Friday, May 30, 2008

Canada - Land of the Free - My rant for the week

Ya right.

I'm so annoyed today.  I went to the gas station to put gas in the car, which I'd like to point out cost me $78.00!!!!!!!!!!!!  ($129.9 CAD per litre)

Something didn't look right.  Things just didn't look the same.  I know.  Where have all the cigarettes gone????

Oh.  I see.  Hidden.  We're not allowed to look at them.

Dirty, disgusting, nasty things.  (This is sarcasm.  I know it's hard to translate that into writing, so I'm just letting you know.)

I can look at scantilly clad women plastered on the front on magazines.
I can watch pornography on my television.
I can use poorly maintained, filthy public restroom.
I can listen to youths cursing like truckers at every turn.
I can go to my son's high school and buy any kind of drug I want.

But, I can't look at the cigarettes in the store.  Nevermind, that the Canadian public pays between 8-12 dollars for a PACK of cigarettes.


Apparently, this is going to save lives.  Right.  I can see the logic there.  (This is more sarcasm)

I soon won't be able to talk on my cell phone while I'm driving.


Young kids can drive around with their music so loud I can hear them from a mile away, and the base so loud that their trunks are practically popping open.
They allow 90 year olds to continue to drive while they mosey down the 4 lane highways at 50 km/hr, and bump into curbs, run lights, back out without looking.
I can use the inside lane on the 401 ONLY if I have a 2nd passenger in the car.  Otherwise, I'm relegated to using the lanes where the morons are weaving in and out of traffic, tailgating and cutting people off.

But as a responsible, courteous, safe driver with an absolutely clean driving record after nearly 20 years of driving, I won't be able to use my phone while I drive.

We can't drive anywhere, because it costs too damn much for gas anyway, but the government says they can't do anything to alleviate the rising costs, even though the taxes paid on gasoline purchases is 30 something percent.

We pay taxes, upon taxes, upon taxes.  We pay a goods and service tax.  Add these 2 things together and pay 13% on everything we buy or pay for.  My paycheck is cut in half thanks to the amount of taxes I pay.

If someone breaks into my house and falls down and hurts themselves, I can be sued.

My neighbors can complain to the city if my hedge is too bushy, my dog barks, if my fence isn't high enough, if my pool isn't secured.

If I die, my family will have to pay a DEATH TAX.  Yes, you're taxed when you die.  Will they be able to afford to bury me?  Pay taxes on me for the next few years after my death?

Thanks to my husband's medical insurance plan, I can buy my medications for 80% of the cost, only if the insurance company decides that whatever I need is on their list of "covered" drugs.

I can put a hot tub in my back yard, only if the city tells me I can.  For this priviledge I have to pay for a permit, and follow their rules.

Yes, Canada is a great country.  Or was, at least.

I'm certainly not free.  I'm not free to do anything.  My freedom is being stripped away piece by piece, bit by bit.  We as Canadians are so passive, that we just sit around and shrug, folding our hands in our laps, and smiling while we take it up the tail pipe.

I'm frustrated, obviously.  

I'm a middle class, well educated, responsible, law abiding citizen.  I pay my taxes like a good girl.  I go to work everyday, and pay through the nose for everything.  My children attend school and I teach them right from wrong.

But I can't look at cigarettes behind a counter in a store?????????
I can't use my cell phone when and where it pleases me????????
I can't afford to drive a days' distance because I'm being ripped off blind by my government????
I have to smoke on the sidewalk like some low life???????
I can't be trusted to determine a safe height for my fence?????
I can be held responsible for the safety and well being of a common criminal who decides to rob me?????
I have to put up with the rude, condescending behaviours and attitudes of our spoiled society???
If I put up a "Beware of Dog" sign, I'm admitting that I have a vicious dog???
I have to put up with uppity, stuck up, SUV-driving, soccer moms and their bratty, rude, out of control children???

Please.  Spare me.

You can have it.


Thursday, May 29, 2008

On the mend with Sopa de Lima


Well I must be on the mend because yesterday I actually found the energy to make some soup as well as the enchilladas. I was really craving soup, so I looked up a recipe for sopa de lima, and thanks to Emerill Lagasse on the Food Network, I found one and cooked up a batch.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_34901,00.html




I've always wanted to try it, figuring that since I love lemon and lime, it would probably be something I'd like, and I sure wasn't disappointed! I may have overdone it with the lime a bit, so I just added more broth to even it out. The recipe called for mexican oregano, but all I had was regular stuff. I omitted the fried tortillas as well, but now I can see how they would compliment the soup nicely.

The other thing I found in the grocery store was masa harina. I'd love to try making my own tortillas, but I'd probably need a tortilla press. I'll have to do a little research and find out how they're made authentically. You can't find corn tortillas here pre-made in the stores unfortunately, so I've been using whole wheat for anything I need them for.

