Presidential debate... whatever! Bring on the VP's!

I'm going to watch the Presidential debate but what I'm really waiting for, and I've never watched before, is the VP debate! woo hoo... Think Joe will wear lipstick? woof!

Tentacles, trillions & talking heads

I hate to admit this... I'm choking on the words... My fingers are cramping typing this... I agree with George W. There, I've said and I'm still breathing. As I said 9 long days ago; the financial world, our day to day living, Wall St. and one of, if not the, biggest companies in the world ... will never be the same. At least, I hope never be the same.

Whoever wrote the speech for Georgie, done himself proud. Whoever did his makeup, Michie would like to point out, less blush next time ok?

I still, however, disagree with the falsely low interest rates, keeping the easy level of available credit... available and protecting $25,000.00 a year earning, $300,000.00 home owning folks! Seriously, what were you thinking? I suppose having $2,000,000.00 a year earning folks telling you you could have it might be some kind of excuse but you must have one or two brain cells! You still owe me, and everyone like me, who actually live within their means an apology. We will be paying this off for you, for a long, long time. And I, for one am pissed!

Recycled thirty pounds of cat! A quick re-cap of my life for the past week.

Zapato, the thirty pounder, likes to sleep in the recycling box. The paper box, NOT the glass/metal/plastic box. He arranged himself in this position and Mich, of course, snapped a few pics.

Michelle is on strike. Well her Profs are, so no Uni for the past 7 days! Another $2500.00, (one semester,) well spent. (Glad we go that new lap top with the self peeling banana cursor...) She is on the side of the staff and every morning we raise our arms, fists clenched, in greeting to each other and exclaim, "power to the people." She, however, is not a very good proletariat! She has much to learn and I am patiently teaching her. She's a tad pampered to be a true proletariat, so I guess she's proletariat light! She's been working ahead on school stuff, painting the new stairs and doing the dishes! Yes, the Mich... completing domestic chores. Perhaps it is $2500.00 well spent after all?

I've been sorting out insurance woes... I shan't go on about AIG and the Wall Street, self inflicted melt down. Though, if asked, I would expound upon falsely low interest rates, the feeling of "entitlement" over home ownership, mortgages that should never have been issued and perhaps working toward and earning what you have instead of having it handed to you when in reality you can't afford it! But as I said, I shan't rant. OH and those of you who treated me like Chicken Little exclaiming "the sky is falling," bright and early 8 days ago... HA... told you so!

It's going up to 27 degrees (Celsius, 81 degrees for you alternate scale users,) here tomorrow and I'll likely fire up the ac. It's September, get over it and drop into the high teens already! I'm looking forward to the colder weather and love that it's darker sooner and lighter later. I can put my pj's on at 5pm and not be ashamed! Also, firework shows start earlier and are cleaned up and over with sooner! Unlike July where you can't fire until 10pm and aren't out of there until after midnight. It's a win/win for me.

Heroes premiered last night! T'was awesome though I could have lived without watching Syler stick his fingers in Claire's brain! I'm liking the new show Fringe too. House rules! Nothing beats House and if Wilson doesn't come back I will start writing the network.

Ok, for the legions that have been whinging about no new posts, is this enough? Fine, by legions I mean 3 people but percentage of readers wise, 3's a lot. I only have 11,317 visitors to date so 3's a lot. And hey, the 3 are spread all over the country. (Well if you can spread 3 people over a country this size?)

Power to the people!

Time to break open the piggy bank! AIG fall sale!

All the best dressed investors are wearing green this season! Unfortunately, the current clientele and stock holders are screwed, however, those looking for a new look are likely to find one amongst the offerings about to hit the runway! Dang, wish I had an extra few billion! Think about it, $85 billion at 11.4%... one day's interest would make me happy!

$85,000,000,000.00 AIG

I've never typed a number that big. $85 billion, that's the bailout amount the US Feds are rumoured to be giving American International Group. AIG will have to turn over 80% of it's assets. Management will be gone, replaced by new overseers.

I understand the need for this, but cannot help but shake my head. I realized that the entire world financial situation would change over night, should they fail. I understand that the insurance market is not remotely big enough to absorb their books of business. I understand it would be an insurer's market, cherry picking the cream of the crop, charging whatever they wanted. I understand the potential domino effect. I understand that the tangled web of what is owed to whom, who actually owns what and who's going to pay for it all would take years to sort out. I understand all this and hope that this serves as a lesson and these tentacles that spread out, overlap and interweave are cut clean and not allowed to grow back!

