Friday, January 28, 2011

Saskatoon Groupon

I was excited to find out that Groupon has finally come to Saskatoon!  I'm not sure how long it's been around for here but I've been subscribing for a couple weeks and have picked up a couple of awesome deals for restaurants which I unfortunately can't use yet since my chewing is still limited.

If you don't know about Groupon, basically this website partners with local businesses to sell coupons for substantial deals on their merchandise (usually a gift certificate for 50% of the actual amount of the merch - so you pay $30 for $60, for example) BUT the daily deal only goes through if enough people "buy in" - hence, the "group" in Groupon.  Usually the target number of people buy in within an hour of the posting going up.

If you live in Saskatoon (or any city that has Groupon) I would recommend subscribing!  Some days the deals are for crappy things like laser hair removal but there have also been lots for decent things too (like Saskatoon Symphony tickets, Marca spa treatments, gym memberships, and tons of restaurant deals) and some days there is potential for ridiculous savings.  Yeah, it might make you end up wanting to buy more things than you would without it but I've only bought Groupons for places I was planning on going to anyway so it just works out nicely for me.

If you DO subscribe to Saskatoon Groupon, you should use this link to do it - yes, I am shameless - because I'll get $10 for referring you if/when you buy your first one.  But then YOU can do it too and get $10 for referring your friends.  So everyone wins right?

BTW today's deal is for half-off gift certificates of $60 or $30 at Tusq, the dueling piano restaurant which I've heard has excellent food and have wanted to go to for a long time!  Most dinner entrees are around the $30 mark so it's basically two entrees for the price of one.

Saving money and supporting local businesses - sounds good to me.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Meat vs. Cheese

So my dumb teeth are still sort of being jerks and hurting and making me too scared to eat totally solid food again.  But progress is being made.  I wouldn't eat a steak or a burger but yesterday I ate that turkey burger patty I was talking about the other day.  Today I'm making a vegetarian chili with lentils, beans, and chickpeas which I am confident will be no trouble.

Here's the crazy thing - other than that burger patty and a couple bites of shredded up lamb, I haven't eaten any meat for a whole week now, and I don't really care that much!  I thought eating the burger yesterday would sort of be like "ahhhhh meat, we meet again" (ha funny right) but I was more craving green vegetables.  I probably should have put in a bigger effort this week to somehow incorporate greens into my diet.  I'm probably deficient in those nutrients by now.  Oops.

But anyway, I guess this week finally answered a question for me that I've always wondered - if I had to give up either meat or cheese, what choice would I make?  There is no denying that I love meat and I think I can safely set in stone that I will never go vegetarian HOWEVER, my cravings this week were for cheese.  It will be awesome to make a delicious roast or just get a $1.39 McDouble when I can chew again, but for whatever reason my body seems to like cheese better than meat.  Maybe it's the way I structured my diet this week - but I doubt it because I was definitely getting more than enough dairy to try to compensate for the protein lost from not eating any meat. 

Weird!  I might never know the reason but at least now I know the answer to one of life's most important questions.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Mysterious TV Review: Men With Brooms

I used to curl a lot but don't anymore.  I eventually will again I think.  But anyway that's beside the point.

When I was a curler the movie Men with Brooms came out,  but for whatever reason I never saw it.  I was excited about it but then heard that it wasn't very good, so when I heard that a TV series spinoff of the movie was airing on CBC I didn't give it much thought.

Then one night in my dorm room up north I was flipping through the channels and decided to give it a try, and surprisingly I liked it.  It reminded me a lot of Corner Gas - simple, relatively clean Canadian comedy set in a small town.  The acting isn't always perfect (if I had one complaint it's that some of the actors' timing is slightly off sometimes) but I think it's hilarious.  Most episodes had me laughing out loud at least once or twice.  The characters are likable, and similar to Corner Gas it reinforces that a show doesn't have to be full of sexual innuendo to be funny.

