About that pesky oil “spill”...

So. I find it completely outrageous and absurd that oil has been gushing into the Gulf for more than a month. If you haven’t seen the oil “gushing” into the ocean, here is a video – does it not make you mad that this has been allowed to happen for 30something days? (Here is BP’s live stream)

Now, by no stretch of the imagination am I a treehugger, for one – I do have a huge gas-guzzling minivan and I do love it. Admittedly I would love it a whole lot more if it ran on biodiesel, but I do what I can for now – I never idle the van, I commute by train when I can, I try never to use drive-thrus… I do the little things that I can. I do wish, however, that our economy was not so dependent on a limited natural resource whose extraction and processing causes such widespread ecological destruction.

Although I do not particularly like oil and gas companies, I don’t want to see all of them out of business – until the day we are all powered by corn oil, we kinda need them around – I find their lack of ethics and environmental concern to be irritating, to say the least. It’s not enough that these companies support football games and other youth activities, as their “community involvement”, whilst it is important, I would like to see community recycle centers, I would like to see wildlife reserves, I would like to see them give much much more money to the people, not the government or political campaigns. I want to see money that goes directly to schools, hospitals, parks, welfare, and other community-based services.

There are a lot of companies that I’ve stopped regularly shopping at, Walmart for example. And a lot of products that I avoid, bottled water and plastic bags for example. I realize that lack of my small purchases is not going to make a huge difference but if we all become responsible consumers, it will force these huge corporations to become more responsible as well. I don’t want them to be out of business, I don’t want any more people to lose their jobs, but I want corporations to rethink their policies and the way they operate, I want them to operate with ethics, justice, and compassion. At the end of the day, when all is said and done, if we don’t have a thriving, healthy community or a habitable environment, what would be the point of having all that money?

Think about it. Do what you can… stay informed, be responsible.

The people’s victory

Congratulations to the Prime Minister elect of Trinidad & Tobago! Props to the people of Trinidad & Tobago for a job very well done.

Random things

1) What is with the price of gas? I really thought I had it all figured out – goes up like Thursday and down on Tuesday… apparently not. Also, it goes up if our dollar (CAN) goes higher than US.. um, why? Seriously, the price of gas baffles my mind!

2) I am giving a WordPress workshop at BlogHer ’10 in NYC this August, so if you’re going to be there and want to meet up, let me know!

3) It’s 28 degrees today! Yay!!! I’ve been waiting a long time for warmth. Apparently it’ll be gone by the weekend though… :(

4) I want more cheesecake. Like, for reals… pineapple upside-down… it was unbelievably good!

5) So, now that the house is done, and I am not throwing out van-loads of crap, I kinda miss the dump! Hahah. Yeah, really, I do. I think any environmentalist, or pseudo-environmentalists would LOVE it. My 4 year old said “mommy, this boy in my class does not recycle!! Can you believe it?!” It was great.. I love that my kids are conscious about the environment. Now if only I didn’t kill my plants!

Happy Thursday people!

The side effects of being an extremely practical person

Me: Son, you already broke the door because you kept pulling on it. I don’t understand why you can’t open it without making the whole thing come apart, look, I can do it easily!

7 year old: Well mommy, of course you can do it, you’re like what, 20 years older than I am?

— You end up with extremely practical kids! Sigh.

The great cheesecake adventure

A few weeks ago we were visiting relatives in Maryland, and in honor of our visit, one of my cousins got cheesecake. She said that she remembers I used to make fancy cheesecake when we were younger, so she got us fancy cheesecake! It was The Cheesecake Factory cheesecake, which, as a cheesecake lover, I do adore – actually even non-cheesecake lovers (aka Sid) adore their cheesecakes too. Anyway, so we left there with the remainders of 2 cakes. I had a slice for breakfast every morning for, um, a week, or 3 days… who can remember such details… Sid, however, being the one that has to go to work everyday, kinda didn’t get any.

We don’t have The Cheesecake Factory here in Ontario. The closest one is in Buffalo, and yes, we did drive to Buffalo just for the cheesecake!

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At the US border:

American border dude: So, where are you going?

Me: Walden Galleria

American border dude: For what?

Me: Um, cheesecake

American border dude: (trying not to laugh) How long will you be staying?

Me: We’ll be leaving as soon as we get the cheesecake

American border dude: Who’s car are you driving?

Me: Mine

American border dude: Do you travel to the States often?

Me: Yes

American border dude: From this border crossing?

Me: No, mainly from Lewiston. But actually the last time I used the Peace bridge

American border dude: Oh, you just like to mix it up

Me: Uh

American border dude: Alright, have a good day

Me: Thanks

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So, as we were pulling out, Sid looked over at and spotted a banana in the car – we entered the States with undeclared uncooked fruit! Yay, contraband!

After driving over several bridges in gale force winds, we saw it from afar and rejoiced at the beauty!

We placed a rather large order, along with several other Canadian’s, made some Canadian friends, and headed back home.

Made a few wrong turns because I missed the rather large road sign that read “CANADA”, and also dismissed Sid pointing it out. But eventually we found our way to the Rainbow bridge.

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At the Canadian border:

Canadian customs dude: So, this receipt here from The Cheesecake Factory – is it for eating there?

Me: No… we brought it back with us

Canadian customs dude: (he nodded knowingly) Ok, I see

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After some negotiations about what duty needed to be charged for cheesecakes, we were released to enjoy said cheesecakes.

We’ll be enjoying Red Velvet Cheesecake today! Actually, I’ll be enjoying Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake, because I am not such a Red Velvet fan – although I will eat just about any flavor, and Pineapple upsidedown, which we tried for the first time, and it was yummy!

You want cheesecake now, don’t you?!