Archive for the ‘Crazy Stuff’ Category

I grew up in a small town where street lights were a normal everyday illumination in the evening.  When I went away to school I went to the big city, where slag dumps lit up the night sky like you wouldn’t believe.  It was actually pretty cool and for some this was a family event…driving across town to see this nightly occurrence (I liked on the right side of town).  I am now a country girl, a country girl who enjoys the darkest, dark there is to be had.  I have troubles sleeping during a full moon because the moon is too bright for me and actually keeps me up – it’s worse in the winter when the moon reflects off the snow, I’m miserable the next day if I don’t fall asleep on time.

And what exactly does this have to do with my possessed satellite receiver?  It’s out to get me, I swear it is.  This phenomena has been happening for months, and Hubby wouldn’t believe me.  Now the receivers are banding together and they’re out to drive me nuts.

Sometime over the winter I was awoken (okay, I wasn’t really asleep yet, but the eyes were closed) by a bright light, a light so bright I could see it through my eyelids.  It was the little green glow on the satellite receiver box.  It was bright, I was annoyed.  I was annoyed because I knew darn well that I had turned the box off and why, or why was it on again, waking me up?  By the time I rolled over to grab the remote it had turned itself off.  Was I imaging this stupid light being on?  No!  Is it possible it was on and then turned itself off?  Hubby doesn’t think so, he thought I was nuts and the time and I haven’t brought it up since.  But you know what, the damn thing has continued to do it, not nightly, but enough to drive me nuts with annoyance.  I need my sleep people, I’m an 8-9 hour  a night person.  I’m grumpy without my sleep, sometimes very grumpy!

What ever the stupid box in the bedroom seems to be out to get me.  I’m starting to think TVs in the bedroom are a bad idea, but I like the comfort of being in there when I don’t want to watch what’s on the livingroom.  Hubby falls asleep with the TV on nightly, so I guess it’s staying.  Stupid box and all.

But you see, the other night, the night where the boxes seem to be plotting for my sanity, the same thing happened in the livingroom.  As a matter of fact it’s happened twice in the past few days.  I distinctly remember turning the box off and when I look up again, the little blue light in back on taunting me.

The first time I noticed, I had turned off the box the other night and was sitting here doing the internet thing.  Next thing I know I saw a little blue light out of the corner of my eye.  I questioned myself, but yes, I did  in fact turn it off.

And why am I sharing this with out now?  I part because the stupid one in the bedroom did it again last night!  And in part to see if anyone else out there has had this experience – by the time I would wake Hubby the stupid light would be off again anyway.

What’s really funny…seeing Hubby’s face when he wonders why there is a sock thrown over the receiver box. Sometimes it’s the only way I can sleep though the night.

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Care to join in on the fun…or to see what others are writing about today?

One of the highlights of my week was this tweet.

If you don’t know, Nate Ryan is the NASCAR reporter for the USAToday and a fill-in on Sirrius NASCAR radio.  He was tweeting about the events of the Nationwide race more than a week ago now and I sent a comment and a question.  It’s kinda col to have a reporter tell you, you asked a good question and they would try and ask!

That wasn’t even my first cool Twitter event of the week.  We went to the Brad Paisley concert last week but because of Hubby’s schedule we couldn’t make it to most any of the opening acts.  I couldn’t find anywhere, with time Brad Paisley himself was supposed to perform.  I threw a tweet out to @LiveNation on the very random, but highly unlikely chance I would get a response.

Not only did I get a response, I got three!  All of which made me very happy because we were going to be able to see the entire Brad part of the concert.  More on that tomorrow though.

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How is it possible, that Hubby, in his late-30s has never had a leg cramp?!  He woke me up at about 4:30 the other morning freaking out (just a little) about the fact that his leg couldn’t move and the muscle was all hard and OMG what was go on?!?!?!

After a bit of “coaching” from me he was able to get the leg stretched out and the muscle relaxed and I got to go back to sleep.

