I would like to formally ask the media to stop using such broad terms when referring to neighbourhoods. Forgive me, as I am out of town so it was through a friend that I heard that at least one media outlet was referring to the murders on Elgin as having happened in the North End. There was also an incident the other day at Arlignton and Logan that was classed as the North End. The North End starts on the other side of the tracks people.
Now, I know all the suburbanites would like to think that all bad things in this city happen in the "North End", but does this really mean they are afraid of anything north of the Assiniboine? Is that why the media has started this ridiculous mis-naming? From now on I request that the proper City of Winnipeg neighbourhood be attached to all negative news stories. Why just negative you ask? Because positive ones already work that way. Goodness knows if something good were to happen around Leila, Garden City (and I may just be sticking my own foot in my mouth here as I am sure there is a more proper term for the streets bordering Leila but I do not have a good internet connection to research this) would get all the positive press, however, if someone were to get mugged/murdered/carjacked it would have happened in the "North End".
Okay, enough ranting for now. On to another little geography thing - as we know, I'm new to this blogging thing and the stats never cease to amaze me - it's probably old hat to most of you but I am so curious as to who in Moldova was reading my blog? Are they friends with my reader from Paraguay? Maybe they meant to read my "Small world, big travels" blog? *shameless self-promotion plug* That's right kids, I've escaped a Winnipeg winter for a few weeks and am currently in Kenya. I've been meaning to do a travel blog for years and decided that this trip was as good as any to start, so if you get bored and miss my clever musings about Winnipeg, not to worry, even though I'm out of town you can still occasionally read a bit by me. In any case, please don't forget about me, I'll try to read you all as often as I can so I don't miss the 'Peg too much!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Paddlewheel at the Bay, Queen of my heart
Big announcement today assuming you are part of the senior set or in your thirties with a bizarre sense of nostalgia.
They are going to close the Paddlewheel restaurant at the Bay downtown, this makes me more than a little sad. When I was
I love The Bay downtown almost as much as I loved Eaton's. How, as you take the escalators up they get skinnier and skinnier and look like antiques by the time you reach the top floor. I wish I could spend some time in all those back rooms and hallways at The Bay - all those windows that you can't see out from the inside must have a view! As the absolute most random thing you will hear all day, did you know that the ladies bathroom on the second floor has ladies urinals??!! Well, I hope they are still there, back when I was a teenager that bathroom when on forever - there was a section of toilets that went all the way to the outside wall, those were the first to get blocked off. Then, it was the middle section that got blocked off - that's where the urinals are. Now I think there are only like 3 stalls left, although the rest of the bathroom is still big enough to play a game of football in. Being the strange girl that I am I did actually get a photo of the ladies urinals (and may have snuck a guy friend into the ladies room when I was in high school because he didn't believe me, and it was waaaaaaaaay before the days of the instant gratification of digital photos) and I will try to remember to scan it one day so you'll all believe me too.
While I'm going down Bay memory lane, at some point in Jr.High we had some loss prevention officer (or something, who the heck remembers exactly now) come toscare educate us about the evils of theft or overpriced clothing (seriously, just wait a week and it'll be 25% off all --------------) and told us how at The Bay they had secret rooms with two way mirrors where they watched for shoplifters. Now, perhaps not the best thing to tell a bunch of teenagers, but whatever... it didn't encourage me to shoplift but it did become a game to try to find them all.
I haven't been to the downtown Bay store since they added the Zellers, I don't think I'm quite ready to say goodbye to the old Groceteria yet - the memories are too fresh. I hope the Malt Stop is still there.
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| Paddlewheel Dining Room |
I love The Bay downtown almost as much as I loved Eaton's. How, as you take the escalators up they get skinnier and skinnier and look like antiques by the time you reach the top floor. I wish I could spend some time in all those back rooms and hallways at The Bay - all those windows that you can't see out from the inside must have a view! As the absolute most random thing you will hear all day, did you know that the ladies bathroom on the second floor has ladies urinals??!! Well, I hope they are still there, back when I was a teenager that bathroom when on forever - there was a section of toilets that went all the way to the outside wall, those were the first to get blocked off. Then, it was the middle section that got blocked off - that's where the urinals are. Now I think there are only like 3 stalls left, although the rest of the bathroom is still big enough to play a game of football in. Being the strange girl that I am I did actually get a photo of the ladies urinals (and may have snuck a guy friend into the ladies room when I was in high school because he didn't believe me, and it was waaaaaaaaay before the days of the instant gratification of digital photos) and I will try to remember to scan it one day so you'll all believe me too.
