Vehicle Envy

So much change!

I've been a bad blogger. Since my last post, I've had a baby, become a WAHM, and reset my life goals. We'll see how things go now that I'm avoiding an 8-5 grind.

A friend sent me a blog link on Facebook that I found interesting. It gave helpful advice on how to pick a vehicle when considering the for for your kids' car seats.

http://vicarseattechs.com/2013/vehicle-shopping-with-car-seat-goggles/

What I found interesting was how many of the vehicles with problems are SUVs and trucks. In Canada, most of the parents I know insist they need a bigger vehicle for their kids, even of they only have one or two. This both fascinates and troubles me.

When I was pregnant, one of the first things people asked me was when I'd get a new vehicle. I'd just bought my first new-from-a-dealership-wow-I'm-the-first-owner car, a zippy Mazda 3GT, and it was only two years old. It gets great fuel economy, isn't super expensive to insure, and has a great maintenance warranty. I put on winter tires so I drive city roads and highways like I'm on rails. The cabin warms up fast because it's small. I park in stalls that make sedans cringe. I love this car.

And I have to give it up because I'm having a kid? I thought this was funny. "You'll see, they said knowingly, "Your car is so small, you won't fit a car seat! And all the baby stuff you have to carry, and then if it's a boy and he gets into sports... You'll be a minivan mom before you know it."

At this point the conversation would go on a tangent about why only a boy would get into sports or would get into sports that required a lot of equipment. But later I'd consider what they said, with a fair bit of dread.  I love my little car. A minivan? Ew. My mom had two kids, and the biggest vehicle we had was a small sedan. Also, I'm what I like to call a Prepared Minimalist Packer. Sort of a Girl Guide/Macguyver. I don't carry a ton of stuff; I improvise or I make do without, but I always carry safety/emergency stuff, especially in my car . How would that change with a baby?

It turns out that once I found my stride as a new parent, it didn't change how I pack. I carry a car seat, a stroller, a small or medium diaper bag, a baby car bag, and my emergency kit. My car seat is a Diono Radian RXT, so it's tall, narrow and will convert to a booster seat as my Minion grows. My stroller folds down very flat; it's a Bugaboo Chameleon so it separates into 2 pieces. I have a cargo box hoisted over the car from the rafters on case I need to carry a bunch more. I lower it on ratchet straps and clamp it on fast. No big deal.

But it made me think about Canadian's obsession with having a bigger vehicle. This is a fairly new trend. I think it started in the 1980s with the emergence of the minivan. The car companies marketed it as a perfect vehicle for families. That covered the Yuppies who wanted a new type of vehicle. What about the Dinks (Dual Income, No Kids. Don't get offended. I was proudly one until a year ago.) in comes the SUV. Bigger than a jeep and with a permanent roof. Enter the prevalence of the aptly-named Suburban.

Then in the following years, the two vehicle types sort of merged together to form a hybrid, 'mid-sized' vehicle. At the same time, despite populations moving from rural

Take the folks who "need" a giant truck for the occasional weekend pulling an RV. Renting a truck for that weekend is cheaper than the increase to your lease payments over one year, let alone three or five, and there's no wear on your own vehicle.

Consider the parents who "need" an SUV or minivan to haul their kids and their sports equipment around. A cargo box on top of a car does that just fine. That includes carpooling 2-3 kids and their hockey bags.

Is a Costco run the reason to supersize your vehicle? I do a Costco run with a car seat and stroller every week in a car. If we're getting something large, I get help hauling it. That happens once or twice a year, maybe.

And let's not start with the 4x4 argument. Most people don't know how to use 4x4 and rarely use it. Climb a lot of rough terrain in towns and cities, do you? For winter driving, you're better off to invest in winter tires than 4x4. Neither helps you drive to road conditions. Many people I know drive beyond road conditions, thinking their 4x4 makes them safer

Canadians are generally spoiled when it comes to our vehicles. That's good. But the "I need" conversation really needs to be changed. Marketing and the luxury makes people spend far more on their vehicle than they need to, making them a pain to drive or park. SUVs and truck "ride higher" but have weird blind spots that give them trouble. They are beasts to park; you don't see as many a-hole cars taking two stalls or park over the front or side lines.

Winter tires and a cargo box on a car with better fuel economy is cheaper to run and maintain, and easier to drive. Consider that there's a lot more families in Europe under similar driving and family conditions as North America, and a lot fewer trucks and SUVs. All I'm saying.

