Random Wednesday Night Daddy Ramblings

Good Wednesday evening folks!

It’s late. Everyone in my household is sleeping and that means it is time to get online and get posting. I had a wonderfully busy and productive day today and I wanted to get some thoughts out for you to comment on before this day (not my day) comes to an end.

1) First off, I had a wonderful time at the #TDParentalLeave discussion. I was ready for the discussion, as a long (long) time TD Canada Trust customer and as a parent who has taken parental leave (2 of them).  The other bloggers were the cream of the crop in the Canadian blogging scene and we all left with a clearer idea of why TD wanted to get the 6 of us together and why they are already one of the leaders in Social Media for banks.  I also learned that I am in the minority of people under 80-years-old who still visits branches.  More on this in the very near future I’m sure.

2) Lance Armstrong stepped down from his massively successful charity “Livestrong”.  The message is getting muddied now that he’s being made an example of and I’m of two minds here.  First, yes he cheated and allegedly he was the ring leader of a massive doping scheme for years, but so were his teammates who happily accepted the praise and money that came from placing high, even winning and being on his team.  Then as soon as things turned sour they were just as quick to stab him in the back and blame him.  On the other hand, if the organizers of the Tour wanted to strip Lance of his wins and give the title to the next “clean” rider they would have to go back something like 76 racers in some cases.  Then they would have to test that racer’s samples with today’s technologies to see if he’s clean.  That speaks volumes about the sport which is clearly tainted.   There is no doubt in my mind that the Tour like the Olympics has credibility issues and either everyone dopes or no one does.  But at the end of the day, Lance won and he battled through cancer to win and whether he was the best rider or the best doper he still raced and won.

3) The Teacher’s Union in Ontario representing the public school teachers has asked the teachers to provide the least amount of information possible on the student’s progress reports.  The same leader who commented a few years back about how having these reports was going to make the teacher’s job easier and help the students and parents succeed. 

These same teachers are withholding extracurricular activities and telling the students that they should be blaming the government and not them and while I’m certainly not up on all the details of the issue here, I do know that the other teaching boards signed agreements with the government and that this work-to-rule is over the right to strike and possibly a wage freeze. 

I’m not going to jump into my anti-union talk or point out that I don’t have a right to strike or a guaranteed wage increase and even if I save my company a million dollars they still don’t have to give me an increase, but what really stands out here is that; 1) the teachers are putting the kids in the middle of this.  They absolutely are and that is not right.  2) Since Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty stepped down as leaders (something a Conservative government would be slaughtered for doing) and prorogued parliament there is nothing that the government can do to counteract this message other than have a press conference and ask for it to be rescinded.  The timing of this ask by the union smells fishy and is not going to score them any points in the public relations battle they are waging with the government.

4) More on this topic is coming as well, but I attended the launch of Wine Wire, www.winewire.ca, a Canadian business aimed at not only delivering the best wines to your front door but also educating you on some of them through Wine Wire TV.   If you’re a wine connoisseur this concept works because it gets great wines to your door and if you’re not much of a wine-expert as, say, I am, then this is an absolute must visit because the Wine Wire TV explains what to expect when tasting the wines they feature and having now tasted some of them, I can say the description matches the taste.  A great concept.  Please support Canadian businesses!!

5) I’m a little annoyed here… When we moved into our new home 3 years ago, my in-laws brought us some pumpkins from cottage country to line our front stairs.  We averaged 20 of them, all sizes, and the big ones I carved and the smaller ones I would bake with once the holiday was over.  This year we decided to downsize and were thrilled when we received 3 big ones and 5 gourds.  So fat this year, one gourd was eaten by squirrels, and the other was taken by a squirrel up a tree (we saw the theft in person) and when Linus scared the critter, he dropped the gourd which fell into the bushes.  Gone. 

The annoying part???

Our neighbours have decided to copy our pumpkin stairs idea this year except they all have WAY more pumpkins than we do, so when I (and others) look at our pathetic stairs it makes me want to run out and buy more pumpkins to keep up with the Jones’.  It’s also not just one neighbour either.  It’s the one across the street and the two beside us.  I think more orange ones and some white ones will show them. 

The pictue, by the way… Not our house this year.  Possibly in years gone by – minus the flowers – but certainly not this year. 

6) Things Daddy overheard:

a) Stewie to Linus is a very serious tone; “You know what Linus… We’re the fastest people we know!”

b) After Boo screamed twice, I reminded her that; “There is NO yelling allowed in my house!” to which she immediately responded with; “This is not just YOUR house, this is OUR house too.  There are 5 of us that live here!!!”

7) Potato or Potatoe?  Last year we planted three types of potatoes in our front garden and got a ton of potatoes in the fall.  We did not get around to planting and more this year but guess what happens if you miss digging out the ones from previous years???  If you said more grow, you would be correct as this year we just harvested about 100 potatoes.  Very cool and the kids love digging for them.

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• TD Canada Trust Panel Discussion: Parental Leave and Finances… Which came first? (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)
• What are McGuinty’s Liberals doing to Teachers in Ontario? A View from Within… (urbandaddy.wordpress.com)

About the Urban Daddy

I update the about me section of this blog and thought it might be time to post it in order to answer questions I frequently get sent to me via email and twitter.  Who I am and what I do…

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…

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Ontario Election Wrap-up – Topical all these months later…

I found this draft post sitting in my folder which I meant to post it but probably left because I was so dismayed at the size of the mistake that folks in Toronto made for the rest of the province of Ontario by re-electing Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government.

So instead of deleting it, I read it over and decided to post it now.  I have come to realize that while I am not a political pundit in any way, nor am I a prognosticator, I try to be informed and I do my research so below is what I knew and felt at that time.  Have a read and tell me how true a lot of it is…

The post:

Here is my Ontario election wrap-up, urban daddy style.
First of all I want to thank the nearly 1000 people who googled “who do I vote for in the Ontario election” and came to my blog on election day. I hope you read what I wrote and it made sense. I was not endorsing the Ontario Conservatives party blindly as a life long conservative, but I felt like I really presented some key facts, not opinions, which seemed to me to be a whole lot of common sense.

I looked at the previous 8 years of Liberal rule in Ontario and I found;

HST

An eHealth scandal in which the minister in charge fled and tried to become Mayor of Toronto

Sex Education being taught to kids in grade 2.

“Smart” meters resulting in higher hydro charges

Green energy act

Wind Mills

Another rise in the minimum wage, this one pushing it up to $10.25/hr

Delisting of health care items like chiropractic and physio therapy when our population is aging and are going to need these services.

A whole lot of broken promises

The list goes on.

But after going through yet another Provincial election where voters in Toronto blindly voted red, I awake to the same old and I’m not feeling warm and fuzzy about Ontario. Already this morning, one day after that election news media is reporting that the unemployment rate in Ontario has gone UP.  Ontario is fast becoming a have-not province. Yet another finger pointed at Dalton and Co.

But before I continue, I also want to thank WordPress, www.wordpress.com, for adding me to the list of http://botd.wordpress.com/growing-blogs/ of Blogs of the Day – the Fastest Growing Blogs on WordPress.com. I really appreciated that!

So let’s take a look at some people who were re-elected for the Liberals.  This is a telling sign for me because if I’m voting for a policy, or a plan (recall: I did vote for notorious left-wing councillor Joe Mihevc as he appeared to be giving my riding what it needs) I have plenty of reasons to support my decision… So I’m not a 100% conservative die-hard. I do look at other factors and vote that way.

I don’t think voters in Toronto know who they elected and I’ll bet if I stood on a street corner and asked questions of the voters they would have no idea.

For example, did you know that;

Monte Kwinter who won in York Centre… Again, has been the MPP in that riding since 1985. 26 years. Monte, bless him, is 80-years-old. Think he’s in touch with the new generation of have-nots coming out of University expecting jobs, and a lifestyle like their parents currently have?  Probably not.

What about Mike Colle? He’s been in office since 1999. He was born in 1945, so that makes him a 66-years-old. Is this the future of the Liberal party of Ontario? Yet these guys got in easily because the older voters recognize the names, see the pretty pamphlets and just robotically fill in “Liberal” at the ballot box.