While I'm going down Bay memory lane, at some point in Jr.High we had some loss prevention officer (or something, who the heck remembers exactly now) come to
I haven't been to the downtown Bay store since they added the Zellers, I don't think I'm quite ready to say goodbye to the old Groceteria yet - the memories are too fresh. I hope the Malt Stop is still there.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Recycle this, 10% Tuesday
Today was recycling day in my own little part of the city and I'm not going to lie, I was worried. Dragging the recycling to the back lane in the throes of winter is not my strong suit. Most of it went out last week, but not all, in part because I think there was 3 weeks worth to go out last week. So I've been making the effort over the last week to drag the random cardboard boxes full of recyclables to the back lane. I'm lucky in that the garage next to mine isn't being used right now, so I was able to start stockpiling my boxes there, eagerly awaiting Recycling Day 4.
It arrived. Well, actually, first last night arrived. I pulled into the garage, looked next door, was please that the local scavenger guys have learned that there are no beer cans in my recyclables, thus there is no need to empty the boxes all over the ground, and then I remembered that the actual blue box itself was still inside. I don't know if you were out last night, but it was freaking cold. There was no hope of me going into the warmth of the house and then coming back out again. Fast forward to this morning. I'm pulling out of the garage and see the big pile of recycling. Craptastic. Well, I'm certainly not pulling back in the garage, turning off the car, unlocking the garage door, unlocking the house and then dragging the blue box out to the back lane. So, I figured that it would just have to sit there another week.
*sound the angels* Well, miracle of miracles, they still took it all away!! Hooray!! I was fairly certain that there was some bizzare rule that involved the colour blue and if the blue box or a blue bag wasn't also out there, they wouldn't touch it. You know, in case the multiple cardboard boxes full of plastic and cans and more cardboard weren't actually meant for them.
Sadly, I am one of only about 4 people in my back lane that recycles (we'll save the "is recycling really worth it when you factor in how far they ship it all etc etc" discussion for another time) and I give absolute credit to the guys in the truck for remembering that I'm one of them and possibly breaking protocol to pick up my stuff. A genuine thank you. Now who wants to bring my blue box out for me next week?
Today was Customer Appreciation Day at Safeway - now, since I have a steady diet of mostly cereal, this isn't a day that normally does much for me. However, today was an exception; I even remembered to bring my reusable bags. I won't bother to tell you what I bought because it just makes me look like a crazy single woman who lives with her cat* but I will tell you that in an effort to not frustrate others I used the self-checkout so that I could be obsessive and pack everything into my bags and not hold up the line behind me. Of course my plan backfired somewhat. You see, this is because I also had coupons, 10% Tuesday just wasn't good enough for me (I am a Winnipegger after all!) and if you have coupons you need the self-checkout monitor.
The employee who had the thankless job of monitoring all of us self-checkout folks (which really isn't self-checkout by the way, bloody machine rejects you every time you use one of your own bags and you have to wait for them to override it) claimed she had never seen so many. She clearly needs to watch that extreme couponing show. I only had 16 coupons, and 13 of them were the same. I did get 40 bonus airmiles (coupon), and saved an extra $15 off my 10% Tuesday shopping trip.
*I really do only have one cat and no rocking chair.
It arrived. Well, actually, first last night arrived. I pulled into the garage, looked next door, was please that the local scavenger guys have learned that there are no beer cans in my recyclables, thus there is no need to empty the boxes all over the ground, and then I remembered that the actual blue box itself was still inside. I don't know if you were out last night, but it was freaking cold. There was no hope of me going into the warmth of the house and then coming back out again. Fast forward to this morning. I'm pulling out of the garage and see the big pile of recycling. Craptastic. Well, I'm certainly not pulling back in the garage, turning off the car, unlocking the garage door, unlocking the house and then dragging the blue box out to the back lane. So, I figured that it would just have to sit there another week.
*sound the angels* Well, miracle of miracles, they still took it all away!! Hooray!! I was fairly certain that there was some bizzare rule that involved the colour blue and if the blue box or a blue bag wasn't also out there, they wouldn't touch it. You know, in case the multiple cardboard boxes full of plastic and cans and more cardboard weren't actually meant for them.
Sadly, I am one of only about 4 people in my back lane that recycles (we'll save the "is recycling really worth it when you factor in how far they ship it all etc etc" discussion for another time) and I give absolute credit to the guys in the truck for remembering that I'm one of them and possibly breaking protocol to pick up my stuff. A genuine thank you. Now who wants to bring my blue box out for me next week?
