Words are inadequate

it ain't all bad

2022-04-05T05:14:42Z

After I found out that the movers weren't coming today I called Erin, who talked me down and through it. Which was very much appreciated. I'm glad I still have Erin.

Aspects exists. I just got an email saying that my ebook preorder has dropped, and my hard copy is en route. (Should be here mid-next-week, so, either it arrives while I'm in Niagara or I have a long-awaited book to read instead.) I am holding off on reading it in ebook; for some reason I want to read it in hard copy first. That seems important. Also I lack the brain and emotional resilience right now to read The Last Of Mike Ford. (mrissa has some impressions of it. I am very much looking forward to this.)

Back in I guess November, when Kelsey came to visit, Erin rediscovered and introduced me to Bengal Spice Tea. Cinnamon and cloves and yum. So now I have a tasty thing to drink in the evenings. And I have my travel hot-water-pot, and the travel mug that my ex-company sent me a couple of years ago when they handed out swag in lieu of paying bonuses. So I have tea.

Laundry two doors down is not the same as laundry in the apartment, but it's a sight better than "laundry at the end of the hall and down a flight of stairs" or "laundry a twelve-minute drive away," which were the last two places I lived. (Technically the last one was "laundry at the end of the hall, also costing $4/load payable only in loonies," which is why it was a twelve-minute drive away instead.)

I went out this evening and bought myself a chair for the porch and a tray-table-thing, so now I have some furniture. The bar stool is good for perching on but no good for actually trying to work or anything. And sitting on the floor was getting old.

On Thursday morning my electric razor popped open and I lost one of the blades. I could order more, and will, but like Aspects they'd get here next week at the earliest. I could buy a new razor but I did that once already, my spare razor is packed and I don't need a third one. I could use an actual bladed razor but that is just an invitation to a whole lot of blood. So I'm experimenting with beardedness. It itches less than last time, at least so far. I doubt I'll keep it but it's nice to change things up from time to time.

The Indian place around the corner does a decent korma. The poutine place over the skytrain (less than a half-mile walk, though coming back is up a Significant flight of stairs) still has a delicious buffalo chicken poutine. River Market exists and I'll get down there eventually and have some barbecue from Re-Up, the only good barbecue I've had north of the Mason-Dixon line.

I have pots and pans. Mya, who came by to check on the place once a week while I wasn't there, found a decent set on Craigslist and left them in the apartment. I've also got an assortment of utensils: cheap measuring cups and spoons, a couple of forks from takeout, some misc stuff from the thrift store. So I can make breakfasts at least, and whenever I go grocery shopping for real I'll be able to make a few other things as well.

I don't like my situation at all, but it is not the worst situation I've been in.

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misc

2022-01-22T01:51:05Z

A pop-up vaccine clinic showed up in town early this week, so I went ahead and got my booster on Wednesday instead of waiting til my appointment in three weeks. As with my second dose I spent that evening and the entirety of the next day with a sore arm and no energy to speak of. There was a great deal of sitting on the couch and petting cats, and not as much snuggling Erin as I would have liked since she had her booster the day before I did and was back at work. Today as expected I'm doing much better. Yay immune system.

One of the things about "unoccupied home" insurance is that they require that someone go over to take a look at the place every so often. I asked ex-roomie Mya if she'd take care of this, since she lives relatively close, and she said sure, so she's been doing that. Good thing, too: as of a week and a half ago the bathroom sink has been occasionally coughing up water and gunk. I really did not want to have to deal with this before I've even moved in. I tried the "ignore it and maybe it'll go away" route and instead there was gunk spilled on the floor when she went in yesterday. So I've put in a request in with the building manager and hopefully it won't take too much longer to resolve.

I've begun making a pot of tea in the mornings, since the apartment water is no longer so terrible as to quickly make a pot undrinkable rather quickly. As a bonus, I can reuse the leaves to make a pot of tea in the evening with minimal caffeine. It's been nice to have something warm to drink as the light fades.

I've been experimenting with making pizzas as well. Still looking for a dough recipe I'm happy with. I'd like to be able to start the dough around lunchtime and be able to eat the pizza for dinner, and most of the recipes I've seen want the dough to sit around for a substantial amount of time. It's keeping me occupied, anyway.

