Oh, Canada!

Big week for my family.  It's my big brother's birthday (Happy Birthday, Craig!) today, tomorrow is Canada Day (our day for fireworks and the like), and then it's the 4th of July.  

    Mine will be the red Toyota Sienna with the Canadian flags on the windows all week (thanks Mom!).  I know I live in the U.S.A, and have met some of the best people I know here, but I am Canadian, and I really love Canada.  I miss a lot about it.  I miss being able to say Canadian/British words without anyone looking at me like I'm speaking Chinese.  I miss watching hockey without anyone saying "How can you even see the puck??".  I miss Nanaimo Bars.  I miss the smell of ice rinks.  I miss everyone around me using "eh" in the appropriate way.  I miss the more sing-song-y way that most Canadians speak.  I miss good, and I mean GOOD chocolate bars (if they're made of chocolate in Canada, they're chocolate bars, they have to be made of candy to be called candy bars).  I miss touques ("touque" rhymes with "duke").  I miss being able to say I'm from Ontario, and not having anyone assume I mean Ontario California.  Most of all, it's family and friends I miss.  My parents, my sister and her kids, my younger brother, all three of my living grandparents, some cousins, aunts and uncles are all still there.  Canada is beautiful.  If you've been to one province or city, you've gotten a glimpse, but you haven't "seen Canada".  So Happy Canada Day tomorrow.  It's this really great, beautiful country to your north that you really should visit if you ever get the chance.

    Let me add, I have to thank all of my south of the border friends for helping me see the very best parts of the U.S.A... that's all of you.

     A lesson on the proper use of "eh" will be forthcoming.  Try to contain yourselves until then.

You Know Who You Are

After nearly having a too-close encounter with a semi yesterday, I'm just saying, would all you people who change lanes without signaling or looking over your shoulder, or turn right from the center lane instead of the actual right turn lane, or text while driving, or brake repeatedly when you're going the speed limit or slower and there's no one in front of you for miles, or tailgate me when I'm in the right hand lane and you have 3 other lanes to drive in besides mine, or straddle the line for a mile or two before actually choosing just one lane to drive in, or just go at a four-way stop whenever the spirit moves you even when it's clearly not your turn, or turn on to a main road in front from a parking lot, cutting right across my path, when I'm on the main road waiting to turn in to said parking lot, and I have a little thing called the "right of way", or act like the deserving queen of Sheba when I wave you in front of me so you don't have to wait for hundreds more cars to go by before you can go ( just give me a little thank-you wave, everyone feels better), please, please, take some driving refresher classes, or just stay home.  

      My friend JaNae  has a picture on her blog (hit the "Jorgensens" link to find it) from a few months back that her husband took (from the passenger seat) of a woman full on crocheting  while driving about 65 mph, neither hand on the wheel!  Enough!!  I'm out here, obeying the rules, being careful, and fearing for my life because you can't handle your shiny steel and metal torpedo of death.  It's not cool, not cute, and you have to follow the same rules as everyone else.  "Out my way!" as my friend Dee Dee used to scream as she wildly circled her bike around her cul-de-sac.  I am making the same plea, minus the crazy driving.  Come on, fellow citizens.   You know who you are.  I've got my kids in my car.  We just want to make it to Target alive.

Yes, we're (nearly) homeless...

     We've got mold, people!  Some very kind friends are letting us live in their house while ours undergoes an investigation of sorts.  Really it's more like insurance company runaround.  We've had a leak in our basement, mold was growing for a while and we didn't know it, so now that we know, we're out.  The insurance company sent a "leak specialist" out to determine where the water was coming from.  After looking around in the offending room for about 10 minutes, he comes out and announces "Well you've got a big crack in your foundation!".  NOOOO! REALLY?? Nice work, Sherlock!  Actually, I'm beginning to think I'm a leak specialist and just didn't know it. So with our fate left in the experts' hands, we are searching for other places to live.  We're not happy about it.  We're still trying to decide if the more economical choice is to just get a bunch of haz-mat suits for the family, and a good air filtration system, and call it good.  We'll let you know.