Today was Customer Appreciation Day at Safeway - now, since I have a steady diet of mostly cereal, this isn't a day that normally does much for me. However, today was an exception; I even remembered to bring my reusable bags. I won't bother to tell you what I bought because it just makes me look like a crazy single woman who lives with her cat* but I will tell you that in an effort to not frustrate others I used the self-checkout so that I could be obsessive and pack everything into my bags and not hold up the line behind me. Of course my plan backfired somewhat. You see, this is because I also had coupons, 10% Tuesday just wasn't good enough for me (I am a Winnipegger after all!) and if you have coupons you need the self-checkout monitor.
The employee who had the thankless job of monitoring all of us self-checkout folks (which really isn't self-checkout by the way, bloody machine rejects you every time you use one of your own bags and you have to wait for them to override it) claimed she had never seen so many. She clearly needs to watch that extreme couponing show. I only had 16 coupons, and 13 of them were the same. I did get 40 bonus airmiles (coupon), and saved an extra $15 off my 10% Tuesday shopping trip.
*I really do only have one cat and no rocking chair.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Bald
In light of the recent publicity surrounding Stephanie Lozinski and her head shaving I thought I would give my two cents worth. Now, I'm certainly no expert on employment standards or human rights, but there seems to be a lot of talk about those things going around so I think enough has been said about those things.
My question is the kindergarten question (it's my specialty, I'm not simple, I just like simple things). How exactly would her hairstyle (or lack there of it) violate a dress code? I'm sure it can be specified that an appearance is neat and tidy, which to be honest, is such a subjective thing I'm not entirely sure how that can be allowed either. But a shaved head is an EXTREMELY common hairstyle, albeit far more common for a man than a woman, but it's certainly not a new daring hairstyle. Now, I wasn't alive in the 60's or early 70's or whenever it was that men were rebelling by sporting ponytails, but based on the fact that it became socially acceptable (although I'm personally not generally a fan, just sayin') I think that society realized that it was a little ridiculous to judge people based on notions of what is an acceptable hairstyle for one gender vs. another.
Notice that I didn't factor in if she did or didn't shave her head in honour of someone fighting cancer. If she did, great. If she didn't, who cares? In my simple little mind it boils down to a gender equality issue, nothing else. Of course, I don't know if there are any male servers at Sawadee Thai (I'm a Magic Thailand girl myself) with shaved heads - if there are, open and closed case of gender discrimination. If there's not, then I guess all we can do is post comments on newspaper stories and write blogs speculating as we will never know if a male would have been fired for the same hairstyle. Now, someone get the poor girl a hat, we're heading into a deep freeze again and I'm told you lose 80% of your body heat through your head.
My question is the kindergarten question (it's my specialty, I'm not simple, I just like simple things). How exactly would her hairstyle (or lack there of it) violate a dress code? I'm sure it can be specified that an appearance is neat and tidy, which to be honest, is such a subjective thing I'm not entirely sure how that can be allowed either. But a shaved head is an EXTREMELY common hairstyle, albeit far more common for a man than a woman, but it's certainly not a new daring hairstyle. Now, I wasn't alive in the 60's or early 70's or whenever it was that men were rebelling by sporting ponytails, but based on the fact that it became socially acceptable (although I'm personally not generally a fan, just sayin') I think that society realized that it was a little ridiculous to judge people based on notions of what is an acceptable hairstyle for one gender vs. another.
Notice that I didn't factor in if she did or didn't shave her head in honour of someone fighting cancer. If she did, great. If she didn't, who cares? In my simple little mind it boils down to a gender equality issue, nothing else. Of course, I don't know if there are any male servers at Sawadee Thai (I'm a Magic Thailand girl myself) with shaved heads - if there are, open and closed case of gender discrimination. If there's not, then I guess all we can do is post comments on newspaper stories and write blogs speculating as we will never know if a male would have been fired for the same hairstyle. Now, someone get the poor girl a hat, we're heading into a deep freeze again and I'm told you lose 80% of your body heat through your head.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Laughter, the best medicine
Well, I'm home now, only a 11.5 hour day today. Haven't washed today's angry off yet, but saw this video on a friends facebook profile and it brought a genuine smile and laugh to my weary face. It's so quintessentially Winnipeg. Now, as I'm realizing, the blogging crowd tend to be a very well read bunch and since I found the video on the WFP website you all likely would have come across it on your own, so I ask you to pass it on to your friends and family via other mediums so they can enjoy it too!
Oh, and in case you are wondering what happened with my roof, so far nothing, but they did send someone useful to come take a look and they shoveled the snow off the roof, it's a start.
