I just found out that Canadian one dollar coin is called a Looney. I also just learned at this moment, that in canada, a "bunny hug", is a hooded sweatshirt, or what we Yanks like to call a "hoodie".
Guess where I learned all this? VH1 of course.
Ok, two more things:
1.The highest grossing movie of all time in Canada is Porky's2.In Quebec, they have "language police", who patrol the streets making sure that all public signage is primarily French.
Now, where, you ask, would I get such information at such a time of night?
Why, VH1 of course. "So Awesomely Canadian" has broken new ground on the music television format. I am in "awe".
Friday, July 01, 2005
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Money Well Spent
A friend who recently had her second child( month & 1/2 ago) just told me she's been invited to attend a "Passion" Party. Apparently it's like a Tupperware party, but with, hmm, how shall I say it, uh, "toys" for women, instead of Tupperware.
When I asked her, "Are you in the mood for that now?", she said, "Well, something's gotta get me going, cause it ain't gonna happen on it's own. I figure maybe if I have a new toy, it'll make me want to do something!" I laughed, and the following thought occurred to me which I said out loud:
It's just like when you buy a new pair of shoes. It makes you want to go out to dinner.
Nice metaphor.
When I asked her, "Are you in the mood for that now?", she said, "Well, something's gotta get me going, cause it ain't gonna happen on it's own. I figure maybe if I have a new toy, it'll make me want to do something!" I laughed, and the following thought occurred to me which I said out loud:
It's just like when you buy a new pair of shoes. It makes you want to go out to dinner.
Nice metaphor.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Sing Blue Silver
Ok, the Quaker Oats Company has LOST it.
Today when we went food shopping, I picked up a box of Cap'n Crunch Crunchberries (blue & red "berries" mixed with sugar corn crunchy) cereal. It's kid's cereal and it's full of sugar, and if you eat too much it hurts the inside of your mouth.
So we get home, unpack, we're doing our thing around the house, and I pull out the box, determined to snack on a few crunchberries, maybe even have a bowl. I notice there's a promotion going on featuring a popular cartoon character relating to the color in the berries. I start eating.
Within SECONDS, my fingers are turning blue and so is my tongue. Guy and I start discussing where the blue is coming from and whether or not the whole cereal is "laced" with the stuff, or if it's just the big blue pieces coloring everything else. We pour some in a bowl and hit it with milk. The milk instantly turns blue. And I mean BRIGHT BLUE. We run more tests on the "crunch" away from the "berries". Blue is present only not nearly as intense, and more like what I think you'd expect from a kid's cereal.
What kind of IDIOT thought this one up? Can you IMAGINE giving this to your 5-11 year old before school? You'd have to get a change of clothes ready and maybe some turpentine as well. I couldn't wash it off my hands.
The nice people who make this need a head check. I can feel cancer growing in me as I write this. Holy crap what alot of chemicals.
____________________
On a lighter note: I was transferring some old concert tapes to CD today. Two Duran Duran concerts: one from 81 or 82 in London, and one from their Seven & The Ragged Tiger World Tour when they appeared at Madison Square Garden in NYC in March of 1984. It was a big show for them, I read recently.
Anyhoo, that World Tour was the first time I ever saw them live (I saw them in Philadelphia at the Spectrum -now the Wachovia Spectrum). I was 14 and I was beside myself. So much so that when I taped the concert a week or two later, I cried when it started on the radio.
Cut to, oh, say, 20+ years later...
I'm sitting on the floor snug between a big reading chair and the stereo. I'm set up to tape the second show and I get it rolling. The first notes of an instrumental ("Tiger Tiger") come up with a swarming buzz of screaming girls who were mostly all my age at the time, along with tuning noises on a bass and lead guitar...I smile...
I have suddenly become that awkward, starry-eyed 14 year-old girl. I get goosebumps and my heart races, and when I try to laugh, I start to cry. I am 35 years old, married with a 13 month old and I am sitting there nearly bawling over my ultimate teen crush. Whoa. Was it the crunchberries? Probably not.
I seriously recommend finding some keepsakes, music, pictures or whatever, that bring you back to a time when you felt that pure euphoria. It's suprising how fast it all comes back.
"...the droning engine throbs in time with your beating heart..."*
Thanks for the memories, fellas.
________________________________________________________
* from "The Chauffeur", by Duran Duran, from the album Rio
Today when we went food shopping, I picked up a box of Cap'n Crunch Crunchberries (blue & red "berries" mixed with sugar corn crunchy) cereal. It's kid's cereal and it's full of sugar, and if you eat too much it hurts the inside of your mouth.
So we get home, unpack, we're doing our thing around the house, and I pull out the box, determined to snack on a few crunchberries, maybe even have a bowl. I notice there's a promotion going on featuring a popular cartoon character relating to the color in the berries. I start eating.
Within SECONDS, my fingers are turning blue and so is my tongue. Guy and I start discussing where the blue is coming from and whether or not the whole cereal is "laced" with the stuff, or if it's just the big blue pieces coloring everything else. We pour some in a bowl and hit it with milk. The milk instantly turns blue. And I mean BRIGHT BLUE. We run more tests on the "crunch" away from the "berries". Blue is present only not nearly as intense, and more like what I think you'd expect from a kid's cereal.
