Have a scary Halloween!

In honour of this scary day I thought I would share some scary stories from my past Halloweens.
* The first time I remember going trick or treating, I was dressed as a clown. We had a huge snowstorm so I was a sensible clown that wore a winter coat.
* I once won a costume competition for being a cowgirl simply because I had a banana instead of a gun (that’s a pacifist for you)
* We used to have costume parades in my elementary school. I’ve never seen so many hobo’s on parade all at once
* My mom wouldn’t let me take a pillow case out to collect candy because one time my cousin’s took out pillow cases and some kids stole their candies. Of course the loss of the pillow cases was much greater to my family than the loss of candy!
* By high school I began to think that Halloween was just an excuse for lazy kids go come to school in their pyjamas
* The last time I got dressed up for Halloween I was a scarecrow. The straw made my neck really itchy – but I had all the little children convinced I was stuffed

Happy Halloween!

Permanent plants

Do you have any permanent plants in your house? Not fake, false, or “faux”, but permanent. I’m a fan of permanent plants – they require very little attention and always look fabulous. In my university lab, we had permanent trees that stayed green year round, even though we had them indoors and our lab was in the basement. I started thinking about permanent plants about a year ago. There is one house close to the subway station that I pass by every day that always has flowers in bloom. At first I thought they were excellent gardeners, until I realized that the flowers never change, and are in bloom even in the winter. These people actually planted plastic flowers into their garden. They even rotate them - replacing daisies with roses, and then the roses with lilies. At first I thought it was a ridiculous idea – why plant fake flowers? It looks ridiculous! But now I’m beginning to appreciate the permanent flowers. They are always looking great, no matter what the weather. On a frigid day when all the leaves are falling off of the trees and winter is peering around the corner, these flowers are still in bloom. I have no idea what thoughts are going through the mind of the people who are planting these … and while my first instinct is to think they are psychos, I’ll go with the notion that they just want people to enjoy a blooming flower.

Tossing out the first one

Do you toss out the first pancake that you make? Apparently the first one is supposed to be thrown out because it’s not suitable for consumption (or maybe because it’s not perfect looking). I quite like the first pancake – probably because it’s the most unique one of the batch – and I’m a firm believer in non conforming breakfast food. I wonder if they toss out pancakes at the international house of pancakes. I bet they just put those first pancakes in the middle of the stack where they are less noticeable. How about crapes? Does the same policy apply? I’ve never made crapes at home, but I’d imagine that the first crape made on the pan would follow the same pattern as its cousin the pancake. I’m not sure about French toast though… I have a feeling that all French toast looks the same – tasty! It seems very wasteful to be tossing out pancakes just because they don’t look great. Please save them for me – I’ll eat them.

Microbe support groups

Yesterday I read two separate items about humans finding life on earth that hasn’t been disturbed for millions of years. The first was a news tidbit about scientists finding microbes living several miles deep in South African gold mines. The second was in a book on how nuclear waste is buried in areas of the earth that are very deep and untouched, with again microbes that have been living undisturbed for millions of years. Now – it was a complete coincidence that I happened to come across these two items on the same day, and likely I’m one of the only persons that would find this coincidence… but I am disturbed by it. First – haven’t we messed up the planet enough that now we are going into remote areas to ensue more damage? It reminds me of a telemarketer – they can’t get much by calling people during dinner time, so they decide to call senior citizens during the day time. The seniors know nothing about unlimited long distance for $20 a month, or magazine subscriptions for a low low price! These poor microbes never saw it coming! Imagine living a completely calm and isolated life in the depths of the earth for such a long time to then have your privacy invaded by probes and nuclear waste. Those microbes are going to need serious therapy.

