Late Christmas Presents James had ordered a couple of things for me from Amazon, but for whatever reason, they just couldn’t get them here on time for Christmas. They arrived on Wednesday, and I spent the greater part of yesterday (interrupted by a few hours of work) watching episodes of season one of Due South. We got season one and season three. James said for some inexplicable reason, season two cost twice as much as the others, so I will have to find other means of obtaining that one. (hint hint Ma! See if you can find it up home for $50 or less, and we’ll send money!). We will also need season 4, which was a confusing season, but ties up the loose ends nevertheless.

I got interested in this show just as it was going off the air. Then again shortly before I left Canada and was home unemployed I watched re-runs every afternoon to take a break from packing. When I saw that it was finally released on DVD, I put it on my birthday wish list. And got it for Christmas. Which is usually what happens. I ask for something for Christmas I get it next birthday, and vice versa.

Paul Gross is great, he really could break into Hollywood big box office if he wanted to. Not quite sure why he never did. Pretty much everything he’s ever done has been strictly Canadian, other than the season(s) of Due South that got picked up by the American production company. I notice that there are a lot of actors that were in Due South that later show up in his movie Men With Brooms. Which is a hilarious movie by the way, and available in the US, I’ve even seen it here even in our hick town Blockbuster. H20 is another one of his movies I want to see, but its not available down here, so again I’ll have to either order it from a Canadian distributor or kindly ask Mumma to send it or bring it next visit.

Due South is funny with the Canadian/American stereotypes we’re all so familiar with. Canadians are so nice and polite, and Americans are rude and violent and all carry semi-automatic weapons. Put a Canadian Mountie from the Yukon into downtown Chicago with an Armani suited detective, and comedy ensues. As well as some not bad action cop-drama. Sprinkle in some Leslie Neilsen in a couple of episodes (one in season 1 and I think 2 in the last season), as well as Canadian great Gordon Pinsent as the ghost of the dead father, and it’s a very entertaining show. Not to mention of course the deaf “wolf” sidekick named after former Canadian Prime Minister Diefenbaker. I’m quite enjoying it.

My job hours have been cut considerably which is going to hurt us financially. I’m now splitting a part time job with my co-worker. One week on, one week off. Our “week” being only about 27 hours. My paychecks now will barely cover our bills :-p Our gas bill alone last month was over $200! Its hardly even worth getting out of bed for, but I’ll try to hold on to it at least til after my immigration interview. I have been checking the classifieds every day, in 3 different listings, but they’re all the same. There’s 4 jobs listed, 3 at the hospital, and one at some other company, which I have applied for. The hospital jobs I’m not going to bother. I’ve sent them probably half a dozen applications previously for admin/clerical jobs, and they don’t even bother to send a “thanks but no thanks” response. Plus, the job descriptions include giving injections to patients for some reason. Why they expect receptionists to give injections is beyond me, but there ya go. And they also expect receptionists/admin clerks to be lifting patients and whatnot, something I wouldn’t be able to do. Those are the only jobs within about 50 miles of here. Other than “work from home and make $50 thousand dollars next month!” Yeah, right :-p

I’m tellin’ ya, not even right out of high-school with no experience have I ever had such a hard time finding a decent job. This area sucks. I have been seriously considering moving to a border town around Buffalo/Niagara so at least if I have to be miserable with a crappy job, I could maybe drive up to visit family and friends a couple times a month. And we’d be closer for them to come and visit. Plus, they have Tim Horton’s! Its only an hour and a half travel time from Toronto, not counting the wait at customs inspection. James didn’t seem too keen on Buffalo tho. *sigh* Any ideas anyone?

Well, I think I shall go call a couple of customers to see if they have any Watkins orders for me, and then go watch another couple of episodes of Due South before work.

Oh, btw, an internet friend of mine up in Maine delivered her baby girl the other day, about 4 weeks premature. The baby is having some difficulties with undeveloped lungs, and has tubes and ventilator to help her breathe. She’s doing most of the work on her own, but she, and her parents (a couple I met thru a marriage based immigration message board) could use some positive happy thoughts and prayers. I’m sure they’ll all be just fine, but as an Auntie of a premie, I know how stressful the whole ordeal can be. Extra prayers I know would be appreciated, if you can spare them. For myself, prayers, and baby gifts are winging their way to her as soon as I can get to the post office :-)

**edit**

after some investigation (looking for season 2 & 4 for cheap) I learned that it was actually the BBC and I think a Swiss company that picked up some of the tab for season 3 & 4, and that CBS who originally were their backer had bailed out.  ¶ 11:08 AM 0 Comments

  Guess what I'm eating? I just got my delivery from Canadian Favourites, and I’m eating a plate full of crumpets with cinnamon spread on ‘em. Mmm mmm mmm! For dinner I plan to have a bowl or two of Shreddies. Oh how I’ve missed my Shreddies! Sorry, Chex just doesn’t cut it!

