February 2021: Month in Review
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| Painting above: Coast road (c.1942) by Dorrit Black |
February Excursion: Pokemon Go Tour
On Feb 20th we spent the day running around town for the Pokemon Go Kanto Tour! Well, my spouse did all the heavy lifting-- I don't play myself, but I joined him for the last stretch walking around for the exercise. It was fun to see just how many people were out playing, with their specific PoGo hunch over their phones. At least Pokemon Go is something we can do to get outside, and still stay distant from other folks.
To celebrate the catch of the day (I caught a shiny bulbasaur which my spouse was highly coveting in the two minutes he asked me to take over his phone to tie his shoe), we had ice cream for dinner at Rocky Point, following our city's Rediscover New West campaign.
P.S. Have you seen the Bulbasaur Propaganda instagram? Pretty damn funny.
Most-liked Chore: Organizing our...chores with Asana
We recently moved, and our current dwelling is completely different than the home we lived in for eight years prior to this big move. Unsurprisingly, cleaning and maintaining our new space has been quite an adjustment for us.
Previously we managed certain things by booking a Google calendar event, but this month was a revelation when we decided to input all our chores into Asana (this is not an ad), with regularly occurring reminders and schedules. It's given us a big picture of what we want/need to do during the week, and a daily snapshot of tasks-to-do.
More on cleaning
- Unf-ck your Habitat
- BleachPrayLove - not a lot of free resources from this Canada-based company, but my friend MT who Knows Stuff swears by them
- Drop the Ball by Tiffany Dufu
Least-liked Chore: Taking LB to the Vet
February was a tough month around here. Our beloved cat, Liberty Bell, got extremely sick. She had a bowel obstruction, we opted for the surgery, and her recovery was difficult. I should note, however, her recovery was not because of any fault of the vet or surgery, she just struggled, otherwise receiving excellent care from our vet and then the emergency vet centre.
It was a solid week of living hour-to-hour, waiting on updates from the vet at all hours of the day and night. We have drained our savings (we don't have pet insurance) to cover these unexpected bills, and while LB is making a slow, steady recovery, she is definitely traumatized by the whole ordeal and has required lots of extra love and care.
To be clear, we were advised clearly and fairly at every step of the way of the incoming expenses and options for her care, so this financial burden was a choice we consciously made. Just the same, it has started 2021 off to a very challenging start emotionally and financially.
February Recipes
This isn't a recipe so much as a revelation: my fave after hours snack this month has been a bowl of Hawkin's Cheezies and a can of red wine. Yes, can of wine. I've been having Frico by Scarpetta (Lambrusco) which you can find easily at BC Liqour Stores. I'm so hopelessly North American sometimes it's painful. Still, it's a damn good snack.
This black bean taco recipe by Calgary*-based Julie van Rosendaal is a veg dinner staple in our house, we have it once a week. Lately I have been replacing all of the spices in this recipe with 1 tbsp + 1 tsp of the taco seasoning blend from Spice World in Winnipeg**
Two of our fave veggie pizza recipes include Ultimate Veggie Pizza from Cookie and Kate and Gourmet Cheeseburger Pizza by Canadian Living. The cheeseburger pizza is originally meat-based, I swapped in veggie ground round (Yves or Gardein) and it works very nicely. To make things go more quickly, we use store-bought naan bread as our pizza base!
February Quote
A marriage is a private thing. It has its own wild laws, and secret histories, and savage acts, and what passes between married people is incomprehensible to outsiders. We look terrible to you, and severe, and you see our blood flying, but what we carry between us is hard-won, and we made it just as we wished it to be, just the colour, just the shape.
- from Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente
