I Wondered When This Would Happen

Got this email from a friend of mine today:

Try this:

IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES DID NOT PURCHASE A DROP OF GASOLINE FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE OIL COMPANIES WOULD CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES.

AT THE SAME TIME IT WOULD HIT THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WITH A NET LOSS OF OVER 4.6 BILLION DOLLARS WHICH AFFECTS THE BOTTOM LINES OF THE OIL COMPANIES.

THEREFORE SEPTEMBER 1st HAS BEEN FORMALLY DECLARED "STICK IT UP THEIR BEHIND " DAY AND THE PEOPLE OF THESE TWO NATIONS SHOULD NOT BUY A SINGLE DROP OF GASOLINE THAT DAY.

THE ONLY WAY THIS CAN BE DONE IS IF YOU FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN AND AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN TO GET THE WORD OUT.

WAITING ON THE GOVERNMENT TO STEP IN AND CONTROL THE PRICES IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REDUCTION AND CONTROL IN PRICES THAT THE ARAB NATIONS PROMISED TWO WEEKS AGO?

REMEMBER ONE THING, NOT ONLY IS THE PRICE OF GASOLINE GOING UP BUT AT THE

SAME TIME AIRLINES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES, TRUCKING COMPANIES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES WHICH EFFECTS PRICES ON EVERYTHING THAT IS SHIPPED. THINGS LIKE FOOD, CLOTHING, BUILDING MATERIALS, MEDICAL SUPPLIES ETC. WHO PAYS IN THE END? WE DO!

WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IF THEY DON'T GET THE MESSAGE AFTER ONE DAY, WE WILL DO IT.

AGAIN AND AGAIN.

SO DO YOUR PART AND SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. MARK YOUR CALENDARS AND MAKE SEPTEMBER 1ST A DAY THAT THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA SAY "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!"

I had been saying something like this to The Good Father for years, that if somehow just everyone in Toronto stood their ground and didn't buy gas on one day, would it make the gas companies take notice. He said no, but could you imagine if everyone, or at least the majority of people in North America, didn't buy gas for a day what just the media coverage alone might do?

Ultimately I don't think gas prices would come down miraculously to affordable levels, but if the public gave these monopolies just a taste of what we were willing to do en masse to make a statment, maybe over time if more people took public transit, stopped buying new cars, used their bikes, anything at all, could we bring about a change?

It would be interesting to see ...

Right Neighbourly

So the other night The Good Father Patrick O'Stacey and I were watching a DVD when we broke for popcorn. The Good Father ducked out for an illicit puff of nicotine, and came racing back in to tell me that our new neighbour "D" (we only met him last month after they first moved in) was chasing some guy down the street yelling at the top of his lungs. We stepped out the front door to check and see what was up, and it turned out that some freak had followed his wife down the street from the corner store. She's got a serious back injury and walks with a cane, and this really freaked her out. While The Good Father went down the street with D to see if they could find him while I ran over to see C and find out if she was okay. She was just getting off the phone with the cops who were (supposedly) sending someone over to take down a statement and get a description. She was really freaked out and upset, and trust me, this is not a woman who gets upset easily!

So I sat on her front porch with her telling dumb jokes trying to calm her down some while another neighbour came out and went with TGF and D to see if they could see this guy anywhere. Of course the freak was long gone and the cops never actually showed (nice!). The guys came back and we hung for a while with them, and we basically just told them if they needed anything we were nearby.

I got home today from seeing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with mom and found a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of wine in my door with a card from the very same neighbours thanking us for being there for them. Too sweet! I went right over and thanked them, telling that it hadn't been necessary but they just said they were grateful that they had neighbours who gave a shit.

This is why I love my street. Neat, huh?

Bitch, Bitch, Bitch!

According to an article in today's Toronto Star, Canadians are the fourth largest bitchers in the world (we were beaten out by the Swiss, The U.K. Australians). Now I don't know that this is such a bad thing. As the piece says:

"It's a new culture emerging, with people demanding a high level of service," said NOP spokesperson Amanda Wheeler. She said questions about complaining were a new addition to the NOP's huge annual consumer survey, the Roper Reports Worldwide. The survey examines people's lifestyle, values and consumer habits.

"We brought in a few questions on complaining. ... Because of the trend we picked up we'll be asking things more in-depth on next year's survey.

A press release outlining the study results said, "Across the world, those who make complaints tend to be wealthier and better educated — they consume more, they know what they want, and they aren't prepared to settle for second best."

