Crappy Customer Service

A Question

Mr. W and I have both been attending a health club since the end of August. We also take our evening meals together. Overall my diet is much healthier than his, since I have no Pepsi habit.

So, is it wrong for me to be a bit cheesed when we weigh ourselves and find that he has lost 11 pounds and I have gained 3? "You're gaining muscle," he says. The universe conspires against me, say I. Who is right?

Nostalgia is for Wussies.

Sundry asks us if we miss our teens and 20's at all.  I'm in the HELL NO camp.  Right up until I met my husband at 23, I was miserable all the time.  I was taking antidepressants and still crying myself to sleep at night.  I was thinner, but it was because I'd come home from work and go to sleep until morning.  Every day.

I couldn't get a date if I stood naked on the roof of Barry T's.  My friends were assholes.  My mother was going through menopause and was a pain in my ass.  My dad was still an alcoholic and verbally abusive.

Even after I met and fell in love with my husband, which improved my life in every way, we were dirt poor.  I don't know how we managed.  I failed in two careers after truding my way through school twice.  I was living on EI for a year, which ain't no happy welfare state, FYI.

The only thing I miss, which I believe is what most people are longing for, is my perfectly functioning, beautiful body.  I should have been a lot more respectful of it.

Todd Babiak: Reskinning Edmonton's Skyline

Todd Babiak is right - areas of our city are just plain ugly. Raising the money to beautify the outside of a building that's already built and functioning, however, is another matter these days. They trash-talk everyone's favourite ugly building in this clip. It's a building that is...frequently viewed by me. I agree it needs a face lift. The rumour mill has it that talks are underway.

A Bad Night

I was on the LRT tonight when it ran someone some teens over between Stadium and Coliseum stations.  You will probably be hearing about it in the next day or so on the news.

I was on the third car back, and what was left was eventually found just out of my sight between the second and third cars.  We knew there was an accident, but weren't certain of its nature until the firemen started to pull out the tarps.  Yes, it was that bad.  I am smart enough to keep my eyes averted as I climb down from the train, and up to the rescue train.

The lady seated next to me was not so smart.  She saw something that can't be unseen.

My thoughts are with the driver tonight.

 

 

Welcome to Alberta. We Mix.

Just when I get a little worked up about cultural communities isolating themselves around here, two things happen:

1.  I had about 60 kids trick-or-treating last night.  (This is a very high number for us, resulting from a confluence of a Sunday Hallowe'en and warm weather.)  Among the revelers I saw two little boys, escorted by their mother in a hijab.  They were my first obviously Muslim trick-or-treaters.  And to top that - they visited my Sikh neighbours, who were also giving out candy with their Christmas lights on.  Think about that for a minute.

2.  Mr. W told me a story about a German co-worker translating a recipe for an Arab co-worker.  The German passed my husband the recipe to see if he could guess what it was without translation.  The recipe was for lasagna.