Tag: mac and cheese

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 914: Vancouver, BC – GB WIN! ðŸ‡¬ðŸ‡§

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had to walk down to the office to get a laptop setup and sent out.

Curtis got to the office and got the laptop which, luckily, most of the work had been done for so there was a little less for him to do.

Whilst he was setting the laptop up, he had the Great Britain v Belarus game on in the background. GB ended up winning that game which was awesome to see!

Curtis got a bit of work done whilst still at the office and then he headed home.

After lunch, Curtis had a quick meeting to discuss a project and then did some tickets before having a meeting which was ran by the CEO.

There were a few discussions to have after this meeting and then the day was done.

Kim’s Day

Kim had a super interesting day today. She started by getting organised, sening out meeting invites, sorting out a few recruitment things and getting general admin done.

She then had attended a meeting IT things before joining a weekly recruitment meeting. For the rest of the morning Kim did some collaborative work with her teammate to clean up, reorganise and move information in their team folder structure. They then both joined a meeting that only they turned up to, so they worked on a few more things and Kim rescheduled the meeting for next week and on.

In the afternoon Kim had a call with a new starter to discuss their home office set up and needs. She then had a check in with a colleague before joining an interview. After the interview they had a quick chat and review. Kim then hosted a forecasting meeting with a department and doubled the meeting up as Q&A with a new starter.

In the evening Kim got a lot of admin done and she set up there laptops for new starters for next week. She was super happy with all the IT stuff she was able to set up and get sorted!

Evening

We had the remainder of the leftover mac and cheese and then Kim had to do some more work.

Once Kim was done with that work, then watched a bit of TV before heading to bed. It was around 00:00 by the time Kim was done!

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

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Vancouver, BC

Place 72- Day 911: Vancouver, BC – A Dog In A Lake

Kim & Curtis Hale

Early Hockey

Curtis managed to get a couple of hours of sleep before he woke up at 02:00 to watch Great Britain play hockey!

Curtis really enjoyed the game and Great Britain only lost 2-1 to Slovakia, which was a huge accomplishment.

Once the game was done, around 04:30, he went back to bed and got some good sleep in.

Finding A Sandwich

We woke up and had the same breakfast as yesterday and then got ourselves ready to head out for a walk.

We walked to Kitsilano beach again, but stopped a few times along the way to find a sandwich we could eat for lunch. Unfortunately, there were none we could find that we were interested in, so we didn’t bother in the end. We just got ourselves some coffees!

We walked around at the beach for a while and then it started to rain, so we walked back towards home.

We walked a long way back, to where we used to live, in our first apartment, just to give ourselves another route to walk around and a change of scenery.

A Dog In A Lake

As we were heading back home, we were distracted by a situation in which a dog had got into a lake and was chasing the ducks around. Dogs are meant to be on a leash in this area, so it was annoying a few people there. This went on for quite a while, until eventually the dog’s owner got into the lake and got the dog.

By this time, it was raining a little harder so we hurried back home, with a stop to a shop on the way back to get a few things.

Mac & Cheese

Kim made a terrific multi-cheese Mac and cheese for dinner which was great. We had that with a salad and homemade garlic bread and were thoroughly stuffed afterwards!

We went out for a bit of a walk and to get some things we forgot earlier from the shop, then when we got back home, Kim had a bath and relaxed.

We just relaxed for the rest of the night together and watched some TV before heading to bed. Curtis was noticeably tired today after his late night and early morning yesterday.

Tomorrow is a day off, in which we plan to do very little as the weather is not great.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 881: Vancouver, BC – Fancy New Coffee!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis had yet another very busy day!

He spent more time trying to fix someone’s laptop remotely, with the help of a colleague, and that was all throughout the day.

At 11:00, Curtis had a team meeting about the team strategy and then he did some tickets and security work until having lunch.

After lunch, it was time for another team meeting the review the work done over the last 2 weeks.

Curtis went to pickup his new coffee from the post office after this, which was luckily just a 5 minute walk away, and then he got home and made a cup of one of the new bags of coffee! He has bought a subscription in which they roast and send 3 new bags of coffee each month (if you want it each month). This is exciting as it gives Curtis new coffee to try and it’s fun, too. Curtis cleaned out the coffee grinder and made an Americano with the new coffee, which he made pretty well and really enjoyed it!

Curtis had a project to finish up in the late afternoon, which he did, and then it was relax time. Kim was still out, so Curtis played some games.

Kim’s Day

Kim was due to have a meeting heavy day and then two of her big meetings were moved to another day so Kim was able to really crack on and get a lot of admin done! She first started by popping out to grab coffees before sitting down and working on a project. She reached out to people and collected information from them and she also managed to get a lot of HR paperwork done.

