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April 04 Welcome SpringThe Cat who acted like a bear for the winter is now coming out of hibernation.
After a long sleep, the days are finally getting warmer and brighter. Winter depression be damned!
I can't believe it has been so long since I've been blogging.
Some things I have learned this winter:
1. Sleeping a lot does not necessarily make you less tired.
2. Drinking lots of red wine does not help you sleep better.
3. Spending 5 hours in the emergency when your child has pneumonia is a drag.
4. Hearing a 5-year-old say pneumonia is funny.
5. 7-year-olds can outgrow their clothes quite suddenly.
6. Ankle-deep snow and sub-zero temperatures are disincentives to the morning run.
7. A full-spectrum lamp is a poor substitute for real sunlight.
8. Culture jamming is kinda cool. (hmm blog post to come)
9. 9/11 conspiracy theorists have some interesting points. (hmm....fodder for another post)
10. Working for a corporation has pros and cons.
11. It's sooo easy to gain weight and sooo hard to take it off.
12. Sometimes birthdays really suck.
13. I missed blogging.
Thanks to those of you who have left comments such as, "where the hell are you?".....I was sleeping through the winter. Luckily, I woke up! I'll be making the rounds soon to check out what's been happening with y'all.
 As you probably know, or can probably gather by looking around here, I love quotes. Here is another great one:
"Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh, and the greatness which does not bow before children." -Kahlil Gibran
Have a good night!
January 05 Stupid Parents!Happy New Year to everyone!
As you can see, I am finding it increasingly difficult to update this blog on a regular basis, but I am trying!
Warning: this is a rant!
Last night hubby and I went to see King Kong. The movie was very intense and very enjoyable. However, the complaint I have is the stupid parent sitting in the row behind us who brought his 4- or 5-year-old son to this movie. Anyone with half a brain who has seen the trailers or commercials for this movie can tell that this is not a movie for kids. I mean….the T-Rex facing off with King Kong is a prominent shot in any trailer that I have seen. The poor little kid behind us was scared! And rightly so….there were scenes that scared me. Why subject your kid to that? The other problem with brining your young kid to a movie is the constant chatter and jostling that the other patrons have to endure. Not only did this little boy kick the back of my hubby’s seat repeatedly, but he was talking throughout the movie. “Daddy is that King Kong?” “Daddy, who’s that guy?” “Daddy, I’m scared.” “Daddy, I’m scared.” “Daddy, I’m scared.” I felt like reaching back and slapping that Daddy in the head for bringing such a young child to this movie. The child can’t really be blamed for his behaviour. It’s the father’s fault for bringing him. The kid was too young to be there. I felt the same way when I saw a parent bring a 4-year-old to Jurassic Park. As parents it's our job to filter what kids see. There is a reason for the ratings on movies! I'm not saying parents should never bring your kids to movies...just bring your kids to movies that are appropriate for their age. Otherwise get a babysitter and go enjoy the movie by yourself!
October 12 Things I learned this weekThis idea I have shamelessly stolen from Violent Margie aka Cheezmo formerly aka Ethel the Evil Mermaid? Glad you dropped the evil mermaid part, Margie!
1. Drinking lots of wine is NOT a good way to lose weight.
2. I should NEVER even hope to lose weight during my Anniversary/Thanksgiving weekend.
3. I never want to have a business that is completely dependent on the weather.
4. Many grape producers in the Niagara region lost over 50% of their crop last winter due to "winter kill". It just got too damn cold.
5. Many peach producers in the Niagara region lost entire orchards due to disease.
6. When they are released, 2005 wines will be really good, and also really expensive.
7. A couple we met from North Carolina think that this weather is too cold. Try visiting us in January, wimps.
8. Decanting a bottle of wine and letting it sit for 1-2 hours improves the taste like aging it for an extra 1-2 years. Wine does not really "breathe" if you just take the cork out.
9. Being a soldier in the early 1800's sucked.
10. 200 years ago, officers in the British army had to pay huge sums of money to get their first jobs. 400 pounds! That's equivalent to $65,000 today.
11. Many upscale wine makers are using synthetic corks and starting to use screw caps because of a world-wide shortage of cork, due to forest fires in the cork producing forests of Portugal.