Ian Skurnik, a University of Toronto professor who studies consumer psychology, said the NOP survey could be showing more about the freedom to complain in various countries than the levels of annoyance in different cultures.

"In a country that doesn't have the same kind of democratic conditions that Canada does, it's possible you're just less willing to lodge a complaint with anybody who seems to be in a position of authority. It might be that you actually harbour dissatisfactions and you're not giving voice to them in this way. You might complain to your friends and family instead."

Okay, so we're just more demanding of our services and products, what's so bad about that? In my opinion there are so many companies that have a monopoly in the marketplace (like hydro, the gas company and Bell) they no longer give a shit about customer care because, quite frankly, we have no choice but to use these companies if we want our lights to go on, our heat in the winter and our phones to ring. But just beacause a company has a monopoly doesn't mean, in my humble opinon anyway, that they have the right to treat the general public like shit. In fact, I think they owe it to us to be really fucking nice in case solar and wind power really take off and we all ditch our land lines and go totally cellular (I know people who do this already).

Though there are things we apparently bitch about that nothing can be done with (summer will be hot, the line at the LCBO will be long on a Friday night, you will always get homework while in school so suck it up and get over it) I say bravo to Canadians for not taking crap service lying down!

Warm Fuzzy

Hee hee! My mommy loves me! She just called to tell me she bought us two tickets to go see Wicked when it comes back to Toronto in 2006. Front row of the first balcony. I know it's a year and three months away, but I'm psyched!

"I just got a new credit card and thought this was the best way to break it in. Besides, there's no one else I'd rather spend my money on than you." Awwwww!!!!

This is of course my birthday present for like the next two years, but we absolutely loved the show when we saw it in April (it was her Mother's Day/Chanukah present) and wanted to go again when it came back to the city.

Thanks mom!

The Other Side of the Story

This is an article from today's Toronto Star:

Obese woman upset MD hurt her feelings
Doctor may face sanction by board
Overweight patients defend his straight talk


ASSOCIATED PRESS

ROCHESTER, N.H.—As doctors warn more patients to lose weight, the advice has backfired on one doctor after a woman filed a complaint with the state of New Hampshire saying he was hurtful, not helpful.

Dr. Terry Bennett says he tells obese patients their weight is bad for their health and their love lives, but the lecture drove one patient to complain to the state.

"I told a fat woman she was obese," Bennett says. "I tried to get her attention," he said. "I told her, `You need to get on a program, join a group of like-minded people and peel off the weight that is going to kill you.' ''

He says he wrote a letter of apology to the woman when he found out she was offended.

Her complaint, filed about a year ago, was initially investigated by a panel of the New Hampshire Board of Medicine, which recommended that Bennett be sent a confidential letter of concern.

The board rejected the suggestion in December and asked the attorney general's office to investigate.

Bennett rejected that office's proposal that he attend a medical education course and acknowledge that he made a mistake.

Bruce Friedman, chairman of the board of medicine, said he could not discuss specific complaints.

Assistant Attorney General Catherine Bernhard, who conducted the investigation, also would not comment, citing state law that complaints are confidential until the board takes disciplinary action.

The board's website says disciplinary sanctions can range from a reprimand to revocation of all rights to practice in the state.

"Physicians have to be professional with patients and remember everyone is an individual. You should not be inflammatory or degrading to anyone," said board member Kevin Costin.

Other overweight patients have come to Bennett's defence.

"What really makes me angry is he told the truth," Mindy Haney told WMUR-TV on Tuesday. "How can you punish somebody for that?"

Haney said Bennett has helped her lose more than 150 pounds, but acknowledged that she initially didn't want to listen.

"I have been in this lady's shoes. I've been angry and left his practice. I mean, in-my-car-taking-off angry," Haney said.

"But once you think about it, you're angry at yourself, not Dr. Bennett. He's the messenger. He's telling you what you already know."

Now what I really want to know is exactly what the doctor said. Did he say "you're a fat cow who looks like shit and makes my floor shake every time you walk in so loose some of that ugly flab bitch," or was it more along the lines of "you're overweight and that's not good for your health. You should really go on a diet and loose some weight before you develop serious medical problems." If it was the former the dick deserves to be bitch-slapped. But if (and I think this is more likely) it was the latter, I think this lady needs to wake-up and smell the Splenda. Her doctor is only doing what she hired him to do - look out for her health. So she's a little sensitive about her weight. That doesn't give her the right to haul the doctor up on disciplinary charges because he told her an honest truth. Hell if he said nothing and she became diabetic and needed both knees replaced, would she be sueing him for not warning her that being overweight could be a problem? Probably. There are some people that just don't want to hear what a professional has to say unless it's what they already think.

