Jewish Christmas

I flew back to Philadelphia on Sunday, and Carl and Micaela were really sweet to pick me up from the airport. We dropped my bags (plural - I had to buy new luggage to hold all my stuff. Typical.) at my place and then headed directly into Chinatown for dinner.

Here are Carl and Micaela enjoying their first ever Jewish Christmas at Lee How Fook, entirely surrounded by a restaurant full of Jews celebrating Christmas the way we know best-dinner at one of the only places open on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Winter in Edmonton

I've been away for a while - actually I'm still away. I flew up to Edmonton for my mom's surprise birthday party last week and have been here ever since. I couldn't talk about it because mom actually reads my blog (at least, she'd better), and it would ruin the surprise that my sister and dad and I had been keeping secret for three months. Well, no need to worry about that - dad spilled all the beans the day before the party (just because mom ended up in Emergency on Saturday, humph). So the party wasn't a huge surprise, but it was fun. Happy birthday, mom!

I've been crazy busy running around the city meeting up with friends this week. I did go to West Edmonton Mall today for the sole purpose of watching all the frantic Christmas shoppers and laughing at them, but I was disappointed that the mall was relatively empty. I guess people were well prepared for gift-giving this year. Darn.

And the wonderful thing is that it has been freakishly warm in Edmonton this week. It's been above freezing for the whole week and I did not need to break out the long underwear once. Nor did I have to do up my coat to go outside for most of the week.

I fly home bright and early tomorrow morning and land in time to go to Chinatown with Carl and Micaela for Jewish Christmas (dinner at Lee How Fook). What are the odds that the Tim Hortons in the airport will be open at 6 am tomorrow morning so I can get a box of Timbits to bring home with me?

Roomba pet!

You know how I have a Roomba? And how all my friends think it's really cool and tease me about it being my pet substitute? Well, now I can get even closer to anthropomorphism with Roombud, which sells cute little costumes for the Roomba



And, I just found out that there is also a Scooba, which is a floor-washing robot to go along with my vacuuming robot.

Dance like you've never danced before!

I really don't like dancing. I'm very self-conscious about the fact that I look pretty stupid on the dance floor. Give me choreography and I can fake it pretty well, but club dancing is right out.

But now I can learn how to dance properly. This might all the difference. Well, not really, but it's hilarious to watch. Check it out.

Luna Bar Maggot update

As I wrote last week, I found a live maggot in my daily Luna Bar last week. I sat down and emailed what happened to the Luna Bar people:

I took a Luna bar to work today for breakfast (as I do every day). Today, however, I had a bit of a shock. I opened the bar and started eating it. I looked down at the bar after about two bites, and notices a crumb (I thought) moving. Turns out it was a small maggot or something- quite alive and happily living in the bar. It looked like the bar was sealed before I opened it, so I have no idea where it came from. Needless to say it was a pretty unpleasant experience.

I received a response from one of their customer service guys today:

Hi Dena,

Thanks for taking the time to contact us about your unpleasant experience with finding bugs in your Lemon Zest Luna Bar. I am so sorry that this happened to you and apologize for your discomfort. There is a simple explanation for what has occurred with your Luna Bar. What you discovered is an Indian Meal Moth. I assure you that while Indian Meal Moths are definitely unappetizing, they are not harmful to ingest, and do not become parasites.

These moths are pantry pests that are attracted to grains, dried fruits, chocolate, nuts, cardboard, birdseed and other preservative-free foods. The moths seek out food sources when they are ready to lay their eggs and the larvae are so tiny they can enter sealed packaging though microscopic pores and weaknesses. This can occur at any point in the distribution chain.

We do not know where the infestation occurred, but we are confident that the Indian Meal Moths you encountered did not originate in our warehouse or bakery. Our warehouse and bakery are kept scrupulously clean, and both are equipped with pheromone traps, which are checked on a daily basis. Additionally, after the Luna Bars are baked, each bar is sealed in a Mylar wrapper.

Unfortunately, as you found, the moth larvae can occasionally find their way through the packaging. Of the millions of Luna Bars we’ve sold in the past year, moths affect a very small percentage. While this doesn’t make finding them in your bar any less unsettling, I wanted to assure you that it is not a common experience.

I hope that this information will help to ease your concern. I would like to send you a box of fresh-from-the-bakery Lemon Zest Luna Bars as our sincere apology for this incident.

If you have any other problems or questions in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me at jhantman@clifbar.com or at (800) 884-5254, ext. 105. Thank you for your understanding; we appreciate your business.

Take care,
Jeff - Consumer Service
www.clifbar.com

Book of the Day

I started a new book yesterday: Irma: Memoirs of a Vampire Gone Dry, by Laine Jacob.



I'm quite enjoying it so far. I thought it would be chick-litty, but it's really more "literary" than I expected.

First Snow!

December 4, and we had our first snowfall of the winter!



Just snowy enough to realize that winter is here and to melt all over the place and make it wet and slippy to walk on. It still doesn't get below freezing in the daytime yet, but it's a beginning.

Survivor Philadelphia

It's the disgusting food challenge!

I usually have a Luna Bar for breakfast every morning. This morning I took a slightly squished LemonZest bar. Here come the disgusting part. I started eating it this morning and then looked down at the bar. There was a little live maggot on the bar! Ew! Ew!

Needless to say the bar went into the trash, and I had potato chips for breakfast instead.