12. Going for a morning run after not running for 4 days AND drinking lots of wine and eating lots of food is not easy. Felt like running under water with weights attached to my legs!
13. I miss my kids an awful lot when they're away for just a few days.
14. Stores in Niagara-on-the-Lake are damn expensive and overpriced. Their version of a "dollar store": everything is only $15. LOL! Go for the wine. Not the shopping! Unless you have money to burn.
15. Most of the people in Margie's PHATBEGONE Challenge are not going to make it. At least I'm not the only loser.....er....actually in this case you want to be a loser....so I guess I'm not the only person who didn't lose. Hehehe.
16. It's Canadian Appreciation Week. Guess I should show my appreciation for some Canadians......Ian and Jorge have already shown their appreciation for me. Thanks, guys!
August 17 Nature and other Random ThoughtsNature On the way into work today, I saw something I have probably walked past a hundred times but never noticed till today. In amongst the concrete and asphalt behind the building where I work, there is a big tuft of ornamental grass that has gone to seed. It is growing right up out of a crack in the asphalt by a pillar of the building. It's beautiful.
I just stopped and looked at it for a while. It was amazing. I am in awe of nature. No matter what we do, nature takes over. No matter how we try to control it, we can’t. We build culverts and dams to try to re-direct rivers, but they flood. We use “weed” killers, but the natural plants that are native to a particular area always come back. We try to seal up our garbage containers, but the skunks & raccoons still figure out ways of getting in. Decades of human effort can be wiped out by a single storm or wave. There’s no denying it; it is far more powerful than us. Somehow I find that comforting. We humans tend to get a little too arrogant and we need to be put back in our place.
Ah….the end of summer Summer is going to be over soon. I just noticed that The Ex starts on Friday. For me, and a lot of people who grew up in the Toronto area, the start of the Canadian National Exhibition (aka the CNE or the Ex) is a sure reminder that summer is nearly over. It is a fair/amusement park/exposition that runs during the last two weeks of August every year in Toronto. I used to go almost every summer when I was younger. I can still smell the midway…the combination of fried foods & popcorn & sugar and sun-baked asphalt.
With the end of summer comes the changing of the seasons. I always enjoy watching that. I loved watching the winter melt away and the buds start to pop out and the leaves start to grow as I walked to work every day this past spring. Soon we will start to see the leaves change, and again, I will marvel at the power of nature.
Special Thanks! Thanks to Amy who helped me get my sig right on the page up there on my space. Still working on putting music on here, but I should have that working by tonight (hopefully).
And Now for Something Completely Unrelated I noticed something interesting today while browsing for news of the Telus strike (which is causing much frustration to anyone who works in the Canadian telecom industry). A new study shows that young Canadians are spending more time on the Internet than watching TV. Wow. Read the story here.
I personally have not been watching too much TV or doing much blogging over the past few of days. I keep staying up too late reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I am on page 400+something now. I’ve read all the Harry Potter books and was particularly disappointed with the 5th one. This 6th book is a good one, though! It’s a page-turner. I don’t have as much reading time built-in to my schedule now that I do not commute to work anymore, so I have to fit it in after the kids go to bed.
Naturally, I’m still Hungry Well, I’ve been back on the Weight Watcher program for 2 weeks now, and have only gone off track once. That was last Saturday at my niece’s birthday party. At the place where the party was held, the closest thing they had to vegetables on their menu was french fries! Yikes! It's working though. I’m already starting to feel a difference in the way some of my clothes fit. I find that my hardest time of day is in the middle of the afternoon….around 3pm, when I really just want to eat continuously until dinner! LOL! Ah well. I love carrots & cucumber. I love carrots & cucumbers! I love carrots & cucumbers. Yeah. Hahaha. Wish me strength!
Well that’s all I have for today. Have a good one, everybody!
August 09 Check this out....She buys stuff from eBay, and keeps buying and buying and buying. But she never gets rid of anything. Her son has taken pictures throughout her house. Unbelievable! Obviously she has a condition called OCD, but geez, this is bizarre. How can anyone think its okay to live like this???
Here is a picture of her dining room.
Nothing exciting to reportGood morning,
Well, I have not much to write about due to the fact that we spent the entire weekend cleaning the house. After being away at cottages for 6 weekends in a row, believe me, it needed a THOUROUGH cleaning. Next weekend I tackle the back yard & garden!