The reason I bring these gentlemen up is not to pick on people for their age. I’m 40, and if I ever chose to run in an election would be doing so later in life, but I know first hand having been in Colle’s riding, beside Kwinters and in the riding of Dr. Eric Hoskins, that these people are invisible to Torontonians. They show up at election time with pamphlets and because they know there are going to get elected.  The rest of the time, you could ask 50 people on the street who their MPP is and I’ll bet you 48 of then shrug their shoulders. It’s ridiculous.  Invisible.

What’s worse is that by re-electing McGuinty, voters are signing up for more taxes, more user fees and at some point Dalton has to realize that he cannot keep spending, errr, wasting money on stupid projects because the taxpayer is not going to be able to pay for this year over year… Money is tight and once people realize the waste and cuts and costs they’re going to flip out ala the anti-Rob Ford, anti-Stpehen Harper rhetoric in the news every day.  So either taxes are going up, or more cuts will be coming, and based on Dalton’s need to have a high minimum wage, I’ll bet he de-lists more items from OHIP.  That’s easy, right?  Or more user fees (fancy description for taxes). 

Let’s just hope he makes the right choice when the City comes to him for subway funding and cough up a ton to create lots of subways and bring Toronto into the 20th century.  I doubt that will happen, to be honest.

He’s just not that good of a leader.

But hey, you guys voted for him!  Enjoy.  Just hope you don’t need a hospital…

Remember, when the Conservatives suggested a two-tiered healthcare system all the people freaked out.  Well Ontario, it’s here and not by the Conservatives, but brought in by the Liberals.  Now I see why they refuse to fund IVF… It would save the system money year-over-year.  Liberals can’t save money.  It’s not the way they do things.  They de-list and keep things de-listed.

I’m shaking my head.

You should be too.

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My 775th post – for all readers for all seasons.

Welcome to my 775th post.  If you’re a blogger you will know this is a lot of writing, covering 8 long years.  If you are not a blogger, trust me, it’s a lot of writing.

The thing is, I’ve been getting a lot of traffic in the last couple years, and some very kind accolades here and there, but both of them are from all over the place, as are most of my posts. 

So for my 775th post, I want to make sure I cover off as many visitors as possible by touching on some of my most popular topics;

If you’ve come to read about politics, I can confirm that those on the left in (downtown) Toronto are still way off base in thinking that this financial crisis was ”created” by Mayor Ford so that he could solve it to look good.  False.  Look at Greece.  Run by socialists and on the verge of bankruptcy.  Look at the TTC.  In effort to cut costs, the Mayor and the TTC chair Karen Stintz cut some routes and there was backlash, so the public spoke that we needed those routes and a $0.10 fare increase was added instead and the public… Back in an uproar.  You cannot have it both way, folks.  I’d love to help the poor, keep all social programs, have amazing snow removal, etc., but someone has to pay for this and I can tell you I’m already taxed up to the top of my head.  If you think you’re not paying enough taxes, then you can pay more and help those in need.  I’m maxed out, thank you.  If I don’t have enough disposable income, then I cannot afford to go out, buy things, eat out, and help re-distribute my income to those in need.  It’s the way the world works… Get over it.

If you’re here to read about coffee, then let me tell you about this great coffee I tried recently at a place called Neighbours.  It came highly recommended from one of my awesome readers and I was really surprised how nice it was.  Not too bold, not too weak, and the cool thing about the location I went to was that they have flavoured coffee mate and that removed the need to have flavoured coffee.  I didn’t put any in for my first cup and I probably won’t for my next one, but it was very nice!

If you’re here to read about parenting, then you’ll be pleased to know that I am the “Daddy 101″ blogger for Pink and Blue Baby.com. Cool, eh?  I find this site really useful, and I have a ton of great stories and baby / toddler / kid tips from almost 7 years of being a daddy and 3 beautiful children.  For example, just Wednesday was my son (Linus’) 7th birthday party and we had a Lego party.  It was great.  The Lego ninja had the kids sitting in 4 teams of 4 and they raced to build a Lego tower, then the built a Lego candy house.  The hour flew by.  After the hour the kids ate Lego candy blocks (thank you Bulk Barn) and Lego cupcakes that I made and my wife decorated so beautifully.  Pizza, grapes, whole wheat pretzels and air popped popcorn round it all out.  It was totally worth it.

