Food allergies and hearing the words "Oh good"

For people with food allergies, hearing the words “Oh good” can be a hard thing to hear, especially when you are out in a restaurant. Sure, that comment might mean something entirely different from how it comes out, but it doesn’t help the person with the food allergies.  Here are some other ways that statement could be worded:

Oh good, I appreciate you letting me know – the staff stating they are happy you let them know about your allergies so they can make the necessary adjustments and let other staff know.

Thank you for notifying me – this one is an ok statement because at least you know that the server understands that you have food allergies.

Oh, I’ll be sure to let the kitchen staff know – this is the statement that I appreciate the most because the server has heard what you have said, and they are going to notify the staff that are involved in making your food.

Oh, I’ll be sure to let management know – this statement is OK, but is there a policy to let management know, and they let the kitchen staff know. This statement can be a little difficult to handle, especially when the restaurant is busy. Your food might be being prepared before the manager is notified, and they can let the kitchen know.

The words “oh good” when said alone can sound like I’m glad it’s you that has the allergies and not me. Having food allergies is a challenge enough when you are in a restaurant, especially when you have one of the common allergies, and it is in the restaurant. In a lot of restaurants that have the electronic ordering system, they have a button that they can press and enter the allergies that you have and that is sent along with your order to the kitchen.

So, if you work at a restaurant, please remember that saying the words “Oh good” can have a very negative impact on the person you are saying it to. If you can figure out a nicer way to acknowledge that you have heard what the person is saying and how to communicate it to the rest of the staff, please try and do that. It is a challenge for both the person with the allergy and the serve to figure out just how to manage saying it and acknowledging it.

Being invited to a wedding

This year we have been told to save the date to two different weddings and our reaction to both of those weddings were entirely different. One was for something that we are very close to and the other was to a wedding to a couple that we are not close to, and the bride doesn’t appreciate when people do things for her. 

The first wedding that we got the save the day for was our nephew and his finance and they are both appreciate for even the very small things that we do for them. It wasn’t just saving the date; it was they made sure to call us to let us know that they were engaged. The other thing that makes us happy about this wedding is they have made sure to let us know the date, time and location of the wedding and that made us both very happy.

Now the other save the date we received was an email from a new Gmail account that went into our spam account. Of course, this made us double check to see if it was a legitimate account and it was from …wedding@gmail.com. So, this email account was very new, and it is going to be use just for the wedding and that’s it. The other thing about this wedding is we haven’t had any communication with this couple other than through her parents since before the pandemic. We did get to see them once since then, but it was a quick dinner. So, this couple, we do know the bride, but we haven’t really had a chance to get to know the groom at all. Now the other thing about this wedding is the location isn’t close to a lot of things so that means we would have to either say at the resort where it is being held or figure out another spot where we can stay. I looked up the location, and we could only book a room at the resort within three months so it isn’t something that we could book now and know we have a place to stay. I then decided to try and figure out a location close to it and there aren’t very many places to stay so that would mean over an hour drive each way to the wedding which isn’t something either of us are really happy about. 

The wedding that we will be attending is going to be held in downtown Toronto and the reception is also downtown so that means it is easy for us to get to and from without having to figure out a place to stay other than at home. It is nice to know that we can get ready for the wedding at home and we can then return home after the wedding and that is nice.

So, if you are going to be inviting someone to a wedding there are a few things to think about:

-        How often have you seen the people you are inviting

-        Is the location of the wedding/reception easy for everything to get to and from.

-        How are you communicating the save the date, as a brand-new Gmail account could result in a lot of those messages ending up in spam.

-        How far ahead someone book accommodation at the location, lots of people want to know they have accommodations and cost of accommodations well ahead of the wedding.

These are just a few things that you need to think about when you are planning a wedding and starting to think about communicating the date with everyone. So, when you are planning your wedding make sure you have quickly communicated to the people you really want to attend and figure out any possible accommodations as soon as you book a venue if not before.

