barky_shark

Don't start with me

2005-12-19T15:20:43Z

The ultimate tree stand is no longer (notice the lower case). It leaked some water out the side of the resevoir, which is especially no good for our hardwood floors. And at $50 for the stand, I think it shouldn't leak. I also think the Swivel Straight system is badly designed, since you'll always have a slight water drip when you refill the water jug, plus the water that comes out of ours. However, we really liked the foot pedal to straighten the tree once it was in the stand. Anyway, we're taking it back to Cdn Tire.

In the mean time, we got a new stand that is way, way better. It's a simple, but very sturdy, steel stand that seems to work great and it's also easy to set up and has no leaks. I forget the name of the stand, but it had Santa's name in there, so how could we go wrong?

Who would have guessed that getting a real tree takes so much effort. It took two tree stands and two tree set-ups (we are now pros at putting up a tree), three trips to Cdn Tire to buy tree stands (one to get the swivel straight, one to get the new stand, and one to return the swivel straight). And the trip to buy the tree was equally event-filled. Last weekend we went to IKEA to check out their $15 trees, there were none to be seen. Then on Friday we went to the grocery super-store to get a tree (and to beat the weekend rush). The florist person who was selling the trees told us that the more expensive fir trees would last the longest (we were concerned since our apartment is normally quite dry) and that most likely all their trees would be gone by the end of the weekend. So, we decided to get a $60 7-8 foot fir tree (even though we could have gotten a lesser balsam at $30). [Putting that tree in the trunk/back seat of the car was another adventure - I thought it was going to fall out on to the street the whole way home.] Boy are we glad we got the fir. It is a beautiful tree, it's branches are very even, and it smells so nice. The tree is now up and all decorated (including 4 strands of white lcd lights - that's another story of 5 hours of shopping for these in three different cities) and it looks very nice.

I think we learned a lot from this experience. And one is that throwing money at buying the "best" tree stand didn't work. Another is that you should allocate an entire weekend to get and put up a tree.

Dead or Alive?

2005-12-15T18:17:08Z

I saw in the news the other day that Gerald Ford was hospitalized. My initial reaction was "he's still alive?!?" Who knew?

I sometimes like to play this sick, yet oddly fun, game. It's called "Dead or Alive?" For instance, "Zamfir: Dead or alive?" or "James 'Scotty' Doohan: Dead or alive?". I recently found a great Web site to help with the game; Very resourceful: www.deadoraliveinfo.com.

It's great for a long car ride. Lots of debates ensue.

I'll start with you

2005-12-05T15:54:18Z

We're going to get a real Christmas tree this year. Since we've never had more than a 1-foot high fake tree in our apartment, we realized that we would have to get a tree stand to go with the tree. And this weekend we bought THE ULTIMATE TREE STAND! It's the one that's advertised in the Canadian Tire commercials; the one with the removable water reservior. It's actual name is the Swivel Straight (I prefer to call it THE ULTIMATE TREE STAND, all caps). It claims that one person can put up a tree in one minute without hassle.

We'll see if the stand lives up to it's promise, we're planning to purchase one of the $15 trees at IKEA next weeekend.

I wanna new book

2005-11-23T15:29:20Z

One that don't make me read too much, or get bored with the story.
One that makes me happy, wanting to read more...etc., etc.

Any recommendations on good books to read? As most of you know, I don't like boring books with huge, long descriptions of things. (who does?). I've just finished reading The Da Vinci Code, it was pretty good (a little too predictable, but the story kept moving and was interesting). I'm going to re-try reading The Poisonwood Bible, but after that I don't have much in the house that I am interested in reading/haven't already read. Just to give you an idea, some of the books I have enjoyed in the past are: Harry Potter series, Airframe (Crichton), Microserfs, The Firm, Agatha Christie books.

Books I tried reading and hated/couldn't finish: The Hobbit (and I know LOTR is different, but I have no interest in reading the books since I've seen the movies), Dune.

What are your favorite books and why? And would you recommend any of them for me?

Snow, snow, snow!

2005-11-17T19:08:00Z

It's snowing like crazy here all the sudden. I guess it had to happen some day soon. I hate winter.

Just call me Doppler 6000

2005-11-09T22:41:44Z

Look out Michael Kuss, I'm after your job!

I wasn't freaking out about the weather earlier for nothing. Those WERE tornado clouds. I just heard on the news that a potential tornado touched down in Hamilton this afternoon. I hope everyone is ok...

Wow, I am a terrible speller

2005-11-09T21:25:33Z

I just quickly scanned through some of my posts and see many glaring spelling mistakes. I apologize in advance. (I know I could spell check my posts, but why would I want to do something smart like that?)

Every thing is fine.

2005-11-09T21:22:50Z

Nothing on CP24 or the Weather Network, so all is good. Just a fast-moving system, I presume.