Of course I had to hear about it the next day.

Again, I ask, how is it possible he hasn’t had one of these before?  I have many several of them a year.

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Coming back from the concert last week I re-realized something funny and weird about my night driving.

Hey, it was late, Hubby was sleeping and I guess I needed to entertain myself somehow…and I want to know if there is anyone else out there that does this?

So it’s dark, really dark.  We’re on the highway, in the middle of farm country…that’s how dark it is.  Yes, there are a few cars on the highway and I was about to pull over to pass.  As all good drivers, I checked the blindspot over my shoulder and prepared to pull over…and, they I checked it AGAIN!  I get this in heavy traffic.  I get this during the day.  But at night?  I don’t know why but I tend to check my blindspot multiple times driving at night (I do it during the day too) when really if I couldn’t see lights a second ago, where on earth did I figure lights were going to mysteriously appear?

Does anyone else check that blindspot multiple times at night…even though you know that there was nothing there and nothing even remotely in the area?  Just wondering.

I joke about the fact that when I go to Swiss Chalet I get the baked potato and smother it with butter, sour cream AND chalet sauce.  Yes, I know, that’s just bad!  Would it help if I told you I eat at Swiss Chalet less than once a year (a byproduct of the fact that Hubby doesn’t eat chicken).   I have no idea how many calories are in this, but I’m smart enough to know that it’s a lot and I probably shouldn’t eat it.

Then I saw this (again,  on MSNBC…I need to stop visiting that site).

A simple eat this, not this article.

Olive Garden Fettuccini Alfredo meal

800 calories
48 g fat (30 g saturated)
810 mg sodium

Saturated fat equivalent: 1.5 full jars of Nutella!

I’ll take the Nutella please.  Of course, it should be noted that this is for the kids meal at Olive Garden.  This doesn’t include the bread sticks.  This is not the adult meal…I’d be afraid to ask just how many calories are in the adult equivalent.

Applebee’s Grilled Cheese with French fries

1,020 calories
54 g fat (17 g saturated)
2,170 mg sodium

Calorie equivalent: 400 Cheddar Goldfish Crackers. (That’s 1.3 full bags!)

400 Goldfish Crackers?!  That’s just crazy.  I’d be okay eating some of this one…I don’t tend to eat a lot of fries.  As if I’m justifying my eating a grilled cheese sandwich.  Either way you look at it though, that’s a lot of calories…half of what I should eat in a day. Not I say should eat…

And the one that takes the cake…

Friendly’s Mac & Cheese Quesadilla meal with Friendly Frank, Shirley Temple and Friend-z Peanut Butter Cup

2,270 calories
109 g fat (45 g saturated)
3,320 sodium

Calorie equivalent: 45.5 Glazed Munchkins from Dunkin Donuts!

We don’t have a Friendly’s here in Canada so I don’t really know what this meal is, but I do know that 2200+ calories for a kid is criminal!  That’s more than the recommended daily calories for an adult!!  In this case, I guess any kid would be better off eating 20 glazed munchkins from Dunkin Donut than the meal at Friendly’s.  Granted this meal includes the dessert.  I wonder what the calorie count is on just the meal.

I have/had the Restaurant app on my iPhone (I need to re-download it…apparently there was a glitch causing the phone to crash) and it was handy and helpful.  Did I look at it every time we went out to eat…goodness no, sometimes I just want to eat what I want to eat and not feel bad about it.  But, I have to admit that sometimes the app surprised me with the information it gave.  Sometimes the better looking choice wasn’t the better choice after all.

I hopped on to MSNBC.com Wednesday morning and came across this…

I don’t even know what to really say about it!

The caption made me laugh: Have you been hankering for a food product that can roll around inside your car for months before you eat it? If so, look no further. Because aren’t we all looking for food that can roll around in our car for months on end.  Okay, fine, if you know me, you know my car isn’t the cleanest place in the world, but really?!

