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!