The Wave Pool
On Sunday we took the kids to the Wave Pool in Richmond Hill, north of Toronto. That place is really a lot of fun. They have life jackets for the kids and floating mats for everyone who wants them. The waves are pretty big and you can just ride them. You get bounced around quite a lot. Every 15 minutes they turn off the waves and turn on the waterslide, which is also great fun. If you have a Wave Pool in your city, you should really check it out. It's a blast!
Searches
There have been some strange & interesting search results bringing people to my site. Some of them seem perfectly logical, and some of them make me scratch my head and wonder why they ended up at my space…
These ones are logical.
This search brought someone to this post
This search brought someone to my Short & Stupid Stories
These searches brought people to my Anti-Racism series (of which I will soon be posting more installments)
These ones are the scratch your head variety.
This brought someone to my profile…..hmmmm… is this me??? conservative site:spaces.msn.com
And this one made me smile. Hey, I’m the number 1 cat site! Cool!
Joke
For a laugh, check out the rather tasteless but funny video at this link: Scrotum Scrub.
July 25 I'm BackThanks a bunch for all the lovely comments you left while I was away! We had a wonderful time up north. We visited 2 different cottages last week, did a lot of swimming, ate and drank a lot. It was great.
I'm back to work today, but I'll try to post a cottage story later tonight, and get around to visit your blogs.
Funny Google Searches
I've seen some odd searches that landed people here over the months.
These ones just made me smile.
Someone found my site with this search on Google.
This brought someone to my tooth fairy story from some time ago.
This one made perfect sense.
This brought someone to my Toronto Jazz Festival post and Terry's review of the Sonny Rollins concert.
Have a good day, everyone.
June 23 What I learned todayStrepsils throat lozenges do not go with Starbucks Vanilla Lattes! Blech!
June 12 Working on it, Really!Yeah...you know that Anti-racism education blog I promised you? Well...um....Not ready yet.
HEY! Thanks to everyone who posted a pin on my new Guestmap and commented on my Miniature Earth entry. If you haven't already done so, please post a pin on my map....the link is here.
I’ve barely been in front of the computer all weekend....mainly because I worked till 9pm on Friday, and since I work on the Internet….well, turning on the computer was farthest from my mind over the past 2 days.
Way to go, Dad! Last night my Dad played a concert at a small folk music venue in Toronto’s east end. My Dad, his wife & their friend form a trio called Folkal Point. Now, admittedly, this is not my favorite kind of music, but it is upbeat and enjoyable. They encourage the audience to join in and sing along, so it is an interactive musical experience. And for me it is nostalgic, as I have been hearing my dad play it since I was a kid. They are all good singers, and my dad is an accomplished musician. During the their two sets, he switched instruments repeatedly to suit the song; he played a guitar, harmonica, banjo, mandolin, alto mandolin, and a mandocello. They play gigs quite frequently, and were even featured on the radio last week. My kids were so excited to hear Grandpa and Gramzie on the radio! Anyway, they had a good turnout for the concert last night and I thought they performed really well. I was very proud!
Bumps & Bruises Jasmine and Jade each had icepacks on their bumps and bruises today. Jasmine took a spill on her bike and Jade bumped her head. After going to Baskin Robbins for icecream, we were heading down into the park. Jasmine was riding her bike, I was rollerblading, and Terry was riding the mountain bike with Jade in the attached child seat. As we were entering and starting to head downhill, I could see some people walking ahead of us. I said, "Jasmine, now remember, go slow. You are in control of your bike. You have to slow down or stop for other people. Don’t expect them to get out of your way." So she says, "Ok Mom." Then I say, "um…. Jasmine, you’re going the wrong way……Jasmine slow down….JASMINE LOOK OUT!" Three boys were coming along the path, and Jasmine collided with one of them. It was totally not their fault! However, it was a pretty nasty wipe out. She had a bruise on her neck from the strap of her bike helmet and there was some blood coming out of her mouth. Turns out she had bitten the inside of her mouth when she fell. She was pretty upset and shaken up. I took her back home while Terry walked her bike back. We put ice on her neck, and also discovered a bruise on her leg, so we put another ice pack on that. She is a tough kid and likes to play hard, so she is always getting some kind of scrape or bump. Obviously it wasn’t too bad though, because a couple of hours later when her cousins showed up, she was out running around having a water gun fight. Later while running around, Jade bumped into her cousin and bonked her head. Icepack for her too. I always find it amazing how quickly kids can bounce back from these things and just keep going.
