Category: everyday life

Too Smart Phone!

Today, it was snowing in Chicago, which means there was a lot of snow! One of these days, that makes me very happy that I do not own a car anymore! 

Still, I went for a walk in the middle of the day, because I just can’t stay inside all the time! On my way back, I stumbled on a pile of snow and fell. It was not even an accident, the snow was soft, and it was funny, but my phone slipped from my pocket and ended up in the snow.

Again, not a big deal – I picked it up, brushed the snow off, made sure the phone worked, and kept going.

I was going to the musical tonight and planned to leave the house at six. Around 5 PM, I plugged the phone to make sure it was charged before leaving the house for five hours. Immediately, I saw a message on the screen indicating that the is some water inside the plug, and I needed to wait till it was dry before charging; otherwise, I could damage the phone. I waited and tried again. Then I tried to dry it with the fan. Nothing changed. 

Imagine: there is only 28% of power left, I need to leave in 10 minutes, and I have everything on the phone! My ventra card to get on the public transportation. My vaccination card. A ticket to the show (with a Broadway in Chicago subscription, the only way to display your ticket is using the phone, they do not even show a picture of QR code when you are on your laptop!

I turned the phone on, took a screenshot of the ticket, then printed it. I took a physical vaccination card with me,. and I only turned the phone on to get into the CTA station! I could not even use a computer while on CTA! Fortunately, the phone got dried when I arrived at the theater, and I could charge it with the portable power bank!

Sweet Potato Pie

First day home – trying new recipes

Hettie D.'s avatarHealthy Cooking - Hettie's Way

The last pie I wanted to master (and once again, only because I had a lot of sweet potatoes from the CSA, and I had to use them!). For years, I thought that sweet potatoes are non-edible for me until I learned how to cook them! The next logical step was making a sweet potatoes pie, which I finally accomplished today.

Ingredients:

  1. 2 large sweet potatoes (should yeld 2 cups of puree)
  2. 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) of butter, melted
  3. 1/2 cup sugar
  4. 2 large eggs
  5. 1/4 cup milk
  6. 1 tsp vanilla extract
  7. 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  8. 1/4 tsp nutmeg
  9. 1/4 cup brown sugar and and 1/4 cup of crushed pecan to sprinkle the top.

Peel sweet potatoes, cut them into small pieces, bring to boil, and let them cook for about 15 min until soft. Drain, puree, and let it cool down.

In a bowl, cream melted butter with sugar; beat…

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Visa Again

Today was a day of unplanned activities. Yesterday, Boris told me that his US visa is about to expire (I vaguely remembered that it’s the case, but I thought it’s good till mid-March). For some reason, he thought that renewal in Helsinki would be as easy as it was three years ago, and he could just apply online and get a visa in a week, but it turned out not at all easy.

First, the whole application process, including paying the visa fee, is as nightmare-ish as it was. Forget about visually impaired people; even for me, it took almost three hours! (out of my workday).

And when we finally got the interview waiver confirmation, it turned out that the mail-in application processing time was six to eight weeks.

That means that Boris won’t be able to come to Chicago until at least May (and he still has to figure out the two-month interval when he is less likely to have to go to Russia because he will have to mail his passport, which still has non-stamped pages, and he will be left with the all-stamped one). I will still be coming to Helsinki, but this is not like when he comes to Chicago!

Maybe It’s Just Me, But..

On one of the last year’s trips, I had to check in my carry-on red Samsonite (yes, I had two, both gifts from Boris, both weight virtually nothing, and both cost a fortune). It came back with the broken zipper lock. It broke because I didn’t secure the ends of that zipper. And I didn’t secure the ends because I had trouble unlocking them a couple of times. Boris always insisted that I should lock them in because that’s what they are for, and I was always afraid I wouldn’t be able to unlock them. That time last year, I didn’t plan to check in this luggage, so I didn’t bother, and as a result, the entire lock was gone. I was still able to close the zipper with my fingers all the way, but I lost the flexibility of being able to do it from the middle. So, everything still worked but was inconvenient, and I started to think that I needed a new carry-on. 

The Samsonite holiday sale was on, and this exact model, which was not sold in the US before, showed up. After joining EDB, I decided I could give myself a gift and purchased it.

When the luggage arrived, I kept it in the closet and didn’t even look at it – I knew exactly how it looked inside and out. And then, before my trip to Milwaukee, I pulled it out and realized that it was locked! The lock was slightly different from the previous luggage, and I had no idea how to open it! Finally, I managed to open it by trial and error, and guess what I found?! The instructions on how to open were inside!

