09 April, 2008
Why People Live in Canada
i have a prescription that i have filled each month. when i went into the pharmacy to reorder it, as i had silly-ly thrown away the label the month prior, the pharmacist asked if i wanted to get more than one at a time. of course, i said absolutely! who can be bothered with walking 2 blocks to the drugstore once a month? time value of money, after all.
i went to pick up the prescriptions today and paid $2 for 3 months' supply of a brand name drug. you do the math. the annual cost is $8. i was paying $15 a month in the states, or $180 a year. oh, when you think about it, i'm def paying the same amount for the drug, if not more, through the exorbitantly high taxes i pay. as a matter of fact, gas is currently $5.24 a gallon, which i may have mentioned a time or two. i'm still in electroshock therapy from it though and my therapist has told me that talking and journaling about the excess is the only way to remedy it. but i digress. still, i'm a very happy girl when i pick up a 3 month supply of something for $2. i skipped away like a giddy schoolgirl on the last day of class - "you're the one that i want...ooh, ooh, ooh, honey."
$8 for a one year supply of drugs. this is why people live in canada.
i went to pick up the prescriptions today and paid $2 for 3 months' supply of a brand name drug. you do the math. the annual cost is $8. i was paying $15 a month in the states, or $180 a year. oh, when you think about it, i'm def paying the same amount for the drug, if not more, through the exorbitantly high taxes i pay. as a matter of fact, gas is currently $5.24 a gallon, which i may have mentioned a time or two. i'm still in electroshock therapy from it though and my therapist has told me that talking and journaling about the excess is the only way to remedy it. but i digress. still, i'm a very happy girl when i pick up a 3 month supply of something for $2. i skipped away like a giddy schoolgirl on the last day of class - "you're the one that i want...ooh, ooh, ooh, honey."
$8 for a one year supply of drugs. this is why people live in canada.
07 April, 2008
Swap Shop and Such
i've just discovered the most peculiar television show. it's called "Swap Shop" and it's on a local toronto channel on saturday and sunday mornings. it's essentially a live craig's list on television. a televised craig's list you ask? wait, it gets better. people call in from all over the gta (that's thet "greater toronto area" for those of you who don't have the privilege of living through 7' of snow during the lovely winter months) and try to sell their shit. most of the time, the hosts who are about 12 and just got out of junior high for summer break, can barely contain themselves. all kinds of people call in and part of the fun is really listening to their sad little stories about where they acquired their "item" and why they want to sell it. imagine "antiques roadshow" full of country bumpkins whose most recent technology purchase is their brita water filter. but i digress. this sunday, a man called in to sell his collection of - wait for it - "beverly hillbillies" VHS TAPES. for $300! no, i do not kid. he informed the public that he bought them over the course of 2 years and paid over $800 retail. this, my friends, is a show that simply cannot be missed. this is the reason i relocated to canada - quality television programming. http://www.rogerstelevision.com/option.asp?lid=12&rid=16&sid=264
in other news, it seems the canadians know more about the US presidential election than we do. i thought a fight was actually going to break out at my office today over who will get the democratic nom - obama or hillary. i thought to myself "9 out of 10 americans, no wait - 10 out of 10 americans likely could not name the canadian prime minister and yet my esteemed colleagues, who are canadian i might remind you, were asking each other "well, are you democrat or republican?". it's a wacky world out there.
in parting - have you all heard the news? i may potentially be having a life altering experience this summer. george michael is going on tour. i know - once you pick yourself up off the floor from the sheer excitement, get to the horn immediately and buy your tickets. careless whisper? freedom '90? all live? i can already feel the pitter patter of my heart.
in other news, it seems the canadians know more about the US presidential election than we do. i thought a fight was actually going to break out at my office today over who will get the democratic nom - obama or hillary. i thought to myself "9 out of 10 americans, no wait - 10 out of 10 americans likely could not name the canadian prime minister and yet my esteemed colleagues, who are canadian i might remind you, were asking each other "well, are you democrat or republican?". it's a wacky world out there.
in parting - have you all heard the news? i may potentially be having a life altering experience this summer. george michael is going on tour. i know - once you pick yourself up off the floor from the sheer excitement, get to the horn immediately and buy your tickets. careless whisper? freedom '90? all live? i can already feel the pitter patter of my heart.
