Valkyrie22

Daisy

2007-02-14T13:34:00.000-05:00

It's happened - Erica has an imaginary friend! The sitter noticed her talking to an empty chair one day and asked me about it. At the time, I'd never noticed her doing it. Today, she walked up to me and said, "Mommy, say hi to Daisy." and gestured to the space beside her. I said, "Hi Daisy, how are you?" I asked her what Daisy looked like, and apparently she's pink. We had to take Daisy with us to bring James to school, and Erica kept saying "Daisy's happy! Daisy's happy!" Now, I don't quite know if I find the whole invisible friend thing cute or creepy. Maybe if I'd never seen any horror flicks I wouldn't be so biased about it, but whenever I pat Daisy's invisible little head to humour Erica, all I think about is that scene in Amityville horror when the mom is likewise addressing the 'invisible friend' Jody, and then they show Jody, a 5 year old girl ghost with a ghastly gunshot wound in her forehead and grayish green skin(why do they always make ghosts appear to have been immersed in swamp muck in the movies?)smiling deviously back at the mother! After we had dropped James off and come home, Erica accused me of leaving Daisy out in the car. I said, "Erica, if I can't see her, it means that she can walk through walls so she can come in by herself." I pretty much regretted saying that as soon as it was out of my mouth. What does everyone think of the invisible friend thing? Who had one as a kid?

Questioning an Insignificant Social Norm

2007-01-29T17:24:00.000-05:00

Here's something that popped into my head while in the shower at 5:30 this morning: Why is it socially acceptable for women to have hair on their forearms but not anywhere else? I put Nair on my arms once to test how the Nair would react with my skin. My arm turned out nice and smooth, but it looked strange.

An Imagination Only a Child Could Have

2007-01-16T20:39:00.000-05:00

The other day the kids and I were playing My Little Ponies. Yes, I was too - I told you I was a strange one! I'm usually the groomer and the supplier of feminine, breathy neighing noises, which the ponies do frequently because, well, they're ponies. James plays, but he always puts a boyish spin on things - for instance, one time he proclaimed a blue-bodied and orange-haired pony a boy and named him Derek, and pretended Derek was an Elvis impersonator who performed a concert for the other ponies in the surf shack area of Erica's Butterfly Island playset. He also recently put a stretch of train track in front of the ponies' 'house' so they could take a train into the city. The other day, he took a toy sand sifter and started whacking the floor with it. He instructed me to put one of the ponies under it, and I did, and then he explained "Now the pony has to go to the hospital, he got hurt playing in the water wheel." I put the pony in the 'hospital'(which is actually an ice cream stand) and James grabbed another pony who apparently was a doctor. I had to say, "Can I have a bandaid?" and the 'doctor' responded, "I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do. You got hurt too bad. There is one thing I can do - I have to go in the backyard and build a ferris wheel that goes SO FAST that you feel better as soon as you come off of it. I'll have to work day and night, day and night!" The doctor pony then went around back and whipped up an invisible ferris wheel, took the injured pony by the hair and started spinning her furiously in the air, and when he stopped, I took the pony and said "Oh thank you, doctor Sunny Daze(the pony's name), I feel so much better! Neigh, neigh...." I totally broke character and laughed hysterically at James's outrageous cure, and I was amazed that he was able to come up with something so absurdly random without missing a beat! Erica was laughing, too, but I think it was more the sight of the pony twirling around top speed by her hair than anything!

Addressing the Cleaner Stigma

2007-01-14T09:08:00.000-05:00

I've never understood why people react so strangely when I tell them what I do for a living. Certain types of people never fail to give certain reactions, as well. For example:

A friend of the family who hasn't seen me in a while: Q - So what have you been doing lately? A - Just working, pretty much. Q - Oh! Where do you work? A - I work for a cleaning company. A - Oh.(brief silence) Well, at least it's a job!
I've had that reaction quite often.

A well to do person who I am casually introduced to: Q - And what do you do? A - Um, I'm a cleaner. A - Hmph..(snobby sniff)

Someone who is better off than me but still not well off enough to be uppity: Q - Well, this type of person almost never asks point blank what you do for a living because they themselves don't want to be asked, but if it comes up somehow, they usually respond like: a) Oh really? What does that pay like? Or b) Do you like it? How long have you been doing that for? Often they'll tell me about this sister in law or that cousin that ran a small cleaning business. Sometimes they ask how much we charge, because they want to see if they'd be able to afford a clean or two. The experience is usually most pleasant with this kind of reaction.

Someone who is my social equal: Q - Are they hiring? A - They might be, soon. Q - Can you hand in a resume for me? A - Sure.

I've found that a lot of people make it a point to never talk shop with me again once they've found out what I do. People who never bothered before all of a sudden start frantically cleaning when they know I'm coming over and I run into a wall of bleach and Pine-Sol fumes upon opening the door. Or, if they couldn't get around to cleaning, they apologize repeatedly about the state of their house and mutter "Look at all this dust, ugh..."

What do I think about all this? To begin with, people don't need to pity me. I could get a better paying job easily, if I wanted to I could go out tomorrow and get one. The thing is, I enjoy what I do for a living. I find cleaning very satisfying, it keeps me busy, it's never boring or repetitive, and it's good exercise. Secondly, people don't need to look down on me. I'm not collecting welfare, I'm not a hooker, stripper or drug dealer. I work honestly like everyone else, and the government has their greedy hands on my paycheque every Friday just like they do everyone else's.
Thirdly, people don't need to apologize for the state of their house. At work it's annoying because we hear apologies so often - that's what we're there to do, to purge your house of the 'embarrassing' dirt. We do that day in and day out, there is nothing we haven't seen. I don't look at a bathroom with hair and dust covering every surface, soap scum built up in the sink and toothpaste all over the mirror and think, 'Ugh, these people are nasty pigs', I think 'Obviously this is the bathroom they use the most, it's going to take a bit of work.' When I am visiting the houses of friends or family, I don't even notice dirt at all. When I'm not at work or about to clean my own house, I don't see the dust or fingerprints, I don't even look, honestly. I have been known to start cleaning my parents' house while over there, but that's either because I'm trying to kill time before Sunday dinner is ready, or I'm trying out a new cleaning product that they bought! Sure, it's not the best job in the world, but isn't it at least worth it if I enjoy what I'm doing? That's more than a lot of people can say about their job!

2007-01-04T20:08:00.000-05:00

Oh, what a horrible blogger I've been lately - no posting, no commenting...for shame! I'm coming down with the cold that everyone seems to have right now, and am relaxing in stereotypical Canadian fashion - drinking a Tim Horton's coffee and watching the hockey game, and the Leafs are totally smoking Boston. However, the Leafs have an unfortunate tendency of letting go of sometimes huge leads and losing. How was everyone's Christmas and New Year? I always get disappointed after the holidays are over - it's a huge buildup for one day and then it's done. No more tips, no more cards, no more pretty lights or Christmas specials on tv, you're just stuck with the rest of winter. It really helps when that winter is 10 degrees and devoid of snow, though. The kids both got what they had asked Santa for, James a guitar and the new Pirates of the Caribbean DVD, amongst many other things - and Erica got her My Little Pony set and a bunch of new ponies, which she is thoroughly enjoying! We didn't do much for New Years, Mike and I drank Chardonnay and watched war movies. Actually, we've been watching war movies pretty much all week! Everyone must watch 'Empire of the Sun'. It's about an extremely irritating British boy who is living in China when Japan invaded, gets separated from his parents in a panicked, stampeding crowd of people and ends up in a concentration camp where he goes from naive, childish choirboy to a hardened survivor type. It's really good, watch it. Well, that's all for now, I promise I will update more frequently!!

2006-12-03T10:05:00.000-05:00

Oh man, last night I dreamt that I'd been invited to Justin Timberlake's birthday and I actually showed up wearing a purple fuzzy hoodie with flowers and teddy bears on it, high waisted, stone wash jean shorts and running shoes with socks. Why it was Justin Timberlake's party I was at I don't know, but hey, at least I wasn't naked!

Bringin' it Up to Date

2006-11-13T14:15:00.000-05:00

I haven't updated in a while, and no, I don't have any good excuse. I haven't been terribly busy, my internet and computer have not been shut down, I just haven't felt like it, haven't had anything really worth posting on the internet. And although I still don't, I'll give a quick rundown of the events dating from Thanksgiving until now just to keep things fresh.

- Had a great Thanksgiving dinner, it was, as I described to my friend, a little slice of heaven on a plate.
- Didn't make it to the Westfield Halloween festival as planned because it was pouring rain and freezing cold and the event takes place mainly outside. Was quite disappointed.
- Got James's school pictures back, and as always, he looks like an absolute angel in it. You just cannot take a bad picture of that child, I am jealous!

- Got digital cable back and have been thoroughly enjoying it ever since.

- Have started ghost hunting with Mike as a hobby. It's really fun, and it gives us an excuse to go to cemeteries at night! Mike discovered that there is a guy at his work that does the same thing with his wife, so we may even join up sometime!

- Have taken to going to the Goodwill store every weekend and buying books. Soon, I will need to get myself a new bookshelf as I am quickly running out of room. I have a whole pile of romance books that were given to me that I don't want, any takers?

- Went to the Remembrance Day ceremony on Saturday and got rained on, but I'm not made of sugar. Besides, the soldiers who fought in the wars didn't have the luxury of staying all toasty and dry in their barracks when it was raining, so why should we, on the day when we're supposed to be at those ceremonies, showing our gratitude and support? I always go, no matter what the weather. The tone of this year's ceremony was different, it was less retrospective because of the current activity in Afghanistan. The emphasis was more on supporting the troops. It was sad because there were some mothers whose children had gone over there and didn't come back, and you could tell they were pretty upset. The bugler who played the Last Post and Reveille was excellent!

Movies I've Watched

North Country - fantastic, Charlize Theron should have won the Oscar instead of Reese Witherspoon. Not that Reese didn't do a great job in Walk the Line, but I think Charlize's performance was a bit more moving.

Dear Wendy - Weird, low budget indie movie, but intriguing and subtly disturbing. It's about a group of teen/twentysomething pacifists who have a special interest in firearms who form a secret society called the 'Dandies'. They make their lair in an abandoned mine shaft and spend their time reading up on and watching movies about firearm exit wounds and different shooting techniques. And they also like dressing up in fruity costumes and dancing through the streets of their hick town, drinking wine, listening to the Zombies, and even having poetry readings where they would recite odes to their guns. It was a very bizarre movie, but I loved it.

Books I've read

- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers (almost finished)
- There is no Armour by Howard Spring (a quarter of the way through)
- Antiquing for Housewives(printed in 1959, very sexist language but entertaining)
- Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence (haven't started it yet)
- Hamlet and the Merchant of Venice. If you don't know the author to those you need to get out from under the rock and go to school!

I think that's a pretty accurate summary of the past month.

Camera's First Thanksgiving!

2006-10-15T09:55:00.000-04:00

What a great Thanksgiving we had last weekend. Perfect weather, perfect temperature, perfect health...On Saturday the kids and I embarked on our leaf and acorn hunt in the forest, graveyard and surrounding neighbourhood.

Can anyone tell me what kind of tree this is? With the oval leaves and bunches of orange berries? Sherri, you mentioned you guys were into tree identification, what do you think? We went to the cemetery to look for chestnuts(as if I need an excuse to hang out in the cemetery!)and to read old stones, one of James and my favourite weekend pastimes. This is one of my favourites - Something about the way it's propped up sideways, the picture of the hand pointing upward with 'gone home' written over it, the colour of the stone - it's a cool stone!

I've never seen any other stone like this one - it's just a stone baby lying on its side. No inscription, so I'm guessing it's a stillborn. Erica liked it, she was hugging the statue and patting its head!

Some pretty trees...

This post to be continued....

Good Question

2006-10-07T22:14:00.000-04:00

Here's a strange but completely legitimate question for everyone who will end up reading this. It popped into my head the other day and I couldn't think of a reasonable answer so what do I do? Take it to the internet, of course. The internet knows everything! Here's the question: how did anyone living in a remote tundra environment get any vitamin C back before the days when you could walk to the grocery store and buy oranges? Or supplements, for that matter? All they had was meat, plants can't really grow in the Arctic regions so they certainly didn't have any fruit trees...any ideas??

2006-10-07T10:13:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday was fun. Kalyn couldn't come home for the weekend, so we went to her. We had lunch at the Swiss Chalet across from Copp's Coliseum in Hamilton. Afterwards we went over to the nearby Dundurn Castle to do a bit of picture-taking! I have discovered that my new camera is the best thing ever. At the back of the massive, 40 room estate is a beautiful, wooded ravine that drops down into the bay(and a trainyard).

Dundurn Castle was built for Sir Allan McNab, a man who would eventually become a Prime Minister of Canada. It was built in the 1830's, and contrary to what I believed to be true all this time, it was not any kind of military fortress, just a huge, huge house for an obscenely wealthy guy - you learn something new every day! The main entrance at the front of the 'castle' is especially gorgeous, with several very old apple trees lining the walkway and growing all over the lawn, large cylindrical stone horse hitching posts, a massive, ornate front door guarded by enormous pillars.

More of our pictorial excursions coming soon!

New Posts to Come...

2006-09-30T16:04:00.000-04:00

Well, I've finally joined the ranks of those lucky people who are able to post pictures on their blogs. My parents bought me a digital camera for my birthday(thank you!!!) and now I can do so much more, and I will. It better be all sunshine and ideal fall temperature next weekend for the Rockton fair and James and my traditional leaf and pinecone collecting and toad hunting trip, or I'll be bitter. The weather has been crap on a stick for the past month or so - there's all these beautiful coloured leaves that we can't really appreciate because everything's grey! But, when the weather changes for the better, I'll be out there with my camera so get ready for some new pictorial posts coming up soon!

Mindless Barbarians

2006-09-12T21:44:00.000-04:00

I heard on the radio this morning that several stingrays have been found on the coasts of Australia killed and mutilated. It really enraged me to hear about these horrible acts of cruelty to animals, and it boggled my mind that there are people in the world who are so ignorant and childish as to believe that stingrays or even the actual stingray that killed Steve Irwin are in any way to blame for his death. Animals are not malicious, they are not mindless killers like people are, they simply defend themselves and hunt when they are hungry. Have you ever seen a pride of lions and a herd of elephants drinking water from the same watering hole, completely comfortable with each other's presence? The lion simply hunts to survive. If the lion sees no need to defend itself or is not hungry, a whole herd of wildebeest could stroll right by and he would not give a crap, it would continue basking in the sun or cleaning itself without even so much as a second glance. If you're walking past a dog loose, wandering down the street, how likely is it to attack you(that is, if it's not rabid)? Not likely at all, because the dog is away from its territory and doesn't need to defend it. It's actually more likely to follow you and want you to pet it and give you kisses. Animals don't think like humans. They are mainly governed by instinct. Steve Irwin(the crocodile hunter), as much as he loved animals, generally did things to wild animals that made them want to defend themselves. Not to hurt them, of course, just to get up close to them and to show people what they did and how they worked. He knew the danger he was in on an every day basis, he knew he was provoking them and he certainly didn't blame the animals for their reactions. The news segment that I was listening to mentioned that stingrays are a docile sea species. Their sting is their defense mechanism, something every animal has and must have, from the elephant down to the potato bug. Surely everyone must know this, from childhood people are taught to respect animals for this reason. And it's because of this common knowledge that it angers me so much that these imbeciles would take their grief to such an extreme level. Besides, is this what the crocodile hunter would have wanted? I'll bet he's turning in his grave! Shame on them.

Grade 1, Day One

2006-09-06T23:08:00.000-04:00

James started grade one yesterday! He was so excited, but nervous, too. He was looking forward to seeing his girlfriend, and I dressed him up and did his hair all cool so she would 'love him' (so cute). I tried to gel his hair into a faux hawk, but he didn't have enough hair so I did the best I could, and it turned out pretty sweet. The first day outfit: a red plaid, short sleeve button down shirt with a white long sleeve shirt underneath, and these cool stiff denim skater shorts and running shoes. He was so handsome! My boss allowed me the privilege of starting late so I could take him to school(no, I wasn't allowed to take the day off) and my sister wanted to come too to get some pictures. We got there and poor James was disappointed to discover that his favourite girlfriend isn't in his class. He now has two new girlfriends, though, so all is well again in Jamesland! Almost as soon as we got there and I got talking to one of the parents that I knew, this bee came out of nowhere and started following me around, and it was persistent. You know how bees get this time of year, they just won't leave you alone! I was running around, yelping and frantically swatting - my sister was laughing her head off, by the way, - little kids were helpfully pointing out to me that it was now in my hair, on my shoulder, etc. Oh, man. Then it started hassling James, and he started freaking and running around. It was apparently quite comical to watch. Best first day of school ever! They rang the bell(James's school is 130 years old and it has a bell tower with a big iron bell, which they manually ring every first and last day of the school year), the principal came out and gave the start of the year announcements, in which included the illustrious command: "We go in calm, we ARE calm." The student body, staff and parents collectively are so few that we were all able to stand in one corner of the playground to listen to him and he hardly even had to raise his voice! There are a grand total of 8 kids in James's entire grade this year, just to give you an idea of how small his school is. Of course, this is a good thing, a great thing, actually. I like his school for the fact that it's quite personal and almost family-oriented - all I have to do when I call in is to tell the receptionist that I'm James's mom and she knows who I am. All the teachers know all the students, and vice versa, and you just know that they're getting better attention and better help if they need it. The only downside of the school is that there's no gym - well, if you want to get technical there IS a small room in one side of the basement that has a pole right in the middle of it which they use for a gym, but how many sports can you play when you have to worry about banging your head on the ceiling and running into the pole?
I felt different this year somehow. In the kindergarten years, I was happy and excited to see him go to school, but yesterday I was sad as well. I realized he's growing up, and I was suddenly taken with the urge to quit my job so I can take him to school and pick him up like I did in JK, so he can run out when the bell rings, give me a quick hug and kiss and throw me his backpack so he can play on the playground, so I can get to know his teacher, so I can get to know the other parents...I didn't really get to do that last year and I missed it. I left the schoolyard after much hugging and goodbyes with my heart in a vice. But ah, such is life...I know it's a horrible cliche, but I wish they could stay young forever!

Thom Yorke and his Demented Eye

2006-09-02T00:02:00.000-04:00

I'm so excited, I got an unexpected FREE new lovely piece of technology today and I can't stop playing with it. I went down to the Telus store to change my cell phone account to a plan instead of pay as you go(I found pay as you go to be a nuisance, I don't use it enough on actual calls, so I was losing money on unused minutes, which disappear if you don't use them) and as we're going on a road trip next weekend to Huntsville up north, I wanted to get some kind of communication system on the go in case we get into some manner of car trouble. I discovered upon talking with the Telus rep that there was a special on where if I signed up for a 3 year plan I could get a free LG camera phone. I was totally not expecting that, I couldn't believe it at first. Since this afternoon I've had a few people tell me that phone companies sometimes do that, but at this time I had never heard about it before, so I was pleasantly awestruck! I had the choice between a black model and a red and silver - guess which one I chose? The red and silver, clearly...I chose a cheapie plan, good enough for what I'll be using it for - 200 minutes a month, 3 months unlimited calls, but few calling features besides voice mail - at $20 a month. Yayyy! I love it! As soon as I got home and collected the bairns from the sitter's, I set to work adjusting the settings and ring tones - the best part of getting a new toy! I started messing around with the camera and video settings, something I'll have to work on. I find that you must keep the phone very, very still or your picture will end up quite blurry. The lighting has to be excellent, too. I know I probably sound like a complete freak going on about a phone, but I'm not a huge techie, and I usually end up buying what everyone else has a few years after everyone else has it. There's a method to that madness, it's much cheaper. Come on, I'm part Scottish, cheap is very important to me! And if the above mentioned event isn't enough to make my day, Radiohead's Fake Plastic Trees just came on Much music....YESSSSSS! Goodness, he's ugly...

2006-08-11T23:27:00.000-04:00

I've made a concrete decision on my next tattoo. I've been meaning to get Erica's name tattooed on me somewhere, but for the longest time I hadn't given it much thought, I haven't decided on where to get it, what the writing should look like, etc. I'm going to get it done sometime soon, maybe when my sister gets hers done if that can be arranged. I want something original, so this is what I've decided: I'll have a vine winding up the side of my lower leg(not very high, maybe from my ankle to the mid-calf region) with a couple of leaves and instead of flowers, I'll have the letters of Erica's name coming out from the vine with a couple of morning glory blossoms on the vine as well, for looks. I decided on morning glories because Erica loves to pick them, she thinks they're cute. In thinking about it, I thought I would post a couple of tips for first timers thinking about getting a tattoo! Mind you, these little pieces of wisdom are from MY experience only, I'm not speaking for everyone.

1. Decide what you want ahead of time. Think about it carefully. That way, when you go to book your appointment, you can bring them a drawing or a picture of what you want, and if possible, write down the colours you want and where, etc. It makes it much easier for the artist to get an idea of what you mean, as opposed to just telling him. If you go in there having not decided on a tattoo and you end up having to browse through their flash catalogues to pick something out, you might end up feeling pressured to pick something that you might not have had in mind. You don't have to bring them a perfect drawing, because they will clean it up and make it look really good.

2. If you're worried about pain, consider an area of tougher skin, like the leg or the arm. The back isn't too bad, either, nor are the shoulders. I've heard that the ankle hurts quite a bit, as does the foot, but come on, how bad can it be? You're not a wuss, you can handle it...! Don't scream, whimper or pass out - tattoo artist tend to dislike that. With every tattoo I've had done, the artist praised my utter lack of complaints. A tattoo feels a lot like a cat scratching you over and over, just to give you an idea.

3. Try to stay away from trendiness. If everyone else is getting that very tattoo at that very moment, don't get that tattoo. If everyone was jumping off a cliff, would you do it too? Exhibit A: The barbed wire armband, circa. 1999. More recently, exhibit B: the lower back tribal or celtic design, circa.2004. This tattoo is basically meant to go hand in hand with low-rise jeans, and look where low risers are going. That's right - out! The lower back design thing would still be okay if not EVERYONE had gone out and got one, but hindsight is 20/20. Stay away from cartoon characters, band names, the names of significant others(obviously), and most importantly, anything that means nothing to you. This ties in to my 'avoid flash catalogues' and 'think about it carefully' points. Cliched tattoos are okay, but make sure there is some relevance to your personality, life, past, etc. Roses, hearts, butterflies, crosses, chinese characters, flowers, 8 balls, etc. are all standard designs, but maybe try to throw something different in there. For example, if you want a heart, instead of your usual red, why not green or purple? If you want a flower, think about getting something other than daisies: african violets? Geraniums? Just ideas!

4. After the tattoo is completed, they'll tell you to keep it out of direct sunlight as much as possible, apply vitamin E cream, and not to scratch or pick at the scabs that form.. For the love of God, listen to them!

5. Warning - tattoos are very addictive. Once you have one, you'll want more. And more. And yet more.

6. Enjoy! And even if you do regret your choice in a matter of time, there's always cover up jobs!

When Insects Attack

2006-08-04T23:12:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was quite an adventure, and I had a couple of experiences with insects that I can't say I've ever had before. We were in our first house, a place in the country situated right in the middle of an overgrown lot with wildflowers, weeds, hay abounding in every direction, so needless to say we encounter a lot of wildlife when we're going from the car to the house. About halfway through the job, I discovered a praying mantis in the living room. It startled me at first, because I've never seen one before, and it was huge, maybe 3 inches long. I called my partner in to see it, and she was amazed, too. We didn't want to get too close because we didn't know if they bit people or if they could fly - the last thing you want is to have one of those things fly into your hair, I'd probably have a heart attack! My partner bent down to look at it, and we were thoroughly creeped out when it turned its head and made full eye contact with her, crouched down in a defensive posture and began waving its scary, claw-like arms at her! We managed to get it into a jar and brought it outside, so that was the end of that. In the next house, we discovered an odd-looking spider crawling across the floor - it was a reasonably-sized spider, but it had the features of a tarantula. It was black and had thick legs, and was big enough that the hair on its body was visible. Aaaagh! It was too big to kill - I definitely have a size limit when it comes to deciding whether or not I squash it. As we were leaving the house and stepped out the door, I was promptly stung by a bee, and my partner a few seconds after. I didn't even see it, all of a sudden I felt like something had landed on my nose and took a big bite out of it. I dropped all the stuff I was carrying and started shrieking and frantically brushing off my nose! Now this is the first time I've ever been stung in my life, so it took me a few seconds to realize what had happened, and it was a bad place to get stung as there's hardly any flesh there so it HURT. It felt as if my nose was on fire for about 5 minutes. I turned around to my partner and saw the bee flying in her direction, and it got her on the hand. I was a bit worried about being allergic, but the only strange side effect I noticed was a needle-like pain in the hinge of my jaw. My nose recovered fairly quickly, and after about 20 minutes all the pain was gone. My nose felt strangely tight and sort of numb for the rest of the day, but other than that I was fine. I wonder if the freakish insect behaviour yesterday had something to do with the wicked storms we had the night before, and the sudden break in the heat wave - maybe the bugs that you rarely see came inside to get out of the rain, I don't know! Well, that was my ordeal of the day!

Sarah - Bob Dylan

2006-08-01T23:28:00.000-04:00

This is, in my opinion, one of the best 'love lost' songs ever written - there's a theme of regret but no bitterness, no spite whatsoever - he's actually praising his ex-wife, something you rarely ever see in songs written about exes and failed relationships. It's got a haunting, sorrowful tune and the excellently crafted lyrics paint a very vivid picture in my mind. It's been one of my Bob Dylan favourites since I first came across it, and I never tire of hearing it. Here it is:

I laid on the dune, I looked at the sky
When my children were babies, played on the beach.
You came up behind me, I saw you go by
You were always so close, still within reach.

Sarah, oh Sarah, whatever made you want to change your mind?
Sarah, oh Sarah, so easy to look at, so hard to define

I can still see them playing with their pails in the sand
They run to the water, their buckets to fill
I can still see the shells falling out of their hands
As they follow each other back up the hill

Sarah, oh Sarah, sweet virgin angel, sweet love of my life
Sarah, oh Sarah, radiant jewel, mystical wife

Sleeping in the woods by a fire in the night
Drinking white rum in a Portugal bar
Them playing leapfrog and hearin' about Snow White
You in the marketplace in Savannah La mar

Sarah, oh Sarah, it's always so clear, I could never forget
Sarah, oh Sarah, loving you is one thing I'll never regret

I can still hear the sounds of those Methodist bells
I'd taken the cure, and had just gotten through
Staying up for days in the Chelsea Hotel
Writing Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands for you

Sarah, oh Sarah, wherever we travel we're never apart
Sarah, oh Sarah, beautiful lady so dear to my heart.

How did I meet you? I don't know
A messenger sent me in a tropical storm
You were there in the winter, moonlight on the snow
And on lily pond lane when the weather was warm

Sarah, oh Sarah, scorpio sphinx in a calico dress
Sarah, oh Sarah, you must forgive me my unworthiness

Now the beach is deserted, except for some kelp
And a piece of an old ship that lies on the shore
You always responded when I needed your help
You gave me a map and a key to your door

Sarah, oh Sarah, glamourous nymph with an arrow and bow
Sarah, oh Sarah, don't ever leave me, don't ever go

The last verse is my favourite. Throughout the song he reminisced on the happy times in his past family life and marriage, but in that last verse he used the image of the deserted beach to show that nothing lasts forever, things can change and have changed but that he can accept it.
Beautiful song. If you haven't heard it, find it and listen to it - the music perfectly complements the words - the mournful violin and harmonica accompaniment is half the experience!