Money, Money, Money

Tomorrow will officially be six months out of work for yours truly. I am getting mighty sick I must say of applying to jobs and going on interviews and being "on" all the time. It's tiring, discouraging, degrading and frustrating.

When you've been out of work for a while, you tend to become obsessed about money since, well, you're not sure if or when that next paycheque is going to grace your bank account and you can stop playing ten-year-old begging for her allowance from the government ("I've been good I swear, so can I please have some of the pittance of money you guys behave as if I so graciously owe you big time for allowing me though I've been paying into the fucking system since I was 14? Golly, thanks!"). I fantasize about winning the lottery. Particularly when the take is big - like over 10 million. The Good Father and I will lie in bed and fantasize about what we'd do with all that coin. So here's our basic list:

1) Pay off the mortgage and give the mortgage company the finger in a big way.
2) Pay someone to finish the renos on our house.
3) Buy my mom a condo and set her up with a nice RRSP so she's set for the rest of her life.
4) Give a big chunk to my mother-in-law to set her up so she can finally retire (she's over 70 and still works!).
5) Make whopping donations to the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, The Lung Association, The Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cancer Society. Probably other charities too, but those are the ones that come to mind right now.
6) Buy a cottage on Big Rideau Lake.
7) Travel. A lot.
8) Throw one kick-ass party at Casa Loma while we renew our wedding vows and have the wedding we always wanted to have (except dear ol' dad had just bought Wife #3 a new car. Don't get me started ...).
9) Get some pretty funky gifts for our closest friends (like things they've always wanted but would never think to buy for themselves).
10) Get an agent and persue a career as an actor (because, you know, once the money didn't actually matter I bet I'd get gigs. Murphy's Law and all ...).

What would you do? And be honest, we'd all surely give some money away to charities, friends and family, but deep down, on a totally selfish level, what would you get that you'd always wanted or do that you've always wanted to do?

What Do You Think?

From today's Toronto Star:

It's thumbs down to $5 coin
Mint hired polling firm to do study

`Absolutely ridiculous idea'

DEAN BEEBY
CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA—The federal government has backed off from a proposal to replace Canada's $5 paper currency with a more economical $5 coin and use the savings to help fund the country's Olympic athletes.

The offbeat suggestion, first raised by the Royal Canadian Mint, was taken seriously enough by the Finance Department that it commissioned a polling firm last spring to conduct a focus-group study.

Environics Research held sessions May 3-5 with small groups of Canadians in Halifax, Hamilton and Winnipeg.

Participants overwhelmingly rejected the very idea of a $5 coin and dismissed the Olympic-funding idea as "ridiculous."

"The proposal to direct these savings to the athletes was greeted with notable hostility," Environics said in a June report, obtained by The Canadian Press.

Participants reacted strongly when asked whether Canadian athletes headed to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver should benefit from the currency switch:

"Absolutely ridiculous idea."

"Give me a break! There are so many other burning issues where the money could be spent."

"I'm embarrassed to be Canadian sometimes."

"Do you freaking believe this?"

The Royal Canadian Mint has studied whether to introduce a $5 coin on at least two other occasions, in 1995 and 2000, and reviewed the idea again in the spring.

The attraction is partly economic.

A 1994 Bank of Canada study estimated that replacing the $1 bill with the loonie coin in 1987 saved the federal government $487 million over the first five years, partly because coins are more durable and need to be replaced less often than bills.

The Finance Department declined to release its preliminary estimate of the monetary benefits from converting to a $5 coin, although Environics told participants the savings might be worth "hundreds of millions of dollars."

Most of those in the focus groups disliked the proposed coin because, along with loonies and toonies, it would mean carrying around too much heavy change — even if the $5 coin was made lighter than its cousins.

And although people said government should support athletes, most thought any savings from a paper-to-coin conversion should go to health care, helping the homeless and social programs.

A spokesman for the Finance Department said the Environics study has effectively killed the proposal to help Olympic athletes in this way.

Now I don't know about the idea of using savings here to fund Olympic athletes, but Europeans have survived with a large portion of their money in coins, so what are we whining about? Quite frankly if it could save millions of dollars that could be funneled into heath care, education or funding alternative energy sources, I could live with another coin. We Canadians can be a whiny bunch, so resistant to change and yet bitch blue to our government to "do something" about our countries problems.