No She Didn't
i'm not a fan of "the bachelor" but as i was sitting here blogging, i happened to have the show on. seriously.
so the new hunky british bachelor (who is rumoured to have recently been seen out with a bachelorette who was not one of his bachelorettes on the show - naughty, naughty) just told one chick "you're handling this all really well. you're really taking this all in stride" and i kid you not, without skipping a beat, the girl giggled sheepishly and said "hee hee, what does that mean?".
insert jaw dropping and eye bulging here.
so the new hunky british bachelor (who is rumoured to have recently been seen out with a bachelorette who was not one of his bachelorettes on the show - naughty, naughty) just told one chick "you're handling this all really well. you're really taking this all in stride" and i kid you not, without skipping a beat, the girl giggled sheepishly and said "hee hee, what does that mean?".
insert jaw dropping and eye bulging here.
30 March, 2008
Stop Whining About Gas Prices!
news in canada isn't as negative as in the u.s. and is what i normally watch. my only dose of U.S. news is from nbc nightly news which i watch on a fairly regular basis. without fail, the price of gas is mentioned almost daily and i just laugh. we have no idea how good we have it in the u.s. where gas prices are concerned. gas here went up to $1.08 per litre this week and for those of you who can do the math on the non-English system, there are 4 litres to a gallon, so we're paying $4.32 a gallon for regular gasoline. except for older cars, most cars require premium gasoline which is $1.28 per litre here. yes, your math is right. that's $5.12 per gallon. so the next time you go the pump, just think of your friends north of the border and stop whining about gas prices - we've got it good down there.
what you may notice from the photo below is the red tax sticker on the pump. for those of you who haven't yet had your lasik surgery, it reads "Taxes included in in Gasoline Prices in Ontario: 5% GST (sales tax), 10 cents per litre Federal Excise Tax, 14.7 cents per litre Provincial Gasoline Tax". that's over $1 per gallon just in taxes. we may have that in the states and i've just never noticed it. or more likely, they just don't have to post it. all i know is that they do not joke about their taxes here.
it's still cold today. it's -4C or 24F today with the windchill. and it's almost april. geebus.
i had a yummy brunch today at mitzi's cafe on queen west and sorauren. i had to wait about 25 minutes for a table for 1, but it was well worth it! ( http://www.mitzissister.com/cafe.html - i can only find a web site for its sister property, aptly named "mitzi's sister") i had english breakfast tea with cream and sugar (my usual), scrambled eggs with artichokes, roasted cherry tomatoes and grated fresh romano cheese, potatoes and the best toast i've ever had. they are well known for their oatmeal buttermilk pancakes but i couldn't really eat two whole breakfasts, so i asked for a half portion just to try the pancakes. boy, was that worth it. they were oatmeal buttermilk pancakes with poached port pears and whipped cream on top served with hot, fresh maple syrup. it was badass!! go there if/when you come to t.o.
lastly, i found a new drink i just love! it's an italian brand of peach iced tea called santal. it's a little glass figure 8 shaped bottle and they have many different flavours. it's about 100 times better than snapple peach iced tea - as a matter of fact, there's really no comparison. if you find any, definitely try it because it's fabulous! (http://www.parmalat.it/prodotti/santal/index.htm) p.s. darren, they have lemon iced tea, too :o). i found it at an italian gourmet food store in little italy here, but i bet either central market or cost plus world markets carries it in houston. fingers crossed they do!
what you may notice from the photo below is the red tax sticker on the pump. for those of you who haven't yet had your lasik surgery, it reads "Taxes included in in Gasoline Prices in Ontario: 5% GST (sales tax), 10 cents per litre Federal Excise Tax, 14.7 cents per litre Provincial Gasoline Tax". that's over $1 per gallon just in taxes. we may have that in the states and i've just never noticed it. or more likely, they just don't have to post it. all i know is that they do not joke about their taxes here.
it's still cold today. it's -4C or 24F today with the windchill. and it's almost april. geebus.