Collecting points

I have many cards in my wallet that are for specific shops – that allows me to collect “reward points” for purchases. I used to think these things were brilliant – getting points for items that you’d purchase anyway! Looking through the brochures I saw that points could be redeemed for vacations, Vespas, kitchenware, and even gift certificates to my favorite stores. I’ve been using this collection of cards for several years and have discovered something that I should have known from the beginning – collecting points is futile because it takes so very long to gather enough points to redeem for anything. Unless you are spending huge amounts of money when collecting points, it may not be worth it. Buying 3 tomatoes and a package of English muffins gets me very few points. Yesterday I was in the drug store, where as usual I presented my rewards card. But this time there was a surprise – the cashier asked me if I wanted to redeem my points for $5 off my purchase. Unfortunately I completely misunderstood the cashier and promptly responded “no thank you”. After realizing what the cashier was talking about, I reviewed my receipt and realized that I’m only 2000 points away from getting $10 off my purchase. So I guess I’ll just save up for that – probably reach that goal in another 3 years.

Million dollar ideas!

Every day I am pretty sure I think up of million dollar ideas – and then just give them away to people for free! I highly doubt that any of the recipients of my ideas ever implement them… but it’s seriously their loss because these ideas are really good. Yesterday on the subway ride home, one of Caterina’s friends was telling us how she and her brother’s have opened up a “make your own wine” company. People use their services to make “homemade wine” for weddings, gifts, etc. I think that is quite a good idea – but here is the million dollar part. As a novelty, you can charge patrons to come to your store and stomp on the grapes with their feet! Imagine how many people would be up for doing that! This way you get your grapes stomped on for the wine, and you make money. I could see it as a big hit for stag/stagettes, team building activities, even field trips (you’re never too young for manual labour). With great ideas like this one, I really have no idea why more people don’t actually carry them through.

I forgot to blog that I will be away...

Hello faithful readers

My apologies... I forgot to post a message that I will be away this week in sunny San Francisco (which so far is more windy than sunny) so I won't be able to blog on a regular basis for the week. I'm now here in SF, and have had the chance to take in some local colour (the best kind!). So far nothing out of the ordinary - but I had some strawberry yogurt this morning that had "high fructose syrup" in it. It was sweeter than any chocolate bar I've ever eaten. Dentist's here must be pleased with the amount of work they get as a result of yogurt caused tooth decay.

I'll post as much as I can during this week.

Peace out!

A free guitar?

I saw an ad yesterday for a Volkwagen car that comes with a free electric guitar with purchase. I don't see a connection between the car and the guitar. Maybe they are encouraging you to play a guitar while driving? Or maybe driving makes you like a rockstar (or playing the guitar makes you a like a race car driver). Who thinks of these promotions? It seems like just about anything can be matched up as a promotion. A free pair of socks with the purchase of a ham. A free curly hair wig with the purchase of a stapler. Anything goes!

Dog clothes?

I saw a Scottie dog wearing a tartan coat yesterday. Do you think the dog knows it is Scottish? How would the dog know which Scottish clan he belonged to? I bet the dog would be really embarrassed if he was in the park and a fellow Scottsdog came up to him and questioned his tartan. I’ve only ever seen Scottie dogs wearing their native clothes. How about a Japanese Tosa? I bet they wouldn’t be caught dead in a kimono. And Dachshunds… they don’t wear lederhosen. Who do those Scottie dogs think they are?

What more is there to say...

Every now and again I’ll read something that just leaves me speechless. I was browsing the newspaper when I learned that humans get a new outer layer of skin every 27 days. Here are the vital calculations:

600,000 skin particles lost per hour
1.5 pounds of skin a year
1000 “new skins” over an average lifetime

What more is there to say about that other than providing some additional information:

Gums are renewed every one to two weeks.
The average lifespan of a human taste bud is seven to 10 days.

Giant Pumpkin

The award for the world's largest pumpkin was given out a few days ago to a farmer and his 1223 lbs pumpkin. Seems like a waste to me ... all that growing and nurturing just for a competition and a blue ribbon. Does anyone eat this pumpkin or make some great pie out of it. Imagine how many tins of pumpkin pie filling could be made from that pumpkin. I am curious about these competitions though - what is the criteria? Simply a large pumpkin? Does it need to be washed? A large pumpkin like that could have several pounds of dirt on it - tipping the scales in its direction. And what about artificial enhancements? Is there a urine test to make sure that the pumpkin didn't take any steroids? Seems like there could be holes in this competition.

P.S. This is my 200th post! Celebrate by eating a pumpkin!

Maintaining that healthy smile...

