Cracked shells and plated. Ready to go...in our bellies! The past few days have been a whirl wind, ending with a very long drive to the airport and an even longer drive home. Luckily hubby headed out on Thursday as Friday was not an option in the blizzard that ravaged the province.
I had a forced day of rest with fingers crossed that the power wouldn’t go out and leave us in very frigid temperatures with only the wood stove to provide warmth. It's a great stove but in -18 temperatures it needs electric heat subsidy as the cold winds suck the heat right out of the place.
It’s been bitter, so much so the poor pups can't stand to be outside for more than 30 seconds before they lift their paws off the cold ground, sometimes they even fall over a bit, weakened by the paralyzing chill. I have to rescue them. They would perish quickly and my thoughts turn to the recent news about the poor creature that was left outside to freeze to death and wonder how anyone could think a dog doesn’t feel the cold…but I don’t want to get started on this as it upsets me to the point that vigilante thoughts creep in. It might be from writing a book about a serial killer, maybe some of the character's lack of appreciation for human life has rubbed off on me. But really, if you can treat an animal in this manner, maybe you don't deserve to live? I believe the breed was an American Staffordshire terrier, the poor dog didn't even have a coat of long fur to insulate him from the cold. If I have a cruel streak, it's triggered by child abuse and animal cruelty.....nothing provokes more emotion than hearing about helpless animals or small children suffering. (By the way, the fact is not lost on me that we killed lobster to dine on, which some would consider an act of cruelty. To me, there is a huge difference between creatures that we eat for food and animals that we adopt into our lives as family members.)
Anyway, I was severely storm stayed and didn’t think there would be much chance that I’d be ploughed out considering the downfall of white that needed shifting in the county, but low and behold they came early evening and scraped the driveway clean. My vehicle was almost buried. I could only see part of the windshield and top of the car from the house, the view was obstructed by a drift that built a four foot barrier. If I had to dig my way to the car no one would have seen me for a month of Sundays and only if they popped in during visitors hours at emergency. It was definitely a coronary amount of snow to remove.
The winds coming from the north blew snow all over the right side of the house leaving the left side pretty much clear for the dogs to go out and do their business in the morning. Then the wind shifted and blew the snow on the left side, covering the back deck in a foot of snow and surrounding drifts three feet high. The blustering swiftly removed the piles of white fluff from the right and renegotiated its landing on the left. So now the right side has exposed grass and partially cleared the steps to get up to where the car is parked cutting down on a couple of hours of shoveling to get to the car. I hope to get to work today but will undoubtedly be late. Maybe the shop will be open around noon.
So 2014 year is upon us but with any new birth there's a lot of labour that goes with it. There's year end responsibilities to clear the way for 2014 to take over and grow. I'm talking inventory counting and paper work. Although I groan getting started, I do enjoy it once the process begins. The twelve years training in accounting from a previous work life kicks in and I become very comfortable with the sea of white paper. The entire job takes about a week of concentrated work or two weeks of distracted effort, but I really plan to knock it out of the park early with the assistance of my son’s girlfriend who took accounting at university. She is coming to organize and enter all the expenses on spread sheets. I let this distasteful job go until year end but I do hope to manage things a bit better in 2014 with daily entries so they don’t pile up and overflow the file box. We were a lot busier in 2013 so there is almost double the amount of receipts for inventory purchases and office supplies that keep a business in business. So in the coming week or so, I’ll try to keep the whining down to a dull roar but can’t promise there won’t be some. Year end duties is the least favourite task of retail.
New years eve was fun. My aunt Audrey, Shane and his girlfriend Ashley, came for a feast of lobster. I usually make potato salad but Shane doesn’t like that so I made homemade mac and cheese instead which is one of his favorites. The lobsters were very tasty, some of the best we’ve had, bought from a street vendor in Bridgewater. He liked us so much he threw in a free two pounder. We were also buying for a friend and got about 25 pounds, practically cleaning him out so why leave one behind to be lonely.
Then friends come by on New Year’s Day for an after dinner desert and Margaret brought this delightful cake with Grand Marnier whipped cream, decadent and delicious! She also brought homemade doughnuts that were rather scrumptious. I provided butter tarts and special coffees, so it was a sweet induction into 2014. That signaled the end of our holidays and now I am on my best behaviour in the blood sugar department. I have that last 20 pounds to loose to help regulate my blood sugar naturally and although I am not going to hit the pavement running, it will be a slow but steady reduction so it stays off. Mostly just decreased meals. If you don’t lower the intake of what is going in, there is no chance to burn the stored fat, so my meals will be smaller in the new year. Small and more of them is what they recommend. I'm not considering this a diet because we all know the statistics about the success of diets...for me it is a lifestyle change, one necessary to keep off the drugs for diabetes.
