Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Due to a snowstorm that blew in on Christmas Eve, I decided to make Christmas dinner (it was more luch) early. My parents and I feasted on Christmas Eve. Today, I've have been eating leftovers, which I love.

I was stateside last year for Christmas and New Year's Day. It's nice to be home for the holidays this year.

I hope that you and yours have a fabulous holiday season. I am currently dealing with a sore throat and a mild cold. I'll write more about my recent travels once I have a chance. I am on a break from work.

I basically slept for two hours this afternoon. I felt tired from being sick. I'm more energetic now, which is encouraging.

Update on my friend leaving the company, but moving to a new career elsewhere

Last Friday was my friend's final day at work. My team is horrible at sendoffs. I ended up creating an online meeting for us to say goodbye to her and solicited donations towards a farewell gift separately, if folks wanted to donate.

To explain the situation, my friend originally got a job as a project manager within the company. She was to move to a different department.

I had warned her about her soon-to-be new manager. She was toxic towards me and isn't a nice person. Sure enough, she never finalized my friend's contact and how much she would be earning. She also wanted my friend to work both was a writer and project manager for two months at her current pay.

My friend appreciated the warning that I gave her. She decided to quit. She deserved better. I don't blame her.

She does have a new job lined up and starts just over a week from now. I'm happy for her.

As a team, before this pandemic, we would normally get together for a farewell lunch. My friend isn't comfortable being in a large crowd. Instead, she'd rather have a meal with me and one other colleague. We'll be doing that soon.

I have collected enough funds to get her a spa gift basket. I need to figure out how to get her mailing address to get it delivered to her. I may need to ask my manager first. Otherwise, I may need to ask her directly, which kind of ruins the entire vibe.

Happy belated Easter!

Happy belated Easter! I spent a good part of my morning making Easter lunch for my parents and me. It turned out well.

I woke up at 8 am, which is my usual wakeup time during the weekday. I felt that it would be best to serve lunch at 12:30 am, as opposed to 2 pm if I got up at my usual weekend time of 9:30 am.

 

Here are some food pics. I'm starting with a plate of stuffing, mashed potatoes, and roasted veggies and turkey.

 

 I love stuffing. I tend to put onions, mushrooms, and celery in it.

I love how crispy the skin ended up on the turkey. Delicious!

If you do observe Easter, I hope that it was peaceful, and that you were able to spend it with folks that you care about and love.

Quiet day thanks to snow

It snowed for most of the day on Tuesday. I went out briefly before lunch to fetch some food and buy a few items when the snow took a brief break. As I drove back to the hotel, it started to snow again.

It was nice spending some quiet time in my room. I watched a lot of TV, took a nap, ate and drank, and had me time.

I love being on vacation. It's getting cold here, so staying indoors isn't a bad thing.

Weekend and food

It's the weekend. Finally!

Last night, I pre-ordered some chicken pot pie samosas. They sound as yummy as I'm sure they taste. I also pre-ordered some lunch at the same store.

Here's hoping that my turkey-stuffing shopping goes well later on today.

Thai restaurant suggestion - success!

Yesterday, I recommended a bunch of eateries to the couple who have named a shake after me at their business. One of the suggestions was a Thai restaurant.

They actually went there for lunch and loved it. It was nice seeing a video of what they had to eat. It was cool that they trusted me.

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.

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.

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!

Meeting up with a friend

On Saturday, I met up with my friend for a late lunch. It was the first time that both dined in a restaurant since the pandemic.

It wasn't on a patio or in a tent. We were sitting in a restaurant. It was great and we felt safe.

It was a bit different, but I was thankful to have spent a couple of hours with my friend whom I haven't seen since last September.

Planning

I have been planning what I will be doing after my car is serviced. I have three errands that I must run. Lunch and dinner are in the planning stages. It's fun!

There's one place that sells a massive meatball as an appetizer. It looks like a meal to me! I also like the idea of having Persian food.

It's great having plenty of choices to choose from.

Out and about on Sunday

I went out on Sunday. It's rare for me to venture out on Sundays. However, I have done it twice within the past month.

I don't mind going out on Sundays. I find it more relaxed than Saturdays. I am a homebody, though. Going out on Saturday and Sunday feels like overkill!

It was nice getting some takeout for lunch. I found a decent Hakka restaurant on my way home from fetching an order for curbside pickup.

It's a shorter week for me. I have decided to take this Friday off for Lunar New Year. I rarely take this day off from work. Monday is a holiday, so I get an extra long weekend. Yay!

More thoughts from my friend's funeral

My friend organized her entire funeral. We are similar in that we are natural planners. She wasn't a control freak. She simply wanted to take care of it without burdening others. It was just who she was.

She made sure that everyone had a bagged lunch after the service. It made me smile. It was so her.

She left a voice message to all of us. She said that we were her miracle. Her daughter let out a sob. I lost it there as tears trickled down my face. It felt good hearing her voice.

She chose the music that was played. I have the list, which is now a part of my playlist and will always remind me of her.

At the end, Amazing Grace was played. The Mayo Clinic managed to record her heartbeat. Her heartbeat was then used as the beat for the song, which had guitar as the melody. It was unique and I felt connected to her -- as if she were saying to everyone that they would be okay.

I managed to grieve at her streamed funeral. I felt a lot better today. It was a lovely service celebrating her life. She somehow managed to reassure us that things were going to be okay. I am healing one day at a time.

My friend's passing

My dear friend passed away from Leukemia on Sunday. I got the news last hour.

It's heartbreaking. She enriched my life with her friendship. I am thrilled that I knew her for over twenty years.

Her last e-mail to me was that she loved our friendship. She loved me. She wished that we had travelled more together.

She was the ideal travel companion. We never had a disagreement when we travelled together, be it snorkelling or drinking beer. We knew that we would be travelling companions when we retired.

