Year at a glance

Maybe Lebanon is a good place to vacation in the summer of 2006 - nope maybe not.
North Korea has nuclear weapons.
West Edmonton Mall is FUN
work sucks
volunteer unpaid works sucks more
politics can be boring

The schizophrenic voter - Canadian style

Today I read a ridiculous article in the National Post. Apparently Canadians don't care about Gomery anymore. We have digested it and moved on (you know where digested items go don't you?). What we really care about is health care and although we believe the Jack Layton and the NDP are the party who can deliver on that issue, we don't want to put them in power to do anything about it. Furthermore in Quebec the party voted most likely to keep Canada together is the Bloc? You tell me, I almost feel sorry for the politicians I mean really people, make up your f&*$king minds!

Martin and Harper and the Child Care bone

It's fascinating to watch Martin and Harper fight over the child care bone like stray dogs desparate for a meal. I'm sickened yet fascinated at the same time. Obviously I'm rooting for Martin even if I'm not voting for him.

Spin Doctors are sharpening there knives

An election, what a wonderful thing! This is my equivilent of the Grey Cup or Stanley Cup. Get out an vote people!

What the hell!

My son is doing nude cartwheels in the living room. My cat is chastising me for buying the wrong brand of tuna (again). My husband is in reno heaven. I haven't started shopping. Is it any wonder my blood pressure was 150/92 a couple of days ago????

Renos suck

The dust, the mess, the smell, the mess. What is there to love about renos??? I love the end result, I guess that's what I have to keep telling myself, think of the end result. Marwan thank god feels the opposite. He seems to thrive in a renovation environment. He has endless patience for house projects. More power to him is my attitude!

Avian Flu

Given the recent media hype, Ok let's be honest frenzy about Avian Flu I've been thinking about my own mortality. As some of you may know my great grandmother died in the spanish influenza epidemic in 1919 at the age of 33. Gets a person to thinking.

At first the idea that this could happen to me terrified me (ok it still does a little). My brain noted that in all likelihood my grandmother got this flu as a child and most likelymy grandfather would have too and I probably had some previous avian flu immunity, provided of course this new avian flu is a distant relative of the old one. Then along comes another media report that what really killed people wasn't the flu but the wicked reaction of the immune system to this type of flu. We're just screwed no matter what! Damn I guess I'm just going to have to eat, drink and be merry then. That's my prescription for combatting the avian flu!

Got something accomplished

I finally shook that fuzzy head feeling I've been having. Today I got some intellectual work done and it felt good. I got the application filled out for the infant toddler grant for the daycare. If we get this money we might have a baby program by spring! That would be wonderful. I checked the list of priority communities that need daycare for little ones desparately and we are on the list. What that means is we might get 90% of the money for our program instead of only 50%. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Weird Head Space

I'm in weird head space lately. I haven't been feeling like blogging much and haven't done too many "intellectual" activities like reading the news or surfing the web. I did organize my husband's closet and put away a growing pile of junk that was accumulating in his room. I re-arranged Nicki's room and have been cooking quite a bit. I think it's like spring cleaning but involves a fall nesting instinct of some kind. I haven't even written the government about the teachers strike, shockingly not like me. Oh well whatever the reason the rain or just a cleaning virus I'm sure I'll be back to my old ways with a messy house and busy political life soon.

Happy Thanksgiving

Things I'm thankful for:

1. my child and husband
2. the rest of my family (including momo)
3. my friends
4. my job
5. my house
6. my good life

That's a pretty extensive list I think. I am so glad to be alive.

LOL

I love this! Smiles

the 30 hour day

Would life be great if the day were thirty hours?

New kitchen tiles and paint

happy birthday to me!

I'm 36 today. I'm like wine - I get better as I age!

BC better live up the agreement

All I have to say is that the Government of BC better live up to the agreement on Child Care they signed yesterday with the Government of Canada. Or they will be hearing from me! I'm watching you Gordo!!!

Ripping Out The Floor Feels Good

Ripping out the floor feels good. I've learned that it's amazing how many cheerios can work their way under a floor and also that small children make excellent demolition workers. Nicki had a blast ripping out the lino. We were actually fighting over the floor scrapper. LOL

New floor looks good. I'll post complete reno pictures once it's done.

Kate Moss

We aspire to the anorexic ideal and abhor the method to get there.

Canadian Hero - Terry Fox

Twenty five years ago, a young man with a dream of hope inspired a nation. He threw the torch of hope to us to carry when he no longer could and made us all heros.

Terry, thank you.

Your dream lives.

And the marathon continues.

