Happy New Year

This is what we woke up to this morning, about 12 centimetres of heavy, wet white stuff, sigh.. On the other hand shovelling this stuff sure gets rid of the hangover from last night, just kidding, didn't have one, didn't drink enough. I'm getting smart in my old age. Happy New Year and Happy Blogging...



And this just about sums up my year. This quiz thanks to Expat Traveller.

You Had an Average Year

While you had some setbacks, your year also brought some good things. All in all, things mostly evened out. That's just how life works. Focus on what went well for you - and what you can improve. A new year is a perfect reason to give yourself a fresh start!

How Did Your Year Rate?

My Wish For 2008

I resolve to live my life to the fullest this year and for the remaining years that are left to me. I'm certain this is not earth shattering news to most people but life is not lived by days, hours and minutes rather by how you live it. If you just tiptoe through it you might as well pack it in. There are events in life that bring this to the forefront.

This year has been the best and most joyful with the birth of a grand daughter Elliotte Rositta Anne in April, and the absolute worst with the death of my Mother, Hertha Lucie Helene in May. Very sadly the two never got to meet each other.

I also resolve to hold my tongue from time to time, which is really quite difficult for someone as opinionated as I am, but really, I will try. I promise to be nicer to telemarketers when they phone at dinnertime. Instead of hanging up on them as I currently do, I will tell me "just a minute, be right with you" and then put the phone done somewhere and forget where, sigh...I'm old, I forget stuff. I also resolve to take the unsolicited junk mail and send it back to them in the self addressed stamped envelope. Less stuff for me to cart to the sidewalk for recycling.

Oh and the biggie around here in T-Dot is the garbage issue. Since we will only be allowed ONE (1), yup read that right, green garbage bag every TWO weeks, I resolve not to buy anything that is over packaged, or leave the packaging behind in the store.

So that's it for me, no big earth shattering resolutions happening in this house.

Happy New Year to everyone out there, except maybe the city fathers of Brussels where this year they have banned New Year's Eve fireworks for fear of terrorism. I think the terrorists won that round. Not even New York City cancelled celebrations in Times Square after 9/11. I wish the residents of Brussels a Happy New Year too...

Why Do People Blog?

Ever been asked not to comment unless you share the same view as the author? Well I have and it shocked me somewhat. I believe that I leave my comments in a respectful manner, so it came as a surprise to me one day not long ago, when I received a follow up comment on the authors' site asking me not to comment if I didn't agree with her. Huh...

Doesn't this defeat the entire purpose of a blog? Of course I didn't take it personally, I just figured she was somewhat anal but I did wonder why she just didn't close comments. She must want a blog where all comments validate her opinion. Needless to say this blog is gone from my daily list. Too bad, she did have a few interesting points where I agreed with her opinion.

This is the question that has preoccupied my mind recently and I've had this post sitting in my draft folder for a while. I visit a fair number of blogs on a regular basis, some of which share the same ideas and politics as I do and other that don't. Obviously we can't all be the same can we, it would make a very boring world. The reason I visit these blogs is to see what other people in the world are thinking and I happen to believe that this is one of the best things about blogging. Prior to blogging we only had main stream media that told us how things were and of course I don't believe everything I read. Blogging has changed all that for me and has allowed me the privilege of understanding how other people live and think. It's fascinating to me.

Sometimes I leave comments in agreement with what I am reading and other times I disagree with the author and leave a comment sharing my view. Most of these blogs are more politically oriented and I enjoy the back and forth discussion. I once got into a long discussion on environmental issues with a blogger and at the end of it we both decided to respectfully disagree. She still reads my blogs and comments and I do likewise. Someday maybe I will meet her in person and continue the discussion. It's fun, it's stimulating and helps pass the time when one is semi housebound by chronic illness. When I was taking care of my Mom this past spring until her death, the blog kept me sane. Without it my poor husband would have borne the brunt of my anger at doctors and hospitals and I'm not sure he could have stood it.

