Sucky day

• Today is fire inspection day at Ye Olde Apartment Building. Those alarms, they sure do work. Loudly, piercingly, repeatedly, for hours. Even though D. knew what was happening and had heard them a few minutes earlier, she burst into tears when it blasted again unexpectedly.
• When we got up this morning, the water was running sort of sluggishly out of the taps. I thought, “Hmm, maybe they’re testing the water mains too, or something?” But no, the water ran less and less and colder and colder. Of course, the water mains had burst this morning. Oh joy. I had just finished cooking a massive and dirty-dish intensive lunch (sort of a pre-birthday lunch for the Redhead) when I finally checked with the super and learned the ugly truth. MANY dirty dishes. I feel scuzzy and coated in cooking residue and I want a long shower so, so badly.
• In order to be marginally clean for school, instead of a quiet afternoon of studying, I shall have to hike through the snow to my mother’s house and shower there, only to advance again in the opposite direction to take the subway to class this evening.
• D. is having one of those days where she defiantly and wilfully and purposely misbehaves and then crumbles into hot, sad tears at some random moment during the process of being reprimanded.
• That evil, orange “service engine soon” light. What? What is it, brand new engine that we got this summer? What is your freaking problem?
• I slept badly and I am now a very cranky, tired person with a crick in my neck.
• Other stuff, too, that is making me pissy.

I cannot wait until bedtime, so this day will be OVER.

Living in the land of hockey.

I’m Canadian. I am supposed to know an awful lot about hockey. The reality is, though, that I know the bare minimum. I know the basics about the rules, enough to get irritated when people are playing badly and to know when a game is exciting. I barely watch hockey, though. Olympic hockey? Oh yeah, I’m all about that, but it only happens every 4 years. I do also have a sort of irrational attachment to the Maple Leafs. They are the Toronto team, but, you know…. The attachment is irrational because I hardly ever watch them, I’ve never been to a game, and I don’t have enough interest in the team to really pay attention to who is playing for them unless we’re doing well in the playoffs or something. Which brings me to the second reason why my attachment to them is irrational: They mostly suck. But still, I have a fond place in my heart for them. I occasionally wear a Maple Leafs shirt and my girl does too. I like knowing when they’re doing well and feeling a little sad when they’re not. I don’t often browse hockey websites like this NHL Forum but it’s not a bad way to keep up with the games and the buzz around players and teams and such. It takes less time than actually watching a whole game to go to a website and look around at what’s happening. The boards over there are actually sort of hilarious as well as being informative. There’s a whole thread about everything that’s Bryan McCabe’s fault – one of the Leafs players…. The list includes girls who wouldn’t put out, snow, vegetables, and war in Iraq. Also hilarious? The guys who whine about the thread being pointless and that McCabe gets too much grief.

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Sunday Report: Notes from the Zoo

Be sure to use the proper drawn out whiney tone of voice to read the following:

“You hit me!”

“You licked my finger!”

“Well, you were tapping on my head!”

“You didn’t have to hit me!”

“I just wanted to mix it up a little.”

“I didn’t want to mix it uuuuuupppp.”

Good grief. Twenty-one and seventeen, right? Hmm.

In other news, since D. has started naming all her dolls “Elizabeth” after watching some Pride and Prejudice with us, we’re trying to convince her to name one of her dolls “Mr. Darcy.” We will also find some especially loathed dolls to name “Mr. Collins,” “Lady Catherine de Bourgh” and “Mr. Wickham.”

Are diamonds anybody’s best friend?

The whole thing about conflict diamonds is back in the news again. I should note that I have a few diamonds on my finger. That being said, I think the whole diamond industry is riddled with problems. In addition to the issues around conflict diamonds or blood diamonds, as they’re sometimes called, the industry faces giant challenges in terms of how workers are treated, what land is taken from whom for mining purposes, what the mining industry’s impact on the environment is, etc. I realize using actual diamonds is key in several industrial processes, but other than the feeling that a real diamond is better or nicer to have, there’s no real reason not to get something synthetic, honestly. But then the issue becomes what to do with all the people who depend on this industry for their livelihood… Some desperately poor countries get a giant chunk of their money from diamonds, what happens to them if the luxury diamond trade collapses?

Some retailers who sell diamonds are getting better at disclosing whether or not the diamonds they sell are conflict free. The “conflict free” designation itself is problematic, though. The Kimberley Process designation that is currently used is flawed, but I suppose it’s better than nothing. Buying diamonds from countries like Canada circumvents many of the conflict-related problems but it doesn’t remove the environmental and land appropriation issues. It’s complicated. So complicated that I think when I can afford to get my redhead something sparkley, it’ll probably be synthetic.

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Smells of my apartment building….

