MY social experiment

Normally I post to my blog as a means to vent my ideas and brag or bemoan my critter issues.

Today it has been brought back to the front of my pondering brain a query i posed a while back when the Super 7 lotto was up to something like 50 million. 

I asked friends and co-workers if they were given 50 million dollars

but wait there is a twist

you get to keep 10 million

40 million you have to give to charity.

Yeah I know Operah did something like this with REAL money, and I am only posing a hypothetical query. 

I was delighted at the responses that I received.  We all imagine what it would be like to win a lottery, big or small, and how it would change out lives.  New house, new car, vacations...but with 50 million you have to dream even bigger.  I was amazed to find that most people that I posed the question to did not hesitate to answer how they would spend/inverst 40 million dollars and nobody quibbled that 10 million was not enough.

As most people would guess; my personal answer to my own query was that I would set up an animal sanctuary.  I thoght the answers I was going to receive would be "donate to cancer research" "donate to Red Cross" but the answers that I received were thought out and inspired.  furthermore the question really created excitement and and a fun exchange of ideas.

I really enjoyed getting feedback to my question.  It made me realize that the average person has a generous nature, that dreams of making the world a better place are right up there with dreams of making their personal lives better.

Would really love getting more feedback...if you cant post here (I have trouble posting to peoples blogs latley) my email is a366764@live.com

Outdoor cats turned to finicky cats

Remington and Doodle (Dude is so silly I started adding a "le" to his name) have not only settled in but they have taken over.  I have to lock Doodle out of my bedroom when I sleep.  That is the only one on one time that I have with Sooty these days. 

Remington getting snuggles

These boys have laid claim to the basement, ground floor and upstairs.  They demand clean litter boxes, lots of snuggles, and have become finicky eaters

They are not very fond of Presidents Choice Cat food, kinda like Iams, but prefer Sootys calorie reduced stuff, and if they truly had their choice they would still be eating the Meow mix that they ate when they were outdoor cats.  They prefer canned food to dry, and (thankfully) the rattle of the treats bag gets them running back into the house on the occasions that they slip outside.

Me and the Boys....and Sooty

Its coming up on two weeks since that fateful day when Remington and Dude got locked inside and it has not been uneventful.

So far I have not let the boys back outside, Sooty on the other hand gets let out anytime she asks for it.  The upstairs and the outside are her refuge.  Most of the time she is pissed off at them and hisses anytime they come to near her and swishes her tail in warning....only problem is that Dude thinks the swishing tail is a toy...that he has not attacked YET.

The boys have been sticking to the basement and the first floor.  Spending nights in their basement and putting on an acrobatic show for me and Sooty on the first floor.  Sooty begrudgingly seems to be amused by them...from a distance.

This week Dude has been coming upstairs in the morning when he hears activity (or maybe before) Sooty continues with her routine of heading downstairs and waiting for me to fill her bowl while Dude has been checking out things while I make my bed, then follows me to the kitchen where he too waits impatiently for breakfast.

This evening I came home from work with a head stuffed by allergies and went to get changed to go for a run to find Dude snoozing in the cat bed at the foot of my bed and Remington in the dirty laundry basket.  Worried about what Sooty will do if she sees him there but still happy that they are settling in I jump up onto the bed to get some snuggles.  Dude cuddles into me and starts purring and Remington hops up and takes his place in the cat bed.  After 10-15 minutes the stuffed head took over, plans of a run were postponed for a quick nap....that ended up being two hours long.  When I awoke both kittens were still on the bed...and lo and behold Sooty was on the floor...not hissing. I invited Sooty up and she came for a cuddle, seemed okay when she seen Remington in her bed, but Dude getting rambunctious was a bit much for her.

All in all I am really loving having these two fellas romping around the house.  It would break my heart if I thought Sooty was going to be permantly put out by it so am really hopeful that she is coming around.

Project TNR continues

Last weekend I opened my front door and the outdoor kittens Stanley and Earl Grey came in

I closed the door behind them and renamed them

Dude

Remington

I had decided to adopt these two, we have an appointment to get two of our outdoor kitties fixed tomorrow, the plan was that it would be these two boys.  I was going to keep them indoors after the surgery and that would be that....but I took them in early.

