I'm not getting a pension at 65 years of age, but the banks got bailed out??

I was reading earlier today about a bank bailout in Canada that was done TOO QUIETLY without telling the taxpayers their hard earned cash, helped money making institutions. Doesn't matter that we won't get a pension at age 65.

Here's another article where it is suggested that it was a secret bailout at the taxpayers expense.

Roadtrip to VictoriaVille

I volunteered my time and my Grand Vitara to help friends go pick up a trailer in Victoriaville since I have a trailer hitch.  So first I had to pick them up in Verdun and I figured I'd take St Patrick to de l'Eglise, except I forgot that if I'm not careful, when St Patrick splits up I end up on Clement and not where I want to be. I found my way and was heading towards my friends place, found de l'Eglise but didn't realize it was one-way at that point and turned on to it the wrong way. I noticed it right away and stopped. I was honked at! I turned into a gas station and found my way to my friends house.

We drove to Victoriaville no problem. We found the place that was selling the trailer, my friend decided it was fine and bought it. We backed up the truck to attach it, that was no problem. Then we plugged in the electrical wire to make the lights on the trailer work and that's when the fun started. 

Right away, the brake lights stopped working.  I knew they worked before. The hazards were still working. But the thing that stunned everyone is that the gear shifter stopped working as well. That stumped us all. After a few google attempts on my android, I had figured out that it was possible the brake lights not coming on and a locked gear shifter might be related.  I also looked on the truck and found that there was a by-pass. We had to remove a little knob and stick some form of screw driver in the hole to get to shift in gear. 

So we figured that it was probably a blown fuse and so we had seen a Canadian tire and went there to get fuses. We realized at that point the trailer would not have lights but we would make due. We had not left the driveway 5 minutes that we get stopped by the local police of Victoriaville. I was not driving at the time, because I have no experience driving with a trailer. When the police asked who's vehicle it was, I offered all my papers, which he saw where in order unlike the plate on the trailer. 

He was very nice. He told us we needed papers for the trailer, we told him we just bought it, gave him the address and phone number of the person we bought it from etc.  He didn't give us a ticket but said we might get one in the mail. I guess at that point he felt sorry, he figured we might have just been swindled and we were just going to Canadian tire to get my tuck working again. We told him connecting the trailer blew stuff on my truck. If he had wanted to be a prick he would have given me a  48 hours to get it fixed.  

We picked up a mixed box of fuses at Canadian tire, but the problem was finding the fuse box on the Grand Vitara. I googled it and it said it was under the dash on the driver side. I looked, both of my friends looked, no luck. In the end we decided to take the trailer to Stukely minus the brake lights working on my truck - with the trailer no one would notice and it was best to get trailer there in daylight. 

We took side roads which means thankfully we were not stopped by any other police.  My friends dad even looked for the fusebox and he was really perplexed. Eventually my friend figured it out, it was exactly where google said it would be. We had to change 2 fuses, one for the brake lights, one for the gear shifter. After that everything worked perfectly again, and we drove back to Montreal in the dark with all the lights working and not having to by-pass the gear shifter manually. 

Now my friend has a trailer to go to festivals and sell all sorts of  yummy food in an Octopus Garden in the shade :) 

So that was my Sunday adventure. Left at a bit past 10am, got home around 11:15 PM, my gf who moved to New Brunswick was coming back for the week and she arrived at my place an hour before I did. 

Had breakfast with my daughters today

I was supposed to meet up with my daughters last Sunday for dinner, but that didn't work out. Daughter moving to Halifax was supposed to leave on the Tuesday but because the Military is as is, things didn't work out that way. In the end her things were packed yesterday, and she is flying out tomorrow.  Last Sunday we could have still gone out for dinner, except that same daughter wasn't feeling very good and had spent the day in bed. She would have made effort to go to dinner if she was leaving on the Tuesday but at that point, the people in charge of relocation were so clueless it seemed like it was going to take up to 3 more weeks for things to happen. 

In the end it worked out for her. SHe was already partially packed and was ready to go, leaving 5 days later then planned isn't as bad as 3 weeks later. But it was done so short notice the only slot left to see me was Saturday morning!!!!  So we went for breakfast at 9 this morning at Dejeuners Inc, on St Jean blvd, corner Anselme Lavigne, near Mr Falafel. 

