Another Hill to Die On

If I may return to our breakfast out, I confess that I disdain, the token addition of the orange slices.

I do like and eat oranges, but those puny slices just don't fit on that plate, and they really bug me.

At home, I normally have a somewhat healthy breakfast. For example, today it was oatmeal with blueberries and an extra spoon of bran. I also had orange juice.

When we go out for breakfast every other blue moon or so, I am just looking for scrumptiousness.

Flame and/or disown me if you wish, but that is how I feel about things. 🤪🤣

This is yet another hill that I am willing to die on — maybe literally eh, if I eat too many breakfasts like that one.😎

Brain Lapses, Cop Calls, and Fried Eggs

On a day when my brain decided to post two blogs and Sue's brain decided to butt dial 911, I also decided to make eggs for breakfast.

No, it wasn't an actual butt dial (but that's what we call it), just an errant finger. Don't despair, I didn't set the house on fire while making breakfast, and the eggs were tolerable —  barely though. (I just needed an opening that might possibly have grab your attention.)

Once Sue assured the 911 dispatchers that all was well over the phone*, I headed downstairs. Although I recently posted about making french toast, I seldom make a real breakfast but usually just have cold cereal. (Please note that a fellow blogger, Kate, has assured me that the Canadian Press style has it as french toast, french-fried, french bread, french door, etc.)

Breakfast is the one meal that Sue and I don't share. We tend to eat at different times and in our own corners while doing our own things.

With that out of the way, I now present my preferred method for doing quick fried eggs in the morning.

1. I put the round circle container rings in the pan along with a dollop of butter.

 2. The butter on one side of the pan melted soon. Since Sue prefers eggs hard, and this one will cook longer, that will be hers. After adding the egg, I sprinkle cheese on top. 

3. I have flipped ↓ Sue's egg — a little too soon, as it broke. Sometimes, I can keep the egg inside the ring when I flip but not on this morning. The second photo shows both eggs after the flips. I should also note that I deliberately break the yoke on Sue's egg but not on mine.

4. Because I like my eggs just a wee bit runny, I have set it aside while I let Sue's cook longer.

5. They are ready ↓ to be taken upstairs to my lady. The English muffin got a little cool while I was finishing the eggs. The hardest thing for me to do in the kitchen is to time two things, but you'd think one could time toast fer cryin out loud. However, the morning had begun with two blog posts and a 911 butt call, so I guess it would have been a little much to expect to get this little something right.

Brekkie was only fair-ta-middlin. The last time that I made eggs, they were pretty well top notch, but I found mine very mediocre this time. Perhaps, it was the English muffin which was both just warm and also a trifle stale.

I don't know why I buy English muffins. I don't like them all that much, and Sue must not either as they have sat for a week-and-a-half and there are still two left.

There was once a brand called Thomas: a company that made both English muffins and crumpets. They were so much better than what can now purchase. Thomas disappeared from the shelves at least five years ago. It has been a sad passing that I still mourn on a regular basis.

* I took care to add "over the phone" to how this errant 911 call was dealt with. There was a time, 17 years ago actually, when Sue also did that, and the police came to the house to make sure that all was okay, certainly giving me the once over. I assume that it now happens too often to be able to follow up like this. They do take care to assure themselves as best as possible over the phone.

Now, Sue has reminded me that JJ also did it when he was a toddler. His dad gave him an old phone to play with, but we learned that old phones can dial emergency, even without sim cards if the phone is still charged. We were babysitting, and two police came to the door. Fun times.

Left Behind

I am pretty good at remembering my phone when I go out. When I do forget, after a few minutes, my iWatch will beep and flash a message that my phone has been left behind. Those are the words in the message that pops up. 

When it happened on my way to the grocery store, I circled back because I wouldn't have been able to call in and let them know that I was ready for them to bring out my order.

While I wouldn't say that would have been an apocalyptic occurrence. I would have figured it out. I could have asked another person who was waiting if they would call in for me. Or I could have walked into the store long enough to let them know that I was there.

There was an evangelical, apocalyptic Left Behind series of books back in the day. I was never tempted to read them. I left them behind, so to speak.

However, I was well aware of them, and I thought of them after receiving that watch message. Yeah, if there is any truth to those books, both my watch and I will be left behind on that day of the great rising of the saints.

I’ll be continuing to take my chances though. 

Circling the Drain

A short while ago, I posted that I can get along on 6 hours of sleep, if I can also have about a 10 minute afternoon nap.

Then, I went for 4 days of barely 6 hours and no nap and felt like I was beginning to circle the drain.

A good thing happened on that night. I slept for a long 6 hours instead of a short 6 hours. I approached 7 hours instead of not quite making it to 6. I wish I had gotten all of the way to 7, but, alas, I didn't make it that far.

I must have slept very soundly, for Sue reported that the cat was on the bed a lot and even on top of me. I wasn't the least bit aware.

So, I will survive.

Survive by not swirling down that dreaded drain for another day.

