The Queen of Canada????

It's official. I don't understand Canada.

A few years ago, the hubby and I spent a weekend in Toronto. It happened to be over July 1st which, we were told, is "Canada Day."

We asked several people what "Canada Day" was and they each said, "You know, like your 4th of July."

We responded, "Well, on our 4th of July, the Declaration of Independence was signed. What happened on 'Canada Day'?"

No one could tell us. Although they knew it had something to do with their independence from England.

So, today, I'm reading one of the many e-newsletters I subscribe to and it just so happens that this particular author lives in, and has just become a citizen of, Canada. He mentioned swearing allegiance to the "Queen of Canada." The what???

This compelled me to do some Internet research where I discovered that Queen Elizabeth II (you know, of England) is "also" the Queen of Canada. Huh?

Apparently, the country was proclaimed independent in 1982 (but not on July 1st) by the Queen. Let me emphasize: they were PROCLAIMED independent by the monarch they still have. What kind of independence is that?

They call this proclaimation "constitutional patriation," the explanation of which (from Wikipedia) is that:

"Canada, as a former British colony, was until 1982 governed by a constitution that was a British law and could be changed only by an Act of the British Parliament. Patriation thus specifically refers to making the constitution amendable by Canada only, with no role for the Parliament of the United Kingdom to play in the amending process. Hence, patriation is associated with the adoption of the Canadian amending formula, and the corresponding acquisition of sovereignty."

However, even given all that patriation stuff, Queen Elizabeth II is still their queen and retains "vast powers," including the appointment of the Prime Minister.

I don't know what else to say. I just don't get it.

Ben Affleck and Jimmy Kimmel

I'm too lazy to re-post this, so you'll have to go to the Center of NJ Life, but trust me, it's worth it. Funny stuff.

A Red Letter Week!

This is the first week in I don't know how long where I don't have:
- a medical treatment
- a scan, blood test, etc.
- a doctor's appointment
- surgery
- physical therapy

In other words, it's the first week that I haven't had to put in for sick leave (not counting our vacation over the holidays) since the week of October 14th.

Woo-hoo!

Shoes for Tomorrow

I just came across this blog Greenloop which is about eco- & socially friendly businesses.

Today's entry is about Toms: Shoes for Tomorrow. From Greenloop:

"His name is not Tom, it’s Blake Mycoskie and he’s really into shoes. A couple of years back, Blake was volunteering in a village in Argentina and noticed a lot of kids were without shoes; their feet were covered in scrapes and many of them had infections. On February 26th, 2006, Blake had an epiphany. He would start a shoe company where for every pair of shoes purchased, a child in need would be given a pair."

How cool is that?

And yesterday, I found this company Terra Plana, which publishes the life cycle assessment for all their shoes. And their stuff is gorgeous...

Grrrrrr....

Only lost 0.2 lbs, which is one of these (the Scrabble computer game):



Guess I can't really complain, since I went to a DESSERT PARTY on Saturday night. So, from the glass is half full perspective, it's impressive that I lost anything this week.

Great Advice from a Man with Perspective

Fair warning: this will probably make you cry, but it's worth watching.

Doin' the Happy Dance

Still dropping weight...

This week, 1.8 lbs, which is one of these:

Fonts, Fabulous Fonts!

I don't generally consider myself a quirky person, in large part due to the fact that I am married to the World's Quirkiest Man and so my quirks, by comparison, get vastly overshadowed.

But I do have a thing for fonts (yes, fonts, as in typefaces). And so, I found the following very entertaining:


And am even more excited at the prospect of watching THIS. (Special Thanks to Laughing at the Pieces for bring this to my attention.)

Green Racing

Calling all you auto racing fans. Check this out.

Released from Captivity!

As reported on this blog on December 11th, since November 29 my favorite boots have been held hostage at 287 Broadway, an 1872 cast-iron building, the structural integrity of which was jeopardized by construction on the adjacent lot.

This morning, the owner of the shoe repair shop (who I've now learned is named Luis Guaman) called to arrange a drop-off and, moments ago, the hand-off took place.

