Compression socks and foot pain

Last week, I bought a pair of compression socks. They are open-toe socks that go past my ankles. I wear one on my right foot before I go to bed because my foot pain happens with that foot only.

Last Saturday, I did a lot of walking downtown. The following day, I could feel my foot pain starting. I put on my compression sock immediately. Between one to two hours later, the pain went away.

It seems to be a great purchase. I'll need to test out my theory some more to determine whether it truly works or if this first experience was a coincidence. I'm hoping that it's the former.

Cooking, baking, and the long weekend ahead

I spent Sunday cooking and baking. I made cornbread muffins, and brussels sprouts with maple syrup and parmesan.

It's the last workweek before Labour Day weekend. I don't have any travel plans, but hope to get together with a friend and pick up a couple of orders.

Here's to a good week ahead!

Thoughts about the in-person Immersive Van Gogh experience

Yesterday, I went to the walk-in version of the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit. Between the drive-in and walk-in versions, I like the former better. I felt safer in my car.

I was lining up to get into the exhibit. I woman behind me asked if it was the lineup. Seriously, you can't tell? I turned around and she was a foot away. On top of that lack of physical distancing, she was not wearing a mask. It explains why she couldn't tell that there was a lineup.

The QR code used for contact tracing didn't work for my phone. On the whole, I can typically get one to work, but not this one. I don't know why places don't include the URL with the QR code. I'd be happy to manually enter the URL into my phone's browser.

Instead, I had to fill out a form using a clipboard and pen that weren't sanitized. Ugh.

The experience seeing Van Gogh's works come to life was the same. I stayed there for three iterations and loved it.

You got to sit in circles to take in the artwork. I don't know how staff sanitize the circles on the floor where folks have sat down and touched it. I saw none of that. They also handed out cushions to sit on. I didn't get one and I don't know whether they get sanitized, either.

I miss the drive-thru where I didn't have to deal with or think about these risks.

Weekend and Immersive Van Gogh

The weekend is here. 

Later on today, I'm revisiting the Immersive Van Gogh experience. In early July, I did the drive-in version. I ended up getting free tickets to do the in-person experience once the place reopened. It has!

The downside was that the place never disclosed how to get these free tickets until I sent an e-mail. I had to wait a few days for a response. I finally got a code to use on their site to get my tickets. However, the code was invalid.

So, I had to send another e-mail with a screenshot showing that something was wrong with the code. Sure enough, it was some weird issue on their end. I used this code again after their fix and it worked. yay!

I'm looking forward to this outing in downtown Toronto.

New pillows

The other day, I bought two pillows. I realized that I have been sleeping on the same pillow for a decade and it wasn't supporting my head as well as it used to.

I bought the same pillow style and brand. It's amazing how a decade of making small enhancements to it makes a huge difference. My old pillow did not have trim stitched around the pillow's perimeter, which made the fill inside move about more. My new ones do, which I love.

These pillows also come with pillowcases. I don't remember my old pillow coming with one. I had to buy one separately.

I'm going to replace the flat pillow that I use under my knees with the second new pillow. I am looking forward to analyzing my sleep quality.

Travel planning and thoughts

Planning travel is both exciting and weird. I haven't done it for so long that it feels so unfamiliar, but not really.

I have three NHL hockey games in Minnesota that are close together in December and January. I may do a longer vacation and see all three.

I am still adventurous. I'm doing research to figure out what I need to fly down without a hitch.

I'm optimistic and hopeful. Things are looking up even thought we aren't fully out of this pandemic yet.

Cutting it close for an early conference call

I had to wake up early yesterday for a 7 am conference call. We had a couple of months off from it, but it's back.

I had two alarms set up. I sleep with earbuds. I typically set my watch that I wear to buzz, but I forgot to.

Luckily, I heard my phone's alarm at 6:53 am. It was enough time to boot up my laptop and sound sort of coherent for the first ten minutes of the call where I needed to speak.

It's never a dull day. The good news was that I ended my day at 3:30 pm. Yay!

Travel plans

I am contemplating travel. If I were to go somewhere, it would be stateside to pay my respects to my friend who passed away earlier this year.

It's not a normal travel goal to have. It is mine, which is normal to me right now.

I can fly to the States. I need to do a COVID-19 test, prove that I have been vaccinated, and take plenty of time to travel.

Part of me is excited. Part of me is not looking forward to the extra overhead associated with travelling during a pandemic.

I haven't decided when I'll head down, but it will be before this year is over. I'm hopeful and optimistic. I'm also overly cautious.

Sleep and hope for next weekend

I slept a lot better last night. I was tired, so my sleep was sound.

