Self portrait

Well, it's already been almost six weeks that I've been working now. And only one person (Stéphanie) has noticed or mentioned the fact that I no longer have my supercilium accessory. 10 points to Gryffindor on her behalf! The rest of you, you are so unobservant!

Regular paycheques

I get paid weekly so I've already got 2 paycheques which is mighty nice. I was trying to decide what I could splurge on after getting paid and figured one can't go wrong with shoes. So I ordered these online...and made Tim very jealous!

Keen Sonomas

My parents have a cottage in upper New York state so it makes it very convenient to ship things there when ordering online from American companies. And luckily my shoes arrived at the post office on the day my dad was heading back up to Montreal.
And luckily they are the right size. So no need to use the free return shipping.

This week's purchase was a few CDs. Feeling nostalgic for the 80's, I bought U2's The Unforgettable Fire, October and Boy along with The Police's Greatest Hits and The Pogues.

Next week I will be good and stick to groceries as my exciting purchase of the week!

Banana muffins à la Christine

Sometimes I get creative when I cook, even when baking.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't (low-fat brownies that call for prune puree should not be instead made with tamarind!)

So here's this evening's variation on banana muffins...

3 large ripe bananas = 1 banana + 2/3 cup leftover pumpkin pie filling
1 egg = 1 egg
1 1/2 cups of flour = 1 cup whole wheat flour + 1/2 cup of Sugar Crisp cereal
3/4 cup sugar = completely omitted
1 tsp baking soda = same
1 tsp baking powder = same
3/4 tsp salt = same
1/3 cup butter melted = same
And I added about 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1/2 cup of raisins.

Then I baked at 350 F for 25 minutes and they're not half bad. Maybe just a little salty. I didn't exactly measure out the salt precisely.

The Sugar Crisps were left here by Hang and there's no way I would eat them for breakfast but as I hate throwing food out, I thought I'd give it a try and it worked. Mini wheat crumbs also work well and give your muffins a nice crunch factor!

Work week 3 already!

I'm still going in to work for 7:30, trying to bank some hours to cover the time off I'll be taking in a couple of weeks.
One of my co-workers is on vacation this week so it's pretty busy all day. We have to try and schedule our breaks to coincide with the guys downstairs but it doesn't always work out. It's funny, come 4 o'clock, it seems like pretty much everyone has left the building. Production and packaging finish at 3:30 and the office staff must quit at 4, not a minute more, it seems, as there are no cars left in the parking lot when I make my way out to catch the 4:23 bus.

At one point yesterday, I was testing 6 samples at the same time, phewf! I have a system worked out now so it goes pretty smoothly. Though when you're doing 2 or 3 or 4 things at once and one of involves a sauce that needs to be cooked, you have to make sure you don't forget it there on the stove as it boils away!
When we're 3 people in the lab there's usually someone there to back you up when things get more hectic.

Next week should be pretty busy again as we have a production starting for a product that is exported to Japan. It sounds like that keeps one person busy for the duration. Fun, fun, fun!