Here is a picture from the camp site itself, which was very clean and centrally located near the African pavilion – the camp was meant to emulate a night in the African wild.  as you can see, there was plenty of room for running – that is Linus tearing around the site.

Our tent was called Ngiri.  It was a 4 person tent with 4 cots inside – 2 adult sized cots and 2 kid sized cots.  Honestly the worst experience by far occurred here as we got into the tent to sleep at 10:30pm after the campfire – where we ate smores - and it was pitch black save for a flashlight the zoo provided.  I didn’t notice the cots came in 2 sizes so both boys were in the big cots and me, all almost 6 feet and 230lbs of me settled into a kids sized one where I couldn’t move.  In addition, it was 30 degrees during the day, but got down to 5 degrees at night, which made me very cold in my shorts and t-shirt snuggled into a sleeping bag on a kids-sized cot.  Oh, and I had to pee but was too cold to get up.  All this means, I did not sleep a wink.  Did I fail to mention the animals scratching at our tent during the night…  There were raccoons, chipmunks, squirrels, groundhogs and peacocks on the loose.

Our neighbour said she heard the velcro on her tent open, and when she flashed her light she saw an animals hand opening the zipper on her tent.  It was a raccoon.

The probable culprit…

Our tent with respect to the campfire before the activities;

The cool thing about being in the zoo for this program is the fact that we were setting up camp and walking the site an hour before the zoo closed for the dayd.  The troop received a detailed walk through of the African pavilion and we got to see many animals up close, and ask questions of the dedicate Bush Camp staff, Jennifer and Shannon.

We saw zebras.

Did you know zebras have stripes so they can stick together and protect themselves from lions.  Lions have traditionally poor eyesight and when they see a bunch of zebras they see one giant moving stripe and they move on.  Smart Zebras!

The Grévy zebra was named after Jules Grévy, then president of France, who, in the 1880s, was given one by the government of Abyssinia.  Nice.

After the zebras we got right up close to the hyenas, this vile animal is depicted as being the villain in the Lion King and for good reason.  These guys are bone crushers and when they catch and eat an animal, they eat the whole dame thing, bones included.  The kids wanted to stay away from these, for sure, and at night when we were running through the zoo – in pitch black – with flashlights in hand, we were all hoping the noises in the bushes were NOT the hyenas.

After the hyenas, we saw hippos!  They were cleaning their pen since our tour took place the next morning before the zoo opened so there was a whole lot of stink involved in this showing.

The other really cool animal we saw up close and personal was the penguin.  We saw them swimming, playing and our troop got to see a special feeding of them from above the water and then below the water.  We also got to see the babies they have at the zoo.  Here is a picture of them playing in the water.  It was really hot ans sunny outside so they are hard to see but there are 3 of them on this picture.

(Oh, and Linus was convinced he was going to be sleeping with the penguins at night).

Our last main animal we got to learn about was the giraffe.  Once the zoo closed they took us into the giraffe pen and we were 5 feet away from them.  We hung with the female giraffe’s and they were very curious about our little beavers possibly wondering if they were food, lol.  But seriously, we go to see them eat carrots with their 2 foot long purple tongue (purple so it won’t get sunburned).  They guys spook easily so the kids had to be as quiet as possible.

We also got to see baboons up close and personal and first thing in the morning while they were eating.  One of the baboons took an empty burlap sack and placed it over his head, the n rolled around to entertain everyone.  Silly monkey.

We also caught a glimsp of the white lions.  Also real cool and we found out that the zoo is going to have a naming contest in the summer.  We saw warthogs and snakes and porcupines.

We also saw cheetahs and jaquars.  Did you know that black cheetahs also have spots on them like the regular cheetahs but from a far they just look all black.

So, all in all the overnight was incredible.  We all learned about the animals, the accommodations were great, the bush camp leaders fantastic – we were their first of the season – and the food surprisingly good.

.   

I wanted to do it because I camped as a Beaver, Cub, Scout and Venturer and I hated it.  I didn’t want to pass judgement on camping to my kids, they needed to experience it themselves.  As it was they got to stay up real late, run through the zoo morning and night as the only non-animal guests, they ate, drank juice, tons of chocolate milk, made smores and got to sleep with their daddy between them as we all held hands.

