Champfleury Cheese

Snack today -> Cheese, Crackers, and Banana Bread.
Becky brought in some snacks this morning.  Some cheese, crackers, and banana bread.  The highlight was the cheese.  It was a "Champfleury".  It tastes very creamy and buttery.  I don't remember any fruity taste, but I was eating the cheese on banana bread.  She said it was on sale at Sobey's for $6 from $9.  I got myself a wheel.  (Today was the last day of the sale.)

Champfleury Cheese.

Useless Fish News:
After work today, Katie went with me to Petsmart to get some new fish for my aquarium (Thanks Katie).  Today was the last day for Buy 2 Get 1 Free on mollies, tetras, and wags.  I got 3 Sunburst Wags

Sunburst Wags.

and 6 Neon Tetras.

Neon Tetras.

I think I should have gotten more Neon Tetras.  I want to make a small school of them.

Slow Cooked Stew

Food yesterday -> Stew
Took Monday off and made a simple stew in my Power Pressure Cooker XL.  I threw in stewing beef, white mini-potatoes, carrots, red onions, and 10 garlic cloves.  Topped it up with beef broth.  I pressed slow cook for 6hrs.

Watery Stew.

It meat came out really tender.  The broth was watery to my liking, so stirred in a couple eggs to thicken it and served it over rice.

Stew on Rice.

Lunch today -> Little Caesars.
Picked up Little Caesars for lunch.  I got a hot 'n' ready pepperoni and some crazy bread.  I remember the crazy bread used to be more greasy and dripping with garlic butter.  It's not any more, which is good... I think?

Lunch.

Weekend Report -> Rising Sun.

Watched alot of live Olympics the past couple of weeks.  It's going to be weird without it being on TV all night long.  Atleast Walking Dead has restarted.

Food this weekend ->
Found some discount steak at Loblaws.  Sliced it up and stir-fried it with some broccoli for quick meal.

Broccoli and Steak.

Got some maple bacon from Farmboy.  Pan fried them then made eggs and toast.  The farmboy bacon is so good.

Breakfast for Dinner.

Useless Gaming News:
Julie, Arseni, and Jeremy (and Sherlock the dog) came over on Saturday night.  We played Rising Sun.  It's a tactical territory control came where you move your army pieces to try and win battles at the end of each round.  You can play independently or create alliances with other players to share benefits.  Each army has a different special ability and players can gain additional abilities or monster allies.  Pretty good game.

3-Player Rising Sun.

We then played The Palace of Mad King Ludwig.  It's a tile placing game to meet conditions to gain victory points.  Each type of room grants bonuses when completed and every game is different depending on what "King's Favours (end game bonus points)" and room tiles are revealed.  Very good game.

Pomelo

Snack today -> Crispy Chocolate Santa.
Got this Santa Chocolate from Susanna a little while ago and I forgot about it.  It snaps really easily and is pretty good.  It's like a Crunchy bar.

Crispy Santa.

Snack #2 today -> Pomelo.
Bought a couple Pomelos from Walmart on the weekend.  They were sold cheap there.

Pomelo.

Opened one up today as my lunch.  It wasn't very sweet but was still firm and good.

Peeled Pomelo.

Dinner today -> Steak and Veggies.
Went to Loblaws tonight.  Picked up a rib steak for 50% off.  Pan cooked it with some bak choi.  Then I made more frozen vegetables in the steak drippings and butter.

Rib Steak Dinner.

Useless Gaming News:
Played 3-player Terraforming Mars after work today with James and Peter.  The suggested game time is 90-120 minutes.  Our game took 3.5 hours.  Peter won by a good margin, even though he thought he was losing at mid-game.  Excellent game.  Lots of strategy and some controlled luck involved.

Triple Chocolate Cookies and Lemon Squares.

Snacks today -> Triple Chocolate Cookies and Lemon Squares.
The triple chocolate cookies were amazing as usual.  I can't stop recommending it especially at 50% off.  $2.75 for 8 gourmet cookies.

Today's Snacks.

The Lemon Squares were OK.  The lemon part was too soft and tasted like a lemon pie.  I don't know.  Something was just off about it.

Long Weekend Report -> Swordfish

Food this long weekend ->
Bunch of coworkers and I went to Panda Garden for lunch.  I had heard the food had changed, but it was still the same.  The price did go up.  It was fairly busy, so I made a quick trip for plate #1.  Just got some sushi and mussels.

Buffet Plate #1.