Being invited to a wedding isn’t just attending the ceremony, it is getting a gift (knowing what the couple wants), making sure you have an outfit to wear and if you need place to stay knowing here that location well before the wedding. If you are going to be sending a save the date email through a brand-new Gmail or any other email account understand that a lot of those messages could end up in a junk/spam account.

Getting in a good step count

Some days it doesn't take much to get a good step count in especially when you normally don't do a lot of walking. Recently we went for a trip to Niagara Falls for three nights and doing a lot of sight seeing wasn't one of the goals as we have been Niagara Falls quite a few times. That is the advantage of living withing two hours from here we can go whenever we want. We do try and not go down to Niagara Falls in the summer as that is when it's the busiest and most expensive. Our goal for this trip was to see a concert on a Saturday night and relax and do things that we wanted to do.

Here is my step counts for the four days of being away and two of those are travel days when we don't get normally as much walking in as the days we are staying in Niagara Falls.

• Thursday - 7,580 steps (this was a travel day and we also did do some walking along Clifton Hill and also a bit of walking around the Outlet Mall)

• Friday – 10,194 steps, this is one of our full days in Niagara Falls and even going to and from Tim Horton's for breakfast accounts for 1,700 steps so that does help. We also walked over to the old Casino and walked around Clifton Hill so that also helped with the step count.
• Saturday – 13,624 steps, this is another full day in Niagara Falls, walking to Tim Horton's for breakfast and then to Niagara Casino Resort to see a concert and back. Let's see what the step count is because seeing a total that makes me happy would be good.
• Sunday – 4,296 steps, this is walking to Tim Horton's for breakfast and then the travel day back home

Of course, we may not be reaching the 10,000-step count that some people say that you much achieve each day, but we are making sure that we can get some walking in and that is the most important thing.

Being able to see that we have been able to get some steps in each day is very important and we have to accept that not every day is going to be the 10,000-steps but at least if we have been able to continue to move our body and get some steps in it is better than nothing or just getting in 1,000 steps.

 

Vacations as a small business owner

So many people ask us how do we take a vacation as a small business owner? 

I can answer this question for us because every small business owner will do things differently and that is expected. We have friends that just take a week or two off and they hope that someone can help support their clients. Of course, that should be scheduled with the person that you are hoping to support your clients because that person might also be away at the same time. Giving notice for any vacation for support coverage is important.

Our business is in IT consulting so it will be different than for an accountant, lawyer or other types of small businesses. Each business is going to have a different way of handling vacations, and no method is either right or wrong. If the clients/customers you serve are served when they need you that is what is important.

How we manage most vacations is to take a few shorter vacations and have them either start on a Wednesday or Thursday and then be back by the end of the weekend. We are fortunate that we have clients that are great hands and eyes if something were to go wrong. We can also remote into client sites from locations in Canada to assist if something major was to happen.

We have taken a couple of longer vacations, but we have arranged for people to assist with support of our clients if it was needed. This scheduling was done at least 3 months before we went away so that we knew that we would have people available to support our clients. We also made sure to let the clients know that we were going to be away for a week, but we did have support for them if needed.

It is very important as a small business owner to understand how vacations will work for you as well as your clients. Making sure that you communicate with our clients IT department is important to ensure that you aren’t away while the main IT individual for a client is away. Sure, vacations can be different as a small business owner, but it is up to you how to manage them.

 

Why can't I write

There are so many reasons why I cannot write, and I just need to figure out how to get back to writing like I have done in the past. What I would like to do is document some of the reasons that I cannot write and maybe that will help me get back to writing.

1. I cannot find the time to put the writing as a priority. I know that I have the times to do that but I just don’t give myself permission to do the writing that I want to achieve during a specific amount of time.
2. I have other things that I need to get done. Have you figured out the priority of all the other things and do they need to get done today or can you schedule them for a different day so that you can get them done without destroying your writing time.
3. I cannot figure out to get the writing done that I want to do. Here is one of the biggest issues and it is not knowing how to get the writing done. It can be a challenge when you cannot think how to put writing as a priority.