An Air Canada Jazz plane just landed at the Island Airport. I feel sorry for the passengers having to fly through those rough-looking clouds. I think they went slightly off-course to aviod some of it since their approach was from the south and was lower than normal. Normally they come in from the east (the flights are from Ottawa and Montreal).

The fog lifted....

2005-11-09T21:13:28Z

not 5 minutes later. And the clouds are moving so fast over the lake. I could swear these look like tornado clouds. I'm a bit freaked out here!

I feel like I live in San Francisco

2005-11-09T21:05:23Z

The entire city (at least from my vantage) is fogged in! What freaky fall weather we are having. This morning we had a thunderstorm that lasted about 3 hours and last night the wind was so loud that I couldn't sleep.

And it's supposed to maybe snow tomorrow. But I was walking around all last weekend with nothing more than a sweater on!

Exercise Now

2005-11-09T15:11:40Z

Due to all the stress in my life over the last three months, I had immediately lost weight but now I've gained it all back and then some. Now I'm feeling rolly-polly and clothes fit too tight. I've decided to take some action and I'm going to try to get some EXERCISE.

I used to walk home from work (approx 40 minutes) every day and I had been in a running class and another exercise class before everything went awry. Since I'm not doing any of this and my eating habits haven't been so great lately, my body has pudged out more than ever. Well, I'm finally going to try to do something about it.

I "signed up" for a Self magazine "Reach Your Goal" program (www.self.com/goal). I chose the "Get off the couch" one since I think if I tried the next level up, I would just be setting myself up for failure. I hope that low goal=success in this case. So far it's good and easy to keep up with, but I'm only on my first week. It's three 30 minute walks plus two strength "workouts" a week. I figure if this does actually get me off the couch, then I'll be more motivated in the coming weeks to get out and go for a run or something more strenous than walking. But if I just stick to the walking it'll be great.

Cooking with the seniors. It's a good thing.

2005-11-08T20:51:59Z

Since I've been off work I've been trying my best to keep busy and get out to stop myself from going completely insane.

One of my friends introduced me to the world of weekly free "What's for Dinner?" cooking classes at Loblaws grocery stores. It's a one-hour demo of a main dish and dessert where at the end you get to sample the food and get the recipes so you can make it yourself.

The week I went with my friend, I went to the Loblaws near her (she also happens to be 9+ months pregnant, no one wanted her to give birth on the subway so I went to her). The chef made a black bean soup that takes all day to make and a deep fried cheese dessert that I would never eat since I'm lactose intolerant. The class was a bust, but it was still fun to see my friend and it was a good thing to do during the day.

Since that one class, I decided to try the same class at the Loblaws down the street from me. It turns out the entire senior population of my building also attends these classes every week. I personally think they go for the socializing and free lunch. And they all knew each other so I stuck out as being the "new person" (not to mention I was about the only person in attendence without grey/white/no hair), the instructor even pointed me out at the beginning of the class. Fun. But the recipes that were demoed were quite good (a super-easy one-pot Mexican chicken dish and an equally simple saucy chocolate cake). I made them both for dinner that day (and of course we were eating it for many days after).

I went to my third class today where a wild mushroom soup was made. Quite tasty and it looks easy to make, too. The dessert was an apple tart with cranberries and apricot jam topped with goat cheese. The dessert is not sometime I would make, but I plan to make the soup tonight.

It's a great thing for the store, too. They get a bunch of people into the store and hopefully we all shop for our groceries there right after the class (like I did).

So far both main dish recipes can be made Veggie-style and lactose-free, too. Let me know if anyone wants any of the recipes.

I think this is a great thing for me since I get out of the house, get a small lunch (ok, I admit that the main reason I went), and my confidence gets a boost since I can successfully make a good dinner for my hubby every Tuesday.

Would you like some coffee to go with that cheese?

2005-11-07T16:07:51Z

Niagara Falls is still one of the most amazing things to see in North America. All that water thundering down is pretty darn neat to stare at. I've recently discovered that once in a while, if the conditions are right, I can see the spray of the Falls from my apartment window in Toronto. It's all quite incredible.

I'm glad to report that the immediate Falls area hasn't changed one bit over the years (you can still journey behind the Falls and purchase Table Rock fudge). However, I think the cheesiness has grown and been updated in the surrounding streets.

One thing we noticed is that the entire Falls area is now completely geared towards American tourists. At our hotel tour desk, they quoted tour prices in US$. Most of the resturants are American ones serving only cheese-smothered food in a skillet (TGI Fridays, Applebees, etc.) And most of the big hotels are US chains, too (Marriott, Sheraton, Hilton). It's a shame that one of the (Canadian) Natural Wonders of the World is surrounded by American corporations.