And Now for Something Completely Different Living here in Canada, just to the north of the world’s biggest superpower, we are heavily influenced by the comings and goings of the USA, from their television, media and culture to their politics and their pollution….…*cough cough* I haven’t done any Bush bashing for quite some time, and noone can do it as well as Mark Morford. Check out Friday’s article, "Global Warmin' Is Fer Idjuts", in which he discusses how a former oil industry lobbyist is now the head of White House Council on Environmental Quality. Hmmm… As Morford puts it: "The environmental policies of the most powerful and gluttonous nation on the planet are being written by the world's most powerful oil company. Which is, of course, a bit like our national dietary guidelines being written by Burger King, or our national health care guidelines being written by Merck…"
June 03 RandomnessIt's finally Friday and this has been one hell of a busy week! The weekend cannot come soon enough!
OK, apparently yesterday was "Sign the Guestbook Day" and I was so damn busy I missed it. Oh well. Thanks to all of you who left me messages on my Guestbook. I'll be visiting y'all really soon.
Saw something really cool on Kill the Goat's blog. Makeout Music: Songs To Fuck By. Jay has done a public service and provided us with an awesome play-list of songs. I suggested an addition: Undress Me Now by Morcheeba (or really anything by Morcheeba). So I wanna know...what's in YOUR favourite makout play list or CD? Come on! I know you have one!
And now for some Jokes..............
Tight Skirt, Bus Stop One day, at a bus stop there was a girl who was wearing a skintight miniskirt. When the bus arrived and it was her turn to get on, she realized that her skirt was so tight she couldn't get her foot high enough to reach to step. Thinking it would give her enough slack to raise her leg, she reached back and unzipped her skirt a little. She still could not reach the step. Embarrassed, she reached back once again to unzip it a little more. Still, she couldn't reach the step. So, with her skirt zipper halfway down, she reached back and unzipped her skirt all the way. Thinking that she could get on the step now, she lifted up her leg only to realize that she still couldn't reach the step. So, seeing how embarrassed the girl was, the man standing behind her put his hands around her waist and lifted her up on to the first step of the bus. The girl turned around furiously and said, "How dare you touch my body that way, I don't even know you!" Shocked, the man says, "Well, ma'am, after you reached around and unzipped my fly three times, I kinda figured that we were friends."
Who's the Boss? A young couple on their wedding night were in their honeymoon suite. As they were undressing for bed, the husband, a big burly man, tossed his trousers to his new bride. He said, "Here, put these on." She put them on and the waist was twice the size of her body. "I can't wear your trousers." she said. "That's right,'' said the husband, "and don't you ever forget it. I'm the man who wears the pants in this family." With that she flipped him her panties and said, "Try these on." He tried them on and found he could only get them on as far as his kneecaps. "Hell," he said. ''I can't get into your panties!" She replied, "That's right...and that's the way it is going to stay until your attitude changes."
Husbands' Performance Three women were sitting around talking about their husbands' performance as lovers. The first woman says ''My husband works as a marriage counsellor. He always buys me flowers and candy before we make love. I like that.'' The second woman says, ''My husband is a motorcycle mechanic. He likes to play rough and slaps me around sometimes. I kinda like that.'' The third woman just shakes her head and says, ''My husband works for Microsoft. He just sits on the edge of the bed and tells me how great it's going to be when I get it.''
****Important Disclaimer**** None of the husband jokes apply to you, Terry! May 13 Happy Friday!Ok, Ok, I know I keep hinting at the drama of this week, and I will post about it later, I swear! I've just been sooooooooo damn busy this week. I'll probably find time to finish writing about this after work.
Found this cool thing on Amy's site. Thanks, Amy! How to make your own Personality cocktail. Go here to play. Here is how to make a Greeneyedcat: Ingredients: Method:
To be honest, I have more than a dash of emotion, but hey....that sounds pretty good!
Happy Friday, friends!
