Solve other peoples’ problems all morning. Walk up to Chinatown at 11 with some colleagues to collect masses of food for a going away party.

Stand around for a toast and a small speech, lots of smiles. Eat at our desks.

Spend the afternoon cleaning up our area: bin for shredding, desk-cleaner and paper towels, bags of garbage, broken-chair graveyard, collection of cast-aside computer peripherals.

Realize I have a new person starting on Monday, and no chair for him. Start building a chair. See a report struggling with a call, take an escalation that lasts an hour. Finish building the chair.

Eat some chocolate. Share with a colleague.

Pack up and try to leave at 5. Run into a colleague I haven’t spoken with in awhile. Sit down and chat. Realize I’m crashing as we chat.

Finally leave the office, head to the liquor store. Mill Street Sampler Pack. Stand in line, joke with clerk, walk home around 6.

Beer in fridge to cool. Cider already cold. Cold cider and the internet. Get drowsy, consider nap. Neighbours upstairs sound like they’re trying to saw through the floor. No nap, just internet.

Dinner. BBMs to distant cousins. Dancing to Bob Seger in the doorway.

Wash dishes. Try Blueberry Wheat Beer from the Sampler (yum!). Put away laundry. Contemplate cleaning dining room table. Give up.

Bed.

I got bored with the ab portions of my pirated workout videos and decided to turn to YouTube. After a few lame videos, I found this one, and have enjoyed it kicking my ass for the last few days:

I can’t do the rolling plank thing so I just do 20 seconds of regular plank if I have the energy, and throw in some lower back and oblique crunches to round it out.

Sneezing has been delightfully painful the last few days

Morning:

Quick work out
Clean the cat litter
Make breakfast
Shower

Lunch:

Water the garden
Make lunch
Eat lunch

After work/during a lull (still working on this one):

More workout
Clean something I’ve been ignoring
Make supper

I’ve found that I get a lot more done with these routines, and I’ll definitely miss them when I’m working from an office regularly again.

Watering the garden is part of the routine that I particularly look forward to. I follow the same circuit and count how long I’m watering each area so that I know the young trees and shrubs are getting enough water. Between counting and checking in with the plants, my brain gets a break from the rest of my day, and the sun warming my face makes it feel like a mini weekend squeezed into 10 minutes. I can’t imagine rushing through that part of my day before heading off to work.

Via Flickr:
Another potato crust quiche, this time with double smoked bacon, asparagus, and goat cheese. I went a little heavy on the asparagus, so everything is sticking out above the egg.

Japanese maple

Via Flickr:
Technically the 3rd

Via Flickr:
First canning of the season!
I used the recipe from Well Preserved but used white wine vinegar.