While I'm thrilled to have my boots back, and started this post as a sort of a light-hearted spoof, I have since done a little web research and am sad to report that no one yet knows what the fate of the building or Mr. Guaman's shoe repair business will be.

(I had sort of assumed that Mr. Guamon was operating his business out of an alternate location somewhere. I've since asked myself why I would assume a shoe repairman would HAVE an alternate location to operate out of and realized it's because several years ago our dry cleaners in the East Village suddenly closed but contacted us to let us know we could get our clothes at their uptown location. This must have planted a seed in my mind that all these little, family-owned businesses have multiple locations. Weird. I know.)

Here's a view of the building where you can see the wooden struts currently holding it up:

Why I Hate UPS

I do a fair amount (the hubby would say a LOT) of Internet shopping. It's easy, it's convenient, I have no time to actually go shopping and I hate trying on clothes in fitting rooms (I think it's those lights).

The stumbling block is that Internet shopping means, of course, that everything is shipped. And the preferred shipper of online business seems to be UPS.

From my observation, UPS must be the most inefficient company ever in operation.

Consider their system:

1. They will NOT let you specify a time when you will be home to actually receive the package. Instead they stop by arbitrarily at some point during the day. They do this for 3 days in a row, usually (judging by the slips they leave) coming by at the SAME TIME EACH DAY, even though it's pretty clear you're not home at that time. (Isn't the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?) I let them do this because sometimes: a) a neighbor will sign for the package, b) one of the 3 days will fall on my compressed day off and I'll actually be home, or c) UPS will let me sign the slip and leave that on the door so they can just leave the package.

However, when all this fails, we move to:
2. After the 3 days, the package goes back to the warehouse where you now have 7 business days to retrieve it. The warehouse is typically located someplace ridiculously inconvenient and open limited hours. Considering that most people have things shipped because THEY DON'T HAVE TIME to go get it themselves, finding the time to retrieve whatever it is at the UPS warehouse is, shall we say, challenging. (The other reason people have things shipped is because whatever it is is HEAVY and so even if you can get to the warehouse sans car, getting the package home again is a whole other challenge.) After 7 days, the item is sent back to the manufacturer and so, if you really wanted whatever it was, you need to contact them to re-send it and start the whole dance all over again.

2a. In the lovely 6th borough, UPS has made a nod to the fact that most Hobokenites don't have a car and therefore cannot get to their warehouse in East Jabip. So, they've worked out this ingenious (not) system where you call an answering machine and leave your name and address and then allegedly your package is put on the UPS truck which is parked near the PATH station from 5pm to 8pm and you have 3 business days to retrieve it. I am not making this up...you actually have to go meet a truck on the corner. And the saddest part of this is that I have done this twice so far and both times they've failed to actually have my package on the truck (one time being yesterday when the hubby trudged through the snowstorm on my behalf on what turned out to be a fruitless errand).

In this day and age where every other news article is about fossil fuels and climate change, I'm beginning to think it's literally criminal for a company to waste so much money driving around packages to people who would clearly tell you they won't be home if only you'd let them.

Imagine how much waste fuel, time, energy, and money could be saved if they actually scheduled their deliveries. Why has this never occurred to a delivery company????????????

Cult Update - Back on the Wagon!

Ok, so secretly I'd hoped this week's loss would be 4 lbs to help offset last week's gain, but I guess I'll have to settle for 2.2 lbs, which is two of these:

My Lost Nickname

I don't even watch Lost and yet I was sucked in by Laughing at the Pieces and just had to go find out what Sawyer's (whoever that is) nickname for me would be. Apparently, it would be "Picasso." Which I kind of like. So feel free to use it.

Find our yours here.

Time to Toss the Teflon

Ok, so you've probably (hopefully) heard that Teflon is not good for humans (or birds, actually).

I'd heard it, too. But I have to admit, while most of our pots and pans are anodized steel, I hadn't quite gotten around to ditching a few non-stick ones. But they're getting tossed. Today.

Here's why:
#1: Named a "likely carcinogen" by the EPA, C8 has been linked to cancer, reproductive disorders, birth defects, and respiratory problems.