I feel like I have pretty decent taste in TV.  I have some guilty pleasures for sure but I can't think of a show that I legitimately believe is quality television that isn't relatively critically acclaimed.  So it totally boggled my mind when I searched for reviews of Men with Brooms and couldn't find a single positive article about it.  All across the board, everyone who took the time to post a review of the show on the internet absolutely HATED it with a passion, calling it "mind-numbing" and "dumbed-down" and someone actually suggested that it needed a laugh track????  (Okay so that last comment makes me think that maybe the people doing the reviewing weren't the most intelligent beings themselves...)

I just can't believe that a show I so thoroughly enjoyed (and I watched the entire season) is so generally hated.  Is there something wrong with my sense of humour?  I thought I only liked actually funny shows.  Come on people, I have an engineering physics degree and I don't even find humour in The Big Bang Theory, that's how much of a TV comedy snob I am.  Yet why do I think this show is so freaking hilarious and everyone else thinks it's the dumbest thing to ever grace the CBC?

Will someone please watch this show (more than one episode) and tell me if I'm going crazy or what???

Also - consider this the first positive review of Men with Brooms (the series) on the internet.  IT IS A GOOD SHOW YOU GUYS!  This show is great.  It has glow curling.  Come on!  Glow curling!  How is that not funny.  If you found this review randomly and don't actually know me, I promise I am a funny person who likes funny shows and I fully endorse Men with Brooms and you will like it.  Unless you are stupid?

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Soup!

My energy has returned (hooray!) which means I can start being a little more creative with the baby food I have to eat while my mouth heals.  Instead of yogurt, applesauce, and mashed potatoes I've been making some healthy and filling cream soups the past couple of nights.

Last night Brahm and I recreated a cream of cauliflower and leek soup that we learned to make in a cooking class at Hole in the Wall last March.  It was super easy, super healthy, and super delicious.  I haven't made a lot of soups from scratch myself other than chicken noodle and the occasional broccoli-cheese, and I'd forgotten how easy this soup was to make.  Basically all you do is caramelize onions in butter, add your vegetables, boil them in weak chicken broth, add some spices, and toss them in a blender with some cream and that is actually IT.

This fall I was on a bit of a pumpkin kick - for whatever reason, I was just craving pumpkin a lot!  Mostly the seeds, but I also roasted and froze the better part of two medium-sized pumpkins.  I made pumpkin cinnamon buns (OMG so good but so much work), pumpkin pie, pumpkin fries (tasty but sadly not crispy), pumpkin muffins, and recently I added some pumpkin to a batch of homemade hummus.  And today, I tried my hand at pumpkin soup.

I couldn't find a recipe on the internet that seemed to have consistently good reviews for pumpkin soup but I figured if I just followed basically the same procedure as I did with the cauliflower-leek soup, how bad could it be?  Once again I cooked the onions, then added a few cups of frozen pumpkin chunks, water, a teaspoon of chicken broth powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, and some All-Bran cereal (I'm trying to work more fibre into my baby food diet), boiled it all up, blended with cream and it turned out pretty tasty!  Next time I'd skip the All-Bran but honestly it doesn't seem that out of place - the flavour "matches" anyway.

Not being able to eat solid food has been totally sucky, especially for someone like me who loves food and cooking - but I think I'll be making more soups now as a result of this week's successes, even when I can chew things again.  So I guess that's one thing I can thank my stupid wisdom teeth for?

Monday, January 24, 2011

Wisdom Teeth Part II

Okay so my wisdom teeth are no longer in my mouth.  And here is the story of how they came out, how I reacted, and some of the funny and not so funny things that happened along the way.


Chapter 1:  The Extraction

My appointment was supposed to be at 1:45 PM on Friday, January 21, and I wasn't allowed to eat or drink for 8 hours before the appointment, which meant I was going to have to get up before 5:45 AM that day to have breakfast.  Then I got a call on the 20th asking if my appointment could be changed to 3 PM, which I agreed to, which meant that I didn't have to get up as early to eat breakfast BUT this also meant that I had more hours in the day to sit around being super hungry and thirsty and freaking out about getting an IV stuck in my arm and people cutting things out of my mouth.

