well .. I know I've been remiss but I'm getting to it now ... finally, the American people have spoken and the reign of terror is over! NO, not Bush, Sanjaya!!!!! Finally some people were watching American Idol with the volume actually on. Now if only we could get some of the earlier vote-offs back .. wouldn't that be great?

warmer weather is finally here, maybe we can get some outdoor stuff done .. probably not, since we just bought the big screen tv .. and we're not sitting on junk!

• just a quick question .. shouldn't the big tall guy on the Moore's Suits commercials know that he's tall? I mean he hits his head on everything .. in his own home, for crying out loud!! is that realistic?

17. April 2007

Don Ho died (although his website says he's currently performing at the Waikiki Beachcomber) .. I didn't find out until last night and apparently it happened over the weekend. Ah, that Bubbly-headed Ho. I apologise to Don Imus but I just couldn't resist. And speaking of Don Imus, for some reason, since the whole Don Imus thing, I can't get "Those Days" by Stevie Wonder out of my head. why? why? why?

I can't really bring myself to write about yet another mass shooting as I'm sure so many people are doing today because I don't think writing will prevent it from happening again .. I don't believe that stricter gun control won't have any effect at all on this sort of thing, but the NRA and other gun lobbyists seem to have a much stronger (or at least much wealthier) voice than non-gun lovers so I don't think there's anything other than a brick wall to run into down that avenue. It's just another debate that runs into overtime while people keep getting killed. I feel horrible for the victims and their families and friends and classmates and am thinking of them. I cannot imagine what they are feeling but I really don't want to, either.

12. April 2007

so lately, for about a week and a half or so, we've been enjoying "the big salad" for dinner .. no, not the same salad for 10 days. I didn't used to be a fan of making salads .. things to cut up into small pieces, lettuce to wash 20 times to get the grit off of it, deciding what kind of salad dressing to use (homemade or store bought or augmented store bought), what exactly to include in the salad ... and so on and so on .. you all know it. It's not bad if you have the time and the right kind of kitchen, but that's not reality for most of us. If you're a famous figure skater and you have all the things already available in the proper format in your refrigerator, well, then that's a different story altogether. But listen, now that you can get organic baby romaine that's prewashed .. and not that expensive if you do the math (you know, compare the price of this to the price of a head of romaine lettuce or green or red leaf lettuce that you have to wash 20 times to get the grit off of it, then tear it up after shaking it for 10 mins to get the excess water off of it because the salad spinner got given to the Diabetes Society pick-up because you never used it and it didn't really work properly anyway, then take into consideration the amounts of leftover lettuce that gets thrown away because it starts to go slimy in the bag .. ), and other veggies are starting to be available in some form of freshness again (vine-ripened hydroponic tomatoes, Mexican asparagus, english cucumber for less than $4, that kind of stuff), you really can enjoy a salad every day!!!! Without too much schnibbeling, just coarse chopping, throw in whatever you have in the house. Toss in some croutons, now readily available in foil bags, with at least 4 brands to choose from, each brand offering at least 4 varieties .. sprinkle a little parmesan on the top, drizzle with some caesar vinaigrette (not the creamy kind, the other one) and you're good to go. One steak, one big salad. Next night, chicken on the bbq and a big salad. Tonight, sausages on the bbq and a big salad. Ahhhh .. springtime.

Are you all familiar with Rick McGinniss? He writes the Idiot Box column for the Metro newspaper .. a column that's dear to my heart. If you have a love/hate relationship with television (which every thinking human being should have) then you have to check out this column on a regular basis. Trust me. It's worth a read for the American Idol coverage alone.

