cream Egg. Some put them in the freezer, to harden the sweet nectar inside. Some chop off half the egg so that they can lick and suck out the goo before finishing the other half of chocolate egg.
My style has not changed for many years. The freezer is left out of the equation. I want liquidy ‘yolk’. And I’ll start at the pointy end of the egg, taking a bite of the upper third of the egg. I’ll then examine the candy yolk inside as I chew that first morsel. Some eggs harden on the shelf, and the yolk is beyond the liquid state. These eggs are a disappointment.
But it’s when you look down into that lower two thirds of egg and see a fine blending of white syrup, with that yellow yolk inside, that you know it’ll be an extra enjoyable cream egg experience.
I’ll then take a single lick of the syrupy section. Just to get a taste without the chocolate shell. And then, due to a fear of an overly messy second bite, I deposit the remaining two thirds (minus a lick) into my mouth... all at once.
Yellow candy yolk, creamy white candy yolk, and chocolate shell... all mashed together with each bite. It’s a most gratifying thirty seconds of one’s life.
So this year, about a month ago, I saw the eggs. I had one then and there in the office... and even bought one for a friend. And I looked forward to the remaining weeks of egg eating.
But a funny thing happened. After that first day... the Easter Cream Eggs... were gone.
Even while getting groceries, I’d glance through the Easter section (where chocolate Homer sits)... but no eggs. At the checkout, among the tabloids and chocolate bars... no eggs there either. I once saw a bag of the minis. They’re just like the Easter Cream Egg only... well... as given away by the name... they’re mini.
The minis are not as good as the original however. You get more of these that have the dreaded hardened syrup inside. And the smallness of the eggs makes the one third bite... like... two third chop technic almost an impossibility.
So on this Easter of 2008. I’m left like some of those chocolate bunnies of years gone by... hollow. What happened to my Easter Cream Eggs? Will Easter ever be the same again?
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