Businesses come and go

I feel for businesses during this pandemic. I do takeout twice a week to support them. I hope that they remain open by the time this pandemic is over.

The sad news is that I have seen many of my favourite businesses close for good. A cupcake place that had four locations in the greater Toronto area is down to one. A ramen place that opened a year ago is now gone for good.

I am fortunate to be able to work from home and continue to earn an income. Not everyone has that option or has it as good.

There is the odd resurrection happening, though. That ramen place that shut down after a year? It is now a Hong Kong-style eatery. It just opened for business.

I hope to visit it this week, to say goodbye to the ramen place that once stood there and to say hello to a new eatery that I hope will stick around for a bit.

Breaking out of the house twice a week and safely fetching ramen while out

With the COVID-19 pandemic, I only go out twice a week to for groceries and essentials. I go out on Wednesdays after working from home and on Saturdays.

I feel for eateries these days, especially the local, smaller ones. I tend to order online and pick my food up while I'm out getting groceries and dropping by the drugstore.

On Saturday, I found a ramen place roughly ten minutes away. It is offering all ramen at 50% off its regular price. Wow! I love ramen. Not only did I get some ramen, but decided to get two appetizers that would equal the discount.

When I went to pick it up, I was between two sets of doors. A man working there greeted me behind the second glass door. It was cool. He let me know that my food was on the table. I looked and was so happy. I thanked him. He wished me a good day. I reciprocated.

The food was amazing and delicious. I will be back for more.

One of my student's last day - get Cutiebootie to kill you!

Friday was quite the day at work. I have three students this work term. It was the last day for one of them.

My manager is away on business all next week. As a result, we had a farewell lunch for all of them on Friday.

They chose a sushi place. It also serves ramen. I went with the chicken ramen and some beef gyoza. The food was yummy. This restaurant is in an industrial area. It is odd, but it works.

All three of my students compiled a number of fun tidbits, photos, quotations, and more that they came across during their time with the company. It was thoughtful and hilarious.

One of my favourite mentions was an instant messaging response from one of them:

Get Cutiebootie to kill you

It makes more sense if I provide some context. I don't kill people for a living!

We have an authoring tool. Sometimes, if you end up being stuck in it, I have the authority to kick you out of the system when you can't log out successfully on your own. To stop a process is killing it on Unix or Linux.

Before she left, my student gave me a box of chocolates. She advised that it's a family tradition to give chocolates as a parting gift. She is so thoughtful. The box was also in purple, which matched her top that she was wearing and happens to be my favourite colour.

It's nice to know that what I do at work means something and that folks appreciate what I do. She is off to study in Ireland for the next semester. She'll be fine.

Visa photos, manicure, and price comparisons

I got a couple of errands out of the way on a soggy, rainy Tuesday. It felt good.

My first errand was to go to Costco to get photos taken for my tourist visa application for China. My guy and I had a talk about photos the other day.

"I always go to Costco to get my passport photos done. It's cheap at $6.99. I don't know whether it does visa photos," I said.
"It does. You can indicate what size you need and the place will do it for you. I went there to get my visa photos for India," my guy replied, being the seasoned traveller.
"Oh, good. I'll go to Costco," I said, with a hint of relief.
"You can't go wrong with that price. It is cheap bastard-approved," he stated proudly.

He was impressed that I have been going to Costco to get my passport photos done. He was also thrilled that I knew how much it cost.

After that, I went to redeem my about-to-expire Groupon for a shellac manicure. My manicure would take an hour, which was roughly the time that my visa photos would be ready to pick up.

I do like my nail polish. It's peach with glitter. Yes, I'm in a girly mood.

I got hungry and went to a Japanese restaurant within the same plaza. The lunch special was great. I had chicken ramen with salad and miso soup. I also got gyoza and a Diet Coke.

After lunch, I went back to Costco to pick up my photos. Sadly, I can't smile in them. At least I don't look like I just broke out of jail!

I then visited Staples to get some graph paper, which was an unplanned errand. Coincidentally, you can get passport photos done there. The price? It's double that of Costco.

My guy is so proud of me that he nearly called me a good girl. Nearly.