Apparently this was designed by some dude in Salt Lake City, Utah.  And get this…he’s been working on this for “more than a decade!” I guess when you are determined nothing stands in your way.

Okay, I don’t think I could/would ever eat one, but I can sort of see how the PB & J could sort of work.  But chicken?  In a sandwich?  In a can?  Umm, no!

Apparently this guy has a thing for cans, because not only has he come up with sandwiches in a can, he also has been working on pizza in a can (not even sure how that would work or look) and French Toast in a can (because it’s so hard to make?!).

I love this selling feature…he knows his audience (apparently):

“So think about it,” Kirkland explained. “You’re a mom running your kids between school, piano lessons, soccer. Stopping at a fast-food restaurant takes time. This is something that literally could roll around the car for a few months. …

I hear it now…soccer mom’s rejoice, you don’t have to make sandwiches anymore, you don’t have to wait in line at your fast food restaurant of choice, you can simply tell your kids to reach under the seat and grab the can that’s been rolling around under there since last winter.

That said, how exactly does this stand up to winter?  I live in the frozen tundra, where for 4-5 months of the year (I was going to say 6, but I’m being hopeful) anything that freezes needs to be taken out of the car for fear of the frozen explosion.  I cannot even imagine coming out to my car on a freezing cold morning to see chicken sandwich splattered everywhere because my candwich exploded overnight.

Apparently, the sandwiches aren’t that bad.

I’m sorry, but I’m not buying it.

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P.S. – Yes, I’ve had this post up since Wednesday night. Hey, I was at the Brad Paisley concert Thursday night and completely forgot that I hadn’t done anything for Friday. It’s 1:36 a.m. and I should be sleeping but we just got home and my ears are still ringing. But the concert…well it was AWESOME! Pics coming on Wednesday.

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are to join in on the fun.

Why is that even though I know what’s coming it still makes me upset?  We (Hubby and I) like to watch Deadliest Catch every Tuesday.  I think we’ve actually watched the show since the very beginning.  Last Tuesdays episode was the beginning of the end and I found myself with tears in my eyes.  If you don’t watch the show, one of the main “characters” passed away back in February (and I knew back then that it happened) and in true reality TV form, the show has been following not only the events and happenings of the other captains, but also Captain Phil.  Discovery Channel has done a fabulous job of covering what happened, from Phil being found in his stateroom (after a massive stroke), to his admission and transfer of hospitals.  Tonight is his last  episode…and I plan on having a full box of kleenexes beside me.  I may also have to watch in another room.

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Oh, the farmer’s market!  I made it to the farmer’s market again this week and Ontario produce is finally making an appearance.  I ended up gathering four bags of fruits and veg.  Getting fresh veg is just so much better than the store bought stuff.

If I had more sun (and during the heat I’m glad we don’t) I’d like to have a garden.  Alas, we have tried and failed, but thats okay I’m happy to help my local farmers and buy the food they are growing for me.

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So my Five Finger shoes, yep, they actually are comfortable.  They look ridiculous (and creepy) but they are just so cool!  I don’t know yet if they are helping with my knees but I do notice a difference in my calf muscles.  I can feel them more when I’m walking.  I love walking in bare feet but don’t like the sharp objects (stones, twigs etc) that are around the house and these shoes are a perfect compromise.

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I am so behind in what I wanted to do this summer and you know what…I don’t care!  Well I do care, but it’s not really stressing me out.  I still have a bit of a cough, but otherwise I’m pretty much over my cold.  I may not have enjoyed the cold, but the forced relaxation…that I enjoyed, a lot!

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My friend brought me an early birthday/Christmas present from her recent weekend getaway to Chicago. (They’re not in the same month, not even close)

Like Oprah or not I like the bag!