For Plate #2, I got some salt & pepper fish, egg plant, dumplings, chicken wing, and tempura shrimp, on top of my main-stay mussels and sushi.  The salt & pepper fish and the tempura shrimp were very good.

Buffet Plate #2.

I had 2 more plates and a small dessert plate.  Mostly more sushi and mussels.  The mussels were big and good.  The dessert chocolate pudding was good too.

Went to Loblaws Sunday night with Susanna to search for some discount food.  I found some lemon squares and triple chocolate cookies for 50% off.  I also found my dinner: 50% off swordfish.  I've never had swordfish before.

Swordfish and Broccoli.

I pan fried the swordfish in some oil and butter, seasoned with just salt and pepper.  Made some broccoli too.  I finished the swordfish with abit of olive oil and soy sauce poured over it.  It was OK.  Very dry and not much flavour.  I may have over-cooked it abit?  I had to get some sour cream to eat with it.

For Family Day Monday, I got the Monday Special at Big Bone BBQ.  I had forgotten how big the portions were!

Monday Special.

I ate about half the fries, 5 wings, and 4 ribs and I was full.  The ribs could use more sauce.  They need it.  Lots left for Tuesday lunch/dinner.

Useless Gaming News:
4-player gaming on Saturday night.  We played a couple more months of Pandemic Legacy: Season 2.  I'm glad we won those months as I can't wait to get this game over with. 
After Gordon left, we played Terra Formars.  It's a game based on the anime (haven't watched it), and it was OK.  Brian gave up early as I manipulated the play after a few turns.  He tried to screw with my turn and then took offense with I screwed with his turn.  I don't care for this attitude any more, so Ben I finished the game and left.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Snack today -> Valentine's Day Treats.
Picked up Valentine treats on behalf of the Social Committee for work.  For 1 kitchen got:
Jelly Beans, Chocolate Hearts, Gummy Hearts and Ginger Snaps.

Treats.

For another kitchen I got:
Hot Lips, Valentine Chocolates, Hershey Hugs, and Chicago Mix Popcorn (popcorn because I was at Costco).

More Treats.

Dinner today -> Sloppy Joe.
Made Sloppy Joe for dinner.  It's just browning ground beef and pouring in a can of Sloppy Joe sauce.  I also added mushrooms and onions. 

Sloppy Joe.

The sauce is suspiciously very ketchup-like.  It also didn't taste like I remember from a very long time ago.  It was still pretty good.  I poured it over some rice and cracked a raw egg into the middle.

Sloppy Joe on Rice with Egg.

Transformers Lenticular Valentine Cards

Snack Monday -> Apple Cake.
Was in Montreal on Monday for training.  We had an apple cake for a snack.  It was OK.

Apple Cake.

Useless Transformers News:
Picked up a box of lenticular Transformers Valentine cards.   Not worth it.  Very cheap.

TF Valentine Cards.

Weekend Report -> Chinese New Year 2018

Food this weekend ->
On Saturday, we had Chinese New Year's dinner early this year because Susanna is going to be away later.  My parents setup prayers.

CNY Prayer Setup

Then we ate dinner.  There was roast pork, shrimp, tofu soup, chicken, fish, glass noodles, mushrooms with abalone, and beef with greens.

CNY Dinner.

I made congee on Sunday.  I took home some leftovers from Chinese New Year's and mixed it into the congee with some ground pork and preserved duck egg. 

Watery Congee.

I added abit too much water, but it did thicken up when I reheated the leftovers to eat all day.

Congee.

Useless Transformers News:
Picked up Power of the Primes: Rodimus Prime from Walmart.  I picked up Swoop and Optimus Prime earlier and I'm still missing Dinobot Slash. 

Swoop, Rodimus and Optimus.

Useless Toy News:
Picked up a Lego Scuttler on clearance.  Box is abit bent, but I don't care.

Scuttler.

More Lemon Cheese Cake

Food Yesterday -> Staycation All-Day-Breakfast.
During my 1 day staycation, I made breakfast to eat all day.  Eggs, maple bacon from Farmboy, and buttered toast.  I didn't go to T&T as planned because I woke up at 11am and by then it was already snowing.

First All-Day-Breakfast Plate.

Food News:
Played alot of Monster Hunter World on Wednesday, but when my eyes got tired from staring at the TV, I made another lemon cheese cake with toasted coconut sprinkles.  Brought it into work today and shared it.  For this one, I added abit more lemon extract than the one I brought to Linda & Jeff's place.  It was good and not over-powering, but if I added abit more, it would have had that weird fake lemon candy taste.

2nd Lemon Cheese Cake.

