I’ve already been out for a fine meal with friends and tried orange roughy for the first time.  I really enjoyed it, but may never have it again after reading a little about it.  We’ll see… a little anti-climactic there!  But the company was great too… better than the food.  The restaurant itself I also feel that I can and should recommend.

Saturday is “my” girl Allison’s 5th birthday.  That is very unbelievable news to me.  It seems like it was just the other day that she was born.  Of all of my sister’s kids, she was the one I held the earliest, and she might even be the most like me in many ways.  (Scary…. probably for both of us.)  Anyway, we’re going out for breakfast in the morning, so I really shouldn’t still be up.  But I’m looking forward to that… really hoping that she’ll enjoy it too.

In fitness news, I just did 13 consecutive knee-based push ups tonight.  That’s a personal best so far.  I was discouraged the other day that I wasn’t going to be able to advance to the 3rd week of the 100 push up plan (see hundredpushups.com and my plan to accomplish this goal) without repeating the 2nd week of the plan.  I could hardly handle day 2 of this second week, so I could see the writing on the wall.  After today’s session I was just shy of meeting the requirements to proceed to the 3rd week plan, BUT I was MUCH stronger than I expected to be today.  Seeing this improvement already is definitely encouraging.  Hopefully this second shot at the 2nd week will be much easier and my maximums will be much higher.

I also went for another fitness walk on Thursday, this time after work.  That felt really good.  I listened to some interesting podcasts while I was out and also found it easier to blow my cornet at band practice later on that night.  I hope to get out on Sunday after getting back into Guelph… that will depend on the time and the weather, of course.  The weirdest thing about my fitness walk on Thursday?  The OPP police car ripping down Brant Avenue with full sirens blaring… and I was just about to cross the road…. very thankful that I waited on that decision hearing sirens somewhere.

Small fry pan on the stove top at a medium heat.
Add a bit of butter.
Add some chopped onion.
Add a healthy amount of curry powder on top.
Stir.
Add some broken up pecans, almonds.
Keep stirring.
Toss in a little bit of sugar.
Let it all blend together.

Crack a medium-small egg into a small dish and beat.
Add a splash or two of milk to the egg.
Combine the egg and milk.

Add the egg-milk mixture to the fry pan.
Mix all the ingredients, and allow enough time to cook egg to the desired consistency.

Tonight I pretty much creamed the egg, as opposed to simply scrambling or frying it.

I also chose to serve my crazy curried creamed egg along with one of my favourite egg accompaniments… don’t laugh too hard:  cottage cheese!

This odd combination of eggs and cottage cheese was something I stumbled across on my own a number of years ago and it has remained a funny little favourite.  It is especially good when the eggs are hot but the cottage cheese is cold.  Although, cottage cheese works well as an omlette filling, either heated up or cold.

By the way, the egg experiment tonight?  Very goooood.  Mmmmmm.

This was a meal all about compromise.  My friend and I have similar tastes in a number of areas, but toppings apparently are not one of these areas.  Compromise #1 – which kind of poutine.  Pierre’s has many types, not just the classic… my friend likes the classic, so I opted to forgo my usual “healthy” vegetarian version with sauteed mushrooms, onions, and green peppers.  Choices #1 & 2 – with cheese? yes – with bacon? no.  We came to these agreements fairly easily today.  Choice #3 – we agreed on Ginger Ale to drink.  Compromise #2 – pickles were present on the burger… but the fine burgermaster put them on one side only and said he would , so this worked well for us both.  Only a hint of pickle could be detected from the once nearby pickles.  Choice #4 – ketchup! no problems here.  Compromise #4 – mustard.  Bleck… my friend did without.  Compromise #5 – onions.  I did without.  Compromise #6 – relish.  I don’t usually, but don’t exactly mind it either.  Choices #5 & 6 – lettuce and tomato.  No problems here.  Compromise #7 – mayo.  I didn’t even bother asking.  I guess I could have.  I was hungry at this point and excited that the guy was actually going to cut the burger in half for us.

In the end, we had a meal we could share.  In fact, she paid this time around and I’m on to pay for the next time.  Maybe not exactly what either of us would get on our own, but it was still good and it all worked out.  We had food to eat and were still friends at the end of all the choices and compromises.   It was quite the journey.  Maybe a nuissance to the shop workers, but even they seemed to support our complicated effort at the same time.  And then back at the office it was all about teamwork to successfully split the food up… and dividing up poutine evenly is not a simple endeavour, for anybody wondering.  But we did that too!

Friendship reigned surpreme this day.  And the poutine was excellent as usual.  Even without the veggies.  (heehee)