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I still don’t have the last few plants in the ground yet.  Where they are being planted is in the direct sun most of the day and in the evening, the mosquitoes have been crazy.  I was hoping that with the heat they may have died off, but no such luck.  I am contemplating getting the plants in the ground (before they die) and moving them in the fall.

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My latest Facebook game…

I seem to find a game every summer that is a time killer.  Yet again, I have not been disappointed!

Well, it’s not much, but it’s the randomness that jumped into my mind tonight. Care to join in…

My little area of the world has been under a heatwave for a week now. Just over a week ago our daytime temp reached a high, A HIGH of 14C.  Yes, that’s a little cool for around these parts, especially for the end of June.  I wasn’t complaining though, I’d much rather have to add a layer or wear jeans, as opposed to trying to figure out how to stay cool when really that seems to be impossible.

The only heatwave we had last summer was when Hubby and I were on our roadtrip to Daytona Beach and Atlanta.  We expected the heat there and actually relished in it.  I mean we planned mini golf in 36C temperatures and didn’t bat an eye.  But back home, the AC didn’t even get turned on, heck it didn’t even get put in the window last summer.  So, this past week has been a little unexpected and well, HOT!

Monday I took the dog in to my parents for a swim.  Last summer was so blah that I didn’t take her in once, I didn’t even feel the need to go in the water.  After an hour of playing catch and swimming she was finally tired.  I say finally because really, my dog is never, NEVER tired.  She was so tired that when I took her out to the end of the dock so I could finally dunk myself, she wouldn’t even jump off the end to join me, she just gave me a pathetic don’t leave me look.  Not only do we have heat, we also have humidity that is building with each passing day.  Four hours after the swim and some of her fur was still so wet that my hand was soaking when I touched it.  Just a bit of humidity!

Yesterday, while Mom and I were making our second trip across the border in less than two weeks the temp topped out at 35C. That’s just plain crazy around here.  It wasn’t too bad though, the car had AC, the stores had AC and at Mom’s insistence we parked as close to the doors as possible.  Granted, at times that was not good enough – Mom wished that Target had valet parking at one point.  BTW, the shopping was great and I didn’t even really blow my budget, which was even better. Okay, I blew it a little, but I finally found golf shoes that fit and that I liked… sandals actually.

We did drive through one are on the way home where in a matter of a minute the temp dropped 9C and the rain came pouring down.  Nothing like going from 110 KPH to 80 KPH is the blink of an eye.  Mom flipped on the four ways while I tried to find the road and avoid other cars.  It was raining that hard and that fast at one point.  We drove under a bridge where heading into it wasn’t too bad (it was raining hard) but on the other side (I’m talking four lane bridge here) it was like you drove through a waterfall, it was raining that much harded (yes, it’s a word in my world).   I also got to experience my first hydroplane there was so much water on the highway.  Just a bit of a rush, but it wasn’t too bad.  Less than five minutes up the road the temperature was back up in the 30s and we needed the AC again.  It’s crazy how those storms can make such an impact.

It doesn’t look like today is going to be any better.  I definitely see another trip into my parents with the dog.  Both of us need it.  All in all, I’m not a huge fan of this type of heat – hot and dry is one thing, but hot an oppressive humidity is another.  The cold seems all but gone until I step outside.  There’s a reason the health officials are warning people with breathing problems to stay inside.  I wasn’t outside anymore than the time it took me to grab a few things out of the car and walk to the end of the driveway to get the mail and my lungs are all raspy sounding again.  Despite this, we’ll go swimming, we need to cool down somehow.

My real concern in this heat, well other than the heat…the actual weather.  The have been forecasting rain since Monday to break this heatwave and with each passing day we haven’t seen it.  (The rain I drove through yesterday was 2 hours from here).  We haven’t been seeing the rain, which means the humidity keeps building.  When the humidity builds and the temps are high that usually only means on thing – bad weather to follow!    It’s been just over two weeks since a tornado hit close to home, I’m not sure those people are ready for another potential storm…let alone this heat.  (I have nothing to complain about in comparison, that’s for sure!)

