Happy Valentine's Day

Sometimes, after the fur flies, you just know it's time to make up.
Hope your Valentine's Day is purrrrfect!

chocolate vaginas

There are a great many interesting things one learns if one works on a university campus. It's not all about academia, folks, no sirree.

The Women's Resource Centre was selling chocolate vaginas at a table in the hallway between Morriset Library and Montpetit Hall, near the Tim Horton's outlet. They looked like chocolate cupcakes to me. There might have been a cherry or cinnamon heart on the top of a few. It was some sort of fundraiser, either for the Women's Resource Centre or for a production of The Vagina Monologues, which either has been performed or will be performed here at uOttawa. That whole desription sounds vague, but the truth is, I didn't pay all that much attention: I didn't want to be standing there looking interested in chocolate vaginas that cost $3 a piece. It would have been different if I was a guy. Or a lesbian. Interesting concept though. I think the whole thing is tied in to opposing violence against women, a worthy cause.

At the other end of the hallway was Braids for Aids. There I did stop, because two young women approached me and explained, very articulately I might add, the purpose of their booth. (It's summarized in the poster you'll find if you follow the link.) It's partially in conjunction with Black History Month, and partially because it's international week at UO. Braids for Aids was asking for a loonie donation, I gave a toonie, and one of the women handed me three beads. She offered to put a braid in my hair, but since I feel it's way too short, they suggested I donate the beads to a sister, daughter, friend, etc. Anybody want some beads?

Well, it's time to go and see what else is out there on my way to working the next class.

Two more days and I'll be in heat--I mean the sun down in Texas, of course, silly!

if it's not WWOOFing, maybe it's tweeting

~ This post has been a work-in-progress for five days; I began writing it on Monday, Jan 26 ~

First off, belated Happy Birthday wishes to Duane, who turned thirtysomething on Saturday! We sent you a card, Duane, but I was too cheap to use Xpresspost (≈$10 for a card!!!), so look for it in the next day or three. (Update: Apparently the card showed up Wednesday. Maybe it's time to buy another scratch'n'win.)

Day 48 of the Ottawa Transit strike, although it's really affected me, personally, for only 21 days...it's long enough already. Stop the insanity. (Update: OK, so threatened with back-to-work legislation by the Feds the day after they brought forth the "budgie" - nod to Air Farce's Chrétien-inspired skits - the city and the union agreed to binding arbitration at day 51. The good news is that buses will return to the roads in a week or so; the bad news is that there will be service on select routes only. Transpo's site says it may take up to 14 weeks for full service to return. I try not to utter obscenities as a rule, but to that news my response can be nothing other than wtf?!)

It hasn't helped morale any that we've been getting some decidedly Manitoba-like temperatures, albeit not quite as cold. It just makes one want to run away. (Update: it's warmed up, but we've received snow which makes running, not to mention walking, a challenge.)

Speaking of running away, we are. We spent some time with a travel agent a few Saturday mornings ago (Jan 10), but ultimately decided that we're a little leery of the economic situation - yes, despite the skeptic in me that thinks the downturn operates analogously to a self-fulfilling prophecy that someone in the upper echelons dreams up. Realistically, we're not in a position to spend a week at a posh resort.

The Ottawa Citizen's Reb Stevenson captured our dilemma in the introductory sentence of his article, "Wwhat in the wworld is WWOOFing?" To recap, World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms is an organization whereby travellers enjoy free food and lodging in exchange for their help with chores, which can be "anything from weeding to harvesting to tending animals."

Enter Plan B: a telephone to James's snowbird parents in Texas. We actually booked our flights Jan 13, before the article appeared. I toss in that trivia to show how shrewd we are, how attuned to the collective unconscious.

Not sure about the weeding and harvesting--when we visited in Dec 2004 our chores consisted primarily of dishes and refilling jugs of water from the dispenser at the community hall--but tending animals is a possibility. My parents-in-law own a rambunctious male Shi Tzu puppy named Sasha (or possible Sacha, after Trudeau's son's nickname), and Sam, a gorgeous, aloof, ferocious, declawed cat, who is exceedingly discriminating in her affections (she loves brother-in-law Brian, who used to feed her, and my father-in-law, who feeds her now).

I'm not crazy about the pup, but I'm going to suck it up. What's a little woofing in exchange for some fun in the sun? And this time around, I am fortifying myself with vitamins, because there are few things less miserable than descending upon one's in-laws, 3000 km from home, with a raging sinus cold.

So while present circumstances may leave something to be desired, I'm content 'cause the countdown's on. We're "tweatin'" ourselves to a mini vacation. Two more weeks...and that's something to make a little noise about.

no soup for me

It felt like a really, really, really long day.

