Category Archives: technology

food…

13 Tuesday Oct 2015

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feel like I haven’t been as good as I should have about eating lately…

yesterday, besides a lovely turkey dinner, I ate three cookies, sigh…

took the rest of them to the office this morning so I wouldn’t be tempted to eat any more of them…

my new doctor has advised that he doesn’t want me to take any blood sugar readings, because they can cause additional stress… I wonder if it causes more stress for me when I don’t know what my levels are…

today I got back on track… had a smoothie for breakfast… with berries, yogurt and spinach…

  
doesn’t look that great, but tastes good and is healthy…

for lunch I had some salmon with wild rice, and fresh veggies…

  
for my supper I had turkey leftovers, with reheated mashed potatoes and cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and turnip… instead of gravy, I decided on stuffing…

  

been doing some research and have discovered that reheated potatoes have a resistant starch when consumed… also using Pro-Activ margarine which helps lower cholesterol…

hope I can stay on track…

prep…

10 Saturday Oct 2015

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spent time in the garden today…

first thing was emptying the hot tub…

  
takes quite a while to drain…

  
then, while it filled, I emptied pots and baskets… also cut back, and cleaned off the dahlia tubers as I prepped the garden for winter, sigh…

brought in the last of the flowers and blooms from the dahlias… hope they continue to bloom like the canna has…

  
put out a few Thanksgiving decorations, set the table for Monday’s dinner, and watched some tv…

made stuffing… tomorrow I will prepare the vegetables, which makes it much more relaxing on Monday…

I looked out the window at one point and the light looked odd so I ran downstairs and checked the front and back windows…

the sky was spectacular…

   
out the back…

 
through the front… just a few minutes later this is what I saw…

 
have been blessed to have caught so many gorgeous views of the sky in the last while…
so much to be thankful for…

vote…

06 Tuesday Oct 2015

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took this picture first thing of one of the cannas which was blooming… had cut the two spent blooms off when it came into the house on Sunday…

  
stuck the stalks into another pot to let them finish drying so I might be able to plant some seeds in the spring… then I spotted this…

our election is coming up and everyone was supposed to receive a voting card in the mail…

I haven’t received one…

have lived in this house for over forty years… have voted in every election since I was old enough… always had the appropriate documentation for each of those elections…

went online to see if I could figure out what to do in this situation… checked the voters list and I am on it… but couldn’t find a phone number to speak with a live person, or an answer to my question about what to take to the polls to be sure I can vote…

tonight I found this in my mailbox…

  
hope I have read it correctly… planning to vote at the Advance Poll on Friday as I am off, and it is at the Community Club which is just a few blocks from the house… 

will take my ID and go early in case there are any problems…

tonight I took another picture of the same flower…

  
beautiful with the light shining on it…

looking forward to voting and making my voice heard… hope everyone else who is eligible makes use of this right…

food…

02 Friday Oct 2015

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every day is a test to eat as well as possible…

  
weekdays, I usually start with a smoothie… pretty easy to make and goes down fairly quickly… been using plain Greek yogurt with a fruit yogurt, frozen fruit, spinach and almond milk… I use my immersion blender and drink it right out of the measuring container it gets made in… I try not to use too much sweetener so don’t put any in the smoothies which is why I include the fruit and fruit yogurt…

lunch today was a treat…

  
met my daughter at Blaze in the Delta… had a steak sandwich with a small goat cheese, quinoa and chickpea salad…

  
nice… not sure I’d order the salad again, but I really like their beet salad… there’s something about the place… remodelled not long ago, but it has a kind of cold atmosphere… 

had a square of a small chocolate bar mid-afternoon… usually if I have a snack, it might be almonds or a few chips…

  
for supper had kale and quinoa bites with cauliflower and asparagus mash, radishes and a quick gazpacho…

  
try really hard to balance off, particularly if one meal is not as healthy as it should be…

record my food intake in the MyFitnessPal app on my phone… stayed in my calorie range…

pretty good day… 

velcro…

01 Thursday Oct 2015

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yesterday was filled with lovely messages from my colleagues…

among them came an email with an ezine article from Pauseworks.com…

it talked about how we act like we are covered with teflon when given compliments… we tend to brush them off… 

and we treat negative comments like velcro… letting them stick…

this certainly rang true for me… 

I remember years ago, having performance reviews that were filled with positive comments… but a single, not so positive, one would gnaw at me and I would forget or ignore all the good stuff…

for some time now I have been working hard to accept positive affirmation without putting a but into my response…

yesterday I accepted all of the comments… and soaked them up…

then I added them all to my comments folder in Outlook… great place to pop into and read when a day isn’t going so well…

  
the sunrise this morning was lovely…

  
sunlight on the top of the trees on the other side of the house…

just happened to look out at the exact moments to catch the beauty…

grateful…

30 Wednesday Sep 2015

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today I celebrated six years at my current work… I was so excited that I barely slept last night…

  
had been thinking for weeks about what I could make as a thank you gift for my colleagues…

