💥 Eve of the New Year

 💥Thirty first of December twenty twenty - five

On tap for today is get some food in because this is New Year's Eve. We're thinking about Italian so we're in  veal cutlet sandwich territory. Maybe lasagna or something we'll just see. But we're going to bring food in.

 Well there's one for you now, I go to Calabria bakery they've had a fire, so guess what. They can only do phone orders and I didn't know and I'm sitting there in the parking lot so no way. So decide that on the way home I'm going to pass Sammy's this is a family restaurant they do almost everything

But Sammy's is closing at 3:00 today, so no lasagna or big tray items. So we ended up with veal parmesan with spaghetti and chicken sticks with french fries. Both come with salads. Actually very good salads 

This is a follow-up to a follow-up to a follow-up. What is it all about? Well I'm lying in bed using a heating pad to keep my little toesies warm. Then I decide look, they always say heat could help injuries or sores or whatever you got, muscle strain. I put the heating pad on my hip.

Normally,  every morning I get up and I am aching for about 20 minutes or 10 minutes. Give or take a little bit either way.

 And this morning I put the heating pad on my hip. Let it stay for 40 minutes and I get up just about pain-free seriously. Pain-free ! freaking idiot I am for not trying this sooner. Oh well, at least I tried it so here we have it. I have osteoarthritis of the hip. Probably, some  sort of back involvement there as well

BUT ...... heat will make it better and I don't need to take pills. I just need to put heat on

 scary. Sad Didn't think of it till now

For dins, M .... And I shared the veal parmesan and spaghetti 🍝 - very tasty

🌞 and the penultimate of this year

 🌞 and big blue sky and your face will freeze off, today in the ' boro

roads look clear. and the landscapers laid down fresh salt, as in salt on top of salt

survived the cold and got Chinese takeout
where super busy checkout consisted of mammoth orders AND me w / 2 items ( go figure)

🛍 on DE 29 ....... ->

🛍 ..... - - > a new ish year

Sunday brought rain and then rain. Supposedly, freezing rain followed by normal wet. Luckily NO

However the front eavestrough over flowed. This AM went out and the gutters were clear. A touch of leaf debris BUT nothing really 

Next I detached the lower pipes and  nada. Thus, we imagine just too much water at one time.

I guesstimate that at some point the mass of water blew out a leaf plug and Bob s Your Uncle This conjecture is totally unsupported by evidence
grateful that the situation resolved. I went out there w / a drill and spare screws, a pump and cutters

today. snow flurries. Swirling a lot. Predicted to be freezing plus a few degrees. Felt rather uncomfortable

Air fryer. On Saturday, bought Octberfest from the Butcher [ 3 for $ 15 ] Checked a found a video ' air fry sausages '. 400 F for 10 - 15 minutes. And 15 minutes it was. 
the claim. cooked perfectly, dry and browned. All the grease trapped below the grill in the container.
The verdict. yes. yes. yes.  You do poke the sausages to release the fat / grease. There is flipping needed at the halfway point.

🌰 DE 28

 🌰The following is a copy / paste of a message sent by WhatsApp. There is a group of M  ... s relatives in the UK [ and us ]

" Dec 27 or the day after the day after 

Sitting after exercise w / a West Coast India Pale Ale 

fruity and not pretentious 

a reward for  ........ Something 

Ah. " making it this far "

" A shipwreck sailor on this shore bids you set sail. Full many a gallant craft weathered the storm ere this one was lost "

an epitaph on a Mediterranean gravestone "

BTW. this message got no replies

 ' boro conditions ' wait for it '. exactly, what the weather dude s and dudettes are telling us. Let s see. " a bomb ' unusual heavy rain, look out 
whatever, not nice. outside right now ,  a bit raw but the wind is a factor

yes. the wind is up. rain for sure. but the downspout is dripping [ not that cold, I guess ]

***** Dec 27

 Is there an ' IPA ' smell or fragrance etc

Opinion on West Coast style IPA. Nickel Brook, slight citrus feel, aftertaste a touch bitter 

