This one's for Liz

Mu friend Liz is what you might call a coffee fiend. This woman does not play well with others uncaffienated. She also loves chocolate (who doesn't?)

In her honour, I present to you -- CHOCOLATE JOLT (no, not the pop)

This seems to be the quick antidote to food coma if you like chocolate and coffee (and the associated massive influxes of sugar and caffeine). I wouldn't recommend taking this before you go to bed.

Mmmm... new bus smell

I never thought that a bus could have new bus smell, but the number 12 on my way home from work tonight had just that. Moreso, the seats were vibrant blue, the pull cord was shiny yellow, and the floor was relatively clean. It was lovely, and smelled like a showroom car. I give it about a day before the new bus smell wears off. I feel privileged to have experienced it.

And on the cat theme...

I'm Widget-sitting for the wekend, and today I (and my laundry) have been having a lovely time at Sally's. I get to play with the cutest kitten in the world, and I get to avoid the laundromat - how wonderful is my day?

Also, Widget seems to have acquired a new skill - impersonating a gopher.

R.I.P. Snoopy

I can top this one...

Snicker. But I can relate to poor Dewey here:



I can beat him, though. A few years ago I hurt my back by sleeping. I swear - I was fine one day, the next day I could hardly walk. Months of drugs and physical therapy later, and I am down to just twinges in my back. But seriously - sleeping broke me!

TV, and S'mores - does life get any better?

Thursday nights are the best! Today Liz and Jen and Sally and I got together to watch last night's Project Runway. We discovered over the past few weeks that it is a lot more fun to heckle the tv in a group than by yourself. From now Thursday night is TV Night at Dena's. Gotta love the Tivo!

Tonight we also got to try my new S'mores maker (thanks Marianne!!!) - it's a blast, and we had quite a good time lighting marshmallows on fire, as demonstrated here by Jen and Liz. My poor hanging light possible got a bit singed, though. Next time I move the table a bit.


And for tv dessert, we watched the season premiere of Dancing with the Stars - yet again a fabulous show to watch in a group and heckle. We can't wait for Skating with Celebrities, which we hope will be an even more hilarious train wreck. 

Books I have read (yesterday)

I read two books yesterday (well, I finished one and read the other entirely).

My Fifteen Minutes by Sarah Faith Alterman

Cute, and nice to have a book about a woman in LA who has no interest in being famous or a movie star (even though there is a movie star in it)


The Pirates! In an Adventure with Ahab by Gideon DeFoe

Cute, but shallow and very silly. Took me about an hour to read, maybe a bit less.

I have moved on to Diana Lively is Falling Down, which is promising to be cute, but not too shallow. It's also a slower read than the other two.

New Year's Fun!

What a good New Year's it was this year! New Year's Eve day began with a lovely breakfast at Honey's with Carl, Micaela, Mark, Dawn, and Liz. After that Liz and I went up to Mark and Dawn's to have the first Philadelphia Corner Gasathon, where we watched 17 episodes of the second season of Corner Gas, a Canadian tv sitcom that I have addicted quite a few Philadelphians to. I fell asleep during the curling episode, but I've seen it before, so that's okay. We still have to watch the last episode, as we ran out of time.
After the marathon, Liz and I headed out to Jen and Kim's place to have a grand holiday dinner (yummy turkey and stuffing!), play trivial pursuit, and ring in the new year while sitting in the slightly broken hot tub with glasses of champagne.
It was the perfect New Year's Eve day!

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.

Thanksgiving

In honour of it being the day after Thanksgiving, here is a look at one of the projects that the Children's Librarian at one of the branches did with her kids:




Apple Turkey!

Materialism rocks!

I have now found my favourite shoe store. I was at Franklin Mills on Sunday and bought the cutest boots in the world (at least for now).

The Clarks/Bostonian Outlet sells Clarks (and it's sub-brands) at about 50% less than list price. They're still expensive, but oh so worth it. Clarks are the most comfortable shoes I've worn. I bought a couple of sandals at the Clarks store in Scotland, and they were the first sandals that I have bought that I have not had to break in. From now on, I'm buying Clarks (or Merrells) Cute AND Comfy! A great way to follow my father's rule: Always wear comfortable shoes.

Unintentionally funny book cover of the day

Um, is it about a handyman who can't reach the ceiling? Possibly his shirt is stuck up there.

No! It's about some pro wrestler. Check out the leather pants - not the most practical attire for a handyman. Wouldn't want to spill paint on those puppies (or cows, whatever).

Actually, I'd probably want to read the book more if it was about a handyman.

Oooh, Shiny!

A group of us went for drinks and barbeque the other night, which is not the important part of the story. Liz and I were offered rides home, and we were walking through the parking garage to the car when Ernestine noticed a really classy car. We looked closer and realized it was a Rolls Royce. I have never seen a Rolls in person, so it was really cool. It was a Silver Spur, and it looked like the passanger door was actually monogrammed (I know some car afficianado will now tell me that that's some standard Rolls thing, but I was impressed). Talk about conspicuous consumption.