What kind of IDIOT thought this one up? Can you IMAGINE giving this to your 5-11 year old before school? You'd have to get a change of clothes ready and maybe some turpentine as well. I couldn't wash it off my hands.
The nice people who make this need a head check. I can feel cancer growing in me as I write this. Holy crap what alot of chemicals.
____________________
On a lighter note: I was transferring some old concert tapes to CD today. Two Duran Duran concerts: one from 81 or 82 in London, and one from their Seven & The Ragged Tiger World Tour when they appeared at Madison Square Garden in NYC in March of 1984. It was a big show for them, I read recently.
Anyhoo, that World Tour was the first time I ever saw them live (I saw them in Philadelphia at the Spectrum -now the Wachovia Spectrum). I was 14 and I was beside myself. So much so that when I taped the concert a week or two later, I cried when it started on the radio.
Cut to, oh, say, 20+ years later...
I'm sitting on the floor snug between a big reading chair and the stereo. I'm set up to tape the second show and I get it rolling. The first notes of an instrumental ("Tiger Tiger") come up with a swarming buzz of screaming girls who were mostly all my age at the time, along with tuning noises on a bass and lead guitar...I smile...
Oh my gosh. It's them. It's the men I have posters of all over my room. I think about marrying their lead singer at least 10 times a day. I can't believe I'm finally getting to see them...
I have suddenly become that awkward, starry-eyed 14 year-old girl. I get goosebumps and my heart races, and when I try to laugh, I start to cry. I am 35 years old, married with a 13 month old and I am sitting there nearly bawling over my ultimate teen crush. Whoa. Was it the crunchberries? Probably not.
I seriously recommend finding some keepsakes, music, pictures or whatever, that bring you back to a time when you felt that pure euphoria. It's suprising how fast it all comes back.
"...the droning engine throbs in time with your beating heart..."*
Thanks for the memories, fellas.
________________________________________________________
* from "The Chauffeur", by Duran Duran, from the album Rio
Don't Call Me Shirley
We went to the Outer Banks (North Carolina) for a week's vacation. We missed it last year because a certain little someone was just getting to know planet Earth.
The Outer Banks consists of basically two ends of an island: the original southern part consisting of Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and NagsHead and then the state park. Then there's where we stay, where everyone in Pennsylvania stays: the northern shores: Southern Shores, Duck, Corolla. We usually get a giant house on the beach in a section called Pine Island. These houses are magnificent. A million bedrooms, a million bathrooms, some with hot tubs, private pool, kitchen and kitchenette, outer decks on every floor, etc. It's truly great. The beaches are beautiful and for as crowded as the towns get, the beaches don't seem to show it.
We go with Guy's partner and family and two other couples. Everyone shares in cooking dinner, we do activities (jetski, golf, etc.) and we play games (this year it was: see who can match the most of the AFI'S List of 100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time ). We're a competitive lot; it's pretty funny.
I detail all this, because typically I complain like a crow about the traffic problems we face while there:
The road to where we stay is only a two-lane, and it's gotten the volume of I-76. Not to mention there is only one supermarket near where we stay and it serves who knows how many people. For three days after we got there, the place was so packed you couldn't even go in to buy milk without waiting 20 minutes in line.
Waah. Poor me. I have to deal with people while I'm on vacation at one of the nicest beaches on the East Coast. Waah.
So now I'm home and it feels too fast here. I want to go back. Waah.
BABYWATCH: Spencer loves swimming pools and the beach. He ate sand. I mean ATE it. ON PURPOSE. He bonded like crazy with his daddy to the point that he now yells "Daaaaaa!" to get him to come.Yes, I am a little jealous ;)
The Outer Banks consists of basically two ends of an island: the original southern part consisting of Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and NagsHead and then the state park. Then there's where we stay, where everyone in Pennsylvania stays: the northern shores: Southern Shores, Duck, Corolla. We usually get a giant house on the beach in a section called Pine Island. These houses are magnificent. A million bedrooms, a million bathrooms, some with hot tubs, private pool, kitchen and kitchenette, outer decks on every floor, etc. It's truly great. The beaches are beautiful and for as crowded as the towns get, the beaches don't seem to show it.
We go with Guy's partner and family and two other couples. Everyone shares in cooking dinner, we do activities (jetski, golf, etc.) and we play games (this year it was: see who can match the most of the AFI'S List of 100 Greatest Movie Quotes of All Time ). We're a competitive lot; it's pretty funny.
I detail all this, because typically I complain like a crow about the traffic problems we face while there:
The road to where we stay is only a two-lane, and it's gotten the volume of I-76. Not to mention there is only one supermarket near where we stay and it serves who knows how many people. For three days after we got there, the place was so packed you couldn't even go in to buy milk without waiting 20 minutes in line.
Waah. Poor me. I have to deal with people while I'm on vacation at one of the nicest beaches on the East Coast. Waah.
So now I'm home and it feels too fast here. I want to go back. Waah.
BABYWATCH: Spencer loves swimming pools and the beach. He ate sand. I mean ATE it. ON PURPOSE. He bonded like crazy with his daddy to the point that he now yells "Daaaaaa!" to get him to come.Yes, I am a little jealous ;)