• in what universe is Heather Mills a star? why wouldn't she want to appear on the original BBC version of the horrid show she's currently on? hmmmm, I wonder.
• if packaged sausages are sold "fully cooked," as so many of them are these days, then why would one need to strictly adhere to the cooking instructions advising you to make sure they reach an internal temperature of a billion degrees or whatever it is? if they're fully cooked, shouldn't I be able to pull one out of the package and start chomping away? Should packagers, manufacturers, butchers, whoever dictate how hot we have to eat our food? what if I like my sausages only lukewarm? (who is this luke and how did he come to be associated with temperatures?)
• what happens to the missing sock? and I'm not talking about that old "myth" about the dryer devouring socks, we all know that only accounts for about 2% of the missing socks in the world .. I mean when for some reason, the pair of socks gets separated in the laundry ... I know, I don't understand it either but it happens ... and you pull the one lone sock out of the dryer and take it upstairs with the rest of the clean laundry, carefully placing it either in the sock drawer or in some conspicuously visible spot so you can easily match it with its partner when the next load of laundry gets done ... and then when you bring up the second sock ... lo and behold! .. there's nothing to lo and behold! it's gone. it's not in the sock drawer, it's not on the bed, it's not on top of the dresser .. it's gone. three weeks later it comes out of the laundry again, still all alone, and the game begins again. who moves the socks?
• should a barely 3 year old know that food doesn't go down into his legs? Sebastian told us last night that he was too full to eat dinner .. his neck was full and his belly was full. So I, like all self-respecting parents told him we could just wait until the food from his belly moved down into his legs and then the food from his neck would move and then he could eat more since he wouldn't be so full ...... to which he said "the food doesn't go down to your feet and then whoooosh out your socks! it only goes to your belly." Just like the other day when Tanya said something about Schmu (one of our cats) saying she wanted out, to which Basti piped up "cat's can't talk, they can only meow." I'm telling you, there's no fooling this child.
• did you hear about the Mötley Crüise being offered by Carnival? Apparently it's the second one .. is that not a most telling illustration of the ageing of a fan base? 20 or however many years ago you were a Mötley Crüe fan (I'm saying "you" because I never was), did you ever think you would .... want to go on a cruise? have enough money to go on a cruise? be allowed on a cruise ship, let alone be wooed and welcomed by a cruise line?

11. April 2007 (2)

whew! major catastrophe narrowly averted ... "Mama, do you remember the Pinnochio book?" ... um. yeah, I guess so .. "I can't find it and I need it."

after much searching and destroying, I managed to come up with Rumpelstiltskin, The Three Little Pigs, Puss in Boots, Hansel & Gretel ... but no Pinnochio!!! arrgghhhh! finally, in the basement, not on the bookshelf but on the chair ... there is the little box with mini-fairy-tale-books!!! Hurrah!

crisis averted. at least for now.

11. April 2007

another month nearly half over .. I'm telling you, like sands through the hourglass, so are the days and weeks of our lives ... just slip-sliding away.
so, Sebastian had another swimming lesson today .. good thing the teacher has a long reach, the kid is really fish-squirmy in the water. All the other mothers just laugh and ooh and ahh at him, the way he is so comfortable in the pool .. so comfortable in fact that he "swam" (I'm pretty well thinking he did actually swim) away from the group while Heather was trying to get them to try floating on their backs. The boy is nutso for the water .. and so cute in his little "speedos!" Oh yeah, we are also starting week 2 of toilet training and I think (fingers crossed) that we've basically finished toilet training. He still wants a diaper at night, which is usually dry in the morning but if he feels better with it on then that's fine, but otherwise I think my diaper buying days are gone.

some things I've been wondering about:

• if we don't get a healthcare system that we can all live with, is Jack Bauer going to take some politicians hostage until they get it right? ... think about it.
• am I tired during the day because I'm out of my regular face cream and have been having to use my nighttime face cream in the morning? is that why my eyes will close at the drop of a hat?
• I managed to see The Young and the Restless yesterday for the first time in months and I'm trying to sort it out .. see if this sounds right ... Jack wants to marry Sharon, his one-time stepson's ex-wife, while Brad, his ex-brother-in-law (twice), who also had a thing with Jack's ex-wife Nikki, has the hots for Sharon (who just happens to be Brad's wife's ex-sister-in-law) and can't seem to get over her. Meanwhile, Jack's ex-wife Phyllis is with Jack's onetime stepson Nick. Brad is trying to convince Sharon that Jack is bad news and doesn't really love her ... trying to keep her all to himself, available for him to see .. conveniently forgetting all about his pregnant wife Victoria (Sharon's ex-sister-in-law) and the fact that he's cheating on her. Does any of this sound right? Do you think they need a few new people in Genoa City? ... I think the gene pool is just about at low tide. I won't even start in on the fact that Jill's not-really-dead-because-he-was-switched-at-birth-so-only-long-lost son is about 20 years younger than he should be, or the fact that Brad's real mother, who was apparently 18-20 at the end of World War 2 and so should be around 80 yrs old, is only about 55 or 60.