I loved it.

They loved it.

We’ll be back!

Thank you Jennifer and Shannon our bush-camp leaders and thank you Toronto Zoo.

With special thanks to the Monty Python folks for creating the term SPAM, here are some of the items sitting in my inbox I intend on getting through this week – wild and crazy guy I am going to be!

Sit back, with your Spam sandwich, Spam cooking on the stove and your green eggs spam, with spam, spam, spam and spam.  Here we go with this week’s Thursday Thirteen;

13. I going to finally get moving on that penis enlargement.  I’ve ignored way too many emails already but the price is right and who wouldn’t want to be hung like an elephant?  Right?  Everyone is doing it, and it’s going to give me confidence!

12. Next, I have to get moving and finally send money to my friend stranded in Europe.  It must be so tough for them there – I’m not sure which friend got “stuck” there but they need my help!  I’ll also have to make a note where in Europe they keep getting stuck so I can stay away from there. 

11. I will finally send TD Bank all my details that they have been requesting from me via email.  What an efficient and effective way to deal with customers – through insecure email.  I’ll just have to find my SIN card, account number and address to include in that email.  I’m sure nothing will go wrong, but incase it does, I won’t have to worry because…  

10. I’ll be collecting on that lottery I won!  Woo Hoo.  I just need to forward all my details to the lottery corporation and pay that very minor processing fee, and I can collect my $12.5 million I won.  Party at my place!

9. Once I have all my money, I can begin to help that tribe in Africa that needs desperately my assistance.  The email states that all I need to do to begin helping is to flip them my bank account number.  That should help!

8. While saving Africa, I need some me attention to go with my soon to be supersized package.  Even though I already have 3 children and the shop is closed, I guess I do need to keep my sperm count up, so I’m going to have to buy that super-formula being offered exclusively just to me to do just that.  I can hear Big Balls by AC/DC in my head…

7.  I’m going to be smart about my money and new-found confidence by keeping an eye on my security.  I recall seeing an email that my account was hacked and I would need to follow the link in the email to fix it.  I’ll attend to that and then…

6.  Paypal is in need of my attention too.  They also want me to update my information.  Another simple link to follow and I can check that off my list!  Wait.  Do I even have a paypal account?!?  Aww, I must.

5.  Next I’ll need to claim my prize I won.  I love prizes.  I don’t recall entering any contests, but I’m getting a TV and an iPad  I’ll just have to send over my processing fees to them through my PayPal account and I’m golden.

4.  Whew.  By Wednesday, I’ll be able to quit my amazing job and start to work from home because someone emailed me a no-fail work from home opportunity to make $5000.00 – $7500.00 / week.  Sweet.

3.  Without a job, I can turn my attention to finally losing those extra 30lbs of pregnancy weight I gained with Linus.  I am on an exclusive list to purchase a miracle weight loss pill.  No exercise, no dieting.  YES!

2.  Financially, my credit is in amazing shape but I saw an email the other day that will get it into ever better shape!  Who wouldn’t want perfect credit…

1. Finally, I can spend the rest of the week clearing up  few items.  I have surveys to complete for cash, free lip gloss samples to collect, free airline tickets to order, free gift cards for pizza, Canadian Tire and for lip gloss and then I can get my lap top.  I should go through the spam folder more often.  This shit’s way more interesting than my regular email.

How do you like your spam?!?

I’m shocked not because he did it, but because he was the first to do so.  Even though during his campaign to become President he believed that marriage was a “union between a man and a woman” he came to his senses and realized this term of “marriage” is just a tradition carried on through the years and as people evolve some of our outdated practices change too.  Marriage is not for everyone.  Marriage could have easily not also been just between a man and a woman, but it was not.  To some people and some religions, none of this matters.  It’s about being good people and contributing to society and not fitting into a norm that your religion expects you to. 

And to those religions who firmly believe it’s immoral, yadda yadda, you are entitled to your own opinion – not the point at all.  Please continue to feel that way, preach and practice as you like, however, this term called “marriage” was not created by you, and is not governed by you.  

This is not a political issue.

As a result of “coming out”, Obama’s popularity rating in the US is declining. Why exactly is that, I ask as a Canadian.  Why are US media outlets calling him the “gay president”.  How can this hate be tolerated?

