Raking Woes

If there's ever a time of year I wish we had four seasons instead of two - Vancouver has "Summer" and "Soggy" - it would be autumn, particularly when all the leaves come down. Maybe I'm romanticizing it a bit, but I used to really enjoy raking leaves on a cool, crisp fall day in Nova Scotia. The air was so fresh and clean, and raking leaves with your brother, Mom, Dad, grandmother, aunt or whoever was always a chance to talk and have a laugh.

Trust me when I say, there is nothing less fun than raking soggy leaves. In Vancouver, you wait for it to stop raining so you can dash out and clean them up and you waste the only time it isn't raining straining your back to pile wet leaves in your bin. And man are leaves heavy when they're wet!!! It is really an unpleasant experience!!! Not sure a leaf blower would be any use in Vancouver, unless it could dry them out a bit before raking!

Even worse, my kids are still a little young to be of any real help. It usually ends up being more work when they help!!!

Oh well, at least we don't have any snow to shovel most winters. Sigh. That's another season I miss!

Samsung Crap

I am no longer a fan of Samsung after our LCD television stopped working. The tv is only 3-4 years old and naturally I didn't buy the extended warranty from Best Buy. In my experience, every electronic device I've ever bought has lasted at least 5+ years, so I didn't think I'd need an extended warranty.

Why I'm upset is that it appears that - after scoruing the internet - Samsung has a well documented problem with their LCD tv's with this very issue. The culprit parts are 4 tiny capacitors that cost about $2 each at Radioshack. It blows me away that Samsung does not stand behind this problem. Why buy a $1,000+ tv when the components Samsung chooses to use are crap?

I've ordered replacement parts to fix the tv, but it is nothing but a nuisance and it makes me never want to buy a Samsung product again.

Ghosts of Jingles Past...

30 years after I first heard it...17 years after leaving Nova Scotia...the bloody Casino Taxi jingle is still solidly embedded in my head. Whenever someone asks me for the number of a taxi, the first thing that pops into my head is 429-6666. Well, sheesh, that doesn't do a feller much good here in Vancouver does it? I tried to find the Casino Taxi commercial on youtube but it's not there. As far as I can recall, these are the lyrics:

"If you're a person on the go, write down this number

It's the key to travelling quick!

It's Casino Taxi's number

429-6666

Casino Taxi, they're the fast ones

Casino Taxi, near as your phone!

No need to run, don't get wet, dial that number

429-6666 (ba ba ba) or 425-6666 (ba-da-ba-da-ba-da-ba!)"

As far as I know, there are no other taxis in Halifax. That was a great jingle.

I can say the same thing for the Halifax Pizza Huts..."42 O - double O - double O, it's ooey gooey good!"

Now if anyone can remind me of the lyrics to the Green Gables convenience store jingle, my day would be complete. "At Green Gables we stay open just for you!"

OK, well it's not the original ad by any stretch, but my aunt June did find this version on youtube, at least to give you a vage idea of the Casino Taxi jingle. The original ad was much punchier!

Thanks June, for coming up with this...not sure if it is 100% right but it sounds pretty close to me...

You forgot to buy some food and now it's late.
You'd like a tasty snack, but it's late.
Come on down to Green Gables, morning noon or night
Our shelves are filled with goodness, our stores are clean and bright.
Day or night, remember what we do
At Green Gables we stay open just for you.

That made my day! Love that tune as well!

Don't Bother Me...Blogger At Work

Hey, get that camera out of my face, Brooks...

If you wanna see more pics of the kids and what they're up to, it doesn't hurt to post a comment every once in awhile, people!

Hotel Must Haves

Now that I’ve become a road warrior again, I decided to do a post of all the things I now consider as necessities in a hotel / room. Now, some of you may take these things for granted, while others may think I’m a princess, but I now what I like and trust me, you don’t always get what you expect to get, especially outside North America…or in New York.

General:
- full length mirror
- bathrobe
- slippers – the ultimate sign of a good hotel, but oh, so rare in North America!
- hair dryer
- complimentary soap, shampoo and conditioner
- some kind of moisturizer or lotion, especially during winter on the east coast
- one more towel than people staying in the room
- alarm clock / radio with jack to plug in your iPod
- safe
- luggage rack
- closet with ample coat hangers
- phone book
- functioning temperature control
- a sink that drains (often a problem in New York hotels)
- a toilet that flushes (I had to fix my own toilet at the Peace Hotel in Shanghai)
- kleenex
- a dvd player is a luxury but nice to have if you want to pop in your P90X dvd

As a business traveler:
- iron
- ironing board
- PLUGS!!! Give me a BLOODY ELECTRICAL OUTLET for the iron!!!!!!
- in room coffee maker
- bill under the door the night before
- in room check out
- mini-bar with snacks as well as liquor, especially if the bar closes early or there is no bar
- shoe mitt
- wireless internet access
- a 24 hour gym
- a 24 hour business centre with a printer, stapler and paper clips (yes, freakin’ paper clips! I’m obviously printing a document if I’m in the business centre and I need something to hold the pages together!)
- 24 hour (or at least late night) room service
- complimentary local area maps
- complimentary luggage storage (some Manhattan hotels charge)

Useless things the hotel room can do without:
- a phone in the bathroom (I’m not taking any calls while I’m doing my business)
- trouser press (mainly a UK thing I guess)
- voice mail (call my mobile for goodness sakes)
- all those poofy, dysfunctional, designer pillows you have to throw on the floor to sleep in your bed
- a call from the front desk to make sure everything is ok with your room – I’ll bloody well call if there’s a problem

What did I forget? I’ll have to update my list as I continue my travels.

