American Idol Shocker

Well, the shocker on American Idol last night was that Adam Lambert almost got kicked off. I'm in the camp that think something's not right here and that it was fixed for ratings although I noticed in the comments of the news story below that there are a few people that don't like him for one reason or another.

I went for a walk with a friend this afternoon. She mentioned that you can't work at a Catholic school unless you are a practicing confirmed Catholic, I didn't know that. But in the Catholic high schools they do accept kids of different denominations.

Now it's raining and K is in Montreal without a rain jacket because we couldn't find it at the last minute and we didn't want to miss the bus. Well, at least he won't need his sunglasses which I think he also forgot! M is downtown at a work dinner and L is on a training course recertification, she had to cancel 2 school activities to schedule this course in. Her weekend is pretty much booked up as usual.

Our bathroom work is on hold, waiting for parts to arrive. The buttermilk paint is looking very nice, I think, it will be good to see how the new cabinets and countertop work with it.

News

Adam Stays Afloat on American Idol - Interesting comments at the end of this news story.

Urine test could one day predict artery disease

Pause for Thought

I thought you might find the following newsletter I received this morning worth reading:

From the
e-zine, 'PAUSE '. Copyright 2009 Patricia Katz, Optimus Consulting.
(877) 728-5289 or www.patkatz.com.

REFLECTION:
Many of you are smack dab in the busiest years of your lives - with work, family and community obligations filling your hours and days. In mid-life when you find yourself trapped in the midst of the busyness, it can be a challenge to reach out for help.

A couple of years ago, I dropped in for a visit with my dear Aunt Eileen. At over 80 years (or at any age for that matter) Eileen was one of the most loving, supportive and accepting individuals I've ever known. By that time in her life, she had lost her husband, faced several health challenges, and after a lifetime away, relocated to her home province. Here she was surrounded by family, but short on friends. In a word, she was lonely.

As we shared a cup of coffee that day, she read my face and asked, "What's wrong?" Although I hadn't intended to burden her with my woes, it wasn't long before I found myself spilling all. She listened with care, commiserated, and offered a positive perspective on how things might unfold for the best. It lifted my heart considerably.

As we hugged goodbye at the door, I expressed my appreciation for her ear and shoulder. Her reply? "Thanks for sharing your problems. It made me feel useful."

ACTION:
I've thought a lot about that exchange.

It seems to me that in shielding others from the tough truths of our lives, we rob ourselves of a chance to receive the kind of genuine support and caring that could lift our spirits and give us strength to carry on.

We also rob those around us (friends, family and colleagues) of the opportunity to act from their best selves - to play an important and supportive mentoring role in our lives.

It's these kind of honest exchanges that cement relationships and build community. In times of stress and challenge, what could be better than that?

With whom might you share the truths of your life today?

A great excuse

It's raining and overcast, not a day you want to be out walking.

We're sort of waiting for materials to arrive in order to proceed with the bathroom, they've done as much as they can without a cabinet and the new bath faucet parts. We ended up choosing a buttermilk yellow paint and it looks bright even on a day like today. But I think (hope) it will tie in nicely with all the other stuff once it gets in.

We'll go out to dinner later on as it's L's birthday, great excuse for not cooking.

K and I had a battle over math homework last night, but we started too late and being tired never helps, he just stops listening. It'll be a good break for both of us when he goes on his Montreal field trip. His school sent a notice out that everything's a 'go' as the swine flu is not deemed too much of a risk at this point. L's school also sent out a note about taking precautions and staying home when you're sick.


News

Girl Guides to get badge for positive body image

Weed Pulling

We're having gorgeous summer weather today.  And the garden could use some weeding/tending.  I think our lawn service will be doing weed pulling this year due to the pesticide ban, I don't think that will work well.  We're going to have to re-design our gardens with less lawn, I think.  I know a lot of the Mediterranean cultures don't even consider the dandelion a weed, more of a scrumptious salad.  So maybe we should even re-think what a weed really is.

All the recent swine flu coverage is scary.  A friend of mine said her husband's company is now restricting travel to places like Texas due to the swine flu risk.

M's niece's baby shower was a lovely, large party of women.  She's going to need a bigger house to store all the gifts, everything a baby could possibly need.  But it's an exciting time for the family.  Baby products have evolved/improved so much over the years,  you should see the new monitors, portable swings, high chairs, etc.  Sort of like how the motor cars evolve year to year.

L is playing a school tennis match out of town this afternoon.  She's been asking for proper tennis shoes, so that will be a good birthday present whenever she has time to go shopping for it.  She turns 17 tomorrow.

News

Best friends from TV Land have effects in real world - 'A new study suggests favourite TV shows serve as proxies when real friends are in short supply, leaving people feeling less lonely in the company of their favourite programs.'

Canada Among Countries Racing To Contain Swine Flu

Toronto Not In Top Ten Best Places To Live In Canada

Power Outage

Well, we had a 7 hour power outage yesterday after a storm passed through. K has never experienced anything like this, so I had to explain that it's a bit of an emergency situation. We're spoiled, really. I was at a bit of a loss myself, always being 'on the go' and I'm not the type to 'take a nap' or anything. Everything we do these days seems to depend on electricity. I realize we need a good battery powered radio as the one we have doesn't even seem to work.

We decided to go to a restaurant and then to the movies and the power thankfully came on a few minutes after we got back. The houses up the street were fine, it was just our particular grid that was affected, along with other parts of the city and they may still be waiting for power. L and I saw '17 Again' with Zac Efron, it's a cute movie and we enjoyed it. Well, Zac Efron is a cutie. M and K went to see 'Fast and Furious', what else. They loved it.

Today I'm going to M's niece's baby shower. K has to pack for a school trip to Montreal this week. He's excited to be with his school friends. M noticed that when they part these days, they give each other a kind of thumb wrap and a pat on the shoulder, teenager style.

News

Punctuality on the rise as recession fears take hold

Honesty is Different than Goodness

I found this heartwarming story in today's newspaper entitled 'We left 20 wallets around the GTA. Most came back'. I've quoted some of what I found interesting for you :


'The exercise yielded some surprising results. For one, honesty is different than goodness. Goodness is bigger. It's going out of one's way to return that lost item. It's empathizing with someone you've never met.'

'Our experiment reminded Father McGill of co-ordinating a food drive with high school students in Windsor. "They were all gung-ho to go to this very wealthy neighbourhood. And they were shocked by how little they collected. ... It was a real learning lesson for them," he said.

"People who have experienced deprivation tend to be more generous than the very wealthy."



Similar wallet experiments conducted by Reader's Digest and the Chicago Sun-Times did note that people in affluent areas were less likely to return found property than those in lower-to-middle class areas.

Our pattern of discovery showed that downtowners were quicker than suburbanites, and that more wallets were returned by men than women. Discuss.
'




News

Detergents

It's a gorgeous day today, already 15C and climbing for the weekend. Time to get the barbecues ready. L downloaded a good quality itunes video of Adam Lambert's 'Mad World' video last night, onto her ipod. K is on a school field trip today, he and his friends were all excited. I went to the library this morning to help find him a book for homework. The library is a busy place, there is quite the lineup before opening (about 15 to 20 people!)

At the grocery store, I was looking for some Purex detergent to try. There was a recent article in the newspaper recommending it as being gentle on clothes and environmentally friendly. An elderly couple was also looking for detergent. They had bought a new washer and it only takes HE type liquid detergent, you see. HE being High Efficiency. I got lost in the other details but decided to do some more research as they noticed the Purex carried a warning on some chemical that may cause irritation.

News

Women working more, bringing more money home

Boy who nearly drowned wakes up after 13-day coma