I think that's enough for now .. if I continue in this vein I'll be on here all day and that's not really productive. talk to you soon

08. April 2007 (or is it already 09.?)

Back from Midland ... went for the weekend, not simply because it was Easter, but more importantly because it was Mutti's 80th birthday! I think she really had a fun day, what with the family being there and friends coming over, 4 kinds of cake, 2 bottles of champagne, calls from overseas and locally, lots of cards and of course flowers. Hard to believe that my mother is 80? of course! does she seem 80? not at all.

it was a busy day and we're all tired out, so I'll not keep you long.

04. April 2007

Day 3 of toilet training .. all in all, I think it's going quite well. 2 accidents today, one in a restaurant, one at home but other than that no problems. lousy weather today, rainy and cold and apparently we are supposed to expect snow again soon. I know it was a pretty tame winter (really, folks, it was) but that doesn't mean that we need an extra dose of snow in April!

some things for you to think about with me:

• how come once Michael Kuss left Global for Citytv his weather reports are so horribly wrong most of the time? do they have better weather equipment at Global? he's always telling us he's got a gazillion weather stations all around the GTA so how come he can't get it right anymore?
  
• the recent KitKat recall got me wondering about this .. how can they even call that thing a KitKat bar? By definition, a KitKat is a certain type of chocolate bar .. I suppose I can accept that they made huge, giant KitKats, but caramel???? That's not really a KitKat then, is it?
  
• I got a phone call yesterday that went something like this ... I answered the phone and a recording came on saying "Hi it's Karen (or some other name) from card member services and I'd like to offer you a new lower interest rate .. blah, blah, blah .. if you would like to speak with a real live person (I'm pretty sure it said that..or something very similar) then press 1 .. if you would like to stop receiving these notices, then please press 3." Following so far? Notice anything hinky? So of course, I pressed 1 just to get to talk to a real live person ... this guy answers the phone with "Card member services." Can you see where I'm going with this? ......... what freaking card?????!!!!! So I says to the guy, "uh .. can you tell me which card this is for?" "This is regarding your Visa card, ma'am. " ... then there was a loud fax-machine-type squeal and the line went dead. I guess he either didn't my tone or he wasn't a real live person after all. Is this kind of communication supposed to secure my loyalty to Visa?
  
• how is Michael going to survive the Panamanian prison system? is it really like that, do the guards just drop you off at the door and there's no one inside other than the criminals? is Linc still exonerated if Paul Kellerman in dead? Is Bill really dead? .. he should be, that was a great shot right to the heart!
  
• I may have asked this before, but did the plane from Lost really crash land on the Island of Dr. Moreau? ( if you con't get this reference you should rent the movie "The Island of Dr. Moreau .. someone must have it somewhere, it's a classic!)

02. April 2007

okay .. guess what we're doing today? Toilet training! which really means that what we're doing today is ... washing the couch cushion covers .. washing the pillow covers from the throw pillows on the couch .. washing all the towels from the downstairs bathroom ... soaking pipi out of the living room rug ... handing out Rockets candies !!!! (2 for pipi in the toilet/potty and 4 for a-a in the toilet/potty) .. whatever works, right? Peer pressure just doesn't seem to do it for Sebastian .. he doesn't care that all of his friends use the toilet now. If I tell him that his friend Sebastian (yup) uses the toilet and his friend Riley uses the toilet and his friend Daniel uses the toilet and his friend Eva uses the toilet he listens and says (usually in the middle of our conversation) "does Daniel live in Mississauga?" "can I go to Riley's house?" "Sebastian and I are twins" "Can I go to Eva's house? does that sound good?" The fact that they all use the toilet means nothing.

some things I've been wondering about:

• where are Max's and Ruby's parents? seriously.
• which came first .. Terry David Mulligan being somewhat famous or his memorable Gap commercials? (I think you probably have to be Canadian and of a certain age to know what I'm talking about here, but I don't care)
• just how many car companies will ask for Kiefer to do their ads? you all know what I mean.
• how much damage will the auto-spray shower cleaner do to the rest of my bathroom if I forget to close the shower door or curtain? and how many ladies will come in to fix it? do the ladies leave the shower when I want to use it or are they in there with me?

31. March 2007

I know, I know .. I've been suffering from "bloggus interruptus" (the state or condition of being unable to find the time to make blog entries). It's sad .. but who do I spend my time with .. Sebastian and Tanya, blogging, facebook, e-mails, laundry .. how can a girl make those kinds of decisions and still stay sane??? I ask you.

of course, I have other things to ask you as well ..... (did you think I wouldn't?)

• there's an ad running on Treehouse (yes, Treehouse) that says something about "your baby will stay delicious all day" ... huh? mmm ... mmmm ... delicious ... mmm... babies ... mmmm.
  