So for good good or bad, if your blog allows comments and I visit and have something to add to the conversation or even if I disagree, I will say so. If you don't want me to comment anymore feel free to tell me, no hard feelings.

Does anyone else have that issue or has this only happened to me?

A Christmas Gift - Dinner Out At The Pantheon

Our friends Z and J are a the couple that invited us to share Christmas with them and their family. Because shopping was a non starter for me this year Steve and I decided to take them out to dinner in lieu of a gift. This is our favourite Greek restaurant in Toronto.

Free dips are always provided and they are incredibly delicious. There is humus, taramasalata (fish roe) and a peppery feta type dip and it's plenty for the four of us.

Next of course are the salads and I think they ran out of olives since they were missing, but we forgave them, the salad was otherwise delicious.

My sweetie love seafood so we always order this platter for two. It is more than enough for three and there was still a doggy bag to take home. There are three types of fish, shrimp, octopus and calamari on this platter. There is also a side dish of potato, rice and veggies. I brought the leftover calamari home and will use it in a tomato sauce with pasta for tonight's dinner.

Steve, J and I shared this platter but Z had an appetite for Moussaka. I had a taste of it and it was wonderful.

At the end of the meal you are presented with a large piece of complimentary walnut cake soaked in honey. This is cut in four pieces and is just enough sweet to end another lovely meal at this restaurant.



I don't generally do restaurant reviews but in this instance I can highly recommend this place to anyone every visiting our fair city. Absolutely worth a visit, we have never been disappointed here.

Blog Anniversary - Two Years

Two years, who would have guessed that someone like me could keep this up. I certainly didn't think so, I mean I am a person to flits from one thing to another and have done so most of my life. I think I probably have undiagnosed ADD. I have written 398 posts in those two years and have had over 7560 visitors that I know about. This amazes me as I am also not a writer and don't pretend to be, I am just a very opinionated person. Some of these visitors just stayed for a few second, others hang around a little longer and leave comments. Through this blog I have made some friends and have had tremendous support especially during the bad time in May when my Mom died. For that I am seriously grateful.

I was going to write this post yesterday but got sidetracked with news of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. This comentary by Salim Mansur lays out the reasons why this was inevitable. I spent most of my free time watching news to see what would happen next.

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is not only very sad it is potentially devastating for Pakistan. Why am I worried tucked away nicely here in North America? Mostly because I know they have Nuclear weapons that Bin Laden and el- Qaeda would love to get their hands on, and it has been speculated that he is hiding out on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. This is now a new danger for our Canadian soldiers in Kandahar. The days leading up to Pakistan's general election in January will tell the tale. It has also been speculated that if Pakistan's nuclear weapons are not deemed to be in safe hands, India might do consider a pre-emptive strike? That should strike fear into every ones heart, it does mine.

I have such high hopes for 2008, I hope they come true but I fear they will not.

Happy Boxing Day

First let me say to all my blogger friends who wished me a speedy recovery, I thank you. Things are much better today and I'm starting to feel like a human being again. There were a couple of days after the surgery when I could have sworn the gallbladder was still there, my tummy hurt so much. I did find out that this is quite normal though so I didn't panic. Now the stitches are gone (they dissolved) and now there is just a little bloating left to get rid of.

This is the first Christmas ever that I didn't cook a turkey dinner. It was a conscious decision actually, there are only two of us now. My Mom so loved this time of year and this being the first Christmas without her, I just simply couldn't bear it.

Our wonderful friends Z and J invited us to have Christmas dinner with them and their large Italian family yesterday and it was wonderful. There were 11 of us including an adorable little two year old girl named Mila. Mila was the life of the day, I swear Christmas with little children is just so much better. Z cooked a huge turkey with all the trimmings and we brought home enough leftovers to feed us today. A big thank you to thoughtful friends.

Look what we got for Christmas this year. A present from the offspring and his girl and the purpose of this little gadget is so that our new grand daughter Ellie can see us and we can see her. Of course I immediately hooked it up, registered with Skype and tried it out. It was fun to watch her giggle and screech.

Christmas eve was spent quietly at home watching some smaltzy tv movies and knitting the little socks. I actually finished them in one evening. Usually I put my knitting stuff on my other blog but this time I'm making an exception.



So I'm sending these off in the mail this week for this little darling baby. I can say that, I'm the grandma...



Have a lovely day, don't shop till you drop...

Merry Christmas - Frohe Weinachten - Feliz Navidad

From our house to your house.. Peace and goodwill toward all mankind, that is my wish. Of course, lots of good presents too...

Rositta and Steve

Neighbourhood Christmas Party

A new tradition has been started here in this quiet T-Dot neighbourhood. Instead of giving out gift bags as we had been doing, it was decided (not by me) that there would be an annual Christmas Dinner hosted between three houses. The hosts will alternate each year the same as we do with our summer barbeque.





So cocktail hour was at Betty's house for an hour or so. Then we moved on to Edith's home for a wonderful Beef Bourgignon dinner that she probably spent the entire day cooking and desert was over at Jim and Eileen's abode. Betty, as always, was the life of the party and together with Santa and a little karaoke managed to entertain wickedly.

These wonderful neighbours had a contingency plan in place in case I couldn't get there. They were going to bring food to me. I did manage to get dressed and spend a few hours but made an early night of it. I'm still kind of tuckered out from my hospital experience. Next year we are hosting the main course.

This is one new tradition that we will continue...

I'm Back - I Survived

The gallbladder is gone and I'm back home. That's the good news, the bad news is that I feel like a truck ran over me or someone kicked me in the stomach. I have four small holes the biggest of which is in the naval. That's where the gallbladder came out of and it's also the most sore.

My hospital experience was both good and bad so I'll start with the bad. I was called early yesterday morning asking if I could come earlier as there had been a cancellation. So I obliged since I really did want to get this over with. Upon arriving at this big city hospital we were directed to check in which went relatively quickly considering how many people were already there. I was directed to the pre op area by following a line on the floor, green I think it was. Once we found the room, it was filled with people sitting on ordinary hard chairs dressed in hospital gowns and hanging on the I.V. poles! I was directed to change into a gown, put my clothes in a plastic bag and join the crowd. After meeting with the nurse and getting my very own I.V. pole I sat down to wait, and wait and wait some more. My surgery time came and went and still I waited. It was cold, the chairs were hard and I watched one young women go into a cubicle, change back into her street clothes and leave. Guess she chickened out. Meanwhile Steve and my girlfriend had to wait in the hallway, standing with all the other relatives for two hours.

Finally they came for me and off the O.R. I went. The anesthesiologist introduced himself and told me he was putting me to sleep. I said fine, just make sure I wake up. That brought a chuckle. I actually had to get off the stretcher and walk myself into the O.R. and lie down on the table. I found that a little unnerving actually and my surgeon still wasn't around. Her assistant was though and he made a crack about how he'd been partying the night before and was hung over. I looked at him in horror and he laughed and said he was just joking, "see my hand" and held up his hand to show it wasn't shaking. I'm told by the offspring that this is a classic O.R. joke. Then I was out.

My next memory is waking up in horrible pain in recovery and being given morphine. I promptly passed out again and awoke in my assigned room. I was in and out of a morphine haze until my blood pressure dropped to 76/42 and they cut me off morphine. From then on until present it's just Tylenol 3 and trust me it doesn't cut it.

I was in a room with 6 patients and 3 nurses so I was pretty pampered. That was the good part, the bad part was that sleep was difficult. Thank goodness for the I-Pod that I tossed in my bag at the last moment on my offspring's advice. That kept me in my own little world and I drifted in and out. I will say it was the longest night of my life and even my nurse agreed. It just seemed to drag on. After a breakfast of a boiled egg and a slice of toast my sweetie sprung me this morning and brought me home.

Back in the early eighties, if you were having any kind of surgery you went into the hospital the day before, were given a little sedative before you hit the O.R. so that by the time you got there you weren't stressed. Those days have sure gone by the wayside which is too bad. There were a lot of stressed out people, me included waiting their turn.