Overall - a good ' un
" from AI ' search
A West Coast IPA is a bold American craft beer style known for its assertive bitterness, crisp dryness and prominent hop character,  feturing piney, resinous, citrusy [ grapefruit ], and sometimes tropical notes from hops like Cascade, Centennial and Simone.
Aha. there is a smell to an IPA, thats fairly unique 

' boro conditions okay, so quite a blowing mess that happened yesterday w / swirling snow, sideways snow and pretty much a blizzard whiteout type condition but actually by about 8:00 p.m. everything had mostly settled down. Overnight, nothing, pretty normal but snow plows came out starting about 8:00 last night and our landscape company came and cleaned out our driveway [ ??? AM ]
 So you wake up in the morning and everything's good. Only problem was Saturday was garbage day meaning the recycling bin and our green bin had to go out but the driveway was snowed in. So at 6:00 A on Saturday morning I had to jump out of bed and I had to put out the garbage cans. Little bit of a hassle but what the heck everybody did their job. I lost a bit of sleep but other than that good.

For today s emergency run [ meat ], I got into the Butchers at 9 AM or so and bought lean mince beef and 3 Oktoberfest sausage.

Yes, We had smash burgers for dins. Verdict .... terrific or excellente

🌨 ----->

 🌨.... yes, sideways snow. Basically, swirled all morning
then it witched to sideways or horizontal precipitation 

cold and raw. plain ugly

we hibernated. and watched the spectacle unfold. accumulation is to be 4 inches + / -

Aha. But will Amazon get through w / a delivery

We shall see said the Zen Master

🇨🇽 so this is Christmas ......

 🇨🇽 ... actually, the flag of Christmas Island ....
should have gone all North Pole on this one

' boro is dark. Awake at 6, but drowsy and under the sheets for 45 min 
coffee burbling. arranging M .. s Xmas card
usually made from scratch but this year, it will be an upcycle card

I am taking a generic card and adding stickers from charity add ins that come as enticers the envelope Yes,a real recycle effort

weather for the Great White 'South ' will have temperatures at freezing or slightly above and minimal precipitation 

M ... says, maybe significant white stuff on Boxing Day

We shall see said the Zen Master

dinner was the frozen turkey from 5 days ago. Stuffing, gravy too. AND we added potato and rice. Still lots left. It was a 13 lb turkey for three people so slightly overkill,
BUT 10 lb 15 lb amounts to the same hassle overall

Prezzies were booze and clothes plus some jewellery which she claims to like
... and a book by Ted Chiang which contains the short story that was foundation for the movie " Arrival '. Commentators claimed that you need to read the story

🪢 to the old times .....

 🪢... remembered .... this 24 th of December
Alison Krauss sang ' Get me Through December .......
so, I can start again ....

' boro is cold and mostly still
I have errands to run this AM early. some groceries for Eve dinner
a tradition of sorts

expecting crowds to build after 9

get your skates on

well. coffee and typing [ oh, and time for my hip to loosen up and be useful ]

🚒 DE 23

 🚒 .... and follow up and the  ' boro report

odds now are that we will have a white Christmas. Yes
b/ c about an inch fell last night, and unless the rain comes or warm ish air
this coating stays
out there it is raw but frigid, encore uncomfortable

in time for Xmas. a three pack of extension cords, two feet long and lighted to indicate power flow. also, there are three outlets on the female end
oh ! well, 
years ago, I bought an adaptor [ three prong, indoor ] w / the power light.
and using it this year, I noticed the power light was out. on searching, it was the ground fault that had tripped at the actual outlet.
however, the inside of the adaptor was browned a bit [ oops ! there ]. cannot be good

this newest iteration of the lighted adaptor is ' indoor / outdoor '

follow up. snow is gone w / residual layers in certain spots [ I was wrong ]

🕋 XXII of the XII

 🕋 day is looking fair. temperature hovering around freezing. Environment Canada is saying ' very little chance for a white Xmas [ good and bad ] mostly good

around the house. someone noticed that the downstairs toilet ran on [ did not stop ]. first step is to jiggle the float assembly. nope.
thus, this morning as per YouTube, I turned the adjustment arm counter clockwise [ three times ] and SuCCess. However, I did take note that the float seems to slip on its central post. so, there could be a more permanent problem of sticking  [cleaning needed ? or replacement ]

lunch out on ' take the old guy to lunch ' day

Picked up some food stuffs for holiday quick meals

' boro is raw. windy and cooler - uncomfortable

we'll live

🧑‍💻 DE 21

  🧑‍💻  The day was exercise and visit the neighbours for a Xmas social.