Now we have two spaces and these boys are no threat to any unsuspecting female cats out there so we decided to try and capture the mother cat  (who has had another two kittens since) and maybe one of the more approachable female cats (French Fry).  If we could not capture the mother our backup plan was to get Dude and Remington done.

Remington and Dude are happy to announce that when I came home this evening, not only had they refused to be corralled into the basement by Sooty, but there was a unfixed cat (not sure if its their Mamma or their Aunt) in the trap....so they get to keep their bits for a little while longer.

Tomorrow will be a fun day with Sooty still hissing at Remington and Dude and a couple more are going to be kept in my spare room while recuperating from their surgery....Yep cat lady.

A word of warning when googling hits of the 80s

One of my co-workers is in the throws of anticipation as her daughters wedding day approaches at the end of this month.  It is fun to sit near her and share her excitement. 

The latest tidbit is a request by the DJ to have each of the parents pick 3 songs each for him to play.  I imagine this is to ensure that his playlist satisfy all guests.  She asked for our help, which made us realize that the Black Eyed Peas would likely be disturbed if they knew how many middle aged people dig their music.  But we thought that the intention was likely to have music from the 80s played.  So we googled top hits of the 80s....this is a warning....DO NOT GOOGLE TOP HITS OF THE 80s, if this is your genera. 

I admit that I had the lyrics to "You Light Up My Life" written on my school binders but I have grown....some would say evolved.   I am more than happy to resign 80s music to the past. Ever since that supposed harmless google I have been prancing around the kitchen singing into the end of the broom "Pour some sugar on Me" while making coffee and even more irritating, the tune "Ive been to Paradise....but Ive never been to me" wont leave my head.

Wild Water Kingdom Water Park and Drive Inn

This weekend "The Plan" actually came together and all of the usual suspects managed to clear a few hours in our Saturday calendars for some summer fun. I threw a dozen bottles of water and some snacks into the cooler and met up with the first half of the usual suspects for brunch at Boom. My pancakes were yummy, sausage perfect but the best was the potato fritz that I stole of my neighbors plate.

While I was not looking the usuals threw a few beers into the cooler, and then we carried on to pick up the 4th of our party. We arrived at Wild Water Kingdom after 3pm as planned.  Paid the "late day" rate of $25.00 and moved onto the inner sanctum where the promise of water thrills awaited.  I know that most people skip the "shower before going into the water" but I'm a bit of a prude and usually follow this rule...at this establishment the line up for the working shower was too long so I went all rebel.  We had planned on sharing a locker but the lockers were so small that only one persons purse/backpack would fit into it so each of us had to rent a separate locker.  Once that task was completed we moved onto partake of wet fun. 

We walked around to see what the park had to offer.  There were 5 series of slides.  The kiddie slides...Short slides with a 2 ft drop to the pool.  We skipped that one. Three slides names corkscrew, sidewinder and something else.  There was only 1 lifeguard at the top and one at the bottom so the corkscrew (or was it the sidewinder?) was not being used.  I went down 1 and brother went down the other.  Unlike the guy who went down before me I didn't get stuck and have to push myself down the slide....but I did not go fast.  The other slide impressed as little as mine did.  So we moved over to the "Cyclone" slides.  Which were a slight improvement but not cause for any hoots, hollers, or squeals.  Being as we were not impressed so far, and neither of us were going to do the "straight fall" slides we sucked it up and rented some tubes" Admission, plus locker, plus tubes, each of which has failed to impress...but the tube rides the Night Rider (well actually it was labeled Ni ht Rider and Abyss) were both slided that we went on again.  While waiting our turn we seen the other half of the usual suspects going down another slide that made me squeal just watching them almost flip over the sides. Then I got pushed down an enclosed tube deprived of all light I wondered if I were going forward or backward and at times I felt like I was defying gravity.  I felt the joy that only comes from a good waterside. 