The Lake. Any Time Of The Year

The other day, an Uber driver who drove me and mom home from EuroAsia restaurant told us that he used to live almost where mom lives now, and he now lives in Arlington Heights. I laughed and told him that we just moved in the opposite direction. But what was really funny was that he immediately started talking about the thrill of living a block from the lake, almost in the same words as I talk about it: I never lived so close to the water, it was unreal!

… I walk to the lake several times a week, and in winter, it is as beautiful as it is during the warmer season.

How Crazy A Birthday Can Go

Almost like the year 2021, my birthday turned more eventful than I would like it. I only slept for 3.5 hours the night before because I needed to finish a report (I had to present it to the customer at 10 AM the following day). A coworker told me that he would help me to process the raw data (the program which should be doing it ended with unexplained errors), and then he didn’t. After I realized that I wouldn’t get any help and I would need to process the data manually, I could not get to the task right away. I had two medical appointments to which I had to take my mom, and then I had Chicago PUG. So I started at 8:30 PM, worked till 1 AM, slept until 4:30, and then continued.

On top of it, it turned out that I had a COVID contact over the weekend, and then I had an unexpected day of fatigue on Monday, which under the circumstances could be interpreted as COVID. So it was home testing, frantic talks with Boris about whether I should exchange my ticket, looking for a testing site nearby (and I had zero time for all of that – see the previous paragraph).

I had a great meeting with a client, went to COVID test, got a negative result, shared with Boris, and then instead of going to sleep, when to the EuroAsia restaurant with Igor and Mom to celebrate my birthday.

The only thing I can think of now is sleeping, and wishing that not the whole year will be like that!

About New Year Resolutions

Speaking about my New Year resolutions, I am very determined to put them into action and have already made multiple changes to my daily activities. For one week, I did what I hadn’t done for a while – recorded all my activities through the day and what I spent time on, including things I do in parallel, like exercising and listening to an audiobook.

Another thing I am trying to be consistent with is going to bed before 11 PM, preferably at 10:30 PM. I am up around 4-30 AM regardless of the day of the week, and I know that although for a while, five and a half hours was enough sleep for me, now it is six hours. I didn’t sleep enough in December, and it negatively affected everything in my life. There are still only a few days when I go to bed at 10:30, but at least it’s always before 11.

And yet another thing I am trying to be more aware of is the time I spend on social media. Funny story – most people think they should do less of it, while I know I need to do more :). There was not enough of my professional presence at the end of 2021. I am allocating enough time to do meaningful things on LinkedIn and my professional blog. Also, I started using Twitter because it is professionally required. I am still struggling to do it in a meaningful way :).

Also, I am working really hard on not abanding relationships I have with many people, in real life and virtually. It’s easy to say, “I have no time for this,” but it goes both ways: people need me, and I need them. I am trying to reach out to those from whom I didn’t hear for a while because I understand that sometimes they also feel uneasy to contact me because they think it was “too long” and “I am busy.” So far, it proved working 🙂

Igor Levit’s Performance at the CSO.

Brilliant. Amazing. Standing ovation. The piece in the video is not the one he performed on Sunday, but I like this promotional video.

I am so glad I went to this performance, you can’t even imagine.

The Last Minutes Of Chicago Christmas Tree

One of the perks in my new company is having one Friday of the month off in addition to the regular PTO. They are called Wellness Fridays. One of these Wellness Friday was this week, and I went skating at Millennium Park. The regular entrance was closed, and that’s what I saw:

More House Repairs

The Christmas tree ordeal was not really that bad. The real problem happening at the same time was my furnace. I knew that both the furnace and AC were old when I moved in and that, ideally, I had to replace them both. But having the list of things that didn’t work at the time of my move, I decided to try to last through the winter. Actually, after I refinanced, I theoretically could replace the furnace, but at that time, all my work things started, and I had no bandwidth to think about any house repairs. 

Well, it didn’t last through the winter. Moreover, it broke on Sunday morning. And it was a cold morning :). 

Out of four places I called for emergency service, only one was able to come the same day. They fixed the furnace, and I signed a service agreement with them, and when they asked whether I wanted to replace the furnace, I agreed. And I agreed to replace the air conditioner at the same time :). We agreed on the installation date of January 19, but the furnace stopped working the next morning again! They came and fixed it. They left the door off and showed me which button to push for restart. And a couple of hours later, their manager called and asked me whether I wanted the new furnace to be installed immediately … 

So now I have a new furnace, a new air conditioner, and a couple of takeaways.

  • The brick buildings can keep the warmth! There was no heating for seven hours, and the lowest the indoor temperature went down was 63F.
  • Only do business with companies that provide emergency service during after-hours.
  • When it’s time to replace, replace. 
  • In many cases, it’s good to work from home!