I guess there is also the possibility of another Black Out!

Update: The heat broke this afternoon.  It is glorious outside and you can actually get out there and do something!  It’s just fabulous!

I have been collecting material for a few months now knowing that I would eventually have time to do something with it.  Well, that time has finally arrived.  I laundered it (well, half of it!, okay, probably less than half of it!!) this morning and now it’s out drying.

About half of that is for projects I’m making for myself and the other half is for Christmas presents.  I’m looking forward to this.

Yesterday I had the line full of John Deere material for a gift I’m making for FIL.  (He doesn’t read this so I’m not giving away much).

I already made one of the gifts for a sister-in-law (no, not the SIL that occasionally stops by here ).

I’ve been collecting and planning for months now.  I blame the internet, stop by a few cool blogs and look what happens.

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In other news, can someone explain this to me?  My brother is in Vegas right now and I thought I’d check the temps to compare them to here.  It’s a little warm here today!!

I get the temp being less in the winter when there’s a wind chill, but in the summer…in Vegas?!  Maybe it’s the dry desert heat, it plays with the “feels like’ temps.  Unlike here where the “feels like” is already 10C hotter than the actual.   Ick!!

Thank you for your patience…I’ve been too tired, too busy and not home to be able to post over the past few days.

It’s the last day of school for the kids today and boy oh boy is everyone ready for it.  I have to go in again tomorrow and finish up but it should be a pretty easy day.  I also have a few students coming in to help me out.  How crazy is that…they are willingly coming in on the first day of their summer holidays.  Gotta love them.

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I finally got my US shopping itch resolved this weekend.  I wasn’t planning on going until later this week but when my mom called asking if I wanted to go on a roadtrip to drop off my brother and sister-in-law I really couldn’t say no.  Beside she paid for the gas and the hotel! I definitely scored there.

I couldn’t believe how quiet it was going over the border.  There was one car in front of us going in and four or five coming home.  It took less than 15 minutes to come back.  And I learned something coming back.  Aside from never admit to bringing back dairy products…don’t ask, how of all the stuff I brought back cheese and yogurt were the two things I mentioned.  And my mom…she told the guys she brought back…butter!  So I learned that we can only bring $20 worth of dairy products back during a visit.  Good to know, but also kinda sucks.  Milk is so much cheaper, like half the price.  So is cheese.  And we don’t have Yoplait yogurt up here and I LOVE the Key Lime flavour!

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Sometimes it pays to complain on Twitter about the service of a company.  I posted a tweet about the bad service, well actually it was refusal of service – because it was too close to closing (10 minutes from) at New York Fries.  Guess what?  They started following me and asked me to follow back so they could get more information.  I feel for the poor girl who refused to serve us…I highly doubt she’ll have expected me to post on Twitter, let alone have someone from the company ask for more info.  I don’t think she’ll know what hit her, but I bet she’ll just make the fries next time.  (I only made a stink about it because my sister-in-law is allergic to just about everything and it was the only thing she could eat.)

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I’m somewhat disappointed to be Canadian after this weekends G summits.  The G8 appeared to go off without a hitch or so much as a protestor.  The same can’t be said about the events in Toronto.  As a matter of fact on the way home from Niagara Falls we saw the caravan of buses flying down the highway.  Little did we realize until the 11 p.m. news that the buses were full of police officers being brought in as back up.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out this little video.  I’ll take a bit of comfort in knowing that some of the more aggressive protestors weren’t even Canadian.

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I’m looking forward to the summer break…a bit of Key Lime yogurt and a long weekend with the Hubby!

Won’t you join in on the weekly Tuesday random ramblings…or check out what others are rambling on about.

