Ever notice how it's the little things in life that amuse us so much? More to the point, ever notice how it's the silly little idiocies in life that amuse us more than anything else? Well, this is not as much ''the little blog that could'' as it is ''the blog that enjoys going up the down escalator in your local mall.'' Will it have anything of real importance? No, probably not. But enjoy the ride never the less!

 


It's been well about a month and a half of radio silence here on this little bit of nowhere. Most of this has been due to two very specific things: first and foremost, I damn well burned myself out courtesy of the Back To School season at the store, which actually contributed to the second reason, namely that on the days I was able to get home without wanting to collapse, I was too apathetic to even try.

It's been a little worrisome, in a way. I ended up calling out sick for one day and nearly missing another because of sheer exhaustion. Bear in mind the last time I called out sick, that happened a few *years* ago, and was due to me contracting Hand Foot & Mouth. But in 2010, plain old vomit-inducing exhaustion seriously kicked my ass. As a result, I moved at half-speed for an entire week because I knew that gunning around at the old pace would do me in.

Rather fortunately, that particular week ended in a weekend off! Hooray!

Rather unfortunately, Mel had to work that particular weekend off. Entirely. Boo! Hiss! And other such negatory hurlings! Actually, come to think of it, since the middle of September, Mel & I have had opposing days off, ensuring we never get to spend more than a few hours together at a time.

It's not something I can totally be ornery about. I can shake my fist ("Khaaaaaaan!") about the symptom, but ultimately not at the cause. The short of it is: Mel is newly employed, because her old job at the Kitchener store was driving her nearly batshit insane. And I do mean nearly batshit insane. The horror stories about her manager I've collected over the last few months...well, let's just say I'm amazed I hadn't been called up one night to assist in a body dump and alibi creation. (And worst of all, given the rants I've listened to, I don't think I would have felt very sorry for the corpse. At all. Trust me on this one: unless you plan on hearing about two solid hours of pure venom being directed at this personage of retail asshat-ery, assume the worst and don't ask questions.)

But all that is a distant (yet despised) memory, because Mel got headhunted by another store in the mall. They sell very nice shoes that I both cannot afford and cannot wear because they cater exclusively to women. Which is rather sad, since I really liked some of their suede, knee-high winter boots. You know the kind; the ones with a slightly raised hell but the heel is so wide it's not going to do in your ankles by the end of an eight-ho...um, right! Moving on.

In an act that surprised absolutely no one aware of Mel's plight, Mel jumped at the chance and escaped right after the first full week of September. And by all accounts, she's really thrilled with her new job. She's being trained as the new assistant manager, and they seem to be eyeballing her for future management openings. Perhaps most importantly, though, is the fact that her manager is not a lazy, narcissistic, hypocritical nerfherder...which, upon re-reading that, I might have just insulted nerfherders everywhere. I mean, if Han had no issues with being called a nerfherder by Leia, then they can't be all that bad.

In the meantime, life has been continuing as we've adjusted to Mel's new schedule. Ideally come late October into November, we'll have a better grasp of Mel's days-on and -off, and I can coordinate accordingly to ensure some quality time off together. As it is, we have friends and family who need to be reassured that our apartment has not in fact been taken over by sentient robots from the future who are typing this in an effort to blind you from the fact that they are taking over the human race next.


...and I have to go. Mel is mewing from the bedroom.



...and I have returned. Mel is now awake and slowly making her way to the living room couch. All is more or less well with the world.

Anyhoo, the Thanksgiving weekend is nearing its completion. Mel managed to convince her family to shuffle on up here for turkey celebrations and the like, so we've been entertaining company for these last few days. (Which, in a very roundabout way, accounts for why I haven't done any updates for the past 2 weeks: we've been spending out available hours and days off cleaning everything accordingly. Mel's mom is seriously allergic to our cat, and our cat enjoys spreading himself across every article of furniture we have in the apartment. You can see the dilemma here. Multiple vaccumings have ensued.

And yet Canadian Thanksgiving was enjoyed by all. I had to work for most of the time they were up, so I ended up returning home to discover where their latest excursions had taken them (Niagara wineries and Ikea, for example), or that Mel had quite strategically ensured I had as few dishes as possible to wash in the post-dinner lull. There were a fair bit, of course, since Thanksgiving is a multi-item meal, but considering we were eating for five, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as it could have been.

Turkey leftovers are going to be a slight issue, mind you. I somehow scored an 15-20 lb. turkey from the grocery store. Beautiful-looking (albeit dead & plucked) bird, and it's compatriots in the display ranged from $40-50. The price tag on mine was $15. It could easily have been a misprint, but it was definitely not a case of someone switching the tags; those tags were connected with a thin metal wire wrapped around the front end of the platic encasing the turkey. You'd have needed to do some serious armwork for a simple prank like that. I spend all of five seconds considering this price before scooping up the bird and hustling over to the self-scans. Hoo-rah!

So, great price for an epic turkey. And Mel accidentally cooked it upside-down. I know, I know; usually that sort of thing happens to me. This actually turned out to be a good thing. Our meat thermometer broke halfway through the cooking process, leaving us to guestimate the time required. Turns out the turkey was cooked for longer than it should have, but because it was upside-down, all the meat was able to stay moist courtesy of the drippings at the base of the pan.

Go figure. Mel has a baka moment, and it actually serves to make a better turkey. If I'd cooked the turkey upside-down, it probably would have burst into flames halfway through. Oh well.

That pretty much brings us up to the present. Mel & I are going to spend our 7th anniversary with some anime and ideally (provided the restaurant we've been eyeballing is open today) some donburi. Mel's had a serious donburi craving for ages. Would you believe that next to no places here in KW that serve donburi. Not even Yummiyaki, our happy mainstay, features that. So cross your fingers and wish us good luck...because this place is all the way in Cambridge. I can't believe the closest donburi meal we have is in Cambridge.

Well, as a parting gift, I leave those of you who haven't already been caught up in it with this new Sesame Street clip:

http://meloukhia.tumblr.com/post/1272028550/sesamestreet-this-tumblr-is-now-diamonds-a

Labels: seasme street, the September that existed somewhere between work and sleep, upside-down Thanksgiving goodness

posted by Phillip at 5:46 PM