i had a yummy brunch today at mitzi's cafe on queen west and sorauren. i had to wait about 25 minutes for a table for 1, but it was well worth it! ( http://www.mitzissister.com/cafe.html - i can only find a web site for its sister property, aptly named "mitzi's sister") i had english breakfast tea with cream and sugar (my usual), scrambled eggs with artichokes, roasted cherry tomatoes and grated fresh romano cheese, potatoes and the best toast i've ever had. they are well known for their oatmeal buttermilk pancakes but i couldn't really eat two whole breakfasts, so i asked for a half portion just to try the pancakes. boy, was that worth it. they were oatmeal buttermilk pancakes with poached port pears and whipped cream on top served with hot, fresh maple syrup. it was badass!! go there if/when you come to t.o.
lastly, i found a new drink i just love! it's an italian brand of peach iced tea called santal. it's a little glass figure 8 shaped bottle and they have many different flavours. it's about 100 times better than snapple peach iced tea - as a matter of fact, there's really no comparison. if you find any, definitely try it because it's fabulous! (http://www.parmalat.it/prodotti/santal/index.htm) p.s. darren, they have lemon iced tea, too :o). i found it at an italian gourmet food store in little italy here, but i bet either central market or cost plus world markets carries it in houston. fingers crossed they do!
29 March, 2008
Earth Hour
tonight was earth hour organized by the world wildlife fund and t.o. was part of this year's celebration ( http://www.wwf.ca/earthhour/canada.html ). it was amazing. i saw shops today with handmade signs in their window that said things like "parkdale powers down for the earth" and "toronto celebrates earth hour". i so love toronto. they are so progressive and really care about the environment even though they're not really the ones who are polluting the earth (that would be the americans).
sure enough, i happened to log onto google.com at 8:05 and their screen was black. it said "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn - Earth Hour." so i looked out my window and sure enough, the city was almost completely dark. i saw people turning off their lights in my building and it almost brought a tear to my eye. we can make a difference!! yes!
there were candlelit walks all over the city, restaurants hosting dinners by candelight, and "earth hour" parties everywhere.
some fun facts about earth hour 2008 in canada:
- 170 cities participated across the country
- canada made up 1/3 of earth hour participants around the world
- by turning off the lights for the hour, 7% of the electricity that would have been used from the grid was saved.
- 1,500,000 homes are estimated to have participated in ontario alone (i was one of them)
- nelly furtado gave a free concert at toronto city hall for earth hour
what a great event - i hope houston will try to participate next year!
sure enough, i happened to log onto google.com at 8:05 and their screen was black. it said "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn - Earth Hour." so i looked out my window and sure enough, the city was almost completely dark. i saw people turning off their lights in my building and it almost brought a tear to my eye. we can make a difference!! yes!
there were candlelit walks all over the city, restaurants hosting dinners by candelight, and "earth hour" parties everywhere.
some fun facts about earth hour 2008 in canada:
- 170 cities participated across the country
- canada made up 1/3 of earth hour participants around the world
- by turning off the lights for the hour, 7% of the electricity that would have been used from the grid was saved.
- 1,500,000 homes are estimated to have participated in ontario alone (i was one of them)
- nelly furtado gave a free concert at toronto city hall for earth hour
what a great event - i hope houston will try to participate next year!
The Last Few Weeks...March 22
it's easter weekend and the first easter that i haven't spent with my family in quite some time. my weekend kicked off early with a trip to the "one of a kind show" in t.o. on thursday, a gigantic show at the direct energy centre full of canadian artists and artisans selling their wares (http://www.oneofakindshow.com/indexT.php ). i was in heaven. i took transit over and thought i'd only stay a couple of hours. 5 hours later, i had barely made it through the first 3/4 of the show! what amazing artists there are out there. i'm always so impressed at what people think of and actualize. it makes me want to quit my job and figure out something good to sell. i would love to go around from show to show meeting cool people and seeing cool things. i made my list of things i wanted to think about and decided to think on it.
everything is closed in toronto on holidays still so there wasn't much to do on good friday. (as a matter of fact, the toronto city council recently voted against a proposal to allow businesses to open on statutory, or "stat" holidays here. old skool.) when i woke up, i decided to go to the imax theatre here to see "hurricane on the bayou" ( http://www.hurricaneonthebayou.com/ )at the ontario science center (http://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/ ). i decided to take the ttc and it only took about 45 minutes! i took the streetcar to the subway to the bus...and it dropped me off right at the science centre...awesome! i was so happy. what a colossal mistake to go on good friday, though. there were about 970,000 screaming children and parents and the line to get into the imax was as long as a football field. once we got in, a little kid with a plastic coke bottle sat next to me and popped the empty bottle in and out the entire time. why do parents not say anything to their kids anymore? my dad would have broken my hands off for doing that. the movie was good but i was glad it was over. i hightailed it back downtown and ordered a cheese pizza from pizza rustica for good friday dinner and popped in "michael clayton".