Justice or Revenge

Bahadur Singh Bhalru is on a plane heading back to India. I can't help wondering if what happened to him was more about revenge than justice. If he were a Canadian teenager who was street racing we wouldn't be revoking his right to live in our country. While I sympathize with the family of his victim I think the problem isn't that Bahadur Singh Bhalru is a further risk to our society but that our laws dealing with street racing are inadequate and instead of addressing the real problem - weak laws about street racers we are attacking Bahadur Singh Bhalru because he's a "foreigner". We often take the easy way out in our society. Kicking a young person out of the country who made a mistake and has paid for it under our justice system is wrong.

Let me be clear I don't have any problem with deporting "violent" offenders but an offender a Canadian judge couldn't even be bothered to put in jail? Mr. Bhalru was sentenced to two years less a day house arrest.

My advice to all the landed immigrants out there, get your citizenship and obey the law.

End Poverty

I'm marching tomorrow to end poverty. Please take a moment and do some small action to end global poverty.

Which Bush is dumber?

I'm trying to clear my head after seeing an interview with former first lady and mother of the current moronic american president. Barbara Bush said and I quote:

"What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality," she said in a radio interview from the Astrodome in Houston, Texas.
"And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this — this is working very well for them," she said.

It's obvious her son comes by his stupidity honestly. I read an article from a republican who was suggesting that getting all the poor people out of New Orleans was a good thing and they are going to rebuild it to be a playground for the rich. Barf - maybe we can call it "republican fantasyland". Tell me - who would really want to visit there?

Summer's end

It's the long weekend before school starts. Nicki will be going into grade two this year. I've lost track of time this summer and can't believe our summer is almost at an end.

Friends found!

Thank God my friends Gary and David made it home from their ill fated cruise ok and didn't end up in the hell that is New Orleans. I'm so relieved that they are safe. What is sick is that they have been getting hate mail related to Katrina, that the hurricane was punishment for New Orleans hosting Southern Decadence. It's amazing what people can justify in the name of religion!

too poor to live?

I can't get out of my head the news reports of poor people who had no way to flee the storm and now I'm betting make up the majority of the dead. Is it possible to be too poor to live? Obviously when we look at third world nations the answer is certainly yes, but in the first world in a disaster situation? Well the steerage class passengers of the Titanic wouldn't be surprised by this fact, given more first class men survived than third class women and children in that disaster. There is something wrong with our world.

Stop vacationing in disaster areas!

Hey friends! Please stop vacationing in disaster zones. A couple a weeks ago we had a very tense evening wondering if our friend's wife, son and mother in law were killed in the Sharm El Sheik bombing in Egypt where they were vacationing. I paced around, and finally did my rosary for the first time since grade 9 until we found out they were safe.. God help me, I'm a lapsed fallen Catholic! Today my friends Gary and David are on a cruise ship in the middle of Katrina. Lucky for them they got out of New Orleans before the storm hit and are now enjoying 25 ft waves in the gulf of mexico. I wonder if the ship smells like vomit hmmm? OK the point is ask your travel agent - what's the chances of a terrorist attack or hurricane where I'm going? Sew a few hundred dollars US into the back of your underpants just in case...

Work

Work, it's pretty important. Aside from spending 40% of our waking hours at work during the week, it really defines who we are. Dissatisfied about work? Quit and do something else you love, even if the money is less. Live joyfully.

Blogging frees people

Aside from people like myself that need a medium big enough to store my many opinions, apparently blogging is a great political tool for fighting repressive regimes. A Canadian citizen from Iran wrote instructions on blogging in Farsi and within a month there were 1200 Iranian blogs, now there are over 100,000 Iranian blogs. Mainstream media will have a much harder time spoon feeding us all their "version" of events.

Pat Robertson

Should a man of God advocate for the assassination of a democratically elected world leader? Chavez says he doesn't mind...death threats increase his popularity. I wonder if Mr. Robertson will try and have Paul Martin assassinated over softwood?

Wow time flies by

Sorry I haven't been posting but I've been a tourist in my own province. The boys and I went to Victoria on Friday and slept over and visited a few museums and had dinner and rode the ferry of course. I think it's a good thing to vacation in your own province. Let's face it BC is absolutely lovely and has so much to offer. My husband shocked the hell out of me by indicating he wants to do the wine tour with me sometime.

Community Gardens

Coquitlam has a lovely little spot we visited for the first time tonight, the Colony Farm Organic Community Garden. Basically you get a plot of land and people plant whatever they like. Most of the plots are full of vegetables but many people have also planted beautiful flowers. We asked a woman at the garden how she got a plot, she said she paid $10 for a membership to the society and $15 per plot per year. Ridiculously cheap. Here is a picture we took of Nicki by the grapes.