Crispy Bread and Bow Ties

Another wonderful morning of sleeping in. We both stayed up late reading, and I thoroughly enjoyed just reading. We watched a couple of shows while sipping some tea. ‘The Last Thing He Told Me’ and skipped breakfast because neither of us was hungry. Then we watched an episode of ‘Shrinking’. There is a lot to like about that show. It is well-written, poignant and heartfelt. There are some really fun moments in this show as well. The gay, narcistic and loyal friend, the character of Brian, played by Michael Urie, often steals the show as he did in this episode. Today he uttered one word that had us in stitches, his delivery was so good. What was the word? Spoilers.

“Treason.”

So simple, but in context it was hilarious.

I ordered some new coffees via my Nespresso. Some new flavors I haven’t tried included Pistachio Vanilla, Hawaii Kona, Maple Pecan, Sweet Almond and Hibiscus, and finally French Lavender and Vanilla Decaf. I like a flavoured coffee, and I can hear some of you coffee purists moaning, but I like what I like, and I thought I’d like to try some new flavours. I do like the Nespresso coffee quality, and since I never want a full pot, the single-serving machine makes a lot of sense to me.

I also received my new earbuds to replace the ones I lost recently. I have a pair of Anker Soundcore Space A40’s that have really good noise cancelling, but the earbud style causes the buds to shimmy out of my ear constantly. Walking, talking or eating accelerates their attempt to leave my ear canal. So, I bought a pair last year to bring to work and go for walks, nothing fancy and no noise-cancelling. But they had great battery life at fifteen hours, and they also had ear hooks, which meant they could never fall off. But when I lost them, I decided to get another set of Anker Soundcore ear buds but this time with ear hooks. I found the Soundcore X20s at a decent price, less than a hundred dollars, and so far, they are awesome. They have softer ear hooks than the cheap ones, have a smaller case and of course, they have the sound cancelling. And since I tend to use the ear hook style for on the go listening, noise cancelling is more important. I think I am going to get some good use out of this pair of ear buds for the next few years.

I also picked up a pair of beard trimming scissors from Amazon as well. They are black with gold accents and about five inches long. They feature blunted ends, so I won’t poke myself accidentally, and a finger rest for easier cutting. I figured it was time to buy a pair; I’ve had a beard since about 2018. The pair that arrived was well made and has an adjustment thumb screw to tighten the blades when necessary. It also came in a small leather holster, which is a nice touch that will keep the scissors in good shape for years to come.

The weather here is sunny and warm again today. The temperature read eleven degrees Celsius. We decided to go for a walk and enjoy some sunlight in case it got rainy the rest of the week. After a long winter you have to enjoy the sun when you can. When we returned, we thought we should run some errands and we consulted our new shared lists app, Listonic.

We headed out in the car to Home Depot. I needed some chicken wire to protect our tulips from the rabbits and the skunks, as well as some contractor-grade garbage bags. I’ll use the leftovers to squirrel-proof our attic space in the spring. I picked up some of that ceiling spray to see if I could fix some damage from when the kid’s toilet overflowed last year.

The Longo’s Grocery store was a short walk from Home Depot, so I picked up some beef tallow to try out the parsnips recipe that I got from my friend Paul B.

When we returned home, Robyn went directly to her computer to get her painting a day completed. She mentioned how much she would rather skip it today, but the power of the streak flexed it’s might and drew her so she wouldn’t break the chain of daily success. It’s cool to see the power of the streak working for a loved one.

I’ve just seen the finished painting she did, it’s of a bridge we cross when out for our walks. Our neighbourhood has plenty of gravel walking paths lined with trees that cross over streams. And the painting portrays one of those bridges going off into the distance and plethora of tall trees and foilage in the distance.

I, myself, just finished my 54^th day of playing chess online according to the Chess.com website. I lost the game, but the point is to show up and play. In the past I would skip a day of playing here and there and even go weeks where I didn’t play at all. Now that I have it as a streak, I rarely forget to play at least one game in a day or train myself with chess puzzles. Even the Chess.com app is now egging me on to get up my daily streak.

This morning, my stepson saw two small ramekins that I had used to bake the extra malt bread dough that wouldn’t fit into the bread canister. I had left them to soak in water over night and when he went down into kitchen in the morning, he sent us a picture on the family text chain with this, “Why does this look like cat food?” I think he was hopeful that we had somehow snuck a cat into the house without is knowledge and that we were keeping it form him. This, and the fact that my wife keeps mentioning that we should get a cat, it is just a matter of time before they bring one home.