For dinner tomorrow, James will be home, so I’m going to make some Kraft Dinner. I ordered a couple of boxes because he said last week or so ago, that “there’s no difference!” HA! Really all I should have to do is show him the ingredients labels and compare, but the proof is in the pudding. So to speak. ;-)

There’s the kettle, excuse me while I make a cuppa…

Cuppa Tetley tea that is. Yes, Canadian Tetley, not this strange brew they have down here specially formulated for making iced tea. Bleah…as a hot tea, its very gross, so I have to have my Canadian Tetley.

I also ordered a couple of Cadbury chocolate bars. REAL Cadbury chocolate, not the made in America licensed by Hershey’s stuff. Occasionally I can find “real” Cadbury biscuits and such here, but never the chocolate bars. Today I even saw a package of Cadbury chocolates, made in Canada and licensed by Hershey’s USA. I have no idea if they were made by Cadbury Canada, or Hershey Canada, and I knew I had these on the way, so I didn’t buy them. My curiosity is piqued tho, I will have to do some investigating. I know the Cadbury made by Hershey US is just Hershey bars with a Cadbury label on them, but Cadbury made in Canada and licensed for Hershey US is confusing me.

OH OH OH! And I got a box of assorted Laura Secord chocolates too! Yeah, I’m bad, and will probably gain about 10 pounds, but what are the holidays for if not for gaining weight and then go out shopping to all the sales for new clothes? ;-)

I got James a couple bags of his favourite Bits & Bites too. Its become Christmas tradition to have a box full of Canadian Favourites for the holidays, and for James the Bits & Bites. Once again, Chex Mix just doesn’t cut it!

I also made it out to PetSmart today, with my unexpected day off (next few paychecks are going to be pitiful). James’ Mom gave me some money for Christmas, being unable to get out to do any shopping herself, and I’ve been having a heckuva time trying to keep my aquarium from turning green lately, so I went out and bought a new one. New tank, new filter, new stones, the works! We’ll see how this one does, its bigger, with a better filter system. Hopefully Gollum and Smeagol (our 2 goldfish) will like their new bigger place when I get them settled in it tomorrow. I have it all set up now, but I want the water to settle and get to about the same temperature as what they’re in now so they don’t die from shock.

Well, I think I shall go eat that box of Laura Secord and lie on the couch to read “Wicked”. So far its pretty good. Mum got it for me as well as the sequel “Son of a Witch”.

Happy Hanukah and Kwanza!  ¶ 4:01 PM 0 Comments

  How was your Christmas? We had a pretty good Christmas. James’ Mom got to go home from hospital on Christmas Eve (no one called us to let us know, we had to find out from the hospital when we went to visit :-p ). We spent a bit of time at her house, cleaning and stuff for her, then we went to see King Kong. The CGI Kong was amazing, so expressive and so realistic I thought. A new classic, without a doubt. I think I will re-watch the original black and white version just for something to do.

Christmas day was nice and sunny; once again the promised snow fall didn’t happen. I think we’ll have to move north if we ever want to have a white Christmas again. James and I opened our presents from each other and from my Mum that morning. Then we headed back over to his Mother’s to start cooking. She actually stayed out of the kitchen this time, still too weak to move around much. They drained 2 litres of water from her, which in her small frame, is quite a lot! She did say tho that her last CT scan showed that the tumors (she has 3, one on her liver and 2 in her chest) are all fading, so if the chemo doesn’t kill her, it just may get rid of the cancer!