Well I think there has to be opposition not because people or agree or disagree, but because the US is essentially a 2 party system, the Democrats and the Republicans.  If the Democrats say white, the Republicans HAVE to say black.  If the Republicans say yes to the right to bear arms and carry around gums (a concept very foreign to Canadians) then the Democrats have to be against it.

In order to further their agenda’s each side seeks out the most radical, most extreme view and promotes it.  I mean after reading this below quote, I would vote for Dora the Explorer too.

Check this blog post from former Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol – who has her own baggage – titled, “Hail to the Chiefs – Malia and Sasha Obama.”

Bristol actually suggests that the reason for Obama’s change-of-heart was caused by his daughters watching too many episodes of television show ‘Glee’. Are you fucking kidding me? Can she be that stupid? But it gets better…

She then goes on to quote the president’s interview with ABC in which he says, “You know, Malia and Sasha, they have friends whose parents are same-sex couples.” By offering him parenting advice, “In this case, it would’ve been helpful for him to explain to Malia and Sasha that while her friends (sic) parents are no doubt lovely people, that’s not a reason to change thousands of years of thinking about marriage.”

I’ll get to this but the moronic part comes next;

“I guess we can be glad that Malia and Sasha aren’t younger, or perhaps today’s press conference might have been about appointing Dora the Explorer as Attorney General because of her success in stopping Swiper the Fox.  In this case, it would’ve been nice if the President would’ve been an actual leader and helped shape their thoughts instead of merely reflecting what many teenagers think after one too many episodes of Glee.”

WOW.

I would be ashamed to be a Conservative south of the border.  As a fiscal conservative, I am socially democratic and I feel that as an American you have to be all in or all out.  You can’t be a Republican yet for Pro-Choice.  You have to be a Democrat is that is the way you feel.  As a Conservative, if I was American and was being painted with the same brush as some twit named Bristol just did, I would be insulted and looking to create a new party.  The Keep your stupid opinions to yourself party, where Americans can work together to improve the economy, achieve racial harmony – you are all american’s afterall, right?  and find a way where everyone can live freely, contribute to society and not be discriminated on based on race, religion or sexual preference. 

And the next time a reporter sticks a microphone in the face of a Palin… Just remember where it is coming from.

To my American friends… Am I off base here?

Berries (Photo credit: SeanMcTex)

My 2-year-old daughter Berry has quite the personality and being the third child, she seems to have picked up the seriousness of Stewie, and the goofiness of Linus.  This was her conversation with a member of this urban family today when she whipped open the bathroom door and found them on the toilet.

Berry: “Are you peeing and pooing?”

Anon “Yes, can’t you tell?”

Berry: “The poo is stinky but the pee is okay.  It’s fun.”

Anon: “It’s fun?”

Berry: “You can play with pee, but you cannot play with poo.  It’s yucky.  You can make eyes with pee, and smile with pee and play with pee.  Put a hat on pee and take pee to the park.”

Anon: “You cannot play with pee, you cannot take pee to the park and you certainly cannot put a hat on pee.  On a pea, maybe, but not on pee.”

Berry: “SILLY!  Yes you can.”

Upon overhearing this conversation, I think I need to investigate this further.  I’m glad she knows you don’t play with poo, however I’m not sure if someone has been telling her it’s okay to play with pee or if she’s just showing her toilet humour.

Crazy kids!

Related articles

• Toilet humour (learnermom.com)
• The Worst Conversation Ever Overheard (convergentjourney.com)
• Ah, those kids and the things they say… Was I this clever / funny as a kid? I doubt it. (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)

This patio means a lot to the community. There is a Facebook page devoted to making this patio and the locals who frequent it into a reality show. I could totally see that. Students, local residents, real estate agents, all kinds of people flocked to that patio to sit, chat and consume Starbucks products. This patio is one of a kind in that upper-middle class area of Toronto and It was the place to be seen… And heard.

Our urban family, often spent time hanging out there with our real estate agent, Mr. Real Estate himself, Marshall Cohen or with my in-laws where the kids would watch the world go by eating oatmeal, yogurt or mint frappuccino chip (oops, that last one was me).  More common was myself with a grande Americano while the kids covered themselves in yogurt or ate the pre-packaged egg, apple, cheese snack.