I can taste it, I can smell it, I can make it.  It’s funny because up until now, even though I knew summer vacation was so very close, I was still teaching like I had a month left. I am so ready for my summer vacation to start.  I have books to read, soaps to catch up on (I’ve been watching Days of Our Lives for over 20 years now), Christmas gifts to make and a house to organize.  Doesn’t sound like much a of a vacation does it?  I do plan on taking some time to just plain relax and do nothing before I start planning things for next year too.

There are no major roadtrips this year and you know what, I’m sort of bummed about it because I really do LOVE travelling in our trailer.  I am also quite content to not be going anywhere too.  We do have our annual NASCAR weekend and I am SO looking forward to that!!  It’s always a great weekend.

I also plan on hitting a local pottery studio to paint a few things.

Kayaking is hopefully in the plan too.  I live in Ontario and it’s been almost 3 months since I was in the water…did you do that math?  That means it was March…in Ontario!

Oh and because I couldn’t let it go…this weekend is the BIG G8 and G20 summits that are pretty much screwing up anything fun to do in cottage country and Toronto.  I have sort of been avoiding the whole news thing this week because it’s just been nuts for weeks and months now.  If you ask me, the $1.2 billion that has been spent on security has been a HUGE waste of money.  It’s just plain crazy.  I don’t really think much of my weekend plans will change, but you never know what this thing could me.  I live pretty much in the middle of both events…along the highway everyone will be travelling.

And hopefully next week(end) I will make my long awaited trip to the border to go shopping.  I’m not sure how much longer I can wait to get to Target.

We had quite the exciting day here in Ontario on Wednesday.

Around 2 p.m. the people who were working inside at the place I took my students came outside to ask us if we just felt things shake.  We had not, and thought they were pulling our leg.  The truly thought they felt something and heard/saw the dishes shake.  We weren’t convinced.

Not moments later another teacher I was with received a text asking if he felt the earthquake?!

I guess the guys inside weren’t pulling our leg.

We soon found out that indeed there was an earthquake, about a five hour drive away.  It was big enough to be felt where we were, but my guess is that we did not feel because we were outside and had nothing to hear or see move.  It kind of sucks really, because it would have been neat to have felt it.  Apparently it lasted almost 30 seconds.  That’s a lot of time to be oblivious of.

Later, almost near the end of the news came reports of a possible tornado touchdown about 25 minutes from me…and travelling in my general direction.  Apparently it skipped over me though because we got a bit of rain and a bit of wind, but nothing more.  The city on the other side of me also apparently saw funnel clouds and possibly had a tornado touchdown.

I just took this screenshot so you can see what has been going on and what is still to come.

I should also share this little tidbit of reading from newswire.ca…

“THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO HAS ISSUED A “RED ALERT” FOR AN IMMEDIATE THREAT IN THE CENTRAL ONTARIO AREA.

Emergency Situation: There have been reports of tornado activity in and around the Midland, Ontario area. Environment Canada has issued a Tornado Warning in this area. Storms are moving quickly to the east of this area.

Recommended Actions: Emergency Management Ontario recommends that persons in the area described as Penatanguishine to the north, Barrie to the south, Collingwood to the west, and Orillia to the east IMMEDIATELY shelter. Everyone in this area, including motorists and boaters, are required to go indoors now and seek shelter. Close all doors and windows. People currently outside this area are advised not to enter this area until further notice. If it is safe to do so, pets and livestock should be removed quickly from outside and given stored feed and protected water. Do not call 911 for information about this emergency. Remain tuned to this station for further information and instructions.”

That’s some serious warning if you ask me!  And where am I in all of the locations…pretty much smack, dab in the middle!  Great!!

Because I just can’t help it…

It is a serious situation, but really I can’t help but laugh a little.  The leaders of G8 and G20 are supposed to be landing today and tomorrow.  They have to travel through some of this.  Our government has thought of almost anything and everything that could possibly happen because of terrorists.  I’d like to see how they plan on controlling Mother Nature.  If they can pull that off, I think my government is more powerful then I give them credit for.