• I have "half & half" (which is 10% MF/cream) in my fridge .. half of what? and the other half is what exactly? if it's 10% MF does that mean it's really 20% cut in half and then mixed with 0% ???
  
• we went shoe shopping for the boy the other day and just noticed that there was a box of cookies, a coupon for said cookies, a mini KitKat bar and coupon for mini candy bars in the bag from the Shoe Company .. need I say more? sure, why not .. cookies, from the Shoe Company? slipped into our bag without telling us about it? some weird sort of cross promotion? is it working if we don't know about it until 3 days after the fact? (okay, we could have looked in the bag right away, but that's not the point)
  

there's more (there always is) but I think I'm needing sleep right now .. I'll be back, Bennett.

08. March 2007

so we almost had some cat-drama last night ... our neighbours a few doors down had a feral cat living under their deck last summer and it just happened to have a litter of 2 kittens .. well, the kids thought they were so cute, etc, etc, so instead of catching them and getting them spayed and vaccinated and adopted, they just fed them and played with them a bit .. now they have 3 feral cats living under their deck, with the dad and other newly attracted stray toms in the area coming around at all hours of the day and night (and pooping on my lawn but that's another story). Last night there was major tom wailing going on (and not by Bowie) and one of our cats (who used to be feral until we took him to the vet and had him neutered and vaccinated!!) just had to get out to make sure his property wasn't being conquered by invading hordes. I was worried for a bit since he is still a very manly cat and will scrap now and then ... but in the end I could be nothing but proud of William .. he went out along the top of the fence to the corner of our property and sat himself up pretty tall and stood his ground. There was a little bit of some asian language thrown back and forth between the two cats (the other one also a pretty orange/ginger cat) and then it just became a stare-down. No fur flying, no cuts, bites or scratches, just a waiting period of about 45 mins ... apparently the other guy blinked first! William the Protector saved the day.

02. March 2007 (2)

just had to make this second entry for today .. starts with a little story .. went shopping tonight and saw that there was new yogurt from Danone called "naturalia," apparently it's all natural ingredients (in yogurt, imagine that!) and I just had to take a look at it when I saw it was almost $8 for the multipack. So here I am, reading the blurb, reading the ingredients, back to the blurb, looking for the 800 number and calling the company ... why, you ask? well, the blurb says "no preservatives, no gelatin, no colours, no artificial flavours" but the ingredient list clearly states "natural colours (strawberry, peach)." no biggie? you might not think so .. but "no colours" means no colours and then I guess there shouldn't be any colours listed in the ingredients, right? Sure, it says "natural colours" but what exactly does that mean? if they're talking about the naturally ocurring colours in strawberries and peaches, then why list colour as an ingredient? if they are adding "natural" red and orange colours to the strawberry and peach variety of yogurt then the question is simply why???? people aren't buying the yogurt based on colour, it's in an opaque package. I don't need my yogurt to be red or dark pink to convince me that it tastes like strawberries. I don't know about you, but adding just a few ripe strawberries to anything, like, say, yogurt and mashing it together in something like a blender makes for a very pink substance .. doesn't need added colour! The nice lady on the other end of the 800 number in Quebec was quite concerned and explained that they meant to say "no artificial colours" but added that she would be sure to bring this to the attention of "the Danone people." What more can an educated consumer ask for?

and since we're on the subject of consumer products:

• how long does a product get to be "new and improved?" shouldn't 6 months about cover it? shouldn't 3 months? and if something works really well and lots of people buy it and love it ... why does it need to be improved?
  
• should it take 20 minutes to find the toothpaste you're looking for when shopping? Do we need 300 variations on a theme? how about let's do something outrageous and have all toothpaste whiten teeth! wouldn't that be weird? (I'm a marketer's worst nightmare)
  
• why can you never find bread that has a 'best before' date at least a week away? it's always only about a day .. who eats a whole loaf of bread in a day? and does the bread know when midnight strikes on the evening of the 'best before' date? .. 'cause it always seems to go moldy on that very day .. imagine, bread having it's very own circadian rhythm .. although I guess it's really the fungi that own it, not the bread itself ..