*I am no financial expert by any means, this is all just my opinion. I am absolutely fascinated by this entire train wreck and just can't stop watching... and shaking my head while having a slightly sick feeling!*

Party like it's 1929!

The bear has gone bull hunting and appears to be winning! I read a comment this morning, I wish I could remember where, it was a reader's comment on one of the news stories and I'd love to give proper credit for it but cannot find it again! "The US economy is fueled by $25,000.00 a year earning WalMart shoppers driving gas guzzling SUV's, who've been told that they qualify to purchase $300,000.00 houses." I think that about sums it up!

Windows warning about...

Yet again Microsoft Windows warning me about... well... Microsoft!

Westminster High School, 1976 to 2008!

On Saturday night, 32 years melted away and we were all 18 again! It really was like a Monday morning when you catch up on what happened over the weekend, except, we caught up on 32 years! I loved it.

I loved high school. The 70's were raucous times and school was a blast! (I even liked the classes, math, chemistry & typing excepted of course.)

I have now re-connected with old friends, have them on my Facebook, (if Facebook crashes, it's our fault, sorry! Lots of adding, tagging and catchingupping going on,) and have photos that I can compare to my yearbook pictures. Seriously, I swear some of them could substitute the new pics for the yearbook pics and there would be no difference.

Sunday, I saw my first hummingbird! Driving home I saw a cast of hawks, I noticed the fields of soya beans were brilliant yellow like they were trying to outdo the blooming golden rod and that the trees are starting to turn colour to join the Fall pallet. I was tired but apparently very open and rather emotional. (oh and I'm very, very short aren't I?)

A Soldier comes home to Windsor

Today I stood with many others, at Manning Road and the 401, to show our respect for Corporal Andrew Grenon who was killed in Afghanistan. His body came home today. I, of course, could not help but to think of my Dad.


(Unfortunately, a local Conservative M.P. chose the roadside to politic. I overheard Mr. Jeff Watson propound upon the CAW, the Liberal Party and their Membership practices and audits, the good news announcement on the tax on diesel fuel and a host of other campaign issues.)

ENRON settlement, $7.2 Billion

and... $2.4 billion of that from CIBC; who only 4 hours ago made a statement that their sub prime mortage holdings were "not as problematic" as they were. I'm guessing this $2.4 billion is a tad problematic? Olympia & York still haunts and now this. I'm glad I have no demand loans with CIBC. (I have no demand loans period, but CIBC is famous for bringing in the hatchet men to collect after big losses, hey you've got to recoup your mistakes some how right?)

Buzz Hargrove - he does have 10 digits!

Unfortunately, he chose only one as his parting gift to the PM. Such a classy final memory with which to leave us. Way to live down to the CAW reputation.

I am not a Harper fan, I know the money for Ford is an election ploy. It is, however, millions of dollars coming into the city with Canada's highest unemployment rate. It's a gift horse, look it in the mouth if you must but for the love of basic decorum... the Office of the Prime Minister deserves more respect than what was shown by "Mr." Hargrove. Were Buzz my child, I'd be washing his hands out with Lysol! (Oh, and sending him to Finishing School.)

Google Chrome - new browser!

A new open source browser from Google! So far, I like it. Granted I only downloaded it about 30 minutes ago but so far, so good! I always had two or three browsers and lost netscape a few months ago.

Check it out it's smokin' fast, easy and I like that the tabs are above the address line.

US campaign of smear! (aka - the Presidential race)

While I do not support 90% of Sarah Palin's views, I do not think her daughter being pregnant has anything to do with her running for VP. There may be arguments that if she cannot run her family, how can she run a country but teenagers do what teenagers want to do in the best of households. Bristol Palin is not running for office. She has a long and hard future, though likely not as hard as her present! Imagine being 17 and going through a pregnancy never mind the whole world now knowing.

The rumours about Palin have been flying since the announcement of her being chosen by McCain for his running mate. He did not chose the 17 year old daughter! He chose Sarah. Should she turn out to be an unwise choice, so be it. Leave the kids alone, especially leave the vulnerable 17 year old alone.