I'm going to take a couple of days off from blogging to recover from this ordeal. Thanks to all of you out there who sent good wishes...Rositta

Elementary School Choir Drops Christmas...

Just when I thought we I had nothing left to post about this little gem drops into my lap. An Ottawa, Ontario elementary school teacher has decided she doesn't like the lyrics to in the classic Christmas carol, Silver Bells.

Here are the original lyrics;

Christmas makes you feel emotional
It may bring parties or thoughts devotional
Whatever happens or what may be,
Here is what Christmas time means to me.

City sidewalk, busy sidewalks
Dressed in holiday style.
In the air there's
A feeling of Christmas.

Children laughing, people passing,
Meeting smile after smile,
And on every street corner you'll hear:

Silver bells, silver bells,
It's Christmas time in the city.
Ring-a-ling, hear them ring,
Soon it will be Christmas day.

City street lights,
Even stop lights,
Blink a bright red and green,
As the shoppers rush home
With their treasures.

Hear the snow crunch,
See the kids bunch,
This is Santa's big scene,
And above all this bustle you'll hear:

Silver bells, silver bells,
It's Christmas time in the city.
Ring-a-ling, hear them ring,
Soon it will be Christmas day.

Beautiful song, right? Well in the Ottawa school in question all the words Christmas Day have been replaced with "Festive Day". I think this teacher needs to give her head a shake.

Is there anything left to say....

The Aftermath

It's official, it was the largest one day snowfall since 1944, 28 centimeters of the stuff fell in one day. This is the day after and now there are just huge piles on the side of the road.



For sure there is no room to park a car anywhere on the street.

Since I've been housebound there has been some knitting going with pictures on my other blog.
The countdown has begun for me, and in less than 48 hours I will hopefully be without the gallbladder. I can hardly wait, it's been too long.

Saudi Rape Victim Pardoned

A young woman I wrote about in November who had been gang raped and then sentenced to 200 lashes for being in a automobile with a man who was not her husband or close relative, has been pardoned by the King of Saudi Arabia. At the time the main street media were told that writing about it would make it worse for her.

I guess it didn't, the world was outraged and today she was pardoned. If only everything were as easy to solve...

Where's The Army? Record Breaking Snow Fall

Back in 1999 our then Mayor Mel Lastman called the army when we had this much snow.
This time we are on our own, (insert giggles here) and the neighbours seem to be enjoying themselves outside. Me, I just watch from the door, camera in hand.

So here are the pictures of this now,officially record breaking snowfall, a sixty year record to be precise and a present from our American friends in Texas. I guess they are getting even for all the cold fronts we send their way.

This is what it looked like yesterday afternoon before the storm. We had already had a couple of storms under our belt but nothing like what was coming.

By midnight, the winds were howling and it was coming down fairly steadily.

Couldn't open the back door this morning.

It does look pretty though...

Steve's threatening to move to California again, sigh...he does this every year.

Jim is the neighbourhood hero. After the snowplow blocked all the driveways again he his opening them up for all of us with the trusty snow plow, what a guy. Every neighbourhood needs a Jim...

I know we are not alone in this and at least we haven't lost our power so we are warm. Some of our southern neighbours in the U.S. have been without electricity for days. I think some of my buddies in Northern Ontario along Lake Huron and in Sudbury are also getting this weather and I hope they are safe. Not a good day to to be on the roads. In Cleveland they are playing football on a field covered with 3 inches of snow! Are they nuts? It is still snowing but it's expected to stop later tonight. Time to go bake my usual Sunday cake...

The Countdown Begins

Just five more day until the darn gallbladder hits the garbage bin and not a day to soon. This has been a pretty bad week all around. Husband is trying to stay within our immediate area when it come to work (he's self employed) and so far it's worked. Except for Thursday, when he found himself stuck with a broken down truck in a blizzard about 40 clicks from home.