02. March 2007

Yesterday I was awakened to the sound of Sebastian yelling "Mommy! Mommy!" .. Mommy was already gone so I jumped out of bed and ran to his room, thinking he was having a bad dream or something, only to see him standing at his window doing said yelling. I guess he had been awake and heard Tanya leaving, went to the window and saw her driving away, all the while calling to her but she of course couldn't hear him. Awwwww... that was 6:44am. This morning I was up before him and already downstairs when I heard him get out of bed and call for me (Mama) .. I went up to see what was up and he was standing at the top of the stairs all disheveled and with his pyjama top half open .. he said "this is not on right" to which I replied (in German) yes his buttons were undone and it was no biggie, I could do them up again .. then he said "Baby Maia did it." Baby Maia is his best friend's baby sister .. about 6 mths old, not only not capable of undoing buttons but even better, not at our house at the time. I asked if he had been dreaming and he said "no, I think Baby Maia did it." He just came downstairs with his cool Mexx sunglasses on looking for his guitar. The kid's got style.

here are of course more things to ponder:

• why is Jack the short form for John? how exactly is it shorter?
  
• why aren't socks sized the same as shoes? what does sock size 9-13 mean? that's what I have to buy and I wear size 7 1/2 shoes. where's the correlation? couldn't they just say "for shoe size 6-8?" I suppose the fashion industry council would veto that proposal.
  
• apropos the fashion industry council (or whatever they're called) they are the ones that would not allow standardized sizing for women's clothes .. so it's them you should scream at when you need to look for and try on sizes 4 through 12 when shopping at different retailers. Unless of course you're one of those people who don't really exist .. they wear size 0 .. .. and if you're even smaller than non-existant, then you'll be the one shopping for size 00. Why is that even allowed, how can a person wear size ZERO or smaller???????
  
• how old is Lloyd Robertson? shouldn't he retire, let Lisa LaFlamme have a permanent anchor position?
  
• just how tall is Ryan Seacrest? how come just about every single contestant who appears on American Idol is taller than he is .. is that one of the criteria for being chosen?

28. February 2007

well, here we go .. not much happened today or yesterday .. Sebastian told me yesterday "Remember, I love you Mama!" and whenever I reprimanded him for anything, he said "I'm sorry Mama ... but I still love you." Think he knows which side his bread is buttered on? :) Went to my tax class last night and got reconfirmation that RRSPs or even just RSPs are not the best plan for retirement for most Canadians ... it's a scam! Gov't perpetrated, of course. What to do, what to do?

and most importantly, I wonder:

• who looks more like Martin Scorsese, is it Eugene Levy or Martin Scorsese?
  
• there's a radio ad running in the Toronto area for a laser eye surgery company that asks me to believe that "no on relies on their vision more than professional athletes!" Certainly not the proofreader or the school bus driver, or anyone else who isn't legally blind. Are they kidding me?
  
• another radio ad currently on air asks "bought the large screen tv but still sitting on junk?" ... can't they figure out that the reason the people are sitting on "junk" and not the brand new lazyboy is that they spent their entire next year's salary on the big screen tv?
  
• who looks more like Eugene Levy, is it Martin Scorsese or Eugene Levy?
  

well, that's it for today, I've got to get some sleep ..

27. February 2007

okay, finally getting something down on screen .. have to start this before I forget all the stuff that I ponder each day .. although I'm not sure if this actually counts as a real blog .. it's done the easy way on (not mentioning any names ... now new and improved on blogger!), after all .. but it will serve its purpose, I guess

here are some of the things I'm seeking answers for:

• why can't David Caruso stand up straight? does he have back problems? is Horatio so cool that he can only talk to people standing sideways and bent over? is that what it is, a cool thing?
  
• does people screaming at a box of cereal really make anyone want to rush out and buy that cereal? does anyone know what cereal it is? I think it has something to do with fibre but the ad irritates me so much that I can't watch it so I don't know what cereal it's for ... was that the plan? I guess it could work both ways .. I won't know which brand of high-fibre cereal not to buy ..
  
• is it a good thing for your 3 year old to yell upstairs as you're getting out of the shower "Mama, do we have any more marshmallows?" ? ... any more? like we had a bag and you ate them all? or used them for something else?
  

Okay, I don't want to carry on too long on this first entry .. just a teaser. :)

06. April 2007

once again, Google comes through .. a blog site that any-blogging-body can navigate (although right now I'm experiencing some lag-time issues while writing this - that's irritating). Now all I have to do is recreate all previous entries (originally located elsewhere) and then we'll be in business.

right now it's late and the wife is already upset that I'm up too late, so I think I'll have to cut this short. no real musings or things to ponder today .. just digging the blogger enviro.