Guitar Luv: KT Tunstall

KT Tunstall is an amazing artist. Coming up the hard way, busking and touring small clubs, she worked her butt off even after signing a record contract before they'd let her record.

The result is a live act that leaves people with their jaws dropped. This was best seen in her stunning performance on "Later... With Jools Holldand" in 2004. Her last minute replacement of Nas left her with only 24 hours to prepare for a live UK national debut that left other acts speechless. (Check out the members of Embrace at 3:24)

I've always loved this live version even better than the album version, just for the sheer surprise of it. The recorded show version had the second verse sliced out, but it's still great.

This performance introduced the non-musical world to the Akai E2 Headrush loop pedal, which she has dubbed the "Wee Bastard," as a tool that does more than just echoes the chorus. Here is a vid KT did for Akai showing how easily she can use the loop pedal.

And my favourite song from her debut album, Eye to the Telescope, is not Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, but Suddenly I See. There are two official releases for this, and in my house we're split over which is better. My sweetie loves the "Standard Version," a more traditional "band plays in a darkly-lit warehouse" vid with the twist that KT joins herself mid-song and sings harmonies... with herself. I'm torn but I give the edge to the "Larger Than Life" version, a trippy vid that shows KT as a normal-sized person and a giant moving through a trainset diorama. It fits the jumpy rhythm of the song and it's charming.

Pick one for yourself!

After four million album sales, KT has stayed true to herself and hasn't let her success go to her head. She's political and she has no delusions of grandeur. My kind of artist!

I had vague ambitions of being an actress when I was younger (who didn't?). Alas, it was not to be, mostly due to my brutal stage fright.

I did all kinds of things to get over it. I joined the school choir, public theatre groups, sold sex toys at home parties. Try being shy when you have to describe the function of a Kegel exerciser to a room of giggling couples. I dare you. Even so, I had too many nerves and not enough talent.

But apparently, I could have just done Daytime TV soaps. This quick acting lesson is courtesy of my favourite Edmontonian in LA, Nathan Fillion of ABC's Castle, but more importantly Malcolm Reynolds of Joss Whedon's Firefly.

Gender Equality: An Obsolete Concept?

Today is the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day. It's a day for focusing on equality for women in this world.

A lot of my friends (okay, Caucasian males) comment that we don't need these kinds of focuses anymore. They think the world is fair enough. Well, if that's the case, then we should find equality is drastically better than it was 20 years ago, right?

Not in the movies. In 2009, women directed 7 per cent of the top-grossing films, the same amount as in 1989. After Kathryn Bigelow won the Oscar last year for best director, I expected to see women nominated again this year. Especially with two Best Picture films that were directed by women. I was disappointed that there were none.

Well then, at least Canada is an example of gender equality for the world to follow, right? According to IndexMundi.com, the Canadian sex ratio (males/females) is 0.98, so we're almost evenly divided men to women. And don't forget:

"Canada was among the first countries to sign Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms enshrines the principles of gender equality in employment, public life, and education in Part I, section 15. These principles are also reflected in the Canadian Human Rights Act and the 1998 Multiculturalism Act, which introduced measures to protect and promote the rights of aboriginal women and foreigners." Wikigender.org

So how does Canada measure up?

I checked with the World Economic Forum, which selects the top countries in terms of gender equity by comparing 1) income and employment, 2) participation in higher education, 3) health, and 4) political involvement. Here's the top 15 countries for 2010:

Wait, where's Canada?

We're 20th. Out of 134 countries, we came in 20th. Not bad, but not great for a country that prides itself on being the vanguard for human rights and peacekeeping.

So where does Canada excel? Umm... socialism.

"One bright spot in terms of women’s equality is in the results found for women who work in unionized environments. Women make 82% of men’s incomes in such environments – even when comparing full time, full year employment. When assessing the impact of unionization, the study reveals that non-unionized environments create a wider gender gap – women make only 72% of men’s incomes in such environments." Center for Social Justice

"Women aged 25 to 29 employed on a full-time, full-year basis earned 85 cents for each dollar received by their male counterparts in 2005.

In 2005, the gender income gap was narrower for those new entrants that had achieved higher levels of education than for their less-educated counterparts:

• Women aged 25 to 29 holding a graduate or professional diploma and working on a full-time, full-year basis earned 96 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts in 2005.


