Most Horrible Day of the Year

Grumble grumble, bah humbug! Yesterday was the annual Santa Claus Parade here in Toronto. Oh, and you know how I feel about that!!

I tried so hard to stay positive this year. I knew it was coming but I kept telling myself that it isn't that bad. Oh but it is!

A million persons turned out to watch the stupid thing. Yes stupid. Personally I think all parades are stupid because all they do is disrupt entire cities and that annoys me.

It started with Adam leaving to take Little A to swim lessons. He decided to be smart, since the JCC is on the parade route, and take public transport. Ha! The bus he took - many blocks west of the parade route - got stuck in traffic for so long they had to abort the mission and Little A missed her lesson. Adam recommended I leave very early to take Big A to her theatre class. We left 40 minutes early. I decided to go way way west and south of the parade route and managed to get her there early. No parking anywhere, however, so had to just stop outside the theatre school with my blinkers on until it was time for her class to start.

This is when the fun really began.

I drove south to avoid the parade and traffic, but thought since the parade had passed already, I'd be safe not going quite as far south as when I came, but boy was I wrong. I couldn't move more than 10km/hour for blocks and blocks and blocks, and finally had to turn south and return to my first route. Unfortunately, the street I had taken south to get there was, at this point, very backed up going north. At this point I was nauseous from being in the car that long, hangry because I hadn't eaten lunch yet, and my butt cramped from sitting.
When I finally got to our street, I wanted out immediately but had to parallel park...and some of my neighbours were sitting outside (it was an absolutely spectacular day, weather-wise). I can't parallel park when people are watching...I get too nervous...so I did a real crap job. Embarrassingly bad! Then when I got out of the car, my butt was so cramped I couldn't walk properly. They must of thought I was totally insane!

I'll be honest, I don't care how many antler-wearing Torontonians enjoyed the parade. I'm pissed! Not even the friggin' Pan Am games disrupted the city as much as this dumb parade does!

Okay, I'm done my rant. Go have yourself a good Monday now.

Comments

Japanese 7-Spice Kelp Noodles

I love trying new spices and seasonings, so I am very excited that the President's Choice Black Label line now has a bunch of new spice blends available. My most recent find: Shichimi Togarashi, or Japanese 7-Spice blend. It's a combination of crushed red chili flakes, sea salt, Szechiuan peppercorns, black and white sesame seeds, poppy seeds, orange zest, wasabi powder and nori seaweed flakes. I make Japanese-inspired dishes all the time, but resort to the same old flavours most of the time: miso, soy, sesame, ginger and garlic. I was so excited to be able to liven things up a bit. This dish is easy and tasty, although be warned that this seasoning packs punch. I used 1 tsp, which ended up being too spicy for me, and I have a high tolerance for heat! I recommend 1/4-1/2 tsp, or, if you don't like heat at all, make your own at home and omit the red chili flakes. You'll get all the flavour without the heat. I served these noodles with a mix of seafood (

Book Review: The A to Z of Children's Health

Hey there, welcome to Monday! We had a delightful, relatively quiet weekend. How was yours? Hopefully no one in your home was sick...there is a lot of nasty stuff going around these days. If you're a parent, than you have probably spent far more time that you would like to desperately searching Google and/or parenting books trying to figure out if your child's rash, cough or fever warrants a trip to the doctor or if there is something that can be done to treat it. It's hard not to worry that it could be something more ominous that just an every day infection and while you'd make yourself (and everyone around you) nuts if you panicked every time your kid has the sniffles, as a parent, you naturally want to do everything in your power to prevent your child from harm. Recently I was sent The A to Z of Children's Health , written by doctors Jeremy Friedman, Natasha Saunders, and Norman Saunders, of Toronto's very own Hospital for Sick Children . One of th

How to Look Like a Celebrity

Okay, I know you're going to be interested in this post! I am sure virtually every woman in North America has wondered how Hollywood celebrities achieve such 'perfect' bodies. Well, at CAN FIT PRO last week, one of Hollywood's top fitness trainers, Eric the Trainer , was there to tell us fitness professionals the secrets! Eric the Trainer, gave several presentations, and I caught the one on Celebrity Secrets, and it was most interesting!!! I also found some of what he said rather disturbing. First off, he was very upfront about the fact that celebrities come to him for improve their appearance. Not to improve their health or athletic performance. To look their best. He admitted that his approach then, is entirely dedicated to that end. Male and female celebrities are trained in completely different ways because Hollywood wants women to be lithe and thin and in his words, "look like they dropped out of heaven looking this way without every having ste

Healthy Life Lessons

Search This Blog