#2: "A new study from Italy seems to indicate that C8 migrates into food from Teflon more easily than estimated by U.S. scientists. Although PFOA or perfluorooctanoic acid can be found in the blood of most people in very small amounts, it's been claimed for some time that Teflon was not significant contributor to human exposure. It's also been thought that C8 migration into food from Teflon coated products was most likely to occur once the cookware had been damaged in some way or when the coating began to degrade. The new findings seem to fly in the face of those old claims."

For more info, go here:
http://www.ohiocitizen.org/campaigns/dupont_c8/dupont_c8.html

Wrist Update

Well, I saw the surgeon this morning and he's very pleased with my progress. He thinks if I stick with the PT a little longer (which I was planning to), I can probably can back another 5 degrees in range of motion--doesn't sound like a lot, but that will bring me pretty close to a full recovery.

In terms of strength (I have almost none), he said that will definitely come back. The barrier to getting strength back is when there's pain in the joint that's preventing you from using it, but I'm not having any pain.

I'm planning to go to my first yoga class since the accident one night this week. I think yoga will play a big factor in both getting back that last bit of range of motion and in building the strength back up.

And, in perhaps the best news, I don't need to see the surgeon again. (I say "best," because while I love this guy, my calendar is pretty full of follow-up doctor's appointments these days, so it's nice to have one I can cross off the list!)

True Confession

I am a compulsive reader. I mean compulsive. I mean, if you put written material in front of me, I have to read it. You know how experts are always mentioning the information bombardment we're all under and how we all are "exposed" to a ridiculous number of ads in a day? Well, for most people, "exposed" means they walk by the billboard--I actually read the ad copy.

In my vocational and leisure reading, I am capable of being fairly discerning. But if I'm in a situation where I have nothing to read with me, anything is fair game. Yes, I am the person on the subway reading your newspaper or magazine over your shoulder, or from across the car. Even though I never take the free morning papers (AM and Metro) being hawked at the subway entrance, I still read the headlines as I walk by. I can't help it.

And so. This morning I was on the PATH uncharacteristically listening to my iPod rather than reading. Which means I had idle eyes. Which naturally wandered over to the magazine the woman sitting next to me was flipping through.

Of course I realize that when you are reading over someone's shoulder, you really don't have any rights regarding the page-turning rate. And that's fine. I'm happy to read half a page. I'll still get the gist.

But.

This woman wasn't reading. She was flipping. Now you'd think, at the rate she was flipping, it was some ad- and photo-heavy mag, like Cosmo or Vanity Fair. But it wasn't. It was Fortune magazine. "Oooh, look, an article about Melinda Gates" (I'm thinking)--FLIP. "Farming in Brazil!" (I told you, I'm not discerning in these circumstances) FLIP. "The New Business of Giving!" FLIP. She flipped all the way through the magazine.

And then. This is the part that really killed me: she flipped through it again...BACKWARDS. She paused only rarely, usually to read an ad. And then started again from the beginning. I was repeatedly tantalized by headlines and snippets of text that had caught my attention, but powerless to do anything about it. I was actually close to asking her if I could have the damn magazine since she obviously wasn't going to read it. It made me crazy. It made me realize that I'm crazy. And it made me realize I need to go out and buy the current issue (God, I hope it's the current issue) of Fortune magazine.

Bummer!

Well, I just had my weigh-in and I gained back this (2 lbs):



Not really a surprise, as last weekend was, shall we say, very SOCIAL.

Oh well. One of the many brilliant things about this plan is that every week you get a clean slate. So I'm back on the wagon!

Thoroughly Stupid Things

No, that's not the summary of my weekend activities.

It's the name of my friend's show, which we saw Friday night and which was HILARIOUS. It's a sequel to Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest." I wasn't sure what to expect because, less face it, it's pretty ballsy to try to top Oscar Wilde.

The show is thoroughly funny, thoroughly clever, and thoroughly silly. The cast is amazing, the direction is deft and it is just overall a great night of theatre.

And the good news is, you can still catch it. It's playing through this Saturday at the Source (although Saturday is already Sold Out).

Interested? You can buy tickets here: http://www.theatresource.org/