Needless to say I was freaking out and crying by the time I got to my appointment.  The nurse saw that I was terrified and had the doctor come in and explain all of the "risks" and stuff to me instead of making me watch the "So you're getting your wisdom teeth out!" video that they show to most people.  I nodded and cried as he explained dry sockets and infections to me.

Next, they laid me back in the dentist chair and started giving me some laughing gas to calm me down.  I was sort of freaking out and crying and trying to breathe in the gas but it didn't seem to be doing anything.  I remember the doctor and nurses asking me what I do for a living, them putting the IV in and telling me I was doing a great job, me saying "My arm hurts!" and then telling them I do a lot of data analysis at work.

And then I woke up.  I didn't remember a thing!  The nurse led me to a different room where I sat in a chair for a while and my mom came in.

Chapter 2:  High as a Kite

The thing about laughing gas is that it is pretty fun.  I had been given painkillers in with my IV sedation so I didn't feel any pain for the next several hours after the surgery, and the effects of the laughing gas lasted about one blissful hour afterwards, during which I proceeded to drunk dial/text almost everyone I knew.  Examples:

To Yasmine: 
Hahahahahahaha I am so dugfed up hahah I can't srop laughing hahAha
I can't feel my face like mu lips anre nimbv

To Jamie:
Hahahahahaha ican t sotp laughing hahahahaha
Ir is so funny$
I lelft brahm some voicemails i am so drugged

To Danielle:
Haha I am pretty dugged up hahaha I am not laughing as much anymore but I couldn't stop laughing hahahaha
I can't felmy lips thoiugh

To David:
Myt wuuisdom teeth are out woo I am so drgged

The best, however, were the voicemails and calls I made, which apparently consisted of me telling people that I got my wisdom teeth out and then bursting out laughing every 10 seconds.  My dad called me the next day to thank me for calling him because it totally made his day and was something he would never forget.  My sister Megan who walked me to the car afterward said "I felt a little like I had lost my older sister."

Chapter 3:  The Pain and Side Effects

You may remember this picture from an older post about what my face looks like on dehydration


Left - dehydrated, right - normal face shape.  So I have some experience with my face being puffier than normal... but I think wisdom teeth puffy trumps dehydration puffy.

The next picture I am going to post is possibly NSFW on account of it being slightly too sexy for most people to handle.  I took it on my phone and sent it to a bunch of my friends yesterday (the most swollen day):

After sending this one to Brahm, he sent me this picture, saying that we were twins:

Thanks sweetie

I took maybe a slightly nicer one later in the evening with a bit better lighting, after Brahm had changed his mind about who I looked like and started calling me a Lego person:

I guess I see the resemblance?  Why is this sailor not wearing pants INAPPROPRIATE

Anyway, aside from the obvious physical effects the pain hasn't been too terrible and I don't seem to have developed the dreaded dry sockets, which is awesome.  As long as I keep on with the Advil, Tylenol, and occasional morphine tablet I seem to be doing okay except I am super sleepy.  I've been sleeping at least 12 hours a night AND napping for a few hours in the afternoons as well which is sort of crazy.  Normally I like to get up pretty early.

Apparently yesterday was supposed to be my most swollen day and the pain should be easing up from now on.  I've been using slightly less painkillers today and experiencing about the same amount of pain as yesterday so I'm hopeful that I'll keep improving tomorrow too.

Chapter 4:  Food

OH MAN the thing I am most excited about for this to be over, even more than not having pain in my mouth, is being able to eat solid food again.  I am getting a little sick of my diet of mashed potatoes, applesauce, prune juice, yogurt, chicken broth, peanut butter, milk, ice cream, and bananas.  I'd definitely rather be making some fancy cream soups but under this constant medicated state a) I don't think I should be driving anywhere including the grocery store and b) I don't have enough energy to cook anything more involved than putting it in the microwave.

