While doing the crossword this morning, I found this clue to be a bit mystifying: Peanuts in ____.
After solving the puzzle, I hit up Wikipedia and learned that peanuts and coke are a snack that gained traction in the southern United States in the 1920s.
Peanuts and coke, sometimes called a “miner’s Coke” or “farmer’s Coke”, is a snack originating in the coal-mining regions of the United States that later became popular with agricultural and other blue-collar trades. It is made out of peanuts soaked in Coca-Cola.
The most common variation involves pouring salted peanuts into a bottle of Coca-Cola before drinking them. Traditionally, glass bottles of Coca-Cola are used. The snack’s appeal is often attributed to the combination of sweet and salty tastes, as well as the crunchiness of the peanuts. Other variations substitute different nuts or sodas. The combination has been called “the working man’s strawberries in champagne.”
The recipe is simple enough: put some peanuts into your ice-cold Coca-cola. Enjoy!
I was talking to Andrea about how bizarre it is for it to be a thing and simultaneously thinking who would want this when my son exclaims, “Well I absolutely couldn’t take THAT to school!”1
My Apple Watch alerted me that if I wanted a fancy sticker for global running day I would need to run five kilometres on June 4th.
It’s been over a decade since my last “run” but yesterday I figured since I didn’t swim that day and I was feeling a bit antsy and out of sorts anyway1 I should go for it.
It took me 37 minutes.
My legs are a bit sore today but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. The award on my watch, however, didn’t show up. And here I’ve gone and done exercise merely for the sake of feeling good and making myself healthier. Maybe it’ll arrive in the next day or two, otherwise, well, I guess I’m still happy I did it but I’d like that award.
Update: It showed up without a notification and it turned out it was a two-for-one award. I just had to go looking for them:
I had a job interview last week. I am extremely qualified and was quite looking forward to getting it.
The vice principal called me today and said, “they are ‘going a different way’ from the interview”. Which in my mind translates to, we already had someone picked out for the job and it’s not you.
I’m disappointed but if my hunch is correct there isn’t anything more I could have done.
This is the second black widow I’ve ever come across. I spotted the first one crawling around on the ground near me when I worked on the base in CFB Suffield digging holes1. I left it alone and it left me alone.
With regard to this one in my backyard, however, I didn’t think it would be prudent to just leave it there next to my strawberry garden so I tried to move it and it got away.
My five-year-old came to me the other day with what sounded like breaking news.
“Santa is just a normal guy!” he exclaimed.
Frowning, I looked at him. I nodded and began wondering if I should have played up the jolly elf a little more.
“He’s just a normal guy who doesn’t even make the presents.”
Sadly, the Christmas magic is gone before it really even started. My thoughts wandered. Obviously the brand names and packaging are a dead giveaway. Good on him for figuring it out at five but he’s too young to be so cynical…
“He’s just a normal guy who doesn’t even make the presents — he just gets the elves to do all the work!”
After a not so great day teaching at a local high school I wondered about my choices that brought me here, a decade into my teaching career and back to subbing. I understood the irony in that if I just worked at that school more I would actually have better days but I couldn’t help but think I should just stick to the one school that I’ve really been loving this year even if it means not working every day.
I contemplated my day of students showing disrespect, constantly on their phones, and just plain refusing to even pretend to do the assignments as I walked out of the building. Though feeling sorry for myself, I noticed a student that I didn’t recognize chatting with a friend and said good afternoon to his friend. He looked up and said, “Hey, are you Jeff Milner?”
“Yes,” I said hesitantly, while wondering how in the world does he know my name.
His face lit up and he exclaimed, “You taught me how to draw, last year, in Eva’s class!” I remembered the class but I couldn’t believe I had made such an impression. After asking him to remind me his name, I headed out and thought, it’s moments like these why I actually do love teaching.
I tried signing up for a membership at the Lethbridge YMCA at the very last day of August to have my membership start in September. As I was about to sign up I learned that if I waited until September 1 I would get seven days free and not have to pay fees to reinstate my account. I also learned that the pool would be closed for the majority of the month making my membership that month basically worthless 2.
A month has passed, so after I skipped the bedtime routine with my kids I popped over to the Y today to sign up. The lady at the counter looked at me like I was crazy when I said I wanted the seven days free trial. I explained that I just called someone on the phone right before and they said I could get a prorated rate for October after the seven days are up. She responded that they don’t have a free trial for people that have already ever had a membership — they did have that exact promotion last month 3 but there wasn’t anything she could do for me. I was so irritated by the whole ordeal that I just thought I’ll do my swimming at the University, thank you very much, and I walked out of there.