The irony of the movie "Juno" and now this eh? I do realize Juno was the pregnant teenager's name and not the city, Juneau, in Alaska but now it does seem a tad prophetic no?

I do, however, think that perhaps this shows that preaching birth control by abstinence may NOT be the wisest choice?

Labour Day, or lack thereof!

I am sitting happily at the computer with nothing pressing to do. Granted, I may have been sitting here for quite some time but it's a holiday!

Bob's voice emanates from the living room as he walks toward the computer room, "you better get busy on making breakfast P. Toal, or it's going to interfere with your making me lunch." I am a one meal cooker. I make a nice dinner every night and I feel that is plenty. On his way out of the computer room, whinging about his withering away to nothing, he stops and asks, "what's this money on the buffet? Is it for me?" Before I can answer, he says, "there's forty dollars, that's for me and two scratch tickets, they're for Michelle. I didn't buy her any today because she struck out the last three times I bought her some." Mich then pipes up with, "ya, I'm on probation. He keeps mentioning how I didn't win anything the last three times."

I then ask why he'd think the money was for him and did he not notice the birthday card there as well? To which he promptly replies with, "the card could be for me too." Sadly, as his birthday is 4 days away, he does have a point, which I grudgingly admit and return to playing my game.

Bob then walks toward the front door mumbling, "I'm going over to Robin and Debbie's maybe Debbie has something to eat" and he's out the door!

I'm moving the money, tickets and card from the buffet and am NOT cooking anything until 6pm and I'm going to sloth all day. No matter how bad the whinging gets!

It's my anti-labour day.

**UPDATE** Now Michelle went out the door. She too is on her way to Debbie's house. I hope Debbie has a full fridge! (bunch of whingers!)

On the road again...

I know and sorry. Not much blogging happening here lately. Too busy, too much travel and well, I have places to go and people to see. I will be back! Save the comments for then ok? :)

When the headline proves the point!

You've got to love the irony! Click the picture to read it clearly.

3 computers, 3 different operating systems! HELP!

We just bought Mich a brand spanking new lap top with the works, including an external hard drive! It's Vista. The machine I'm using right now is XP. My oldest machine... well it's Windows 98. Not a pretty picture! I did make the XP and the 98 machine play nice. I have just finished making the Vista and the XP machines play nice. I will NOT even consider making them both play nice with the 98 machine at the same time. Not gonna happen! I suppose I'm going to have to upgrade my "spare" PC. Or... just go buy another one! hehe, don't tell Bob ok? He's stressed enough with having 3 machines and only 2 users. The 98 machine is a good one, not too old, just an old operating system. So, my home network is 3 machines with only 2 of them playing together at any one time. Works for me!

Oh, if you're in Windsor Ontario and want to buy a machine go to PC Outfitters... they are great! Google for the number.

Fireworks & a firestorm

(Time)


The Russian Prime Minister is in Beijing watching fireworks, the Russian President is at home starting a war? One's watching athletes proudly parade, one's ordering a formation of tanks to rumble into South Ossetia, Georgia.

Kwame Kilpatrick... From the Mayor's house to "the big house!"

Why this man is still in office is beyond me. Detroit is a laughingstock. Though now that I think of it, Clinton stayed where he was too.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Courtesy CNN

I just flipped over to CNN and saw this, I actually gasped out loud. I spent my 17th summer lying in the back yard, by the pool reading, (well, trying to read, I was very young,) The Gulag Archipelago. It is not a book that reads easily. I put it down, picked it back up and really spent an entire summer reading it; it's over 1800 pages long but worth every single tree that died for it's publication. I re-read it in my twenties. I then went out and got every book I could find by Solzhenitsyn. Cancer Ward, A Day In the Life of Ivan Densiovich, Warning To The West, August 1914, The First Circle... anything I could find. What a man, what a mind, what a shame. His life, one of exile, hardship and love for his Country, but not it's leaders leads one to realize how lucky we are.

Yet another Microsoft problem in IE!

If you are using Firefox, you can read my blog. If you are using IE good luck! This started last night and at first I thought the problem was my machine. It seems to only happen in pages that have the site meter code. If you are using IE, you can't read this anyway but maybe seeing the pic for a second or two will give you a clue. The error message reads:

Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site http://______________ Operation aborted.