For 5-year-old Stewie, we had The Magic and Comedy of IncrediBrent, Toronto’s birthday musician and Brent was amazing.  The kids loved him, the parents loved him and he interacted with the kids so well.  He was a pleasure to deal with and have in our home and I would totally have him back for any future kids parties.  His web-site is www.incredibrent.com.

For Berry’s 2nd birthday party – you saw the Hello Kitty cupcakes in a previous post – we had Applefun Puppetry, www.applefun.ca, and Mike was also spectacular.  He had all the 2-year-old’s participating and his show was so clever and funny that he had me in stitches.  I’ve seen him a couple of times before but that did not stop me from being completely engaged.  Worth the price of admission.

If you’re here to hear my views about food then I can recommend Java Joe’s for catering because they have added some new sandwiches and they are killer.  Spicy chicken and their steak and hot peppers goes great with their chicken Parmigiano and eggplant Parmigiano.  The coffee is great – some organic too – and they have these wickedly heavy brownies and skor brownies.  Find the location at Leslie and West Beaver Creek, call and speak to Randy.  Tell him the Urban Daddy sent you.  He’ll like that!

So I’m not sure what else to cover at this point in time, except to say thank you to all of you who take the time to comment and who tell me you’ve been following along with my posts at home.  It means a lot to mean and it always makes me wonder what’s so interesting that keeps people coming back.  But I like to tell stories, I’m proud of my family, and I like to write, so there.  I’m going to do it if 200 people come to read or 20 million (LOL).

Feel free to subscribe to my feed, or like me on Facebook.  If you are reading this through my actual blog, then go on the right side, check out some of the amazing writers on my blogroll, and further down you will see the link to my Facebook page and some other sites that have featured me.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy New Year to all of you from all of us!

Warren aka the urban daddy.

@urbandaddyblog

Common Sense? Politics explained through the eyes of a 7 year old.

I heard this story yesterday and while I am not sure if it is true or not, I loved it and wanted to share it with all of you.

A 7-year-old girl was standing on the front lawn of her downtown Toronto house with her two very politically active NDP-supporting parents. A neighbour walks over and is chatting with the parents when he looks down to the girl and asks;
Neighbour: “What do you want to be when you grow up?”
Girl: “I want to be Prime Mnister.”
Neighbour: “WOW. Why?”
Girl: “So that every Canadian will have a home to live in, plenty of food to eat and money to buy whatever they need.”
Parents are beaming right now. They’ve taught their daughter well.
Neighbour: “That’s great! But why wait until you are older. Why not help out now? I have some yard work that needs to be done. Come to my home, help me in the yard and I will give you $50.00. You can then take that money, and we’ll go to the grocery store, and we can use that mney to buy food for the homeless and then we can give the food out to them.”
Girl thinks about it.
Girl then asks: “Why don’t the homeless people just go clean your yard and you can pay them, and they can buy their own food?!?”
The neighbour turned to the parents and said, “Welcome to Conservatism!”

Apparently the neighbours have never spoken again since.

See folks… Kids get it.

A mish-mash of parenting and politics…

I’ve got a lot of stuff on my mind and since I’m all over the place I thought instead of making a bunch of smaller posts, I would toss them all in here together and let you, the reader, enjoy this free for all consisting mainly of parenting and politics.