Plums!

Our plum tree is loaded this year...which is not a good thing because it attracts raccoons, birds, skunks, squirrels, wasps and all manner of city critters. The combination of plums and critters makes for a huge mess and this time of year when it's dark, I'm always fearful of a standoff with a skunk while I'm taking out the garbage!

The picture represents less than a fifth of the plums on the tree this year. We're bagging up plums for everyone we know, making plum cakes, and sending a load to Harmoni for plum wine! I'm even dreaming about plums and concocting ideas on how to harvest the top of the tree!

Pictures of You

Well, Judie dropped our camera and smashed the crap out of it. Ugh! Hopefully we'll get a new one soon, but in the meantime...if anyone has any pics they'd like to contribute to my blog, just email them to me and I'll see what I can do about posting them!

Yikes! Cousin Robert

OK, this isn't exactly what I thought I'd get when I asked for pictures!!! My cousin Robert is lucky to be alive after a serious car accident...someone is definitely watching out for him!



According to my aunt June, someone passed him on the highway and then slammed on their brakes. Robert swerved to avoid hitting the car and lost control. He doesn't remember what happened but witnesses say his car flipped three times, broke a telephone pole in half and his car landed, right side up, in a deep ditch half filled with water. He got out of the car and laid down on the grass. They did x-rays and an MRI last night and all is well. He has a bad headache and many bruises and a lot of aches but he will be fine. Whew!

Happy Mother's Day

I sent flowers to Mom and Gretchen for Mother's Day...what'd you do, Bruce? Eh? Eh? Those lucky ducks in Nova Scotia had lobster today...I'm drooling just thinking about it. Can you believe a pound of bologna costs the same as a pound of lobster on the east coast right now??? Next they'll be telling me that Spam is a delicacy.

Today marks the beginning of the final week of P90X. I will give a full update at the end of the week on the results, and my overall assessment of the program. Tony kicked my ass again today, but I weighed in at just over 184.

A mini-wave of nice weather hit and yesterday I took advantage of the sun and did a major clean up in the moss-ridden back "yard" (a yard by Vancouver standards, a planter box by Canadian standards). Our little area was destroyed by heavy snow breaking down bushes, and a long dark winter lead to serious moss problems. I cleaned up all the patio furniture and put it out with the umbrella...and the kids decided we should eat dinner outside! It was warm enough with a light sweater and so we had our first outdoor meal of the year on May 9...that's actually the earliest date I've eaten outside in the last 15 years in Vancouver.

Peopled Out

Those who know me well would agree that I am not a people person. I generally don't like people. People annoy me. Like the drive-thru lady at Starbucks who has a need to tell me her life story every time I want an Americano. I don't care, lady, just give me my caffiene! I'm happiest running alone, sitting by myself staring at the sea or gazing from a mountaintop.

This past week has been tough. Last Saturday we had a semi-formal work related engagement. Monday night was a retirement party for Norman, with the full Board of Directors, at the stuffy Vancouver Club. Most of the members were already senior citizens at the time of the Great War. Wednesday night I had a Chartered Business Valuator's dinner at Sutton Place - you have to go and endure the presentations to get education credits for professional development purposes. Then of course we had the Lover's Ball on Thursday. On Valentine's Day, Judie invited 4 adults and 4 kids over for dinner and the total complement of 6 hyper-charged rug rats blew through the house like a hurricane on steroids. Sunday was a family dinner, along with the Kim's. We went to a Greek restaurant and the kids were fighting over the olives. Crikey. I am socialed out. My good behaviour is running on empty right now.

Kenpo felt great today (boxing / taekwondo).

I'm blogging?

Why am I doing this to myself? Do I really think this blog will last? How many hours of time I don't have will I pour into maintaining this blog? Aaarrrggghhh! It's making me crazy just thinking about it!

I live many hundreds to thousands of miles away from my family, way out on Canada's left coast. The main reason for this blog is that most of my family members are too paranoid to create a facebook account, where I thought I could easily share photos of the kids and stay in touch with everyone. But no, my relatives seem to be hung up on worries of identity theft and former acquaintances discovering their whereabouts. Just who it is that my Dad or my Aunt think may appear from the past to track them down I'm sure I don't want to know.

I decided that before creating this blog I needed a goal. My goal is to achieve 72 posts, at which point I will go into syndication and re-run my posts over and over again for the rest of my life. Achieving 72 posts without offending at least one of my friends or relatives along the way would also be a nice goal...but let's face it, people, it's going to happen!

Those who know me well would say I will have no shortage of material for my blog, with topics such as "Traffic rant of the day!", "Our toilets are plugged again!", "Stupid person of the week!", and "Guess what 80's band reformed?".

I hope you will enjoy reading my blog as much as I hope I enjoy writing it!