Epilogue

Overall I am glad that this ordeal is over with, and I hope the healing process doesn't take too much longer.  It definitely wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be (as always).  One sucky thing is that this week is the last week Brahm is in Saskatoon before he moves to Montreal for a year and it would be nice to be able to spend time with him that doesn't consist of him watching me fall asleep on my couch and then leaving.  I think my energy levels are a bit better today so hopefully I am back to my old self soon.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Wisdom Teeth

I am getting my wisdom teeth out on Friday, and I am getting freaked out.  I know it is a very minor minor surgery but I keep hearing everyone's horror stories, plus I think I have developed a phobia of being poked with needles and stuff in recent years.  So, I am really not looking forward to it at all.

However I only have 2, and one should be an easy out because it is just below the gum with no roots yet, so only one really needs to be disgustingly dug out.  And my friend Danielle told me about getting all 4 of hers dug out when she was 14... so if she can do that at 14 surely I can handle this when I'm 26.

If my cheeks swell up really bad I will post a picture.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Texts From My Mom v. V

The thing about Texts From My Mom is that the point is NOT to make fun of my mom.  The letters and numbers and terrible grammar are indeed hilarious, but more than something to poke fun at I just find them to be so cute and endearing.  In some way it is like the writing of a child, yet coming from a 53 year old.

Some recent conversations, first starting off with some questions about a package of Read My Lips from DavidsTea that I got my dad for Christmas:

Me:  Did Dad try that tea I got him yet?
Mom:  I dont know i think ill take it out of the cupboard so he is reminded
Mom:  Going 2 steep some choc tea tonite have u had it b4
Me:  Yes it is good.  It has caffeine just so you know
Mom:  It smells delicious in the bag is it stormy there
Me:  Not really but it is snowing
Mom:  (next morning)  Such yummy tea oh my we made some this am dad says u need 2 inhale it as u drink steeped it 4 6 min
Me:  Yeah that is how long you are supposed to.  It is one of their top 3 most popular
Mom:  Mighty good

Movie recommendations:

Mom:  Have u seen the social network
Me:  No but I hear it is good
Mom:  Yes u should by it
Me:  Have you seen it?
Mom:  No but look at reviews online
Me:  I'm not going to buy it.  Maybe we will rent it on Max [our digital cable].  It doesn't sound like something I would watch over and over
Mom:  Ya do the max thing

And finally, I was going to go to Humboldt today to "set up" (plug in) the laptop we got for our parents for Christmas (they are having some trouble adjusting to the change of a new computer and need hand holding to turn it on for the first time) but the roads have been bad so I decided not to.  Allyson told my mom about this last night:

Mom: (10:42 PM)  U dont want 2 hook up my laptop tomorrow anymore how come thats
Mom:  (7:37 AM next day)  Its ok if u dont want 2 hook up my laptop just dont want 2 leave it too long but next u come home is good might b warmer
Mom:  R u going 2 check sewing machines with gramma just in case the other 1 duznt show up ill look now
(There is a sewing machine that supposedly belongs to me in my parents' basement, but no one can find it and I want one so I might have to buy a new one)
Me:  Well I am going to Sears with Gramma to buy a vacuum and I heard there have been lots of car accidents lately so I don't really want to be on the highway.  You do know that Allyson can do it too, it literally just needs to be plugged in
Mom:  Yeah megan can2 i need orientation tho haha did u take the keyboard back
Me:  Yes I did.  Dad can use it too and edit his pictures on there
Mom:  Ok need more orientation maybe i should learn how 2 use the camera and i could download pictures and edit them

Hahaha love it.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

All Bran Audit

Last night, after noticing that my cupboards seemed to house an unusually high number of All-Bran bars (about 3 boxes, I thought), I decided to take an inventory of bran-based snack bars.

Exhibit A:  The front doors of my kitchen pantry.  (Obviously needs some organizing; is messy.)  Can you spot the All-Bran bars?