I don't fry them before making enchilladas, but I'd love to try that as well. I bet the flavour of a corn tortilla would be amazing after lightly frying!

So now I have yet another kitchen gadget that I want. I'm not sure where the heck I'll put it as my kitchen is loaded with toys already.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Shocking Food

Well, still suffering with this damn cold, although I feel better today than I did yesterday.  I couldn't really sleep the past 3 nights, but slept like a log from about 6:30 til almost 10 this morning.  I guess tomorrow I'll have to get my butt back to work.  Boooo.

I had a conversation with a friend on the weekend.  We were talking about our kids etc., and I mentioned that my oldest, Mike, is graduating from high school in June, and that we were taking the kids to Playa del Carmen for a week in August as a gift to him for his graduation.  She was shocked, and I mean SHOCKED that we weren't going to stay at a resort!  She was completely freaked out about the food!!  Horrified, would be a better description.

What's that about anyway?  Do they serve different food at the resorts?  Is the food for the resorts shipped in from Canada or the States??  The issue of food never crossed my mind as something that someone would be concerned about.  I mean, I know that fruits and veggies have to be soaked before eating them if they don't have a skin, but other than that, I didn't think there was anything wrong with the food.  She was concerned about the "freshness", which kind of made me giggle.  I've seen pictures of the mercado's and considering that as Canadians we eat a lot of produce shipped in from the states that has been picked far before it was ripe, freshness was never a concern of mine.

I know....  There are a lot of misconceptions and untruths, but I figured she'd be worried about crime, or drugs, or theft..  certainly not the food.

Speaking of which, I made enchilada's a few days ago, and Mike cannot wait to try some authentic mexican ones when we get there!

Only 8 (or so) more weeks to go!!!

Monday, May 26, 2008

Steve Irwin and his Crocs

The entire family has come down with the dreaded spring/summer head cold.  I hate having a cold.  Seriously.  I'm not a good sick person.

Anyway, we were out at our trailer this weekend, and yesterday we hung around laying in bed, watching TV, trying to get as much rest as we could to kick the bug.  While flipping through the stations, I recognized a clip of Cancun right away, and sure enough, it was Steve Irwin visiting Cancun and checking out the croc population and how they were managed by the government.  It was pretty interesting stuff - not only because it was Mexico, but I always liked watching him and his antics.  He had more balls that I ever will, that's for sure.  There was one part where the water went up and into a mall, and there were baby crocs living in the water.  Crazy!

So after Cancun, he moved on to Tampico, where he did much of the same stuff.  Just thought it was a cool show and I was so excited to see Mexico on tv!  (God, I'm a loser...  LOL)  Obviously, it doesn't take much to get me excited!  So now I'm off to look up Tampico on the internet as a "possible" to put on the list of places that might be good to live.  

Monday, May 19, 2008

Feels like fall in May!

About 5 yrs ago we bought a trailer, and it's parked permanently at a park about 40 minutes from home.  We love it!  It's like a vacation every weekend, and we have some great friends who camp out there as well.  We rarely ever miss a weekend between April and October.

Here in Canada it was May 2-4 weekend, or Victoria Day, or May Run weekend if you're from up north in Timmins.  I grew up calling it May Run, but none of these southern Ontario people know what I'm talking about when I call it that.  Whatever you call it, it's a long weekend, and who doesn't appreciate a long weekend and an extra day off work!!!!

Anyway, I actually took last Friday off and headed out a day early with Trap (the greyhound) and spent a nice quiet night curled up in bed watching tv, and a very relaxing Friday sitting out on the deck reading, before I headed back home to drop Trap off and pick up my daughter Meaghan.  Gerald didn't end up coming out until late Saturday afternoon, so Meaghan and I visited some friends.  She had a blast playing with her friends, and I had some drinks with my own girlfriends.   We discovered another drink which was really yummy - Grape juice from concentrate, Jamaican rum with ice blended in a blender.  That was one we'll be drinking this summer for sure! 

It was a great weekend, but MAN IS IT COLD!!!  It feels like fall here instead of spring or summer!  Last night the temperature went down to about 3 degrees (Celcius) and it rained all Saturday  morning, most of Sunday, and a lot of today as well.  Besides that, the wind is strong and freezing!!  I'm so envious of Cynthia and Mike as they're enjoying the warmth of Arizona on their way to DF!

On my way back out on Friday with Meaghan, we were cruising down highway 403 and a police cruiser pulled out behind me and turned his lights on.  I thought for sure that I was getting a ticket, but he cruised on by and pulled the guy who had been behind me over.  WHEW!!!  Stupid ass was driving way too fast, especially on a long weekend when you KNOW the cops are going to be out in full force patrolling the highways for speeders and drunk drivers.