Fund our athletes? I'm still torn there. On the one hand it would be nice to have Canada actually get a few medals and not be the laughing stock of the western world, but really, considering how political the Olympics have become - in my opinion more of an international joke than anything after awarding the games to a country that spraypainted its grass to make it green and put all their homeless in prison so the city would look nice for the heavily bribed judges - do I really care how our athletes do?

Being "Adopted"

When my father married Wife #2 when I was 12, I became a victim of child abuse. It seemed the gold-digging bitch wasn't keen on having me living with them full-time and was determined to find a way to drive me out by making my life a living hell. No, she didn't beat me but did fun things to get my father to believe I was a rotten kid. For example I'd leave a message on the answering machine saying I was at a friend's house after school and as soon as she got home she'd erase it and tell my dad I went out without calling in. No way to prove I had called and my father believed the blonde tits rather than his own flesh and blood.

It escelated from there. She would play wicked mind games with me, scream blue murder at me out of nowhere about nothing, tell me I was a stupid idiot who would never amount to anything, call me a fucking bitch on a regular basis, fun things like that. When she'd get on a tangent she'd throw out questions at me that I just didn't know how to answer, and one time when I didn't answer back fast enough, she slapped me across face. My father turned a blind eye. He didn't believe in hitting me all the time I was growing up, and when he witnessed her slap me I thought "finally, he'd going to do something" but he quite literally turned away. It was probably the most hurful thing he ever did to me in my life (I couldn't go anywhere but she might leave him was the logic). My mother's attitude was that I'd made my choice to live with my father, so now I had to live with the consiquences (in hindsight she realized she made a horrible mistake leaving me in that situation, but hindsight's 20/20 as I always say). My school counsellors regularly called my mom telling her she needed to do something, but I got yelled at for being "melodramatic" instead. Wife #2 refused to do my laundry but wouldn't allow me to use the machine. She wouldn't feed me and I wasn't allowed to use the stove or the microwave. I did laundry at my mom's place and ate at school. I know it sounds unreal, but that was the life I had for about five years and since mental and verbal abuse wasn't actually considered child abuse in the 80's, my school had no legal recourse for me to take. Needless to say it wasn't pretty, and the only thing that kept me from turning to drugs, booze or running away was my friend GovGirl's family.

GovGirl was considered odd in high school. I found her intriguing. She introduced me to Monty Python and Douglas Adams (now staples of my adult life) and her folks basically let me move in. They even went so far as to include me in Christmas so I had a decent holiday. I spent many an evening and weekend at their house. They kept me as sane as could be expected considering my home situation, giving me whatever support and love I was lacking elsewhere in my life.

20 years ago tomorrow, I was over there hanging out and GovGirl (who is a terrific artist) drew this picture of a fairy that inspired me to write a poem (I am not a poet, but like every overly emotional teenager, wrote poetry to vent). GovGirl's mom insisted I write it down for her in her personal notebook so she could keep it so I did, adding a little note of thanks to her for being a so good to me.

Last Sunday on the way home from Kingston with GovGirl we stopped at her folks place so I could see them and have a bit of a visit. I hadn't seen them in years and it was nice to connect again. While sitting and having tea, GovGirl's mom said "I have something to show you" and went upstairs. She returned with that very same notebook and showed me the poem and the note I'd written all those years ago. I had totally forgotten about it and when I saw she still had it I cried. Sure my mom has stuff I did from when I was a kid, but to have someone else's mom keep something of mine was something else.

She believed in me and gave me strength my own parents wouldn't or couldn't give at that point in my life. She motivated me to stand up to the bitch finally and have it out. That lead to two years of peace at home before she dumped my dad for a bigger meal ticket. Hardly a shock to me but a major blow to my dad. Needless to say I wasn't in the least bit sympathetic to him. How could I be?

My relationship with my parents has improved over the years. Both have apologized for turning a blind eye to me during those formative years and know and admit they had a hand in turning me into the neurotic chick I am today. I only hope in the same vein that GovGirl's mom remembers to take credit for the somewhat reasonable and slightly quirky person I've become as well. I hate to think where I'd be today if it hadn't been for this wonderful family. I just wanted to take this opportunity to very publicly say "thanks."