Shopping + Children = Disaster

2006-07-23T19:56:00.000-04:00

Anyone who has ever tried to shop with children will be able to commiserate with me on this one. I decided to go on a little shopping trip to good old Value Village yesterday, and, as Mike sleeps during the day due to the night shift, I had to take the kids with me. Now, normally I enjoy doing things with the kids and take them everywhere with me, but stores are the one exception. Kids HATE shopping, as time has proven again and again. Especially boring adult stores. I completely understand, I remember being dragged to fabric stores, women's clothes stores, hardware stores - my sister and I used to get so bored that we'd climb around in those old circular racks and pretend they were trees! I don't blame the kids for being bored at all. I just wish I didn't have to take them. So, to get back to my story, we were at Value Village and I honoured my tradition of buying them one small thing each, either a toy or a book, because they're so cheap and if it will prolong my shopping peace for an extra 15 minutes I don't mind paying an extra $3. They decided they wanted a toy this time, and immediately began scouring the aisles for something they wanted. Eri found a doll right away, so that was fine. James, however, couldn't decide. "I choose the robot!" "It's got a broken arm, Jimmy." "Oh, okay...how about that car?" I say yes, and all is grand for a short while. Soon enough, though, James decides he no longer wants the car, he wants a coloured flashlight. I like the flashlight better, so we put the car back. "Okay James, I want to go look for clothes now, so that's it for toys, alright?" "Alright, mom." So we're looking at skirts. Erica is pulling off the price tags, yanking the skirts off the hangers while I try to position the cart in such a way that she can't reach either side, which is hard to do because of the narrow aisles. James is using his new flashlight in the 'caves' he's hiding in the clothes, going from aisle to aisle. I called out "James, where are you? Come out now, please." I hear a giggle in anticipation. "James, we're leaving now!" "Hang on, mom!" I try to follow the voice, and eventually I find him amongst the dresses and he jumps out, shrieking "Pranked you!" "No more nonsense, Jimmy. I'm trying to look for clothes!" We shop for a little while longer and I've found a few pairs of pants, a dress and some shirts and head to the changerooms. Now, this is an awkward age for boys - too old for their moms to get changed in front of them, but still too young to be able to stay outside the changerooms by themselves. I would prefer that James sees me in my underwear than have him abducted, so I bring them both in with me. There was a chair in the changeroom which James proclaimed the 'director's chair'. I went to try on the dress and James is sitting there yelling "CUT! I can see your underwear, mom! CUT! AAAH, I'M BLIND!!" Oh, for the love of Pete. He did help me what to decide what I should buy, though, so that was a plus side. After that we looked at some shirts and Erica began to get bored and started to Houdini her way out of the restraint in the kid seat in the cart. "Up, mommy. Up!" In the cart she's shoulder level with me, so even if I refuse to take her out she climbs up into my arms and clings to me like a baby monkey. The only way I'm able to ever finish shopping trips with any reasonable success is due to my 6 years of tuning out tantrums and pleas for toys and candy, which they continue to throw at me every single time. Seriously, I don't even get embarrassed anymore. If parents don't develop this coping mechanism, they will never get to buy anything ever again! The shopping trip ended with much success in comparison to others I've had, and I actually ended up buying quite a few things for myself. At the last minute, James opted to trade in the flashlight for a robot dog which I allowed because I knew he wouldn't get a chance to change his mind again, we were on our way to the checkout. My piece of advice to anyone with young kids: Unless you're going to some super fun happy toy store/candy store, leave the kids with their father/grandparents, you'll have a much easier time!

Cool Stephen Harper Quote

2006-06-23T22:15:00.000-04:00

Last week I was watching one of those 24 hour news channels, the one where they have short news blurbs running across the screen at the bottom, and one news item caught my attention. It was a quote made by the vampire Stephen Harper(our Prime Minister - I call him that because he reminds me of an Anne Rice vampire) at a press conference a little while ago. It read "I am nobody's puppet and I won't let President Bush pull my strings." WOOO! That's not very diplomatic, vampire Stephen Harper!! I like it! I have no idea what context this was taken out of, but it's not really the kind of comment that could be taken any other way. Did anyone hear what the question was, or anything else he said? I have a new-found respect for him just from that one comment. Yeah, he did entice us to vote Conservative with a flashy promise of giving every Canadian a refund for hydro costs this past winter(which we got) but neglected to mention that he was planning on jacking up hydro rates(pending), but now I think the man could abolish free health care and I'd still like him! Well, that's a wild exaggeration, but you get my point.

Random Question

2006-06-22T00:21:00.000-04:00

I just discovered something odd about the English language. Ha ha...that's kind of funny. Odd? English?? Nawwww...Anyway, here's my question. Why is the word 'I' when referring to yourself capitalized in every situation, no matter where it is placed in a sentence, but the word 'a' when referring to a singular noun is only capitalized when it's at the beginning of a sentence? Weird, eh?

Poetry Set to Music

2006-06-21T00:33:00.000-04:00

Let's talk lyrics. The words that make up a song are very key in whether or not I like the song or not. There are bad lyricists, e.g. Avril Lavigne (He was a skater boy, she said see ya later boy), ???? Since when is it proper wordsmithing etiquette to use the same word twice in one line? If you want to rhyme, by all means do, but don't use the same word! And then there are good lyricists, e.g. Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, the Arcade Fire - to name a few. There are many factors that make a piece of writing 'good'. There are songs that tell an interesting story, like 'Hurricane', and 'Tangled up in Blue' by Bob Dylan, songs that are subtly humorous - 'Girl With Faraway Eyes' by the Rolling Stones and 'Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat' by Bob Dylan, the 'means something deep but you can't for the life of you figure out what but you sure would love it if you could' songs, like 'Laika' by The Arcade Fire, and then there's the beautifully haunting variety, like 'Wish you Were Here' by Pink Floyd, or 'The Boxer' or 'Bookends' by Simon and Garfunkel. I remember my dad once telling me when I was young that the track 'Bookends' was just filler, but I love it to pieces - in its few lines it managed to be powerful, nostalgic, sad, regretful and beautiful at the same time. I could go on and on about lyrics, but it's getting late, time to hit the hay. Anyone have any examples of good or bad lyrics they want to add? What's your definition of a good song? Here's a tough one: Which song is, in your opinion, the most well-written that you've ever heard?! I know that last question is like, impossible to answer, but it'll be fun to try!

The People Rant

2006-06-09T22:18:00.000-04:00

You know, there are some days when I lose a little bit of faith in humankind. Some of the things that you hear people say to each other, the stupid, rude things that come out of their mouth, I sometimes wonder if there's any shred of integrity left in anyone, anywhere. One might say that this is the product of the modern age, but a while ago I saw a documentary on Sigmund Freud in which they mentioned that during the end of his career after being exposed to the inner workings of the minds of a myriad of people he became quite disillusioned with humanity, describing the vast majority of the population as being "stupid and cruel". As much as I hate to admit it, he's right. For every genuinely nice, decent person walking this earth, there are about a thousand jerks.
I was taking Erica with me to Value Village today to get her a new summer wardrobe, something she was sorely in need of. I'm not picky about clothes, as long as they're not stained or ripped, I could care less who wore them before. And besides, I like the fact that I can go in with $50 and come out with a big pile of stuff, while if I were to buy them new I would maybe be able to buy 3 or 4 items of clothing with that same amount. The only time I buy the kids brand new clothing is for special occasions and winter wear. Anyway, Erica and I were walking up the sidewalk leading up to the store when a mother and a little girl, about 3, came walking up the opposite direction. The little girl broke away from her mother and made a move towards Value Village's door, and the mother called her back. When she saw Erica and I turn towards the door, she said loudly enough for me to hear, "We don't shop in Value Village, baby!" Oh, come on, lady! She knew I knew that the little girl had no comprehension of what Value Village is, she was saying that purely to take a stab at me. I didn't care in the slightest, if she wants to throw her money away that's just fine with me, but was that little comment really necessary?

Later on today as Erica and I were walking to James's school to pick him up, I got stuck behind a large band of preteens who were heading home from the nearby junior high school. As everyone knows, 11 to 13 is the most annoying, ridiculously self-centred age that a human being goes through on the journey that is life! They walk right out into the middle of the road without warning and swear at you when you almost hit them, they're loud, obnoxious, mouthy, completely devoid of respect for all social rules. Well, there were four boys walking in front of me, and a gaggle of girls walking a few steps ahead of the boys. One of the boys called out to one of the girls:" Hey, Erica! Erica! I've got something to say to you!" Another boy chimes in: "It's bad!" The first boy calls out:" I think you're fat!" Erica turns around after trying to ignore the little moron and responds incredulously, "I'm not fat, I only weigh 95 pounds!" None of those girls were in the least bit fat, and I was thinking, sure she's acting all confident and defensive now, but she'll probably starve herself for a month solid, now! The media gets such flack for promoting eating disorders, but do all those body image activists take into account the influence of 12 year-old boys??
People are friendly to your face but drag you through the mud behind your back, they try to rip you off, they're ungrateful, they're insensitive, they're outright malicious. AAAAAH! Am I completely jaded? Are there any good people left?? Were there ever any truly good people?

A Couple of Funny Things

2006-06-08T22:32:00.000-04:00

Here are a couple of funny things for your enjoyment:

Today, when I came to pick James and Erica up from the babysitter's, James got upset because a mosquito was buzzing around his head. We'd recently told him that mosquitoes suck your blood, and he didn't like that idea too much, he's a bit of a worrywart! Anyway, he informed us that he "only likes helpful bugs, not harmful bugs"! We got a laugh out of that one...I can't really think of any particularly helpful bugs - well, maybe bees, just because of the sweet delicious honey they make! It' s beyond me how much grocery stores charge for something that came out of a bee's body, and it's NEVER on sale, never. Bah! Cheese I can understand, cheese is quite labour intensive, but honey? It's not like the beekeeper has to do that much work!

There's a bit of a headlice situation at the sitter's - the lousy kids are staying at home until they're all clear, but they had been there all that time before Michelle discovered it. So far, it doesn't look as if J and E have any - they've miraculously evaded every bout of lice they've been exposed to( and there have been many), I don't know how, but hey, I'm not complaining! Now, Erica doesn't like her hair messed with - the only way I can get her to agree to let me put a ponytail in is to call it a 'baby tie' - somehow this name for it appeals to her! So, the only way she'll let me check her head is to say, "Eri, can I look for buggies in your hair?". She gives her consent:"Oooo-kayyyy." and flips her hair forward and leans down, then flips to the side, then the other side. She knows the drill!

That's it...literally a couple of funny things! I thought I had more, but I guess not. Alas. Goodnight!

Scientific Explosion

2006-06-04T22:10:00.000-04:00

So we went to the Science Centre in Toronto yesterday, as we'd promised James for a couple of weeks now, his consolation outing to make up for the missed field trip to the Naturium. It was raining pretty hard all the way down the 401(major highway that connects much of Ontario, and the most direct road from here to Toronto, for those that don't live here), much to my terror! I'm not a good highway traveller at the best of times, let alone on a day with reduced visibility, but my dad is a seasoned, unflappable driver so we were fine, despite my periodic shrieks from the backseat. The place was pretty busy, pretty hopping. We hit the space exhibit first, and learned about moon phases, black holes, the solar system...and so on. Then on to the human mind/perception section, which was pretty interesting. There were all kinds of hands-on experiments you could do, a lot of cool stuff. It was hard to really enjoy it because a lot of the exhibits required concentration and time to read, and while trying to control the two kids who were running amok with sensory overload, that couldn't be done! And then came the arcade room. Oh, the chaos, the madness! It was a cacophonous scientific circus, with dinging, honking and ringing all above the noise of human voices and children yelling and laughing. There were physics, gravity, perpetual motion and optical illusion experiment stations packed into nearly every square foot of the large room - it really did remind me of a game section of a carnival, only with bicycle powered lightbulb setups instead of shoot the frog with the water gun and win a prize booths. Kalyn and I found a soundproofing tunnel exhibit and went inside - aaaaahhh, heaven. We didn't want to leave, it was so peaceful! Alas, we couldn't stay in there forever. After tearing the kids away from the bedlam, we went on to the simulated rain forest room, which was surprisingly not terribly hot like we'd expected, but very, very humid. The human body room was probably my favourite, the mucous on a kleenex of someone with sinusitis was a nice touch. There was a stand where you'd go up and press a button and a picture of a girl would sneeze on you and a blast of what I hope was water mist came out at you. There were skeletons, both plastic and real, an elephant's heart, a real pair of human lungs, etc. After this we were pretty exhausted and ravenous, so we left and hit the nearest Wendy's where we wolfed down burgers, fries and frosties! Mmmmmm....Wendy's classic single combos.... we had a good day. I'm not the biggest fan of science, but James had fun, which was the main thing! It was fun to get out and have a change of scenery. I like visiting Toronto, but only in small doses. I'm more used to the smaller cities, and I find that I miss the peace, the trees, the quiet suburban streets with front and back lawns, you know. Toronto is very busy, everywhere you look there are a million things going on, buildings, cars and people crammed into every square inch. I'm always happy to see Cambridge when we return home. That was my Saturday, how was everyone's weekend? Anything interesting happen? It's my dad's birthday on the 6th of June, happy birthday dad! Well, that's it for now. Goodnight!

2006-05-26T22:49:00.000-04:00

I've been doing a bit of reading lately. I go on 'jags' with my hobbies - sometimes the mood will take me to work on Erica's baby quilt(not often, though, I've discovered that quilting is tedious and tiresome, to say the least), sometimes I go on a drawing kick, sometimes blogging, writing, jigsaw puzzle-ing, and so on. Garage sales are a great place to pick up ridiculously cheap books, and I'm always game for adding to my book collection! I've acquired a few good ones these past couple of weekends that I can't believe anyone would have gotten rid of:

Frank McCourt's T'is - Captivating from start to finish. I'm a big fan of Frank McCourt, he's a talented storyteller and did quite a job of chronicling his life, although with a life as eventful as his it probably didn't take much effort! This story picks up right where Angela's Ashes leaves off and tells the story of his adult life in New York where he claws his way up from 'Paddy off the boat', hotel lobby janitor with perpetual conjunctivitis with no money and no friends to a high school english teacher with a university degree and with plenty of incidents and misadventures in between. He has a strange but fascinating way of describing a terrible, tragic situation but adding subtle comedy and irony, thus avoiding the pitfall of making his story too weighty, too unbearable. He wrote about the difficult transition from life in a Roman Catholic slum in Limerick, Ireland, where the Church was absolutely central to the culture, held in far higher regard than any other aspect of life, to New York where education,success and beauty are the gods people worship. Talk about culture shock. Great book, down to the last sentence. He uses the 'stream of consciousness' technique and skimps on the punctuation, which makes his writing style stand out, as well. Read it if you haven't, but read Angela's Ashes first!

Anne of Green Gables - Yeah, I know it's a kid's book, but I'd never read it before and I wanted to see what all the fuss is about. After reading it, I still don't know. I found the writing to be too frilly and overly descriptive with little to no substance. For example, L. M. Montgomery knew how to talk about the beauty of flowering magnolia trees and vast fields of tall grass shimmering in the wind, but she didn't know how to put together a strong plot. The characters were two dimensional and unrealistic and then there's Anne...shudder...double shudder... there was no point in my reading that book that I did not want to throttle her thoroughly. I have to take into account the fact that it was written by a woman who did not previously have any professional writing experience in the early 20th century who lived in a blip on the map of Prince Edward Island, not an area in Canada known for its worldliness to begin with, and that flowery and pretty things were the order of the day, but really that's no excuse. There were plenty of female authors that were around long before her that knew what they were doing. Look at Mary Shelley.She didn't talk about posies and daisy chains, she was all about mad scientists and re-animated corpses! Oh well. Just my opinion. I'm sure all the Anne fans are going to be posting angry comments.

The Catcher in the Rye - I've read this one before, but it's one of those classics that you should just own anyway. It's a good book, Holden Caulfield is a bit of a wierdo, a wee bit crazy, but he's an interesting character, there's a lot to him. Unlike the aforementioned irritating redhead. Ahem....I haven't read it in a while and it's not fresh in my mind, so I can't really give it a real criticism...I'll have to get back to you all on that one.

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier - This is one of my favourite all-time movies, so I've been wanting to read it for a long time but had a hard time finding it in book stores for some reason, so when I saw it at a garage sale for 50 cents, I cheered internally. When it comes to books that are also movies, I much prefer to watch the movie first and read the book second. I find that when I do it the other way around, I already have a mental picture of what the characters look like, the scenery, you know, and if I see the movie and it's not how I pictured it or it doesn't do the book justice, I get disappointed. When I see the movie first, I know that the book can only be better and I look forward to reading it(the book is ALWAYS better, always) If you haven't seen it, here's a brief rehashing of the plot: Inman and Ada, the main characters, are denizens of a small village in the North Carolina mountains, Cold Mountain. Inman ends up enlisting in the army during the Civil War. Ada's father dies and leaves her to fend for herself with a gone-to-seed farm without any lifeskills or agricultural knowledge. Inman is injured but lives and before the army can send him back into battle he leaves the hospital and deserts, intent on making it back to Cold Mountain. Back at home, Ada is in dire straits until salvation comes in the form of a girl named Ruby, a proficient farmer who turns the train wreck of a farm into a profitable business. Meanwhile, Inman encounters a string of Homerian tribulations on his journey while Ada pines away at home. He finally returns and he and Ada enjoy a short while of reunited bliss before the home guard, a gang of vicious vigilantes out to kill deserters catch up with him and shoot him in a dramatic scuffle. I'm just about halfway through the book, and I like the way the characters are considerably beefed up - more is told about their background, their stories more intricate. If you liked the movie, get a hold of this book.

I also found Bram Stoker's Dracula and William Golding's Lord of the Flies, but I haven't read them yet. Those two are up next!

The House of Herpes

2006-05-24T22:19:00.000-04:00

How was everyone's Vicky Day weekend? Ours was pretty miserable, we were all sick and the weather was cold and grey, so we lazed around the house watching movies and reading for three days. I enjoyed it for the fact that I got to spend lots of good time with the kids, but we could have done with a bit of sunshine! I'm sure a lot of you are wondering about the title of my post. Not to worry, none of us have picked up any unsavoury social diseases - James has come down with chicken pox. I knew he'd been exposed to it the week before - two kids at his babysitter's house had had them, but I was confident in the knowledge that both James and Erica had been vaccinated and they'd be okay. Well, on Sunday I noticed a couple of little blisters on Jimmy's stomach. Uh oh. I immediately went looking through my purse for James's immunization records and found that only Erica had received it - they only started using the chicken pox vaccine on the regular vaccine schedule for babies in the past couple of years, and Jimmy never got one. The shot that I thought was for chicken pox was actually the meningitis shot! Aaargh! He is not doing so good. He's covered from scalp to groin in horrible red blisters - he's got them in his ears, under his tongue, all over his wee man parts(hee hee) - it's bad. His face and back are the worst. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror for the first time today since it started, and he burst into tears! He has been avoiding all reflective surfaces today - he went to Nana's house today to rest while I went to work and he made my mom take down all the mirrors so he wouldn't accidentally see himself, and when we got home and were about to go in the house, he stayed in the car until I had the glass storm door opened and then ran in the house and hid his face in the couch while I closed it so he wouldn't see himself in the door. Poor James, I feel sorry for him! I try to make him feel better by telling him it will all go away and he'll look normal again soon, and that I still think he's very handsome, but I don't know how much comfort he's taking in that. He said today while watching t.v.,"I hate the chicken pox, it's so embarrassing!". And you know, it taught me a lesson in respecting kids's feelings - it's so easy to dismiss a child's complaints on any given situation as whining and being difficult, adults don't often take children seriously in that respect - I know I'm sometimes guilty of that - but I thought today after the mirror incident, how would I feel if my face looked like that? I'll tell you exactly how I'd feel - I wouldn't leave my bedroom until they were gone, that's how, and here I am saying, "Oh James, it's only chicken pox, no one thinks you're scary!" forgetting that even a five year-old boy can have a sense of dignity. Other that that, he's relatively okay - he's a bit dragged out from the virus( I said to the kids tonight jokingly, "Who wants to go to bed? James was all over that idea, he said "Me!" went upstairs, got ready for bed and was asleep at 6:30!) kind of sore and itchy, a low-grade fever, just warm enough that he acts as a little human space heater(hey, if you're cold, who needs a sweater? Just cuddle up to James and you'll be toasty in no time!) , but now that I think about it, the warmth might not be a fever so much as a by-product of the imflamed skin, who knows? Only a thermometer will tell... He'll be missing his much-awaited class trip to the Naturium tomorrow, which I feel pretty badly about as he's been looking forward to it for weeks now...but my parents have planned a special family trip to the Science Centre in Toronto to make up for it, which will be great! Poor, poor James, I hope he improves soon. It breaks my heart seeing him like this, all sad and uncomfortable, and even more that I can't stay home and take care of him - the attendance policy is insanely strict at work - I'm about 2 weeks away from qualifying for my one year of employment vacation allowance and if I were to have stayed home with James all of this week, it would probably have costed me my job. But oh well, here's wishing him a speedy recovery, get well soon, Poxy McGee!

2006-05-18T22:12:00.000-04:00

The simple pleasures in life. The things to look forward to. The little things that help you through the day, that help you sleep at night. They're the air in your tires, the grease in your gears. For all the aspects of my life that are stressful, there are so many other happy, positive things that balance it all out. I have friends, a family who loves me, a job, a roof over my head, Mike and my babies...what more can I ask for? There are lots of little things I like to do to better my day: listening to music cranked up loud in the car between houses(with the windows rolled up, of course, wouldn't want to tarnish the company's image!!), stopping at the variety store for 'sweet, sweet chocolate'(as my partner would say), looking forward to when I can go pick up the kids and seeing their faces pressed against the door waiting for me to arrive, cheering 'Mom!!!' when I pull in the driveway, catching them when they come running to give me a hug and kiss, watching Spongebob with the kids, going outside with James and Mike and watching James ride his bike, taking long walks with the kids to the park on the weekends, going for family lunch on Sundays! There are so many others, too many to mention. I'm lucky to have an awesome partner at work, it almost makes work fun! She does the most hilarious, accurate impressions - she can do Napoleon Dynamite, Arnold Schwartzenegger, Wayne's World, various Mad TV characters, Moe the bartender from the Simpsons - every time we leave the office, she does the Scooby Doo ending they did on Wayne's World as we're going out the door! I don't know how many times I've had hysterical laughing fits with tears rolling down my face while cleaning, the clients obviously ready to call the men in the white coats! Driving Mike to work - a nightly ritual of ours. We sometimes leave early to stop at Horton's for a coffee, have interesting conversations...we just figured out how to plug Mike's iPod into the car, so now we have some sweet tunes, too! You just can't rely on the radio not to suck. We sometimes relax on the couch watching t.v. while Mike gives me a scalp rub(it puts me to sleep every time). I sometimes go garage saleing on Saturday morning if I have a spare twenty and come back with a big pile of loot - I bring James with me, he loves going. "Let's hit the sales!" He says. Reading a good book, doing puzzles, playing Trivial Pursuit, checkers, Monopoly and Scrabble with Mike(I always totally mop the floor with his butt at that game!) We may not be bathing in a tub full of twenties(eww), but we have these things and as long as we do, I think we'll do fine.

Side note: The new Pearl Jam album is awesome beyond words, I've just listened to it twice in a row! So many potential singles...thanks, Mom and Dad!

'Mother's Day' ,for lack of a better title

2006-05-14T22:15:00.000-04:00

So, how was Mother's Day? Mine started out like any other day, I didn't get breakfast in bed because Mike got off work early and was already dead asleep by the time I woke up, but whatever. I don't think I'd really like breakfast in bed anyway, I don't see the appeal of eating where you sleep, you know? I'm not really a fan of lounging around in bed after I'm wide awake, either, so breakfast in bed is definitely out. I got the kids their breakfast, did dishes, tried to take Erica to the urgent care clinic(she's got a wickedly phlegmy cough, and I wanted to make sure she doesn't have bronchitis) but no such luck, I got there and there was literally standing room only. I'm going to take her to the real doctor tomorrow night when she'll get better medical care and a much shorter wait time! Then I cleaned the bathroom, and after getting woozy from inhaling the bleach fumes, gave the kids a bath. Some people are Mother's Day purists, insisting on not lifting so much as a pinky finger from sunrise to sunset on this day, but I'm not really like that. After all, the world can't stop altogether, can it? And when a mother stops working, that's virtually what happens! I'm happy with a Mother's Day hug, a little plant shoot in a plastic cup that James planted in class that will eventually grow into a flower(it'll be a BIG one, says James) and maybe a couple of little things being done for me. Mike, when he woke up, took James out on his bike, changed Erica's diaper and put the kids to bed, and that's good enough for me! The kids and I went over to my parent's house for 'lupper' - lasagna, copious amounts of salad, tossed, Greek and pasta, and chocolate pizza for dessert. It was freakin' delicious. I'd bought my mom a box of specialty chocolate truffles from this amazing chocolate store in Brantford I'd been introduced to, and they bought me a gift box of Dove stuff and Pearl Jam's new album! Whenever I get a gift that I really like, I squeal and giggle like a schoolgirl. I can't help it! You should hear me at Christmas, it's something like this: "Aaaaaaah! Aaaaaaah! Aaaaaha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha...I'm so happy!!!! Thank you!!! Aaaaah ha-ha-ha!" So you can imagine my reaction when I saw the cd. I haven't listened to it yet, but I'm sure it will rock. We went for a nice family drive to Tim Hortons, drove back the long way and stopped to watch a barnyard full of cows defecating almost simultaneously! Odd, I know. Hope everyone had a great day!

That Crazy David

2006-05-08T23:00:00.000-04:00

Mike and I were watching David Blaine doing magic tricks on t.v. tonight, they were showing some footage to promote his current feat, the staying underwater for 175 hours in that big glass bubble, something I don't find particularly amazing because he has an oxygen tube. Anyway, they showed a trick he did in a big crowd of people: he was looking for a person with long teeth. He found a lady who volunteered for the trick, and he kept saying "trust me, just trust me." What he did was he pulled on her eye teeth, kept pulling and pulling and much to the poor lady's horror, pulled them clean out of her head. I mean, I saw the bloody roots, saw blood on her mouth, saw the empty spots in her upper jaw. She seriously looked like she was about to either cry, vomit or faint, possibly all three. He had the teeth in her hand, and then he blew at her mouth and the teeth were back, unperturbed and not bloody! He asked other people that had been watching in amazement and horror if he could have another volunteer, but no one would let him near their mouths! How, how, HOW? How is this possible? I turned to Mike, all flustered, saying "Did you just...? Did he....? What the friggin' heck....? OH MY GOD!!! He just pulled out her teeth and put them back in!!!!" I mean, there's magic and then there's defying the laws of physics, logic, gravity...that guy blows my mind. They cut to a scene of him showing a bunch of kids how he could take his shoe with untied laces, kick his shoe around rapidly without his foot being anywhere near his hands, and have it tied in a perfect, tight bow when he was finished. He did not have two sets of laces in his shoes, either. This guy freaking levitates, okay! Right on the street, with homeless people and passersby as his audience. Feet about 4 inches off the ground. I am officially flabbergasted! What would I give to find out his secrets? I could make an awful pun here, but I'm not that kind of person!

Friday At Last!

2006-05-05T21:56:00.000-04:00

It's Friday, woo hoo! We had a bad day today. There was an entire team that was somehow incapacitated and we had to take on one of their houses even though we already had a full day. It turns out that the last client we had had asked for a morning appointment and we had to fit them in at the end of the day, and we were told that the change had already been cleared with them. It turns out when we got there that the change had definitely NOT been cleared, and the woman was just livid! We had to stay and do the entire house with the whole family plus company present, and it was just very uncomfortable. In time-honoured maid tradition, we stayed as invisible as possible and made no attempt to talk to them or make eye contact, and we managed to get it done without putting anyone out too much, so I hope they were happy with at least that! Now that the ugliness is behind me, I'm sitting at home writing this post with Much Music on for background noise (the moronic crew of tramps that are the Pussycat Dolls are playing right now). For those of you who aren't from around here, Much Music is Canada's answer to MTV, but better. Well, it was better when it wasn't trying to be MTV, anyway. If you've watched MuchMusic in the past 3 years, you know what I'm talking about! The station used to pride itself on focusing on the music instead of advertising, programs and stupid live call-in shows like TRL, but it has lost its way and now shows mostly media-saturated tripe! Too bad...Anyway, I got home from taking Mike to work about half an hour ago and when I got home, the house across the street was having a party, there were cars lining the street, there was a band playing in the backyard with people cheering and screaming. The thing is, they were actually really good! You know how a lot of bands you hear playing in garages kind of sound all over the place and, well, bad...these guys sounded really professional, really tight, in rhythm with each other, and the guitar solos! Man, that guy could really play, they rocked. It sounded like they'd hired some seasoned rock band to play in their backyard, they were that good. It's a shame they only have another half hour before someone calls the cops on them!

Spider Snacks

2006-04-29T22:40:00.000-04:00

A couple of minutes ago,Ricky and I watched a centipede saunter across the living room floor and under the couch. Yeah, saunter. Usually those things run like lightning, obviously it's still groggy from hibernation! Bug season is here, one of the downsides of the warm months. One has to deal with navigating through large clouds of gnats while enjoying a nice evening walk, hornets and wasps antagonizing you, following you around and getting stuck in your car, flies, ants, moths, maggots in your outside garbage bin...lovely. Isn't it funny how we are so easily creeped out and put off by such little tiny creatures that, for the most part, cannot hurt us? The sight of a common spider crawling across the wall can send a grown adult into a shrieking fit - a bee that flies into a car window can cause a pile-up. Sometimes I like to watch insects, they're pretty interesting! For instance: a moth can sit in the exact same spot, motionless, for hours. What are they doing, sleeping? Pondering life? I don't get it. Ants, upon discovering the dead body of another ant, will attempt to drag it away, and if the dead ant is too heavy, will go off and come back with another ant to help. How does the ant communicate this to another ant? Ants are cool. Spiders stop dead in their tracks if they see you looking at them, and sometimes even drop off the wall, fall to the floor and scurry away as fast as they can to try to escape. When you whack them with a shoe and they get in between the treads, they'll often play dead all crumpled in a ball and get up some time later and crawl away. I've seen it happen! Then again, some bugs are morons. Ladybugs - they'll be flying along when suddenly they hit something and they just fall to the ground - no evasive action whatsoever! Moths and gnats will mill mindlessly around any light source in the dark - why? What purpose does this instinct serve? We usually leave our bathroom light on at night, and every morning in the summer time we find that we have our own personal Wings of Paradise in the bathroom. Some bugs are fun to play with: I like to pick up caterpillars and let them crawl up my arm and pet them. They're so cute and furry, and don't do anything weird. When I was a kid I'd find a potato bug and poke it until it curled itself into an armadillo-esque ball and I'd roll it around! Fun, fun times. I can co-exist with the crawling things pretty well, and sometimes I even spare their lives! This is more often due to the fact that they are too big and that the sound of them smushing would gross me right out, but I also show mercy to bugs that are busy doing something, like spiders making a web. They're creating a fly trap that will inadvertently decrease the maggot population in the garbage bin, so I just let them do their thing. I mean, it could be way, way worse. It could be cockroaches!