I had a forced day of rest with fingers crossed that the power wouldn’t go out and leave us in very frigid temperatures with only the wood stove to provide warmth. It's a great stove but in -18 temperatures it needs electric heat subsidy as the cold winds suck the heat right out of the place.
It’s been bitter, so much so the poor pups can't stand to be outside for more than 30 seconds before they lift their paws off the cold ground, sometimes they even fall over a bit, weakened by the paralyzing chill. I have to rescue them. They would perish quickly and my thoughts turn to the recent news about the poor creature that was left outside to freeze to death and wonder how anyone could think a dog doesn’t feel the cold…but I don’t want to get started on this as it upsets me to the point that vigilante thoughts creep in. It might be from writing a book about a serial killer, maybe some of the character's lack of appreciation for human life has rubbed off on me. But really, if you can treat an animal in this manner, maybe you don't deserve to live? I believe the breed was an American Staffordshire terrier, the poor dog didn't even have a coat of long fur to insulate him from the cold. If I have a cruel streak, it's triggered by child abuse and animal cruelty.....nothing provokes more emotion than hearing about helpless animals or small children suffering. (By the way, the fact is not lost on me that we killed lobster to dine on, which some would consider an act of cruelty. To me, there is a huge difference between creatures that we eat for food and animals that we adopt into our lives as family members.)
Anyway, I was severely storm stayed and didn’t think there would be much chance that I’d be ploughed out considering the downfall of white that needed shifting in the county, but low and behold they came early evening and scraped the driveway clean. My vehicle was almost buried. I could only see part of the windshield and top of the car from the house, the view was obstructed by a drift that built a four foot barrier. If I had to dig my way to the car no one would have seen me for a month of Sundays and only if they popped in during visitors hours at emergency. It was definitely a coronary amount of snow to remove.
The winds coming from the north blew snow all over the right side of the house leaving the left side pretty much clear for the dogs to go out and do their business in the morning. Then the wind shifted and blew the snow on the left side, covering the back deck in a foot of snow and surrounding drifts three feet high. The blustering swiftly removed the piles of white fluff from the right and renegotiated its landing on the left. So now the right side has exposed grass and partially cleared the steps to get up to where the car is parked cutting down on a couple of hours of shoveling to get to the car. I hope to get to work today but will undoubtedly be late. Maybe the shop will be open around noon.
So 2014 year is upon us but with any new birth there's a lot of labour that goes with it. There's year end responsibilities to clear the way for 2014 to take over and grow. I'm talking inventory counting and paper work. Although I groan getting started, I do enjoy it once the process begins. The twelve years training in accounting from a previous work life kicks in and I become very comfortable with the sea of white paper. The entire job takes about a week of concentrated work or two weeks of distracted effort, but I really plan to knock it out of the park early with the assistance of my son’s girlfriend who took accounting at university. She is coming to organize and enter all the expenses on spread sheets. I let this distasteful job go until year end but I do hope to manage things a bit better in 2014 with daily entries so they don’t pile up and overflow the file box. We were a lot busier in 2013 so there is almost double the amount of receipts for inventory purchases and office supplies that keep a business in business. So in the coming week or so, I’ll try to keep the whining down to a dull roar but can’t promise there won’t be some. Year end duties is the least favourite task of retail.
New years eve was fun. My aunt Audrey, Shane and his girlfriend Ashley, came for a feast of lobster. I usually make potato salad but Shane doesn’t like that so I made homemade mac and cheese instead which is one of his favorites. The lobsters were very tasty, some of the best we’ve had, bought from a street vendor in Bridgewater. He liked us so much he threw in a free two pounder. We were also buying for a friend and got about 25 pounds, practically cleaning him out so why leave one behind to be lonely.
Then friends come by on New Year’s Day for an after dinner desert and Margaret brought this delightful cake with Grand Marnier whipped cream, decadent and delicious! She also brought homemade doughnuts that were rather scrumptious. I provided butter tarts and special coffees, so it was a sweet induction into 2014. That signaled the end of our holidays and now I am on my best behaviour in the blood sugar department. I have that last 20 pounds to loose to help regulate my blood sugar naturally and although I am not going to hit the pavement running, it will be a slow but steady reduction so it stays off. Mostly just decreased meals. If you don’t lower the intake of what is going in, there is no chance to burn the stored fat, so my meals will be smaller in the new year. Small and more of them is what they recommend. I'm not considering this a diet because we all know the statistics about the success of diets...for me it is a lifestyle change, one necessary to keep off the drugs for diabetes.
Not quite sure what these are so here's a little nervous sniff.
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