I'm famous!

I had mentioned a while back that I have a shake named after me at a local cafe. On Monday, I went there to pick up my order after getting my winter tires installed on my car.

There was a woman waiting for her order. She heard one of the owners say my name.

"Is that Cutiebootie as in the shake named after Cutiebootie?" she asked both owners.

"Yes!" they exclaimed.

"I feel so honoured meeting you," she said to me.

I didn't let the fame go to my head... haha!

Winter tires and appraisal

When I filed my insurance claim on Saturday, I decided to give uploading photos of my car's damage to an appraiser a try. I was supposed to get a link to upload them within 24 hour. I never got it.

I got my insurance advisor's name and sent him an e-mail. He was kind to not only write to me, but also call me.

He let me know that there are problems with this link. He first offered to get an appraiser to come to my home to inspect my car's damage. He then asked where I wanted to get my car fixed. I had a shop that I worked with in the past. He let me know that it does both appraisals and the actual work.

He arranged to get my claim information to them and I could simply drop by. After getting my winter tires installed, I drove over there.

The man helping me was nice, but not all there. He couldn't find my claim number after we verified it three times. He finally found it in his system.

He then couldn't get the printer to work. His counterpart wasn't wearing a mask when the sign on the door clearly stated that everyone needed a mask. Hmm...

He then asked whether I knew what my deductible was. I said that it was waived because I had reported the incident to the police. He asked me to check with my insurance. I said no. I got that fact from my insurance advisor this morning.

Sure enough, this guy saw the note that my insurance advisor had made on waiving the deductible. Yes, I don't need to do any checking.

Weird. I had a better experience my first time at this shop. Maybe he needed some caffeine.

Sunday thoughts and snow tires

I spent Sunday cooking and relaxing. I savour weekends a lot these days.

Later on today, I get my snow tires installed on my car. It's currently snowing lightly. Perfect timing!

Tires, masks, and long weekend

Well, my appointment to pick up my new nightguard at the dental office is now on Thursday at 10 am. Yesterday, I only had my car maintenance appointment to go to.

It was pretty straightforward. I got there, checked in, waited for my car, and it was done in roughly an hour. I have all-season tires on my car again.

The only downside was seeing a customer take down his mask twice. The duration was minutes each time. I stared him down both times, but he was too stupid to understand why I was annoyed. The signs clearly say to wear a mask at all times indoors. What a jerk!

My long weekend is now over. At least my workweek is three days in length.

Napping and appointments

I did a lot of napping on Monday. I enjoyed it.

I spent the last hour consolidating my tea collection. I have both looseleaf and bags in different areas. I put them all in one big storage area. I'm pretty pleased. We'll see how it goes.

I was supposed to get a confirmation call from my dentist. As expected, it never happened. It's for 10:30 am later today, but the woman said that it would be between 10 am and 10:30 am. The uncertainty is annoying.

Tomorrow afternoon, I get my winter tires swapped out. It was a good call to take the day off.

Relaxed thanks to a day off from work

I had a good day off. It was much needed.

My car has snow tires. This morning, it was 17C. The temperature dropped throughout the day. It's now 6C. My timing is spot as far as getting them installed.

Two more workdays are left before the weekend. I can't wait.

Safe dental appointment and a day off today

My dental appointment went well. I felt extremely safe. There were tons of safety precautions in place. I ended up sanitizing my hands four times!

The insurance procedure was better explained to me. The dental office asks that you pay for services upfront. It files a claim on your behalf instead of filing a claim yourself. Nice!

I am fortunate that my dental appointments are uneventful. I thought that not having been to the dentist for a year would require a ton of plaque being scraped off my teeth. Nope, my hygienist said that I've been doing a pretty good job in that department.

Today, I have a day off. I'm taking my car in to get my winter tires installed. I then have to run an errand. Other than those plans, I have the rest of the day to casually figure out what else I'd like to do.

Skidding on black ice is scary

On Tuesday, I worked from home for a second day. I had to go out and run a couple of errands, including the grocery store.

Coming home, I saw two accidents. What was scary was that I was driving along black ice and thought that I would end up hitting the car in front of me. It was scary. I stopped in time, thankfully.