He had a couple of smaller meetings and then she joined an interview and had a quick chat after.

Kim then worked on the internal work space, similar to the Wiki at her last company and started giving it a make over! She then popped out to collect some things from a store with colleague. They then went for a mini masked walk and it was lovely!

On a she got back Kim worked on the Wiki style project a bit more and she sent out some paperwork!

Evening

It was takeaway day today, so we found a place just down the road and went to pick up.

Curtis had a starter of wagu beef dip sliders and then a main of mac and cheese with braised rib. Kim had sweet chilli chicken bites as a starter and then some Cajun chicken tacos with fries.

Curtis couldn’t eat all of his mac and cheese and Kim couldn’t eat her fries, but we were defiantly well fed!

The rest of the evening was us in a food coma, relaxing and watching TV.

This Time Last Year

Mr And Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 519: Vancouver, BC – The Cleaning Begins

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis was very pleased that he had a great sleep last night!

He was very ready to work, which was good, as he had quite a bit to do today.

He had some tickets to complete and then, mid morning, he setup a laptop remotely in the US, which always takes time due to connection issues/time it takes to do everything.

Once that was done, it was lunch time, followed by a bit of license auditing which Curtis did to ensure that licenses weren’t being used when not required.

Kim’s Day

Kims day started with a meeting about the HR system. They went through some of the processes and features to ensure that they had been set up correctly. Following this meeting Kim made some changes and updates to a few things. At midday she had a HR meeting where they updated about candidates and other things.

Then in the afternoon Kim sent some paperwork out, reviewed documents and continued with the updates from the morning.

The Cleaning Begins

Once he finished work, Curtis played some games and then he got some cleaning done for he showings this weekend.

He cleaned the bathroom and that looks so much better!

Whilst he was doing this, Kim made chicken burgers, leftover from the previous time we had them. We also had some Mac and cheese leftover so we had some of that, alongside the burger.

We watched TV and did a bit more cleaning/tidying for the evening and then headed to bed.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 518: Vancouver, BC – X-rays

Kim & Curtis Hale

X-rays

We were up around 07:00 this morning and ready to go!

We had to get x-rays as the last part of our medical and it’s a walk in clinic for that, so we wanted to get there for when it opens so we’re in and out as quick as possible.

It opened at 07:30 and we got in and out of there pretty quick and we’re back home by 09:15, but did stop to buy a coffee on the way home!

Curtis’ Day

As soon as he got home, Curtis had a busy day!

He had meeting right when he got back and then did a lot of tickets right up until lunch.

Once lunch was done, he had more tickets to do and did some troubleshooting with someone.

It was an entire day of tickets but a busy and successful one!

Kim’s Day

To start her day Kim updated spreadsheets and made notes for the next few weeks and months. At midday she then joined her team meeting to discuss the ongoing projects and the next steps for them all. Kim then hosted the social call where everyone just had a chat and caught up, it was so nice.

For the afternoon Kim joined her colleague discuss the plans for the next year or so for the team. It was such an interesting call!

She then had a call with someone so that they could help Kim send the first offer letter on the new HR system. It was so great for Kim to have that support from someone who has a little more experience with the software than she does.

For the rest of the afternoon Kim worked on a few projects and eventually sent the offer letter out.

Evening

Curtis watched hockey after work whilst Kim was working.

We then had Mac and cheese for dinner, homemade of course!

We ate that and watched some TV and headed to bed at a decent time as we were up early this morning.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 482: Vancouver, BC – Suprise Onboard

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis started work by completing a surprise onboard which was urgent.

Once he got that sorted, he had his Norwegian lesson which went really well again, once Curtis got into the swing of speaking in Norwegian again!

After that, Curtis had to create a guide for the company which he used an previous guide for and amended it, making it easier to read and use.

Curtis did some more tickets and then had lunch.

After lunch, Curtis created a requirements document for one of his business analyst projects and he was happy with the outcome.

A few more tickets and some admin was done and then it was the end of the day for him.

He had a bit of a headache so had a lay down and felt much better.

Kim’s Day

In this weeks company wide meeting Kim decided to show everyone the new HR system, as she realised she had been talking about it for weeks but never really explained in great detail as to what it does. She also used the opportunity to use the announcements function to tell everyone in the company that the winter break has been moved forward a day or two to next Tuesday! So that was wonderful and a nice thing to surprise everyone with.

For the rest of the morning Kim did research and wrote up some communications to go out at some point. She also worked on a few things for the party, she reused a ‘how to play’ from a previous event, which was a huge help and saved Kim so much time!

In the afternoon Kim spoke with the execs to discuss the candidates that they have been interviewing and get their feedback. She was elated to hear that they really liked the candidates that Kim and her colleague had picked for them. They also had same thoughts and feelings about the candidates that Kim and her colleague had as well, which was good!