Band-Aids

Lots of controversy over a Toronto city counsellor's idea of randomly pulling aside black youth to check for guns. What - white youth don't kill people? Apparently I guess neither do Indian or Asian youth. Or women for that matter. Yup, it seems all gun crime in Toronto is purpitrated by black males aged 16 - 34, right?

Ironically the councellor who came up with this brainstorm is himself a black man. I guess he figured he could get away with saying something like this since he is a person of colour. But I fail to see how this will solve anything. It's like loading down the streets with lots of extra cops. I'm not against the idea per se because I guess if it's clear they're around and can respond more quickly to calls for help we might save some lives, but what say we actually get to the root of the problem and clamp down on the illegal guns being brought into Canada and finding ways to keep them out of people's hands in the first place. It might also be a novel idea to perhaps find out why youths are turning to violence in the first place and see if we can't find something else for them to do. Is it lack of work? Lack of affordable education? The need for better positive role models? Boredom? I think if we find out why people turn to violent crimes, gangs and the like we might have a fighting chance for cutting down on the crimes committed. Rather than build more prisons maybe we should be building more community centres and schools. By now it should be obvious that sticking people in big boxes for years on end is not keeping them from committing crimes in the first place or convincing people not to re-offend, so what else can we as a society do?

Sure I believe that some people honestly deserve to be locked up for life. Paul Bernardo as an example should never see the sun again because quite frankly the world is better off without him. But why is it that a kid does something stupid and the first thing we do is throw them in jail? All that appears to happen is they learn how to commit crime with more finesse by their cell mates. Nothing in the system focuses on reform, just punishment. That's sad to me. I'm sure not all criminals can be rehabilitated, but certainly if we get them young enough some can be!

Oh - and a totally unrelated quetion for y'all out in blog land: some fuckwit posted an ad in the comment section of my last post. I tried to track him/her down to write them and tell them to bugger off, but there's no info available. I tracked down the company Web site and there is conveniently enough no address to email to so I can complain. Anyone else had this probelm? Any ideas of what I can do to slap this weiner and prevent it from happening again?

The Sister and GovGirl do Kingston

My good friend GovGirl whom I've known since the ninth grade and I spend a rather indulgent weekend in Kingston (well, okay, she indulged more than I did, but hey, it was her idea in the first place!). Since she lives in Ottawa and I here in Toronto, she figured it was a good half way point. Besides, she was heading to Toronto anyway to visit her folks and see her brother who was visiting from Australia, so she decided on this trip as a chance for us to catch up. Graciously she covered the B&B, a lovely place called The Green Woods Inn that's about five minutes outside Kingston proper.

And what do two old high school chums do when they go on a girls weekend? Well these two in particular hit every single bookstore in town (woo-hoo, wild and crazy, huh?). Of course we also ate copious amounts of food and I indulged in nuts at every opportunity being away from The Good Father for two days (for those who may not know, my husband is deathly allergic to peanuts, tree nuts and highly sensitive to legumes, so any chance I get to eat peanut butter, cashews and chocolate covered almonds I go for). So we spent all day Saturday checking out funkly little stores and roaming for hours in second hand bookstores. Then we passes a lovely jewellry store called Sterling. "I need new silver earrings," says my friend, so off we go into the store.

Remember how I said this was an indulgent weekend? Well let's just say that she indulged most of it at this store. I actually saw the sales girls jumping up and down and squeeling after we left. Needless to say GovGirl picked up more than just "a pair of earrings." Three pairs actually. And a very exquisite necklace and bracelet set that would have set me back for years to come. She even threw in an early birthday present for me (I fell in love with a sweet little necklace there and since I'm still watching the $$$, she decided my birthday this year was August rather than November - hee hee hee!).

Since our dinner reservations at the infamous Chez Piggy (apparently the original owner of the establishment named it for his wife who loved to eat - not sure how thrilled I'd be if my husband did that!) until 7:30pm, we continued to shop. But who knew that Kingston, in the summer, on a Saturday, closed up at 5pm?? We were rather put out that we missed, the mystery bookstore, the candy store, and a Wiccan shoppe owned by a woman who apparently was the artistic director for the local bellydance troupe (I had no idea there was a troupe in Kingston!). There was all sorts of belly dance stuff in the window along with pictures and articles about The Veils of Isis who are based there. I would have loved the chance to chat to her about her dancers, but alas that was not to be. Ah well, I guess I'll just need to go back again!

