UpDown

After the 2008 market crash,I decided that I needed to become informed about the financial markets and how they affect my investment. I'm tired of two bit financial consultants who have a minimal course under their belt braying about their knowledge in this field.You all know the adage, if you can't get a job become an investment consultant with fill in the blank here.
My daughters RESP had minimal growth during the boom years and of course tanked in the last six months. The only person profiting from this is the investment consultant who works for a large "financial investment" firm, looks like the character "Randy Bobandy" from Trailer Park Boys and is a casino buddy of my ex.(who does have a startling resemblance to "Jim Leahey" ....hmmm).
His patriarchal lack of knowledge fired me into getting a crash course in how our money drives the economy through the market.
To this end,I have opened a "play" account at UpDown.com where you have the opportunity to invest ONE MILLION DOLLARS how ever you like. It has been an eye opening roller coaster of an education and I have learned mucho about commodities,shorting,buying long and much much more.
Knowledge trumps ignorance everyday!

Toast !

I used to bake and create amazing edible creations for my family's every day consumption. A few years ago, I decided the extra effort that I spent slaving in the kitchen just wasn't worth it. No one appreciated the extra effort,so I quit.
Now and then ,I will spin my kitchen majik but most of the time I create a simple repast with very little labour.I can easily spend the extra hour on other projects such as renovating,working or spending time with my "hunny". Simple works !
Our newest obsession is toast. Toast is a comfort food , easy to prepare and oh so versatile. Take one slice of bread and add whatever topping you wish..... mmmmm mmmm.
Over the weekend I was introduced to the Toast song, a little known 80's ditty.My man played in a punk/rock band in the early 80's and used to bug his lead guitarist by playing it with the rest of the boys in rehearsal. Toast isn't punk,man ,but it is delicious.

Education for the Driving Masses

I believe it's important to relay information to my children that may be helpful to them down the road.I have never candy coated the truth or not truthfully answered a question when asked by the teenager or the preteen.
My teenager is disgusted and exasperated by my advice,I can't be too pissed at her attitude as I consider her reaction is based on a lack of experience and knowledge not yet gathered as she is only sixteen years old.
I suppose it's a normal reaction on her part and I can only hope that when her hormones even out and her brain develops she might remember some of our advice.
I do remember and am thankful for some golden nuggets from my Dad such as stopping for three long seconds at a stop sign before you turn.It's saved my hide on many occasions. Other advice such as Mom's never sit on the cold ground or you will get a cold in your kidneys I have ignored. NO COLD YET !
My golden nugget of the day or as she calls it, the nag of the month, is regarding activities. I simply stated,it's important to have an interest in a hobby or a sport
as having an interest in developing your potential and learning a new skill is a key to succeeding in life. I have several hobbies and consider learning a new skill vital to my happiness and well being.
I'm still passionate about trying to change the world.
I was shocked and angry about the vehicle murder of three people last month just down the road from Reno House.
So angry, I decided to contribute links and police reports to a website that is devoted to driver education,news,prevention about traffic incidents.
Cindy Smith devotes hundreds of hours updating her site in the hope that educating the masses will lead to a reduction in auto fatalities across Canada.
In the last month, I have scanned through hundreds of incident reports and media stories across Canada and have come to the conclusion that Canada needs tighter legislation and harsher sentencing towards those people who think they can drive dangerously. The time is past for gentle MADD PSA's or reminders from the LCBO to not drink and drive.
I'm asking each and everyone of you to contribute a news link,story or tip to Cindy
Smith's website. If we all work for the common cause,change can happen.
You can read for yourself @ http://www.educationforthedrivingmasses.com

Charles Lives !!!!!!!!!

A few posts ago, I relayed the story of the pool that went bad. Real bad.
So bad, the neighbour next door , who doesn't really live next door as she lives in her own apartment across town instead of with her parents told us a few stories about the bad bad pool.
The people who used to live in reno house could be compared to the Beales of Grey Gardens except the Beales were much tidier than the ff______ ,I mean the people who used to live here. The "f" reference isn't a reference to "that" word , their last name began with an undercase "f" and the next letter in the last name was "f" as well. I digress ....
The youngest child who lived with his mid elderly parents is in his early 30's yet still lived with the folks and nary lifted a finger to help out, but then again he wasn't ever expected to perform manual labour as " white people don't do manual labour". Oh Yeah, the former residents were extremely weird.
The young middle aged man who was deemed by neighbours ,"so smart that he was dumb" worked odd jobs around the neighbourhood as the "pool boy" although he never maintained his own pool. It went black and had something large and black growing out of it.
The children next door used to watch him jump into the black pool and swim laps and were so petrified that something would grow out of the pool and attack them that they proceeded to throw pool chlorine tabs over the fence into the pool. It was a futile gesture at best... but rather funny until the mosquitos bred on the blackness turned into a real threat. As previously mentioned, the neighbours next door forced the home owner to clean up the pool and repair it before someone was infected with West Nile.
Katie and Homey rescued many many toads from the meanie pump brought by the guys at
International Pool and Spas (thanks Ian)and a few scaly reptiles hopped away into the sunset or the road.
The hood was bereft of toads and frogs mating sounds. It went quiet, kind of like when Niagara froze and stopped.
On Easter weekend , the man and I finished our backyard and built a barbeque pit complete with recycled cement pad and 10 loads of crushed gravel. I cleaned up the rest of the "reno garbage" and raked out the rest of the leaves that the wind blew into the corner.
There, under the leaves, I found a toad , alive, hibernating in the warmth.
Katie called every toad, Charles ( she believes she is the late Diana,POW reincarnated, and was extremely excited to discover that CHARLES survived the winter.
We moved him into the front yard, to the burm, where he will sleep until it's time for him to wake up and do what ever toads do.
But not in my pool.

