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?

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?