Yesterday I got up and went to work, did my usual morning routine there, part of which includes having to call the District Manager to leave a message basically to say “Hey yeah, I made it to work today”. She called back not long after to say “what are you doing there? Go home” ugh…I swear, the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. The studio manager, my co-worker, told me last week that the DM told her that we are supposed to be open Monday and Tuesday, and I had to work. But then the DM says “who told you to work?” bleah….I was hired for a full time job, this obviously is not going to be a full time job. Our winter hours are cut in half for the studio, so its not even a full time job for one photographer, how the hell they expect 2 photographers to make a living out of it is beyond me. The DM can’t even get hold of my co-worker, she’s not answering her phones, so neither one of us knows how she’s planning to divide the work hours.

I really need to find a new job :-p

On to some good news! The day before Christmas Eve, we got our notice from Immigration Services that we have an appointment date for my Adjustment of Status (green card) interview! It’ll be on February 15th at 10:30am. Which is nice, at least we won’t have to sit there for the entire day waiting! Only for half the day ;-) For anyone who knows the hell we’ve been thru with Immigration, or anyone who has been thru the hell of immigration themselves, I know you’ll be rejoicing and happy for us. For those who have no clue how it works, and thought I already had a green card, nope, but I will by February 15th! Fingers crossed!

Here’s a run down of the crap we’ve been through. At first our plan was to live in Canada, and James was ready and getting packed to move north. Until just before Labour Day weekend (which also happened to be my birthday weekend) 2001 that is. He had a small U-Haul trailer filled with some of his belongings and headed to the border to spend the weekend there and to meet some of my family. We had set a wedding date of October 5, and I wanted him to meet the rest of the family before that. We had called and asked Canadian Immigration 5 times if it was legal for him to move some of his belongings across the border before we were married and they said sure, no problem. But apparently what the help desk says and what is the rule are completely different things. Not to mention of course that the border guards can make up new rules when the feel like it and just ruin people’s lives willy nilly :-p

James got to the border, they pulled him over for inspection, then denied him entry based on a juvenile conviction which had been erroneously entered as an adult charge. The really stupid thing is he’d already been back and forth over the border several times over the year and half previous, and that charge had been investigated and cleared by a border official. This day however, the woman didn’t like his haircut, or had had a fight with her boyfriend and was PMSing that day, or all of the above, and decided he wasn’t getting in to Canada, because he’s a menace to society. BUT! If he could prove he’s got wedding plans, and produce the bride at the border, and the court documents that show he has been rehabilitated the following morning, she may consider letting him through. Yeah…right! I had to work, and could not get away at all, so my Mum went in my stead, taking along with her copies of our wedding invitations, and the contracts for the minister and the reception hall. James managed to get the court documents and STILL the woman would not let him cross, saying she asked to see the Bride, not the Bride’s mother and then she decided he was harassing the border officials, so banned him from ever entering Canada, pending a stack of paperwork that typically takes Canadian Immigration about 5 years to get to.

So, that not only ruined our engagement party, and my birthday, but we had to cancel the wedding. I had a small nervous breakdown.

Then September 11th happened, further adding to my breakdown, and looking back, I’m amazed that I survived the month.

I finagled some vacation time from work, and on October 30th, 2001 we got married at the county court house in Lenoir, North Carolina with a couple of James’ friends in attendance.

James started getting paperwork together with a lawyer here in the US, who turned out to be completely inept, and just further fucked us up with Canadian Immigration. So I hired a guy in Toronto, who, despite his best efforts, was unable to fix what the US lawyer had messed up. This all took quite some time, and in the meantime, I found out that the company I was working for was being merged with a competitor, and layoffs were likely. I pretty much volunteered to be first out the door, and we proceeded with the paperwork for me to move to the US.

This unfortunately also got majorly fucked up by lawyers, and delayed us another year and a bit, we finally gave up on lawyers entirely and I did it myself. I finally got my K3 marriage based visa in September of 2004. But it was discovered that I required surgery, so rather than pay several thousands of dollars for it in the US, I stayed in Canada an extra month, and then moved south on October 11th, 2004. Still barely recovered, but after 7 months of being away from my husband I was ready to go even if my guts were falling out the incision :-p

This K3 visa thing does not allow me to work, so I had to separately apply for Employment Authorization document (EAD), and I received that in February 2005. Once I had that, I sent in the application for AOS, and figured I’d have about 12 to 13 months to wait to hear anything. Others going thru similar immigration process at the Charlotte NC office had waited about that long, so I wasn’t going to worry about anything for a few months. Until of course they sent us the dreaded Request for further evidence (RFE) asking for me to submit a medical examination. Which of course I had already done, because it is a pre-requisite to the K3 visa being issued. If anyone at USCIS actually knew what they were doing, they’d already know that.