Hopefully Microsoft fixes this soon. I assume they will be inundated with complaints from the throngs who visit the popular celebrity gossip blogs as they all have site meter code.

Man decapitates passenger aboard Greyhound bus in Manitoba

(photo: CBC)

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/07/31/greyhound-transcanada.html

I seriously had to read that headline twice! It's true. CBC.ca has an interview with a witness who was on the bus, one of 37 passengers including small children.

Apparently, the alleged killer was calm and expressionless during the entire event.

Windsor Ontario - Canal proposal

Stupendous! Exciting and completely doable! Welcome to Windsor. The lands expropriated years ago for the arena that is now being built waaaaaaay out East will finally be something besides an empty parking lot. I love it!

I actually have faith in this one happening. Our City Council and to be fair, not just the current one but the ones preceding this one, have a sad history of talking something to death. This one is different, one big reason for the difference? Mr. Schmuel Farhi. If Mr. Farhi wants it done, it happens. Period.

Welcome visitor # 10,000 !

Shame on Maariv

Some things are sacrosanct ! The Wailing Wall is one of them. My beliefs, or lack of them, aside they should be held accountable. If you are in Israel, you should cancel your subscription. Send them a message that hundreds of years of tradition, of acceptable behaviour and Rabbinical teachings cannot be ignored simply to boost sales!

Caroline Henderson, "Letters From the Dust bowl"

Being a stamp collector, I look at old postcards, not for the cards but for the stamps affixed to them. A year or so ago, I found a bunch of cards in a Harrow antique store to/from Mrs. W. Henderson of Eva Oklahoma. Her first name was Caroline. For some reason this sounded familiar to me and I googled her. She is Caroline Henderson, teacher, mother, farmer and writer. She lived from 1877 to 1966. She wrote articles in different publications. She wrote about farm life. During the drought, dust storms and privation she was also published in The Atlantic Monthly.

Yesterday I went antiquing along Wyandotte St. E. here in Windsor. I walked into a backroom of one store and found about 8 issues of the Atlantic. Now this journal has been publishing since 1857, one hundred and fifty one years! Of the 8 issues in stock of the over 1800 they've published, I actually found the May 1936 that carried Caroline's "Letters from the Dust Bowl!" This kind of thing always happens to me. I'm very lucky in many ways! (Not the lottery kind of way but lucky none the less!) A wonderful addition to my postcard collection.

Her letters have been recently published in a new book, (the one pictured,)and I plan to order it also. The one postcard I have scanned mentions that they have been "putting everything in order... but it is no purpose though there has been plenty of wind. I am still hoarding about a gallon of water for wetting out throats. Fortunately it is warmer and the cattle for the present can drink from the snow water pools."

Another exciting day!

I suppose I should start by explaining the picture. Mich and I were at Pier 1 Imports when we heard a fire truck. It stopped across the parking lot at Best Buy. There was a car on fire. My pic does not do it justice. At one point you couldn't see the lot for the smoke. The firefighters pried the hood open, giving the fire oxygen, huge flames came spewing out. (Of course I didn't think of taking a pic at that point!) They ended up having to use foam to put it out. Then they had to wash down the parking lot to get rid of the foam. The black car parked in front of the car on fire was a couple of spaces over so should be ok. The owner of the car was out pacing around his car when Mich and I were finished shopping, he looked quite dejected. The car was toast.

For Sandra and the rest of the world.

I mentioned in an email to my sister Sandra that Michelle was feeling much better, other than the lower left side where that wisdom tooth must have given some resistance and the extraction left a green bruise on her face. Sandra replied that she was glad to hear it and perhaps I should update my blog so "the rest of the world can stop worrying too!" So here it is world... hehe

Matthew left to go back to Alberta this morning. Last night we all went to the casino buffet dinner. (Thanks Robin!) Michelle found a plethora of soft foods that appealed to her, especially in the desert section! Then we played some slots. I hate slots. They are boring and mindless. No time for poker games though so I went around dropping twenty dollar bills into machines. Then I went into the "High roller" room... I put 3 20's in it in a matter of 2 minutes! Luckily I won $121.00 and cashed out immediately. I still have no bloody idea how I won it or why but I'll take it. I came out about even. I did offer to drop my $121.00 into a $50.00 machine for two pulls but the family put the kybosh on that!

So that's my update for the worriers. :)

Wisdom teeth extraction - the aftermath!

