Weekend of Madness at the St. Lawrence Market

I occasionally work for an event staffing company in Toronto. The pay is okay but that is not why I do it. The assignments are usually interesting and just when I start to think they are getting stale, I get a really fun, crazy paced one. That is what the assignment was like this weekend.

I was hired to help distribute promotional materials in downtown Toronto at the St. Lawrence Market. I immediately jumped on board with this one because I love the St. Lawrence Market and it is not far from my condo. I won't go into all the boring particulars of my duties but essentially I helped hand out these smart looking cloth grocery bags. Everyone wanted them and soon the whole are was completelety saturated with shoppers carrying blue totes! People were swarming me (and the other girls) to get them.

Some of the shopkeeps asked if they could give them out to their customers and I said yes to few of them. Some of them I said no to, though, because they were being greedy. They would try to get as many bags as they could from me by telling me they were for family members. Once they saw they had reached their limit with me, they would drop the bags off in the building and then do the same routine with my two co-workers. They were even coming back to me disguised in hats ad coats or sweaters, hoping that I wouldn't recognise them. Ah well, it is hard to blame them. The bags were pretty cool.

There was one store, Domino Foods, that I gave a lot of bags too. The employees were all so nice and the manager promised to make sure that every bag had a flyer in it. At the end of our shift, my boyfriend (who came a long to help me out, the sweetie-pie) and I went to the store to drop off some extra inventory and the manager gave us drinks and snacks. That was really appreciated because I had been so busy my entire shift that I hadn't bothered taking my break.

We walked around Domino Foods for a bit, it was amazing how much stuff was in there! Lots of bulk foods like trail mixes, nuts, and even peanut butter made fresh in the store. There were jars of sauces and marinades, imported organic chocolate and cookies. My boyfriend and I recognised a some items from our time in Europe. Generally they just had a lot of stuff that would probably be difficult to find anywhere else.

Anyway, I took a card from them and I fully intend to do quite a bit of shopping there.

Domino Foods

Dried & Glazed Fruit - Roasted & Raw Nuts - Spices - Coffee & Tea

St Lawrence Market, South Side

93 Front Street East

Toronto Ontario

M5E 1C3

(416) 366-2178

Unliscensed Daycare Shut Down in Toronto. Same Story, Two Different Skews.

I was listening to the radio as I was getting ready for work this morning and a news story came on about an unliscensed daycare. Apparently the daycare has been temporarily shut down because an irate parent called the police after her child was injured. The newscaster made mention that other parents whose children atternded this facility defended the daycare as a loving, caring environment that they could not wait for their children to be allowed to attend again. The newscastor went on to say that the injured child may have been bitten by another child and that there is a shortage in liscensed daycared in Toronto and many parents are finding alternatives to help care for their children.

On my commute into work, I was listened to a different station reporting the same story with an entirely different spin. This newscastor told us that an unliscensed daycare in Toronto has been shut down. The newscastor went on to say that police discovered that the day care was unliscensed after responding to a call that a child atttending the facility suffered serious multiple injuries. There were almost 20 children in the care of only three adults.

It is bananas how a different point of view can so drasticlly skew the facts of an event. What is more crazy, though is how one person's point of view can influence other people's take on an event. When I heard the first story, I felt bad that the daycare was being shut down simply because of one unreasonable parent. I felt bad for all the other working parents who would be scrambling to make alternative arrangements for their kids and I felt sorry for the temporarily out of work workers at the daycare. When I heard the second story, I felt sorry for all of the horribly abused children.

I am not sure which story is more accurate. To be honest, I am not sure why I care...I don't even have kids!

Nathan Phillips Square Revitalization

Nathan Phillips Square is about to undergo some major renovations! After reading an article about the plans, posted on LandscapeOnline.com, I think it is going so look great. Hopefully I will be able to take Stella for walks there. Now if only I can find some info on revitalization plans for the Toronto Harbourfront. Wouldn't it be great if it included a dog park?

Puppies and Homework Do Not Mix

Stella was driving me CRAZY last night. She was so full of energy, she was bouncing off the walls. She chewed everything except her own toys and she wouldn't sit still for a minute but she always wanted to be on my lap. It was like she wasn't happy unless she was crawling all over me whilst chewing some expensive article of clothing. To make matters worse, I was trying to get my final project done for night class tonight. The program wasn't working and Stella discovered the joy of chewing on computer chords. My homework is still not complete, the computer kept crashing. It was so bad that I fianlly gave up when I couldn't reopen my project to see what was saved and what was lost.

