Men After 40

I noticed that the local convenience store is carrying a Labatt De-alcoholized Pilsener beer.

I felt the passage of time when we got this letter from our Home Insurance agent saying that he's retiring after 21 years. I think we may have been one of his first customers.

Yesterday I made dinner in half an hour. It was baked tilapia fish with breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese, sauteed mushrooms in soy sauce and garlic, a spiced rice and a tossed salad.

It's sad about the earthquake in Haiti, the fact that it struck the capital city and the international airport and that it's such a poor nation to begin with.

News

Calls for Haiti donations spread thru social Web

Feel empowered by cooking for yourself everyday

Great Chemistry

I've noticed the gym is now open 24 hours a day from Monday morning until Friday night, how wild is that? They've had to hire 2 managers, so it must be good for the economy. One of the ladies I talk to told me she is there some days for 3 and a half hours and certainly every day.

While on the treadmill, I was happily watching a local show called 'Cityline'. It was food day yesterday, so they had 3 local chefs demonstrating superb Canadian cuisine. (that would be oka cheese, wild blueberries, split pea soup, maple syrup, salmon) It was enjoyable to watch as I could see they had the greatest chemistry, including the lively host.

The central court of the local mall was getting ready to stage a TV show taping for a new show 'how to look good naked', I think it's called. You can be an audience member at the actual taping today.

News

Facebook's "reply by e-mail" feature now live for everyone

“Glee” Returns For a Second Season With an Online Twist

The Twitter Flatline: Why Doesn’t Twitter Grow?

Make it or break it

Barry, at 'An Explorer's View of Life' has a wonderful post about how he unexpectedly made a difference with his blog review on a self published author's Rwandan experience.

Kay is participating in Microfiction Monday
which is being hosted by Susan at Stony River. According to Kay, 'you are to use the picture that Susan posts and compose a story up to 140 characters including spaces and punctuation. Then go to Susan's blog and leave your name. ' How creative is that?

L found this great new TV show called 'Make it or break it'. I like it too. This is how Wikepedia summarizes the plot:

' The series follows a group of elite teenage gymnasts training at top-notch gym Rocky Mountain, known as The Rock. ...With the help of their reluctant coach, Sasha Belov, an Olympic champion, the gymnasts must overcome rivalry, betrayal, familial crises, and financial difficulties to advance to Nationals.'

News

Improv group goes pantless on TTC (Toronto subway)

High School Grads Compete With Jobless Adults Headed Back To School

World's most amazing views

6 Gross Food Habits To Drop In 2010

How to buy an e-reader

Learning Styles

L decided to record her lines for the school drama play and then study them over the holidays by playing them back to herself. The reasoning behind this is that she is an auditory learner and it seems to have worked. She was one of the only ones at rehearsal that knew her lines perfectly, all 30 pages of them. There is something to be said for catering to your learning style.

Since I learned that I'm highly visual, I realized that for me, 'out of sight' is 'out of mind'. I've always instinctively stayed away from chests of drawers because I can't remember/

see what's inside them. Open shelving and tables are best for me where I can see everything. It explains why I like to hang my favourite art on the walls.

K lent out one of his Xbox controllers and has been chasing it down since the New Year. The boy wasn't home yesterday, so he asked his mom if he could still come and get it and he did. Those things are like $60, so he didn't want to lose track of it.

It was frostbite weather on Saturday (-15C) but warmed up to about -4C yesterday and it was beautiful and sunny. M noticed a rabbit huddled up against our back door, trying to stay warm. I heard it's snowing in Disneyworld, Florida if you can believe that. They are in a bit of a shock because they are not used to being so cold.

News

Top 6 Skinny Foods for 2010

Adopted girl's fantasy life becomes series

Leap Year: Romance and Irish gig

Leap Year

L drove to the movies the other night. She met her friends for dinner first. Apparently they all drove except for one of them. It is so much easier for us than having to chauffeur her around. She enjoyed the movie 'Leap Year', proclaiming it 'good, different, funny and cute, although nothing special'. I'd love to see it. The theatre was crowded, although full of mostly women. L said she saw this poor guy with his date wondering why she had dragged him to this one. But he seemed to be laughing during the movie. L's friend was enamoured with the leading man.

This is a funny animated video called 'Adam Lambert's duet with Susan Boyle'.

News

Moosewood author's new cookbook is aimed at kitchen newbies - this looks like a great gift for a university student living off campus: 'Get Cooking: 150 simple recipes to get you started in the kitchen (Harper Studio, Harper Collins Publishers, $32.99)'

Fabulous at 50: Fashion and beauty tips

Staying Alive

L had a checkup yesterday at the children's dentist and it occurred to me that she will be over 18 years old at her next checkup. So we made one last appointment for the summer, but I think the next one will be with a dentist that caters to adults. It's also time to switch her from her pediatrician. Growing up can be hard to do. She will miss both doctors but it's almost time to move on.

Life is funny, on any one day, I can be bursting with pride at L's latest accomplishments and in the next minute, a teacher can call about K's progress in a subject. And just when I'm despairing at K's academic performance at school, he comes home and surprises me with a decent mark on a recent unit test. Staying alive is what I call that.

I bought some beef short ribs that were on sale at the supermarket. I asked the butcher to slice them up and was surprised when he did them so finely, as per 'korean short ribs(bulgogi)'. So luckily there is 'google' and I found a recipe that I'm going to try today. It seems you marinate them and then you can simply stir fry them for about 3 minutes per side.

From this website, I learned that
'The typical Korean marinade has soy sauce, ginger, something sweet like honey or sugar and some simple seasonings. The marinade should also contain some kind of vinegar or alcohol to tenderize the meat and carry the flavors deep inside.' And this recipe seems like a good place to start. I'll let you know how it turns out.

News

15 simple ways to be happier in 2010

Obesity Replaces Smoking As Biggest Health Risk In North America

Attached Handset

One of my sisters caught a program on Erik Demaine and found it interesting, a genius kid that did really well (she surmises that they don't all do well). He started university at age 12 and is an MIT professor and does mathematical origami artwork.

I got a newsletter from our hydro-electricity company and it says you should have at least one phone with an attached handset so that in the event of a power outage, you can phone someone because cordless phones won't work. These are little things that never occur to you.

News

Bra colour Facebook status updates

Is 'happy fat' to blame for mothers' weight gain?

Astronomers: We could find Earth-like planets soon

Tech giants step towards tablet revolution