All Caught Up

In the interest of time that I do not have, I abandoned the collage feature for tonight.  I don’t want to be days and days behind, but I also can’t sacrifice sleep at this point.  Just 30 minutes too late to bed can make my afternoon slump extra crasherific between jobs.

And NOBODY likes me when I’m crashin’. Trust.

So where are we anyway?  Wednesday I think.  Yup Wednesday.

1. Coffee with almond milk, water.

2. Multigrain sandwich thin toasted with sunflower butter and banana.

3. Greek vanilla yogurt and raspberries.

4. Salad of the moment.  With chicken.

5. Afternoon pick me up.  Tall Starbucks iced coffee with non-fat milk and two pumps of vanilla.

6. Desk snacks: cherry tomatoes, rice crackers, Laughing Cow, dried cherries.

7. Post work ‘don’t gnaw your arm off’ snack of sesame snacks.

8. Leftover stir-fry.

9. Revello with a side of Big Brother. 

And then all of a sudden I woke up and it was Thursday.  How did this happen?  I’m not complaining.

Today I took a little road trip for some training for Job #2.  I knew I’d be on the road during my peak need-to-eat times so packed some car friendly snacks to get me through the day.

1. Kashi Honey Almond Flax with almond milk and banana.

2. Coffee and water for the road.

3. Simply Bar, sunbutter and nanner sammich, apple & cheddar.  That Bar rescued me while sitting training, that sammich got DEVOURED on the drive home, the apple lived until I got back here for Job #1 and the cheddar lived to see another day.

4. On my way back to the parking lot I spotted a cute organic cafe so decided I totally needed a non-fat latte to sustain my brain.

Girls Dinner at Sabhai Thai with Tiffaney and Charmaine tonight.

5. Shared Chicken Satay with Charmaine.

6. Spicy Papaya Salad with Shrimp.  I don’t know why I’ve never ordered this before but it certainly won’t be the last time.  So incredibly yum!

I totally ordered this because I just saw it on Around the World in 80 Plates.  Don’t judge me! :)

Drink, Eat and Be Sunny

This past weekend was totally hectic and totally fun.  I worked, I drank, I ate, and I chillaxed.  Pretty much in that order.

On Friday afternoon I headed on down to the first day of The Great Canadian Beer Festival to work my volunteer shift.  I volunteer because a) it’s super fun …and… b) you get into the festival for free.  :)

For the second year in a row I was a Booth Steward…which is a fancy term for ‘token taker’.  I spent my afternoon and early evening hanging out with the super nice folks in the Saltspring Island Ales booth.  We went full tilt with a busy line up of thirsty beer lovers for just over 5 hours in the hot, hot sun. 

My body was aching and my tummy was rumbling but I had a total blast.

Saturday morning I made my way back to the park.  This time to meet friends and stuff my pockets full of my own tokens to be cashing in for beers from around the country and beyond.  After multiple samples I walked away with two favourites of the day:

1) Heatherdale Ale from SaltSpring:  (slight advantage because I already know I quite adore this beer!)  It’s a light tasting, golden beer with hints of honey…made with Heather flowers instead of hops.  Love.

2) Talking Dog Wit from Shuswap Brewing:  (I originally went here because they had a short line but ended up going back again, then went back and bought their totally cute t-shirt too.)  This beer was really refreshing and light, with a really lovely hit of orange and coriander.  Yum.

The weather was totally amazing and sooooo hot.  Who says Victoria doesn’t get Summer?  I’m here to tell you ours has been pretty phenomenal this year….it’s just later around here!

After escaping the glorious sun and heat of the park and spending a few hours just chatting and relaxing with friends, a few of us made our way to Siam for a much needed delicious Thai food dinner.

Mee Krob to start, and Red Chicken Curry with rice for my meal.  I took half home (nothing like strolling the streets with curry in your purse) and anticipated the leftovers for two days.

Come Sunday I could barely move after being on my feet for two days straight.  All I wanted to do was absorb more sunscreen, sit out on the deck, and have someone serve me.  So that’s pretty much what I did.

After running a few errands and letting the dogs burn off some energy, Michael and I hung out with his brother and sisters enjoying our Sunday and eating some easy barbeque.  Ribs, chicken, pasta salad, potato salad, squishy garlic loaf, and fresh tomatoes mixed with sweet onion and bocconcini cheese.

And nothing beats the heat more than vanilla frozen yogurt with a Twix stuffed in it.  Even when SOMEONE steals your Twix when you are busy smooching your boyfriend.  Clearly the siblings have accepted me since the pranks are aimed in my direction now.  I’m not sure how I feel about this.  ;)

Overall a lovely weekend.  Of course, probably not as lovely as next weekend…since next weekend Tiffaney and I shall be in GREECE!!!

Fri-Sat-Sun

Mug care of my fabulous friend Rose’s Spring vacay!

Wild Coho salmon…

Sick pooper pupper.

Ataulfo mango > Haden mango

Weekend saviour…Thai take-out.

Hoppy Easter!

Snazzy dresser.

I’m like a kid in a candy store…except it’s a produce store.

Go Canucks Go!! 

Simple Sunday

After Friday and Saturday’s shenanigans I was happy to have the most casual Sunday possible.  Slept in, hot shower, walk around the block with the doggie, and dragging a friend off for greasy brunch.

Before my friend Ray went away for his work trip he introduced me to Kitty’s Hideaway.  How I had never been there before is a mystery to me because it’s a Victoria institution!  I was glad to go back again.

Cute and cozy decor all over.  Comfy chairs.  Good coffee.

Ray’s Heavenly Hashbrowns were sporting a smiley face!

I got the 2-2-2-2 which gave me 2 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausages and 2 pancakes.  One pancake toooo many!!  I was so stuffed and couldn’t make it through the second one.

The nice part about eating a hearty meal like that after noon o’clock is that I wasn’t really hungry again until dinner.  I stopped for a mid-afternoon coffee and snacked on some peanuts while dinner cooked, but that was it.

My Mom came down for a few hours because my curtain rods finally came in at Jysk up in Nanaimo and I really wanted to have them so I can try to get them hung up this week.  I’ve been working on the curtain situation for months now!

Since I did so much eating out this weekend I decided that I would cook for Mom.  My new favourite go-to meal:  Spicy Thai-Style Noodles with Tofu.

It was a hit, and I should have made a double batch so I’d have leftovers.  If it didn’t take quite so long to put together I might be inclined to make this a lot!!

After Mom headed for home I literally planted myself on the couch with a fuzzy blanket and my laptop.  I watched whatever schlock was on TV, sorted through the 100 or so pictures I took this weekend, and got caught up on blogs.

Chibani was so content that she was snoring like a chainsaw laying on the couch beside me.  Hilarious.

I’m two episodes away from finishing Season Two of Big Bang Theory.  I’ve decided that my favourite part of the show is definitely how Sheldon and Penny interact.  Awesome.

Back to the work week?  Boooo hissssss.