• Women with a bachelor’s degree earned 89 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts.


• Women with a registered apprenticeship or trades certificate earned only 65 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts.


• Young women with no high school diploma earned 67 cents for every dollar earned by young men with the same level of education.

For the most highly educated Canadian women, gender differences in earnings within identical occupations are generally very small among new entrants to the labour force... Two exceptions are management occupations and sales and service occupations, where Canadian women consistently earn far less than their male counterparts. Young women employed in management occupations earned 86 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts in 2005. In sales and service occupations, the gap was even larger, at 72 cents for every dollar. Canadian women continue to be overrepresented in low-paying occupations in Canada." Conference Board of Canada

Wait, so women making at least 20 per cent less than men is pretty good? Awesome. And where are we failing?

"Statistics Canada's 1998 report Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile, which analysed data provided by 154 reporting police agencies, shows that:

• Women continue to outnumber men nine to one as victims of assault by a spouse or partner;
  in 1996 half of all family homicides involved spouses;


• Between 1977 and 1996, three times as many women were killed by their spouses as were men killed by their spouses;


• Girls are at greatest risk of sexual assault by a family member while between 12 and 15 years of age;


• In 1996 nine of ten crimes committed against older adults by family members were physical assaults.

Violence is a major factor in women's health and well-being. The measurable health-related costs of violence against women in Canada exceed $1.5 billion a year. These costs include short-term medical and dental treatment for injuries, long-term physical and psychological care, lost time at work, and use of transition homes and crisis centres" Health Canada

Oh, and Canadian women have only 22% representation in government. And that's an all-time record.

So when I hear my friends say that they're pissed off that women and visible minorities get special programs and scholarships, I sort of want to punch them in the stomach. Not in the nuts. That's sexist. But hard. In the stomach.

Link Love: Goodnews.com

As someone who surfs the internet a lot, I see a lot of discount offers. There are tons of programs that offer to send you local deals. All you have to do is submit some personal information.

This is my favourite of these offerings. Goodnews.com donates a portion of their proceeds to a local charity.


First, they are partnering with Edmonton Food Bank, who will receive 5% of all sales generated from January 25 to February 27, 2011.

Send your friends to the website, because the discounts only happen if enough people apply for them.

Unproductive or not?

Today, I gave up on plans to go cross-country skiing and spent most of the day in bed finishing The Hunger Games trilogy. It's something I've been putting off for a couple of months, and I always find a good reason to do something more "productive."

"I have to paint the bathroom."

"There's Christmas shopping to do."

"I need to clean out my closet."

It feels like I've been going non-stop for months. Even the Christmas holiday was an exercise in constant motion. I try to maintain work and life balance, but there's always something to do. I came back from a week off work feeling like I hadn't had any time off. And to make matters worse, I'm so distracted by all the things I should be doing that I have trouble focusing when I read a book. So finishing a book takes a while, and I seem to find reasons not to read.

But today? Edmonton received a great snow dump this weekend. The snow is fresh and almost 30 cm deep (that's over a foot for the non-metric) and the weather is -16 degrees Celsius. It's a little too deep and kind of cold for cross country skiing. Also, my once-a-week meds have 12-hour side effects that are pretty much like being hella-drunk: dizziness, balance issues & nausea. So naturally, I took them last night and forgot how I'd feel this morning.

That makes it a stay-home day. Now, the house could use a good post-Christmas scrubbing, and I'm still cleaning out my closets for the clothing drive I'm running at work. Since Ukrainian Christmas is over, I should probably take down the Christmas tree.

But I woke up to the bright post-snowfall sunlight streaming into my bedroom window. My hon was already up and playing Call of Duty downstairs. So instead of rushing to get the day going, I said screw it and stayed in bed all morning and most of the afternoon, and read until the daylight started to fade. Like most Sundays, I wasn't hungry in the morning. Let's face it: I eat plenty as a middle-income Canadian, so skipping one meal won't be the end of the world.

And when I was done? My side effects had passed. I came downstairs and made a really tasty meal of leek soup and pan-fried pork loin and finished it off with a homemade latte. I'd finished the book series I've been really excited to finish. And I felt more relaxed than I have in months. One day did more to relax me than a whole week away from work.