My cat free days are numbered.

But when I went down to make our morning cup of tea, I checked my malt bread loaf that had baked in the temperature questionable oven from the night before. The crust had gone from soggy to crispy overnight. I cut into it and the interior was properly cooked, no wet dough anywhere to be seen. I lathered a slice up with some salty butter and gave it a taste, and wouldn’t you know it, it was perfectly fine. I thought for sure the bread wouldn’t have baked all the way through, but it was just as good as any other loaf I have made. Maybe I am learning a thing or to about this baking thing.

It was our friend’s birthday yesterday, but she is one of those people who doesn’t like to acknowledge that another year has passed and she is getting older. It’s a real shame because we would all love to celebrate it with her. But when celebrating makes someone feel worse about things, it’s better to just let them spend the day however they wanted to. I prefer a low-key birthday. I’ll take a cup of tea and breakfast in bed over a big party any day of the week. Or a small gathering of no more that eight to ten people is about right. I will have a quiet dinner out too. But I also don’t like all the hoopla, so I get why my friend has such disdain for celebrating her own birthday. Sometimes, its those gatherings I am dragged to that remind me of lucky I am to have aa amazing wife, family and friends.

I see in the news that Iran has chosen a new Supreme Leader. A person named Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the deceased ayatollah. I believe it was the clerics that chose him and not the people of Iran. It’s never a good idea when religion choses the leaders of a country.

A poster on X stated that the people of Iran are shouting and chanting on their balconies and in the streets, “Death to Mojtaba!”. They want to signal to the world that they will not accept another inherited dictatorship. And this move to make the son Supreme Leader of Iran was likely to cement the clerics power in the region. Some think this decision will destabilize the country further. But to me the writing on the wall is clear. They want the world to know that the name Khamenei is alive and well in Iran. Israel had already vowed to assassinate any leader that the clerics put forth. Now that it’s clear that Khamenei’s son has been named, I imagine Israel will be twice as eager to send a message.

I’ve been testing out my new Soundcore ear buds all day. I am very pleased with their performance. They fit better that the lost ear buds that had ear hooks. The sound is good enough for this guy, I am no audiophile. I just want to be able to hear what i want to listen to. You can connect seamlessly to tow different devices as well. That is a super convenient feature. It’s a pain in the buttocks to have to pair and unpair devices when you are switching from phone to laptop for example. These have three hours less runtime than my last pair, but considering they have noise cancelling and I am never going to use them for that long, I am pleased with the twelve hours of play time.

I also gave the beard scissor a try. They felt great in my hand and were nice and sharp. There is something wonderful about using a well-made tool. It looks great and functions as it should. Another good purchase and my beard looks better to boot!

Tomorrow should be a start to another busy week at work. Too much to think about at the moment. I do feel we are in good place and that feels better. I’ll also be enrolling in those two advanced writing courses at WGM. It may all be too much for me to handle, but worse case scenario, I’ll just watch the courses and only do the assignments if I have time and energy to put into them. Work is still going to draw most of my creative energy, leaving me with the bare minimum for other pursuits.

I’ll also be going into the studio three days this week. That has a negative cumulative effect of draining my batteries as well. Usually, by Friday I and an empty husk that wants to just go lie down and recover. I can only hope to use the travel time to get some writing done and relieve some of the daily pressure of the word count challenge and the mentor assignments.

There could be a mad rush on the train for a week this month as well as students are off for their March Break. Many will ride the train in Toronto for day trips and concerts. It generally makes for a very noisy train. Good thing I have those noise cancelling earbuds to smooth that particular problem over.

And with St. Patrick’s Day on the Tuesday this year, that could add in another busy train day. Tuesday is one of the days I usually go into the studio.

On a lighter note, our son sent a picture to us of himself at work. He’s a server at a high-end retirement home. The chef made them all dress up as if it were the Fifties. He was told to wear blue jeans and white t-shirt. They added a red bowtie to his outfit. So now he is wearing a t-shirt with a bowtie. It’s quite the look!

Glad I don’t have to wear costumes at work.

I don’t even like dressing up at Halloween, or weddings.

It’s been a good day overall. I’ve either received some useful items, gone out to get some useful items or have some coming in the next few days. I’m looking at you Nespresso pods!

I’ll end this evening reading ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ and gentle settle in for the night, waking well rested and ready for what ever battles tomorrow morning brings.

Good night all.