Well, I wasn’t going to pay another $400US to have another medical done, so we contacted Senator Dole’s office once again (she had helped us already a few months earlier when USCIS had lost our K3 application) and they were able to discover that my medical record had been misplaced, but with prodding they were able to locate it, so another deportation panic was averted. To be honest, I have been dreading deportation notices ever since, for any reason like they’ve lost my medical record again (but of course won’t own up to it, they usually say it was never received), or that they’ve sent out interview notices and I didn’t show up or whatever….but, we received the notice, and so far all is well. I just need to go thru our files and get all of our evidence together that yes indeed, we are in a bonafide marriage, and I didn’t just marry him for the Green Card. Anyone who knows me can well attest to that, I was quite happy where I was in Canada spank you berry fudge!

Anyhow, to make a very long story short, once we survive this interview, I should be granted a 10 year Green Card, and we won’t have to deal with US immigration again for 10 years. Unless we move, and then we just have to make sure to send them address change notices. That I can deal with! And no, if you’re wondering I have no intension whatsoever of applying for citizenship when I’m eligible (3 years based on marriage based green card), other than being able to vote, I see no benefit to it. Unless they change the laws somehow to require me to become a citizen, I’ll be quite happy to just keep renewing my green card every 10 years. Or better yet, finally getting James’ paperwork in order so we can move back to Canada would be nice.

So, the long road will hopefully finally come to an end in February. Barring any unforeseen issues, and the interviewer doesn’t send us in for further investigation for some inexplicable reason. I see no reason they should, but it has happened to couples who are more prepared and organized than we are, so I won’t open the champagne just yet! But we just may have a Green Card party on February 15th! ;-) That’s a Wednesday in case you’re wondering. Maybe Lost will be a repeat, so our party won’t interfere! LOL! It’ll be a nice Christmas/Valentine’s present all in one tho eh?  ¶ 11:10 AM 4 Comments

  T'is the season I don’t much like the holiday season. For lots and lots of reasons. Just generally, the season is so hectic and stressful, that in and of itself is bad enough. Add to it the anniversary of my Aunt’s suicide on Christmas Eve, and the fact that I have not been able to spend Christmas with my own family and friends now for 5 years, and I’ve been a bit miserable this month.

Yesterday we can add James’ mother being taken to hospital. She’s been having chemo treatments for several months now, for liver cancer. This is her 4th bout of cancer of some sort or other, and is just trying to hold on long enough to see her grand-daughter graduate high-school in the spring. Yesterday she went to hospital with fluid in her lungs and surrounding her heart. She’s not doing very well at all. James called me at work around 4:30 to find out when I’d be done, and considering the time that it was, I figured I might as well just finish my day, because my co-worker likely would not have been able to get there much sooner than quitting time anyway. So after work I headed over to the hospital to sit with mother-in-law for a while. And despite James saying she didn’t need it, I took her a box of chocolates anyway :-p I had only just bought her 2 boxes for her Christmas gift earlier at my lunch break, I figured, just in case, she should at least have the opportunity to have some of her favourites before bed. I hope she ate as many as she could before her midnight cut off of no food.

Today they will be implanting a drainage tube in her chest to try to drain the fluids. I noticed on her in-room info board (at this hospital, they have a white board in every room, with the patient basic information written on it, along with last vitals readings and who their primary care in the hospital is etc…) that her weight is only 101 pounds, and her body temperature is below normal. Not good. They’ll be putting her under anesthesia to insert the chest tube, and in her current condition, this could be risky I imagine. James has gone to see her this morning before they take her to surgery, then we’ll both go back this afternoon or evening when she’s awake. Gods willing, she will wake up.

I believe I’m torn about how I’m supposed to feel about all this. There’s no secret that she doesn’t particularly like me, for whatever reason. General distrust of women who marry her sons being part of it, and she’s just never quite figured me out, and I think doesn’t like my attitude or habit of tellin’ it like it is. Of course, she’d never say as much to me, to me she’s outwardly polite, just not overly friendly. Much like a lot of people I’ve met in this town since I got here. To James however, she has said some things that basically means she doesn’t like me or trust me, and figures I just married him to get at her money and possessions. All I have to say to that is “huh?”