The day of the surgery, not too bad. Of course the anesthesia and drugs helped. That night... not so good. Mich learned that Tylenol #3 does not work on her and went to the ibuprofen. The next morning... really, really not so good but with ice and drugs was brought under control. I was a fanatic about the icing and her swelling is minimal, just more of a "puffiness." She calls me the "pill nazi" as I dole them out according to the labels and not a minute sooner.

She'd been complaining about her left arm since the day of the surgery. I told her it was just the IV and not to worry about it. Yesterday afternoon she comes running into the room telling me "OMG, I'm going to faint" and holds out her left arm. There's a big lump between her wrist and elbow. Mich isn't good with anything to do with blood/veins oh and eyes since we're on the topic. I called the surgeon, he said to put compresses on the hand and it's just inflammation from the IV drugs. I told him it wasn't the hand but well up her arm. He then "recommended" we go to the ER and have them look at it "just in case." yea... ok... Good thing she's too old for someone to call the Children's Aid eh?

Off we went. Mich has thrombophlebitis as a reaction to the IV drugs but unusually, it's up her arm instead of the IV site. I did not know this could happen. So, it's ice on the face, warm compresses on the arm. Oh and now something for her stomach as the drugs are eating away at her!

She's always rather high maintenance so really, it's no big deal!

Wisdom teeth: T minus 40 minutes

In about 40 minutes, Michelle will be less wise, less toothy and a whole lot stoned! (Oh and her mouth will be worth about $10,000.00 if you add the braces, regular dental visits and this surgery!

UPDATE! All went well, we were in and out in an hour even with anesthetic! Those suckers must have popped out with little trouble. Hopefully that means little swelling or bruising.

The many misadventures of Pat!

There are certain things that have been deemed out of bounds for me. The "eversharp knives" at my house, the paper cutter at work and "Krazy glue" at both locations. Well... this weekend I broke my hairbrush. Dropped it on a cement floor and the handle snapped clean. I got out the krazy glue. Bob shook his head, I ignored him. I opened it with a flourish, proceeded to put a dollop on the brush handle and put the pieces together. I then held it upright with my left hand, and pushed down with my right hand to ensure proper bonding. It bonded alright, to my left hand! Bob shook his head. I quickly disengaged my hand and moved to a clean part of the handle. Then I needed something to put it in to keep it upright and dry. I took a Tim Hortons cup, put the brush in it and put the cup down. Well, I tried to put the cup down, it was glued to my hand. Bob shook his head some more. I ignored him with a vengeance. One day his head is going to fall off from all that shaking and then I'll have the last laugh!

Monday morning, I shattered a glass bowl. I carefully picked it up and swept. I didn't vacuum as Bob was sleeping and I didn't want him to jump up and start shaking his head again and get all dizzy or something. I figured he was still recuperating from the Krazy Glue incident. (Thoughtful eh?) I, of course, ended up with a shard of glass in my left foot.

Fortuitously, I was going to the Doctor today. I mentioned the glass shard, he found it, got it out and then jabbed me with a tetanus shot! Sneaky bugger. I assumed he would just shake his head in a Bob like fashion and move on. Men, you can't trust them!

Happy me!

Matthew's home from Alberta for a visit and Michelle is back from a 2 day trip to Toronto, (at 4:30am today!) It's nice to have a full house again.

To blog, or not to blog... that is the question.

My neighbourhood was awash with bloggable happenings this weekend! Seriously, it's staggering the number of people pushing me to post. I don't know where to start so... I'll think about it for a bit and see if anything happens in the next while to influence my final decision.

The invisible M.P. speaks! There really is a Jeff Watson!

For years, I've heard rumours of there being a Conservative M.P. in Essex County. I've not seen nor heard much of him aside from the purported death threats.

Now he's in the news! Taking a stand... making a stink... about, Dr. Henry Morgentaler receiving the Order of Canada. Whether or not I think Mogentaler should or shouldn't get the honour is moot. Do I think the humble Doctor should have said, to the cameras "I deserve this award?" No.

Now, back to Mr. Watson, aka The Invisible M.P., this is what he chooses as his... hey look at me, I'm an M.P. and have an opinion moment?

Speaks volumes about the man. The Essex County issues... nah. National issues... nah. But by golly lets pick abortion as a way to get attention. I'm thinking he's confused and should be representing a population in the American mid-west.