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hiber nation

2021-02-13T19:14:32Z

The water in this apartment was terrible when I moved in. It was hard enough that the minerals in the water would bind to the tea and create this weird skin on top. That didn't taste bad but it looked really unpleasant and was hard to clean. So I got in the habit of using self-made teabags and having tea one (large) mug at a time.

Over the summer they did something to the water system and it's ... less bad. I'm still using a Brita but I no longer feel like it's absolutely required. And the tea doesn't skin over anymore. I'm still mostly making tea by the mug, though. Habits.

This morning I made myself a pot of Sikkim, a tea that's been my favourite since I picked it up on a lark from the Teavana in Tysons Corner. I'm slowly drinking it out of a small but gorgeous mug that Ellen gave me when Erin and I visited her on the island in 2019.

It's been a cold week here, down below -30 most nights. My heaters have been working overtime to keep up with the drafty windows, and I've been actually using both the quilts on the bed. I'm generally happy down to around -10 and fine at -20; much below that and I get cranky. Should be warming up later this week anyway. And it's plenty bright outside, which helps.

I'm watching Arrow, which is mostly enjoyable as a spine story for Flash and Legends... but in that sense it definitely is enjoyable. It weaves a complex network of character relationships, mostly for plot purposes but often enough there are interesting interactions there. It's nice to have this larger fictional world to immerse myself in.

Been cooking again, partly because running the stove / oven keeps the apartment a bit warmer. It's good to be back into feeding myself actual food. Later today I'll bake a couple loaves of sweetbread, and tomorrow breakfast shall be french toast.

I picked up the viola again this week as well, first time since July. I am of course incredibly out of practise but at least I know how to fix that. If it turns out to be something I stick with, I'm considering getting a set of octave strings, to make it sound like a cello, because I think that would be neat. Less useful for fiddle tunes, though.

Unrelated to any of the above: I wish the USPS were less hooped, but I've been wishing that for a decade now. Here's hoping last fall's damage is serious enough that fixing it will be something of a priority. (I also wish Canada Post were in better shape, but I don't know enough to even begin to speculate as to either causes or solutions there. Beyond the obvious "throw more money at it," of course.)

I appreciate that Hibernia, the Latin name for Ireland, means "Winterland," and that it shares a root with "hibernate." Dublin's at about the same latitude I am, too. I feel like I'm hibernating, this winter. This past year, I guess. Curious as to what spring will bring.

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mornings

2018-07-31T18:03:18Z

If I wake up early on a weekday morning, I get to go to morning yoga, which is awesome and stretchy and communal and just a really excellent way to get moving.

On the other hand, if I sleep in, or (more likely) if I let myself doze back off, I get to have breakfast at home, to include making tea with my good kettle.

It's nice to get to think of my life as choices between things I want to do.

Weekend mornings at home are of course better, because I can sleep in a bit, go to yoga which is either a delightfully strenuous workout or a relaxing stretchy yin class followed by a somewhat strenuous workout, and come home and have a proper breakfast. But it turns out one can't have weekends all the time.

(Weekend mornings with Erin are better still, though they don't usually involve yoga classes. I adore that she's also a morning person and that we can wake up to each other.)

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awake, because tea

2015-03-30T07:46:41Z

At eight it seemed like a good idea to have a cup of the tea that Ed gave us for xmas. (It's a flavored tea whose name escapes me but is on the tin, and is rather tasty; so saith the person who normally dislikes flavored teas, so.) At half past midnight it's seeming like a less good idea.

E & I watched Ronin again this evening. I remember going to see it in the Lyric when it came out, probably on a 75cent Tuesday, with Mandy and Vond and whoever else, and thinking, "They made a movie of a Cyberpunk game session." It's also namechecked in Night's Black Agents (the role-playing game of spies versus vampires) as a direct inspiration for the kind of gameplay Ken Hite was going for. It holds up very very well: great car chases, fun but not overdone dialogue, Sean Bean getting ambushed by a cup of coffee. Recommended. (Do not ever watch the "alternate ending" on the DVD. It is terrible and will make you think less of the movie by its very existence.)

My foot seems to be healing up from last weekend; it's just tight and a little sore across the front of the ankle. And my viola has come in at last, and I'll go and get it tomorrow. That will be good.

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