Oh, and in case you are wondering what happened with my roof, so far nothing, but they did send someone useful to come take a look and they shoveled the snow off the roof, it's a start.
ANGRY and Arnold Schwarzenegger
Forgive me folks, this is not exactly a Winnipeg related rant. Well, it is and it isn't - it involves snow, so I suppose it's Winnipeg related in that way...I will also throw in something random regarding Arnie's visit if you stick with me to the end.
I live in a lovely 1 1/2 storey home. I also happen to own an almost-identical-to-my-own-home, rental property. Last year, I paid a BBB rated ("A" level rating) company to replace the roofs on both homes, due to leaking issues. I was very specific as to where the leaking was and very specific as to the reason that I was replacing the roof(s).
Well, last fall, the roof on the rental started leaking during a rain storm. Ok, not exactly no problem, but sh*t happens, we're all human, maybe it was a very simple error that needed to be corrected. I called the company and they seemingly fixed the problem - not without the head of their roofing team being a complete condescending jerk to me, but seemingly fixed in any case.
Enter yesterday's balmy temperatures and bursts of sunshine (I still don't like you Environment Canada - what good is a nice day on a work day??). I was doing my best to enjoy what I could of the unusually warm day until I got the call. When you have a rental, and your tenant calls, it's almost never a good thing. The call went something like this, "uh, yeah, the living room ceiling is dripping, I have buckets all over the place". Insert several choice curse words from me *here*.
Now, of course this phone call came at pretty much EXACTLY the moment that the office of the company I had hired to do the roofing was shutting down for the day. So, after finishing up at my full-time job, off I went to my part-time job, not exactly in a great mood to say the least. I finally get home, after a nice 13 hour work day, shout a hello to the roommate and think about a nice hot shower to wash the angry off. I'm delayed though, because she needs to show me something. Oh yes, that would be the two buckets under the drip in MY living room.
After a tossing and turning filled night, I called the company first thing this morning - after all, I have a 5 year warranty on the workmanship. Lucky me, that same jerk of a head roofer is still with them and he told me it was my fault. Yup, my fault. After all, what did I expect, I have a 1 1/2 storey home and it's because of the ice damming. Well, Mr. Snarky Roofing Man, one of the two houses has no ice damming (it's insulated, see also, insulated) so why is it leaking?
Further to it being my fault, can you believe that I have also allowed there to be SNOW on my roof? In winter? The nerve of me. Now, to make me seem slight less irrational and ranting, let the record show that I am fully aware that over time, ice damming will shorten the longevity of my roof (which is why I was replacing a ~17 year old roof in the first place, I doubt I will ever get the 25-35 years out of a roof, no matter what the shingles are rated).
According to his logic, every single house with snow on the roof (with or without ice damming) would experience leaking on a regular basis. Which would mean, that my roofs have OBVIOUSLY leaked every year for the last 80 years (which clearly they haven't) and I certainly can't expect something like a NEW ROOF to stop a problem like this. Obviously.
Thank you for those who read all the way to the end of my rant. Now for what you've all been waiting for:
Ok, so I clearly just took a quote out of the Winnipeg Free Press, but it's a pretty funny one if you read it aloud in your best Arnold voice. Now I'm going to go and re-read a few favourites from Winnipeg Cat to cheer myself up. Oh, and I think I will rename Mr. Snarky Roofing Man, Mr. GIRLY-Snarky Roofing Man.
I live in a lovely 1 1/2 storey home. I also happen to own an almost-identical-to-my-own-home, rental property. Last year, I paid a BBB rated ("A" level rating) company to replace the roofs on both homes, due to leaking issues. I was very specific as to where the leaking was and very specific as to the reason that I was replacing the roof(s).
Well, last fall, the roof on the rental started leaking during a rain storm. Ok, not exactly no problem, but sh*t happens, we're all human, maybe it was a very simple error that needed to be corrected. I called the company and they seemingly fixed the problem - not without the head of their roofing team being a complete condescending jerk to me, but seemingly fixed in any case.
Enter yesterday's balmy temperatures and bursts of sunshine (I still don't like you Environment Canada - what good is a nice day on a work day??). I was doing my best to enjoy what I could of the unusually warm day until I got the call. When you have a rental, and your tenant calls, it's almost never a good thing. The call went something like this, "uh, yeah, the living room ceiling is dripping, I have buckets all over the place". Insert several choice curse words from me *here*.