Ask anyone who has sat there or walked by and they will tell you about the characters who hang out there.  Some seem to be there ALL the time.  One common memory was of the guy with the full-length fur coat (but not a real fur coat, that’s cruel) smoking his cigars, of the elderly couple who meet there every day to chat with the neighbour and their family before everyone heads out to the office or for a stroll. 

I checked online to see if the City of Toronto had posted some patio guidelines or amended the official plan to prohibit patios from the West side of Avenue Road and found only one possible link to a draft City-wide zoning bylaw amendment to the official plan relating to Patio’s, drafted by Toronto City Planning department. 

Outdoor Patios

Proposed rules under the draft City-wide zoning by-law

Since it is not clear to me whether or not these proposals were made permanent, or even if there was a public consultation, or if the slightly raised patio was within 10 meters of the residential property to the West of the location so I reached out to my friend, Ward 16 City Councillor Karen Stintz to ask for an update as to why the city asked Starbucks to remove the patio and why one cannot be added back to that spot.  I explained the value of this patio to our community and the fact that Tim Horton’s which had just opened up further north on Avenue Road asked for and was granted a permit for a kick-ass patio, yet this Starbucks location was not.

I was curious to hear what she has to say on this matter.  She is very alert to issues within her ward.

As of Friday morning I had not heard back from Karen or her office, which is fine – she’s busy with some other things too, like the TTC and aggravating the Ford brothers, but I did receive word early this morning that last night the City of Toronto swept in and re-installed the patio!

Success.

Could it have been related?  I’d like to think it was an oversight on the City’s side and one phone call from Karen got the ball rolling.

But none of that matters… The patio is back so summer can begin!

Now off to enjoy the sun and try something off the Starbucks hidden menu that I posted about last week!  Wonder if someone from the community will buy. 

Above is the St. Germain location and the patio was on the right.  Below is the Roe location – on the other side of the street which also lost it’s patio.

Related articles

• Are you hungrier than a 5-year-old? (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)
• http://urbandaddy.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/the-not-so-secret-secret-menu-at-starbucks-revealed/ The Not so Secret Starbucks Menu Revealed.

About me

I am the urban daddy because my wife of 11 years who got me into blogging in 2004 was calling herself the urban mummy. It only made sense.

I am a father of two boys, Linus (because he carries around a security blanket and a white stuffed cat which is my avatar) who is 7 and Stewie (because we feel he’s trying to kill us) who is 5. Our baby girl, Berry (who makes us laugh) is 2-years-old. We live in mid-town urban Toronto where we live our lives as a laid back, no fuss family. We eat healthy (my wife was a vegetarian for 12 years when I met and converted her – but she has recently returned to the land of veggies). She is studying to be a holistic nutritionist.

Both her and I have our Master’s degrees, her in education, me a MBA which we completed with newborns preventing us from sleeping. Crazy, eh?

I love politics, especially Canadian, and have fundraised for Councillor Karen Stintz and was approached by the Conservative Party to run municipally or provincially in my riding. I would have, except I love my job as a taxation executive.

I’m also a sports junkie, love playing ball hockey (21 years in organized league play), and watching it on TV. I also love wrestling and Star Wars so my nerd side gets equal jock play too.

I have always been on the slightly more than I should weigh side, gained that with Linus’ birth and have yet to shed it.  Yes, it’s my pregnancy weight!  I have been described as being freakishly strong and can run 5K in my sleep, now.

I’ve been blogging since 2004 and have made some year-end award lists, been mentioned by CBS news, asked to be on a local Canadian TV show as their daddy blogger expert and been ripped for my views by some really great people and some real jerks. My views.  My opinions.

You’ll find a lot of posts about my kids, about politics, coffee, Toronto, sports, pop culture, current events and things I endorse for free, and things I think people should steer clear of.

Everything here comes out of my head and this blog is meant to allow me to empty my head of thoughts and opinions and if you choose to read and like it or if you find something offensive let me know. Just nothing personal, racist or rude. I can delete them… And block you.