R.I.D.E. stop!

For years I have been commenting that I have never been stopped by a RIDE program. Michell and Bob were stopped once, she was maybe 9 years old. The officer asked Bob if he'd had anything to drink, he replied with "no, but I'm not too sure about her," pointing to Michelle. Everyone had a good chuckle and they carried on. I've been on the wrong side of the road, missed it by one street and well, just never been stopped!

Well now, I can cross it off my list. On the way home from work, at 9:45pm with Michelle, Robbie and Matt in my little Grand Am we came upon a RIDE stop that you couldn't miss if you wanted to. It's a big curve in the road on Crawford Ave. No where else to go. There were 8 Police, 4 on each side of the road. Apparently this is a rather extravagant set up for a RIDE stop. I was duly impressed.

BUT... well, it was a bit of a let down. All these years and in about 5 seconds, I was on my way. Not terribly exciting. I guess I should have just stuck with the mystery of wondering.

It's a wonderful life!

I was thinking today about my life. It's a busy one right now with July 1st just around the corner. Virtually all waking moments are spent at the office but I'm lucky. Even those moments are spent surrounded by friends and family.

The pic on this post is the surprise 50th birthday party my beautiful daughter Michelle threw for me. I had no clue. When I came in, after only being gone 3 hours, and found my house filled with friends and family I was stunned. Family from as far away as Sturgeon Falls, Montreal and London. Friends from Toronto, (and of course Windsor,) I realized how blessed I am. They went so far out of their way to be here, for me.

During this busy and stressful time at work and the anniversary of losing my Dad I hold in my mind that I have a wonderful, loving and supportive bunch of people in my life. Husband, children, Sisters, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Nieces, Nephews, In-laws and friends. (Sadly one less family as I just lost my Uncle Heiner in Germany.)

I'm not sure why I'm so sentimental tonight, maybe because of my Dad, my Uncle, maybe because it was such a long day at work and I'm a tad worn out but to my huge and loving extended family... Thanks for being a part of my life after all, a life lived alone is no life but merely an existence that leaves no mark when it's over.

Denis P. Toal

One year.

My shocking day!

There were a bunch of us at the warehouse today, busily working away. A storm was rolling in, nothing new for Windsor in the past few days. Then the phone rang. It was my friend at the Fire Department telling me a funnel cloud had been spotted and heading toward our direction! (thank you Nancy.) As she's telling me this... boom... huge thunder and the power goes out, cutting off the phone. The power came back on and she called back, we finished the conversation and I thanked her. I called Michelle at home to warn her and just as I told her about the funnel cloud, boom... power goes out and phone dies again. I quickly turned my cell phone on and called her back. Power comes back on.

I gathered everyone up and we all went into the front office area. I should mention at this point, for those of you who don't know, I work for a fireworks company, in an explosives magazine! So, we're all in the front when I decide to open the door, look toward the airport and see if I can see anything. It's a glass door, rimmed in metal with a long metal bar across the glass to hold on to when opening the door. I should also mention that the carpet in front of the door was soaking wet as the pummeling rain was coming in under the door.

Just as I grabbed the key with my left hand and the metal bar with my right hand... zap! There was a loud crack of thunder and at the exact same time, lighting hit the ground about 3 feet from the door! I felt a weird tingly sensation through my whole body. My hair stood up and I yelped. The power went off. I was shaking, like I was freezing cold and kept saying "OMG OMG, I got hit by lightning!" There is some debate whether I was hit by the residual lightning running through the metal or from transformer outside that blew sending a surge through the building... regardless, I'm claiming a lightning strike! I saw the lightning hit the ground, it got really skinny at the end, something I did not know before. See, even being electrocuted, you can learn something. (Though thinking about it, the bar should be aluminium shouldn't it?)

It cured the headache I'd had all day! Really, it did. However, as the day wore on I felt not so cured anymore. Actually I started to feel just dreadful. I left at 5, went to see Mich at Shoppers, took my blood pressure and it was NOT pretty. Keeping in mind I take 3 blood pressure pills a day, I can only imagine what it would have been sans medication.