And Starbucks has taken over as the official coffee of Niagara Falls. Not a Tim Horton's to be seen. Even the hotel resturaunt served only the finest Starbucks coffee.

Speaking of our hotel. We had a lovely room on the 18th floor overlooking both the Horseshoe and American Falls at the Fallsview Marriott. It was advertised as having a whirlpool (it did, and it was for 2!), but the hotel had no bathrobes for guests (we even tried to get some from housekeeping with no luck). It also had a fireplace which turned out to be no more than a glorified fireplace channel since it produced no heat. The only purpose it served was to be a source of ambient light. (It was one of those mirrored jobbies. When you flicked the switch the light came on and you could see the "flames".)

Good thing it was about 19C each day. Very wacky weather for November, especially considering this weekend 9 years ago, it was 10 below and snowing.

We took advantage of the heat wave and went mini-golfing at a Dino-themed course on Clifton Hill. The greens were in great condition and they even had mini-sandtraps on this course. I won by scoring just one over par! (This is amazing considering I have almost no patience for playing my short game and I didn't play golf all summer.)

All in all, it was a pretty good place for a low-stress weekend get-away.

9 years and counting

2005-11-04T13:52:24Z

It was my 9th wedding anniversary on Wednesday and to celebrate we're going to Niagara Falls for the weekend. There's nothing more romatic then going to a wax museum and eating overpriced fudge.

17 is a good number

2005-11-03T16:13:15Z

It's supposed to be sunny at 17C today. This is a good thing.

Right now, though, it's about 100F degrees in my apartment since the sun is blaring in. I'm not complaining, I love it, but it's hard to be inside wearing my 17C degree clothing when I would be more comfortable in shorts.

Venting about my vent!

2005-10-31T21:00:01Z

A quick vent about my dryer's vent.

I'm working on try #4 to get my dryer side-vented so I can have a bit more room in my washer/dryer closet. A large company based in the States who I will not name keeps sending idiots to do the seemingly simple job of side-venting my dryer. Last time (last Tuesday) they brought the wrong part. Also, today when I was doing laundry the stacking kit (the thing that holds the dryer on top of the washer) broke, so it looks like they re-installed that incorrectly after doing nothing but take the dryer off and put it back on top of the washer. The time before that the technician said he was coming between 8am and noon two Saturdays ago and he never showed or called. The time before that the technician was to come two Tuesdays ago but called when he was supposed to be here to say he wasn't coming because he didn't have the part.

And to make matters worse, when I called today to tell them they also needed to bring a stacking kit when the come for try #4 next Tuesday, they said they would give me a $25 certificate to spend at their store. Alas, last week when I called to complain about trys #1 and #2, the amount was $50. It keeps getting lower as the problems get bigger and bigger. There's some mathematical relationship they must be using. Oh ya, it's compensation=(1/# of complaints)*100.

This is so infuriating!!!

Pick-up Artist

2005-10-30T02:53:01Z

I was just at a Halloween party and as I was on my way out some guy stopped me and said he wanted to dance with me. I said "thanks, but no thanks" and nicely pointed out that there were lots of other people at the party to dance with and that I had to go (I really was pretty much out the door). Yes, I went to the party alone, but I am allowed to do things without an escort. And I thought it would be better to get out tonight for a bit then to sit around the apartment all by myself.

The last time something similar happened I was with smoking_toaster. She and I were in Vegas in one of the pools at the MGM Grand. And a (probably drunk) guy "swam" up to us and talked our ears off. It was quite amusing until we got the invite to party in his room. Hmmm, no thanks. Again, our escorts were off doing their own things.

Even if I were single and even if I were desperate, I don't think these tactics would work on me. To start, I require intelligent conversation. I don't mind socializing with new people, I just don't like talking to people who seem to have an agenda for "romance" (wink, wink) right off the bat.

I'm guessing that it can't be easy to meet new people if you are looking for a relationship, but there's got to be a better way. Or perhaps I am just so out of the dating scene that these tactics actually work and are appreciated.

I'm still going to buy it, though

2005-10-28T02:27:10Z

Even though I dislike Madge's new video, I'm almost certainly going to buy her new album "Confessions on a Dance Floor". I can't resist Madonna!

A side note...I just went to madonna.com and the site plays a random selection of her songs (I don't think I did anything special for this). Very cool. Almost like a mini-iTunes. I like it.

Maddy, it's bad!

2005-10-27T23:56:11Z

I saw Madonna's new video for "Hung Up" this morning. The first thing you see is Maddy taking off her track suit to reveal an 80s-esk hot pink leotard and the first thing I wanted her to do was to put her track suit back on. Ugh, Madonna, you're too old to be showing off so much skin in your video. She still has an amazing body, yes, but there was something icky about this video (yes, even more so than any others). And the ick-factor when way up near the end of the video where she appears to be humping a stereo or speaker (I'm not sure which, I was too afraid to go in for a closer look).