My dear sister-in-law who currently is residing in Bellville to finish her college diploma came in to meet us for dinner and we had a blast! If you ever get to Kingston, you have to try dinner at Chez Piggy. It has some of the best food I've ever tasted! They also have a great bakery!

Yesterday after breakfast we headed back into Toronto to see GovGirl's folks. Her family kind of adopted me when I was in high school since I didn't exactly have much of a home life to speak of. They are the sweetest people in the world I swear!

Anyway, yet another fantabulous summer weekend passes and while I still bemoan my lack of gainful employment, I am grateful to the gods that at least I'm having a pretty darn enjoyable summer!

Always Someone to Sue

I was watching CP24 (a local 24 hour Toronto news station) this morning and there was a story on how the passangers from the Air France flight are putting together a class action suit against the airlines for the accident.

Couldn't you all at least wait to see what the investigation comes up with before you jump on board with some greedy lawyer who'll take the majority of whatever you might get anyway and that's why she specializes in this shit? If they manage to prove it was pilot error or that the tower was at fault for letting him land in such crappy weather, then go ahead - sue away! But what to do if it was entirely an "Act of God" and the pilot did the absolute best he could in an emergency situation? Sue Environment Canada? Sue the weather gods?

I understand that surviving a plane crash must be a horrific experience. i understand that some of you even got injured. But for the love of all things holy, if the crew hadn't been right on the ball you would all be dead today! They evacuated your screaming, paniced asses in 90 seconds flat - thus getting you out of the plane moments before it became a giant fireball and you would have been the biggest BBQ Mississauga has ever known. But no, let's all rally around the lawyer and sue their asses for saving your fucking lives! Let's jump to the immediate conclusion that it must be someone's fault and therefore you're owed. So you lost some clothes and souveneirs, so what? You're alive today thanks to the quick-thinking and highly trained people of that plane's crew (and you all thought all they did was serve you drinks and fluff your pillows, huh?).

If the tower made an error in telling the pilot to land and/or if the pilot fucked up, then sure, go for the lawsuit. But what if this was simply a freak accident and there was simply nothing anyone could have done any better? Still determined to sue because you think you can get a few bucks out of this? What, your flight insurance isn't going to pay enough for whatever lousy material shit you may have lost? You're alive and survived with some minor injuries. Okay, this was traumatic and you may well be in therapy for a while, but you will survive.

The argument the lawyer is using in this case is that it wasn't the passengers fault the plane crashed. Well honey, no one said it was. And no one is saying that they shouldn't make whatever insurance claims they can for lost luggage, but really, can we wait and see what the investigators say was the cause of the crash before we all go stampeding into a court room demanding your millions in damages? Aren't we jumping the gun here just a tad early, or is the lawyer so concerned that if there is blame to be laid she'll loose out on her cut of someone else's pain and suffering.

Fucking ambulance chasers. They should all be shot.

Belly Shots

One of my fellow bellies has sent along a few photos that she's managed to process so far. She and her friend took over 200, so once she has them available I'll see if there are some other good ones to share. Below are:

The troupe doing our Greek number:


My solo:


The troupe doing our Hot Chocolate number (gotta love the disco space princess look of the outfits, huh?):


Just came back from lunch with Ice Queen, Mikevil and JustMark at the most expensive dim sum I think I've ever had! But the food and the company were certainly worth it!

We Rocked!

Another great weekend come and gone. We had The Good Father Patrick O'Stacey's family reunion party out near Smith Falls (about an hour west of Ottawa) on Saturday and had a wicked time. Not surprising, though. Get a bunch of Irish folk together all in one place, crack open a few cold ones and be entertained for hours! The party started in the afternoon and went into the wee hours as we sat around the camp fire yakking and singing (a few members of the family have guitars). We left fairly early Sunday after breakfast with the clan and headed back to Toronto so I could rest up and clean up for the show last night.

And we rocked!

The hall was absolutley packed to the rafters with dance fans, friends and family and man what a crowd! They were right into the music and the dancing, cheering and clapping for pretty much two solid hours. Nothing quite like performing for such a receptive audience! The troupe numbers went off well, with the debut of our fusion disco piece done to Hot Chocolate's I Believe in Miracles (it's on The Full Monty soundtrack) wowing the crowd. I even managed to get through my solo without tripping on my veil or falling over my skirt! Pictures are coming, I promise, from a couple of the dancers who were out between their own numbers clicking away, so as soon as I get the emails from my usual sources, I promise to post a few, but probably not for another week or so (sorry!).