Rec contr' Amor non es guirens lai on sos poclers, s'autra.

Normally, during the week, I bolt down breakfast (2 pieces of toast, with margerine) and two coffees. This is not, however, my prefered morning routine. However, as I have to leave my house at 7 to be at work for 7:30, I have to get up at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m. I refuse to get up any ealier than that.

Today, though, today I get to relax. I booked today off because I thought I would be incredibly hung over yesterday (which I wasn't). I wanted to have a day to get all the chores done - sweeping, mopping, laundry. I wasn't going to do it on my birthday, and I didn't think I'd be in any position yesterday to actually do anything. So, it seemed best to just take a day off of work. I'm only missing one private class, so no problem.

So here I am, sitting at my desk in my pjs, and I'm savouring a cup of coffee. This is what I like to do. Take my time to drink my coffee. Eating doesn't generally happen until after the coffee stage, which is what I dislike so much about my normal week-day routine. It's rushed, and backwards!

A.

I had a pretty busy day today, although most of it was spent in a car.

Went out to the Hershey's Chocolate Factory  for some irregular/retarded chocolate. They call it irregular, I call it retarded. We didn't do the tour - no point, as I've done it *numerous* times (hello school field trips!) and he did it recently with other friends.

After that, we headed out to Forfar Dairy , a small, independant cheese factory in Forfar, a small town in Leeds County, on Highway 15, just south of Smith Falls. I got Garlic Cheddar (both the cheese, and cheese curds), old Cheddar, cheddar cheese curds, two kinds of specialty cream cheese (can't remember which kinds), and salsa cheddar. I'm so stoked to try these all out! I'm going to try the salsa cheddar in the next batch of fajitas that I make up.

Following the chocolate and cheese, we stopped out at a small roadside "stand" (read: back of a pick-up) to buy corn - 12 for $5, or 6 for $2.50. (That's what the guy said - as if we couldn't have figured it out. It was in Lanark county, though, and they're inbred there.)

So now we had chocolate, cheese, and corn. What to do, what to do.....why, go to Mrs. McGarrigle's  in Merrickville! We picked up several kinds of mustard (totally throwing off our day-of-foods-that-start-with-c). I got four small bottles - British Beer, Wine Peppercorn, Chipotle Lime, and Oktoberfest - for $10. There were samples available to try, with pretzles to dip into the various mustards. They tasted so good with the pretzles, in fact, that I'm going to buy pretzles tomorrow to have on hand to use with the various mustards I bought. Screw using them as a condiment, I'm using them as a dipping sauce.

And that was it. From there it was on back to Ottawa, for a nap and various tastings of various foods that were purchased. If I'm feeling generous, I might have people over for a tasting of the mustards and cheese, along with pie and chocolate for dessert.

A.

Most of the lights in my place have been replaced by the energy effiecent ones. The "high traffic" lights -- bathroom, kitchen, hallway, roommates room, living room, are done. I don't often turn the light on in my room, plus I, ah, can't reach the socket. Even with the ladder.

The bulbs are on sale at Home Hardware -- I'm assuming it's a chain wide thing, and not just the one in the Glebe. They're still expensive -- a pack of three 60w bulbs is $8, on sale -- but if they help cut my hydro bill (which is way way way too large) I'm all for it. And at that price, I'm taking the damn things with me when I move.

I'm also making Chili as we speak. It's burbling away in my slow cooker. I love the fact that in the morning I get everything ready, turn it on, and leave the house. When I get home from work, I gots me dinner!
A.

Ok, so that might be a bit of a lie, but it is by far going so much better then the past two have.

The best part? Homemade banana bread. My homemade banana bread. I had the day off, I napped (with my sucky cat, of course), then I made banana bread, and it just came out of the oven. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh............

A.