After that call Kim had a quick call and chat with her colleague to discuss the last minute booked interview set for the afternoon and they caught up on a few other things too.

Kim then hosted an interview and it went really well, they were a great candidate and it was a really interesting chat!

In the evening Kim sent out a second gift exchange pool as we have had people start since the cut off of the last pool of people. She then sent and update and some info on how it will work on the day to everyone involved! She then worked on a job posting for a new role that she would like to hire for in the new year!

Evening

In the evening, Kim made some spicy Nando’s sauce chicken wraps along with some homemade Mac and cheese as well as salad.

We ate that and then watched some TV, including the next episode of The Queen’s Gambit.

Kim watched a bit of a movie in the late evening.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 472: Vancouver, BC – Big Chillin’

Kim & Curtis Hale

We woke up around 10:30 and Kim made some incredible crepes!

We watched some TV whilst eating and then got ourselves ready.

Kim ready a bit of a book to relax for a bit and then we went out for some coffee!

We went to a place we didn’t even know existed about 5 minutes from our apartment which is called Angus T.

Whilst we went for coffee, they also make European croissants, so we had to try them! Curtis got a standard butter croissant and Kim got a pain au chocolate.

We really, really enjoyed the croissants and the coffee was pretty good too, all in all, a successful stop.

We did our usual walk to the beach, but there were quite a lot of people walking around there, so we left and headed back home.

Kim got some more incredible sunset photos, though!

Other than that walk, we did very little. We got some laundry done, and we had a nice nap and then it was dinner time!

We had excellent homemade mac and cheese and watched the animated Grinch film, which we quite enjoyed, and it was nice and short.

We played some games and did some more laundry, as well as watching some more TV.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 332: Vancouver, BC – Homemade Mac & Cheese!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got some admin and tickets done in the morning and then there was a company wide meeting with information about the company’s plans, financial information etc which he attended.

At the end of that call, he went to the office as someone was picking something up so he had to get that sorted for them.

Whilst at the office, Curtis took a shock take of the current laptops so the whole team knows what the Vancouver office has.

Curtis headed back home and had lunch when he got back.

Curtis didn’t have too much to do in the afternoon so he did some admin and some training.

Kim’s Day

This morning Kim started her day by researching stuff for events that are coming up and dealt with some other small admin tasks.

Kim the helped IT set up a new computer but before sending it out she compared FedEx to UPS to see how the prices differ and how easy the system is. The price was good so Kim tried UPS. She packaged up all the things and got it ready to go. She had an issue with part of the paperwork so had to redo that.

Just as she finished that Kim joined a call with two teammates to discuss processes that will be going in place over the next few weeks. It was very productive and needed as it was only meant to be 15 minutes, but lasted the full hour.

Before she left Kim set up a few meetings and sent out a few emails.

Homemade Mac & Cheese

Curtis ran out to get some milk and then when Kim got home, she made Mac and cheese! We bought smoked Gouda and some nice cheddar to use and it was excellent!

Kim did some pole dancing at home properly for the first time and loved it! She loves having the ability to do that!

We went out for another evening walk which yielded beautiful photos once again!

We watched some TV and played some games as usual and then went to sleep.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 106: Vancouver, BC – Broken Fridge

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis arrived at work and as soon as he walked in, he was asked to help the new hire with setting up his laptop etc.

Curtis spent around 30 minutes doing this and then after that he grabbed some coffee and emptied/refilled the dishwasher as it was finished and there was a lot of stuff piling up.

As soon as Curtis got back to his desk, someone said they had returned from Maternity leave after being off for over a year! Noone knew about this, so it was a bit of a rush and Curtis had to help finding a desk for them, too.

Once Curtis was finished with that, he had someone’s laptop to setup on their desk and ensure that their monitor worked with it as expected.

Finally, 1.5 hours after starting his day, Curtis was able to sit down.

He got some admin done, read through messages/emails and then got on with a few things.

He researched about an issue someone was having and then decided that he would download a new version of windows to test that for their issue.

As he was doing that, he was trying to get the virtual machine working from a couple of weeks ago, for the last time! He was given a code which was meant to fix it and it worked, but he then had to transfer it to another laptop.

It hit lunchtime and Curtis had a well earned break and then went right back to it.

Curtis got a bit of work done and then there was a large meeting at 14:00-15:15.

For the rest of the afternoon, Curtis ensured he was able to get the virtual machine running how it was meant to, tested more and confirmed that it was working!

He gave the person access and let them know how to access. He is glad that is finally done.

Kim’s Day

When Kim got in today she remembered that she hadn’t put through the weekly order so she got that done right away for a delivery for tomorrow morning!

