13 September 2009
Odds & Ends
13/09/09 13:08
This week's note is a compendium of odds and ends from around here.
A couple of weeks ago we were driving up the island. Marsha commented that the weigh stations we had passed were all closed. I told her that it was because the Province couldn't find anyone to work for Scale.
Last week there was a story on the news about a lost kid. The family was camping in the Yukon when the 2 year old wandered off into the bush and was missing overnight. They believed he had followed a stray dog away from camp. During the night they apparently curled up together for warmth and were still together and none the worse for wear when they were found late the next day. Better yet, the family gets to keep the dog.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/09/05/bc-lost-toddler-yukon-dog.html
This week Marsha worked a lot at Superstore. She actually has fun interacting with the customers, most of the time that is. Well, this week she was helping this old guy and needed his name for a form. His last name turned out to be Puff. "Oh, like The Magic Dragon?" asked Marsha. Oh man you would have thought she had insulted his parentage. He flew off the handle and read her the riot act about HOW he had had to deal with that stupid song for 70 years, and WHY it was so wrong, and on and on. Finally when he stopped to catch his breath Marsha calmly said, "Well, I guess not then" and completed the form.
Speaking of the Superstore, we were there this morning. Marsha stopped by the Customer Service counter to check on her schedule and let them know about something we had bought that scanned at the wrong price. I was standing at the other end of the counter waiting when the other lady behind the counter came down to my end. Though she had worked with Marsha, we hadn't met before so she didn't know I was with Marsha. She came up and asked my if she could help me. I replied "Yes, earlier this week I was in and bought a box of 10,000 staples. Well, I got home and found that 2 were missing". She stopped for a second, started to laugh and then said "Oh, you must be Marsha's Doug."
Another kid story. A guy and his 5 year old daughter were fishing on the docks in Vancouver. Suddenly a seal popped out of the water. The theory is that he was trying to grab the fish in the kids hand. Instead he got the hand. Before you knew it, the seal, the fish and the little girl splashed into the water. Dad grabbed the little girl and pulled her back ashore, she was wet but OK aside from a a rather bad bite on her hand. The salmon run was very poor this year and seals have been getting bolder as they look for food.
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/56845352.html
If any of you are thinking of taking a cruise, this week Disney Cruises announced that they will be making Vancouver the home port for their Alaska cruises starting in 2011. Other reports say that there will be stops in Victoria and possibly Nanaimo for some of the trips.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/09/11/bc-disney-cruise-line-vancouver.html
We were going through the produce delivery from the farm and I got wondering what was a fruit. I looked it up in Wikipedia and found that while in cooking fruits are sweet, biologically fruits grow from a flower and contain the seeds. This lead us to the shocking revelation (and we looked this up) that cucumbers, almonds, squash, and beans are fruit. In fact outside of potatoes and carrots most of the 'vegetables' we eat are in fact biologically fruit. Strange.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit
Friday was the one year anniversary of Momiji joining our little family. She has settled in quite well. Momiji and Geiger play and chase and sleep, and groom together very contentedly. We celebrated the day in the way Momiji wanted; by doing exactly the same thing we do every day. Cats don't like change.
Geiger likes to nap on the table in front of whatever TV we are watching. This is fine except he tends to block the sensor for the remote so we can't change channels. I had the bright idea to set a few paperback books on the table below the sensor so Geiger would sleep at the other end. He hopped up and after noticing the books lay down at the other end just where I wanted him to. Great. He napped for a bit and then woke up. As cats do he stretched out. However as he stretched out and looked around the room, his paw 'accidentally' pushed all the books off of the table, then he moved down to his usual spot in front of the sensor, curled up and went back to sleep.
Darn cat.
A couple of weeks ago we were driving up the island. Marsha commented that the weigh stations we had passed were all closed. I told her that it was because the Province couldn't find anyone to work for Scale.
Last week there was a story on the news about a lost kid. The family was camping in the Yukon when the 2 year old wandered off into the bush and was missing overnight. They believed he had followed a stray dog away from camp. During the night they apparently curled up together for warmth and were still together and none the worse for wear when they were found late the next day. Better yet, the family gets to keep the dog.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/09/05/bc-lost-toddler-yukon-dog.html
This week Marsha worked a lot at Superstore. She actually has fun interacting with the customers, most of the time that is. Well, this week she was helping this old guy and needed his name for a form. His last name turned out to be Puff. "Oh, like The Magic Dragon?" asked Marsha. Oh man you would have thought she had insulted his parentage. He flew off the handle and read her the riot act about HOW he had had to deal with that stupid song for 70 years, and WHY it was so wrong, and on and on. Finally when he stopped to catch his breath Marsha calmly said, "Well, I guess not then" and completed the form.
Speaking of the Superstore, we were there this morning. Marsha stopped by the Customer Service counter to check on her schedule and let them know about something we had bought that scanned at the wrong price. I was standing at the other end of the counter waiting when the other lady behind the counter came down to my end. Though she had worked with Marsha, we hadn't met before so she didn't know I was with Marsha. She came up and asked my if she could help me. I replied "Yes, earlier this week I was in and bought a box of 10,000 staples. Well, I got home and found that 2 were missing". She stopped for a second, started to laugh and then said "Oh, you must be Marsha's Doug."
Another kid story. A guy and his 5 year old daughter were fishing on the docks in Vancouver. Suddenly a seal popped out of the water. The theory is that he was trying to grab the fish in the kids hand. Instead he got the hand. Before you knew it, the seal, the fish and the little girl splashed into the water. Dad grabbed the little girl and pulled her back ashore, she was wet but OK aside from a a rather bad bite on her hand. The salmon run was very poor this year and seals have been getting bolder as they look for food.
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/56845352.html
If any of you are thinking of taking a cruise, this week Disney Cruises announced that they will be making Vancouver the home port for their Alaska cruises starting in 2011. Other reports say that there will be stops in Victoria and possibly Nanaimo for some of the trips.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/09/11/bc-disney-cruise-line-vancouver.html
We were going through the produce delivery from the farm and I got wondering what was a fruit. I looked it up in Wikipedia and found that while in cooking fruits are sweet, biologically fruits grow from a flower and contain the seeds. This lead us to the shocking revelation (and we looked this up) that cucumbers, almonds, squash, and beans are fruit. In fact outside of potatoes and carrots most of the 'vegetables' we eat are in fact biologically fruit. Strange.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit
Friday was the one year anniversary of Momiji joining our little family. She has settled in quite well. Momiji and Geiger play and chase and sleep, and groom together very contentedly. We celebrated the day in the way Momiji wanted; by doing exactly the same thing we do every day. Cats don't like change.
Geiger likes to nap on the table in front of whatever TV we are watching. This is fine except he tends to block the sensor for the remote so we can't change channels. I had the bright idea to set a few paperback books on the table below the sensor so Geiger would sleep at the other end. He hopped up and after noticing the books lay down at the other end just where I wanted him to. Great. He napped for a bit and then woke up. As cats do he stretched out. However as he stretched out and looked around the room, his paw 'accidentally' pushed all the books off of the table, then he moved down to his usual spot in front of the sensor, curled up and went back to sleep.
Darn cat.