James is also unsure of how he feels. Tho he hasn’t said much other than he’s not feeling quite right, she is his mother, and she is suffering. They’ve never had much of a loving relationship; he was mostly raised by his grandmother. In the past couple of years though, since his father got sick and bought us this house to keep us close, she has at least on occasion tried to be civil. He does what he can for her, out of a sense of duty as a son more than anything I think.

Its all very confusing and I’m quite sure that unless you have also had a similar relationship with a parent, you just wouldn’t understand. I have a somewhat similar relationship with my own father, I really could live without him, but for years, out of a sense of duty, and because he was still living with my Mother, I tolerated him as best I could. Which was not very well actually. My parents divorced, and I moved to the States, so I haven’t talked to him in 2 years. I send Christmas cards and that’s it. I feel no obligation to do any more than that, even when he calls my sister or cousin to ask them when I will be calling him. I have no need or desire to speak to him, so it just ain’t gonna happen. But I do for some reason feel it is at least necessary to send just that one card per year to let him know I’m still alive.

Where does this duty to parents come from? No matter how badly they treat us our entire lives, how can we still feel duty bound to them? Why? Is it biology? Is it that DNA connection or something? I don’t get it. I’d be interested to know if any studies have been done on the chemistry of parentage. If there is some sort of actual scientifically explainable connection between parent and child that creates this sense duty, despite abusive treatment or abandonment. Do people who were adopted as small children feel anything like this toward biological parents if they meet them later in life?

*sigh* well that’s enough to make your brain hurt eh?

Today is Winter Solstice, and if this was a “normal” day, I might be thinking about doing some sort of celebratory ritual. As it is however, I’m just not in the mood. All I may do is open a beer or something and tip my glass to the Gods. I don’t have energy for much more than that. And depending how mother-in-law’s surgery goes this morning, we may not even have time for that. I’m very much debating whether to go do everything I had been planning to do today or not. I have a couple of customers up in Marion I was going to go see to get some orders, but that’s half an hour away, and if something happens, I’ll want to be here for James if he needs me. Ugh….maybe I’ll just go to the store and buy a new floor mop and clean my floors. Again. Bleah…

Happy Holidays. I for one wish it was over already :-p  ¶ 10:24 AM 0 Comments

  She's Canadian, she won't mind Yesterday we had an ice storm here. It was supposed to be my day off, but my co-worker, who lives about half an hour away, said there was no way she could make it in, so they called me. Our district manager, thinking she was being funny, said to me “we figured, you’re Canadian, you won’t mind driving in this” I replied, “yeah well, there’s a big difference between snow and ice” there was the pregnant pause, and then “ok, well thanks for covering! You can have tomorrow off” click. Grrrrrrrrrrr >:-

So there I sat at work, while all the other businesses in the neighbourhood, including James at the pizza shop, lost their power, K-Mart somehow managed to dodge that ball, and we stayed open. Hmph. Brother-in-law Randy phoned me around 6:30 on my cell phone wondering where the heck James was. He’d been trying to call his cell phone and work phone but couldn’t reach him. James had called me earlier in the day saying his cell phone battery was dead, and the power was out at the pizza shop, so he borrowed a co-worker’s phone to call me. Randy and Mother-in-law were without electricity, (they live across the street from each other) with downed power lines, and M-i-l was at home with no heat. I got home not quite an hour later to tell James to go over there with our propane camp heater for her. Of course he invited her to stay at our house, we had power. She declined. She’d rather sit in the dark and cold alone than come over here with me and our dogs :rolleyes:

Anyhow, it’s a pretty picture out there this morning, with the ice melting and the fog rising up from the ground, as the temperature rises to about 5C. What’s that in farenheit? I have no idea, I’m too lazy to look it up :-p

I have a few Christmas cards to write today, and finish up some shopping. Mostly for essentials, like dog treats and canned goods, in case of emergency. James is a bit paranoid about the coming flu pandemic, and figures we need to stock enough food for a few weeks of hunkering down. At the very least, we should have some food around in case of future storms that knock out our power. Ours went out for a short while yesterday, but was restored by 6pm or so. Others in town weren’t so lucky. I wonder if James has power yet at the shop? I should call and find out, he may have today off as well!

OH OH OH! I also have to get to the post office to pick up my presents from Canada! The card was dropped off in our mail box on Wednesday, and I was going to pick it up yesterday, but ended up working. Its funny, on the card where it says “from sender” they wrote in “Canada”. It was very nice of the entire country to send us a package, now I have 33 million thank you cards to write! ;-) LOL.

I’ve been trying to keep an eye on the election news from home, and its looking as tho both the Liberals and Conservatives are not the country’s favourite choice, but they’ll probably “go with the devil they know” again. They seem to be about the same in the polls, depending which you look at and who has stuck their foot in their mouth last. Whichever way it goes, it’ll likely be another minority government, with another election in a year or so, for much the same reasons there’s an election now. Canada could turn out to be the next Italy, with elections every time the current head of government sneezes on the wrong person. I do hate to say it, what with all the controversy around Martin and his Liberals, but I do think they’re still the most likely to keep the country together, and to keep it Canadian. If you follow. Of course, I could be wrong, and the entire country could show up and vote NDP out of desperation, thinking no one else will, and then BAM! Jack Layton will be Prime Minister. Just like how Bob Rae became Premier of Ontario all those years ago. Everyone was so fed up with the provincial Conservatives and Liberals “let’s vote NDP for the helluvit” turned into Rae Days to cut costs in healthcare and public employees’ salaries. And we all know how that turned out! Well, those of us from Ontario anyhow.

The world is all just turvey topsy, and covered in ice. In the US, there’s the War On Christmas. The Christian conservatives are boycotting stores that don’t say “Merry Christmas” to their customers, and Bill O’Reilly says that anyone who is offended by the words Merry Christmas is retarded. Followed immediately by him saying he’s offended by the words Happy Holidays! Does he even pay attention to what he says?

A friend up in Marion who owns a book store painted her front window with the word “Coexist” in religious type symbols.

Some folks in town have looked at it and said “I can’t even figure out what it says”, another has telephoned her to request to be removed from her mailing list, because of what her window says. She’s even had a preacher on the sidewalk outside preaching about the evils of the Devil in Hell. I just can’t figure people out. What would Jesus say right now if he was here to see all of this? Would he sit right there with Bill O’Reilly and back him up on the boycott of “un-Christian” businesses? Or would he just shake his head and wonder where it all went wrong? *sigh*

On another note, I’ve been wondering about making a Yule log cake. I wonder if I could find a cake pan in the shape of a log, or if I could bake a cake batter on a cookie sheet with high sides, and then roll it with icing. I’m just not sure how adventurous I am, plus, I probably won’t have a lot of time to fuss. Or I may have all the time in the world. I’m not sure if I’ll have a job next week. There’s not a lot of people coming in to have pictures made now, so not enough to keep 2 photographers busy. I fully expect to be laid off. But then again, Dawn may quit and they may ask me to take over the studio. Which I will politely decline. Gods, I hate this job! I’ve already started looking for something else, and applied to an admin position I found at careerbuilder.com.

Or maybe I’ll just drive down to South Carolina, buy a lottery ticket and win that instead :-p  ¶ 10:48 AM 2 Comments

  Why? Why? Why? Why do people bring in their tired, hungry and cranky babies to have their pictures taken, and then get all upset when said tired hungry and crank baby won’t smile for the camera?

Why do they bring their tired cranky toddlers at 7:30 at night, and then get angry when said toddler won’t sit still to have their picture taken?

Why do they threaten, bribe and cajole their children to smile, and expect them to actually smile? Would you smile if your Mommy was standing there threatening to smack your butt if you don’t smile? Would you smile if someone said to you, “no more toys or candy for you!”? Sheesh, this is parenting?

And I have to stand there and smile and just wait for the kid to sit still for just one second so I can click the shutter. Only to have parent or guardian say “no, that’s not his face, try again”. Whose bloody face is it? I just don’t understand.

I’ve even had parents bring their toddlers in at 7pm for pictures, they’re tired and cranky, they haven’t been fed, and they won’t sit still. The parents threaten and bribe them for 45 minutes while I take pictures. Then we sit down to look at them “no, I don’t like any of those, they just look fake.” GAH!!!!

I really wish North Carolina would hurry up and implement this dang lottery already! Hmph :-p

On a different note, I have about finished my gift shopping I think. Just a few stocking stuffers for James and the puppies and that should be about it. I just have to wait til tomorrow morning to find out if my pay cheque gets automatic deposit or if it’ll come in the mail again. I’ve asked for automatic deposit, filled out the forms and everything. And they keep sending it to me in the mail, which means I can’t get to the freakin’ bank until the following Wednesday, and I have no money between now and then.