I just had to run downstairs in boxers and a thermal shirt to get a package that turned out not even to be for me. With the door open, it smelled nice down there: Eau de Winter-Finally-Freaking-Came: Cold winter air with just a hint of snow. Well, plus a bit of a stale laundry-soap and creamed corn. But still, SNOW!

I play the penny slots…

I went to a casino for the very, very first time over the holidays this year. My mother-in-law was going and when it got out that I’d never been to one, I was informed that I’d be joining the expedition. It was a weird, weird experience. Sort of fun and depressing at the same time. I’m not sure it’s for me, but I can see how people might have a really great time with the whole casino thing.

Biloxi is a big gaming location on the Gulf Coast. My girl has spent a bit of time in Biloxi so I’ve always been a bit curious about it. It would be interesting to see where she misspent some of her youth. It is recovering nicely from the damage that was done to the area during Hurricane Katrina and the Biloxi Casinos are back up and running. Some of them seem like really nice places to stay, apart from the gambling. The website I linked has some reviews of the casinos. The most amusing parts are the reviews people have of how “loose” the slots are in various places and so on. Serious gamblers are interesting. I am the opposite of a serious gambler but if we’re down South again one year it might be fun to stay in Biloxi for a bit so I can play more penny slots.

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Boys & booze, already?

D. only just turned 3 in November. Now I’m hearing that she’s got some sort of situation with a boy at playgroup. Apparently the poor kid has a huge crush on my baby redhead. He kept saying hi, grinning and flirting and trying to get her to talk to him. (Her response? “No.”) He tried to make his dad wait for D. to be done putting on her coat and things so they could walk home together. Really cute, but a little premature, maybe?

She asked for beer in Ikea after her other mom mentioned it was on the menu at their restaurant. Then there was her enthusiastic singing of “Ice wine, ice wine, ice wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine” over and over in the car, in response to Sassymonkey’s comment about the warm winter affecting the harvest.

So I’m a little worried.

The whole online dating thing…

I never did understand people who believe that dating online is easier than the IRL thing. You spend just as much time and energy on it, although you might do it in different ways: Rather than sitting in a bar accepting or rejecting people, you do it in front of your screen. I had a long distance relationship for a long, long time with I.N. and a lot of it happened online, and I think it can be good and bad. I don’t know anybody who has successfully had a long term relationship after meeting on a dating website. I do know people in long term relationships who met online, although they weren’t on a dating website at the time. (I think that’s the best way to meet somebody, anyway, through shared interests, whether it’s online or IRL.) I’ve idly surfed through a few dating websites and I think most of them have their ups and downs. This dating service review website gives you the chance to check a few of the options out and read about some other people’s experiences and impressions of a few of these sites. It’s a cool idea. I think as more people post reviews the site will become more useful, but it’s already a handy way to get a feel for the kind of people who enjoy a site… Are the comments related to a particular service mostly about how it’s a nice change from the superficial sites or are the comments about all the hot people who want to hook up? Other features that I hope they’ll add later on: A way to rate the costs. From what I hear, dating online can cost a bunch between all the fees and tokens and nonsense you have to buy to send message, see pictures, reply to messages, etc. Something else that would be nice is an indication of who can use a site. Is it heterosexual dating only? A lot of mainstream dating sites don’t have any options for the gay girls and boys out there. Stuff like that might show up as the site grows. This website is a really nice start for somebody wanting to get an idea of where to begin, if online dating is something you’d like to try. Once you’ve tried a couple of sites, go back and post your own reviews to let everybody else know too.

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Music, music, music

I just spent an hour with the kidlet watching music videos on YouTube. I was watching a cool Coke ad from a link somebody sent me and she climbed on my lap (with the laptop, this is precarious) to watch with me. As soon as it ended she said “I want to watch more music, like this one.” Well, the video had a White Stripes soundtrack, so we started with some more of them, and some Parlotones, Sarah McLachlan (her favourite, I think, it inspired the most singing along), Johnny Clegg, Joan Jett, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Tegan & Sara, Metric, etc. It was loads of fun. YouTube is now on my list of emergency distractions from tantrums. It is a short but illustrious list, containing things like playing with her piggy banks, big baths with all! the! bath! toys! at! once! and Dora Candyland.

Coupons galore

I love coupons. My family knows this about me, I’m always cutting them out. A nice way to spend a few minutes on a Saturday is to look through flyers for deals and coupons with I.N.. The only thing about coupons is that you can get sucked into buying stuff you didn’t really need just because of the coupons. The trick is to use them only for things you really would have bought anyway. This website has a very nice selection of online coupons for stuff I might actually use. Their BestBuy coupons has a 20% off memory cards and tripods coupon, nice since our videocamera needs some. And since Valentine’s Day is coming up, the FTD coupons are handy. The site’s design is sort of crappy, but there are some real deals on there, for bigger, more well-known online retailers as well as smaller ones I’ve never heard of. Check it out.

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