Talents

2006-04-27T23:42:00.000-04:00

As I write this, my tonsils are swollen and I'm listening to Rod Stewart's 'Mandolin Wind'. Just thought you'd like to know that. Seriously, I thought that my throat was swelling up the past couple of days due to allergies, but now it feels different - it hurts to swallow, open my mouth, talk, everything. It hurts underneath my jawline, so I'm assuming it's my tonsils, I don't know. Maybe I'll go to the doctor tomorrow evening.
So anyway, onto the shameless self-glorification! Ha ha, kidding ( I can't pretend to be vain, even in jest). What are you really, really good at? Everyone has something for which they have an inherent 'knack', something they've always been good at, as far back as they can remember. One of my things is song lyrics. If I were to turn on a classic rock station or an alt-rock station, I would be able to sing along to every song that they played. I don't know how, but all it takes is for me to hear a song once or twice and I know it. The weird thing is, it has to be set to music. I can't memorize poetry, and if you asked me to write down the lyrics to one of those songs , I wouldn't be able to do it - or if I did, I'd mess up the order of the verses.
I'm really good with names. Names are one of those things that you have a head for or you don't. At work, we refer to our clients by their last names, and if someone names a client, I can remember if I've ever been there before, their address, the layout and most importantly, the condition of their house! If I've ever met someone, I'll remember their name. I remember the name of every kid that was in my Kindergarten class! Weird, eh? Everyone has their things, no matter how obscure they are. English is my biggest forte. Spelling, writing, reading - these are the things that I don't remember ever not knowing how to do. When I was in elementary school, I remember occasionally making intentional mistakes on spelling tests just so the other kids wouldn't think I was a geek. For some reason, I've always understood the silent letters, the contextual differences with consonant blends, why 'mood' and 'wood' sound different. I mean, of course we'll never KNOW why mood and wood sound different, but to learn English is an exercise in accepting the unexplainable! I can speed-read - up until a couple of years ago I'd assumed everyone read like this. I was reading a Stephen King book and Mike was sitting there watching me. He said, "Come on, you can't tell me you read that whole page already!" I thought about it, and I realized that no, I don't read the whole page, not word-for-word anyway. I sort of look at the middle of a line in a book and use my peripheral vision to read the rest - I don't miss anything, and I know what's going on in the story. It's the way I've always done it, and I tried to read the word for word way and found that I kept having to read the same sentence over again, that I couldn't really concentrate! The brain is such a mystery. These things are pretty much the extent of my talents - I'm terribly forgetful, bad at math, can't remember 3 or more simultaneous instructions(in school we'd be in gym class and the teacher would tell us the rules of a new sport or game, and by the end I found that I couldn't remember anything of what she just said and I'd get in trouble for not paying attention!) I can play piano, but I wouldn't say I'm really talented. I'm certainly no David Helfgott. Come on people, brag with me! What are your odd or not-so-odd talents? I want to hear 'em!

Existence of the Supernatural?

2006-04-21T23:03:00.000-04:00

What is your stand on the spiritual world? Do you believe in God and the Devil? Angels and demons? Human spirits? I know a lot of people who profess interest in Christianity- you know, going to church, praying, singing, religion in general, but what would they say if you asked them if they actually believed that there was an omnipresent, all-powerful being somewhere watching over mankind and commanding legions of angels? I mean, in the most literal sense possible. They probably wouldn't. It's hard for our 21st century brains, brains that have mastered technology, science and logical thought to take such a concept seriously. It was much easier to believe in the reality of the spiritual world in the Dark Ages, for example. So many things seemed out of man's control. Crop success, weather, disease, death..to name a few - in earlier times these things must have been utterly bewildering, and spiritual causes as an answer fit like a glove. In those times, if your neighbour came up to you and told you that they saw old lady Jenkins turn into a cat right before their very eyes and the next morning your crops were all rotten, you would have been believed, no contest, no question! Since those times, society has done a complete 180. To believe in God is still more or less accepted, but in metaphorical terms only. No one would bat an eyelash if you told them that you pray for people and things, that you go to church on Sunday and sing hymns. Tell them God actually spoke to you, told you to do something, and you're an instant lunatic. If you were to go around saying that you saw an angel, you'd be thrown in a mental hospital! Well, maybe not quite that extreme, but you get the picture. And what about human spirits? That is a topic of interest to me. What happens to our souls when we die? It clearly states in Revelations that on Judgement Day, the dead will rise from their graves to be judged. This refutes the widespread belief that we go to either Heaven or hell directly after we die. If we are not judged until Judgement Day, how is it fair that we be stored in either Heaven or hell when it may be proved that we do or do not merit being in either place? Secondly, the whole 'rising from the grave' thing. If we are already in our final destination, why would it be necessary to return to our defunct bodies to face judgement if we already have the new, shiny Heavenly ones? If that passage from Revelations is to be taken at face value, it suggests that we do not go directly to Heaven, but fails to mention what actually does happen to our eternal souls. The Bible describes death as a 'sleep', a description I find quite vague. Sleeping where? In the grave? What if a soul is unable to sleep, if the person didn't die in a peaceful state and is too riled up with anger, guilt, sadness, etc. or is unaware that he or she is supposed to be sleeping? This could reasonably explain the phenomena of 'ghosts'. Do I believe that human spirits live amongst us? I don't know. I don't admit this to many people for fear of being thought of as crazy, but I feel things in certain places. Sometimes it's a slight feeling of being watched, sometimes a strong one. Sometimes it's a sudden feeling of intense fear and despair, like I'm so upset that I don't know what to do with myself, whether it's to cry or run away as fast as I can. The despair feeling is sometimes followed by a drained, tired feeling and nausea if I spend too much time in the place. On the other hand, sometimes I feel very happy, comfortable and welcome. I'm not saying every house I enter has a vibe - in fact most houses are decidedly blank. I can count on one hand how many times I've felt a presence in a house. It's not like I'm expecting it to happen when it happens, like I have preconceived notions and it's a product of my imagination. Also, it usually happens that there are certain rooms or areas in the house where I feel nothing whereas in the same house there are rooms where I definitely feel 'something'. A couple of years ago I had to spend time babysitting in a house in which I had to stay in the front bedroom all day because I just couldn't handle the emotional stress of being in any other room. The room I was in was the only one that felt safe, and the funny thing is that the two kids and the dog never once made any move to leave the bedroom, either! Near the end of my babysitting for her, I would wait until she left for work and then I would take the kids back to my house and only return to that house 10 minutes before she was due to arrive home! I can't explain it, I'm not saying that these houses are 'haunted', but I can't deny what I feel when I'm in them. Does anyone believe me? Can anyone relate? I'd love to hear what you think about my theory!

Disciplinary Action

2006-04-19T22:58:00.000-04:00

Hey, guess what? My last post was my 100th post! Woo hoo!
I am having some disciplinary issues with wee Erica. She's two years old, and is prone to tantrums. Every time Mike and I try to discipline her, she either plays 'shadow', that annoying game kids play when they repeat everything you say, or she says 'NO' with conviction and smacks your hand. Here's a scenario:

Erica is discovered colouring on the coffee table with crayons.
Us - "Eri! Only colour on paper!(we give her a piece of paper, point at the paper and repeat what we said)"
Erica - "NO! COLOUR!" (she usually either smacks your hand, pinches you or throws the crayon at you)
Us - We grab her hand, look her in the eye and say "We don't hit, Erica. Bad girl!"
Erica - "NO!" (bursts into tears)
Us -" Okay, crayons are going away until you can colour nice."
Erica usually bursts into fresh tears at this point, but if we leave off and disconnect from the confrontation she'll calm down fairly quickly. If she was a bit older, I would put her on time out, but I don't think her thought process is quite mature enough yet to understand the concept of 'thinking about what she's done'. She reacts in basically the same way in every tantrum situation, but sometimes(if she's in a good mood) she'll simply look at you calmly, put her finger to her lips and shush you! I have no idea how to deal with this effectively, especially given her age. She just caught on to the concept of consequences - if she's repeatedly getting out of her seat at dinner, you can say to her "Eri, if you don't want to sit in your seat you'll have to go in your high chair!", and she'll make a mad dash for her seat. So far, this is the only method that really fazes her, so I think I'll have to work with that one. I never had to deal with this with James - he always responded really well to discipline and still to this day falls in line with minimal prodding. If he does something really mischeivous or bad, he'll come up to you and begin apologizing profusely. If you tell him to do something, he'll do it. If you tell him to stop doing something, he stops. We tell him when he goes outside to stay in the driveway/backyard, and he always does just that. Sometimes he puts up an argument or bargaining attempt, but he'll eventually cave. When we tell him how much we love him, he says "Do you even love me when I do really, really bad things, like when I spilled my bubble stuff all over the carpet?". And when we tell him that we'll always love him no matter what he ever does, he gets all teary and huggy. I love it! Often, he'll stop what he's doing and come up to you and say "Mom, I just wanted to tell you that I love you." At bedtime, he sometimes says, "I want to give you two kisses and hugs because you're the best mom ever." James is like a puppy - he thrives with affection, he basks in it. Erica, on the other hand, is more like a cat. She has her affectionate moments, but only on her terms. She gives kisses and hugs, but only when SHE wants to! She declares her love, but only when someone says it to her first! They're so different. I can respect her prickliness, and we're all pretty accustomed to it. However, it does make it hard to get through to her when it comes to correcting bad behaviour. Has anyone ever successfully disciplined a cat? Will I ever be able to successfully discipline Erica? I hope so. I don't know. I'll keep trying! I would greatly appreciate some suggestions, if anyone can think of anything!

Dust Allergy? What Dust Allergy?

2006-04-14T22:18:00.000-04:00

I have found my own personal little slice of heaven. Oh yes, I have. The kids and I were going for our weekly downtown jaunt(yes, we do this every weekend). We threw rocks and sticks in the river, I taught James a few new historical facts, you know, same old, same old. To go home, we had to pass Southworks, a tourist attraction/oddball shopping mall located at the foot of West Galt, just before you reach the river. There was the usual crowd of people, some local but mostly tourists(you can tell by the American accents and cameras - James met a boy outside of the place whose name was Dallas - his father informed us that he was "goin' to be a Dallas Cowboy!It's a football team!" Reeeeeaaallly. I realized that I've never really seen all of the place - I'd gone into a few stores, but have never fully explored it. I found a 50's nostalgia store in which they were selling a couch in the shape of a pink cadillac's backseat, complete with pink and white vinyl 'upholstery'(the back of the couch had taillights and fins) and even vintage kitchen appliances in sea foam green! We visited another store that sold tacky junk- wizard, wolf and unicorn-themed lamps and knicknacks, personalized foam mugs and movie and celebrity memorabilia(actually, I did see a Lord of the Rings edition Monopoly that I thought Mike might like for Father's day, but it was 74 freaking dollars! Not in this lifetime, buddy-boy...next I wanted to check out the antiques section. Originally, the antique place was what Southworks was all about, and the retailers just kind of grew up around it. It's no secret that I love all things old and musty, so an antique store is pretty much my natural habitat. I knew James would enjoy it, as well! As soon as I walked in, boom, there was a case of antique jewellry with tags on every piece, stating the age, place of origin and price on it. I wanted to hug the entire building at that point. We found shelves and shelves of antique books which I gazed at lustfully, carefully turning the thin, yellowing pages, scanning the copyright information for a date, looking for that magical phrase 'first edition'! I found an archaic-looking copy of a book written by Benjamin Disraeli on Victorian society which I WILL buy eventually. We looked at a large framed photo of a Galt hockey team from the early 1900's, stained glass windows, tarnished but beautiful picture frames, random bed posts, street lamps and fire hydrants. There was a lot of furniture, a LOT. And sadly, not much of it was in good condition. Sure, its age makes it a conversation piece, but do you really want a mouldering, smelly chair that looks like about 50 different cats have scratched it throughout the years sitting in your living room? I don't think so. Just because it's 150 years old doesn't mean it's not junk. People, if you own something made of very old wood, take good care of it. Dust it, polish it, put a finish on it if you have to! Yes, it's very impressive to be able to tell someone that the floors in your Victorian home are original pine, but if the planks are peeling and you fear falling through to the basement every time you step on them, they're not much good. I can't tell you how many times I've feared for my life while cleaning a run-down Vicky. Anyway, back on topic. I'm going to go back there very soon without the kids, and I am going to buy things. But before I do, I'm going to take allergy medication. Seriously, ten minutes in that place and my eyes burn, I sneeze and my throat swells up. Hours later and I still feel a bit stuffy! You should go, though. If you don't have asthma, that is...

Maternal Instinct

2006-04-14T10:48:00.000-04:00

I was talking to a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago. She's around the same age as me, but at the same time she's much younger. She goes out every night, going to clubs, hanging out at the mall, doing pretty much whatever she wants. She lives in her parents' basement, doesn't pay rent, and is able to spend entire paycheques on clothes, cd's and shoes. She has no worries, no bills to pay, no sick kids to go to the doctor, no groceries to get, no chores to do. She is always completely unaffected and free, and cannot begin to relate when I start talking about things that are going on in my life and usually changes the subject. It sometimes seems strange to me that two people who are both in the same age group can lead such different lives. Sure, I can turn on the early twenties fun-lovingness when I'm around her and other like-minded friends of mine, but it's not who I am at all. Anyway, we got on the topic of children. I was not surprised at all when she mentioned that she never, ever wanted them - she didn't like the idea of cleaning up after them, waking up with them in the middle of the night, taking them everywhere she goes, not being able to go out anymore without struggling to find a babysitter, disciplining them...she went on the 'I wouldn't be a good mother' trip. I inwardly acknowledged that she was absolutely right about everything, and didn't once interject in the usual condescending manner, saying things like 'oooohh, that would all change once you have the baby in your arms!' I never said this simply because I think it sounds ridiculous and insulting to presume to tell someone how they would feel in said situation, but I also knew that there was a good chance that that's exactly what would happen! I've seen car theifs become soccer moms, lazy, irresponsible, self-centred bums become the polar opposite of that. Maternal instinct - where does it come from? Why do some people have it and not others? Why do people experience it to varying degrees? I remember the very instant that it happened to me - I wish I could describe it accurately, but I can't. I felt like my heart was going to burst with love, and I could feel a very intense rush of endorphins flowing to my brain, but also with it came a very intense fear. I had never experienced such love before, and I was suddenly terrified that James would die, get hurt, etc. In the beginning it literally caused me horrible nightmares from which I would wake in a cold sweat and burst into tears. It eventually tapered off a bit, and what it left behind was what they call the maternal instinct - concern for their safety and well-being, desire to comfort them and take care of them when they get hurt or when they're sick, the obligation to provide for them and the constant awareness of the need to be a 'good parent' and to set a good example for them for later on in life. There are other little features that I've noticed in myself - for example, I take any and every negativity directed at my kids very, very personally. I don't know why this is, I think it's because I tend to think of them not at separate people with their own little lives, but as miniature extensions of myself. Case in point: the other day our landlord called to tell us of complaints from neighbours about a group of boys that have been destroying things around our property - breaking beer bottles, digging holes in the yard, tearing down clotheslines, etc. and he was accusing James. Now, I knew exactly who had been doing these things and I was so furious, not because he hinted around evicting the culprit family but because he dared to insinuate that James was an unruly little hellion that was raised badly. Mike had been the one talking to him and didn't really assert anything, didn't tell him who the real destructive brat was. I decided that wasn't good enough, and in an uncharacteristic move, I got on the phone and gave him seven flavours of holy hell, and by the end of the phone conversation he was apologizing and on his way to go have a little chit chat with the neighbours. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I am quite inoffensive to people that I don't know too well, so for me to react in such a way with a guy that I only speak to for about a minute every month is very unusual. Mess with my kids and I keeel you! Ha ha ha...
And then you have the people who never do experience it. They didn't want the kids to begin with, they don't want them after they're born and they just kind of put up with them throughout their lives and chomp at the bit for the day they can stay home alone and take care of themselves. Perhaps they resent the children for taking away their life, their freedom, their youth. I know someone who is this person - before she had three kids in rapid succession she was a heavy partyer, doing drugs and drinking, waking up in cities that she had no memories of going to the night before, you know. She tells me that she loves the kids, but she wished she never had them, that it was a huge mistake. She still wants to party and go out and do stuff, and really despises staying home with the kids and has no qualms about telling people that. It's a real tragedy, even if you never tell the child that you don't want him or her, they'll be able to sense it and it will hang over their heads for the rest of their lives.
Why do some people get slammed with this instinct like a brick wall in the delivery room, while others do not? I just don't understand it. If it's a common mammalian trait in females to ensure the survival of the species, why doesn't every mother experience it? Strange. Any thoughts??

2006-04-08T20:21:00.000-04:00

The kids and I were taking a walk downtown this afternoon on our way to the library, and we were pleased to hear Central Presbyterian Church ringing the pre-Palm Sunday bells. It was such a happy, pretty tune, the sound clanging and echoing off the surrounding buildings. We were the only people listening - others were still walking around talking, in a rush to get wherever they were going, shady people on streetcorners still doing shady things, throngs of cars, trucks and motorcycles creating an incessant din - I could only catch bits and pieces of the joyful bell song over the chaos of modern life. At that moment I wished, I WISHED that the world would just shut up for 5 minutes so we could all hear and listen. Why don't we care about the simple things anymore? Why do Easter bells no longer make us happy?

April Fools!

2006-04-02T16:09:00.001-04:00

Well, it's happened. James has discovered the joys of April Fool's day. I explained the whole thing to him, the pulling pranks on people before noon, and him being the practical joker that he is, he was just thrilled. He kept asking me for a piece of peanut butter toast, and because he'd just consumed a massive bowl of Cheerios, I said no. He kept asking and asking and claiming to be still hungry, so I eventually gave in on the condition that he eat the whole piece. He took maybe two small bites and announced, "Okay, I'm full!" "Oh no no no, mister, you're eating every crumb of that toast, if it takes you all morning!" A big grin dawns on his face. "April Foooool's!" I went over and gave him a big hug and kiss, saying "Ohhhh, you got me!" There were various other little tricks he played on me throughout the day - and every prank he pulled was 'the ultimate prank', in his words! It was cute. Yesterday was not so good. I went to my ex-babysitter's house on Friday to sign a paper, when she told me that her whole family had just recovered from Rotavirus, a stomach flu bug that usually makes its rounds at this time of year. I wasn't worried, after all, I was just standing in her doorway, not even going in! What could happen? Well, I touched her doorknob and the pen that she'd just been holding, and when I got back in the car, I started to bite my fingernails. DOH!!! Sunday being two days later, the average incubation period for such illnesses, I was quite sick. The minute I woke up, I noticed my stomach felt wrong. Of course, it didn't help that Mike kept shoving pistachio nuts in my face! A couple hours later, my stomach began to ache and burn, and I couldn't concentrate on the Harry Potter book I was reading anymore! I was soooo hungry on top of the pain, and I thought maybe if I ate something I'd feel better. I had maybe two handfuls of dry Cheerios, and boy was that ever a mistake! I was so nauseous for about 3 hours, I couldn't do anything but lie on the couch. James and Erica of course, took complete advantage by running all over the place and tearing up the living room! I'd be like, "James, clean up that mess you made! Ooooh, you're lucky I'm confined to the fetal position, or you'd be in so much trouble!" Erica kept coming up to me and saying "Close eyes, mom. Go Sleep. Shhhh!" I know you're thinking 'oh, what a sweetheart', but really, she was just trying to get me to close my eyes so she could take off upstairs! Eventually my stomach got better, but then I got all fluey and feverish and achy. Blech! I felt a bit better today, so I went to work. I had a couple of moments where I was really dizzy and tired, and I felt a bit queasy after a pit stop at the store to get Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, but other than that, I think I'm okay!

Interiors

2006-03-30T22:45:00.000-05:00

Some say that the way a house looks is a reflection on the owner. What does your house say about you? Do you own ultra-modern oversize suede couches and armchairs that scream wealth and taste, or do orange and brown-flowered rough fabric upholstery-with wooden arms-throwback to the 70's chesterfields sit in your living room? Do you use halogen lamps with energy-efficient bulbs to shed light on the subject(I apologize for the horrible, horrible pun - I cringe whenever anyone utters that phrase right before turning on a light) or do you still have those godawful white square light fixtures with the little flowery designs attached from your ceilings? I'm guilty of that last decorating crime, but on the plus side, they double as bug traps! Do you have a plasma-screen tv, or is your set sporting bunny ears? I don't hold much with the whole decorating madness that most people are into right now - as long as all the furniture matches somewhat with the room it's in and everything's clean and in good repair, I'm happy. The person who lived in my place last clearly had forgotten to take his schizophrenia medication the day he painted. My kitchen is painted in a very Betty Crocker-ish light blue and white - latex paint, I might add. My living room is burgundy with half the room bordered in a gold-green floral motif(I know, no one uses border anymore, but like I said, I don't care) and a supremely ugly gray wall-to-wall carpet. My bathroom(oh boy, here's the fun part) is also burgundy but with gold and white spackles and splotches ALL over the place and a gold doorframe and baseboards! Lovely...at least it's better than the seafoam green paint that's underneath it...! My room has one pink wall, three white ones, and royal purple trim and doorframes! Combine the easter egg colours with the brown door and the same ugly gray carpet, and you've got class! Ha ha ha... In my line of work, I go into a LOT of houses and see all sorts of things and have noticed a strong pattern when it comes to decorating. Old people - 1975 threw up in their houses. The gaudiest of the gaudy, right down to the jungle themed wallpaper superimposed on a silver holographic background in the carpeted bathroom! The old-money wealthy - a lot of victorian furniture. Uncomfortable leggy chairs with brocade cushions tacked on, tasteful decorations, never anything trendy. New-money wealthy - anything and everything trendy they can get their pretty little executive hands on! The furniture and decor in such houses are often interchangeable, much like the houses themselves. And us average, everday folks? Whatever falls into our laps, pretty much. A Laz-ee-Boy inherited from a relative, well-used, a couch bought at a garage sale that was probably new in the 80's, maybe a de rigeur mahogany coffee table but that's about the only brand new thing in the room. Of course, there are deviations from this pattern from time to time, but it's usually right on the money. But man, would I ever love for just once to walk into one of those palatial 5-bathroom, 5 bedroom numbers and see, like, Beavis and Butthead posters on the living room walls, or a lime-green shag carpet...! That would just kill me!!!

What's in your house????

2006-03-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

So as it turns out, I've apparently been the unwitting victim of bank fraud. My baby bonus came in the other day, and I went down to the bank to take some money out. I got there and went to the teller as I had forgotten my bank card at home. She clicked away on the keyboard for a bit and then:

"Ms. Allan, you know this is a deposit only account."

"Well, I don't see how that can be, I just took money out last month and I've always been able to withdraw before today."
"Hmmm...I wonder what the problem could be - I can't override the restrictions here, so why don't you go talk to the receptionist at the front desk and she'll look in to it for you, okay?"

So I did, they asked me a few questions, looked at the computer screen, asked a few more questions and then:

"I'm going to go ask someone to get on the phone with the main branch and see if we can get to the bottom of this problem - it appears that the withdraw capability on your card has been turned off, but it's not saying why. Why don't you have a seat over there and someone will be right with you."

So there I sat for quite some time, reading an old copy of the Kitchener Record with the rousing front page article describing in detail the New York St. Patrick's day parade, complete with a large picture of a lady in gigantic novelty green plastic shamrock-shaped sunglasses festooned with all kinds of streamers and sparkles - niiiccce. Eventually, someone came.

"Lindsay? Come with me, please!"

She led me to a little cubicle at the back of the bank by the safe. She told me that she needed to go over a transaction with me, that an uncharacteristically large amount of money was deposited in my account on February 23 and then more than that amount was taken(I won't say how much, but it was over $1000.

"Did you deposit that money? Do you know anything about it?"

"No, no, that definitely wasn't me!!" As if.

"Well, what probably happened is that someone made a copy of your bank card, either at a bank machine, or at any debit card machine at a gas station, store, etc.. Did you have to swipe your card more than once in any of these places?

I couldn't remember, that was a month ago, happened on a payday which means it could have happened in any number of places. Weird. It was all sorted out, it turns out that they only made off with $100 dollars and that overdraft had been replaced when the baby bonus came in, and my account is back in a positive balance. I had to fill out a fraud report, sign various papers, get a new bank card with a new PIN number, all that stuff. They'd turned off my withdraw function when they noticed the huge transaction until they cleared it with me first.

I still can't figure out how it happened, especially considering I rarely keep any money in there and only use it once or twice a month! Of course, just because the money was withdrawn on the 23d doesn't mean that that's the date they obtained my number. They could have easily had copied my card months ago and decided to wait for the right time! Huh. I consider myself really lucky that I didn't have a whole lot of money in there, because they could have taken me for a lot more. Well, if this experience has taught me anything, it's to be a bit more vigilant!

Questions

2006-03-17T09:28:00.000-05:00

Here's a couple of meaningless, random questions off the top of my head for you to answer! Enjoy!

-If you could have 5 or more children, adopted or biological, would you? Really, really think about it.
-If you had the chance to somehow see accurately into the future, would you want to?

-What do you want done with your ashes?

-If you could go back in time and spend as much time as you want in the past, which era would you visit?
-Would you want to be famous?

-If you could change one thing about your personality, what would it be?

-Which is worse, virus or bacteria?

-What would be the first thing you'd do if you won a million or more in the lottery?

-In your city, where is your favourite spot(park,street,trail)?

-What has been the happiest time in your life up until this point?

-If you could live forever without aging a day past your current age, would you want to? If you could choose an age to be frozen at, which age would you pick?

-What's the best way to spend a Saturday night, in your opinion?

-If you had a(nother)baby right now, what would you name him/her?

-Do you have any regrets so far?

-Do you believe in ghosts?

Don't Let the Animals Sneeze on You

2006-03-14T23:14:00.000-05:00

Challenge of the day: Read Lewis Carroll's poem 'Jabberwocky' out loud while keeping a straight face all the way through. Trust me, it can't be done. So anyway, Mike and I were wondering about the connection between horses and tuberculosis the other day(bear in mind that I'm aware that we talk about very bizarre things sometimes and often argue unrelentingly about them until one of us manages to prove our point via the internet). Don't ask me how or when that topic came up, it's an ongoing conversation and I can't remember the origin at all, but I decided to find out once and for all. I mean, I'd heard about this in a health article that I read once and it does seem to fit judging by the wide variety of people in history up until the first quarter to half of the twentieth century that the disease affected, when the average person spent much more time around the animal than they do now. It makes sense, right? Of course, it's still around, and over the past 30-odd years there has been a significant resurgence of the disease due to lack of attention given to it by medical circles and media. What with AIDS and rising cancer rates, WHO has bigger fish to fry. From what I've read, TB has become a disease mainly of hospital inpatients, homeless shelters, prisons, anywhere where a large group of people spent a lot of time together in close quarters. So, back to my point, I looked it up on Wikipedia(my new favourite website) and this is what I got: mammals are often carriers - not domestic pets such as cats and dogs, but wild animals like raccoons, rodents, etc. I suppose horses could fall under this category being mammals and all, but they weren't directly mentioned. Bah! I hate when I can't PROVE that I'm right... So let that be a lesson to you, don't keep raccoons as pets unless you like 9 month courses of industrial strength antibiotics! Can you just imagine the stomachaches....? During the course of my research I discovered some very interesting, if not totally insane things about the nasty illness. For instance: The bacteria is actually much more common than most people think it is. 90% of people who carry it will never become sick from it or give it to other people and therefore are none the wiser, it will simply sit latently and harmlessly on their skin. Fact#2: the high rates of TB in antiquity may have been due to the fact that it may have been confused with pneumonia or even lung cancer, which have similar symptoms. Coolest fact yet: the legend of the vampire originated with this disease. In the days when people were outrageously superstitious and knew absolutely nothing of germs, they thought tuberculosis patients to be vampires. The pallid complexion, red eyes, loss of appetite and coughing of blood - they attributed these last two symptoms to a)that they no longer wanted food because they were drinking blood and b) that since they kept losing blood through the mouth, they obviously had to drink it to send it back down the way it came up! Of course, after the sick person died the rest of the family began to show similar symptoms, and when this happened they believed that the original 'vampire' was rising from the grave each night to continue drinking from his/her family. To remedy this problem, the vampire had to be exhumed and the heart removed and burned, in some cases the whole body, just to be sure! I wonder how they explained the lack of bite marks... Cool, isn't it? You learn something new every day!

Domesticity

2006-03-14T08:49:00.000-05:00

Running a household takes a lot of work. There are chores to be done, matters to be dealt with and routines to follow. Somewhere along the line, it was decided that certain tasks would be permanently delegated to either gender because of physical limitations, skill level or simply because the husband 'doesn't feel like doing it'...

