August 9, 2008 at 9:29 am (Technology)
Hey Folks,
As part of a little birthday surprise, my hunny set up my blog with my very own domain name. So, I’ll be working there from now on. So, please please correct your RSS feeds and your links to my blog to go to:
There’s no wordpress in the address anymore.
Woo Hoo!
Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday to me
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday to me
August 7, 2008 at 8:55 pm (Food)
Tags: Food, recipes
For a scrumptilicious fantasmagorical warm beet salad, get fresh ingredients from your local market (I can’t say enough about the Fireweed Community Market), and toss ‘em all together. You never know what you’ll end up with. In my case, I ended up with this wonderful spur of the moment recipe.
I had never tried collard greens before, and I didn’t know you could eat beet greens. Apparently turnip greens are also edible. Who knew!
Oh, and I purchased a beautiful original painting from Stace Pshyk.
August 6, 2008 at 7:51 am (Food)
Tags: Food
After reading Croque-Camille’s post about Chicken Pot Pie, the light went on. Literally. There’s nothing more frustrating than reading a new recipe and encountering all kinds of food-related terminology that baffles you. It’s a sure way for the cookbook to collect dust on my shelf. At least CC explains them: CLEARLY.
A while back, I was looking at a Marchand de vin sauce and was baffled by the term mirepoix. I didn’t know what it meant at the time, but later found out that it’s the same thing my grandma, my mom, and I always did to prepare a stock, soup, or stew. It’s your basic aromatics of celery, onion, & carrot used for a base, except that’s what WE always called it: la base. The same goes with a lot of specialized food terms used by chefs. Many of the terms, I’ve realized, refer to methods that my grandma always used in the kitchen and with which I am familiar.
There are many other food-related terms, that over time I learned was terminology used by professional chefs or wanna-bes. But I also find it amusing how, when people want to sound sophisticated, they really, really like French words. And then, even I have a hard time pronouncing French terms the English way (like hors d’oeuvres), but that’s for another post.
Now I think I’ll go and prepare brochettes au saumon as an hors d’oeuvres before serving Duck à l’orange for dinner. I thinkCrème brûlée would be perfect for dessert.
Boy, do I need a good pastis as an apéritif before I get started.
August 4, 2008 at 5:00 pm (Food)
Tags: Food, kiwifruit, recipes
For the last week, I’ve been trying to find creative ways to get rid of foodstuff before it’s too late. “Never buy groceries on an empty stomach, my mother always warned me. I usually try to heed her advice, but for my last trip to the store, I must of had a brain fart, so I ended up with almost every fruit and vegetable under the sun.
Trying to get rid of way too many kiwifruit resulted in a tasty sauce that’s delicious over vanilla ice cream. Something has to balance out all those fruits and vegetables! Here’s what I did:
I poured the sauce into an empty bottle and keep it in the refrigerator. Deeee-lish!
August 3, 2008 at 8:42 am (Livin' North of 60°, Technology)
Tags: communication, Technology
Living in the Yukon, long distance calls can get expensive regardless of which end of the phone you’re on. Even when using calling cards or special long-distance plans through the telephone company, the costs still add up.
Before I moved to the Yukon, I lived in southern Ontario and was subscribed to Sprint. For a low monthly flat-rate fee, this plan allowed for unlimited long-distance calling ANYWHERE in Canada (so they said in all their advertising campaigns). Eventually, they capped the number of minutes you could use, and then would charge 10¢/min. for additional minutes. It was still reasonable and perfect for calling home in northern Ontario.
When my boyfriend at the time moved to the Yukon a few of months before I did, I thought, “Perfect! It won’t cost me an arm and a leg to call him.” I even called their customer service line to ask whether their plan covered calls to the Yukon.
“Anywhere in Canada” replied the clerk without a second’s hesitation.
The first statement I received after started my long-distance calls to the Yukon looked normal. Two months later, however, I was out a few hundred dollars. Okay, I’ll just call them up and set things straight.