From the Detroit Free Press: "Indoors, outdoors or in a car, don't touch metal objects. They're excellent conductors of electricity." Well no kidding, it's not rocket science but well... I was worried that we wouldn't know if the tornado was about to hit us no power, no radio, no warnings! So I peeked. (Won't do that again!) Even with all this going on, Dave & Ian went to inspect the electrical room to see if anything was smoking, I grabbed a fire extinguisher,(though someone else would have had to use it as I was still unable to control the shaking,) and everyone went around to see if there was anything obvious we should worry about.

We still have no power at work. Well, not true, we have lights in two rooms. One phase of the three phase is working. No computers, phones, fax, cash registers, adding machines... t'was tough doing business today. There was a lot of arithmetic being done on paper with pencils.

So, that's my shocking day. I'm buying a lottery ticket on my way to work tomorrow! My odds have suddenly improved.

Who are you?

Ok, I know who many of you are that visit my little blog on a regular basis. BUT... I have some constant visitors that I would love to identify! Sudbury,Ontario, Erin, Ontario, Chatham, Ontario, Burnaby, BC, to name a few. Please, drop me a comment, let me know who you are and how you know me! Thanks!

Happy Father's Day...

To those with us and those we miss every day, especially today.

United Nations, International Year of the Potato

Who knew? I heard it this morning on CBC Radio. I love potatoes! In all forms. I have long said they are the perfect food. The fact that my name, in it's original form would be Patty O'Toole has nothing to do with it. Actually, I'm genetically predisposed on both sides. Irish and German. Huge potato fans there.

Seriously, you can do anything with a potato. Also, as is shown in the UN website, potatoes are a good staple that can help the world's food shortage problem. (As long as they are genetically diverse and therefore not all susceptible to the same diseases as what happened during the potato famine.)

Check out the website. http://www.potato2008.org/en/index.html I'm going to try the Chinese stir fried potatoes. I'm very excited about it! Oh and the website leads to links to other potato sites that are strangely fascinating!

Oh, I'm more than just a bit ashamed that the Canadian Government does not show up anywhere in the sponsor or supporters list!

Counterfeiting, a life calling?

Rehan Bawania, arrested in counterfeiting ring, June 2006, he was 22.


June 2008, now he's 24.

Obama & Clinton, the dream ticket

A new site calling for the "dream ticket" of Obama & Clinton. Or, as I like to say, Barackilly! My favourite part is the store... "got both?" t'shirts and bumper stickers.

www.voteboth.com

Obama wins nomination, HIllary wins speech contest!

A historic night for the USA. A proud moment for Obama and too for Hillary. She gave a riveting speech, gracious and supportive in the beginning and blisteringly confrontational after the niceties were over. I do not understand the call to arms to visit her website to tell her what you want her to do. I do not understand what she may be planning. Mostly as I do not 100% understand the delegate process and the weight of super delegates etc.

Tomorrow could be a very interesting day. No matter what happens, tomorrow is a very new day for the USA.

It's unofficial! The ticket is...

Barackilly!

Note: I figured if every news desk is publishing innuendo and maybes... so could I!

Overpasses and foresight!

On May 22nd, I blogged about the Jackson Park Overpass and a couple of days later, a drunk driver went over the side into a parking lot and walked away from it. I also mentioned the Howard Avenue/ Expressway overpass. I spoke of how I hated to stop under it, how it creeped me out and that I stopped well before it should the light ahead be red.

Today, on my drive in, what do I see? Men in orange vests, under the overpass, building support trussing! Hello!

I spoke to a lovely and helpful man, Mr. Webb, in Public Works who explained to me that the overpasses are old and are being re-fitted. The "decks" are being re-done and I then asked if this was just "cosmetic." Nope... There's steel showing through, (not really a good sign on a bridge,) and other areas that require structural re-doing. Like the joints... joints are important thingys on bridges and overpasses!

So you nay sayers who mocked me for my queasiness at stopping under thousands of pounds of aging concrete with rust stains and cracks all over it... HA! Honk at me again guy in the over sized F350, who needs to move up 4 car lengths to stop at a red light! I shall not be moved!

I think next, I shall blog about myself winning a lottery as lately it seems if I write about something, it pops up in the real world!

What I learned coming home from London today!

When driving 95km/h down highway #2 with your driver side window open... do NOT decide you need to get rid of the bug splatter by turning on your windshield washer/wipers! It tastes really icky... the good news? The left lens of my eye glasses is really, really clean!