So all told, of the 12 watersides at Wild Water Kingdom only 3 of them are worth the price of admission in my opinion.  After a few trips we decided to check out the lazy river...midpoint we found the licenced section and stopped for a picture of beer... we seen our second case of "pants falling down" the first one was to reveal grey dingy Calvin Klein's this time was at least to something less offensive. After our picture we carried on my tube kept on objecting to me using it as a floater and spat me out. One of the others used the tube as a yoga mat and practiced his Buddha pose which just asked to be pushed off his tube.

Before we knew it we were being asked to leave the park and to take all of our person belongings.  I may have a few scruples about showering before entering public pools I have major scruples about showing with soap and water AFTER  using public pools....I waited for the shower to wash away the chlorine and whatever else may have been in that water. 

As usual; when the girls emerged the boys were waiting.  We went back to the car, grabbed some water.  When the sun set the parking lot was going to turn into a Drive in Movie with a double feature film.  We pondered where to move the car to and realized we were hungrier than the few bags of chips and nature bars were going to be able to take care of.  The "Snack Bar" was not open so we called some friends and suggested that they meet us for the movie and to show up with some Pizza. 

Friends thought things thorough and showed up with some lawn chair AND Pizza.   While waiting for the movie to start their kids chucked a baseball (parents think of these things) we ate Pizza and offered beer as a token of our gratitude.  When the movie started the boys didn't have to sit In the backseat....they sat outside, we rolled down the windows (fortunately I had some Off in my car to chase away the mosquitoes) turned up the volume on the radio frequency and enjoyed Captain America...after the movie we realized that "enjoyment" means different things to different people.  Marvel enthusiast thought it was a great movie...everyone else was amused at the hokeyness.  My example was that zip lining onto the roof of a moving train should involve some slight imbalance in posture.  Because the Marvel enthusiast gets to pick movies sometimes, I have seen X-Men (in spite of never having read comics) and Iron Man 1 and 2 (again never read comics) and enjoyed all the movies. But Captain America I was laughing "at" not laughter "with".  I am sure to see the Avenger movie when it comes out. I'm sure I will enjoy it one way or another.



Not sure if it was the filming or the full Moon or the back lights, but most of the film was indiscernible....the battle scenes were reminiscent of the time I had spent in the light deprived water tunnel a few hours ago....from the dialog the story could be followed but the action was black on black....

At the end of the day, the Water park failed to impress any of us and the Drive Inn Movie left u impresses as well.  As we parted company from the family at the end of the second movie we agreed that it had been a great night.  During the drive home we wondered how a water park that had mostly crappy slides and a Drive Inn that showed hokey or badly viewed movies could have ended up in such an awesome day....my recommendation...go with good friends.

Taste of the Danforth

This past week I have had it in the back of my head that I would be writting a post about the Taste of the Danforth.  I live within walking distance and once a year I am given a perfect excuse to not cook.

Friday afternoon I discovered was International Beer Day, unfortunatly when I called up all the Usual Drinking Suspects, but they already had Friday night plans with buds from work.  I opted to grab my beer on the Danforth and cruise the scene.

At any street festival I grab some roasted corn, dunked in butter.  At the IGA stand the table of seasonings was impressive, I had the lemon/pepper and it was yummy.  Then I had some Crab au Graitin and wished that I had of had more corn....I moved towards the Jones end, thats where they set up the ferris wheel and the one act....a rope climber.  Maybe there was something elese down there but I was bored and turned around. 

At Holy Name the sponsor tent was set up, historically this has been a beer tent, but last year it was a media/beer tent. This year it was an olive oil tent!!!! Was I disappointed? On International Beer Day!!!! No Beer.  I sat on the church steps and consoled my thirsty heart with a henna tattoo

Trusting what "they" say, this is Chineese writing for Rabbit, on my ankle

Having been gifted a balloon gun at the Beaches Jazz Festival a few weeks ago....only to break it a few hours later....I sought out the source of the bubbles floating through the air and when quoted $10 from the vendor I walked away dissappointed and returned a while later and paid $8.00.  Yeah bubbles.

My search for beer gardens proved fruitless.  The only one was at the Greek stage....I love Greek food but Greek music, not so much.  I finally decided to pick up some beer at the LCBO and celebrate at home.   

Not sorry that I attended but did not encourage anybody to go out of their way to attend.