decided on coasters with some of my photos on them… 

  
had a hard time choosing the pictures… going through my albums I needed thirteen but picked about fifty… decided to make them all, lol…

  
that was a good plan because I wanted everyone to be able to pick one they liked, not get stuck with something that didn’t speak to them…

spent time on Pinterest looking for a good process and then spoke with my daughter about best practices…

  
tried Modge Podge on a few, but that didn’t work… was very nervous about trying the resin but it was very simple once I got the hang of it…

as I worked, I thought about which person would choose which picture… I was right for about half…

  
my workplace is pretty special… I have been able to expand my “job” to fit my skills and likes and that is quite wonderful…

my colleagues are all great people who care about one another and the people we work with… 

in my work life I have been blessed… I haven’t really seen my positions as work, more as a calling… and this position has been no different… 

I am forever grateful to have these people in my life…

yesterday…

24 Thursday Sep 2015

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yesterday the clouds were lovely throughout the whole day…

  
stopped at the end of the street on my way to work and got this picture…

  
had an opportunity, at a light, to shoot the sky toward downtown…

  
enjoyed the clouds reflected in one of the buildings on my arrival at the office…

  
view over the new police headquarters…

like the clouds particularly when there is still some blue sky visible, lol… 

and finally, on the drive home, got this picture of the church steeple and sky…

  
sadly I was in some dreadful traffic at the time and had ample opportunity to check out the sky…

not sure why I have been so struck by clouds recently, although we have certainly had more dull overcast days over the last few years… way more than we used to have…

maybe that is why I love the morning glories which look like they are lit with sunlight from within…

  

fall…

23 Wednesday Sep 2015

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spent the evening making soup for Souper Thursday at the office… seemed like making soup on the first day of fall was good timing… 

  
decided on two types so there are offerings for a variety of dietary issues… 

first one is zucchini basil… simple, easy and tasty… 

  
my daughter found the recipe on Pinterest when her garden kept producing multiple zucchini along with lots of basil…

  
tastes very nice… hope everyone likes it as much as I do… 

I sure do love my purple immersion blender… it makes finishing soup so easy… using the regular blender is much more time consuming and messy, lol…

  
second one is really a made-up butternut squash soup… read a few recipes but really just went off on my own with what I had in the fridge and pantry…

  
this one was based on a crockpot recipe but I made it in my soup/pasta pot… squash, Granny Smith apple, onion, potato, chicken stock, spices and coconut milk… even put some red pepper flakes in it…

  
tastes pretty fine, with a bit of a bite…

as always when I’m cooking, I spend the time thinking of the people I’m going to feed as I work… makes the whole process much more meaningful for me…

for years I cooked for many – for various family, friend and catering events… these days it is usually for my kids, so I enjoy the opportunities to prepare something for others…

only down side is the fact that the dishwasher is on the fritz… hoping my son-in-law can come and clean out the spray arms which should fix the problem…

well, all done and in the fridge ready to go… lunch should be good…

Odysseo…

15 Tuesday Sep 2015

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topped a good day with a trip to Odysseo… what a magnificent show… horses and acrobats just doesn’t cover the experience…

we started the afternoon off with a visit to my doctor where it was all good news… I’ve lost another seven pounds and my sugars are pretty good… need a little work on cholesterol but doable…

from there we went to the zoo for a walk and visited the Persherons…

  
they were taking them into the barn for a snack when we arrived… so we got to see them close up in their stalls… they are big and beautiful…

saw the tent as we were heading down Kenaston… reminds me a a castle and courtiers…

  

we headed to Bellissimo for lobster mac and cheese, with baked Brie with pear and fig jam… oh my… first time there, won’t be the last…

  
then we rushed to a friend’s to print the tickets for the show… we just realized at the last minute that we needed a paper copy:-(…

 
quite a lineup for parking but we got in fine… might be interesting when we leave…

lovely to spend some one-on-one time with my daughter…

almost out of the parking lot… excellent process… obviously they’ve done this before…

if you get the chance go to the show… worth every cent…

pattern…

14 Monday Sep 2015

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as I work to lose the additional pounds that the doctor wants and to stay healthy and active I have been following a pattern…

get up in the morning… make and eat breakfast… take care of bathroom necessities… pack my lunch and take out whatever is needed for dinner…

then I spend fifteen to twenty minutes on the treadmill… it is set up in front of the tv in the basement… I watch a particular morning show while walking which makes the time fly…

  
the rest of the day I make sure to take extra trips to the printer, check in with colleagues in person instead of emailing, and get up and step away from my desk on a regular basis…

usually walk part way home… maybe just one block, but occasionally quite a bit further… sometimes I spend fifteen minutes of my lunch hour and walk on the treadmill at the gym in our building…

happily my Fitbit will vibrate and let me know I have reached my goal for the day…

usually on the weekend I will walk to and around the Park at least once…

sometimes in the evening I will spend a bit of time on the treadmill to ensure I have completed my steps and reached my activity goal…

the pattern has become ingrained and that makes me happy…

walking really is my favourite form of exercise…