May 03 Chocolate Temptation and the ApocalypseI am a chocoholic! And I love ice cream! So I just went to heat up my lunch and some cruel and nasty person in my office has left a Haagen Dazs chocolate & vanilla ice cream bar in the freezer to tempt me.................. So I picked it up to check out just how bad it is.....331 calories and 24 grams of fat!!! Holy Crap! That's more than my whole lunch! Guess I'll just have to be happy with my Chicken Tikka Masala and a fat free chocolate pudding! Oh well.....
Blah! Like Zen, I am feeling very blah today. 'Course he was feeling Blah yesterday. Although he has such a succinct eloquence about it. I am too verbose.
The Apocalypse is Near? In the past hour we have had snow, rain, hail & sleet in Toronto (well...I don't know about sleet...I just threw that in cuz it sounded good!). WTF is going on? The end is near.
Violent Margie is Back! She's been in Europe for a while, but she is back and recanting the tales of her travels with her own uniqe wit and a lot of swearing.
The Best Page in the Universe (his title, not mine) Here's a really funny website I found some time ago. It's called The Best Page in the Universe. The tag-line is "This page is about me and why everything I like is great. If you disagree with anything you find on this page, you are wrong."
BlogHer Conference This is cool. Female Bloggers....in case you're interested, and in case you're in the California area this summer...there is a conference going on just for us. The BlogHer Conference.
Well...clearly I have nothing intelligent to say today, so I'll wrap it up for now.
Peace, y'all!
April 21 Krispy Kreme Kaput in Canada?Krispy Kreme's Canadian franchise, KremeCo has filed for bankruptcy protection. I guess Canadians don't really like their donuts. Oh well. I like Tim Horton's donuts better, anyway. Krispy Kremes are too greasy & not very substantial for the amount of fat & calories involved. Hey, if I'm gonna eat that much fat & sugar, it's gotta be worth it!
April 20 Random Stuff for a Random WednesdayBlah Wednesday It's yucky & grey & raining in Toronto. I know we've been spoiled with the beautiful weather we've had the past few days, but this just sucks!
Nostalgia Food On Monday, I worked from home because my mother-in-law, who takes care of the kids, was very sick. I got a lot of work done & spent some time with Jade, which was really cool. For lunch I made us tomato soup & cheez dreams. This is a lunchtime favorite I used to have when I was a kid. What is a cheez dream, you ask? Toast some bread, butter it, slather it with cheez whiz, and put under the broiler until the cheez whiz bubbles & turns brown. I also used to love cheez whiz on celery, and now my kids love it too.
Got any Nostalgia food you'd like to share?....Leave me a comment.
Come Back, Stu When are you coming back from China, Stu? We miss you!
Sparks & Firefighters Last night, my daughter, Jasmine, along with the other Sparks & Brownies took a tour of a local fire hall. She was so excited when she got home, she couldn't stop talking about it: "...and we got to climb in the fire truck, and they showed us where they play foozball when there's no fire, and where they eat, and how high the ladders can go....etc, etc., etc." They even got to slide down the firepole. How cool is that?
Canadian Jokes Pridi has some funny You know You're Canadian When..... jokes on her site, along with translations for our American friends. Check em out.
HELP - My vocab is in need of defibrillation! I'm slipping into mediocrity. I mean, I fancy myself a fairly decent writer. However, despite getting an email every day from dictionary.com with the word of the day, I keep using the same tired words and phrases over and over again. Alternative suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Leave a Comment! Examples of my sorry overused vocab below.
Suggestions for alternative words & phrases or other additions to this list are most welcome!
Have a great day y'all. April 11 Random thoughts for a MondayJipped out of a Weekend On Saturday, I was helping my bro-in-law move the final things out of his house and cleaning up for him, so he can get prepared to sell. However, that morning I had woken up with a headache. By the late afternoon, I started to feel really tired. By the evening, I couldn't get up off the couch. Spent all day Sunday in bed or on the couch, feeling like I had a 100 pound weight on my head and like I had been through 15 rounds in the boxing ring. Soooooooo....I missed out on the beautiful weather yesterday. Hubby took the kids to the library & the park & shopping. They were outside in the beautiful sunshine for most of the day. Yay for them. Boo for me. Didn't even feel well enough to sit at the computer and visit my blog buddies. Yah, I know...I'm a whiner! (Addendum...after re-reading this, I realize it sounds a bit like I'm blaming my bro-in-law. I'm not! I was happy to help you, man. I'm just complaining about getting sick.)