Anyway, I will stop complaining and head to my night class. I have the feeling my instructor is not going to be too sympathetic

FDA Announces Pet Food Tainting May Have Been Intentional...duh.

So pet food may have been intentionally tainted so that it would appear more protein rich. This is an announcement? I would be very surprised to find out that this whole mess did not begin with an intentional act stemming from either greed or incompetence or both. It is so typical, in this day and age. After all, why spend time and money on proper ingredients when there is probably some additive or chemical out there that can do the same job?

I think it is human nature to try to circumvent traditional methods of maintaining a high quality of life in favour of a new and improved quick fix. In little doses it may not seem to be so detrimental but all of a sudden it just blows up in our faces. It is crazy how this entire tragedy, all of these suffering pets and people, are likely the result of one trickster’s decision to cut corners and reap rewards that were not deserved.

Read MSNBC's article: FDA: Pet food tainting might be intentional

My Dog Puked On My Mother's Lap. Sorry Mom.

My poor Stella was not feeling great this weekend. All that she wanted to do was cuddle on my lap. It might be because the weather really warmed up this weekend and it was her first experience with Spring/Summer temperatures. Bostons can get overheated very easily.

I did not want to leave Stella at home by herself when she was feeling yucky so I brought her to my accountant's office. My mom had a meeting with the accountant right after me so she gave us a lift. Stella pretty much slept the whole ride into Pickering but at one point she woke up, looked around and then crawled onto to my mom's lap. She looked up at my mother with those adorable eyes and then puked. It was all over my mom's lap! Before my mother could let out an astonished "Oh!", Stella returnedto my lap and promptly fell back to sleep.

My mom had to meet with accountant with her jeans covered in dog puke. She was a good sport about it but it was really gross and I could tell my mom was pissed.

Puppies and Kids and Alec Baldwin

I am starting to worry that I may not have exactly picked the brightest bulb out of the box when I brought home Stella. Last night she was actually trying to bite the floor. On the bright side, she amused herself for an entire minute and a half. I managed to take several dishes out of the dishwasher and put them away without being interrupted. Then she gave up trying to teach the menacing floor a lesson for some perceived slight and began terrorizing me..I mean playing with me, again. Puppies require a crazy amount of attention. I should not complain, though. I hear that kids are slightly worse...or, y'know, a lot worse if you are Alec Baldwin.

According to Alec Baldwin, kids can be horrible, selfish pigs. I heard his rant on the radio this morning and again on MSN. He was disturbing. My 10 year old brother can be the most annoying kid in the world and I can be one of the most sarcastic but I would never talk to him that way.

Here is the link if you want to hear Alec lose his mind in a message to his 11 year old daughter.

30 Rock is one of my favourite show on the air right now. I wonder if this will effect how I see it next week...assuming Stella lets me watch it!

Articles to Share. Feedback Appreciated

I completely forgot to write a blog entry yesterday. I did however write an article (on another site) about my decision to get a business degree. This is the third article I have written for that particular site and I will provide the links to all three in the hopes that you are interested in reading them.

Deciding if A Business Degree is Right for You – this article is about my decision (which floored everyone I knew) to get a business degree.

My Funniest Gardening Experience – this article is about my first and last gardening experience.

Smart Spending vs. Being a Cheapskate – this article includes five basic tips for telling the difference between the thrifty and the inexcusably cheap.

I would really appreciate any feedback so please come back here and leave comments! Oh, keep in mind that I do not have much control over the titles!

It's The Little Things That Drive You Insane

I arrive at work incredibly early, usually an hour to an hour and a half early every day. Of course, I leave at 4:30 twice a week for night class and I leave at 5pm on the dot the other three days. Lots of people stay late at work and they get tonnes of credit and nods of approval where as I get looks of disdain and consternation when I leave at 4:30 for a night course that, once completed, is going to save them from outsourcing at least one of our very important tasks at $50-$75 an hour.

They also put a new very strict web blocker in place. I am at work right now and I am really surprised that I got on here because I denied access to all of the work related sites that I tried to access this morning. Oh the irony.

Anyway, I suppose I shouldn't complain...especially because they are most likely reading everything I am writing.