'Traditional' Household Roles

Women

-child care
-cooking
-cleaning
-laundry
-shopping(on a fixed allowance,
of course)
-gardening

Men

-work
-maintenance(grass cutting, house repairs, mechanics, plumbing)
-finances
-disciplining children
-business
-driving
-heavy lifting

As you can see, it's not SO different compared with contemporary roles. The only difference is that women also do most of the 'man' jobs on top of all the traditional things they have always done thanks to the women's libbers - and thank God for them, I'd rather not live in a world where my husband 'choke' gives me an allowance 'choke' and where I have to cook three huge meals a day that all have to be hot and steaming on the table at 6:00 on the button, how patronizing...
Our household roles are a bit different. I cook supper every day, but if Mike or Ricky get hungry at any other time, they make it themselves. I don't make Mike's work lunches either, something he's been known to gripe about on occasion, to which I tell him that he's a grown man and I'm not his mother! I do the laundry, all the cleaning, the driving(Mike doesn't have a license), the recycling bin, putting away groceries, making the beds, most of the finances and general business, like dealing with companies, the landlord, the school, etc. I don't like dealing with the business, but Mike's gets really nervous around 'the man', and when he gets antsy he starts making bad jokes so I generally try to keep him away from that! There are some things that we take turns doing - for instance, bathing the kids, putting the kids to bed, putting Erica on the potty, getting up with the kids on weekend mornings, all that stuff. When we go for walks together with the kids, Mike likes to pull them in the wagon, and on busy streets the kids and I always walk on the inside of the sidewalk. One gender role that I'd never heard of before living with Mike: the man draining boiling water or hot grease from cooking pots. Mike always does this for me if he's around. We always do groceries together - I pay for them but I have a strange fear of the checkout when I go grocery shopping alone, I'm terrified that I won't have enough money for all the food and that I'll have to put things back, which usually results in me buying far less food than I could, just to be on the safe side. Weird, eh? What part(s) do you play in your house? Let me know!

A Short One

2006-03-11T17:06:00.001-05:00

I've got full time hours! It's about time after 10 months, but I'm moving to a new team starting March 20th, still as a route manager, 5 days a week! I'm sooooo happy. Tomorrow we're going to Westfield for the maple syrup festival, hope the weather is fine and that we all get a wicked sugar buzz! I'll let you know how it goes....bye!

My Other Babies

2006-03-08T20:58:00.000-05:00

I love to read. I always have. If I had a good book in my hand, I could literally kill an entire day sitting on the couch with my nose in it, something that I actually have done before back in the B.C. days(before children). I have tons - not as many as my aunt, she's got enormous bookshelves with books almost piled to the ceiling(it makes me drool) - but lots, nonetheless! I've got antiques, comedies, dramas, autobiographies, history textbooks, poetry books, encyclopedias, horrors, literature, biographies, atlases, even old copies of Beano, Dandy and Oor Wullie that my grandparents used to order for me from Scotland when I was a kid! Here's a list of my favourites, my 'other' babies!

An ancient christian sunday school book for children with a note written on the inside cover page that LOOKS like ' M. 3 Erin
Awarded to George Walker at examination(that word may be something else)
held Dec. 21st 1868
D E McWilliams
Secretier
followed by some words that I can't hope to read due to the extremely fancy loopy writing and the obscuring grime. It was printed in Guelph, and cost 25 cents. It smells musty, is riddled with dirt and strange looking stains that look suspiciously like blood. On the back page, someone was practicing how to spell 'gamut', and someone who owned the book in 1899 had subtracted 1868 from the current year at the time and came up with 29. Once in a while I take it out of the shelf just to stare at it.

My Charles Dickens collection. So far I have Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities and Hard Times. Hard Times is one of his lesser known stories, and for good reason - it kind of sucks. It starts out fantastic and you think you've stumbled upon something great, but then after Louisa Gradgrind gets married it just falls apart and from then on it's some factory worker with atrocious grammar having pointless conversations with his boss where he whines about his 12 hour workday and his alcoholic wife, which he eventually gets fired for! Booooring...

Edgar Allan Poe's poetry and prose. This one's an antique as well, it was printed in the 30's.

My Sophie Kinsella books and the Nanny Diaries! These books are friggin' hilarious, especially the Sophie Kinsellas. I couldn't put them down!

Angela's Ashes. I picked this one up for a dollar at Value Village. It's an interesting if not very depressing read. It's a wonder Frank McCourt was able to live through that crap.

'Modern' English prose. I have modern in quotation marks because the book was printed in 1910! I found this one at Value Village, too. What's really amazing is the excellent condition it's in, I mean, clean, non-musty intact pages, a binding with its full integrity, no smell, nothing. I've seen books printed in the 70's that are in worse condition!

My volume of 'My Book House' books that are technically now antiques with delightfully fading cover pictures and a fraying green hardcover. They belonged to my mom, and I've been reading them since I was little and now read them to James. They're excellent for bedtime stories!

Any readers out there with prized books? Books with sentimental value? Real value? I'd like to hear about them!

The book that I'd give my eye teeth for but is probably either lost forever or in a museum somewhere: the 1st edition Alice in Wonderland, the one that Lewis Carroll personally gave to the real-life Alice, Alice Liddell. I remember reading that later on in life, she was having money problems and sold it. I wonder who she sold it to, and where it is now!

That's it, work in the morning, time for bed. Bye!

My Stephen King collection - I have about 95% of his older stuff, from around 1995 and earlier. Those were his glory days, anyway, not much good has come out of him in recent years. The best Stephen King novel? 'It', hands down. I've read all of them at least 3 times each!

A Crappy, Crappy Movie Review!

2006-03-08T13:07:00.000-05:00

Poor Erica is sick once again! This time she's got a wicked stomach bug - she was getting sick consistently all Monday night and Tuesday, and it's only beginning to taper off now.She managed to keep most of her breakfast down and her lunch, so that's a good sign. I've never really heard of stomach bugs lasting this long, I know I've certainly never had one that made me sick for three days, but then again her immune system is probably weakened by that bronchitis episode. It's amazing how much it takes out of you - when she's not sleeping(which she's been doing a lot of)she just lies there staring blankly at the t.v. all sprawled out on the couch, hardly moves, hardly says anything except for 'drink, peese', not a sign of the fire and energy that makes up her normal personality! Oh well. I hope I don't catch it. I at least hope it holds off until the weekend, I've got money to make.
We watched The Goblet of Fire last night! It was really good, although I wasn't impressed with the first hour or so. I mean, is it just me or was Hermione's character far too whiny in this installment? She seemed to be either screaming at someone or on the verge of tears in every scene she was in. Ron, too - he was pretty moody himself! At one point during the movie I said to Mike, 'Someone ought to slip some prozac into their pumpkin juice.' It wasn't even just that though, I thought that Emma Watson's acting was sort of shoddy. She didn't make the character believable, the dialogue didn't flow that well - she might as well have been reading her lines off the script. Just my opinion. I hated the Yule Ball scene, although Ron's formal robes were hilarious! I loved the scene when that crazy death eater-posing as a teacher(was his name Alistair? I didn't catch his last name) turned Malfoy into a ferret and bounced him around in the air,that was just fantastic, I laughed and laughed! What really made this movie, in my opinion, was the final challenge in the labyrinth and the scene in the graveyard with Voldemort and the Death Eaters,the final 45 minutes really brought the whole movie together. I liked the darker tone of this movie compared to the other three, although I really could have done without the angsty drama crap! Two more things that came to mind: that's not the original Dumbledore, is it? and: I thought Hermione was supposed to have had an eating disorder in 'Goblet of Fire'! I read that in People magazine. Huh, wierd. Anyone seen it? Care to comment?

Barbie Does Your Housework

2006-03-03T22:33:00.000-05:00

Just a short story: I was doing dishes in the kitchen today when James suddenly ran in and blurted out "Oh mom(he calls me mom now, only babies say mommy says he), for a minute I thought you were a doll!" I said "Oh, you crazy boy! Could you imagine a doll doing dishes? That's a good idea for a present, could you buy me a dishwashing doll for my birthday? Please?" He thought about it for a moment, and then replied "No, I can't do that, the doll would scare everyone and we'd run out of the house going 'Ahhhhhh!' and have to go stay with Nana and Opa and the doll would have the house allll to herself!" Just the way he said it, the inflection and the little actions he was doing as he was telling me this - it cracked me up! Those five year-olds and their imaginations, you never know what they're going to come up with.

Funeral Processions Strike Again

2006-03-02T22:25:00.000-05:00

Can someone please help me out? Can someone tell me all about the laws and intricacies of funeral processions? It's a bizarre question, but this is the second time in my life I have committed a faux pas while having wandered unwittingly into the path of one of these scary long lines of police and incredibly slow-moving cars. This is not something they ever mention in driver's ed, or in school when they teach children to be good pedestrians! Let's start with the first instance: When I was 19, I was standing at the corner of Concession St. and Grand Ave. when a procession headed my way. The light changed and I began to walk, not even remembering that a funeral procession is above the rules of the road and isn't required to stop. Hey, it's so programmed into my head - I see the little white dude, I walk. I got a few steps out when I realized something was wrong, they weren't stopping, even though I was only about 6 feet away from them! In a panic, I turned around and jumped back up on the curb out of the way, completely blown away that the hearse driver didn't even slow down one iota, didn't swerve, nothing - even though he could clearly see me. Are they really allowed to hit you? If they hit you, would you get fined yourself? Not that you'd sustain much injury being hit by a car doing about 10 k's and hour, but still, it's the principle of it! The next instance happened just a couple of days ago. It didn't involve me this time per se, but I was there and just as confused as everyone else! Again, a funeral procession came down Concession St., this time heading East instead of West. I was sitting at the Water/Concession intersection when the police car came zooming up the street with lights flashing, dividing the traffic. The cars came through, and instantly, people saw the lights change and tried to go. They were doing what I did 4 years ago, reacting to the programmed behaviour - green light=go. Several people from two different sides tried to move,actually! And again, there was no stopping, not even any evasive action aside from a few annoyed honks from the funeral cars. I know now from experience that you're not supposed to get in their way or else, but what are other cars supposed to do in the meantime? Do we need to stop completely and remain motionless until they're all gone, or can we turn down streets that may not be the procession's destination(even that's impossible to tell, they don't signal either)? Is there even a cemetery up that way? I figured that maybe they're planning to bury the body in a different city and had visions of 30 cars crawling down the highway! Oh, goodness... Info would be appreciated to avoid future snafus!

Sickies

2006-02-27T22:38:00.000-05:00

It's Erica's turn! Of course, I'm talking about the waves of illness that hit our house at least 3 times a winter where both kids are guaranteed to come down with something and maybe two adults, if we're really unlucky. As I mentioned in my last post, James is on the mend from his double ear infection, thanks to our good friend Mr. Amoxicillin, so that's good. Eri, however, has had this scary sounding cough these past two days and just today went to the doctor for it, where I found out she has bronchitis. Yay...Not good! If not for that terrible sounding cough she seems okay - no fever, normal temperament, she's playing, fighting with her brother, eating, the usual. My mom told me to listen to the chest and the back and if you hear a whistling or a sing-song-y sound that meant that the bacteria is in the chest. Sure enough, I heard it, and it was off to the doctor we went! Our benefits are mysteriously still in effect so the drugs that would have otherwise cost us about $100+ alone only came to $12(pediatric Zithromax, a pricey but effective antibiotic and a ventilin puffer) but we still had to cough up $60 for an aerochamber to make it easier to take the puffer. Overpriced, I know, and I asked the pharmacist if it was really necessary, but alas, she told me that it would be next to impossible for a two year-old to use the proper puffer technique without it and after an explanation of the likely scenario, I could really see puffer time would not go so well without it so I forked over the dough. The real kicker is that I later talked to my mom and found out that she actually has an aerochamber at home that we could have used! BAH! Oh well... Tomorrow we go meet the kids's newest and hopefully permanent babysitter, Shannon. She sounds really nice on the phone and she does the drive to the school that James goes to( a lot of the caregivers I've been with had a real problem with the drive to school and that's the main reason why I couldn't hold on to one) so I hope, I HOPE she works out and doesn't decide two months down the road that it's just too hard for her, I'm praying! I really feel badly about having the kids being bumped around from person to person every few months, making friends and forming attachments even if it is only 2-3 days a week, but I don't really have a choice, in the end I have to go to work, cannot even come close to affording non-subsidized day care and don't know anyone who stays home in the daytime, so I'm at the mercy of the regional child care people! But, what are you gonna do, right? As long as they have a loving family to come home to, I hope it balances out the very foster home-esque environment that is the home child care system! And by that I mean the constant bumping, not the standard of care(which is usually good). So, I guess that's all I have to say for now, goodnight!

Weekend Report

2006-02-26T08:41:00.000-05:00

It's Sunday morning and I'm sitting here eating my favourite breakfast, cereal, English muffin with margarine and tea. The kids are colouring, watching 'My Life as a Teenage Robot' and fighting over these two teddy bears. All is well in Allan/Wallace land! How was everyone's weekly two-day respite from work? Any momentous occasions?

Thurdsay - As I was going to pick up my partner for work, I began to develop an ache behind my eye. It got worse and worse, and by the time we got to our last house it was a migraine. Has anyone ever tried to clean a bathroom or wash a giant kitchen floor with a migraine? Believe me, it's un-friggin'-pleasant. My vision was blurring, and I was starting to feel so nauseous that I was glad to be in a room with a sliding glass door leading to the backyard, if you know what I mean. I felt like I was working slowly and that we wouldn't get finished on time, but we actually finished early, much to the delight of the client. He was so delighted that he offered us coffee. Last week he offered us Cadbury Creme Eggs and extension cords. We got back to the office where my boss told me I looked a bit pecid and my partner said it looked like my head was going to explode, and I was given two 600 mg arthritis strength tylenol, and eventually a warm fuzzy bliss slid in where the blinding pain used to be and all was well again! We did our taxes that night, one of my most favourite times of the year(provided I don't owe the government any money, that is). It's only your own money coming back to you, but screw the technicalities, getting a big fat $2000 cheque is fun! As we were sitting waiting to be seen to, Mike studied the kids's birth certificates and said, "Hey, I just noticed that both of our last names have 'alla' in them! Wallace, Allan. Wallace, Allan! Isn't that cool? I agreed that it was cool. Goes to show how boring waiting rooms can be! I took James to the doctor that night for his ears, and it turned out he had a double ear infection, and as usual, he puked all night long! This is a common occurence, and I'm well used to it. I remember when James was a baby, the first time he threw up I burst into tears, and now I'm more likely to say "James Allan, you get your head over that bowl, I mean it! In the bowl, in the bowl! His vomiting etiquette has vastly improved this year, and it's really saved my couch, carpets and bedsheets! Poor wee Jimmycakes.

Friday - Work again. This time, no headache. James was feeling better, but I kept him home from school just in case. Not much went on today. I thought about what suggestions I would make for the upcoming 'Molly Day' at work, a day when all Molly Maid branches all over Canada(all over the world, maybe) get together with their branch and do something fun, like bowling, murder mystery dinners, mini-golfing, you know. I'm stumped, I can't think of anything that hasn't already been done! Male strippers, maybe? Ha ha...Anyone have any ideas?

Saturday - Went to the park very briefly with the kids. Canadian winters are so deceiving - it looks so nice and sunny and beautiful outside, and you want to go out there and enjoy it. You're out there for 10 minutes and you realize it's actually bitter cold, or as the mysterious saying goes, cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey, and you have to go back inside! No wonder we get so flabby in the winter, bah....

So far, that's it...if anything dramatic happens today I'll let ya know!

Creative Writing

2006-02-21T21:22:00.000-05:00

The other day, following our weekly family lunch of take-out chicken, my sister and I got talking about the things we used to do and the fads that were around when we were kids, namely the 'sticker' trend. What we and all our friends would do was buy or otherwise obtain these stickers and put them in photo albums(puffy ones, scratch 'n sniff and sparkly ones were coveted) and then trade them amongst each other. Now, as you all know, the physical properties of stickers pretty much prevent it being peeled off, stuck back on and have this process repeated over and over again and retain its stickiness, so you can imagine our stickers weren't in the best of shape but in our minds they were of the utmost value. The girl who had a sparkly puffy was the most popular girl on the block! Anyway, Kalyn and I decided to go on a hunt for these old albums and take a trip down memory lane. We searched in her closet where the memory bins were(my mom ransacked the dining room closet) and while we were going through the bins, we got lost in the forgotten memories and sudden 'blasts from the past' we were having. Old sweaters knitted by our grandma that never saw the light of day, magazines from our preteen years, our Brownie handbooks(we couldn't find our sashes or uniforms) and old schoolwork from elementary school. I found this page on which I had decided to imitate Harriet the Spy and wrote down 'observations' that I had got while sitting at the picture window and watching the goings-on of my neighbours and people walking by. Kalyn read it out loud to me and I laughed so hard I was literally crying! The thing is, I had completely forgotten about this, but as soon as she found it and started to read, I could remember sitting there and writing all this stuff down with absolute clarity. It was almost like it was yesterday. Funny how the mind works, eh? I came across a couple of creative writing workbooks that I'd used in grade 2 and 3, and started to read. Most of the stories in there I had no memory of writing, which was a shame - I love that moment of recognition and subsequent nostalgia, it kind of gives you the warm fuzzies! I vaguely remember the three girls characters I'd made up in one of the stories, Cherry,Peary and Banania, but that was about it. As I read, I was amazed at what I used to be able to do- there was a solid storyline, colourful characters, hilarious jokes, the whole package - and I was sort of depressed at the fact that I could no longer do that! Where did that creativity go? Did the grinding wheel of reality and adult life crush it? Is it still hidden under there somewhere? There were a couple of flaws, for instance, far too many conversational sequences, but other than that, they were really good. I read them to James, and he laughed at the funny parts, sat rapt listening to the story itself and asked me to read them all. I remember teachers telling me that I was a good writer and had quite an imagination, and I always had a love for creating characters. I actually used to draw pictures of whole families and under their pictures I'd write their names, ages, favourite foods, habits, hobbies, you name it, and I'd have a great old time! After all was said and done, my mom called up the stairs that she'd found one of them, and we gasped and squealed with nostalgia - "Ooooh, that one was my favourite!" and "Remember, I got this puffy from Allison!" It makes me wonder what other interesting but long forgotten childhood memories are up there buried in my mind, waiting for some trigger to bring them all flooding back!

Gladiator

2006-02-20T23:31:00.000-05:00

Tonight, I saw a snake devour a mouse! Mike's friend got himself a ball python a little while ago(he also has an iguana - he's got a thing for reptiles). It's not too big yet, maybe a foot long, but it's not nearly full grown yet. Last time we visited him we got to hold it - it was so cool, slithering around our hands and up our arms, all smooth and scaly..it was indescribably muscular, you could physically feel the strength it was exuding as it flexed its body to move, kind of like a vibration. Since it only eats a couple times a month, the friend told us to come back in two weeks and he'd put off feeding the snake until we came by tonight! We got there, and he had a mouse in a hamster cage with a wheel, food and water, and Mike and I could have sworn that he sensed his imminent demise as we all crowded around his cage because he actually ran and hid in his little mouse house! The friend lifted him out by his tail and tossed him in the snake lair. At first, the snake didn't seem to see the mouse, and the mouse actually came right up to the back end of the python and bumped it with its nose, probably not knowing what it was. We had to kind of speed things along - the friend picked the snake up and turned it around so it was face to face with the mouse, and then things got going! The snake coiled up, ready to spring, the mouse sitting mesmerized, probably wondering in its little rodent mind, "uhhhh, what's going on?" then suddenly, BAM! It darted out as quick as lightning and bit its head, and seemingly without us seeing when it happened, wrapped its body around the mouse and squeezed. I had had it in my head that this part would have been all gory and gross, but throughout the whole hunt, not one teensy drop of blood was to be seen. Once the snake was sure it was dead(it kept the constriction on it for about two minutes afterwards, just to make sure) it started to swallow. And let me tell you, that was something to see. Its jaws unhinged and his mouth opened impossibly wide, making its head appear about three times the size it was before. It was holding the mouse in place with its teeth, but instead of biting into the mouse, it was using its throat muscles to push the mouse down. It took a little while for the snake to swallow the whole thing, but when it did, it wasn't like a mouse shaped lump like I'd been expecting, it was very long and stretched out, and it only looked as if the snake had suddenly become twice as thick. Afterwards, the snake went into its little margarine container hut and began to sleep it off. I know by now everyone reading this is just about ready to puke, but it was much more interesting than
disgusting, just the fact that the snake is able to eat things that are so much bigger than itself, and its no-nonsense, merciful approach to hunting - just squeeze and swallow! Much more humane, than say, the torture the average housecat inflicts on small birds and rodents! When it was all over, we sat down and had a coffee.
'Til next time!

2006-02-14T18:20:00.000-05:00

I'm back!My computer crisis of the week has finally been corrected - again - this time it was due to some corrupted RAM which had to be replaced. It's Valentine's day, and I'm sitting here with the kids watching an obviously updated and revamped Charlie Brown's Valentine's day special and taking my long lost computer for a wee spin. We're not doing anything special for Valentine's day. I've always been somewhat apathetic towards this particular holiday, and luckily, so has Mike. I guess we're just a bit too Anglo to be romantic! We bought each other a Valentine's present, which we presented each other with on the day of purchase about a week ago with the price tag sticker still attached - we're totally not into surprises or gift etiquette, but I liked my present just as much and was just as happy as I would have been had he waited to give it to me today! What was my present? The newest White Stripes album, of course! Way better than chocolates or flowers, yeeeaaahh! I bought Mike the first two System of a Down albums(and a couple for myself as HMV had a wicked sale on). Not a whole lot else new around here. I'll post again when I have something interesting to talk about!

2006-01-28T15:25:00.000-05:00

Okay, who voted? Did you vote Conservative? I did, and I'm starting to really regret it. It's been a week since Stephen Harper was voted in, and already rumours are flying. Newspapers are talking about how Harper is much more likely to follow the American agenda than Martin was. They're calling him 'U.S. friendly', they say that he wants to'gulp' model our health care system after the States, that he's a friend of Bush - it makes my blood run cold. If there any three words in the English language that can scare any Canadian more than 'friend of Bush', I haven't heard them. I heard a rumour just today that Fidel Castro is criticizing the Canadian election, claiming that Bush had a hand in rigging it so his little buddy would win, that it's all part of some master plan to amalgamate the two countries. I don't know how true this particular rumour is, but it freaks me out. Hmmm, maybe Bush and Harper are evil alien overlords posing as politicians a la Kang and Kodos from the Simpsons! Think about it... Bush should NOT have been re-elected. He is a poor, poor leader, quite possibly worse than President Nixon, and you know that's BAD. He blatantly lacks compassion for any U.S. citizen who isn't a white republican, he sees no wrong in sending troop after troop of young soldiers to a pointless 'war' that he has publically admitted to as being wrong and that he never had any reason to believe that there any WMD's in Iraq, but that he is not going to pull said troops out. He is devoid of diplomatic skill and makes enemies everywhere he goes. Now how did such a man get back in with this lack of leadership ability? Why, he threatened to blow up the world with laser beams from his eyes, of course! How else? "I am Bush-Tor! All must bow before me and tremble in my presence!" Next thing you know, evil alien Bush is sending his little brother, evil alien Stephen Harper, to take over the Canadian election using the old 'laser beam from the eyes' threat, and kablammo, the United States and Canada cease to exist, becoming a one-government empire where Bush and Harper, or 'Barper'(as they like to be called) can rule with an iron fist! As if you've never suspected it before, come on! If anyone has a better explanation, I'd like to hear it! Seriously, though, I don't want to be an American. I like being low-key and sedate. I like having free health care. I like the fact that our government stood up to the evil warlord and refused to participate in the Iraq debacle. I was comforted with the knowledge that U.S.-Canada relations were frosty. What's going to happen if we lose our health care? I can't afford to pay doctor bills, it's just out of the question. I can't afford to go to the dentist as it is, but avoiding the doctor is not quite as easy. Now, for the record, I am not trying to insult any Americans who might read this, I simply want Canada to stay Canadian. This whole thing is just worrisome. I'm gonna go lie down now.

Tag, You're It!

2006-01-25T13:24:00.000-05:00

Ooooh, this looks like fun...here we go...

4 jobs you've had

-nanny
-waitress
-sports bar cook
-housekeeper

4 movies you could watch over and over

-Beetlejuice
-A Christmas Story
-O Brother, Where Art Thou?
-Pirates of the Caribbean

4 places you've lived

-Cambridge, Ontario my whole life

4 t.v. shows you love to watch

-Ghost Whisperer
-Desperate Housewives
-Bones (because David Boreanaz is the co-star and he's HOTTTT!)
-The O.C.

4 vacations you've taken

-Massachussetts
-the Maritimes(all except Newfoundland)
-South Carolina
-Florida

4 websites you visit every day

-various blogs
-Fanfiction.net
-Hollywood Tuna
-Defamer(I have a thing for celebrity dirt)

4 of your favourite foods

-potatoes with sour cream or butter on top
-shepherd's pie
-curried meatballs and fried rice with egg strips
-my mom's lasagna

4 places you'd rather be right now

- driving aimlessly in the country
- in a nice little pioneer cemetery with a camera
- taking a tour of Westminster Abbey or the Tower of London
- by the ocean somewhere(not on the ocean,I'm terrified of boats)

4 people you tag to complete this

-Ally
-Krista
-Tracy
-anyone else who happens to read this and wants to do it.

All Talk, No Action

2006-01-19T23:16:00.000-05:00

Does anyone know what it's like to be stuck in a rut? Living every single day in the exact same way, buying the exact same things each grocery day every week, having a little mental schedule that you follow with the utmost strictness? While it is true that human beings are creatures of habit and need structure and routine to feel safe and secure, it can get pretty friggin' boring! For the past two years, this is what my week entailed:
1. Get up at 6:30 a.m., have shower, wake up kids if not already awake and tearing apart bedroom.
2. Get breakfast ready, get kids ready for school/babysitter/work(this destination has changed a couple of times over the past two years, but you get the idea). If not going to work/school/babysitter that day, play on computer/watch cartoons for about 2 hours.
3. Clean house.

4. Make lunch, do dishes.

5. Put Erica down for a nap, get on the phone and deal with any bill/work/school issues, play on the computer some more, or read, whichever strikes my fancy.

6. Wake Erica up, pick James up from school(since September of last year, anyway).

7. If Thursday, pick Mike up from work, pay bills, go grocery shopping. Expect mother-in-law to be waiting at house upon returning from grocery store.
8. Supper, watch Spongebob, Being Ian and Martin Mystery, kids go to bed no later than 7:30.

9. Watch t.v. and drink coffee/tea/hot chocolate until 10:00.

10. Play on computer or read until 11:00, then go to bed.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Now, we are not without dreams and goals. In fact, Mike and I are full of dreams and goals, which we usually discuss between time slots 7 through to 10. Ha ha! It's funny, but I'm actually serious. We want to do all kinds of things, and our conversations are usually liberally peppered with "Hey, we should go out for dinner one of these weekends!" or "Let's rent a car and go up to Huntsville this summer for a couple of weeks!" or "Hey, we should get married soon!" but for some reason or another, the daily grind that is life always overrides these plans and we never end up doing them. We are sick of our seeming inability to get ahead, and our seemingly perpetual lack of money. I go into fancy, beautiful houses every day and see extraordinary displays of wealth, and although I do not expect or even want to ever live in a $700,000 manor in North Dumfries Township with a lovely view of the Carolinian forest and a koi pond in the backyard(it's more like a personal hunting ground than a backyard, really),but I do want someday to have a nice house with a private, fenced yard and at least 3 bedrooms! Hey, I'm realistic. We've been making a few changes, for instance:
- Mike and Ricky each got a new and better-paying job at Loblaw's, which will give them plenty of opportunity for advancement(at their last job, they were at top wage, a whopping $13.75 an hour) and much better benefits for us. Maybe now we can actually afford to go to the dentist! Yaaaay!
-We have credit cards, which will make it easier for us to get loans or make down payments.
- We opened up a joint savings account, the kind where you can only deposit and can only withdraw when both of you are present and sign a paper together. We're hoping to put about $250 a month in there, and see where we are in two years. Ooooh, I'm so excited!!
-We're cutting down on our variety store and Tim Horton's trips to save money. You would be shocked to know how much cash we plunk down weekly in those two places!
-I'm going for fewer pointless drives! This is a big thing for me, I loooove driving in the country and listening to music, it's one of my favourite things to do. I had to cut down 'cause it was really eating into my gas, which I need for work.Boo-urns....
-I changed radio stations. It sounds silly, but I spend a ridiculous amount of time in the car each day, and the local college alternative rock station had become part of my rut. It's a superficial change, but a change nonetheless! I now listen to dance music, hip-hop and reggae(I still change it when a rap song comes on, with the exception of Kardinal Offishall and Kanye!)
Hopefully all this gets us somewhere. Now all I have to do is cut my hair and I'm all set!