Later on today, I am getting my winter tires installed on my car. I have had this appointment for a week. I'll feel at ease once my winter tires are on my vehicle.

Snow storm

We are expecting between ten to fifteen centimetres of snow today. It's starting to fall as I type.

I will likely work from home today. The hassle of driving into work under such conditions isn't worth the risk. I am also getting my snow tires on this Wednesday.

Snow in November doesn't happen often. It can and it is!

A controlling since of my manager

I have a love-hate relationship with my boss. When he is in a good mood, he's fine. He is also a control freak. Sometimes, he comes across as being annoying.

My small team tends to go out for lunch on Fridays. As of late, he seems to want to join in. I don't mind. However, I tend to be the only one driving. He has a two-seater car. Ugh.

Recently, he said that he has driven 5,000 km in his car since May. I said that I'm at 6,000 km and I've had my new car since August. I said that I drive to work. He said the same thing. What he doesn't seem to remember is that I live farther from the office than he does. It's 50 km one-way for me.

On Friday, he wanted to do Korean food. That's fine. I haven't had Korean in a while. Naturally, I was driving. He first said that I hope that I knew where I was going. I said that I need passengers to keep their eyes open for a place that all of us haven't been to. I have two GPS apps on my phone.

While driving, my air pressure light went on. He heard it and questioned it. I said that it will go away, as it has been cold, and has turned off for the past two days. He basically said, "No, you don't understand," and went into a whole lecture about what to do. I was annoyed.

He then questioned the route that I was using.

"Google maps says to go down the street that we were on," he said.
"I'm' not on Google maps. We are going this way," I replied.

I can see why I don't like backseat drivers. The last time I experienced this situation was with my friend's ex-boyfriend years. In that case, I actually knew where I was going. Just chill.

The Korean restaurant was good. Unfortunately, he chose a fairly expensive restaurant. I felt bad for our intern for shelling out that much money for lunch.

Part of me wants to ban our manager from these lunches. I don't have to deal with such weird control issues. He doesn't know when to simply shut up and go with the flow.

Snow tires and 60's music

It's the middle of May. I finally got my snow tires off.

This past winter was the first time that I got snow tires. I have lived in Minnesota and Manitoba for nearly nine years when you total everything. I don't know why I waited that long to get them, but they were great during all the snow and ice that we got here.

I have my tires stored at the dealership. I had originally wanted my tires changed last week, but there wasn't enough time to get them out of storage. So, it happened on Wednesday.

I seem to be able to strike up a conversation or have some sort of common bond with drivers shuttling me between the service centre and my home. Getting a ride home consisted of my humming to 60's music with my driver. He was enthusiastically tapping his hand to the beat. He was great in using is GPS to get me home.

"It's my first time not providing directions to get me home. Instead, I got to listen to 60's music," I remarked.
"You seem young to know 60's music," he noted.
"I grew up listening to that era. It was my mom and dad's decade, so I had no choice but to listen to it. Today was like reliving my childhood, but not my decade of music," I replied.

He smiled. I thanked him for making my day.

Dinner and spanking options

We left the office the other night and headed towards my car. Although dopey, my guy noticed my winter tires.

"Hey, I get to see your winter tires on Bluie for the first time," he said.
"Yep, they are my Michelins," I replied.

We got into my car and I drove us to our usual Chinese restaurant. It was nice holding hands along the way.

I parked. We walked over to the restaurant. We had forty minutes before the restaurant would close for the evening.

We were promptly seated at a booth. We were advised that the kitchen would be shutting down at 21:30.

"What do I normally get?" my guy asked me, still sobering up.
"You get the ginger beef," I replied.
"Oh, yeah. That's right," he said, smiling at me.

Moments later, I placed our order. We then chowed down.

My guy sobered up quite nicely once there was food in his system.

"Do you know how much your hotel room was when you visited me?" he asked me.
"I'm not sure. I'll need to look my bill up," I said, getting my phone.

My guy is pretty good at paying me back. Although I would have been fine shelling out the bill, he always insists on at least splitting the cost. He's sweet that way.

We finished just before the restaurant closed. Nice! We paid and left.

I drove us back to the office.