When he finally managed to score a tow truck to bring him home from the wilds of suburbia to the local garage I needed to get my butt off the couch, clean the snow off my vehicle and retrieve him. It was either that or let him walk three km in a blizzard. I pulled myself together and brought him. home. This is the second time in a week that damn truck has broken down, it's time for a new one.

Today we are hunkered down because another storm is on the way. It's funny how Americans are always blaming Canada for their bad weather but most of our recent snow has come from them. Keep it guys, I've already had enough. We are expecting two feet of the white stuff by tomorrow.

I have a couple of small errands still to do this morning, just local stuff so the flurries that have already started shouldn't bother me too much. Good thing I have winter tires. I'll see what pictures I can score tomorrow, should be fun.

Islamic Imams Denounce Murder

Most notably Dr. Mohammad Alnadui, vice chair of the Canadian Council of Imams and Sheik Alaa Elsayed of the Islamic Centre of Canada have denounced the murder of 16 year old Aqsa Parvez at the hands of her father. They say it is unfair to associate Islam with the murder of the child. Whether or not that turns out to be truth will be determined at trial, maybe. Read the whole story over here.

Here is another story on the subject of honor killings in todays Toronto Star.

But here is what bothers me. It is statements like "wearing the hijab is a personal choice but said it's clear in the Koran it's a good thing to do." by Sheik Alaa Elsayed. He continues by saying the following;

"We say simply that we deal with a woman as a higher type of a human
being. When I see a woman that is covered, I look at her as a soul,
a person, a mentality, not a physical or sexual object."

Okay, so does that mean that all of us western women who live here in Canada are looked upon as lesser women to be used as sex objects because we are not covered up?

Or how about this one;

" He said he would encourage any family having tension over the issue to try
to talk the problems out but stopped short of saying families whose daughters
take off the hijab should feel no shame."

This girl was having problems with her father, she had left home and her friends said quite clearly it was because of cultural differences. Any death of a child at the hands of a parent is a tragedy, no matter what the reasons.

Let me end this by saying quite clearly that I am not anti immigrant. I am myself an immigrant to this country.

Don't Blame Islam!

No, of course not, mustn't blame the religion. It is after all, a religion of love and peace. Except when it comes to your female family members, then anything goes.

From today's paper comes the story and it is upsetting to me. The man who is charged with protecting his child, instead murders her.

On the news tonight they trotted out the obligatory Muslim girls who in all seriousness tried to make me believe that the Jihab was not forced on them and no one would murder because of it. On the other hand, are the girls friends who tell a different story. Seems young Aqsa Parvez was terrified of her father, had gone to stay with friends and was enticed home by a brother like a lamb to slaughter. The brother has now been charged with obstruction.

Women have been murdered in other countries, notably Germany, for not conforming to their families traditions. I hope though, that this is an anomaly here in Toronto and that it will never happen again even though I know it will.


I'm stealing the following from this blogger. I'm sure he won't mind.

The words of Charles Napier come close, though. Among other things, he conquered part of what is now Pakistan.

You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.

Murdered By Her Father - Why?

A young 16 year old girl was strangled by her father, the man who is supposed to protect her, yesterday morning. Today she died. Why?

Because she refused to wear a Hijab, the traditional Muslim headscarf. This type of occurrence has happened in Europe but I think it is the first time in Toronto. I hope there won't be more...

Pre-Op Testing Day

Only nine days to go before that gallbladder of mine gets removed and today I'm off for Pre-Op tests. Five days before Christmas and finally I will be pain free, I hope.

I have been suffering (bravely, I think) of really bad pain and am becoming more angry with our health care system as the days pass. The first time I had this pain was back in August and the Doctors in our local hospital emergency department didn't diagnose it as gallbladder. Because of the symptoms I was describing they kept focusing on my heart (which does have a problem), but instead of keeping me overnight at least, they sent me home in pain.