Last week my colleague Patricia (who doesn’t read my blog - but really should!) was demonstrating how her key-card holder had many different purposes. It is one of those keycard holders that is on a retractable holder that you can clip to your belt. One of the purposes for the retractable chord of the holder was to use it as dental floss. Strange – I know. But then I read this in the newspaper that made me think that maybe Patricia is not that strange afterall…

U.S. dentists and periodontists have been horrified to learn that poker decks do double duty as floss, that a seamstress turns to her sewing thread, or needle, to remove the midday snack, and that office workers turn to their pencils, paper clips or car keys for it'll-do-for-now floss. It's just not good dental practice, reports The Albany (N.Y.) Times Union. "People actually chew off their fingernails and use them as floss," says Dr. Gregg Liberatore, a dentist in Clifton Park, N.Y., adding that improper tools can harm the gums. Some dentists have heard of -- or even seen -- people, who have coarse hair, plucking a strand from their heads to use for floss. Restaurant diners have used envelopes of sweetener to floss; some shoppers use grocery coupons.

What's in a name?

What’s a good name for a pet? I’m very unimaginative when it comes to pet names. If I had a dog the only name I could think for it is “Rover”. I had fish when I was younger, and they didn’t have names. Probably a good idea since they only lived for about a week. No sense in naming something with such a short lifespan. We name pets, but we don’t name houseplants. Seems strange to me, since houseplants live for a very long time, and respond to touch and activity in the house. I’d name my ficus “Ivy” just to confuse the other plants. I came across this list the other day for popular pet names – apparently as of late, “human names” are very common for pets.

Dogs: 1. Max, 2. Bailey, 3. Buddy, 4. Molly, 5. Maggie, 6. Lucy, 7. Daisy, 8. Bella, 9. Jake, 10. Rocky.

Cats: 1. Max, 2. Tigger, 3. Smokey, 4. Tiger, 5. Chloe, 6. Shadow, 7. Lucy, 8. Angel, 9. Oliver, 10. Simba.

Toenails

This past weekend I was discussing my sock woes with a few friends. I was telling them how on a recent trip to the airport I had to remove my shoes at the security lineup only to discover that I had a hole in my sock at the toe! How embarrassing! Now that hole was not there when I put my sock on … and this was not the first time that it happened. I am convinced that the toenail on my big toe is really mean and likes to rub up against the sock and the top of my shoe. I know – it’s a scandal! Early all of my socks have been mended because there is a hole near the toe. I read in the newspaper yesterday that fingernails grow four times faster than toenails. Well Mother Nature forgot to tell my fingernails and toenails that! But just as an interesting extra - the middle fingernail grows fastest; the thumb slowest.

Art

I try to stay up to date with the cultural scene … art, music, photography, drama. I don’t always know about what’s new in art or the like – but that’s what the arts section of the newspaper is for. I like to read about famous furniture makers, artists and musicians – understanding the history behind their craft and gaining an appreciation for it. This past weekend there was an art event called “Nuit Blanche” in downtown Toronto which was an all night modern art exhibit all around the downtown area. When first hearing about it, I thought I would put on my black turtle neck and beret and head on out for a night of culture. But the night before Nuit Blanche I saw a news story about it on television. I decided the event wasn’t for me when this exhibit was highlighted: two poets standing in an alleyway, “dueling” with megaphones and poetry. Yes – they shout poetry at each other though bullhorns. All I can say is – I don’t get it.

The spikey backpack

Do you ever see something in a shop and think - who on earth would ever wear that? There are so many manufactured items that make me scratch my head. They are either totally impractical, terribly ugly, or just down-right strange. Yesterday though, I saw someone sporting one of these clothing items that answered my question of "who?" I was out grocery shopping when I saw a very regular looking woman wearing a small black backpack. Seems perfectly normal - in fact I too have a small black backpack. But hers was different. It had a hard shell with large blunt spikes protruding from it. It reminded me of the enemy (named Bowser I discovered after a wikipedia search) from Super Mario Brothers. Why on earth would she have this backpack in her possession? I wondered if it belonged to her kids and then they got tired of it. But really - is it really necessary to wear a backpack with spikes? Even if you have no other back in which to carry around your belongings, i think a shopping bag is better than the spikey backpack.