I'd never been to a 'breakfast place' in Montreal that I can remember. I had their veggie omelette that came with fried potatoes. The breakfast was excellent.  I really liked the potatoes. One daughter had eggs with blueberry pancakes the other eggs and fruit.  I'd have breakfast at Dejeuners Inc again, I enjoyed the food.

I got to hear about my youngest daughter's stage at the McKay centre. She seemed to have enjoyed it and the experience.  She's still as sensitive as ever. She says the hardest part is realizing that some of the children she worked with, have a limited life expectancy. Some won't make it to 20 years old.  That breaks her heart. She says children with 'special needs' often try so much harder and push themselves so much harder then 'normal' children. 

They gave me an early mother's day card, seeing that one daughter will be in Halifax on mother's day, and it made me cry, it was so sweet. The feelings right now are bittersweet, I ask myself, when will be the next time I see both daughters at the same time again?  

Online porn addiction now a juvenile problem.

It's pretty sad, when the biggest clientele for pornography is teens, and sometimes children as young as ten. One thing I feel is important is keeping the internet out of children bedroom's. Keep the computers in common areas in your house. It permits you to have a bit more control over where your child goes online. 

Also helpful if your child develops an internet addiction. I remember my youngest daughter one summer, she'd wait till I'd go to sleep and use the computer all night. I had to lock the room with the computers at night and keep changing the hiding place for the key. 

The other thing that's really important is to talk to your teens and pre-teens about sex and not count on school or their friends or worse the internet to teach them about sex.

Irish pub with good veggie burger

Today for lunch we went to McKibbins Irish Pub at the Pointe Claire location. We went to underline the fact one student we had with us part time for over a year now is going on internship for the next 4 months. Hopefully he comes back in September. I like working with him, he's one of those people who can make me smile. We also went because Friday is the last day of the other 4 students that have been working with us for the past 4 months. I have to remember to take a photo of them on Friday. 

I like going to McKibbins. I enjoy their fries and veggie burger. I know people always enjoy the bison burger and many of the other items on the menu. I wish I could try their curry and chips, but their curry has sugar.

On the trail of the red dot.....

For some reason everything I made included chickpeas!

I did a bit of veggie cooking this week-end to compensate all the meat I cooked the week-end before. I made my great grand-ma's pig feet stew with meatballs with meat that was left to me by my friends departure. 

The first thing I made yesterday was a chickpea curry. I used this recipe, but instead of using 1 tablespoon of curry, I used tbsp of berbere spice I made several months ago for an Ethiopian lentil stew. I served it over brown rice and it was incredibly good. 

I also made an 8 bean salad. I use green and yellow wax beans, along with 6 bean mixes, which generally includes chickpeas. I season it with olive oil and red wine vinegar and to give it extra tang I put a 1/2 tsp of berbere spice. 

Today I made some chickpea farinata. I'm not sure if there was too much water in the recipe or if I accidentally put too much water. I mean it's tasty but way way too moist.  The last thing I made was some hummus balila, which also includes chickpeas, in a dressing. 

Happy Earth day!

Happy Earth day!

Video of protest in El Waer, Homs, Syria today - love the spirit of the people.

Did you know if you were a Canadian born after March 1958, you won't get a pension at 65 years of age?

WTF?

Love the expression on her face!

If you know Jethro....

.....you can appreciate this lol cat :)

Cats are not enjoying the macro lens but I am....

Can someone explain this to me?

Why is "I will survive" by Gloria Gaynor always used in drag queen scenes on TV or in movies?  Especially those who perform cross dressed.

I mean I can never get out of my head the scene from Priscilla Queen of the Desert.  I love it.  :)

My arm doesn't seem to get numb anymore!

For over a year now I've had pains and numbness in my left arm. It was baffling. I'd be at work and my left arm would fall asleep. I'd have to move and shake it to remove the tingling sensation in my little finger.  I'd also feel pain if I moved it a certain way or ended in certain positions.  It came and went for the better part of a year and I could not figure out what the source of it was. 

Eventually talking with friends I came to suspect it was the way I was driving my truck. In fact I realized the pain in my left arm seemed to have shown up just a bit after I got my Grand Vitara. So I started looking at the way I was driving. 

Was driving to Entrelacs in my Grand Vitara when this was taken

When I got the truck I was so thrilled I could raise the seat way up so I didn't have to put the steering down and end up not seeing my speed like on my Protege. The height of seat in regards to the steering was apparently not optimal and I have a tendency to drive mostly just with my left arm.  Side effect of learning how to drive on a stick shift!  The way I held my steering just driving to work was the root cause of the soreness, stiffness, pain and numbness in my left arm, from the shoulder to the end of the fingers. 