 " boro was winDY and slightly frigid, feeling raw .

So let's get together, involves the three guys that fish together D  ...., my next door neighbour and D ... s long-time friend F ... so the families get together

 little bit of food. Little bit of drink and topics re: talk about fishing and vacations. 

....... what's going on in your life.
That kind of thing very very pleasant.
Our house were slobs this year. We didn't prepare Christmas Thank you gifts for the other couples ...... they they remembered us. We didn't remember to do our job so I had to fake it a part way job and still have a little more to do. I re - gifted really quick and will make up during the week [ I hope ]
no sure that we have an excuse [ can you think of one ????? ]

🦃 🦃 🦃🦃serve em up day

🦃 🦃 🦃🦃 sitting in the fridge in au jus. warm up and present [ at 6:30 P ]

' boro almost snow free [quite a bit of rain ] and cool ish for DE but raw is the word.

setting up the house for visitor and Xmas gathering [ small ]

sun is out and of course, changed the scene. hope and light 

Dinner was a hit, thank you muchly

🦃🦃 yes, into the oven you go !

    🦃🦃 🦃🦃 on Dec 19 at 1 PM ETA

Best of Luck ol' boy

its later in the day. the bird came out at 5:30 P. so far, all temperatures are bang on. this is now the resting period, cool down the meat and juices soak back in

Ah. carving. the dreaded 1 / 2 h. I do try my best. And have watched          Good housekeeping ' Carving a turkey ' video. Ready as I will ever be

however, every year or bird is the same angst

' boro is cool and windy and damp. not frigid but uncomfortable

success is counted sweetest by those who ne'er succeed ...... eval says ' not bad ' some sloppy bits. however, 2 trays of turkey that look unmutilated 

🦃 a story of warming

My morning view, looking South, barely moved from the chair 💺 

 🦃our turkey is thawing. cooking is on Friday. guest comes on Saturday. AND yes there will be turkey for Xmas day

' boro is again headed for freezing and above and more melt

The preparation begins. First of all it was cooking the celery, the sausage and the onion. This is the base for the stuffing, next Will come the bread. This is the bulk of the stuffing so this is my mother's recipe handed down to my wife who has taken it over as her own and although they call it the Karatsu stuffing it's not -  it's Margaret stuffing 

As well, for an encore performance I tried air fryer onion rings. Again. This is in place of deep frying. Of course I did purchase a sprayer that is an oil sprayer that would put a light coating of oil onto the food so that you're not soaking the oil into the food 

I cut the onion rings a little bit thicker. Didn't use panko the way they suggested but I did use a double dredge of flour. Alrighty, everything worked out. However The taste was just slightly disappointing. Nothing wrong, just a little disappointing

❇ thus far in the saga Dec 17 / 25

 ❇ in the ' boro, forecast calls for a slight warm up above 32. bringing unsettled conditions no doubt. And big winds sweeping thru our burb. Damp feeling, thus everything is uncomfortable.
snow is melting quickly, eavestrough flowing as in a rain storm

Alrighty. exercise is done [ yeah ! look it's supposed to be fun but TG when its finished ] 
Still think that the sweating part is a big gain. Clear the pores and freshen the skin.

🚛 in the ' boro 251216

 🚛 dark and mysterious. typing w/ coffee [what else ]

not quite getting to 32 F but slightly up from the past three days.