Also I found the entire thing to be unoriginal. For one, the song samples ABBA. And the video looks suspiciously like a scene from Flashdance (JLo tried this in a video and it didn't work for her either). And the "disco" line dancing - she'd already done it with "Vogue".

Anyone else seen it and had the same or other thoughts?

The magic flute

2005-10-23T22:59:31Z

I recently discovered that several of my friends do not know who Zamfir is and have never, ever heard of him. I know! I classify Zamfir's existence under the "common knowledge" category, i.e. EVERYONE should know who he is and if they don't, why not? You only had to turn the TV on just once during the 80s to see one of his famous infomercials and to hear the hauntingly beautiful sound of his pan flute playing Chariots of Fire.

Shiny Happy Nails

2005-10-19T20:33:58Z

I was in the mall yesterday and there was a booth for beauty products in the middle of the hall. The lady at the booth stopped me and my friend and asked if we wanted a demo of one of their products. We both said "sure".

It was the most amzing thing; I wish I had invented it. It was this 4-sided nail file block with each side covered in a different material. I can't remember exactly how it went, but it was something like the first two sides filed the top of the nail, then the remaining two sides buffed and shined the nail (I remember the last side was apparently made of silk). After the 4 steps you were left with a fingernail that looked like it had a clear coat of nail polish! And, more amazingly, the lady at the booth claims it lasts for about a month. More than 24 hours and many hand washes later my demo nail still looks great.

I didn't purchase the file since it came in a package with about 3 other things I didn't need. And it was priced at the low, low, "today-only", cost of $35 a pop if both my friend and I bought the package. We told her we would think it over. Now I want it! But I'm only willing to spend about $5. I wonder if there is a drug store equivalent? I also wonder if it's healthy to have your nails filed down like this, does anyone know? Does it make them thin and brittle?

When it comes to makeup, does more expensive mean better?

2005-10-12T16:15:08Z

On the weekend I purchased some rather expensive makeup with some money I received as a gift. I spent over $40 on two Aveda brand products: mascara and a cheek/lip cream. Aveda claims to be earth-friendly, so that's certainly worth the extra money. And the cheek/lip cream smells really nice and feels so smooth when I put it on (I guess it's those natural ingredients working). Most importantly I feel more put together and prettier when I have the makeup on (although outsiders would claim that I put so little of the makeup on that you can barely tell I'm wearing it - I like the mostly natural look with a bit of help).

In the past I've bought much cheaper drug store brands of makeup and those products usually work just fine, too. But I feel extra-special wearing the more pricey Aveda makeup.

Am I falling for the marketing of the more expensive brand or is their makeup really superior?

Poker nicknames - we all need one

2005-10-07T15:36:48Z

Just like blogging requires a blog name, playing poker requires you to have a poker nickname. It's that simple. All the pros have nicknames, so why shouldn't I and all my poker playing buddies have one? Mind you, I'm not a great poker player, but I do enjoy playing the game for fun. Your poker nickname might not be evident right away and may take months to develop, but once you find the right one, you'll know. And a lot of the time it'll be friends who come up with the perfect name for you. The friend-created nicknames are some of the best.

My poker nickname is The Intimidator. It's fitting since I am quite competitive. Recently I was on vacation in Vegas watching my buddy play Texas Hold 'Em at a table, he was losing money at a fairly steady pace. He eventually got up to take a break and I was able to sit in for a bit. All the other people around the table thought "oh no, here comes the card shark". No, I don't wear sunglasses, a hat, or a hoodie whilst playing cards. In fact, I don't look the part of a card shark at all. I did, however, start winning my bud's money back and eventually even won some dough of my own. I attribute my win mostly to luck of the cards and the fact the other players thought I was an experienced player. After the game, the nickname The Intimidator stuck. And it helps me every time I play cards, people start to believe that I actually am intimidating and I am able to bluff way more than normal and get away with it. But like I said, I'm not playing cards to make money, I just enjoy the game. And having a poker nickname makes the game that much more fun. Try it, you'll see.

Hello, my name is barky_shark and I am a blogger

2005-10-06T14:58:06Z

My first blog ever. I was told by a fellow blogger that for my very first post it would be good to explain my blog name.

So, it's barky_shark. The reason? It's sort of embarrassing, really. If you've ever played a Mario Bros. game you'll know what I'm talking about. There are these "animals" that are round, black creatures with sharp teeth called Chain Chomps. When I first started playing Mario games I didn't know they were called Chain Chomps, so I made up my own name for them and have always called them Barky Sharks. They always bark at you and they sort of look like sharks to me. It's a stretch, I know. They are fiesty, and always attached to a chain. I kind of like to think of myself like that, fiesty, and the chain is a link to my friends and family, so it's not a bad thing.

That's my story, hope you like it.