I also blog for money, but I won’t ask, it’s a bonus and not the reason I blog. If you want an expert opinion, or a family opinion on a wide range of things, drop me an email at realurbandaddy@gmail.com. I have a large pool of contacts and connections who can assist too. I’m on twitter @urbandaddyblog and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Urban-Daddy/109554365740659?ref=ts . Find me, drop me a note, like me, vote for me… All that jazz!

Those who do not call me “Daddy” or “Urban Daddy” call me Warren, but as Linus liked to tell his teacher when we have to meet with her / him, “His name is Warren but they call him the urban daddy”.

Read on… You might actually like something here…

Related articles

• Ah, those kids and the things they say… Was I this clever / funny as a kid? I doubt it. (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)
• Should I be concerned that my kids are smarter than me? (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)
• Are you hungrier than a 5-year-old? (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)
• As a Father, if you’re going to disappoint some of them, you might as well disappoint all of them… (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)
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In case you live under a rock (pun intended) The Toronto Rock is the lacrosse team which plays in the National Lacrosse League (NLL).  The franchise was originally founded as an NLL expansion team for Hamilton which begin play in the 1998 season, known as the Ontario Raiders.  The Raiders finished that season 6-6, barely missing the playoffs and at the end of the season they were sold to a group of investors led by Assistant GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Bill Watters, and Tie Domi and the team moved to Toronto to become the Rock.  They played out of the historic Maple Leafs Gardens beginning in the 1999 season.

It was that first season in Toronto where I took in a game with my colleagues from Equifax and we were hooked, purchasing season’s tickets which I still have to this day! 

It’s hard not to love this sport.  It’s fast like hockey, back and forth like basketball but it is also rough and tough and there is no taking a shift off.  I regularly bring along someone new to lacrosse to join me and I have not had one person leave after a game and think it was boring.  The game is great the atmosphere is incredible, there are activities, music playing the entire game and loads of beer consumed – meaning loud, rowdy fans in a family environment – so it’s safe to bring your kids, and there are a ton of kids at each game. 

All that mentioned above, plus when you have teams like the ones the Rock put out from 1999-2005, which were a dynasty as the team appeared in six league finals and won five championships in those seven years. From 1999 – 2003, the Rock appeared in an NLL-record five straight championship games and have a 14-5 record in playoff games all time. Geez, they won the NLL Championship just last season for a record-tying 6th time.

So with much optimism I look forward each year to a competitive team with expectations of playoffs and hopes of a championship – both which are rare in Toronto’s other professional sports teams not named the Toronto Blue Jays (see 1992 and 1993).

But this year’s team suffered some early setbacks with injuries to Blaine Manning and Colin Doyle and with the retirement of world-class goalie Bob Watson.  They had a goalie named Matt Roik who looked great sometimes and disinterested at other times.  In a particular difficult 2 game stretch, the talent-challenged Rock were pressing hard against their opposition during most of the game and getting robbed by the other teams goalies and when they were rewarded with a goal, the other team would march down the floor and the first shot would go in.  That is a tough way to play and the team, the coaching staff and the fans were frustrated.

So I missed the Rock’s last home game this year – it was Passover and the Rock’s next 3 games were on the road and the I believe they went 3-1 in that stretch which was great heading into the playoffs, and I was shocked when I came to the game this past Saturday night to find that Roik was not in the Rock’s net, nor on the bench, but instead there was a new goalie on the team, #66 Rose. 

Rose looked confident, engaged and agile.  With his timely saves, the Rock came back from a 4-0 1st quarter deficit to defeat the Buffalo Bandits 7-6 to advance to the semi-finals against the Rochester Night Hawks this Saturday night, May 12th at 7pm at the Air Canada Centre.

Sources close to the team have advised me that there was a confrontation between Roik at some key members of the Rock coaching staff which led to his release – not trading – and that Roik was as frustrated in the team as they were in him.

So where did Nick Rose come from? 

Turns out #66 helped the Orangeville Northmen to Canadian junior championships in 2008 and 2009, was drafted by the Rock, but spent his first three pro seasons as a backup with the now defunct Boston Blazers.  His first professional start was as a member of the Rock when he led the team to a 13-7 win in Rochester.