I did manage to run errands this AM
1. to the accountant, to appeal for more money returned
2. the ATM for M .... as well made the liquor store. Empty parking lot and store [ no time, like now ]
3. Giant Tiger for a mix of pantry items and some small gifts
4. Skyland for the hot Chinese takeout. Sweet/ sour chicken. sushi and some groceries

🚚 decembre quinze

 🚚 in the  ' boro, flurries [ and likely over three days, the same ]
oping for a quieter week.
I was out and about for 4 days last week. nothing over exhausting BUT ....

chill this week.

Soup day yielded approx 8 bowls of chicken stock. mostly, to make chicken / rice / corn soup.
Or vermicelli and veg soup

 " Will there be any stars in my crown in the evening when the Sun goeth down? " lyrics and music by Caroline Shaw whom I'm watching more and more on YouTube. Very interesting composer

Alrighty. 10 AM was my haircut appt. Guessing two months since the last one. From the get go, it felt like a rug was being lifted off. Massive hair loss, good.
Roads were driveable but getting slicker [ snow flurries plus the fairly cold temperatures.

back to Caroline Shaw. A Pulitzer prize winner in Music. The lyrics as quoted above were historically, from an older campfire sing along. She fitted a melody and bingo bango, a great hymn [ song ] [ benediction ? ]

🍾 December 14 /25

 🍾 the boro outlook is cold. wind is quiescent. view is clear w / cloud cover. Update at 11:30 AM, brilliant sun, mostly blue up there, slight cloud cover

A slow morning, as in ' is there ever a fast one ? ' However, turkey [ for Friday roasting ] is out of the freezer.
AND took a turkey carcass [ or 2 ] from the freezer to a pot, w / the end hope of a slow simmered stock. Bearing in mind that another turkey carcass will be available in 4 days. 
' bout time, 'nuff said

computer issues. For about 9 months, a window pops up at random ' photos keep stopping ' in reference to the Google Photo App [ ? ] After several tries at remediation, in which the Photo App became non responsive I called A .. to make sure that I understood the ramifications of certain actions.

Advice was before ' power wash ' or factory reset, backup data not in the cloud.
Thus last night, I cleared the cache and storage in the Photo App. Really, not much changed, as in, photos were not available.
ACTION.delete the App. Restart [ clears memory for programs ]. Go back in and re - install Google Photo App. A whole lot of waiting. Too long. The magic cure. Restart and let the innards do their thing.
Try to open Photo App. Slowly, mightily slowly, the photo window began to fill.
In essence, the photos were stored in the cloud or on the Chromebook and not in the App

Success ? We shall see said the Zen Master  

the stock pot saga. doing quite necley thank you. for lunch, I scooped out some stock dosed the liquid w / soya and Maggi [ for umami flavouring ], picked out some veg added cooked corn. Boiled some vermicelli, on the grounds, that rice noodle is better than flour.
Result, quite tasty [ even better felt healthy ]

along the way. managed to drink a Guinness. Sunday, cooking, not driving, why not 

👙 oh boy, Dec 13

 👙and counting
our dilemma is when to defrost the turkey. advice says 2 days. we need three min and maybe more

will follow up 

' boro is snowy looking w/ white on the ground under an inch [ ? ] dull and cold appearing

coffee in hand and typing away 

my day report. slugged around for the morning 
next felt guilty and got to exercising BUT simultaneously, did two loads of wash, colour and whites
exercise was hum drum. lately, I've been benchmarking AV BPM at 110 to 116. AND not necessarily terribly tiring. Of course, the 110 + ABPM is leaning toward the aerobic and better heart and lung emphasis

after 6: 30 PM , it was taped shows, Midsommer Murders and Lewis [ our Brit indulgences ]

🎑 XII of XII in the ' boro

 🎑 ... you're as cold as ice .... or you will be as cold as ice, as the temperature soars to 25 F
a very slow soar

sunny like crazy, small chance of precipitation

unfortunately, there is a visitation at 5 P for a Leacock alum who passed away at 60 and bit y.o. All four sibs attended Leacock. a warm and gentle group

⛱ for the XI of XII

 ⛱ no brollies no sand [ oops lots on the streets, I think ]

a cold, cold day, going for 20 F [ and that's a push ]. Sun is trying hard, air seems still

we managed to get out and shop. bought a turkey [ apparently, a sale price ] 14 # for $ 18.

