Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Monkey Business IS the Governments Business

At least 10,000 monkeys are creating havoc in the Indian capital by barging into government offices, stealing food, threatening bureaucrats and even ripping apart valuable documents.

Delhi suffers from a serious monkey menace, with scores of animals seen across the city.

The monkeys are mostly seen around top government offices.


To read the whole sordid tale at the BBC website...click on the title of this post.

Monday, January 16, 2006

My Boys Need a Home!

Oh, the pain, the dull pain of it all.

I have finally crawled out of bed to surf the web. Like most sensitive, emotion laden procedures and occurences, a vasectomy seems to attract its own coterie of detractors. Highly politicized, polemically inclined, goof-balls (no pun intended).

An example of this type of goof-ballness is Kevin C. Hauber's website. Click on the title of this post if you really have to visit his site. The sky is falling perpetually as far is this guy is concerned. Reminds me of the La Leche League types. Yes, types.









Here's a picture of a woman breast feeding...is that her son or her husband? How old is that boy...he doesn't even fit in her lap.

And the reason its "good" to nurse your (no, not baby, but) toddler, according to the Canadian La Leche website is because, "Toddlers have a huge world to explore, and breastfeeding provides them (and their mothers!) with some quiet time in their busy, waking hours." Haven't these people heard of quiet time? How about a nap? Rum, maybe?

Okay, I hurt and maybe I'm lashing out. So, sue me!

Vasectomy!

Today is the day I have the old (yet large) dragons wings clipped. That's right folks, we're talking the big "V". The snipping of the vas deferens, vastly different from any other operation a man could ever have.

I must admit that I am having second thoughts as I near the hour of doom. Sure, I've tried to joke it off...(I said joke it off people...get your minds out of the gutter!)...still, as the hour draws nearer I feel butterflies in my stomach. A little squeamish and sheepish about the whole thing. I have a million one-liners for the doctor and that wonderful nurse I keep imagining will be there just to make me feel even more squeamish. In the end, if I don't show today, I'm afraid they'll come after me with a huge bill and that folks is the only reason, at this point, that I am going to the operating table/chair.

If you want to see a really cool site, by a fellow vasectomite, click on the title of this post. WARNING: This guy's website graphically illustrates the procedure. Be sure to go to the humour page...which will leave you in paroxysms (sp?).

"Good-bye old friend and good night"

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Go Ahead—Sleep With Your Kids!

Found an interesting article at Slate.com that crystalizes my thoughts exactly on the topic of co-sleeping with your (younger) children. To read this article click on the title of this post.

A more balanced approach to the debate on co-sleeping can be found at the kids health website.

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

How Many Bags is Too Many?

Click here to find out how many plastic bags have been consumed this year

Love After Love

The time will come when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.


Derek Walcott
Nobel Prize Winner
(Click on the title of this post to link to his bio at nobelprize.org)

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

@ Work and Not Much To Do

You know, when you start a new job, one of the perks is a lot of time on your hands. So here I am making myself useful.

I have taken on 5 clients to date and I have two visits to local programs mapped out. This leaves me with about 5 hours of blank space in my day-minder.

You know, one of things that never fails to amuse me is the ridiculous lengths of the receipts I receive from most chain stores. I have walked into a Shopper's Drug Mart or a Home Depot for one, yes one, single item and have been handed a receipt which is as long as my arm.

Why do I need a receipt that rivals my arm if I'm only buying toothpaste? Why? Because they can. With all their electronic/computer/state of the art gizmos retailers have nothing better to do than to track my spending habits and to tell me how much they appreciate my business, do I have any complaints?, would I answer a survey?, you bought this item and saved this much money, I boought the item at 4:05:34 p.m. at store number whatever, cashier # 23423 served me. Oh, and thank you and have nice day. Usually there's a company logo at the top with the main address and contact information. Sometimes, on the back of these receipts is even more stuff...directions on how to win $500 by filling out that survey they told you about on the front. And even just plain advertising or a coupon.

Like I don't have enough frigging information rushing past my eyeballs.

sorry.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Random Thoughts

* I wish, sometimes, that I was Sean Connery.

* I will admit to having a (ahem) liking for Julia Roberts...but only after having seen her in a nature documentary set in Borneo about the orangutans. WHAT? Oh, get over it!!

* I cherish alone time

* I would like to find a lounge that is darkened, has leather couches, drinks, delicious finger foods and allows smoking.

* I am tired of people talking for too long. Can't you fucking see I'm bored.

* I love that some people, at my old work place, have actually said they love me.

* My daughter and I play the following games:
1. I tap the wall near a light switch, then she slaps the switch and sometimes she turns the lights on/off on the first try. I squeal and say, "good girl." She has a huge smile on her face.
2. She crawls away from me really fast. I grab her ankles. She stops crawling away and waits patiently in anticipation. Then I slowly drag her back towards me. She usually has a big smile on her face. I think she loves the feel of the carpet on her belly and hands.
3. Seth (my son) taught her this one: He gives a big sigh. She smiles and listens and then without any notice starts sighing heavily herself, all the while smiling her head off.

* I don't have a favourite colour. Honest!

Saturday, December 03, 2005

In Between Time

I have officially left the Griffin Centre and start work at Durham Mental Health Services on Monday. the in between time, between the known and the unknown is really the worst for me.
I greatly miss the people I worked with at Griffin already. Funny how a year or two can cause a person to become attached to a time and place. All those people you interacted with in a passing, sometimes meaningful way, come out of the background to say so many wonderful things and end up making your day and making the in-between time a time of doldrums.
Let's get this party started. Monday can not come soon enough.