Nick Rose was drafted by the Toronto Rock in the third round, 28th overall, of the 2008 NLL entry draft and attended the training camp held before the 2009 season, released after the fifth practice.  Boston invited him to try out and he made the team until the Chicago team folded and in the dispersal draft Boston got a more experienced goalie, leaving Rose third in line. When Boston folded last year, Calgary snagged Rose.

The underperforming Roik prompted the Rock to make a call to Calgary on the Sunday before the March 20th trade deadline where they swapped their 2014 first-round entry draft pick for Rose and then the Rock released Roik.

Rose made the most of his first NLL start and got the win.  He’s got the size, he is 6-0 and 285 and it looks like he has the poise to be a good goalie.

How far can this team go?  A championship would be great.  In a year when the Leafs failed, the Raptors are rebuilding and the MLS Toronto FC just set a record for the most losses to begin a season with a 0-8 record, Torontonians need the Toronto Rock to show fans how a successful, hard-working team operates.  Let’s just hope MLSE, or the Rogers / Bell conglomerate don’t get their hands on this team and take them down into the valley of despair.

In the meantime, the semi-finals are this Saturday at 7pm at the Air Canada Centre.  Get your tickets, I have mine, and come support the Toronto Rock!

You can also follow the team on twitter @torontorocklax.  You should follow Shannon Kelly, the host of the team @shankell, and heck follow me too @urbandaddyblog.

Go Rock go!

Yauch, 47, also known by his rap moniker “MCA” co-founded the Beastie Boys with Mike “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-Rock” Horowitz in 1979 in Brooklyn, N.Y.  The Beastie’s smashed onto the music scene in 1986 with the album ”Licensed to Ill” and from that the anthem ”Fight for your right to Party” which was a massive hit for the band putting them on the charts and bringing hip hop into the mainstream.

After transforming the hip hop industry – white guys don’t rap, let alone Jewish ones (Yauch was born to a Jewish mother and Catholic father but was a practising Buddhist) - Yauch turned his attention to Buddhism and Tibetan independence in which he helped set up the Tibetan Freedom Concerts, which helped raise money for Tibetan independence.  He felt that he needed to give a voice to the Tibetan cause and help them get free from Chinese rule.

Yauch also helped form the successful production company Oscilloscope Pictures, which many did not know about him, which released acclaimed films such as “Wendy and Lisa,” “Burma VJ” and “We Need to Talk About Kevin.”

Under the pseudonym “Nathanial Hörnblowér” (his middle name was Nathanial), Yauch directed many of the Beastie Boys’ music videos, making his televised debut as Hörnblowér at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards as he stormed the stage in costume to protest after R.E.M. won the award for Best Direction over the Spike Jonze-directed Beastie Boys video “Sabotage”, which was a great video and a really good song.

I suspected he was starting to lose his battle with this disease when the Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month, and Yauch was not there – the award was accepted by Diamond and Horowitz although they read a letter written by Yauch and them, nad the other bands dedicated their performances to Yauch.

Yauch leaves behind his wife and daughter who would be around 14-years-old.

Did you know this fact about the Beastie Boys; According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term mullet – the hairstyle which is short on the top and long on the back – was “apparently coined, and certainly popularized, by the Beastie Boys who used “mullet” and “mullet head” as epithets in their 1994 song “Mullet Head”.  The Beastie Boys’ fanzine Grand Royal Magazine was the first to use the term in print

Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch dies at age 47 (Photo credit: rusty-boxcars)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=evA-R9OS-Vo

Check out www.beastieboys.com for more!

Related articles

• BREAKING NEWS: Beastie Boys Adam (MCA) Yauch Dead At 47 (formatmag.com)
• Beastie Boys Member Adam Yauch Dead at 47 (abcnews.go.com)

The NFL had been tipped off that the Saints were rewarding players for knocking other players out of games and hurting them and they already banned the coach for the entire year and today they handed a season-long ban to Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma and Will Smith suspended for 4 games. The league also hit former Saints players too, including; defensive lineman Anthony Hargove (now with the Green Bay Packers) who was suspended eight games and Scott Fujita (now with the Cleveland Browns) will miss three games to start the 2012 NFL season.

Sure sends a message to league – not that a 25 game suspension doesn’t but it took way too long and there are still hits to the head, including in last nights game… Suspensions like this tell the players and teams that the league is serious!