• Why are there not special road police who can drive around all day on city streets and highways and whose sole job it is to locate the really stupid drivers, pull them over, ticket the crap out of them and force them to be re-tested.  I’ve seen enough cars crossing solid lines, racing through red lights, trying to drive when there are people on the cross-walk, and ignoring stop signs.  Forget ticketing the guy going 8 over the speed limit, or the family that parked for an extra minute for longer than the parking slips says… Help make the streets safer by removing those incapable of driving.  It is a privilege, not a right.
• Do advertisers think that men are stupid?  Do they think that when we see a commercial for razors and in that commercial men are pulled on the street, or in a mall, or somewhere else and asked to shave on the spot that for even a second we believe that is real?  I mean, come on… You take a clean shaven guy with perfect skin, apply shaving cream to him and with your 6, 7 or 8 bladed razor pretend to have him shave on the spot.  For all I know there is no blade in the razor.  Who buys that crap?  It’s insulting.  I would never buy a razor that way… 
• Prince Charles has been heir to the British throne a record 59 years – since he was 3 years old… Damn.  His mom, the Queen, is 85 years old.  Her mother lived to 101.  Good luck, Chuck…
• Where is George Smitherman’s donor list???  This may be insignificant to most now that the Toronto Mayoral elections are over, but since Georgie came from Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s cabinet, I think this tells a huge tale about who donated to George’s campaign, and the integrity of the Liberal party in Ontario. 
• Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is again talking about a coalition.  I honestly feel he’s just trying to find a way to get elected, not matter what cost.  Vote for him and he can be PM, vote for anyone else and her forms a coalition and gets to be PM.  I guess his plan blows up in his face if the NDP pass them, eh?  I think Iggy’s going to regret telling Jack Layton on the English debate to essentially keep quiet as the NDP have never and will never be the official opposition, let along the ruling government… Oops.
• I also think that NDP leader Jack Layton is now trying to bring the NDP to runner-up this election.  He has turned his campaigns focus from trashing the Conservatives towards trashing the Liberals… I mean, really Jack?  So what if Iggy only made it into work for 30% of the votes in the house of commons?  Maybe he’s just more popular than you are and had better things to do… But if you need that to move your campaign forward, take it and run.  You win Jack, you are there all the time… But I still wouldn’t trust you to run the country into anything but a massive deficit.  Unions would be SO proud.
• Bring your travel mug to Starbucks on Saturday April 22nd and get a free cup of tea or coffee… Something about being good for the earth.    We went, but I forgot my mug.
• I don’t usually bash the Conservatives but I’m going to do it here.  For a party that wants to reach out to all the people… Why hold a pub night on the 3rd night of Passover?  On Passover the Jewish people do not eat yeast in honour of the fleeing from Egypt where they were slaves (without having time to let their bread rise, so for 40 days and 40 nights they are unleavened bread, called matzoh).  Any chance there is beer without yeast?  Don’t think so, unless the pub has “He-brew”.  Boo GTA Conservatives!
• I find it VERY interesting that Jack Layton and his wife, Olivia Chow, were campaigning in Toronto during the municipal election on behalf of their son – in an attempt to get him elected.  Knocking on people’s doors, and essentially selling the family as the package.  Too bad Olivia and Jack work in Ottawa. 
  Really?
  So Mr. hypocrite can chastise the Libs and Conservatives for not being in parliament to vote, but what about being paid to be in parliament and instead taking your kid around to get him elected.  I can’t wait to hear your soundbite on this one, Jack-o. I call bullshit. Hashtag (#) fail, indeed.
• Take Thursday in Toronto, for example. Layton, quickly quipping his way to votes called Stephen Harper a “Commodore 64 in an iPad world” who “thinks an app is something you order before dinner.” I think he’s getting so much play on his jokes and wise ass comments that he thinks its going to get him elected either as Prime Minister straight up or through a coalition. Then we can all watch Happy Jack joke his way through summits and G20′s… Canada’s funny PM.  I hope and pray people see through this, however, I guarantee downtown Toronto will embrace his playfulness as a good thing for Canada.
• While eating matzoh yesterday, my 6-year-old, while taking wild crazy bites, managed to get half in his mouth and half on the floor, to which his almost 17-month-old sister seized the moment to show off her talent…  She walked over to the pile of cloth diapers while saying “tow-wel” (towel).  She grab one of the pile, toddled back over to the offending pile of matzoh crumbs, squatted beside the pile, then proceeded to wipe the floor while she sang “clean up, clean up”…  Then she got up and toddled over to the fridge where she proceeded to wipe down the door and handle.  LOL.  Awesome!
• I’ve decided to change Linus’ name from Linus to NO Linus as all I hear from Stewie is “NO Linus” 30 times a day.  He’s changed his name, now its our turn.
• Also decided to start calling Stewie “Goodwill” because with the way he is out growing his clothes and all his “pants” have holes in the knees coupled with the fact he dresses him self – odd matching clothes, different colour socks – my son looks like he got dressed in the Goodwill.
• When Linus was a boy we could keep him busy for an hour in a restaurant by placing him on the floor, or leaning up against the high-chair and he would clip up the clips over and over again, each success was accompanied by the word, “clip!”  So as I write this post, my daughter Berry (or Be Be as she has started calling her self) is doing just that.  “Clip”.

