Random bits

Unfortunately I don't have it together enough to post anything succinct, coherent, well-constructed and/or witty today. In fact, I nearly sprained my brain trying to spell succinct, coherent, well-constructed and/or witty. Which should tell you exactly in what rough shape I'm in this morning. So, it's random bits that you're in for today -- and it's the best I can do.

• To those of you with younger girls -- are my girls the only ones that call their Littlest Petshop toys "Little Miss Petshop" instead? It keeps reminding me of "Little Miss Sunshine".

• The Hershey's factory in Smiths Falls, eastern Ontario, is going to be closing within the year. The production will be moved to Mexico, where costs are cheaper. This sucks. Not only does it put nearly 500 people out of work in a small town that is also facing large job losses (800 people) from the upcoming closure of the Rideau Regional Centre, an institution for adults with developmental disabilities, by 2009; but it also means the end of a favourite day trip for me and the girls. If you live nearby and haven't made the visit to tour the plant and buy cheap, cheap chocolate at the Chocolate Shoppe, you should go. It's best to go during the week and see the plant in operation (very, very cool), but the shop is open on weekends too. Stock up on all kinds of goodies that are bad for the waistline but good for the soul. The last time I was there, I spent $15 on chocolate, and that bought so much that the grocery-type plastic bag it was in ripped on the way out to the car.

• In an unrelated story, last Sunday night was not much fun. Deep in the throes of bad period cramps and in a pissy mood, I went to the pantry only to discover that not only was I out of cheap Hershey's chocolate, but that the girls have finished their Easter stashes (ungrateful offspring, not even saving any for the woman who carried them for what seemed like a combined total of 56 months and spent at least 3 and a half weeks in labour. But, I digress.). Then I remembered the baking chocolate. It was as if clouds parted and an errant beam of sunlight shone down (highly unlikely at ten at night) and illuminated the three-pound bag of Hershey semi-sweet chocolate chips down on the bottom shelf with the flour and the sugar and the oatmeal. SAVED! Before you could even say "chocolate chip" I was back in my chair, sweatpants hiked up snugly, self-medicating by washing down handfuls of Chipits with cheap French merlot and sobbing quietly at an episode of Grey's Anatomy from Season 2 on DVD. (You know, the one with the train wreck and the couple impaled on the steel rod while Meredith finds out Derek has chosen to stay married to Addison.) Ah, good times...[insert eye roll here].
  

• In contrast, last Saturday night was all kinds of fun. I got to meet up with some other Ottawa-area bloggers and was entertained and amused by them in person instead of in print, or online, or whatever. Chantal, Dani, Andrea and Alison are definitely as funny and interesting as you think they are from reading their blogs. I hope we can do it again when some of the other local blogging chix can make it.

• I have to get Rachel weighed. I know how tall she is, but not how much she weighs (no scale in the house), and I plugged in the values in the Parent Center Height Predictor tool. I had to guess her weight, but entered known values for all the other criteria. I guessed 40 pounds. I certainly hope that I'm wrong, because when I ran the little program, this is what I got back: " Your girl will likely be 7 feet, 0 inches at age 18." Um, yeah, right. Crap, better start researching basketball scholarships. (Or, maybe it was just a temporary software glitch. Tried it again this a.m. and it returned values of 5 feet 9 inches. Much more likely.)

• Last week Alissa, at Life's Little Adventures awarded me a Thinking Blogger Award.
  



Thanks Alissa! I'm somewhat floored by this, and very honoured. I never intended to make anyone think, just to make them laugh if possible. The deal is that I have to list 5 bloggers that make me think. So many bloggers make me think. I'll try to avoid tagging anyone that I know already has one, but I don't have the time to sift through archives and find out for certain, so, at the risk of repeating other choosings, here goes:


1. Chris at Rude Cactus. Today's posting is a good example of thought provoking.
2. Mamatulip at Where am I going... and why am I in this handbasket?. Her posts about her mother make me think, and often cry.
3. Kerry at Popwatchcanada posts on so many subjects, silly and serious, that there's always something there to think about.
4. Rick Mercer's Blog makes me laugh, and think, and then laugh some more. His skewering of the pompousness of Canadian politicians at all levels and of all stripes is breathtaking and very welcome. And snarky.
5. Andrea at a garden of nna mmoy makes me think. And leaves me in awe of her writing talents and her bravery in what she chooses to share with us.