The attack did pass and I went on my trip to Greece where I experienced a couple of attacks, albeit on a smaller scale. On my return to Canada end of October I immediately went to see my trusty GP who ordered an ultra sound test. Now from October 25th to December 20th is almost two months. It seems inordinately long to me to have this thing taken out. I have been in almost continuous pain from early November on and hope I can hang on until the surgery date. Calling the surgeons office and begging for quicker resolution has only brought anger from the secretary. There are no alternatives here, no other doctors to see, my only choices are to wait and hope that this doesn't turn into Pancreatitis, or head to the emergency department and hope for the best.

For now I'm still hanging on, by my fingernails...it's a bitch to get old.

Friends - Can't Live Without Them

These are two of my best friends and life without them would be very empty indeed. My friend D, who I have known since the 1970's and Benny the doggy who has been around for 9 years or so add so much to my life. So baking a cake and doggy biscuits is not a big sacrifice for me. They were both enjoyed and appreciated and that always makes me happy.

D's father just passed away very recently and her Mom at age 93 was moved into a protected seniors apartment. Clearing out the home of elderly parents is always difficult as some of us know and it was no different for my friend. When her Mom found out that I collect milk glass she insisted that I get this cake platter. It is an absolutely gorgeous piece and I will treasure it always.



And Benny, well after I gave him his first biscuit, he kept gravitating back to the kitchen and looking up at the counter where he knew them to be. I think he liked them and that makes me happy.

Update On Water Bottles And Other Stuff

I saw a news program the other night that claims the bottles with 2, 4 and 5 imprinted in the little triangle on the bottom were safe to use. I checked all the bottles in my house and tossed anything with 1 and 7 in the bin. Until I know more I won't be using any plastic bottles.

Meanwhile, my favourite doggy is coming to visit today so I made him a treat.

These are not for Benny (the doggy) but will be shipped to the offspring and his family, hopefully in time for Christmas.

My Current Favourite Singer - Feist

It's not very often that I fall in love with a new singer or a song but I find this one so catchy I can't help myself.

For those of you who have never heard of Feist, your in for a treat.



She has been nominated for four Grammys this year, best new artist, best female pop vocal performance, best short form music video and best pop vocal album for The Reminder. I wish her luck...

Going Green - Not Working So Well

A few months ago I decided that we would no longer buy water in small individual bottles. I never did like the idea of so much plastic heading for landfill but they were very handy. I need a large glass of water by my bedside at night and after knocking a few glasses over in my sleep it was becoming dangerous. Not only did I soak everything that happened to be lying on the floor like my books, slippers etc. but broken glass on the floor in the middle of the night is not so cool.

So I bought the bottles below. Today they are going in the recycling bin.

In case you are wondering why I would toss these out, read this article on Bisphenol-A, a chemical used to harden plastic.

The plastics industry says it is harmless, but a growing number of scientists are concluding, from some animal tests, that exposure to BPA in the womb raises the risk of certain cancers, hampers fertility and could contribute to childhood behavioral problems such as hyperactivity.

Now I'm not pregnant nor am I worried about fertility at this stage in my life, but these are the ones they know about. What about what they don't know yet about this stuff. Do I really want to take that chance? Methinks not.

Today, Mountain Co-op stores pulled all their plastic bottles off the shelves. I think this is a great idea until more research is done. I suppose my next shopping trip will be for a stainless steel water bottle. At least when that sucker hits the ground it won't break, it'll just scare the heck out of my sweetie. I'm tough to live with, back to my knitting...

I'm Wired

This little sucker is a 24 hour blood pressure monitor that goes off every half hour during the day and every hour all night long. Kind of fun planning activities around that and even more fun to sleep with, NOT. I was awake until well after two when I finally passed out from exhaustion only to be awakened at 7 am. Oh well, this afternoon it goes back. The purpose of this gadget is to make sure my blood pressure is under control prior to the heart ablation surgery.



Meanwhile the gallbladder pain is definitely worsening and I'm no on the emergency list with 24 hours notice unless of course the pain gets bad enough to send me to the ER. If I can hang in, the surgery is actually booked for December 20th. That kind of takes care of a couple of Christmas parties that I won't be attending.