My weekend is drawing to an end. Here's hoping that this week is a good one and the weekend arrives for everyone to enjoy!

Less sleep than expected

Last night, I woke up at 5:30 pm. It was a weird combination of my being warmer than normal, having my right foot start to stiffen up, and my bladder wanting some relief.

I ended up turning on my fan, even though the air conditioning was on. It has been extremely humid lately, but the humidity must have risen overnight for me to sense it. I also took some potassium for my usual right foot issues and attended to my bladder.

After 1.5 hours of being away, which included placing an order for pair of compression socks to help with circulation, I went back to bed and woke up at 9:30 am. I had roughly five hours of sleep. I tend to be functional with five hours of sleep, but crave more of it.

When I came back from running a bunch of errands, I had dinner and took a nap. It explains why I'm still fairly alert, but I'm ready for bed.

Here's hoping that I sleep better tonight.

A jerk of a manager

My manager has tendencies of being a jerk. I got to experience it yet again.

On Friday, he was explaining the vision he had about what I was doing. I agreed. He felt that I didn't get what he wanted. Nope, I reassured him three times that we were on the same page.

I don't know what got into him. He said that he wasn't feeling it. I then told him that I was getting frustrated that I had to explain the same thing now more than three times to him and that he was misinterpreting everything. I was so worked up that I truly did not want to be in this meeting.

He does have tendencies of having a one-track mind and not being an attentive listener. A jerk.

Team lunch and expense predicament

Our team get-together was a lot of fun. We spent over three hours eating, drink, and chatting on a hot, humid day on a shaded patio. Eventually, the humidity dropped a bit and it was more comfortable.

The good news is that my corporate credit card worked to pay for our outing, which was nearly $400 

CAD. The downside is that my manager shouldn't have asked me to expense this meal. There's a corporate rule that if the manager is a part of a group activity that needs to be expensed, he needs to file it, and not someone on his team whom he manages.

It opens quite the can of worms to get my money. He doesn't like using e-transfer. I don't want to meet him somewhere to get the funds in cash, hit a bank machine, and deposit them. Ugh.

Anyway, we'll see how diligent the expense folks are in figuring out my expense report.

Fixing my back with my heated car seat

I tweaked my back yesterday. It's amazing how great and flaky my back can be. Depending on how I sit, I'd be either fine or I'd get back pain.

My car is great. I got heated seats that came standard with my car. I used it on my back and it's all good now.

My car is my back saver!

Team lunch and a budget

In a couple of days, I am having a team lunch. I haven't seen many of these folks in person in 1.5 years.

I look forward to seeing most of them. There are a few people that I could do without, but you can't win 'em all!

I had a one-on-one online meeting with my manager yesterday. He asked if I could pay for our entire meal. It was an odd way to make a request without my follow-up question. I asked whether I was to expense it, too. Yes.

Here's where I put my foot down. I don't think it should be my responsibility to put the charge on my personal credit card. Frankly, my manager doesn't have a backbone to charge and expense things himself because it goes to his manager for approval. He'd rather hide that fact and have me do it. I have a budget. This request was unplanned in said budget. I'm not dipping into my emergency fund. It's not an emergency.

I suggested charging it to my corporate credit card. He indicated that he went out with his management team and two people had their corporate credit cards declined.

My thought is that there is a limit for charging expenses on this card for restaurants. I called the credit card company to ask what limit was established. I had to answer eight questions, with some of them being ridiculous, to get an answer to check with my plan administrator.

Not helpful. I tore a strip off this guy. He said that he asks many customers for a verification ID and none of them know what that is. Neither did I. So, why not get rid of that question?

Asking for my work phone number is also ridiculous. I don't call myself. It's a virtual number. Why not ask for my cell phone number first?

Finally, asking for my employee number, when I feel that providing my name, date of birth with the year, my cell phone number, and mailing address are sufficient to verify that I am who I am for a single question about my account. I do not want an interrogation when I call. Posing eight questions is excessive.

Anyway, I had to open a ticket at work to ask what my limit was on restaurant transactions on this corporate credit card. We'll see if I get an answer later on today.

It's painful trying to get an answer to what I believe is a straightforward answer. Things shouldn't be so complicated.

Friends from grade 7 have found love

I found out through a friend that she has found new love. It's nice.

We all know one another. We all met in grade 7. She is dating a guy from our class.

It's interesting how life unfolds. We all got married. We all got divorced. We all carry on.

I am thrilled that they have found each other. They haven't made it official. She quietly shared the news with me. It's saying a lot, for she is like an open book, in general. They are being cautious for the time being, but are definitely together and enjoying being in love.