Toy Hand

Dinner today -> Wings and Apple Pie.
Microwaved some leftover BBQ Wings I got from SuperStore on the weekend.  They are on sale at 30 wings for $10.  Totally worth it.  The apple pies were from McDonalds.  I got them when I went to Walmart at lunchtime, but didn't eat them because I also bought chocolate chip banana muffins to eat for lunch.

Wings and Apple Pies.

Useless Toy News:
Becky had a new toy at her desk when I went over there for some cookies.  LOL.

Useless News:
Taking a "Staycation Day" on Wednesday.  Planning to play Monster Hunter World most of the day.   For food I'm either going to T&T and getting a 4-item meal or going to make a stew with my insta-pot; or both?  OR neither if I get lazy :)

Silver Dollar Fishes

Useless Aquarium News:
3 of my guppies died during the weekend.  I expected 2 of them as they were swimming near the bottom, hiding in cover, and not eating.  The 3rd guppy (the conjoined fish twin) unexpectedly died Sunday morning.  I scooped all 3 up and brought them back to Pet Smart for refunds.  I replaced them with a couple Silver Dollar fishes.

Silver Dollar Fishes.

The pic has a close up of one fish and the 2nd is in the back by the warp pipe.

Useless News:
Got a late Christmas gift from Cindy, because I wasn't able to pick it up until I met up with Linda on Sunday.  She got me some Lindt chocolates and Muk Luks.

Muk Luks.

The Muk Luks are pretty neat.  I'm wearing them now and they are soft and warm.  Much better than slippers :)

Weekend Report -> Superbowl Tide Commercial

Watched the Superbowl on Sunday over at Jeff's place and had dinner there too.  By far the best and memorable commercials were the Tide commercials.  It made every commercial after that, a Tide commercial; and the team up with Old Spice was a nice touch.

The Doritos Blaze vs Mountain Dew Ice was good too, or atleast I want to try them.  Oh, the game was pretty good too.  I was happy the Eagles won.

Food this weekend ->
Went to KNH2 on Friday with Steve and Ed.  We shared a pork wrap and I got Chicken Pad Thai.  There was alot of chicken in my dish and the dish was huge!  I didn't finish and had to take it home.  I have a feeling that KNH2 is beating Ox Head 2 at price and portion size.  Ox Head's grilled meats still tastes better, but they need something more.

Chicken Pad Thai.

Sliced up some white mushrooms and a pepperette.  Fried them up in butter and mixed in some instant chicken rice.  I would have added eggs to make an omelette rice, but I only had 1 egg and it wasn't enough to do it.

Fried Rice with Mushrooms and Pepperettes.

Made a Lemon Cheese Cake with Toasted Coconut Sprinkles to take to Jeff's place for dessert.  It came out a little bit lumpy.  I didn't let the Philadelphia cream cheese come fully to room temperature before mixing it.  I noticed but I don't think anyone else did. 

Lemon Cheese Cake with Toasted Coconut Sprinkles.

Useless Gaming News:
Played and completed a couple more months of Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 on Friday night.  I'm not super thrilled with this game.  Feels like "going through the motions" just to waste of a few hours.  Could be because Brian is taking control of the game and blames everyone else for his mistakes from his "perfect plays".  Maybe we need a change of scenery and play at Ben's house too.  The smoke makes me sick the next day everytime.

Sunday night, we played a game of Je Ju Island and Running of the Bulls during the 2nd half of the Superbowl.  Ben won both games, but both games were very close.

Running With The Bulls.

Conjoined Guppy Twins?

Dropped my car at Mazda this morning for a simple oil change.  Got a phone call soon afterwards saying that there was an issue with the front right axel and the rear links.  Don't know car jargon very well, but it ended up costing ALOT to fix.  I was planning on ordering a bunch of Masterpiece Transformers, but not any more :(

Dinner today -> Chicken Wings and Wedges.
Went to Loblaws after getting and paying for my car (Thanks Katie for lift).  Picked up a $20 bucket of chicken wings and potato wedges for 50% off!  Amazing score.  Would have been better if I found some cookies for 50% off too, but they didn't have any.

Discount Wings and Wedges.

Useless Aquarium News:
A couple pics of my new guppies.

New Guppies.

They still hover near the top, but not as much as before.

Closer.

Julie and I noticed of the guppies has a growth on it's belly the other day.  After watching him for a few days, I noticed that the growth has small fins and a bit of a tail.  I think it's the fish version of conjoined twins!  Not 100% sure, but looks it like it.

Conjoined Guppy Twins?