Kim then thought that there was no harm in asking if they could deliver today and they said they would arrive by early afternoon! Success! In the meantime she had to run out and grab milk as the full bottle on Friday was suddenly empty!

Kim then went into the kitchen to find a puddle coming out from the drinks fridge so called that in for a repair. As last week was so busy Kim put of saving a of her receipts so she spent a bit of her morning scanning and saving the receipts and ensuring that any online / emailed invoice were saved also.

Today one team got the go ahead to order the next 4 weeks worth of catering, which was very exciting for Kim as she was then able to set up the online portal for ordering food. She arranged this with the vendor and they had it up and running in a record breaking time!

While organising catering for the next 4 weeks, Kim noticed that the monthly social talks were happening at the end of this week so she sent out a reminder for people to sign up.

Just before Kim went on lunch the fruit arrived, which was amazing! She unpacked it and had a nice chat with the delivery man. Kim then just sat in the kitchen for lunch before returning to listen to all of last weeks missed calls.

The drinks list for the drinks in the fridge finally came through last week so Kim went through it and organised a trial run of different beverages to see which ones people prefer.

Kim’s colleague noticed that she was being charged by a certain delivery website when it shouldn’t be hitting her card. She and Kim then called the company, spent 25 minutes being on hold and getting nowhere before being hung up on and then another 25 minutes being on hold and getting the issue sorted.

Cleaning & Pizza

We got back home and just did nothing for an hour and then did some cleaning. We sorted some laundry, vaccuumed the floor and wiped down the kitchen sides.

Once we had done that, we started to get hungry and, as has been a common theme, we forgot to take any meat out for dinner so we just had a frozen pizza & mac & cheese.

We caught up on some TV & Youtube videos and that was pretty much our evening. Short and sweet.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 73: Vancouver, BC – Free Coffee, Forgotten Phone & Costco Run

Kim & Curtis Hale

Curtis’ Day

Curtis got to work with 5 minutes to spare and was non stop from that point on.

He had a new starter to setup as well as 2 people to offboard.

At 11:00, Curtis helped someone move desks and convert it to a standing desk. Once this was done, Curtis got bought a coffee by the lady, which was lovely!

After the coffee, Curtis had some more of the onboarding to complete and then it was lunch time.

Kim met Curtis down at a Vietnamese place near Curtis’ work as they do a great Banh Mi. We got those but because it was far from Kim’s work, she had to walk back as soon as she got it.

Curtis went back to work after lunch and continued to be busy. He had to order a lot of items as well as some software.

At 14:30 he updated the AV system in 2 rooms and checked on them periodically.

There were a lot of small issues today so Curtis spent quite a bit of time sorting those, too.

Curtis’ day finished at 17:00 and he walked to meet Kim.

Kim’s Day

As Kim was walking to work she checked to see if her phone was in her bag and found that it wasn’t! This was not the best start to the day.

When the fruit arrived Kim put it all away, she ordered a lot of different items from normal so it will be a nice change.

Someone mentioned that they couldnt find any brown sugar so Kim then spent some time sorting out the sugar! Not exciting but everything is much easier to find now! Plus its easier to know what the stock levels are.

Kim then took some time to set up next weeks order and contact a few other vendors about some possible additional items they would like to stock!

It was a colleague’s birthday on Thursday, but she was away on leave so in the late morning Kim and another colleague ran to a bakery to pick up a beautiful red velvet cake and a card! As they got in the elevators who catches the door at the last second? The birthday girl! Sods law!

When they got back upstairs the girls prepared the cake and plates to ‘surprise’ the birthday girl! They got a few people together sang happy birthday and then ate cake!

Kim sorted a few things out before heading to near Curtis’ work to meet him for lunch. Not so easy to do without a phone as they had not really discussed a time or place all that well. They eventually found each other and sat for a little while.

When Kim got back she spent most of her afternoon sorting our various different social things. She set up the agenda for the social team meeting later this week, went over a few things for the upcoming summer party and sent out an invite to a meeting next week. She also ordered some catering for next weeks meeting!

At the end of the day Kim spent some time going through her phones messages. It was not interesting and mainly consisted of the dead space before someone hangs up. There was one call where the phone was just recording background noise of people singing in an office, Kim stopped listening somewhere around the 2 minute mark.

Costco Run

We met up from work and walked down to Costco, primarily to get meat but also a few other things like cheese and a cereal.

We spent some money there and then walked back, boxes & bags in hand, with all the items we bought.

Too Much Food

For dinner, we has a big chicken salad with a side of Kraft mac and cheese. It turns out, this was way too much food!

We were very stuffed, so we just sat and watched Vikings in the evening.

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale