What's a Canadian doing in North Carolina?
Monday, February 27, 2006
In The Line of Duty
I read the news from back home pretty much every day, and the last few days have been rather depressing. Toronto Police force lost one of its finest last week, in a senseless hit and run. I hope the guy who did it is charged with killing an on duty police officer! How can anyone just ram into a mounted police officer? >:-|
From www.thestar.com
Brigadier, the Belgian cross police horse killed in the line of duty last week, will be given a hero's send-off in a memorial service Thursday.
Plans are in the works to hold a funeral in the Scarborough community near where he was struck and mortally wounded by a hit-and-run driver on Friday.
Police had to shoot the animal due to his massive injuries.
The Giffen-Mack Funeral and Cremation Centre on Lawrence Ave. E., just west of Kingston Rd. and about a block from the incident, contacted police and offered to hold the service, Staff Inspector William Wardle, head of the Toronto mounted police unit, said yesterday.
Wardle said he plans to visit the home today to see if it can accommodate the crowd they expect for Brigadier's service.
"This is really touching. It's from the community out of respect for what the horses do patrolling the area," he said. "When you think of how many members of the community were out at the scene that day from those surrounding apartment buildings, it would give them an opportunity to attend."
Brigadier and his rider, Constable Kevin Bradfield, along with three other mounted officers, were patrolling the area as part of a new policing project to reduce drugs and gun crime in the area when the driver of a van failed to pull over, then allegedly struck the horse deliberately.
He fled the scene, but a suspect was later charged.
Bradfield was thrown from the horse, suffering broken ribs, and injuries to his neck, back and leg. He was treated in hospital and released.
A 42-year-old suspect, Dirk Sankersingh, is in custody and makes his second court appearance today.
He is charged with dangerous operation of a vehicle causing bodily harm and failing to remain at the scene of an accident.
Kari Peters, a Scarborough resident who owns three horses, was on her way home from Pickering Friday when she saw the police lights and horse trailers.
"I lost my horse in 1998 and I know what it's like to see your horse lying there.
"I didn't need to see it again."
She said her heart goes out to Bradfield and those who rode Brigadier. She also hopes to attend the service.
The mounted unit is mourning the animal's loss, while horse lovers say there ought to be stiffer penalties against those who deliberately harm animals.
"You'd have a lot of people on the bandwagon if there was a petition pushing for greater consequences. That was an innocent animal ... it's disgusting," said Rebecca Grosberg, a riding instructor at Destiny Equestrian in Whitby. She said students at their lessons on the weekend were close to tears.
So popular was Brigadier with the mounted unit that three of its officers chose to pose with him for children's trading cards handed out during public visits to the Horse Palace at Exhibition Place.
Wardle said if all goes according to plan, Brigadier will get the same send-off as Vancouver police dog Nitro, killed last month by a train while chasing car thieves.
Three weeks ago, more than 700 mourners, many of them uniformed police officers and member of canine units from across B.C. and Washington, paid their respects at his funeral. His ashes were scattered at the Vancouver city limits.
Brigadier was one of 28 horses and 40 officers that make up the city's mounted unit, originally founded in 1886.
Toronto police purchased the horse in 2001 from a commercial horse breeder in Listowel, Ont.
My condolences and sympthies to the Toronto Police force, mounted unit, and to the rider who was also injured, Constable Bradfield. ¶ 11:46 AM 0 Comments
From www.thestar.com
Brigadier, the Belgian cross police horse killed in the line of duty last week, will be given a hero's send-off in a memorial service Thursday.
Plans are in the works to hold a funeral in the Scarborough community near where he was struck and mortally wounded by a hit-and-run driver on Friday.
Police had to shoot the animal due to his massive injuries.
The Giffen-Mack Funeral and Cremation Centre on Lawrence Ave. E., just west of Kingston Rd. and about a block from the incident, contacted police and offered to hold the service, Staff Inspector William Wardle, head of the Toronto mounted police unit, said yesterday.
Wardle said he plans to visit the home today to see if it can accommodate the crowd they expect for Brigadier's service.
"This is really touching. It's from the community out of respect for what the horses do patrolling the area," he said. "When you think of how many members of the community were out at the scene that day from those surrounding apartment buildings, it would give them an opportunity to attend."
Brigadier and his rider, Constable Kevin Bradfield, along with three other mounted officers, were patrolling the area as part of a new policing project to reduce drugs and gun crime in the area when the driver of a van failed to pull over, then allegedly struck the horse deliberately.
He fled the scene, but a suspect was later charged.
Bradfield was thrown from the horse, suffering broken ribs, and injuries to his neck, back and leg. He was treated in hospital and released.
A 42-year-old suspect, Dirk Sankersingh, is in custody and makes his second court appearance today.
He is charged with dangerous operation of a vehicle causing bodily harm and failing to remain at the scene of an accident.
Kari Peters, a Scarborough resident who owns three horses, was on her way home from Pickering Friday when she saw the police lights and horse trailers.
"I lost my horse in 1998 and I know what it's like to see your horse lying there.
"I didn't need to see it again."
She said her heart goes out to Bradfield and those who rode Brigadier. She also hopes to attend the service.
The mounted unit is mourning the animal's loss, while horse lovers say there ought to be stiffer penalties against those who deliberately harm animals.
"You'd have a lot of people on the bandwagon if there was a petition pushing for greater consequences. That was an innocent animal ... it's disgusting," said Rebecca Grosberg, a riding instructor at Destiny Equestrian in Whitby. She said students at their lessons on the weekend were close to tears.
So popular was Brigadier with the mounted unit that three of its officers chose to pose with him for children's trading cards handed out during public visits to the Horse Palace at Exhibition Place.
Wardle said if all goes according to plan, Brigadier will get the same send-off as Vancouver police dog Nitro, killed last month by a train while chasing car thieves.
Three weeks ago, more than 700 mourners, many of them uniformed police officers and member of canine units from across B.C. and Washington, paid their respects at his funeral. His ashes were scattered at the Vancouver city limits.
Brigadier was one of 28 horses and 40 officers that make up the city's mounted unit, originally founded in 1886.
Toronto police purchased the horse in 2001 from a commercial horse breeder in Listowel, Ont.
My condolences and sympthies to the Toronto Police force, mounted unit, and to the rider who was also injured, Constable Bradfield. ¶ 11:46 AM 0 Comments
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Moving Right Along...
Wow, things are moving quicker than we had anticipated! Domino’s called James the other day and told him he’s registered for the final Franchiser training starting Monday! So, he’s on his way up to Michigan as I type this. Its an 11 hour drive according to mapquest, and he’ll be gone for the week. The dogs are suspicious that something is happening because they saw him taking his stuff out to the car, and last time we got all packed up, they got to spend a few days at that fun place. They thought they were going too…poor Bruno was whining and barking for Daddy to come back and take him with :-(
So, I’m at home this week without my Dark Lord, and we have to figure out how to get this house in order to sell it lickety split. The franchiser up in Wisconsin wants out like last month, so Domino’s is trying to get James up there as soon as possible. This means of course that he’ll have to go on ahead without us until he can find us a house and we can get this one packed up and sold. I hope that doesn’t take too long, we had enough years of living apart while we suffered through immigration nonsense!
In the meantime, I’m working part time at Domino’s making pizza, and also trying to keep my Watkins biz held together. This is difficult because at any given time I am not quite sure what’s going on here, so I can’t really schedule things too far into the future. I’ve got a few candidates in the pipe who have expressed an interest in becoming associates, but so far they’re holding out. This is strange, because at the moment, The Summit Group is giving away $25 gift certificates to new associates who sign up before close of business on February 27th. I dunno about you, but I wouldn’t mind getting an immediate ROI of $25!
I do have one Good Tastings party scheduled for March 12th up near Asheville, and hopefully when I tell everyone there that I’m moving to Wisconsin, someone will take up the torch for me to supply my current customers. This party will be a bit different, in that I will not only be focusing on the foods and personal care products, but also the biodegradable home care products like laundry detergent and all purpose cleansers. The host is most interested in those items, as will be most of her guests. We are all stewards of the earth after all. I should tell her to tell her guests to each bring an item of white clothing and we can do a load of laundry while we snack! Heh…that would be interesting!
I just don’t know what I will do with myself this week. I’m only working part time at Domino’s during the evening dinner rush. I suppose I could start packing…bleah…I really don’t like moving. I do it way too much! ¶ 1:27 PM 0 Comments
So, I’m at home this week without my Dark Lord, and we have to figure out how to get this house in order to sell it lickety split. The franchiser up in Wisconsin wants out like last month, so Domino’s is trying to get James up there as soon as possible. This means of course that he’ll have to go on ahead without us until he can find us a house and we can get this one packed up and sold. I hope that doesn’t take too long, we had enough years of living apart while we suffered through immigration nonsense!
In the meantime, I’m working part time at Domino’s making pizza, and also trying to keep my Watkins biz held together. This is difficult because at any given time I am not quite sure what’s going on here, so I can’t really schedule things too far into the future. I’ve got a few candidates in the pipe who have expressed an interest in becoming associates, but so far they’re holding out. This is strange, because at the moment, The Summit Group is giving away $25 gift certificates to new associates who sign up before close of business on February 27th. I dunno about you, but I wouldn’t mind getting an immediate ROI of $25!
I do have one Good Tastings party scheduled for March 12th up near Asheville, and hopefully when I tell everyone there that I’m moving to Wisconsin, someone will take up the torch for me to supply my current customers. This party will be a bit different, in that I will not only be focusing on the foods and personal care products, but also the biodegradable home care products like laundry detergent and all purpose cleansers. The host is most interested in those items, as will be most of her guests. We are all stewards of the earth after all. I should tell her to tell her guests to each bring an item of white clothing and we can do a load of laundry while we snack! Heh…that would be interesting!
I just don’t know what I will do with myself this week. I’m only working part time at Domino’s during the evening dinner rush. I suppose I could start packing…bleah…I really don’t like moving. I do it way too much! ¶ 1:27 PM 0 Comments
Friday, February 24, 2006
Pizza, Pirates and Things
Well, I started my new job at Domino’s the other day. I guess its not so bad. The first day was just mostly listening to their training CD and touring the shop. Its kinda like a recorded tourist thing of the museum or Biltmore house, but it’s a pizza shop instead. I had visions of The Matrix, and wondered how much it would cost to have one of those things installed in the back of my brain so I could learn Kung-Fu. ;-)
Yesterday I worked the dinner “rush”. It wasn’t really all that busy, but I made quite a few pizzas. With James and the assistant manager Brittney hanging over my shoulder of course. And, wonder of wonders, I didn’t burn myself on the pizza oven. Yet! Its only a matter of time.
Answering the phones and taking orders proved to be more difficult than you’d think. Mostly the problem is the dang accents. I don’t understand them, plus with the noise from the ovens, and crappy phone connections, its hard to figure out what the heck they’re saying sometimes! I suppose I’ll get used to it, but we’ll probably move before then. ;-) Mid-west accents may be a bit easier for me to understand, as it’s a bit closer to home.
Check this out, one of the guys at the shop got this for me yesterday from Burger King.
RCMP SpongeBob!
Sorry its not very clear, but its still in the package. Neat eh? Something else to add to my Canadiana collection. Strange they have an RCMP SpongeBob tho. I never watch the show, so I can only assume its something from there. Meh…its funny no matter. :-)
When I got home from work last night, James was already home, and George came running to greet me at the door. She got all excited because I smelled like pizza, and she kept sniffing at me, and then looking at James like “hey! She smells like pizza just like you do! Wow! Sniff sniff sniff…I like pizza!”
I was looking at the Pirate on-line magazine No Quarter Given last night for something to do, (James was watching MXC, and I don’t particularly like that show) and there is a Pirate Festival in Port Washington, WI on Lake Michigan. We like pirates, and as we’ll be in Wisconsin by then (hopefully) we just may be able to go. Looks like fun. I wouldn’t mind going for a cruise on the tall ship too, I love sailing on tall ships.
I was also looking at real estate listings in Rice Lake, we’re trying to find somewhere affordable, that has a dishwasher (very important!) and with a fairly large yard for the dogs. 1 acre or more would be great, but if we can find something that already has a privacy fence up around a large enough yard, we’ll take it! Although James and I are having difficulty agreeing on just how big the yard needs to be. I figure half an acre should be good enough for them; he wants several acres for some reason. No idea why, because he’ll only bitch and complain about having to mow it all the time. :-p *sigh* About the only thing we can absolutely agree on is the dishwasher, and the need for at least 3 bedrooms (one for us, one for guests, and one for an office or dog room).
My daffodils are about to bloom already. They should be flowering in a couple of days. I should get out there sometime and clean up the front flower gardens, get the grass out of there and make it look a bit nicer. Whatever will help sell this place quicker! We were both looking at the horribleness that is the bedroom walls last night, and we’re either going to have to tear out the drywall and completely re-do it all, or find some different kind of paneling to cover it. It really is a mess in there, and no matter how much putty we use, its still going to look like crap. I dunno what the previous owners did, but it looks like they just used scraps and pieced it all together. With different width sheets at that! It just looks awful. :-p No idea what type of paneling we can use to cover it, I’m loathe to put up the same kind of fake wood that was up there before, I guess I’ll have to go shopping. Darn. ;-)
James hasn’t got finalized word yet on when he’ll be going for his next training, but it’ll likely be soon. I will have to stay home this time tho, its for a week and we wont’ be able to afford the $1000 or so for boarding the dogs. Which is fine with me! I can’t handle that drive again. Plus we need to save money for our Scotland trip. I get paid hourly, so if I’m not at work, I don’t get paid. James is on salary. Hopefully we can save enough money now to at least pay for our airfare right away, and then we can just put our hotel and stuff on plastic.
Well, that’s about it. Not much going on around here other than makin’ pizzas and trying to find a house to move to. And trying to figure out what to do with this one to make it look nicer.
Oh, and we didn’t win the lottery. :-p ¶ 11:55 AM 2 Comments
Yesterday I worked the dinner “rush”. It wasn’t really all that busy, but I made quite a few pizzas. With James and the assistant manager Brittney hanging over my shoulder of course. And, wonder of wonders, I didn’t burn myself on the pizza oven. Yet! Its only a matter of time.
Answering the phones and taking orders proved to be more difficult than you’d think. Mostly the problem is the dang accents. I don’t understand them, plus with the noise from the ovens, and crappy phone connections, its hard to figure out what the heck they’re saying sometimes! I suppose I’ll get used to it, but we’ll probably move before then. ;-) Mid-west accents may be a bit easier for me to understand, as it’s a bit closer to home.
Check this out, one of the guys at the shop got this for me yesterday from Burger King.
RCMP SpongeBob!
Sorry its not very clear, but its still in the package. Neat eh? Something else to add to my Canadiana collection. Strange they have an RCMP SpongeBob tho. I never watch the show, so I can only assume its something from there. Meh…its funny no matter. :-)
When I got home from work last night, James was already home, and George came running to greet me at the door. She got all excited because I smelled like pizza, and she kept sniffing at me, and then looking at James like “hey! She smells like pizza just like you do! Wow! Sniff sniff sniff…I like pizza!”
I was looking at the Pirate on-line magazine No Quarter Given last night for something to do, (James was watching MXC, and I don’t particularly like that show) and there is a Pirate Festival in Port Washington, WI on Lake Michigan. We like pirates, and as we’ll be in Wisconsin by then (hopefully) we just may be able to go. Looks like fun. I wouldn’t mind going for a cruise on the tall ship too, I love sailing on tall ships.
I was also looking at real estate listings in Rice Lake, we’re trying to find somewhere affordable, that has a dishwasher (very important!) and with a fairly large yard for the dogs. 1 acre or more would be great, but if we can find something that already has a privacy fence up around a large enough yard, we’ll take it! Although James and I are having difficulty agreeing on just how big the yard needs to be. I figure half an acre should be good enough for them; he wants several acres for some reason. No idea why, because he’ll only bitch and complain about having to mow it all the time. :-p *sigh* About the only thing we can absolutely agree on is the dishwasher, and the need for at least 3 bedrooms (one for us, one for guests, and one for an office or dog room).
My daffodils are about to bloom already. They should be flowering in a couple of days. I should get out there sometime and clean up the front flower gardens, get the grass out of there and make it look a bit nicer. Whatever will help sell this place quicker! We were both looking at the horribleness that is the bedroom walls last night, and we’re either going to have to tear out the drywall and completely re-do it all, or find some different kind of paneling to cover it. It really is a mess in there, and no matter how much putty we use, its still going to look like crap. I dunno what the previous owners did, but it looks like they just used scraps and pieced it all together. With different width sheets at that! It just looks awful. :-p No idea what type of paneling we can use to cover it, I’m loathe to put up the same kind of fake wood that was up there before, I guess I’ll have to go shopping. Darn. ;-)
James hasn’t got finalized word yet on when he’ll be going for his next training, but it’ll likely be soon. I will have to stay home this time tho, its for a week and we wont’ be able to afford the $1000 or so for boarding the dogs. Which is fine with me! I can’t handle that drive again. Plus we need to save money for our Scotland trip. I get paid hourly, so if I’m not at work, I don’t get paid. James is on salary. Hopefully we can save enough money now to at least pay for our airfare right away, and then we can just put our hotel and stuff on plastic.
Well, that’s about it. Not much going on around here other than makin’ pizzas and trying to find a house to move to. And trying to figure out what to do with this one to make it look nicer.
Oh, and we didn’t win the lottery. :-p ¶ 11:55 AM 2 Comments
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Reading Labels
Since I moved to the US, I’ve started reading food labels more often. Even before I moved here, I noticed a lot of differences in the American versions of foods that we have also in Canada. Like pop (soda) for instance. I’m a Pepsi person, but I have considerably cut down on my pop consumption here because its so much sweeter that at home. Also chocolate. I’m a self confessed choco-holic, but I really don’t prefer the mass produced American chocolate bars like Hershey’s etc. The Canadian versions are better. They’re less sweet, and there’s more chocolate in them. Even store bought breads here like Wonder or Sara Lee are considerably sweeter and have different textures than back home. I’ve also heard from more than one new immigrant that they’ve gained quite a bit of weight in their first year here than would be considered normal considering their normal consumption of quantities and food types hasn’t changed much. I think I’ve figured it out. High Fructose Corn Syrup. Its nasty stuff.
I have been on a quest for nearly 2 years now to find products in regular grocery stores that Do Not contain High Fructose Corn Syrup. I’m tellin’ ya, it ain’t easy! Nearly everything here has HFCS in it. From breakfast cereals to yoghurt, to condiments like ketchup and steak sauce, they all have HFCS in them. And it makes them sweeter and taste a whole lot different than the Canadian versions I’m used to and still prefer. Same brand names, same labels, different sweetening ingredients.
The first thing we did was stop buying bread at the grocery store. James bought me a bread maker and I make my own, usually 2 loaves each week. This cuts down quite a lot of the amount of HFCS we eat right there. That was easy. Not so for everything else though. The Dairy Producers started their commercials saying that consuming 3 servings of dairy every day will help you lose weight. So, I started eating yoghurt every day, and bought the same brand that I used to eat back home. And I gained weight! Why? HFCS that’s why! I switched brands, after checking every single label of every single yoghurt brand in the store!
I bought some Rice Krispies one day. Got home, poured myself a bowl, and guess what? Its sweetened with HFCS as well! GAH! I wouldn’t even have thought of it, so now I read pretty much every label of everything I buy, trying to find stuff without HFCS in it. I had even been ordering products from Canadian Favourites, or having my Mum bring stuff with her when she visits, just so I can stay away from HFCS. I finally found some ketchup here without it. Heinz organic ketchup. Made in Canada strangely enough, and there’s no HFCS in it. It costs a bit more, but trust me, its worth it!
James and I had a bit of a disagreement this morning on the cause of diabetes. Obesity rates are climbing every year here in the US, and everyone knows that obesity is a large contributing factor to diabetes. Initial recent studies on HFCS shows that this one sweetener could be a large contributing factor into obesity rates. Why? Because unlike regular sugars, it does not block the craving receptors that tell us we’re full, and the liver processes it differently than other sugars. It turns to fat. We eat more when we have a diet containing high levels of HFCS, because we cravemore. Ergo, HFCS could very well be a contributing factor to the growing rates of obesity, and diabetes, in the United States. And yes, I have articles to back me up :-p Check these out:
The Murky World Of High Fructose Corn Syrup
The Double Danger of High Fructose Corn Syrup
Sugar coated We're drowning in high fructose corn syrup. Do the risks go beyond our waistline?
Wikipedia
Sweet But Not So Innocent
High Fructose Corn Syrup and Obesity
ok, just to balance it out a bit The Facts About HFCS
I once emailed Heinz Foods to ask them why the difference in the Canadian version vs. the US version. Their response was “customer demand”. So then I asked a bunch of Americans if they asked Heinz Foods to make their ketchup sweeter with HFCS, and none of them could recall doing so. Really, what the “demand” was was to be able to make it cheaper, and HFCS is less expensive to produce than other sugars. Whether or not Heinz and other producers have passed on this savings to their customers I don’t know. I think the price of ketchup in Canada is comparable to the US, and the Canadian version does not have HFCS in it. I demand a ketchup without HFCS in it, so now I buy the more expensive one anyway. Go figure.
I’m not criticizing America, or Americans. I am criticizing American food producers, who, to save a few pennies, have put their customers at risk by giving them an unsafe product. I’m sure that if we all start reading labels more often, and if we stop using all these products with HFCS in them, food producers will have to think of something else to use. If we all start demanding healthier options to foods that in all likelihood we didn’t even know were all that bad for us, food producers will eventually have to answer those demands. After all, apparently there was a “demand” for ketchup sweetened with HFCS, if we all demand that they take it out again, logically they’d have to comply non?
Its not easy to find alternative products, but it is possible. I’ve checked the labels of Watkins products and haven’t yet found one that contains HFCS (or even MSG, but that’s another post altogether!). If you’re looking in your grocery stores, check the “organic” aisle. HFCS is NOT organic, so none of those products would have it. It may cost more initially, but in the long run, it could save you a lot of medical bills. Couldn’t hurt anyway. ¶ 1:01 PM 4 Comments
I have been on a quest for nearly 2 years now to find products in regular grocery stores that Do Not contain High Fructose Corn Syrup. I’m tellin’ ya, it ain’t easy! Nearly everything here has HFCS in it. From breakfast cereals to yoghurt, to condiments like ketchup and steak sauce, they all have HFCS in them. And it makes them sweeter and taste a whole lot different than the Canadian versions I’m used to and still prefer. Same brand names, same labels, different sweetening ingredients.
The first thing we did was stop buying bread at the grocery store. James bought me a bread maker and I make my own, usually 2 loaves each week. This cuts down quite a lot of the amount of HFCS we eat right there. That was easy. Not so for everything else though. The Dairy Producers started their commercials saying that consuming 3 servings of dairy every day will help you lose weight. So, I started eating yoghurt every day, and bought the same brand that I used to eat back home. And I gained weight! Why? HFCS that’s why! I switched brands, after checking every single label of every single yoghurt brand in the store!
I bought some Rice Krispies one day. Got home, poured myself a bowl, and guess what? Its sweetened with HFCS as well! GAH! I wouldn’t even have thought of it, so now I read pretty much every label of everything I buy, trying to find stuff without HFCS in it. I had even been ordering products from Canadian Favourites, or having my Mum bring stuff with her when she visits, just so I can stay away from HFCS. I finally found some ketchup here without it. Heinz organic ketchup. Made in Canada strangely enough, and there’s no HFCS in it. It costs a bit more, but trust me, its worth it!
James and I had a bit of a disagreement this morning on the cause of diabetes. Obesity rates are climbing every year here in the US, and everyone knows that obesity is a large contributing factor to diabetes. Initial recent studies on HFCS shows that this one sweetener could be a large contributing factor into obesity rates. Why? Because unlike regular sugars, it does not block the craving receptors that tell us we’re full, and the liver processes it differently than other sugars. It turns to fat. We eat more when we have a diet containing high levels of HFCS, because we cravemore. Ergo, HFCS could very well be a contributing factor to the growing rates of obesity, and diabetes, in the United States. And yes, I have articles to back me up :-p Check these out:
The Murky World Of High Fructose Corn Syrup
The Double Danger of High Fructose Corn Syrup
Sugar coated We're drowning in high fructose corn syrup. Do the risks go beyond our waistline?
Wikipedia
Sweet But Not So Innocent
High Fructose Corn Syrup and Obesity
ok, just to balance it out a bit The Facts About HFCS
I once emailed Heinz Foods to ask them why the difference in the Canadian version vs. the US version. Their response was “customer demand”. So then I asked a bunch of Americans if they asked Heinz Foods to make their ketchup sweeter with HFCS, and none of them could recall doing so. Really, what the “demand” was was to be able to make it cheaper, and HFCS is less expensive to produce than other sugars. Whether or not Heinz and other producers have passed on this savings to their customers I don’t know. I think the price of ketchup in Canada is comparable to the US, and the Canadian version does not have HFCS in it. I demand a ketchup without HFCS in it, so now I buy the more expensive one anyway. Go figure.
I’m not criticizing America, or Americans. I am criticizing American food producers, who, to save a few pennies, have put their customers at risk by giving them an unsafe product. I’m sure that if we all start reading labels more often, and if we stop using all these products with HFCS in them, food producers will have to think of something else to use. If we all start demanding healthier options to foods that in all likelihood we didn’t even know were all that bad for us, food producers will eventually have to answer those demands. After all, apparently there was a “demand” for ketchup sweetened with HFCS, if we all demand that they take it out again, logically they’d have to comply non?
Its not easy to find alternative products, but it is possible. I’ve checked the labels of Watkins products and haven’t yet found one that contains HFCS (or even MSG, but that’s another post altogether!). If you’re looking in your grocery stores, check the “organic” aisle. HFCS is NOT organic, so none of those products would have it. It may cost more initially, but in the long run, it could save you a lot of medical bills. Couldn’t hurt anyway. ¶ 1:01 PM 4 Comments
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Stuff and things
Yesterday I was working on some numbers to try and figure out how we’ll be able to go to Scotland for Chris & Alison’s wedding. I really would like to go, but holy cats, its going to cost a shit load of money! For just one week away, its going to cost well over $4000 when you figure in airfare, hotels, meals, transportation, and boarding the dogs at the kennel. And that’s with NOT staying at the wedding hotel, but at a nearby much less expensive one! As wonderful as the hotel that the bride & groom have chosen looks, its just way out of our price range, with the “cheap” rooms being about $250 per night. :-p There’s another hotel (hopefully) not too far away that is less than $100 per night, and includes breakfast. If they want a gift, we’ll have to stay at a cheaper hotel! I hope cab fare will not be too expensive.
We had hoped to be able to spend the wedding weekend in Scotland and then go down to London for a few days to round out a week long holiday. London of course is very expensive as well, but I did manage to find a hotel in the west end that’ll be less than $100 per night. Train fare from Edinburgh to London for the 2 of us will be over $300. I’d rent a car, but having to learn to drive on the wrong side of the road just sounds a bit too daunting for such a short trip! Maybe some other time. Besides, the rental, plus the cost of petrol would likely be about the same as train fare. The train sounds much less stressful.
Hopefully I can keep the airfare costs to under $700 each, but it looks like we won’t be getting a direct flight. I hate connecting flights, there’s always such a rush and worry that your luggage will get lost. That would suck. If we have to connect at all, I’d prefer to connect in Newark, simply because I know that airport fairly well and wouldn’t have such a difficulty finding connecting gates. I know its been renovated since I was there last, but as far as I know, they weren’t really changing all that much, work had already started when I was last there, and it didn’t seem to be all that different. I just hope they’ve given travelers something to DO! I was stranded there once for over 5 hours waiting on our flight because of weather, and I tell ya, its one of the most boring airports on the continent!
We’ll fly to Edinburgh, then somehow get up to Kelso where the wedding is, stay there a couple of days, then maybe spend a day in Edinburgh the day after the wedding, and then take the train to London, spend a few days there, then fly home from either Gatwick or Heathrow. Flights from Gatwick seem to be cheaper than Heathrow for some reason. Probably traffic volumes. I don’t even know where Gatwick is, but I’m sure we can find it.
Maybe we’ll get several thousand dollars back on our income taxes and then we can pay for the trip with that. So far in our savings account we have almost one airfare paid for, and if I take the jar of coins in, that may pay for the other airfare. Or at least half. We’ll see.
On another note, James got a call from Domino’s yesterday and they’re putting him on a fast track through the franchiser training. Normally it would be several weeks for them to go thru the application and approval stage before they would send him to the next training. He was told yesterday however that they want him at the next class at the end of the month. I have no idea what happens after that for sure, but I’m guessing once he’s passed that class, we’re on our way to Wisconsin. Which means rushing thru everything, the packing, the renovating, the planning etc etc and there go our stress levels right back up to where they were on Wednesday morning. I hate stress. :-p
We haven’t even had a chance to go up there to have a look around at the place. All we’ve been able to do is look on-line at the town’s website and chamber of commerce website. It looks nice enough, but then so does the Morganton website where they lie through their teeth about how progressive and such a wonderful place this is! Bleah. We’ll either have to buy a house unseen, (scary thought) or rent something until we can find a house. Renting will be tricky, considering the size of our dogs! Plus, I’m really not looking forward to the drive. My ass is still sore from the last trip up there.
*sigh*
Anyway, I start working at the shop here on Monday, and wow, I just had a flash of déjà vu…or vuja de I’m not sure yet. ;-) I’m not really looking forward to working there; slingin’ pizza is not where I pictured the rest of my life, or even a small part of it. But it is what James wants to do so I’ll go along for the ride. I need to learn the business so in the short run we can save some money by not having to hire extra staff. But hopefully in the long run, I won’t have to work there too long. James is also dreaming of me barefoot and pregnant, but I’m not particularly looking forward to the torture of IVF either so he can dream on for a while yet. I try to steer the conversation toward adopting, and he slams doors, so I guess I have some work to do. ;-) Either scenario would get me out of the pizza shop for a while tho!
I wonder if it’ll still be winter by the time we get there?...
It’s a miserable day here today. Once again the weather forecasters predicted doom and a foot of snow, and all we get is rain. Which really sucks because I just washed the kitchen floor the other day and now its all muddy again. GAH!
I bought (another) new vacuum yesterday. It was on sale at Big Lots. I got a Hoover, too bad I didn’t have $300 tho, they also had Dyson’s on sale. The Hoover works a heckuva lot better than the crappy Dirt Devil we have, which lately hasn’t even been able to pick up fluff. The red clay here destroys vacuum motors. I’ve gone thru 3 hand vacs and now the Dirt Devil since I got here a year and a half ago. Hopefully the Hoover will last a little while anyway, until I can afford a Kirby. Pretty sad that my dream is to one day have a Kirby eh? I dream of clean carpets and furniture, so what?!
Well, I suppose I should get at it. I don’t know what exactly, but I should probably do something today. ¶ 11:50 AM 2 Comments
We had hoped to be able to spend the wedding weekend in Scotland and then go down to London for a few days to round out a week long holiday. London of course is very expensive as well, but I did manage to find a hotel in the west end that’ll be less than $100 per night. Train fare from Edinburgh to London for the 2 of us will be over $300. I’d rent a car, but having to learn to drive on the wrong side of the road just sounds a bit too daunting for such a short trip! Maybe some other time. Besides, the rental, plus the cost of petrol would likely be about the same as train fare. The train sounds much less stressful.
Hopefully I can keep the airfare costs to under $700 each, but it looks like we won’t be getting a direct flight. I hate connecting flights, there’s always such a rush and worry that your luggage will get lost. That would suck. If we have to connect at all, I’d prefer to connect in Newark, simply because I know that airport fairly well and wouldn’t have such a difficulty finding connecting gates. I know its been renovated since I was there last, but as far as I know, they weren’t really changing all that much, work had already started when I was last there, and it didn’t seem to be all that different. I just hope they’ve given travelers something to DO! I was stranded there once for over 5 hours waiting on our flight because of weather, and I tell ya, its one of the most boring airports on the continent!
We’ll fly to Edinburgh, then somehow get up to Kelso where the wedding is, stay there a couple of days, then maybe spend a day in Edinburgh the day after the wedding, and then take the train to London, spend a few days there, then fly home from either Gatwick or Heathrow. Flights from Gatwick seem to be cheaper than Heathrow for some reason. Probably traffic volumes. I don’t even know where Gatwick is, but I’m sure we can find it.
Maybe we’ll get several thousand dollars back on our income taxes and then we can pay for the trip with that. So far in our savings account we have almost one airfare paid for, and if I take the jar of coins in, that may pay for the other airfare. Or at least half. We’ll see.
On another note, James got a call from Domino’s yesterday and they’re putting him on a fast track through the franchiser training. Normally it would be several weeks for them to go thru the application and approval stage before they would send him to the next training. He was told yesterday however that they want him at the next class at the end of the month. I have no idea what happens after that for sure, but I’m guessing once he’s passed that class, we’re on our way to Wisconsin. Which means rushing thru everything, the packing, the renovating, the planning etc etc and there go our stress levels right back up to where they were on Wednesday morning. I hate stress. :-p
We haven’t even had a chance to go up there to have a look around at the place. All we’ve been able to do is look on-line at the town’s website and chamber of commerce website. It looks nice enough, but then so does the Morganton website where they lie through their teeth about how progressive and such a wonderful place this is! Bleah. We’ll either have to buy a house unseen, (scary thought) or rent something until we can find a house. Renting will be tricky, considering the size of our dogs! Plus, I’m really not looking forward to the drive. My ass is still sore from the last trip up there.
*sigh*
Anyway, I start working at the shop here on Monday, and wow, I just had a flash of déjà vu…or vuja de I’m not sure yet. ;-) I’m not really looking forward to working there; slingin’ pizza is not where I pictured the rest of my life, or even a small part of it. But it is what James wants to do so I’ll go along for the ride. I need to learn the business so in the short run we can save some money by not having to hire extra staff. But hopefully in the long run, I won’t have to work there too long. James is also dreaming of me barefoot and pregnant, but I’m not particularly looking forward to the torture of IVF either so he can dream on for a while yet. I try to steer the conversation toward adopting, and he slams doors, so I guess I have some work to do. ;-) Either scenario would get me out of the pizza shop for a while tho!
I wonder if it’ll still be winter by the time we get there?...
It’s a miserable day here today. Once again the weather forecasters predicted doom and a foot of snow, and all we get is rain. Which really sucks because I just washed the kitchen floor the other day and now its all muddy again. GAH!
I bought (another) new vacuum yesterday. It was on sale at Big Lots. I got a Hoover, too bad I didn’t have $300 tho, they also had Dyson’s on sale. The Hoover works a heckuva lot better than the crappy Dirt Devil we have, which lately hasn’t even been able to pick up fluff. The red clay here destroys vacuum motors. I’ve gone thru 3 hand vacs and now the Dirt Devil since I got here a year and a half ago. Hopefully the Hoover will last a little while anyway, until I can afford a Kirby. Pretty sad that my dream is to one day have a Kirby eh? I dream of clean carpets and furniture, so what?!
Well, I suppose I should get at it. I don’t know what exactly, but I should probably do something today. ¶ 11:50 AM 2 Comments
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Legal Permanent Resident
Yep, my green card/Adjustment of Status interview went well today, and they stamped my passport. My card (which is not actually green) should be in the mail in a few days.
Rather anti-climactic after all the stress and years of fussing with forms and crap, but still a very good feeling.
Now, on with life! :-) ¶ 6:06 PM 6 Comments
Rather anti-climactic after all the stress and years of fussing with forms and crap, but still a very good feeling.
Now, on with life! :-) ¶ 6:06 PM 6 Comments
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Nope, no stress here!
Ok, so our immigration interview is tomorrow morning at 10:30am in Charlotte. Why are we nervous? Because immigration is a pain in the ass, and USCIS employees (same as CIC employees) have the power to ruin people’s lives for no apparent reason. If we don’t pass this interview and I get deported, then the only way I would be able to ever see my husband again would be for us to move to a third party country. England would be our first option, because I could most likely get an ancestry visa. But then would some other country approve us thru immigration if Canada and the US have already disproved us? *sigh* ACK!
Its really very frustrating, having to prove our marriage to a complete stranger. We have forms to fill out, signed and notarized affidavit of support, we have to bring evidence of our “bonafide” marriage, and if they feel its not enough, then back to Canada I go. And gathering all of this stuff is not as easy as you would think. Approved “evidence of bonafide marriage” is stuff like utility bills with both names on them. After I moved here we went to all our utility companies and they said “nope, we can only put one name on the bills, can’t fit 2” or “its against policy to have more than one name on” WTF? That’s what happens when the city owns the cable company and the power company and the water company. The gas company put my name on the account, but for some reason or another they can’t have both names on the bills. What the hell good is it then? Pffffffft! So all we have is our bank statements with both names on them. My name is not on the deed to the house, not on the ownership for the car, not on the insurance card (tho it is on the policy). *sigh*
Next worry is the affidavit of support. USCIS immigration law for sponsors is that their annual salary/wages must be 125% over the annual poverty level for the number of people in the household. As we only have 2 people, and the poverty level is quite low (frighteningly so, how they expect people to live on that is beyond me!) For 2 people, annual salary must be at or above $16,037. Which James is well above of course, but couples with 100 times that have been denied and given reason there’s not enough money to prove support! GAH!
I suppose I could also bring along all the application forms that we had submitted to Canadian immigration first as evidence. I mean, why would I move here to the US anyway, other than to be with him? Its quite obvious that (well, to thinking, feeling humans anyway!) that we want to be together, our first choice was Canada, that didn’t work out, so here I am. Its just crazy the hoops we have to jump through. But then again, I do understand why, there are a lot of people who take advantage of others who just want to move here to the US for some unfathomable reason, and the only way they can figure how to do that is marriage. They defraud the system, so the rest of us suffer the pain and humiliation of having to prove our love for each other. Its rude!
Plus to add to the stress of immigration is this whole Domino’s franchise thing. Once again, some outside force putting our lives on hold and when I want to plan something, like going to a friend’s wedding in May, the only answer I can get about planning is “well we don’t know what’s happening so we’ll have to wait”. Wait for what exactly? Hmmmm? If we’re going we’ll have to let them know ahead of time, we’ll have to make plane reservations, hotel reservations, kennel reservations, and buy clothes (tho I’d prefer to shop for formals somewhere other than NC…gods…”fashion” here sucks!). But nooooo, I have to wait…most likely until its too late to go. Hmph!
We got the invitation yesterday…what exactly does “British formal” mean? Do I have to buy a big hat? :-o ;-) It’s a morning ceremony, with the receptions scheduled thru the evening. So that would mean, possibly, two clothing changes. One for morning, one for evening. Yeah? Would be nice…if we had the money to afford it. I wonder if I could rent a formal? I’ve nowhere else to wear a formal after that so it would just waste away in my closet and be relegated to Halloween costume. *sigh* Such is my life.
A trip to Scotland and England would be so nice together. But I fear not bloody likely. James will hem and haw about it until its just too late to respond. I’d hate to go alone, that would suck. But I really really want to go!!!! Can I have a tantrum now?
Well, I should get motivated and get out to Staples to make photocopies of forms and crap. And figure out how to convince James that we really must go to Scotland in May!
Ciao! ¶ 10:41 AM 5 Comments
Its really very frustrating, having to prove our marriage to a complete stranger. We have forms to fill out, signed and notarized affidavit of support, we have to bring evidence of our “bonafide” marriage, and if they feel its not enough, then back to Canada I go. And gathering all of this stuff is not as easy as you would think. Approved “evidence of bonafide marriage” is stuff like utility bills with both names on them. After I moved here we went to all our utility companies and they said “nope, we can only put one name on the bills, can’t fit 2” or “its against policy to have more than one name on” WTF? That’s what happens when the city owns the cable company and the power company and the water company. The gas company put my name on the account, but for some reason or another they can’t have both names on the bills. What the hell good is it then? Pffffffft! So all we have is our bank statements with both names on them. My name is not on the deed to the house, not on the ownership for the car, not on the insurance card (tho it is on the policy). *sigh*
Next worry is the affidavit of support. USCIS immigration law for sponsors is that their annual salary/wages must be 125% over the annual poverty level for the number of people in the household. As we only have 2 people, and the poverty level is quite low (frighteningly so, how they expect people to live on that is beyond me!) For 2 people, annual salary must be at or above $16,037. Which James is well above of course, but couples with 100 times that have been denied and given reason there’s not enough money to prove support! GAH!
I suppose I could also bring along all the application forms that we had submitted to Canadian immigration first as evidence. I mean, why would I move here to the US anyway, other than to be with him? Its quite obvious that (well, to thinking, feeling humans anyway!) that we want to be together, our first choice was Canada, that didn’t work out, so here I am. Its just crazy the hoops we have to jump through. But then again, I do understand why, there are a lot of people who take advantage of others who just want to move here to the US for some unfathomable reason, and the only way they can figure how to do that is marriage. They defraud the system, so the rest of us suffer the pain and humiliation of having to prove our love for each other. Its rude!
Plus to add to the stress of immigration is this whole Domino’s franchise thing. Once again, some outside force putting our lives on hold and when I want to plan something, like going to a friend’s wedding in May, the only answer I can get about planning is “well we don’t know what’s happening so we’ll have to wait”. Wait for what exactly? Hmmmm? If we’re going we’ll have to let them know ahead of time, we’ll have to make plane reservations, hotel reservations, kennel reservations, and buy clothes (tho I’d prefer to shop for formals somewhere other than NC…gods…”fashion” here sucks!). But nooooo, I have to wait…most likely until its too late to go. Hmph!
We got the invitation yesterday…what exactly does “British formal” mean? Do I have to buy a big hat? :-o ;-) It’s a morning ceremony, with the receptions scheduled thru the evening. So that would mean, possibly, two clothing changes. One for morning, one for evening. Yeah? Would be nice…if we had the money to afford it. I wonder if I could rent a formal? I’ve nowhere else to wear a formal after that so it would just waste away in my closet and be relegated to Halloween costume. *sigh* Such is my life.
A trip to Scotland and England would be so nice together. But I fear not bloody likely. James will hem and haw about it until its just too late to respond. I’d hate to go alone, that would suck. But I really really want to go!!!! Can I have a tantrum now?
Well, I should get motivated and get out to Staples to make photocopies of forms and crap. And figure out how to convince James that we really must go to Scotland in May!
Ciao! ¶ 10:41 AM 5 Comments
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Adventures in Home Beautification
--or—When Virgos Get Bored!
So, I decided I might as well start on redecorating the bedroom, first by removing the old rotten paneling. And I don’t use the word “rotten” for nothing! It not only looks horrible, but it actually does seem to be rotting :-p I think I’m in for quite a lot more than I bargained for here.
Before I show you how terrible a mess the bedroom is, I’ll show you the almost finished product that is the redecorated bathroom I did a couple weeks ago.
I didn’t take any “before” pictures because I forgot, but trust me, it looks a heckuva lot better now than it did before!
Here’s looking at the connecting door to the bedroom which we never use and I was going to take the door and frame out and put up dry-wall but didn’t feel like doing that much work! I will also be replacing that terrible mirror that for now is just resting on the sink.
And here is standing in the same spot but turned toward the opposite wall where there is the “linen cupboard”, which is really just a box with doors on it that towels and linens don’t really even fit in :-p
The bathroom is really very small and narrow, I can touch both walls if I stand in the middle and stretch out my arms elbows still bent. And I’m only 5ft 4in! That’s how narrow it is!
Anyhow, here’s the bedroom before pictures so you can see how ugly it is and why it needs updating before we list the house to sell it.
This one is the wall behind the bed, and then the ceiling over the bed. For some odd reason they put really really bad wallpaper on the ceiling, and when I tried to strip it I discovered it doesn’t want to come off. We may put tiles of some sort over it.
Here’s the opposite wall as we see it when we’re in bed.
The closet door is mashed right up against the side wall, with the trim somehow even buried under the panel and drywall there.
Here’s the side wall, where we have my Lord of the Rings collection sitting on the gun rack! *snarf* You can also see more of the ugly ceiling.
So, when I removed the paneling that was behind the bed, I figured out why they decided to put the paneling up in the first place. They’re lazy. And there’s a big freakin’ hole in the wall! GAH!
Here’s a view down the hole, into the basement. I guess they were either installing the plumbing, or repairing it. But sheesh, they couldda fixed the hole in the wall!
This next one is to illustrate why amatures should not do drywalling. The entire room so far is just piecemeal, I don’t think there’s a whole sheet of drywall anywhere, its all scraps!
Having not planned ahead for gaping holes in the wall, I don’t have any sheets of drywall here to patch or replace it, so for now I’ve just duct-taped a strip of panel over the hole until I can get some money from James and head over to Lowe’s. I may have to tear down all this crap and put up new dry wall throughout the entire room, not just the broken wall. Its that much of a mess. :-p
First I’ll see how bad the rest of it is, I haven’t got all the paneling off yet, there’s 30 or 40 years worth of dust between the panel and the baseboards, and its all going up my nose. I think I’ll just go have a bath, and finish it tomorrow. ¶ 5:34 PM 4 Comments
So, I decided I might as well start on redecorating the bedroom, first by removing the old rotten paneling. And I don’t use the word “rotten” for nothing! It not only looks horrible, but it actually does seem to be rotting :-p I think I’m in for quite a lot more than I bargained for here.
Before I show you how terrible a mess the bedroom is, I’ll show you the almost finished product that is the redecorated bathroom I did a couple weeks ago.
I didn’t take any “before” pictures because I forgot, but trust me, it looks a heckuva lot better now than it did before!
Here’s looking at the connecting door to the bedroom which we never use and I was going to take the door and frame out and put up dry-wall but didn’t feel like doing that much work! I will also be replacing that terrible mirror that for now is just resting on the sink.
And here is standing in the same spot but turned toward the opposite wall where there is the “linen cupboard”, which is really just a box with doors on it that towels and linens don’t really even fit in :-p
The bathroom is really very small and narrow, I can touch both walls if I stand in the middle and stretch out my arms elbows still bent. And I’m only 5ft 4in! That’s how narrow it is!
Anyhow, here’s the bedroom before pictures so you can see how ugly it is and why it needs updating before we list the house to sell it.
This one is the wall behind the bed, and then the ceiling over the bed. For some odd reason they put really really bad wallpaper on the ceiling, and when I tried to strip it I discovered it doesn’t want to come off. We may put tiles of some sort over it.
Here’s the opposite wall as we see it when we’re in bed.
The closet door is mashed right up against the side wall, with the trim somehow even buried under the panel and drywall there.
Here’s the side wall, where we have my Lord of the Rings collection sitting on the gun rack! *snarf* You can also see more of the ugly ceiling.
So, when I removed the paneling that was behind the bed, I figured out why they decided to put the paneling up in the first place. They’re lazy. And there’s a big freakin’ hole in the wall! GAH!
Here’s a view down the hole, into the basement. I guess they were either installing the plumbing, or repairing it. But sheesh, they couldda fixed the hole in the wall!
This next one is to illustrate why amatures should not do drywalling. The entire room so far is just piecemeal, I don’t think there’s a whole sheet of drywall anywhere, its all scraps!
Having not planned ahead for gaping holes in the wall, I don’t have any sheets of drywall here to patch or replace it, so for now I’ve just duct-taped a strip of panel over the hole until I can get some money from James and head over to Lowe’s. I may have to tear down all this crap and put up new dry wall throughout the entire room, not just the broken wall. Its that much of a mess. :-p
First I’ll see how bad the rest of it is, I haven’t got all the paneling off yet, there’s 30 or 40 years worth of dust between the panel and the baseboards, and its all going up my nose. I think I’ll just go have a bath, and finish it tomorrow. ¶ 5:34 PM 4 Comments
My ass hurts!
Tuesday morning we got up early and packed up the dogs into the car and drove and drove and drove….
First we dropped the dogs off at K9 Cabins in Troutman, NC about an hour from here. (Check out their website for more pics of the “babies” at www.k9cabins.com Elena took quite a few pics and said they’d be uploaded to their website in a few days.)
Look what they done, to my dog Ma!
Look what they’ve done to my dogs!
Sadly I had to leave instruction for them that they were not to play with other dogs, because George has gotten really nasty lately, and on Monday afternoon at the vet’s office, she attacked a police dog! :-o I could have been charged with assaulting an officer fer crimeny! Luckily the human officer who was with him was very understanding and just laughed. I was very embarrassed tho, as you can imagine. I just can’t take her anywhere anymore :-(
Anyhoo, we hung out with the dogs for a bit while they did some investigating of the play yard, then got them settled in their “cabin” where they promptly started barking and growling at the dog in the next cabin. Their cabins are really cool, they have inside and outside access, and they can see their neighbours when they go outside, but can’t reach them as they’re all separated by high chain-link fencing, spaced a few feet apart. Which is a good thing with George lately.
We left them about 10:30 am and headed up to Chicago, which took us til 2am CT. I’m telling ya, my ass is killing me still! Since my surgery in September ’04, my lower back has been really bad, and my slouch has gotten to the point that my tailbone almost constantly hurts. Imagine 16 hours in a car with a sore tailbone. :-( And he wants me to do it again when he has to go for training in Ann Arbor Michigan! GAH!
Heading toward Virginia
Somewhere in Kentucky
We were fully expecting snow, as the forecast called for it pretty much all the way up. We got none, tho we did see that in the mountains of West Virginia and Kentucky they have a bit. Strangely we didn’t see any snow at all in Illinois. Its snowing here this morning, finally, our first snow of winter ’05-’06! And the dogs are all clean from their bath at the kennel; I don’t want to let them out to play in the mud. They’re still too tired anyway, which is a good thing!
On the way home Thursday we decided it would be best not to drive the whole way home, we were both too tired, so we stopped in Charleston, West Virginia for the night. I really hope I can somehow convince him to fly up next time, I can’t do that again! Ouchie!
A very tired Bruno on the drive home from the cabins
We learned that it will take us longer than we had expected to be able to take over the franchise we were looking at in Wisconsin. James has to now send in his application to Domino’s, then they will review it and let him know when they will send him for further training in Ann Arbor. This could take 6 weeks or more for the review, then however long til the next class. It could all be about 6 more months before we can move. By that time someone else may have taken that store.
If James can’t get through the process in time to get the Wisconsin store, there are several “incentives” for areas of the country that Domino’s needs more stores, and we could build a brand new one. This of course would mean a lot more money initially for us to shell out, but the incentives sort of make up for it. We checked the list of areas and there are a few that are appealing, like Manteo, NC (east coast, Outer Banks) and Boone, NC (in the mountains, about an hour from where we are now), as well as other areas of the country, mostly mid-west and north-east, which would be nice, and closer to Canada for me to get home to visit more often.
It looks like we may actually have some snow accumulation here today. Not enough to make angels or a snowman, but it may cover the ground at least. Or it may just make a whole lotta mud, and my nice clean dogs will be covered in orange again! I’ll get some pictures later if we get lots of snow.
In local news, one of the men injured in our chemical plant explosion died this week. He was severely burned and had been resuscitated several times since he was taken to hospital. He was 55 years old.
They’ve finally opened up the road by there again, and hopefully they’ve let residents go back home now. On the weekend in our local paper there was an interview with a resident who said they wouldn’t even let her go back home to get her dogs! They’d been there for days, with no food or water >:- I emailed the paper to ask if anyone was looking after the dogs, but have had no response. That pisses me off to think that local Public Safety would be so cruel as to allow pets to die of starvation, when they could just as easily take them up to the shelter for a few days, if the hotels the residents are staying won’t allow pets (I know a few of them do tho, I used to work at one that does!) It turns my stomach just to think of it. :-( Come to think of it, the shelters are both along that road, and I don’t know if even they were allowed back. Imagine all those poor animals wondering where their care givers are! Hmph.
Well, I think I shall start working on the bedroom and tear out the paneling. I have nothing else to do, James took my car because its 4 wheel drive and his truck is rear wheel. He’s afraid of a wittle bit of snow. I’m telling ya, these southerners just have no clue…wait til we move north! He’ll freak! ;-) ¶ 11:20 AM 0 Comments
First we dropped the dogs off at K9 Cabins in Troutman, NC about an hour from here. (Check out their website for more pics of the “babies” at www.k9cabins.com Elena took quite a few pics and said they’d be uploaded to their website in a few days.)
Look what they done, to my dog Ma!
Look what they’ve done to my dogs!
Sadly I had to leave instruction for them that they were not to play with other dogs, because George has gotten really nasty lately, and on Monday afternoon at the vet’s office, she attacked a police dog! :-o I could have been charged with assaulting an officer fer crimeny! Luckily the human officer who was with him was very understanding and just laughed. I was very embarrassed tho, as you can imagine. I just can’t take her anywhere anymore :-(
Anyhoo, we hung out with the dogs for a bit while they did some investigating of the play yard, then got them settled in their “cabin” where they promptly started barking and growling at the dog in the next cabin. Their cabins are really cool, they have inside and outside access, and they can see their neighbours when they go outside, but can’t reach them as they’re all separated by high chain-link fencing, spaced a few feet apart. Which is a good thing with George lately.
We left them about 10:30 am and headed up to Chicago, which took us til 2am CT. I’m telling ya, my ass is killing me still! Since my surgery in September ’04, my lower back has been really bad, and my slouch has gotten to the point that my tailbone almost constantly hurts. Imagine 16 hours in a car with a sore tailbone. :-( And he wants me to do it again when he has to go for training in Ann Arbor Michigan! GAH!
Heading toward Virginia
Somewhere in Kentucky
We were fully expecting snow, as the forecast called for it pretty much all the way up. We got none, tho we did see that in the mountains of West Virginia and Kentucky they have a bit. Strangely we didn’t see any snow at all in Illinois. Its snowing here this morning, finally, our first snow of winter ’05-’06! And the dogs are all clean from their bath at the kennel; I don’t want to let them out to play in the mud. They’re still too tired anyway, which is a good thing!
On the way home Thursday we decided it would be best not to drive the whole way home, we were both too tired, so we stopped in Charleston, West Virginia for the night. I really hope I can somehow convince him to fly up next time, I can’t do that again! Ouchie!
A very tired Bruno on the drive home from the cabins
We learned that it will take us longer than we had expected to be able to take over the franchise we were looking at in Wisconsin. James has to now send in his application to Domino’s, then they will review it and let him know when they will send him for further training in Ann Arbor. This could take 6 weeks or more for the review, then however long til the next class. It could all be about 6 more months before we can move. By that time someone else may have taken that store.
If James can’t get through the process in time to get the Wisconsin store, there are several “incentives” for areas of the country that Domino’s needs more stores, and we could build a brand new one. This of course would mean a lot more money initially for us to shell out, but the incentives sort of make up for it. We checked the list of areas and there are a few that are appealing, like Manteo, NC (east coast, Outer Banks) and Boone, NC (in the mountains, about an hour from where we are now), as well as other areas of the country, mostly mid-west and north-east, which would be nice, and closer to Canada for me to get home to visit more often.
It looks like we may actually have some snow accumulation here today. Not enough to make angels or a snowman, but it may cover the ground at least. Or it may just make a whole lotta mud, and my nice clean dogs will be covered in orange again! I’ll get some pictures later if we get lots of snow.
In local news, one of the men injured in our chemical plant explosion died this week. He was severely burned and had been resuscitated several times since he was taken to hospital. He was 55 years old.
They’ve finally opened up the road by there again, and hopefully they’ve let residents go back home now. On the weekend in our local paper there was an interview with a resident who said they wouldn’t even let her go back home to get her dogs! They’d been there for days, with no food or water >:- I emailed the paper to ask if anyone was looking after the dogs, but have had no response. That pisses me off to think that local Public Safety would be so cruel as to allow pets to die of starvation, when they could just as easily take them up to the shelter for a few days, if the hotels the residents are staying won’t allow pets (I know a few of them do tho, I used to work at one that does!) It turns my stomach just to think of it. :-( Come to think of it, the shelters are both along that road, and I don’t know if even they were allowed back. Imagine all those poor animals wondering where their care givers are! Hmph.
Well, I think I shall start working on the bedroom and tear out the paneling. I have nothing else to do, James took my car because its 4 wheel drive and his truck is rear wheel. He’s afraid of a wittle bit of snow. I’m telling ya, these southerners just have no clue…wait til we move north! He’ll freak! ;-) ¶ 11:20 AM 0 Comments
Sunday, February 05, 2006
Grizzly Man
Last night James and I watched “Grizzly Man” on Discovery Channel. This is a documentary about Timothy Treadwell, the man who for 13 summers, cavorted with grizzly bears in the Alaska wilderness.
I remember hearing when Treadwell and his girlfriend Amie Heuguenard were found to have been devoured by a bear, and thinking “what the fuck were they thinking!?” Despite my great love of bears, I don’t think I’d be crazy enough to go live among them to get to know them better. After watching the documentary; written and directed by Werner Herzog, I have a somewhat better understanding of what the fuck they were thinking, but I still reserve the right to think they were perhaps slightly crazy!
Timothy Treadwell was a failed actor, an alcoholic, and very likely bi-polar. There is an interview with former girlfriend Jewel Palovak, where she states that for a short time he had been medicated to regulate his “up and down emotions”. This to me screams bi-polar, and after seeing a bit more of his “ups and downs” and a rant or two on his video diaries, I should think that had been his diagnosis, although I can’t recall that it was mentioned on the voice over by Herzog. Palovak mentions that Tim had said to her he couldn’t take the medications because his ups and downs are what made him “him”, and he didn’t like that middle ground of moderate mood, he preferred the off the wall.
While I admire his gumption to live among the bears, I would dearly love to do this myself, I think he was crazy, or at very least, stupid, to do so as he did. He not only flouted the rules of the national park rangers, he flouted the rules of nature. Sure, it would be awesome to be able to get so close to a wild grizzly that you could reach out and tweek her nose, but I’m not stupid enough to do it! I would love to bathe with the bears in an arctic lake, painful as that sounds!, but I’m not stupid or crazy enough to do it. Tim Treadwell was, and his girlfriend Amie was along for the ride for the last 3 of his “expeditions”. Their friends say she was an experienced outdoors person, but she hated and feared bears. She loved Tim so thoroughly she set aside her fears and joined him for a few weeks each summer. The things we do for love eh?
What gets me is that Treadwell claimed to be going on these “expeditions” so that he could protect the bears. And yet, in all of his video footage shown, I cannot recall even once where he did anything even remotely protective to or for them. Unless he considers telling them incessantly that he loves them to be protective?! That was his defense if any bear came too close or threatened him; he would say to it “its ok, I love you; I love you; I love you; its ok”. Oddly, it seems to have worked for 13 years, though I wouldn’t recommend anyone else try it! He claimed to be there to save the bears from poachers, but when we see him come across some “poachers” he does nothing but crouch in the brush and cry when they start throwing stones at one of “his” bears. From what we could see on the video, they were armed with nothing but cameras and stones. How he considered them poachers I don’t know. He later accuses them of threatening his life, when they leave notes for him on a fallen log “Hello Treadwell, we’ll see you in Summer 2001”. Personally, I see that as a “sorry we missed you, catch you next year”, he saw it as a threat to his life. And his friends say he wasn’t paranoid!
Later he shows us a stone with a happy face drawn on it, which he also tells us is a threat from the “poachers”. He says that where he found the happy face is where his barrels of food had been stacked, it is unclear, to me at least I may have missed something, if the “poachers” stole his food and left nothing but the smiley face, or if he moved his food barrels before he took the video of the smiley. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he put it there himself, and the poacher story was concocted.
There is an interview with (I think) a park ranger, who says that poaching isn’t such a problem to the bears as Treadwell makes it out to be. Statistically anyway. After the documentary showed, Discovery channel ran a ‘with the friends of Timothy” review, and former girlfriend Palovak surmised that Timothy *had* been protecting the bears; that for the entire 13 years he spent in Alaska, not a single bear had been poached; the year following his death; 6 bears were found dead in the wilderness. We see one such “poached” bear, rotting and decomposed, which she claimed was killed by poachers. Other than a missing foot however, there is no real evidence that it did not die from natural causes. Its just a rotting carcass in the wilderness. Of which I’m sure there are thousands. For Treadwell to have protected the bears for 13 years, and to claim not a single one in all those summers died, is stretching it quite a bit. The Alaskan wilderness is incredibly vast, I find it *very* hard to believe that Treadwell’s very presence could protect the entirety of it. I begin to wonder if it wasn’t just Treadwell who was a bit off his nut…
There is a scene in Palovak’s home, where director/writer Herzog is listening to the tape of the actual bear attack on Tim and Amie. We see just the side of Herzog’s head, not his expression, and we see the expression on Palovak’s face. It is obvious that she, at that time, had not yet listened to the tape herself. Herzog’s body language quickly becomes agitated and stressed, and he asks her to turn off the tape. He takes off the headphones and tells her to never ever listen to the tape, and suggests that she just destroys it, it is that horrifying. This is the most emotional part of the documentary, Jewel chokes back a sob as she watches Herzog’s reaction to the sounds on the tape, Herzog himself pinches the bridge of his nose, we can only assume to fight back tears of his own. When he says to her “do not listen to this tape, ever” she is crying and says “I won’t Werner, I won’t!”
We learn from the coroner what is on the tape. He apparently listened to it in its entirety, and was himself horrified by what he heard. Timothy moaning and groaning, and Amie screaming, and sounds of what he says are a frying pan being beaten upon the bear’s head. Soon he says you can hear Tim telling Amie to get away, run away and leave him, but then Amie’s screams change tone, and it is apparent that the bear has turned upon her. Once you put together the pieces of what he tells us of what he heard on the tape, and what he tells us of their injuries, it becomes evident that the bear likely had first grabbed Tim by the head, and that at that time the only sound he could make was moaning and groaning, this is when Amie is hitting the bear on the head with the frying pan. Then when Timothy screams and starts telling Amie to run, the bear has let go of his head, and has immobilized him by chomping on his leg and midsection, so that he can turn his attention to Amie. The thought, and the pictures this invokes into my imagination are enough, I cannot imagine having to listen to this tape, and am grateful that neither of them had left the lense cap off the camera, and that Herzog did not want to include this in his film. It is unclear how the attack got taped at all, whether Treadwell or Huguenard turned it on, or whether somehow during the struggle a button got pushed. I find it hard to believe that Treadwell could have turned it on himself, what with his head being stuck in a bear’s jaws and all. Or that Amie would have had the forethought to do it, I don’t think that would have been something she would think to do, though we really don’t know much about her, she doesn’t appear hardly in the video tapes, other than a couple of silent shots. Though it does seem like something Treadwell would think of, I’m not so sure he’d have had the opportunity to do it. I guess we’ll never know.
I’m not sure how many days it was after the attack that they were found dead, but it was a bush pilot who found them. He was I guess going back to pick them up, as it was time for them to go home. He noticed right away that something was wrong, he saw the bear, and after chasing it away by scaring it with the plane, he found bits and pieces of Tim and Amie scattered about. He called the rangers and they later found the bear, shot it, and gutted it and found the rest of the pieces. Allow me here to say “eeeeeewwwwwwwww!” I simply cannot imagine the horror…though my imagination does try…damned imagination!
While I admire the opportunity Timothy Treadwell grabbed to be able to spend time with the grizzlies, I honestly doubt that he did anything at all to protect them, other than to garner them some additional attention of ARAs. In my own opinion, he did the opposite of what he says he intended, I rather think he further endangered them, simply by allowing them to become acclimated to human “companionship” (there are several clips where Tim calls the bears his friends, or says that the bears have become his “good” friends). By allowing bears, or any wild animal for that matter, to become used to humans, we are endangering them, and ourselves. There’s one thing going camping or adventuring in the wilderness, to keep your distance and not interfere, and another, what Timothy was doing, getting waaaaaaay too close. Sure, he wasn’t quite as stupid perhaps as the stupid idiots I’ve seen along the highway in Algonquin park who stop and attempt to hand feed the bears peanut butter sandwiches! But still, I’d file his “expeditions” under stupid human tricks.
James and I argued afterward, did he “deserve” what he got, as some have said? No. Did he, as James says, “ask” for what he got? No, I don’t think so. He did however die how he figured he would. Despite his craziness, he was aware of the danger of living among the grizzlies, I’m just not so sure he took it quite as seriously as he should have. By describing them friends, he was deluding himself of the *real* danger. Afterall, who ever figures they’ll be murdered by a friend? (Herzog actually uses the word “murder” to describe the deaths of Treadwell and Huguenard). I think that once he became aware of the fact that he was about to die, he would have preferred to die there than in Los Angeles. I think he considered the Alaskan wilderness more his home than LA. And generally speaking, people just prefer to die at home than somewhere strange and uncomfortable. I think perhaps he would have preferred to die by other means than to be devoured by a bear however!
I do hope that the release of this movie does not cause an influx of bear lovers to take up Treadwell’s torch in Alaska. I hope rather that people the see folly of his expeditions, and just stay away.
If you want to save the bears, save yourself, and just stay away. ¶ 12:58 PM 1 Comments
I remember hearing when Treadwell and his girlfriend Amie Heuguenard were found to have been devoured by a bear, and thinking “what the fuck were they thinking!?” Despite my great love of bears, I don’t think I’d be crazy enough to go live among them to get to know them better. After watching the documentary; written and directed by Werner Herzog, I have a somewhat better understanding of what the fuck they were thinking, but I still reserve the right to think they were perhaps slightly crazy!
Timothy Treadwell was a failed actor, an alcoholic, and very likely bi-polar. There is an interview with former girlfriend Jewel Palovak, where she states that for a short time he had been medicated to regulate his “up and down emotions”. This to me screams bi-polar, and after seeing a bit more of his “ups and downs” and a rant or two on his video diaries, I should think that had been his diagnosis, although I can’t recall that it was mentioned on the voice over by Herzog. Palovak mentions that Tim had said to her he couldn’t take the medications because his ups and downs are what made him “him”, and he didn’t like that middle ground of moderate mood, he preferred the off the wall.
While I admire his gumption to live among the bears, I would dearly love to do this myself, I think he was crazy, or at very least, stupid, to do so as he did. He not only flouted the rules of the national park rangers, he flouted the rules of nature. Sure, it would be awesome to be able to get so close to a wild grizzly that you could reach out and tweek her nose, but I’m not stupid enough to do it! I would love to bathe with the bears in an arctic lake, painful as that sounds!, but I’m not stupid or crazy enough to do it. Tim Treadwell was, and his girlfriend Amie was along for the ride for the last 3 of his “expeditions”. Their friends say she was an experienced outdoors person, but she hated and feared bears. She loved Tim so thoroughly she set aside her fears and joined him for a few weeks each summer. The things we do for love eh?
What gets me is that Treadwell claimed to be going on these “expeditions” so that he could protect the bears. And yet, in all of his video footage shown, I cannot recall even once where he did anything even remotely protective to or for them. Unless he considers telling them incessantly that he loves them to be protective?! That was his defense if any bear came too close or threatened him; he would say to it “its ok, I love you; I love you; I love you; its ok”. Oddly, it seems to have worked for 13 years, though I wouldn’t recommend anyone else try it! He claimed to be there to save the bears from poachers, but when we see him come across some “poachers” he does nothing but crouch in the brush and cry when they start throwing stones at one of “his” bears. From what we could see on the video, they were armed with nothing but cameras and stones. How he considered them poachers I don’t know. He later accuses them of threatening his life, when they leave notes for him on a fallen log “Hello Treadwell, we’ll see you in Summer 2001”. Personally, I see that as a “sorry we missed you, catch you next year”, he saw it as a threat to his life. And his friends say he wasn’t paranoid!
Later he shows us a stone with a happy face drawn on it, which he also tells us is a threat from the “poachers”. He says that where he found the happy face is where his barrels of food had been stacked, it is unclear, to me at least I may have missed something, if the “poachers” stole his food and left nothing but the smiley face, or if he moved his food barrels before he took the video of the smiley. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he put it there himself, and the poacher story was concocted.
There is an interview with (I think) a park ranger, who says that poaching isn’t such a problem to the bears as Treadwell makes it out to be. Statistically anyway. After the documentary showed, Discovery channel ran a ‘with the friends of Timothy” review, and former girlfriend Palovak surmised that Timothy *had* been protecting the bears; that for the entire 13 years he spent in Alaska, not a single bear had been poached; the year following his death; 6 bears were found dead in the wilderness. We see one such “poached” bear, rotting and decomposed, which she claimed was killed by poachers. Other than a missing foot however, there is no real evidence that it did not die from natural causes. Its just a rotting carcass in the wilderness. Of which I’m sure there are thousands. For Treadwell to have protected the bears for 13 years, and to claim not a single one in all those summers died, is stretching it quite a bit. The Alaskan wilderness is incredibly vast, I find it *very* hard to believe that Treadwell’s very presence could protect the entirety of it. I begin to wonder if it wasn’t just Treadwell who was a bit off his nut…
There is a scene in Palovak’s home, where director/writer Herzog is listening to the tape of the actual bear attack on Tim and Amie. We see just the side of Herzog’s head, not his expression, and we see the expression on Palovak’s face. It is obvious that she, at that time, had not yet listened to the tape herself. Herzog’s body language quickly becomes agitated and stressed, and he asks her to turn off the tape. He takes off the headphones and tells her to never ever listen to the tape, and suggests that she just destroys it, it is that horrifying. This is the most emotional part of the documentary, Jewel chokes back a sob as she watches Herzog’s reaction to the sounds on the tape, Herzog himself pinches the bridge of his nose, we can only assume to fight back tears of his own. When he says to her “do not listen to this tape, ever” she is crying and says “I won’t Werner, I won’t!”
We learn from the coroner what is on the tape. He apparently listened to it in its entirety, and was himself horrified by what he heard. Timothy moaning and groaning, and Amie screaming, and sounds of what he says are a frying pan being beaten upon the bear’s head. Soon he says you can hear Tim telling Amie to get away, run away and leave him, but then Amie’s screams change tone, and it is apparent that the bear has turned upon her. Once you put together the pieces of what he tells us of what he heard on the tape, and what he tells us of their injuries, it becomes evident that the bear likely had first grabbed Tim by the head, and that at that time the only sound he could make was moaning and groaning, this is when Amie is hitting the bear on the head with the frying pan. Then when Timothy screams and starts telling Amie to run, the bear has let go of his head, and has immobilized him by chomping on his leg and midsection, so that he can turn his attention to Amie. The thought, and the pictures this invokes into my imagination are enough, I cannot imagine having to listen to this tape, and am grateful that neither of them had left the lense cap off the camera, and that Herzog did not want to include this in his film. It is unclear how the attack got taped at all, whether Treadwell or Huguenard turned it on, or whether somehow during the struggle a button got pushed. I find it hard to believe that Treadwell could have turned it on himself, what with his head being stuck in a bear’s jaws and all. Or that Amie would have had the forethought to do it, I don’t think that would have been something she would think to do, though we really don’t know much about her, she doesn’t appear hardly in the video tapes, other than a couple of silent shots. Though it does seem like something Treadwell would think of, I’m not so sure he’d have had the opportunity to do it. I guess we’ll never know.
I’m not sure how many days it was after the attack that they were found dead, but it was a bush pilot who found them. He was I guess going back to pick them up, as it was time for them to go home. He noticed right away that something was wrong, he saw the bear, and after chasing it away by scaring it with the plane, he found bits and pieces of Tim and Amie scattered about. He called the rangers and they later found the bear, shot it, and gutted it and found the rest of the pieces. Allow me here to say “eeeeeewwwwwwwww!” I simply cannot imagine the horror…though my imagination does try…damned imagination!
While I admire the opportunity Timothy Treadwell grabbed to be able to spend time with the grizzlies, I honestly doubt that he did anything at all to protect them, other than to garner them some additional attention of ARAs. In my own opinion, he did the opposite of what he says he intended, I rather think he further endangered them, simply by allowing them to become acclimated to human “companionship” (there are several clips where Tim calls the bears his friends, or says that the bears have become his “good” friends). By allowing bears, or any wild animal for that matter, to become used to humans, we are endangering them, and ourselves. There’s one thing going camping or adventuring in the wilderness, to keep your distance and not interfere, and another, what Timothy was doing, getting waaaaaaay too close. Sure, he wasn’t quite as stupid perhaps as the stupid idiots I’ve seen along the highway in Algonquin park who stop and attempt to hand feed the bears peanut butter sandwiches! But still, I’d file his “expeditions” under stupid human tricks.
James and I argued afterward, did he “deserve” what he got, as some have said? No. Did he, as James says, “ask” for what he got? No, I don’t think so. He did however die how he figured he would. Despite his craziness, he was aware of the danger of living among the grizzlies, I’m just not so sure he took it quite as seriously as he should have. By describing them friends, he was deluding himself of the *real* danger. Afterall, who ever figures they’ll be murdered by a friend? (Herzog actually uses the word “murder” to describe the deaths of Treadwell and Huguenard). I think that once he became aware of the fact that he was about to die, he would have preferred to die there than in Los Angeles. I think he considered the Alaskan wilderness more his home than LA. And generally speaking, people just prefer to die at home than somewhere strange and uncomfortable. I think perhaps he would have preferred to die by other means than to be devoured by a bear however!
I do hope that the release of this movie does not cause an influx of bear lovers to take up Treadwell’s torch in Alaska. I hope rather that people the see folly of his expeditions, and just stay away.
If you want to save the bears, save yourself, and just stay away. ¶ 12:58 PM 1 Comments
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Catching up with Photos
Remember all those times I’ve posted “I’ll take a picture and post it later?” and then never did? Well, I finally got it all together, loaded the software for the new digital camera (bought back in October), found the USB cable for it, and unplugged something else so I could plug it in!
So, finally, here is the last few months, in photographic review!
Here is George and Bruno, both vying for James’ attention on the futon. The futon, btw, has about had it. We’ll have to find us a new perch soon I think!
Remember all the way back to Halloween? Well, here’s the Jack-o-lantern that I carved, and sexy me in black and red satin.
These next 2 are just some gratuitous “dog shots” just because they’re so damn cute!
And just to prove that we did go to Ren Faire, here’s a pic of my favourite pirate. He hats it when I post pictures of him, but :-p
Here’s a couple more gratuitous dog shots. This one of Bruno is after he’s been out digging in the mud
And here’s George, she looks like she’s got a hangover!
This one is from the day after the ice storm, back before Christmas. It was very pretty, just not much fun when the power went out.
Last but not least, this on here is of a loaf of bread I made in the breadmaker. It somehow turned out looking like a mutant, I just had to have a picture of it!
There you go, a few pics to oooo and ahhhh over ;-)
Happy Imbolc and Groundhog day to everyone. The groundhogs all agreed that we will have an early spring, which is no surprise considering the almost complete non-existance of winter so far! I went out today to run some errands and didn’t even need a jacket, honestly, its getting quite annoying. I miss winter!
We may be reconsidering the Wisconsin deal, James received a copy of the profit and loss statement for last year, and its not so rosey. It’s a shame, it sounds like a nice town to live in, but we’re not too keen on taking over a money losing store. If it can be turned around, perhaps, but we don’t know yet why he’s losing so much. We don’t have that much that we can afford to lose, so we are now considering other options. Other options may cost us more at first, but won’t be a continuous money pit in the long run. Back to the drawing board, as they say!
Light a red candle for Brigit tonight! ¶ 3:53 PM 1 Comments
So, finally, here is the last few months, in photographic review!
Here is George and Bruno, both vying for James’ attention on the futon. The futon, btw, has about had it. We’ll have to find us a new perch soon I think!
Remember all the way back to Halloween? Well, here’s the Jack-o-lantern that I carved, and sexy me in black and red satin.
These next 2 are just some gratuitous “dog shots” just because they’re so damn cute!
And just to prove that we did go to Ren Faire, here’s a pic of my favourite pirate. He hats it when I post pictures of him, but :-p
Here’s a couple more gratuitous dog shots. This one of Bruno is after he’s been out digging in the mud
And here’s George, she looks like she’s got a hangover!
This one is from the day after the ice storm, back before Christmas. It was very pretty, just not much fun when the power went out.
Last but not least, this on here is of a loaf of bread I made in the breadmaker. It somehow turned out looking like a mutant, I just had to have a picture of it!
There you go, a few pics to oooo and ahhhh over ;-)
Happy Imbolc and Groundhog day to everyone. The groundhogs all agreed that we will have an early spring, which is no surprise considering the almost complete non-existance of winter so far! I went out today to run some errands and didn’t even need a jacket, honestly, its getting quite annoying. I miss winter!
We may be reconsidering the Wisconsin deal, James received a copy of the profit and loss statement for last year, and its not so rosey. It’s a shame, it sounds like a nice town to live in, but we’re not too keen on taking over a money losing store. If it can be turned around, perhaps, but we don’t know yet why he’s losing so much. We don’t have that much that we can afford to lose, so we are now considering other options. Other options may cost us more at first, but won’t be a continuous money pit in the long run. Back to the drawing board, as they say!
Light a red candle for Brigit tonight! ¶ 3:53 PM 1 Comments
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Yesterday's Explosion
Well, as I mentioned yesterday at the tail end of my post, something went BOOM in the neighbourhood, and it turned out to be the local chemical plant. We live not quite half a mile/1 km from the chemical plant, and when it went BOOM our house shook, and windows rattled. People as far away as 50 miles/80.5 km felt it! At first I thought someone had driven into our fence, which is attached to our house. I thought I’d look out into the yard and find our Bruno squished under a car, but he was at the top of the stairs on the porch, clamoring to get in he was so scared!
We saw nothing wrong in the yard, so we went out the front door, and saw clouds of black smoke off in the distance. James got in the car to find out what was going on. He thought maybe someone had set an extra big charge at the quarry (we’re also only about 1 km from a gravel quarry, and they dynamite all the time, not usually that big of a BOOM tho!). So he drove over and saw that it was the chemical plant and came home.
We started packing a small bag, just in case we were told to evacuate, but the wind was blowing away from us, so we never did have to go. I kept the dogs in as much as possible all day though, just in case. Bruno hates to stay in and was not happy with me one little bit, but oh well, later on he understood, and I’ll get to that in a minute.
We turned on the TV to find out what was going on, once we heard the news helicopters overhead. A Charlotte station apparently has an employee who lives here in town, so he was on the scene, reporting via his cell phone, until he was told to get out of the area. Some residents were voluntarily evacuated about an hour after the explosion, as the EMS were still unsure as to what was in the plant, and how toxic the fumes were. Of course, the firefighters in all their genius didn’t even have breathing apparatus on themselves!
As I watched the reports on TV and saw people being taken by ambulance to the local hospital, and a couple of people taken in helicopter, we learned that 2 people who had been driving by in their car at the time of the explosion had been taken to hospital. Their car had been overturned, and flipped and rolled several times from the concussion of the blast! And the plant is off-set from the road; that must have been one helluva BOOM being right next to it!
The incredibly stupid thing is, that no one was quite sure what the hell was in that plant, and what would have been burning or if the city should have been evacuated. They just told us to stay in our houses, and don’t leave pets outside too long. Of course in this neighbourhood, very few people even let their dogs out of their cage ever, let alone in the house! I worried for the animals over at the shelter, but they were upwind, so probably ok, other than shaken up by the BOOM.
I did call my Mum to let her know we were all ok, because the company she works for has an office in NC, and she talks to them fairly regularly. As it was all over the 24 hour news networks, and all over the NC stations news, I didn’t want her to hear it from someone else that our town had blown up.
I checked out some of the pictures they had from the WCNC news helicopter, and as soon as I opened the website, there’s a topographical picture of it, and I said Holy Shit! It was leveled! I couldn’t believe it, it was almost completely obliterated, but strangely, there were barrels of something or other still standing. Very very weird! Check out the website http://www.wcnc.com/ their front page today is pretty much all about the explosion. You may have to register to read it, but its free.
The news helicopters are overhead again today, firefighters and environmental crews and chemical safety crews from Washington DC are there to find out if there are dangers to the area. So far, they’re warning towns to the east of us that their drinking water could be contaminated, but our water here in Morganton was upstream from the blast, and from the firefighters run off. One stream apparently had a rather large number of fish floating belly up late yesterday afternoon. The water there will be tested to find out if the fish kill was related to the explosion or not.
Local homes in the area have reported damage to windows and foundations. One woman called in to a local TV station saying that her air conditioning unit was blown out of the window and other windows were smashed. One article I read said one gentleman’s houses’ floors are separating. (I can empathise with that! Our floors are separating in spots too, and it can pinch your feet!) Some are angry that local surveyors have not gone in to check out local homes. I will bet there will be quite a lot of home owners suing the chemical plant for damages.
What gets me is that this chemical company had been fined several times over the years, and several thousands of dollars for non-compliance to quite a lot of environmental and safety measure requirements. Why had the city, county and state allowed them to remain in business? Luckily no one has died because of this, though there are at least 2 plant employees in critical condition, one with burns over 60% of his body. Most employees had got out before the explosion, or were close enough to the door to be thrown clear, but one guy just didn’t run fast enough, and was trapped for sometime before EMS could get to him. The firefighter (they call ‘em Public Safety here in Morganton. They do it all, police, fire, paramedic) interviewed who pulled him out said he’d never seen anyone burned so badly, and he’s been a firefighter for several years.
After a while the 24 hour newsnetworks went back to their regular programming, so I went back to my painting touch-ups in the bathroom, while James was at his doctor appointment. Later in the evening I made some chocolate pudding, and talked to my Mum and sister, then watched Corpse Bride. Hee hee hee, that was funny. Especially the scene when she gives him his dead dog back, and the dog starts barking. George always has to run to the TV when she hears a dog barking, but she couldn’t quite figure this one out, because it had no skin or fur. She sat down to watch, with her head tilted to the side, looking very confused. I laughed and laughed! *snarf*
At sometime shortly after 10pm, the dogs said they wanted out, so I opened the door, and we immediately smelled chemical smoke. The winds had changed direction, and now the cloud was in my backyard and it smelled rancid! Bleah! Bruno stuck his nose out, eyes wide and panicked and he ran to hide in the bedroom. He spent the next 2 hours pacing the house, worried that someone somewhere needed saving and he couldn’t get to them, and he probably also had to go pee but he refused to go out in the stench.
James was at work, and when he got home we took the dogs out on the leashes to pee, it was the only way to get Bruno out. He told me that he had made a bunch of pizzas and delivered them to the firefighters at the scene, and to the Red Cross, who had setup a refuge at the rec centre for voluntary evacuees. Quite a lot of the firefighters were there for more than 12 hours, and possibly through the night. The next shift is there today, still dousing hot spots, and clearing debris so the investigators can get in to find out what caused the blast.
Well, that was our excitement for the year! I think next time we move, we’ll make sure we’re further away from chemical plants than just 1 km! Its way too scary to be so dang close. And way too smelly. Phew! ¶ 12:08 PM 0 Comments
Well, as I mentioned yesterday at the tail end of my post, something went BOOM in the neighbourhood, and it turned out to be the local chemical plant. We live not quite half a mile/1 km from the chemical plant, and when it went BOOM our house shook, and windows rattled. People as far away as 50 miles/80.5 km felt it! At first I thought someone had driven into our fence, which is attached to our house. I thought I’d look out into the yard and find our Bruno squished under a car, but he was at the top of the stairs on the porch, clamoring to get in he was so scared!
We saw nothing wrong in the yard, so we went out the front door, and saw clouds of black smoke off in the distance. James got in the car to find out what was going on. He thought maybe someone had set an extra big charge at the quarry (we’re also only about 1 km from a gravel quarry, and they dynamite all the time, not usually that big of a BOOM tho!). So he drove over and saw that it was the chemical plant and came home.
We started packing a small bag, just in case we were told to evacuate, but the wind was blowing away from us, so we never did have to go. I kept the dogs in as much as possible all day though, just in case. Bruno hates to stay in and was not happy with me one little bit, but oh well, later on he understood, and I’ll get to that in a minute.
We turned on the TV to find out what was going on, once we heard the news helicopters overhead. A Charlotte station apparently has an employee who lives here in town, so he was on the scene, reporting via his cell phone, until he was told to get out of the area. Some residents were voluntarily evacuated about an hour after the explosion, as the EMS were still unsure as to what was in the plant, and how toxic the fumes were. Of course, the firefighters in all their genius didn’t even have breathing apparatus on themselves!
As I watched the reports on TV and saw people being taken by ambulance to the local hospital, and a couple of people taken in helicopter, we learned that 2 people who had been driving by in their car at the time of the explosion had been taken to hospital. Their car had been overturned, and flipped and rolled several times from the concussion of the blast! And the plant is off-set from the road; that must have been one helluva BOOM being right next to it!
The incredibly stupid thing is, that no one was quite sure what the hell was in that plant, and what would have been burning or if the city should have been evacuated. They just told us to stay in our houses, and don’t leave pets outside too long. Of course in this neighbourhood, very few people even let their dogs out of their cage ever, let alone in the house! I worried for the animals over at the shelter, but they were upwind, so probably ok, other than shaken up by the BOOM.
I did call my Mum to let her know we were all ok, because the company she works for has an office in NC, and she talks to them fairly regularly. As it was all over the 24 hour news networks, and all over the NC stations news, I didn’t want her to hear it from someone else that our town had blown up.
I checked out some of the pictures they had from the WCNC news helicopter, and as soon as I opened the website, there’s a topographical picture of it, and I said Holy Shit! It was leveled! I couldn’t believe it, it was almost completely obliterated, but strangely, there were barrels of something or other still standing. Very very weird! Check out the website http://www.wcnc.com/ their front page today is pretty much all about the explosion. You may have to register to read it, but its free.
The news helicopters are overhead again today, firefighters and environmental crews and chemical safety crews from Washington DC are there to find out if there are dangers to the area. So far, they’re warning towns to the east of us that their drinking water could be contaminated, but our water here in Morganton was upstream from the blast, and from the firefighters run off. One stream apparently had a rather large number of fish floating belly up late yesterday afternoon. The water there will be tested to find out if the fish kill was related to the explosion or not.
Local homes in the area have reported damage to windows and foundations. One woman called in to a local TV station saying that her air conditioning unit was blown out of the window and other windows were smashed. One article I read said one gentleman’s houses’ floors are separating. (I can empathise with that! Our floors are separating in spots too, and it can pinch your feet!) Some are angry that local surveyors have not gone in to check out local homes. I will bet there will be quite a lot of home owners suing the chemical plant for damages.
What gets me is that this chemical company had been fined several times over the years, and several thousands of dollars for non-compliance to quite a lot of environmental and safety measure requirements. Why had the city, county and state allowed them to remain in business? Luckily no one has died because of this, though there are at least 2 plant employees in critical condition, one with burns over 60% of his body. Most employees had got out before the explosion, or were close enough to the door to be thrown clear, but one guy just didn’t run fast enough, and was trapped for sometime before EMS could get to him. The firefighter (they call ‘em Public Safety here in Morganton. They do it all, police, fire, paramedic) interviewed who pulled him out said he’d never seen anyone burned so badly, and he’s been a firefighter for several years.
After a while the 24 hour newsnetworks went back to their regular programming, so I went back to my painting touch-ups in the bathroom, while James was at his doctor appointment. Later in the evening I made some chocolate pudding, and talked to my Mum and sister, then watched Corpse Bride. Hee hee hee, that was funny. Especially the scene when she gives him his dead dog back, and the dog starts barking. George always has to run to the TV when she hears a dog barking, but she couldn’t quite figure this one out, because it had no skin or fur. She sat down to watch, with her head tilted to the side, looking very confused. I laughed and laughed! *snarf*
At sometime shortly after 10pm, the dogs said they wanted out, so I opened the door, and we immediately smelled chemical smoke. The winds had changed direction, and now the cloud was in my backyard and it smelled rancid! Bleah! Bruno stuck his nose out, eyes wide and panicked and he ran to hide in the bedroom. He spent the next 2 hours pacing the house, worried that someone somewhere needed saving and he couldn’t get to them, and he probably also had to go pee but he refused to go out in the stench.
James was at work, and when he got home we took the dogs out on the leashes to pee, it was the only way to get Bruno out. He told me that he had made a bunch of pizzas and delivered them to the firefighters at the scene, and to the Red Cross, who had setup a refuge at the rec centre for voluntary evacuees. Quite a lot of the firefighters were there for more than 12 hours, and possibly through the night. The next shift is there today, still dousing hot spots, and clearing debris so the investigators can get in to find out what caused the blast.
Well, that was our excitement for the year! I think next time we move, we’ll make sure we’re further away from chemical plants than just 1 km! Its way too scary to be so dang close. And way too smelly. Phew! ¶ 12:08 PM 0 Comments