It would be easy to dismiss today as an unproductive day. Oxford Dictionary defines unproductive as "(of an activity or period) not achieving much; not very useful." I could have been doing a lot of things. Instead, I see today as productive by just giving me time to breath and accomplish one of those "less important" things on my to do list that's been nagging at me.

By bringing down my stress levels, today was definitely useful.

Video: Octopus kills shark

Keeping with the theme...

What happens when you put an octopus and a shark in the same aquarium tank?

Craziness, that's what.

New Look to the Blog

The blog is all shiny with a new look. Now that my program and my first major home renovation are done, I'll have more time to devote to writing.

I also posted my first Photoshop background. It fits the website theme and my personality, non?

Attention Please

Gerard Butler and Hugh Jackman attended the Metropolitan Musuem of Modern Art for Global Poverty Project event last night. They posed for photos together.

Somehow, they knew I was having a terrible week (totalling my car in a freeway pile-up) and knew just how to cheer me up.

Thank you. That is all.

Philly Opera rules the flash mob

Standing among the the crowd at the Reading Terminal Market on 24 April 2010, members of the Philadelphia Opera Company treated the crowd to "Flash Brindisi".

The company piped Verdi's "La traviata" over the loudspeakers, and broke into song within the amazed crowd. Cell phones frantically captured the performance on video, as young and old alike were enchanted by what seemed at first to be impromptu karaoke. The crowd quickly realized what was happening, and stopped their busy shopping to enjoy the performance. The performers engaged some of the more willing viewers in mini-serenades.

What a great way to celebrate opera, and advertise for the opera company. These days it's easy to dismiss opera as elitist or out of touch, but this performance reminded everyone in the marketplace that opera can be just as lighthearted as any modern form of music. It truly brought the opera to the average person.

This was an innovative twist on the flash mob. Edmonton Opera, are you listening?

Making My Day Easier

We moved into our home in October 2002, just a couple of blocks from 34th Street and 34th Avenue. At the time, that intersection was controlled by three-way stop signs.

Since then, the road has extended into Silverberry and traffic lights have gone up. This has helped with the lefthand turn onto 34th Street, but the turn has been tricky in the morning. Everyone turns into slow-moving traffic because most of it is turning right. Still, it's not ideal and would take 10 minutes to turn if done legally. It's also a kittle scary with all the buses turning at the intersection.

Last week, the city installed a left turn signal. Finally, we can turn safely during rush hour traffic.

Thanks, City of Edmonton. This makes my commute much easier in every direction!

Twilight-themed MasterCard

You can now purchase a MasterCard Debit with your favourite book series on it. Really? When does merchandising go too far? Is this any different in principle than a credit card that supports the Oilers or APEGGA?

At least they're pre-paid. The interest rates would have to be spectacular.

The Models Are Coming! The Models Are Coming!

At long last, we don't have to pay crazy shipping and California Sales Tax to get lovely lacy things from Victoria's Secret. They are opening a flagship store at West Edmonton Mall in August. It might just be a model invasion!


I love so many of the clothes they sell, and even though I've always tried to stay loyal to Canadian lingerie brands, their product is flat-out gorgeous. I also like the La Senza product, but I feel less loyalty to them now that they are no longer Canadian (Limited Brand owns both companies). Victoria's Secret bras just fit me better, and they feel more sensual than Wonderbras, which are my other go-to bra.

When the first buzz hit about VS coming to Canada, I was disappointed because they were only talking about PINK stores. But with a 16,000 sq. ft. full store, maybe we'll see some lovely clothes, coats & boots next to the delicates.

What is your favourite bra maker?

Synthetic DNA grows in cells

Just when I think life is returning to normal...

They create artificial life.

It's official. The zombie apocalypse is coming.

I'm glad I live on the outskirts of a smaller city. Time to stockpile the essentials: food, water, rifles, lipgloss. You know, the bare necessities.

Here is Craig Venter presenting the work in his TED Talk:

Putting the Olympics to Bed

Olympic fervor is winding down this week. The downtown core will be teeming with Olympic and Paralympic supporters at Churchill Square today at noon to celebrate Edmonton's contribution to the Vancouver 2010 Games.

Among the honoured guests is Dr. Bob Steadward, who is considered by many to be the father of international paralympic sport. Bob helped to organize the first national wheelchair games in 1968, and from that point forward he was an advocate for disabled athletes.

