Arrival of U-Box 'Only the Beginning' Vows Ottawa Resident

The U-Box has arrived! The U-Box has arrived!

Spent an intense 3 hrs on Tuesday unloading the contents of said U-Box and cursing Monty for his inability and/or unwillingness to carry anything but a tennis ball. I'm so thrilled that they brought the box right to my house - on a trailer no less! Was secretly terrified that we'd have to go to the U-Schlep storage facility, rent actual U-Schlep, transfer contents of 'Box to 'Schlep, and then schlep it back to the apartment and then into the apartment. That's far too much schlepping for me and the tennis ball carrier to undertake. So magical trailer was a very, very welcome development.

I have all my stuff! Car is currently loaded down with boxes of books. Am poised for weekend stealth mission to campus - Operation: Academic Street Cred. Hopefully some books I've never read on my office shelves, an area rug, and a solar-powered waving QEII (parting gift from the advisor, don't know how to interpret that) will do the trick.

In other news, am trying to keep self sane. In the sadness and confusion of the days after E when back to Balto, mister and I resorted to self-medicating with unusual chocolate bars purchased from gas stations en route to Canada:

The Skybar was my least favorite of the bunch. The bar is divided into 4 sections, each a chocolate pocket filled with a different flavor: caramel, vanilla, peanut, and fudge. Peanut was the best of the lot. Fudge was gross and the vanilla section was a sickly, translucent, whitish colour that made me feel weird. The chocolate wasn't very smooth; it seemed kind of grainy. So the question is, does the peanut section justify the entire bar? I don't think so. Grade: 5/10

Next: the Mallo-Cup. Pure deliciousness. It's like a Reese's PeanutButter Cup except the center is more like vanilla-marshmallow-coconuty goodness. I'd had these before and I'll keep coming back for more. Some people might find them too sweet. Even I can only eat one cup in a sitting. But that only means that one has to pace oneself - the coconut elevates the entire experience to a new level, so don't let the sweetness factor deter you! I effing heart you Mallo Cup. 9/10

On the strength of the Mallo Cup, I tried another of the Boyer company's offerings: the Butterscotch Smoothie Peanut Butter Cups. Meh. I was shocked and saddened that the butterscotch component didn't taste any different from a chocolate-covered peanut butter cup. Having said that, maybe PB+butterscotch would actually taste horrible, so perhaps I should be grateful. Also, Smoothie? I've never liked that name - not for overly-thick-and-filling drinks, and definitely not for PB cups. It makes me think of baby turd. 7/10

And finally, the Zagnut! I'd seen it before in some '80s movie like Beetlejuice or something, so I was excited to finally try my own Zagnut. I read the tag description and thought, "Oh, a butterfinger."








But imagine my surprise when I found there was no chocolate coating! It is like a peanut brittle bar, rolled in coconut. Though I still felt like something was missing, I thoroughly enjoyed my Zagnut and I think the coconut component is just genius. 8/10



But then I ran out of chocolate bars. And this gets at the heart of one of the challenges I have when living alone: I like to cook but I find it difficult to motivate self to do so when there's only me to cook for. It seems so easy to just have favorite lunch (again) and it seems lame to spend time cooking something elaborate for just myself. Also, grocery shopping is annoying and I'm terrible at deciding what to buy. Living with E is awesome for many reasons but one is that she gets the groceries and then all I have to do is make stuff with what she buys! It's fun and awesome.

But if I'm going to live to see her again, I have to not get scurvy from eating only fav lunch and choc bars. The first step I took to prevent disease was preserving a bunch of lemons (they have to ferment a bit until they are ready to use).
But that still didn't solve the problem of making self cook, because preserved lemons keep in the fridge for up to 1 year.

So I bit the bullet and signed up for a weekly organic fruit-and-veg delivery service: http://ottawaorganics.com/. I know, I know - ridiculously bourgeois, super lazy, etc etc. But fuck it - I'm making a decent salary, I don't have a maid service or a dog-walking service (if only!) or anything like that, and it's not that expensive, really. Might this be just what I need to make it in the 'twa? Every week they bring me a small tub of localish (Quebec) organic fruit and veg plus organic eggs and milk. The tub changes every week but I get to tell them my general likes and dislikes. For example, never radishes or turnips but yes please! to tomatoes and broccoli. I didn't say no to everything, so I figure it will force me to engage with different vegetables and I'll have to cook or I'll feel terrible that the stuff is going bad - I can pick up meat and whatnot at the lebanese grocery store on my way home from school.

I'm not entirely sure it will work out but I'm going to give it a shot. First basket came today:
First thing I saw when I opened the tub: 4 ears of corn!!! And I thought:

The Price is Right Losing Horns sound bite 4 ears of corn

But there's also a giant (or normal-sized, really) leek! What am I going to do with that? So the plot thickens. Stay tuned.

Oh yeah, you want to know about my job and all that. Well, first class over and done with. I may have pitched it too high. *cough* like wayyyyyy too high. I had 11 students; now I have 8. We'll see how many come to class on Tuesday. :/

Also, my bedroom suite comes on Saturday!