I also need a back x-ray because my bone density came back -3% and there are suspected bone fractures in my back. I told my GP yesterday, "that's it, I don't want to hear any more bad news, thank you very much". He suggested Fosamax and told me he takes it himself, I thought he'd been shrinking, he he he. All kidding aside though, a quick Google on Fosamax has discouraged me. I see the side effects and from what I read there are lawsuits against the drug company.

Here's the thing, hormone replacement therapy (Premarin) is supposed to be the "gold standard" for preventing osteoporosis and I've been taking that stuff for 20 years, so why didn't it work?

We decided last night that as soon as the gallbladder is gone, so are we. Some last minute trip to a nice warm beach for a week will suit us just fine...

Gillian Gibbons Is Going Home

She's been sprung from jail and is on her way back to Britain with the help of two members of the house of Parliament, with her head still intact.

What is so incredibly telling in this multi cultural country of Canada is this; in today's most liberal of newspapers, the Toronto Star of the five letters written to the Comment section condemning Sudan, only one of the five was written by a Muslim.

When will they stand up and speak out against these atrocities?

Getting Ready For The Next Storm

I need to go out and stock up on groceries before the 15 cm of snow starts arriving this afternoon. Therefore, because I can't seem to go without blogging for very long I borrowed this from Seaspray and you can all have fun with it.

I am trying my level best to get into some sort of Christmas spirit this year but thus far am not succeeding. Maybe it will still come...

I just got the word, gallbladder surgery tentatively booked for December 20th, subject to the Cardiologists approval.

Which of Santa's Reindeer are you?





Cupid


Like Cupid you know how to spread love. You have a place in your heart for everyone and are always there with a hug or a kiss


Find out which of Santa's Reindeer you are at Quizopolis.com

Just Another Sunday - It's Only Just Begun

Yesterday we froze our butts off and today this is what we woke up to. Yesterday morning there was a power failure in our neck of the woods. It was -10c and we were without heat for 7 hours. I thought great, I still have the laptop computer but forgot that the modem runs on power, silly me. So we just sat around me knitting and Steve doing Sudoku until we simply couldn't stand the cold any more. We headed for the nearest mall. Now anyone who knows me also knows that I hate malls, hate shopping and never, never go on Saturdays. Parking of course was almost non existent even with my disability permit and it took some time to find a spot. We had lunch and hung out for about two hours. The power came back on about an hour after we came home.

Now here is the question that I had to ask myself. How would I ever have survived the Quebec ice storm of 1998 where over 4 million people lost power for days and over 700,000 thousand for more than three weeks. How the heck would I ever survive something like that. We are all told to have an emergency kit in our homes with enough food and water for 72 hours but who really listens to that advice?


Last night I was unable to sleep from the noise of the storm. There was a combination of rain, freezing rain, hail and snow and the winds where so incredibly strong I thought any moment the large trees in front and back of our house would topple. I sat in the living room by candlelight watching the blizzard unfold.

I think yesterday was a little wake up call for me and I will put together an emergency kit, you never know, winter isn't officially here yet and it will only get worse. Steve says he doesn't want to shovel any more snow this winter, he he he...

Advent

"The name Advent (From the Latin word Adventus, which signifies a coming) is applied, in the Latin Church, to that period of the year, during which the Church requires the faithful to prepare for the celebration of the feast of Christmas, the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ"

A joyful First Advent to all. Today I will light my first candle and reflect on the year past and prepare for the coming of Christmas. All through my childhood it was a custom that my parents never failed to keep and I shall continue.

Here is the history of Advent for those who don't know it and are interested.

A Gentler Side To Sharia Law

One African country, Nigeria has turned away from the harshness of Sharia law to a certain degree. It was a nice surprise to read this article in the N.Y. Times today. Maybe other Islamic countries would do well to follow that example?

Stoning women to death for adultery and cutting off limbs for robbery doesn't quite sit right with me.

Meanwhile two Islamic members of Britain's upper house of Parliament have gone to Sudan to try to get Gillian Gibbons, a school teacher released.