He worked through the 1980s and 1990s to found the International Paralympic Committee and as IPC president from 1989 to 2001, he increased the member countries from under 40 to over 200. During is presidency, the Olympic and Paralympic Games were held concurrently for the first time at Seoul, Korea in 1988. For his work with disabled athletes, Bob has received the Order of Canada, membership in the Canada Sports Hall of Fame, and the Olympic Order.

It's exciting to see what kind of impact Edmonton had on the games this year, and how much we helped to Own the Podium. But for me, it's even more inspiring to see one man's work to change the face of international sport.

In the meantime, it's two years until the London Games. I miss the Summer & Winter Games all happening in the same year. It happens so often now that it feels watered down, not like an "Olympic Year."

Oh well. Bye, Vancouver 2010. We had a great time. On to London 2012!

RIP: Alexander McQueen

L'enfant terrible est mort.

Alexander McQueen died Thursday at the age of 40 in his London home, nine days after the death of his mother and shortly before London and Paris Fashion Week began. Fashion's bad boy combined impeccable tailoring with irreverent and fantastic vision.

He has always been one of my top five designers. His collections were controversial, his aesthetic was eclectic and his runway shows were ambitious. Here are a few of his pieces that inspire me.

xoxoxo

Olympic Spirit

GeoTagged, [N53.53994, E113.43032]

The Olympic Torch passes through Edmonton tonight. I was meeting some friends downtown at the Fairmont Hotel MacDonald, so we went out to see it.

It's only -8 degrees so the weather was nice for a winter theme. Lots of people on the street, and lots of police presence.

A fun time for sure. Now it's time for a Hotel MacDonald lounge drink. I'm having a Polar Bear - hot chocolate with Bailey's & Peppermint Schnapps. Yum!

Hypothyroidism - Gears Grinding to a Halt

Wow. I have a medical reason for being a fat, lazy slob. Cool!

I just had an appointment with my doctor to follow up on some blood work. It was part of my annual physical, but I put it off for months because I have a thing about needles. He wanted to test my thyroid hormone levels because I had put on weight over a year that hadn't come off and my Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) symptoms have been stronger this year. I just have no energy and I'm more sluggish than usual. He wanted to check if I have diabetes or an iron deficiency.

I was nervous for the last week after booking my appointment, mainly because my doctor's schedule was so open and I'm used to booking appointments farther out. Usually, I need to book at least a week in advance, but the receptionist sounded like I could come in the following day. That didn't work with my schedule, but I kept thinking, 'What's wrong that he can see me right away? He never sees me right away!' I joked about it with Sweetie last night, telling myself "It's not a tumor." Okay, so I can be fatalistic.

When I went in, My test results showed that my cholesterol is a little bit high, but marginally, so adjusting my diet will fix it. My blood, blood sugar and iron levels are all good. Then he dropped the sluggish bomb.

He confirmed that I have hypothyroidism. My thyroid is producing about half the thyroid hormones I need to run my metabolism properly.

Now for the crazy part. I'm looking up hypothyroidism online, and I discover the following symptoms. Look at how many I have (in green):

• Dry, thick skin (check - most of my skin's not thick, but it's been super-dry for about four years)
• Hair thinning
• Painful muscles and joints (check - my shoulder has been giving me pain for about two years)
• Depression (CHECK- that's a big 10-4, buddy! Four years ago I had my worst bout of SAD in two decades and I still haven't recovered fully. It's been pissing me off because it's supposed to lessen as you age.)
• Memory problems (check - I have horrible short-term memory, and it's seemed worse in recent years)
• Constipation
• Goitre
• Heavy, irregular or prolonged menstrual periods
• Low body temperature (below 97.8°F first thing in the morning) (check - I've been checking my basal temperature daily for 6 months)
• Low blood pressure (check - it runs in my family)
• Puffy eyes
• Slow pulse
• Reduced libido (check - for the last few years)
• Fatigue (check - tired when I wake up, drained when I go to sleep, too tired to sleep)
• Chronic sinus infections (check - my whole life)
• Headaches (check - in the last few years I've had fairly regular headaches, but it was problems with my bite/teeth)
• Sweating abnormalities
• Heat and/or cold intolerance (check - I'm a bit of an iceberg)
• Irritability (Shut Up! I mean, check)
• Fluid retention
• Anxiety/panic attacks (check)
• Frequent colds and sore throats (I get sore throats all the time, but only for a day or so)
• Lightheadedness (check - all the time)
• Ringing in the ears (check)
• Decreased concentration (...what? Oh, check.)
• Slow wound healing (check - it takes months for the red spots from even the tiniest sores to heal. Ingrown hairs are the bane of my existence right now.)
• Easy bruising (So my Sweetie says... Not like that!)
• Unhealthy, dry, brittle or ridged nails (check - I've always had a couple of nails with ridges, but the last five years they've gotten worse and more nails have them.)
• Acid Indigestion (check - doctor told me it was acid reflux)
• Cold hands or feet (check - my feet are always freezing cold, but I try to ignore it until I touch other skin to them)
• Inappropriate weight gain (check - no, I won't say how much. Not a lot, but enough for my doctor to wonder)
• Hypoglycemia (sorta check - my baseline blood glucose is normal, but if I go too long between meals, I get extremely irritable and lightheaded)
• Falling asleep during the day
• Itching (check - comes with dry skin, right?)
• High cholesterol (check - Dude!)
• Loss of outside portion of eyebrows (although mine are thinner than they used to be...)