Puppies Have Selective Training

Is it strange that my Boston Terrier puppy has learned to fetch before she has been completely paper trained? She is almost there with the paper training but she had two or three accidents this weekend. We are being patient but it is very frustrating. Then my friend brought Stella a squeaky ball this Sunday and right away she took to picking it up and letting it go in my boyfriend's hand. She even brought it over to me but I had been doing homework all day and so after I took the ball from her and threw it across the room she simply took advantage of the situation by jumping in my lap. That is what I get for putting the laptop down.

So my Stella will now 'sit' and 'stay' when I am putting food in her bowl and she will fetch a rubber ball but still can't always make it to her puppy pad. Oh well...by next week I am sure!

Spoonerism...Yep, it's a real word.

First I would just like to say that my puppy went all night without having any sort of accident. This morning, she ran straight for the puppy pad a peed all over it. Then, a few minutes after I fed her her organic breakdfast mush, she then ran over to a freshly laid out puppy pad and shat right on it! Yay! Now this could entirley be a fluke. In no way do I consider these dark days of constant clean up over but, hey, I finally have a spark of hope. Whew!

Now, off the topic of my dog's development and onto mine. They say that you learn something new everyday and I certainly hope that's true. I personally love the idea of being in a perpetual state of learning and development. To help matters along, I signed up for Dictionary.com's word of the day email. It has been coming to my inbox at work for a while now but for the first time I got a word I just had to share: spoonerism \SPOO-nuh-riz-uhm\, noun.

Apparently a spoonerism is when you accidentally mix up two words in sentence to make two entirely different words and, therefore, an entirely different sentence. One of the examples given was, instead of saying "Let me show you to your seat" someone says "Let me sew you to your sheet". As I was reading this email, all I could think was how "spoonerism" had to be coined from some poor smuck who had the constant habbit of mangling his words. Turns out I was right. At the bottom of the message, this is what I read:

"Spoonerism comes from the name of the Rev. William Archibald Spooner (1844-1930), a kindly but nervous Anglican clergyman and educationalist. "

The poor guy, I wonder if he pictured this as his legacy? Ah well, it could be worse I suppose. I, for instance, will probably always be known as the poster girl for "Why kids shouldn't let their parents cut their hair". It was one time, years and years ago yet people just can't seem to let it go.

linkdonkey: 10 most intelligent / least intelligent dogs

linkdonkey: 10 most intelligent / least intelligent dogs

Professional Blogging With Blogsvertise

Blogging for me is that it is the perfect platform to combine two of my favourite hobbies: 1) writing and 2) offering my unsolicited opinions and advice to pretty much anyone I come in contact with! In fact, I love blogging so much I would do it for a living if I could figure out how! That is why, after searching the web, I decided to sign up for Blogsvertise, a company that sends me website products and services to review. Why not, right? Registration is free and Blogsvertise made it very clear that I can write my honest opinion; I don’t have to fake a positive review.

I am not planning on giving up my day job any time soon, I am not sure how lucrative my opinions will be, but at least I now have something constructive to do on my lunch hours.

Here is the link in case there are any other opinionated blogging addicts out there: http://www.blogsvertise.com/

Blogging and Facebook: My New Addictions

In the course of the last week, I have picked up two new addictions. The first is this silly blog. I started it a month ago but, to be honest, I forgot all about it during all the craziness of the aftermove into my new condo. We had so much to get unpacked, get organized, get rid of (630 sq ft is not a lot of space). Things have finally calmed down (with the exception of the not quite paper trained puppy) so I am back at it!

The second addiction I now have is Facebook. Oh my gosh, it is crazy! I signed up last week and I have already been invited to a reunion for my graduating class from grade 8. I have also joined and then left a group called anti-Pom and I have joined a group for Boston Terrier Lovers in Toronto. Although so far they don’t seem to be discussing much other than how one member’s Boston puked in another member’s hair. Anyway, despite some embarrassing elementary school photos that have surfaced, I love facebook! I wonder if they will give me a job after I get fired from work for logging on to it 12 times a day.

Another Dog Blog. That's Cool.

Surfing the web while at work again, I came across another Dog Blog (sigh, I will have to express originality elsewhere). This blog has been doing an excellent job keeping track of the whole petfood scandal including the latest about the CEO selling off a bunch of shares right before the recall (coincidence, I am sure). Because I run a business selling organic dog treats, I can't publish a whole lot of speculation involving this scandal. In fact, on my company blog, I have been keeping strictly to the recall warnings and developments (okay, maybe a few of my opinions are thrown in here and there) yet Menu Foods has already paid five visits to my company website.
Any way, to read a bunch of articles on the developments of the recall, and to see some adorable photos of Chinese Crested, visit their dog blog: http://our-dogblog.blogspot.com/index.html.