Across The Universe

Remember the movie that made the Bee Gee's uncool?
"Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" was a tremendous disappointment and set the bar even higher for a movie containing Beatle's Music.
Director Julie Taymor gets it right from the opening beach shot and I can sincerely say the movie is in my top ten greatest movies of all time.
Taymor watched the preview with Paul McCartney who loved the movie so much, HE SANG
ALONG UNDER HIS BREATH !
It's rather trippy in parts but hey it's based in the 60's, what else could you expect?
The preteen and teenager loved it too, especially the amazing choreography although the film led to an indepth discussion about the Vietnam War,draft dodgers,drug use,civil rights movement,sds,black panthers,early feminists, attitudes /diachotomy between working class youth and university educated youth in 1960's America, the Kennedys, Beatles etc. The movie sparked questions ,which is a GOOD thing.
It's the quintessential musical,you can't take your eyes off it for a second,and you can easily watch it over and over.
IT"S A MUST SEE !!!!!

Yo Mama ...doesn't have the sense to keep you home when you sick.

I'm pissed.
Katiekins isn't the type of kid to have a full social calendar.
She can take it or leave it and sometimes will refuse to pick up a call from a friend cause she would rather hang out at home. Yeah, rather odd.
Last weekend was the exception. The girl attended a sleepover birthday party on Friday night, went to the movies on Saturday then over to a friends house to hang on Sunday.
Last night ,she woke up in the middle of the night with a nasty infection complete with high fever and sore throat. One trip to the medical centre confirmed it was an ear infection and if "it" wasn't an ear infection the antibiotics should kill the offensive bacteria. Er... not a comforting diagnosis in the least.
We heard via the grapevine,this bug starts off as a throat/ear infection and travels down to the lungs to settle in as pneumonia if not treated quickly. Niiiice.

We asked Katie if any of the girls at the sleepover had cold/flu , and she mentioned,
oh yeah Anna was coughing a lot during the night.
Why the heck do parents send their children to school,friends houses or out of the house when their child is ill and obviously contagious?
That woman (not Monica Lewinsky) and her oblivious ignorance allowed a potentially deadly virus to be passed on to other children and their families.
Two of the people in my crew have compromised immune systems and pick up virus's extremely easily. A common cold can waylay my crew for weeks and potentially kill them.
We take precautions in our household to prevent the transmission of any nasty bugs.
The sick person must wear a mask,gloves and be isolated to another part of the house until they are no longer contagious. We have a no touch rule, no touching anything that other people touch including taps, kitchen ware,computers,TV,door handles etc.
The sickie's sheets are washed and disinfected and they get to use their own washroom until the contagious phase has passed.
Oh and they don't get to go out, to school or a sleepover.
Cause real friends take every precaution to keep their friends healthy.

Youtube your teenager's room ?

After discovering that our teenage daughter's room had turned into a biohazard,we
researched the google and discovered a new trend.
X and Boomer parents are filming the crime scene and uploading it to You Tube as a desparate last resort shaming tactic.
We showed the evidence to the preteen and the teenager,warning of the same dire consequence occuring unless they cleaned up their respective acts. Katie kins still hasn't reached the depths of her older sister...yet.

So the question of the day is, would you youtube your teen's biohazard of a room and upload as a means of behaviour modification.

Join in the discussion, here ,your blog or on Youtube.

Frogs,Ducks and Toads oh my ...

When we bought the behemoth called "Reno House", the pool had gone black and many would be buyers thought the lining was shot.I'm rather happy that the pool was so objectionable to the 239 people who tramped through the Open House as it gave us the opportunity to buy it, albeit 20 grand over the asking price.
It was a bedroom community for many critters from the Sifton Bog but especially ducks,frogs and toads. You could hear the ribbits from a block away and it was such a health hazard the neighbours called the city to force the former homeowners to reopen it. Ten years of mismanagement had turned it into mosquito heaven
The ducks,Canadian geese and the odd blue heron still fly in for a touchdown on the surface but do a mad but comical turn around once they realize that it's now blue.
The ducks loved it so much, one of them fell down the chimney adding that extra special scent of decay.(for a day, I was convinced it was the carpet)
Once we figured out that the pool could be saved it took six weeks to turn it around.
In the meantime, the pool spawned thousands of toad and frog tadpoles which fascinated Katie and her brother Homey on Homes to no end.
Homey is twenty five and lives across town with his Mom and spends much of his time with his girlfriend and her son.
He's an adult, a tough guy with a heart of gold,but definitely a boy at heart.
He and Katie would lean over the pool and collect tadpoles by the hundreds ,store them in a water filled pop bottle in order to save the toads before chlorinated sudden death. One night he took home a bottle of tadpoles to show the girlfriend's four year old son. Of course they died over night and caused a stench but hey it was the thought that counted.
It was a great summer,getting to know Homey as he assisted us out on the reno.
He's a good guy,very thoughtful underneath the rapper exterior. I think he had a good time learning new skills and spending time with his Dad.
How many twenty five year old men rescue tadpoles with their half sister ?
One toad survived, he must have escaped to a window well on the side of the house.
Katie captured him and we took a picture for posterity's sake to remember the pool as it once was.