This blew my mind. Most of the oddball things that are wrong with my health are symptoms of low thyroid function! This sounds like a laundry list of woes, but if you think about how much your endocrine system controls your body, it makes sense that systems all over would be affected. The human body is wild.

This is good news because it's a relatively easy fix. From the western medicine side, I can just take a synthetic thyroid supplement, just like taking extra vitamins. He wrote me a prescription for SynThroid and told me that it will take about two weeks to feel the effect, so by Christmas I should be a ball of energy. He also told me to book a six-month follow up. More needles. Great.

I'm not taking this lying down though. A bit of research revealed that from the holistic side, I can take iodine, selenium, and add coconut oil to my diet.

It turns out that too much polyunsaturated fat can inhibit tissue response to thyroid hormones. Coconut oil is a saturated fat, and it promotes increased metabolism. Coconut oil will not cure a sluggish thyroid, but it's like adding high octane fuel to your engine - it improves performance (metabolism). Crazy, huh? That might explain why I ate like a pig in the Dominican Republic and didn't gain a single pound. Lots of pina coladas.

Video Luv: Angry Alien Productions

Have you ever heard the adage that says everyone is especially good at three things? Sometimes the three things are kind of weird, but there are always three things people excel at.

I love movies. I watch a lot of movies, old and new, and I love to see movies over and over again. One of my three things is trivia, especially TV and movie trivia. I watch TV shows and movie and retain all sorts of oddball information about them. I love pulling quotes and

For a movie geek like me, Angry Alien Productions is wicked fun. 30-Second Bunnies Theatre takes movies and condenses them down to half a minute, as performed by cute bunnies. Even the non-bunnies often have bunny ears mysteriously tied around their heads.

Jennifer Shiman creates the 30-Second Bunnies Flash movies all by herself, with her friends helping out with some of the voices. Started in 2004 as a way to open doors as a satire humour coloumnist, Shiman first bunnified "The Exorcist." After a lot of positive feedback, the bunnies made more films that year, until Good Morning America played their version of "Titanic." After tha, 30-Second Bunny Theatre was invited to create movies for Starz.com, which now hosts the bunnies' newest releases.

My favourites include The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Reservoir Dogs and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. But the best, for me, has to be the one with a 4,000-pound shark with bunny ears tied around his head. That's right...

http://www.angryalien.com/0804/jawsbunnies.asp
Da-dum. Da-dum. Da-da-da-dum da-da-da-dum da-da-DUM!

This month, the bunnies are wishing us a Merry Christmas by bunnifying Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. This marks the first time they've tackled an animated film. Somehow there's an irony there...

P.S. Watch for the scroll-over buttons at the beginning and the end of the movies for some extra bunny goodness.

Weather Is Crazy Here!

Well, hot damn! The last two months have been crazy. School has been crazy with a group project, and we're renovating two bathrooms. To prep for our recent vacation, both Sweetie and I were working a lot of extra hours at work.


On the bright side, I just got back from a wonderful wedding vacation in Punta Cana and went to work today when the weather was 15 degrees. In November!

The lawns were dying when we left, and now the leaves have finally fallen off the trees. This was a problem that could weaken the trees over the winter.

How amazing is the weather in Edmonton? You never know what the weather will bring!