My Review on that Stuffed Squeaky Weiner Dog Toy in the Petsmart Commercial

I make a lot of toys for my cat and puppy (that is right, I have no life) but I was in the petstore buying catlitter a few days ago when I saw a bunch of those stuffed, squeaky weiner dog toys that are in the Petsmart commercial, the one where the adorable weiner dog carries around the stuffed weiner dog until finally it is so dirty that they have to go to Petsmart to replace the toy. Anyway, I bought a pink one for my spoiled Stella and gave it to her that night. She went crazy for it! Stella is only about 9 weeks old, the toy was as long as her. It was like she did not know where to chew next! She dragged the toy around for three whole days. The problem is that she has only had it for a a few days and the thing is already torn to shreds. As I mentioned before, my puppy is a pigdog and will eat pretty much anything. I can now add weiner dog stuffing to the list (oh, and underwear but I digress). I have had to sew it up twice for her already but last night, it was torn so badly, I think it is irrepairable. This sucks because it is by far her favourite toy and, although I love my dog, I refuse to replace a $9 toy once per week.

Until they come up with tougher toys, I am going to have to go back to the homemade ones. I am sure if I put in a little more effort, I will find one that is comparable to a squeaky pink weiner dog.

My Boyfriend Cut His Lip With a Plastic Spoon

We were eating $5.50 per cup ice cream at the One of a Kind Spring Craft Show two weeks ago. I had just purchased a whimsical piece of artwork that probably would have cost half the price if I waited until for a lesser known craft fair to come around, when my my Boyfriend cut his lip with a plastic spoon. I did the same thing most any other caring, nuturing female would have done in my situation. I laughed really hard. I mean, c'mon, it's a plastic spoon. He was a little afronted, he insisted the spoon was abnormally sharp....and the edges were jagged. So I gave him the benefit of the doubt and refrained from tattling when we met his friends at the bar later that week. Any one who knows me would be very impressed with my restraint.

So why am I bringing up something that happened two weeks ago? Yesterday evening, I handed my boyfriend a stick of gum (Wrigley's Spearment - I like my gum old school) and, well, he cut the roof of his mouth with it. Apparently, the corners of the gum are sharp....? Anyway, in the span of two weeks my boyfriend has cut his mouth with both a spoon and gum. I just had to share.

Puppies are Gross

My boyfriend and I brought home the most adorable 8 week old Boston terrier. We have been planning for over a year to get her. We did so much research to make sure that we got the right breed to suit our lifestyle and small space. It is so weird that in all that research we did, we did not read the tiniest little bit about how GROSS these helpless creatures are. Sure, we read about how much work, time and energy our new bundle of joy would be, but absolutely nothing was mentioned about their yucky bouts of diarrhea (my boyfriend actually threw up once, although that may have been his attempted ploy to never have to clean after her again). Also never mentioned was their penchant for eating anything within reach...which may or may not account for the diarrhea.

Among the things my canine connoisseur deems to be gourmet fare is:

- My hair
- Kitty litter
- Her own poop
- Newspaper
- Anything that is in the wastebasket including dental floss and toenail clippings
- The furniture

Okay, the last one is not so much gross as completely exasperating. Anyway, I am not regretting getting my dog. I am however at a much deeper level of understanding as to why puppies are so ridiculously cute. If they were ugly, we would never put up with their....well, crap.

New Guy at Work

The company that I work for has a sister company that is in the same location as us. we work together on a lot of stuff but our areas of expertise are slightly different. The sister company is a lot smaller with their 6 or so employees compared to our 50 + employees.

Anyway, our sister company had a few new hires last week. Both are goofy looking guys who seem to keep to themselves. At the end of the week early in the AM, though, one of the new guys introduced himself. Here is how the conversation went.

Him: Hello, we haven't met yet. I am (insert generic name here).

Me: Nice to meet you. How have you been enjoying it here so far?

Him: It's great but kind of confusing. I am not sure who belongs to what company.

Me: No worries, you will get used to it.

Him: So what do you do?

Me: I am one half of the marketing department. I am mostly in charge of the online stuff.

Him: Oh so you do the marketing stuff for us?

Me: No, I mostly do it for the other....

(this is where he cut me off)

Him: Oh Fuck, I don't want to talk to you, then.

And he stomped out of my office!

And that was how my Friday began. It pretty much followed that vein for the rest of the day.