A few things...

Caught a cold at some point last week. Took Thursday and Friday off from work. For treating the cold, I basically had at least 2 packets of emergenC each day. I also made a couple of honey/lemon drinks. I took 120hr Sudafed for a few days. Of course, I also went through ALOT of Kleenex. The cold eventually moved from my nose down to my throat. On Friday, I had almost no voice. By Saturday, things started to improve. Yesterday, it was just some congestion and slightly phlegmy cough.

I think the large doses of vitamin C during the early stages of the cold help it move along more quickly. The sudafed was more to help alleviate the symptoms (and breathe more easily when I sleep!).

Anyway... Today is Canadian Thanksgiving. Got today off. We had the turkey yesterday. Apparently it came out quite tasty (although the underside was slightly undercooked). I seasoned the bird with thyme butter. Slathered that stuff between the skin and the flesh of the breast area. Slathered more of it around the outside surface of the turkey too. Whatever was left was used to baste the turkey. Stuffed the cavity of the turkey (after a little S&P) with slices of 2 lemons. The bird was just under 5Kg so it was in the oven for about 3 hrs. I guess we could have left it in there a bit longer. Unfortunately, due to my congested state, I couldn't taste much. Oh well....

*gobble* *gobble*

BLEAH!

I have a cold. I don't like colds. It all started with some sniffling and sneezing yesterday that blossomed into sinus congestion by the end of the day. And today, I am totally congested and my head hurts. Plus, I think I'm running a mild fever.

Some people don't believe in it, but some think colds come about then the seasons start to change and the temps fluctuate like the Dickens! In a superstitious, I believe it, but I also think, more realistically, that colds are caught from others. Of course, one cannot go through life in a sterile room (think "Creep Show" segment with the roaches!).

Anyway, I'm on a training course most of this week. Had to cut out early because of this cold. Picked up some Neo-Citran on the way home. Hopefully that will knock me out for the evening. I think a good night's rest will help. Also, downing doses of Emergen-C couldn't hurt either! :)

*SNIFFLE* *SNORT*

Got up early today to check out a warehouse sale for kitchenware. It opened at 8AM but when we got there a little before 9 there was a huge line-up of people waiting to get inside. We decided that we weren't in desperate need of anything that would have us waiting in line. So away we went.

We next went to this clothing place that's down the street from work. I tried on a Nordstrikk sweater, but the styling just wasn't working for me. There seemed to be too much room in the shoulder area. I think it might have been cut too boxy.

Afterwards, we went hunting for a birthday cake. Dave wanted to check out Frannie's but when we got down to Monkland, it seems that Frannie's is now a Starbuck's. :-p Then I remember the little Italian pastry shop on Decarie. They had a number of cakes and such. We chose a tiramisu. Picked up an apple pound cake for ourselves too! :)

After we got home, we started to play around with out machines. I finally started to do something to the Ultra 10. I downloaded some patches and started to install them. The installation took a couple hours. Some patches didn't get installed so I have to have a look at why. :-/

Anyway, off to the cottage tomorrow to celebrate Dave's Mum's birthday.

Had a change this AM to upload a few more shots from last fall's trip to Japan. :)

Bus Stop in Mitaka

Japanese maple (Miyajima Island)

Jizo statues (Kyoto)

Little girls in procession at Kitano Tenmangu (Kyoto)

Forgot to mention that I also went shopping today during lunch hour. There's a place just down the street from work that sells some nice casual clothing. It's sort of like a warehouse type place. They seem to sell samples, seconds and discontinued styles. Today there was a batch of Norwegian sweaters. Rather nice and starting at about $125. Considering that they go for about $300 in the stores, that's not bad. Today I came away with a cute black with floral embroidery top by Royal Robbins and a fleecy top also by Royal Robbins. Both pieces only set me back $65 total. Not bad. :)

Haven't blogged in a while. Work has pretty much been the same. Although it's been strangely calm this week. Of course, calm is all relative. In any case, I am on a training course Mon-Thu next week. In a way I have a 4 day vacation! Woohoo!

In other things, we had our group outing yesterday. We took the afternoon off to shoot some pool. Then afterwards, we went over to our manager's house for some grub. Na bad.

Started to hunt for Japan tickets. No seats available at the moment for the dates I've been plugging in. The cheapest fare is currently $880 with ANA. Seats are available but have to go via Washington Dulles or JFK. Of course you can't go straight to JFK from here. You'd have to arrive at either Laguardia or Newark then transfer over to JFK. :-p I don't think so!

We'd like to go JAL again. Tickets are $1015 with them. But no seats available at that price. Will keep plodding on to see when seats will be available and then pounce on them. I figure we go for 3-4 weeks on this trip.