It's sweet seeing budding love.

Honey

On Saturday, I did a lot of driving. It was fun, except for traffic jams. The theme was honey.

I visited a honey farm and learned how to make honey. It was cool. I learned that it's best to hold still when bees are near you. They aren't stingers.

Roughly forty minutes away from the bee farm was a ribfest. I needed to grab lunch, so I got a full rack of ribs, coleslaw, baked beans, and cornbread. There was so much food that I brought the rest home for another meal.

I then drove to a mead store on a farm that also has beehives. I got two cans of mead and a bottle of apple peach jam.

My last stop was getting a sampler of mac and cheese, iced tea with honey, and cornbread. I then went home.

It was a great day. I was too tired to write anything last night, so here I am writing tonight before I hit the sack.

White moth visit

On Thursday night, I ran a few errands. I normally go grocery shopping on Wednesdays. This past Wednesday, I headed downtown for Beyond Monet. As a result, I delayed my grocery run till Thursday.

After having completed my errands, I was unlocking the front door to my home when a white moth came over. A white moth generally represents someone deceased who has come to say hi.

I knew immediately that it was my friend who passed away in early January. I have been thinking about her more this past month than usual.

I opened the door and the moth followed me in.

"I miss you," I said out loud, looking right at it.

I then headed indoors. I felt happy seeing a good friend.

The week and Friday

This week has flown by. I am pleased. I simply need to get through Friday and all is well.

I have dinner plans later today. I rarely go out on a Friday night. It's nice that I get to see the world a bit.

Beyond Monet

Yesterday, I dropped by Beyond Monet before its official opening, which is today. I had a wonderful time.

Here are a few highlights:

I'm so glad that I got to go.

Busy event and perks week

This week is shaping up to be a busy, exciting one full of events and perks. Later on today, I'm going to Beyond Monet. It's an immersive experience held a day before its official opening day. I am heading downtown, so it'll be interesting. I haven't been in this particular part of the downtown core in a decade!

I am currently planning my weekend. I'm getting free ice cream and beer in two different cities. I hope to hit a rib festival midway between these two cities. I will be doing lots of driving!

Cooking and the ex

The weekend has come and gone. Why are they so short?!

I spent my Sunday cooking and relaxing. I pan-fried pepperoni. I haven't done that before. It tastes so good. I added it to cheesy angel hair pasta that low in carbs. Yum!

The ex wrote to me. He wants to meet and grab a bite to eat. I am not feeling it.

Saturday outing with a friend

On Saturday, I met up with a good friend for ice cream, a stroll along the main street in a small town, and a late lunch. It was a great day!

I normally come to this town for ice cream. It was nice spending several hours here with great company. 

We ate indoors. It was a great call. Moments later, a thunderstorm rolled into the area. Rain was coming down sideways. Wow!

New red panties

My panties subscription came in themail yesterday. I like them!

Here's the front:

The back is mesh, but extremely comfortable:

I like them!

Received my replacement phone and sent the defective one back to Google

I sent my defective phone back to Google. I also got my replacement phone on the same day.

On Wednesday, I spent a few hours configuring the phone. I also had to get a screen protector for it. 

Here's hoping that it's a good phone that doesn't die on me.

Day off and the KitKat Chocolatory

I took Tuesday off as a personal day. I got a lot done, from getting my car serviced, to hitting the KitKat Chocolatory.

What's the KitKat Chocolatory? You can make your own KitKat bar. It's pretty cool! I got a voucher to make a free KitKat bar and it was a lot of fun.

I'm still going through the entire experience in my head. It was such an enjoyable day.

My phone died

I was about to work out last night and my phone fell from a small table to a carpeted floor. It always has a screen protector and a case on.

My Google Pixel 4a 5G didn't make it. The screen kept on flickering and it went black.

I dealt with Google support twice. The first woman was great. The second one was a dud. My phone is less than a year old, so a replacement phone is coming my way.

The crazy thing is that I need to print labels to have my old phone shipped to Google. I no longer have access to anything at the office because we all have been locked out during the pandemic. I have sent my files to a local printing place. I feel that it would be cheaper to pay for these printouts than getting printer ink cartridges on a printer that I haven't used in years.

So much fun! Thank goodness for my trusty Google Pixel 2XL phone. I am thankful that it works.

New loaded tea place

I found a place roughly ten minutes away by car that has loaded iced teas. They are loaded with vitamins and flavour, and don't have any sugar. Yay!

I had one called the mermaid, which is like an orange blue candy in liquid form. It was so good and huge. It took me the entire day out and about to consume the whole thing.

The weekend has started on a great note.