Wishing you and your family a Happy Easter Weekend and a wonderful binding Passover.

Thursday Thirteen: 13 most exhausting things for me today

I had a really exhausting day today, so as a result, I have decided to post my Thursday thirteen about the 13 most tiring things that happened to me today.
Starting… now!

13.  The line-up at Tim Horton’s drive through this morning was insane.  There were over 20 cars in line and although I normally jump into the store instead of lining up, it was pouring rain and I was listening to the FAN590 piece on Zdeno Chara trying to kill Max Pacioretty.  Cars were backing up and turning around to leave, which I contemplated until I was able to see the hold up.  Some pick-up tuck was ordering enough coffee for the boys. I saw 2 boxes of coffees and food being passed to the truck. Why the servers didn’t ask the truck to sit aside so they could put together the order and still serve others, I do not know.

12. Today was the last day of one of my employees, who had been with my company for 10 years.  I totally get her desire for change as I left my job after 10 years there. I got up one Thursday, booked off the rest of the afternoon, headed home, booked off the Friday, was on vacation the following week and never went back. 

11.  While standing in line holding a half-slab cake (a very heavy half-slab cake) at the self check out, the woman in front of me was paying for her $13.00 of groceries in dimes.  She would put in 3 or 4 dimes, check the balance on the machine, then reach back into her giant bag of time wasting to pull out 3 or 4 more. What frosted my ass, was that she would periodically stop her complete disregard for the rest of the shoppers in line and pull the rejected coins out of the return tray to feed them back in to the top… over and over again… the same friggin coins… over and over again… After what seemed like 15 minutes, I was on the verge of a breakdown when a different cash came open and I was sent there by a store employee who thought I was going to lose it.

10.  I’m tired, therefore I had no patience today for complainers or people who take food that does not belong to them.

9.  Standing in line at Tim Horton’s for an afternoon coffee behind a guy who was standing practically on top of me. I could feel his breath on the back of my neck. Gross.

8.  When I arrived at home in the evening, I realized we were out of milk and went to get some, in the rain, stepping in the biggest puddle in all of Toronto that resembled a lake, soaking my pants, socks and shoes. I almost caught a fish in there too…

7.  Speaking of headaches – The US government is taking over three Tylenol plants following a blizzard of drug recalls and a Food and Drug Administration criminal investigation into safety issues at the factories… I could use some tylenol.

6.  I REALLY need to drink until I cannot remember my name. Problem is I don’t drink and I have household and office responsibilities which will keep me up until 2am at the earliest.

5.  For YEARS, I wanted to go into politics, but never had the balls to actually run. I enjoyed being behind the scenes. Yesterday, a long-time friend of mine, Michael Yen, who ran municipally in the last Toronto election will soon be running Provincially for the Conservatives, reached out to me to see if I was interested in running in my ward, ward 21. Apparently there was an event the night before and there were a lot of powerful Tories in the house, and Mike suggested he may know someone keenly interested. If it were 3 years ago, I’d be all over this, but I love my job right now and wouldn’t make that change.

4.  I finished the latest Dan Brown book called The Lost Symbol and I have to tell you the book was great for the first 50 pages, awesome for the next 250 pages, incredible for the following 150 pages then the ending fell flat on it’s face as if Brown had a deadline and gave up. I’m very disappointed!

3.  I don’t like being fat, especially as I’m trying to heal up my sore foot – which is keeping me from exercising – but my day was filled with temptation; donuts, cake, coffee, chocolates… Damn you temptation. Obviously I gave in… often.