ME: “Doesn’t your plan cover long-distance calls anywhere in Canada?”
THEM [Again, without hesitation]: ” Unlimited calls anywhere in Canada Ma’am.”
ME: “Then can you explain why I’m being charged for calls made to the Yukon? Last time I checked, it was still in Canada”
THEM [After a few minutes detailling account information and putting me on hold to check]: “Oh, because of extra costs involved, Sprint now charges an extra fee for calls to the Yukon, NWT, and Nunavut.”
ME: “Hhhmm, you didn’t charge me on my last statement, so it’s obviously very new. Can you tell me how Sprint informed its customers of this change? There was nothing indicated on my last bill — I even read the fine print — and there were no leaflets in the envelope. I didn’t see anything informing me that your rates have changed.”
THEM: “Our rates haven’t changed Ma’am. It’s still only $xx to call anywhere, uh, I mean, almost anywhere in Canada.”
RING!!!!! WAKE UP LADY!!!! You’re charging an extra fee and claim that your rates haven’t changed?
In the end, after a bit of haggling and a few phone calls later, the company finally agreed to remove the extra charges on my telephone bill, and told me that any calls to the Yukon from that day forward would incur the extra fees. You can imagine how irritated I felt the next time I saw their TV commercial advertising, “Call anywhere in Canada…[blah blah blah].” I have very little tolerance for false advertising. I think they eventually changed the wording.
Fast forward to calling FROM the Yukon.
The ridiculously high long-distance calling rates here prompted me to purchase a calling card. I researched price per minutes, connection fees, everything, and finally settled on a plan through VOX. I won’t bore you with the details, but about the same thing happened: initially, fees are straight up; suddenly out of nowhere, I learn that my minutes are being sucked into a dark, mysterious, black hole; a call to customer service confirms a new surcharge for callers in the Yukon, NWT, and Nunavut.
Damn these long-distance telephone companies!
Today, I found a new option for long-distance calling that’s affordable. SKYPE. For about $30/year, I can make unlimited – well, up to 10 000 minutes according to the fine print — long-distance calls anywhere in Canada and U.S. using the Internet. I just plug in my headset to my laptop, and dial-up any land line or cell number.
I doubt very much that I’ll ever use up the 10 000 minute limit, unless I plan on being on long-distance calls for 5½ hours a day. Even my mom would get sick of me.
When I tried making my first phone call this morning, it was like when the sun rises, and the colours dance in the sky and warm you. It was like being right there, next to my mom, talking to her. It was divine.
Now I’ll just have to keep a close eye on my credit card bill. Hopefully, this time the hype will last.
August 1, 2008 at 4:14 pm (Education)
Tags: Education, reading, teaching
Do you like to read? If you’re a teacher and/or a parent, do you want your kids to understand what they read? Of course you do, but what some people fail to recognize is that there’s a huge difference between reading fluency and reading comprehension. They’re both important, but sometimes we tend to emphasize the former over the latter.
Here’s a wonderful resource that was recommended to me by a local teacher:
Reading Power: Teaching Students to Think While They Read – (you can see the book online by clicking on the link)
Written by Adrienne Gear (from Vancouver)
The book is only 144 pages (means you can get through it in no time) and breaks down five strategies (or “powers”) to help with teaching reading comprehension:
There are sample lesson plans to help teach each strategy with the use of picture books, and this with primary and intermediate levels. By using picture books, the stories are short, and students focus on the strategy more than the story. Once students learn and practice using each strategy, they apply them to other readings (i.e. novel studies, literature circles, etc…).
The bonus here, is that if you plan on buying picture books for your classroom or your personal library, you can buy with a goal in mind. Included are lists of books that are ideal for each reading power (strategy) for primary and intermediate. Many of the books recommended are already in our elementary school libraries – I checked!
Reading Power is based on and adapted from another longer work called Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goodvis.
Check it out! This book is a real gem.
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