When I arrived at the university I found their pool empty and undergoing maintenance that had no end date in sight 4. It’s looking more and more like a dryland training month for this swimmer. I wanted to exercise my body, instead all I got was an exercise in futility. At least I made it home in time to put the kids to bed.
Last year I took a leave of absence from my job teaching grade five. This year I quit outright. I was a little back and forth about the idea knowing that I was leaving a permanent contract but ultimately what sealed the deal was that my hours were fluctuating every year and over the past few years had been shrinking and were now down to half time. When I asked my principal if there was any hope for me at the school she gave the most telling answer possible. She said nothing. It was a kick in the face.
Will I land on my feet? I guess it doesn’t matter too much when before I was just crawling through the mud anyway. I’m enjoying the flexibility of subbing and although the paycheque is weak we are doing fine.
The kids played the claw machine today in downtown Whitehorse, Yukon. When I saw Andrea getting her $5 changed into tokens, I thought it was a total waste of money. Andrea’s $5 gave them each five tries to capture a stuffy. By some fluke of nature, my daughter Nesslin actually succeeded on her third try.
The two of them used up the rest of the tokens and, of course, Ian had nothing. He begged and cried for just one more go but we were insistent that there was no way we were dropping more cash on this thing. The kind little old lady who was running the machine volunteered one last token for Ian. I just shook my head thinking we’re only delaying the inevitable. I gave him a pep-talk that if he doesn’t win, that he’s going to accept the loss and move on.
Quite a few people had gathered around watching as Ian went for it, then a Christmas miracle happened. The crowd cheered as he dropped the exact stuffy he had been going for the whole time. The lady who gave him the token gave him a big hug and I have to admit, I was wrong: that $5 was money well spent.
Yesterday, our six year old daughter along with our four year old son went on an adventure they had arranged for themselves.
My wife had just given them an old digital camera and they shot a few selfies with it. They also got new backpacks which they were quite excited about.
My sneaky kids excited about their (new to them) digital camera just before they went AWOL.
As I was getting ready for work I noticed they were up to something by the way they were whispering to each other with their new backpacks on and then kept quiet as I passed by them. I told them whatever they were up to, to cut it out and I headed out the door. I got a text from Andrea about a 10 minutes later on my commute to work:
The kids are just wandering around the neighbourhood somewhere. I’m about to get on my bike to go find them. I caught them at the corner walking away from our house with their backpacks on and yelled at them to come home and have breakfast now and they just kept walking like I didn’t even say anything. And they heard me because they turned around and looked at me while I was saying come home right now for breakfast
After contacting friends and neighbours and talking to everyone she ran into looking for them she even contacted the police to keep an eye out for them. I was getting updates by text and it was pretty stressful — even my co-workers who I was keeping updated about the search were bothered. I got a text an hour and a half later that our friend Chelsea found Nesslin (still in her pajamas) walking alone heading back to the house about two blocks from home. It turns out they had decided Nesslin would walk Ian to preschool (about 2km away) without parent permission or notification. They knew the way from the many times that Andrea had taken them by bike in the Chariot bike wagon.
I was annoyed that the preschool didn’t call immediately when they arrived. Ian’s preschool teacher claims that when Ian arrived at school she asked him where his mom was to sign him in and he told her that she was in the parking lot and said you [the teacher] would sign him in yourself. Sounds pretty conniving and atypical of my son to say the least.
Ian claims that’s not what he said because he was actually excited to tell the teacher that they had walked by themselves. My co-worker thinks I’m silly to believe my son over his teacher but I know what he’s like and he was pretty annoyed that his story and her story didn’t line up. When I asked him if he had been worried about getting in trouble as he walked to school he said they talked about that but decided that their teacher would be proud of them for walking on their own. I don’t want to accuse they teacher of anything but I am still annoyed that I will probably never know for sure.
The kids knew that their mom would be mad but they were surprised at the lecture they got from me when I got home from work. We are strickly a no hitting family but I told them that a co-worker of mine suggested I give them each a spanking for what they did. I was relieved to see them take this suggestion really hard and as they both broke into tears, I felt like the message was well received.