Ran to Shoppers Drug M for essentials. 
yes cold, sun was out and the wind bearable

for the evening, I ventured out to Scarborough Town Centre [ 2 x in a week ], for the regular [ now ] Leacock alum meet up. Wowsers, 3 former teacher s and four students. Marvy time

I found sweet potato fries and chicken bites [ couldn't find the sushi place ] so, as the only negative, a fine session

💺 on DEc 10 in the land of snow

 💺 and rain [ yes, on top of the white, or in the white, or jumbled in ]

however, I get to be a spectator [ TG ] w / coffee in hand 

This is a follow-up. I purchased an air fryer about 2 weeks ago. So far we've tried breaded chicken instead of deep fried. You know we did the air fry thing, hopefully less oil. I think I crowded the chicken a little bit because wasn't quite as crisp as you may have hoped 

They show you in the videos anyways. I've tried some potatoes and things like already cooked breaded shrimp and they've turned out not bad. 

Today though it was onion rings, less calories, less oil than deep frying. I tried to  use my best instincts 

I might have cut the onion rings a little bit too thin and also it appears I cook them a little bit too long. However, there is a bit of trial and error in all this.

 things I learned were it's okay to cut them as thin as I did. But you got to watch because I put it in for 14 minutes at about 375 which I thought was reasonable but they were really darkly done. Some of them were like a little bit too Brownie crisp but it's a learning lesson

Tasted not bad. Had it on top of rice so it kind of killed  the burnt flavor a bit but I learned and will try again. Next lesson, use a dipping sauce b / c a little mayo and Catalina dressing made a huge difference. On the vids, common practice is ketchup dipping [ not for me ]

Follow up from August 2012. The title seems to be " Email this Blog " share to Twitter and Facebook. How this went - haven't a clue.
.... have you seen the muffin man & other mixed items.
Today is muffin day. Raisin bran muffins. The recipe comes off the bag for Rogers Whole Bran, slightly modified by moi. To wit, the oil is canola and the flour is whole wheat [ this might make the muffins denser vs white flour, good or bad ? ]. Splenda brown sugar vs regular brown sugar, well. I insist o real vanilla extract vs the artificial kind [ alcohol and esters and brown dye ]

and this went on for 6 weeks. Now, I find a page that is titled ' Two Sentence Blogging - evolves to paragraphs.  The history as I recall, starts w / ' Two Sentence Blogging ' and that morphed into ' Two Sentence Blogging - evolves to Paragraphs '. As at now the title is ' Sending to the Ether '

Wowsers ! August 2012.

And tonight the air fryer attempt, good results. Potatoes quartered and boiled for 6 minutes. Rolled in oil. Then into the air fryer for 20 min at 390 F. Browned nicely and soft inside

Clean up easy. 

 

 

🚌 🚈 ... the better way

 🚌 🚈 a saga of travel in the city

I likely travelled just under 20 miles, from Scarborough at Bellamy Rd to Runnymede in the west

Mode was driving to Scarborough Town Centre mall to park. boarding the Express Bus from Scarborough Centre station to Kennedy Stn subway stop and out to Runnymede

Little glitches. I planned the trip and allowed 10 minutes at each transfer for delays.
Thus, when you find that there is an ' express ' bus then you will be early. However, the subway was slow for the first 4 stops [ track work ]. 
All in all, I reached Runnymede about 20 minutes too early. So, I stopped at a CIBC branch and bought change and five dollar bills [ never have enough ! ]

Restaurant was 1 block away. I was third to arrive and the rest as they say was EZ peasy

Driving would have been one hour at least, then try and park.
the transit trip was 1 .45 H including the drive to Town Centre

Another travelling day

East by car for M ... S girl lunch w / staff from her first school 40 Miles as the car goes

Swirly snow began at 2 P and we drove into the mess coming east. Greasy and drippy weather 

Safe home tho"