The Internet is Time Well Wasted

2006-01-10T11:42:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm back from hiatus-land yet again, the nice people at Sympatico decided to accept my post-dated cheque(we're somewhat in the hole right now, stupid Christmas) and very graciously decided to hook my service back up yesterday. They said they usually don't reactivate accounts until the cheque has been received, but she said she'd take it on good faith that I sent the cheque like I said I did. Very nice of her. I have no idea how long it takes for a piece of mail to get from Cambridge to Ottawa, but I didn't want to wait for that to happen. Oh internet, how I've missed you... Well, we did well at Christmas, got a lot of cool stuff, books, CD's, jewelry, an awesome new handmade computer desk(built by my dad!), a season of Road to Avonlea on DVD(one of my favourite shows EVER), and various other good things. In true Canadian tradition we, uh, I mean Santa got James a hockey set. We have to exchange it because it's missing two poles from the second net, but Jimmy's using the one net for practising his shootout skills! He's doing pretty well, so far, he's got quite a shot on him! The other day they were playing in the living room, with Mike in the net and James shooting. Mike went up to the bathroom and James continued to practise, and I heard him say "Wow, I can get a lot more goals when Dad's not being the goalie!" It was cute. Here's something that's not so cute - The other day I was going out to the car with the kids and James was lagging behind, and do you know what he said to me? He said "Wait up, penis breath!" AAAHHH! It took all of my power not to burst into hysterical peals of laughter! He said he heard it on the movie E.T., which he was watching the other day at the sitter's. I told him never to say that to anyone ever again, but man, was it ever funny. You just never know what kids at that age are going to come out with! Aside from that, everything is going satisfactorily(is that a word? Did I just have a President Bush moment? I apologize if I did) I promise I will write a longer and more meaningful post again soon, but I've got some stuff to do today and I can't spend any more time sitting on my duff typing! Talk to you guys later!

Smelliest. Morning. Ever.

2005-12-29T23:01:00.000-05:00

Hi! How was everyone's day? This morning I had to clean out two freezers and fridges that, to our surprise and horror, contained liquified, rotted pieces of meat. They were unplugged, God only knows how long for, and I guess someone forgot to remove Mr. pork chop! 'shudder' Come on, coroners get to put lime under their noses, where was my lime? Huh? WHERE WAS MY LIME??? Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Ding Dong Merrily on High...

2005-12-17T20:01:00.000-05:00

I taught James that song last week - it was so funny hearing him sing the super-extended Glo-o-o-o-o-o-r-i-a! Well, we are yet again staring Christmas in the face. How does the word 'Christmas' make you feel? Think about it, Christmas. C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S. Do you have shivers of anticipation and excitement running down your spine? Are your intestines tightening with anxiety? Christmas, or to be more politically correct, the 'holiday season' is supposed to be a season of joy, generosity, goodwill and family and friend togetherness and 'ahem' giving ample tips to the service industry... of which I am a part...no seriously, tip the people who do things for you, we need all the dough we can get! Ha ha ha ha...But seriously, Christmas has become a shadow of its former self. It's no longer about those things, not primarily, anyway. In my line of work, I meet a lot of people. I meet people who live on the same street but who live worlds apart. Some people are wonderful, nice, grateful people who enjoy seeing you and really make your day. Other people are rude and patronizing beyond words. Some wear a mask of the latter with the former lurking not far below the surface. The cross-section of society that is the people I meet has one thing in common at this time of year: they really don't like Christmas. We all really don't like Christmas. Well, maybe it's more fair to say we have mixed feelings about it. We don't want to admit that Christmas is a big huge hassle, that it causes us to be as tightly wound as piano wire for the entire month of December, that we feel the need to claim bankruptcy, that we have mini mental meltdowns with Bing Crosby crooning Christmas classics playing softly in the background! But it does. We all feel somewhat ashamed that the birth of Christ has become the consumerist colossus that it is, but we are powerless to stop it. Every year, we spend more and more, people want more and more, and it just keeps going. I read on the MSN homepage the other day that the average Canadian will spend about $900 dollars on Christmas this year. Retailers everywhere are rejoicing and bathing in money! Oh wait, ewww....I don't know about you, but I'm only planning to spend about half that. Do we really need all that stuff? I know a girl who makes all her Christmas presents. She paints pictures or makes jewelry, stuff like that. I like that, it's more personal,and you're much more likely to remember who actually gave it to you ten years later. The retail monster that has turned 'the most wonderful time of the year' into the 'most stressful, dreaded, nervous breakdown and ulcer-inducing time of the year' must be tamed. How do we go about this extraordinary task? Here are a few of my ideas.

1. Christmas presents are mainly for children. Keep adult gift-giving to a minimum, because adults(hopefully)know there is no such thing as Santa and those gifts are certainly not made in the North Pole and delivered free of charge all by special Santa magic. The only magic we know of is 'you swipe the card through the slot and POOF! It's paid for for a short time!'

2. Give Christmas cards to everyone you know. Bosses, co-workers, babysitters, friends, family, everyone. I love Christmas cards. Thank you, Victorian era!

3. Wish everyone you talk to a merry Christmas. And be nice to everyone.

4. When thinking of gift ideas, pay attention to the person you're buying for. Chances are, you'll discover what they could really use, or you'll hear them mention something they really want, and then by Christmas they'll have forgotten that they needed it or wanted it and are so surprised when they get it! My parents do this all the time and I love it!

5. Keep decorations to a minimum and low-budget. I have actually seen people frantic with stress because they couldn't find a perfect centerpiece or door wreath. Besides, if you're not hosting Christmas dinner, all you really need is a tree with lights and ornaments, stockings, and a couple of decorations for doors and windows! I admit that I buy my decorations from the dollar store.

6. For God's sake, don't cause a scene at the family Christmas dinner. NO SCENES. Nothing ruins Christmas like a scene!

I hope everyone liked my ideas, any additions?

2005-12-16T18:16:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! My computer has had issues the past few weeks: we had a worm which was seriously affecting our computer, we couldn't really do anything or get into anything, it was terrible! It's been fixed, but now something's wrong with our connection and MSN and internet explorer crashes pretty much every time we try to connect, or if we do get on, whenever we try to visit different sites. It's behaving at the moment, so I thought I'd write a small post to explain my absense from the blogging world. I actually did write a big long Christmas blog the other day, but MSN crashed(surprise, surprise)and I lost the post and couldn't retrieve it! Oh well. We're all sick again at the moment, well, not me or Erica or Rick, but James has a bad inner ear infection(I had to leave work today because James was throwing up and in a lot of pain with his ear) but he's on penicillin and on the mend, and Mike has some sort of cold or flu. We're doing the rest of our Christmas shopping(and tree shopping) tomorrow, which is really, really going to suck. It's unreal that Christmas is nine days away. Okay, sorry for the short, disjointed post, but I really don't know when MSN is going to crash on me again so I've gotta go! Bye! Merry Christmas!

I'm a Po-li-ti-cal Man, And I Practice What I Preach...

2005-11-30T19:59:00.000-05:00

One of the most important rules of polite conversation: never, ever bring up religion or politics. At best, the topic will be shot down - at worst, the polite conversation won't be polite anymore! I'm not politically-minded in the way that I ally myself with a certain party, but I do pay close attention. I watch what's happening at Capital Hill in the same way that I watch the road when sitting in the backseat of a car on a major highway - I know there's not much I can do about it if the 18-wheeler next to us decides to change lanes without checking his mirror and plows into us, but I keep my eyes riveted just the same. I know it's pointless, but I just have to know what's going on. And then there are the people who 'don't follow politics', the people who would just as soon not know ANYTHING about ANYTHING political, who cringe at the very words 'sponsorship scandal' and 'non-confidence vote'. They are like the people who can blissfully nap in the backseat of a car that is barrelling down the highway. Why do people either care too much or not enough/at all? The quagmire of scandals, votes, and the iffy, suspicious platforms of sleazy politicians can be confusing. When we face an upcoming election, as we are now, we have to listen to each party's platform carefully(well, not the NDP's! ha ha ha...) take into account each party's reputation and past actions, and try, TRY to make the right decision... if there is a right decision, that is. Trust is a huge barrier. When you get right down to it, we can't really believe anything they say. Sure, the opposition is trying to oust the Liberals because they don't approve of the way they're governing the country, but what makes them so much better? They're saying they'll send every Ontarian a rebate cheque for this winter's hydro costs, but once they win everyone's vote with this flashy promise and gain power, they could do something crazy, like eliminating all health care plans, or say...passing a law that everyone must wear a hat every alternate Sunday! Who knows? I think the Liberals will get back in. Why? As the saying goes, 'the devil you know is better than the devil you don't!'.

Just a Little Update..

2005-11-21T09:42:00.000-05:00

It feels like I haven't updated in ages! I've been kinda short on time - I've been working a lot this week, and when I wasn't working I was running around like a crazy person trying to run errands, pay bills, you know, all the usual crappy boring things we all have to do. I guess everyone else is just as busy, because I notice nobody is updating anymore! Come on people, let's get writing!
What's new with us:

I have a permanent position at work now, with my own route, own car, and potentially 4 days a week. I'm so excited!

We went to the Santa Claus parade the other night, and surprise, surprise, it wasn't boring at all this year! Every float was cool, there were no non-descript cars or jeeps in the parade for no reason at all, the weather was great, it was a decent length, and James got a curbside seat!

My dad and sister had a great time in Jamaica at the wedding and brought back lots of souvenirs and pictures.

Mike's buying me a cell phone for Christmas! I really should have one for work, for safety and contact reasons. Without a cell phone, the person trying to get a hold of me would first have to call the office and provided they are even there, the office would then have to page me and I would have to find a payphone or ask to use a client's phone. Kinda complicated, eh? I think it's a necessity for drivers to have some form of communication in their car, just because you never know when you're going to plunge off a ravine and crash! Let's compare the situation with and without a cell phone: WITH A CELL PHONE - you call the police as soon as you crash, or as soon as you regain consciousness, and they rescue you. WITHOUT A CELL PHONE - you yell for help fifty million times and then realize when no one hears you that you'll have to drink your own saliva to stay alive and wait around for the ghost of a dead family member to conveniently appear and bring attention to your car somehow! Hmmm... I think I'll go with the cell phone option.

We have movie passes. What should we see, The Goblet of Fire or Jarhead?? We can't decide. What would you go to the theatre for? I'm leaning toward Harry Potter. We also have dinner gift certificates. What restaurant should we go to? I don't ever eat at restaurants - I don't particulary trust those cooks, especially after working in a restaurant kitchen and seeing firsthand that you can't trust the cooks!

I think that's about it for updates. Now people, I want to see some new posts, so get cracking! Ha ha..

Stereotypes Suck

2005-11-10T09:04:00.000-05:00

Tv has reached a new low. I watched 'Trading Spouses' last night, a 'fish out of water' show that's usually good for a laugh. This episode featured a neo-pagan family that practised astrology, celestial worship and hypnotherapy opposite a strictly religious southern catholic family. The show involves the two mothers leaving their families and switching places for a week, and for some strange reason they are both given a large amount of cash(is it $5000? I can't remember) which is to be bestowed upon the mother's host family, however she chooses to divide it up. I don't really get this. Why the money? Probably to draw ratings, you know how people perk right up at the mention of cold hard cash! Anyway, it was interesting to see how the two families got along together. The hypnotherapist/astrologer woman was very nice, generous and open-minded, she got along well with the family despite their vastly different religious beliefs,and she got the kids to warm up to her in no time. The kids were great, the oldest girl was a bit bossy but not that bad. We didn't hear much from the husband, he had all the personality and resolve of a wet noodle! The mother said grace and prayed with the christian family, and the family went to a moon festival with her! On the other side of the fence was the pagan family teamed up with the christian mother. Oh man, that woman was something else. She was not so much a christian than a raving lunatic religious fanatic. She talked incessantly about God in bizarre, Old Testament language, saying things like " I rebuke you, in the name of Jesus I pray!". Whenever she was faced with anything remotely secular or unchristian, she would FREAK OUT. I mean, full-on screaming and crying, wailing about being 'uneasy' or 'uncomfortable', making people feel guilty for nothing and demanding appeasement. She shoved christianity down their throats and made them go to church with her, but would not listen to a word of anything about the family's religion. She attended a radio show that her 'husband' was hosting until she discovered that the guest was a psychic, and then demanded to 'get away from that man', refusing to look at or talk to him, and snapping at him when he tried to apologize for making her 'uneasy'! The 'husband' tried to be as accomodating as possible but one could tell that he was upset with the whole situation. She was quite hypocritical, lying and manipulating and bending others to her will, all in the name of the Lord. She'd sit on the front porch in a rocking chair, mumbling prayers and raising her hand in the air. Her host family hardly looked at her or talked to her the entire time, and on that side it was a miserable week for all. When the week was up, the mothers met and talked. The astrologist mother mentioned how great and friendly the other family was, and how her objective on the show had always been to help other people. The crazy mother ignored the praise and cut straight to the chase "Are you a christian? I told them that I would only agree to do this if it would be a christian woman entering my house!" Or something like that. She was just so rude and unchristian, it made me mad. When the crazy returned home, she didn't say hi, she didn't hug any of her family, she didn't say "I missed you" or "I'm glad to be home", she launched into a tirade on her family having been 'darksided'. She kept raving, screaming and crying, her voice often rising to lunatic decibels, ranting about gargoyles, witches and stars. She said she wanted to move because her house had been tainted and that she never wanted to see a star again as long as she lived! When it came time to read the letter and to find out how their money was divided, she refused to take the money, tearing it up claiming it was tainted and screaming "I am the warrior of God!" Her family gaped at her, dumbfounded, but obviously used to this kind of thing. The father sat there with his head bowed, probably scared to death of this horrible thing that he'd married. She eventually chased the cameramen out of her house, telling them "leave my house, in the name of the Lord I pray!!" It wasn't even funny, it was grotesque and scary. I found it ironic that the so-called 'witch' was displaying attitudes and values that were far more christian than the actual christian. It made me really angry that the show would choose to represent christians like that. That woman had much more Satan in her than Jesus, but I'm sure if anyone had've told her that or tried to stand up to her in any way, her head would have exploded! I know a lot of christians, and I know that the objective of christianity is to make yourself as much like Christ as possible, that is, to be accepting of all people, to be loving and open-minded, and to tell other people about God without forcing them or shoving it down their throats. Knowing this, it angers me when hollywood and the media portray christians as lunatics, it's just not accurate! That's not to say that there aren't christians like this, but they aren't what they're supposed to be. They've taken it to the extreme, or, more fittingly, gone off the deep end! Did anyone else see this show? What do you think about this?

2005-11-04T12:41:00.000-05:00

What a gorgeous couple of days we've been having! Could this be our indian summer? We've had our first frost, so maybe! It seems a bit late, but who can say with the weather the way it is these days. I had to go pick up a paycheck from the office downtown today, and it being such a beautiful day I decided to walk down and get it after dropping Jimmy off at school. I'd been sitting around on my butt the past couple of days, so I thought it might do me and my flab some good to get some exercise! I always tend to gain about 5 pounds in the fall, I don't know why, maybe it's some physiological thing, being that we live in a country with such frigid winters. All the other mammals do it, maybe we all subconsciously prepare for hibernation, too! Anyway, Erica and I had a nice walk. It's very windy today and my hair was flying all over the place(I never seem to bring a hair elastic with me when I need it the most). We walked through the new art school district where cafes abound and hordes of 20-something students were fluttering between said cafes and the campus. It's great what they've done with that area - not 5 years ago it was a dark alley that housed a video game pawn shop and an abandoned factory, a place that you had second thoughts about cutting through in broad daylight - and now, it's so much cleaner and well-lit and populated, I would gladly walk throught it at night, that is, if Mike would let me walk anywhere by myself at night, which he doesn't, but you get the picture! We crossed the bridge and looked down at the river which was slightly wavy, just wavy enough to make a canoer seasick(I've seen it happen before, very unpleasant!). I remember one year when I was a kid, the river had become a churning, frothy nightmare after a storm or a quick thaw, I can't remember which(help me out mom) and we all went down with a camcorder and filmed the river, just because we'd never seen anything like it before, and haven't since! The leaves have gotten to the stage now where they no longer look particularaly majestic or beautiful, but kind of wilty and dead-looking. Many of the higher branches are now bare, and it reminds me of winter. Bah, stupid winter! Really, what's good about winter beside Christmas? Contagious illnesses abound, you can't spend much time outside, and if you do your fingers and toes will need to be amputated from frostbite! It makes driving difficult and treacherous(the smart people switch to snowmobiles on the blizzardy days), and gas/heating prices are through the roof! Maybe I'm being too negative about winter. It is very beautiful, especially on those nights when you have heavy snowclouds in the sky and the big, thick snowflakes are falling and there is no dreaded windchill factor, hardly any traffic, and people are walking around with their jackets undone because these nights are surprisingly warm! Also, people are burning wood in their stoves. Aaah, lovely wood smoke... and also, a big plus about winter is that it's not summer!
We got down there, and crossed the road beside a boy who was driving this pedal-driven go-kart-type thing, and he tried to do a pop-a-wheelie to impress his friend and ended up falling right over on his back in the middle of the busy street! He wasn't hurt, so it was funny! When we arrived at the office, my boss was surprised to see me without the car. Aghast, she asked me, "You walked ALL THE WAY HERE? Oh my God!" It's like a 20 minute walk. I get this reaction a lot, and I don't understand it! I've been a walker my whole life, I love walking, I can walk very far without getting tired... I don't know, it must have been all those long family strolls we used to take when I was younger! On the subject of work, I do believe I'm on the verge of getting full time! My bosses have told me that things are going to be happening very soon, and that more specifically good things are going to happen to me! They can't tell me anything else yet so it's still kind of vague, but I'm taking that to mean that I'll be assigned to a permanent team! Yippee! I know it sounds strange to be excited over cleaning people's nasty houses, and believe me, they are often just that,but I'll be grateful for the concrete nature of full time and the regular, considerably bigger paycheques! We're trying to save up for a down payment on a house, we think we can do it in about 2-3 years if we really try, so that'll really help. Mike just got a promotion and $2 raise, so it'll be easier to do so! Well, I think that's it for now, have a great weekend, everyone!

C'est L'Halloween, C'est L'Halloween, Hey!

2005-10-31T21:10:00.000-05:00

About that title, does anyone remember learning that song in school? I'd totally forgotten about it until Mike started singing it the other day. It was a real blast from the past! Well, it's about 9:15 on Monday night, October 31, which means that Halloween is almost over for another year. How was everyone's Halloween? Did you enjoy the festivities? Did you go to any costume parties? Trick or Treating with the kids? Seances in the graveyard? Just kidding about that last one! We had a great time this weekend: on Saturday my mom threw a little kiddie Halloween party for a couple of friends and family and we all dressed up and had a sugary scavenger hunt-y Rice Krispie square decorate-y good time! In attendance was Strawberry Shortcake, Gilligan, the old lady who swallowed the fly, a monster, a vampire, a Teletubby, Farmer Brown(with a little stuffed 'Bingo'), a pirate, a dragon, a frog, Drusilla from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Piglet. It was fun, and we were all amazed at how well the kids behaved! It took me a ridiculous amount of time getting my costume together that morning, well, pretty much all morning! Most of that time was spent curling my hair(I dyed it dark brown the night before) because I was SUPPOSED to be a victorian vampire, but for some reason my hair doesn't hold those big tight ringlets very well and I ended up looking more like a goth Dorothy from Wizard of Oz! My kids's reactions were interesting: when I was getting ready, Jimmy said, "Mommy, you look so beautiful!" and Erica just plain refused to acknowledge me until I'd taken the costume off!
Later that night, we went to Westfield Heritage Center(between Cambridge and Rockton)for the Halloween festival which was a blast! Upon arrival, there was a Jack O' Lantern display out for everyone to admire. Are pumpkins considered art mediums? If not, then they should be! The things some people can do with a carving knife... The first thing we saw was a re-enactment of a witch trial. We listened for a bit, and then we recognized the dialogue to be the witch scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail! "She's a Witch! She turned me into a newt!" "A newt?" "I got better...!" Ha ha! They even put on pretty convincing British accents! Next we went to the haunted carpenter's shop, where all the machines were rigged up to move by themselves and the late 'carpenter' climbed out of a coffin propped against the wall, shambling towards us with outstretched arms! James was scared until the corpse gave him a high-five. We saw half of an old-fashioned paper-cutout puppet show, but we came in so late that I didn't recognize what story it was. We got in line for free popcorn, and watched the silent movie "Hunchback of Notre Dame' with Lon Chaney which was projected onto the wall of one of the houses. Behind us in the gazebo were some actors doing a story reading, complete with bongo drums and creepy organ accompaniment! We visited the undertaker's shop where we learned about funerary and mourning customs in the Victorian/Edwardian eras(did you know that pallbearers always carry the body away feet-first because they believed that if the corpse looked back and saw you, you would be next to die? I don't get the logic behind this one, I mean, how could it see you anyway, it's inside a box! Apparently this particular odd custom is still the rule today, I guess just as much as the graves always facing east. What's so special about east? Does anyone know the reason for this custom? We then went to the haunted train station, where much to Jimmy's joy, was a steam engine with spooky mist arising from the smokestack and an engineer hat-wearing skeleton at the controls! This was the highlight of James's evening. We were ushered inside by skeleton mask-wearing train station guys(I don't know what they're called), there was a blacklight, cobwebs, spiders, a fire going in the stove giving off that beautiful burning wood smell, and people sitting on benches that at first look like mannequins, but when you get up close they look up and scare the bejesus out of you! In the next room there was a ticket booth where stood another motionless train station guy, staring down at the table in front of him. He stood there stock-still until everyone thought he wasn't going to do anything and began to walk out, and then he charged at you and rattled the iron bars of the booth! It gave us a nice little adrenaline jolt! From there, we went to the church to learn about the Cottingly fairies, or rather, the girl who made fake photos of fairies around the turn of the century and fooled everyone who was still innocent to the possibility of photo doctoring! After that, we walked down an oil lamp-lit forest path to the 'Brant's Ford' area, where we joined a group of people listening to a guy on horseback talk about the headless horseman. As soon as he said "On your travels tonight you don't have to worry, because there is no such thing as the headless horseman.", a light showed up farther on down the dark path. We heard horse's hoofs beating on the ground and saw a disembodied jack o' lantern head coming towards us! The headless horseman stopped right in front of us, but at that point we had to turn back because James was terrified! We went to various other little houses and witnessed other freaky goings-on, and then at the end we came to a barn where we met Rip Van Winkle, a short little guy with a bad Irish accent, and followed him to a barn where he told us about a fairy circle he'd found and gave us a demonstration on how to use it. Suddenly a strobe light came on and several shrieking fairies in white robes came running out and circled the poor guy, dancing around and around until the strobe light went off. When he came over to us, he was wearing a big curly white beard, saying 'get out of here while you still have your health! Go on before the fairies get you, too!" It was so much fun. By that time, we were getting cold, James was getting tired, and it was time to go home. We had a really great time at Westfield: they really went all out, the ambience was excellent, the acting and the special effects were great, and it was really entertaining and at times, pretty scary! I would definitely recommend this festival to anyone, we had a good time. Mike and I took the kids out for Halloween, and Erica caught on quite quickly. By the 10th house, she was saying trick or treat, thank-you and bye without being prompted! She even knocked on a few doors by herself! James was his usual rambunctious, outgoing self, telling everyone he met how much he liked their Pumpkins and their decorations and careening from house to house! They ended up with quite a bit of candy! How was everyone else's Halloween?

Kindergarten/daycare Strikes Again!

2005-10-27T21:26:00.000-04:00

Well, it seems the cold/flu season is upon us again. James is quite sick at the moment. The other day when I went to pick him up from school, his teacher called me in the door to a crying James who was screaming about his 'tummy hurting'. I tried to acknowledge his teacher's explanation as to the cause of his sudden stomach upset, but in my head I was thinking "Okay, I've gotta get him out of here RIGHT NOW!", because that's the way he usually acts right before he tosses his cookies all over the place (he hasn't really mastered the art of precision vomiting, and it usually ends up all over my living room couch - I can't count the number of times that couch has been puked on). All my motherly instincts wanted me to pick him up and carry him to the car, but 1. I was already carrying Erica, 2. He's far too heavy for me to even lift, let alone carry, and 3. What would that do to his manly tough reputation? He is only in kindergarten, but still, 'cough' momma's boy 'cough'! We got home as quick as I could drive, and I immediately laid him on the couch and began bombarding him with questions, as it is my bad habit to do! I've been told I tend to smother him when he's sick! At this point I was quite amazed that he hadn't vomited yet. He was still writhing in pain but assured me that he didn't feel sick, so I started thinking 'appendix' or 'intestinal blockage' so I decided to take him to the hospital. Amazingly, he began to get better in the car and was perfectly fine again when we got there. Still, I wanted to make sure it was nothing serious, so we stayed. Now, as it happens, our hospital is underfunded right now and will be until further notice, or so says Dalton McGuinty, so you're getting people waiting for up to 10 hours just to be seen because there are only a couple of doctors. On top of that, serious emergency cases kept coming in, so we kept getting pushed farther and farther back. I overheard people saying they had been waiting for 6 hours! One lady was lying down sleeping! James was now fine, happily chomping away at some Reeses peanut butter cups and watching 'Fairly Odd-Parents' on t.v., so I figured screw this, I went and told the nurse we were going home and would go to the doctor the next day! Oh, I was so happy we didn't have to stay there...I really hate hospitals. James loves them! Isn't that bizarre?
This morning, James woke up with a burning fever, headache, chills, body aches, stomach pain, cough...you name it, he had it! We were going to the doctor at 11:45, but around 11:00, his fever really spiked. I mean, hobos out in the cold could have gathered around him to warm their hands instead of a flaming garbage can. He was sort of delirious, too, laying there half-asleep, whispering "You gotta talk reeeeeaaaallllyyy quiet, rrrreeeaaally quiet..." Eventually I had to get him up and snap him out of it, and once we got outside to the car he was coherent again and started to bug me about cars and trains and planes like he usually does! That's my guage as to how sick Jimmy is: endless chatter=good. Catatonia=bad! We saw the doctor, and his diagnosis was throat and ear infection. I found this a little strange. Since when do you get chills, body aches and stomach pain from minor infections(and they were minor, he said they weren't terrible yet)?And here I was like a dope, thinking that his symptoms were consistent with flu! I don't know, I don't really trust this diagnosis. The doc said his stomach felt and sounded normal, which means that the stomach pain is not the problem in itself, but a symptom of another problem, but I just can't see such a little thing causing this big of a disruption. What does everyone think?

Mmmmm.....Food.....

2005-10-24T16:22:00.000-04:00

Quencher of hunger, provider of protein, fat, vitamins and minerals, source of much-needed sugar for our blood, sustainer of life, bringer of yummy deliciousness! Food is one person's passion, and another person's enemy. Too much or the wrong kinds can cause cancer, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, strokes, etc. and too little, well, will make you hairy, cold and skeletal! You'll look like Nicole Richie, and who wants that? Now that I've left you with that disturbing mental image, here's a list of some of my favourite foods! Enjoy!

Shepherds pie - My mom's is the best, naturally.

Yorkshire pudding - I like this dish in all possible shapes and forms. I like toad-in-the-hole, that is, Yorkshire with sausage pieces throughout. I usually hate sausage, they're ultra fatty, and I hate when you bite into one and those little fat globules burst in your mouth - uggghhh! But I can excuse it when it's in pudding, it adds to the flavour. I like it the best, however, in muffin shape with beef gravy! Drool...

Lasagna - Again, a meal that my mom has down to an art form, seriously.

Mashed Potatoes - There's never a thanksgiving dinner that goes by where no one comments on the size of my mashed potato pile.

Shake n' Bake chicken - I like the homestyle coating the best, although bar-b-q coating isn't without its charm!

Pizza- No favourite food list is complete without pizza.

Primo hearty chicken soup - This is my all-time favourite brand of soup, well, all the Primo soups really, but this stuff is good. It's got celery slices, fusilli noodles, carrot slices, big chunks of non-processed chicken and a spiced broth. It's delicious!

Grilled cheese sandwiches - They have to made with real brick cheese, not that Kraft singles crap.

Caesar salad - I can't really eat this, because for some reason Caesar dressing doesn't agree with me, but I used to like it!

Christmas trifle - Drool-o-rama....this yearly event vies for the most looked forward to part of Christmas. Again, a dessert that my mom has mastered. She uses real whipping cream instead of Cool Whip! Whipping cream is odd, by itself it tastes awful but on a dessert, it's delicious. Figure that one out.

Anything with chocolate in it - I really think I'm becoming addicted to chocolate, whenever I see it I have to eat it!

Canned beets - I think I mentioned my freakish love of canned sliced beets in one of my earlier posts! I can neither describe their exact taste nor my attraction to them, so don't even ask!

Anyone care to add?