I count 5 boxes so far... let's take a closer look.


Bottom shelf:  2 boxes and a lone bar.


Middle shelf: just two opened boxes... or so it seems...


Oh, hey All-Bran bar, I almost didn't see you hiding in a President's Choice granola bar box.

Next, let's check out the side door of the pantry:


Two more!  Are these things breeding or what?

And now, have a look at the shelves BEHIND the middle pantry doors, where we usually keep canned goods and pasta and stuff:


3 unopened boxes!  Who eats this many All-Bran bars?  They don't even taste good.

Finally, I walked over to the other side of our apartment where we fill the cupboards with mugs and tea and coffee and found:


AHHHHHH!  5 unopened boxes of FibrePlus bars.

Have you been keeping track?  Let's add these babies up.

At 5 bars/box:

5x5 Fibre Plus
+3x5 All-Bran in the back shelves
+2 All-Brans in the side shelf
+1 All-Bran in the granola bar box
+1 All-Bran on the bottom shelf
+2x5 more unopened All-Bran boxes
+10 All-Brans in the open boxes

= 25+15+4+10+10
= 64 fibre bars in our house in total, not counting ones that are probably at the bottom of people's gym bags and backpacks

My house is so weird.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Sister Quotes

Allyson LOVES to watch Deal or No Deal reruns on the Game Show Network.

"OH NO OH NO OH NO OH MAAAAAAAAAN this is so bad!  He either gets ONE dollar or A MILLION dollars!  He didn't take the deal!  OH MAN OH MAN ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh THIS IS SO STRESSFUL!  This is NOT a good episode!  I can't watch this show!  Why would he DO that!  Why didn't he take 416 thousand dollars!  OH MAN OH NO OH NO OH NO I CAN'T WATCH ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I can't watch this show it is so stressful WHY WOULD HE DO THAT ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

*gasp*

"Oh I guess at least he gets $10 000 but why wouldn't he take the deal!!!!  What a bad episode, I can't watch this show."

Own bed

When you spend half your life living on a job site, sleeping in a bed that isn't yours, eating food that you can either eat or starve because the nearest grocery store is only accessible by plane, sharing a bathroom with 50 other women, and getting up at 4:55 AM every day...

...it is SO AWESOME to wake up in the middle of the night or in the morning the first day you get home and it registers that you are in your own bed.

Monday, January 3, 2011

2011

I should come back here ooops.  The thing is, I was having such a nice Christmas break with absolutely no responsibilities other than spending time with people I like.  So I sort of just left this a lot because there were many days where I didn't even turn on my computer, and it was awesome.  Does that mean I am turning into more of a grownup because I don't really care about the internet?  Like I do care but I am happy to live without it too.

A few things I did over my break were:  eat, watch TV, read, cook, and socialize.  I can't believe at one point I was thinking about working over Christmas instead of taking holidays.  I can't believe I was planning on working next Christmas either so I'm hoping when I go back to work tomorrow I can book Christmas 2011 off too because the entire time I was home I kept thinking about how sad I would have been if I was at work instead of home.  Being home for Christmas is too important and that's what I realized this year.

Also:  I need to stop drinking coffee.  I don't do it very often but every once in a while I think "I would enjoy a coffee" but then it makes me feel so sick and shaky and I regret it so much.  I get a serious coffee hangover immediately after drinking it and it lasts for hours.  No more coffee!  If you are ever with me and I am about to buy a coffee please remember to stop me.  New year's resolution that should be very easy to keep:  no more coffee.

I hope 2011 will be a fun year.  It looks like it will have some vacations and neat work opportunities but also some tough things too, so it will definitely be a very different year than what I'm used to.  I have a feeling it will fly by.

Let's end with some Christmas texts from my mom, talking about some sweaters she bought me:

Mom:  R u keeping both sweaters did u try them on
Me:  Yes they both fit
Mom:  Good they r both nice is the color nice 4 u 4 both
Me:  Yes