I’d be lying if I said this was the best thing I got for Christmas (that was actually the hand-written book of her recipes that my Mom gave me), but this gift from Chris and Tash was definitely the most fun!
The best part is they also gave me a ShamWow, some Mighty Putty, and all the fixins from the Slap Chop commercial.
One of the reasons the blog hasn’t been as active as it used to is this has been a very rough year for my family.
In the “searching for a silver lining” sense of it, here is a story about my mom and Dad, from the Woodstock Daily Sentinel Review.
Dad used to call it the “Sentimental Review”, and in this case, it’s definitely true.
http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2243397
I don’t know where to sneeze anymore. I had a sneeze coming, took off my glasses to prevent them getting blown across the room, then went to sneeze in my sleeve.
Then I realized I had no sleeve. (I was wearing a short sleeved shirt.)
So I went for a Kleenex from the box across the table, but at the last minute, I realized I wasn’t going to make it.
So I went to sneeze into my hand, but, and I am not making this up, jerked my hand away because I have been so brainwashed to not sneeze into my hand that I couldn’t do it.
So instead, I ended up sneezing all over my glasses.
Please forgive any typos, I can’t see what I’m typing here.
There are things I love about Europe that are getting drilled home on our trip. There are things I don’t like as well, but I won’t call them out unless they are really egregious.
Likes:
- All the public transit everywhere is on the honour system. It is dependable. Every stop, subway, tram or bus, has a timer telling you when the next vehicle is coming.
- Beer. How can it be better and somewhere between half and one-tenth the price? Economics doesn’t work that way.
- Movie theatres. Okay, the sample size is tiny (I have seen one movie in Europe (it was Sunday night and Vienna doesn’t do Sundays)) but I love that the seats are assigned. Takes all the rushing for seats, worrying about who you’re sitting next to etc., out of the equation, and that’s great.
- Toilets. Almost all the toilets have very sensible “big flush” and “little flush” buttons. The one in the Vienna apartment just has a sort of on / off switch - flush as much as you need. Such a smart way to save water.
Dislikes:
- Stairs. See picture. Those are the stairs up to our apartment in Vienna. There are 96 knee crackers in that picture.
- All beverages besides beer. Are you thirsty? Tough! They aren’t going to bring you water unless you pay a lot for it. Want a diet coke? Be prepared to pay cognac prices for it. Europeans probably go into a 7-11 and look at Big Gulps the way I look at beer here.
- The remotes in our apartment. One is for the TV, one is for the “satellite cable” box. Both have one red button and one green button on the very top row of the remote. Both remotes have power one/off and mute in the top row. But with one remote, power on/off is red and mute is green, with the other remote, mute is red and power on/off is green. Makes you wish you were colour blind.
Today I had a conversational exchange with someone that took a familiar shape. It was so familiar, I think it’s safe to say I’ve had the conversation a hundred times before. It wasn’t with a guy called Bill, but to protect the innocent, I have renamed him.
It goes a little something like this:
John: Hey Bill
Bill: Hey John
John: How’s it going?
Bill: Pretty good, how about you?
John: Meh
This is what I call “standard walking-past-each-other-in-the-hallway conversation #1″
Problem is, there were some words in the exchange that my brain supplied that my ears never actually heard, namely the “How about you?” part.
So the ACTUAL conversation went like this:
John: Hey Bill
Bill: Hey John
John: How’s it going?
Bill: Pretty good
John: Meh
Unfortunately, this is what is known as”standard John-is-a-jerk conversation #1″
Tonight we went to see Moon, a fantastic movie I highly recommend to the thinking science fiction fan.
We saw it at the AMC Yonge and Dundas, and because we’re “members” we were each rewarded with a small popcorn.
The popcorn at AMC is a little dangerous, because they put you in control of the “golden topping” dispenser. I finally got my head around the proper dispensing ratios of topping, but my only complaint was that the popcorn didn’t seem to be salty enough. Now sure, I don’t really need more salt in my life, but if you’re having movie theatre popcorn, you want some salt.
That’s when I noticed, as I trickled the topping, that there was a salt shaker next to the popcorn!
And that’s where I made my fatal flaw.
Because the salt shaker was shaped like the stuff that we all like to call “shakey stuff” like nacho cheese or ketchup, I ended up treating it like that - namely piling it on like I was trying to coat each and every kernal like a cheetos puff
Thing is …. you really shouldn’t pile salt on like that.
I tried shaking it off in the theatre. I tried blowing it off (literally). I even tried turning the bag upside down and blocking the top and sort of shaking it like I was panning for gold, no dice.
No, I just ate salty popcorn until my insides were pickled. I don’t feel so good right now, but I have no one to blame except myself (and AMC for their crazy free-running salt shaker).
According to the New York Times, 95% of blogs are abandoned. Anyone still checking here probably feels like this blog is one of them, but not so.
I have a lot to write about, but I’ve been having a bit of a hard time lately.
I promise to you all these topics, as soon as I’m able to bring myself to write again:
All this and more… soon. As soon as I can actually think and type and write again.
Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As ‘Fun, Watchable’
As I’ve pointed out before, The Onion is ultimately always right, so I am scared about how to think about the new Star Trek movie. I want it to be good …. but not good in a commercial, soda-poppy, generic-action-flick sort of way. I want it to be great, intellectual and slightly … just SLIGHTLY innaccessible to the majoriy. If that makes me a bad person, I hope it’s in a Harcourt Fenton Mudd sort of way.
If there are two things I love, it’s Iron Chef (the original from Japan) and Les Miserables.
Well, that’s overstating it a bit, I love them both, but that makes it sound like they are the only things I love. Suffice it to say, I really love them both.
So that’s why I was especially surprised when I found out they were related!
This video, which I have seen several times, originally aired on PBS, and is a production of the music in Les Miserables on its 10 year anniversary. This particular song is “Do You Hear the People Sing?” one of the greatest songs from the musical, and this version is sung by 17 different Jean Valjeans, the performers who made it most famous from different countries.
And then look there — 41 seconds in! The Jean Valjean from Japan — It’s Chairman Kaga from Iron Chef!
Sure, he’s not yelling “Allez cuiscene!” and he’s wearing a much less ostentatious outfit than he normally does, but it’s him!
Now we know where he got the money to form his world famous culinary institute.