If it does get deposited tho, I’ll be heading straight to www.canadianfavourites.com and getting myself some crumpets, cinnamon spread, and James some Bits & Bites. He loves that stuff, and we can’t find anything as good here in the US. We have similar products, but not quite as good. I also need some Laura Secord chocolate and some Shreddies. I wish I could afford the extra shipping cost for expedited, they have poutine cheese curds now too. I miss poutine.

For any ex-pat Canadians keeping up here, there are a few on-line shops for us. Canadian Favourites is one (link above) and a friend Marlene has also found http://www.alwayscanadian.com/home.php their shipping is a bit less than Canadian Favourites, but they don’t have crumpets. There’s also http://www.sendpc.ca if you’re craving some of the President’s Choice products. Go to http://www.realcanadianbacon.com/ for some authentic “Canadian” bacon, not that imitation what the American’s call Canadian style bacon. I’ve ordered from them before, and service is great, however a bit expensive. I bought 2 packages of bacon, which cost me about $50 including the shipping. A bit rich for my blood, but it was tasty! If you need some real Canadian maple syrup for your Christmas morning pancakes, try http://www.ed-foods.com/maple.html

For those of us in the home state of Krispy Kreme that don’t have Timmy’s within a day’s driving distance, Canadian Favourites and Always Canadian both have Tim Horton’s coffee and hot chocolate to order. I wish they could ship donuts too, but I guess they’d be a bit stale by the time they got here eh? *sigh*

Speaking of Timmy’s…my hubby has been watching their stocks, and apparently they have once again broken free of Wendy’s Corp and will be having an IPO sometime early next year. We’ll see how that goes, and perhaps if they do well we could petition them to start opening some shops down south. With Krispy Kreme filing for protection, they may just be up to the competition. As a Canadian used to having a donut shop on every corner, I’m finding it difficult to get used to not having any around. The closest donut shop is a Krispy Kreme over in Hickory half an hour away. I don’t like their donuts, they’re gross and just way too sugary. I miss Timmy’s L Even Dunkin’ Donuts would suffice, but is nowhere close by. The closest is in Statesville, about an hour away. How are we expected to survive without donuts? (and grocery store packaged donuts don’t count!)

If we ever move, I’m telling ya, one selling point for any town will certainly be if there is a donut shop there or not. Krispy Kreme excluded of course. Bleah.

Maybe if we win the lottery we could open our own Tim Horton’s.

Well, I think I’ll go wash the kitchen floor. Its all muddy again. We should re-do the kitchen in a Santa Fe look, so I can put terra cotta tiles on the floor, and paint the cupboards orange to go with the mud :-p  ¶ 11:47 AM 0 Comments

  Something Phishy I just had a suspicious email in my in-box from what I believe to be a hacker posing with a fake Paypal website asking me to verify my account information. What made me suspicious is that it asked for not only my bank account information (which Paypal would need to know) but it also asked for my ATM card PIN, which they most definitely do not need to know! If any of you use PayPal and you receive that message, do not click the link. Go directly to your web browser, and from there to PayPal's website, and contact their security via email to verify with PayPal that they sent it. Copy and paste the email and send it to them. This is the email that I got
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quote:
Unauthorized access to your PayPal account! We recently noticed more attempts to log in to your PayPal account from a foreign IP address. If you accessed your account while traveling, the unusual log in attempts may have been initiated by you. However, if you are the rightfull holder of the account, please visit Paypal as soon as possible to verify your identity: Click here to verify your account You can also verify your account by logging into your PayPal account at https://www.paypal.com/us/ If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choise but to temporaly suspend your account. We ask that you allow at least 72 hours for the case to be investigated and we strongly recommend to verify your account in that time. Thank you for using PayPal! The PayPal Team Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and choose the Help link located in the top right corner of any PayPal page. To receive email notifications in plain text instead of HTML, update your preferences here.
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The website link takes you to what looks like PayPal, but its not.

Keep your computers and your bank accounts safe everyone! Make sure your anti-virus is up to date, and clean up any spyware that may be on your computer. Ad-Aware or Spybot Search & Destroy are free to download, just do a search!