Halloween Costumes and Tech Problems

2005-10-22T20:17:00.000-04:00

I'm so annoyed. I just had a post all set and ready to publish, and MSN 'experienced an internal error and had to close', so now I have to start all over again! Bah! How do you like my lovely new pink template? I decided I didn't care for my blog's appearance - the plain black and white coupled with the complete lack of pictures made it kinda stark and ugly, so I've been messing around with the finer points of blog modification, trying to make it a bit more attractive. I look at other people who have fancy pants customized blogs with envy, how do they do it? I just don't get it. Can anyone tell me? I may have discovered how to upload pictures off the net onto my blog, but do I have to ask permission from the webmaster/mistress beforehand? How do I add links onto my blog? What the heck's an RSS feed? Oh, the mysteries! Well anyway, I don't have a whole lot to update - I cleaned what has got to be the filthiest, nastiest living quarters I have EVER seen before the other day, there are just no words that would do it justice. My partner was dangerously close to giving her two weeks notice after we were done. I won't say anymore because the memories are just too nauseating! I knew what I was signing up for when I took this job, but come on... no one should have to do that! We did some much-needed shopping and bill paying, we bought a halloween costume for Jimmy - an 18th century pirate captain costume - he looks so cute! It came with a black, lace-trimmed tricorn hat, a red jacket with lace trim around the cuffs and a lace ruff and red rhinestone at the neck, black pants with boot covers and a blue sash-like belt. He tried the jacket on when we got home, and I squealed in delight, "Ooooh, you look like a little Mozart!" He's quite pleased with it although he was a bit disappointed it didn't come with a sword. Considering that I would probably end up carrying it around for a good three quarters of the trick-or-treating trip, I didn't mind. Erica's costume had already been take care of long ago: I'd bought it at a garage sale back in July for $1! Pretty sweet, eh? She's going to be Po from the Teletubbies. I have to sew the corner of the t.v. screen belly back on, but other than that it's in good shape. Good money saver, some of those baby/toddler costumes can cost upwards of $40, probably because they're considerably more insulated than older children's costumes. I got James a really good snowsuit from The Bay - it was among $130 snowsuits but for some reason cost about $80, and much to my joy when I got to the cash register, I discovered it was on sale for $50! The Bay gets a bad rap: don't let the poshness and cleanliness fool you, their stuff is not that pricey, I've got some really good deals there in the past. I always find it a bit surreal when I walk through its spotless, perfumey, well-laid out aisles to think that it's the very same company that traded furs with natives and explorers out of a log building at Hudson's Bay over 300 years ago. Crazy, isn't it?

A Musical Dilemma

2005-10-19T13:47:00.000-04:00

I had an epiphany this morning. I turned on Limewire this morning after a couple hours of cartoon-watching with the kids to give them a break from the old idiot box(I like to think of it more as an entertaining box of fun-ness, and yes mom, I know that fun-ness is not proper English) and to provide some pleasant lunch time background music. We listened to 'Hey Ya' - Oukast, 'Dancing in the Dark' - Bruce Springsteen (I just love that song), Cold War - Death from Above 1979, some Joni Mitchell, some Death Cab for Cutie, some bagpipe tunes and fiddle reels, you know, the usual! Well, I decided to throw on the new Franz Ferdinand single 'Do you want to' that I'd downloaded the other day, you know, the song that EVERYONE loves and that every rock radio station is playing at least 10 times a day, and it suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks that I don't really like it! I've been trying to like Franz Ferdinand, really I have, but it's just not working. People magazine gave their newest album a 4 star review, Radio dj's are praising them to the skies, and a couple people I know say that their last album was great and they can't to pick the new one up. They're definitely the 'It' band right now, but I can't get into them! Am I strange? I wasn't fond of their last big single, 'take me out', either. I couldn't listen to it without thinking of that stupid cell phone commercial! To be fair, I haven't heard much else of their stuff, so they could have some really great stuff that isn't quite single material, you never know. I'll download a few songs tonight to give them another chance! Have you ever had this experience before, though? You know you should like a band because they are original and reasonably talented but for some reason the songs just don't click with you? I feel this way about a few other bands as well: Oasis(I always feel like my ears are going to bleed whenever I hear Liam Gallagher's caterwauling), Aerosmith, U2(well, except for Sunday, Bloody Sunday, that song's genius), Rush...I think that's it. Every other band I pretty much really like or outright hate with no remorse! Sorry, fans of Franz Ferdinand, I'll keep trying!

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Bird Flu?

2005-10-17T09:44:00.000-04:00

The avian flu a.k.a. bird flu a.k.a. H5N1 strain has been getting quite a bit of attention lately, and from the things I've been reading, I'm a little worried. Am I being a nervous nelly? Let's take a look at what the WHO and various other medical authorities have been saying on the subject:

Avian flu has shown a 50 % mortality rate.

Officials believe that the death rates for the looming flu pandemic will be comparable to those of the infamous Spanish flu of 1918., an illness that wiped out more people in a single year than the Black Plague ever did.

Anti-viral drugs that were stockpiled by several governments have been showing marked resistance to H5N1. Health officials have requested 6 months to find a sufficient innoculation, but the WHO is telling them that's simply not soon enough.

Avian flu has not shown much sign of mutation or easy transmission amongst humans YET, but very recently a 14 year-old Vietnamese girl was treated for avian flu after having taken care of her younger brother who was ill with it, a development that has health officials a bit hot under the collar!

If /when they come up with an effective innoculation, there's talk that only the most needed people will get the drugs, like doctors, nurses, hydro, gas and city workers.

Scary, eh? Just how scared should we be, though? They say that the pandemic is inevitable - it happens every 40-years and that we're long overdue. One source says that the effects will be devastating, but yet another source says that Canada is well prepared. How are we prepared? They don't mention such details in the article I read. Is the government really as ready for such a widespread health crisis as they say? Probably not. I mean, in Ontario doctors are already swamped by patients, pushed way beyond their capacity. Quality of care is mediocre at best - at the Urgent Care clinic, chances are you will be misdiagnosed, at the hospital, if you're not dying you'll be waiting 10 hours just to be seen, and at the family doctor he/she is so rushed and in such a hurry to get you out and the next patient in that he'll hardly let you speak! What do they think's going to happen when this flu hits and suddenly they have 10 times the workload they had before? Worst case scenario: no vaccine is found by the time the flu hits and doctors and nurses come down with it and are too sick to come to work. Grocery store workers become sick and there's no one to sell us our food. Illness or fear of illness will keep employees from going to work, students from going to school, people from leaving their house. The economy will crumble and we'll be plunged into a new Great Depression. Will this happen? It seems far-fetched, but not impossible. Even if we don't become sick, will we want to send our kids to school or worse yet, to daycare? They won't stand a snowball's chance in hell, everyone knows what breeding grounds for disease such places are! Will it get to the point where sending your child to school or leaving them with a sitter is risking their life? The flu is not yet here, but should we be reading about it, thinking about it, obsessing over it, or should we choose to ignore all media coverage and wait blissfully for the s*** to hit the fan? So many questions, so little answer or reassurance. I sure hope the government can 'for once' know what it's doing.

My Least Favourite Things

2005-10-13T14:09:00.000-04:00

Yes, I admit I am completely ripping off my mom's latest post, but I thought it was a good idea, and while I have a very long list of 'likes' in life, I thought that in the spirit of the recent craptacular weather we've been having, are having today and will be having ALL through the weekend, I would write a similar post only looking at the slightly more negative side of life. Enjoy!

Being sick and/or having boils - Ours is the house of illness and skin conditions. Ask anyone how bad it is sometimes! It's actually rare that we are all completely healthy and bacteria/virus-free at the same time.

When your boss says, 'come sit down for a second, I want to talk to you' and sends her assistant out of the room. I guess I don't need to explain why this is bad, hearing those words come out of any employer's mouth is enough to send chills up your spine! I 've only had this happen once, but once is enough!

When you get a letter sent home from your kids's teacher saying headlice has been found in the classroom. Bah! This happened just a couple of days ago in James's class, and so far James is lice-free, which is great. I'm not one of those people who get really snobby about lice-ridden people, 'cause let's face it, almost everyone has had lice at some point or another in their lives, and like death, lice do not discriminate! Those little parasites will suck the blood of the rich and not-so-rich, clean and dirty alike, but even though we are enlightened students and parents will both be secretly checking to see who hasn't been to school in a couple of days and(if they're a boy)who comes back with a shaved head!

When it's mid-January and you have to walk somewhere in the middle of a raging snowstorm, there's already 3 and a half feet of snow on the sidewalks, your fingers and toes are going numb, you're pulling one of your kids behind you in a baby toboggan and your other kid keeps sinking in the snow up to his neck(now that's funny, hee hee!) and you wish you were anywhere but outside, people are foregoing the use of cars for snowmobiles... actually, that would be really fun!

Bringing only cash with you to the grocery store, having all your food rung through and then realizing that you do not have enough money for all of it, and then having to put several items back! This is even worse when there is a long lineup of people behind you! You know what would really top it all off? If the person behind you offered to pay for the rest of your stuff! I cringe just considering that possibility...

When radio stations ruin great songs by playing them 8 times a day.

Hamburger Helper.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I'm stretching. I'm having trouble thinking of things that send me into a tizzy, which is disappointing because I thought I could think of much more! Anyone else feeling cranky today? Feel free to add to the list!

The Fair

2005-10-10T14:08:00.000-04:00

We went to check out the Rockton Fair the other day, which for some reason, although we're only about a 10 minute drive away from the fairgrounds, I've never been to before. I love the fair, it's such a happy autumn ritual, almost like Thanksgiving and Halloween. Until this year, we'd always just gone to the Cambridge fall fair, which although entertaining, consists only of a noisy, chaotic midway and a vendor's alley, and up until yesterday I'd assumed that all fall fairs were the same. We got there, and I immediately noticed the difference. There were people EVERYWHERE, horses and trainers practicing behind the bandstands waiting for their performance in the horse show, vendor's tents selling farmer's coveralls and rainsuits, the smell of hay, sawdust and manure everywhere... ahhhh. Rural heaven. In one building there was a dairy cow shearing competition. Seriously! Has anyone ever heard of that before? It was so odd, all these farmers shaving the ragged hair off the spines, tails and heads of a bunch of poor Bossies... there were barns full of sheep, goats, Hereford cows, etc. awaiting judgement...ha ha, not the apocalyptic kind, the frilly blue ribbon kind! We watched the horse and carriage races, in which the horses would come into the ring and have to circle obstacles and run around and around while pulling their trainers around in a chariot-like carriage, who were spurring them on with what looked like fishing rods! It was great, I'd never really seen a horse show before. It's not unlike a dog show, but with horses, obviously! But man, this one horse came out, and I kid you not, I've never seen such a huge horse in my life. It was pure black, and I'm sure its legs must have been at least 5 and a half feet long. You'd literally need a stepladder just to reach the stirrups on this animal, really. It was probably a work horse, and it didn't have much agility or speed(it didn't do much more than a slow trot) but it was so gorgeous I could hardly take my eyes off it. By the way, the winner was a little white pony, the smallest horse there!
From there we hit the midway and did the ride thing with James. Erica couldn't do much much to her chagrin, but she was too small for most of them, and the one ride I did take her on (the live ponies going around on a treadmill) she was terrified and screamed and screamed! Maybe she was just nauseous, I don't know. Eventually we became edgy with all the loudspeakered dance music, flashing lights and the throngs of people, and we got the heck out of there and checked out the prize building. There were award-winning vegetables, baked goods, sides of ham, sheaves of wheat, bales of hay and giant balls of twine. There were even first prize bags full of hay and silage! How on earth do you judge a bag of loose grains and hay? After that we went to the petting zoo building, where little children learned how to milk a fake cow, answered questions about farm animals and won little prizes, and got to hold a baby chick. AWWW! I got to hold one too, they're so soft and yellow and tiny... There were goats, sheep and little black lambs bleating away, turkeys(obviously we didn't pet the turkeys, they probably would have taken our eyes out)llamas(we didn't get too close to them, either, they're notorious for being grumpy and spitty!) a large, rare breed of cow that I can't remember the name of, chickens and bees in a glass hive. I found it ironic that next to the chicken coop was a stand containing brochures on chicken recipes! Then we went and bought a whole whack of fudge and went home. We all had a great time, and next year I guess we should check out the Paris fair!
Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day, and for a complete report on that, check out my mom's blog at bloggiemcgee.blogspot.com ! I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving weekend, and for all the non-Canadians who did not have a humungous banquet yesterday, I hope you had a good weekend as well. Bye!

I am No Longer Charlie Brown

2005-10-05T19:31:00.000-04:00

I am having such a great day. I finally passed the driving test!! Well, not quite. I was having too much trouble with the full license test and my license expiration date was looming, so I opted to renew my existing license for 5 more years. This involved passing a basic driving skills test and paying $115, which I did, and was very successful! I've spent the last couple of days almost unable to eat and sleep for worry, seriously. I'd close my eyes to try to get to bed, and all I could think about was driving. I'd fall asleep and I'd dream about driving. Throughout the day, I'd think about driving and my chest and stomach tightened up with fear, and the only thing that made the fear go away was going out driving! Strange, eh? I did the test and I knew I was doing well this time because of the lack of writing the tester was doing! The less they write on their checklist, the better you're doing. I did the parking, mirror and blind spot checking, waited 3 full seconds at each and every stop sign, and when we got back to the centre I parked, shut the engine off, and looked at the tester expectantly. "Well, I'm going to pass you, Lindsay!" More beautiful words have never been uttered by anyone. My exact reaction was "Oh, thank God! Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I could have hugged him and kissed him, I was so happy. Then, later on, Mike came home from work and announced that he won $200 playing Pro Line(an electronic bookie system for pro sports events, in case anyone doesn't know). Good times, good times!

2005-09-23T22:14:00.000-04:00

I have a few things to say tonight, but none of them really have anything to do with each other, so I'll put them into paragraph form! Enjoy!

Crazy Fuel Madness - Every single gas station in Cambridge yesterday was PACKED. People were lined up to the road, cars were fighting to get next in line, they were having to park on the diagonal in order to all reach the gas pumps, it was just chaos! I had to get gas at that station across from the Overland hotel, and when I was finished it took so much fine manoevering(did I spell that right?) just to get around all the cars and out that I knocked over one of those little orange pylons and the pump jockey got all mad... he was stressed out! All of this because gas prices were threatening to go up to $2.25 a litre - which probably won't happen now because Rita is supposedly bypassing Houston and thus sparing the huge oil refineries that churn out most of the continent's oil... I'll take $1.04 anyday over $2.25! I shouldn't be complaining, I'm in a nice, inland hurricane free zone and still have a fully intact house and all my belongings are present and accounted for, right? It could be a lot worse.

ROM time, woo hoo! - Tomorrow's my birthday! We're going to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Erica's staying home with Mike(who is sick with the cold I gave him, anyway) so we can have a nice gander without a bored, screaming Houdini-like toddler! Let me explain that last comment - she can climb out of anything you put her in: carseats, high chairs, strollers, playpens, she's currently working on her crib, everything! James has been patiently waiting all summer to see the mummies in the Egyptian exhibit.. I just wonder how he's going to react when he actually lays eyes on one! Should be priceless! His love for mummies and even indians has surpassed his love for airplanes, it seems! When we get back we'll collect Erica and Mike and go to my parent's house for my birthday dinner(shepherd's pie and cheesecake!!) and then later on Mike and I are goin' to the movies! Mike and I went to the mall the other night to pick up my birthday present - yes, we go with each other to pick out our presents, I tell him what I want and he buys it! Unromantic, yes, but I'm not the romantic type as everyone knows and that way, I know for sure that I'll like what he gets me and I can use it immediately and not have to wait for my birthday. Plus, I detest surprises!

The Virus has Left the Building! - James had been coughing for a couple of days and didn't seem that sick, and since I am not very vigilant about keeping away cold germs, I assumed that I would catch it too. At first it didn't seem that bad - a scratchy throat was all I noticed at first - and then the next night, as I was sitting there watching t.v., KABLAMMO! Within 5 minutes, the full brunt of the cold wave hit me and I was suddenly super-congested, achy and feverish! I went to work the next day but wasn't feeling good at all, and my partner was commenting on how crappy I sounded. When I got home, I immediately got even worse! I called my boss in a feverish daze and told her that I couldn't work the next day. She told me to wait until Tuesday, 'cause we have a lot of senior clients that I could indirectly cause the deaths of by hacking and sneezing all over their crocheted dolly toilet paper holders and denture containers! I could have worked today, but she's right, I'm probably still slightly contagious. I'm feeling much better today, which is good, 'cause I'm going to the ROM tomorrow! Woo hoo!!

On the Same Note - I've read that the flu drugs that have been stockpiled in anticipation of the bird flu are probably not going to be effective at all against the virus due to rapid viral mutation. The same article read that it will not be as severe as the infamous Spanish flu of 1918-1919(imagine having been a soldier in WW1, surviving, and then coming home and dying of the stupid flu? My ghost would be very angry) but would more resemble the less deadly Hong Kong flu of the late 1960's. Let's hope so.

French in Kindergarten - Jimmy and I were playing a word game this morning - he says a word and I tell him the dictionary-style definition - and he said "Guess what, Mommy? 'Bonjour' is 'hello' in French!" I thought it was cool that they're beginning the French exposure a year earlier these days, I was in Immersion and I didn't even start learning until grade 1! We had to learn the national anthem in French and English, and sang it in both languages alternately each day, which Jimmy learned last year, but we never learned what it meant(the English version and French version's lyrics are totally different - French and English do not translate easily at all unto each other) and even to this day I don't really know what it means. What is a 'Foie trempee'? How about 'brillards exploits'? In 'nos foyers et nos droits', I'm sure they're not talking about hotel lobbies. I know it makes a Jesus references, where it says 'car ton bras s'est portee l'epee, Il sait portait la croix' which loosely means 'like your arm has carried the sword, he knew the burden of the cross', which would fit in nicely with the predominantly catholic French Canadian heritage, but other than that, I don't know.

Well, I think that's about all I have to say for tonight. Goodnight everyone, or good morning, depending on where you are!

Nutrition Madness!

2005-09-17T20:39:00.000-04:00

Supersize Me was a great movie. It was comical, disgusting, disturbing and thought-provoking all at the same time. More importantly, it seems to have set the ball rolling for a more health-conscious mindset throughout society. I wonder if the director of the documentary knew just how huge the impact would be! If anyone else reading this has children that watch YTV, you'll probably have noticed the recent McDonalds ads they show about every two hours. They're interesting - the first one I've noticed shows Ronald McDonald leading a group of kids in a roller-disco/breakdance/exercise routine, aptly named 'The Activation Station'. This little time-filler does not show any of the children eating McDonalds food, nor does it promote any McDonalds products, and throughout the ad, Ronald is encouraging the kids to get off the couch and get active! Another one shows a bunch of animated kids and an animated Ronald skiing, and yet another shows Ronald and kids playing basketball. For adults, I've heard that the restaurant now offers a nutritious menu, and also hands out pamphlets on nutrition and healthy eating guidelines! Not that this isn't awesome, but holy P.R. to the rescue!! Supersize Me really dragged McDonalds through the mud, and left the restaurant no choice but to make drastic changes in order to clean up its reputation! All because of a movie. The infinte power of media boggles the mind. Does anyone have kids who are in school this year? If you do, you'll have noticed a few changes! Public schools in this area now have TWO scheduled lunches, only lunch is no longer called lunch, it is now a 'nutrition break'. Has politically correctness gone so haywire that it's now renaming meals? Ha ha... anyway, full-day students now have to bring two snack-sized meals that must be numbered 1 and 2, and they absolutely must be healthy, no deviations will be allowed under punishment of death! Well, just kidding about the death part, they'll probably just send home more pamphlets or call you in for a meeting, but you get the picture! I've already received several mass-distributed pamphlets of this nature, like they're trying to make sure it's well drilled-in to our heads. Wait, it gets better. There's actually a list of approved snacks, and it's painfully specific. Most of them are fine, like oatmeal raisin muffins, grapes, sliced vegetables, etc., but then they get a bit crazy. Whole wheat wrap filled with vegetables and hummus?(I don't even know what hummus IS!) Non-albacore tuna? Fortified soy beverage? Rice cakes? Blech! That's all well and good for an adult, but what kid is going to eat that, I ask you? I guess those busy bees at the public school board foresaw the likelihood of lunch trading, and enforced an Everyone Eats Their Own Lunch rule! James's school has been declared a nut and traces of nuts-free zone(also a change from last year, albeit a good one) as well. These are all board decisions, James's teacher has made up her own, stricter rules! Last year, we were allowed to pack fruit snacks - Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Roll-Ups, etc., fruit cups - the kind in the tin with syrup, granola bars, juice, yogourt, bananas, among others that don't come to mind at the moment. Well, I went out on Thursday and bought all of these things for his lunch, assuming it would be the same lunch rules. The next day, his teacher sent out a class letter of 'nutrition break' do's and don'ts: no utensils - there goes yogourt, the blessed non-albacore tuna and applesauce, no packages or snacks that the child can't easily open - there goes bananas(I have a hard time getting those things open sometimes!), no juicy food - I guess that rules out fruit, and finally, they can only drink water as a beverage! I've been sending him Drinkin' Boxes, isn't my face red...! These are all reasonable rules, mind you, I mean, I wouldn't want a bunch of sugared-up 5 year olds spilling things all over the place, or sending other unsuspecting children into anaphylactic shock with their granola bars or peanut butter and jam sandwiches! Was this post a rant? Kinda, not really! It's a good thing, no, a great thing that society is becoming more health conscious and that the media and schools(and hopefully parents) are training kids while they're young. Maybe we'll see a trend of decreased cancer, heart disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes rates in the new generation?! It just means that parents are gonna have to get creative! Thank you, Supersize Me. The movie may not have single-handedly caused this sharp upswing of nutrition madness, but who can argue that it played a huge part?

Goodbye Summer!

2005-09-13T10:40:00.000-04:00

Well, summer is in its death throes at the moment, the weather report predicted that today would most likely be the last of the really hot days this year. YAAAYYY! WOOHOO! Goodbye, summer, I won't miss you! Is anyone else as happy as I am? A lot of people love summer, but I just don't understand that at all! Shall we weigh the pros and cons to prove whether summer really is the season from hell or not? Let's.

Pros:

1. You get a nice tan, and these days, with very little effort!

2. You can go to the drive-in theatre, mini-golfing, the park, etc.

3. You don't get sick quite as often.

Cons:

1. It's hot. Very hot and very sticky. Your pants stick to your legs, the air oppresses your lungs, you break into a sweat just sitting there, and it's hard to get to sleep at night. Fun!

2. People everywhere are wearing tube tops and shorts, including 500 pound people and old, wrinkly people! Of course, people with less than good-looking bodies have just as much right to wear summer clothes as anyone else, I admit that I am glad when the cellulite and blue veins are put away! Even the best-looking people look much better with actual clothes on, I think. Thank God for fall fashions!
3. It's the season of the bathing suit. Need I explain why this is bad??

4. If you do happen to get sick, it feels much worse because of Con #1. You think having a 102 degree fever and puking is bad? How about having this happen in 40 degree weather! That's a scary thought...
5. The animal and insect world is very active. Not just the cute kind, like furry bunnies and chipmunks, but also raccoons and skunks, bees, flies, mosquitos, moths, gnats, spiders, etc. Mosquito bites can actually kill you these days via West Nile virus (imagine dying from a mosquito bite? I would be so outraged...) Every week for the past month, there have been maggots in my garbage bin from those blasted flies laying eggs in my garbage can! I haven't seen many flies in the house, but obviously they must be there. This week they were all over the bag that I wanted to take to the curb, and I got so mad at the little carrion feeders that I started hitting them with a broomstick, and boy, do they splatter... ugh! I finally shooed them all away (when you separate them from their rotting meat, they just don't know what to do, they kind of wander around and then saunter off). As I was taking the bag to the curb, it began to emit a furious buzzing sound! I was scared.

6. The kids are home all day long. I find that kids get bored and rambunctious when they lose the structure of the school day, and they can really drive you crazy! I love them, but one does need a break once in a while! Plus, your day is more structured as well, what with walking or driving them back and forth to school (if you're not working, that is). I also secretly love when James brings home his little finger-paintings and his grass-in-a-styrofoam-cup that he did in school - during the school year, every square inch of my fridge is covered in drawings, newsletters, paintings, you name it - I love it!

7. If you want to spend any significant amount of time outside in the summer, you first have to apply sunblock to every part of your skin, wear a hat to protect your scalp, and finally wear sunglasses with UV protective lenses to prevent glaucoma. Oh, and you have to reapply the sunblock every hour or else it doesn't do any good. If you don't, the sun will burn you to a crisp and give you skin cancer. A girl that went to my high school actually had skin cancer a couple of years ago. She was 21 at the time! Well, she is a swimmer, and probably spent a lot of time in the UV ray- intensifying water, but still, that just goes to show how strong the sun is quickly becoming. In another 10 years I bet the government will suggest that everyone stay indoors on those sunny days as much as possible. It's not like the ozone layer is going to get any less holey! Either that or they're going to have to come out with SPF 100 sunblock!

8. On the same note as Con #7, why is it always so bleedin' sunny in the summer? Mike feels the same way I do on the matter of sunniness, and we've half-jokingly discussed the possibilities of living in Finland for 6 months and then a researcher's hut in Antarctica for the other 6! We'd live in perpetual night, yippee! Ha ha.. we'd be so pale! Just kidding, I like a fine balance when it comes to weather. I don't like long stretches of one type - when it's raining for a week solid, I am actually overjoyed when the sun finally breaks through the clouds, but vice versa, I at least like one or two rainy days thrown in to a two week-long stretch of sunshine.

9. You have to watch reruns for 3 months. This makes for a lot of boring evenings, because there's only so many times you can watch the same episodes of That 70's Show and Everybody Loves Raymond. The summer t.v. schedule sucks bigtime! Now that glorious fall is here, the new seasons of my favourite shows are on, making me jump around with glee! Desperate Housewives, Family Guy, the O.C., and there's a new show out that premiered this past Sunday called 'House Wars' that Mike and I really like, it's like 'Married with Children' only without so much crudeness and no laugh track! Besides Christmas, the new fall season is the most wonderful time of the year! I know a lot of anti-t.v.-ers out there are tsk-tsking me right now, but what can I say, Mike and I love to watch our stories!

10. City workers are everywhere, fixing roads, power lines and hydro poles, tearing up pipes, repairing sidewalks, this, that and the other thing. They close side roads and close lanes of main roads congesting traffic to no end, which I suppose is good in a way, because if they didn't do this in the summer, the pavement would just fall to ruin and then we'd be complaining about THAT!

Wow, whining is hard work, I'm tired! Well, I guess Summer is just an unpleasant part of life that one has to deal with, kind of like dealing with insurance agents, or arthritis. But, it's over now and I can go back to being mosquito bite, heat-induced eczema and barometric pressure headache free again until next year!

Birthday Boy

2005-09-05T21:36:00.000-04:00

Well, James is going to be 5 years old tomorrow! He's growing up so fast. We had his party yesterday evening, complete with punching balloons and pointy Spongebob hats. It was quite an interesting time we had, what with the most awful birthday cake ever( I bought it from Sobey's, go figure) and a serious sugar-crash/fatigue-fuelled tantrum thrown by the birthday boy himself when he found out he had no more presents left to open and the party was over! Yeah, about that cake, it really was gross. I mean, the icing was like chock-full of shortening and it left a really bad preservative taste in our mouths! It was rather funny. Birthday pie to the rescue! For presents, James got a scooter, a Spiderman play-doh set(which we had fun with this morning), some nice outfits, a Spongebob game, some board and card games, building toys, a Slinky, a Barrel of Monkeys, a yo-yo, and a Spongebob lunchbox for school(if you don't have a character lunch box, you're just not cool!) Today was a good day as well, we went to the park where James met up with Vaughn, one of his school friends. They played on the teeter-totter, where James spent most of the time either stuck up in the air or bumping a few inches off his seat( Vaughn is a big boy, not fat but tall)! He had to use the 'Let me down, Buster Brown' approach... it never ceases to amaze me that kids just pass these things down from generation to generation amongst themselves! The heavier kid is supposed to say 'What will you give me?' and then the kid suspended in air has to offer them an imaginary bribe like a million dollars, or a poolful of hot fudge, etc. and then the heavier kid keeps him up there until the most appealing offer is made! I guess Vaughn didn't know this, he just let him down right away! We went home a bit prematurely on account of this weird guy who was hanging around the park bugging people. We spent the rest of the day in a typical fashion, and then when bedtime came, James had a strange little episode: I closed the bedroom door and had settled down with Great Expectations when James started to scream bloody murder and cry - I went in to see what was wrong, and he tearfully began to express his fears of dolls that move on their own without wind-up functions! He said he saw such a doll on Rupert this morning, and that he was scared that it might happen to him! He then started to imagine out of control, concocting detailed frightening scenarios in which aliens came down in their spaceships, crashed into his room and used their green goo to pull him up and take him to space. I told him that aliens weren't real and that I wouldn't let anything like that happen, but he countered that with 'What if they make you dead and take me?' He just got himself more and more wound up so that Mike and I had to give him anti-monster/alien goggles and a nightlight! After that he settled down and went to sleep, but man, that just came out of nowhere! Is it the irrational fear stage already? Well, when you think about it, it's not really irrational. Well, the alien part is, but I got the feeling that he was more likely realizing that random bad things can happen and that his parents aren't the all- powerful beings that he probably imagined us to be before. He said to me, "There are a lot of scary things in the world, aren't there?" and I answered "Yes, there are, but you can't just spend every day being scared and worrying about them, because then you'll never be happy!" People are always talking about how hard it is to raise babies, but as far as I'm concerned the baby stage was a piece of cake compared to what's coming! How do you explain such concepts to a 5 year-old? On one hand, I'm happy because it's a sign of mental maturation, the bubble of innocent bliss is bursting and he's finding out about the ways of the world, but it's just such a shame that said world has to be so bad! I'm torn between not wanting to scare him or make him paranoid and wanting to arm him with knowledge to survive in the outside world. I really hope I'm striking a fine balance! James and my situations are a lot alike, in that my babyhood bubble is bursting and I'm learning more and more about the true responsibilities of parenthood. I'm not just there to feed them and clothe them, but to shape their ideas, morals and minds in general! It's a bit scary sometimes, the questions he asks me sometimes that I have to answer, but I think(no, I hope) I'm doing a good job!