Once I realized it might be related to the truck, I readjusted the seat just a little bit and  I watch how I hold my steering. I try not to hold it with just one hand in trickier situations.  Anyways a month later I noticed that my arm hasn't been numb and no longer had pains.  It really doesn't take much sometimes to fix a problem, but sometimes finding the source of the problem is more difficult. 

All this to say I still love my Grand Vitara. I was so upset at first when I realized it might be driving my truck that was hurting my arm.  But I'm glad it was resolvable. Another situation where Location Location Location makes all the difference!!!!

Stand in Support of Syrian people tonight in Montreal

There is going to be a stand on Bishop & St Catherine in front of St James Church downtown Montreal today from 7pm to 8:30pm today.  For more details see event on Facebook

From the pages on which I follow what goes on in Syria, the cease fire is tenuous at best and many areas of Syria report breaches.

Student Protests get out of hand

I'm all for keeping the cost of education down and I do believe the students have a point. But I am really against violence. 

My eldest attends Concordia and this morning, when she arrived at the Hall building early for an Exam, she realized that there was protesting students blocking the entrance.  They were violent and attacked anyone who went anywhere near a door. Other non-protesting students had to rescue them.

Her exam was at 9am. She arrived at 8:15 figuring she'd have time to find the room, get comfortable and be mentally prepared for her exam. She didn't make it to the class before 9:15 after the police  pushed the protesters out of the way and her exam did not start till 9:30am.

Friends SUV vandalized in his parking garage

Article from CBC including video shows my buddy in Ottawa being interviewed about his SUV that was broken into.

April 10th 2012

It's supposed to be the day of ceasefire in Syria but I don't have much hope for that. So far the Regime has been trying really hard to squash the opposition once and for all. They have not withdrawn from restive cities, they have shelled them relentlessly.  The death toll since Syria 'accepted' the Annan peace plan has risen.  This does not bode well. The BBC calls the peace plan 'ailing'.

Yours truly holding sign that says "From Montreal to Damascus we no longer want Assad's Regime!

 Yesterday instead of the Syrian army withdrawing as it should have been, they managed to hit people in two other countries. Three people were hurt in Turkey and one person died on the Lebanese side of the border, after being hit by the Syrian army.

Also April 10th is my mommy's birthday. She would be 79 years old today. She's been dead since the fall of 1999. I still miss my mommy :(

Is homophobia self-phobia?

Interesting article. I've long noticed that the most rabid anti-gays are usually the most in the closet gays.  That's often seen with the most anti gay preachers found in gay sex scandals :)

Another article suggests that authoritarian parents tend to have delinquent children who have no respect for them.

Happy Easter........

To this day I still love the joke. "Cancel Easter, they found the body!!!"

I was supposed to spend time with a friend today, but she was feeling moody and felt like her and her mood should stay home.  

I can understand that completely. However I was still disappointed that she cancelled. I was really looking forward to spending some time with her.

Another time I guess. I've never had much luck with having and keeping female friends. As a rule I have an easier time keeping male companions.  Just one of those things.

Rainy day feeling blue

Around lunchtime my gf picked up her 4 cats, that had been staying with me the past few days to keep them out of the way of the movers.  I had put them 4 in the basement while my 4 were upstairs. So for 3 days there was 8 cats in my house. Lucky, Melanie, Merlin and Zoe in the basement, and Spock, Ziva, Jethro and Pixie upstairs. 

So we had fun rounding up the cats, especially Lucky, the traumatized Siamese, who hid. We had to look long and hard to find him. But we eventually found him, and put him in the cage. So my gf, her van filled with 1 husband, 3 kids, 4 cats, 1 dog, and several  boxes of  assorted liquids headed off for New Brunswick.

I'm feeling all out of sorts. For the last 6 years I saw her every day at work.  So leaving a big hole in my life.  So I'm sitting here crying.  I know she'll be back in 3 weeks... and she'll visit afterwards but it's still gonna be weird.

Teens attacked by Assad thugs in Montreal 17.03.2012

Yours truly is at 0:37... Nice first video for a young lady activist. I'm betting we see many more from her in the future.