Also heard this afternoon about former San Diego Chargers linebacker Junior Seau who was found dead in his home today.

He was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

I’m not the biggest football fan in the world, however I do root for the Charges, have from when I was an Urban Pain in the Ass, in the Dan Fouts days when they were good.

What is really sad is that Seau was just 43-years-old who had four children with his ex-wife.

A first-round pick of the Chargers in 1990, Seau played 20 years in the NFL, earning 12 Pro Bowl nominations and was a first-team All-pro six times. He played 13 seasons with San Diego before signing on with my second favourite NFL team, the Miami Dolphins. Seau retired in 2009.

Apparently he has had a much publicized battle with depression. My thoughts go out to his children.

Still on football… Anyone see the new CFL jerseys?  Pretty awesome, eh?  I heard Fashion Television’s Jeannie Beker this morning on TSN Radio 1050 and she knows her CFL football.  She liked them and so do I.  You can see them here; http://www.cfl.ca/page/reebok  Tell me if you do not also think that the TiCats jersey look the best with the stripes on the sleeves.  I still hope they lose every game, but they can look great doing so.

Below is the Argos jerseys, double blue and full of tradition.

Related articles

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Image of “baby-cut” carrots (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve got stuff on my mind – too much to post at once – but some things I need to let go of, so I dropped them here into a post entitled “randomness” and I waited until there were enough to post.  For those of you following my blog for any period of time you have already realized that I am unable to tell a story by getting right to the point.  There is always a story associated with it, some background, some clarification… It’s a terrible habit.

But here are some random thoughts which have been kicking around for a while – please feel free to chime in!

How do they get those cute little baby-cut carrots? I say they’re grown that way but Urban Mummy said the go through a little mini carrot lathe like machine which whittles them down to size.

Do you know?

If you do, do you still feed them to your kids?

I found out today, May 1st that they are specially modified carrots with more sweetness and artificial colour which are peeled and cut in 2 – the baby-cut carrots that is, the baby carrot are just that – baby carrots.  To keep the carrots from drying out because they are now peeled they are soaked in a water-chlorine mixture which is rinsed off before they are bagged.

Hmmmmm.

I’m not sure how I feel about this.  I’m going to have to run this by my wife who is just about completed her holistic nutrition certification…  Update at 11.

Why are there no Meat Loaf vending machines?

Chicken, veal, beef, pork, spicy, no salt, with gravy, or ketchup… The options are endless…

Should the band Green Day not write a song for St. Patrick‘s Day.  Would this be “their” day?!?

Saw an old draft I had from Chinese New Year - There was a place near my office offering up a “Traditional Chinese New Year lunch” which was advertised as a pulled pork on a bun and a chicken wrap. Huh?!?

I saw something the other day I had never seen before and hope to never see again.  There was a boy – less than 10 years old who was standing on his hands with his feet up against the wall right under the hand dryer at the kids swimming pool.  He was drying his ass…  Oh yes.  It’s not like the change room was empty either… It was packed full of other kids and parents who didn’t seem to notice – or couldn’t care to comment on the fact this was happening.

Both my boys walked by this – strange – child without blinking an eye.  We got into the hall, I was shaking my head the whole way when Stewie broke the silence with this gem;

“Did you see that boy blow drying his ass???  That was crazy!”

“Yes, yes it was, Stewie” I replied as the 3 of us walked out of the school shaking our heads.

“Ass”.  I didn’t even know he knew that word…

Just today on my way into the office there was a woman who had just gotten off the bus and was crossing Eglinton Avenue at the light.  I noticed her because she was wearing these huge boots that came over her knees and she had a tight black miniskirt which went about mid-thigh, and she had very long braided hair.  She was listening to music and was clearly oblivious to her surroundings because as soon as she got halfway into the intersection she must have realized that her panties were falling down because she took both hands, grabbed just below her hips and pulled those suckers right back too.

Too bad for her that in doing so she lifted her skirt up to her waist and the entire street got to see her bum cheeks hanging out of her black underwear as she fixed her stuff and adjusted her skirt back to mid-thigh level.

Without missing a beat.

Oblivious.

What a way to start a morning!

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