I'm extremely thankful for my morning carpooling buddies who pick me up at 6am, but getting up at 5 is beginning to wear me down. This morning we got to the downtown parking lot at 6:35, and I reached the university by about 7:10. I don't mind the walk; it's rather refreshing. I had to wait for the Tim Horton's to open at 7:30. Met the student and a TA at 8am, then worked through a busy lab (i.e., lots of conversation) and a steady-paced lecture. With another 3-hour lab still ahead of me, I tell you, I was ready for lunch.

All I wanted was a simple bowl of soup--maybe cream of mushroom, broccoli, or leek & potato (mmm, that's my fave). I would have settled for what they call "garden vegetable medley," which is probably concocted from the leftover side dishes of the week before. (Right, Celina?) However, Le Snack in Marion Hall was serving something that looked like mostly watered-down beef consommé. So I girded up my loins and struck out for Faire Alimentaire at SITE. FA had two, count them, two chicken soups. Chicken Chowder and Chicken Rice or something like that. The point is they were both chicken broth based. The UO food service meatatarian soup nazis were obviously out to get me today. I didn't have the gumption to try my luck at the other Faire Alimentaire. (Fair indeed! I suppose the translation would be "to make food" or "to do food.") Good thing I had the foresight to get a Tim's donut and pack a few snacks.

I won't get into the details of the really, really, really long carpool ride home with a bunch of strangers (all university students), other than to say that fresh snow was falling as the driver-whose-first-language-is-definitely-not-English observed the posted speed limit and tailgated. And I was in the front passenger seat. Hitchhiking home is looking more and more like a viable option.

now that's class

Scoping out MetroNews, hoping for some confirmation on which way the striking bus drivers voted yesterday, I came across this gem (third paragraph from the bottom):

"I just want to thank the president for hosting us," Obama said. When a reporter asked Obama what he could learn from the mistakes of the four presidents surrounding him, he smiled and said he planned to learn from their successes. (emphasis mine)

Smooth.

I wanted to link to the SNL "Obama: I keep it cool" sketch, but at some point Hulu took over the world and won't let anyone outside the U.S. download it (grumble, grumble). It's been removed from YouTube. It seems the Tinkernut has a work-around. I can't be bothered, however, because I don't want to download anything (a) that may interfere with my current access all over the place, and (b) I'm not certain that I can undo. The only alternative is to sit through Britethorn's commentary on the sketch for a non-copyright-infringing excerpt (at 0:50-1:28).

New Year's Eve

Here's wishing you a warm, safe New Year's Eve, and the beginning to a fabulous 2009!

We enjoyed a quiet evening of Pepsi, pizza, Monty Python sketches and the "Final Flight" of Royal Canadian Air Farce on CBC. In the mid-1990s, I rarely missed a Friday night in front of the tube with Luba Goy, Don Ferguson, Roger Abbott, and John Morgan ("I'm Mike, from Canmore"). Ah, those were the days, my friends, those were the days.

Cheers!

bonus points

To point or not to point, that was the question.

Back in November, Shoppers Drug Mart sent a coupon informing me that (a) an acquisition of 1,965 more points by Dec 31 would promote me to Plus member status, and (b) if I were to purchase $150 worth of stuff before year's end, I would receive 15,000 Optimum points--which works out to $25. How warped is this idea "the more you spend, the more you save"? Math has never been my strong suit, but even I can figure out that when all is said and done, these calculations still mean that I'm down $125!

I used to think the Shoppers Optimum program was a devious marketing scheme, a huge, annoying conspiracy designed to hold up the cash lines as gullible members fished through their wallets for those blasted cards. I resisted until the fateful day that found me alone in line; in my weakened, solitary state, I was no match for the persuasive cashier. Only three or four years later, after I'd all but forgotten I was even collecting points, a cashier asked if I wanted to redeem points. Turned out I'd built up $55 worth of savings. Still consumeristic smoke-and-mirrors, but way less annoying.

The aforementioned coupon came close to finding itself recycled at least a dozen times. However, for some inexplicable reason, I couldn't part with it. Yesterday, when I began to tally up the items I needed, I realized they'd add up to approximately $100. Still cautious, I perused the online flyer. What to my wondering eyes should appear, but sale prices on Cetaphil, Coke & Pepsi, t.p., Swiffer refills! (insert cheer) The long and short of it: I caved.

Consequently, I'm part of the Optimum Plus crowd for a year. I doubt this will have much of an impact on life as I know it. Besides cluttering my inbox, I mean. I do think I've frequented Shoppers more here than in Winnipeg, because (a) it's a two-minute hike, (b) it's closer than Loblaws or Wal-Mart, and (c) the prices are comparable to those of the other stores. (I strongly suspected our Shoppers near Pembina & Markham of upping prices to offset the construction costs of its new digs.) Hmm, just to put checks in place on unnecessary spending, I'd better revisit The Story of Stuff and crack open Green for Life.

May your life be optimum regardless of the points you've accumulated.