Supporting two local businesses

On Saturday, a couple of cool things happened to me. Both deal with small local businesses.

For one business, it had a campaign that invited folks to suggest new flavours for teas and shakes that have no to low sugar. I suggested German chocolate cake. The business tested out the flavour suggestions, and names one tea and one shake after the person who suggested it. I now have a German chocolate cake shake named after me. It's on the place's permanent menu starting on Monday.

I am thrilled to bits to have a menu item named after me. 

The second business is closing its store and strictly operating online to save costs. Its last day is today before the store closes down for good. I went there to visit it one last time.

I am a loyal customer. It's to the point where the owner recognizes me when I walk in and knows my name. 

We had a good chat today. I bought a sugar cookie in the past and she asked me whether I enjoyed it. She also showed me a secret project that she's working on. It was lovely to get that inside scoop from her. I am excited for what she will be offering down the road.

Although I'll miss dropping by this store, I am happy that it's still in business and I can continue supporting it.

Good things came in threes for me

The year is winding down at work. I got a bunch of gifts on Thursday.

A project manager thanked me for my hard work recently. She got me a Belgian chocolate cake. I was feeling chilled and not the best yesterday, so I'll eat the cake when I am back to my normal self. I thanked her for the kind gesture.

A colleague got me chocolates. Yum!

Finally, my manager gave me a bunch of points towards anything at our online store. He thanked me for my efforts getting five software releases out the door within the last three weeks.

No wonder I felt under the weather yesterday. Work has just been weighing me down. Today is my last workday before I go on vacation. Yay!

Cake and boredom

I have not worked from home for over three weeks. I go into the office tomorrow, but will thankfully get to work from home on Wednesday.

My student is progressing well. I am thrilled about his progress.

We had a September cake break on Monday afternoon. We sat there and ate cake. I asked about a fellow student who was in a meeting with our development team earlier in the day. He looked bored out of his mind.

Our manager came over and I pointed out how bored he was earlier in our meeting. My manager indicated that he was loud the other day and wasted time gabbing with three employees. I let him know that he didn't say a peep in our meeting, which seemed amusing to us.

Perspectives are interesting. I have never asked a student to go into this meeting with me, as the information would be way over his head. I like my judgment in this case.

Cheesecake and generosity

I have decent team members on my team.

A colleague, who is my mini-me as far as work ethic goes, has a birthday coming up. I suggested that I get a cheesecake to celebrate within our team. I had visited this bakery a month ago and loved what I had sampled. The catch is that this bakery is five minutes away from where she lives. For me, it would take me an hour to get there.

She offered to pick up a cheesecake for our team to celebrate a couple of milestones. I had a coupon and gave it to her. The discount was for one cheesecake. She bought two after hearing my raving about it. The bakery gave her the discount on both cheesecakes. Nice!

"Excellent! I'm glad you got a discount on both," I texted her.
"Me, too. It was a start-the-car moment... lol," she replied.
"Let me know how much I owe you," I noted.
"Nah, don't worry about it. You always bring stuff in," she replied.

I'm glad that I'm rubbing off on the team. It was a kind gesture on her part.

Snow, David Bowie, and an afternoon date at Starbucks

It seems like ages since I last wrote. Between dealing with snow at long last and the sad passing of David Bowie, I have neglected blogging for a bit.

I was fortunate to see David Bowie once in Winnipeg. It was an amazing show at the old Winnipeg Arena. It must have been back in 2004. He was an amazing artist and musician. He also loved to read and had a wonderful sense of humour. He will be missed.

My guy is in Montreal for work. He's away for a good two weeks. He promised to buy me bagels. He's such a sweet guy.

We met up on Sunday at Starbucks. He calls it Stealbucks because he finds the prices inflated. However, he ordered a coffee that day, which kept him awake for his entire road trip to Montreal. So, his regard for the store is changing.

He actually arrived at Starbucks before I did. It was different. Normally, I am waiting for him. Anyway, I called him and said that I saw him in the parking lot. We got out of our cars. He walked over to me. We then walked over to the cafe.

He gave me a side hug. He also gave me several lovetaps on my left buttocks I loved that.

He ordered a coffee and a croissant. I had a mint tea with a cinnamon swirl coffee cake. We sat at a table in a quaint little corner of the cafe, laughed, chatted, ate, drank, and held hands. It was nice. He looked good in his new wool coat.

"Can we cuddle for fifteen or twenty minutes?" my guy asked me.
"I'd love to, but you're on a tight driving schedule," I replied.
"It's okay. I have time," he said.

We held hands walking out of Starbucks. It was a nice little date that we went on.