Saucy Me

When we 4 went out for breakfast, the other 3 people all felt compelled to speak of their disdain for saucy things like the dish I ordered. I like saucy food. Watch me pour gravy on my roast or turkey, for example.

This dish consisted of eggs benedict with bacon and feta cheese. It was delicious when we were last there, in mid-December. It was absolutely the best then.

Not so this time. Part of the fault was mine. The eggs were too runny; I just ordered wrongly. I don't like eggs hard, but I don't want them extremely runny either. I should have specified medium.

The worst part was that they were not hot but just a bit warm. The potatoes were piping hot, but not the eggs.

It wasn't the time to complain. Restaurants were just re-opening after a 6 week shut down, and I am sure everybody was feeling their way back into the routine. You have to give people a break sometimes. It was good enough on that day to get out and socialize.

Faffing and Chuffed

You’ll please pardon me for feeling chuffed after faffing around in the kitchen and making french toast for breakfast. (I don't care what they say. Somehow I don't feel as though I need to capitalize "french" when we are talking about toast. On this hill, I make my stand.)

Sue can be fussy about things like toast being well done or crispy, and I am pleased to say that the toast passed muster. Apparently, it was crispy enough to to suit  

I have tried to make french toast twice before, but not a for quite a long time because it didn't go very well.

I think the difference was that I got the pan hotter this time before laying on the bread. 

Also, one commenter on the recipe that I used suggested to slightly pre-toast the bread if it was fresh. I did that — very lightly before soaking the bread in the eggy batter. It worked, or something did.

But I am almost as pleased to have used both faffing and chuffed in the title and now being able to sneak them into this post for a second time.

I have usurped both words from my British mysteries.

Let’s face it, the Brits do words better than we colonials.

It was nice to do something different for breakfast although we are planning on going out for breakfast tomorrow, which is now yesterday for you. 

We be time travellers here.

How the Protest Went and How it is Going

You may be curious about what happened on the dreaded convoy demonstration weekend.

Let me say that it wasn't as bad as I feared, but it was bad enough. As you know, I feared that there would be violence, but there was little of that although there was aggression to those passersby who were unsupportive and to others. I do wonder whether it was too cold to get the blood boiling. As I sit down to compose this on Monday, for Tuesday's post, many protesters have, apparently, remained in town. Police have asked for people to stay home today.

I don't want to belabor my reporting, so here we go with bullet points. I am trying to be careful to stick to the facts.

• Although I called it a pickup convoy, from my early glimpses very many transports did show up. I think a lot of the big ones came from nearby places, like Toronto. They could make a shorter trip for just the weekend.
• They jammed downtown causing gridlock and blared their horns incessantly, making life difficult for local residents.
• They hindered the passage of emergency vehicles. One person died in transit. The driver claimed that he was deliberately hindered from getting through the congestion. The trip was prolonged for sure.
• Vaccination clinics had to be closed.
• Some felt free to urinate and, reportedly, sometimes worse, outside. The city provided 15 portable toilets. Fifteen potties for a mob that size aren't much, but this was not a community sponsored event. Unfortunately, the organizers did not think to make any accommodation by bringing or arranging their own. 
• As part of the lockdown. Ontario restaurants were still closed for indoor dining, but we have been able go in, masked, to purchase refreshments to take away. There were reports of unmasked protestors forcing their way into establishments and demanding both sustenance and bathroom usage.
• A soup kitchen, The Inn of the Good Shepherd, was entered by a group who demanded to be fed. They were accommodated.
• The downtown mall decided to remain closed on Monday. I understand that other eateries are continuing to do the same.
• Some locals reported still being harassed on Monday and were told to remove their masks. I don't know if they did or how threatening the encounters were. 
• There are/were many Confederate flags on display.
• Many, many swastika flags were sighted.
• The Canadian flag was often, if not always, displayed upside down.
• At least one upside-down Canadian flag had a swastika added to it.
• F*ck Trudeau flags were very popular.
• There were signs that only some people would understand to be racist: dogwhistles. They were saying trueblood or pureblood. (I can't remember which.) If you didn't know what they meant, they might be seen to be innocuous, but the insiders know and understand. 
• There was a video clip of a group mockingly imitating a native dance with drums. It was accompanied by hooting and laughter by the onlookers. 
• Terry Fox is a much loved Canadian icon. His statue was festooned with protestor regalia. This was sure not to garner goodwill.
• The National War Memorial was dishonoured and crowded with protestors at times.
• The Tomb of The Unknown Soldier which is part of the memorial was trod upon and, reportedly, much worse. I will leave it to your imagination.
• The Aboriginal War Memorial was also dishonoured.
• Both memorials needed to be cleansed on Sunday, and to their credit, the organizers were reported to put their own guard around the National War Memorial. I don't know about the aboriginal one.
• As of Monday evening, many were still in Ottawa with horns blaring and people being harassed.
• Three emergency vehicles reported rocks being thrown at them. I don’t know what type of vehicles they were. 

All of this over a prick in the arm.