Travels With Miranda

This was my fifth weekend in a row of powering away at a transcription project. It was also another weekend of breaking the tedium on Saturday by going to dinner at Jody and Gary’s. I decided after taking just a single bit of The Most Amazing Club Sandwich I Have Ever Eaten that they are going to have to follow me around so Gary can cook for me every night. His shrimp minestrone was also delicious, and the leftovers much appreciated for lunch today!

(Are there any single RVing guys out there who cook? I’m available! )

I like that I’ve had the discipline every weekend to get the work done by Sunday dinner, so I have time to make a nice meal or go out for one, and then spend the evening unwinding to give me a semblance of a break before starting all over on Monday.

Tonight, I’m making something I haven’t had since Dawson (!!!), pasta with vegetarian ground. The sauce is ready but the water stubbornly refuses to boil. I can’t believe how long I put up with an electric stove in my housebound life! I have timed things and discovered that I can boil water and cook the pasta on my propane stove in the time it takes to just boil the water on the electric stove!

So, not much to report, again, but I’ve learned that if I don’t post regularly I get an ‘are you alive?’ email from my mother.

The weekday time I have gained through the loss of my flier routes and commutes has slowly trickled into weekend time. This was the first Sunday morning in a very, very long time that I had the time to make my favourite Sunday brunch:

pita (I was out of sliced bread), scrambled tofu, sausage, tomato, coffee

I had a full day of work to do this weekend and stretched it out over two days. So I got up this morning, did an hour of work, then stopped for brunch. What a lovely way to define today as being about having a freedom of choice in how I parcel out my time. I’m not sure I’m even going to get out of my pajamas today.

I took on a ton of transcription work for this weekend, four audio hours. It takes about four hours to transcribe an hour of decent-quality audio, plus there’s extra time needed for proofreading and researching. So it amounts to about 18 hours of work.

Transcription is surprisingly physical work since you have to sit in pretty much the same position while you’re doing it. My transcription equipment includes a foot pedal, which gives me the maximum speed possible, so it’s not like I can grab the laptop and go sit in a lounge chair to change position every once in a while.

The only way to handle such a huge amount of typing/sitting down/staring at a computer screen is to take frequent breaks. I start the day taking 15 to 30 minute breaks every 15 audio minutes, about each hour. During these breaks, I have to get up and move around!

So, I’ve gotten into the habit of writing down little chores that can be done in short bursts, like throwing on a load of laundry, washing the floors, cleaning the microwave, vacuuming the loft, putting bread ingredients in the bread maker, etc.

By the time I’ve hit a full audio hour, I’ve already put in a solid four hours at my desk. This usually falls mid-afternoon (2PM today) and I take about an hour off. I have a nice lunch in the kitchen, clean up my dishes, switch out the laundry, do my personal emailing, etc.

The final audio hour is a bit tougher. My legs start to get sore and my fingers become clumsy. I still try to take my breaks every 15 audio minutes, but it’s usually every 10 audio minutes. These breaks are short, just a stretch.

When I have a half hour of audio to go, about two hours of work, I start thinking about dinner. Yesterday, I cut up onions and carrots at the half hour mark. At the 15 minute mark, I caramelized the onions in the rice cooker, then added rice, chicken, raisins, and Moroccan spices. An hour later, I was done for the day, an incredibly fragrant aroma was wafting through the rig, and I was nearly caught up on my chores. It was 7PM.

After dinner, I cleaned up the kitchen and took off for an hour-long walk. It doesn’t matter that my knees have been horrible the last few weeks, I can just sack out with a movie after a day of transcription, I need to get the blood circulating!

Sure, the frequent breaks mean that I have a longer work day, but they also mean that I don’t emerge from the study at the end of the day completely exhausted and drained. Instead, I can relax since there isn’t a mountain of chores waiting for me. I think that my method is a perfect example of solid work/life balance.

Afternoon break is over, back to work I go!

While I was at Walmart yesterday, I found three boxes that made me decide to end my quest for Lebanese ingredients out west. No grocer here seems to know what tahini is!

tabouleh, falafel, and hummus mixes

It felt sacrilegious to buy these, but I was getting desperate! Greek-style falafel doesn’t do much for me!

I made up the hummus and tabouleh first and let them sit for a bit.

hummus and tabouleh (with added tomatoes)

The first taste of both left me relieved. The hummus is flavourful and smooth. The tabouleh is a bit more ‘parsleyish’ than I like, needing some fresh mint, but for a box mix I am quite impressed!

I then mixed up the falafel mix, which would have to sit for ten minutes:

very damp falafel mix

While that sat for a bit, I cut up my mystery fruit. I was right, it’s a melon! It tastes like a canary melon and I’m wondering if this is a miniature version of one. It is VERY sweet.

mystery fruit is a melon!

The falafel mix was getting thicker, but not quite ready yet:

falafel mix getting thicker

Pita offerings are slim out west, but these Greek pitas appeared to be anything but and I took a chance on them:

not-so-Greek pitas

They were stale, of course, so I nuked one for a few seconds with a damp paper towel over top. Took it out and investigated. Sure enough, this was a thin, pocket-style pita, not a thick, pocket-less Greek-style pita. Yay!

stale pocket pita is better than no pita!

I then heated up some oil and while that was going, I dressed up my pita:

a layer of hummus

a layer of tabouleh

Time to check if the oil was hot enough:

that sizzle tells me to get those patties in there!

I don’t have a falafel baller, so I just rolled balls in my hands and lightly flattened them. One minute of frying on each side and voila!

that actually looks like falafel!

Add three falafel patties and the sandwich is done:

The falafel mix was excellent! I could zazoom it up with some toasted sesame seeds next time, and it was definitely missing a drizzle of tahini, but for a lunch at home from three boxes I am very satisfied!

And, yes, I will be eating the leftovers for the next few days. I have no problem with that.

I did a Walmart run this afternoon after work to pick up paper goods and cat litter and food. I decided to check out the grocery section to see if they had any good deals and I was surprised to discover that this Super Walmart has a very good selection of things not available in dedicated grocery stores (like falafel mix!). Combine that with good deals and I came out with a full cart of groceries.

Does anyone know what this is?

What the heck is this yellow stripey thing?! It was in the fruits so I'm guessing some kind of melon???

I have to show off a gift I got from a tenant yesterday. He asked me if I liked bell peppers and I replied yes. He handed over a large bag full of frozen roasted red pepper strips!!!

roasted red peppers

There’s a million things I can do with those, not least of which is make up some pimento cheese. I asked my mother for the recipe and she emailed it back immediately (merci!), so I made sure to grab the feta and cream cheese I’ll need for that. I also got the fixings for hummus (very nice with roasted peppers) and tomato sauce (divine with roasted peppers!). You can see hashbrowns peeking out from behind the peppers, another gift from this tenant who works for McCain. Having concluded that these pre-cut potatoes are actually reasonably nutritious so long as I don’t fry them, I’ve accepted all gifts of them and have been using them for quick dinners, sautéing them with frozen veggies and cheese. They are going to be succulent with some roasted peppers.

Finally, I have to say, once again, that I am grateful to have a large RV fridge and freezer!

very full freezer

I don’t think I could squeeze another thing into there! The fridge isn’t quite as bad, but almost.