Wednesday, October 28, 2009

All Swine Flu, All the Time

I know people who are germophobes. I know people who disinfect doorknobs on a regular basis and boil their childrens' toys.

I am not one of these people. I was raised by a stay-at-home mom who kept a clean house, but she didn't stress over us being dirty. Which we were, most often. And so as a result, I keep a clean(ish) house, and I don't stress about hand washing and doorknob disinfection as much as other people do. ST was also raised by a clean, but laid-back mother and claims that if you don't let your kids get dirty you are setting them up as a weakling because they'll never develop immunity to anything.

But the entire community I live in is now in PANIC mode about H1N1. And the university I work in is even worse, since it's basically just a giant germ pool anyway, what with kids living on top of one another in residence and sharing computers in the labs, and books in the library (or at least they would, if they knew where the library was).

There's a mini-bottle of hand sanitizer in my purse right now.

I find myself almost looking over my shoulder for germs. Everywhere people are trying very hard not to shake your hand, there's sanitizer around every corner and people are dutifully coughing into their elbows. It's making me totally paranoid.

So if I look twitchy the next time you see me, just ignore it.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

On the Up Side, the Mashed Potatoes and Gravy Were Delicious

I am dubbing today "The Great Meatloaf Experiment". Sadly, the results were not what I was aiming for. I generally consider myself to be a good cook but there may be some doubt after today's production.

I did the weekly grocery shop yesterday but didn't think far enough ahead; when I realized this afternoon at about 3:00 that I had frozen all of this week's meat buys, I was thrown for a loop. After a quick inventory, we decided that ground beef was probably our quickest thaw, and ST asked for a meatloaf. Sure, I thought. I can do that. But what I should have factored in was the fact that:
  1. I am Canadian. Meatloaf is not called a "a classic Canadian meal".
  2. I have never eaten meatloaf. My own mother did not make it, it wasn't available in our school cafeterias, and I've never seen it on a restaurant menu.
  3. I did not know that there is a special meatloaf pan that enables you to actually cook the loaf without deep frying it in the grease that's released from the ground beef, and that allows you to actually remove the damn thing from the pan when the time comes.
It's a good thing I'm not living in the 50's. I'd never catch me a husband.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Who Doesn't Like Cake?

So it turns out that I'm not so good at this blogging business. I was moderately ashamed when I realized today that my last post was Oct. 1 - I am the worst. Luckily, I don't think anyone has actually read this blog yet, so I'm not disappointing legions of fans, anyway.

My niece turned 3 last week and, being the wonderful Auntie that I am, I made her a cake to go with her Pooh theme. Totally excited with the outcome of this one! I know that at 3 she's just excited about the fact that there is cake, and probably doesn't appreciate the effort, but it's still fun to do.



What is NOT so much fun is cooking for 6 boys who are shingling your roof (ST and five of our friends who volunteered to help out - I am paying them in food and beer). What is even less fun is feeding those boys baked beans without really realizing what the consequences would be.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Things I Have Learned So Far Today

  1. Some pairs of tights are not.
  2. Wearing tights with a slippery lining makes your skirt ride up, destroying any type of look that you may have been going for.
  3. Although some tights are far superior to others, they all suck.
  4. Pancakes - while delicious - don't really have much lasting power to get you through the morning.
  5. Adults are totally getting ripped off by not having recess in their lives anymore.
  6. I am really REALLY bad at push ups. Especially at 6am.
  7. I am worse at chin ups.
  8. Some Many people should have their driver's license revoked.
  9. There is no food in my house. Well, there is probably enough food for both of us to eat well for about 3 weeks, but I am not one bit interested in any of the stuff that's there.
  10. We ran out of milk this morning but I didn't know it until after I had brewed a pot of coffee. I used a dash of unwhipped cream  instead. It's actually not bad.
  11. I think I'm an above-average speller.
  12. Other people do indeed notice how heavy-chested I am. Not that I thought I was really hiding it, but it still suprises me when people point it out.
  13. It's October. OCTOBER. Already.
  14. It's only 11:15 and I feel like today has been a week long.