Now, of course this phone call came at pretty much EXACTLY the moment that the office of the company I had hired to do the roofing was shutting down for the day. So, after finishing up at my full-time job, off I went to my part-time job, not exactly in a great mood to say the least. I finally get home, after a nice 13 hour work day, shout a hello to the roommate and think about a nice hot shower to wash the angry off. I'm delayed though, because she needs to show me something. Oh yes, that would be the two buckets under the drip in MY living room.
After a tossing and turning filled night, I called the company first thing this morning - after all, I have a 5 year warranty on the workmanship. Lucky me, that same jerk of a head roofer is still with them and he told me it was my fault. Yup, my fault. After all, what did I expect, I have a 1 1/2 storey home and it's because of the ice damming. Well, Mr. Snarky Roofing Man, one of the two houses has no ice damming (it's insulated, see also, insulated) so why is it leaking?
Further to it being my fault, can you believe that I have also allowed there to be SNOW on my roof? In winter? The nerve of me. Now, to make me seem slight less irrational and ranting, let the record show that I am fully aware that over time, ice damming will shorten the longevity of my roof (which is why I was replacing a ~17 year old roof in the first place, I doubt I will ever get the 25-35 years out of a roof, no matter what the shingles are rated).
According to his logic, every single house with snow on the roof (with or without ice damming) would experience leaking on a regular basis. Which would mean, that my roofs have OBVIOUSLY leaked every year for the last 80 years (which clearly they haven't) and I certainly can't expect something like a NEW ROOF to stop a problem like this. Obviously.
Thank you for those who read all the way to the end of my rant. Now for what you've all been waiting for:
"Politicians are afraid to fail, that's why they vote 'no' all the time. It's easier. That's why they're girly-men. If you cry, you're not a girly-man. If you fail, you are not a girly-man. But if you are afraid to fail, you're a girly-man," he said.
Ok, so I clearly just took a quote out of the Winnipeg Free Press, but it's a pretty funny one if you read it aloud in your best Arnold voice. Now I'm going to go and re-read a few favourites from Winnipeg Cat to cheer myself up. Oh, and I think I will rename Mr. Snarky Roofing Man, Mr. GIRLY-Snarky Roofing Man.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Screw you Environment Canada
Yes that's right, YOU, Environment Canada (*somewhere a sad lonely meteorologist sheds a tear). Now, sigh, I suppose in the interest of full disclosure, this tale of woe is at least partially my fault, but that would make the story far less interesting.
Picture it. Friday, January 21st, 2011. I was sick as a dog, awake a total of perhaps 6 hours all day. Now in that six hours I think I must have heard various media outlets tell me about 17 times that Sunday was looking for a high of -4C. In fact, even on Environment Canada's own website -4C was the forecast high! This is where my possible error comes in, I was so dosed up on cold medication that I allowed my search for the magical number to be the end of the weather story. It may or may not have mentioned the horrible horrible wind that would be whipping the bejesus out of me today.
So, -4C conjures up all sorts of warm and fuzzy images (well, for January anyway) I used those thoughts to help carry me through the sickness and drudgery of the rest of Friday and Saturday. Sunday finally arrived and what did we end up with? Well, at 7pm, we finally reached the NEW, but not improved, forecast high of -13C, not to forget the horrific windchill that has kept us closer to -30C all day.
So long rant made shorter, today was supposed to be a nice day outside. It wasn't. I did leave the house, for only a few hours, long enough to remind myself that I want snow tires and that I still hate winter. I still feel like garbage, although I am on the mend and I refuse to get excited about the forecast high of 0C on Thursday. Mostly.
Picture it. Friday, January 21st, 2011. I was sick as a dog, awake a total of perhaps 6 hours all day. Now in that six hours I think I must have heard various media outlets tell me about 17 times that Sunday was looking for a high of -4C. In fact, even on Environment Canada's own website -4C was the forecast high! This is where my possible error comes in, I was so dosed up on cold medication that I allowed my search for the magical number to be the end of the weather story. It may or may not have mentioned the horrible horrible wind that would be whipping the bejesus out of me today.
So, -4C conjures up all sorts of warm and fuzzy images (well, for January anyway) I used those thoughts to help carry me through the sickness and drudgery of the rest of Friday and Saturday. Sunday finally arrived and what did we end up with? Well, at 7pm, we finally reached the NEW, but not improved, forecast high of -13C, not to forget the horrific windchill that has kept us closer to -30C all day.
So long rant made shorter, today was supposed to be a nice day outside. It wasn't. I did leave the house, for only a few hours, long enough to remind myself that I want snow tires and that I still hate winter. I still feel like garbage, although I am on the mend and I refuse to get excited about the forecast high of 0C on Thursday. Mostly.
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