🧑‍💻 in the Bleak Mid Winter

 🧑‍💻 ....... tres froid .... and yes that qualifies as ' bleak '
but there sun is trying.

high school graduating year re - union, pleasant but sad ' you never get to go back '

everyone was pleasant to me [ vice versa as well ]

🛣 decembre seize

 🛣 or the quarter way through the month and 18 days to Xmas

snowy in the  ' boro. yes, called winter. S Ontario winter 

" I'm your huckleberry " from Wyatt Earp [ Tombstone ] ala Doc 

I waited for a time to use that line so.

total flop. can't remember the scenario but fizzled- big time

a busy week of re - unioning. Graduating high school class on Monday

Tues. for M ... fellow staff

Thurs the LLMU meet

Fri. [ sadly ]  visitation for a former student [ all 4 sibs are SLCI alum ]

🚟 on the 6 th of december

 🚟 typing and viewing the street. all quiet and dim

no coffee but sipping warm water w / ginger and lemon
a hydration service

🍱 decembrinus cinquos

 🍱 yeah, making up a new language ala Tolkien

" no more  flippin' Elves " to quote C.S. Lewis

day is dull, warmer than yesterday [ which wasn't too bad ]. slight wind and snow is likely

As well, yesterday, by accident, news arrived that a former colleague had died. Approx 78 y.o.

follow up at night
sun burst out. still damp.
exercise day
TV was a big bust : ' Grassland ' slow and slower

                                ' the Pledge ' got too sad. hopeless

                               ' the Little Mermaid ' somebody should have shot her, sooner

food was bagels and leftovers, Chinese and souvlaki dinner [ life is tough ]

I take the Colbert Questionert [ to be revealed to the world ]

dogs      [ or cats ]
apples  [ or oranges ]
the Beatles [ first concert ]
window [ or aisle ]
vanilla   [ fav smell ]
diesel     [ worst smell ]
bacon
and cheese, toasted / open face [ fav sandwich ]
oblivion  [ when we die ]
spiders [ scariest animal ]
there will
' My One and Only Love '[ one song, that you listen to forever ]
"my one and only  love " [ your remaining life in five words ]
calling an oar
a shumuji [ rice ladle ] earliest memory
Mark Mckoy [ asked for a autograph from - or Patti ORourke ?????? first ]

🏩 .... what a difference a day makes .....

 🏩 .... of course, you not.
' boro is light and cold [ not cold ish , cold ! ]. clouds away on the edge of the sky

yesterday was pub day. a beer and grab takeout from the Stone Cottage.
comment : choice was chicken soulvlaki . pleasant Greek salad. one skewer of chicken, fries and pita quarters. My first thought was garlic bread would be preferred. Wrong !. Tasty little wedges. Fries were a touch soggy [ our fault] but re heated. Okey Dokey

decided that ' this was the day ' for long delayed action
1. gathered up paint cans [ approx 12 ] and loaded up for a run to Hazardous Waste Depot.
2. found a receipt for empties [ not used ] and a long w / 15 cans and bottles went to the Beer Store for returns [ and cas back ]. Clerk said that I was meant to use the receipt ' day of ' but pleasantly re punched the entry. Success

Well. I figured make it a good day all around and stopped for takeout at Skyland, Chinese hot table. Sushi and the # 2 combo came home.

OK. a fine day

🪩 for the ' boro 11 - 03

 🪩 a dull start [ day and me ] damp and cool w / the wind noticeable
our pattern is precipitation imminent

🚠 DE 2 ish

 🚠  ' boro got sno and I'm awake at 5:30 A. Listening to snow service and newspaper delivery 

Or 

the noisiest quiet person 

👘 ... " get me through December ....... "

 👘 ......  so that I can start again .... as sung by Alison Krauss

COLD ! news of the day

however, roads were passable. Sunday is Giant Tiger shopping day, EXCEPT when the first Monday of the month is involved. B / C that is Senior s Day and 10 % off. 
OK. not much but feels better shopping.
Aha, that s why the switch
still bleeding cold, tho '