2005-09-01T20:50:00.000-04:00

Okay, gas prices are way beyond outrageous these days. On Tuesday, a litre of gas actually cost a bit over $1.24 in some areas.$1.24? I don't think it's ever been that high in my lifetime! We got a memo sent to us at work today stating that September 1st is Stick it to them Day and that on that day everybody in the country(possibly continent) should boycott the oil industry and not purchase a drop of gasoline on that day. Unfortunately, that day being today and we actually received this memo after the day was already half over, we were too late to participate in the boycotting festivities! Bah! I will always take every opportunity possible to revolt against the fatcats, but today just wasn't in the cards. Besides, I already had a half tank of gas. Last night's six o'clock news went on and on about it, alternating from the anchorperson's unbiased opinion to the smiling smarmy phoniness of Premier Dalton McGuinty claiming to be outraged about soaring prices and not at all happy about the huge chunk of lovely tax he's getting out of all of this, all the while appearing to be restraining himself from getting up and dancing a jig of joy, and , my personal favourite, candid, on-the-spot comments from passers-by and people buying gas at the pumps! These reporters catch these poor people off guard, and either they say something totally stupid, or are at a loss for words. Do reporters expect people to just have a list of well-thought-out comments on various random subjects in their heads? It's funny! The question asked was: "What do you think of the price of gas?" seriously. The responses were along the lines of:"It's terrible." and "It's bad!" and Mike's and my favourite, "We have to pay for it! I mean, we have to pay for it!" Ha ha ha...I hope I never get caught by one of those reporters, I'd probably run away! But seriously, how long is it going to be like this? What can we do about it? I mean, it's not like we can realistically boycott. Yeah, maybe for a day, but eventually we're going to need to buy gas, and the powers that be of gasoline know it! Oh well, there's no use whipping yourself into a frenzy about something you have no control over, right? Live it up, fatcats! You can't take it with you when you die! Ha ha ha...!

I am Charlie Brown

2005-08-31T21:02:00.000-04:00

What a day I've had... I failed my driving test again, my third test, that is. I am seriously doubting my ability to ever get my permanent license. Everything was going fine, I aced the residential area test, did acceptably well in the business zone, and then we got to the highway portion, and it all fell apart! What I was actually failed for was that I slowed down from 100 K's to about 75 while still on the expressway, preparing to go into the exit ramp, and not WHILE on the exit ramp. Of course, I didn't realize I was doing this, what with the constant rotating of the eyes to all your different mirrors that is required for the test, and the checking of the blind spot and all that. AAAGGH! Even with all the highway practice I've gotten in the past little while, I still find merging very nerve-racking. It's like sensory overload: the sound of your engine growling with the rapid acceleration, the whizzing of the cars coming past you, the not really being able to tell whether or not you have a free lane with the very short glimpses you can get in between watching your spedometer, mirrors and the road ahead of you.. I find it very scary. I have yet another test coming up on September 16th, in Kitchener, this time, not Brantford. Well, I just have to keep trying, I guess. It's very discouraging, though. When we got back to the testing place, the tester said to me, "Is it nerves? You must be nervous!" I made a few non-committal noises and nodded a few times, but mainly I was trying to keep from bursting into tears! Oh, man... I found out today that if your license is in danger of expiry you can pay to have it renewed for 5 years, so I think I may have to do that if I fail the next test as well. Well, people, I just spilled tea all over myself, so I'm gonna have to sign off for now! Bye!

National Slang(or lack of it!)

2005-08-22T20:02:00.000-04:00

I've got a cold and I feel like crap! Well, now that I've got that out of the way, hi everyone! I got the idea of writing a post on slang, namely Canadian slang, from Steve's blog (Ally's brother), after he mentioned that he would write a post on the same subject, but with U.K. slang, obviously! I'm sitting here thinking about it, and I'm realizing that Canada has been so bombarded by American culture that our own peculiarities and traits have been all but strangled out of us, but so gradually that we've barely noticed it happening! What I'm getting at is that I can't really think of many slang terms that are exclusively Canadian. The rap scene has definitely had the biggest effect on day-to-day language, what with young guys calling each other 'son', 'dog', 'G', or even 'beeyotch!'(only among friends, though, or else you're gonna get beat up)! I've noticed that even from that one hit Gwen Stefani song, 'Hollaback Girl', the term 'bananas' is back in style. Crazy! But Canadian slang? Let's see:

The obvious, 'eh'! - I am an avid 'eh' sayer, I admit it. It's so versatile - it can be used to indirectly prompt someone for their opinion on a matter, as in "Gas is so friggin' expensive these days, eh?" by saying 'eh' here, the other person is obliged to answer! It can be used in agreement(the context I use it most in). When someone makes a statement like "Desperate Housewives is the best show ever to be on television!" you can answer with "I know, eh?" This eh usage, however, does not require a response. 'Eh' can also be used to get someone's attention, or to get someone to repeat what they just said, if you didn't hear them. Handy, eh? Americans love to mock us based on our affinity for this word, even though their constant use of "Y'all" , which sounds far more ridiculous, is perfectly acceptable! Strange.

Loonie and Toonie - what we call our one dollar and two dollar coins! Actually, the government gave them these names and instructed us to call them this. When the two dollar coin came out there was indecision over whether to call it a Toonie or a Doubloon. I guess the association with pirate booty was too strong, so they made the latter choice. By the way, there's a picture of a loon on one side, hence the name. When our relatives, or more appropriately, step-relatives came down to visit from England and heard me ask my dad to borrow a Loonie to get a coffee from Tim Horton's(I'll discuss Tim Horton's later on), they laughed and laughed!

Okay, that's all the slang I can think of. Here are some other items of 'Canadiana' that might be of interest:
Tim Horton's - This is not just a coffee shop, it's an INSTITUTION. Everybody gets in line at the drive-through at Tim Horton's in the morning before work, I mean everybody. On a daily basis the lineup is almost backed up to the road! They make the most heavenly coffee on the planet, Timbits(little round bite-sized balls of doughnut), even iced cappucino with the option of added chocolate milk! They also make sandwiches, yogourt cups with berries, chili in a bread bowl, bagels, tarts and cream puffs, cookies, soup, all kinds of stuff! Even small towns have at least two of them, and big cities can have upwards of 15! Every town, that is, except Ayr, Ontario! They're living in the dark ages. Come on, Mayor of Ayr, get on the ball! Ha ha...

Debunking the myth of 'Mounties' - okay, people, especially Americans, listen up. Our police force does not, I repeat, does not dress up in little red blazers with brass buttons and brown hats with straps under them, get on their horses and go moseying along all day through the countryside! The term 'Mounties' comes from 'Royal Canadian Mounted Police' or RCMP as we now call them. They used to ride horses, but only because it was the fastest way to get around due to the lack of roads back in the pioneer days! Being that it's now the 21st century, they have police cruisers like every other police force in the free world, and are in as much danger on a daily basis as any other cop! Okay, I lied a little. They still dress up in their stereotypical uniforms, but only for ceremonial occasions, like parades or police funerals.

We do not pronounce the word 'about' like 'aboot'. I don't know where this idea came from, but for some reason the Americans latched on to this and has been quite relentless in their mockery of it! I've never heard anyone say 'aboot', and if anybody would, it would be Albertans! However, we do say the word 'roof' differently. We say it to rhyme with 'aloof' and Americans say it to rhyme with, well, I can't think of another English word that it would rhyme with. It rhymes with the French word for beef, 'boeuf'. If you know how to pronounce that, then you know what I'm talking about, I just don't know how to put that sound into writing!

I'm sure there are many more slang words that we didn't steal from big brother(and I'm not talking about the show!), so if anyone else can add to the list, please do!

2005-08-16T18:37:00.000-04:00

The kids are growing up wayyyyyy too fast. Yesterday morning, do you know what Jimmy did? He woke up before me, got his own waffles out of the freezer, put them in the toaster, got syrup out of the fridge and put it on, and then poured his own juice! He did all this with the aid of a stepstool, I should add. I was so amazed and so proud, although I did forbid him to use the toaster without an adult watching in the future. Isn't that awesome? Erica's discovered how to undress herself and take off her diaper, which could be disastrous! So far we haven't had any pooey messes, but that's not to say we won't! Hmmm... I don't really have anything thrilling to say at the moment... I had a bit of a hard day of work today, we only had 3 houses but two of them were gargantuan mansions, and those take a lot out of you, trust me. I'm getting a lot more hours lately due to two full-time staff members sustaining injuries, which isn't so good for them but good for me! Two juicy paychecks in a row, come to mama!! To make up for today's exhaustion, I only have one mansion tomorrow. One mansion is definitely do-able! So sorry for the boring post, but my mind is just not with it tonight. Bye-bye!

Eeeew, Gross!

2005-08-11T21:36:00.000-04:00

Does anyone have any good 'gross' stories? I find although truly disgusting experiences can be pretty nauseating at the moment in which it happens, in retrospect they can be pretty funny and make for some entertaining conversation at parties and get-togethers! Gross things happen to me on an if not daily, weekly basis, what with my hideous bathroom with all its mold and mildew that I just can't get rid of, and the bathroom garbage with the lid that emits a terrible stench every time you open it, no matter how quickly you lift the lid, toss in the refuse and slam it shut again. It's because of the diapers. Potty trained-ness can't come quickly enough. When I change the garbage, I literally have to hold my breath until the bag is safely tied and I am halfway down the stairs! Although my bathroom is the bane of my existence, it's far from being the grossest of my experiences. What's my gross story #1? Here goes - I will not be responsible for reader nausea!
It was Saturday morning sometime last year, and I was taking the garbage to the curb when I discovered that we had once again been visited by kindly old Mr. raccoon! This was, of course, back in the days before we had the wonderful garbage container by the door, and our garbage bags sat unprotected outside. There was quite a hole torn in the side from which spewed plastic wrappers, banana peels and other such things. No big deal, I thought, and went back in to get another garbage bag to put the other one in and take to the curb. I lifted the bag, and was treated to quite a hideous sight. Maggots! Seriously, there must have been thousands of them. There were a couple of chicken thigh carcasses laying underneath the bag which actually appeared to be moving with all the little moving pieces of rice! It was quite surreal. At this point I had to step inside and regroup, make a game plan and get Mike out there to help me because I WAS NOT going to do that myself! I don't know how they got there so quickly as the bag was only a couple of days old, but my theory is that a fly landed on the chicken bones while they were still in the kitchen garbage and the eggs were already laid when I took the garbage outside. Anyway, by this time the nasty little things were scattering in response to being discovered and were climbing the side of the house and the front steps. I'll never forget the dull 'plop' sound they made when they climbed as high as they could and then fell to the ground! We tried a variety of things: we threw liquid bleach on them, we hosed them down in an attempt to drown them, and finally found that smacking them with old shoes was the most effective method. Of course, all of these actions were liberally interspersed with periods of staring at them in a mixture of disgust and fascination! It must have taken us an hour and a half at least, but we finally drowned and flattened all of them. There was one more problem, though. What to do with all the maggot corpses? That problem was soon solved, though, by a great cloud of robins and sparrows that alit on our driveway and gobbled them up! After the birds had had their fill and were gone, we went to check out the avian clean-up job, and found that there sign at all that night of the living maggots had ever happened! I had earlier taken the offending garbage bag to the curb, and all that was left were the chicken bones, picked totally clean and smooth. I mean I could have made a necklace out of them right then and there, they were so bare! That was the end of the maggot debacle of '04. Those beasties really like their meat, they're like the piranhas of the insect world! Does anyone else have a gross story to tell?

Who Ever Said the World was Fair?

2005-08-05T19:46:00.000-04:00

We've got another house to check out on Sunday, this one looking a lot better. It's actually made of brick and has painted gables(gasp), which immediately makes it out of our league! We walked by to have a look today, and it's really, really nice, a world of nice away from the house we had previously toured as I mentioned in an earlier post. Cheaper and bigger as well! It's on Third Ave, practically right next to J+B Variety(for those of you who live in Cambridge) enclosed deck, fenced-in backyard, 3 bedrooms, the whole nine yards! I really, really want this house. I mean really. I can almost say with certainty that we're not going to get it, though. I know why for the same reason I can't get car insurance, a lot of jobs, and pretty much anything else that requires a certain level of responsibility: Mike and I are too young! I'm trying to get insurance in order to maybe take over ownership of my parent's old van, and many of the brokers that I got a hold of flat-out told me that they didn't deal with people of my age. I was so mad!! As long as I'm paying for it, what does it matter? I can certainly see why the more reputable companies might deny people under 25, have you seen the stupid things some of those young guys do in cars? But come on, I would not be a high-risk policy holder. I have kids, I don't drink, I've been to driving school, I'm a good driver.. BAH! I'm going to try my parent's ins. company on Monday and see what they say. Now, about the houses. I don't know why we don't get apartments or houses easily. Maybe it's because Mike has long hair, maybe it's because I look like a teenager, I don't know. I wish landlords would fill me in. What do they expect? We make more than enough to cover the rent for this new place, but I've got suspicions that that's only a small part of what they're looking for. Why don't they tell you? How am I supposed to pretend to be something if I don't know what that something is? This leads me to the conclusion that it's about our ages. I'm 22, on the brink of 23, and Mike is near 24. We both have jobs, we have kids, we're not loud and destructive, we're clean, but when it comes down to it, we're 22 and 23. As I related to my mother earlier on today, 30 years ago people my age were adults and could purchase houses and cars with relative ease. These days, however, most early-twenty-somethings are still living with their parents, going to university, childless and on the whole slightly more immature than their past counterparts. This is strange to me, Mike and I don't feel young and reckless, we feel about 45. I wish I could tell the offending people this, but they'd never believe it! What are we to do? This sounds crazy, but we're seriously considering lying about our age. I'm a bit scared to do it, because there's a possibility that they might ask for legal documents that reveal our true ages thus making us look even dumber and ruining our chances of getting the house. Then again, they might not! Do you think I should do it? I'm thinking it may be a bit safer to exaggerate our yearly income by a couple thousand. That, and put on some makeup this time! Ohhh, the stress...

Pearson Plane Crash

2005-08-02T20:59:00.000-04:00

I first heard about the plane crash at Pearson Airport today from Mike's brother who came bounding up the stairs from his basement bedroom saying "Lindsay, Lindsay! Put on the news for a second!" Whenever someone uses that phrase you know it can't be good. The news channel was showing live footage of a smoking wreck of a plane, broken entirely in half and on fire with fire fighters hosing it down. Uh oh. From that moment on I officially decided that I never wanted to board a plane as long as I live! He told me that the plane was hit by lightning, which was the most early assumption, based on the bad weather that apparently hit Toronto earlier today. When Mike arrived home, he informed me that the plane had exploded, obviously his own assumption. I don't really have time to watch the news when the kids are up, because whenever I switch the t.v. to an adult station it's only a matter of seconds before James interjects his opinion - "Booooriiiing!" so after the wee bairnies' bedtime I sat down and listened to the whole story. It turns out that neither of the two rumours I had previously heard were true, the crash was caused by stupid human error. Evidently, the pilot had overshot the runway(maybe due to the raininess, maybe due to being a bad pilot) and had instead landed in Etobicoke Creek, totalling the plane, said plane being from the Air France line. The most amazing thing about this whole debacle is that no one, not one of the 300 passengers was killed or even seriously injured! An audio interview with airport officials and a doctor from a nearby hospital revealed that most passengers sustained soft-tissue damage, meaning sprains, cuts, muscle damage, etc. The complete lack of casualties is probably due to the fact that the plane was already on the ground and decelerating, but still, the friggin' thing broke in half and burst into flames! The fact that no one was even really hurt is nothing short of miraculous(that is the word that Pearson Airport officials actually used, miraculous)! Well, thank God for that. I think a certain pilot is gonna get the axe!

Update!

2005-07-27T16:03:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been a good month! I feel like we're finally getting somewhere, like we're getting the ball rolling. The extra income we're making now is really taking the edge off: we can now pay a bill a week and still have enough for groceries and spending money all week long! At no time since I've moved out of my parents house have I been able to do that! WOO HOO! For example, this past weekend we went to Wal-Mart and bought a new comforter and shoe rack! To people who know me, this revelation must come as a surprise, because I never buy anything new, or at least never at full price. Well, to be perfectly honest, it was Mike's idea to buy the new stuff. If it had just been me I would never even have considered it! I had actually been looking for these same items that morning at garage sales...what can I say, I'm a die-hard bargain hunter, bordering on miser!
Erica's going through quite a developmental(and physical) growth spurt right now - she's saying a slew of new words like hair, eyes, yes(she usually says 'aye' for this), no(she say's either 'bo' or 'mo'), up, poo, pee, ears, bye-bye, hi and ball! She's showing potty training readiness( like being aware of having gone to the bathroom in her diaper - she points to her bum and goes to the bottom of the stairs waiting for me to take her up and change her) and she now has 9 teeth! She's grown at least an inch as well, two weeks ago I had to bend over a bit to hold her hand while walking, but now I can hold her hand completely upright! James is doing well too and is using his imagination quite a bit these days. This morning he brought a couch cushion into the kitchen along with two plastic toy golf clubs and announced to me that he was pretending to go canoeing! I like to see kids using their imaginations, it's really good for them. Most kids these days spend infinite sedentary hours in front of a computer screen or a t.v., eating and getting fat. I watched t.v. as a kid, but I also went to the park almost every day, rode my bike, played with my friends, played family, doctor, dentist, ghost hunters, etc.! I made mudpies, made imaginary pumpkin pie filling out of black walnut innards(they're quite pungent), and skipped rope a lot. I guess a lot of parents of this generation look back whistfully on similar memories of their own and wish their own kids could do the same things, but the reality of it is that the world is a different place than it was even 10 years ago. Kids simply can't spend that much time wandering the streets anymore and playing freely outside, it's too dangerous! Parents peer anxiously out the window keeping an eye on their 10 year-olds playing out in the driveway, for goodness sake.. it's a trade-off, really. Get them active and healthy and run the risk of abduction and murder or keep them chubby, pale and sedentary but safe?

Wat's Your Favourite Chore?

2005-07-17T10:48:00.000-04:00

Well, I've been a housekeeper for over a month now, long enough to know the job inside and out, more or less. I've found from past experience that this is also around the time that the challenge kind of dies out, and the illusion of liking your job kind of dissipates, as well. I'm glad to say that this hasn't happened yet! I still love it, and I hope I can stay there for a while. I guess a lot of people think I'm some sort of wierdo, enjoying pulling rich people's hairs from their lovely marble sinks and washing behind their oak-lidded toilets, but hang on a second. I never said I liked everything about cleaning! Everyone has their chores that they despise, the chores they don't mind doing, and the ones they derive a strange sort of satisfaction from and perform with secret glee!

Chores I Hate

1. Removing hair! Bathrooms are bad for this. Peeling slimy strands of hair stuck to shower stalls or toilet bases is way up there on the nastiness scale! Pet hair is just plain evil. It weaves itself into the fibres of carpet, making it necessary to manually pull it out by hand before vacuuming, and it tends to fly away from you when you're trying to sweep it up as it is so light and downy. It drives me crazy!
2. Dusting blinds and ornate banister posts. Very tedious and time-consuming, especially when one is instructed to individually polish each post to orange-scented, shiny perfection! For some reason, dust doesn't seem to want to come off of blinds. They can be difficult.
3. Vacuuming stairs. This particular task can be awfully treacherous, especially on staircases that wind and have thin steps. There's nowhere to set the vacuum, so you have to balance it on your knee while you do your thing. The vacuums are heavy, too, and lifting them down each stair is a hassle. Good exercise though!
4. Scrubbing lime/calcium/mildew encrusted fixtures or tubs. If a certain task is tremendously time-consuming or impossible for the products and tools we bring with us, we normally aren't expected to complete it, but we are expected to do the best we can and get as much of it off as possible!

Chores I Like

1. Polishing stainless steel and mirrors. This is one chore that I do with the aforementioned secret glee! I just love to make these reflective surfaces so clean that you can clearly see yourself and the rest of the room behind you in them! Well, mirrors do that anyway, I was referring to the stainless steel. One lady supplied us with stainless steel polish for her kitchen. I was in heaven( it smelled really good, too)!
2. Polishing wood. This is another good smell and shininess thing.

3.Vacuuming a heavily dirt-covered area, like mats or underneath plants. I love the crackly noise it makes - so satisfying!
4. Sweeping and washing floors. It really puts the finishing touch on the room. Even if the rest of the room is spotless, you won't notice it if the floor is dirty.
5. High dusting(cobwebs on ceilings and other unreachable dust) 'cause it's so easy!
6. Arranging towels on the racks and folding the end of the toilet paper roll into a triangle. It makes the bathroom look so neat and hotel-ish!
Well, that's about it. There are more things about cleaning that I love and hate, but I'd be sitting here forever and I need to go have a shower so it's time to wrap it up. I'd like to hear what everyone else's likes/dislikes in the world of everyday household chores!

Dogs vs.People

2005-07-15T21:46:00.000-04:00

Physiology and human nature fascinate me. The comparisons one can make between people and animals are endless: we share so many emotions, tendencies, drives and physical characteristics that it makes you think that maybe we're not so much higher above animals as we would like to think. A couple of cases in point: dogs with company over. When someone new comes into the dog's owner's house and is determined to be a friend in the dog's mind, what do they do? They vie for the newcomer's attention, do tricks, nuzzle, paw and slobber all over the poor person and generally ham it up. Now, have you ever seen how children react in the same situation? Exactly the same. On the same token, take a dog's reaction when a new addition to the family comes into the picture, namely a baby. They can be alternately hostile and protective over the baby, and very often act out in jealousy. They go to the bathroom in the house, tear up furniture, this and that, etc. When the dog's master is holding the baby, the dog will often be right in there like a dirty shirt! Just like an older sibling, crazy, eh? They respond to discipline like children, they enjoy playing like children, they show guilt like children, they essentially 'are' children. That's one side of the psyche of the dog. The other side, I find is very reminiscent of the way men behave in certain situations. I was at work today, driving to our next house when my partner gave me some advice. She said "Whatever you do, don't make eye contact with the dog. He's a german shepherd and a trained guard dog and he will freak out. Lucky for us he'll be outside!" She went on to tell me that we weren't even allowed to clean the patio door because the dog would have a fit if we inadvertently looked at him! A lot of dogs see eye contact as a challenge to a fight. Now, have you ever seen how some men react when another man stares at him? It goes something like this: "Hey bud, what are you looking at? You got a problem?" It's the equivalent of "GGGGRRRRR..." Even the physical way men fight is dog-like. They hurl insults, dogs growl. They circle each other, dogs, well, do likewise. They stick out their chests, raise their heads, and generally try to make themselves look as big as possible in the classic mammalian tradition( I've discovered that's also why your hair follicles raise when you're scared, it's a defense response)they make tentative lunges and shoves, as do dogs, and then it's showtime. The winner becomes the alpha male, the winner becomes the alpha dog. The loser takes off pretty quick before anyone can make fun of him, the loser saunters off with his tail between his legs. Wow. Coincidence? Another case: dogs and wolves in packs behave much differently than when they're alone. How often do you see guys whistling at or hitting on girls on their own? Not bloody often. Wolves, as well, tend to be more agressive when surrounded by their wolf buddies. So next time you hear a feminist angrily expressing her belief that men are dogs, you can say "literally!"

Willy Wonka Deconstructed

2005-07-13T22:29:00.000-04:00

Well, we're right smack in the middle of yet another brutal heat wave, and I, for one, HATE IT! Those people who say they love the summertime must have air conditioning at home! We've all been really irritable the past couple of days, well, not James, you just can't make that kid mad! I can be standing grumpily over a sink of hot dishwater or standing over a boiling pot sweating my head off with Erica beside me yelling and banging her cup against my leg wanting a refill on her cold water, and James will just come bounding in cheerily saying "What are we going to do today? Are we gonna go to the park? Are we gonna go out and play?" 'groan' It's too hot to do anything like that in the high sun hours! For goodness sake, you spend an hour outside and you've got the beginnings of a burn! It's hard for little kids to understand, I guess. We have to wait until about 5-6 o'clock to go out and play, which is what we did today with two fully loaded water guns and plenty of refill water in juice jugs!
Has anyone seen the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory yet? I've heard mixed reviews, and that Johnny Depp's character was almost too cynical and mean to the kids for it to really be funny, like the writers abandoned all the clever hidden meanings and subtle implications that Gene Wilder's character threw out there in the original. I haven't seen it yet, so I can't say much, but you can expect a post on it when I do! Ha ha.. The original happened to be on t.v. this past Sunday, and I thought it was a good opportunity to try to make James enjoy a classic. He liked it, especially the oompa-loompas. Who doesn't like the oompa-loompas, really? They're the highlight of the movie with their green hair, orange skin, white makeup and pom-pommed shoes, not to mention the crazy little acrobatic dance routine they do set to those little judgmental ditties! I love those songs, those oompa-loompas tell it like they see it! I love the whole story, I don't know how many times I read the book when I was a kid. Roald Dahl was really an excellent storyteller. He had a knack for colourful characters and the subtle humour(when it comes to writing, I find that the subtler, the more hilarious), very Dickens-esque. Charlie and the Chocolate factory is written in a fairy-tale format, if you think about it. Wonka gathers five children from around the world, four rotten ones, one good one, and from the very beginning he's testing them. Eventually, all children fall victim to their own personality flaws: Augustus falls into the chocolate river while piggishly drinking the 'water' - gluttony. Violet heedlessly chews the unperfected magic chewing gum, thus turning herself into a blueberry after being warned against it - disobedience. Veruca is thrown down the garbage chute by a pack of angry squirrels(in the first movie it's golden egg-laying geese) as a result of demanding that her father buy her one - spoiled brattiness, and Mike was accidentally shrunk by a television wave transmitter because of his eagerness to be on t.v. - he was an obsessive t.v. watcher, which isn't so much a flaw as it is a bad habit. Even Charlie and Grandpa Joe commit a small misdemeanor with the fizzy lifting drinks, but they are absolved after refusing to sell out to Slugworth, Wonka's rival by giving back the everlasting gobstopper sample(don't you think the kids would have caught on that they were being set up? I mean, the gobstopper was the only sample of unfinished product they were voluntarily given, and was also the very thing that 'Slugworth' asked them to bring him!) That's the punishment element that you usually find in fairy tales, designed to scare kids into being good and full of morals. Then you have the reward element - Charlie proving his heart of gold and rightousness, thus winning the grand prize and deed to the factory, not to mention a ride in the magic glass elevator(bonus!). I'm sure this wasn't an accident, Roald Dahl tended to lean towards this style in all his equally awesome children's stories! I found this correlation interesting for some reason, and I thought I'd write a post about it! For those of you who have never seen or read CATCF, sorry for the irrelevance! Read it or see it right now! A couple of puzzling questions I have on this topic that have been plaguing me since childhood:

1. When Violet Beauregarde became a blueberry and was told she had to be juiced before she exploded, just where would that juice come out from? Hope she brought a change of clothes....

2. What was with that boat ride scene in the movie? Those crazy disturbing images on the walls of the tunnel, Wonka's little foray into insanity... Why??!!

3. How did Grandpa Joe just hop out of bed after being bedridden for 20 years? His muscles would have been totally atrophied and useless!
Goodnight!

Adventures in House Hunting

2005-07-09T08:16:00.000-04:00

We got a tip about a house for rent from Mike's mother yesterday on Stanley St., just two streets over from where we are now. We aren't really itching to move, I mean, we haven't been looking or even thinking about it at all, but it sounded great with a sunporch in the backyard(backyard being fenced in!), new furnace, newer bathroom, etc. I thought it might be a step up from what we have now, and on top of that James would be in the boundary for the school we wanted him to go to! We excitedly made a viewing appointment with the landlord. That night we thought we'd swing by the place and take a look since we're so close, and to be honest I wasn't all that impressed. First of all, it's one of those wartime houses that make up much of Francis, Stanley, First and Second streets, you know, those small, boxy cheap-looking houses with vinyl siding, and those houses aren't of the greatest quality! Secondly, the roof was slightly dilapidated. Nothing big, just a minor sag in the middle, but I guess that's not the end of the world! The next day was our grand tour. The landlord seemed nice, appeared aware that he had to provide repairs and upkeep (unlike a certain crusty old cheapskate)! There was a covered porch in front for shoes and stuff, which I liked. It annoys me to no end to have people's dirty shoes on a mat in my kitchen! The living room was very tiny, maybe half the size of our living room now, and attached to it was a small dining room, which I found odd. Have you ever seen a dining room that wasn't connected to a kitchen? Probably pretty rare. The two bedrooms on the main level were roughly the same size, the "master bedroom" being maybe a square foot or two larger. I really had a problem with this, I like my master bedroom to be a bit more master-ish, call me crazy! The bathroom was really nice - new, clean ceramic tile, clean bathtub, good colours - the bathroom was a definite upside.Since we've been in our present place I've longed for a bathroom that isn't gross! The kitchen wasn't the kind that one would normally see in a house, but the kind that is more often seen in an RV or a trailer. Really, it was so miniscule I could hardly believe it! About 3 cupboards, maybe 3 or 4 feet of counterspace, a small sink and stove and that's it! I don't even think our fridge would fit in there! There was a small, main-floor laundry room with one of those foldy closet doors, another upside. I hate lugging big loads of laundry from upper levels to the basement all the time! At the back was a good sized t.v./computer room with lots of windows looking out into the backyard, which I guess made it a sunporch! Landlords tend to stretch the truth a bit in newspaper ads, don't they? The backyard was good, chain-link, but fenced in nonetheless, stone walkways and a shed! It was really shady, too, with a couple of trees in the corners. It was in sore need of a mowing, but other than that it was a good backyard! I don't know what to think of the place, though! There are really bad things about it but at the same time there are certain features that we want and need! I don't know, we'll see what happens. We filled out an application, so we'll see what happens. We might get it, we might not. Why does looking for a house have to be so much like a job interview?! Bye for now!