Show your support for the Syrian revolution

Sharing this message found on Syrian revolution Facebook pages: 

PLEASE SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE SYRIAN REVOLUTION .... AND THEN SHARE;-)

There is no reason to feel helpless, there is SOMETHING you can do...
Stand in solidarity with the people of Syria in their bid for self determination.
Add your voice to the campaign and record a 5 sec video on your phone, webcam or any device of yourself, your friends, family and colleagues saying
"I'm from... and I support the Syrian revolution" Email it to voicesforsyria@gmail.com and we'll upload it to our growing YouTube channel of worldwide solidarity... They are very happy to have creative 5 second videos...... especially is security is an issue in revealing your true identity
YouTube www.youtube.com/voicesforsyria
And you can find them on FB at www.facebook.com/voicesforsyria

Candle light vigil on good Friday.

One of the chants that I can almost repeat in Arabic is "Wahid, wahid, wahid, dam Syria wahid (one, one, one, the blood of Syria is one)." This implies that it matters not that one is Sunni or Shia, or Alawi or Druze, or Christian, that all Syrians are one. 

This Friday night, good Friday,  in front of St James Apostle Church, on the corner of Ste Catherine street and Bishop,  will be a candle light vigil to honour the fallen heroes of the Syrian revolution. You can find more information here.

Co-worker clearly needed to erect things

Another co-worker,  has decided that the promotional underwear we gave at some trade show years ago that adorn some of our chairs needed a little extra oomph so to speak :) I did not see who did it but I strongly suspect the guy in the background of the photo.

Photo taken with my android.. so not the greatest quality.

Co-worker has bathroom fetish

One woman at work seems to live in the bathroom. You can't go to the bathroom without bumping into her going in or coming out. She also walks through our department for each of her trips to the bathroom, and mostly wears clunky heels, so each time she wanders by, you hear "Clunk clunk clunk clunk..."

To give an example of a typical day, first she walks through our department when she arrives. Five to ten minutes later, she makes her first trip to the bathroom. Which results in her walking back five minutes later. Then in another ten minutes she walks to bathroom to wash her cup. Then she goes back to her desk. Then five minutes after that, walks past to go get hot beverage. Walks back to her desk. 

Fifteen minutes later, walks back to the bathroom and then back to her desk.  Then in another fifteen minutes she walks to bathroom with an orange, who needs to wash their orange before they peel it? Anyways, comes back to desk with orange. About 5 minutes later, walks back to bathroom, one assumes to wash her hands.  Then wait another fifteen minutes she's back to the bathroom, and then back to her desk.  You get the picture. It's endless. I believe she eats 3 different fruits in a day so each fruit gets its own trip to the bathroom for cleansing!  Like she couldn't wash her fruit at home for instance? Or in one trip?

I feel sorry for the guy who's work station is the hallway she clunks through way too often in a day. He gets to hear her up close and personal way too many times. I even hear it from my desk half of the time, but definitely hear it on some of my other work benches.

Personally, I'm lazy. When I go nuke my food in the microwave, I use the bathroom near the caf while waiting for the food to heat up.  Or if I need to go to the IT department, I might use the bathroom next it to and also fill my water bottle at the fountain all in one trip. I have better things to do with my time than wander the halls at work. 

Summer dresses Part II

Lacking inspiration and noticing that someone landed on this site looking for American Eagle Outfitters clothes, I decided I would also add photo's of the dresses I picked up there a couple of weeks ago

I love the pink and reds of the two first dresses. The third dress, a black number - a woman never has too many little black dresses, also has removable straps. I generally don't do strapless, but I like the fact I have the option to go either way.


You can thank blogger for the awesome layout of those photos. 

Neat dress

Yesterday I received a really pretty dress, that was purchased at a store on Prince Arthur called "Le coin du Perroquet".  I wonder if this would look nice with my Tredair Emily Strange cat marijanes?

Summer dresses

Dress season is almost here and I'm ready. Ive added a bunch of new dresses to my wardrobe and recycled a whole bunch of them as well. 

My favorite place to shop for dresses this year has been American Eagle outfitters, and Maison Simons, though not necessarily their Twik house brand, but Billabong, which makes some really neat dresses.  

Though I bet the person at Billablong designing the dresses was seeing an 18-25 year old skater girl wearing it, not someone approaching 50. :) 

I've added photos of my 3 new Billabong dresses in this entry. Only one I purchased today. The other two are from previous shopping trips. 

I did also buy a Twik dress today and so did my eldest. We bought the same dress, hers in a subdued brown, mine in a subdued green. It's sweet we have overlapping tastes. It's also great that we each have our own styles.