All in all, it was a ton of fun.  Good drinks, great laughs and the best of friends.  Now BRING ON SUMMER DAMMIT!!!!!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Mis Perros

One thing I've been a little worried about is bringing the dogs to Mexico with us when we finally move. I've mentioned before that Chorney, our geriatric German Shepperd won't be around to make the trip. She's over 13 now.

Trap, the greyound, most likely will. He has just turned 5 in April and I hope he's around for a good long while. Elliott, who is our preadopted greyhound, is not yet one, and hasn't even started schooling for racing yet, so it will be a few years before he's ready to come home. Shorter if he's not a decent prospect. (Let's hope that's the case!!)

Anyway... I worry about the heat and how it will affect them. I see others have taken their dogs with no problem. Greyhounds however, have no isulating body fat and very little fur to protect them from the sun and heat.

If anyone has any experience with this, I'd sure love to know!!! Maybe I'll just have to make sure that they get their very own swimming pools!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Palabra de Mujer

I've been watching this show for a little over week, and unfortunately, I can only understand about 5% of what is going on.  I know that Matilde speaks WAY too fast, and she spends a lot of time being angry with who I think, is her boyfriend.

Lupe (at least I think that's his name) is Matilde's father, and he quit his trabajo because he was angry about something.  I get the impression that he doesn't approve of Matilde having a boyfriend, but I could be way off. 

This channel has some spanish programming, but they also have italian, portuguese etc.  I wish we had a channel dedicated to spanish language television!

According to my mother, who was a teacher, principle and specialist in early childhood development, tells me that the more I listen to it, the easier it will get to figure out where words begin and end.  She says that's the first step babies take in learning language, along with imitating sounds.  So, I keep listening, and I think the individual words are starting to be more distinguishable.  

I'm still listening to my cd's and working away at those.  It's slow progress because I keep going over the same cd's making sure that I have a good understanding of them before moving on to the harder ones.

I found out that community college here offers a Spanish for Beginners course, so Gerald and I will take it next summer.  He wanted to take it this winter, but with my classes for school I don't think I could fit another course in!!!  This coming fall/winter is my last year towards my degree!!!!


Saturday, May 3, 2008

Today's Ramblings

So let me prefice this by saying that I'm not a health nut not.  I'm a little anal when it comes to what I put in my body, but I'm a smoker.  A health nut cannot, by definition, be a smoker right?  I also enjoy a few drinks on the weekends.

Anyway.  One thing I DO NOT ingest is caffeinated anything.  The odd time I get a caffeinated coffee at Tim Horton's by error, I get jumpy, shaky, I get heart palpitations and basically I feel like crap until it's worked it's way out of my body.  It's a horrible feeling.  

When I was about 3 yrs old, my tiny little scottish grandmother introduced me to tea.  Perfectly natural - when it was tea time, she'd make mine almost entirely warm water, milk, sugar and just a hint of tea.  I loved it.  When I was in high school, it was totally uncool to drink tea - everyone drank coffee, so began my love of coffee.

In the mid 90's I had to make some necessary changes, and one of them was to give up caffeine.  The whole anality (I don't think that's even a word, but it fits, so what the hell) over what I choose to eat and drink has been a gradual process, spurred on by health issues which I'll continue to battle until the day I die.

My coffee and tea choices these days are regulated by what come in a "decaf" format.  Coffee is easy.  As for tea, I've always had Orange Pekoe.  

My son, who is turning 18 in June, is a bit of a tea lover himself, and I've always insisted that he stick to decaffeinated products too.  Why get addicted to caffeine if you don't need to.

Last year he went on a school trip to Quebec City, and came home asking me to buy Earl grey tea.  I told him that when I found a decaf version I would.  

Last week I found a decaf Earl Grey and bought it for him.  Of course, being a good mother, I had to try it out to make sure it was worthy of him. 

I LOVED IT!!!!!!!  It's a much fuller tea, richer and deeper, with a hint of licorice.  I'm a convert.  After 36 years of drinking of orange pekoe, I'm now an earl grey convert.  I love that child.


Oh!

Here was something completely hysterical that my daughter did the other day.

In Canada, there is a daily paper called the SUN.  It's published in a few large cities, like Toronto and Calgary.  (My brother is actually a columnist for the Calgary SUN)

In the back of the paper, on Saturdays, they feature one scantilly clad young woman, usually in a bikini, posing, with a little bio included.  My husband happened to have this paper on the back seat of his car when he picked up our daughter (almost 8 yrs old).  She was flipping through the paper, and happened upon the Sunshine girl.

"DADDY!!! What is THIS????"  she said.
"It's just the Sunshine girl."
"But she's wearing nothing but a bikini!!!!"
"I know," Gerald relied.
"I'M TAKING THIS!" she yelled at him, and folded the paper up, and threw it in the trash as soon as she walked in the house.

Gotta love her!