I have been looking at photos of her. I particularly like the one that I took of her with her daughter at a playground. They are both smiling, with her young daughter hugging her.

I was fortunate to have met up with her for lunch back in December 2019, and January and March 2020. I will remember hugging her for the last time after lunch and waving to her as she drove off.

I am happy that I got to say that I loved her and cherished our friendship. I am at peace telling her what I needed to before she passed on.

May she rest in peace.

Christmas

My Christmas was quiet, but nice. I spent three hours cooking. I spent the rest of the day relaxing.

I roasted a turkey. I love my convection oven. It does a great job crisping the skin and keeping the turkey juicy.

I made mashed potatoes with ghee. It was a first and it turned out nicely.

Stuffing is a must. I no longer stuff the turkey with it. Instead, I make it on the stovetop and it's so much easier. I live for stuffing.

I did something different and made salted caramel quick bread at the same time that the turkey was roasting. It turned out well for my first try. It was nice to have dessert.

I also roasted sweet potatoes. The key is to poke a ton of holes with a fork before they go into the oven, so the sweet potatoes don't explode.

I fed my parents. They seemed to enjoy the food. They took a nap afterwards.

Oddly, I couldn't nap. I slept well last night, though. I'm happy that they had a great meal.

My intern's farewell lunch

My intern's original work term was for eight months. Luckily, it got extended and we had him for an additional four months.

My role changed just after his extension had been set. He ended up with another team lead. However, our work still crossed paths and we still managed to communicate with each other regularly.

Back in April, when we thought that it was the end of his work term, I said that we'd have a proper farewell lunch for him when it was safe to do it. We were 1.5 months into the pandemic.

Well, his final day was Friday. I wanted a farewell lunch for him. So did our manager. I talked with our boss. He was good having just the three of us have lunch together. It would be safer with a small number of people there.

I had suggested a restaurant and my intern was game. He was delighted to get a free lunch, paid by our manager, to honour his efforts and accomplishments during his stay with us.

On Friday, I picked up my intern at his home and drove us over to the restaurant. It felt like old times, except that he was in the backseat of my car as I drove. Our manager met us there, as he had to pick up the gift that the company had for my intern.

At his home, I gave my intern a box of gourmet cookies. We love them. The store happens to be in my neighbourhood. He was thrilled.

We sat out in the patio for nearly 2.5 hours. The food was yummy and amazing. We had a lot of laughs while we chatted about a ton of topics.

Afterwards, we walked over to Baskin Robbins to get some ice cream. I was too full from my lunch to have some, but the other two got some.

When we were all done, my intern and I decided to get bubble tea. I treated him to whatever drink he wanted. We sat for a bit to chat before I took him home.

It was a lovely day. I know that I'll see him again, as we have plenty of eateries to discover. I let him know that whenever he was free, to let me know. He confirmed that he would take me up on my offer. He has one last year of undergraduate studies, which start in just over a week.

Time and my intern

I blink and the weekend is over.

I got everything that I had wanted to accomplish this weekend. I met up with friends. I did some cleaning up around the house. I even did some sewing.

This year is blowing by fast, even though the pandemic has put a damper on the year. My intern has two more weeks left before his work term is over.

My manager has asked whether I'd be interested in doing a farewell lunch or dinner with my intern -- just the three of us. I'm game. It's a small group and we can hit a patio at an eatery. My manager has to meet with the intern to collect his laptop and other items. I'd likely drop by a bit later.

It'll be good to see my intern again and send him off as best as we can.

Meeting up with friends and experiencing foot pain after quite an absence

On Saturday, I met up with a couple of friends for a late lunch. It felt like we hadn't skipped a beat. We hadn't seen one another since December 2018. It was a great time chatting over food and drinks. We then went shopping for a bit.

I woke up just past 4 am with foot pain. I haven't had it in quite some time. I ate a banana and took some Ibuprofen with root beer that I had made with my Sodastream.

I have been eating bananas daily, which has helped reduce how often I experience foot pain. My thinking with Ibuprofen with root beer is that the carbonation speeds up how quickly the pain relief happens.

Nearly an hour later, my pain was gone and I slept well.

Blogger's user interface continues to change - part 2, cocktails, and tea

Okay, I have logged on and the editor looks completely minimalistic. It's weird. It'll take getting used to.

When I say weird, I mean that my left margin is right up against the left side of the browser window. Talk about using the entire browser window!

Later on today, I'm heading into Toronto to pick up some cocktail supplies for a virtual meeting. It's weird that I'm cutting out of working from home for a bit. The place is open between 2 and 4 pm. Sure, it's a limited period to be open. I'm glad that I have some flexibility in my schedule. I typically have lunch at 2 pm. I have already worked and additional 1.5 hours to make up for this time.

Decluttering continues. I spent some time organizing my tea. I had a couple of empty boxes. I'm not sure why I kept them. 

I also have the most amazing pancake tea. It smells like breakfast, especially the maple syrup. I can't wait to have it again.

My intern's final week at our workplace and during a pandemic

This week is my intern's final week at my workplace. It's odd that I cannot wish him a proper farewell during a pandemic.

I normally get a small gift as a token of my appreciation for all the hard work that each intern brings. This intern, in particular, has been outstanding. We share a love for food and get along well.

As a team, we send each intern off with a farewell lunch. I have told him that we'll have a deferred one for him once we are able to socialize again.

Last night, I sent him an e-gift card. It seems informal, but I wrote a personalized message. It's better than doing absolutely nothing.

Luckily, we get to talk tomorrow. We have exchanged cell phone numbers, so we'll keep in touch.

I'm not sure how my team will manage without him. He has played such an important part of our team that the void will be difficult to fill, especially when we can't backfill his role.