Not being able to write can be such a challenge but you also need to figure out what is the block for getting the writing done and how you are going to manage everything that is currently being thrown at you. What people have said is that they have not been able to deal with the blank again and what I have done to give myself a break from that empty page, is set up a page that I can open up at the beginning of each day and it starts me writing without looking at a blank page. Before I do any writing for the day, I quickly open up a blank/formatted page and then I can start to get the writing done. I understand that there are going to be days when I can’t get a lot of writing done even with the formatted page.

I think for everyone there are going to be days or even weeks that you cannot get the writing done that you would like to achieve, and you just have to give yourself permission to accept that writing isn’t going to happen each day and we need to deal with that. It would be nice to be someone that can just write off thoughts/stories a day but there are going to be times what we all need to step back and understanding that I can’t write today and no matter how I try and get more things written it just isn’t going to happen.

This winter

Here we are the end of January, and I think a lot of us are saying when it is winter going to end. What has made this year so different is we have been having major snow falls and extremely cold weather. Here in Toronto, we have broken records for the most snow fall in one day and the coldest January on record. 

In some cases what we haven’t said anything about is the areas just outside of Toronto that have broken records of their own. Barrie, Ontario which is roughly an hour north of Toronto has set a record with getting move than 300 cm from November 1, 2025 – January 28, 2026, which isn’t a record I would like to say we achieved. So, 300 cm of snow is 118 inches of snow which is 9.83 feet of snow. I wouldn’t have wanted to deal with that amount of show and thankfully it didn’t come all at one time but having to continually have to shovel our driveway would become a little much. We have friends that live up in Barrie, and they are saying “enough is enough”.

It isn’t just Ontario that has been getting the extremely weather as there are people in Texas, that has seen snow and then areas like Atlanta, George that have received ice storms which are extreme for both of these areas. I know people in other of those areas and they have commented on how different this has been.

Here we are the first week of February and I am not certain what this winter has in store other than the next couple of weeks are going to continue to be very for us here in Ontario and I just hope things will star to warm up even a little bit for areas to the south of us. Seeing the temperatures are levels that not what we normally have doesn’t make me happy. This morning, we awoke with a temperature of -1F feeling like -28F wasn’t a good thing. Now I am looking at the forecast over the next 14 days, but we might not reach the temperatures that we did in the last couple of days, but we are still cold and that doesn’t make me happy.

We might not be reaching the lows that we have reached this past week, but I have to admit that I am very tired with the snow that we have got in the last couple of weeks (12 inches, and then an additional 22 inches) as well as the cold temperatures. I guess all we can do is except that this is the weather that we are going to get in the next couple of weeks and then hope it warms up soon.

It might not feel that we are getting a break from this cold and fridged weather but we also have to remember that in the middle of July when we are complaining about the heat and humidity we have to deal with extremely cold weather as well.

 

Are you present when out for a meal with others

How many times have you seen a bunch of people at a table for a meal and all of them are on their devices. It is always interesting when a bunch of people seem to be together, but they also seem to be separated because of how little they have communicated with each other.

I know that there are times when we might spend a bit of time checking our phones, but we also spend quite a bit of the time chatting and spending time together. There are also times when we will sit and just spend time together and totally ignore our phones because that is what we want to do. It is nice when people can go out, and our devices are put away and they are present with the company that they are with.

When you go out with a bunch of people it is important to ensure that you are spending some time with those that you are with. I understand that you might have to check work e-mail especially during the week but making sure that you can enjoy the company of those you are with is also so important.

If you want to spend all the time on your device, it is probably a good idea to just stay home and do that, because you aren't good company for other around you. If your device is more important than the company, you are with you are communicating quite a bit to those other people as well. You are saying that their company isn't worth your time or energy and those that are messaging you are very important.  

When you are out with others it’s extremely important to make sure that you put your personal device away a while so that you can enjoy the company you are with instead of the company that might be part of your phone. It might be hard to walk away from your device totally but remember we need to be present with those around us because there might be a time when other individuals are no longer around.

I know for use, we have made it a rule to make sure that we have found time to be present with who we are with because that is who we are having a meal with. Sure, we might need to check our device due to work demands but other than that we try to be present in the moment and enjoy the company we are with.