Canada Day

2005-07-03T09:27:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! I know I haven't posted in a while, and I really have no excuse, I just haven't really got around to it! Did everyone enjoy their Canada Day? We did, in a fashion. We were planning on going to the carnival and fireworks show in Preston(Preston is one of the three 'town centres' -as the municipal government likes to call them - of Cambridge), and we did, but it didn't really turn out as expected! We got to Riverside Park where the Canada Day festivities are held, and found an excellent parking spot immediately. Considering it was about 6:oo p.m. , approximately 3 hours from fireworks showtime, this is a phenomenon I have not previously experienced, ever! In fact, there weren't many cars parked in the lot at all. Upon entering the carnival area, we soon discovered the reason: it sucked! There were about 5 rides, two of those being a potato sack slide and a merry-go-round, only a couple of game tents( which I avoid like the plague, anyway, but still, they add to the atmosphere!) and not much of anything else! I knew we should have gone to the parade....! Mike took Erica and James down the slide, and I wish I had had a camera for that! The look on Erica's face was priceless, a mixture of shock and horror! That was her first quasi-carnival ride ever, I don't think she knew what was going on! I took her on the merry-go-round next, which she hated equally, and that pretty much summed up our experience at the fair! Erica and I got off the merry-go-round and went to Jimmy and Mike, who were standing by the gate talking to a carny, who, it turns out, used to work at Mike's factory. I walked over and said, "This place really sucks this year, let's go somewhere else!" I noticed the carny looked at me kind of funny, and as we were walking back to the car, Mike said, "You know that guy I was talking to was the son of the guy who owns this fair, and you were just talking about how terrible his family's fair was! Ha ha! Foot in mouth moment. I hate when I do that! We decided to go get something to eat and kill some time before the fireworks, so we went to Sportsworld and played in the arcade! Now that was fun! We played foosball, table hockey, pinball, and all kinds of ticket games! Those things are addictive, let me tell you. We all got into the ticket hysteria, even the kids! There's a little store at one end of the arcade where you cash in your tickets and win prizes, said prized being ridiculously overpriced. For the equivalent of $30 in tokens, you can win a little plastic toy car or a rubber finger puppet that would normally cost 25 cents in a candy machine! There were adults there, unaccompanied by children, that were playing the ticket games like slot machines in a casino, clutching their strips of tickets in their hands like someone was going to take them away from them! I guess it's all in the name of fun, though, and fun it was! We checked out the boys go-carting outside, and the people rock-climbing, which was cool. We left Sportsworld fully intending to go see the fireworks show, but the kids were becoming increasingly cranky and it was quite cloudy and chilly, and we thought it would just be a big cold, windy pain in the butt so we went home without participating in any Canada Day revelry whatsoever!! Bah! Oh well, there's always next year!

English! Love it, or hate it?

2005-06-21T18:07:00.000-04:00

What kind of relationship do you have with english? Were you a good speller in school? Did you do well in english class? Did you get good marks on book reports? Did you'gasp'enjoy writing essays? I was probably the only kid in my entire school who did, although I never would have admitted to it. I was a major closet nerd! I used to read my textbooks for fun, enough said! English always came easily to me. I don't remember a time when I couldn't read with ease, I always aced spelling bees and tests in school, and I always received much praise and commendation on my creative writing assignments.I know it sounds like I'm tooting my own horn(I hate that phrase), but english was(and still is) the ONLY thing I'm any good at! One has to brag about english when one is a math mental retard! I'm serious, I can't even add double digits in my head! The language is nothing short of a wonder. It is enormous, diverse and amazingly versatile. There are countless dialects with thousands of slang terms and colloquialisms which make each region's unique form of english kind of a different language in itself! It has gone through much change, and continues to change to this day. Linguists say that english(the true form, the Anglo-Saxon kind) is a germanic language, and it's easy to see what they mean - do you recognize these words? Buch, Schwester(is that right?) Bruder, Freund, Haus, Milch, Vater, Mutter, I could go on...hmmm, book, sister, brother, friend, house, milk, father, and mother. The similarity is there! Have you ever read old english? And by old english I don't mean 'Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe' and the like, which is actually middle english, I mean waaaaay before that, the Saxon speak. It's virtually unrecognizable! I once had a book from the library on languages which contained a passage written in this form, and all that I could read were the connectives - and, the, is, to - those kinds of words. Later on came the Normans, who brought with them all those lovely french words that we use every day. Once the Normans became settled and comfy in England, english was left to the peasants and was generally looked down upon - french had become the language of the aristocracy and the royals. At this point, english had become somewhat decipherable to our modern eyes, although vowels as we know them today were pronounced differently and the silent letters such as gh, k in knife and e's at the end of some words were pronounced, which explains a lot! More time passed, which eventually brought the Great Vowel Shift, or, the change in the pronunciation of vowels to the way we say them in modern english. We eventually dropped the 'gh' and the other seemingly willy-nilly silent letters, but for some reason kept them in the spelling, much to the chagrin of people everywhere who are trying to learn to speak english! They say that english is probably the most difficult of all languages to learn, with all the homonyms and synonyms and what not. There are 3 different spellings and meanings for the word 'there' for crying out loud! I honestly don't know how all those ESL students do it! There were a handful of foreign exchange students at our school throughout my high school career: mostly from France and Germany. I found that on average, the German students spoke much better english than the French ones. One girl that was staying here one year, Swantje, spoke just as well as us. She was even able to do a major independant study project and present it in front of the class - funny story about that - she included in her presentation a joke about East Berliners(her project was on Germany, obviously) which was quite racy and included various swear words! We killed ourselves laughing, and the teacher had to tell her that it was unacceptable to say that in school, much to her surprise! Apparently, her school was a bit more liberal!! To the other extreme, during my last semester at school there was a French student in my geography class who really couldn't understand or speak english at all. Luckily, she sat next to a french immersion student who translated everything for her. She corrected all my french writing assignments, though! I guess her teachers in France must have thought the 'immersion' method might have worked for her. Then, once all the poor ESL students have learned the basics, which includes grammar (shudder on their behalf), they then have to learn sayings and slang just to sound half normal, as we as Anglophones use an enormous amount of slang, more than we even realize! Wow, considering the amount of people who have been speaking english their whole lives who aren't very good at it, it doesn't bode well for the newbies! But somehow they do it, and are able to get by. I think they deserve a medal, don't you?!!

Father's Day!

2005-06-19T21:48:00.000-04:00

What a great day I had today! This morning, James gave Mike his homemade present: a little ceramic tile meant to be a coffee mug coaster on which was painted a Spitfire with bombs (I've tried to explain that Spitfires were fighter jets, not bomber planes, but he just won't accept that!) and an oversized card in the shape of a tuxedo in which he printed his name and traced the words "happy father's day, Dad" it was so cute! I made Mike breakfast and tea - not in bed, I didn't want the blankets all full of crumbs! I bought him this cool keychain in the shape of a Civil War musket...I could have bought him cologne or a watch, but I know he would like the musket better, which he did! Later the kids and I went over to mom and dad's place for lunch, where we ate a lot of chicken and took a lot of pictures! KK and I looked through some family photo albums and found a picture of me when I was 12 reading a People magazine(surprise, surprise!), and we decided to do a 10-year-later re-enactment! I posed exactly like I did in the first picture and tried to copy the facial expression. It turned out not far off, it was hilarious! (OOOh, I'm watching Alexisonfire live on t.v., they rock!!) Then we went for a family jaunt to the cemetery, where we cleaned my grandpa and great grandma's graves, commented on the outlandishly ludicrous cemetery by-laws in our region, and took a picture of all of us standing by my grandpa's grave. Mike and his brother went over to their mom's house for a not-so-appetizing lunch of stuffed trout...bleccchh! I don't know, maybe it is good, but it sure doesn't sound good! Has anyone out there ever tried it before? The only thing that dampered my day was the cold I can feel brewing, what with the swollen glands and sore throat and all. Bah! I hate being sick! It's summer, for crying out loud...my mother in law was here the other day hacking and coughing, saying "Oh man, this cold is driving me nuts!" Lovely. Please, people, if you know you're sick, stay away! You're just spreading your misery around! Stupid viruses... oh well, hopefully it won't be a bad one! Happy Father's day, Dad! I hope you had a great day, and everyone else as well!

The Freaky World of Kid's Television

2005-06-18T09:42:00.000-04:00

It's Saturday morning, and I'm sitting here watching the proverbial Saturday morning cartoons with James. It's amazing(and a little scary) how much cartoons can become a part of your life when you have kids! I can sing the theme song to every single show that airs on YTV and Treehouse, I know all the characters by name and I can tell which episode it is within two minutes of watching! Sad, isn't it! There are some shows that I really like and that are great for kids to watch - Blues Clues, Time Blazers, Mystery Hunters, Dora the Explorer - to name a few, and of course, Spongebob Squarepants, which isn't all that educational or beneficial in any way, but is uproariously funny and for that reason alone I will encourage Jimmy and Eri to watch it to their heart's content! Then there are kid's shows that I dislike - any 'Japanimation' cartoons, Caillou, there are more but I can't think of them right now... and Barney! The one show that I just can't tolerate, no matter how hard I try! I was sitting here peacefully trying to read 'David Copperfield', losing myself in the illustrious Dickensian 19th century London when suddenly what maddening melody should enter my head but "Barney is a dinosaur from our imaginaaaatioooon..." AARRGGHH! A big purple dinosaur dancing and flailing around, surrounded by a circle of unrealistically happy, clean-cut children with overexaggerated facial expressions using Leave it to Beaver-esque language, holding hands! Do kids that age ever hold hands voluntarily, or should I say without guns to their heads? Noooo... do they ever burst into spontaneous song? Noooo...and who's watching those kids, anyway? They're supposed to be at school waiting for their parents to arrive, and the only thing resembling an adult around is an oversized dinosaur that only children can see? Okay, it's not realistic, but it does have redeeming qualities - it teaches empathy, friendship, teamwork, it discourages sexism, jealousy, greed, bad sportsmanship, etc. but does it have to be so gay? Then there are the infamous Teletubbies and the Boobahs. The latter show is the topic of much argument in the child development world, it seems, mainly about the speech issue. Most of what the Teletubbies say is completely unintelligible babble interspersed with names and nouns. It's cute, but is that what the target demographic should be hearing? Experts say that we should speak to babies and toddlers using complete sentences, real words and real pronunciations, so that they learn to speak properly. They do learn language by imitation, after all! So, what are the Teletubbies really teaching them? How to dance? Pretty much. Same with the Boobahs, which were created by the same people that produced the Teletubbies. They're strange, colourful, rotund space beings with shifty eyes like those Felix the Cat clocks that do nothing but dance, look back and forth making clicking noises, and go to sleep in wierd neon pods! They even have names like Zing Zing Zing-bah! What is up with that? Frightening! I guess watching kid's shows isn't something that parents not always want to do, but sometimes have to put up with! My dad didn't like a lot of the shows that we watched as kids, and he even made up funny play-on-words names for them, like Polka-Snot Bore instead of Polka-Dot Door, and Aunt Baggy Agnes instead of Dear Aunt Agnes! Hee hee...

Full class license, here I come!

2005-06-14T21:17:00.000-04:00

I have my final driving test coming up on Thursday, to get my G class license(full license). Now I don't know if licensing is done differently in other provinces, states, countries, what have you, but here we have this preposterous system in which you have exactly 5 years to go from beginners(G1) to intermediate(G2, which is the type of license I currently hold) onto G. If you fail to reach the G license by the time the 5 years is up, back to G1 you go and have to start all over again! The part I don't get is this: one of the restrictions of G1 is that you have to drive with someone with 4 years driving experience at all times. But wouldn't you have 5 years experience? You'd actually have to drive with someone with less experience than you? How demeaning is that?? I regrettably have procrastinated somewhat in getting the G2 exit test over with, and have till November to get it now or I'm screwed! My dad has been taking me out to practice my highway driving, a skill I had not yet mastered as I am -or was - afraid of merging! It's scary! You have to get on the on-ramp going 100 K's frantically looking for an open space, hoping that someone will let you in all the while trying to keep an eye on the road... man! All you seasoned drivers are probably chuckling at my green-ness! Once I have successfully merged and am serenely barrelling down the highway I'm fine, but it's the getting on I find panic-inducing. I've done some practicing the past couple of days, so I think I'll do okay. I had to practice my parallel parking and backing in to a space, something that may or may not be on the test, but as I have executed neither one of these artistic vehicle moves in 3 years, I thought I should brush up just in case! I did pretty well, taking into account my rustiness! My dad said my overall driving skills are much better since I took my last test, so as long as I keep my bad habits in check I should do fine. What bad habits, you say? Rolling stops, blocking the crosswalk on right turns, not checking mirrors, jerky lane changes, holding the steering wheel with one index finger, etc. Goodness, I'm going to have to watch myself! I guess driving with my knees putting on makeup and talking on a cell phone while holding a hot coffee is out too! Just kidding... ha ha, I don't have a cell phone! More ha ha... The test requirements are superstrict, as well. You have to be like a ballerina and your car like en pointe ballet shoes in order to pass, all graceful and precise. I'm telling you, if you don't have city driving down to an art form, you will not pass! Even so much as jumping the curb while parking will fail you! I think they should allow you some room for mistake. I mean, do those testers expect us to believe they never do a rolling stop when they're in a hurry? Oh well, as most people tell me when I complain on this subject, you only have to drive absolutely perfectly for about 10 minutes and then you'll never have to drive absolutely perfectly ever again!

Riverfest

2005-06-11T15:43:00.000-04:00

Well, Riverfest weekend is here once again, people...yaaaay! That was a sarcastic yaaay, by the way. For those that don't live anywhere near Southern(or Northern, for that matter)Ontario, the Grand River is a very brown, silty river(I know I just used the word river twice in a row, but I really can't find a way around it) that begins somewhere in Northern Ontario and runs all the way through to Lake Erie. It's very beautiful in most spots, just not in downtown areas where it is encased in ugly, graffiti-covered retaining walls! I've canoed down a fairly long stretch of it a few times before, and if you are ever planning on doing this, I have three pieces of advice for you: Wear shoes - you don't want to be stuck walking on the riverbed with bare feet, it's pretty painful what with all the jagged rocks! Wear a life jacket - obviously, golden rule for boating, and last but not least, another golden boating rule, never take anything in a boat that you're not prepared to lose! All it takes is to hit one rock or run aground and over you go, cargo and all! I once read in a history book that the founders of Cambridge once built a raft of wooden logs, visited one of the whiskey-posts they had back then and got hammered, and then proceeded to get naked and put on grass skirts which they had made earlier on and went on a drunken trip down the river, falling in several times! Why they did this I don't know, but I find it pretty hilarious!
Anyway, on to my intended topic. The city holds a weekend-long festival of sorts on the riverbanks complete with vendor's tents(I always love the stuff they sell, but it's always outrageously overpriced), bouncy inflated castles, beer tents, sponsor booths, face painting, etc. It's all about the dragon boat races, though! Long, narrow multi-passenger rowboats with ornate dragon's heads affixed to the bow that teams race down the river. I'm not sure what kind of prize they get, if any, but this is pretty much the entire reason anyone shows up! It's exciting the first couple of races - the guy standing at the stern is shouting encouraging words at the rowers or yelling "ROW! ROW! ROW! at the top of his lungs. People seemed pretty apathetic towards the races this time - maybe they were just too hot, or possibly too drunk. The beer tent was serving vodka coolers this year! Isn't this supposed to be a family friendly event? Hmm...
The only people I heard cheering were the winning team members on the water! As appealing as all this sounds, it somehow falls short of thrilling. Maybe it's the lack of whack-a-mole booths and ring-toss tables and midway rides, or maybe it's the heat, but I kind of couldn't wait to leave! We brought a huge bottle of water to alternately drink and dump over each other's heads, which we did frequently! Mike poured water in Eri and Jimmy's hats and put the hats on their heads! They loved it! Let's see, what else happened of note... Jimmy walked in on a portuguese guy using the port-o-potty(I apologized but he stormed off in a huff), umm, I don't know, I think that's about it! Oh well, only a couple more weeks until the Canada day parade, Yaaaay fireworks!

So.... Hot....

2005-06-10T21:42:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! I know it's been a couple days since my last post, but I've been busy all day and tired all night, so I haven't really been thinking about anything but laying on the couch and rubbing icy hot stuff on my aching muscles! I really like my new job, and I know that sounds unlikely, seeing how I have to clean peoples houses and all, but it's great: we get a change of scenery every couple of hours, we get to drive through beautiful country towns(driving on the highway with the windows down really helps with the heat issue) , we get to admire pictures and statues as we're dusting them, etc. Mind you, it's hard work. My first day, I cleaned 4 bathrooms the size of my kids's bedroom and a kitchen, and let me tell you, my arm was very sore afterwards! It was a bit easier today, I was on vacuuming and dusting duty. The only really strenuous thing about this is lugging the VERY heavy vacuum up and down 3 flights of stairs. It's a good feeling though, hard work kind of has a way of making you feel all useful and fulfilled. It feels so much better than sitting on one's butt every day, trying to think of ways to pass the time!
It really amazes me how much hot weather can affect people. Drivers drive more aggressively,People get very cranky(especially babies), people get tired, sick, I can go on! It seems that very hot weather is an appetite suppressant, as well. During the day, I swear I could eat nothing and not be the slightest bit hungry. Yesterday I ate a whopping apple and a plate of nachos and I had to make myself eat the nachos! Today so far, I've eaten a bowl of cereal, a bagel and a popsicle and still am not really hungry! I've been drinking water like no tomorrow, though, of course. The human body never ceases to amaze! A lot of other people I've talked to over the last couple of days have mentioned the near-total appetite loss, too. I wonder if this is some kind of physiological function we humans possess, maybe to help us survive longer in the desert? Just an idea! I don't know. Anyone have any thoughts on this subject?

Change of events!

2005-06-07T21:24:00.000-04:00

It seems my luck has changed! I was on my way out today to hand out some resumes and came back home to pick them up when I noticed a message on my phone. I checked the number, and lo and behold, it was Molly Maid! I excitedly checked the message and discovered that another opening came up and they wanted to hire me right away! I called them up and took the job! Yaaaay! Now we can start saving up for a car...I went down to meet my boss and pick up my uniform - a really cute pink-and-navy golf shirt type-thing and some employee discount cards to buy some pants. My boss and I hit it off right away, she's really nice and we had a fairly long conversation about our kids and stuff. It was great! I'm so happy!!! So I have to go do some running around tomorrow, like picking up a copy of my driving record for their insurance place so I can drive a company car, and buying the rest of my uniform. I made an appointment with the city to get subsidized child care, and I got myself a temporary babysitter until then, so everything's all ready! I feel bad putting the kids in daycare, but I'm not full time yet so I'll still be able to spend a decent amount of time with them.
Another great(but to a lesser degree)thing is the discovery that I'm not totally agriculturally-challenged, which I had assumed up to this point. The bean in the little paper cup that Jimmy got from the Yee-Haw adventure farm which his class visited a couple of weeks ago is actually starting to sprout! Yeah, I know it's a bit silly to get excited over a little bean in a cup, but it gave me a strange twinge of satisfaction to have spent two weeks watering and sunning the thing and to finally see some result... imagine if I was a farmer! You'd see me out in the fields happily dancing around yelling"YEEEAAAHH! I DID IT!" at the first sign of the baby crops pushing through the soil! That's a funny mental image...Well, that's all for tonight, I've got a lot to get done tomorrow, better climb the wooden hill(as my dad used to call stairs)! Goodnight!

Blogger Ethics?

2005-06-05T22:02:00.000-04:00

Does free speech really exist, or is it an illusion? Sure, it sounds nice in theory and radicals and blowhards alike enjoy flaunting it around when under fire from angry objectors, but really when you think about it, how often are we really free to say whatever we want, be it in a private conversation or a public forum? It's natural for humans to disagree and bicker with each other, and rarely do we allow people to have their own opinions and ideas. It seems that the rise in popularity of web logging has opened a whole new can of worms in this respect. Blogging, I think, is a wonderful thing. It's a place where you can write down your ideas, opinions, interests, and pretty much anything else you can think of, and unlike a diary, you get feedback from friends and complete strangers with the comments they leave which sometimes lead to some good discussions. It's personal, yet public at the same time. However, with this sense of freedom comes consequences which remind us that we are not quite as liberated as we think(stupid reality!) I've heard stories about people losing their jobs after letting off steam after a particularly bad day at work. I've had comments posted on my blogs saying things like "That was great, but you could have done this different, and you really shouldn't think this or say that..." I've read other people's blogs that criticize the style and content of fellow bloggers's writings, dissatisfied when they are too vague, angry, happy, sappy and anything in between. I quote the immortalized words of Rick Nelson: "You can't please everyone, so you gotta please yourself." I've come across many a blog while surfing randomly through blogland that I totally disagreed with, but if that's what they felt like writing that day, that's their business, you know? I don't want to post a negative comment and rain on their blogging parade, because who knows? They might have been really proud of their writing and who am I to tell them it sucks? If I really don't like what any given person has to say, I click the 'next blog' button and move on. If we feel like being humorous, we can be humorous. If we feel like being wannabe intellectuals, we can do that. If we feel like ranting, we should be able to do that too. And if we want to write about what we did that day, that's what we'll do! It is a personalized online journal, after all, and we should never be pressured to only write what we think others will want to hear. I don't know about you all out there in blogland, but I kind of enjoy the little windows into people's lives and psyches that are blogs, no matter what the content! Seeing the differences and originalities from person to person is really interesting!

Park Fun

2005-06-04T12:13:00.000-04:00

Well, I didn't get that job at Molly Maid that I wanted..waaahhh! When they called back after my interview yesterday, they said they worked it down to me and this other girl, and they picked the other girl. They said they would keep my application and in case something else opens up or if this girl doesn't work out they'd call me, but I think this is mostly something employers say in order to make you feel better, kind of like a consolation prize! Oh well, you never know. I've had companies give me an interview months after saying "We'll put your resume on file"! I really hate looking for a job. It's nerve-racking, disappointing, competitive and generally a big pain in the rear end! Once you have the job it's easy sailing from then on (more or less), but some places really put you through the wringer beforehand! I'm sure I'll find something soon. The other day I had the pleasure of taking the kids to Churchill park, which for those of you who don't live in Cambridge is a huge park(obviously) with two playgrounds, an animal reserve, a campground, all sorts of hiking trails, sports fields, a skating arena and a duck pond. In other words, kid heaven! As soon as we parked and got out of the car, James took off for the playground to the giant space shuttle. For as long as I can remember, there had been a rickety old play space shuttle standing here with a hole in the bottom and ladders going all the way up to the top so that one could climb up to sit towering over the rest of the playground. It was fun to play in, but as there were only fairly wide-spaced steel bars to hold you in, it was considered dangerous by the city and was replaced by a new spaceship, a plastic/steel behemoth with curvy slides, play steering wheels and 'control panel' and proper stairs going up all the levels instead of ladders. It sure is a lot safer than the original, but somehow just not the same. It undoubtedly was built during the Cold War, when space exploration was the 'in' thing, and was the last of the really fun playground toys around. In the 90's, cities gradually began replacing all the wooden climbing structures, tall swings, merry-go-rounds, metal monkey bars, precarious, tall steel slides and all other dangerous-although wickedly fun-playground equipment with safe, molded plastic, low to the ground structures that almost nobody gets hurt on, ever. Don't get me wrong, they're a godsend to worried parents, but they're really boring! I guess you can't have it both ways. Does anyone remember those mechanical bull-type things at playgrounds that seated 4 people on each end? You'd rock back and forth really fast with only a small rectangular bar to hold onto, and if you happened to be on there with a bunch of ruffian boys you'd end up getting thrown off from going so fast! Those things were awesome!!
Anyway, we played for a bit, visited the deer and peacocks in the reserve, waded in the creek, and went for a walk around the huge duck pond. Sitting on a bench by the pond was a lady and her toddler son feeding the ducks. We walked up to them so the kids could get a good look at the ducks, geese and goslings that were congregated there, fighting over little pieces of brown bread. The lady offered a couple of pieces of bread to James so he could feed them too. For some reason, as soon as the crowd of ducks realized that they were being fed by us as well, they all started honking and quacking, flapping their wings and advancing on us! I kind of jumped back a bit, nervously commenting to the lady "I think they're going to swarm us!" She just sat there calmly, answering "Oh, they won't hurt us." Those geese looked pretty agitated, in their defensive extended-neck positions and all, and call me crazy, but I think you'd be in a lot of pain if those things decided to start gang-pecking you! The birds eventually calmed down, and once our bread was gone we left for home after much cajoling(you know how kids are about leaving the park!). I love doing these kinds of things with the kids, and I hope I'm able to find an evening or night shift job so I can keep on doing it! Well, that's all for now! Bye!

Meat

2005-05-31T21:39:00.000-04:00

It's been a good day! I got an interview with Molly Maid today, which is for those of you who don't know is a housekeeping agency around Canada and the States. They told me that it's casual to begin with, which basically means that I'll be on call(only weekdays, though) and that if I'm not called in by 8:30 a.m. they won't need me that day, so that's pretty good. I'm pretty excited about it as it pays pretty well and we could use the extra income. I hope I get the job! The only problem is that I'm pretty sure I'll have to put the kids in daycare, which sucks. I'd rather they stay with someone they know or a relative, but I don't think it'll be feasible. Most of the kids in Jimmy's class are in daycare, and they seem happy enough, and it's not like it'll be every day at first, so that's the bright side.
I spent a lot of time cleaning the kitchen this afternoon after noticing that the stench of mexican-flavoured meat sauce still hung in the air after last night's burrito dinner! I'm beginning to think that nothing in the world disgusts me more than ground beef. I never used to mind it, but I think that because I have to cook it like every day and see it fry and bubble in its own grease emitting its meaty essence, all the while being occasionally splashed by rogue drops of searing hot fat! And draining the grease! That's a whole other story... I pour it into this glass jar to avoid the pipes becoming clogged, and I never cease to be affected by the sheer grossness of the way all the components settle. On the bottom is like a liquid oil, followed by a layer of lard. Then, there's a layer of brown, bread-crumb looking stuff, then more lard. YECCCHHHH! Mike and his brother are big meat lovers. They went through a long-lived burger phase, but now they're into sausages. Bangers, Oktoberfest, Polish, you name it, they like it! They also go through a lot of luncheon meat, corned beef and hot dogs. In our house, ground beef is added to kraft dinner and rice - Mike thinks it gives the meal more 'body'. Not more body, I say, more cholesterol! On top of that, we occasionally eat tuna, salmon and imitation crab meat( of which I am a huge fan) and chicken thighs. I've noticed over the years that there are two kinds of meat eaters: the kind that grabs a drumstick or a chop and wolfs it down, cartilege, fat, tendons, skin and all! The way these people go at it, you imagine they'd eat the bones if they could! And then there's the kind of meat eater who only eats the flesh and nothing else. They pick off all the biology experiment-y things on the meat, checking for bloody spots the whole time. This type of meat eater always gets taunted by the wolf-like type for being so picky! I have always been the latter. If I accidentally got a piece of fat or gristle in my mouth, I quickly spit it out. I'm not a skin-eater, normally, although I will make exceptions if said chicken skin happens to be coated with original style Shake-n'-bake! Mmm... crispy salty goodness! Although I realize this logic is totally flawed, I just feel like less of a ghoul if I don't eat the poor, dead animal's skin and just stick to eating the poor, dead animal's flesh! I think the reason why I so dislike cooking meat is that seeing it raw reminds you of what you're eating!All bloody and goose-bumpy... when it's done and all tender, flavourful and juicy it's a lot easier to forget that you're eating a corpse! I hope I'm not grossing anyone out too much! Meat does have its redeeming qualities, mind you, it provides protein and sates your hunger like nothing else. There have been moments, however fleeting, where I toyed with the idea of quitting meat altogether and trying out vegetarianism, but I admit I would miss turkey and chicken dinners too much! Beside, I would have to take supplements which I'm guessing would be a big pain in the arse and pricey, as well. And who wants to eat heaping plates of spinach, brussel's sprouts and beans, either? Goodnight!