Too Much Perfume Can't women smell themselves? I mean, WTF is it with women who bathe in perfume? Of course, it's only when I have a headache that I encounter 3 in a row (like just now when I was waiting in line at Timmy's to buy some chicken soup to make me feel better). I used to work with a woman (long ago) who wore so much Fendi that it would knock you over 10 feet away! Geez! Ok, Ok, I'll stop whining now!
Google Searches People get to my site through some of the weirdest google searches. I've seen several people link to me because they were searching for Stars Without Makeup, which I included in a previous post. That seems reasonable. However, then I get weird ones like this: Google Search: "IS BEYONCE OF MIXED RACE" brought someone from the UK to my site. Hmmmm.... By the way, thanks to everyone who commented on my post from Thursday. It's really great to see so much of a discussion.
Orwellian Society? If you have ever read the book or seen the movie, 1984, you're going to love this. I was introduced to this website many years ago. I haven't checked it out for a while, but I was reminded of it during a MSN convo with Jorge. It's called Students for an Orwellian Society. This is clearly satirical, but it is kinda scary in it's accuracy. Check it out.
Speaking of Satire.... J.K. Rowlings is a Satinist? I am a big fan of the Harry Potter books & movies. A couple of years ago, one of my co-workers saw that I had one of the Harry Potter books on my desk, because I was reading it on my subway rides to & from work. He took it upon himself to "save my soul" and he forwarded me this article that he said proved J.K. Rowlings was an admitted devil worshiper. I said, "G, this is satire man." He said, "What's satire?" Really!
Song Lyrics I'll be the first to admit that I'm no fan of country music, especially since a lot of the songs go something like this: "She cheated on me with my brother's half-sister's stepson..." accompanied by a hokey melody to boot. However, I have found that on rare occasions, I hear a country song that has a good melody and really excellent lyrics. We heard this one while driving in Northern Ontario and flipping through the paucity of radio stations up there. I just heard it again recently, and was reminded that I really like the lyrics, so I googled it to read the whole thing. Here it is for y'all.
Live Like You Were Dying by Tim McGraw Verse 1 April 08 TGI 5pm F!!!Yeah!!! End of the workday on Friday. Woot!
Wow! Thanks for all the responses to my last post. I am very touched! I'm also really pleased to see people open up about this subject.
Now for something a little lighter....
Cookie Monster ---> Veggie Monster?!?! WTF? Go on over to Cheryl's space...she has an interesting post about how Sesame Street is changing the Cookie Monster.
Computer Surroundings I know it's a little late, but my buddy Ben took some pictures of my workspace for y'all. Thanks Ben!
This is my space at work. I'm not showing you my home computer area, cuz it's in the basement crammed in between my kids play area and my laundry room, and I'd have to clean it up for hours before I would be willing to take a picture!
As you can see, I have lots of pictures of my sweeties looking at me all day. I like plants & don't like grey walls much.
On this wall, I have a lot of Figtography, care of Jorge, before he became a famous artiste and started selling his photos for gazillions of dollars.
Here's a cute little picture my 6-year-old drew. It's titled "My Family Potrate".
Have a great weekend, everyone!!!
March 22 Stars Without MakeupCall me Catty I know, I know: I'm neurotic! Anywhoo......it's nice to know that these stars are just normal people too. Check out these pictures. If you want to see some more, click here. |
My hubby said, "Why do you do that to yourself?" Hey, what can I say....I don't have enough on my plate...I have to give myself deadlines and then miss them! 
And my friend cancelled her lunch date with me becuase she is sick. I know, it's a valid excuse but it's just adding to the blah-ness of this day. 
I'm outta here!
, but I think that the way women are protrayed in the media -- on tv, in movies, in magazines -- makes most normal women feel inadequate. You know....they all have perfect hair, perfect makeup, perfect bodies. Now, I am aware that they have professional makeup artists & professional stylists & trainers & nutirtionists, AND half of them have spent a gazillion dollars on cosmetic surgery......but they still make me feel inadequate. |
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