2.  Anyone want to know how to look like Harry Potter? Bend down in your kitchen to pick up the cats water bowl while your wife opens the cupboard above you and leaves the door open so when you stand up you destroy your forehead on the bottom corner of the door. That, my friends, is how you get to look like Harry Potter.

1.  Have I mentioned it’s still tax season and since December 1st it’s been 24/7. I’m beyond tired… I cannot see straight and I’m relying on tons of coffee to get through the day. With all that being said, I love doing what I’m doing but I needed a break so much, I ate a Kit Kat.

So that is why this day was capital “F” frustrating.

Here is hoping Friday is better!

Michael Ignatief’s fall-back job.

While trying to become Prime Minister of Canada, by any means necessary (election, coalition, sell your mother) Federal Liberal leader Michael Ignatief is at his best in front of the cameras, talking out of both sides of his mouth, kissing babies all the while playing down how the Conservatives are kicking his ass.

Away from the camera, Ignatief – who will never be Prime Minister – has his fall back gig already in play.

I saw it myself, with my own eyes…

Here is Ignatief (or Iggy as his friends call him) on the campaign trail.

And here is Iggy as I know (and still dislike him) as the new mascot for the Toronto Rock Lacrosse club.  

 Which Iggy do you like better?  Both have swelled heads and both appear to be very strong.  But I suspect of you check inside both heads, you will be disappointed by what you find.

Canadian Politics, Olympic Style.

So here we are at the end of the Vancouver Olympics after watching a thrilling Canadian victory in the Men’s Ice Hockey gold medal game and there in the crowd cheering on the Canadian squad was Prime Minister Steven Harper. 

The Prime Minister, actually, was in attendance for most of the key events in the past week cheering on his country – I mean what else could he do after proroguing parliament until after the Olympics were over.  He was clearly saving the country money by staying in Vancouver rather than flying back and for parliament.

I like that during the gold medal game there were camera in several key Canadian locations, such as; Cole Harbor, Nova Scotia – where Canadian hockey phenom Sidney Crosby was born – in Wayne Gretzky’s bar in downtown Toronto and in Kanduhar, where Canadian soldiers are stationed.

After panning through the locations several times I noticed something odd… pportunistic, actually. There was a person – a couple actually – right up in the front of the crowd at Wayne Gretzky’s bar, not watching the game, but rather always looking right into the camera looking REALLY happy.

Upon further inspection, it was Federal NDP leader Jack Layton.  Always the opportunist, I imagine that Layton pushed, prodded and snuck his way to the front of the bar with wife Olivia Chow in order to be there for the camera shots.  A man of the people, eh Jack? It looked really phoney and that he was trying to keep up with the PM. I know it’s tough being the 3rd or 4th most popular party in Canada, but really who wants to see them every 2 minutes?

And where was Michael Ignatief?  Last I saw he was in Ottawa talking about how it was more important for him and the rest of his colleagues to be pushing policies through than to be at the Olympics.  WRONG!  Once again, Ignatief missed an opportunity to be seen supporting Canadian athletes  across the country.  He could have been shown at each and every event like Harper was, but instead of Harper’s rather stoic demeanor, Ignatief could have been showing Canada how cool he thinks he is and he should have been cheering, talking and making friends with Canadians.  Instead… He chose to stay home and missed a phenomenol photo op. Canada kicked ass during the Olympics, and the most prominent face in the crowd was our PM.

He gets my vote. 

He cares.

Ignatief?  Layton? 

No thank you! These parties need new strategists!

What is the coalition up to?

Vive la coalition libre.  LOL.

NOT.

Here is what the losers are doing, starting with Michael Ignatief aka Iggy. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/GAM.20090105.COMART05/TPStory/TPComment
While he’s not speaking out about that lose cannon Anti-semite Sid Ryan, here is what Jack Layton is doing besides losing ground and credability - http://www.calgaryherald.com/Layton+biggest+loser+coalition+folly/1146656/story.html
… and Gilles Duiceppe… Besides being totally out of the news - he is still trying to find ways to separate anything he can to prove to himself he still has it in him, considering he has been unable to seperate Quebec from Canada.