Catch ya later!  ¶ 8:20 AM 2 Comments

  I Am Canadian! I’ve been sort of keeping up with the Canadian news, mostly from the Toronto area of course, as that’s where I’m from. But also I’ve read a couple of articles in US news about the upcoming Canadian Federal election. You should see the headlines down here, “Canadian Government Collapses!” LOL! Gotta love the US media! Anyhoo…as a non-resident Canadian citizen, I just checked the Elections Canada website http://www.elections.ca/home.asp?textonly=false just to check if I’m eligible to vote, and it would seem not. Of course I could fib a bit, and just pick a date that I intend to return to Canada, just to make sure there’s one more vote AGAINST Steven Harper and his creepy Conservatives, but I really don’t have an expected date that we could possibly return. *sigh* All I can do is encourage every eligible Canadian to get out there and vote, and if you’re currently not living in Canada but intend to return, please please please! Send in the registration form so that you can cast your vote! The apathy of the last few elections is terrible; let your voice be heard! Cast your vote and let the government know what it is you want from them! Stop being so bloody Canadian and get LOUD! Sheesh!

Please, for the sake of the country, and your own personal freedoms that every Canadian has become accustomed to and has the right to, do not allow Harper and the Conservatives take Parliament! Seriously, what is more important for the government to be spending their time on, revoking same sex marriage rights, or enhancing health care? Do you really want the government to start whittling away at basic human rights and freedoms, or would you rather someone take the reins who no matter what their own religious or spiritual background is, will be able to set that aside for logical thought? By no means do I think the Liberals are anywhere near perfect, but at least they TRY to not inflict their own religious dogma on the entire population. Yes, Canada is a western country, and about 80% Christian by the last census. But I’d hazard a guess that about half or more of the Christian population don’t want the same sex marriage debate to come up again, because they really feel that there’s no harm in it. Has the sanctity of YOUR marriage been affected by a couple of men down the street who got married last year? If it has, then perhaps you should examine your own life, and not theirs.

Personally, I feel that our country is enriched by the federal laws that allow freedoms to EVERYONE, no matter their race, creed, religion or sexual preference. Or should we follow the US, and attempt to amend the federal constitution that homosexuals are lesser people, and therefore don’t deserve basic human rights? Hmmmmmmmmm? The feds may not have accomplished it, but several states have made it illegal for couples of same sex to get married. Which IMO, is basically saying “you’re gay, you have no right to fall in love and live happily ever after”. Do you want to live in a country like that? Where they make it against the law to be in love?

There are a lot of things in the Canadian Government that are flawed, I’m well aware of that, and the only reason I live here in the US is because of Canadian Government flaws! And one particular immigration officer at the Peace Bridge crossing, but that’s another story :-p But do Canadians really want to elect the Federal Allia….erm…Conservatives, only to have a wannabe Bush in office? If Harper had been in office in 2003, he’d have followed Bush into Iraq, and we all know the fiasco that would have been! We don’t have nearly enough troops to be sending them off to un-just wars.

The thought of the Conservatives gaining power of Canada scares the bejeebers out of me. Don’t get me wrong, before the Progressive Conservatives got into bed with the Alliance, I would on occasion vote Conservative. Not anymore! Nope Nope Nope! There’s conservative, and then there’s Alliance. And the Alliance is NOT what Canada needs. No matter what colour you paint them, or what label you slap on ‘em, they all just seem rather UN-Canadian, and they scare me.

So please, for the sake of your own Canadian-ness, and for the sake of our country, get out there and vote on Elections day. Encourage your friends and family to vote, and don’t just vote for the rhetoric or for the best mud slinger! Vote for what’s best for Canada, and what’s best for your rights and freedoms. Please, let me go home to Canada, not Mini-Me. As much as I’d love for my husband’s issues with Canadian Immigration to be resolved, I don’t want it to be because Canada is annexed and becomes the 51st state.

If you’re eligible to vote, go and do it. Don’t just grumble about the mess of the government and say “well I had nothing to do with it, I didn’t bother to vote”. Have your say. Please! Just vote. It only takes a couple of minutes of your day to do it. January 23, 2006. That’s a Monday. There’s nothing on TV that evening anyway, you can stop on your way home from work. Or go first thing in the morning. Please? For me? For the future of Canada.  ¶ 9:49 AM 4 Comments