The Cure - Trust

So good live.

The perfect lunch for a blustery winter day

• Carnaroli rice


• Organic butternut squash soup


• Organic, low-sodium vegetable bouillon


• Bratwurst sausage


• Spanish onion


• Organic mushrooms

Low-carb livin'

Saturday's breakfast was inspired by
The Pickle Barrel's California Florentine Benedict, omitting the bread and cream cheese. I also substituted in two fried eggs, non-dairy Hollandaise sauce and smoked Pacific salmon for the two poached eggs, their Hollandaise sauce (duh!) and smoked Atlantic salmon, respectively. What a delicious way to start the weekend!

English grammar lesson #487:
Me, myself and I

"Myself went to the store," is glaringly incorrect, so "Bruce, Jess and myself went to the store," is wrong as well.

The fact that "I went to the store," is right means that "Matt, Caty and I went to the store," is also correct.

"That bag belongs to me," can be pluralized by saying, "That bag belongs to Emma, Miriam and me."

"I gave myself a treat," can be pluralized to "I gave Kev, Michelle and myself a treat."

When in doubt, determine the first-person singular that gets used when all other people are taken out of the sentence, then add the others to it. Of course, a well placed "we" or "us" is useful for avoiding the situation altogether.


English grammar lesson #488:
"X" is not "S"

Cases in point: Especially, espresso, escape

Yet more ketchup.

TELUS didn't disappoint, and I'm pleased to report that my work there was appreciated. My last day for this term was Tuesday. It's likely that I'll be asked back for another employee's paternity leave for four weeks beginning mid-February, so I'm likely to pass up the longer-term contracts that I'm approached with until I know whether or not that will pan out.

Our shower was finally repaired by Monday of this week (got to move back into the bedroom on Saturday), so I spent the majority of Wednesday vacuuming up all the dust that accumulated over the past month of not bothering. Following that, I mopped all the tiled surfaces. The resultant mop-water was a disgustingly rich gray.

Matt and I went to Harbourfront Centre with some of "the gang" for a skate. I fell and got a bit of a goose-egg on my left hip. Had fun just the same.

On Thursday, I caught up on as much paperwork as I could. There was a lot.

I also completed the French onion soup I'd been working on since Monday night. It's yummy.

I've still got a few minor tasks left to take care of (hand-washing my sweaters, pulling the paperwork I'm going to need for 2007's tax return, making DVD back-ups of the contents of my hard drive) before I can kick back and relax again. Aaaah, won't that be nice?

Leaf-turning

In what is hopefully a sign of things to come, I've returned to TELUS for a two-week stint while a freelancer I used to work with is on vacation in Brazil.

It's nice to be able to slide into a place and just know how things work. Orientation is probably the most taxing thing about starting a new gig. Additionally, having so many familiar faces around certainly does take the sting out of jumping back into my field for the first time in a few months (professionally, any way).

I'd heard that there have been a lot of staffing changes — rarely a good sign — but the atmosphere around here doesn't seem to have changed much. Some of the social dynamics have altered, but it's still pretty laid-back around here, and nobody minds when co-workers are being chatty. The music that's being played is a bit "dance" for me, just like it was two years ago, but not bad as background music.

The verdict for Day 1 seems to be that this is still the best place I've freelanced at. Well, here's to hoping they'll need me around somewhat regularly.