on saturday, i decided i would go back to the "one of a kind show" to buy my choices and then go to high park for a stroll. yeah, right. i managed to spend another 4 hours at the show and another $400. that place is dangerous. and, everyone tells me the christmas show is double the size. wow. lots of talented people in canada! surprisingly, many of the exhibitors were from quebec and there was a ton of french being spoken. i just love that, although i have no clue what they're saying. it's such a pretty language. anyway, i bought some gold filagree earrings from a jewelry maker from t.o., 2 freshwater pearl bracelets from a jewelry designer from winnipeg, a a kari lynn bianchi armband that i love ( http://www.karilynnbianchi.com/armbands.php ), a really cute handmade purse from prickly pear ( http://www.pricklypear.biz/ ) and some cool "buddha bowls" that were on oprah's favorite things list last year from the artist who lives in b.c. ( http://flavourdesign.com/portfolio.php ). i spent way too much, but i wouldn't be able to get these things once i leave t.o. actually, i could have spent a lot more! needless to say, i didn't make it to high park and just ended up on queen west.
on easter sunday, i woke up and decided to go eat brunch early to beat the crowds. in my quest to eat brunch at as many of toronto's plethora of brunch places, i decided to eat at easy restaurant on queen west and roncesvalles ( http://easybreakfast.ca/ ). i had the huevos divorciados which was okay, but i probably wouldn't go back. it started to get really crowded by the time i left, too. i ended my easter sunday by lounging on my sofa and enjoying the beautifully sunny day.
everything is closed in toronto on holidays still so there wasn't much to do on good friday. (as a matter of fact, the toronto city council recently voted against a proposal to allow businesses to open on statutory, or "stat" holidays here. old skool.) when i woke up, i decided to go to the imax theatre here to see "hurricane on the bayou" ( http://www.hurricaneonthebayou.com/ )at the ontario science center (http://www.ontariosciencecentre.ca/ ). i decided to take the ttc and it only took about 45 minutes! i took the streetcar to the subway to the bus...and it dropped me off right at the science centre...awesome! i was so happy. what a colossal mistake to go on good friday, though. there were about 970,000 screaming children and parents and the line to get into the imax was as long as a football field. once we got in, a little kid with a plastic coke bottle sat next to me and popped the empty bottle in and out the entire time. why do parents not say anything to their kids anymore? my dad would have broken my hands off for doing that. the movie was good but i was glad it was over. i hightailed it back downtown and ordered a cheese pizza from pizza rustica for good friday dinner and popped in "michael clayton".
on saturday, i decided i would go back to the "one of a kind show" to buy my choices and then go to high park for a stroll. yeah, right. i managed to spend another 4 hours at the show and another $400. that place is dangerous. and, everyone tells me the christmas show is double the size. wow. lots of talented people in canada! surprisingly, many of the exhibitors were from quebec and there was a ton of french being spoken. i just love that, although i have no clue what they're saying. it's such a pretty language. anyway, i bought some gold filagree earrings from a jewelry maker from t.o., 2 freshwater pearl bracelets from a jewelry designer from winnipeg, a a kari lynn bianchi armband that i love ( http://www.karilynnbianchi.com/armbands.php ), a really cute handmade purse from prickly pear ( http://www.pricklypear.biz/ ) and some cool "buddha bowls" that were on oprah's favorite things list last year from the artist who lives in b.c. ( http://flavourdesign.com/portfolio.php ). i spent way too much, but i wouldn't be able to get these things once i leave t.o. actually, i could have spent a lot more! needless to say, i didn't make it to high park and just ended up on queen west.
on easter sunday, i woke up and decided to go eat brunch early to beat the crowds. in my quest to eat brunch at as many of toronto's plethora of brunch places, i decided to eat at easy restaurant on queen west and roncesvalles ( http://easybreakfast.ca/ ). i had the huevos divorciados which was okay, but i probably wouldn't go back. it started to get really crowded by the time i left, too. i ended my easter sunday by lounging on my sofa and enjoying the beautifully sunny day.
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