"I can either spank you in your car or at the office. I'm giving you the choice," he said, holding my hand.
"How about at the office? You have never spanked me there since we moved buildings," I said.
"Sounds good. No one is at the office at this hour," he noted.
"I'm a good girl, though," I playfully teased.
"No, you're not. Why do you think that I always spank you?" he asked.
"You like to," I noted.
"I do," he admitted.

I always enjoy getting a spanking from him.

New winter tires and shuttle driver comparison

Wednesday was a long day. It was also a good one.

I finally got my winter tires installed on my car. It makes a huge difference. I'm glad that I got them.

I had to get a shuttle ride home and back to the car servicing centre. I had two different shuttle drivers.

Some drivers need to work on their conversational skills. I felt like I was being interrogated by the first driver.

"What's wrong with your car?" he asked me, pulling out of the service area.
"There's nothing wrong with it. I'm getting winter tires," I replied.
"Are you parents Chinese?" he asked me.
"Yes," I replied.
"How long have you been in Canada?" he asked me.
"All my life," I replied.
"How long is that?" he asked.
"I'm not telling you. I would be revealing my age," I said firmly.

The interrogation stopped. I turned the table and asked him about cruises that he has been on.

On the contrary, I enjoyed chatting with the driver going to the service centre to pick up my car.

"Hi there," I said, getting into the van.
"Hello. Cold, huh?" he asked me.
"I used to live in Winnipeg. Today is a good day," I replied (-14°C).
"You must be a good winter driver," he concluded.
"You do learn how to drive in winter conditions when you are in Winnipeg," I replied.

We ended up talking about his winter driving experiences in Tokyo and more. He had one other customer to pick up. We all ended up chatting about being a mail carrier (this customer's mail carrier had just handed him his mail while he was walking towards the van).

When I was doing paying and getting my paperwork, my service advisor shook my hand, and wished me a happy Christmas and 2018 to come. He's a good person.

I drove home happy with my new wheels.

First snowfall

We got our first snowfall this winter on Tuesday. It happened just before 16:00. Yep, just before rush hour begins. How fitting!

A colleague indicated that he was going home early and would work from home. I liked that idea and followed suit, indicating to my team to do the same, if they wanted to. Our manager was at an appointment in the afternoon. Perfect!

It was good that I had left the office early. It took me nearly two hours to get home. On a good day, I can get home in forty minutes.

I'm getting winter tires installed on my car on Wednesday. My timing is a bit off, but it's better a bit late than not at all.

My guy is fortunate to be missing all this snow. However, the first snowfall is always nice to look at.

Research on winter tires by my guy

My guy is sweet. I asked him for help on getting winter tires for my car. He said that he would look for deals for me.

He loves Kijiji. He found a fairly decent set of used tires that have barely been used. The person is within my neck of the woods. My guy even pointed out what I should look for and what questions I should ask.

It's nice to have a knowledgeable tire guy.

Friday workday and dashing to look at tires

Last Friday was the last time that I would see my guy this month. He is on the road for the next three weeks.

After lunch on Friday, he told me that he wasn't sure when his seminar would be over. He said that he'd call me.

He didn't. He wasn't being rude. He hadn't forgotten. I had told him previously that I'd leave work at 15:00, simply because I work more hours than I should. With the entire team lagging behind with the work that we have to complete and with a surge of craziness that afternoon, I stayed at work till 17:00.

I decided to visit my guy. He was still in the training room. However, there were two developers with him and I wasn't sure whether the seminar was ongoing. My guy said that he had just finished half an hour ago. I said that work got hectic, so I ended up leaving later than normal.

I sat next to him to chat. The developers slowly left the room. My guy was looking for used tires online. I teased him when I saw more than twenty tabs open in his Chrome browser. It was fun teasing him. I eventually called him tire guy.

My guy made a call to one tire seller. They had arranged to meet at 19:00. That time meant that my guy had to leave.

"You'll be okay, right?" he asked me. I pouted. "That means yes."
"No, three weeks is a long time," I said, like a little girl.
"I'll call you. I promise," he reassured me.
"Okay, tire master!"

He looked back at me with a huge smile on his face. I caressed his head. We kissed and I watched him leave the room. He told me later that night that he got the tires. He would have to wait for a bit to get them installed on his car. He is still on the lookout for two more tires.

It's never a dull moment being with him. I have a feeling that it's true with me, too.